Jules rose and smoothed her slacks. After a beat, during which he saw her take a deep breath, she gave the family a tense smile. “Thank you for your time. Try not to worry. We’re going to get him. I promise.”
With a hand at the base of Jules’s back, Cal ushered her out of the Rogers’ home and to his Wrangler in their driveway. “I thought you were going to let me do the talking.”
“Were you going to ask her about missing items? I knew taking things from his victims was part of Chase’s MO.”
He paused with his hand on the passenger-side door handle and faced her. “The point is, trust is a two-way street, Jules. We had a deal, and you didn’t keep it. I have to protect the legality of this investigation. You’re not law enforcement.” He sighed. “And I didn’t want to alarm them or provoke them into doing anything ill-advised.”
She puffed up her chest and lifted her chin. “Maybe they should be alarmed. Maybe if the cops and courts were more alarmed about Chase, someone would have done something about him by now!”
Cal kept his mouth clamped shut, taking a moment before he spoke, knowing an argument was not helpful. “Jules—”
“I’m sorry,” she said, dropping her shoulders and glancing away. “I did make a deal with you, and I broke it. And I shouldn’t have yelled at you just now. I know you’re trying to help. My frustration isn’t with you. I just—”
She blew a puff of air from pursed lips and shook her head.
He opened the Jeep door and held it for her. “Apology accepted. And for what it’s worth, the missing hair band is a big deal. It’s a lead we can follow up on. Let’s go get a search warrant.”
Chapter 21
The next afternoon, before the end of the work day, Jules accompanied Cal as he brought Pilot out with them to the parking lot of Red Grove Food Distributors, warrant in hand. He led Pilot to the rusty white truck they’d seen Chase Hamilton driving and held Zoey’s hair band for his dog to sniff. He gave the command for Pilot to search for anything that smelled like the hair band, and Pilot got to work.
Jules held her breath as Pilot made his way around the tires, tracking to another vehicle briefly before returning to the white truck. The Labrador circled the truck twice before pawing at the passenger-side door.
“Good boy,” Cal said before employing a thin rod to pop the lock and open the truck door.
Pilot jumped into the truck and sniffed around the seats, under the seats and finally pawed at the glove box.
With gloved hands, Cal opened the compartment and pushed Pilot’s eager head out of the way to pluck out a green and yellow scrunchie.
“Bingo,” he said, dropping the scrunchie in an evidence bag.
“Nowcan we arrest him?” Jules asked.
Cal gave Pilot a reward for his good work and closed the truck door as the dog climbed out. “We can certainly bring him in for questioning, at least.”
Jules sighed her relief. Was she finally going to see progress in Chase’s capture and conviction?
“So do we go after him, or wait here, or what?” A renewed energy pumped through her, and she shifted her weight to her toes, restless and ready to move out and hunt down her prey.
“Wedon’t do anything.” He clipped Pilot’s lead back on the dog’s collar and started back to his Jeep. “You’re not law enforcement, so at this point you are out. I’ll deal with Wyatt and the drug task force to negotiate how and when Hamilton is brought in.”
“Wait. What? You’re not going to stick around now and arrest him when he comes back to his truck?” She stopped in her tracks and gaped at Cal. “We have proof he broke into the Rogers’ house and stole Zoey’s hair band! Why are you hesitating?”
“We have a band that looks like the one Zoey described, but we haven’t proven it is Zoey’s. I’m taking it back to the crime lab to test for her DNA, a matching hair or fingerprints. Something ironclad to tell us it is Zoey’s and not a look alike he bought. Then we have to prove he broke in to take it and didn’t just find it lying on the ground at the ballpark.”
Jules curled her fingers in her hair and let loose a frustrated howl that made Pilot startle. “Why are you making this so hard? Weknowit’s Zoey’s! Weknowhe took it.”
“No, weassumeit’s Zoey’s and that he took it, but we need proof that will hold up in court.” When he continued across the street to the lot where he’d parked his Jeep, she stalked after him, seething.
“You are the most infuriating man I have ever met, Callum Colton.”
He pressed a hand to his chest and smiled. “Why, thank you.”
That he could act so calm and dismiss her jibes so easily only irritated her more. “I’m so glad I amuse you. Can we please just—”
She didn’t get a chance to finish what she was saying. Cal’s face darkened, and he grabbed her arm. She gasped as he pulledher forward and behind the nearest parked car, dragging her down as he tugged Pilot close and crouched at the back fender.
“What the h—”
