Chapter Fourteen
Making sure Bree and the kids were safe had been the right priority, but damn if Tanner hadn’t wanted to go straight to her apartment. Find those bastards who had put the normally reserved Bree into such a panic.
Even worse, if he hadn’t received a message on his personal phone from an unknown number about the situation, he never would’ve been there to help her in the first place.
A three-man team? It definitely wasn’t a burglary. There was nothing worth taking in an apartment that size.
When Tanner arrived back near the outside of Bree’s place, Ronnie was cuffing a man.
Bree’s creepy, thin guy. He was bleeding from a wound near his mouth and looked like the sleeve of his shirt had been torn.
“You read him his rights?” he asked Ronnie.
“Yep. Guy hasn’t said a word.”
Tanner got up in his face. “Where are your other two friends? Are they still around?”
The man just stared. “I’m not the person you’re looking for. But yes, I would assume those three men are still nearby. Although what they’re looking for isn’t in reach, so they probably won’t make themselves known.”
“Oh, yeah?” Ronnie pushed the guy a little forward toward the police vehicle. “What exactly are they looking for? Bree doesn’t have much cash or anything of value.”
Tanner already knew what the men had been looking for. They’d been here to take Bree and the kids.
“Do you work for the people after her?” Tanner asked.
The guy looked surprised for a split second before covering it. “Believe me, I hate them more than anyone.”
“What are we talking about?” Ronnie asked.
Tanner ignored his colleague. “Are you the one who sent me the message?”
“What message?” Ronnie asked, louder this time. But the man didn’t respond.
Tanner turned to Ronnie. “Take him to holding then meet me back here to process the scene.”
Tanner waited to see if the guy would protest his innocence or demand to be set free, but he didn’t. Just silently watched what was happening around him, taking in everything.
The same way he’d been watching Bree.
Ronnie took him to the squad car, and Tanner walked the rest of the way inside the apartment, weapon drawn. He looked around her living room. Nothing seemed out of place or broken, except Bree’s phone in pieces on the floor.
Once Tanner checked any place someone might be hiding and confirmed the apartment was empty, he put away his weapon. The broken phone caught his attention again. Had the burglars done that? Bree wouldn’t have. She still carried that thing around with her faithfully every day.
A tap on the door had him looking up and his hand moving toward his weapon again. But it was only Scott, looking flushed and out of breath. He’d definitely been running.
“You okay?” Tanner asked.
Scott nodded. “I heard about the break-in over the walkie. Since I was awake, I thought I would come on over from the hotel, and saw a couple of guys running off one of the side streets. I followed but I wasn’t able to catch them.”
“Were you able to catch any sort of identifying features?”
The younger man grimaced. “No, nothing. I’m sorry.”
Tanner nodded, but that wasn’t the most important thing. “Next time you see something like that, be sure to call it in. You’re not here to work active cases, Watson. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Will do. And maybe this is the motivation I need to get myself in better shape.” Scott gave a half smile and hiked up his jeans.
It wasn’t that he was really so heavy—it was more that he was cumbersome and bulky. Definitely not light or quick on his feet.
“I see you’re carrying,” Tanner said when he saw the holster at Scott’s waist. “That’s good.”
The younger man touched his weapon softly. “Yeah. Always.”
Tanner nodded. Maybe there was hope for this kid to be more than just a paper pusher, if he really wanted to improve his skill sets.
“Can I help since I’m here?”
“Sure.” Tanner gestured for him to come in.
Scott entered the rest of the way. “This is Bree’s apartment, right? Is it a burglary?”
“If they were looking for anything valuable, she certainly doesn’t have much outside of baby equipment.”
Scott glanced around. “Where is she now? Is she all right?”
“Shaken up, but she’s all right. She’s with some friends.”
And as soon as Tanner was finished here, he was going to make sure Bree and the kids went someplace safe.
Scott looked around more. “I see that kitchen window open. Did she have to climb out that? And why is her phone in pieces on the floor?”
Tanner went over to check out the open window. “Bree said there were three guys. Maybe they’d had both the front and back door covered and this was her only way out.”
Fury pooled in his gut at the thought of her trying to make it out this window with both babies. She would’ve had to land hard and was probably more hurt than he thought. Might need medical attention. “Damn it.”
