Elly sipped her coffee, trying not to let her gaze linger on Joe. Being held in his arms had been wonderful; his strength had comforted her. She almost wished she hadn’t fallen asleep, but obviously she’d needed the rest. She’d never again take sleeping without nightmares for granted. She empathized with those who suffered PTSD from their role as a cop or in the military. Those were the people who put their lives on the line every day to protect the public—people like her.
Being here in the City Central Hotel suite with Joe made her feel safe.
Oddly, she found him more handsome in his casual clothes rather than his uniform. Maybe because she was accustomed to seeing him in uniform, as he was usually working when he was at the homestead. He was always nice to her from a professional perspective.
Without the uniform, he seemed more approachable. He hadn’t shaved, and the stubble on his cheeks only added to his attractiveness. But even as the thoughts whirled in her mind, she knew better than to make a big deal out of being here with him.
Joe was here because he’d promised Rhy he’d keep her safe. His loyalty was to her brother, and she could respect that.
Even though she would rather have had more.
“I’ll get this information about the rivalry to Steele.” Joe’s words interrupted her thoughts. “It can’t hurt to interview the skaters’ parents.”
“Will you get to help with that?” He was close enough to touch, and she would have loved to lean against him. But she reminded herself that she was a Finnegan. Maybe she wasn’t a cop like Rhy, Tarin, and Kyleigh or an FBI agent like Brady, but she wasn’t a weakling either. She wanted to do her part in bringing this guy to justice.
He shrugged. “Maybe. We’ll see.” He abruptly stood and moved away, stretching his arms over his head. “In the meantime, are you hungry?”
“Yes.” She glanced around the room. “Are we staying here or going out?”
“Staying here where it’s safer.” He frowned. “We’ll order room service. Just tell me what you’d like.”
Leaning forward, she plucked the room service menu from the desk. “The breakfast special sounds good.” She handed it to him.
He scanned it, then nodded. “That works.” He reached for the phone and placed their order.
“What else can we do to find this guy?” she asked when he’d finished. “I’m sure the police have more access to information than what we can find on social media.”
“You’d be surprised,” he said with a sigh. “We can uncover a lot if they have criminal backgrounds. If they don’t, we only have what’s out in the general public.” He gestured to the computer. “Which is what we’ve been doing here.”
“Wow.” Somehow, she’d thought they’d have more. “Okay, then we keep digging. The rivalry is only one possibility, right? You initially thought the shooter might be Gabrielle’s former boyfriend or spouse.”
“That reminds me.” He returned to sit beside her. “I meant to access the public records to see if Gabrielle had been married.”
She watched as he brought up a new search window. After a few minutes, he shook his head. “Okay, no marriage or divorce on file. That means this guy may have been a former boyfriend.”
“That won’t be easy to nail down,” she murmured.
“No.” He glanced at her, and their gazes clung for a long moment before he looked away. “Here, you keep poking around on Gabrielle’s social media sites. I—uh, need to call Rhy about obtaining a car.”
Joe moved away to make the call. She continued scrolling through Gabrielle’s posts but without much success. If the skater had a former boyfriend who matched the description of the shooter, he wasn’t in any of the photos she could find.
Joe’s conversation with her brother was brief, and she only heard his side of things. “A rental SUV under the Callahan name would be great, Rhy. Let Matt Callahan know we appreciate the help.”
“Matt Callahan?” she asked. “He’s the K-9 officer of the Callahan clan. He has a beautiful German shepherd named Duchess.”
“Yes, I’ve met them, they’re quite a team.” He smiled. “Matt will rent the vehicle for us, but your brothers Colin and Quinn will drop it off.”
“Sounds good.” It seemed her entire family was pulling together in this, and she appreciated their support. “I didn’t see Matt at the parade, was he there?”
“He was but was stationed toward the end of the parade route.” Joe shook his head. “There wasn’t much of a scent trail for Duchess to follow, but they assisted in searching for the perp anyway. Unfortunately coming up empty-handed like the rest of us.”
