“No, a friend, not my brother. I don’t need an inquisition tonight.”
Copper didn’t have to wonder about the reference having met one of his brothers this morning. She had seen the true concern Ace had for his brother Dos. No doubt his other brother felt the same.
Dos punched in a speed-dial number while Copper watched him. Reaching up he turned on the lamp between them. With the dull light from the stove hood and the fire the only illumination it felt a little too cozy for his comfort.
“Hey, Gina.”
“Dos? Hey what’s up?”
“I need a favor. There was a break-in last night at a Therapeutic Massage on Laurel Street.” He watched Copper as he spoke. She was chewing on the corner of one of her lips again. Why the hell did it turn him on?
“Yeah, I saw the sheet. Neevers caught it. Why?”
“We both know what the Masters clan thinks of Neevers. Anyway, the owner is a neighbor of mine. Someone tried to break into her house tonight.”
“Anybody hurt?”
“No, we’re okay.” He ignored Copper’s rolled eye expression. “I got a couple shots off, but they split through the trees. I guess they had a car waiting. Anyway, they seemed somewhat professional for a simple burglary. There wasn’t a mark on the back door, but they slipped both locks. And they were armed.”
Silence greeted his last statement. “No, G, I was not shot,” he said, knowing she wanted to ask.
“Thank God,” Gina said. “Okay, so why are you calling me? Did you forget you’ve got a brother who’s a cop and also my partner?”
“No, I was hoping you could check it out so I didn’t have to deal with his . . .”
“Concern? Dos, they’re both worried about you.”
“I know. I’m just--"
“A Masters?”
Dos grinned at the easy out she gave him. “Yeah, so can you check it out before making an official report or telling your partner?”
He heard her resigned sigh on the other end of the line. Being his brother’s partner Gina didn’t like keeping things from him, but she knew Tres had been carrying a heavy load lately.
“Fine. I’ll call you back when I’m done.”
“Take someone you can trust with you. Tres will kill me if something happens to you.”
Gina’s laugh told him she understood. “Only after he killed me if I were that stupid. I have someone I can call.”
“Thanks, G. I owe you.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll collect.”
Dos grinned as he flipped the phone shut. Gina had been his brother’s partner for three years. His mother had all but adopted her as one of the family. He didn’t doubt she would find a way to collect.
“Close friend?”
Glancing over at Copper he shook his head, “My brother’s partner.”
“A partner he’s sweet on?”
“Geez, you never give up, do you? No, but she’s like family,” he said. “She’ll call back after she checks it out. If you’re tired feel free to go to bed. I’ll wait for the call.”
“Not that I think I could sleep, but that brings up a good point. Where am I going to sleep? I don’t see a sofa or anything.”
“The bed would be my guess.” He took a drink from the water bottle he’d brought in with his ice packs.
“Your bed.”
“It’s the only one here.”
She shook her head and that glorious copper hair shown in the glow of the fire. God she was a beautiful woman. Then it hit him. She probably thought that meant sleeping with him.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t mean sleep with me. I won’t be using it anyway, you might as well.”
“You need to be comfortable and stretch out. I can sleep just fine here.”
“Suit yourself, but the bed’s yours if you want it. I rarely use it.” Dos stared uncomfortably at the fire. Now what were they supposed to do? Company, when he used to have any, consisted of his brothers, beer, and a game on TV. Small talk and entertaining were not common occurrences for him.
“You’re welcome to get yourself something to drink or eat,” he offered to break the silence that had fallen over them.
She got up and walked to the kitchen. Dos breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to be a long night. He should have taken her to Gina’s. Why hadn’t he thought of that earlier?
“Can I get you anything?”
Another water would taste great. A sandwich would be better since it was after nine and he hadn’t eaten since lunch. But having someone else wait on him in his own home didn’t feel right. “I can take care of myself.”
He heard her mumble something.
“What was that?”
“I said you’re just like my father, heaven forbid someone do something for you.”
“Okay, okay,” he said realizing she needed to keep busy. “If you don’t mind, a sandwich would be great. The bread is on the counter and there’s meat in the refrigerator.”
Pulling a remote from the drawer in the lamp table he lowered the television screen. It was hidden above the fireplace. Since he and his brothers were all close to six and a half feet tall it didn’t make the screen too high and kept it out of the way since he rarely watched it.
“Wow, that’s so cool,” Copper said from the kitchen. “I didn’t think you had a TV.”
Dos didn’t comment. He was checking out the various channels represented in the eight boxes on the screen. All were news channels of one kind or another. If he watched television it was usually news.
“Yuck,” Copper said as a plate appeared on the table beside him. She had also brought him another bottle of water. “Isn’t there anything on worth watching?”
He watched her as she took her seat in the chair to his right. “The news isn’t worth watching?”
“Only if you want to get depressed,” she said, rolling her eyes at him. “Life’s hard enough without looking for more to worry about.”
“You prefer to walk around unaware?” Man, he never would have expected such a thing from the Colonel’s daughter.
