“How long did the relationship last?”
“Eight months. Seven days. Three hours and fifty-some odd minutes.”
He smiled, his eyes dropping to the floor as he bit back a laugh. She found that she liked the sound of that laugh, what little he allowed to escape his thin lips.
“He was an aide to my father. My father fired him, and that made him intensely interesting to me. Until I realized that he was never really fired. He was simply given a new assignment—to keep an eye on me. Not only did he not choose me himself, he cheated on me the whole time with any woman who would look twice in his direction.”
“Sounds like a real prince.”
“Yes, well, politics tends to draw power hungry fools who are willing to do just about anything to promote their own careers. Apparently, my father promised him the governorship.”
“Your father has the power to do that?”
“He’s a United States senator. He can do whatever the hell he wants, at least he thinks he can.” She tilted her head slightly as she regarded Calder. He’d begun moving around the room again. He seemed to find the books on her bedside table fascinating. “I’m sure your boss told you who my father is. He’s—”
“I know who your father is.”
The coldness was back, his tone more frigid than before.
Was that it? He wasn’t impressed with her paternity? Well, neither was she.
“Who would benefit from your legal troubles?”
“You mean if I went to jail?”
“Yes.”
Quinn had been running that question through her mind since the moment she woke with the bruises and a sprained wrist. Why would someone do such a thing? Did it have something to do with her father? Was it one of Kaden’s enemies? Did it have something to do with their relationship? Or was it just about her, about her career?
She had no idea.
“I’ve lost privileges at the hospital. That benefits every other pediatric surgeon in the area. If I go to jail, that could hurt my dad’s career. So far, my lawyer has kept my name out of the paper, but there was an article this evening on the front page. That’ll blow back on my dad when the press makes the connection. And it ended Kaden’s career.”
“Was he running for political office?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Don’t you pay attention to local politics? He was on the city council, and he was planning on taking over the governor’s mansion come November.”
Calder shook his head. “Don’t really care for politicians or politics.”
Again, there was that undertone of ice. She watched him check out the closet, wondering what her father had done to him. Obviously, it was her father. He’d made a lot of enemies during his time as governor, and he continued to do so at the federal level. But it’s been a long time since any of it had blown back on her.
She stood at the door and watched him walk around, checking everything out a second and third time. When he walked toward her, he ignored her completely, brushing passed her to go back out into the hallway. He opened the doors to the two spare bedrooms, the hall bath, and the hall closet that she’d filled with boxes that contained things she never wanted to look at again—souvenirs of a childhood she’d rather forget.
She followed him down the stairs when he headed that way without uttering a word. He wasn’t a very personable man, was he?
“I think that’s all I need,” he said as they stepped into the first-floor hall. “Durango will contact you when I file my report.”
“That’s it? You don’t have any other questions?”
“I think we covered most of it.”
Quinn was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of panic. She’d built a good life for herself here in Springfield, a very different one from the life she’d lived as a child. She’d come back here to prove to herself that she could make a good life for herself despite everything her father had done. She wasn’t ready to give all that up.
“Look, I didn’t do this. I don’t know what happened or who’s behind it, but I didn’t get behind the wheel of that car, and I didn’t drive fifteen miles out of my way to run over an ex I hadn’t even thought about in four years! Please!” She grabbed his arm, tugging on his bicep until he was forced to look down at her. She hadn’t realized just how tall he was until she was standing this close to him until she had to tilt her head back just to look him in the eye. “I don’t know what you know about me, what you think you know. But I’m not my father. I’m a good person. I save children every day in my job and just want to keep doing that. Please help me.”
She hated begging. It reminded her of dark nights on the floor of her bedroom in the governor’s mansion. But she had a sense that this man was her only chance, and she desperately needed him to understand.
His eyes were still unreadable. However, he touched her hand with something like a caress.
“I’ll do my job to the best of my ability, Dr. Naylor. That’s all I can promise.”
He lifted her hand and walked away, not slamming the door, but the closing of it was like a bullet through her heart just the same.
“Please,” she whispered under her breath as she watched him go.
Her job was all that kept her sane. Without it, she was afraid of what might happen to her. And jail . . . she knew she would never survive. She needed her life back and he was her only chance.
“Please . . .”
Chapter 4
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield Police Department
“I had to pull some strings to get this for you, so you owe me.”
Calder watched Detective Jill Montgomery walk into the small room, a zip drive caught between her fingers so that he could see it. She was a tall woman, one of those stick thin types with the adolescent boy sort of shape, but she had this thick mane of auburn hair and intense blue eyes that seemed to see everything and anything. She’d had a thing for him ever since they shared points on a case that involved one of Mastiff’s clients a few years ago, and he was honest enough to admit he often took advantage of that fact when he needed information.
Maybe he’d take her out to dinner one of these days like he’d promised a dozen times over. It wouldn’t hurt to go out and have a little fun, could it? Maybe it would take his thoughts and put them back on the path they should be on instead of the path they’d been following since last night.
