“I’ll contact you tomorrow.” He leaned over and kissed Lara’s forehead.
“I’d like that, but I have no expectations.”
“I do have expectations, but we don’t have to talk about them…yet.” He strapped on his service weapon and jacket. “Put a chair in front of the door after I leave and don’t take any unnecessary chances.”
Lara laughed. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can, but I worry that you won’t.” He tried to convey his concern with his eyes. She wouldn’t appreciate hearing it.
“I intend to survive. I still have things to accomplish.” She stared back, unblinking.
“Bye for now.” Caden closed the door and walked away with mixed emotions. He had to go back to headquarters and finish a database search, grab a few hours’ sleep, then return to work at eight in the morning for a meeting. When he’d shown up at the arena earlier, he’d only planned to have dinner with Lara, then get right back to his investigation. But after he’d waited in her hotel room while she got ready, Lara had come out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel, her skin warm, wet, and inviting. It would have been rude not to accept.
Caden grinned as he boarded the hotel elevator. He was having a fling with Lara Evans! The development was still unreal to him. In the year he’d been following her blog, he often fantasized he might meet her if she made it into the Gauntlet.
She was even prettier in person than in photos and her body was amazing. He loved her lean tautness and defined muscles. And her vitality! She practically hummed with energy. Yep. The best sex of his life. He planned to see her every day that she was here in D.C. Maybe he could even persuade her to stay for a while after the competition.
Sleeping with a suspect could get him fired, but Caden had willingly taken the risk and there was no going back. Lara was a delicious drug and he was an addict. Her failure to report the crime at the commissioner’s house bothered him on some level, but when he put himself in her shoes, he thought he might have made the same choice.
Back at the D.C. Metro Department, Caden settled into his desk and turned on his NetCom. He’d already spent hours searching every database he had access to for the mysterious man with the shaggy blond hair. Now he was scanning the register of federal employees, based on a hunch.
Several months earlier, an agent with the FBI had contacted the D.C. Metro and asked about crimes involving federal employees. Caden had been assigned to run a search and had come up with nothing. Agent Franklin seemed almost relieved when Caden reported back to him, so he’d put the incident out of his mind. He had enough of his own unsolved cases to fill a closet.
Now someone had tried to kill the employment commissioner, a high-profile federal employee, and instinct told him the incidents could be related. Caden agonized about his promise to Lara to not include the commissioner in his notes or to question him. It made solving Kirsten’s death nearly impossible…if the crimes were actually connected. Yet the promise also relieved him of the responsibility of involving the FBI and simultaneously pissing off the sponsors and viewers of the Gauntlet-the one thing in this country that still gave people something to cheer for.
Caden took a second look at the photos of the tech and HR people who had access to federal employee files, but didn’t find anyone who matched the facial features of the man in the camera footage. He’d already searched for information about the commissioner and came up with little. Thaddeus Morton had no criminal record, no investigations, no pending lawsuits. He was involved with a charity and well-respected by his peers. Some online gossip sites speculated about his bisexuality, but Caden didn’t see that as a crime.
Why would someone want the commissioner dead?
Caden had no idea how to determine that without talking to people close to Morton. He could only give this case another day or so before he was assigned new investigations. He read through the FBI request and a small piece of information caught his eye. Both people who’d complained about someone hacking their message center had been fired. Had that been the point of the attack?
After four hours of sleep, Caden bolted from bed and hit the treadmill for forty minutes. He dressed for work and made himself an omelet for breakfast. He and Lara had never bothered to have dinner the night before and he was starving. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen Lara eat anything since he’d met her. She hadn’t touched the sandwich he’d brought her in the interrogation room, and she hadn’t eaten that night in the restaurant. She was probably on a special training diet.
He drove to work early, pleased to be ahead of the rush-hour traffic and the heat he knew was coming later that day. The sky looked ominous and he worried that a wild storm would ruin the outdoor Obstacle competition. As long as Lara stayed safe, the Gauntlet didn’t matter, he realized. Caden parked behind headquarters and bought an iced coffee from the mobile vendor before clocking in.
His sat at his desk and his message center beeped. Caden tapped open the top file, and the medical examiner’s face filled the box. “My report on Kirsten Dornberg is attached. In brief, she died of a heart attack brought on by the shock delivered through a stun gun. She had an enlarged heart, and the lab found androgenic anabolic steroids and EPO in her system. She was doping.”
“So her death may not have been intentional?”
“Someone hit her with a Taser. I’m ruling it a homicide.” The ME paused. “She had a strand of hair caught in her ring. Do have any suspect samples to compare it to?”
Caden wished he did. “Not yet, but I will. Thanks, Doc.”
He closed the message box and rubbed his face, as though that would clear his mind. If Lara were just another suspect-and not a Gauntlet competitor he was sleeping with-he would file a subpoena for her DNA immediately. A judge would likely view and grant it before the day was over. Under those circumstances, Caden would pick up the suspect and bring her in for a DNA swab. He couldn’t do that to Lara for at least three reasons. Even if the hair was hers, she had a valid reason for it to be in Kirsten’s ring. Still, he felt uneasy.
What the hell had he gotten himself into?
Chapter 29
Six weeks earlier: Sat., April 1, 8:42 p.m.
Feeling restless and irritable, Paul put Lilly on the leash and went out for a walk. He rarely left his apartment on foot after dark, but both his brain and body were too wired to sit and read. At the bottom of the stairs, he saw Mrs. Olson coming in from the garage, carrying a big recycling container. He turned and headed back upstairs to avoid her. He didn’t want to talk to anyone right now.
When the lobby was clear, he hurried outside. A little surprised by his behavior, Paul wondered if the MetaboSlim pills were affecting his mood and giving him a bit of insomnia. Still ten pounds away from his goal weight, he wasn’t giving them up yet. Maybe he could just cut back. He also hated to let go of the confidence they gave him. He liked his new assertiveness.
Paul jogged toward the nearby park, grateful the wind was neither bitter cold or suffocatingly hot, just relentless. April and its lack of extremes had become his favorite month. His thoughts, as always, came back to Camille. He loved her green eyes, slender neck, and throaty laugh. He loved being seen with her…outside the office. More than anything, he loved having sex with her and thought about it constantly. How had he gone through his whole life without that pleasure? They’d had two more dates and the sex was definitely getting better. Camille had come easily both times. He’d briefly wondered if she was faking it, then decided no. As good as the sex was, Paul wanted more than a bimonthly romp. He wanted a life together.
A little stab of guilt twisted in his gut. He hadn’t told Camille yet that he’d already uploaded her name and file into the replacement database. In the back of his mind, he feared she would stop seeing him once she knew. But if he wanted a real relationship, he had to tell her.