Callum stepped around an overturned table in the massive, two-story foyer, sweeping his pistol left and right. Gray-and-white marbled floors were probably the fashion star of the entire home. But they were currently littered with broken dishes and glasses, shredded pillows, and decorative tables and chairs either knocked over or splintered into kindling. Whoever had trashed her house wasn’t in it for robbery. Or if they were, it was an afterthought. They’d come prepared to do damage. What he needed to find out was whether they were still here, and whether they were armed.
In spite of the cavernous feel of the entryway and main room beyond it, which also sported a two-story ceiling, the first floor didn’t boast many rooms, at least, not separate ones. Open concept, he thought he’d heard it called. He could see foyer to main room to the backyard, and kitchen and dining areas by standing in one spot and turning around. No one was there. Which meant they were either in the back hall underneath the curved, sweeping staircase, on the second floor or long gone.
He was hoping they were still here. Because he really wanted to wring their neck. Raine didn’t need this kind of stress or fear lumped on top of everything else she was going through right now.
Trying to avoid crunching any of the glass beneath his shoes, he quietly made his way under the stairs. A handful of doors opened off the little hall back there. One by one, he threw them open and aimed his pistol inside. Empty, all of them. These rooms—an office, two guest bedrooms and a bathroom—had been spared the vandalism done to the other areas.
A thump sounded overhead.
Callum smiled. The jerk was still here. He eased back to the foyer, then rushed around the bottom of the stairs, aiming his gun toward the landing at the top. Clear. No one there, or at least, not where he could see them.
Ever so slowly and carefully, he crept up the shiny marble stairs toward the second floor. As soon as he reached the top, another thump sounded, off to his right. There were a ridiculous number of doors off the wide landing. And a skylight overhead allowed the waning sunlight to keep the shadows at bay. Aside from a couple of overstuffed chairs and one low side table, there weren’t any hiding places on the landing. The perp had to be in one of the rooms, if they even realized Callum was here.
There were three doors to check close to where he’d heard the last sound. He stood frozen in place, barely breathing as he tried not to make any noise that would alert his prey. When another minute ticked by without anything, he figured the game was up. The person he was after must have realized someone was here and was trying to be quiet now too.
He aimed the pistol in his right hand up toward the ceiling while he grabbed the doorknob for the first door. He quickly swung it open, ducking down as he rushed inside, sweeping his pistol around. A bedroom. He cleared the attached bathroom and closet, then peered out the opening. Clear.
The second door led to another bedroom, also empty. He was just about to open the third door on this side of the landing when he heard the crunching of glass downstairs. He swore. The perp must have gotten past him when he was checking the other two rooms. He whirled around and ran to the top of the stairs and aimed his pistol down them.
Nothing.
Slowly, carefully, he descended the stairs, looking all around. When he reached the bottom, he glanced toward the back wall of the house, which was mostly floor-to-ceiling windows with three sets of double French doors. All were closed. Looking toward the foyer, he saw the front door was closed too. Which meant the bad guy was either in one of the rooms under the stairs now, or outside.
Raine is outside.
Ah, hell.
He took off running toward the front door and threw it open.
A pistol was aimed directly at his chest. It was Raine, pointing her gun at him. He swore and grabbed it, yanking it away from her.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought you were the bad guy.”
“And I thought he was outside and you were in danger. Why aren’t you in the car, doors locked, like I told you?”
“I was, but you were gone too long. I got worried and—behind you!”
He whirled around.
A figure dressed all in black took off through the family room toward the back doors.
“Halt, or I’ll shoot,” Callum yelled, sprinting after him.
The perp flipped a dead bolt and flung open a French door.
“Lock yourself in one of the rooms downstairs,” Callum yelled back to Raine. Then he ran out the open door toward the fleeing figure.
Ten minutes later, Callum swore a blue streak and headed toward Raine’s home. The back of her property faced a wooded area that appeared to be some kind of huge nature preserve. He’d done his best to follow the fleeing man but he’d lost him. If Raine wasn’t waiting at her house, he’d have kept searching. But he didn’t trust her not to come looking for him again. And he didn’t want her in these woods with a potentially armed criminal hiding out here.
By the time he reached the house, the police were there, crawling all over the place. He had to drop his pistol and explain who he was to two uniformed cops. Raine stepped out and told them he wasn’t the bad guy, that he was the detective she’d told them about.
“Private investigator,” Callum corrected. “Formerly a detective with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.”
“Give him back his weapon. He’s one of the good guys,” a man in a gray business suit said as he joined Raine on the patio. “It’s been a hot minute, Callum. Good to see you again.”
“Danny, hey. What’s it been, a couple of months?” Callum took his pistol from one of the officers and slid it into the inside pocket of his jacket. “I chased the intruder into the woods but he disappeared. I never saw a weapon, but he could very well be armed.”
Danny issued instructions and several police went off in pursuit.
“Let’s get back inside.” Callum steered Raine toward the open French doors. “If the intruder does have a gun, I don’t want to give him a target.”