Quinn Naylor. Really? What the hell was the matter with him?
“This is from the traffic cam half a block from the scene of the accident.” She pushed the zip drive into the side of the computer monitor, keying up the footage with a few strokes on her keyboard. The recording started at 1:32 a.m. There was nothing to see for the first few seconds, but then a man came into view, jogging up the sidewalk on the northbound side of the street. Less than two seconds later, a Kia Sorento—he would have expected a doctor to drive a Mercedes or a BMW—sped through a red light and swerved across the northbound lane and up onto the sidewalk. The impact was just off camera, but it was pretty clear what had happened when the Kia backed up and the driver gunned the engine, jumping the curb a second time.
“Can we go back a little? I need to see the driver’s face.”
“No problem.”
Jill ran the film back, pausing it just before the Kia hit the curb the first time. Then she pushed a few keys and zoomed in on the windshield.
There was no doubt. It was Quinn Naylor behind the wheel, a dark, determined look on her face.
“Does she look under the influence to you?” he asked.
“No.”
“Does she look as though she’d been coerced?”
Jill shrugged. “That’s harder to determine from a grainy piece of film. But if I had to guess, I’d say no.”
Calder nodded. He didn’t think that was the expression of someone being forced to commit murder. It looked more like an angry woman looking to get revenge on someone who’d hurt her.
He sat back and sighed.
“She
your client?”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry to break it to you, friend, but it looks like a slam dunk to me.”
She touched his knee, the touch both familiar and completely foreign. He let her do it, didn’t do anything to pull away, but it did absolutely nothing for him. Flirtation was easy. It was an essential part of his job. Sometimes the only way to get the answers he needed, the evidence he needed, was with a little charm and a lot of flirting. But what happened beyond that . . . he’d shut off that part of his life three years ago. He was no longer the young, single playboy he’d been when he came home from the Army, not the Casanova he’d believed himself to be when he was a detective with the homicide division of the Decatur Police Department. He couldn’t play that sort of games anymore.
He had too much to lose now.
Calder gestured toward the zip drive. “Can I get a copy of that?”
“Sure. Just don’t tell anyone I’m the one who gave it to you. I could lose my job.”
“No problem. You know you can trust me.”
“Yeah.”
She leaned close to him, her lips near his jaw. He knew what was coming next, and he didn’t know how to deflect it. Thank God the door opened and the division secretary stuck her head in.
“Jill? Cap’s looking for you.”
She sighed heavily, squeezing his thigh. “Gotta go.” She stood, gesturing to the computer. “Leave it. I’ll come get it after I deal with this.”
“Thanks.”
She tilted her head. “The next time you call, let it be for something that doesn’t require me putting my ass on the line, okay?” She winked before disappearing out the door.
Calder quickly made a copy of the zip drive and headed out, his thoughts filled with frustration. He’d been surprised by Quinn Naylor. He’d always seen her through the lens of her father’s politics, but last night she’d proven to be just a scared little girl looking for help. That little plea at the door was not what he’d expected. But, again, neither had the huge windows in her bedroom with no coverings, the warm, casual clothing in her closet, or the toiletries in her bathroom—they actually used the same brand of toothpaste—that made her seem more human, more down to earth than he’d ever imagined. Her quick anger and her frustration with his questions had been almost amusing, as was her crack about the length of the relationship she’d been involved in with that Kaden guy.
It’d been a long time since a woman had made him laugh that way.
Calder hated the Naylor family with a passion that he thought would never be altered. But meeting Quinn Naylor had been . . . it was an experience that he couldn’t get out of his head.
Before he talked to her, he was convinced she was guilty, that she was just a poor little rich girl who was looking for a way out of something she knew damn well she’d done. He didn’t get that impression from her last night. Yet, she was clearly on that film footage.
Was his history with the Naylor family skewing his view of the case? Was the fact that he’d been fascinated with her—even attracted, God forbid—making him see things that weren’t there?
He wasn’t sure.
He climbed into his truck, tossing the new zip drive with the copied film footage into the cup holder. He had an appointment with the district attorney next, but that wasn’t for a few hours, so he decided to head over to the preschool.
Addie would be getting out of class in a few minutes.
She started to giggle the second she spotted him, running around her grandmother to dive into his outstretched arms. Calder stood and spun her around as he hugged her close, dropping kisses on the top of her head and her cheeks as he breathed in her scent.
“What are you doing here, Daddy?” she demanded, taking his face between both of her tiny hands.
“I wanted to see my girl. How was school?”
“Okay. We made drawings with pasta!”
“That’s awesome. I bet yours was the best in the whole class.”
She blushed even as she shook her head to deny it. He leaned in to kiss the tip of her nose. His heart full to bursting as he studied his daughter’s blue eyes that were so much like Andi’s. He had never imagined how much his daughter would look like his sister. It’d never occurred to him that bringing a new life into the world would push him back into the past every time he looked at her.
