LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter Six Continued

      Stone Richardson spared another sharp glance over at his partner. Jack Stryker sat perfectly straight in the front of the squad car. His knees were together, his hands at his side, and his gaze locked straight ahead. No emotion or expression had crossed his face for the last three hours, not since Stone had opened a small package addressed to himself and found inside every detail of Josie Reynolds’s life. A typed, unsigned note had been clipped to the front.

      Dear Detective:

      Jo Reynolds is not who she appears to be. Olivia found out the truth, look what happened to her.

      Sincerely,

      Someone Who Knows Better

      Stone had quickly scanned the materials, then given them to Jack to read before sending the whole package to the lab to be analyzed for fingerprints. He hadn’t understood why his partner had become so cold and remote until they went to pick up Josie. So Jack had spent the night with their number one murder suspect.

      God, what a mess. And how totally unlike Straight Arrow Stryker.

      “You should’ve let me handle it,” he said under his breath to Jack. Josie wasn’t paying any attention to them. Separated by bulletproof glass, she was hunched next to the locked back door, staring out the window and looking as miserable as Jack.

      “I wanted to handle it.”

      “You could get into a lot of trouble for this.”

      “She wasn’t the number one suspect last night.”

      “Dammit, Jack, play iceman with someone who doesn’t know you as well as I do. You’re involved with her. It’s obvious you care. You should’ve let me handle it.”

      Jack turned to him at last. “I wanted to handle it. She shouldn’t have been confronted by a stranger.”

      Stone grimaced and shook his head. “Stryker, one of these days, I’ll have to teach you about women, because otherwise your sense of honor is going to get you killed.”

      Stone pulled into Josie’s neighborhood. Two other squad cars were there. The warrant listed the whole house, garage and car as fair game. They had four officers to help search, with him and Jack overseeing the operation. It would probably take a few hours. Depending on what they found, they might have probable cause to get a new search warrant for Josie’s office.

      Stone pulled into the driveway, not bothering to get Josie from the back, but leaving her for his partner to handle. Once on the front porch, a pale and dry-eyed Josie stood quietly while Jack retrieved the door keys from her purse and opened it for all the officers.

      “Why don’t you take Ms. Reynolds into the kitchen,” Stone told Jack brusquely.

      “One of the other—”

      “Why don’t you take Ms. Reynolds into the kitchen?” Stone smiled more tightly. The search would start in the living room, then the bedroom, where personal items were more likely to be found. The kitchen would be the only place to give Jack and Josie the privacy he was sure they needed.

      After a moment, Jack conceded with the smallest tilt of his head.

      “Stubborn ass,” Stone muttered. He started barking orders, and as Jack led Josie away, the rest of them got to work.

      * * *

      “Can I at least get a glass of water?” Josie asked at last. She stood in the middle of her own kitchen, uncuffed but feeling very much a prisoner. She didn’t want to be alone with this man. She never wanted to look at him again.

      “Where are your glasses?” He sounded as if he were talking to someone he barely knew, much less liked.

      “Upper right cupboard. Afraid that’s where I stash all my assault weapons?”

      He

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