Читать книгу Protection Detail - Shirlee McCoy - Страница 11

THREE

Gavin pulled Glory to a stop at the edge of the woods, the beam of his flashlight bobbing along dry earth. Dark trees jutted up from ground covered with a winter’s worth of dead leaves. A half mile in, a small tributary meandered through the thick forest. Usually, the Royal River was nothing more than a creek that flowed across the congressman’s land. The winter had been brutal, though, and melting snow had probably turned it into a rapidly flowing stream.

“Hopefully, our guy didn’t have a raft or boat with him,” he muttered. “If he did, we may lose the trail there.”

Glory’s ears perked up, but she kept her head down, nose snuffling dead leaves and earth.

She’d pick up the scent again. Gavin trusted her to do that as much as he trusted the German shepherd to do the job she’d been trained for. Not search and rescue. Protection. Together, they’d been assigned more than one case that involved protecting high-level political figures.

Tonight, they hadn’t been able to protect Michael and Harland. They would find the gunman, though, and they’d protect Cassie and her kids. There was no other option. “Gavin!” someone called.

Gavin turned, caught sight of Chase Zachary hurrying toward him. Chase hadn’t been working with the Capitol K-9 Unit for long, but there was no doubt he belonged. A former Secret Service agent, he worked hard and knew the ropes. His Belgian Malinois Valor knew them, too. The dog moved beside Chase, ears alert, body tense.

“Glad you’re here. There’s been an incident at All Our Kids,” Gavin said, turning his attention back to Glory, who’d found the trail again and was moving through thick foliage and deeper into the trees.

“I heard the call come in while I was on the road searching for your perp. Adam and Brooke are still at the crime scene working with the DC police.”

That was fine with Gavin. Adam Donovan and Brooke Clark would keep things flowing smoothly. Veteran members of the K-9 Unit Team, they’d have no trouble cooperating with the police.

“Good. Any sign of a vehicle on the road?”

“No vehicle. No perp. There is something, though. It was found at the crime scene.”

That caught Gavin’s attention, made his pulse jump. “What?”

“I saw a gold pendant about fifty feet away from where Michael’s body was discovered. It looked like it had been kicked under some leaves. The thing was clean as a whistle. No dirt embedded in it. Nothing to indicate it had been lying there for any length of time.”

“There’s more to it than that, right?” Because Gavin knew Chase. The guy was clear thinking and had spot-on instincts. No way would he have come looking for Gavin if there wasn’t something compelling about the find. “I know who the pendant belongs to.”

There it was.

The missing piece to the puzzle.

Gavin met Chase’s eyes. “Who?”

“Michael’s girlfriend.”

“Erin Eagleton? You’re sure about that?” Gavin pushed through a thick stand of evergreens, the loamy scent of damp earth filling his nose. Glory was ten feet ahead, working the trail, her head down, tail up, ears alert. She’d found what she wanted, and she was going to keep chasing it until it led to the prize.

“Would I be telling you if I wasn’t? It’s an unusual pendant. A starfish with the initials E.E. engraved in it.”

“There are plenty of people in this world with those initials.”

“How many of them are dating a guy who just turned up dead?”

“We can’t make assumptions, Chase. You know that. We can look for DNA on the locket, we can ask Erin if it belongs to her—”

“It’s hers.”

He sounded certain, so certain that Gavin wondered just exactly how he could know what kind of pendant a socialite like Erin would have hanging from her neck. She came from money and privilege and, as far as Gavin knew, didn’t hang in the same circles as Chase. “I think there’s a story here that you need to tell me. How about we skip all the extraneous stuff and get right to the details?”

“Erin and I are...old friends.”

“As in you were dating?” He hoped not. He really did, because that would complicate things. If the pendant belonged to Erin and if they determined that she’d been at the scene when the murder occurred, a team member who’d had a recent relationship with her might be a problem.

“A long time ago. When we were in high school.”

“Okay.” That wasn’t as bad as he’d thought.

“I saw her tonight, though. Near the National Monument. I was working a reported mugging and ran into her there.”

“You’re going to tell me she was wearing that pendant, aren’t you?” he asked as he picked his way down a steep incline. Glory was just ahead, stopped in her tracks, nose to the ground. She’d lost the scent, and she turned in circles, trying to catch it again.

“Yeah. I am,” Chase responded. “We were in a well-lit area, and I saw it clear as day.”

“What time was that?”

“Ten. A few minutes after.”

“The shooting was called in at 11:30. She’d have had plenty of time to get from the National Monument to Harland’s place.”

“That doesn’t mean she committed the crime,” Chase shot back.

“No need to get defensive.”

