Page 38 of Cold Light of Day

The door opened behind him, forcing him to step back.Tanya pushed her way in and looked from Grier to Autumn. “Chief, you okay?”

She nodded. “Mr. Brenner was just leaving.”

Brilliant. Grier bid goodbye to both women, then exited. She was right. He was just leaving. He would get in his truck and just keep driving, only he couldn’t drive to escape Shadow Gap. He would have to fly or take the Alaska Marine Highway.

SEVENTEEN

Grier stepped out of Autumn’s office and disappeared from her line of sight. Tanya held the door open as Craig walked by, heading to his desk. As he passed, he glanced at Tanya and nodded, then at Autumn and his head swiveled away, but not before she caught his smirk.

Fury could get the best of her if she let it, and as it was, Tanya probably thought the heat reddening her cheeks was because of Grier. But it was anger flushing through her at Craig’s cocky attitude. Obviously, his uncle had notified him of the city council discussion. What she couldn’t know was if he would go so far as to sabotage her efforts to prove herself. She couldn’t imagine he would—because she believed he was a good guy. She and her three officers and two dispatchers were a team and had each other’s backs. They’d worked well together even before she became the chief. It was only the last few months that her every move was watched and criticized.

If anything, Wally was fueling dissension.

Tanya closed the door, remaining in Autumn’s office. “I can see that you’re not okay. You want to talk about it?”

“I have work to do.”

“Oh, I see how it is.”

“I’m not shutting you out, Tanya. I mean it. Grier mentioned he spotted an email on your computer from the ME.”

“Why, that sneaky—”

“What did it say?” she asked.

“See for yourself. It’s in your inbox.”

“Anything else?”

“I also emailed a link where you can view the footage you requested.”

Autumn smiled, for probably the first time today. “You’re a gem, you know that?”

The woman batted her naturally thick eyelashes as she left Autumn’s office and closed the door.

Releasing a pent-up breath, Autumn tried to breathe slowly and naturally, letting the tension drain out of her. Not all of it, though—she needed to remain diligent, enough so that she could think clearly.

Grier had been fishing for information, and he’d made her uncomfortable. What was she doing trusting him so much, more than she trusted the officers working for her? Maybe it was like Birdy had said and she only needed to know someone’s mettle. And Grier possessed a lot of it, at least his actions seemed to indicate he did. Maybe she’d turned to him because she felt like she’d been thrown under the proverbial bus, every decision she made questioned and labeled a mistake.

Grier’s sudden appearance in her world had seemed like a lifeline and she’d held on. But if she knew what was good for her, she would rein in her interactions.

She couldn’t afford any mistakes.

She’d left the council meeting hoping to convey that she didn’t care as much about their decision as she did about doing her job. She needed to find out about the criminals who had shown up in Shadow Gap.

But she did care. She wanted tokeepher job.

And right now, she had to push aside thoughts of Grier andhis good looks. His courage. Hero status. With his bearing, his skills, she pegged him for a Navy SEAL or someone of that caliber. One day, he might even willingly tell her the truth.

Blowing out a breath, she shook her head and focused on pulling up the email from the ME he’d referenced. She read it and learned some preliminary information about the body. Then grabbed her cell and texted Grier to meet her tonight at her house. She would use the info to negotiate.

She then began her own search into the dead man and his partner. “Okay, Alberto Acosta from Argentina and Oscar Evans from the UK, are these even your real names?”

An incredulous huff escaped.

When AST informed her of the men’s identities, she learned they each had a Red Notice out for them. They were wanted by a country or an international tribunal. But she wanted to know why. Law enforcement agents from various countries worked on loan for Interpol, but Interpol wasn’t a police agency in and of itself and had no authority to arrest or to compel countries to arrest someone who was wanted. They could work with law enforcement investigating, searching for, and arresting, but mostly they connected the police around the world. At least so far as countries chose to participate.

She skimmed the names of fugitives again, but in the case of these two, their crimes weren’t recorded in the public information she’d pulled up. Autumn read more, learning there were almost seventy thousand such notices, but only eight thousand were made public. Still, she could search the nonpublic lists made available to law enforcement if she had time, which she didn’t.

---