Page 13 of Dark Terror
“Yeah.” He went to the desk facing his, one that was a messy clutter.
“Then whose is that?”
He slid onto the chair. “My partner’s. Harry’s in Florida at her brother’s wedding.”
“Harry’s a she?”
“Delaney Harrison. We call her Harry.” He scowled at the desktop. “I’d clean up this mess and get her organized if I wasn’t afraid she’d kill me.”
“Scared of your partner?”
He glanced up at her and grinned. “Yes, and not embarrassed to admit it. I need to make some calls. Should’ve thought to tell you to bring a book. I assume being a librarian you like to read?”
“I do, and not to worry.” She fished her phone out of her purse. “I have a Kindle app on my phone. Do what you need to do. I’m good.” He stared at her for a moment, then gave a little shake of his head. She wondered what that was all about.
He picked up his own phone and punched in some numbers. “Benjamin, this is Detective Caulder. You turn up anything more at the scene?”
Since she was sitting only a few feet from him, she couldn’t help but hear his side of the conversation. She pretended to read, but her curiosity was too great not to listen. He only gave one word responses, though, to whoever Benjamin was, so she didn’t learn anything new.
She knew the police were anxious to identify the woman, but Cara wasn’t sure she wanted to know her name or anything about her. Did she have a family that would grieve her death? A boyfriend or husband, children? She knew the pain of losing loved ones, and she didn’t wish it on anyone.
Nate Ryder leaned over the wall when Gabe finished his call. “ME’s on hold for you.” After delivering the message to Gabe, he winked at her, then dropped back out of sight.
“Dr. Grunholdt, what do you have for me?”
The medical examiner?
Gabe listened, then said, “No needle marks on her and no drugs in her system means the needle didn’t belong to her. Could belong to the killer.”
Even though Cara didn’t know the woman, she was glad to hear she wasn’t a druggie. She read a lot of suspense novels and had always enjoyed puzzling out who the bad guy was and his or her motives. Her guess was that the woman had simply been enjoying a walk in the park with her dog, and the man was a druggie looking for money, so a robbery gone bad? Poor woman.
“Okay, good,” Gabe said. “I’ll swing by this afternoon and pick it up.” After he set the phone on the desk, he glanced at her. “They found a key on her. Hundred to one it fits the door that Cricket led us to.”
“Are we going to see if it is?”
He shook his head. “Not we. As of now, you’re out of this.”
She wished. “I won’t be out of it until the man who killed her is behind bars.” And not watching her. While there was no proof that the man she’d seen this morning was the one she’d seen kill the woman, she had a strong feeling he was. If he was watching her, then he was waiting for his chance to get to her. She shuddered at the thought of that happening.
“Are you cold?” Gabe asked.
The man obviously didn’t miss much. “No, just thinking.”
His eyes turned soft. “I won’t let him hurt you, Cara.”
And he could read minds. “The only way you can promise that is if you’re with me around the clock. Since that’s not possible, don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Before she could blink twice, he was around the desk and squatting in front of her. His gaze captured hers. “You’re right, but know this. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe or die trying.”
“Don’t say that,” she whispered. She’d only known him for a day, but she didn’t even want to think about a world without Gabe in it. “My brother died for the job. One good man doing that is already one too many.”
He put his hand on her knee. “Sweet Cara,” he softly said. “I’m not going to die and you’re not either. We’ll catch the bastard, that I can promise. Now—”
“Detective Calder, a moment of your time.”
Cara glanced across the two desks to see a tall woman with her black hair in a bun coiled tightly at the back of her head. She didn’t look pleased as she glanced between the two of them.
Gabe dropped his hand from her knee and stood. “Be right there, Captain.”
