CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Kat tried to keep a low profile.
It wasn’t like she wasn’t allowed to be at Central Station. Everyone here knew she was best friends with their colleague, Jessie Hunt. And having Jessie’s little sister, Hannah, here with her didn’t hurt.
But considering that the two of them were here to talk to Jamil and Beth, who were doing research work for them on the side, drawing attention to themselves might not be a great idea. The other detectives in HSS wouldn’t mind. But Captain Parker could be a stickler.
That’s why they had waited until Beth texted them that Parker had left the station for her noon lunch break before coming in. Even so, they moved quickly down the hall to research, where Jamil and Beth were going to give them an update on the search for Ash Pierce.
Kat noted that Hannah was moving through the station comfortably, suggesting that either she was fast getting over her temporary agoraphobia or that she was so used to this place that it wasn’t a source of potential anxiety. Either way, Kat considered it progress.
They were almost to research when an officer rounding the corner while looking at his phone accidentally bumped into Hannah. His phone dropped to the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” he said as he bent down to grab it.
Hannah was doing the same thing, and as they both kneeled forward, their heads collided, making a loud thwack. Hannah stumbled back and might have fallen if Kat hadn't steadied her from behind.
“Oh my god, are you okay?” the officer asked, looking aghast.
“I’m good,” Hannah muttered irritably, rubbing her forehead without even looking at the guy.
As a result, she didn’t see that his already ruddy cheeks had turned an even deeper shade of red. His hazel eyes grew wide as he seemed to realize who he was talking to.
“Oh man,” he groaned. “I can’t believe that the first time I meet Jessie Hunt’s sister, I inadvertently assault her.”
Hannah looked at the young man, who appeared to be only a few years older than she was, for the first time. There was suspicion in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “but who are you and how do you know who I am?”
"Oh, right," he said sheepishly. "My name is Harper—I mean Officer Harper Devery. I was assigned to Central Station a few months ago. I've been lucky enough to help out HSS, and specifically Ms. Hunt, on a few cases. I recognize you from a photo on her phone's screensaver."
“Okay,” Hannah said. “I hope you’re less clumsy when you’re working with her.”
If possible, his cheeks turned even more crimson.
“You’d hope,” he said. “But I’m really not. Everyone has to be on guard against concussions when I’m around.”
Kat was amused as she watched his self-deprecation almost immediately melt Hannah’s anger.
“I’ll give you a pass this time,” she said.
"I appreciate that," he said, awkwardly half-bowing before turning to Kat. "I apologize, but I don't have an inappropriate awareness of who you are, ma'am."
Kat felt about a decade older at hearing him use that term.
“First of all, please don’t ever call me ma’am,” she told him. “I think I heard my bones creak at the term. I’m Kat Gentry, a friend of Jessie’s.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Ms. Gentry,” he said, extending his hand.
"You as well," she said, shaking it.
“Can I do anything for you two?” he asked, “I mean, other than injure you?”
“We’re good, Officer Devery,” she told him. “We’re just here to visit Jamil and Beth in research. It’s been a while since we’ve seen them.”
Devery seemed like a perfectly pleasant, if slightly goofy, guy. But she didn't know where his allegiances lay. He might be excited to help out HSS, but that didn't mean he wouldn't share their presence here with Captain Parker. To be on the safe side, she decided that the less he knew, the better.
"Okay, then I'll get out of your hair," he said, before adding, "It was really nice to meet you, Ms. Gentry, Ms. Dorsey."
Hannah groaned.
“You can call me Hannah, Officer,” she said. “Otherwise, I’ll start hearing my bones creak too.”
Clearly sensing that he was starting to make things worse again, he nodded and shuffled off quickly, though he did steal a glance back at them, or to Kat’s mind, at Hannah. Once he was gone, she turned her attention to her young temporary assistant.
“You can call me Hannah?” she teased. “Don’t lead that young fella on when he seems to have a crush.”
Hannah scowled. “That’s nice for him if it’s true, but I’m not interested. The last guy I was into tried to kill me so it’s a hard pass.”
“But he’s vetted,” Kat told her, enjoying needling Hannah, who was usually so self-assured. “He’s a cop and he’s kind of cute.”
“You heard him. He’s barely a cop,” Hannah scoffed. “And I’m off romance for a while.”
“For how long?”
“I’m thinking the rest of the decade,” Hannah said acidly. “Talk to me again when I’m 25. And I know what you’re doing, trying to get me in silly schoolgirl mode so I get out of my own head.”
“Is it working?” Kat asked.
“Not when you’re that transparent about it,” Hannah told her. “Maybe I should do the same to you. After all, you’ve been pretty chummy with that Dalton guy.”
That “Dalton” guy was Dalton Tepper, who, like Kat, was an Army Ranger back when they served in Afghanistan. When an IED took out their vehicle, it killed three other Rangers, leaving Kat and Tepp as the only survivors.
She had her facial scars from the incident as permanent reminders.
Tepp lost three fingers on his left hand and had his spleen removed.
They were the lucky ones. After leaving active service, Tepp transitioned from the Rangers to military intelligence and eventually to civilian intelligence.
He was currently the CIA station chief in Argentina.
It was in that capacity that Kat had called on him for help.
When she’d discovered that Ash Pierce was hiding out in Guayaquil, Ecuador after escaping police custody in L.A.
, she’d turned to him to try to retrieve the woman.
Ecuador had a sometimes-complicated relationship with the United States when it came to extraditions, so other, less “official” measures had to be used to reclaim her.
Unfortunately, by the time they got to the hostel where she was staying, Pierce had left.
But that didn’t stop Kat and Tepp from chatting occasionally.
Hannah had been in the office for one of those conversations and had apparently drawn conclusions about the nature of their relationship.
That realization made Kat squirm. She’d enjoyed their casual discussions, but apparently, to Hannah, they seemed like more than just chit-chat.
The thought made Kat slightly sick to her stomach. She was less than nine months removed from the murder of her fiancé’, Mitch Connor, whom she was still mourning. Was she giving off coy vibes to Tepp? Apparently, Hannah had gotten that impression. Guilt washed over her.
“We’re just army buddies,” she said sharply. “Let’s go talk to Jamil and Beth.”
Hannah looked surprised by the tartness of her tone but said nothing. They stepped into the research department. Jamil and Beth looked over at them simultaneously.
“Tell me you guys found something useful,” Kat said. “All I want is to hear is a bit of good news, like maybe that facial recognition identified Pierce at a motel somewhere between here and Lake Tahoe and officers are on their way there now to arrest her. Can you tell me that?”
The researchers exchanged an anxious look that gave her the answer before either of them spoke.
“I’m afraid not, Ms. Gentry,” Jamil said. “We’ve been reviewing every resource at our disposal. And so far, we haven’t found any sign of Ash Pierce.”
“But we’ve only culled through about 65% of the available data,” Beth added quickly, clearly not wanting to disappoint her. “There’s still a chance that we might find something. It’s just going to take some time.”
Kat didn’t say it out loud because she didn’t want to make the researchers feel bad, but they didn’t have time. The woman found in the forest outside Lake Tahoe had been dead for at least three days. That was an eternity for Pierce to prep whatever malevolence she had planned.
Unless they figured out who the victim was or lucked out on facial recognition somewhere, and soon, Kat feared that Pierce would get to them before they got to her.