Joe’s kiss was far better than she’d ever imagined it would be. As his arms tightened around her, and he deepened their kiss, she reveled in the fact that he wasn’t treating her like Rhy’s baby sister now.
No, he was kissing her like a woman he wanted.
The buzzing of his phone was like an annoying wasp. Joe abruptly broke off their kiss, breathing heavily as he fumbled for the device.
“Rhy,” he said in a hoarse voice.
Of course, her brother would ruin this moment, interrupting their first—but hopefully not last—kiss. Finnegans didn’t curse, but she wanted to when Joe dropped his arms and stepped back to answer the call. He put at least three feet between them as if fearing her brother might be able to see how close they were standing.
“What’s up?” Joe asked, avoiding her gaze. His reddened cheeks made her want to smile.
“Put the call on speaker,” she said, moving closer.
“Ah, Elly wants to hear this too.” Joe looked adorably knocked off kilter as he continued backing out of the room, heading to the sofa.
“What’s this about gunfire at the precinct?” Rhy demanded. “What in the world is going on, Kingsley?”
“Steele and I were interviewing the parents of the ice skaters because we learned of a rivalry between those who were shot and another pair of skaters,” Joe explained. “I was taking Elly outside through the back after we’d finished when the shot rang out. She’s fine, no one was hurt.”
“Did you find him?” Rhy sounded extremely frustrated.
“Not yet.” Joe kept his gaze on the phone as if unable or unwilling to meet her gaze. “Steele and several other cops ran out to search the area but didn’t come up with anything. Steele paid extra attention to the trees across the street since we know he used a tree to shoot at the American Lodge but didn’t find anything. There is a row of houses that are directly across the street from the back side of the police station. They canvassed the area, but you know how that neighborhood is, Captain. The residents rarely cooperate with the police. No one admitted to seeing anything.”
“I can’t believe this guy had the gall to stake out a police station,” Rhy muttered harshly. “That took some nerve.”
“I know, but I’m fine,” Elly said. “Steele left to check out an abandoned truck a few blocks from the scene.”
“Oh yeah?” Her brother’s tone didn’t sound encouraging. “That may not mean much in that neighborhood either.”
“One witness came forward, saying a guy matching the description of Elly’s sketch got out of the truck,” Joe explained. “The vehicle will be processed ASAP. We can only hope the guy left some trace evidence behind.”
“I think we’ll all pray for that,” Rhy agreed. “I don’t like the way this guy keeps coming after Elly.”
“I’m wearing a bullet-resistant vest that Joe gave me from the precinct,” she said, before Joe could respond. “I promise he’s doing a good job of keeping me safe, Rhy.”
“I know, I know.” She could understand Rhy’s frustration. “I just don’t get this guy’s motives. I mean, shooting up the parade to get attention is one thing. Continuing to stalk and kill a witness is highly unusual.”
“We’re going to find him,” Joe said. “He’s made a few mistakes already; he’ll continue to make more. And we have Brady working with his tech guru on some AI software that will take Elly’s sketch and create a three-dimensional image to put through the bureau’s facial recognition program. We’ll find him,” Joe repeated. “Count on it.”
“I’m counting on you keeping Elly safe and on the rest of the team finding this perp,” Rhy said with a sigh. “I’m glad you’ve gotten Brady involved. We need all hands on deck for this.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Joe said.
“I spoke with Eloise, Kyle’s wife. She’s pretty broken up over his death. She’s in the anger phase of her grief, yelling at me to do something to find her husband’s killer.”
She winced. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Part of the job,” Rhy said. “I didn’t take her anger personally. All I could do was reassure her we were doing everything possible to find the perp.”
“Do you think some of the team members should stop out to check on her?” Joe asked.
“I offered that,” Rhy said. “But she told me she didn’t want to see anyone from the tactical team until the guy was either dead or in custody.”
There was a long silence as they digested that bit of information. Joe still hadn’t met her gaze, which irked her. They were two adults who’d shared a kiss. There was nothing wrong with that.
“Need anything else?” Joe asked.
“No.” Now Rhy sounded tired. In the background, they could hear Colleen crying.
“Take care of your family, Rhy,” Elly said. “Don’t worry about us.”
“I will. Keep me in the loop,” Rhy added, before ending the call.
Joe abruptly shot off the sofa, putting even more distance between them. She frowned, not liking his abrupt about-face. “I—uh, should apologize.”
“For me, kissing you?” She arched a brow. “Not necessary. I enjoyed every moment.”
Her blunt statement caught him off guard. Then he turned and scooped the laptop off the sofa. “Let me check the video. If I see someone who looks like our perp, I’ll let you know.”
