Page 20 of Dark Terror
“Yes. Please hurry.”
“I’m going to stay on the phone with you until the officer gets there.” He heard the dog barking in the background.
“I think he’s here now.”
“Don’t open the door until you’re sure it’s a police officer.”
“Hold on.”
Gabe got in his car, and as soon as he was on the road, he lit up lights and siren. “Cara?”
“There are two police cars in my driveway.”
“Okay, that’s good. I’m going to hang up now. I’ll be there soon.” He cut his lights and sirens a block from her house. In the less than ten minutes it took to arrive, all he could think was that he shouldn’t have left her alone.
As she’d said, two patrol cars were in her driveway, so he pulled up next to the curb. Conrad Underwood came around the house from the back as Gabe was jogging up the sidewalk. “Get that damn thing out of my eyes, Connie,” Gabe said when Connie blinded him with the powerful flashlight he held.
“Sorry. Just making sure you weren’t our bad guy.”
Gabe managed not to roll his eyes. Their bad guy wasn’t going to walk up the sidewalk and ring the doorbell. Connie had only been on the job for two years, and it wasn’t a secret that he aspired to be a detective. He was always eager to please the Major Crimes team, and sometimes tried too hard. But the kid had a good head on his shoulders, and the detectives liked him.
“You find anything?”
Connie nodded. “Some mulch was stirred up where she said the subject was standing.”
That wasn’t going to be a big help.
“I was careful not to disturb anything.”
“Good man. We’ll get the Bureau of Identification out here in the morning, see if they can turn up anything.”
“Masuka’s inside with Ms. Jenner. What else do you want me to do?”
“Nothing tonight. You can get back out on the street.” Gabe swallowed a smile at the disappointment on Connie’s face. “I could use you next week, though, to canvass our victim’s neighbors, see if they know or saw anything of note. I’ll talk to the boss, get her to approve a few hours of overtime for you.”
Connie swiped a hand through his bright red hair. “Awesome!”
This time Gabe let his smile loose. The kid reminded Gabe of himself when he was a young uniformed cop, eager to prove his worth. “I’ll give you a call after I talk to the captain.”
After sending Connie on his way, Gabe turned to go into the house. He’d only taken a few steps when Masuka walked out, closing the door behind him. “How is she?” he asked.
Masuka glanced at the closed door. “Scared. Can’t say I blame her. She has a picture of the man, but his features aren’t visible unfortunately.”
“She does?” At Masuka’s nod, he said, “The lab guys might be able to do something with it.”
“Maybe, but his face is hidden by leaves. You can only see an outline of it. You want me to stick around tonight?”
He should say yes and leave her to Masuka to guard. The man was a good cop and could be trusted to keep her safe. “No. I’ll take it from here.”
“Okay. I’ll make sure patrol continues to do drive-bys.”
“Thanks.”
“Talk to you later, Detective.”
Gabe waved a hand in the air as he headed to see the woman he couldn’t get out of his mind. Stupid not to have turned her over to Masuka until he could think of a safe place to take her, because she couldn’t stay here now. He’d reached her porch when her door opened and she flew into his arms. “Hey,” he whispered against her hair as she plastered herself against him.
“You’re here.”
