Manhunt Read online

  “It’s been four years since I joined the team. I figure if it hasn’t happened by now…”

  Maybe their razzing her was their idea of respect. That was possible. But still, Hailey didn’t like double standards.

  “Besides, why do I have to be the one that’s nice? Maybe they should go first.”

  Jonah sighed. “Why does my job feel more like babysitting than federal law enforcement? And I’m not just talking about the criminals.”

  Hailey opened her mouth, but Jonah lifted his hand, palm facing out. “Save it, Shelder. We’ll get the techs to go through all this. Find out who Deirdre and Farrell were working with.” Jonah folded his arms, his face completely neutral. “The BOLO will be updated to include Deirdre and her car. We’ll take this from here. You two head back to the office.”

  Jonah wasn’t going to ream her for going off unsupervised? “What’s going on?”

  “You want me to tell you that you did a good job?” Jonah asked.

  “Might be nice.”

  “That’s not going to happen. We all want to catch him, and you scored big with Deirdre and the files upstairs. Your actions versus the result, you barely broke even.”

  “What?” Hailey couldn’t believe he thought she’d only done enough to outweigh her acting not exactly according to procedure. “But—”

  “I get you want to catch Farrell, but this isn’t the way to do it. One of these days this jumping the gun is going to get you in serious trouble.”

  Jonah ran a hand through his hair. “Once the team has finished processing the house we’ll run through what they’ve found.” He glanced at his watch. “How long until Kerry gets out of school?”

  “You think Farrell’s going to come after my daughter this fast?” Some of the other guys on the task force had wives, kids. Would they be targeted, too? “Maybe we should put a detail on all the families. Just to be safe.”

  Jonah folded his arms. “Look, we still don’t know if Farrell was injured last week or not. It depends if he’s already split town or if he’s sticking around to pay us back.”

  “This is my lead, and it’s Charles’s weekend. Put someone on his house.”

  Jonah strode away down the hall.

  “Come on, Hailey.” Eric motioned to the front door.

  Apparently Eric thought she’d done the wrong thing, too. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  Together they stepped outside. The rain was falling in a steady stream. It felt like she was standing with her face against a sprinkler.

  Hailey followed him to the curb, her drenched hair getting plastered to her head. “Jonah’s going to take all the credit.”

  Eric looked back at her. Raindrops ran down his face. “You think?”

  Hailey swiped the rain from her forehead. She should have grabbed a ball cap that morning. “Of course. That’s the only explanation for why he wants us out of here. Haven’t you learned anything? Jonah is going to make it look like I’m the victim and claim the lead for himself.”

  “But Farrell will be off the streets. Isn’t that what we want?”

  Hailey wanted to kick the gate. “That’s not the point…or not the whole point.”

  “I thought our task force was a team.”

  “That might have been in the brochure and all, but guys like Jonah only know one thing. Being top dog.”

  Eric frowned. “Well, then, why do you stay if they treat you like this?”

  “Why do you?”

  “I’m trying to get my life back on track. And if you weren’t so contrary, I’d ask if we could help each other out.”

  “Like allies?”

  Eric’s lips curled into a smile. “A peace treaty. What do you say?”

  Hailey opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say. No one had ever offered to stand with her before. She stood on the sidewalk with rain running into the collar of her jacket.

  Why couldn’t she say yes? It shouldn’t be this difficult to accept a good offer from a fellow marshal. A marshal who had worked witness protection had to be trustworthy. Why shouldn’t they have a true partnership?

  His offer touched something that had lain dormant for so many years. She’d almost forgotten that place in her existed.

  His anticipation seemed to fall away. “Forget it. Let’s go.”

  FOUR

  Eric poured two coffees and set one in front of Hailey. She tapped a brisk rhythm on the edge of her desk with her pen. He was disappointed she hadn’t accepted his offer of partnership. Why couldn’t she see how much more they could achieve if they simply combined their efforts instead of butting heads all the time?

