Chapter 10 Rad
RAD
By the time Rad got to the station that morning, he had to try to suppress the cough that had plagued him since the fire and was still annoying him.
Every breath reminded him that running into a burning building after Margo had not been one of his more sensible career choices, though if he had to do it again, he knew perfectly well he would.
That was the problem. He had enough self-awareness to know when he was being reckless, but not enough common sense to stop when it mattered.
The front desk was already busy. Phones rang.
A deputy was trying to calm an elderly man who was complaining about teenagers on dirt bikes.
May sat behind the desk in her usual place, composed and efficient, somehow managing the morning chaos with a cup of coffee in one hand and a stack of pink message slips in the other.
She looked up the moment he came in.
“Good morning, Detective Hero.” May grinned. “Should you be back at work?”
“I’m fine and I didn’t get injured,” Rad pointed out. “So yes, I should be back at work.”
“Well, welcome back, and I’m glad you’re okay,” May told him.
Rad nodded and moved past her, then skillfully slipped past anyone else, avoiding eye contact as he didn’t feel like recapping what happened at Teacups.
Rad had just settled behind his desk when there was a knock. He called for the person to enter, and May popped her head around the door.
“I have something for you,” May told him and stepped inside, pulling the door closed behind her, then holding up a file.
“What’s that?” He frowned at it, pointing.
“A call came through yesterday asking for you.” May walked closer to his desk.
Rad glanced at the folder, noting there was no label on the front, no routing slip clipped to it. That alone was unusual.
“Yesterday?” he asked. “While I was in the hospital.”
“Yes, I did point that out to the caller.” May put the folder on the desk in front of him. “I also told them I could pass the call to another officer. But their answer was an adamant no.”
“No?” Rad looked up. “Then it couldn’t be very important.”
“No. Apparently, it’s…how did they say, ‘super uber important.’” May’s mouth twitched as she quoted whoever had called. “They were also very clear. It had to go to you, and only you.”
That sharpened his attention.
“Why?” His brow furrowed a little tighter.
“They wouldn’t say.” May shrugged. “I was also told I wasn’t to mention it to anyone else in the station.”
“Who is it?” Rad looked at her, confused now.
“It’s in there. I’m not spoiling the surprise.” May rolled her eyes toward the file.
He stared at her for a second longer.
“Well, all I can say is, good luck with it. And if you need my help, let me know.” May grinned. “But I am glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks.” Rad’s attention was already drawn to the folder, and he barely noticed her leaving.
He opened the file, and his eyes shot up almost at once.
“What the heck?” Rad breathed.
Clipped to the inside cover was a message slip with a phone number and one name written in May’s neat block letters.
For a moment, he just stared at it.
“Well, this can’t be good,” Rad muttered softly before he picked up the desk phone and dialed the number.
It rang a few times.
“Hello?” the voice echoed impatiently through the receiver.
“Sienna?” Rad said. “You put in a call for me, but you haven’t given any details.”
“Rad.” Sienna’s voice was filled with relief. “Thank goodness.”
His brows rose.
“What’s wrong?” Rad asked.
“I need you to get to my house now,” Sienna demanded. “Actually, right now would be good, because my mother won’t be back until tonight, and my father’s at work.” There was a pause, then she added in a lower voice, “Also, my brother’s in Miami, so now is best.”
Rad leaned back in his chair, already suspicious that this might have something to do with the bracelet.
“What’s going on, Sienna? I need a little more than that before I leave my job and come running over.” Rad waited for her answer, and then there was a bit of a pause.
“This is your job,” Sienna said with an impatient huff.
“No, my job is looking into various elements of crime,” Rad reminded her. “As your father is the police chief here, I’m sure you know that.”
“Look,” Sienna went on, her impatience growing, “I can’t tell you until you get here, and I’ve already waited an entire day.” There was another pause. Then, quieter as the desperation cracked through, she said, “Please. I need you to come here. I just can’t explain over the phone.”
That changed the tone enough to make him sit straighter.
He had heard Sienna Morrison sound irritated, superior, amused, and outright nasty in the past. Desperate was new.
“Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.” He glanced at the clock above his office door.
“Please don’t tell anyone,” she said quickly. “Especially not my father.”
Rad frowned.
“Okay.” He promised. “I’m on my way.”
Rad hung up, stood, grabbed his keys, and stepped back out into the bullpen. May looked up from the desk immediately, and the smug little thumbs-up she gave him made it obvious she had known exactly who the caller was all along.
