here to file a missing-persons report,” Roxy said, relieved that her voice sounded strong and confident, even though she wanted to melt into a puddle of worried goo.
“Then you need to speak to one of our detectives.” There was a sound of a buzzer, and he gestured toward the door. “They’re at the desks on the right side of the room.”
Roxy nodded and pushed through the door. Her gaze automatically went to the three desks on the right, and her heart sank to her toes as she saw that the only one occupied was by her shaggy-haired nemesis.
An attractive long-legged blonde in the traditional blue police officer uniform leaned over his desk, and they were laughing as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
Roxy was vaguely aware of other people in the room as she cleared her throat with the force of a snorting bull. The smile on Steve’s face fell as he turned partway in his chair to see the three of them standing there.
He said something to the blonde, who sauntered away with a sexy swing of her hips. Roxy marched toward him, trying to balance temper and fear.
She wasn’t sure why it irritated her that he’d obviously been enjoying the company of the blonde bombshell, but it did. “We hate to mess with your social life, but we want to file a missing-persons report,” she said as he got up from his desk.
He frowned. “You still haven’t heard anything from your aunt?”
“Not a word, and I don’t care that it hasn’t been twenty-four hours. She’s in trouble, and you need to put out an Amber Alert.”
“That’s for kids. A Silver Alert is for adults and is usually put into effect when an elderly or disoriented person goes missing.”
“She’s disoriented,” Roxy exclaimed. “She has a touch of early onset dementia.” Sheri gasped at the blatant lie, while Marlene merely released a small groan.
Roxy would do whatever it took to get somebody to look for her aunt, even if it meant telling a little white lie, even if it meant Aunt Liz would kill her if she ever heard what Roxy had said about her.
Roxy raised her chin as Steve’s eyes narrowed in obvious disbelief. “Early onset dementia. Well then, if that’s the case I guess we’d better file a report,” he finally said. He pulled up two more chairs to join the one that sat before his desk and gestured for the three to have a seat.
“I don’t just want to file a report,” Roxy said as she sat down in the chair directly opposite him. She leaned toward him. “I want a search party started. I want a full investigation going. I want...I need...” To her horror, tears burned at her eyes.
“How about we start with some paperwork,” Steve replied with a hint of kindness in his voice.
“Fine, and then we’ll start a search party,” Roxy exclaimed as she quickly reined in her emotions. The last thing she wanted to do was show weakness in front of her sisters. Still, Sheri placed a gentling hand on Roxy’s arm, and Roxy drew a deep breath and leaned back in the chair.
For the next hour and a half Roxy held on to her patience as Steve asked question after question about the missing woman. Even though she was screaming inside for some kind of action to be taken, she knew that each and every question he asked and the answers they could all provide might hold a clue as to where Aunt Liz might be.
Twilight had fallen when Steve finally asked for a picture. As Roxy pulled a photo of her aunt out of her wallet, the encroaching darkness of night crept deep into her soul.
“So what happens now?” Marlene asked.
“You all go home,” he said.
Roxy stared at him in stunned surprise. “Go home? How can we just go home? We haven’t found her yet.”
“I suggest you go home and continue to contact friends and acquaintances, and let me know if you hear any information that might help me in the investigation.” He stood, and it was obviously a dismissal.
“Are you sure you’re going to be able to fit an investigation into your busy social life?” Roxy asked as she noticed the blonde pointedly looking at her watch and then at him from across the room.
Marlene shot her an elbow in the side. Roxy’s cheeks warmed as she realized she was insulting the very man she needed to help her, to help them.
* * *
It had been the most frustrating hour and a half Steve had spent in recent years. While he’d found Marlene and Sheri to be simmering with anxiety, yet calm and cooperative, Roxy had been like a bomb on the verge of explosion.
She’d bitten her nails, snarled out answers and insulted his work ethic, but looking into the depths of her beautiful dark eyes, with lashes that were sinfully long, he could tell a panic screamed inside her and he knew that feeling intimately.
When the three of them left, it was as if Roxy sucked all the energy out of the room with her. He leaned back in his chair and only looked up from the notes he’d taken when Officer Chelsea Loren sidled up to the side of his desk once again.
“I thought maybe you’d like to head out of here and get a drink with me,” she said, her sexy smile attempting to lure him in. She’d been trying to entice him into a relationship for months without success.
He grinned at her. “Ah, Chelsea, how many times do we have to go through this? You know you’re utterly irresistible, but I don’t do workplace romances.”
Her enhanced lips puffed into a pout. “Obviously I’m not that utterly irresistible if you always turn me down.”
“Go find somebody else to play with, Chelsea. I’ve got work to do,” he said, his mind instantly filling with a vision of dark eyes and that barely suppressed panic that had lit them from within.
Chelsea flounced back across the room, and within minutes she had left with a couple of other uniforms getting off duty. Steve looked toward the window, where darkness had completely fallen.
The first night of dealing with a missing loved one was the absolute worst. There would be little or no sleep for the Marcoli sisters tonight. It would be the most agonizing night they’d probably ever suffer.
They would jump at every phone call and hear every creak and groan of their homes, anticipating some answer, a sudden appearance of their aunt Liz. By morning they’d all be exhausted, and still the fear would be like a living, breathing entity eating at their insides.
He shoved aside those thoughts and got up from his desk. There wasn’t much he could do this late at night as far as a real investigation, and he still wasn’t sure that any foul play was involved or that Chief of Police Brad Krause would even issue orders for an investigation.
But it was time for Steve to get out of there, and it wouldn’t hurt him to take a drive for the next hour or two and look for a woman who had somehow gotten lost from her home. Most nights he either met with his work buddies for a few beers or drove around, putting off returning to his own house until the very last minute.
He left the building and got into his car, and he thought of Roxy telling him that Liz Marcoli had early onset dementia. It had obviously been a lie, but he’d forgive her, as he knew the forces that were driving her at the moment.