“I’m not unaware. I watch the news, just not right before I want to go to sleep. Murder, muggings, and war do not make for pleasant dreams.”
“What do you watch then?” Not that he cared, his life focused around the news. But she was a guest and had been through two somewhat traumatic experiences today. He should be considerate of her wants and needs.
Dos took a bite of his sandwich while he waited for an answer. This was no slab of meat between two pieces of bread sandwich. This baby had plenty of meat, lettuce, cheese and mustard. It tasted like the best thing he’d ever eaten. Granted, he wouldn’t be able to finish half of it, but it was nice to have something that tasted better than cardboard for a change.
“Thanks, this is great,” he said, after swallowing.
Pushing a button on the remote for the night’s listings so she could pick something out, he took another bite. After a minute he glanced toward her chair. She wasn’t even looking at the television. Her fingers were picking at the sandwich on her plate pulling little pieces of bread off, but not eating any.
“Copper? Are you alright?” he asked flipping off the TV.
“Fine,” she said, but didn’t meet his gaze.
“Now who’s lying?”
She looked up. Dos wished she hadn’t. Her eyes were full of questions, fear and confusion.
“I just don’t understand. Why me? I’m nobody important. I’m not rich or famous. I’m not anything,” she said setting her plate on the end table between them. “And no, I’m not fishing for compliments or moral support here. I just mean I don’t own, have, or know anything worth stealing.”
Dos would have smiled if she weren’t so upset. She was definitely the Colonel’s daughter. Not pompous, but secure in self-esteem. It must run in the Kerrigan genes. Knowing she needed to talk, but not ready to set aside his sandwich, he adjusted his position a little to look more fully at her.
“Okay, let’s think i
t through. Before today, you’ve never had any problems at the shop or your house, right?” He watched her think it through as he took a bite of sandwich. She shook those coppery waves and he forgot to chew for a minute. Swallowing the half chewed bite, he reached for his bottle of water to wash it down.
“No, nothing that I can remember and definitely nothing like this.”
“What have you done differently in the past few days? Anything, no matter how insignificant it might seem.”
She screwed up her lips while she thought about it. Dos found himself staring at her mouth. What the hell was wrong with him? He never reacted to women this way. In his current predicament he had no business even looking. If his scarred body wasn’t enough to remind him, there was always the fact that some virus was running through his system. The possibility of transferring that to someone else was unacceptable.
“The only thing I can think of is the dog rescue charity event. That was last night. The rest of the week was as boring as normal gets.”
Forcing himself to focus on her comments instead of her mouth, he mulled over the information. “Did anything unusual happen? Anyone cause trouble or come on to you in a way you didn’t like?”
Dos thought back over the evening. Him and his brothers had been there as well, though no one probably noticed him. Keeping to the shadows observing people had kept him from staring at the walls of his cabin for one evening. He replayed his memory reel in his head and couldn’t think of any specific trouble.
“No,” Copper said as if agreeing with his thoughts. “Well, some guy grabbed my camera strap. I glanced up to find him smiling. It wasn’t an embarrassed, I’m such a klutz kind of smile. It made me feel like I was a piece of meat he wanted to devour. Then his gaze changed. He turned and disappeared into the crowd without offering an apology or a hand up. It was very creepy.”
“Did you recognize him?” he asked, then followed with more questions before she could answer. “Was it a local maybe, some guy you’ve turned down when he asked you out? How was it creepy?”
“His gaze changed from leering to angry. His eyes narrowed and his smarmy smile disappeared. It was like he thought I was someone he knew then realized he was mistaken and wasn’t happy about it. To answer your other questions, no, no and no.
“Did you see him anymore?”
“I don’t think so. Believe me, if I had I would have turned around and walked in the opposite direction. I really wasn’t paying attention. I was too busy taking pictures of the people who adopted dogs or cats and the animals who weren’t adopted yet to put on the website.”
Dos chewed on another bite of sandwich for a minute while he thought about what she’d said. Something about it didn’t sit well with him. It could just be his over-active protective gene, but he had the feeling there was more to this little run-in than a guy trying to get a look at a woman.
“You said he grabbed your camera strap. Maybe you got his picture and he was trying to make sure you didn’t print it. Where are these cameras now?” Dos asked. But why would they ransack her place of business first?
“In my backpack, I take them everywhere with me.”
“Did you leave them at your office Thursday night?” he asked, then answered before she could. “That’s right, I saw you go in as the event was winding down.”
Copper tilted her head then nodded. “Yeah, I did stop there for a few minutes before coming home. I wanted to check my appointment book to see if I needed to be in early. Then I got the table ready and did a few odd chores. Why?”
“Just trying to figure out why they would break in there first rather than your house,” he told her. “They must have figured you left the cameras there. If it’s the same guy and if that’s what they were after.”
“You really think they’re after the cameras? I took several bags in from the car. When I left I only had my backpack with me. Maybe they thought I left the cameras there to take the film in for developing today. ”
Dos knew she had no idea how lucky she had been. Leaving that bag had probably saved her life. After seeing the condition of her business, and then facing them at her house, he had no doubt what would have happened if they had followed her home. Except for the fact that most people used digital cameras today he understood her reasoning. “That’s a good possibility.”