She sighed as he returned to the table with the computer. Clearly, he regretted their kiss. Which was depressing since she didn’t.
This probably wasn’t the best time to talk about it, especially having just finished speaking to Rhy. Yet she cherished their all-too-brief embrace.
Maybe one day, when this nightmare was over, she could talk to Joe about the possibility of seeing him again. Not related to work.
“Elly?” She glanced over when he called her name. “Check this out.”
She didn’t need to be asked twice. She hurried over and pulled up a chair to sit beside him. He clicked play to unfreeze the section of video he had up on the screen.
The video wasn’t great, but she caught a brief glimpse of the shooter’s face seconds before he merged into the crowd. “That’s him,” she said with certainty. “Can you pick him up in another part of the video?”
“Let’s see.” Joe shut down that video and picked up the next one. She realized each video was from a different camera.
It wasn’t easy to sit there, watching how people ran every which way. There was no sound, but she could tell by the open mouths of several parade attendees that they were screaming.
“This isn’t the right angle,” she said. “He’s already gone by now.”
“Okay, I’ll try another.” Joe clicked on the next video. This was from a camera mounted at a busy intersection. When a dark pickup truck drove through the intersection, Joe hit the stop button. “Do you think this could be him?”
She waited as he backed up the video and ran it again, slower. The truck rolled slowly past, but while she could see there was a dark shadow of a driver behind the wheel, it was impossible to identify him as the shooter.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “What about the license plate?”
“Let’s see.” Joe manipulated the video again and was able to capture the license plate. “Looks like this matches the truck found near the precinct.”
She nodded. “Call it in to Steele.”
Joe did so but was forced to leave a message. She sat back in her seat, doing her best not to let the images of the chaos on the screen get to her.
“I hope Kyle’s wife never has to see this,” she said in a low voice. Then she turned toward Joe. “When I saw him lying in the street, bleeding, I had a horrible moment when I thought he was you.”
Joe’s blue eyes darkened. He was close enough to kiss, but she managed to refrain. They still had work to do. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“We all went through it.” She forced a smile, remembering her overwhelming relief at discovering Joe wasn’t injured.
Then she frowned. What had Kyle said when he looked up at her? He’d called her name, Elly. Then he tried to say something more but only managed to say the beginning of her name, El. She’d thought he was still referring to her, but now she couldn’t help but wonder if Kyle had been trying to say his wife’s name. Eloise.
Sadly, she wished he had been able to give his wife a message. Maybe one last declaration of love. It might have helped ease her pain and anger just a bit.
Unfortunately, whatever Kyle had wanted to say died with him.
“Wait, did you say Kyle said your name?” Joe asked. This was the first he’d heard of Kyle saying anything after being shot.
“Yes. He recognized me.” Elly’s expression was one of grief. “I felt so bad for him, Joe. I tried to reassure him that I’d take care of him, but he was bleeding so much. There wasn’t anything I could do.”
“Try to remember the lives you saved, Elly, rather than those you couldn’t.” Easy to say, he knew, but not as easy to believe. “This perp shot ten people in cold blood. There’s nothing either of us could have done to prevent that.”
“I know.” She shook her head and sighed. “I just feel bad for his wife, that’s all.”
Joe forced himself to tear his gaze from hers. Having her sitting this close where he could still breathe in her enticing scent made it extremely difficult to resist the temptation to kiss her again. Especially after the way she’d basically told him she had no regrets over their embrace. He had not anticipated the way her kiss had rocked him back on his heels.
Okay, if he were honest, he didn’t regret their kiss either. Well, except for the thought of Rhy finding out about it. Just the idea of his boss walking in on them was enough to cool his desire.
Elly was an adult, almost twenty-five years old. But Joe knew full well that making a pass at Rhy’s little sister was a sure way to get fired.
And pummeled by Rhy’s fists.
Steele was right about not getting emotionally involved. Cool professionalism was the best way to keep Elly safe.
Unfortunately, it was too late. He already was emotionally involved, despite his best efforts to keep her at arm’s length.
His phone rang, startling him. Glancing down at the screen, he saw Steele’s name. Clearing his throat, he answered. “What did you find in the truck?”
“It’s been wiped clean, which is suspicious. There is a little mud in the back of the truck bed, though, so the lab is going to test the sample to see if there’s a way to match it to the area near the parade.”
Noticing how Elly leaned closer to hear, he lowered the phone and placed the call on speaker. “Matching the soil sample seems a stretch,” he said. “But what about the license plate? Elly and I found a shot of the truck’s license plate. I left that information for you in a voice mail.”
“Yeah, I heard the message, but it’s not a match to this truck. Did you get a good look at the driver? Did he look like our guy?”
