‘Did you get the Gunderson case tucked away, Morgan?’ the commander asked.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Good. And Ms Lockwood has been taken care of?’
Josh coughed when his coffee went down the wrong way. ‘Yes.’
A candy bar fell off its slot and thunked against the bottom of the vending machine. The commander bent over to scrounge for it. ‘Police departments have a bad enough reputation out there these days. We can’t be making unfounded accusations against the people who support us.’
Josh stirred his coffee with a plastic straw and watched the chocolate go round and round. It hadn’t escaped his attention how the commander had come running when Nina had snapped her fingers. Was that because of all the fundraising she’d done for the department?
Or was there more to it?
‘No, sir.’
The commander took an experimental sip of his improvised mocha and shrugged. Lifting his head, he looked at the both of them. ‘All right. Enough of the work chat. Have either of you boys ever been to the International Spy Museum?’
* * *
By the time Josh got back to his desk, his candy bar was gone. He woke up his computer and flipped through his handwritten notes. He had a handful of cases in the active state, but one was giving him trouble. The girlfriend of his main suspect swore the scuzzball had been with her on the night of the robbery, but she hadn’t been able to look him in the eye when she’d given her statement. It was time he checked on the couple’s alibi.
He started with Facebook. The rise of social media had been a boon to law enforcement types like him. The people who committed crimes weren’t masterminds. Sometimes they kept a digital diary out there for the world to see. They didn’t usually confess outright, but he could check to see if the stories they told him verbally matched the ones they wrote online.
He tapped his notes. The girlfriend claimed they’d watched a movie, and he’d gotten the name. He’d see if she’d commented on it and then check the movie listings on TV that night.
The alibi was pretty easy to bust, but he dug deeper to see if he could ferret out any connections between the accused and the victim. The whole thing felt like it had been targeted and planned.
He was surfing by a news site when he saw an unrelated story that made him stop.
Senator Gunderson and his girlfriend had parted ways.
‘Huh. What do you know about that?’ Josh clicked on the link and found video to match the written story. He leaned back in his chair and stretched out his legs to watch.
The senator had been at that Capitol event last night. He’d seen the guy, but the reporters must have caught up with him on his way out. The senator wasn’t alone. Aides accompanied him, but the reporters were looking for one redhead, in particular. When they asked Gunderson where his girlfriend was for the night, the man’s stiff upper lip trembled. She’d left him, Gunderson said in the video, because of the break-in and because of media like them.
The man looked as if his heart was broken.
The female aide stepped forward to rub his arm, adding to the authenticity. A guy in a red bowtie stopped the interview a few seconds later.
Josh rubbed a hand over his head. The bit looked real, but then again, he’d met the slippery man whose job it was to fix these things. The tragic break-up made sense. It also tied everything up in a little bow. It had Brody Haynes written all over it.
Josh pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Nina. He’d made sure they’d exchanged numbers before they’d left her apartment. ‘Hey,’ he said.
‘Hi.’
Just the sound of her voice, and his body eased. ‘How are you? Getting any work done?’
‘I’m trying.’ She paused, but then let out a sigh. ‘It’s been a rather odd day. Rielle and Sienna … they’re having trouble focusing.’
He knew she’d still been worried about gossip when she’d left this morning. The touchy-feely former escort must have spread the news. Josh didn’t much mind if her people knew about the two of them, but she hadn’t been comfortable with it.
If he’d learned one thing about Nina, it was that she was a private person.
‘They heard I was there last night?’
‘Yes.’
‘Were they OK with that?’ Say what you would about the company’s line of business, but he liked the ladies who worked there. They’d run him around in circles, but their hearts seemed to be in the right place – especially when it came to their boss. ‘Are you?’
‘It’s not something I want to discuss with them. Yet.’
He shifted. As long as she was discussing it with him, he was OK with that. They were in a bit of a tricky situation, but he wanted to see her. He wanted to protect her.
‘Have you seen the news?’ he asked.
‘Unfortunately, it’s on my front doorstep.’
‘What?’ He pulled in his feet and sat up straighter.
‘I don’t know how they found our address, but there are a couple of reporters downstairs looking for Genieve. They want a comment.’
Of course they did. They wanted a quote on the break-in and the break-up. More so, they wanted a shot of the beautiful young woman who’d been caught in the senator’s bed. ‘Will they get one?’ he asked.
‘No.’
He hadn’t thought so. ‘Are you OK? Are they hassling you?’
‘Security is handling it. It’s a secure building; they can’t gain access.’
But she couldn’t stay in there for ever. ‘You’ll have to walk past them when you leave.’
‘It’s all right,’ she said calmly. She was back in her Ms Lockwood mode. Contained. In control. Unflappable. ‘They shouldn’t know me. Even if they do, I won’t provide a comment.’
He didn’t want her to have to do even that. ‘I can come pick you up. Usher you through.’
‘Like that wouldn’t cause a scene,’ she said dryly.
He could practically see her pushing back her hair.
‘You investigated the case, Morgan.’
Yeah, he supposed that wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had.
She paused for a moment, and the authority in her voice slipped. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t come over tonight.’
