Sandra Robbins - Dangerous Waters

“What is it?” she asked.

“Since when did you become religious?”

She smiled and put her napkin on her lap. “It’s not a question of being religious, Brad. The truth is I turned my life over to God, and I live my life in faith. I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”

“What does your brother think about that?”

“He approves. Especially since he’s done the same thing, thanks to the influence of his wife.” Brad shrugged and began to spread jam on a piece of toast. “I guess whatever makes you happy is fine. You know I’ve never had any reason to believe in God. I don’t need God or anybody else in my life.”

Her forehead wrinkled. “You sound cynical. I hope I’m not the reason for that. I’m sorry for what happened between us six years ago. I’ve wanted to ask you to forgive me for a long time, but I didn’t think I’d ever have the nerve to face you.”

His eyes narrowed. “I can understand why. I loved you, Laura, from the first day I saw you at school. We were a couple from then on. I would have done anything to make you happy, and you gave back my ring and walked out on me without a backward glance.”

His words were tinged with hurt, and Laura wanted to make him understand what had driven her to do what she did. She set her fork down on her plate and clasped her hands on her lap. “I might have been twenty-three years old when I left Memphis, but I still felt like the ten-year-old girl who’d seen her parents bombed in that car. My brother, Mark, carried the same scars I did, and he wanted me to come live with him in Raleigh. He thought we could help each other. I left for your sake as well as mine.”

“That’s what you told me, but I wanted to help you, Laura.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Oh, I know you did, but I felt like I had to find my own peace. It wasn’t fair for me to saddle you with all my baggage. You didn’t deserve that. I left here as much for you as for myself.”

He grimaced and a grunt of disgust rumbled in his throat. “I’m afraid I didn’t see it that way.”

She tilted her head to one side and stared at him. “I’m sorry I hurt you, but it was the right decision for us both.”

He picked up his fork and scooped up some eggs. “Well, as they say, that’s all water under the bridge now. I recovered and moved on.” He pointed to her plate. “Let’s eat our breakfast. Then we have to figure out what we’re going to do about keeping you safe.”

Laura stared at Brad for a moment before she poured syrup on her pancakes and began to eat. In the time she and Brad had been talking, she’d sensed a change in him. Instead of the caring man she remembered, he seemed distant and jaded. Had she caused that change in him, or was it his job?

A groan of approval rippled from her throat as she swallowed her first bite of pancake. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was. “Thank you for bringing me here and thank you for wanting to help me.”

He paused with his fork halfway to his mouth and set it back on his plate. Then he cleared his throat before he looked up at her. “It’s my job, Laura. Don’t read something personal in what I’m doing for you. I would do it for anyone needing help. Now eat your breakfast, and then we’ll go by your house and get you some clean clothes.”

The rebuff felt like a slap in the face, and she struggled not to let her face betray how his words had hurt. After a moment she took a deep breath and nodded. “I understand. I’m sorry I didn’t let you know I was back, but I knew you didn’t want to talk to me. When I saw the article in the paper that you were heading up the cold case department, I wanted to ask you to look into my parents’ case again. Then I decided it was better to let it go, that maybe it wasn’t meant for me to know who killed them.”

He gave no reaction to her words. “Then why did you agree to that interview?”

“Coming back to Memphis triggered a lot of memories for me, and it makes me angry that the people who killed my parents are still out there somewhere. I thought doing the interview might make somebody who knows something about it step forward. I didn’t think that it might also get me killed.”

He exhaled and raked his hand through his hair. “It scares me to think how close you came to that happening. But you’d better think about what you really want before you get back on that emotional roller coaster you were on before you ran away.”

“I’m afraid of that, too,” she whispered.

He leaned forward. “If it means anything to you, one of the first things I did when I went to work in the unit was to pull the files on your parents’ deaths and look them over.”

Her heart pounded and she sat up straight. “Did you find anything?”

He shook his head. “No. I didn’t find anything at the time, but it wouldn’t hurt to take another look. Your abduction may give us some leads.”

“Like what?”

“We’ll question hospital personnel to find out if anybody saw a vehicle leaving the parking lot at the time of your attack. We’ll trace the cell phone number of the call you received. Either of those things might lead to something.”

“Thank you, Brad.”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to thank me. It’s my job to work on the cold cases we’ve been handed. But it’s not going to be easy for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve always been a little headstrong, Laura, but listen to me. You don’t want me to start something if you’re not willing to see it through no matter where it leads.”

“I know that.”

He shook his head. “No, you think you know that, but cold case investigations can take years. Are you prepared to wait out the time it takes to see this to the end?”

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I am.”

He sighed and nodded. “Okay. Let’s finish our breakfast, and we’ll go pick up your car at the hospital. Then I think we need to go by your house and let you get cleaned up. I’ll take you back to my office. If you’d like, I can pull your parents’ file, and we’ll look through it.”

“I’d like that. Thank you, Brad.”

“And another thing. I think you’re going to need some protection. I have to figure out how we’re going to do that.”

She started to protest that she didn’t need protection, but the memory of a gun pressed to her back and an evil laugh kept her from speaking. Brad was the trained police officer, and she needed to listen to him. He might not like her very much, but she knew he would do everything possible to protect her.

When she’d agreed to do that interview for Grace, she had no idea that it would lead her into danger. But even more surprising was the fact that her abduction had further fueled the desire she’d tried to suppress for years—to find out who hated her parents enough to kill them.

Now the fire she’d thought extinguished burned in her stomach again, and she wouldn’t rest until she had the answers she’d wanted since she was ten years old.

* * *

After showing Brad to the den, Laura disappeared into her bedroom, where she’d been for the past forty-five minutes. With three sisters in the house when he was growing up, Brad never had been able to figure out what took women so long to take a shower and get dressed.

With a sigh he leaned back on the sofa and flipped through the television channels. He never had a chance to watch TV in the morning, so he had no idea there were so many talk shows on. He punched the remote again just as his cell phone rang. The number displayed was from the local FBI office.

He muted the volume on the TV and raised the phone to his ear. “Detective Austin.”

“Brad? This is Bill Diamond. I just heard about Nathan Carson. How is he?”