“All three of us can be like that,” Tiegen said and chuckled.
“Sometimes it’s better to let go. We learned that, too.”
Tiegen knew what he was talking about. LeeAnn. She wanted him to quit, to end his career with the service and go work for her father in the city in some firm of his. A white-collar guy was not who Murdock was. They were so different, and she wanted him to change to be the man she wanted. It had hurt his brother a lot, especially to return from a mission and find out LeeAnn was engaged.
“Well, we’re both glad you’re back home and in one piece. Do you want to hit Crossroads or someplace for dinner?”
“What about Mitch?”
“He’ll meet us if he can.”
“Okay, but not too long. I’m pretty damn tired, and I haven’t had a decent meal in weeks.”
“Well then, a nice porterhouse steak will be prefect, won’t it?”
Murdock nodded but remained straight-faced. He was such a hard, tough man. Even his heart appeared to be made of Teflon, but Tiegen couldn’t get upset. This was always how it was when Murdock first returned home. He was distant, quiet, and kept to himself until he felt he’d adjusted back to civilian life again. Tiegen was fine with that, as long as he came back in one piece and not in a body bag.
* * * *
Mitch got to the house along with members of the Criminal Investigation Unit. He noticed the multiple police cars, some paramedics, and, of course, how officers were taping off the area so local residents wouldn’t get in the way.
He couldn’t believe it. He had just gotten off the phone with Toro Vancouver, who’d gotten a potential clue to someone who may or may not be involved with these home invasions, when he got the call about another break-in and a homeowner found dead.
“Hey, Detective. Looks like these break-ins are getting worse,” Officer Torey Welder said to him as he lifted the yellow tape so Mitch could get under.
“Everything taped off? No one touched anything?” he asked.
“No one. The forensics team got here five minutes ago.”
He nodded toward the kid and headed up the walkway then inside. He bypassed the officers on guard and then made his way up the stairs.
As he approached, he caught sight of the markings, the little tabs where the forensics team had marked out blood spots and the damage to the walls. It appeared there had been a struggle.
As he approached the top of the stairs, he heard the clicking of a camera and then caught sight of Mia bending over to get a shot at an awkward angle.
“Great job, Mia. Be sure to follow them outside to the back woods,” Jethro Shank told her. He was the medical examiner and was already pulling off his gloves after looking at the body. He glanced up just as Mia caught Mitch’s eye.
She gave him a nod.
“Hey, Mia.”
“Detective McKay.” She then walked right by him. He followed her with his eyes and wondered what her attitude and tone were about, but then Jethro said hello.
“Damn shame. The perpetrators didn’t think it was enough to kill him. They beat him first,” Jethro said as Mitch looked around.
“That drawer was open,” he said, moving closer and peaking inside.
“You can look. Mia got here before the rest of the team and took photos of everything. I bet that’s what this poor guy was reaching for.”
“A gun, huh? Wonder why the perps didn’t take it.”
“I think this homeowner got a few shots in on the guy’s body.”
Mitch widened his eyes. “The blood on the stairs and on the landing?”
“Could belong to the criminal. I’ll know for sure later today once we compare DNA to this guy.”
“Detective McKay, I was just talking to the neighbor down the road. Seems Mr. Phillips, the guy there, had his grandchildren over this weekend. We can’t find them, and no one knows if they left town already or if they were still here with Mr. Phillips. They’re six and eight years old.”
“Shit, get the officers together and search the house. Have someone try to find a next of kin. Be careful. Look in every closet and in every space. Identify yourselves as police and remember they’re probably scared if they are in the house.” Mitch pulled out his cell and notified the others.
He headed through the hallways and began to help the officers search for the two kids, and then he went down the stairs.
* * * *
Mia had walked along the staircase to the first floor and around past the kitchen to find the back door. She heard a noise coming from behind one of the doors. She put down her camera bag and pulled her gun from the holster. Just as she opened the door, she heard officers coming down the hallway, and then she heard whispering and footsteps. She’d begun to walk down the stairs, gun drawn, when she sensed someone behind her. It was one of the officers.
“Did you hear something?” he whispered as he pulled his gun from the holster. She nodded and then continued to walk slowly. Others joined them. At least she sensed that as she kept her eyes glancing around the stairs, trying to see in the poorly lit basement. The only light shown through the small window toward the back of the basement.
She listened carefully. She heard what sounded like sniffling and low crying sounds.
“Is anyone down here? I’m with the police.”
She heard the word no, whispered sharply. It sounded like a kid’s voice.
She looked at Torey. “There were two grandkids supposedly in the house with the grandfather. We think four and six years old. They’re unaccounted for.” Torey told her.
Her heart pounded. Jesus, they’d probably heard the struggle and gone to hide. They knew their grandfather was killed. Damn it. They must be so scared.
She caught sight of Mitch as he came down the stairs behind two other officers. She raised her hand up for them to stop, and he looked at her as if she was nuts. Or maybe wondering who the hell she was to give orders. But something came over her. Call it knowing what fear like this was, or simply knowing firsthand what it was like to be the one that got away unharmed while someone else died.
