O-kay. He didn’t live far, but she was right.Dismissed. “That’s true. I need to search the databases.”It wasn’t like he had anything else to do on a Friday afternoon. “But Ialsowanted to check on you, make sure your hand is feeling better.” That was as good an excuse as any.
Her dark, perfectly groomed eyebrows dropped. “Oh.” She flicked the pen out of her reach and glanced at her left hand, turning it palm down and flexing her knuckles. “It’s fine now.”
“And how are you holding up?”
She placed her hands on her thighs. “Until your news, I was glad that Mars had been indicted and people were coming forward.” Her lush mouth twisted into a grimace. “Though, obviously, I wish there weren’t so many victims.”
“Of course. But you gave them the confidence to tell their stories. You’ve helped them see they’re not alone.”
She frowned. “Yeah.”
“What’s wrong?”
“There are more menlike him out there.”
“Unfortunately, there are always more.”
“No, I mean—” She gave a little head shake. “Somehow Mars removed the storage card when he knocked over the camera. The police never found it, which means they didn’t see…” Her gaze strayed to her desk.
“What?” He’d avoided Tara all week, not wanting to give her the wrong impression about his interest. He hadn’t spoken to her sinceshe’d thanked him on Monday before his meeting with Kurt.
“The other pictures on the card in his camera.” Tears shimmered in her eyes. “There was one image… I couldn’t make out the guy’s face, but he was—” She wrinkled her nose and looked up and took a deep breath. “He was having sex with a young girl in what looked like a hotel room.” Her voice had turned rough. “I think maybe Mars was makingchild porn. Orkompromat. I don’t know.”
The misery in her brown eyes made Jeff want to round the desk and pull her into his arms.
“Fuck.” His skin crawled. That bottom feeder hadtouchedher. Jeff should have put his fist through the man’s too-pretty face when he had the chance. And a few of the man’s other body parts. “Maybe the police found more pictures in his studio and will be ableto identify those involved.”
Tara sighed. “With any luck.”
“I thought I heard people talking.” Kurt Steele emerged from the hallway to the right with a duffle bag in hand, striding confidently toward them on prosthetic legs revealed by gray basketball shorts.
Tara shook off her morose expression and straightened.
“Hey, boss.” Jeff masked his own expression. “How’s it going?”
“Great,”Kurt said, shaking Jeff’s hand. “What’re you up to?”
“I’m going to get on the computer, do some research for Menlo.” And a little for himself too. He needed to feel like he was doing something more than sitting around waiting for news from his PI.
“Sounds good. And, hey, nice work on the Safety General job.”
“Thanks. It was fun.” As fun as anything could be these days. A good distractionfrom the mess of his life, at least.
Kurt turned to Tara. “I’m off to the gym, and then Caitlyn and I are leaving for Boston. You good till Monday?”
She nodded. “Absolutely. Have a great time. And take lots of pictures of Devyn.”
Caitlyn’s sister had given birth to a baby girl on Tuesday. Jeff had only briefly met Caitlyn at the office a month ago, but the rest of the guys at Steele hadworked with the charter pilot in the past on various missions. From what Jeff could gather, Kurt and Caitlyn had been friends years ago in the Air Force, but only recently reconnected. No wedding bells for them yet, but they were living together.
“Will do,” Kurt said with a grin. “Enjoy your weekend, guys.”
After he left, Jeff returned his attention to Tara. “I’ll let you get back to work.”
“Okay.” She gave a wan smile. “Thanks for checking up on me.”
Something in his chest dislodged with the curve of her dark red lips. He nodded, unable to think of a response for several seconds.
“And letting me know about Mars,” she said.
