CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Brandon’s phone rang. Hector’s number winked up at him. “Hello?”
“Are you all right? Heard you got nicked.”
“I’m fine. And yes, thankfully, a nick is all it was.”
“Your lady friend all right?”
Brandon glanced at Sonya, who appeared deep in conversation with Don Bradley. Her father. “She’s hanging in there.”
“You like her, don’t you?”
Brandon snorted. “Do I like her? Are we back in high school now?”
“Fess up, partner.”
Brandon turned serious. “Yes. I like her.”
His simple statement seemed to throw Hector for a loop. Silence echoed back at him. Then Hector cleared his throat. “Well. Good. I…uh… Well, that’s nice, Brandon. I’m happy for you.”
Brandon smiled. He’d finally said something to make his partner go speechless. That was one for the books. “Keep me updated.”
“Yeah. Yeah. And you learn how to duck a little faster, huh?”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Brandon hung up and grimaced. His shoulder throbbed. Thankfully, it was the same side he’d taken a bullet in about a year ago. At least he still had one good arm. And this bullet hadn’t even penetrated, just skimmed the surface. Still stung, though.
He walked over to Sonya. “Are you ready to go?”
“I guess so. The question is—are you?”
“I’m ready.” He looked at Don. “I’m sorry for all the chaos looking into Heather’s disappearance is causing. I hope this doesn’t come back on you. What’s your home security system like?”
The man shook his head. “My security system is state-of-the-art. After we adopted Grayson, Ann insisted. And I’m simply stunned with everything that’s happened. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes sense to whoever is trying to stop us.” Brandon pulled the keys from his pocket. “I’m going to take Sonya home and get a little rest myself. We’ll regroup and figure out a plan where to go from here.”
“I want to talk to the nanny,” Sonya said.
“I’ve got Hector tracking her down. As soon as we have an address, we’ll pay her a visit.”
Don stepped forward and took Sonya’s hand. “I want to get to know you.”
Brandon saw Sonya swallow hard. “I want that, too,” she said, “but I don’t think someone else is too excited about the idea.”
“I don’t care. We’ll fight back together.”
“No. I don’t want to put you in danger. After this is over, we’ll talk, okay?”
He looked at Brandon. “I want to help.”
Brandon frowned. “I understand that, sir, but I don’t really know what you can do at this point.”
“What if Sonya comes to stay with us? My wife and I would love to have her. And I just told you we have a state-of-the-art security system.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Sonya said. “I’d have to think about it.” She bit her lip and backed up a fraction.
Brandon wondered what was going through her mind. Sheer panic blossomed and she shot him a desperate look. He stepped over and put his arm around her. “We’ll talk about it,” he said. “It’s actually not a bad idea, but give us some time to discuss it.”
“Of course.” The man shoved his hands into his pockets. “I didn’t mean to push too hard.”
“No, it’s okay,” Sonya said. She’d gathered herself together quickly and Brandon wanted to think his presence helped her do so. “Like Brandon said, I’ll…think about it.”
Don nodded and took a step toward the door. “I’ll leave now.” He shot a beseeching look at Sonya. “But please do think about it. I’ve lost almost twenty-eight years with you. I guess I just don’t want to lose another minute.”
Sonya said nothing more. She simply nodded.
He patted the front pocket of his blazer, then reached in and pulled out a small packet. “Before I forget. These are some pictures of our family. I thought you might like to see them.”
Sonya took them. “Thank you. I definitely would like to look at them.” She slipped them into her purse.
Don left.
Brandon turned to Sonya. “You don’t have to stay with them, don’t worry.”
She gave a small shrug. “If I thought Mrs. Bradley wanted me to, I might consider it, but I’d never invade her home like that knowing how she feels about me.”
Erica, who’d been standing by, observing and listening, turned to Brandon. “We’ve got resources, you know. If you need a safe house, it could probably be arranged.”
Sonya shook her head. “No. No safe house.” She pulled in a deep breath. “If I go into hiding, I’ll never be able to come out.” Her lips firmed and her chin jutted. “I’m going to stay in plain sight and just pray we catch him before he catches me.”
Sonya wanted to recall her pseudobrave words. The harsh frown on Brandon’s face said he didn’t like them, either. But she couldn’t take the words back and decided then she didn’t want to. She knew if she disappeared, she’d never be able to have a real life again. Not as herself, anyway. She couldn’t live like that. She had to find the truth and find it soon. She prayed that the Lord saw fit to let her live to do it.
Brandon escorted her from the hospital. She thought he looked pale and drawn. His shoulder had to be hurting him.
They stepped outside and Brandon came to an abrupt halt. “I don’t have a car.”
“No, but I do.” Erica, who’d been following silently behind, smiled sweetly and swung her keys at them.
Brandon smiled. “Right. So is Max pulling protection duty tonight?”
Max, Erica’s husband, didn’t mind helping out when needed. And he was definitely needed tonight.
“Max and Peter.” Erica led the way to her vehicle.
Sonya scanned the area. Was he watching? Was he wondering how they’d once again managed to elude him? Or had he drowned in the river? Was it all over?
They arrived at Erica’s dark blue SUV, and Sonya saw Max parked next to Erica.
He rolled the window down as they approached. “Ready to roll?”
Brandon shook his hand. “What are you doing here?”
“Erica’s the chauffeur. I’m the escort.”
Sonya relaxed a fraction.
“I’ve also asked Jordan to be at the house when you’re home tonight. You need to be able to rest without worrying about an intruder,” Max said.
Jordan Gray. Sonya recognized the name. She hadn’t met the other agency operative, but knew he was Brandon’s roommate. The one who was marrying Katie Randall, a detective Brandon had worked with on occasion. When she’d first approached Finding the Lost, he’d given her the rundown on all of the employees.