“No, I couldn’t identify him,” Elly said. “So you’re saying the truck we found was likely someone else, not the shooter.”
“I don’t know, we’re running the plate number you gave us. Hang on a minute,” Steele said. Joe heard muffled sounds of talking in the background, then he came back on the line. “Okay, we got a hit. The license plate you gave us was for a black Chevy truck that was reported stolen.”
Joe couldn’t say he was surprised. This guy had clearly planned to go on this shooting rampage, and stealing a truck would make it that much harder to track him down.
“The abandoned truck was also stolen,” Steele continued. “It belongs to an older gentleman by the name of Fred Kettle. Grayson is there now. Hang on, he’s texting me.” There was another pause before Steele continued. “Okay, the guy’s truck is in his driveway, and the license matches the plate number you gave us.”
Swapping license plates was a criminal trick as old as time. “That proves the truck found near the precinct was used by the shooter.” Joe smiled with satisfaction. “He changed license plates to slow us down.”
“That’s affirmative,” Steele agreed. “I’m not sure why he left the vehicle behind, unless he figured it was easier to disappear on foot. Unfortunately, he didn’t leave behind any other evidence as far as we can tell. We’ll have the crime scene techs go over it in more detail, but I’m not expecting much. I’m sure he was wearing gloves. Maybe even a hat to limit the possibility of leaving hair behind.”
“Yeah, okay.” Finding the abandoned truck wasn’t as helpful as he’d hoped, but having even this small piece of the puzzle helped. The big picture would emerge sooner or later. “We know he stole a truck, changed license plates, and then abandoned it. Can we check the street cameras to see if this guy got into another car?”
“That’s being done, so far there’s only a grainy image of a guy wearing a ski mask running away from the abandoned truck,” Steele said. “No way to get facial recognition from the image.”
“I wonder why he didn’t wear the ski mask at the parade?” Elly said with a frown.
“He may have had one but didn’t want to use it right away.” Joe shrugged. “He likely believed he blended into the crowd better without it.”
“Maybe,” Steele said. “But he wasn’t banking on Elly’s keen instincts in recognizing a bad guy when she saw one.”
The admiration in Steele’s tone grated on his nerves. Which was probably why Steele had made the comment in the first place. Just another way of reminding Joe to keep his head screwed on straight.
“I bumped into him,” Elly said modestly. “Only because I was admiring the Christmas lights. I was polite, but he looked angry.”
“And that was another mistake,” Joe said. “He should have smiled and moved on, but instead, he didn’t bother to hide the evil in his heart.”
“Did you find anything else on the video?” Steele asked.
“Nothing helpful,” Joe said.
“We’re still waiting to hear from Brady,” Elly added. “I know they’re busy with a missing kid, but I’m sure they’ll get my sketch created into something that can be used by their facial recognition system soon.”
“Yeah, okay. We’re still checking a few things here,” Steele said. “I’ll let you know if we find anything more.”
“Thanks. We’ll talk more later.” Joe disconnected from the call. It bothered him to be sitting here with Elly rather than out on the street working the case.
All because Rhy had asked him to take care of his baby sister. And what had he done with that trust? Crossed the line by kissing her as if there was no tomorrow.
“I was hoping for more.” Elly sighed. “It seems like progress is going slower than normal.”
Joe had the same frustration. Especially in a case this big. “There’s a lot being done, but this guy was smart enough to cover his trail.”
“I know.” She turned back toward the computer. “Should we keep going?”
“Sure.” He swallowed hard and brought up the next video.
It was slow, painstaking work, but it had to be done.
“I need a break,” Elly said. She abruptly stood and moved into the living area, dragging her fingers through her hair.
He felt guilty all over again for putting her through this. “I’ll keep searching for evidence,” he said. “You should relax for a bit. Try to take your mind off this.”
“Impossible,” she said on a sigh.
As much as he wanted to go over and offer comfort, he forced himself to stay put, not moving an inch. Comforting Elly was what had gotten him into trouble earlier.
He knew better than to make the same mistake twice in a matter of hours.
Yet he was hyperaware of how she paced the room, tugging on the uncomfortable borrowed bullet-resistant vest. There was a lot of video footage to get through, so he did his best to stay focused.
But after another hour, his vision blurred, fatigue catching up with him. He stood and stretched, blinking to clear his vision. He belatedly realized darkness had fallen outside. No wonder his eyes were burning.
He switched on a light, surprised to find Elly curled in the corner of the sofa, staring out at nothing. When the light came on, she pushed the blanket aside and stood.
“Hey, you’re not wearing your vest.” He crossed over to pick it up from the other end of the couch.
“Do you expect me to sleep in it?” She sounded cranky. Then she came toward him to take it from him. “Fine, I’ll put it back on. But I’m not wearing it to bed.”
