Honor (15 page)

“Not yet. Keep in mind that finding solid clues and following up on leads could take weeks.”

He hesitated, looking at Kenzie for a long moment, then spoke again.

“There were no witnesses that we know of, unless someone comes forward. And the victim—your friend, I mean—isn’t able to help us.”

Kenzie seemed lost in thought. “No. I saw her yesterday.”

“We’ll be talking with her parents at some point,” the lieutenant said. “And some of her colleagues, of course. Anything you think of, just shoot me an e-mail or call. Everything helps to fill in the picture. We don’t expect civilians to get into the nuts-and-bolts investigative stuff. That’s ours.”

“Right,” Linc said noncommittally.

“Guess that it’s for today.” He addressed his next words to Kenzie. “Thanks for coming in. And please let me know if you or your friends think of other names. We have your contact info on file—and here’s mine.” He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a business card, handing it to Kenzie. “Nice to meet you both.”

“Thanks.” Linc said the one word for both of them. He put an arm around her shoulders and walked her away.

Kenzie shrugged off his light hold when they reached the impound parking lot.

“He didn’t tell us anything.”

“Don’t assume that he has to,” Linc replied. “It’s an active investigation now. He seemed like he was on the level to me.”

Kenzie picked up her pace. He lengthened his strides to stay at her side. He heard her cell phone ring and wondered who it was this time. She didn’t dodge the call.

“It’s Donna,” she said, tapping the screen to pick up the forwarded e-mail. She turned the phone away from the sun’s glare and read it. “Okay. She says Randy Holt was on that medevac. So he’s confirmed as a good guy.”

Kenzie was on her way to deliver Christine’s insurance paperwork to SKC. She could have just mailed it, but she wanted to be sure it was with someone she could call, not lost in one of many mailrooms. The company was huge.

Linc had insisted on sweeping her car for bugs and other hidden things before they left the motel for the impound lot, using a radio-wave interceptor that looked like a glow-stick without the glow. His invention, of course.

Give her a smart dog any day.

But it was nice of him. He hadn’t found anything and seemed surprised. Which didn’t mean the stalker wouldn’t try to plant a bug some other time, who knew when. Still, when Linc was around, Kenzie had to admit she felt a little safer.

Maybe Linc was everything she needed right now. She smiled to herself. He still got under her skin. In a good way. She had to admit it, if only to herself. Kenzie knew a good man when she saw one.

As far as what had happened two years ago—she couldn’t live in the past. Not with Linc doing everything he could for her in the present.

She pushed her sunglasses up higher on her nose and turned off at the ramp. A windowless gray block, SKC headquarters came into sight over the top of distant trees. Even from here, it seemed immense, towering over the forested land that surrounded it.

Closer, she couldn’t see where the complex ended, catching glimpses of many similar buildings from the road, clustered around the tower.

Kenzie almost drove past the guarded entrance. She hadn’t made an appointment.

She pulled to an abrupt stop just before the guard station. Quickly, she flipped down the driver’s side sun visor and ruffled up her hair in the mirror and bit at her lips to plump them. Confused and pretty—she could play that. All the guard had to do was call Melvin Brody’s office and get her a pass.

He leaned out of the guard post as she approached, waving at her to stop before a striped bar swung into action. She came to a halt with the bar down across the hood of her car.

“Oh my gosh. I am
so
sorry,” she squealed. “I didn’t see that thing.”

“Back up.”

“Of course.” She put the car in reverse and rolled it back a foot or two.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Yes. With Melvin Brody.”

The guard checked a small handheld. “You’re not on the list.”

“I should be,” she said anxiously. “Could you call his office, please?”

“Just a minute.” He seemed to be listening to someone on his earphone. “Can I see some ID?”

She moved the gearshift to park and scrabbled around in her purse, making him wait while she pretended not to find it at first. “Here it is!” she crowed, handing over her driver’s license.

The guard went back into the post with it while Kenzie stared straight into the surveillance camera. She uncapped her lip gloss and used the driver’s side mirror to apply it.

Slick and slow.