It was disheartening how the shooter managed to get away. Then again, disappearing in the midst of chaos wasn’t that difficult. All he would have had to do was to run and act frightened, blending in with everyone else who fled the scene.
A knock at the door had Joe rushing forward, waving her back. Without protest, she stood and moved toward the bedroom as he squinted through the peephole.
“Room service,” a muffled voice said.
She watched as Joe opened the door just wide enough to take the tray. He set it on the table, passed some cash over, and then closed and locked the door.
Elly willed her pulse to return to normal. She wasn’t used to this. She didn’t normally look for danger around every corner the way Joe did. The way her cop siblings did.
“Time to eat,” he said calmly, as if he hadn’t acted like a shooter had arrived at their door.
She moved forward as he shut the computer and removed it from the table. He removed their dome-covered meals from the tray. She moved her chair over to give him room.
“I would like to say grace,” she said when he dropped down beside her.
He nodded and bowed his head.
She reached over to take his hand. “Dear Lord Jesus, we thank You for this food we are about to eat. We humbly ask that You continue to keep us safe in Your loving arms. Amen.”
“Amen,” Joe murmured.
She reluctantly released his hand, glancing at him as she uncovered her plate. “I wasn’t sure if you would want to pray.”
“I haven’t been to church in a long time,” he admitted. “But I know the Finnegans are big believers.”
She nodded. “We are. And I believe it’s only because of God’s grace that we’re safe now.”
“Maybe.” He didn’t say anything more as he dug into his food. She wanted to press the issue, but that really wasn’t her nature. Either Joe would believe or he wouldn’t. She couldn’t force him.
“When do you think we’ll hear from Steele about when he may be able to interview the skaters’ parents?” She steered the conversation back to the investigation.
“Hopefully soon.” He glanced at his watch. “If he doesn’t reach out by the time we’re finished eating, I’ll call him. To be fair, I only just sent him the information an hour ago.”
“Right.” She grimaced. “Seems like days ago, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah.” He sipped his coffee. “We also need to wait for your brothers to arrive with the rental.”
“Will members of your tactical team continue to watch the homestead?”
“Absolutely. Raelyn handed that task over to Grayson earlier this morning.” He offered a faint smile. “Don’t worry, everyone is bound and determined to protect Rhy’s family.”
“That’s good to hear.” She needed to believe her family would be safe. Well, as safe as possible under these circumstances. “I worry most about Colleen.”
“We all do.” His tone was sincere. “Try not to stress, okay?”
“Okay.” She finished her scrambled eggs and bacon. Based on the danger they’d lived through in the past twelve hours or so, there was no way to know when they’d have a chance to eat their next meal.
Despite feeling safe here with Joe, she honestly didn’t expect the peace and quiet to last for long. Better to anticipate the shooter’s next move.
If that was even possible.
The sound of Joe’s phone ringing startled her. She carefully set down her coffee cup. Cutting down on the caffeine might be a good idea.
“Hey, Colin.” Joe listened for a moment, then nodded. “Fifteen minutes sounds good.” He gave her brother their suite number, then disconnected from the call. “They’re bringing replacement phones too. Along with a winter coat for you and extra cash.”
“Finnegans to the rescue,” she said lightly. She knew from stories at Sunday dinner that her siblings had this sort of thing down to a science by now.
She took a moment to wash up in the bathroom while waiting. When Colin and Quinn arrived, they both engulfed her in a big hug.
“Glad you’re safe, kiddo,” Quinn said.
“Yeah, what he said,” Colin joked, but his gaze was serious. “I can’t believe you were in the middle of that mess.”
“I’m glad I was able to help.”
“Elly was amazing,” Joe said. “She saved my life, rescued a small boy, and offered first aid to many other victims.”
