Page 56 of Simply Perfection
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Hands-free streaming. Calls and media go right to my processors via Bluetooth. Until I got these babies, phone calls were impossible.”
Niall frowned as he realized how insensitive he’d been to Logan’s disability. “I’m sorry, Logan. You could have told me to make the call. I forget sometimes that the things I take for granted are a challenge for you.”
Logan placed his hand on Niall’s shoulder and squeezed. “First of all, thank you. That’s probably the best compliment a person can give me. Secondly, you’re under a lot of stress and not thinking as clearly as you normally would. Finally, I make phone calls all the time. Yes, it’s sometimes difficult, especially if I don’t know the person I’m speaking to or they have a thick accent, but it’s part of our everyday lives, and I’ve learned to compensate. I just make Clay talk to Conor.”
Niall shoulders sagged, and he rubbed his burning eyes. Warmth enveloped him when Logan’s arms encircled Niall’s back. Niall let himself lean on Logan’s strength for a minute before he stepped out of the embrace and cleared his throat.
He held up the last item he’d found in the box. “It’s a newspaper article about some house over in East Boston. It says someone recently purchased the house, which had been abandoned for several years."
“Trevor lived in East Boston when he was a kid, before his old man left. Maybe the house in the article is his childhood home. A memory of better times?”
Niall made eye contact with Logan when he spoke, “Maybe. Can you read this writing on the side?”
Logan squinted and turned his head sideways. “For my pet? Does that mean anything to you?”
Niall frowned. “No. Unless … no that’s too much of a stretch.”
“Stretch away, buddy.”
“Fine. The message under Trevor’s neighbor’s dog said something about runaway pets. This says ‘pet’. What if … what if the person who gave this to Trevor and the person who owns this old house are the same?”
“Son of a bitch,” Logan whispered. “Do you think it’s possible?”
Niall stared at the photo in the clipping. “I don’t know. There’s nothing here that says ‘X’ marks the spot, but in my gut I can’t help but think there’s some kind of connection.”
“I never argue with a gut. Mine saved my ass more than once when I was still in the Rangers.”
“There’s no address listed here. How do we find out where this house is exactly and who owns it?”
Logan smiled. “That, my friend, is why it behooves us to have a police detective and FBI agent in our back pocket.”
A pounding sounded at the front door.
“BPD! Callen, you in there?”
“We’re here and unarmed!” Niall shouted.
Logan raised his eyebrow, and Niall shrugged. “Never hurts to be cautious.”
Logan's shoulders shook with laughter, and Niall couldn’t help but get caught up. He moved to answer the door and let the cops in. A man in uniform and two in suits piled in and quickly shut the door.
“Damn it's cold out there! The snow is piling up as well.”
Logan moved over between the recent arrivals and Niall. “Niall, this is Captain Fredericks, Trevor’s and my boss. Captain, this is Niall Roberge, Trevor’s partner.”
The middle-aged man came forward and clasped Niall’s hand. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Roberge. Be assured that our department is doing everything we can to track down Trevor and whoever took him.”
“I appreciate that, Captain.” Niall held up the newspaper clipping. “This may be a clue. We found it in Trevor’s memento box.”
The captain put on a pair of gloves and took the paper from Niall. “Can’t say I appreciate you poking around before we cleared the scene, but at least you used gloves.”
“The only things I touched in the apartment before donning the gloves are the front doorknob and the outside of the box this was found in. Logan was much better behaved.”
The captain looked around at the mess. “I gotta say there’s probably not much we can do here other than file an incident report. Trevor should be able to claim the break-in under his renter’s insurance once he returns.”
Niall appreciated the captain’s use of language and understood that they were more concerned with finding Trevor than dealing with the mess in Trevor’s apartment.
Detective Marks came back from Trevor’s bedroom with his pen flying away on a small notebook pad. “In Trevor’s absence and in consideration of his relationship with the department, I’ve got the uniform cataloging the damage for the report. Mr. Roberge, have you noticed anything missing? We might miss small items, but we can try to track down significant pieces that someone could pawn."
