Kendall didn’t like the look on Cord’s face. She didn’t know what he was thinking, but he seemed determined about something, and with his focus fixed on her, she thought it must have to do with her. Maybe he was still freaked out about the potential for the intruder to return. Her dad and Cord had mentioned it. They were both excellent lawmen, and if they were worried, maybe she should be, too. Maybe worried wasn’t the word, but she should take care and keep an eye on her surroundings.
“I’ll take a look around to see if I can spot anything missing,” he said.
Kendall stood. “Unless there’s something else you want to mention, I’ll get started on dismantling the computer, and we’ll go from there.”
“We’re good, and before you ask, I’ll be sure to tell you if I think of anything else.” He got up, too. “Good job.”
“Say what?”
“Your interview. It was thorough. Nice job.”
A hint of satisfaction warmed her heart, but she washed it away before she let herself soften toward him. She headed for the living room and snapped on the light.
“Whoa,” she said when she caught sight of contents from the built-in bookshelf strewn across the floor—books, knickknacks, picture frames and baskets. “Seems like our intruder was looking for something.”
Cord’s eyes clouded with anger. “Or he did this to disguise his real purpose and make it look like a burglary.”
She gestured across the room. “The shelves are dusty enough that we could try to put things back where they were. That way we can see if something is missing.”
“Good idea.” He stepped toward the wall.
“Tessa needs to take photos first,” Kendall warned.
“Right.” He shook his head. “I need to forget I’m at my aunt’s house and remember it’s a crime scene. I’ll get Tessa to take the pictures. You start on the computer.”
He was taking charge. Telling her what to do. In this instance it wasn’t a big deal and not a battle worth fighting. Plus she did want to get the computer ready for Tessa to take back to the lab so Kendall could get started on the image first thing in the morning. Or even tonight, if she could convince Tessa to take the computer to the lab.
She crossed the room to the computer and sat in an antique ladder-back chair. As Kendall bent forward to grab her tote bag, her head felt like an elephant had raised a massive leg and kicked her. The aspirin hadn’t touched the pain at all.
She wanted nothing more than to go home, curl up in her bed and sleep it off, but she wouldn’t miss even a second of her first investigation. Couldn’t miss it. If her brother Matt was in her situation, he wouldn’t run home to bed. She had to be as strong as him and couldn’t let her dad think she was weak at all. She’d worked hard for this job, where she could make a vital difference, and she wasn’t going to jeopardize her career over a bad headache.
She heard Tessa come into the room and saw the camera flash several times, but Kendall focused on her own work. She photographed and sketched all wires and cables connected to the machine. After snapping on latex gloves, she labeled everything and then photographed it all with the labels attached. Next, she removed the power-supply cord from the back of the computer and from the wall outlet. Lastly she disconnected everything, bagged the cords and set them aside for Tessa.
Hopefully, all of this was overkill, but unless they discovered that the blood wasn’t Eve’s and she was staying with friends, they had to assume something terrible had happened to her.
Finished, Kendall swiveled to find Tessa had left the room and Cord was bending to retrieve items to place them in their matchings spots on the shelf. Her shock at seeing him had worn off, and she had to admit she was still utterly attracted to him. Most women were, she imagined, what with his thick head of hair, perfectly proportioned face and muscular build—not to mention his large blue eyes with crazy-long lashes. She could so easily be led astray by those eyes, and the few men she’d casually dated since then never had the same impact on her. Not that she dated often. Her career came first and she just didn’t have the time for a relationship.
She sighed out a low breath to prevent him from hearing her and inhaled deeply for good measure before speaking. “Did your aunt ever go hiking or walking?”
He turned his focus on her, and yeah, those eyes dug deep as usual. “She wasn’t an outdoorsy person. They bought the ten acres for Ollie. He was a big hunter and fisherman. She was actually talking about selling it and moving into town.”
Kendall jotted that in her notebook. She wouldn’t forget it, but she had to look away from Cord, and that seemed to be the easiest way without alerting him to her discomfort.
