Finding Peace (Love's Compass #1) (15 page)

Laurie got out of bed slowly and shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”

“In that case, I’ll close the door and let you change. When you’re done, open it again. I’ll be back in about a half hour.”

While dressing was a little uncomfortable, she managed. The clothes fit her perfectly and she saw the wisdom in the woman’s choice when she slipped on the pants with an elastic waist.

The only part that was a little difficult were the socks. She opened the door and then went to sit in the chair to try and wrestle them onto her feet. She had only been at the task a moment when a movement caught her attention.

Seeing Tuck in the doorway made her heart kick into high gear. He assessed what she was trying to do and came forward quickly. “Here, let me help with those.” He reached for the socks and slipped them onto her feet. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get back until now.” His voice was thick with regret.

Laurie placed a hand on his arm to stop him. “I was fine. Between your mom and Lexi, I was never bored. Truly.”

He looked relieved as he located her shoes and helped her get those on as well.

“Lexi gave me your release papers. You’re good to go.” Tuck stopped and cleared his throat. “I did want to talk to you about something before we leave, though. I realize you’re probably going to object, but is there any way I can convince you to stay with my mom for a couple of days until we catch this guy?”

Tuck watched Laurie’s face as she processed his request. He wished he knew what she was thinking.

“Have you had any luck finding him at all?”

“No. But the blood samples we took were not yours. You did hit him with that shot. We’ve been watching the hospital and notice has been sent to all doctors in the area. We haven’t heard a thing.”

“Which means he either wasn’t hurt badly, or he’s holed up somewhere bleeding to death.” Laurie wandered to the window and looked out at the white that covered the trees and grass. Most of the parking lot was clear of snow, but the weather statement earlier had said it was possible for more winter precipitation in the next twenty-four hours. “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t looking forward to going home and staying by myself. Are you sure I won’t be any trouble for your family?”

Tuck walked up behind her, placing a hand on each of her shoulders as they looked out the window together. “It was actually Grams’ idea and I thought it was a brilliant one.” He kissed the hair on the top of her head. “Knowing you aren’t alone would make things a lot easier, because I wouldn’t be able to relax otherwise.”

“It sounds like a good idea to me, too.” Turning around, she faced him and smiled. “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to relax, either.”

Relieved, Tuck gazed at the face of the woman he had come to care so much about. Touching her chin softly with his thumb, he bent to kiss her, relishing the feel of her lips under his as she eagerly returned his affections.

They only had a few moments before someone cleared their throat in the doorway. Tuck turned to see his sister giving him an “I-told-you-so” look.

“I have the wheelchair ready. It’s hospital policy that we take you out in one.” She waited until Laurie was seated. “Tuck, are we still having a meeting at Mom’s house tonight?”

“Yes, I hadn’t had time to tell her.”

“You guys were busy.”

He looked down to see pink coloring Laurie’s cheeks. “Anyway, I was wondering if we could get your customer records on the way to Mom’s house. Lance is going to bring some of the files from the station and I thought we could all brainstorm and see what we can come up with. There has to be something connecting these cases together. We’re just not looking in the right place.”

“That sounds like a good plan to me.”

“I figured you might want to pack some things to take anyway.” Her face paled. “What did I say?”

“I hope he didn’t get my laptop. I was starting to work on the images for Serenity. I have them saved on a hard drive, too. But without my laptop, I can’t do a thing with them.”

“We’ll look for it when we get there. Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

Tuck wracked his brain, trying to remember whether he saw her laptop in the studio or not. He honestly couldn’t recall. That bothered him because he was trained to notice details. He reminded himself that he hadn’t gone there in an official capacity. He had gone to check on his girlfriend and found her bleeding and unconscious on the floor. The location of her computer had been the last thing on his mind.

The combination of snow and sunlight was blinding as they left the hospital. He took his jacket off and draped it over Laurie’s shoulders as he helped her maneuver into the passenger seat. With a wave to Lexi, they were off.

At the studio, they discovered that Laurie’s laptop was missing, but at least the external hard drive was there in her bag where she had left it. He hated seeing the disappointment and worry on her face. “He probably thought he could get my customers’ contact information off of there,” she said. “Other than the software I use, most of what’s on that computer is personal.”