“That’s fine.” He had already checked out her room, there was nothing across the street from her bedroom window that could be used as a nest for the shooter. And that was if he even knew about this place, which Joe was pretty sure he didn’t. When he saw her struggling to get the vest on, he stepped forward. “Let me help.”
“I don’t know how you guys wear this every day,” she groused. “It’s hot, heavy, and extremely uncomfortable.”
“You get used to it.” For him, it was part of his uniform. For Elly, it wasn’t. When he’d secured her vest, he took a step back. “Are you hungry? We can order dinner.”
“I guess.” She sighed, then added, “Yes, we should eat. I think we need to be ready if there’s a break in the case.”
After what happened down at the precinct, he wasn’t taking her along with him anytime soon. But there was no point in starting an argument. He wasn’t all that hungry either, but it would give them something to do. “Why don’t you check the menu? I’m sure you can find something good.”
She crossed to the desk and examined the limited room service menu. “I’ll have the grilled chicken sandwich.”
“Okay, I’ll have the same.”
The room seemed smaller somehow. The glow of the lamp made it more intimate. He kept his distance, walking off the stiffness from sitting so long.
When Elly had finished placing the order, she turned to face him. “Food will arrive in thirty to forty minutes.”
He nodded. “I should keep working, then.”
“I really thought we’d hear from Brady by now,” she murmured. “I had high hopes for the facial recognition idea.”
“He’ll get to it.” Joe shared her impatience, but the fact that the shooter was on the loose but hadn’t taken out any other innocent targets—other than attempting to shoot Elly—had caused the news anchors to move on to the next crisis.
The last time he’d checked the news feed on his computer, the media was still interviewing victims of the parade shooting and putting out notices about the missing kid that Brady was searching for.
He couldn’t help but wonder if their perp was watching the crying victims being interviewed on camera.
What was this guy’s motive? The way this had unfolded still nagged at him.
Returning to the computer, he picked up where he left off with the camera video. There were only three more videos to review. Which was good and bad.
They desperately needed a lead.
“I’m not sure what you think you’re going to find,” Elly said, coming over to sit beside him. “Look at those cars. With the glare from the Christmas lights, it’s impossible to make out people’s faces.”
He shrugged. “Won’t know that for sure until I check them all.”
She fell silent but continued to watch the videos with him.
A knock at the door startled them both. He rose and checked the peephole before opening the door. He took the tray, dug some cash from his pocket, and handed it over. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” The server pocketed the tip and quickly left.
Their meals arrived in a timely manner, making him wonder if the hotel wasn’t very busy. Which was odd since it was a week before Christmas.
A Sunday, though, so weekend visitors had likely already checked out.
“I’d like to say grace,” Elly said. Since he was used to her doing so, he nodded and allowed her to take his hand. “Dear Lord, we are humbled by Your gift of this food. And we ask that You continue to keep those searching for this evil man safe in Your care. Amen.”
“Amen,” Joe echoed. But he found himself silently adding another prayer of his own.
Lord, keep Elly safe too.
He hadn’t prayed in a long time but oddly felt better afterward. As they dug into their respective sandwiches, he silently acknowledged that he cared about Elly.
Far more than as a friend. Or Rhy’s younger sister.
“You know,” Elly said, breaking into his thoughts. “I was thinking about that mud Steele mentioned on the back of the truck.”
He glanced at her. “Don’t get your hopes up, Elly. The chances of matching it to anything in the area of downtown Milwaukee are slim to none.”
“No, not that.” She looked thoughtful. “When I saw the shooter standing behind you and shouted at you to get down, he looked larger than life.”
He nodded, remembering those seconds all too well. “Yes, I thought he looked as if he were standing up on something. But the truck?” He saw the connection she was making. “How could he have gotten the truck so close to the parade route?”
“I wish we could go back and walk the area again,” Elly said. “I’m sure he was standing inside the truck bed. That’s why he had such a clear view of the parade.”
He reached across his sandwich to bring up the map application on the computer. He typed in the closest intersection to the parade route, then zoomed in on the screen. Elly leaned close too.
“There!” Her voice lit up with excitement. “See that strip mall? I wonder if he had the truck parked there earlier.”
He had to admit she had a point. “You’re thinking he left the truck there, then came back to use it as a pedestal from which to shoot.”
“Yes. Because I was standing near here.” She pointed to another spot on the map. “This is close to the location where I bumped into him.” Her gaze met his. “And when he turned to leave, he walked away from the parade. Not toward it, but away.”
To the truck. Joe could easily see that in his mind. But even knowing where the guy was standing didn’t help much.
They were still no closer to finding him.