Kenzie capped the tube and pouted at the mirror—and at the security team with the cushy indoor gig watching the monitor feeds from the entire complex. They might even beg this guy to let her in.

He came back. “My supervisor said for you to wait at reception. Mr. Brody isn’t in his office. But his temp assistant can talk to you.” The guard handed back her license and a temporary pass with her name on it.

“Oh, okay. Thanks
so
much for checking.” She smiled at him, sincerely.

A faint noise issued from his earphone. The guys must be razzing him. He didn’t soften. “Park over there.” He pointed to an area by the main entrance. “Fifteen minutes. Then you have to go.”

“I appreciate it.” Still in park, she put her foot on the accelerator and revved the motor. “The gate?” She pointed at it with one finger and winked at him. “I don’t want to take it with me. I actually have done that a couple of times.”

Which was true. He didn’t have to know it wasn’t because she was stupid.

He went back to push the button that lifted it and she drove through, bumping over three rows of tire-stabbers and past a Do Not Reverse sign. SKC was serious about physical security.

The fences surrounding the complex were twenty feet high, only partly concealed with greenery and topped with razor wire that glinted in the sun. The posts were topped with metal balls with dark glass lenses. More cameras.

Come on in. We’re watching you, she thought. To be expected.

Kenzie was glad she wasn’t going to be here long. She hoped Christine would never have to come back to this place. Kenzie only had to duck in and out, but even that seemed like a chore.

Kenzie got out of her car and walked quickly toward the entrance, stepping through steel-framed doors that whooshed apart, then closed behind her.

The receptionist looked up from a phone console and stretched her lips into a smile. She gave Kenzie a cool nod, indicating the chairs in the waiting area with a slight gesture. “Good morning. Please sit down. Brenda will be right out.”

She went back to her work, fielding calls and talking into a small microphone attached to a headpiece.

Kenzie settled down, setting the tote with the papers and her purse in another chair. There were promotional brochures about SKC and its many subsidiaries on a low table in front of her, and military-interest periodicals. Casually, Kenzie leafed through the SKC material, sliding a few brochures for Lieutenant Mike Warren into her purse. It would give him something to do.

She picked up a company magazine that had fallen onto the floor and looked at the cover.

The stylized company initials took up most of it, fitted into a gray, blocky shape that looked like the main building’s tower. No visual to show what SKC actually did or made.

Kenzie flipped to the first inside page, catching buzzwords in the introductory letter.

Diversified. Full-service. Steadfast commitment in a changing world.

Her gaze moved to the photo of the CEO, Lee Slattery.

White-silver hair and bright blue eyes. Impeccably groomed. Plausibly tanned.

His signature took up the whole lower half of the page. But then he didn’t have much to say. Some publicity person had written the intro for him. She put the magazine in with the brochures as someone spoke behind her.

“Ms. MacKenzie? I’m Brenda White.” She extended a hand as Kenzie stood up and turned. “Nice to meet you. I’m covering for Christine Corelli while she’s in the hospital—I understand you’re a good friend of hers.”

“Yes, that’s right.” Kenzie responded to the genuine warmth in the other woman’s voice.

“Mr. Brody explained about the accident. I hope she’s doing better.”

“Her doctors think so.” Kenzie evaded a detailed response by bending down to pick up the tote bag.

“That’s good to know.”

Kenzie gave an acknowledging nod and didn’t volunteer any more information. “Her parents wanted to make sure that her insurance paperwork got to the right person.”

“I’ll see that it does,” Brenda assured her.

Kenzie slipped the paperwork out of the tote and handed it over. Brenda clutched it with both hands.

“It’s nice of you to do that for her.”

“Well, I’m the go-to gal for the little stuff,” Kenzie said. “Her folks are doing the hard work. They’re with her in the ICU every single day.”

“Please let them know that SKC wants her back,” Brenda said.

“I will. Thanks again.”

She clutched the empty tote bag in her hand and slipped her purse strap over her shoulder as she turned to leave.

“Take care, Ms. MacKenzie.” Brenda got a better grip on the sheaf of papers before she headed back to the unseen office.

