More questioning led nowhere. Dylan said he wouldn’t press charges as long as Chad left him alone. The boys were told to stay away from each other, and Chad’s parents took him home. Alonso went to his room and shut the door. Dylan’s mother, who finally arrived, was filled in on the incident. She expressed her concern, asking to be kept in the loop if anything new happened in the investigation. His father never showed up.
After the mass departure, Catelyn studied the floor of the porch, thinking. She felt in her gut the kid knew way more than he was telling, she just couldn’t prove it.
But she would.
Alonso would be upset, and Joseph would hurt for his brother, but…
She stood, straightened her spine as she walked toward her car. He was a cop. A good one. He wouldn’t argue the arrest if she had enough evidence, knew he would be right there with her reading the kid his rights if it came down to it. Granted, Dylan’s jacket turning up at the scene didn’t look good, but his explanation was reasonable. Girls wore their boyfriends’ jackets all the time.
So far, nothing had come back from the lab, but she didn’t really expect anything this early even with the rush she knew would be on the evidence. With a missing teen, time was of the essence. She’d call Sandy Newman, a tech in the crime lab and a woman Catelyn called friend, to see if Sandy could rush it even faster.
“Hey.”
She stopped, turned to find Joseph leaning against a porch pillar, watching her. This time her shiver had nothing to do with anger. She remembered how it felt to slip into his arms and rest her head against his broad shoulder, remembered what it felt like to feel secure, safe. As if the rest of the world didn’t matter and everything would be all right.
His sudden change of expectations about certain things in their relationship had crushed her. She’d grown up promising herself she’d be different than her parents, have a different life, a solid marriage.
At first, she’d never thought about dating Joseph simply because he was already rising through the ranks of the local police department.
Then one night, they’d been sitting outside talking after a huge family meal and he’d asked her if she’d like to go on a date with him. She’d hesitated because of his profession, then assured herself that this was Joseph. He knew her dreams, her hopes—her career. During the time she’d been at the academy, all through school, he’d supported her, encouraged her. And so it had begun. She’d fallen head over heels in love with him and he with her.
Until he’d suddenly started talking about “after we’re married.” About how he was excited because he would make enough money to allow her to stay home. And how God had blessed him in allowing him to find a woman who held the same values as his mother.
And her world had come crashing down. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He wanted her to shelve her career and become the kind of wife she’d vowed never to be.
At least it had seemed sudden, she thought. Had the signs been there the entire time and she’d just chosen to ignore them?
She’d been devastated that he would ask her to give up her career to make him happy. No way. She knew where that argument would lead.
And yet she couldn’t deny the attraction between them had sizzled, both physically and emotionally. She’d been drawn to his softer side, the one he refused to allow anyone to really see. That, and the fact that, deep down, he had a heart for comforting hurting people.
And it was definitely still there—the attraction, all of it. She held her tongue and just looked at him, hoping her face didn’t reveal her inner turmoil.
Finally, he started toward her, hands jammed into his pockets. “Can we talk?”
“About what?”
“Us.”
“That’s not even a topic, Joseph. There is no ‘us,’ hasn’t been for a while now.”
“There could be. What we had, Catie…”
She ignored the shortened version of her name. He only called her that when they were alone.
“Had. As in the past. You never once said anything about me quitting my job until I was halfway in love with you and thinking marriage. And then you come out with these expectations and blindsided me.”
“I didn’t realize…and you shut me out.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Without even giving us a chance to work through it.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. You simply reinforced what I already knew. Why it wouldn’t be a good idea to marry a cop.” She threw her hands up. “And why are we even having this conversation anyway? Look. Your brother’s friend is in trouble. Let’s just see where all this ends up before we do anything stupid like talk about…us.”
His jaw clenched; his fingers curled into a fist. “If you—we—have to arrest Dylan, I’ll have to figure out how to help Alonso deal with it. But for now, we have to work together. Without letting our past interfere. Can we do that?”
“We can try.”
“Deal.”
He reached out to grasp her hand in a handshake and the tingles that danced up her arm told her she might talk a good game about ignoring their feelings for each other, but actually putting her words into actions was going to take a lot more work than she’d bargained for.
THREE
Joseph stared over Catelyn’s shoulder at the autopsy report. Nothing new there. And nothing new about his inability to keep himself from noticing how good she smelled. Just like he remembered. A combination of vanilla shampoo and strong coffee.
“Hey, look at this,” she said, just as he inched back a tad to put a little distance between his nose and her hair. She pointed to the list of items found with Tracy. “An iPod. An expensive one.”
“Did they run the serial number on it?”
“Yes, and would you look at that?”
“Stolen.”
“That kind of makes you sit up and go, ‘hmm,’ doesn’t it?”
“So what does a deaf kid do with an iPod. She must not have been totally deaf. Who reported it stolen?”
She shuffled to the next page. “Here. The Whites. Abe and Eva White on the west side of town.”
“A breaking and entering. There’s been a rash of those lately, hasn’t there?”
“Yep. The guys working it think it’s gang related, but haven’t been able to connect any specific members to the break-ins yet.”
“This might be your connection right here. Go back to the autopsy report.”
She did and he pointed out the tattoo. “She had a tattoo of a skull around her belly button.”
“The
