Page 63 of Guarding Her Love

Todd and I walk out of the bullpen and head towards my office. He sits down in one of the visitor’s chairs as I sit in my desk chair.

“How are you holding up?” I ask Todd.

“All things considered, I’m doing okay. Megan’s been my saving grace and has helped keep me from spiraling too deep. How are you holding up?”

“Pretty much the same. After going through all of this with Quinn, I can’t imagine wanting anyone else by my side.”

“How’s the move going? Megan is fit to burst with how excited she is for you guys.” Todd laughs, shaking his head.

“I’ve been so impatient. I would’ve been happier if she’d moved in the day I asked and we figured out logistics later, but Levi reminded me it’s better this way so we don’t have to deal with renovations later.”

“They didn’t have much they needed to do down there, right? It shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“No, just a couple of days, but it feels like two days too many. All this past week we’ve only been able to see each other off and on between the investigation and the remodel at both my house and Paint and Paper. I’m not sure why I have this urgency, but it’s sitting in my gut, and I know it won’t get better until she’s officially moved in.”

“I get it, man. You want to keep her safe, and if she’s at your house, then you know she’s safe. I’d hate it if Megan wasn’t at the house all the time.” A ping sounds from my computer telling me I got an email. I quickly check it and see it’s the lab report.

“We got the lab report from Chris. Looks like our Jane Doe was in the system already,” I say while printing out the report but continuing to scroll through and relaying the information to Todd. He grabs the papers off the printer when they’re done and follows along.

“Brooklyn Lewis, twenty-seven, was a certified nanny for a national company which is why her prints are in the system. No record, permanent address listed in Denton, but it says here she traveled for the nannying company, so she could’ve been living anywhere.”

“We should try and get cell phone records for this vic as well.”

“I’ll send out the request. There’s not much else in this report to go on. Let’s get some guys on her social media pages and figure out who she was and where she was going.”

“On it.”

I put the call into our tech guys so they’ll get started on cell records, and then I start going over the autopsy report. There’s something niggling in my gut that tells me we’re going to get our guy, and soon.

* * *

I runmy hands through my hair as frustration starts to set in. I stare at all of the evidence, notes, pictures, and reports we’ve laid out on the conference table, trying to make something jump out at me. We’ve been here for hours turning over every stone to find something to go on.

Liam and Nathan didn’t come back with much from the manager at the impound lot, but they did get the surveillance video, so they’re trying to find anything we can use from it. It’s late now, past seven, but all of my guys are still here, working to keep the momentum going even if our progress is starting to stagnate.

I step back from the table and walk over to the box of cookies Quinn brought for the guys. We’re both having to work late tonight, so she also brought dinner for the two of us to get a little extra time together. She’s at Paint and Paper trying to put together her inventory list. I guess none of the crates had been labeled like they were supposed to be, so she’s having to go through everything crate by crate to make sure it’s all there.

Her opening night is a few days away and she is so excited. I couldn’t be prouder of all of the work she’s put into this. I hope it’s a huge success for her because she’s put so much of herself into the store that I want people to love it as much as she does. Thinking about her makes me want to see her, but since we’ve both got a lot to finish up tonight, it would be better if I call her.

Stepping out, I click her name and bring the phone to my ear. It rings and rings until it goes to voicemail. That’s weird. I quickly shoot her a text asking her to call when she can and head back into the bullpen.

“Hey, Chief, I’ve got something a little weird over here.” I walk over to where Liam is watching the footage from the impound lot. “Check this out,” he says and plays the video for me. I watch as someone in a ball cap pulled low over their head walks up to the car, immediately gets in, and starts it up.

“That was easy.”

“I thought the same thing. You can’t start this type of car unless you insert the key into the ignition, so unless they hotwired it, they wouldn’t have been able to drive it off the lot without the keys. The manager there said there wasn’t any damage to it, so they had to have had a key to get in.”

“So how did they get the key?” I ask.

“And why did the manager not say anything about it when we asked?”

I nod my head in response to Liam’s fantastic question. “Let’s pick him up tomorrow and bring him here.” I walk back over to the conference table, checking my phone to see if Quinn’s texted me back, but she hasn’t.

“I’ve got some more info on Lewis,” Derek says, carrying a few pages of notes in his hands. “It looks like, from her social media pages, she was nannying for a family in Greensboro but wasn’t needed anymore and was heading back to Denton for some time off before starting another gig. Doesn’t seem to have much in the way of family, but we called her high school earlier, and she was pretty well known and well-liked. Worked several odd jobs around town, and all of her previous bosses said she was a great employee. They all said she was a great person but kept to herself mostly.”

“Any boyfriends or friends that stood out to them?”

“Nope, we asked if she was dating anyone, and they all said they’d never seen her go out with anyone. If she went to get dinner anywhere, she was usually by herself.”

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