“ ‘Peace’? No way. He doesn’t know the meaning of the word.”
“Then why are you sending him?”
“Because he’d come even if we didn’t send him. The moment he heard about the goblet, he told us he was going. But he’s smart and experienced, and that may be enough to keep us out of trouble.” She didn’t wait for Megan to reply. “I’ll phone you as soon as I find out anything else that may interest you.” She hung up.
Anything else? Renata had told her nothing that had interested her, Megan thought in frustration. She didn’t want this Caleb to explode on a situation that was already tense and bewildering. All she wanted was to be able to handle the problems she had now.
Okay, look at it from a positive angle. If Nancy Jo’s killer was found, then she might disappear, and one facet of Joe’s problem might vanish with her. Maybe this Seth Caleb was a bright shining light that would make everything better.
Only Renata had not made him sound like a bright shining light. More like a loose cannon.
She could only hope.
“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?”
Joe turned to see Ed Norris striding out of the captain’s office. The senator’s eyes were swollen and rimmed, and he looked as if he hadn’t slept. He probably hadn’t, Joe thought. You didn’t sleep when you were going through all the fires of hell. “Good afternoon, Senator.”
“Do you always wander in at two in the afternoon?” Norris demanded. “Well, you’d better change your ways while you’re on my daughter’s case. I want you here by eight in the morning and working a full day.”
“I’ll work as long as it takes to get the job done,” Joe said. “I don’t always punch a time clock.”
“Convenient.”
Joe was trying to hold on to his patience. He felt sorry for the poor bastard. “Sometimes.”
“Not on Nancy Jo’s case.”
To hell with patience. “Look, I wasn’t here this morning because I went back to the crime scene last night and didn’t get home until dawn. I don’t know why I’m telling you because I don’t give a damn what you think. I answer to the captain, and she won’t cave because a senator starts pressuring.” He added, “And it would help us if you’d stay away from Allatoona. You can’t do anything but stir up the media and get in the way.”
“I had to go there. I needed—” His lips compressed with pain. “But those reporters were all over me. I suppose if I’d thought, I would have known they—But I didn’t think.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t seem to be doing a good job of that lately. Except about Nancy Jo. I can’t seem to think of anything else but her.” His expression darkened. “And that son of a bitch who killed her. I have to get him, Quinn.”
“Let me do my job. She wouldn’t want you to be involved.”
“Involved. I am involved. How can I—” He stopped. “Have you found out anything more?”
“We think that she may have been taken at a parking garage at Perimeter Mall. I’ve sent someone to ask questions of the attendants and check security video cameras.”
“Why Perimeter Mall?”
“We’ve checked with her roommate, Chelsea Burke, and she told us that your daughter was going shopping there. Her roommate was planning on going with her, but she had an exam the next day.”
“If she’d gone with Nancy Jo, he might not have been able to grab her . . . Such a little thing to make a difference.”
Joe nodded. “Such a little thing.” He started to turn away.
“Wait.” Norris was silent for a moment. “I have to be kept in the loop. I’ll make it worth your while if you come to me first with any break in the case.”
So that he could go after the bastard himself. Nancy Jo had been right on the money.
“I’m sure the captain will keep you informed on the investigation,” Joe said. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to make some calls.”
“If you change your mind . . . Why did you go out to Allatoona again? Did you think you missed something?”
“No, I didn’t miss anything.” He paused. “But I have a hunch she was killed in the trees, not on the bank. I asked forensics to check it out. We should know in a few hours.”
“Why would you think that? You may be wasting time. He could be getting away while we ‘check’ out your hunches.”
“Or we could take a step closer,” Joe said. “I’m trusting my instincts. I’ll let you know if I’m right.”
He could feel Norris’s gaze on his back as he walked away from him. This case was going to be a headache in more ways than the obvious. Norris was going to be on his ass every minute of the day, and how much of what Nancy Jo had told Joe could he attribute to “instinct”? If he’d been forced to tell Norris that he had asked that the security tapes at the parking garage be scanned for a large light-colored Lincoln, he would have had a hell of a time explaining.
Well, he would just have to dance around the truth and try to avoid Norris as much as possible. It wouldn’t be easy considering the fact that Norris was hurting and angry and wanted to be in on every detail of the investigation. He couldn’t blame him. Joe would have felt the same in his shoes. Nancy Jo was definitely right in worrying about her father.
Damn, that last thought about Nancy Jo had come out of nowhere and been perfectly natural. As if he was accepting her as a living, thinking force.
He quickly edged away from that realization. Instead, he had to concentrate on the case, on the man who had killed Nancy Jo, try to find a link between Jelak and the killing.
