Page 44 of Girl Lost
“You...” Steve’s eyes bulged. Thick blood drained from one nostril and pooled above his lip. “You broke my gun!”
His gun? What about his nose?
“Next time, I break your arm.” He debated whether to arrest Steve for assault or let him walk. “Get outta here before I change my mind and haul your sorry self to jail.”
The man’s eyes darted from Corbin to the disassembled weapon at their feet. He kicked the useless frame, and it spun away. “You’re making a mistake. A big mistake. You have no idea what you’re getting into. You think you can just waltz in here and start asking questions? You think you’re untouchable? You’re wrong. Dead wrong.”
Steve spat at Corbin’s feet. A glob of bloody saliva landed with a wet splat near a discarded cigarette butt. “You keep poking around. You’ll regret it. Both of you.”
The man spun on his heel and stalked toward the SUV. Expensive dress shoes clicked against the pavement. The door slammed. The engine roared, and the tires spit bits of gravel as the SUV sped away. The taillights shrank to pinpricks of red before vanishing around the corner.
Corbin’s heart hammered against his ribs. The adrenaline slowly receded, leaving a tremor of unease in its wake. He bent and picked up the disassembled parts of the gun with a glove he pulled from his pocket.
Luna came to stand beside him. The perfume she wore, a light, floral scent, cut through the lingering aroma of gun grease on his hands.
“Wow,” she said. “That was...”
“Impressive? Terrifying?” He managed a smile.
“A little of both.” The afternoon sun cast a halo of light around her head.
He shifted his weight and shuffled the disassembled gun parts in his hands. “You think I should have arrested him?”
Luna tilted her head. “Depends. You looking for a quick arrest or a long game?”
“Long game? Enlighten me.” He held up a hand. “On second thought, tell me in the car. I’m melting in this heat.”
Luna didn’t argue. She fell into step beside him, her silence a weight as heavy as the gun parts in his hands.
The car was an oven. Trapped heat radiated off the leather seats. He cranked the engine, blasted the AC, and grabbed an evidence bag from the glove compartment. The gun parts rattled as he dropped them in. He’d fill out the report later. Right now, he wanted to hear Luna’s thoughts.
He glanced at her sitting in the passenger seat as she buckled her seat belt. The way the sunlight caught the auburn highlights in her hair, the subtle curve of her neck as she tilted her head, it was downright distracting.
The AC started to cut through the stifling heat. Good, because it was making him fidgety. He leaned back and rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the moment. “Okay, lay it on me. What are you thinking?”
“So, you let this ... this Steve guy walk.” She angled to face him. “Although, I’d say he didn’t get a complete pass. You did break his nose. And his gun.”
“Self-defense.”
She shrugged. “Details. My point is, we can tail him. See where he goes, who he talks to. Maybe he leads you to Carlie. Maybe he leads you to Stryker.”
A 24/7 surveillance detail? The overtime. The paperwork. It would be a lot, but commissioner Tinch would approve it since it was their best lead at finding his daughter. “There’s a lot of maybes. And it’ll pull me away from chasing other leads. Questioning Ashley again, for one.”
“Fair enough. You don’t have time, but maybe someone else does. Hand the gun parts over to the locals. Let them handle Steve for assaulting an officer. They’d probably appreciate the collar.”
He saw a flicker of the Luna from this morning. The one whocould compartmentalize, shut down emotion, focus on the mission. Maybe she was right.
But those kids...
They’d been with Stryker, and he had a feeling they were more connected to his disappearance than they let on. He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. Steve had said,“You have no idea what you’re getting into.”It had his wheels turning.
“Okay, hear me out,” he said, splaying all his fingers as if to give himself space to lay it all out. “What if...” Was he really going to suggest this? “What if Jordan and Andre are spotters, identifying vulnerable kids to pull in.”
“For what? Runners?”
“Steve is acting like a distributor using these kids for that, but I think it’s more than drugs for him. I’d bet my badge on it.”
“Carlie,” she said softly. “Could explain how she disappeared into thin air.”