The three of them headed to a grouping of white leather chairs and a couch in front of an equally white fireplace. This furniture had been spared being slashed with a knife, probably because Callum and Raine had interrupted his little vandalism party.
“You two are friends?” Raine glanced back and forth between them.
The detective laughed. “I guess you could say that. I married his sister. And we were partners in homicide for three years.”
“More like partners in crime,” Callum teased.
Raine frowned. “I don’t understand.”
Danny waved toward Callum. “In spite of being one of the best detectives we’ve ever had, Callum decided to take an undercover gig for almost a year to help bring down a crime ring in Athens. He dragged me into it and we were badass fake criminals. Pardon my language, ma’am.”
She smiled. “No worries. I’ve heard far worse, probably said it too.”
He laughed, then sobered and motioned toward the destruction around them. “It’s a shame someone broke in and did all this damage. Looks like a nice place. I know you told me you didn’t get a good look at the perpetrator. What about you, Callum? Can you give me a description? I’ll put out a BOLO.”
“BOLO?” Raine asked.
“Be on the lookout,” Callum explained. “Old cop shows used to say APB, all-points bulletin. Same thing. Just tells law enforcement to keep an eye out for someone. Five-eight, slim build, maybe a hundred seventy pounds. Dressed all in black, including his shoes, gloves and knit hat pulled down low around his neck and over his ears. I only managed a glimpse of his profile, not a straight-on look at him. He’s white, dark brown hair sticking out of the bottom of his hat, could be anywhere from midtwenties to late thirties. It’s not much, I know.”
Raine blinked. “It’s a lot more than I got. All I could tell Detective Cooper was that he was dressed like a ninja.”
Danny chuckled. “Told you Callum was one of the best. Still is, I imagine. Working for that cold case company now. Ms. Quintero said you’re helping with her brother’s case.”
“Looking into it, yes. Turns out, it’s one I gophered on years ago, for Farley.”
The detective winced. “I didn’t wish the guy dead, but can’t say I miss working with him.”
“Raine believes he pressured her brother into a false confession.”
Danny’s brows raised in surprise. “Well, now. He was unorthodox, tough. But I’ve never heard anyone accuse him of that before. Got any proof?”
Callum intervened. “I’ve been in touch with a professor in the criminal justice studies program at the University of Georgia, in Athens. She’s studying the interview report on Joey so she can offer an opinion on whether it could have been a false confession.” Raine looked at him in surprise and he realized he’d never gotten around to telling her about the professor. “She’s an expert in the field. When our liaison called for the files on the case, she wasn’t able to get any recordings of Mr. Quintero’s interviews, said Farley apparently never recorded them. You worked with him more than I did, and more recently. Was that unusual for him?”
“Good question. I know he griped about modern technology because he wasn’t good with it.” His mouth quirked. “Kind of like someone else I know.”
“Whatever. Does that mean he avoided it?”
Danny nodded. “When he could get away with it. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of his interviews were done the old-fashioned way, pen and paper, no audio or video. It doesn’t mean anything improper was going on. But I can look into it, let you know what I find, see if there was any kind of suspicious pattern to his interrogations.”
“I’d appreciate it. We’re in a hurry too.”
Danny glanced at Raine, a sympathetic look on his face. “Understood. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. I’ll focus on trying to find a pattern in the cases around the same time period as Mr. Quintero’s. But I have to work this scene first and file my report.”
He picked up a computer tablet he must have left on a side table earlier. “Ms. Quintero gave me her version of what happened while you were chasing the suspect. Let’s hear it from your point of view, Callum.”
Danny was just as thorough as Callum remembered him being when they’d worked together. While Raine was sent to inventory the home and determine if anything was actually taken, instead of just destroyed, Danny grilled Callum on every detail of Callum’s search of the home. By the time he started in on the details of his chase through the woods, Raine had already reported back that nothing was taken and was sitting on the couch with him again.
Danny shifted in his chair across from them. “All right. Let’s see if there’s anything else I need to add, another wrinkle that might tell me whether this is some nut or a drunk college frat boy out vandalizing homes, or something more.”
Raine’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, something more?”
“It seems awfully coincidental that you two are in town working on a murder case and your house gets broken into. Maybe the bad guy came here looking for your notes to see what you might have found out, and got mad and tore the place up when he didn’t find any.”
She went pale and twisted her hands in her lap. “Then it’s a good thing my computer isn’t here. Or my printed-out files.”
“Hold on,” Callum said. “Going down that path assumes someone would have a reason to worry about the investigation. It was resolved in the courts and we’ve yet to find evidence of anyone else being involved in Ms. Claremont’s murder.”
Raine’s eyes flashed with anger. “I told you, Joey’s innocent. It makes perfect sense that the real murderer would be worried about me digging into his case.”
Danny held up his hands. “Hang on. You two want to argue, do it on your time. I’m just getting the background here so I cover every possibility. Callum, you mentioned earlier that you and Ms. Quintero had just come back from speaking to the Claremonts about what happened when their daughter was killed.”