With Tuck’s help, she packed up a few things and then led the way upstairs to her apartment. “The files are all in there,” she said, she indicated a cardboard file box sitting on the floor near her desk. “We can take the whole thing, it’ll probably be easier.”

“Sure, let me carry this out to the truck and I’ll be right back.” He did that and came back up to the apartment. Laurie was packing clothes in a small rolling bag, her cell phone to her ear.

Not wanting to interrupt, he went back downstairs until he no longer heard her voice. He peeked into the apartment to see she was off the phone and picked up a jacket that was hanging on the desk chair. “Is this the one you want to take?”

“Yes, thank you. I have a few more things here and then I want to grab my camera bag. I’ll be ready after that. Sorry about the phone, I wanted to call my parents before too much longer. Timing is a fine line with them.”

Tuck studied her face. “Did everything go okay?”

“Oh yes, everything went fine. My mom asked me several times if I wanted them to come back from overseas. I assured them I was staying with friends and I was perfectly safe.” She was silent a moment. “Oh! What about my gun?”

“It’s at the station. Since you did shoot the guy, we had to take it as evidence. We’re hoping to be able to match it up with the bullet that you hit the guy with at some point.”

Quietly, he watched as Laurie zipped her roller bag. “I think I’m ready.”

“Are you sure? We’re not in a hurry.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve had about enough of this place for a while.” She turned a bright smile on him.

“In that case, let me grab your bag here, and we’ll be on our way.” He stood next to her. Instead of reaching for the bag, he shifted to face Laurie. Cupping her face with both of his hands, he looked into her eyes, and touched her lips lightly with his own. “I’m incredibly thankful that you’re okay.” He kissed her again, deepening their connection, holding her as close as he dared without putting any pressure on her side.

Tuck moved to nuzzle the soft spot by her ear and then pulled her to him, cradling her in his arms. “I didn’t know when we would next get a chance to do that since you’ll be at my mom’s house.”

She chuckled into his chest. “Well, Lexi saw us earlier. Everyone will know by the time we get there anyway.”

“It’s possible.” He didn’t care. All he wanted was to spend every minute of the day with her. “I guess we should head out.”

She pulled him toward her and kissed him softly on the cheek. “Thanks for finding me and saving my life.”

“I wish I’d been there. I’d have done anything to keep you from getting hurt.” He kissed her bruise. “Come on, pretty girl, I’ve got all this. You just be careful going down the stairs.”

~

“Raise your hand if you want hot chocolate.” Patty looked and saw that everyone in the living room had indicated that the warm drink sounded good. “Coming up!”

“I’ll help you, Mom.” Serenity stood and went with her.

Laurie smiled when Rogue moved to lay next to the chair she was sitting in, resting his chin on her foot. She and Tuck had swung by his house to pick the dog up. Laurie used the toes of her other foot to pet his ears.

Grams leaned forward from her spot on the couch. The long compass heart necklace dangled to rest on one of her knees. “What all do we have here?”

Lance motioned to a stack of files on the coffee table. “These are for the break-in at the pediatrician’s office. And these,” he tapped the second stack, “are the files related to Laurie’s case.”

“And we have a box containing information about all of Laurie’s customers,” Tuck said. He had set up a whiteboard and started writing the incidents and dates along the top, creating a timeline. It started with Laurie’s car and ended with the stabbing.

She shifted her position in the recliner. Her side was starting to ache, but she was way too comfortable to go and get some more medication. It was only just time to take it, and waiting a little longer wasn’t a big deal. She would take it right before bed. She noticed Tuck had put the elementary school on the timeline. “You think the school is related?”

He shrugged. “It might be a coincidence. I’m not sure of anything. But I do know that there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for that broken window.”

Patty returned and handed several mugs out, keeping the one with bluebonnets painted across the front and over the handle for herself. Serenity came up behind her and distributed the rest of the cups. She left and returned again to set a bowl of popcorn down on the small coffee table nearby along with a stack of smaller bowls. She took a seat on the couch next to Grams.

