Eric slapped a hand against his chest and pushed him back. Derek knew it wasn’t really York’s fault, but he needed someone to blame other than himself. Right now, she was an easy target.
“Enough,” his brother ordered. “You’ve made your point.”
“This isn’t about making a goddamn point, Eric. This is about Charlie.” His voice broke and he had to bite his lip to keep from breaking down.
“You’re right.” York surprised them all by stepping up to Derek. “Thisisabout Charlie. We need to find her before it’s too late. I’ve learned a lot about you in the past few days, Derek. If there’s anyone who can find her, it’s you.”
She took a deep breath and then, in front of the entire squad room, the woman ate a fuck-ton of crow.
“I screwed up. I accepted the facts as they were given to me by those other detectives without questioning any of it myself. And, yeah...maybe my own past kept me from listening to you as well as I should have, but I’m listening now.” She looked at his teammates and Eric. “So, tell us, Derek. What do we need to do to find Charlie and Porter?”
She was right. Bickering with York wasn’t getting him any closer to finding Charlie. He needed to get his head out of his ass and think.
“Was her cell at the scene?” He asked no one in particular.
“Yes, sir,” the officer who was still on Eric’s phone spoke up. “It was in her purse in the car.”
Shit. Derek had hoped she had her phone in her pocket so he could ping its location and...
“The necklace!”
His heart pounded against his ribs as the first stirrings of hope began to flourish.
“What necklace?” Trevor asked.
Derek quickly explained.
“I gave her a locket the other night. She thought it was just a gift, which it was, except I placed a tracking device inside it. I was afraid something like this would happen.” He ran a hand over his jaw. “Jesus. I was so upset I forgot all about it.”
He glanced over at York, who was clearly still kicking her own ass over the situation.
“You really want to help?” he asked her. The woman nodded. “Then, get me a computer.”
Less than five minutes later, Derek was sitting at his brother’s desk, and he’d accessed the program he needed to track Charlie.
He felt as though he were slowly dying from the inside out. He needed to see her. To protect her from whatever hell she was going through.
The computer beeped and a red dot appeared on the screen.
“I found her!” he blurted to the others. “It looks like she’s just off Highway Thirty-Four between Wolfe City and Ladonia.” He thought for a minute before looking at the others. “I don’t remember there being anything out there.”
“That’s because there’s not.” York walked around from the front of the desk to get a better look. “It’s just a two-lane highway with nothing but farmland and trees on each side.”
Derek looked at the dot again. His brows turned inward. “There has to be somethin’. A house or a building of some sort.”
“Why do you say that?” Trevor asked from beside him.
Derek pointed to the screen. “Because she’s not movin’. They wouldn’t just stop in the middle of the damn road.”
York started to speak but rolled her lips inward to keep from it. Eric gave her a questioning look.
“If you know something, you need to tell us.”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
Jake looked at her. “Sometimes the smallest, most seemingly insignificant things can break a case wide open. You should know that, Detective.”
She sighed and turned her attention back to Derek. Her eyes filled with a sympathy he hated and he knew whatever she was about to share wasn’t good.
