Chapter 13
Okay. It was a brand new day now.
Goal one for the day: Not shove a lab tech into a mass spectrometer.
Goal two for the day: Get the beautiful fearless leaders everything she could find on a thirty-year-old man named Julian Adams, son of Kevin Adams. Kevin Adams—who had apparently been bludgeoned and killed on the same ball field as Harper Wycoff.
Julian, who would have been nineteen at the time of his father’s death, was the last known person to have spoken with Harper Wycoff.
Kevin Adams. Harper Wycoff’s softball coach. Interesting connection.
For a town with 396 residents—give or take one or two—to have two murders, even over ten years apart—in the same location, of people that knew each other, well wasn’t that just a little bit entirely too coincidental?
Dani was more an “everything was connected” theorist on the world, rather than a “random coincidences suck” type. Four hundred people in town and two dead in the same spot…hmmm. Something to think about.
She could understand why Deputy Lindhour thought the cases were connected.
Dani had some serious digging to do.
And like it or not, she had one Special Agent Dr. Ian Ward to track down.
She far wished it was the mysterious, and rugged, and beyond sexy Special Agent Taggart Walker, but…
Ward was supposed to already be floating around the building.
Miranda had said he had been assigned to go over Archivals.
But Knight wanted him ready for Oklahoma now.
Well, Oklahoma was maybe far enough away.
“You are beyond edgy again,” Shayna said behind her. “What’s going on?”
“Just have to go on a mission of my own. Knight wants Ward prepared to head to Oklahoma in a few days, if needed. I’m supposed to deliver the message. I just have to find that man first.” And Ian was not where she expected him to be. That was the problem.
Dani was going to have to go on a manhunt here, damn it. And that could have so many different meanings…
“Oh, to be in your shoes…” Shayna fanned herself quickly. They were just ignoring Michael-the-idiot behind them. He would get so snide when they talked about anything other than what he deemed appropriate. Asshole.
Especially when they talked about men in any way. Women were just not allowed to have those kinds of thoughts or conversations in Michael’s world. It wasn’t decent, womanly, or as she suspected—allowed in his particular religious sect.
Which was the number one reason she and Shayna had those very types of conversations only when Michael was around. They were professionals, after all. With very serious missions here.
Mostly.
Mostly…they were just getting sick and tired of Michael.
That whole not shoving him into the mass spec was probably going to become more and more difficult to do. “This crush you have on Ward is weird.”
“That man is beautiful, Dani. Absolutely beautiful.”
Well, Shayna wasn’t wrong. At all. The man was very beautiful to look at. It was when he looked back at Dani that she…got a little shaky sometimes.
But that was her little secret.
Dani backed up and turned. She was taking the wheels on her hunt for Ian Ward—she did not feel like navigating the halls on crutches today.
She’d slept wrong or something—her back was hurting already.
Chronic pain—it could be a total bitch sometimes.
Ibuprofen was her best friend. “I think you are insane.”
“Well, maybe. But admit it—Lyndon and I both agree, the men in Cold Case…OMG. I’m surprised the bottom of my shoes don’t melt when Knight, Tag, and Ian are all nearby.”
Well, privately, Dani did agree with that assessment. Cold Case had pulled the best of the best. They were all beautiful. Mostly because of the heart they all had for what they were doing. They reminded her good people did exist in this world.
Dani had finally found a team where she truly fit.
She just ignored the pissed off whine from Michael as he said quite loudly that that kind of conversation was inappropriate for young women to have.
Dani looked at him and smirked. “Oh, fuck off, Mikey. Or better yet, go back to where you came from.”
He practically shrieked at the big bad “F” word and took off.
Mission accomplished.
Shayna snickered.
Well, Dani hadn’t been raised to be a doormat. The guy could go shove his own head up his ass. That would be far more appropriate for Michael.
It took her longer than she wanted to think about to actually find that man.
Ian, not Michael. First, Ian was not in the small archival conference room on the fifth floor of the PAVAD building.
Someone directed her to the cafeteria. Of course, he was not there.
And he wasn’t answering his phone. PAVAD was a huge building now.
More than five hundred people worked there, too.
It was spreading out onto a small second campus across the road soon.
Finding Ian was proving too difficult here.
