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I stopped breathing. Not permanently, of course, but I did hold my breath for nearly a minute and watched the door in anticipation of a possible rebellion from Lucy. None came, and while I had a moment of sadness, I was glad she didn’t come back in another attempt to talk me out of... well, whatever the hell I was doing.
I exhaled slowly.
“Well, I think I’ve just about alienated everyone now, babe.” I kissed Jacob on the forehead. “I still have a case to solve. Is it bad that I’d rather curl up in this stupid hospital bed with you?” I pulled up a chair and held his hand. “Jacob, I don’t know what to do. I feel like my whole world is falling apart around me. You’re in a coma, my sister has been kidnapped, her daughter is still missing, and there’s another dead baby. How in the hell do I fix it all?
“I wish you were awake. I wish you were okay. You’d help me figure this all out. We could be a dynamic duo and crush the bad guys. But you’re not okay, and as much as I want to stay here, I can’t.” I rested my forehead on our clasped hands. “I feel stretched so tight that one more unexpected event will make me explode. I just wish I could find something more substantial than hope to hold onto, you know?”
He squeezed my hand.
I lifted my head, but his eyes were still closed and the machines weren’t blipping any faster. “Jacob?”
No response, but I hadn’t imagined it. He’d definitely squeezed my hand.
Taking it as a sign, I stood, kissed him again, and adjusted his blankets. “I love you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
***
Venom-induced unconsciousness counts as sleep, right? Armed with the strongest drink the barista could whip up, I pushed into the precinct with purpose.
“Where’s Ethan?” I asked the first uniform I saw.
The startled uni pointed toward the chief’s office.
“Thanks!” I moved through the sea of desks, but didn’t even make it to the door before I heard Daniel bellow.
“What in the hell are you doing here?” He was on the far side of the precinct.
I glanced at him, at Ethan’s open office door, and then back at Daniel. I could make it in before he reached me.
His brow furrowed as he figured out what I was considering, and he moved toward me.
I took off for Ethan’s office.
He rounded the corner of one desk and smacked into another person as I skirted two plainclothes detectives and ducked under a stack of files in someone else’s hands. He gave his apologies and spun around that guy and the next one as I pushed a chair out of the way.
“Zoë!”
He sounded close, but I was only a step away from Ethan’s office. I crossed the threshold, closed the door behind me, grabbed the doorknob and held on, back against the door with my eyes squeezed shut.
Daniel knocked—well, more like pounded. “Let me in!”
“No!”
“You should be in the hospital. Or home in bed, dammit!”
“You’re not the boss of me!” Childish, yes, but whatever.
Daniel tried the handle, but I held on for dear life. “Stubborn-ass woman!” He slammed a fist into the door, and his stomping footsteps faded away.
“He’s right, you know.”
I opened my eyes.
Ethan sat behind his desk, watching me with his head resting on one palm.
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
He frowned. “That’s what we’re worried about.”
I ignored the dig and sat down in a chair in front of his desk. “I thought he’d be at the crime scene behind my house.”
“Parsons? He was.”
I took a long pull from my straw. “They found the body?”
Ethan shook his head. “You’re going to need to see a sketch artist for the perp.”
What the hell? “Any reason you’re avoiding my question?” I reached out and touched the top of his hand. Blocked. Damn, seems he’s been practicing what I taught him. Don’t want to tell me about the dead baby? Fine. I have other fish to fry.
“I need a favor. My sister and niece are missing.” I waved off his raised eyebrow. “I have an idea where she and many other missing persons may be, but we kind of have to go now.”
Ethan appeared to roll it around in his head.
I appreciated the lack of skepticism, and would miss that when he retired. When he retires? I shook the thought to the back of my head; questions for later, when there was actually time for them.
“Healy sent me the report from their arrival at your sister’s house. I wish you had told me.” He raised a hand and stopped the words trying to roll off my tongue. “But I am glad that you didn’t try to do this on your own.”
He sighed. “Zoë, we’re here to help you. We protect our own, but you have to tell us when the shit hits the fan.”
So I did. Start to finish, I told him everything.
Ethan leaned back in his chair, arms crossed beneath his chest, his face blank. Only his eyes gave him away, all bright and tight with anger, and my heart sank in the face of his disappointed dad gaze.
“Ethan.”
He leaned forward and planted massive hands on the top of his desk. “I’m going to rally my folks, and we’re going to find this place. Until then, you are going to go and see the sketch artist to give us a face for that bastard behind your house. Then you will sit patiently as we figure this out. If you can manage to not do anything stupid, I will let you come along. If you can’t, then I will send your ass home. Am I clear?”
“Yes.”
He picked up the phone and pointed the receiver at the door. “I have work to do, and you have your orders.”
I stood and sulked out of his office. In the main part of the precinct, everyone pretended to have things to do other than stare as I walked to the little office they had designated for the sketch artist. I wanted to protest the suffocating cloud of shame, but if I was honest, I knew this was coming.
Head hung low, I walked the length of the office and knocked on Arthur Bellamy’s door.
“Do come in.”
I opened the door, closed it behind me, and exhaled a long, slow breath.
A small man with a mess of brown hair sat hunched over an artist’s desk, his back to me. He spun slowly in his chair. Arthur tipped his black horn-rimmed glasses downward. “Ms. Delante! It’s a pleasure.”
I forced a smile to my lips. “I need your help, Arty.”