“I’m heading out to see the caller,” Rad told her.
“Yeah, good luck with that,” May told him, adding softly, “Beware of her cat. That thing is a ball of fury and terror with extra sharp fangs and claws.”
“Thanks for the warning.” Rad shook his head as he watched the amusement flash in May’s eyes.
The Morrison mansion sat where it always had, looking out over the bay like money had decided to build itself in stone and glass. Rad had seen it from across the water plenty of times. Everyone in town had. But driving up the long curving approach made the scale of it hit differently.
“Good grief,” Rad muttered under his breath.
The house did not so much sit on the land as command it.
He had barely put the car in park when the front door opened, and Sienna hurried out. She didn’t wave. She didn’t smile. She just came fast down the steps in white shorts and a pale blue blouse, looking expensive, tense, and very much unlike someone about to host a polite visit.
“Come on, please hurry,” Sienna said, indicating with her hand for him to follow her as she glanced around nervously.
Rad got out and shut the door. He followed her around the side of the house.
“Sienna.” He said, his long strides easily keeping up with her hurried ones. “What is going on?”
She looked back over her shoulder, impatient. “You’ll see. Come on.”
He followed her around the rear terrace and past the pool, and only then did he realize she was leading him toward the pool house.
It was less a pool house and more a second residence.
“You live back here?” He stopped on the walkway and gave a low whistle.
“Yes. But I’ve been sleeping in my old bedroom for the past two nights while I waited for you to get here.” Sienna shot him a look.
“Wait.” He frowned. “You live here?”
She stared at him as if he had asked whether the pool contained water.
“Isn’t that what I just said?” Sienna’s face scrunched up impatiently.
Rad let it go.
She stepped through the open door and marched him inside.
The place was immaculate. Spacious living room, tasteful furniture, expensive art, a kitchen bigger than the one in his own house, and the kind of cool polished stillness that said no one had children, dogs, or ordinary clutter anywhere near it.
“Why am I here?” He looked around once.
“Can’t you tell?” she said sharply.
“Really, no.” Rad shook his head, looking back at her with raised eyebrows. “Did a cleaner miss a speck of dust?”
“What?” Sienna looked at him as if he were crazy. “No. Can’t you tell?” Again, Rad shook his head. “There was a break-in,” she hissed.
Rad looked around again.
Nothing looked broken. Nothing looked ransacked. Nothing looked remotely out of place except for Sienna’s mood.
“I’m sorry,” Rad said carefully, “but I can’t tell there’s been a break-in. There are absolutely no signs.”
“Well, my front door was wide open.” She pointed at it. “That’s how I found it the day I found out I had a break-in.”
He looked back at the door.
“Don’t you have people who come clean your pool house?” Rad looked at her, wondering if she was on something.
Her expression turned glacial.
“No one goes into my house without my consent. Not even the cleaners.” Sienna’s tone matched her stare.
“Oh.” He was getting annoyed now, wondering if she’d called him here because she’d probably forgotten to close her door. “What’s out of place?”
“Follow me.” Sienna’s chin went up before she spun around.
She led him down a hall, and he had just enough time to register that the place had three bedrooms and a primary suite the size of a small apartment before he saw the damage inside the room.
The closet door hung off one hinge, splintered and twisted. Inside, part of the wall had been ripped open with ugly force.
“There,” Sienna said, pointing at it. “Now do you see it?”
“What was in that closet?” Rad stepped closer.
He pulled a pair of latex gloves from his pocket, snapped them on, and crouched to study the torn opening in the wall. It looked as if something rectangular had been fitted there, then yanked free hard enough to damage both the frame and drywall.
“My safe was in there,” Sienna told him. “I keep that closet locked at all times. I’m the only one with the key.” She pulled a long chain from around her neck and showed him. “No one else has access to it or even knows it’s in there.”
“No one?” Rad glanced at her. “None of your family, staff, or friends?”
“Well…” Sienna frowned. “Maybe two friends.”
“I’m going to need their names,” Rad told her.
“I’d rather you didn’t involve them either,” Sienna told him. “They didn’t do this.”
“Sienna…” Rad began, but he could see by the set of her jaw and slightly raised chin that he wasn’t going to move her on this. “I still need their names.”
“Okay,” Sienna agreed, “but don’t contact them. I’ll write them down.”
Rad nodded and turned back to the place where there used to be a safe.