Screw that, although he was happy she assumed that had been the plan. ‘Come over to my place.’
‘Josh, I don’t know if –’
He did. This idea was much, much better. ‘That way you can avoid them if they’re at your apartment too.’
‘They’re after Genieve, not me. I’m just her employer.’
‘Come over, Nina. Have your security boys do their thing. Let them get you out of there and bring you to my house.’
‘You have a house?’
Ah, he’d set the hook. ‘I’ll text the address to you.’
‘Do you even drive, Nina?’ he asked as he punched in the information.
He heard a familiar huff. ‘I drive just fine.’
‘I’ve never seen it,’ he mused.
‘It’s just easier to get around with a driver. I can –’ She stopped abruptly. ‘That address is on the Potomac.’
‘Yeah. It’s in the Palisades.’
‘That’s a colonial on the Potomac.’
He didn’t understand the urgency. Did she think he couldn’t afford it? Well, he couldn’t on his detective’s salary, but the house had been in his family for generations. It was small for today’s standards and kind of quaint. ‘I told you I grew up here. I inherited it.’
‘Morgan,’ she said softly. ‘Morgan. As in Adams Morgan? The neighbourhood?’
She seemed flustered.
‘Yeah. Thomas Morgan was one of my ancestors. He was even a police chief with the Metro PD at one point.’ Her reaction was fascinating. Usually he had to work pretty hard to get this much of a rise out of her. ‘What about it?’
She let out a frustrated sigh that was much more like her. ‘You are full of surprises, Detective.’
He smirked and checke
d over his shoulder to make sure that Alvarez was still gone. ‘Come over tonight, and I’ll show you even more.’
‘Goodbye, Detective.’
‘See you later.’ He paused. ‘Lady Nina.’
Chapter Eleven
It was late when the jangle of a phone cut through the darkness. Josh stiffened, and his eyes popped open. Nina rolled into him, away from the noise, and he leaned across the bed to stop it. He didn’t do silly ringtones, but there was one thing about the old-fashioned rotary phone jingle that hadn’t changed. It was still a terrible sound to wake up to in the middle of the night.
He looked at the screen of his smart phone, and the back of his neck prickled. ‘Simons,’ he said, answering at once.
‘Sorry to call you in the middle of the night again, Detective,’ the patrolman said, ‘but I just came across another incident I think you should know about.’
Josh propped himself up higher on the pillow and turned on the lamp on the nightstand. Nina was awake. She tugged the sheets up higher on her chest and watched him with big brown eyes. They hadn’t been together long, but she knew better than to interrupt when a cop took a call.
‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘There was another break-in.’
He frowned. ‘More overeager reporters?’
‘Not exactly, this one looks like a more standard B&E.’
Yet Simons was calling him again and not Higgins. Josh got a bad feeling in his chest. ‘Where?’
‘Genieve Hart’s condo.’
His shoulders came down. He’d been sure the cop was going to say Nina’s penthouse or Luxxor, but’s Genieve’s place fell right in line.
‘Forced entry?’
‘Yup.’
‘Anybody hurt?’
Nina settled her hand on his chest. He opened his hand atop of hers and shook his head when Simons gave a negative on that.
‘Who reported it?’ he asked.
‘Interestingly enough, reporters. They came over here, wanting to interview her, but they found what looks to be a brick through the window of her back door.’
‘And instead of crashing in they called the authorities?’
‘Progress, huh? Am I right?’
Yeah, progress. Josh wished he was making some with this case.
‘Send me the address,’ he said. ‘I’ll be over as fast as I can.’
He ended the call and looked at the woman at his side. Damn, but he didn’t want to go. They’d barely gotten to sleep. It turned out she had a thing for his house.
A serious thing.
He cupped her cheek. ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go.’
‘What happened?’ Her voice wasn’t sleepy, but with her hair tangled she looked warm and soft. He didn’t want to scare her or get her worked up, but he knew better than to keep it from her. She might look like a sex kitten right now, but the kitten had claws.
‘You don’t work the night shift,’ she said. ‘Somebody called you specifically. Does it have something to do with my company?’
He sat up. ‘Somebody broke into Genieve’s place. I need to go check it out.’
She let out a gasp, and the colour drained from her face. ‘Why is this happening? Whom did we offend so badly?’
‘It could be unrelated.’
She levelled a look at him.
Right. Platitudes didn’t work with her. They’d thought it was the senator who’d been targeted. Now it looked as if their assumption had been wrong.
Josh swung his legs off the side of the bed and began searching for pants. ‘Maybe I’ll find something over there that will tell us.’ He pulled up his zipper and stopped. ‘She hasn’t been staying there, has she?’
‘No.’ Nina ran a hand through her hair. ‘Give me a minute, and I’ll come with you.’
‘Uh uh.’ He took the blanket she’d just pushed aside and flipped it right back over her. ‘You stay here in bed. Try to get some sleep. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.’
That stubborn look came over her face. If she’d been wearing her heels, they would have been digging in.
‘You can’t come,’ he said bluntly. ‘Reporters called nine-one-one. It wasn’t the story they expected to get, but I guarantee you they haven’t left.’
