Police Protector. Elizabeth Heiter

Shaye come into the room and prayed she hadn’t overheard his conversation.

      But one look at her face, her chin up high, her cheeks tinged with red, her gaze daring him to bring up any of it, and he knew she had. A thousand curse words lodged in his throat, and he held them in, instead handing her the cup of coffee as a peace offering.

      She cradled it between her palms and drank half the cup before she lowered it again, but he wasn’t surprised. He’d heard her tossing and turning last night, probably the result of the painkillers not keeping up with the sting of her bullet wound. Or maybe the events of the night playing over and over again, all the possible outcomes racing through her mind the way they had in his. They were lucky she was alive.

      “I’m going to get myself a cup of coffee—”

      “And me,” Luke interrupted, popping to his feet as though he’d slept ten hours.

      “And then we’re going to go through yesterday’s timeline, make sure we’re covering all of our bases,” Cole finished.

      Shaye nodded, but her hands shook around the coffee cup. “If this is going to turn into an interrogation, I need some breakfast first.” She started to limp toward the kitchen, and Cole put a hand on her arm to stop her. She pulled it away fast, like his touch burned her.

      Trying to pretend he hadn’t noticed, Cole said, “I’ll make breakfast. Just relax a little.”

      “There’s nothing to make,” she replied, pushing past him. “It’s cereal and coffee. All my groceries are in Roy’s parking lot. Unless you want frozen burritos for breakfast, that’s what I’ve got.”

      He followed her into the kitchen more slowly, while Luke disappeared in the other direction, toward the bathroom.

      She slowly set a few boxes of cereal on the counter, keeping her back turned to him, like she was waiting until her embarrassment fled. But when she finally turned, her cheeks were still flushed.

      Shaye had never been good at hiding her emotions. After dealing with criminals day in and day out, he found it one of her most charming attributes, but he knew she hated it.

      “About last night—”

      “Don’t.” Her cheeks went from rose pink to fire-engine red.

      “Shaye—”

      “Just let it go.”

      Luke rejoined them at that moment, so Cole did. Instead of apologizing yet again—which probably wouldn’t get him anywhere—he focused on her safety, and not the fact that he might have ruined their friendship. A ball of dread settled in his stomach, but he kept his mind on what he could do something about: eliminating the nagging feeling that this had been a hit.

      “Let’s go through your day yesterday, from the moment you woke up.” Cole set down his spoon in cereal he’d barely touched. “Did you drive straight to work?”

      “Yes.”

      “Your car was in the garage overnight, right? Did you step outside to get a paper, anything like that?”

      “Yes, my car was in the garage, and, no, when I got in it to head to the lab it was the first time I’d left my house. And let me save you some time, because I’ve heard you talk to witnesses before. I didn’t see anyone following me. Not yesterday, not in the past few weeks, not ever. And as far as I know, there’s no one who has a reason to come after me, not with the Jannis Crew shut down.”

      “What about at work?” Luke asked. “Anything unusual there?”

      Shaye frowned. “Like what?”

      “Like anything. Coworkers acting strange around you, someone who’s shown an interest in you even though you’ve turned him down or made it clear you’re not interested?”

      Shaye shook her head slowly. “No. There’s been a little turnover since I left a year ago, but most of my colleagues are the same. And the ones who are new all seem fine. It’s business as usual at the lab.”

      Cole stared at her, wondering what that meant. He’d visited her in the lab a few times, and his presence had always surprised her. Not just because it was him and he didn’t tend to come over to the lab, but because she’d been so focused on whatever digital device she’d been analyzing that she hadn’t even noticed he was there until he’d told her.

      Was she that oblivious all the time? Would she even realize if someone had been stalking her, waiting for the right moment to get her alone?

      He wished he knew. But the truth was even though they talked in the course of their jobs, and they had an unofficial agreement to meet up before and after work each day, he’d rarely seen her outside investigations. Even last month, when he’d asked for her help, it had been an off-the-books case. The realization momentarily surprised him, because she’d become such an important part of his life. And yet she was almost totally separate from it.

      He wasn’t sure if that said something about the strength of their friendship or just about his willingness to let people get close to him. Except he had plenty of friends, and to this day, he still tried to help kids coming out of the foster system because he knew how hard that transition was. So why? He wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling if he probed that too deeply, he wouldn’t like the answer.

      “What about your job?” Cole asked when he realized the silence had dragged on a little too long. “What devices do you have right now?”

      “I’m looking at computers from that corporate espionage case. And the girl who’s being stalked, to see if her computer was hacked. I’ve only been back for a week.” She shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got right now.”

      Neither were likely connections to today’s shootings, but he gave Luke a meaningful look, and his partner nodded. They’d check both out. The corporate espionage involved two local competing businesses, and both sides had been repeatedly fined for violating various laws, but he doubted they’d resort to violence. And the stalker was young; that kind of behavior always made him look twice, because it was often a gateway crime, but usually the ultimate target was the person being stalked, not someone connected to the investigation. Still, he planned to check every possibility.

      “How about cases from last year?” Cole asked. “Anything you dealt with that’s still in the courts?”

      “Yeah, probably. I know there are a few that haven’t gone to trial yet, but they’re cases I worked peripherally. Nothing where I’m a witness. At least not yet. I guess I could still get subpoenaed.”

      Luke shook his head. “Probably not those. But let’s make a list of all these cases—especially where you took the stand or your name would appear in the court documents—where someone went to jail.”

      Shaye glanced from him back to Cole. “Isn’t this a waste of time? Shouldn’t you be focused on witness statements or trying to track down this guy some other way?”

      “We will,” Cole assured her. “But no reason not to attack it from both directions.”

      She scooted her half-eaten bowl of cereal away from her and leaned on the counter. “But I’m not a direction at all, right? I’m just unlucky enough to have been shot at twice?”

      Her words hung in the air. Cole wanted to nod, like he’d done last night, and tell her this had nothing to do with her. But the more he thought about it, the more he worried that Shaye was at the center of something dangerous. And he had no idea what it was.