9. Colin
Colin
“Why the fuck has Chloe Stark’s Bug been parked outside all night?” Captain Barrett barrels through the department doors like a man on a goddamn mission, asking the entire room his question but narrowing his eyes in my direction, specifically.
“How do you know it’s Chloe’s?” Lucy asks. Lucy wasn’t here when the whole Black Widow debacle went down, but that story was front page news across the country throughout most of Caroline’s trial. If you didn’t hear about the Black Widow murder trial, you were living under a rock.
“Because no one else in town drives a car the same color as my granddaughter’s favorite goddamn Powerpuff Girl.” He makes his way to my desk, tossing a piece of paper in front of me. “And this parking ticket has her name on it.”
Shit.
Chloe texted me last night—how she got my number is beyond me—and said she’d have Maeve or Stella bring her into town this morning and pick her car up.
The only reason I parked it in the spot she’d pulled up to last night is because I knew the captain had a doctor’s appointment and wouldn’t be in until the afternoon.
And here he is. And apparently, there her car still sits.
I wave the piece of paper in my hand. “I don’t know what this has to do with me.”
“My office,” he growls, turning from my desk. “Now!”
I clench my jaw and push off my desk, following him.
I’m by no means cowering, even though I probably should be considering he threatened to take my badge last time I got too involved with Chloe.
If he knew her lips were wrapped around my cock less than twenty-four hours ago, my badge would be a burnt pile of shiny metal by now.
Of course, I didn’t ask her to blow me. At least not at first.
“Shut the door,” Captain Barrett orders from behind his desk, “and sit the fuck down.”
I do as he says, pressing the door closed and settling into the chair across from him. “I really don’t know wha—”
“Renee saw you leave with Chloe last night,” he says evenly. He points to his office door behind me, enunciating every word as he speaks. “She saw you cross the parking lot, get in her car, and drive away with her.”
I clear my throat, holding his stare.
“What did I fucking tell you, Colin?”
“Captain—”
He slams his fist against the mahogany desk, everything around his heavy hand shaking with the force, indicating to me that the question was rhetorical.
“Did you learn nothing in your time away? You were supposed to clear your head. Clear your head of Caroline Stark. Of Chloe Stark. Get it out of your stubborn fucking brain that she’s hiding something.
Do you realize her mother threatened to file harassment charges against the department?
Caroline Stark threatened to file charges against us, against you.
And she has the money and the influence to take us down, even from behind bars. Do you not realize that?”
I swallow, my throat feeling like sandpaper. I had no idea Caroline had done that.
Would it have made a difference? I have no idea about that, either.
Chloe blinds me. I can’t think clearly with her around, and yet, I can’t stay away.
“I saved your ass by sending you away. I won’t do it again.” The silence stretches between us in a tense pause until he finally asks, “Where did you go?”
I clear my throat again, shifting in my seat. “Hussey Ridge.”
“For what, Colin? Spit it out.”
I suddenly realize this is going to sound so fucking bizarre, and I have no idea how to say it. “She…was going for a hike.”
“A hike.”
“She collects…animal skulls.”
“Do you think this is a joke?”
“No, sir. She pulled up outside the department, and said she needed a favor.”
“And you, her number one fan, offered to help her?”
A knock sounds on the door behind me, relieving me of the need to continue this word vomit explanation that includes cutting the head off a deer in a field, taking it back to Chloe’s basement, and letting her suck me off in her garage.
Alex pokes his head through the door, eyeing both of us cautiously.
“What is it?” Captain Barrett asks him gruffly, holding my stare in a silent demand to keep my ass planted where it’s at.
“You’re going to want to see this.” Alex comes all the way into the room, holding a manilla folder in the air before extending it in Barrett’s direction. “Grayson Tyler’s body was just found an hour away in the Cedar Creek BLM area. It looks like an animal attack.”
“What the fuck is going on around here?” the captain mutters under his breath, flipping through the folder.
“His wife and kids are safe. Their neighbor called and said she’d seen them come home early this morning.
