Page 15 of Dark Terror
A strange smile crossed her face.
“What did you say?” he asked when she murmured something he didn’t quite catch.
“Not a thing.”
It had sure sounded like, “Another one bites the dust.” But he absolutely had no intention of biting anyone’s dust.
Chapter Six
“Can you sit over here, please?” Gabe said when he returned. “I need to get at my
computer.”
“Sure.” There was a politeness to his voice that hadn’t been there before he’d been called into his boss’s office. Something had changed since he’d knelt in front of her, his eyes warm and caring. Now his eyes landed everywhere but on her. Was he in trouble because of her?
“Is everything okay?” She edged past him to his partner’s desk.
“Why do you ask?” He booted up his computer, then lifted his gaze to hers.
“Um, no reason.” Maybe she was imagining the coolness in his voice. She didn’t know him well enough to recognize his moods. And what did it matter? She had a job to do as a witness to a crime, and as soon as they caught the man, she wouldn’t see Gabe again. That shouldn’t make her sad, right?
“Bingo,” Gabe exclaimed.
Deep in her thoughts of Gabe and her inconvenient attraction to him, she was startled by his outburst. “What?” she yelped.
Ignoring her, he picked up his phone. “Judy, I need Judge Keir to issue a warrant.”
Cara listened to him give the address of the row house from this morning and the reason he needed to get inside the home. What she didn’t want to hear was the victim’s name, but there it was, Sheri Carstad. She wasn’t sure why it bothered her so much to learn Sheri’s name, but knowing made it personal somehow. She had an up-close-and-personal acquaintance with grief. Who would grieve Sheri Carstad when they learned she was dead?
Until her fifteenth year, death had been a word that had no association to her life. Dying was what old people did, and she had expected her parents to live to a ripe old age. They hadn’t. Their deaths had been devastating, but David had been there for her through it all.
Older by four years, he had become mother, father, as well as her brother after the loss of their parents. He had held her while she’d cried, her heart hurting as she missed her mom and dad with a bone-deep ache. In her worst nightmares she hadn’t dreamed that a few short years later her brother would be taken from her, too, leaving her alone in the world.
David had once told her that the day would come when she’d be happy again. She’d been getting there, and then she’d lost him. Coming back to Dark Falls had been her attempt to prove him right, a way to honor his memory because he would want her to find a way to be happy. As of last night, that wasn’t working out so great.
Gabe stood and leaned his head over the partition. “Ryder, you free for a few hours?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“I think I’ve identified my victim. Judge Keir’s issuing a warrant to go in her house.” He glanced at her, saying, “I need to take Cara home, then pick up the warrant and the victim’s house key. You want to ride with me or meet me there?”
“I’ll meet you there. In an hour?”
“That works.”
Cara gathered up her purse and phone. She debated asking Gabe to take her to work but decided she wasn’t up to dealing with Mrs. Kastrop’s harassment, so she’d take advantage of the day off he had gotten her. Also, it was the first day Cricket was alone at her house, and she was worried about the little dog.
“I need to make two stops,” Gabe said once they were on the road. “That okay?”
“Of course. From your conversation I assume you’re stopping at the courthouse to pick up the warrant?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I’m something of an inconvenience. I could catch a cab from there, save you the time and trouble of taking me home.”
Green eyes narrowed as his gaze landed on her. “Not once have I thought of you as an inconvenience, Cara. I will not be dumping you anywhere to find your own way home.”
“I wouldn’t think of it as dum—”