“You think that’s important?” he asked.
“Not at this point, but you never know, right?”
“Right.”
“How about her memory?” Kendall asked without looking up. “Was she experiencing any memory issues? Maybe could’ve wandered off and might not be able to get back home?”
“No. She was still very sharp.”
Kendall wished they had more to go on, but what?
She got up and strolled around the room, her focus landing on a lipstick tube poking out from under a chair. She glanced behind the chair. Eve’s purse lay on the floor, the contents dumped out.
Kendall’s stomach dropped the way it did when she hit the bottom of a roller coaster ride. “You’ll want to see this, Cord.”
He joined her, brushing her shoulder and peering over the back of the chair. “That’s not good. Not good at all. Eve might’ve dropped her purse and it spilled out, but odds aren’t good it would happen behind a chair.”
Kendall gestured at the contents on top of the bag. “Looks like the guy dumped it out on the floor, then kicked the items under the chair and tossed the purse behind it.”
“Tessa, can you come take some pictures so we can move a chair?” Kendall called out and instantly regretted it when her head pulsed in searing pain from her injury.
“Be right there,” her sister replied.
Cord stretched to bend over the chair. “Eve’s keys are here, too.”
“Odd,” Tessa said. “The place was locked up tight.”
“Maybe her house key isn’t on the ring.”
“Maybe,” Tessa said. “But if her car key is there, we can check out her vehicle.”
Tessa entered the room. “Which chair?”
Kendall stepped back and explained their theory.
“I’ll take the pictures, then you two can lift off the chair and I’ll shoot the items.” Tessa moved to the other side of the chair, and her bootie-covered feet whispered over the floor. She placed numbered evidence markers near the chair and the lipstick.
As she snapped pictures, Cord went back to putting items on the shelf.
“Ready for you to move the chair,” Tessa called over her shoulder.
Without speaking, she and Cord carefully lifted it to keep from disturbing evidence.
“Eve’s wallet is here,” Tessa said as she focused her camera. “Cell phone, too.”
Kendall would love to look at the phone. “Hopefully the phone is unlocked.”
Cord looked up. “Eve didn’t have a password when I set it up for her a few years ago, but things change.”
Tessa snapped picture after picture until she stood back and studied the scene. “Okay, that’ll do it. You can look at these things, but be careful. I don’t want any smudged prints.”
Cord seemed offended that Tessa was lecturing an experienced detective on evidence preservation, but she was like Kendall when it came to her job. They both played by the rules.
Kendall grabbed a Faraday bag from her supplies and bent to retrieve the phone. The multilayered conductive mesh bag was coated in a rip-stop nylon and prevented any phone stored inside from being externally accessed and altered.
Cord picked up Eve’s wallet and flipped it open. “Fifty bucks in cash and one credit card. I doubt she had more than one. But we can confirm that when we go to the bank tomorrow.”
He drew his eyebrows together and let out a long breath. “Where could she be?”
Without thinking, Kendall took his hand. She wished she wasn’t wearing latex gloves and could feel the warmth of his skin, but this way was probably better. “We’ll find her, Cord.”
“Yeah, I know, but in what condition?” His voice broke, and his gaze darted around like he was a wounded animal seeking help.
She couldn’t stand to see his anguish and reacted automatically to reach up and hug him close. He didn’t let even a moment pass before he circled his arms around her back and drew her closer. She inhaled his musky scent, that hadn’t changed, and her heart remembered how much she had once cared about him. Familiar yet foreign emotions crashed through her body as she warred with how to handle the surprise feelings.
Did she pull away and let him see how he could still get to her? Or hang in there for a moment to provide the comfort he so obviously needed?
He’d had such a rough time of late. Losing his family. Becoming a dad unexpectedly. Now this, with Eve. How could Kendall pull away and leave him to grieve alone? She rested her head against his shoulder and listened to his heart beat soundly under her ear.
This is just platonic compassion I’m feeling, she told herself. Just because she’d broken up with him didn’t mean she didn’t still care about him and didn’t wish things had been different between them.