” That loosens a breath of relief in my chest. I’d been particularly worried about the missing wife and children, but I’d still like to lay eyes on them myself.
To confirm their safety as well as see if Grayson’s wife might be hiding some sort of involvement in her husband’s death.
I lean forward to get a look at the papers my captain’s looking at, though I can’t tell what they are. “Witnesses near both Richard’s and Grayson’s scenes report seeing a black Suburban around the time they were last seen,” Alex explains.
Chills crawl up my spine as my head whips in Alex’s direction so fast it feels like it disconnects from my body. “Caroline Stark drove a black Suburban.”
“Mills,” my captain growls, glaring at me.
“I’m serious,” I say. “Chloe has it parked in her garage right now. I saw it last night.”
The folder drops from the captain’s hand and onto his desk as he raises his gaze to look at me incredulously. “You were at her house?”
“She needed my help getting the…” I side eye Alex, who has no idea what the fuck he just walked into, “…deer head back to her house.”
“The deer head?” Alex whispers, a quizzical look on his face.
Captain Barrett doesn’t respond to me. He turns to Alex, handing him back the folder. “What kind of black Suburban?”
“Both witnesses reported it to be a late nineties model, maybe a Chevy.”
Which is exactly the model of Caroline’s.
“And how many of them are there in the county?”
I already know the answer to this because I looked it up when I was investigating Caroline, but I stay quiet—because obviously that’s what I’m supposed to do in this situation.
“Thousands,” Alex confirms quietly.
Captain Barrett holds my stare across his desk, like he’s only having this conversation to prove a point. There are thousands of black Chevy Suburbans in Four Peaks County. Hundreds in Devil’s Peak, meaning the chances of it being Caroline’s are slim. Still…
“Don’t you think that’s a bit of a coincidence?” I ask them.
“It won’t get us a warrant, Colin. Nor will it hold up in court.”
He isn’t saying it as a challenge, but naturally, that’s how I take it. Captain Barrett faces his computer, effectively indicating this conversation is over.
“Go talk to Grayson’s wife,” he says to Alex. “And Colin,” he calls as I’m stopped in the doorway behind Alex. I turn to him, though I already know what he’s going to say.
“Don’t make me tell you again.”
***
I probably should have stopped by the courthouse and paid Chloe’s ticket for her.
It’s not exactly my fault that she got it, she did say she’d be by to pick it up, but I kind of feel responsible seeing as how I could have just as easily parked it inside the department lot gates, eliminating the risk that she’d get a ticket at all.
But now I’m enraged. Since the blowjob, and seeing Chloe at work with those skulls of hers, I was almost on my way to convincing myself that everything I’ve felt about her has been misguided.
That she’s not up to anything at all, that she’s not hiding something.
She’s merely a misunderstood, regular woman trying to carry on with a normal life after some horrible tragedies.
After hearing from Alex that not one, but two witnesses placed a black Suburban at both crime scenes, my hatred for her just feels reinvigorated. Seriously, what are the odds of that?
That Chloe has her mother’s black SUV parked right there in her garage, and two witnesses reported seeing it near where Richard Soffett went over a cliff and Grayson Tyler was attacked by a fucking cougar.
All of that, and the two locations where they died are more than an hour away from each other.
When the crew threw a fit about investigating two missing people that did not appear to be connected at all, let alone appear to be homicides, I was on their side. Now, with a very obvious connection between the two of them, it’s all clicking together in my mind.
Not to mention, the reports Alex brought by Captain Barrett’s office indicate foul play may have been involved in Grayson’s death.
Even though his manner of death was ruled an accident, forensics included in their report that Grayson appeared to have ligature marks on his arms, which could indicate he was held captive in some way.
It’s not even that far-fetched of an idea that Chloe could have done it in my mind.
Caroline got away with two murders that were originally ruled terrible accidents.
It was only when her third husband died of an overdose that the ME raised the alarm.
For Richard’s and Grayson’s deaths to both have been ruled accidental as well, my gut is telling me it wasn’t accidental at all.
