Page 40 of Duplicity

“Maybe.” Cat frowned. “But they all know they’re supposed to check in even if they’re going to leave.”

Romeo said, “I’ll tell Espinoza-Vasquez.” He turned and jogged back to the building, already on his radio.

The way he moved was almost like he was unafraid. But then, he’d been caught in a bomb explosion before. The house where he had responded on a police call had blown up, tossing Romeo into the air. For a few days, he had been in critical condition, fighting for his life. The swelling on his brain had gone down quickly, and he had recovered almost as rapidly as the incident itself had happened.

Cat and her mom had prayed through every minute of it.

Two weeks later, Cat had applied for the police department, wanting to make a difference in a real way, just as Romeo did every time he put the uniform on. No one in her life thought it was a good idea for her to be a police officer. They’d all supported her becoming a School Resource Officer.

She tried not to think about what that meant for her. Or how much faith they had in her abilities.

The officers who’d shown up got the lowdown from the principal. All of them could deal with the situation here.

Cat said, “She may have gone home. If she isn’t here, then I’ll head to her house and find out if she’s safe there.”

And she was going to ask Simon if he wanted to go with her.

SIXTEEN

Simon glanced at the server. “Thanks.” He picked up his fork and stabbed a piece of sausage in his pasta dish. “I always get this when I come here. It’s really good.”

Across from him at the table in Backdraft bar and grill, Cat smiled around a bite of her burger. “One of these days, I’m going to buy myself a gas grill for my balcony and learn how to use it so I can make these at home instead of spending fifteen dollars on one.” After she had enjoyed the bite, she said, “But they do it so well.”

He smiled back at her.

After the bomb squad had wrapped up a search of the building and found no explosive device, the school day had been practically over. No parents wanted their kids in the school after a scare like that, so everyone had been sent home.

He and Cat had gone to the missing girl’s house, but she hadn’t been there. Her mom wasn’t worried, although she had sounded busy at work. The woman had promised to call if the girl didn’t return home or if she couldn’t get in contact with her at all by the end of the day.

The idea that this might be more than one missing person soured Simon’s stomach like the time he had accidentally drankout-of-date milk. Peter had suffered more than him with the milk, actually throwing up, but Simon’s nausea had been bad enough. It might have been better to simply throw up the spoiled drink. That wasn’t how it had gone down, though.

He shook some salt and pepper on his meal and took a drink of soda.

Spending time with Cat like this made him wish the case was done and they could relax together. Then again, being friends and in each other’s company was only going to make him wonder if there could be more between them.

She knew more about him than any of the women he’d dated in the last few years. He tried to keep things separate, but with Cat, it was as though worlds were colliding. Walls were coming down between things he normally didn’t allow to mix. His history. The present. Work and his life outside work, which didn’t usually amount to much when he wasn’t seeing anyone.

She seemed comfortable in a place like this. He’d never brought his ex here because she always insisted on going somewhere “nice.” Which meant expensive. Hopefully, Peter would show up late so Simon could spend more time alone with Cat.

She eyed him, squinting slightly. “What are you thinking about?”

“I doubt you want to know.” Certainly not the details about the less than half dozen people he had been in a relationship with since high school.

“Try me.”

Simon shook his head, smiling. Peter was more the kind to rise to a challenge, but this time, there wasn’t much to lose when she already knew so much about him.

He set his fork down. “She doesn’t work there anymore, but Lena was Clare’s assistant at Vanguard. Now Clare doesn’t really work there much of the time. Jasper, who used to be a policedetective, is the new operations manager. Since Clare had her baby, she doesn’t do much but oversee things at Vanguard from a distance. Anyway, Lena was Clare’s assistant.”

“I feel like you are revving your engine, gearing up to something. Is it really that terrible?”

Simon winced. And not because he had done anything. “Lena was the last person I went out with. And it was almost a year ago, I think. Maybe longer than that.”

“What happened?” Her expression softened in a way he would’ve liked to have seen when he had been telling her that story in the dark. But at the same time, it was better to tell her without worrying about her reaction or if she’d realize how difficult it had been to say all that out loud.

Simon eased back in his chair. “It was a few weeks, and I was kind of swept up in it. Maybe too much. She was dating Peter at the same time, and neither of us were supposed to talk about the relationship, so we didn’t figure it out until the damage was done.”

They had unpacked it some, but not much. Maybe there were too many things they had never talked about. Things where they had a kind of silent understanding when they probably shouldn’t.

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