Right.
She’d been in his company for only a few hours. He’d already proved he hadn’t changed, and she was struggling to fight her interest in him. It didn’t help when he had his powerful arms wrapped around her. If she wanted to find his aunt, she had to think with her head, not her heart.
She pushed against his chest and stepped free. “Sorry. That probably wasn’t such a good idea. But I wanted you to know that I care about what you’re going through, and I’ll do my best to find Eve.”
He didn’t shift his focus. Not a fraction. “Maybe just tell me that in the future.”
“You’re right.” Of course he was. Why couldn’t she be so level-headed about him?
Her cousin Seth McKade stepped through the front door, and she was thankful for the distraction. He was tall and muscular, with blond hair that was cut short on the sides. He didn’t resemble the McKade side of the family but took after his mother, her aunt Isabel.
Seth had joined the force after Cord had moved, so Kendall introduced the pair. They shook hands and eyed each other up like most law enforcement officers would when first meeting.
Seth shifted to face her. “The search didn’t turn anything up. And Radar didn’t pick up a scent.”
“Seth’s a K-9 deputy for one of our tracking K-9 teams,” Kendall told Cord. “Radar’s his dog.”
“The rest of the team will do another search in daylight,” Seth continued. “But I trust Radar’s nose and can say without doubt that your aunt isn’t on the property.”
Cord gave a clipped nod, his emotions clearly locked down tight, and Kendall couldn’t begin to tell what he was feeling, leaving her frustrated.
Seth looked at Kendall again. “I just reported that to the sheriff, and he’ll be heading up the morning search.”
Kendall found it odd that Seth referred to her dad as the sheriff when he usually called him Uncle Walt, but maybe he was putting on a show for Cord.
“Thanks, Seth,” she said. “How’s your mom doing?”
He frowned. “Wish I had good news to report, but her latest round of chemo really knocked her out.”
Kendall squeezed his hand. “Tell her I’m praying for her, okay?”
He swallowed hard and nodded. “Catch you later.”
Kendall watched Seth leave, her heart filled with anguish for him. She wished she could do something for her aunt Isabel. Oh, how she wished she could. Isabel had been struggling with breast cancer treatments for months now. They didn’t catch it until she was stage four, and the prognosis wasn’t good. It hurt like crazy to see her suffer. To see the family so worried and in emotional pain.
It did help her understand Cord’s situation a bit. Losing his whole family? She couldn’t even imagine the anguish and wanted to offer comfort again. She shoved her hands in her pockets instead. Of course, Cord was watching and tilted his head in question. No way would she share any personal feelings, so she waited him out.
“I finished the bookshelf,” he finally said. “Looks like the missing item has a round base.”
Kendall crossed the room to look at the large circular spot on a middle shelf. “Something pretty large. Maybe a big vase.”
“I don’t remember what was there.” Cord clasped his hands together and stared at the wall. “How many times have I been here, and I can’t remember? Eve’s counting on me to help her. To find her. I’ve got to do better.”
“We’ll find her. I promise.”
“You can’t make a promise like that.”
She couldn’t but she was reaching for anything to help reduce his anxiety. She bent to grab Eve’s car keys. “Ready to check out the car?”
He nodded, but it was wooden, his eyes glazed.
She forced herself to leave his pain alone and led the way outside. The temperature had dropped a few degrees, but oppressive humidity still saturated the air. The kind of humidity that dampened her clothing the minute she stepped into it.
She unlocked the front car door and clicked the other locks open. She leaned in the driver’s side, Cord the passenger side.
“Your aunt keeps a clean car,” Kendall said, thinking about the candy-bar and fast-food wrappers that often littered her personal vehicle.
Cord looked up at her, and his lips quirked up. “Something I’m sure you can appreciate.”
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly at his teasing and was thankful he was able to find a bit of humor. They worked together to check the glove compartment and under the seats but located nothing of interest.
Kendall glanced at the dash and frowned. “No GPS. Means we can’t track her recent trips.”
