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“I’m not staying here,” she replied, brushing his hand off her shoulder.Now it seemed that it was Nico who was mistaking their undercover status with reality.She was here as a cop.His partner.Equals.Not some fragile woman he could force to stay behind while he went off to investigate.Even if he was technically her commanding officer, there was no sensible reason for her not to follow.She’d been the one to see the man in the first place, she was best suited to identify him again.
“No, you don’t understand…” he began.“The way you described this guy, I think he might—”
“Oh, I understand all right,” she interrupted tersely.“You don’t get to tell me what to do, Nico.”Her blood pressure was rising.She knew why he’d automatically told her to stay behind, but she was having none of it.“I’m not some meek woman you can keep barefoot and pregnant in the home.”
He stepped back and nearly stumbled off the curb at the ferocity of her words.She was seething now.The look in his eyes told her he suddenly understood he’d gone too far.His knee-jerk reaction was definitely the wrong one.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did.You need to remember that I’m a trained police officer with a job to do.And I will decide when and how to do my job.”
A petulant pout turned his mouth down at the corners, and she just knew he was about to say something like,It’s my baby too, but she wasn’t having it.Now wasn’t the time for this pregnancy conversation.And it wasn’t the time for him to go all ninja protective warrior on her either.They had a good chance to catch this guy.Her gut told her he had something to do with their case, and now they were letting him get away while they stood here and argued.
“Get moving, or get out of my way.”She pushed past him, heading toward the spot where she’d last seen the man standing.“We have a POI to apprehend, we can talk about this”—she waved her hand in his direction, indicating his obstinate refusal to let her do her job—“another time.”
She jogged across the road, and he followed.The cruise ship headquarters was big, running the entire length of the esplanade for at least a couple of hundred yards, and there was no way he could’ve run the full length of the metal building along the road without them seeing him.Had he ducked inside?The only other option was that he’d sprinted around behind the building to where Lacey could just make out a couple of the boats tied up at the dock.Either that, or he’d dived into the water, but that seemed unlikely.That water was freezing, even in the middle of summer.And there was no splashing, not even any ripples to suggest someone had jumped off the jetty.
Nico came alongside her, his jaw clenched tight with the things he wasn’t saying.But he kept his words to himself and they moved forward as one.The cruise ship welcome area was paved with polished concrete, a glass and metal atrium beckoning them toward the front entrance of the building.
“Let’s check inside first,” he commanded.Lacey almost spat back at him that if they separated, they’d cover a lot more ground.But something held her back, and she conceded to Nico’s authority by swinging right at the same time he did.They pushed through the door in a hurry, and were brought up short by a young woman leaning against a large reception desk scrolling through her phone.Her expression changed from bored to startled as they both appeared through the door, and she stopped chewing her gum and stared at them.
“Ah, hi,” Nico said.“We’re, ah… Looking for someone.Our friend.We were supposed to meet him here.Has anyone come in here in the last few minutes?”Ten out of ten for thinking on his feet.Nico had managed to remain in character.
“No, sorry.”The girl shook her head and went back to leaning on the countertop and noisily chewing her gum now that it was clear they weren’t here to purchase tickets for a cruise.
“Thanks,” Nico said, but he needn’t have bothered, the girl never looked up from her phone.
Trying not to look like she was rushing, Lacey backtracked through the door, leading Nico onto the esplanade.Walking as quickly as they dared, they darted around the side of the building, past a covered waiting area, and along a short pathway that led to a narrow parking lot at the rear of the warehouse and the small jetty where two boats were moored.Lacey stood on tiptoe and peered down the length of the building, but it morphed into an industrial area farther down, with a couple of rusting shipping containers and a pile of old rope and red buoys.
“Could he have climbed onto one of the boats?”she asked, eyeing the sleek cruise ship with trepidation; she wasn’t good with boats.
“Maybe.But then he would’ve cornered himself, and I don’t think he’s that stupid.”
Carefully, they stalked along the length of the jetty, checking behind a stack of metal bins and then down to the shipping containers.Nothing.It was like he’d disappeared in a puff of smoke.After another ten minutes of fruitless hunting, they turned and retraced their steps around to the front entrance.
As the adrenaline began to fade from her body and her blood cooled, she realized she probably owed Nico an apology.He’d reacted on instinct when he’d tried to stop her chasing their perp, and he was only looking out for their unborn baby.She’d overreacted, and she knew it.
“Look, Nico.”She stopped and took him by the arm, pulling him to a halt beside her.“I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.”
“No, you shouldn’t,” he growled back, but there was little heat in his words as he stifled a sigh.“Because I had a good reason to want you to stay where you were,” he continued.“I was trying to tell you…” He took a deep breath, and she felt his arm go rigid beneath her fingers.“Your description sounded an awful lot like the man I remember from my youth.My father.”
“Oh.My.God,” she said slowly as sudden realization dawned on her.This was what Nico had been trying to tell her and she’d shouted him down.“That was Serge?”Nico had shown her an old photo of his father, back when they’d still been a family, as dysfunctional as that was.Was that why he’d looked strangely familiar?
“Maybe.”His shoulders were still rigid.“But without seeing him with my own eyes…” He shrugged.“We know he broke into our house, and I was afraid he might still be in the area.”
“But why?”Lacey could hardly get her mind around the revelation.“Why is he here in Strahan?And why show himself now?”
“I don’t know,” Nico replied absently.“But we should probably get back to the main street and start acting like our undercover personas, just in case anyone is watching.”
“Good idea.”Lacey had forgotten in her rush that a normal citizen—especially a pregnant one—wasn’t supposed to be chasing people.
As they walked quickly back alongside the cruise boat building, Nico pulled out his phone.“I missed a message from Sally-Ann when I left my phone at the café,” he explained.“I was just about to open it when I saw you nearly get hit by that car.”
Lacey scowled up at him.How long was he going to hold that against her?She was just coming up with a smart retort when Nico’s face blanched and he stopped mid-stride.
“What?”she asked.Something about the information Sally-Ann had sent him wasn’t good.
He didn’t answer; instead, he turned his phone around so Lacey could see the photo Sally-Ann had forwarded.Lacey leaned in to study the image.It was a hand drawn depiction of a male portrait.“We sent a police sketch artist to visit Taylor yesterday.This is the composite drawing of the man she remembered as having picked them up on the side of the road on the day of the abduction,” he said.“Of course Taylor’s memory is hazy, and we were worried that with the amnesia, she might not remember anything correctly, but…” Nico’s voice faded out.But Lacey needed no explanation.Her blood ran cold, and she lifted dazed eyes to Nico’s.It couldn’t be, could it?This looked a lot like the man she’d just seen across the road.The beard was much longer and scraggly in the drawing, but the crooked nose and the piercing eyes were the same.It seemed like Taylor’s memory had still been working because…