Brandon motioned for Sonya to take the front passenger seat then opened the door. He looked at Max with a frown. “That’s not necessary.”
“Well, I think it is.” Erica lifted her chin a notch and gave her brother a steely-eyed look. “And Jordan agreed with us. He’ll be there when I drop you off. Peter is on the way to Missy’s as we speak.”
“And I’ll be joining him shortly,” Max said. Sonya listened to them go back and forth and leaned her head back against the headrest. It was all just too much. I don’t understand why this is happening, Lord, but don’t let my faith waver now. When Dad died, I was devastated. When my mom died, I was ready to crumble. I begged You for peace, but didn’t get it. I still don’t know that I’ve truly accepted she’s gone. That they’re both gone. Please help me, Lord.
The plea seemed to bring a measure of comfort. She didn’t know if that was the Lord or if she just felt better after getting it off her chest. But she’d asked God for peace and now she felt better. She wasn’t going to take that away from Him. Thank You, Lord.
Exhaustion swamped her.
Brandon’s phone rang and she turned her attention to his conversation. “Who? Right. Okay, I’ll ask him. Thanks.”
“Who was that?” Erica asked before Sonya could get the words out.
“Hector.”
“What did he want?”
“He’s been investigating the Bradleys.”
“And?” Sonya perked up.
“He said they came back clean. Squeaky-clean. No record of any kind.”
“Oh, well, that’s good, right?”
“Yes, it’s great. He did mention that Mrs. Bradley’s sister died shortly after Heather was born.”
“Mr. Bradley mentioned that,” Sonya said.
“Did he mention how she died?”
“No, just that it was a really hard time in his family. Heather was kidnapped—” Sonya simply couldn’t refer to herself as Heather “—and his sister-in-law died.”
“Apparently she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her neck.”
Sonya gasped. “How awful!”
“Mrs. Bradley said she’d been depressed and had talked of killing herself, so they briefly wondered if it was suicide, but in the end it was ruled an accident.”
“Suicide by throwing yourself down a flight of stairs?” Sonya scoffed. “That doesn’t even make sense. Who does that?”
Erica pulled into Missy’s drive and Brandon nodded. “I thought the same thing, but apparently there was no evidence of foul play.”
“So it was just a tragic accident.”
“Looks like.”
* * *
Brandon’s phone rang before he could climb out of the car. “Hello?”
“Me again,” Hector trilled in a falsetto pitch.
“That’s so annoying.”
“I know. That’s why I do it,” Hector said in his normal voice. “I’ll get right to it. We found your jumper or the shooter—whichever label you want to put on him.”
“The guy I chased from the parking garage.”
“Yep. He washed downstream and our guys pulled him out.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah. He left his weapon in the car. We’re running ballistics on it even as we speak.”
Even though Brandon and Hector both knew without a shadow of a doubt the guy was guilty, they needed hard evidence. Linking the gun and the bullets to him would prove he was the shooter.
“Have them check it against the one used in the park shooting,” Brandon said.
Silence echoed back at him, and then Hector said, “Excellent idea. I’ll have them do that as soon as we get off the phone.”
“That’s twice Sonya’s been shot at. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the bullets came from the same gun.”
“But what about the other two women who were shot?”
“I don’t know what the connection is. Why don’t you do a little investigating on that, too?”
“All right. I’ll see if Sonya has any link with those two and I’ll call ballistics as soon as we hang up. What else?”
“Any information on Rebecca Gold?”
“Nothing yet. Still looking.”
“Okay. Let’s get back to the shooter, then.”
“Right. Well, he’s dead.”
Brandon rolled his eyes. “I figured that. That was a pretty long drop off the bridge.”
“Yeah. And the water’s not more than four feet deep.”
“Did he drown?”
“Broke his neck along with some other bones, but the neck injury killed him. He’s definitely our guy from the photograph, though. The tattoo on his shoulder matches the one in the picture.”
Brandon blew out a sigh. “Okay, what’s his name? Did he have any ID on him?”
“No ID on him, but we ran his prints and he’s in the system. Name’s Buddy Reed.”
“Should I know him?”
“No reason to. But he has a record. Armed robbery is his biggest offense when he was eighteen. It was a one-time deal and he got a slap on the wrist since no one was hurt. He seemed to get his act together and got his degree in sports medicine. Right now, he’s a trainer at one of the local gyms. Or, rather, he was.”
“Any experience with guns? Weapons?”
“Well, since he missed hitting you, I’m guessing not much. Then again, he had pretty good aim in the park if he’s the same shooter.” Hector paused and Brandon heard the rustling of papers. “But no, there’s nothing other than the armed robbery. No military service, no guns registered in his name. I’m guessing the rifle he had was off the black market. The serial number was filed off. I’ll keep looking into everything.”
“Good. That would be great.”
“You sound distracted.”
Brandon blinked. “I’m just wondering if it’s over.”
“What do you mean? The shooter’s dead. The danger’s over, right?”
“Unless he was working for someone, and that someone just hires another killer when he learns of Buddy Reed’s demise.” Of course that was a possibility. “We’ll keep the protection-detail plans for tonight and revisit it in the morning. Thanks for the info.”
“My pleasure. See ya.”
Click.
Brandon hung up the phone and turned to Sonya. She’d heard every word. “He’s dead?”
“Yes.”
“So is it over? I can go home?”
“Hector and I discussed the possibility that the guy could have been working for someone.”
She blanched. “Oh.”
“So, let’s keep up the precautions and see where we are in the morning.” The same thing he’d said to Hector.
She nodded. “Fine.” But she couldn’t help feeling massive amounts of relief. The man who’d shot at her was dead. She could sleep tonight. Maybe. If it hadn’t been someone who’d been hired. If that was the case, then both she and Brandon were still in danger.