“Car’s too old.”
“Then all that’s left is the trunk.” Kendall backed out of the car and unlocked the trunk. She was almost afraid to lift the lid, but she held her breath and tugged.
Other than the customary spare tire and jack, she found only a reusable cloth grocery bag sitting in the back. She pulled on a handle to drag it closer. The bag tipped over and the contents spilled out.
Kendall’s mouth dropped open.
“What in the world?” Cord asked.
Shock traveled through Kendall, and she gaped at the one-hundred-dollar bills rubber banded in neat packs and lying on the carpet. “This is so bizarre. I wonder if this is what the intruder was looking for.”
“Likely, but what in the world was my aunt Eve doing with so much cash?” Cord opened the bag that still contained stacks of money.
Kendall kept her focus on the pile. Where did this much money come from? Just where? And how could Cord be so calm after this discovery?
He quickly calculated the value. “There’s got to be like ten thousand dollars here.”
What on earth was Eve doing with this money in her car? Just what? “Maybe Eve didn’t trust the banks.”
Cord met her gaze. “If so, she never said anything about it.”
“You said she was of sound mind, so we can rule out senility.”
He nodded. “If this wasn’t my aunt’s car, my experience would have me leaning toward drugs or blackmail.”
“Then what?” She could hardly think with ten grand in cash sitting there. “Drugs seems out of the realm of possibilities, but not blackmail.”
He shook his head and narrowed his eyes. “Who would want to blackmail her?”
“That’s what we’ll need to figure out.” Kendall forced her brain into action. “I’ll get Tessa to photograph the money.”
While Tessa photographed the money, Kendall tried to come to grips with the discovery. There really weren’t any other scenarios that made sense as to why an older woman like Eve would have a pile of cash in her trunk.
Tessa hung her camera around her neck and stepped back. “Let’s get this inside and inventory it.”
Kendall loaded the money back into the bag and carried it inside to stack the bills on the dining room table. Cord counted the number of bills in a single pack and then the packs.
“I was right,” he said, sounding baffled. “Ten grand. I don’t get it. Not at all.”
Kendall shook her head in disbelief. “Ten grand. That’s just crazy. We have to figure out where it came from. Maybe we can ask about tracing the bills when we visit the bank.”
Cord nodded, his eyes narrowed. “This is getting really bizarre.”
“Beyond bizarre,” she replied, still gawking at the cash. “Maybe when we finish our search of the house we’ll find an explanation.”
She eagerly began looking, hoping with each door, each drawer she opened, that she would find a clue to the mystery money. But they spent the next two hours going through closets, drawers, a storage shed and garage, but located nothing. Zip. Nada.
She wished she could solve the mystery, but she was unable to do anything else here tonight. She’d head to the ER and spend the drive trying to come up with a plausible explanation. She left Tessa in charge of the scene and started for the door.
She stopped next to Cord. “I can’t explain the cash, but there’s nothing left to do here tonight. You should head out, too.”
“You’re not planning to start that imaging tonight, are you?” he asked, ignoring her comment. “You need your rest.”
“Not likely.”
“And you’re going to stop at the ER now, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll come with you. Your dad—”
“Doesn’t know when he’s overstepping.” She grabbed a stack of file folders from Eve’s desk that she planned to review before she saw Cord again.
“I’ll see you in the morning, then,” he said, giving up far easier than she expected.
She started to nod, but her head still hurt too much. “See you then.”
Stunned at tonight’s turn of events, she got her car on the road. She’d been knocked unconscious, caught her first case as an interim detective and saw Cord again. What a crazy, crazy night.
How was she going to spend time with him while looking for Eve when he was still pushy? Still large and in charge.
She glanced in the rearview mirror, checking to see if he followed her. She wouldn’t put it past him to want to make her dad happy by ensuring she went to the hospital.
