Chapter One #2
He ended the call and unmuted Akiko’s phone. “The medics are here,” he told the operator. “Thank you for your assistance.” Then he ended the call and returned Akiko’s phone. “You okay?”
“No,” Akiko said honestly. “What just happened?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out,” Kit said.
“Will they let you?” Akiko asked. “Conflict of interest and all?”
“What they don’t know won’t hurt them,” Kit said. She glanced at Sam. “You okay with me conflicting the interest?”
He cupped her cheek, gratified when she leaned into his touch. “As long as you know that I’m not letting you do this alone.”
Hell, he wasn’t going to leave her side. Someone had shot her. Shot. Her. It was starting to sink in and Sam thought he might be sick.
Until she smiled at him. “I know I’m not alone. Not anymore.”
His spinning mind began to settle and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Good.”
San Diego, California
Saturday, January 28, 6:05 p.m.
“Connor, I swear I’m fine,” Kit said through clenched teeth. Her San Diego PD partner’s voice was panicked, so she was trying not to lash out.
“I leave you alone for two weeks—two fucking weeks, Kit. And you’re shot. Shot!”
She glanced over at Sam, who leaned against one wall of the ER cubicle. He was busy texting someone but looked up as though feeling her gaze.
He smirked. Hang up, he mouthed, then pointed to the ER doctor who was impatiently waiting.
“Look, Connor, it throbs, but it’s nothing like your owie.
” Her partner had been shot on the job two weeks before and was looking at months of recovery time.
He’d nearly died and Kit remembered her own panic at all the blood he’d lost. “My arm’s no longer bleeding and they’re going to stitch me up. ”
“Which would be easier to do if you got off the phone,” the ER doctor said. He raised his voice, leaning toward her phone. “Connor, she’s fine. I promise. Goodbye. Hang up, Miss McKittrick.”
“Gotta go,” Kit said, ending the call. “He was worried.”
The doctor nodded as he prepared to suture her wound, which was a through-and-through. Sam had been right.
“I got that,” the doctor said. “Boyfriends tend to get worried.”
Kit’s gaze flew to Sam, who just rolled his eyes.
“Um,” she said uncertainly. “Connor’s not my boyfriend. Sam’s my…boyfriend.” She’d not said the words out loud before.
It wasn’t as difficult as she’d expected. And so worth it when Sam’s smile lit up his face.
The doctor glanced at Sam as he lifted a syringe with a huge needle, inspecting the drop of moisture at the huge needle’s tip. “Then who’s Connor?”
“My partner at work.”
“This is Detective McKittrick,” Sam said. “She’s Homicide.”
“Oh.” The doctor looked suitably impressed. “I’ve heard of you.”
“You have?” Kit asked weakly, unable to take her eyes off the needle. “That’s a big needle, isn’t it? Can’t you use a smaller one?”
The doctor chuckled. “Scary detectives are always scared of tiny needles.”
“That isn’t tiny,” Kit argued. “It’s fucking enormous.”
“It’s truly fucking enormous,” Sam said and, to his credit, he didn’t laugh. Out loud anyway. But his green eyes were crinkled behind his Clark Kent glasses. “Hold my hand. I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Asshole,” she muttered, but she took his offered hand and shut her eyes tight. “Why are you giving me a shot?”
“To deaden the pain of the sutures,” the doctor said. “It’ll only feel like a pinch.”
Kit clenched her teeth once again. “Tell me when it’s over.”
“It’s over,” the doctor said. “But if you don’t like needles, keep your eyes closed for now.”
“Okay.” She turned her head to one side, just in case her eyes opened accidentally. “Did you talk to Navarro, Sam?”
He squeezed her hand lightly. “I did. He arrived shortly after you left with the medics.”
He hadn’t wanted to leave her side, but Akiko had been borderline hysterical, so he’d let her sister ride in the ambulance with her. He’d stayed to answer all the lieutenant’s questions.
“What did he say?”
“He sighed a lot.”
Kit let out a sigh of her own because she and Sam were gaining a reputation for finding bodies when they least expected it. “I bet he did.”
“Luckily at least three of Mrs. Sherman’s neighbors rushed up to say that they’d seen the ‘whole thing’ and that they had security camera footage to back up our story. So we’re in the clear.”
“I should hope so,” Kit said grumpily. “Not like it’s our fault we keep stumbling over bodies.”
The doctor made a strangled sound. It sounded like he’d choked on a laugh.
Good thing someone is happy today.
“Did Alicia come or did she send one of her techs?” The ME was supposed to have had the day off. She and her wife were taking their kids to the zoo.
“Alicia came, right about the time I was released from the scene. I stuck around until she’d had a chance to look at the body. She said that she’d know more when she got her on the table.”
“She always says that. What did she say off the record?”
“That Mrs. Sherman had been shot not too long before we arrived.”
Kit winced, and it had nothing to do with the sutures the doctor was apparently still doing. She barely felt a thing. But she knew Akiko would feel guilty about Mrs. Sherman. “If we hadn’t waited at the diner so long, we might have been in time to stop her killer.”
“I said as much, but Alicia said she was probably dead by the time we arrived at the diner. That our waiting for her to show up hadn’t changed a thing. Off the record, of course.”
“Of course. Has the victim’s husband been notified?”
