LITMIR.BIZ

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cop, there were few people who intimidated her. But something about the handsome officer made her pay attention.

      Two crime-scene-unit techs filed in behind Parker carrying in their equipment. Considering the police station was at the other end of the block, Melody wasn’t surprised how quickly they’d arrived. She just didn’t understand why Parker had responded to her call.

      The CSU team approached, each member wearing a dark blue Sagebrush Police Department windbreaker. Parker hung back, letting his dog sniff the floor, the thresholds of the closed classroom doors, the lockers.

      “Hey, Melody,” said Rose Bigsby, a stocky woman with short blond curls and wire-rimmed glasses perched on her short nose. “Report came in that you had a break-in.”

      Melody gestured to the open door of her office. “In there.”

      Clay Gregson nodded to Jim and then smiled shyly at Melody as he moved past her to enter her office. The tall and lean CSU technician wasn’t much on small talk, something the officers of SPD were used to. Rose, on the other hand, made up for her partner’s lack of conversation just fine. Rose followed him in and started the process of looking for anything that would lead them to ID the intruder.

      “Any idea who broke in?” Parker asked as he and his dog approached. “What was he looking for?”

      Melody frowned. “I have no idea who the guy was or what he was after.”

      “What are you doing here, Adams?” Jim asked.

      “Captain McNeal thought it’d be a good idea for Sherlock here to check out the center,” Parker replied evenly. “Considering.”

      Her defenses stirred. “Considering what?”

      He met her gaze. His dark eyes intense, probing. “The rumors of drugs being dealt out of here.”

      Her hackles rose like the feathers of a peacock on high alert. She’d been battling that particular thread of gossip since the center opened. She routinely searched the building and kept a close eye on the kids. She was certain there were no drugs on the premises. “We have a strict no-drugs policy. Any offenders will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

      Parker shrugged. “Then there’s nothing to worry about. Sherlock shouldn’t find anything. He’s got the best nose in the state, and it’s never wrong.”

      “I’ve got to go to the station,” Jim said abruptly and headed for the exit.

      Watching him hustle out the door, Melody frowned. He’d just arrived. She shrugged off her coworker’s strange behavior. Even though she was fond of Jim, she’d long ago decided she would never figure out the male species.

      Or teenagers. Starting the youth center had been her attempt to help the kids of Sagebrush so they wouldn’t end up like her nephew. At sixteen, Daniel had gotten mixed up with drugs, dealing and using, by all accounts. He’d ended up dead because of it. During a standoff with the police, he’d been wounded in the leg by Captain Slade McNeal and then shot in the heart by an unknown sniper. The assassin was never caught.

      Saving other teens from Daniel’s fate had become her mission in life.

      However, that didn’t mean she understood the teens or their thought processes. Thankfully, there were tons of books on the subject. If she could prevent even one teen from ending up addicted to drugs like Daniel, she’d feel she succeeded.

      Her gaze strayed back to the mess in her office. Rose knelt beside the lamp and dusted black powder over the surface. The flash of a camera momentarily brightened the room as Clay photographed the crime scene.

      What had the intruder been looking for?

      “Did you get a look at the perp?” Parker asked, drawing her attention.

      “No, he wore a ski mask.”

      “With blacked-out eyes?”

      Surprise washed through her. “Yes. Very freaky. How did you know?”

      “We’ve had a run-in with a guy wearing a ski mask and some kind of eyewear that blacks out the whites of his eyes. Did he take anything?”

      Absorbing that information, she turned her gaze once again to the box labeled with her nephew’s name. Would she find something missing? Did the vandalism to her office have anything to do with last month’s desecration of Daniel’s grave? A lump of anxiety lodged in her chest.

      It had been five years since Daniel’s death. Five years of searching for answers and coming up empty. What had recently changed to make someone dig into the past? And Daniel’s grave?

      The questions intensified the headache pounding at her temples. She didn’t believe in coincidence. Daniel’s grave, now her office. Were the two events connected? Maybe it was time to re-question some of Daniel’s old buddies. Someone had to know something useful.

      Her heart squeezed. Five years wasn’t nearly long enough to have healed some wounds, though.

      Realizing Parker was waiting for her to respond, she said, “I only did a cursory look, but I didn’t see anything obvious missing. Perp rifled through all my files, drawers and books. Seemed to be searching for something.”

      “Interesting.” He seemed to be thinking about something. “I wonder if this was the same guy who searched the station last night.”

      “What?” She hadn’t heard about that.

      “Someone searched the station house, concentrating mostly on the K-9 unit and Captain McNeal’s office.”

      “Do you have any idea why? What were they looking for?”

      His expression turned cagey. “We think it has something to do with the crime syndicate plaguing Sagebrush. But the station house wasn’t broken into per se. The culprit came from within.”

      Surprised, she widened her eyes. “You think a fellow officer is working for the crime syndicate?”

      “That’s one theory. Though I can’t help but wonder if the two incidents somehow connect to Captain McNeal’s missing dog, Rio.”

      “Last month, K-9 Officer Jackson Worth spotted a masked man clad in black who was walking a dog matching Rio’s description. We also have a witness who saw someone dressed like you’ve described kill a man in cold blood.”

      A shiver of dread worked its way over Melody’s flesh. She was thankful the intruder had decided to just knock her down rather than kill her.

      What was he searching for? And would he be back? Maybe this break-in had nothing to do with her nephew’s grave. Or maybe it had everything to do with it.

      She intended to find out, regardless of the danger.

      * * *

      At four that afternoon, Parker’s captain summoned him to his office. He knocked lightly before opening the door.

      Captain Slade McNeal sat at his desk. He held the file with Parker’s notes from the day. “So tell me what you think about this break-in at the youth center.”

      Only four years older than Parker, Slade had slightly salted dark hair and a square jaw. Lines of stress bracketed his blue eyes.

      Stepping fully into Slade’s office, Parker said, “The perp who broke into the youth center matches Nicki Johnson’s description of the man who killed Gunther Lamont last month. The CSU techs didn’t find anything useful.” Not that he expected them to. So far the ski-mask guy had been very careful. No prints, no clear description identifying him.

      “Did Detective Zachary find anything missing?”

      An image of the pretty dark-haired, blue-eyed woman rose in Parker’s mind. He didn’t know Melody well. She kept pretty much to herself and devoted most of her free time to the Sagebrush Youth Center. A supposed alternative to the drug scene for the teens of Sagebrush.

      But Parker was dubious of any place

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