In a long sigh, Kendall let out her frustration with her father. Her job was everything to her. Everything. She’d given up so much to become a detective—relationships, fun, entertainment—and he could potentially deny her the career she’d always wanted. She was probably putting too much importance on the job, but it was the only thing in her life besides her family. She wasn’t feeling sorry for herself regarding the sacrifices she’d made. She purposely worked long hours to get this detective job. Now that she was this close to reaching her goal, she would do what it took to get it. Even working with a splitting headache. Or working with Cord, the man she’d once thought could be the one.
Hah! Like that would have happened.
Her thoughts went to her siblings. They’d all blossomed since they’d found their life partners in the last two years. But she was happy, too, and didn’t need a man to find contentment. Sure, she wasn’t giddy in love like the others, but she didn’t need that. Not having it did make her feel a bit like an outsider in her close-knit family, though, and a target for everyone, especially her mother and grandmother, as they kept trying to set her up with one guy or another.
She sighed again and stifled a yawn. The tension and being clobbered on the head had taken everything she had. It would be hard to get out of bed in the morning, but she’d find a way. She wouldn’t miss out on her first investigative case.
The cash came to mind as she eased to a stop at a four-way intersection and yawned again, careful not to fall asleep on the rest of her drive. Pressing on the gas pedal, she entered the intersection. Suddenly, the sound of air brakes on a large grain truck approaching from her passenger side caught her attention. She waited for the truck to stop at the sign, but it kept coming. Not racing. Just a steady clip.
Fear skated through her body. She had to move. Now!
She pressed harder on the gas. Not fast enough.
The big chrome bumper loomed large in her window and rammed into her passenger side. A sharp jolt shifted her body. Metal ground on metal as the driver kept his rig moving forward. She stomped on her brakes, but her car slid across the road like a toy car in the hands of a toddler. The big rig pushed her up against a tree and pinned her car and door against the tree.
Her shoulder ached from the impact, and her heart raced as she tried to grasp the situation. She looked around for an escape but she was trapped by the tree on one side and the truck on the other.
This wasn’t accidental. At least she didn’t think so. Not when the truck had sped up instead of trying to stop. This driver wanted to put her here. But why?
She reached for her gun. Before she could pull it from the holster, a man was out of the truck and over to the tree, pointing a gun of his own at her window. He motioned for her to lower it.
What was going on? Was this a carjacking?
Panic taking hold, she reached for her radio to call for help, but he tapped his gun against the glass.
“Don’t do it.” His voice came through the closed window, sending fear racing through her body. He rapped on the glass again. “Now open it.”
What if she refused? Would he shoot her? Kill her?
Her pulse pounded in her head, jumbling her thoughts.
Think, Kendall. Think.
She couldn’t risk her life over a carjacking. She had to press the button. The glass whirred down. She held her breath and prepared herself for the worse.
The guy poked his weapon inside and leaned down.
She met his gaze, stifled a gasp and lurched back. It was the man who’d whacked her with the rolling pin. Here now. In front of her.
“You.” She kept her gaze trained on him, noting his burly build, his swarthy coloring and pure black hair, along with eyes the color of coal, so she could report him if he got away.
“Yeah, me.” He chuckled but it was ugly and guttural. “Just wanted to say if you planned to have one of those sketches made of me and put out there for everyone and their brother to call in, you won’t live to take the first call.”
Just like her dad said. He was worried someone would recognize him or give the sheriff’s department his name. Good. He needed to be worried.
She needed to be worried, too. He could change his mind and kill her now instead of just threatening her, but she couldn’t let him see her fear. She had to remain strong as she’d been taught.
“I won’t be threatened by you,” she said, but it didn’t come out sounding as brave as she’d intended.
He leaned closer, and the heated anger in his eyes burned into her face. He pressed the barrel of his weapon against her chest as a slow, snide smile crept across his face. He held her gaze.
Her heart raced, pounding so hard she thought it might escape her chest, but she wouldn’t back down and look away.
“If you report me,” he said, his tone menacing and making her breath catch, “consider that lump on your forehead as a down payment for the next time we meet. If that happens, you won’t get off so easy.”