Page 31 of The Stolen Dagger
I thought about walking the twenty minutes back to my apartment to get my car, but it wasn’t smart being alone right now. I needed to stay on campus around other students. I couldn’t isolate myself now with a stalker watching my every move.
The library.
There are tons of students in the library at all hours. I could stay there until Drew picked me up. That would also give me time to find out everything I could about the night I ran away.
There had to be something I missed. Something that might point me toward this missing dagger.
I repeated Drew’s words to myself as I walked to the library at the center of campus.
Act like everything is normal. Don’t show you’re afraid.
CHAPTER NINE
DREW
After dropping Katherine off at the college, I made it into work a little later than usual.
Now, I sat at my desk on the left side of the main room in the Hawthorn Police Department, finishing up some paperwork on the case I worked on.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about everything Katherine said that morning and the night before.
Why did Adrian think Katherine had a dagger? Why did he want it? Why was it so important to him?
If he sent someone to wreck her apartment and scare her with threatening notes, what else was he capable of?
Adrian was unpredictable. I needed to neutralize the threat before anything else happened to Katherine. She was my main priority, just as she’d always been.
But to do that, I needed more information on Adrian.
That afternoon, I closed the file of my latest case and looked around the precinct to make sure my captain wasn’t anywhere nearby.
As much as I didn’t like it, I had promised Katherine I wouldn’t tell Captain Rodgers about her situation. But if he asked about what I was looking into, I wasn’t confident I’d be able to lie to him either.
I scanned the room, past the two rows of desks that created an aisle in the center. A handful of other officers sat in their seats and did paperwork. The precinct was one of the newest in the area with hardwood floors, a high ceiling, and large windows. I was proud to work at this precinct and had been for about six years now.
I turned back to my computer monitor and pulled up our nationwide database. After a few minutes of searching, I found him.
Adrian J. Perez from Las Vegas, Nevada had been booked with theft, B&E, drug possession, and other gang-related activities. He was also a person of interest in a number of homicide cases, but most of the charges on him had been dropped because of inconclusive evidence.
That didn’t always mean his gang had connections with the local police force just as Katherine had mentioned, but it was just as suspicious.
I studied Adrian’s mugshot displayed on the screen.
He had short, close-cut black hair and tanned skin. He scowled at the camera with dark brown, almost black eyes below thick brows. His square jaw was clenched and brought more attention to his crooked nose.
Overall, the guy looked just as I had pictured him—dangerous.
I scrolled farther down the page and read that Adrian had been brought in for questioning on a murder case about a year ago.
I clicked on the file and read about a local businessman, Henry Miller, who had been reported missing by his wife, then found dead outside an abandoned warehouse a few dayslater. The case was suspected to be linked to the recent gang activity in town.
I reread the article a few times. There was no mention of a dagger.
How does a missing dagger fit into the picture?
I assumed it had to be connected to what Katherine saw the night of the murder. Why else would Adrian be after her now?
According to this file, Henry also had a record of his own. He had been charged for theft, racketeering, and was a known informant for the local gangs in Vegas. He worked for both sides.