What was the point of having phones if the man she was looking for wasn’t going to answer?
When she finally did see that man-creature meandering up the fourth-floor hallway like he didn’t have a care in the world—Dani was ready to growl.
The ibuprofen hadn’t kicked in yet. She had stronger stuff—but she refused to use it when on the clock.
And she was allergic to naproxen, so that was out.
“There you are. Why aren’t you answering your phone?
” Even Dani could hear the bitchy tone in her voice, but she had things to do right now—and she was hurting.
She had a heating pad in her office. And Michael had been texting her and calling her back to the lab for five minutes.
He’d lost his own ass again and apparently couldn’t find it.
Again.
“I was in the microfiche room. No signal. What do you need?”
Well. That made sense. There was a small almost closet behind Archivals that housed an absolutely antiquated microfiche system.
Dani thought it was awesome and could spend all day in there digging into the past. But cell signal was non-existent.
Ian did tend to disappear in there sometimes.
“I probably should have checked there fifteen minutes ago.”
“You are cranky today. Michael being Michael?”
“I can’t wait until he violates this latest probation. Marianna and Richison told him it was the last chance he has.”
“I am counting down the minutes for you. So…what’s really bothering you?”
He was, in that exact moment. He was looking at her with those intense blue eyes. No man on earth had eyes that exact shade of blue. At one time, blue like that had been her favorite color. But now, every time she saw that blue, she thought about Ian Ward.
Dani really needed to stop thinking about Ian Ward. Fast.
“I am tired. I am hurting. And just…never mind.” Not exactly being professional. No denying that. But some days were far worse than others.
Especially when she knew it was going to rain.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could help somehow.”
Oh, he knew how to say the right things.
No wonder Shayna liked him so much. “Anyway, Knight wants you activated. Something about them finding another, older unsolved. I’m supposed to have you check in with Miranda in about an hour to see if you are going to Oklahoma or not.
Knight was getting a bit cranky when he couldn’t reach you himself this morning. ”
“Gotcha. I’m sorry you had to be the errand woman.”
He just sort of stayed next to her chair as she headed back to the lab. Dani wanted to ask him what else he wanted. But…she’d already acted a bit beyond bitchy here. No use confirming what his opinion had to be about her now. “I’m good. It got me away from that lab-bound idiot.”
Normally, she never said a single harsh thing about the people who worked in the lab.
But Michael was going to seriously jeopardize cases someday.
Some other helpless victims would have to live with the knowledge that there was nothing else law enforcement could do.
And just have to find a way…to live…with not having the answers.
That hurt. Each and every time.
It would be thirteen years for her in two days. And they didn’t have any more than what they’d had back then. And she was one thousand percent certain no one was even looking any longer.
“Anything else? You can tell me. I won’t say a word.”
“He’s going to screw something up, Ward. It’s just a matter of time now. And a case will be thrown out. What about the people that will hurt? I know what that feels like personally. There is nothing any of us in the lab can do but watch him and hope for the best.”
“Is he just inexperienced?”
“I don’t know. But he’s a sexist jerk, on top of it.
He is always telling Shayna and me—or some of the other women in the lab—how we are failing in our femininity for not living up to what his perceived rules are for womankind.
It’s not just annoying. It’s strange. Really, really strange.
Like who gave him authority over us anyway, not to mention his ideas are way out there to begin with.
And the way he looks at us sometimes—it’s starting to weird me out.
” The words were coming from somewhere. She didn’t exactly trust Ward, but the man’s mind was phenomenal.
“Anyway, I think he just has some personality problems. I sent you copies of the latest Oklahoma case. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“I’ll do that.”
She turned left. The better elevator for her chair was at the midway of the hall. He followed. Then they were in the elevator together. And Dani was just watching him.
The man…well, she wasn’t going to ever tell Shayna how she really felt. But…in her opinion, Ward was the hottest of the men in Cold Case now. And that was saying something as Tag and Knight could scorch the sun when they looked at a woman.
Ward had them beat by a mile.
He looked at her for the longest time, a little smirk on his beautiful mouth just designed to drive a woman crazy. They just…stared.
“So…what’s going on in Oklahoma?”
Dani filled him in on what she knew so far.