Allison Brennan - See No Evil

Hooper was skeptical. “So what’s the connection between Montgomery and Ridge? Montgomery doesn’t fit,” Hooper said.

“Yes he does.” Connor held up a single piece of paper. “Victor Montgomery handed over a list of cases to Vernon Small when Montgomery went on vacation two years ago. One of them was 5CAG44563JV. We don’t have the file because it was expunged, but we do know that was Jason Ridge’s case number.”

“Where’d you find that?” Julia hurried over to her desk and its towering stacks of paper.

“When you said there was a pattern, I started thinking about how Montgomery fit into the puzzle, so I flipped through the reports. It just jumped out at me, now that I know about the case.”

“You mean because Montgomery handed Jason’s case over to Small, he got killed?” Dillon said. “Because Montgomery went on vacation?”

“You could argue that if he hadn’t gone on vacation, Ridge wouldn’t have gotten off so easy. Victor had a reputation for giving first offenders jail time, but Vernon Small was notorious for leniency with first-time sex offenders.” Julia sat at her computer and brought up the judicial contributor reports on the screen. “What if there’s another connection between Montgomery and Ridge? A financial connection?”

“Montgomery was up for reelection three years ago,” Will said.

“I was looking at these when Tom Chase called, and never finished going through them.” Julia sat back at the computer.

Silence fell on the group until ten minutes later Julia said, “Bingo! James and Stephanie Ridge gave Victor Montgomery ten thousand dollars. And it wasn’t in the election year, it was the following year. After Montgomery passed on their son’s case to Judge Small. If the killer knew that, they might think it was a payoff.”

“Well done, Counselor,” Will said. “You should have been a cop.”

“Who has motive?” she asked.

“Shannon Chase’s parents,” Dillon said. “They lost their daughter. The system didn’t work for them.”

“Tom Chase lives in Maine,” Julia said. “I called him there.”

“But,” Connor reminded her, “he returned your call. What if he retrieved his messages from elsewhere?”

“That’s easy to determine,” Will said. “I’ll contact authorities in Maine and have them pay Mr. Chase a visit.”

“What about Mrs. Chase?”

“I haven’t been able to find her,” Julia said. “Her last known address was in San Diego, the house where Shannon killed herself. The Chases sold it over a year ago and the father moved to Maine. Laura Chase didn’t.”

“I’ll work on that one,” Will said.

“What if there was another victim?” Connor suggested. “Someone else Jason attacked, after Shannon?”

Dillon nodded. “And because Shannon had been ostracized at school, the victim didn’t come forward. Decided to take justice into her own hands.”

“One person couldn’t commit all these crimes,” Will said.

“No,” Dillon concurred, “we’re looking for a killing team. And they’re even more dangerous than we imagined, because they think their motives are pure.”

“Or they just want to make it seem that way,” Connor said thoughtfully.

“Then my plan is definitely going to bring them out,” Will said.

“What plan?” Julia asked.

“We take Emily to the courthouse tomorrow. She goes into a judge’s chambers. We have the press all over the place. She comes out and there’s no comment. Chief Causey makes a report that she’s a material witness and in protective custody.”

Julia jumped up, almost knocking over her chair. “Absolutely not. You’re making my niece a target for a killer.”

“She’ll be in protective custody. No one will know where she is.”

“She’s a child. You can’t use her like that. I’m her guardian,” said Julia. “I won’t allow it.”

“Julia, listen.” Connor forced her to look at him. “We have to find a way to draw the killers out, to make them think they screwed up somewhere. We don’t know that they don’t have others on their ‘wish list.’ Bowen may not be the last.”

“They’re empowered,” Dillon agreed. “They’ve gotten away with murder. They may feel they can expand the scope of their actions. Enact more of their brand of justice.”

Connor said pointedly to Julia, “Someone tried to kill you. They think you know something.”

“Exactly! And they’ll try to kill Emily, too!”

“She’ll be long gone before we ever make the announcement to the press,” Will said.

“You can’t possibly agree to this!” Julia spun around, feeling like everyone was jeopardizing her niece. The people she trusted most. “What if someone wanted to use your little sister Lucy as bait?”

“Emily won’t be bait,” Connor said. “She’ll be safe. We can get a policewoman to be bait in a known safe house. I would never jeopardize Emily’s life.”

Julia was torn. Her head saw the value in the plan, but anything that even suggested harm to Emily deeply disturbed her.

“Where would she be?”

“How about Montana?” Dillon offered. “Carina is still up there. We can have a deputy fly her up tomorrow and she can stay until we have this locked down.”

Connor agreed. “Julia, Carina is with Nick, another cop. They would never let anything happen to her. She’d be out of the area, completely safe. I wouldn’t agree to the idea if I thought there was even a chance we couldn’t keep her safe.” He touched her cheek. “You know that, right?”

Julia found herself nodding, but she didn’t like it. Not one bit. But the thought that someone was going to get away with Victor’s murder and let Emily take the blame made her physically ill.

Will stood. “I’ll set it up. We’ll bring Emily downtown and then drive her out of the garage in a windowless van. No one will know where she is. I’ll call Carina, too, though if she balks about cutting her vacation short to play bodyguard, I’m blaming you guys.”

Dillon and Will left, and Julia turned to Connor. She just wanted to go to bed, though she doubted she’d get any sleep. “What time are you going to pick me up tomorrow? I have a rental car lined up if you could drop me off-”

“Rental car? I’m not letting you out of my sight. I’m staying here. Security system or not, you’re a sitting duck all alone. Someone could break in and kill you before the police are even dispatched.”

“I’m hardly helpless, Connor,” she said.

“Right, you have a gun.” He rolled his eyes, then walked through the house pointing out all the security flaws. She had no choice but to follow him. “Your house has more windows than walls. Anyone can see you. Take a sniper shot.” He started pulling down blinds, then continued through the rest of the house.

“Connor, stop. You can’t stay here.”

“Why? This place is certainly big enough.”

Not big enough for us to sleep under the same roof. She’d never sleep knowing Connor was in the room next to hers. Or on the couch downstairs. After that kiss this morning…“You can’t stay.”

Connor stopped checking the locks and turned to her. He was only a foot away, his dark eyes boring into hers. “Why not?”

“I…because…it’s not…” Her face flushed.

“Because you’re afraid I’ll do this?”

He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his body. Before she could catch her breath, his lips were on hers, hot and hard, capturing her voice and eliciting a groan deep from her chest.

His body was solid muscle, his stomach flat. He held her with ease, she couldn’t move if she wanted to. And she didn’t. This was what she wanted. It was what she had wanted without knowing it for five years.