“Calder,” his mother said as she joined them, a twinkle in her eye as she watched the two of them. “This is a surprise.”
“I had a break in my schedule and thought I’d take my two best girls to lunch.”
His mother sighed. “I have lunch waiting back at the house. But we’d love it if you’d join us.”
“Yes, Daddy!” Addie cried. “Come home with us.”
“Since you asked so nicely . . .”
It was always something of a circus getting Addie into her car seat and then out again, and then into the booster seat at the dining room table, especially when she was completely exhausted but had all the energy in the world. And getting her to eat when she’d rather discuss everything from her teacher’s pretty hair to the drawings she’d done to the kid who kept stealing all her toys was more complicated than interrogating a suspect. But it was one of those joys that Calder wouldn’t trade for all the money in the world.
He carried her upstairs when it was finally made clear she wasn’t going to eat any of the sandwich and fruit her grandmother had set in front of her. She snuggled against his shoulder and was asleep before they reached the sun soaked nursery at the front of his house. It wasn’t a traditional colonial like the one Quinn Naylor lived in, but it was a well-kept home with moderately sized rooms, a huge step up from the economy apartment Calder had lived in before Addie was born.
He lay her in her tiny toddler bed, tugging a light blanket up over her shoulders. She pulled it to her cheek and sighed, her little cheeks red, her full lips slightly parted. He watched her for a few moments, wondering what Andi would think if she were here if she could meet her niece. Would she fall instantly in love with her the way Calder had? Would she approve of the way he was raising her, approve of the choices he’d made? Would she have kids of her own that would come over for playdates, hang out with their little cousin?
He hated that word: would. It was as bad as what-if.
He lay a kiss lightly on Addie’s temple before he left her, pausing in the doorway for just a heartbeat longer.
“You’re troubled by something,” his mother said as he returned to the dining room and the lovely chocolate cake she’d sliced for the two of them. “I heard you pacing in your bedroom last night.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“You didn’t. But if something is bothering you, you should talk to me about it.”
He settled in his chair, glancing at his phone for the time. He had another hour before his meeting. Unfortunately.
“Tell me what’s going on, Calder.”
“It’s this new case.”
“A difficult one?”
“No. In fact, it looks pretty open and shut, but the client isn’t going to like it.”
“Then why are you so bothered by it?”
Calder tilted his head to one side, enjoying the first bite of his chocolate cake. He could feel his mother’s eyes on him even though he wasn’t looking directly at her, could feel the concern intermingled. But he knew there was more concern than anything else. He was fifteen when his sister died, and he might as well still be that age as far as his mother was concerned. She would forever be convinced that he was going to be taken from her at the drop of a hat, just like Andi was.
“It’s not the case that bothers me so much as the identity of the client.”
His mother made a soft sound. “A pretty young woman, perhaps?”
“Something like that.”
She laughed, a sound like music. She used to laugh a lot when he was a kid. But after Andi . . . those moments were rare and meant to be cherished.
“It’s be
en more than three years since Ree Ann left. It’s time for you to start thinking about moving on with your life.”
Calder took another bite of the cake to keep from making a sound his mother would not appreciate. He chewed slowly, his thoughts going to Quinn, to the soft curves of her body under the shapeless scrubs she’d been wearing last night. He found himself imagining her in the shorts and t-shirt she’d described when he asked what she normally slept in. He wished he hadn’t asked that question because it was that one thing more than anything else that wouldn’t leave his thoughts alone.
She was a damn beautiful woman. Small, but not so tiny that she looked childish. Short, auburn hair that fell around her face in a perfect pixie cut. Hazel eyes that looked right through him and seemed to see everything he tried to hide from the world. She looked nothing like the asshole who was her father, not even much like her attractive, tall, painfully thin mother. She was a beauty all of her own, the kind of woman who sticks out in a crowd even as she tries to disappear.
He hated that he was attracted to her. Hated that he was losing focus. The last time he’d lost focus, he ended up raising a child all on his own.
“Did Ree Ann call yesterday?” he asked, trying to change the subject.
His mother sighed softly. “She hasn’t called in more than a month, Calder. I told you that.”
“Yeah, well, I can always hope she might keep up her end of the bargain.”
“That woman never wanted that child. Why would separation change that?”
Calder glanced at his mother even as he stabbed his fork into the moist cake. “She wanted her. When she was pregnant, she was all Mother Earth, doing everything right, reading all the right books, trying to make sure everything was perfect.”
“Yes, but that was when having a baby was just a fantasy. When the reality hit, she couldn’t handle it.”
Calder put down his fork and pushed the cake away. “She wasn’t ready. You can’t judge a person for realizing that and walking away before something bad happened.”
Mastiff Security: The Complete 5 Books Series Page 25