“More like I wanted firsthand knowledge of the crime scene’s layout, the neighborhood and geography around it. I wasn’t going to bother the parents of the deceased unless or until I felt it was absolutely necessary. However, since Raine has a close friendship with the deceased’s parents, we took advantage of that and were able to tour their home. A few hours later, we came back here to review the case and make our plans for what to do tomorrow.”
“And once you arrived, you opened the door and found that the home had been ransacked.”
“Exactly.”
“But nothing was stolen. Seems odd that someone would have done so much damage without stealing anything.” He motioned to the broken side table, papers scattered on the floor, the shredded pillows strewed around. “There’s emotion here, anger. And it seems to be directed at you, Ms. Quintero. You told me earlier that you don’t know anyone who’d want to hurt you. Regardless of whether or not your brother is guilty, is there anything you’ve done, perhaps before Callum was involved in the case, that could have made someone feel threatened, or angry? Something related to the case you’re working?”
She stared at him, her brow furrowed. “I honestly don’t know. It’s not like we’ve spoken to anyone today except my brother at the prison, and the Claremonts. No one else knew we were coming to town today. My brother’s lawyers have been interviewing people off and on in town recently. And I was asking questions around town too, but that was weeks ago. I suppose Randy Hagen could have heard about all that and wanted to punish me by breaking in and tearing things up. He lied under oath in the trial against my brother. For all I know, he may be the one who killed Alicia Claremont.”
Callum exchanged a pained look with Danny. “You can look into him if you want. But he had an alibi during the time when Alicia was attacked. I can’t see him having a motive to vandalize Raine’s property.”
“Maybe you should look into his alibi,” Raine insisted.
Danny glanced back and forth between them, looking puzzled. “Alibi for the break-in or the murder fifteen years ago?”
“Break-in,” Callum said.
“Murder,” Raine said, at the same time. She glanced at Callum, her aggravation dissolving into a look of guilt. “There are other cases I’ve been looking into. Perhaps this is related to those. We came here tonight so I could tell Callum that—”
Callum stood, interrupting her. “We’re wasting Danny’s time. He doesn’t need all the details about the other cases UB is investigating.”
Danny stood, looking relieved. “I’ll put out a BOLO specifically for Hagen as well as one on our unknown intruder. They could be one and the same, but if not, we’re covered. I’ll send a press release to the media too, get an alert out on the news. If Hagen is around, someone should see him and turn him in. And if he’s the intruder, we’ll kill two birds with one stone. Callum, if something comes up in this other investigation you’re working and you think it could shed light on another suspect—”
“I’ll absolutely reach out.”
“Good enough for me. It’s getting late and I have a report to type up.”
Raine looked ready to burst with things she wanted to tell the detective. Callum put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. Danny’s brows raised, no doubt thinking something was going on between them. Callum didn’t care. It did the trick. It flustered Raine and made her go silent. She was staring up at him in surprise, no doubt trying to figure out how she’d given him the wrong signal somewhere along the way.
Danny looked around, as if searching for the crime scene tech.
“He’s gone,” Callum told him. “Took some latent prints from the French doors and the stairs while we were talking and left.”
Raine finally looked at Danny again, a new mystery gathering her attention. “Why did he look for fingerprints? Callum said the guy was wearing gloves.”
“Standard procedure,” Danny explained. “Sometimes a criminal won’t put gloves on outside a place. They don’t want someone seeing the gloves and becoming suspicious enough to call the police. Once inside, they put gloves on and plan on wiping down the front door on their way out. But Callum sent our guy fleeing, so he might not have had a chance to wipe any prints away. We may luck out and get an ID.”
He glanced around, as if looking for the other policemen and women. But he was the only one there now.
“Son of a... They all left me. Again.”
Callum laughed. “You always were one of the last at any scene.”
Danny grinned. “Guess not much has changed since we worked together. Callum, once your current investigation is wrapped up, maybe you can stop by the house for dinner. I enjoy watching the games with you at your place. But it’d be nice to host you at our house every once in a while. It would be great to have you and Lucy together again. She misses you.”
Callum kept smiling, but it wasn’t easy. “Lucy doesn’t miss me, Danny. Neither does anyone else in my family. They haven’t for many, many years. But I appreciate you lying just the same. Don’t forget to look into Farley’s records when you can.”
Danny shook his head, but didn’t argue or deny the truth. “Will do. Ms. Quintero, I’m sorry about what happened to your beautiful home. Athens PD will do everything we can to catch the bad guy. And for tonight, at least, my boss has approved having a couple of patrol cars canvassing the neighborhood, for added security.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
Danny gave Callum a two-fingered salute and headed toward the foyer.
As soon as the door closed behind Danny, Raine threw Callum’s arm off her shoulder and turned to face him. “Explain to me why you kept interrupting me when I was trying to tell Detective Cooper about my work on the serial killer investigation, information that could be related to the break-in.”
“It’s not.”
“How would you know?”
“I’ll explain, after you explain something to me. Where the hell did you get another gun? And where did you hide it so the police wouldn’t find it, since my brother-in-law failed to mention anything about it?”