“I’m not getting defensive. I’m stating a fact. Pure and simple. She was at the mansion tonight, but that doesn’t mean she pulled the trigger. If she did, Harland would have said as much.”

“Maybe.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Harland didn’t see the shooter.” The congressman had been shot in the shoulder and lost plenty of blood, but he’d been lucid when the police had arrived. The first responding officer had traveled in the ambulance with him and conducted an interview on the way to the hospital. Margaret had been given the information he’d obtained, and she’d passed it on to Gavin. No mention of anyone at the mansion except a couple of staff members and Michael. “And he didn’t mention Erin being at the mansion tonight.”

“She might have been visiting Michael and left before Harland saw her,” Chase responded.

“Could be.” One way or another, Gavin found it interesting that his coworker felt the need to defend a woman he’d dated over a decade ago. “If that pendant really is hers, we know she was there tonight. We need to find out why and when. We need to know if she saw anything, heard anything. The sooner the better.”

“Want me to question her?”

“I need you out here. I’ll send Brooke to her place.”

Somewhere behind them, a branch snapped, the sound discordant in the midnight silence.

Both dogs alerted, their ears twitching, their tails still and straight as they shifted their gazes to the deep woods they’d just come through.

Another branch snapped.

Glory growled.

She knew what she was hearing. Not the stealthy movement of a deer. Someone was in the woods, and whoever it was seemed to be between Gavin and All Our Kids.

That didn’t make him happy.

He gestured to Chase. “The suspect might be heading back to the foster home,” he mouthed.

Chase nodded. “What’s the plan?”

“Let’s separate. Try to hem him in.”

Chase nodded, taking two steps away and melting into the trees. There one minute. Gone the next.

Gavin issued a short quiet command, and Glory took off, moving through trees and foliage with unerring purpose. She had the scent. She was going to find the perpetrator, and the person who’d shot and killed Michael Jeffries was going to be made to pay for it.

* * *

Like Cassie, most of the children staying at All Our Kids didn’t trust the police. They’d come from a variety of homes, foster placements and difficult situations, but the one thing they all had in common was a deep-seated distrust of authority. In her three years working as housemother, that seemed to be the one and only overriding theme, the piece of baggage every single one of her kids brought into the home. She spent a lot of time working with the kids to help them overcome that, and each child spent time with counselors and therapists.

That was all well and good, but right at that moment, it didn’t matter. In the wee hours of the morning, with darkness pushing against the kitchen window and sleep still fogging their brains, there wasn’t one of the seven kids who wanted anything to do with Officer Anderson.

With Virginia upstairs trying to settle Juan back down, Cassie was having to deal with the attitudes, the silences and the tears on her own.

It probably would have been a good idea if a female officer had conducted the interview. Most of the kids responded better to female authority, but Officer Anderson hadn’t wanted to waste time bringing someone else in.

She’d warned him, told him it wouldn’t be a waste of time if it helped open the mouths of her charges.

He’d insisted on doing things his way.

And, now they were all in the kitchen, the sharp scent of gasoline seeping in from under the back door.

The dead-eyed guy had been trying to burn the house down.

The smell was a constant reminder and a distraction. One Cassie didn’t want or need. The Hazmat team would be there eventually. For now, she had to fight to keep from gagging every time she inhaled. She eyed the kids, all of them seated at the oversize table, their eyes sharp, their faces set in an array of scowls. They looked like a mutiny getting ready to happen.

“Your silence doesn’t change anything. Someone,” Officer Anderson said, his voice just a little too loud, “was outside of the house tonight. That person needs to own up to it.” He speared each kid with a look meant to melt their defiance.

None of them even blinked.

“Confess to it,” he continued. “Before you find yourself in more trouble.”

“You’re not in trouble,” Cassie broke in, knowing full well that threatening the kids wasn’t going to help. “You won’t be in trouble if you admit you were outside.”

Nothing.

Not a peep from anyone.

There was strength in numbers, the silence of one bolstering the silence of the others. They should have talked to each child individually, but Officer Anderson had wanted to save time. Another mistake on his part. The guy seemed kind enough, but he hadn’t wanted to listen to anything Cassie had to say.

Typical, her childish self whispered. The piece of her that was still the young kid being yanked from her bed every other night, police streaming into her room and demanding that she get up, wanted to tell Officer Anderson that they were done playing twenty questions.

The more mature part, the part that wanted to keep her kids alive, the part that wanted to stay alive with them, knew she needed to keep her mouth shut and let him do his job.

“Right. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said trouble. No one is in trouble,” Officer Anderson agreed, his gaze jumping from one child to another. “I just need to know where you were, what you saw.”

“Destiny?” Cassie prodded. She doubted the young girl would have wandered to the congressman’s house, but the kid seemed to know everything about everyone in the house. If someone else had left, she’d probably know it.