  He typed his password in and brought up Deirdre Phelps’s cell phone records. She didn’t have a landline, but she did have internet service. He wanted to get his hands on her computer, check what websites she or Farrell had been looking at. He’d always loved computer forensics, and now that it played a bigger role in his work, he could add to the short tally of good things in his life.

  The office’s double door beeped. A lanky man in an expensive suit pushed it open, and then shook out his umbrella on the entryway floor. His dark hair was shiny, either from the rain or from copious amounts of whatever he’d smeared in it to hold its expensive style.

  Hailey lifted her head. “Great.”

  Eric rolled his chair toward her desk. “Who is that?”

  “His name is Charles Turpin. He’s the mayor.”

  The mayor looked at Hailey behind her desk, but didn’t react the way people did when they saw someone they knew. Or someone they liked. Still, he came over, his Italian loafers clicking on the floor. “Hailey.”

  Hailey kept her eyes on her paper, her back rigid. “Social visit?”

  Eric turned to his computer and clicked on the next page of phone numbers. The digits blurred together, so he rubbed his eyes. He probably should have remembered to bring his reading glasses with him to work, since staring at a screen for more than fifteen minutes gave him a headache.

  The mayor said, “I have a meeting with Marshal Turner about preparations, in case there’s any flooding over the next few days.”

  Hailey’s eyes widened. “I thought the rain was dying down. It’s supposed to get worse?”

  Charles motioned to the door to Turner’s office. “I should get to it.”

  She nodded. “Any plans this weekend?”

  Eric’s finger paused on his mouse. Were they dating? This Charles guy didn’t seem like the kind of man Hailey would be interested in, but there was clearly something between them. It just didn’t look like, whatever it was, was necessarily good.

  Could this be her ex-husband? He’d heard through the grapevine that she was divorced from Kerry’s father. But, this guy? He couldn’t picture it. The mayor was way too suave, and Hailey was way too down-to-earth to fall for that.

  “We’re going to dinner at Milton’s.”

  “The steak place?”

  “Yes. Is there a problem?”

  “Kerry’s a vegetarian.”

  “Since when?”

  Eric looked up and saw Hailey shrug. “I figured she’d get sick of it after the first few weeks, but it’s been going on a month now. You didn’t know?”

  “How am I supposed to know anything about that girl? She changes her mind as fast as the weather.”

  Eric glanced at the window. It’d been raining steady for days.

  Hailey’s exhale was controlled, like she was trying not to react. “Well, have a good weekend.”

  “Thank you, Hailey.” Charles stepped away, but stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot. What with my meeting and all, I was going to have Beth-Ann pick up Kerry from the bus stop.”

  Hailey’s entire body snapped taut at the name Beth-Ann.

  “But Beth-Ann apparently has an appointment. You can get Kerry, can’t you? Bring her by my place around seven.”

  “Charles.” Hailey took a breath, like she was trying to rein in her frustration. Eric had never seen her act this way. “I’m in
the middle of a case. I need to focus. There’s an escaped federal fugitive out there who might be targeting us. And it’s your weekend.”

  “I won’t be able to get away,” Charles said. Apparently unaffected, he strode off into Marshal Turner’s office.

  Hailey stared at the door, even after it had closed.

  Eric wasn’t sure which question to ask first. “I’m guessing it’s complicated.”

  Hailey blinked and focused on him. When she saw he was amused, her eyes lit with a smile. “You don’t know the half of it.”

  Eric chuckled. “Beth-Ann?”

  Hailey rolled her eyes. “Charles’s new wife.”

  Eric kept his expression straight. He had to handle this right or she would close off instead of opening up. “You and Charles were married?”

  Her face shut down, as though she’d heard accusation in his voice. “Until seven years ago.”

  “Joint custody?” She nodded, but he didn’t feel right leaving it at that. “Are you okay?”

  Hailey studied him. “You’re not going to interrogate me for all the juicy details?”

  “I figure if you want me to know then you’ll tell me.”

