“Amazing. Yours?”
“Same, dude,” he responds with a salacious grin, and I know he’s remembering something I don’t want to hear about. Lucy and I had had a pretty scandalous night last night too, so I understand that look.
He quickly snaps out of his reverie though, getting down to business. I know Aidan is as concerned as I am about the young woman lying unconscious in the hospital.
“Did you see the ballistics report for Jane Doe?”
“I’m looking at it right now,” I murmur, holding up the file.
“Anything?”
“A .22, like we figured. Nothing popped in NIBIN.” That’s the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network.
Aidan grunts.
“What about NamUs?” I ask. “Any hits?”
He shakes his head. “If someone’s looking for her, they haven’t reported it.”
I nod, frustrated. “I’m going to reach out to the neighboring counties for their recent MPs.Missing Persons.It’s possible shehasbeen reported but they just haven’t entered it into the database yet.”
Aidan just sighs and I know he thinks that’s a long shot. It’s been nine days now since the woman was found. Letting something like that slide for that amount of time–neglecting to input it into the database promptly–would be an egregious dereliction of duty. Still, it is the holidays and I can, unfortunately, see it happening. And many a case has been solved by following a long shot, relentlessly tugging on each minor thread until you find the one that ultimately succeeds in unraveling the entire mystery. So, it’s worth the extra effort as far as I’m concerned.
“Sounds like a plan,” Aidan says. “I’m going to swing by the hospital and check on her. I’ll let you know if there’s any change in her condition.” So far the doctors have been noncommittal about her prognosis. All they will say is that she’s stable and they are hopeful. No one can tell us at this point if or when she’ll wake up.
“Okay. I’ll make a few more calls and then I’m off too. I have a boxing day brunch thing at my parents’.”
“Fun times,” he says, sarcastically. Aidan is well aware of my relationship with my parents. “Lucy going with you?”
“No way,” I shake my head. “I’d never put her through that.”
He holds my gaze for a moment as though contemplating saying something, but he must decide against it for he just nods and pushes up from his seat. He swings his jacket off the back of his chair and slips it on in one smooth move, then strides from the bullpen.
I watch his back as he disappears through the door to the front reception, then stare at the empty doorway where he’d been for a long moment.
Should I have invited Lucy to join me?
I shut down that thought almost immediately. I still haven’t even told my parents about her or the baby, and I’ve made no progress in figuring outwhat to do about that. I know eventually I’ll have to tell them, or they’ll find out about it some other way, but the thought of my two worlds colliding makes me shudder.
I have to protect my little family … from my other family
???
“So Noah, how are things at the Llyn Lakes P.D.?” Mr. Bryson, one of the partners in my father’s firm asks.
“It’s going well,” I respond politely but don’t elaborate.
“Oh, we heard about that poor woman found beaten at the side of the road,” Mrs. Lancaster exclaims with a hand pressed to her chest. Her concern rings false. These people don’t care about anything that doesn’t directly affect them.
We’d circulated her picture around Coldpine Ridge in the hopes that someone would recognize her, but no luck. Or if they did, no one was saying anything. I hated thinking like that, but honestly, I wouldn’t put it past the people in this community to neglect to share valuable information for the sake of protecting their reputations. I’d unfortunately seen it before and I knew that money talked. People got paid off to keep quiet in this town.
When I was in high school, a student a few years behind me at Lakeview Prep accused the headmaster of sexual assault. I have no doubt it was true, but the fallout would have ruined the school’s reputation. So the school’s benefactors had banded together (my parents included as they’d feared it would impact my Ivy League prospects–what a joke) and offered her family a large settlement to keep quiet. The girl was forced to sign an NDA and, despite her already wealthy parents going along with the plan for the sake of a windfall, they were eventually bullied into leaving town altogether. A few years ago I heard more whisperings of similar incidents, but nothing came of it once again. Doctor Morten remains the headmaster to this day.
If Jane Doe has any connection to Coldpine Ridge we aren’t likely to find it unless she wakes up and tells us.
“Really, Elizabeth,” my mother chides Mrs. Lancaster. “We don’t want to hear about such distasteful things at the table.” Distasteful. Right. I’m sure Jane Doe would agree.
“I can’t discuss an ongoing case anyway,” I say, forking up a bite of my roast beef. “Unless, of course, anyone here has information about her identity.”
