Page 31 of Crossing Paths
“Ah…okay.” She had no idea how to respond to his invitation, so she just waved—awkwardly, of course—at Chloe’s van as it rolled out of the parking lot onto the main road. “Should we…follow?”
“Planning on it.” He waited until Chloe turned right at a cross street before heading toward the road she’d just left. He followed the van, leaving so much distance between them that Chloe’s vehicle was barely in sight…and sometimes not visible at all.
Every time the van disappeared, Norah resisted the urge to yell at Dash to go faster. Although she thought she was containing her feelings well, only squirming a little when they fell too far behind, Dash gave her a raised-eyebrow glance and the tiniest smirk.
“What?” she asked, the word coming out stiff despite her effort at nonchalance.
“We won’t lose her.” He slowed down as a box truck merged in front of them, cutting off any sight of Chloe’s van, and Norah clenched her teeth to hold back a frustrated exclamation. Dash made a sound low in his throat that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. “If we do, we’ll just wait for her to return. It’s not like she’s planning to murder someone.” He paused. “Probably.”
“But what if she’s going to meet up with Leifsen?” To Norah’s relief, the box truck merged into the turn lane, and the distant back doors of Chloe’s van were visible again.
“Doubt it.”
“Yeah.” As much as Norah hoped things would be thatsimple, she had to agree with Dash. “She didn’t look around at all or act nervous while she was walking to her van.”
He tipped his head in a slight nod.
“There!” Norah felt her heart accelerate again as the white van pulled into the parking lot next to a brown brick building. She recognized the place, since they’d adopted Warrant there. “Why is she at the animal shelter?” The chance of Chloe meeting up with Leifsen seemed even slimmer now, unless he’d gotten very creative in where he’d holed up.
Dash kindly didn’t state the obvious—that Chloe was probably there to adopt a pet—as he cruised past the shelter’s entrance and took the next turn into a strip mall parking lot. He parked around the side of an automotive supply store, angling them to face the shelter across the short span of green space.
They didn’t have to wait long before Chloe reemerged, holding the leashes of two large dogs. She turned away from the road toward a stand of trees.
“She’s walking shelter dogs.” Although it was obvious, Norah said it out loud, a little thrown by the additional evidence that Chloe Ballister, alleged friend of a creepy, felonious hacker/stalker/groper, seemed like such aniceperson.
Dash gave one of his affirmative-sounding grunts.
“How is she friends with someone likeDevon Leifsen?” Norah asked with true curiosity, watching through the car windshield as Chloe’s canine companions towed her farther away from them. “She’s so much better than him.”
In her periphery, she saw Dash lift one shoulder in a shrug. “Maybe it was bad info?”
Pushing back her immediate offense that she’d pass alongbad info, Norah attempted to consider his words objectively. “I suppose it’s possible.” The perfectionist in her hated to admit that. “Several people linked them together though, and he showed up at her gig.”
“Maybe he was just a bad decision on her part,” he suggested before turning on the car. “Gave him too much benefit of the doubt. Doesn’t seem like they’re good friends now, so she probably figured him out.”
Norah frowned. As nerve-racking as fieldwork could be, she was disappointed that her time with Dash was over already. She wouldn’t see him again until Tuesday, which suddenly—and ridiculously—felt like a long time away. “Are we done for the day?”
He shook his head, making her stomach give a little swoop of anticipation. “You have a dog, right?”
“Yes.” Norah cocked her head at him, wondering how he knew that. She didn’t think she’d mentioned Warrant to him during their training sessions.
In answer to her unspoken question, Dash reached over and plucked a single coarse white hair from her shirtsleeve, holding it up so she could see.
“Oh. That’s very Sherlock-y of you.”
His mouth twitched up as he put the SUV in reverse and pulled out of their parking place. “We’ll go pick him up and come back here.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Give you a reason to be out walking.” When she stared athim, her stomach dropping to her toes, he continued. “Plus he’ll give you a topic of conversation.”
“Wait.” She held up a hand, clutching her stomach with her other one as if she could hold it in place. “Wait. You want me to…talkto her?”
He glanced at her quickly before returning his attention to traffic. “Yes?” It was the first time she’d ever heard him sound even a tiny bit uncertain.
“Yeah, no. I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” He sounded more curious than annoyed. “You’ve already met her.”