He was more than happy to use the truth to keep her in his bed. He leaned over her until she had no option but to lie back against the pillow. ‘Snoop around the house. Look in my medicine cabinet.’
She sucked in an outraged breath. ‘I’m not going to snoop –’
He kissed her soundly, grabbed his things and left. She was safe here.
He needed to make sure it stayed that way.
* * *
Genieve Hart’s rowhouse was in the DuPont Circle neighbourhood. It was an upscale ‘Old City’ area with an international flair. Boutiques, bistros and bars were everywhere, along with really high-priced real estate.
Josh looked over the place as he pulled up behind the cruiser with flashing red and blue lights. He showed his badge to a night-shift patrolman he didn’t recognise, and the guy let him pass.
Simons walked away from a group of reporters with notebooks in their hands and cameras hanging off their shoulders. Josh held up his hand to shield his eyes when a flashbulb went off. ‘I didn’t roll out of bed for a fashion shoot, Simons.’
The patrolman planted himself in the reporters’ line of sight. ‘Sorry, Morgan.’
‘This the place?’ He nodded at the sharp-looking rowhouse with a brick face and a red door. A dried-flower wreath adorned it, and flowers bloomed in boxes under the white-trimmed windows. ‘Nice.’
Escorts must make more than he expected – especially for not putting out.
He rubbed the back of his neck. He knew better than to ask questions like that.
But it was curious. He turned to face the street to get his internal GPS working. Just a few blocks south and maybe more than a few east … A little more than a mile, total … ‘This isn’t that far from the Emissary, is it?’
Simons planted his hands on his hips and looked in the same direction. ‘No, sir.’
So if Ms Hart had been in a relationship with the senator, and his apartment had been undergoing remodelling, why go to a hotel? Why not spend the night here? Even Higgins had thought that one through. Men didn’t take escorts home. It only followed that escorts didn’t take clients home, either.
He tucked the question away with all the others he had.
‘Where’s the point of entry?’ he asked.
‘In the back. Follow me.’
Getting to the back required going around the whole building. The two-storey units were pressed up against each other, side by side to share walls, but the housing came with a rare plus in the alley behind. Covered parking.
Josh flicked on his flashlight and watched his steps as they wandered through the darkness. The reporters must have been pretty determined to find her – or, more likely, get a picture. He stopped when he saw a red door and white-trimmed windows to match the front. The backyards of the rowhouses were good-sized for DC, but small compared to the yard he enjoyed in Palisades. Hell, you couldn’t even play catch here.
He thought of Nina tucked up in his bed. He’d rarely seen her as enthusiastic as when she’d stepped out of that Town Car. She hadn’t jumped around or been giddy. That wasn’t her style, but she had been smiling and her eyes had been big. He’d shown her around his house, and the questions had been endless. She’d been relaxed and real.
It had turned him on more than she could realise.
He needed to put a stop to whatever danger was swirling around her. He didn’t care that it hadn’t touched her yet. He wasn’t going to give it a chance.
The beam from his flashlight landed on the window embedded in the red door. It looked like a gaping, open mouth with jagged teeth. Glass was strewn everywhere, and the back door itself stood wide open.
Yeah, somebody had come in the back way, and it hadn’t been someone who’d just forgot
ten their keys.
He ran his light up and down the narrow alleyway. After hours in the upscale neighbourhood, it was deserted. With the tall buildings, the sound of breaking glass would have been contained. They’d need to knock on doors to see if the neighbours had seen or heard anything.
‘Have you been inside?’ he asked.
‘Yes, Detective. It’s clear.’
Still, they entered with care. Josh made sure not to touch the handle that the intruder had obviously reached inside to grab. The door entered beside the kitchen and chunks of glass had spread across the ceramic tile flooring. It hadn’t been a brick that had been heaved through the window, but an edging stone from the landscaping in the back yard. He stepped around the mess as well as he could.
He turned on the kitchen light over the sink. The room looked undisturbed, so they moved on. The living area and most of the first floor were the same. The TV sat untouched, as did a laptop. A nice silver bowl held wrapped candy, and a signed picture of Genieve with a famous tennis player stood in a picture frame.
He shot a look at Simons.
‘Whatever they wanted was upstairs.’
Josh mounted the staircase and turned on more lights. ‘Here we go.’
Even on the second floor, though, signs were of a careful intruder – or at least one focused on thievery and not mayhem. One wall in the bedroom was bare, indicating a picture had been taken. Drawers were open and clothes had been rumpled, but nothing had been torn or thrown on the floor. The walk-in closet stood open wide. Hangers stood cock-eyed and empty spaces in the shoe rack looked suspicious. The jewellery box had taken the worst of it.
Simons put his hands on his hips again. ‘The reporters outside said that nobody has seen Ms Hart for a while. She broke up with Senator Gunderson after … well, after what we saw. Do you think she was just in a hurry to leave?’
Josh nodded. He liked the out-of-the-box thinking. ‘That could explain some of this, but not the broken door.’
‘Right.’ The cop rubbed his chin. ‘She needs to be notified. How can we do that if we can’t find her?’
Josh knew somebody who could probably help. Her blonde head was currently on his pillow. ‘Give me a minute.’
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