Page 72 of Tough as Steele

“I don’t know.” She chewed on her lip as she tried to process the day’s events and think about his reasons for not wanting to get involved. They hadn’t changed, that she knew, and neither had hers, but he seemed to be willing to put them aside. “I think for now our best bet is to keep our focus on the investigation. Ignore our feelings and work the case.”

His phone rang, and he released her to look at the screen. “My LT. A perfect way to put my focus back into the professional realm.” He smiled as he answered, putting the call on speaker.

“I’ve got two things for you,” Bishop said. “First, the suspect’s truck has been spotted.”

A shot of adrenaline fired through Londyn’s body.

“Where?” Nate asked, far more calmly than she could’ve managed.

“Half mile from Mimi’s house. Truck roared off, alerting a woman who’d also heard the rifle reports. She took down the plate number and called it in. We caught the plate on ALPR and tracked the movement with it and CCTV cameras. Guy’s heading east out of town.”

Nate’s adrenaline spiked higher. “If it’s Wigg, he could be going home.”

“Would he do that when we have his house sealed off after the murder?” Bishop asked.

“Maybe not to stay, but he could be picking something up.” Nate widened his stance. “We were just about to interview Jessica’s friend, but I can head over there instead.”

“No.” Bishop’s sharp and certain tone blasted from the phone. “If Wigg is our sharpshooter, he’s skilled at headshots. Means you’re not going within gunshot range of his place until the area is secured. I’m in contact with Multnomah County, and they’re dispatching SWAT to the house.”

Londyn didn’t want to hang back, but they had no choice.

“We’ll make our way in that direction, hold and wait for instructions,” Nate said.

“Just be sure that’s all you do.”

“And the second thing?” Nate asked.

“Tech just told me Jessica Oates’s phone came back online while he was examining it.”

Nate faced Londyn, and she could feel the hope emanating from his expression, fueling her hope too.

“My earlier warrant is still in effect, so I’ll get it to the phone company again,” Bishop said. “And I’ll nag them until I get the location. I’ll call when I have it.” Bishop ended the call.

Nate stowed his phone. “I know this is a long shot, but Bishop is a champion nagger. If anyone can get the phone pinged, it’s him.”

She nodded. “I only wish we didn’t have to let SWAT handle the approach. Or we could go with them.”

“Yeah. Me too. But at least Jessica turned her phone back on, and we might be able to locate her.” Nate held her gaze. “Let’s get our interview with Helen Russell done so we can be ready to head out to Wigg’s place.”

Londyn wanted to interview Helen, but if Londyn admitted the truth, she was terrified to step out the front door again. She swallowed away her fear and patted one of the vests. “What about leaving the house? How safe do you think that will be?”

“With the neighbor seeing Wigg’s truck fleeing the area we should be fine.”

“For now,” she said and met his gaze. “But what happens the next time we have to go out in public. Will Wigg be waiting?”

His eyes narrowed. “I’d like to think not, but I won’t let this guy keep me from doing my job, and I know you won’t either.”

She wouldn’t, but she also didn’t want to die and wished their departments had the manpower to provide a detail to evaluate and maintain a perimeter. They could barely keep up regular patrols much less assign officers to a protection detail.

Wait! That didn’t mean they couldn’t have one. “I don’t know what you think about this, but Sierra’s brothers have a security agency. Nighthawk Security. They’re all former law enforcement officers, and we might be able to get them to provide a detail for us.”

“Two cops hiring civilians to protect us?” Nate shook his head. “We’d be laughed out of our departments.”

“But neither of our departments have the manpower to provide the service. Even if we requested a detail, our supervisors would pull us off this investigation.”

“Exactly.”

Londyn didn’t want to let this go. “Maybe we just hire Nighthawk to do a risk assessment for locations we plan to go to and surveil the area before we arrive. With SWAT at Wigg’s place, we should be fine there. But Nighthawk can check out Helen’s place before we go there.”

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