“My name is Mia. I’m one of the good guys, and we’re here to help you. Come on out and we’ll talk.”
She heard a sound, like shoes shuffling against concrete.
“I’m scared.” She heard the female voice and what sounded like crying.
“I know you are. It’s safe now.”
Mia began to walk closer.
“Mia.” She heard Mitch say her name with authority. She ignored him, placed her gun in her holster, and moved deeper into the basement, and then she saw them. A boy and a girl, no older than maybe eight if she had to guess. She bent to one knee and opened her arms.
“You’re safe. Come to me and I’ll help you. I promise.”
They were both crying and shaking and slowly came out from under the desk. She saw the bloody lip on the boy, and then they both hugged her and held on tightly as they cried.
Mia fell to her butt and held them close. She rocked them in her arms and swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat. She couldn’t say anything to them. She just held them because anything she said would be a lie. “It’s going to be okay now” or “you’ll get through this just fine” or “it’s behind you” were all lies. They would live with this tragedy forever, but hopefully, they were young enough to not get all fucked up. She hadn’t been so lucky.
* * * *
Mitch watched as the paramedics had to peel the two kids from Mia’s arms. Mia was good though. She stayed right by them, caressing their cheeks and acting so caring and nurturing. But the moment the kids calmed down and Mitch was forced to ask them questions, it seemed that Mia got a bit on the defensive.
“Did you see who broke into the house?” he asked, even though they wouldn’t verbally respond to his other questions and, instead, nodded or shook their heads. Mia sat between them on the gurney. They kept their heads against her side as she held them.
“Maybe this can wait,” she said with a defe
nsive tone. He squinted at her as the other officers and detective stood by.
“You know it can’t. It’s fresh in their heads, and they could describe the ones who did it.”
“We need answers,” another detective, Davie, said. Mitch looked at him and then back at Mia.
“Let me,” she whispered.
He stared at her. His gut clenched. There was something going on here. Something deeper that seemed to have a hold of Mia. He looked at Jethro, who placed his hand on Davie’s shoulder.
“Mitch, let Mia help you.”
Mitch nodded toward the other men, dismissing them from the area except for Davie.
“Cassy, Luke, I know this is hard, but these detectives want to help find the men that broke into the house,” she said to them.
“They killed Grandpa,” Cassy said and began to cry again. She was shaking, and Mia hugged her.
“I know, baby, and we want to catch them so they can’t hurt anyone else.”
“There were two men,” Luke said to her. Mitch felt his stomach clench. He had figured two.
“Did you get a good look at them?” she asked, and Cassy and Luke nodded.
“Could you draw them?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What are they going to draw? Mickey Mouse?” the other detective asked, and Mia shot him a dirty look.
Mitch switched from one foot to the other and looked at her.
“Pen and paper?” she asked, and Mitch nodded toward the other detective, who pulled out a pad and paper.
“Okay, let’s start with the first guy. What color hair did he have?”
Mitch listened to her, watching her get information from two little kids with ease and perfection. The other detective watched with surprise, and Mitch had to hide his smile. It turned out that Mia was pretty damn good at this.
“Do you remember if they had any distinguishing marks, like moles, or tattoos, a scar or damaged skin?” she asked.
“The one who tried to chase us had a scar by his eye and a chain hanging from his jeans to his pocket. Like the ones for wallets so you don’t lose them,” Cassy said to her. She smiled at the children and got more information.
“I saw the truck they drove,” Luke told her, and Mitch couldn’t believe it. He listened as Mia calmly talked to the two children, getting details he knew he or Davie, the other detective, would have had a hard time getting, or may have failed entirely.
Then they heard some voices and Cassy cry out. The grandmother and mother arrived, and the children got down and ran to them.
He locked gazes with Mia and saw the emotion in her eyes, and then their gazes locked, and he was amazed. She’d closed down, her expression blank as she handed him the papers with all the details, including a partial license plate on the truck.
She started to walk away.
“Mia.” He touched her arm lightly, stopping her.
“I need to photograph the woods and outside the back door.”
“You were incredible.”
She nodded, and he released her arm, even though he didn’t want to. He really wanted to hold her, pull her into his arms, and hug her for what she’d done and how much of a blessing she was to those kids and an asset to the job. But then he felt that attraction, the desire to get to know her more. He watched her as she headed past Davie and the others and over to Jethro, who gave her a smile and then followed her inside the house.
“Damn, she was something else. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Davie said to him.
“You weren’t going to let her continue with the kids. There’s no way we would have gotten what she did.”
“It would have taken longer, but eventually I could have. She’s not even a detective.”
“She could be.”
“Maybe. I’m going to grab this info and get things started. If any of the other residents down the road have security cameras, they might have caught sight of this truck our killers took off in. But even if they didn’t, we have this partial license plate number. I can’t believe those kids would remember such details.”
“I know. Pretty damn amazing and so was Mia.”
