Page 102 of Mistletoe and Malice
“The car?”
“The burned-up one. Wasn’t it?—”
“—stolen from an assisted living facility. I’d forgotten that. I’ve been so focused on Shane’s case file, trying to connect the dots, I wasn’t thinking about the attempted abduction. My apologies, Riley.”
“No worries. The brain can only process so much at one time. That’s why we’re a team. You, me, and … Colton.” She swallowed. Just saying his name made her chest hurt. “And the Houston PD, of course.”
“Of course.” He chuckled. “Let me get with the facility to see if he’s working there. Could be he took advantage of the situation and boosted the resident’s car. Probably planned to return it, but then you and Devers got too good a look at it. Had to burn it.”
“If he does work there, or did, maybe they have a better address for him.”
His voice went distant, as if he were speaking to someone else. Her stomach dropped at the sound of Colton’s muffled voice. They were there together. But it had been John who called to update her. Was Colton that eager to keep his distance?
Or was he still protecting her? This time from himself?
“Okay, we’re going to head to the facility now. We went through the responding officers’ body cam footage fromthe original crime scene—Caitlyn’s—and Colton’s now reading through all the old notes from the investigative team. Nothing stands out yet, but there’s a lot more we need to weed through.”
Riley’s skin crawled. She’d been through the body cam footage herself. Not for the faint of heart. Scenes like that were hard enough to see when the victim was a stranger, but now that was the last image she had of her friend.
She shook off the picture in her mind. “My investigator has been re-interviewing the trial witnesses. I’ll send you his contact info. You can loop each other into what you’re covering so there’s no duplication of effort.”
“Another member of the team would be welcome. You’re not going into the office, are you?”
“No, we digitized whatever we could, including all the investigative notes. I can see it from my laptop. And I’m going to start on my brief for the appeal.”
“I’ll text you the driver’s license photo to give you an idea of what this guy actually looks like. Or did four years ago.”
“I appreciate it.” Not that she relished looking into those eyes again—if indeed Warren was their man—but she needed to know.
“I’ll let you go. We’ve been praying your recovery is quick.”
“Thanks for the prayers. I only wish I knew if everything went well with the transplant. I understand they won’t know if it took for a while yet, but it’s hard having to wait a year to know who he is.”
Although she’d wondered about the boy in the wagon. She’d visited the rooms of the children who hadn’t been in the play area, but he seemed the most ill of the leukemia patients she’d met. Either way, they’d all been in her prayers every day since, including the tiny girl who had wanted to marry Colton.
The memory of him embracing the little one brought a warmth to her chest missing since he’d walked out of her life.If she could keep the good memories alive, maybe she’d recover more quickly. As it was, the pain in her hip would dissipate long before the ache in her heart.
“Hold on.” John’s voice said something in the background, then silence for a second.
“Riley.”
Her pulse jumped. “Co-Colton. How are you?”
“I’m fine. John passed your question to me. I know the recipient. Met the family. The registry looped me in since the match was found through the foundation. I can’t tell you who he is since, as you already mentioned, recipients and donors can’t know the other’s identity for a year post-transplant. But I can tell you it all went well, and the family was grateful. That’s all I know right now, but I’ll keep you posted.”
“You were there? When they did the transplant?”
“They brought your marrow up after your procedure, and I got there right after they started the boy’s IV. It was that quick.”
“Wow. Thank you.” A relief to know at least Colton had the information. While it could be a month or so before they could confirm it as a success, improvement in his blood work should show signs of healthy cells and platelets within the next two to four weeks. “I appreciate it.”
“No problem. John’ll shoot you the DL pic. Let us know if you see anything. But get your rest. Don’t work too hard. We’re on it.”
“I know you are. It’s been a lot less stressful knowing you two are working together. But I want to help where I can. Hopefully, that little boy will get a second chance at life. It would be nice if the same could be said for Shane.”
“Agreed. Take care of yourself. We’ll be in touch.”
Before she could respond, the call disconnected.
