“I’m about to check on Becca Stanley’s mother. I didn’t get a chance to speak with her very long yesterday. I’m also waiting for a warrant to come through on Pete Bogart’s apartment.” The towel slipped low on his hips as he walked into his bedroom and pulled a pair of pressed steel gray trousers and a baby blue button-down shirt out of his closet. He glanced toward his discarded gym shorts and T-shirt from a few days ago. He’d much rather throw those back on and call it quits for the day, but it was only four p.m. He still had plenty of hours left to track down Pete, and the FBI preferred their agents to look a little more put together than dirty shorts and a ratty Aerosmith T-shirt.
“You mean a warrant for the apartment you already entered without permission?” The calmness of Harper’s voice made the words he spoke harsher somehow. The hairs on the back of Graham’s neck rose.
“I tried to speak with the building manager before I entered but couldn’t get through. When we touched base this morning, he was more than willing to let me back into the apartment. Before that, I was let into the apartment by a friend of the suspect who was given a key. There was no forced entry. Nothing illegal was done to get onto the premises.”
A harsh laugh vibrated through the phone. “You’re right. Technically you did nothing illegal, and that’s the only reason you aren’t being taken off this case. You’ve already been warned to toe the line, and having a person of interest let you into the apartment of the man who kidnapped three girls is treading dangerous waters, Grassi.”
He ground his teeth together. Eric must have told him Mickey was the one who’d let him inside. He’d deal with his partner’s big mouth later. Now, he concentrated on Harper’s harsh words. He wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. Instead of arguing, he said, “Yes, sir.”
“Now, let’s discuss your involvement with Miss O’Shay. I understand you stayed the night at her apartment last night.”
He pushed his teeth together harder until pain shot through his jaw. “That’s right.” The towel dropped to the floor and he activated speaker phone before setting the phone on the deep blue comforter covering his bed. He wasn’t going to give Harper more information than what he asked for.
“Do you think that was a wise move? Or the best use of your time when you should have been following leads and tracking Bogart? Do I need to remind you of the agency’s policy in regards to getting involved with someone connected to one of your cases?” Harper’s voice rose a notch with every word. Graham could imagine him sitting at his desk, his face growing red with anger.
He rubbed the back of his neck and blew out a tight breath. Of course he thought it was a wise move or he wouldn’t have done it. Okay, so kissing Mickey in her kitchen was a bonehead move, but it was a mistake he wouldn’t make again. She might be hot, but she wasn’t worth risking his career. Harper was a jackass, but he needed to keep his temper in check.
“Yes, on both counts. She claimed someone broke in and tried to kill her, and I wanted to be there in case the personcame back. As it turns out, the woman who broke in is the same woman who leased Pete Bogart’s apartment.” His voice was low as he slid the shirt over his arms and buttoned the small white buttons before yanking on his pants and grabbing a pair of socks. The soft mattress dipped beneath his weight and he crossed his ankle over his knee and jammed the soft cotton on his foot.
“Does that surprise you?” Harper asked with amusement.
Graham froze with one sock halfway on his foot, the white tip dangling toward the floor. “What do you mean?”
“Miss O’Shay is a suspected accomplice. If she’s smart, she’d want to divert attention from herself. Regardless of the depth of her involvement, she had a relationship with Bogart. By claiming someone who has a connection with Bogart broke into her apartment and tried to kill her, she’s shifting suspicion onto someone else.”
Sonofabitch.
It had entered his mind Mickey might have other reasons for letting him into Pete’s apartment, but he’d assumed it was because there was no risk of Pete getting caught. Mickey wanting him to find the connection between Connie Difico and the woman from her apartment never crossed his mind.
He squeezed his eyes shut and the image of her pale face and worried eyes branded his brain. He’d bet money she hadn’t known the woman who’d tried to kill her also leased her ex-boyfriend’s apartment. Spending so much time with Mickey over the last day might not have been the wisest move, but it had eased his suspicions about her relationship with Pete.
If only he could trust his instincts.
“With all due respect, sir, I don’t think Miss O’Shay was aware of whose name the apartment was listed under. Nor was she aware of what we’d find once we got there.”
“You sound awfully confident. Does that mean you figured out why Bogart broke all the rules with Miss O’Shay?”
A sliver of doubt crept into the back of his mind. After what had happened in Austin, his career would be over if he messed this case up, too. Not to mention God knows how many girls would be lost forever. He had to stay focused on the task and stick to the facts. He jammed the rest of his sock on his foot. “Not yet.”
“Well, you better figure it out soon. Stop wasting your time and get some answers.”
“Another agent on the case could really help, sir. Eric’s in Mexico following a lead on a property he found and I have my hands full with interviews. If I could have someone running names and digging into backgrounds at the office, it could speed everything up.”
Harper’s short laugh made him want to reach through the phone and punch him in the face. Asking for help hadn’t been easy, but dammit, he needed it. Hell, the missing girls needed it. “You have all the resources you need to get this done. If you don’t agree, I’ll find someone else to do the job.”
The line went dead. Shit. Doing his job was hard enough, but doing it with a pissed off boss and his only help in another country made it nearly impossible. Harper had a reason to be pissed at him, but Harper allowing his feelings toward Graham to affect his current case was unacceptable. They should be throwing everything they had at this case, not letting past issues get in the way of the job.
Pushing himself off the edge of the bed, he walked back into the living room and grabbed his laptop. It hummed to life as he turned it on. He didn’t have time to go into the office to run the names he’d uncovered…mainly Connie Difico. And Eric was on a flight to Cancun so he couldn’t do much right now. But hecould start a search on his home computer while he ran to Suzi Stanley’s.
He pulled up the software he needed to run a standard search and typed in Connie’s name. The cursor spun in a circle as it got to work. These things could take time, which is one of the reasons he hated doing them. While the search ran, he grabbed his phone and emailed himself the picture Eric had sent him earlier. Chances were Connie Difico wasn’t the woman’s real name. They might have more luck running a facial recognition search. If she was in the system, she’d pop up pretty quickly.
Dammit, what was the other name he needed to dig up?
The sharp hunger pain in the pit of his stomach stole his attention. He set the laptop on the glass coffee table and headed for the kitchen. His mind spun and he searched his memory while he grabbed a protein bar and bottle of water from the fridge. It wasn’t much of a meal, but it would hold him over until he could get something more substantial.
The wrapper crinkled as he pulled it down and bit into the hard chocolate bar. He closed his eyes on a low moan. He must be starving if the low-calorie bar tasted this damn good.
His eyes shot open and he hurried over to his laptop. He had to look up the stepsister Eric had mentioned. The initial search on Pete had shown he was an only child whose parents divorced when he was young. He had lived with his mother until she’d died in a car accident when he was a teenager. He had then gone to live with his father, who had never remarried. But Eric had mentioned a house in Mexico that belonged to Pete and was listed under his stepsister’s first name.