Davie nodded then headed over to the other police officers and began to give orders of what needed to be done next. Mitch walked over to the grandmother and mother of the two kids. He had some questions for them but hoped to get an opportunity to talk to Mia again and to thank her.
* * * *
Mia finished taking the pictures. She forced the memories from her past to the back of her mind for later. She was always professional, always put the job first, and knowing that those two kids suffered and could have died was incentive to do things right.
She squatted down and took some notes as the other technicians began to pack up. As she got her camera and lenses into the bag, she couldn’t help but wonder about how this happened and how the kids got away. It wasn’t her job to ask questions, but where had the mother and grandmother been the whole time this home invasion was happening? She thought about their facial expressions and the way they ran to the kids as they approached the ambulance. The mother of the children was crying hysterically, but the grandmother just looked scared, not upset. It didn’t sit right with Mia, but what did she know? She didn’t even have a family.
Before she stood, she closed her eyes and absorbed the moment of quietness. That was when the flashbacks hit her. The dark woods, so much brush and thickness of trees that evidence could have gone unnoticed. She was concentrating so hard at the time and wondering if her friend suffered. She couldn’t help but imagine the echoing of screams no one heard. When she stepped through the heavy brush, deep in the woods, a good fifteen to twenty feet between her other searchers, she’d stumbled over her dead friend’s body.
“Mia?”
She gasped and nearly lost her balance. Quickly, she stood up and wiped off her pants as the hand gripped her arm and helped steady her.
“Are you okay?” Mitch asked, and she nodded.
“Just being clumsy.” She brushed off his concern as she stared up at him. He was a very attractive older man, with dark hair and deep dark-blue eyes and scruff along his chin and cheeks. He was hard, in charge, and a typical homicide detective.
“You sure?” he asked, hesitating to release her arm. He held her gaze as he slowly released his hold and then caressed her skin. She shivered with an awareness she hadn’t expected. It seemed each time she met up with Mitch she had this feeling. But she also had the same feelings for his brother Tiegen, who she hadn’t seen in months. Not since the serial killer and all those bodies.
She cleared her throat and then plastered on a smile.
“Did you need anything?” she asked him, and he looked at her with an expression that said he read her fake smile as bullshit.
“You sure you’re okay? That was some heavy emotional shit back there.”
She shrugged. “I hate to admit that it wasn’t my first case of heavy emotional shit at a crime scene.”
“Really? So you always are able to comfort survivors and get them to remember crucial facts that can help detectives find the perpetrators?” he teased.
She pursed her lips and then pulled the bottom lip between her teeth before she spoke. “I just did what needed to be done. They were pretty scared, and Davie tends to come on like a German shepherd sometimes when he’s questioning witnesses.”
He chuckled.
“He would love being called a German shepherd. He was a bit too rough but glad you were there and heard those kids downstairs. They seemed to respond immediately to you.”
“It’s not a big deal. So did you get anything useful? Maybe that description of the vehicle and the license plate?”
“Davie is working on it now. How about you? Get enough pictures?”
“I think so, but something tells me you won’t be needing them.”
“I wouldn’t say that. You were a huge help, and I appreciate it. So do I get another thumb drive of these pictures for me to look over?�
��
“Sure. I can put one together for you once I get back to the office. I can drop it off with Jethro, and when you guys go to the morgue, he’ll give it to you.”
He looked at her and then looked around him as if being sure no one could hear him.
“I was kind of hoping maybe you’d give it to me personally. Perhaps we could meet up for coffee or lunch this week?”
She looked away from him. So badly she would love to feel normal and say yes, but how could she? She’d already made the mistake of getting involved with RJ, an older man, detective, and retired soldier. What a mess she’d made of that relationship because she couldn’t let her guard down and trust the man enough to let him in her heart.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He placed his hand on his holster and leaned slightly. “Why not?”
“Because we sort of work together and I don’t date. I don’t have the time or the patience for it.” She readjusted the strap to the camera bag, onto her shoulder.
“Don’t have the time for it? Never heard that excuse before, and as far as working together? We don’t, so no issues there. What do you say to coffee? I know you drink it. I saw you.”
She gave a soft smile. “I’ll think about it, okay?”
“I’ll get you to say yes,” he said, and then she heard someone call her name. It was another technician, and he said they were wrapping things up.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he said to her.
“Later, Mitch, and thank you.”
“No, thank you, Mia. You were a huge help today.”
She headed away from the back of the house and over to the truck. She couldn’t help but to look for Mitch and take in the sight of him. He had a super great body, was tall, muscular, and seemed very capable. He affected her. That was for sure. But the thought of trying to let her guard down and let a man into her life truly freaked her out. She couldn’t meet him for coffee. No way. She was better off alone. Look how things had gone so wrong with R.J. Sure, he had his issues, too, but she was more screwed up. She shook the sad thoughts from her head and looked back at the house one last time. Her worry was the kids.
Crossroads 4: Shot Through the Heart (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 2