“That’s kind of a stretch, don’t you think? Why would anyone want those pictures bad enough to destroy my business? It was a benefit for an animal shelter, nothing fancy or expensive. Not even any expensive dogs or cats. Just loveable mutts like this guy here,” she said, rubbing Kismet’s side with her foot.
“Maybe not, but all kinds of people attend those things; rich people wanting to look good by supporting charities, criminals looking for marks, and amazingly enough, people actually looking for animals. No doubt the entire town was there.”
“Not the entire town,” Copper said. “I don’t remember seeing you or your brother and you two are pretty hard to miss.”
“We were there,” he said. Actually all three of them had been there. Tres had been on duty and Ace had been looking for a birthday present for one of their sisters. “Let’s get back to the topic at hand, your cameras. Maybe you took a picture of someone, probably this guy, who didn’t want to be seen. You said the pictures were for the website, right? That could have someone nervous if they weren’t supposed to be there.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess. For the most part I was taking pictures for myself because I enjoy it. Greg, the administrator from the shelter, asked me to take some pictures of the various people who adopted with their new pet. They gave me their contact information so I could send it to them.
“Actually, Greg sent me an email asking me if he could use my pictures for the website. I guess someone spilled a drink on his camera and ruined it.”
All kinds of alarms went off in Dos’ head. “Were you taking pictures of the same things at the same time?”
“Sometimes,” she said, her expression asking why, but Dos could see the answer come to her as her eyes widened. “You think someone spilled the drink on Greg on purpose. Why?”
“Like I said before, they didn’t want their picture published. Where are the pictures you took?”
“In the cameras, I haven’t had time to download the digitals or develop the ones from the 35mm.”
Before Dos could comment his phone rang. Glancing at the number he flipped it open. “What’d you find, G?”
Chapter Five
Dos held the phone with his shoulder then set his plate down and readjusted his ice packs. He listened to Gina’s detailed report.
“First off, they didn’t come back. The house is still locked up. There were barely a couple of scratches on the outside of the back doorknob. They could have been made tonight or in the past sometime. I agree with you that they were professional if she had the door locked.”
“She did. What else?”
“We found some casings. I’m guessing you had your 9mil.”
“I fired five shots; one in back and four on the front lawn. I think they fired three.”
“That adds up with what we found. We also found blood near the trees. I guess you hit one.”
“Good, I shouldn’t be the only one in pain,” he said before thinking.
“I thought you said you didn’t get hit,” Gina said.
The accusation in her voice rang loud and clear. Dos knew better than to avoid explaining. “I didn’t, I just twisted my knee.”
“Just twisted your knee?” Copper said. “It’s twice its normal size.”
“Is that the woman who lives here?”
“Yes,” Dos growled while glaring across the space between them. “What else did you find?” he asked quickly not wanting to give Gina time to ask more.
“You were probably right about them having a car parked down the road. There were skid marks just around the curve in the road where they came out of the trees. They could be old, but the dirt on the side of the road is
damp up here and it hadn’t dried from the tire’s weight yet. We took a cast and I’ll let you know what it turns up. What do you know about this woman and what she’s mixed up in?”
Dos grinned. Since Gina had been his brother’s partner, she’d become as protective of his family as if she were a blood relative.
“Her last name’s Kerrigan for one thing.”
“Where’ve I heard that name before?”
“Probably from your partner, with the word Colonel in front of it.”
“That Kerrigan?”
“Yeah, so don’t bother looking for her connection with these,” he glanced at Copper, “butt-heads.”
“Then what’s your opinion of what’s going on? One break-in and another attempt on the same person’s property is no coincidence.”
“No it’s not. We think they might be after pictures she took at the benefit last night. Someone must think they’re in them and don’t want them made public. I don’t remember anyone that stood out as not belonging, but I haven’t spent any real time in town in a while. We’ll develop them tomorrow.”
“Let me know if you find anything. If I can write this up, I can send the blood for analysis and see if we get a hit with DNA. It will take a while, but it’s worth a shot.”
Dos thought about it for a minute. He turned to Copper. “You wanted to report this, right?”
She nodded.
“Okay, go ahead and we’ll come down in the morning to sign it. Thanks, G.”
Dos flipped the phone closed. “They had a car waiting like I thought. Other than that, Gina found casings from their guns and blood. She wanted to write it up so she can send the blood for testing.”
“Sounds like a good plan. I wish I could develop the pictures now. Wondering who’s doing this is making me crazy.”
Reaching for his crutches Dos started to stand.
“What are you doing?” Copper asked standing in front of him.
“Moving, I’ve already been in one position too long. Then I thought I would get my laptop and we can download the pictures you took with the digital.”
They spent over an hour staring at the computer but found nothing or no one out of place. Copper could name almost everyone in the photos and he filled in most of the blanks. It appeared they had been wrong about the pictures.
Her Master Defender (The Masters Men Series) Page 7