Chapter 7
“Die?” The girl mumbled the word as tears and blood streaked down her face. “What are you talking about? You’ve had too much to drink. David, you’re scaring me.”
Casually, he shrugged. Then pulled the blue baseball cap down tighter on his mop of blond hair. “I haven’t had a drop of alcohol.”
He stepped closer.
She scrambled to her feet and backed away.
“Do I look drunk, Hailey? Do I talk like I’m drunk?”
“I know you’re drunk. I saw how much you had to drink tonight.” She turned to run.
He lunged, slamming her face first into the snow, then flipped her over.
“David, stop,” she cried as he pinned her arms to the ground. “Don’t do this! We can fix whatever is wrong.”
“No,
we
can’t.” He straddled her body and moved one hand to her slender throat. “But I can.”
***
An odd sensation made Jordan blink her eyes open. Her hands and feet were frigid, but her lungs were on fire. She drew in a greedy breath—once, twice—and then it happened again. A moist, rough lick streaked up the side of her cheek. Warm breath panted in her ear. Unless Ty was trying some different moves to pull her out of a dream, she suspected—actually, hoped like hell—Beauty was sharing some affection.
She reared back in her desk chair.
Beauty scurried away and whined.
“It’s okay, girl. I’m fine.” She reached out to reassure the dog. “You’ll get used to it.”
The dog cocked her head as if challenging Jordan. Beauty was wise beyond her years. “Okay, you may not get used to it, but you’ll cope. If I can, and Ty can, then you can, too.”
Of course, last night she hadn’t coped very well. Even though she’d made love to Ty until well past one, it was barely a couple hours later when she’d woken struggling for air. For the second night in a row, she dreamed of the girl who had been strangled in the snow.
The dream hadn’t been loud enough to wake Ty, but it had been vivid enough that she hadn’t felt like risking another one. In lieu of sleeping, she studied her father’s file in the spare bedroom. They were transforming the space into an office, and Ty had installed a killer computer. Unfortunately, even slick, high-powered electronics couldn’t make sense of all the crap in her father’s file.
“You’re awake.”
She swiveled around in the chair. Ty was walking toward her with a blanket in his hand.
“God, you scared me. I thought you were gone. What time is it?”
“Almost six.” He draped the blanket across her shoulders and leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I woke up and you were gone. I heard Beauty whining and carrying on, so I looked in here. You okay?”
She pulled the blanket tighter around her. “I am now. Thanks.”
“Did you have a dream?”
She didn’t want to get into the dream with him. “No, I just couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about my dad’s file and how much I still don’t know.”
He leaned back against the desk and crossed his arms with a disapproving expression. “I’ll be done with this case soon, babe. Why don’t you wait until this murder investigation is over? We’ll figure out what happened with your dad together.”
She shrugged. “I’m on vacation until next week. Might as well use the time I have left.”
For a moment he didn’t respond. Finally, he said, “Don’t get mad, but I don’t think it’s wise to look into this alone.”
Annoyed, she leaned back in the big leather chair. “I solve most of my cases alone.”
“Not the ones involving people you love. Trust me, I’ve been there. You
know
I’ve been there. Investigating Tara’s murder almost ate me alive.”
She preferred working solo. Always had. Being emotionally connected to a case only made her wish more strongly than ever that everyone would just back the hell off and stay out of her business. “I’m fine. You better get going.”
He looked down at the desk that was littered with documents from her dad’s file. “Give me a brief rundown of what you’ve found out so far.”
She wasn’t stupid. He was trying to judge how emotionally strung-out she was. But she couldn’t deny that she wanted his take on things. “My dad was deep inside a drug cartel with another agent named Ben Steel. They were assigned to pick up a truckload of cocaine and move it across two states. The street value was almost a million.”
She grabbed a report and handed it to Ty. According to the date, it was notes written by her father just hours before his death.
“There was no problem delivering the truck. Of course, my dad and Agent Steel had to inform the Feds and DEA of a shipment that huge. The truck was seized and a couple of high-up distributors were nabbed. Might have gotten a slap on the wrist, but I haven’t gotten that far yet.”
“Sounds like a test,” Ty murmured while scanning the document. “Someone suspected they were cops. They were willing to sacrifice a large amount of drugs to pinpoint the narcs in their ring.”
Ty’s quick mind and wicked instincts appealed to Jordan in a way a great ass might appeal to another woman. There was something oh-so-sexy about a guy who could talk shop one minute and fuck you mindless the next.
He looked down at her. “What?”
She grinned and shook her head. “That was what I thought, too. It’s easy to draw that line with the hindsight we have. We know that my dad and Agent Steel were both murdered within the following forty-eight hours. But they didn’t see it coming.”
Ty glanced at his watch. “It’s six. I’ve got to roll.” He laid the document down on the desk and tilted her chin up. “Let this be for now. Go back to bed and get some rest; you’ve been up all night.” He smiled and touched his lips to hers. “It’d be very disappointing if you were too tired for a repeat performance of last night.”
She rolled her eyes. The man was a walking hard-on. Every sexual area on her body ached from last night’s sexcapades. “Even you couldn’t manage a round two of last night.”
“No?” he said, walking to the door. “I guess we’ll see about that.”
She watched his splendid backside walk away and tried not to think about the next several hours he would be spending side by side with Cherry-bomb.
On second thought, she’d find the strength for a round two if it killed her.
***
Ty parked his truck in front of the brick building that housed the Longdale Police Force. Surely today would have to be better than yesterday.
Longdale only had five cops and a chief. He knew every one of their cars. The car he parked next to wasn’t one he recognized. It wasn’t Isobel’s, either. So already someone was there that he had no desire to see. Not at 6:47 in the morning.