  Eric was more than curious about what caused a vibrant woman like Hailey to marry suave Mr. Mayor. They did not fit together at all, which might explain the divorce, especially with Charles being remarried. Had he cheated on Hailey? Eric was glad he hadn’t been in town early enough to vote for the guy because he’d probably have volunteered to hand out flyers for his opponent.

  No wonder she hadn’t accepted Eric’s partnership.

  Hailey pulled open her top drawer and drew out a photo, which she handed to him. “That was a year ago.”

  An older man who’d bequeathed Hailey a wide jaw and his nose sat with Hailey and a red-haired girl around a restaurant table. The same girl Eric had seen in the picture at Deirdre’s house. Hailey’s daughter.

  “How old is she?”

  “Kerry will be thirteen next month.”

  Eric was thirty-two, which meant Hailey could easily be older than him, by at least a couple of years.

  Her jaw flexed, and she answered his unspoken question. “I’m thirty-five.”

  Eric hesitated, measuring his words. “High school sweethearts?”

  Hailey’s face morphed into something that looked like pain. “We did get married because of Kerry, but we were in college. It wasn’t long before I realized Charles was only pretending he wanted to be there. He loves Kerry in his own way. It’s just me he wasn’t able to live with.”

  “Did he cheat on you?”

  Hailey brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen loose. “Let’s just get back to work, okay?”

  Eric shrugged like his world wasn’t still spinning faster than normal. “Sure.”

  He knew she and Kerry lived with her dad. The guys on the team had told him that much about her when they’d warned him about his new partner. Prickly was the word they’d used. That had been an understatement. Getting her to open up even a little bit felt like a victory, one he wasn’t going to take lightly.

  No wonder she’d hesitated before, when he suggested they partner up. He hadn’t even thought Hailey might be concerned about whether she could trust him or not. It made him want to prove himself, to tell her about his life and his own family so she would know for sure she could rely on him.

  Eric studied her, and she didn’t look away, so he turned in his chair to face her. “Thank you for sharing with me. You know I worked with WITSEC. That means I know a little something about keeping secrets. And finding someone you can trust with part of yourself is huge.”

  She waved away his words. “Whatever. It’s not a big deal, Hanning.”

  Eric studied her as she got back to work. He knew she didn’t mean it. Hailey seemed to live her life in “protection” mode, never letting anyone get close to her. Getting burned by her husband couldn’t have been easy. Eric knew what it was like to lose a relationship with someone you cared about.

  Had she loved Charles? If they’d had a baby together, she must have felt something for him. But it didn’t necessarily mean they’d been head-over-heels in love. She’d avoided the question enough for him to know there was more to the story. Not that he cared, of course. But he was curious. And the more he learned about her, the more Eric wanted to know what was below the surface.

  He looked back at the computer, and pain sparked behind his eyes. “Maybe we should get some dinner.” The granola bar he kept in his desk had been stale, and now he was hungry again. “We could order pizza. You like pepperoni?”

  She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Ham and pineapple.”

  Eric made a gagging noise and picked up the phone. “Two pizzas it is.”

  Half an hour later the door buzzed and the rest of the team swept in. Jonah wiped his mouth with a napkin and broke off to Turner’s office. Two of the others had pizza boxes from the place he’d ordered them from. He should never have paid over the phone.

  They tossed the boxes on the side of Eric’s desk. A detective from Portland who’d been transferred to their team grinned. “Thanks for dinner.”

  Eric flipped the lid of the top box open. A single strand of cheese remained. He pushed up the other. The entire ham-and-pineapple pizza was untouched.

  “Charles!”

  Eric looked over. Jonah shook hands with the mayor, but it was more businesslike than personal. He couldn’t tell if Jonah liked or disliked the mayor. Eric wasn’t sure if that said more about Charles or about Jonah.

  Marshal Turner hauled his girth out of his chair and slapped Charles on the back. All three men broke into a round of manly chuckles, though Jonah’s laugh sounded more polite than anything else.

