of all these law enforcement professionals?
She didn’t want to seem like a rookie, falling down at the sight of a body, so she sat down, before dropping into Mitch’s arms embarrassed her more. She lowered her head between her knees and gulped air.
She felt him sit next to her, the warmth of his leg settling into her chilled skin. He took a deep breath before exhaling loudly, and she wanted to turn to him and let him hold her. To make this all go away for just a moment in the circle of his arms. But she wouldn’t turn to the man she’d once had a huge crush on.
A rookie crush like all the female recruits wanting him for their training officer.
Never happened. Not for her or for the other women. The captain must have seen them all swooning over those amazing blue eyes and only assigned male recruits to Mitch.
Her crush ended, but not before she’d let him know of her interest, and he’d firmly rejected her. Now here he was, sitting next to her, and she needed to start acting like the professional she was and not some woman he cast aside—or worse, a victim.
Father, I know what I’m going through is nothing compared to the loss of Nancy, but please help me get through this. Help me stay strong, do what I’m trained to do and find her killer.
She lifted her head and waited for the world to right itself.
“Better?” He watched her with his trademark stare. One eye narrowed, his mouth lifting a bit on the same side, the other eye dark and deadly intense.
She nodded.
“Good. How about telling me what happened?” He pulled a small notebook from his pocket, his gaze saying this was all business for him.
All business...and the fact that it bothered her made her even more upset. “Nancy called me. She’s an old friend from college and a client of our agency.”
“And Nancy’s the deceased?”
She flinched at the clinical terminology. “Yes. Nancy Bodig.”
He jotted her name on his pad. “Go on.”
“Her twin brother, Nathan, died two months ago when his car plunged into a ravine. It was deemed an accident, and she didn’t question the ruling until last week.”
“What made her change her mind?”
“She kept Nathan’s cell phone active so she could call his voice mail. You know, just to hear his voice every now and then. But the last time she called, a man answered.”
Mitch’s eyebrow rose. “And she thinks this means his death wasn’t accidental?”
“Sort of,” Kat answered, knowing how lame it sounded. “He never went anywhere without his phone but the investigating officers didn’t find it at the accident scene.”
“That doesn’t mean he was murdered. The phone could’ve been stolen or misplaced. Even lost in the crash area. Then someone found it and decided to use it.” He sounded so detached—professional like a cop should be.
Now she knew how it felt to be on the other side. To be a victim. All she wanted to do was mourn the loss of a friend. Instead, she had to recount how she’d failed Nancy. It was almost too hard to go on. But if she didn’t, this killer would never be caught.
She took a deep breath. “The state police said the same thing when Nancy approached them. I even told her that when she first came to see me.”
“But?” He waited, pen poised over his notebook.
“But then she told me she checked his online phone records. There were no outgoing calls and there was only that one incoming call after his death. Since then, I’ve monitored the account. Nothing.”
“Maybe the phone company made some sort of mistake routing that call.”
“I checked into that, too. Trust me, I checked everything I could about that phone. It all points to someone possessing Nathan’s phone. But not for regular use. So why keep it? Why answer only on that one day?”
“Good questions, I suppose.”
“That’s why I took her case and agreed to find out who had it.” She shook her head. The truth of her failure was about to come to light, and she waited until she’d stemmed off another round of tears. “I didn’t think she was right about the murder, but after tonight—” Her voice broke, and she couldn’t finish her thought, but simply stared down at the mossy sidewalk in front of her. The sidewalk she’d run up not an hour ago and found Nancy’s lifeless body.
She felt as if she might lose it. Really lose it like she did the night her birth father killed her mother right in front of her. She was only eleven. A child. Watching the man who’d beat her mother time after time, finally going too far. Her mother, after years of letting a man control her every move, lying there. Lifeless.
The pain swamped her as another wave of grief rose up over her adopted parents who were gunned down in a robbery just a few years ago. Another senseless loss and a reminder of all the horrible things that had happened in her life before they’d rescued her.
“You’re certain tonight is related to the brother’s death?” Mitch asked, his gentle tone pulling her head back up. His eyes were soft and warm. He understood the pain of what he was asking her to do and he was urging her to go on.
She let his warmth chase away the horrible sights and smells of violence and focused straight ahead. “The killer said Nancy shouldn’t have involved a private investigator in this and that it was her fault he had to kill me. He knew my name and it sounded almost like he had Nancy lure me here to kill me, too.”
“Back up.” His voice turned sharp. “You didn’t say anything about luring you.”
“Like I said in my message, Nancy called and said a guy followed her home. She thought it had to do with Nathan’s death. When I got here, she was already dead and the creep was waiting for me. He told me it was good that he could clean up both of Nancy’s messes at one time.”
He winced as if the memory of finding her didn’t sit well with him. “So you think our suspect forced her to call you so you’d come over?”
“Maybe... It sounds farfetched when you say it, but after what happened here, I honestly don’t know.” She drew in a deep breath before going on. “Also Nancy was supposed to call 911. So why didn’t she?”
“Maybe he overpowered her before she could dial.”
“Or she didn’t make the call because he was standing next to her forcing her to call me.”
“At this stage in the investigation, anything’s possible,” he answered just like a good cop would. They were taught to look beyond the obvious. Not form an opinion early on or it might cloud their judgment. And never, never rush to a conclusion.
“So how about the suspect?” he asked. “I got a good look at his build and saw he wore a mask. Is there anything you can add to help ID him?”
She thought about it. About him. About anything that could help, but even though it seemed to go on forever as he’d held her on the floor his angry