“That’s our sis,” Quinn said. Then his smile faded. “I can’t believe you saw the shooter, up close and personal, El.”
“Your sketch was great,” Colin added.
She wasn’t used to so much praise from her siblings. They’d always supported her, but up until now, she hadn’t done anything impressive. Other than graduating from her EMT program. “You brought phones?”
“Yep.” Colin set them on the table. Then he tossed the car key fob to Joe who caught it easily. “The SUV is black and parked closest to the exit.”
“Thanks. We appreciate the support,” Joe said.
Her brothers stood for a moment, and she imagined some silent he-man eyeballing going on between them, before they turned to leave.
“Call if you need anything else,” Quinn said as they opened the door.
“We will,” she assured him. “Thanks again.”
She wanted to tell Joe not to pay attention to her brothers, but he was looking down at his phone. “Steele is on his way. He wants to talk.”
“Okay.” She was grateful to have the tactical team’s support, along with that of her siblings. “I’ll get the phones ready.”
“Thanks.” Joe placed the laptop on the desk, then went back to work while she activated the new phones. Fifteen minutes later, Joe’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen in satisfaction. “Good. He’s here.”
Steele was still wearing his uniform. And while he was handsome, too, with his dark hair and blue eyes, she didn’t feel the slightest flicker of attraction. Why, she asked herself silently, did she want the only man who wasn’t interested in her?
“Elly.” Steele acknowledged her with a nod.
“I hope you haven’t been working all night.” She frowned. “You need to get some sleep.”
“I slept for a few hours,” Steele assured her. Then he turned to Joe. “I spoke with Michaels about the interviews you suggested. I was able to convince Gabrielle’s and Henry’s parents to come down to the station in about an hour.”
“I’d like to participate in the interview,” Joe said. Then he glanced at her, and added, “Since the interviews are taking place at the precinct, I could bring Elly with us. She’ll be safe there.”
Steele arched his brow. “Michaels agreed to have you there, but I’m not sure how he’ll feel about bringing a civilian along.”
“I’m not some civilian, I’m the one who saw this guy, remember?” Elly stood straighter, leveling Steele with a hard look. “I’m invested in this as much as you are.”
“She’s right,” Joe said. “Besides, you know I can’t leave her here. I’m sure Michaels will get over it.”
“Fine.” Steele threw up his hands. “I’ll drive you both in my vehicle, okay?”
“Thank you.” She donned the winter coat Quinn had brought her. Maybe she didn’t know much about police work, but she was involved in this mess up to her eyeballs.
And she had a bad feeling this nightmare wouldn’t end anytime soon.
Taking Elly along with them to the police precinct probably wasn’t smart. He could have asked Colin and Quinn to come back and stay with her at the hotel.
But truthfully, he couldn’t bear to let her out of his sight.
Joe knew Steele was concerned about his ability to remain objective. And maybe his colleague had a right to be worried. When their food service had arrived, he’d almost pulled his gun on the guy.
Not cool. He needed to find a way to ignore this constant awareness he experienced with Elly and stay focused on the investigation.
“How is the tip line coming along?” Joe asked.
Steele grimaced. “Lots of calls that haven’t yet provided anything helpful. There was one guy who claimed he saw the perp getting into a pickup truck, and since we know that much already, we figure he did see our shooter. He gave us two letters off the license plate, but the list of possible matches is long since the only color option we have is a dark vehicle. We don’t dare narrow it down to a specific region.”
“I get that, but it’s a start.” He perked up at that information. “I wouldn’t mind poking around on the list. Maybe we’ll be able to match a registration to a driver’s license photo.”
“Working on that,” Steele agreed. “Can’t hurt to have another pair of eyes on the list.”
They reached the precinct without any trouble. By tacit agreement, he and Steele kept Elly between them as they headed inside.
“Hey, Delaney, Gabrielle’s parents are in interview one,” an officer called out.
“Great,” Steele said. He looked at Joe, then added, “Let’s get Elly in a cubicle.”
