Page 4 of Freeing Hawk
I wanted to punch him until he hit the floor then continued until his face looked like a version of chop-suey. I wanted to make him feel the pain Mia was feeling, the rage I was feeling and hopefully that would knock some sense into him. For a cop who’d been on the force long enough to command his own precinct, he knew nothing of human behaviour.
He knew nothing about the cops who worked under him.
He didn’t know Kingston and if he thought I was going to walk away and give up on Kingston, he didn’t know me.
“When I walked into this job, everyone around here treated me like I was a pariah.” I lifted my chin and doubled down. “Whether it was because I had a vagina or because I was ex-military—forget the fact even though I was younger than most of them, I have more enforcement experience than most. King was the only one who gave a damn, who had my back so, I willnotkeep my voice down. I will not stop holding you accountable and I will not give up. And if you had anything to do with—”
He cleared his throat. “Come into my office.”
I hesitated but then walked ahead of him inside the room. He closed the door and we both sat across from each other.
“I don’t appreciate you accusing me of having something to do with King being gone.” Cap’n growled. “There could be nothing shady about any of this.”
I folded my arms across my chest and felt it as my neck glided to the left. It was a habit I picked up from Eris as she silently called someone out on their bullshit. It was a habit I hadn’t even realized I had picked up until Kingston pointed it out a few months before.
Heron said nothing.
“Well?” I demanded.
“We don’t know where he is.”
“Yeah, that much is obvious. And that’s usually what missing means.” I snapped. “What was he working on?”
“Officially? Nothing.” Captain Heron explained. “Just the regular cases you’ve always had. A couple of cold ones.”
“Unofficially.” My patience was beginning to wear thin.
“Nothing. Kingston should have been working like normal until you got back.” Captain Heron tossed his arms up. “Then he vanished for two days. We’ve been looking but so far we haven’t been able to come up with anything.”
“Mia is freaking out.” I told him. “You do realize she’s pregnant?”
“No, I thought she got fat!” Heron snapped.
I ground my teeth trying to fight the urge to reach across and pop him in the nose. The last thing I needed was to get clocked with an insubordination write-up.
Usually, I wouldn’t care.
But if I was off the force, I couldn’t protect Kingston—I wouldn’t have the resources to find him and bring him back to his woman. “Fine. What do you have so far?”
“Like I said, we have nothing. It’s almost like he vanished off the face of the god-damn earth.”
“We both know that’s not possible.” I leaned back in my chair. “He’s a grown man—there has to be a trail somewhere.”
“You could be right. But we haven’t been able to pick it up yet.”
I inhaled, held it then pushed it out my mouth while looking around. In that moment, I wanted to figure out where to start. But long after I left the captain’s office and sat at Kinston’s desk, I still had no clue where I’d start.
I didn’t ask permission to take the case. It would surprise no one I wouldn’t back off.
Kingston’s desk was like it always was—messy. But he could find anything on there without even trying. He always laughed and said there was a method to his madness.
I went through his desk with a fine-tooth comb. Every scrap of paper, every drawer, every scratch—in the end I came up with nothing.
Everything there was supposed to be—except part of a ham sandwich that had started turning green. Making a face, I dropped it into a nearby garbage can.
Time to try another approach.
I found out what car he’d been using while I was away. They still had it in the garage as a part of evidence about him being missing. After putting on a pair of gloves, I went through the car again. All I managed to find was fingerprint dust, a French fry that had fallen from him and one of his many hoodies.
