Brooke looked up and caught his gaze and Jonas blinked. He hadn’t forgotten how blue her eyes were. On the contrary, he remembered every detail about her. But those eyes always rendered him speechless when first making contact. For a moment they just stood and stared. Then she smiled and walked toward him. “Hi, Jonas. Good to see you again.”
Jonas took a step and, in a bold move, wrapped her in a hug. Her scent surrounded him, old feelings rushed back. And she didn’t push him away. He took a deep breath. “It’s really good to see you, too, Brooke. Come on in.”
Brooke swept past him and he heard her give the dog a low command. Mercy sat. Jonas stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
She looked around. “So what happened?”
Jonas pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s a bit of a story. Would you like to go into the den and have a seat?”
“I’d rather not. Did the intruder leave anything behind? Touch anything that his scent would be on?”
So. It was going to be all business then. All right. He could take a hint. Jonas tightened his jaw then relaxed it. She was here to help, not socialize. The fact that she hadn’t pulled away from his embrace encouraged him. First things first. “I was in the recliner in the den when I heard a crash. It came from my son’s room. The intruder had pulled out one of the drawers from Felix’s nightstand. It was on the floor when I went in.”
“Then let’s start there.”
“Of course.” Jonas led her into Felix’s bedroom, once again giving thanks that his son hadn’t been home at the time of the break-in.
She focused in on the drawer on the floor. “I guess I don’t have to ask which drawer.”
“No. Guess not. I just left it alone. Once I decided to call you, I didn’t want to cover up any smells.” He paused. “I also hit the guy with Felix’s trophy so his scent may be on there, too.”
She shot him an admiring glace. “Good job. Okay, we’ll see what we can do.”
Jonas stepped back and let them go to work. He watched, marveling at the team, how well they worked together. “You’re very good at what you do, aren’t you?”
She turned. “We’re one of the best.” She said it in all sincerity, without a hint of boasting or pride. Just stated a fact. He liked that about her.
“You didn’t ask for my address.”
She blinked, then cleared her throat. “Excuse me?”
“You didn’t have to ask for my address. You already knew it.”
“I looked it up in the police database.”
“Of course.” Now he felt embarrassed. “For a moment there, it gave me hope.”
“Hope?”
“Hope that you’d thought about me. Hope that...I don’t know, that maybe we could be friends again.”
“We never stopped being friends.”
He shook his head. “Of course we did. Friends do stuff together, hang out, enjoy each other’s company. We went from friends to acquaintances that shared a nod of acknowledgement whenever we ran into each other. That’s not friendship.”
Brooke bit her lip and turned away. “This isn’t what I came over here for. Let me just do my job.”
Disappointment flooded him. He’d pushed too hard, too fast. He was coming across desperate and it wasn’t that; he just had questions. Questions that would have to wait. “No problem.”
Once she finished going through the house, she let Mercy out the door the intruder had exited. Mercy trotted down the street, nose alternating between the ground and the air. She stopped several houses down and sat.
Brooke called to her and Mercy hurried to her side. “She’s lost the scent. Most likely the guy had a car waiting right where Mercy sat down. He climbed in and off they went.”
He nodded. He’d expected as much. He handed her the phone. “The battery is at two percent. It won’t last much longer. There may be a charger in his room. I didn’t think to look.”
She studied it. “It’s fine. Chargers are easy to come by.” She looked up. “Did you find a wallet belonging to Rosa?”
“No. Just the phone.”
“I hate to ask this, but...” She looked uncomfortable.
“What?”
“Well, Rosa’s wallet was missing, too. Do you think Felix could have hurt Rosa to get her phone and wallet?”
Jonas stepped back, her words hurting more than if she’d slapped him. “What? No. Of course not.” He raked a hand through his hair, hating the flash of doubt that raced through him. He lifted his chin. “No. He’s a thirteen-year-old boy, he’s not perfect. And I mean he’s been getting in some trouble lately, but that’s just because he’s never gotten over his mother’s leaving, never truly accepted the fact that she would do that. He’d never hurt—kill—someone over a stupid phone.” Anger flared.
She held up a hand. “Just had to ask. And I didn’t necessarily mean that he killed her on purpose. It could have been an accident and he was too scared to tell anyone what happened.”
“No, no way. Absolutely not.” She nodded, her eyes on his. The anger fizzled as fast as it had flamed. “I understand why you might ask that, but no. It’s not possible. If something like that had happened, Felix would have come to me.” Wouldn’t he?
“Then how did the phone wind up under his mattress two months after its owner was found murdered?”
The question hit him hard. He swallowed. “I don’t know, but I know we have to find out.”
“We need to talk to Felix.”
She held the phone up. “We need to turn this in, too.” She headed to the bedroom door when Jonas heard a loud roar and felt the house rock beneath his feet.
* * *
Mercy barked. Brooke fell to her knees. She thought she heard Jonas calling to her just before something struck her shoulder, her leg, her cheek. Pain lanced through her. “Get out! We have to get out.”
Jonas’s hand wrapped her upper arm. She realized he’d fallen, too; he’d just recovered faster than she. Smoke seared her lungs, but nothing felt hot.
“Are you all right?” Jonas coughed as he pulled her toward the door.
“Fine. Mercy, heel!” The dog slunk on her belly to Brooke’s side. She pulled her shirt up over her nose and mouth. Jonas did the same. She grabbed one of Felix’s shirts from his bed and wrapped it around the animal’s mouth and nose, leaving it loose enough for her to breathe while filtering the smoke.
“Smoke is rolling in fast,” he said.
“Do you see any flames?”
“No.
