Page 48 of Talia

Talia pulled away reluctantly. She’d never get tired of tasting Fleet, but it was important to bring him up to date on their investigation. Maybe later, after his parents had come back for their goodnight, then departed, she’d scoot next to Fleet in bed and make sure they did some heavy petting. Would it leave her even more frustrated than she already was? Definitely. Would it stop her from making it happen? Not a chance.

“Okay. Time to talk,” Talia scolded as Fleet attempted to pull her back in.

“Spoilsport.”

Clearly he was feeling more like himself tonight, after his long nap.

“Okay. I’m listening,” he allowed.

“So you know we’ve got Mason’s friend Quint examining all the hospital footage. Our own techies, Opal and Nolan are on it, too, and we already have facial recognition on nearly half of the people who entered the hospital that evening. We’re arranging, with a local judge’s help, to get DNA from all of them. But before that all gets underway, Welker still has the tarp you were wrapped in. He’s given Muddy your scent, and somehow Harvé the dog-whisperer has managed to make the dog understand that you are not the target. Theothersmell on the tarp is the one Muddy’s searching for.”

“Damn, that pup is good,” Fleet marveled.

“Smartandcuddly,” Talia chuckled. “All I want to do is squeeze the stuffing out of her every time I see those big, soulful eyes.

“Anyway, Harvé and Muddy have camped out at the front door of the hospital, and Harvé is giving her free rein to approach all the staff and visitors who enter. It could be a long, painstaking process, but Harvé says they’re both very patient, and even if it takes weeks, they’ll stick it out.”

“You really think the person responsible will show themselves again?” Fleet asked.

“Well…” Talia didn’t like this, but she’d fill him in. It might be for his own safety. “We actually, um, have a few…persons of interest.”

“You do?” Fleet attempted to sit up, and struggled, so Talia went to his bed and hit the button that raised it so he was more upright.

“Better?” she asked.

“It is,” he answered. “Please continue.”

“Okay,” Talia sighed. “Because you and your parents have been fairly adamant that your abduction was due to…us being together, we decided to take a closer look at all the people we’ve been in contact with who seemed to have some kind of problem with it.”

“Now you’re talking,” Fleet growled. “I don’t have any enemies in Maine, Talia. That’s what makes me certain this attack was racially motivated.”

“We agree. Which is why we’ve been able to narrow our possibilities.”

“Okay. Are you going to tell me who these mystery people are? I’d prefer to have a heads up if they approach me.”

“Which is the only reason I’m spilling the intel, Fleet. I didn’t want to influence you one way or another,” she huffed. “But Mason says for your own safety I have to give you the information.”

“And…”

The prompting didn’t help. Talia still wasn’t happy that one of her own was amongst the possible suspects. “Fine. You remember Doug, on my squad?”

“Yeah. I do. Gruff character. Never smiles.”

“Uh, huh. Well, he hasn’t been exactly overjoyed that we’ve been seeing each other.” She snorted. “It’s funny, though. He seems to have more of a problem with me being after you, than vise-versa.”

“That is odd,” Fleet agreed. “Do you think he has designs on you, himself?”

Talia gave a spontaneous chortle. “Not even close. He avoids my gaze like I’m Medusa.”

Fleet chuffed. “And have you taken him by Muddy yet? Scraped him for a DNA sample?”

“No,” Talia sighed. “We haven’t been able to get to him yet. He’s taken the week off for a solo trek in the backwoods. According to his friend and squad-mate, Cisco, Doug likes to go off by himself and hunt.” Talia knew her scowl was pronounced, but she couldn’t help it.

Fleet stroked his scruff-covered chin. “Huh. Trained in all kinds of stealth procedures. Physically capable. Familiar with the woods. Sounds to me like he has all the skills needed to have pulled off my kidnapping, so…why are you looking…sour?”

“Because he’s onmysquad,” Talia complained with a whine in her voice she hated. “During our initial SWAT team training, Mason and Everlee were pretty sure Doug wasn’t going to cut it, but I insisted because I saw… Iseesomething in him that’s worthwhile. It makes me disappointed as well as angry to think he could have done this.”

“Okay. Then let’s rule him out for now,” Fleet said agreeably. “One way or another, it will be easy to prove if he’s guilty once he gets back. Who else do you have?”

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