Her eyes were wide with expectation and maybe, just maybe, the same strong feelings he had for her. He’d never wanted to kiss a woman as much as he did right now. He cupped the side of her face.
She pressed her cheek against his hand. Her skin was soft against his rough palm. But then she lifted her head, her eyesfilled with questions. She hadn’t forgotten about what she’d asked him.
He wanted to answer right away. To say, “Of course I trust you. No doubt.” But he didn’t know if he did. He just didn’t know. And as long as he couldn’t give her the answer she wanted, he couldn’t kiss her and lead her on.
14
Gabe shoved to his feet in the bedroom’s small sitting area and paced past his worn leather couch he’d owned since college. He’d been home for two hours, tried to get some sleep, but as predicted earlier, he’d failed.
He reviewed all the reports and data again until his eyes glazed over. Including the strangulation cases El had found. But as they’d concluded together, none of them were actually similar enough to warrant further investigation right now. He didn’t give up, but no matter how many times he flipped through the pages, he couldn’t make these investigations match theirs simply because he wanted—no, desperately needed—a lead.
A loud knock sounded on his door, and he spun to look at it. Living at a former inn, he knew no one came to his door in the middle of the night, other than one of his teammates who also lived in the building. “Come in.”
The door opened, and Jude poked his head in. “Figured I’d still find you up. Want some company?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Jude stepped into the room and quietly closed the door.
“Please tell me you’re here to give me a lead?”
Jude’s shoulders slumped. “No, nothing like that. I just finished putting upmissingposters and fliers all over town and in Seaside Harbor and saw your lights on. Wanted to check in on you.”
Gabe had passed his bad mood on to his buddy, who was only there to help. Not acceptable. “Hey, man. Your work could provide the lead we need. Sure, there’s an Amber Alert out, but people get their information in many ways.”
Jude settled on the couch as if he planned to stay for a while. “I want to do more, but we keep hitting roadblocks. I don’t get it. We’ve never struck out this much in an investigation.”
He didn’t have to tell Gabe that. “Maybe the forensics is our key.”
“We have?—”
A high-pitched alert on Gabe’s phone stopped him. “Hold that thought.”
He tapped the alert for an email with the subject ofDeveloped Photos. “Speaking of forensics, the text is from Sierra. Pictures from Mason’s camera are in.”
Jude jumped to his feet. “We can view them on the big screen in the conference room.”
“Good idea,” Gabe said, already on his way to the door.
Pumped now, they jogged the short distance down the hallway to the former dining room.
Jude dropped into the chair behind the computer assigned to this room. “Airdrop the files to the network, and I’ll get them on the screen.”
Gabe uploaded the pictures, not surprised to see his fingers trembling as he tapped his phone screen.
Jude’s fingers clicked over the keyboard. “Got them.”
Gabe straddled a chair at the head of the table, working hard not to hold his breath as Jude put an array of pictures up.
“Say what?” Gabe leaned closer to the screen. “Why does Mason have pictures of Lucy’s daycare?
“No idea, but it could prove his murder’s connected to Kenna’s.”
Gabe kept staring at the pictures. “Give me the next set of pictures.”
The photos shifted to a black van parked across the street from the center.
“Van is black.” Gabe squinted at the screen. “Could be the vehicle that ran Kenna into the ravine.”
