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A tall, handsome man in a lab coat walked by. He paused. “Ladies, spying on the patients today?”
Heather recognized him. She’d been seeing him far too frequently since they’d moved to Finley Creek. When he was putting her family back together again and everything.
Joy glared at him for a quick moment, then shot Dr. Stockton her killer smile. Heather suspected the man wasn’t immune. “Shh. We’re watching a romance in the making here, Jeoffrey. You should probably take notes.”
He frowned, but there was an expression in his eyes that Heather didn’t miss. “Dr. Coleson-Greene, I’m starting to think you just don’t know how to behave anywhere.”
“Now you’re catching on.” Joy turned to Heather. Heather wasn’t stupid—there was a bit of red in her sister’s cheeks. “Come on, let’s go save Miguel from Horrible Hope.”
Yeah, Joy wanted to escape now. Heather had so many questions.
But maybe the way Miguel was looking down at Hope gave her a little bit of that squee-romance feeling, too. That man, seeing him always reminded her that not all men, not all cops, were like Steve. That was a lesson she was working on remembering.
Miguel was going to be okay. Some of the tension tightening her stomach lifted. He was going to be okay.
As long as he survived Horrible Hope first.
67
Something had changed. With Haldyn and Jarrod, for one thing. Madison wasn’t stupid. She just wasn’t going to pry in her friend’s business that way. But when Jarrod looked at Haldyn—Haldyn’s eyes had a glow Madison definitely wasn’t used to seeing.
Big surprise. Madison had thought it would never happen.
She’d noticed how the man had looked at Haldyn before, when he thought no one was watching. Like…years ago.
They had just seemed to fight each all the time then, too. But everything changed after first the bombing of the building, then the destruction from the storm, then the choir hall shooting.
The way Jarrod had looked at Haldyn had been completely different the night at Scott’s house, too.
It gave her something to think about.
But for now, Jarrod was standing outside the lab with Daniel and his cronies again, looking through the doors to the lab. Where Haldyn stood, speaking with four of the second-shift techs now. Hope was one of them.
Hope was a woman on a mission now. She’d been going over the security clip they’d gotten of the man who had ambushed Commander Rodriguez. Just enough to tell he was a white man, physically fit, and probably around six four. Hope had spent most of the morning comparing that grainy clip to what they had of the men who had taken Haldyn.
Hope was almost certain that the man who had shot Commander Rodriguez had the same peculiar pattern around the way he carried his left shoulder as one of the men who had taken Haldyn. The man who had punched Haldyn on the street that day. Something about the physiological movement of his arm—Hope thought it was distinctive. Madison wasn’t so sure. Hope thought she’d seen it before.
But what good that information was going to do them, no one knew yet.
The ballistics report was in. The gun hadn’t been used in a known crime. They didn’t have much more to go on than what Hope had found.
But they were still looking.
No one was going to stop.
Madison was going to go over the video with Hope one more time. See if there was something they had missed. Maybe…maybe there would be something there they could work with.
68
Sol had been assigned to guard the damned parking lot. All of the boys—and girls—in Major Crimes had drawn straws to see who got that little gig and when, for now. Since what had happened to Rodriguez not even a week ago.
Hell, he didn’t mind it, really. It put him outside. Where he could see the stars. It had been a while since he’d sat beneath the stars and just thought about things. Moon was full. Shining down on everything. Hell, almost bright enough to read by tonight.
Sky that big made a man feel insignificant, but gave him a little bit of peace somehow too. He had always did his best thinking outside.
He had a lot to think about.
He’d done a lot of digging, after what he’d found before. After those papers of his from HR. He’d filled out his papers good and proper now. Even printed one of those will and testaments off the internet. Just had to have it notarized and it was done.