Scott studied the window. “She had to have been pretty scared to go out that way with both kids in tow. Do you think the burglars made it all the way into the house?”
Tanner shook his head. “I don’t think this was a burglary at all. I think it was an attempted abduction, and Bree foiled their plans by escaping.”
Scott whistled through his teeth. “Abduction? To what end? Human trafficking? Selling her and the kids on the black market or something?”
Tanner wasn’t going to drag Scott into the situation with Bree. Not until he had all the details. “Maybe. I plan to dig deeper into it.”
“Look, man, I’ve got nothing but respect for you and your department here. But it’s obvious you care about this woman, despite what you said earlier.”
“Yeah, so?”
Scott shrugged. “Don’t kill the messenger here, okay? I’m just saying if it was anyone else that maybe you weren’t so attracted to, might you be considering some other...possibilities?”
“Other possibilities like what? That she’s making this up?”
“No, not necessarily that. But you’re right.” Scott gestured around the apartment. “Nobody would break into this tiny little apartment to steal. And my kidnapping theory is pretty far-fetched, too. But what if she knew the guys who were after her?”
“Like the mob.” Tanner had to admit, it did make sense. Who were these people after Bree and her cousin?
“She’s new in town, right? She shows up here with her babies, needing help.
” Scott gave a one-shouldered shrug with a grimace.
“And look, I’m not saying she doesn’t need help.
I’m not saying she’s a criminal. But maybe these three guys who showed up tonight are people she owes money to or something.
Maybe she’s not completely innocent, and you should bring her in and question her officially. ”
Ronnie’s voice spoke up from the door. “Okay, got our guy back to the station.”
Scott looked surprised. “You caught one of the people who broke in?”
Tanner shook his head. “No. Just someone who happened to be out for a walk and heard some ruckus. Came to investigate. We brought him in for questioning.”
Until Tanner had a chance to talk to creepy guy and ask him how the hell he knew those men were about to hit Bree’s house, he didn’t want to share too much information with anyone.
“He finally admitted the bumps and bruises on him were because he jumped on one of the men involved.” Ronnie looked around. “Said the guy was about to hurt Bree and he couldn’t let that happen.”
“Lucky he was wandering around,” Scott murmured.
Tanner didn’t respond. It was both lucky and highly suspicious. Maybe he was the one who had been about to hurt Bree.
Bree had always seemed so skittish of the man. Was it possible she knew him and had been lying all this time? And if creepy man knew her and wanted to warn her trouble was coming, why message Tanner? Why not just contact Bree himself? He’d obviously been close by.
Too many questions. Not enough answers.
Tanner crouched down to look at the broken phone again. He was missing something big here.
“Look at it,” Scott said. “That’s more damage than just happens from a phone falling from your hand. Somebody stomped on it.”
Scott was right. That was what Tanner had missed. The phone wasn’t just broken, it was destroyed.
Why? And by whom?
Ronnie was still at the door. “This jamb was shimmied, but it probably wouldn’t have been very loud, Tanner. How would Bree have gotten up and gotten both babies out a window in the time it took someone to break the lock and get in here? Seems impossible.”
He had to agree. “Someone called and warned her.”
Again, too many questions. Not enough answers.
Ronnie tilted his head and studied the pieces of the phone. “If so, it certainly seemed to make Bree mad.”
“She thought someone was using the phone to trace her whereabouts,” Tanner said. It made sense, given her paranoia about phones in Denver.
“This definitely goes back to her being involved with something bigger. Something she may not be admitting to,” Scott said.
“You really might want to question her and find out what she’s been hiding.
And if she’s innocent, protective custody may be the safest place for her and the kids if someone from the mob is after her. ”
Maybe that was true, but Tanner wasn’t bringing her into the station until they figured out exactly how creepy guy fit into this.
But he would send Ronnie over to the Sunrise, not only to make sure Bree was safe, but also to make sure she didn’t make a run for it. Scott’s comments had Tanner wondering if maybe he’d let himself be blinded to the truth. Maybe Bree wasn’t a completely innocent party in all this.
Maybe he’d only been seeing what he wanted to see.