He dropped his voice. "I found my key to the other side." Her eyes flashed with awareness and memory. Satisfied he'd sufficiently enticed her into keeping her promise, in his normal voice he said, "All right. I'll see you tomorrow."
Friday, December 1, 6:20 p.m.
Aidan was gone when she got back, but Murphy was there, typing his report in his slow hunt-and-peck way. "Reed was right," Murphy said. "There were three pet stores in the area. Two of them had vet offices either inside or nearby. Petsville was my last stop-and guess what their supply closet was missing?"
"D-turbo-whatever-stuff. Amazon jungle poison," she said and he grinned.
"You get the prize. After threatening them with a subpoena, I finally got a list of employees and just finished mapping their addresses. These people live in a one-mile radius of where we found the car he abandoned after he killed Brooke and Roxanne. He could have easily walked to any of them."
"Fourteen households. I should be able to hit five or six still tonight."
Murphy stood up. "We should."
"Murphy…"
"Mia… You can't go alone. What if you find him?"
She thought about the bodies she'd seen this week. "You're right. If I go alone, I might kill him myself. I should call Solliday, but he's with his kid."
"And you and me have no ties."
She frowned at that. No ties. No strings. "Murphy, do you ever want them?"
He paused in zipping his coat, shot her a grin. "What, ties? Got a closet full of 'em."
She shook her head, her mouth curving despite herself. "I'm serious."
He sobered. "It's starting to get you, isn't it? All your friends pairing off."
Abe, Dana, Jack and Aidan. Now it was down to her and Murphy. "Yeah. You?"
He nodded. "Yeah. But I've been married before." He slung a brotherly arm around her shoulders. "And you know what they say. Fool me once, shame on you."
"Fool me twice, shame on me."
"Come on. Let's go."
Friday, December 1, 6:55 p.m.
The knock at their door broke the silence. His mother looked up, fear in her eyes.
"It's not him, Mom. He has a key." That she'd given him. Why, he didn't understand. But once she had, it had been too late.
She got up, smoothed her hair. And opened the door. "Can 1 help you?"
"We're sorry to bother you, ma'am. My name is Detective Mitchell and this is Detective Murphy. We're searching the neighborhood for this man."
He sneaked around the corner and peeked. All he could see were legs. A pair of shoes and a pair of boots. Smaller. But he could hear them. The lady sounded… nice.
"Is that the man I saw on TV?" his mother asked, her voice small and scared.
"Yes. ma'am," the lady detective said. "Have you seen him?"
"No. I'm sorry. We haven't."
"Well, if you see him, could you please call this number? And don't open your door to him. He's very dangerous."
I know he's dangerous. I know. Please, Mom. Please tell them.
But his mother nodded and took the flyer the detective offered. "If I see him, I'll call," she said and shut the door. She stood for a minute, still except for her fist that crumpled the paper into a ball. Then she went to the sofa, crumpled herself into a ball and cried.
He went to his room, closed the door, and did the same.
Mia leaned against her car, her eyes on the tidy little house.
Murphy leaned beside her. "She knows something," he said. "Yes, she does. And she's terrified. She's got a kid."
"I know. I saw him, peeking around the corner."
"I did, too." She blew out a breath. "He could be in there, right now."
"Looked like the dinner table was only set for two. If he's there, he's hiding. She's a pet store employee, so technically she wouldn't have had access to the vet's office. Just a terrified face probably isn't enough to get us a warrant to search her place."
"Let's check the houses on this street. Maybe somebody saw him. If so, that could be enough for a warrant." She pushed away from the car, when a movement caught her eye.
"Murphy, look up at the window." Little fingers were pulling at the blinds.
"The kid's watching us."
Mia smiled warmly and waved. Immediately the little fingers disappeared and the blinds went flat. Her smile faded. "I want to talk to that kid."
"Then we need to get inside the house. Let's start knockin' on doors."
Friday, December 1, 7:30 P.M.
"Well?" Murphy asked. "I got bubkes"
"Nobody's seen him. Nobody even knew her. One person remembers seeing the kid riding his bike to school. You know, when I was a kid, everybody knew everybody else. You were afraid to do anything bad, scared it would get back to your parents." Mia jangled her car keys in her pocket. "Okay, now what?"
"Now you go home, sleep. I'll stay here and watch. I"ll call you if anything pops."
"I shouldn't let you do that, but I'm too tired to argue with you."
"Which says a lot," Murphy said mildly. "Mia, are you okay?"
They'd been friends a long time. "Not really." To her mortification, tears stung her eyes and she blinked them away. "I must be more tired than I thought."
He caught her arm. "If you need me, you know where to find me."
Her lips quirked up. "Yeah, here, freezing your fool ass off all night. Thanks, Murphy." Murphy was a good friend. Tonight, she wanted more than a friend. Tonight she wanted… more. Strings, the voice in her mind taunted. Go ahead and admit it.
Fine. She wanted strings. But God knew she didn't get everything she wanted.
Friday, December 1, 8:15 p.m.
Mia recognized the car waiting on the curb and wanted to groan. Hell, she wasn't up for a heart-to-heart with little sister tonight. Olivia met her on the sidewalk in front of Solli-day's duplex, holding a pizza box. "So you found me."
"I pulled a few strings, got your partner's address. Hope you don't mind."
Yes, I mind, she wanted to scream. Come back when things… settle down. But they wouldn't settle down and Olivia had to go home soon. And Bobby's other child needed to know the truth. Or some of it anyway.
"No, I don't mind. Come on in." Lauren's place was quiet and dark, but next door she could hear the TV and music. Reed was there. But she'd get through this first.
Reed heard her come in. He'd been sitting in front of the TV, watching something that meant nothing, just waiting for the slam of the door on the other side. Beth was sulking in her room. Lauren was studying. He was alone. And, he admitted, lonely. But Mia was there, on the other side of the wall and even if it was watching her eat leftover meatloaf, he wouldn't be alone when he was with her.
He grabbed the glass bowl from the oven with mitts and slipped out the back door. Cradling the warm bowl under one arm like a football, he reached for the door knob and stopped. She wasn't alone. The other voice belonged to Olivia Sutherland.
He should go home. Give her privacy. But he remembered her eyes as she'd bared her secrets in the night. And how she'd rolled away from him. Alone.
They were two people, wandering through life alone. And he wondered why two intelligent people would insist on making that choice.
Mia led Olivia to the kitchen and took the pizza. "It's stone cold."
"I waited awhile."
Mia sighed. "I'm sorry. This case…"
"I know." Olivia unzipped her jacket and slipped the scarf from her head, looking a little like an old movie actress. Elegant and a little unsure. And so young.