“What?” Destiny asked, studying her nails like they were way more interesting than Cassie or Officer Anderson.

“Did you hear anyone leave the house tonight?”

“No.”

“You’re sure?”

“I was sleeping like a baby until you started screaming, and truth be told, I want to be sleeping again.”

“How about everyone else?” Officer Anderson’s asked. Maybe he thought he could read guilt or fear on their faces.

They just kept staring at him like he had two heads.

“Look.” He raked a hand over his hair, paced to the sink and turned to face the kids again. “A blue mitten was found over near the congressman’s house. One of you dropped it. You might as well ’fess up.”

“I have blue mittens,” David piped up. “But I wasn’t wearing them tonight. They’re in my coat pocket.”

“Where’s your coat?” Officer Anderson asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Son, you don’t just misplace a coat. Obviously, you wore it recently. How about you think about it a little more carefully?”

David shrank back, sliding down so low in his chair, Cassie thought he might slip right under the table.

“It should be in the closet,” Cassie offered. “How about you go look for it?”

David scrambled out of the chair and ran from the room. It would only take him a couple of seconds to reach the coat closet. He’d probably take longer. If he came back at all.

“These kids leave the house at night very often?” Officer Anderson asked.

More than she wanted. She’d thought about putting an alarm system in, but too many of the kids had been in homes where there were bars on the windows, security systems, guard dogs. “Occasionally.”

“You ever think of putting in a security system?”

“I’ve thought about it.”

“You might want to think on it some more. This neighborhood is safe, but that doesn’t mean young kids can’t get into trouble.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, but she wasn’t sure she was successful. She’d spent the past three years proving that she could do her job and do it well. Harland had always believed in her, but there were plenty of other people who’d doubted. There were plenty of people who still doubted. Based on Officer Anderson’s comment, she’d say he was one of them.

“You want some help with it, I can give you a hand. I have a friend in the security business. He’ll put it in for free. Just cost a weekly fee for the security monitoring.”

His offer stole away some of her frustration. He might be going about things in the wrong way, but his heart was in the right place. That was what counted. That was one of the things Ms. Alice had taught her. To look at the heart, to judge according to motive rather than outcome. Everyone messes up, she’d always say when Cassie found herself in trouble again. But, if the heart is right, mistakes can be fixed.

She took a deep breath, tried to smile. “I appreciate that, Officer Anderson. Once Harland recovers, I’ll ask what he thinks. I usually run things by him before I make any changes to the house.”

“The way I hear it, the congressman is doing well, but he might not be out the hospital for a couple of days. I’m not sure you want to wait that long.”

“I—”

“Cassie.” David appeared in the kitchen doorway. “My coat isn’t in the closet.”

“You’re sure?” She’d hung it there after their trip to the doctor’s office. She was certain of it. With eight kids to take care of, she couldn’t afford to waste time searching for things like coats or shoes.

“I looked about sixteen times,” he responded.

She wasn’t sure he’d looked that many, but he was young and it was easy to miss things. “Destiny, would you mind—”

She never finished.

The window exploded, glass flying across the kitchen, kids screaming. Officer Anderson dropped to the ground, blood spurting from his shoulder or his chest. Cassie didn’t know which, didn’t have time to think about it. She yelled for the kids to run, then darted forward to grab Officer Anderson by the arms. Another shot, this one whizzing past Cassie’s head.

She dragged Officer Anderson out of the kitchen and into the hall, the kids’ screams ringing in her ears.

“Everyone up the stairs,” she shouted, her heart thundering as she dragged Officer Anderson further away from the kitchen.

He groaned but didn’t open his eyes.

Something slammed into the back door.

Once. Twice. Again.

Please, God, let the kids be hiding. Please keep them safe.

“I called the police. They’re on the way!” Virginia pressed in beside her, grabbing at Officer Anderson, frantic sobs coming from her throat as she helped drag him back.

The banging continued, the sound reverberating through the house. They made it to the stairs before the back door crashed open with so much force the entire house seemed to shake. Or maybe it was Cassie who was shaking, fear stealing her breath and making her heart skip frantically. She met Virginia’s eyes.

“Go get the kids. Hide them until the police arrive,” Cassie whispered as she pressed the hem of her sweater to a wound in Officer Anderson’s right shoulder. His eyes were still closed, his body slack.

“I can’t leave you here,” Virginia cried, tears streaming down her face.

“You can’t stay!” Cassie hissed. “Someone has got to protect the kids.”

“But—”

“Go!” she mouthed.

Virginia took off running, up the stairs, out of sight.

And it was just Cassie and Officer Anderson.

And whoever had broken through the back door.