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“Your sketch was great,” Colin added.
She wasn’t used to so much praise from her siblings. They’d always supported her, but up until now, she hadn’t done anything impressive. Other than graduating from her EMT program. “You brought phones?”
“Yep.” Colin set them on the table. Then he tossed the car key fob to Joe who caught it easily. “The SUV is black and parked closest to the exit.”
“Thanks. We appreciate the support,” Joe said.
Her brothers stood for a moment, and she imagined some silent he-man eyeballing going on between them, before they turned to leave.
“Call if you need anything else,” Quinn said as they opened the door.
“We will,” she assured him. “Thanks again.”
She wanted to tell Joe not to pay attention to her brothers, but he was looking down at his phone. “Steele is on his way. He wants to talk.”
“Okay.” She was grateful to have the tactical team’s support, along with that of her siblings. “I’ll get the phones ready.”
“Thanks.” Joe placed the laptop on the desk, then went back to work while she activated the new phones. Fifteen minutes later, Joe’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen in satisfaction. “Good. He’s here.”
Steele was still wearing his uniform. And while he was handsome, too, with his dark hair and blue eyes, she didn’t feel the slightest flicker of attraction. Why, she asked herself silently, did she want the only man who wasn’t interested in her?
“Elly.” Steele acknowledged her with a nod.
“I hope you haven’t been working all night.” She frowned. “You need to get some sleep.”
“I slept for a few hours,” Steele assured her. Then he turned to Joe. “I spoke with Michaels about the interviews you suggested. I was able to convince Gabrielle’s and Henry’s parents to come down to the station in about an hour.”
“I’d like to participate in the interview,” Joe said. Then he glanced at her, and added, “Since the interviews are taking place at the precinct, I could bring Elly with us. She’ll be safe there.”
Steele arched his brow. “Michaels agreed to have you there, but I’m not sure how he’ll feel about bringing a civilian along.”
“I’m not some civilian, I’m the one who saw this guy, remember?” Elly stood straighter, leveling Steele with a hard look. “I’m invested in this as much as you are.”
“She’s right,” Joe said. “Besides, you know I can’t leave her here. I’m sure Michaels will get over it.”
“Fine.” Steele threw up his hands. “I’ll drive you both in my vehicle, okay?”
“Thank you.” She donned the winter coat Quinn had brought her. Maybe she didn’t know much about police work, but she was involved in this mess up to her eyeballs.
And she had a bad feeling this nightmare wouldn’t end anytime soon.
* * *
TakingElly along with them to the police precinct probably wasn’t smart. He could have asked Colin and Quinn to come back and stay with her at the hotel.
But truthfully, he couldn’t bear to let her out of his sight.
Joe knew Steele was concerned about his ability to remain objective. And maybe his colleague had a right to be worried. When their food service had arrived, he’d almost pulled his gun on the guy.
Not cool. He needed to find a way to ignore this constant awareness he experienced with Elly and stay focused on the investigation.
“How is the tip line coming along?” Joe asked.
Steele grimaced. “Lots of calls that haven’t yet provided anything helpful. There was one guy who claimed he saw the perp getting into a pickup truck, and since we know that much already, we figure he did see our shooter. He gave us two letters off the license plate, but the list of possible matches is long since the only color option we have is a dark vehicle. We don’t dare narrow it down to a specific region.”
“I get that, but it’s a start.” He perked up at that information. “I wouldn’t mind poking around on the list. Maybe we’ll be able to match a registration to a driver’s license photo.”
“Working on that,” Steele agreed. “Can’t hurt to have another pair of eyes on the list.”
