Blood Loss

‘Are you for fucking real?’ said Ren. Jared flinched. Ren exploded. ‘Risk what? Two children have been abducted-’

‘Shelby’s sixteen years old,’ said Jared.

‘A minor!’ said Ren. ‘A child in my book. And that hardly exonerates you.’

Oh my God, you don’t know what exonerate means.

‘You don’t get off the hook is what I’m saying,’ said Ren. ‘There is an eleven-year-old girl out there, and your friend, and you tell me that Shelby works for Breck Sitters, and is therefore background-checked, when she is not.’

‘There’s no need to background-check her,’ said Jared. ‘Shelby’s cool. I could vouch for her. If this hadn’t happened, Tom would have been fine with it when he got back.’

Ren paused. ‘Now I get it — you were hoping you could have a quiet word in Mr Olson’s ear before we got to him, get him to back you up?’

Jared looked away.

‘What difference does it make?’ he said, his head snapping back to her.

‘Every bit of difference,’ said Ren. ‘You lied at the beginning of an investigation, first off. That is the most crucial time for us. Do you have any idea the damage you could have caused?’

‘They’ll probably come back,’ said Jared. ‘They probably just went out … it’s Saturday night.’

Sweet Jesus. ‘How did you get a job here?’ said Ren. ‘How?’

‘Aw, my dad’s buddies with Tom …’

You absolute idiot. ‘Jared, you need to listen to me, OK?’ said Ren. ‘If there is anything else I should know about Shelby Royce, this is your time to speak up.’

‘No — nothing,’ said Jared. ‘She’s a regular girl. I don’t know what all this is about, same as anyone else. I don’t know why anyone would, like, burst into a hotel room and take them away. Seems crazy to me.’

‘Is that what you think happened now? They were taken away by someone? Not that they just went out on a Saturday night for some fun?’

‘No! I don’t know, I told you. I haven’t a clue what happened. If I did, I’d say.’ He held some random fingers up. ‘I promise.’

‘You are looking at me like I’m supposed to believe everything that comes out of your mouth,’ said Ren. ‘The same mouth that did not open a crack to tell me that Shelby was just one of your buddies, and not even authorized to be here …’

‘Look, I’m sorry, OK?’ said Jared.

‘Do you get the gravity of the situation?’ said Ren.

‘Yes, OK? Jesus. You’re probably doing a background check on her now, anyway. What’s the difference?’

‘Just go,’ said Ren. ‘We’re done here.’

Bob Gage was standing in the center of the foyer, talking to Mike Delaney. Ren walked over to them. ‘That desk guy is such an asshole,’ said Ren. ‘How he could just bareface lie …’

‘Lot of kids just don’t give a shit these days,’ said Mike.

Ren’s attention was drawn to three men and a woman in dark suits and pristine white shirts walking through the lobby doors and moving her way. Three of them stopped just inside but one of them, the handsome one, kept walking, smiling, toward her. Late forties, fading tan, and hair that had gone very sexily gray.

Oh. Dear. God.

‘Excuse me, gentlemen,’ said Ren. She walked toward the man walking toward her. She could barely feel her legs, but they managed to move, and they managed to stop. And for the first time in eighteen months, she found herself standing face to face with the man who messed with her head like no other.

Damn you, Paul Louderback.

Paul hugged her lightly, and kissed her cheek. ‘Hello, there.’

To what do I owe the discomfort? ‘How are you?’ said Ren.

‘I’m good. It’s great to see you.’ He paused. ‘Really great.’ He pulled away. And stared a little too long.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

‘You too,’ said Ren. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘She said accusingly …’ He laughed.

‘More miserably than accusingly …’ said Ren.

‘I am here, Agent, because I’m the CARD guy,’ said Paul.

‘What?’ said Ren. ‘Since when?’

‘You don’t call, you don’t write …’

‘I’m … sorry,’ said Ren. Cold turkey was my only meal option.

‘Seeing that my emails clearly didn’t interest you enough to warrant a reply, there was no point in writing to tell you that I’ve been out in the field as an SSA with the Violent Crime Squad … and, well, now I’m with CARD. At your service.’

‘Wow, that’s great,’ said Ren.

‘We were visiting with different agencies in Denver this week, so we were able to respond quickly. So, anything you need …’ He smiled.

‘Sure,’ said Ren. Two girls are missing and I’m thinking why didn’t Paul Louderback tell me he was coming to Denver …

‘You do still have my number, don’t you?’ said Paul.

‘Ha, ha,’ said Ren.

He smiled. ‘We should go for a drink.’

‘We should,’ said Ren. In some other lifetime.

‘Maybe we could have dinner first?’ said Paul.

Don’t do it. Don’t do it. ‘If you insist. OK, I gotta go — there’s a briefing at the Sheriff’s Office.’

‘Hey,’ said Paul, ‘fill me in before you go.’

Ren told him what she knew, and ran from him … as fast as her rattled heart could handle.

Dinner and drinks: way to get over Paul Louderback.

16

Ren stood up at the front of the conference room and addressed the team, giving them all the details she knew to date. She’d stood here before — when the walls were a little dirtier and the desk was a cheap version of the one she was now laying her notes on. She looked out at a sea of mostly men from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, Summit County PD, and the FBI. She counted just six women.

She could see a raised hand in the crowd.

‘Ma’am? Detective Owens from the Sheriff’s Office, ma’am.’ He was no older than twenty-three and stood like a soldier. He was fair-haired and sweet-looking, the kind of guy who would never forget his mama. He was holding a small spiral notebook at waist height, and had his pen hovering over the page. There was a look of intense expectancy on his face. ‘Could this have been a pre-meditated abduction?’

‘Well, we’ll keep an open mind on that,’ said Ren.

‘Could Mark Whaley himself have planned it?’ said Owens.

‘The abduction of his own daughter?’ said Ren. ‘I think that’s unlikely — this is his first overnight visit with his daughter after what was, by all accounts, an acrimonious custody battle.’

‘Maybe his daughter could have been like collateral damage in something, like he was planning something, and she walked in on it? Like, he was going to abduct the sitter?’

‘We have yet to establish a prior connection between Mark Whaley and Shelby Royce,’ said Ren. ‘If Mark Whaley did know her before last night, and was genuinely planning to abduct her, it’s unlikely he would have done so while on a weekend away with his wife and family.’

‘But what if it was an opportunistic thing,’ said the detective, ‘he saw the sitter, he liked her …’