“I’d rather listen to the interview,” she protested.
“Afraid not,” Joe said. “I’ll let you know if we learn anything interesting.”
She didn’t look happy, but he couldn’t let that prevent him from doing his job.
He took a moment to change into his uniform, to make it official that he was on duty. Then he and Steele entered the interview room.
“Mr. and Mrs. St. John, I’m Officer Joe Kingsley, and this is Officer Steele Delaney. We are very sorry for your loss.”
“It’s been awful.” Gabrielle’s mother had clearly been crying. “We’ll do anything to help you find our Gabby’s killer.”
“Thanks, we appreciate that.” He and Steele sat across from the couple. “We need to know if your daughter had any enemies? Or maybe a jealous boyfriend?”
The parents exchanged a look. “There was one guy, Bart Shaw,” her father said. “He went off the deep end when Gabby broke up with him.”
“Can you be more specific?” Joe leaned forward. “We need to make sure he’s not involved in this.”
“Oh, he doesn’t look like that sketch on the news,” Gabby’s mother said with a sniffle. “I’m sure about that.”
“Bart called Gabby for weeks, showed up at rehearsals, and generally made a nuisance of himself,” her father said. “But after I confronted him and let him know Gabby was going to get a restraining order, he backed off.”
“Bart short for Bartholomew?” Steele asked. “Not a very common name.”
“I think he was named after his grandfather,” her mother said. “But I’m telling you, he doesn’t look anything like that sketch.”
“Okay, we appreciate the information. What about anyone else bothering your daughter?” Joe pressed. “I saw something about a rivalry between Gabrielle and Henry and another pair of skaters.”
“Oh, that’s nothing.” Gabby’s father waved a hand. “A publicity stunt dreamed up by their PR teams.”
Joe glanced at Steele, who shrugged. He turned back to Gabby’s parents. “Are you sure about that? With Gabrielle and Henry out of the competition, Alicia and Thomas White are likely to be ranked in first place.”
Gabby’s father frowned. “Anything is possible, but Gabrielle and Henry didn’t think the rivalry was anything serious. I can’t imagine Alicia and Thomas White hiring someone to kill our daughter.”
“But what if they did?” Gabby’s mother’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Rob, do you think it’s possible?”
“I don’t know.” Gabby’s father put his arm around his wife’s shoulders.
“I was the one who pushed Gabby to skate,” her mother said between sobs. “If I hadn’t, she’d still be alive . . .”
“You can’t think like that,” Gabby’s father said. He looked at Joe with tired, grieving eyes. “If the rivalry between the skaters was a big deal, Gabby didn’t let on. She downplayed it, much the way she did her breakup with Bart. She was so sweet and innocent . . .” It was his turn to break down, closing his eyes and pressing his face into Gabby’s mother’s hair.
Their overwhelming grief was tangible. He glanced at Steele who didn’t seem to have any more questions for them either.
“Thank you for your time,” Joe said. “Again, we’re very sorry for your loss.”
The older couple managed to pull themselves together long enough to leave the interview room.
Joe shook his head. “That was rough.”
“Yeah,” Steele agreed. “I doubt the interview with Henry’s parents will be much easier.”
“We need to check out Bartholomew Shaw,” Joe said. “He should be relatively easy to find.”
“On it,” Steele said in agreement. It didn’t take long for the guy’s picture to show up on the screen. “Yeah, he’s definitely not our shooter.” His buddy turned the phone so that he could see the man’s image.
The man on the screen had a round face, a small chin, and a stocky frame. “He could have hired someone.”
“Maybe,” Steele agreed. “We’ll bring him in for questioning too.”
Joe got the impression they could be there all day. Which wasn’t a bad thing, as the sooner they could weed some of these suspects out, the better.
The interview with Henry’s parents was even less enlightening. They were just as broken up as Gabby’s parents, yet clinging to hope that he might survive despite being in the ICU and listed as being in critical condition.