The women exchanged farewells and Kenzie walked past the receptionist, who was engrossed in a call. With a brief wave, Kenzie exited through the steel-framed doors, moving quickly toward her car.

She drove out, ignoring the guard at the gate when he requested her pass. He came out of the post and watched her drive off, but he didn’t shout. The pass was only good for one day. He wasn’t going to come after her.

To her surprise, Linc was waiting around the first curve on the road, listening to the radio. She could see his hand tapping a beat on the back of the other seat. Kenzie slowed her car to a stop when their windows lined up.

He rolled his down. “Hey. How’d it go?”

“No big deal. I handed the papers to his temp assistant. What the hell are you doing here?”

Linc studied her face. “I wanted to see if the beacon I put on your car was working.”

She should have known. “Is that necessary?”

“The readout is on this.” He tapped the face of his watch.

“I can’t see. And I don’t believe you.” Kenzie put her car into park, got out, and walked around.

He turned his wrist to show her. “Check it out. Your dot merged into my dot.”

“Isn’t that sweet.”

He grinned. “It’s not a problem to remove the beacon if you don’t like it.”

“No. It’s all right. You’re the only person who knows where I am most of the time now.”

That didn’t seem to have occurred to him. “Really?”

She nodded.

“So where are you off to?”

Kenzie shot him a mocking look. “You don’t have to ask, do you?”

Linc laughed. “The beacon can’t read your mind.”

She rolled her eyes. “Thank God for that. If you want to know, I was heading to the drugstore to print out some of the photos for Mrs. Corelli. Where are you going?”

“Just running errands,” he said. “Need anything from the electronics store?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Okay. I’m just picking up a couple of components.”

Kenzie gave a little yelp. “Yikes—that reminds me. Yesterday my boss asked me to pick something up for him out in the boondocks. I forgot until you said that. So if my dot falls off your watch, you’ll know why.”

He smiled at her warmly as he bent his arm and rested it on the bottom of the window frame. The bicep under the flannel rounded up very nicely as he lifted a hand and chucked her gently under the chin. “Funny.”

The friendly touch was unexpectedly intimate.

In fact, it triggered a dangerous sensation of giving in. She smiled at him, feeling weak. His brown eyes were dark and warm. She felt herself blush under his steady gaze.

Linc was the real deal. Maybe she didn’t have to be so tough all the time. It was okay to be protected. More than okay.

Back when she’d had Tex at her side, she’d actually liked the feeling. Like all military working dogs, he’d been trained to maintain an invisible six-foot circle around her, and woe to anyone who crossed into it without her permission. Including guys she was dating.

“Kenzie?”

She snapped out of it. “Sorry. You knocked on my stupid spot.”

“I’ll have to remember that.”

She shook her head in mock dismay. “Please don’t. Let’s touch base around four or five o’clock.”

He nodded and turned the key in the ignition. “Works for me.” His gaze stayed on her a moment longer. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I will. Thanks.” She glanced back at the gray monolith a little distance behind them and her mouth tightened. But when her green gaze met Linc’s brown eyes, she managed a quick smile.

He raised his left hand in a quick good-bye wave and eased his car ahead of hers, rolling up the window again. She watched him go, then got back into hers and drove on, turning off on the road to the firing range.

Kenzie pulled into a gravel driveway and parked in the customer area, leaving the engine running. She took her chiming cell phone out of her purse, reading her boss’s reminder to please pick up his gun and responding with a brief text.

At Hamill’s now.

Jim didn’t text back. He trusted her to get things done in her own time and her own way.

She scrolled through the messages, checking for a response from Randy Holt. Maybe he hadn’t received her reply. Playing phone tag. Then she told herself he could be in transit, enduring a long flight home in a troop transport.

Kenzie tossed the phone back into her purse and put the car in gear again, swinging around to the back where the employees parked. The front lot was full. Norm Hamill’s firing range was popular with law enforcement pros from several counties around plus the states bordering Maryland, along with federal officers of every stripe.

It was a big place, about a hundred acres all told, and the owner lived there, in a house adjacent to the main building, which housed his repair shop and retail business.