“Navarro said he’d take care of it.”
“Who is he assigning?”
“Your best pals. Marshall and Ashton.”
Kit had to steady her heart. She liked Kevin Marshall and Alf Ashton. They were amazing cops. But they were supposed to be working another case.
“I texted Kevin,” Sam said. “He says they won’t stop working on Wren’s case. Said to tell you that they won’t let you down.”
Because they’d finally gotten a lead on Wren’s killer, after years of nothing.
It had been nearly seventeen years since Wren’s death, and it physically hurt that she’d been unable to solve her sister’s murder.
She knew that Navarro had been right to give the case to Marshall and Ashton.
There was no way she could be objective.
She also knew they’d do their best, but cold cases were a lot of hurry up and wait. Marshall and Ashton had to work Wren’s case in between the fresh cases, like Mary Sherman’s.
“I know they won’t let me down,” she murmured. “Is Akiko okay?”
“She’s calmer now. I saw her in front of the hospital when I came in. She’s waiting for your folks. Said she needed to move and that there wasn’t enough space for that in the waiting room.”
“She must have really long legs,” the doctor deadpanned. “The waiting room isn’t that small.”
“She’s only about five-two,” Sam said with a smile in his voice, “but she’s a powerhouse.”
“By needing to move, she means she has to do her kata,” Kit explained. “She’s a black belt and doing the kata makes her less stressed. I used to call it her karate dancing.”
Sam chuckled. “Seems accurate. When was that? When you were fifteen?”
“And last week.” Kit’s ears perked up at a trio of familiar voices. “We’re about to be invaded.”
The privacy curtain swooshed open.
“Kit.” Betsy McKittrick sounded like she’d been crying. “My baby.”
“I’m okay, Mom. I promise. Sam took good care of me.”
“Of course he did,” Harlan said gruffly. “He and Akiko both contacted us right away. We weren’t at home so it took us a while to get here.” His scent filled her head. Wood chips, hay, and lemon. He always smelled the same. It was a comfort. “You really okay, Kitty-Cat?”
“I am. Just a little hole in my arm. Didn’t hit anything important.”
“She’s not lying,” the doctor said cheerfully. “I’m all done. I’ll send someone in with the aftercare instructions. She shouldn’t be alone for the next few hours.”
Kit opened one eye in time to see Harlan, Betsy, Akiko, and Sam all nodding.
“She won’t be,” they all said in unison.
Kit groaned. “My life.”
Harlan’s big hand trembled as he stroked her hair, then cupped her cheek. “You’ve got a good life, Kitty-Cat.”
She let go of Sam’s hand to cover Harlan’s. “Because of you and Mom. You promised me I’d have a good life and you never lie.”
“I don’t. Now, how about you and Akiko stop lying and tell me what’s going on. Why were you at that woman’s house to begin with?”
She glanced at Akiko, who was staring at the floor. “You didn’t tell him?”
“No,” Akiko whispered. “And don’t ask me why not, because I’m not sure.”
Kit exhaled quietly, then brought her parents up to speed, telling them about Mrs. Sherman’s call to Akiko more than two weeks before.
How, out of the blue, this woman had come forward, claiming to have known Akiko’s mother.
And how Kit hadn’t wanted her to meet the woman alone, that she’d had a bad feeling about the whole thing. And I was right.
All the while Akiko kept staring at the floor and her parents kept shooting concerned looks in Akiko’s direction.
“We just figured we’d have a sit-down with Mrs. Sherman and get Akiko’s questions answered,” Kit finished, “but…well. It didn’t turn out that way.”
Betsy turned to Akiko with wet eyes, because she’d started to cry again in the middle of Kit’s tale. “You didn’t trust us?”
Akiko’s head flew up, her expression horrified. “No! I…I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want you to think I cared more about finding my mother than you. Because you are my mother, Mom. You and Pop are my parents.”
“I know that, you silly girl. It’s okay that you want to know about your biological mother. It’s all okay.” Betsy engulfed Akiko in a hug and Harlan embraced them both. There were a lot of tears.
Even Harlan was crying and that always tore Kit’s heart.
Kit reached for Sam’s hand, knowing he’d still be there. Still close by.
Sam brought their joined hands to his lips. “It’s going to be okay, Kit,” he murmured. “However this turns out, it’ll be okay. I won’t let anyone shoot you again.”
She stared up at him. “I know.” Because she did. Sam appeared to be everyone’s idea of a nice guy—and he was. But he was no pushover. He was strength and safety. He kept his promises.
And he was extremely easy on the eyes with his messy dark hair and nerdy glasses. She brought their joined hands to her lips and echoed his kiss.
I’m lucky. In so many ways.
She was lucky to have Harlan and Betsy. And Akiko.
She was lucky to have Sam.
I’m lucky to be alive.
If she hadn’t ducked to listen at the Shermans’ door, that first bullet would have struck her in the head, too.
Now the biggest question was why.
“Why me?” she said. “Why did he shoot at me?”
Because the shooter hadn’t fired at Sam or Akiko, even when they’d put their bodies in harm’s way, defending her.
“I don’t know,” Sam said, his voice going grim and cold, and she realized that he’d been wondering the same thing. “But you can be damn sure we’ll find out.”
Kit nodded once. “Together.”