  Eric sighed. The WITSEC office he’d worked in had been much smaller. Navigating the politics of a large fugitive apprehension team was proving to be a lot harder. It was going to take him a while to figure out each member of the team, and to ascertain how he fit into the group.

  Eric slid out Hailey’s pizza box and handed it to her.

  She frowned. “You don’t want any?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  Hailey’s phone rang and she snapped it up. “Shelder.” She listened. “Thank you.”

  She replaced the phone and looked at him. “Blood test has been done. They’re emailing over the results.”

  She hopped up and strode to Turner’s door, knocked and stuck her head in. Seconds later Jonah strode out. Eric got up and met their huddle around Hailey’s desk, while she opened the email and scanned the test results.

  “The blood found at the airport was degraded too much by rain and jet fuel. They weren’t able to pull together a pure enough sample to run through the system.”

  Jonah’s eyes were dark. “So we’ve got nothing?” He glanced at Eric for a second, and then back at Hailey. “Both of you fire a shot, one of you hits someone with enough accuracy to make them bleed, and it turns up nothing?”

  Eric folded his arms. The bad weather wasn’t their fault.

  Hailey sat back in her chair. “We need another lead.”

  “We need to find Deirdre.”

  Hailey glanced at Eric and nodded. She’d done well earlier, coming up with the result they’d gained at Deirdre’s house. Anything was better than nothing.

  Jonah glanced at the window, where rain was pounding against the glass and gray clouds hung low in the sky. “Get back out there. Get me something on Farrell.”

  Eric nodded.

  Hailey stood. “I have to pick up Kerry.”

  Jonah said, “Okay. Do what you gotta do and then get back to work.” He turned to Eric. “We need to know who helped Farrell.”

  Eric sat back down at his desk and watched Hailey pull on her jacket while Jonah strode back over to Turner’s office and let himself in. None of them had expected the blood test results to turn up absolutely nothing.

  His phone rang. The display said Aaron.

  Eric sighed,
not at all in the mood to speak with his twin brother. No matter how many times he was going to call.

  FIVE

  Hailey sat in the car looking up and down the sidewalk for Kerry and her neon backpack. Eric’s disappointment in her refusing his offer of a partnership stung. Still, something kept Hailey on the ledge instead of jumping off and trusting Eric completely. She just didn’t want to admit to herself that it had everything to do with Charles.

  Eventually the team was going to see her for the asset she was. Eric was a decent partner, but he didn’t get what she was trying to do. He had no need to prove himself to anyone, but Hailey had to keep the doubts at bay. She couldn’t let herself be ruled by what the people in this town had thought of her for so long.

  Kerry needed to grow up knowing her mom fought for what she wanted. She needed to know what strength was and be able to call on it herself. Kids learned by example, and Hailey intended her life to show how far she could still go, in spite of the bad choices she’d made in her teen and college years. It was that or curl up and cry, and weakness was no good.

  She called Charles.

  “Yes?”

  Did he have to say it like that? “Kerry isn’t here. Beth-Ann didn’t get her after all, did she?”

  “I told you she has an appointment. Kerry isn’t in the cul-de-sac?”

  “What cul-de-sac? I’m at the bus stop.” She shifted in her seat and peered out the windshield. There was a street a ways up—was that what he was talking about? And why couldn’t he have told her that in the first place?

  He sighed. “Kerry waits to be picked up in the cul-de-sac.”

  And if she didn’t know Hailey was the one picking her up, Kerry was probably waiting there. “North of the bus stop?” She got out and started walking, squinting to read the road sign. “Almera?”

  “Yes.” He hung up.

  Hailey shoved her phone in the back pocket of her jeans. She rounded the corner and saw a dark-colored muscle car stopped in the middle of the street at an angle. The driver’s door was open, and the dome light was on.

  Farrell had a grip on Kerry’s arm, and was pulling her toward the car. Kerry was kicking at his legs, tugging on him and valiantly trying to dislodge his hold on her. That’s my girl.