Like right now? He was reverting tohispattern. Invading Dani’s privacy by snooping through her apartment. Looking for some miraculous reason this wasdifferentthan every other time.
The place was clean, if cluttered. There were a few dishes in the sink, an empty soda can on the living room end table. When he eased into Dani’s room, the real mess exploded. Clothes everywhere. Used glasses on just about every surface, along with makeup and jewelry. Not surprising. She claimed organization and cleaning gave her PTSD, and maybe it did. God knew they’d been expected to be military neat and orderly growing up. But Dani made an effort to keep her messy tendency in check in common spaces…for Sammy.
She so desperately wanted to be a good mom. She tried so damn hard. It was why he’d never been able to give up on her.
Gard sighed heavily, tried to blow out all his conflicting feelings with it. This was just an investigation. Just looking for facts, not to dredge up all his feelings of loss, inadequacy, and regret.
Her laptop was on her nightstand, still plugged into the wall. He unplugged it, made a mental note to unplug any other unnecessary appliances before he left since he didn’t know when anyone would be back.
He knew her passwords to everything, because she used the same one or a variation of it for everything. Because he’d had to at certain points in their lives, to help Sammy.
[email protected] Sammy had been born May 8. So he typed it in to log into her computer ignoring any conflicting feelings he didn’t have time for.
He’d deal with those later, when Dani was found and back andokay.
The notes app was front and center, with an address typed out. There was no town name or zip code, but since Gard had patrolled every inch of Bent County, he knew 7653 Dry Road was out near Wilde.
He copied and pasted the address into the internet browser. The picture that came up was of a farmhouse that looked a little worse for the wear.
Hmm.
Well, what could it hurt? If it was a dead end, he’d go pick up Sammy a little early. And if it was something else…
Well, he’d deal with that.
Wilde was a good forty-five minute drive from Fairmont, and he knew he couldn’t spend much time at the address and get to Hope Town in time to pick up Sammy by the promised three o’clock.
He’d just do a drive-by. See if he could glean any clues. It didn’t make sense Dani was doing anything out in Wilde. If it was just about drugs, Dani surely could have got them in Fairmont.
Wishful thinking, Fairhurst.
So he drove, maybe sped a little, trying not to let his thoughts speed too as he turned onto Dry Road. On one side of the road, rows of corn grew in tall, neat rows. On the other side, he passed gravel driveways marked with numbers spread pretty far apart.
He saw 7651, a gravel drive without a marking, and then 7655, so he backtracked to the unmarked drive and turned onto the gravel. The house wasn’t far back off the road. It looked a lot worse in person than it had on its picture. One front window was cracked beyond repair, a window on the second floor was boarded up. The porch sagged—and there were no stairs up to it, just a pile of warped boards where stairs would have once been.
There were no cars, but plenty of junk in the front yard. Rusted-out bikes and tools and other unidentifiable things. Gard eyed the house. It looked pretty abandoned.
He should leave it at that.
Instead, he parked on the scrubby lawn and got out of the car. He kept one hand on his holster as he moved quietly and carefully toward the front door. It looked like therehadbeen a storm door at one point, but it had fallen off—or been ripped off—its hinges and tossed into the corner of the porch. The heavy wood door to the house was slightly ajar.
Trying to avoid creaking spots, Gard climbed onto the porch, slow, steady, stealthy. He thought he heard…voices coming from inside the house.
Calm from years of experience in police work and approaching possibly dangerous scenarios, he crept closer to the door. If he could get close enough without making noise on this crumbling porch, maybe he could hear what was being said. It sounded like low voices, men, but maybe Dani was in there. Maybe this really was a clue. Maybe…
He leaned forward, desperate to hear something. And it was that desperation that got him in trouble. He knew better, always knew better when it came to work.
But Dani was a whole other story.
So when the door flew open, he wasn’t ready for it, and it crashed right into his face. Pain bloomed from his nose as he jerked back, stumbled, but managed to keep his footing.
Someone ran out of the door, leaping off the porch like a bat out of hell. Gard ignored the throbbing pain echoing through his skull and the feel of liquid oozing out of his nose and grabbed for his gun.
“Bent—” Hell, he wasn’t on duty, so he could hardly invoke Bent County. But he did have a gun. “Stop!”
The guy, of course, did not stop. And Gard could hardly shoot at him—especially when the man leaped into the cornfield across the street and disappeared. Maybe if Gard was on duty, he’d have ventured into the tall corn and tried to find the guy, but that hardly seemed smart without backup.
He glanced back at the house, wiping the blood dripping over his mouth with the back of his hand. The door was wide open, thanks to the runaway. Gard had his gun in his hand. What was the harm in looking around?
