She poked him in the side with her elbow. “No, I didn’t know this was going to happen. Autumn called yesterday evening to tell me she thought someone was following her. That was when I dropped my phone in the sink and called her back using Prissy’s. After we finished our conversation, I looked at the pictures again, then decided we’d have a better chance of spotting anything suspicious if we viewed them on your computer.”
“Smart thinking.” She’d make a good agent. Except for the stealth part of it. “We can look at them now if you don’t have anything else you need to do.”
“I’ll head over to your place as soon as I take Buttons out.”
After watching her disappear into her house, he headed up the steps to his apartment. First, he’d order Pappy’s delivery. If Jess wanted to share it with him, great. If not, he’d have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Once he placed the pizza order, he’d log into his computer and be ready for her to sit at his desk and sign into her Dropbox account.
Over the next twenty minutes, he walked to the front of the apartment several times to look out the front window. Across the street, Jess followed the dog as he roamed the front yard. She held Buttons’s leash in one hand and her phone in the other, eyes intent on whatever was displayed on the screen. Both woman and dog finally disappeared back inside, and Jess emerged alone a few minutes later.
When a soft knock sounded on his door, he swung it open to see her standing on the top landing, phone still in her hand. He ushered her in and led her into the living room.
He nodded toward her hand. “Anything interesting on there? You’ve seemed pretty intent.”
“Spying on me?”
“Nope, just making sure no one bothered you.”
The smile she flashed him seemed to hold appreciation. She’d softened toward him quite a bit in the past two weeks. And he was softening toward her. She was tough, but beneath that tough facade was an underlying tenderness. It showed in her gentle touch when she’d wiped the blood from his face the night they’d met, in the way she cared for Buttons when the last thing she wanted was a dog, even in her determination to bring Priscilla’s killer to justice. Life hadn’t been kind to her, but she had somehow managed to bloom in spite of it.
Determination surged through him. He wasn’t giving up until both cases were solved. After all, it was his job. But it was more than that. Finding her sister’s killer meant everything to Jess. And he was determined to make it happen, whatever it took.
She indicated the phone by raising it. “I signed into my account and was looking at Prissy’s photos again.”
“Anything we missed the first time?”
“Not that I could see. If she was trying to capture something important, it seems she would have taken more than one picture.”
“Maybe she was afraid of getting caught. Or maybe she did take other photos and this was the only one that turned out, so she deleted the others.”
“I’m hoping we’re a little more successful on your laptop.”
He led her to the desk. When he swiped his touchpad with an index finger, the sign-in window came up. Too much time had passed since he’d logged in. He slid into the rolling chair and glanced up at Jess. She was standing next to him, phone still in hand, but she’d turned her face away to give him privacy. He keyed in his password and looked up at her again. Her head was still turned.
He wouldn’t have typed in his password otherwise. Although reaching the FBI database would require extra steps, he wasn’t about to give her access to his hard drive. He wanted to trust her, especially with all his talk about her trusting him, but it wasn’t his choice to make.
After opening an internet browser, he rose to offer her his chair, then walked to the dinette set to bring one over for himself. He’d give her the same privacy she’d afforded him. When he returned, thumbnail photos filled the screen.
He eased onto the chair and watched her click through them one by one. As he leaned in to view what was on the screen, that same fresh scent wafted to him, unpretentious, just like its wearer. Something tugged at him, that common bond, the desire to make things right for her. A longing that he refused to try to identify.
He drew in a deep breath. “I ordered pizza, everything on it. You’re welcome to join me.”
“Sounds good. I didn’t feel like cooking tonight anyway.”
“The only problem is they’re backed up. We can’t get delivery for over an hour, but if I pick it up, it’ll be ready in thirty minutes. You can tag along.”
She clicked to the next photo. “Or if you don’t mind, I’ll keep poring over photos.”
“I think we’ll be finished well before I have to leave.” He’d make sure of it. No way was he giving her access to his computer.
She grinned up at him. “Don’t trust me? It’s all right. I don’t plan to give you my passwords, either. Or social security number or banking info.”
Another click, and the next picture filled the screen. “But I have to admit, you’re starting to grow on me. It’s nice to have a friend, someone who doesn’t judge me based on who I used to be.”
“Same here.”
One side of her mouth turned down. “I can’t judge you. I don’t know who you used to be.”
“I mean it’s nice to have a friend.”
“Yeah.”
Disbelief laced her tone. She was right. It was a pretty one-sided friendship. He knew all about her—her dysfunctional family, her troubled childhood, her failed business, even her bad choices in men. And what did she know about him? That he moved around a
