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Or maybe it didn’t matter since Cole had no intention of being in their lives any longer than he had to be. He was fulfilling an obligation to her father, nothing more. After that, he’d probably disappear again.
“It’s okay, little one,” Kelsey murmured in Eddy’s ear. “We’ve got each other. And that’s all we need, right?”
She tried to hear what he was saying, but Cole’s voice was too low. Sighing, she hugged her son. Eddy was her whole world, and she was going to do everything she could to keep him safe.
Even if it meant letting Cole Williams back into her life.
THREE
Ten minutes later a patrol car pulled up in front of Kelsey’s door. She’d just gone to put Eddy down for a nap, so Cole answered the door and showed a young officer into the living room. He introduced himself as Corporal Barnes.
“Do you live here with Miss Reeves?” Barnes asked.
“No, I’m a friend of the family.” Cole didn’t want to get into the past relationship between himself and Kelsey. He didn’t see where that was relevant or anybody’s business. Certainly it had nothing to do with the danger she was facing now.
“Thanks for coming so quickly,” Kelsey said as she entered the room. She took a minute to introduce herself to the officer and invited him to sit. “I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so here’s the situation. My father’s been missing for almost a month.”
“When did you last see him?” Barnes pulled a small notebook from his pocket and wrote down information as Kelsey explained when and where she’d last been with her father and when she’d realized that he was missing. “Did you file a missing person report?”
Kelsey gave a little shrug and shot Cole a look. “No, my dad’s a Navy SEAL commander, so I wasn’t worried at first. He can certainly take care of himself, and he doesn’t tell me everything.”
“Dispatch reported that you’d received a threatening note,” Barnes said.
“Yes, this came yesterday.” She handed the letter to the officer.
Barnes examined the envelope before reading the single sentence. “Whoever wrote this thinks you know where your father is or how to contact him. Are you sure you don’t?” Barnes’ skepticism was apparent.
“Not a clue. He could be literally anywhere in the world.” Cole knew that that wasn’t an exaggeration. With his years of experience, Edwin was capable of traveling the globe, and he’d do it unseen and virtually untraceably.
Barnes produced a plastic baggie and put the letter inside. “I’ll take this to the station if that’s all right with you. Anything else you can tell me?” The officer’s eyes shifted from Kelsey to Cole.
“I received a pre-scheduled email from Commander Reeves this morning asking me to watch out for Kelsey and her son,” Cole spoke up. He decided to withhold the additional information about the cloud of suspicion surrounding Edwin and the ambushed SEAL team. None of that intel was public knowledge, and he wasn’t in a position to share it with the civilian police. The MPs would inevitably get involved and it would be their call how much to disclose.
Officer Barnes pulled out a business card. “Forward that email to this address. Our techs can take a look at it to track where it originated from.”
Cole nodded his compliance, but he knew that Kelsey’s computer skills would ferret out any data that could be gleaned. Still, he’d play along with what the police requested.
“I’ll have to contact military police since Commander Reeves is active military personnel,” Barnes explained. “That’s standard procedure for us.”
“I expected that.”
“What can we do in the meantime?” Kelsey asked. She was twirling her hair around her finger, her tell that she was feeling stressed but trying to hide it.
“Not much, I’m afraid,” the officer answered. “You should be more cautious. Make sure you lock your doors and windows and be careful when you go out. Try not to be predictable in your movements. I’ll request that extra patrols come down your street until this situation is resolved.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that,” she said.
“I take it that you live here alone with your baby?” The officer looked around the room, taking in the baby paraphernalia. “Do you have relatives you could go stay with until this is cleared up?”
“There’s no one,” Kelsey said quickly, making the police officer raise an eyebrow. He didn’t believe her, which meant his instincts were good since she wasn’t telling the truth. Her mother lived in Los Angeles, just an hour or so away from Coronado, but their relationship wasn’t great. They got along best from a distance.
“I’ll be around until Commander Reeves comes home,” Cole said. He had every intention of sticking to her side. She might not like it, but it seemed that she’d accepted the fact that he needed to be close by.
“I’ll make a note of that. If anything comes up, you’ve got my contact information.” The officer rose and headed for the door. “Take care.”
After Kelsey closed and locked the door behind him, she came back into the room, looking disheartened. “I don’t think that was helpful. The police aren’t going to be able to find Dad, are they?”
“There’s not much for them to go on, and for all they know…” He stopped himself because she wouldn’t like what he was going to say next.