It was Chloe Stark.
And I had her lips around my cock last night. My dick twitches at the memory, pissing me off because it should terrify me. And it doesn’t.
“Hey, Micah.” I lean against the doorway of Micah’s office, glancing around to ensure no one’s within earshot before moving toward his desk.
“How’s it going, Mills?” He smiles casually, leaning back in his chair and looking relaxed as all get out.
“Good, yeah. Listen, I need another favor.”
“Name it.” I don’t know why he’s so keen to help me stalk Chloe. It’s not like he owes me anything. But I’m just grateful to have some help, so I don’t question it.
“I need another GPS tracker.” I’d already planned on needing one for Caroline’s SUV, but now knowing it may be the vehicle Chloe’s committing her crimes in, I need it now.
“Yeah, no problem.” He reaches into his pocket to retrieve the key to his filing cabinet, unlocks it, and pulls out another black rectangle like it’s the most normal thing in the world. He extends it in my direction.
“Thanks,” I mumble, taking it from him.
Micah hasn’t appeared to judge me so far, and he’s the one who gave me the cameras for her house and showed me how to break in.
Still, making these requests out loud is incredibly uncomfortable for me.
As a member of law enforcement, I’m held to a high standard.
There’s an expectation that I act lawfully and with servitude, and I’m very blatantly crossing a line.
Multiple lines.
Repeatedly.
I clear my throat, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible even though my arms are crossed and my skin is crawling with unease. “I was also wondering if there’s a way to…hack into her phone. Be able to hear what she’s talking about, activate her phone camera, and all that.”
Micah spins back to his desk. “Easy peasy,” he says, clicking away on his computer screen.
It crosses my mind that this is his work computer, and in addition to the fact that he so easily has access to hacking and stalking capabilities, he also appears to have no qualms about using his professional tools to utilize it all. “What’s her phone number?”
I give it to him, and watch as lines of numbers that mean nothing to me run across his screen. He stays silent while he works, until he turns and asks for my phone. He plugs it into his computer where it stays for less than a minute before he hands it back to me with a smile on his face.
“You won’t be able to tap into her phone calls or anything, but this,” he leans forward and clicks on the app he just downloaded onto my phone, “will activate her Bluetooth from your end, allowing you to hear everything that’s happening on her end.
You can also activate her camera, which, you know, will obviously show you what she’s doing at any given moment.
” He pauses, watching me process. “You’ll have to get within twenty feet of her phone to initiate activation, and then you’re golden. ”
I nod slowly, staring at the phone in my hand. “And if I do want to hear her phone calls?”
Micah’s face splits into a smile. “I don’t think you’re ready for that, detective.”
My brows pinch together, his words throwing me off. “What do you mean?”
There’s the briefest flash of a blush under the ink across his neck that’s gone as quickly as it appeared, and he shakes his head, the smile on his face never faltering. “I just mean, women, you know. Sometimes us men don’t need to hear all the shit they talk about.”
I stare at him for a moment before agreeing that he’s probably right. Besides, I can hear at least one side of her phone conversations as long as they happen in her house near one of the cameras.
“Thanks,” I tell Micah, lifting my phone into the air.
“Anytime, detective.” He winks at me as I stay standing at his desk, assessing him and wondering if I should ask him what I’ve been curious to know this whole time.
“How do you know how to do all this? Is there someone you’re…” stalking, I don’t say.
His smile grows wider as he leans back in his chair again, not at all fazed by my line of questioning. “Do you really want to know?”
I think about it, and even though as a detective I probably should, I really don’t. I have enough shit to worry about.
I grunt and nod, pulling myself away and giving him one last thanks before I retreat from his office and meet Alex downstairs.
Captain Barrett did say that I was not active in this investigation, but he did not explicitly say that I couldn’t accompany Alex to interview Grayson’s wife.
And I have a feeling knowing where she was while her husband was being murdered will bring me one step closer to confirming that Chloe’s connected to all this, and I’m going to find out how.