Laurie sipped her beverage and sighed with contentment. Yes, chocolate was definitely a cure for almost anything. She closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them again, she caught Tuck looking at her, a sparkle in his eye. He gave her a wink and she felt her face warm and smiled into her mug.

She listened as Lance explained the pediatrician’s office case. “We finally figured out that the only files taken belonged to one family and their children. We did go and speak to the Lewis family, but they had no idea why their files might have been stolen as opposed to anyone else’s.”

Laurie sat up quickly and nearly sloshed her hot chocolate. She winced in pain from the sudden movement. “What did you say the name was?”

Lance picked up the file and leafed through it. “Lewis. Patrick and Morgan. They have six children – three boys and three girls.” He looked up again. “Do you recognize the name?”

“Yes.” She made a move to get up, but Tuck motioned for her to wait and instead, brought the box of files over to the chair for her. Rogue got up, shook, and moved to lay against the front door instead. “Thank you.” She lifted the lid off and started to go through the box. She was thankful that, while it wasn’t as organized as it could be, at least most of the files were in alphabetical order. “Aha! Here we go! Yes, Morgan Lewis came in for a photo session about six months ago. She signed all of the media releases.” She read through their information. “I remember this because one of the photos I chose from this session is on my website and was a runner up in a contest I had entered.”

Tuck reached for his tablet and typed her address into the web browser. He handed the device to her. “Can you show us which picture it is?”

Laurie took the tablet and cycled through the pictures on her webpage until she came to the grinning pile of children. She paused the rotating, online photo album and handed the device back to him. “There it is. It was insane having so many kids in the studio but it was a lot of fun.”

The moment Tuck saw the image, he smiled. “I can see why you chose to enter it into a contest.” He held it up for everyone to see. Laughter and several “awwwwws” accompanied the showing.

Serenity pointed to the tablet. “Hold on. I thought the Lewis family had six kids. There are seven in that picture.”

Laurie looked at the picture. “You know what? I forgot all about that! I want to say that one of the boys was a cousin. Morgan said something about how they rarely got to see him and that she wanted a picture of them all together.”

“Which boy is the cousin?” Grams asked.

They all examined the photo, but it was impossible to tell as the kids were clearly all related. And they were all close enough in age that they couldn’t look at the medical records and narrow it down from there, either.

Lexi cleared her throat. “Let’s say that the man is trying to find out about this family. He already got the medical records from the pediatrician’s office. Which means he has everything about those kids from their names and birthdates to their address and social security numbers. Why insist on Laurie producing her customer information?”

“Because that one boy – the cousin – wouldn’t have been included in the medical records,” Patty said.

Tuck was writing notes furiously as everyone was brainstorming. “He was probably hoping that the child might have been taken to the pediatrician’s office while he was in town, but when there was no record for him, his next goal was to see if Laurie had any of his contact information.”

Laurie began to leaf through the files again. Shifting her weight gingerly, she tried to find a more comfortable spot that didn’t leave her side burning. Something caught her attention and she looked up to find Tuck handing her a glass of water and her bottle of pain killers. Relieved – and incredibly touched by his thoughtfulness – she took them and swallowed one of the pills. “Thank you.”

Tuck took the glass from her before regaining his seat.

“Here we go! Yep, I got a media release for the little guy. Brian Canton.” Laurie held the paper up triumphantly and Lance reached over for it. She grinned. “And that information would not have been on my laptop. The guy got himself shot for nothing.”

That sparked several chuckles across the room.

Lance looked the paper over and handed it to Tuck. “I think it’s reasonable to assume that the man is trying to locate this boy and/or his family. The big question is why.”

“It looks like we’re going to be paying Morgan Lewis another visit tomorrow,” Tuck said. Laurie watched as he clasped his hands behind his head and stretched. He focused on Lance. “I’m going to make a quick call to the station. After learning this, we need a squad car out there through tonight to make sure that family stays safe. We don’t know what we’re up against with this guy. Since he hasn’t been able to get the information any other way, confronting that family might be next on the list.”