Page 14 of Investigate Away
“That doesn’t answer the question of why you didn’t tell me about it the second you saw me. Or better yet, tell my secretary so she could have called one of my officers on duty.”
She tossed her hands wide. “I don’t know. Call me Nancy Drew.”
“Okay, Nancy Drew.”
“You’ve always loved to mock me. Anyway, old habits die hard. And honestly, don’t you think it’s a little strange that I’m not even in town for more than a couple of days and all of a sudden the Trinket Killer decides to say hello?”
“Actually, I do think that’s odd, considering we haven’t heard from him in a year.”
“It might not be him.”
“Might not be, but someone slipped into the Saratoga Inn, wiped the security footage, and left a threatening note that basically said he was going to start killing again. Now maybe it’s a copycat. Maybe it’s someone who wants to fuck with you. Or me. Or both of us. But you look an awful lot like every single girl who was murdered, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you on my watch.”
“What about every other long-haired blond who—”
“Don’t be like that,” he said with a harsh tone. “I’m doing what I can. You saw the CSI team, and they are dusting for prints and going through that room with a fine-tooth comb.”
“Why aren’t you there controlling their every move?”
“My officer Jenna graduated top of her class. If her husband wasn’t deployed half the year and she didn’t have two little kids, she’d be living in Seattle working Vice or Homicide. She’s going to head up your case.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re pawning something on someone else?”
He tapped the badge that hung on his shirt. “I’m the chief. It’s my job to play more of a supervisory role. Besides, I’m not the arrogant dickhead I used to be. I know when I’m too close and need to back off.” He opened his napkin and spread it out across his lap. “You, on the other hand, can’t get out of your own way. Your book proves it.”
She leaned back and smiled. “So, you did read it.”
“I plead the fifth.”
* * *
Jag took his cell and his beer and headed to the front porch. He glanced over his shoulder at Callie, who had her headphones on and her face only a few inches from her laptop screen.
“Hey, sis.” He sat in his favorite chair, resting his legs on the coffee table as he watched the sky grow dark.
“Are you out of your freaking mind?” Ziggy’s voice screeched in his ear.
He adjusted the volume on his AirPods. “You don’t have to yell.”
“Oh, someone does. I can’t believe you are having her move in with you, and you didn’t even have the decency to call me to tell me she was back.”
“She’s not living with me. I’m letting her stay in my guest room for a bit.” He chuckled. Ziggy had a flair for the dramatic and tended to overreact.
Hell, that had been a problem for most of his family, including him, though he always told himself he acted and never reacted, but as he approached his mid-thirties, he could see the error of his ways. What he thought was taking action often never gave his mind a chance to process important information that would later come back and bite him in the ass.
Like waiting until he got the phone call from Ajax that the judge signed off on all arrest and search warrants before executing them, and he only needed that because they didn’t have probable cause. He had no reason to pick Adam up. Everything had been on a hunch until the DNA came back.
He blinked, pushing all those thoughts from his brain.
“Why is she back anyway?” Ziggy asked.
“To finish her book.”
“I can’t believe she’s using that title. It makes you look bad,” Ziggy said with a huff.
Of everyone in his family, Ziggy had taken the news of his relationship with Callie better than most. Ziggy worked for the same station as a producer. They butted heads a lot, but mostly because they had similar personalities, yet they were also friends.
However, they both had one fatal flaw. Neither one of them knew how to let things go.