Bart Shaw was easy to find as well. He claimed he had nothing to do with Gabrielle’s murder or the shooting at the Christmas parade. Steele hammered him pretty hard, going over and over his alibi for the time frame in question, but the guy stuck to his guns.
Having nothing concrete, they were forced to let him go. Yet as soon as they were alone, Joe said, “We need a subpoena to dig into his financials. No way is he the shooter Elly bumped into and that I glimpsed running from the scene. But he could have hired someone.”
“Possibly,” Steele agreed. “Hard to imagine him doing that, though. Honestly, he seemed rather harmless.”
“We need to make sure.” Joe wasn’t about to take any shortcuts here. Not with a case of this magnitude. “Check with Michaels to make sure he’s on board. Hopefully, the judge won’t balk at a subpoena.”
“He won’t,” Steele said confidently.
They rose and left the interview room. He noticed Elly was sitting exactly where he’d left her, chatting with a rookie cop. He had to squash the flash of jealousy. He turned to Steele. “Do you need my help with the subpoena?”
“I’ll take care of it.” Steele nodded toward Elly. “Looks like she needs to be rescued from Alan. Give me a few minutes to get the ball rolling, then I’ll drive you both back to the hotel.”
“Thanks.” He headed toward Elly, noticing with a surge of satisfaction that he had no business feeling how her eyes lit up when she saw him. Without hesitation, she murmured something to the rookie, then stood and edged past him to meet him halfway.
“You’ve been gone a long time.” She searched his gaze. “I hope you learned something helpful.”
“We did.” He tried not to smile at how crestfallen the rookie looked at how quickly Elly left him. He cupped his hand beneath her elbow. “According to both Gabrielle’s and Henry’s parents, the rivalry thing was more of a PR stunt than anything serious.”
“Really?” She looked disappointed. “I had hoped it would lead to a possible suspect.”
“Oh, we’ll still dig a little deeper into Alicia and Thomas White, just to be certain,” he assured her.
“You didn’t learn anything else?” She looked disappointed.
“We interviewed one possible suspect, but that’s about it.” He nodded to where Steele worked away at a computer. “He’s working on a subpoena. We’re heading back to the hotel as soon as he’s finished.”
“Okay. That would be great.”
He felt guilty for making her sit there for so long. The hour was well past noon. He should have asked her brothers to stay with her rather than dragging her down to the station with them. He wondered why no one had issued a shelter in place order. Although that would be difficult to do for a city this size. Still, Elly should be sheltering in place as much as possible.
Next time, he silently promised himself.
“Kingsley?” Steele glanced over with a grin. “We got it. We should have access to the information in a couple of hours.”
“Great.” He gestured to the closet chair. “Sit tight for a minute while I change.”
“I’ll stand. I’ve been sitting enough.”
“Understood.” He hurried to the locker room to change. He would have preferred to stay here working, but it was Sunday, and he was already racking up overtime. Maybe tomorrow he’d convince Elly’s brothers to take over guard duty for a while.
Ten minutes later, he was ready. Steele glanced at him as he approached. “Are we heading out the front or the back?”
“The back,” he said. “Maybe you can drive your SUV around to meet us?”
“Sure thing.” Steele didn’t argue.
“I don’t suppose we can grab something for lunch on the way,” Elly said as she shrugged into her winter coat. “It sounds crazy, but I’m hungry.”
“We can, but you’ll have to settle for fast food,” he warned.
She wrinkled her nose but nodded. “Okay, that’s fine.”
He gave Steele two minutes to drive around back, then headed that way with Elly. He opened the door a few inches to make sure Steele was there. When he saw him, he opened the door wider. “Let’s go.”
She eased past him, taking only one step when the sharp crack of gunfire rang out.
“Elly!” He grabbed the back of her coat and dragged her back into the relative safety of the building, wondering how the shooter had known where to find them.