He walked inside and down the small hallway to his office. A large man with graying hair and overalls sat in one of the rickety chairs in front of his desk. Ty was pretty sure he was Hailey King’s father. Hailey’s dad hadn’t been home yesterday when he and Isobel had gone to the King residence to break the news, but he’d noticed the family pictures when they spoke with Hailey’s mom.
Ty shut his office door behind him. “Good morning,” he said.
The man’s eyes were damn near swelled shut. Ty was pretty good at recognizing grief when he saw it. “You’re Mr. King?”
The older man nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m terribly sorry for your loss, Mr. King.” Ty walked to his chair and sat behind his desk. “I will do everything in my power—”
“Did you arrest him yet?”
Ty paused. He had a feeling he knew who King was talking about, but he decided to play dumb. “Arrest who, Mr. King?”
The big bear of a man leaned forward. “I don’t have the energy or the patience for this. You know as well as I do that David Benson killed my daughter.”
“Mr. King, we don’t have the evidence that supports an arrest yet.”
King’s face flushed a furious red. “That’s bull. You don’t want to arrest David Benson because his father has more money than God. That’s complete bullshit. We may not have a lot, Hailey may not have been rich, but Benson has to pay for what he did.”
Ty moved around to the front of his desk and leaned against it. “Mr. King, I couldn’t care less how much is in the Bensons’ bank account. But I do care about evidence.”
“David Benson followed her like a stalker for months. He was obsessed with my daughter. Her friend said they had a big fight the night she died. What else do you need?”
“I need solid proof. Some DNA, a witness, a fiber, something. We’re being careful so that when we arrest someone, it’ll stick. My job is to make sure I give the DA enough evidence to not only arrest, but to convict, as well. Sometimes that takes more than a day.”
“But you’re looking at Benson? Tell me you’re looking at Benson.”
“We’re following all logical leads right now.”
King sat quietly, appeared to do nothing more than study the tile on the floor before shaking his head. “That sounds like the answer you give when you’ve got nothing.”
“It’s the answer I give when I’m making sure I arrest the right person.”
Hailey’s dad dropped back in the chair. The lost look, the desperate slouch, made Ty’s chest clench. He knew the role he needed to play, knew how important it was for Mr. King to believe someone cared enough to find the truth.
“Do you have children?” King asked.
Ty shook his head. “No. But I lost my younger sister to murder, so I’ve got a pretty good idea about how this kind of thing affects a family. Hailey matters to me, Mr. King. I wouldn’t be here if she didn’t.”
King nodded and stood. Ty figured he demeanor it was more defeat than understanding. “You’ll call me when you know something?”
“You have my word on it.” Ty walked Mr. King down the hallway to the front office. Jonesy walked past them and said, “David Benson and his father are here to see you, Ty.”
They rounded the corner. David Benson stood in the middle of the precinct’s waiting area.
Ty watched Hailey’s dad. Things were going to skyrocket from ugly to seriously fucked-up any second now.
Mr. King’s expression turned feral and he lunged in David’s direction. “I oughta kill you, you spoiled fucking bastard,” King roared. “You think you’re going to get away with this because you have money?”
Ty jumped in the middle, trying to head off the blowout, but King’s big fist caught him square in the eye. “Knock it off,” Ty managed as he grabbed King around the waist and hauled him backwards.
“Enough. One more step from either of you and I’ll arrest you both.” Isobel’s voice came from behind Ty. He hadn’t realized she was even there.
Jonesy flew around the corner, too. Just in time to help restrain Mr. King.
“Stop it. This won’t help Hailey,” Ty shouted over King’s accusing voice. “Officer Jones, please escort Mr. King to his vehicle and see that he exits the lot.”
Isobel pushed David and his father into an office on the opposite side of the room while Jonesy hauled Mr. King outside.
Ty stood in the empty room for a minute. His eye throbbed like a son of a bitch, but he didn’t have time to look at it. He needed to tell Jonesy to follow Hailey’s dad all the way home. Then he had to deal with the Bensons.
So he’d been wrong. Today was going to be every bit the cluster-fuck yesterday had been. And worse, he was still supposed to be on vacation. He may not have been the smartest guy on the planet, but he knew one thing for sure. The next time he had vacation time coming, he was spending it somewhere too damn far away to be called into work.
***
Jordan pulled into Ty’s precinct on her way to St. Louis to let him know she wouldn’t be back until late. Only one person could cut corners and produce a copy of Special Agent Ben Steel’s FBI file with little or no red tape.
Bahan.
She also intended to stop by her own precinct. Even though she worked narcotics, she knew most of the homicide guys well enough to fish for a little information. Someone had to have caught a case about a young woman being murdered in the snow. This wasn’t her first trip around the block as far as the dreams were concerned; before all was said and done, the murdered woman was going to connect with her somehow.
She could have called Ty, but instead she decided to pop in and scowl at Cherry-bomb again. Today she was prepared for battle. Her clothes were nicer, her hair was combed, and she wore a little make-up here and there. Not that she’d be posing on the cover of
Vogue
any time soon, but she knew how to highlight her assets when the situation called for it.
“You are a huge idiot.” She chastised herself as she got out of the car and wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans. Caleb was sitting at the reception desk when she walked in.
He smiled when he saw her. “Someone looks awfully pretty today.”
“Ty in his office?” she asked.
“Yep. Issy is fixing him up. We had a little excitement this morning.”
The phone on the reception desk rang and Caleb snatched up the receiver.
Fixing him up? Her heartbeat ramped up a notch. Had he been hurt? And what did Isobel Riley have to do with it? If he’d been seriously wounded they’d have called an ambulance.