Operation Blind Date (4 page)

Chapter 5

“L
aney?”

Teague had noticed her shiver, she thought. He didn’t seem to miss much.

“I don’t expect you to understand, but I really do feel so damned responsible,” she said. “For Amber.”

He said nothing as they reached a wide clearing in the trees where a rather utilitarian, three-story green building stood. There was no sign, not even a street number marking it. It was like many places out here, she guessed. If you belonged, you knew how to find it. Off to one side was a large metal building that looked like a warehouse, with a battered-looking silver sedan parked beside it. And beside that was a large swath of concrete with some odd markings. She was puzzled until she saw the bright orange windsock to one side and realized she was looking at a helicopter landing pad.

Teague pulled to a halt in a graveled parking area beside the green building and a larger, dark blue SUV. He put the car in Park. He turned off the engine. He unfastened his seat belt.

Then he shifted in his seat, turning to look at her.

“I understand perfectly,” he said, his voice holding a grimness she hadn’t heard from him until now. And when he went on, it sounded as if he were digging the words out with a rusty knife.

“My little sister was sixteen when I was first deployed. I was off to the Middle East, excited and afraid at the same time. Dad was stoic, as usual, Mom tight-lipped and silent. Neither of them was happy about what I was doing. Only Terri was proud. Weepy at my leaving, but proud of her big brother in uniform.”

Laney could picture it, and marveled anew at the bravery of people like Teague who served voluntarily. And hated that they weren’t always treated with the respect they deserved.

“Terri was the one who made me promise to write, call and Skype whenever I could. And she kept to her part of the bargain. I know more than once she passed on a date or a night with her friends or a party because that was the only time I’d be able to reach out halfway around the world.”

“She sounds wonderful.”

“She was.” His voice was tight, harsh.

You lost somebody, didn’t you?

My sister. Years ago.

The brief exchange they’d had echoed in her head now.

“What happened?” she asked quietly.

“While I was on my second tour, she vanished. Left for school and never arrived. She was never found. It destroyed what there was left of my family. My father drank himself to death, and my mother is a bitter woman who drives away anyone who tries to get close. Especially me.”

The words came choppily, and she wondered when the last time he’d told anyone this was. That he was telling her now, to help her, moved her a great deal.

“Teague, I’m so sorry. But it wasn’t your fault.”

“No? Tell my mother that. If I’d stayed home, like my parents wanted me to, I might have been able to protect her, or at least find her. So, yeah, I understand. Perfectly.”

Laney sighed. “I guess logic loses when stacked up against enough guilt.”

“Always,” Teague agreed.

Cutter woofed softly, politely, as if to remind them he was still there.

“Sorry, buddy,” Teague said, his tone reverting to normal. He hit a button that opened the back of the SUV. Laney turned to look as the dog jumped out, lifted his dark head, sniffed the air for a moment then confidently trotted toward the green building.

“Look,” Teague said, drawing her attention back, “I can’t promise they’ll take this on. But if they do, even if Amber is really just on some romantic escape, we’ll make sure of it so you can quit feeling guilty.”

“Do they usually take on what you bring them?”

His mouth quirked. “I’ve never brought anything to them before.”

She didn’t know whether to feel honored or worried.

He got out of the car, walked around and opened her door. Manners, she thought. Nice.

And then she was distracted by Cutter’s actions as he rose on his hind legs at the single door she could see, and batted at a large square button with his paw. He hit it, and the door slowly opened.

Teague saw her look. “Quinn’s brainstorm,” he said with that killer grin. “Sort of an oversize doggie door. And handicapped access, should it ever be needed. Took Cutter all of three seconds to figure it out. Now he comes and goes as he pleases.”

“Is that safe for him?”

“Nearly ten acres here and Cutter knows exactly where the boundaries are. He never gets too far from his people anyway.”

“Why is this place so...anonymous?” she asked as they neared the door Cutter had used.

“Sometimes those people who aren’t doing the right thing end up not too happy with us,” he explained. “So we don’t hang out a sign to advertise where we are. And that automatic door has a cutoff and lock switch in just about every room, in case we have to secure the building.”

She blinked at that. Did they really expect some kind of attack here? What had she gotten herself into?

He skipped the automatic door button and simply pulled it open for her. She stepped inside, not knowing what to expect.

To her surprise, the downstairs was furnished as if it were a home, a gas fireplace the centerpiece along one wall, with a leather couch and a couple of chairs arranged around a heavy coffee table in front of it, and a large area rug marking off the space visually. There was a small kitchen area along a back wall with an island separating it. A doorway on the other side stood partway open, showing a bathroom.

“This is...unexpected, from the outside.”

Teague chuckled. “Quinn was living here before he kidnapped Hayley.”

She blinked. “He what?”

“It’s a long story. Ask her sometime.”

He led her toward the stairway that ran along the far wall. They went up a flight, past the second floor that seemed mostly used for storage, then another.

“Quinn set up in here so we could watch the eagles,” Teague explained. “There’s a nesting pair in the woods just across the clearing.”

Laney smiled, feeling better at that. The frequent sightings of majestic bald eagles was one of her favorite things about living out of the city. She didn’t miss the crowds, the traffic or the noise, either. She had few regrets about moving across the water.

Except Amber.

She only hoped she didn’t regret that for the rest of her life.

* * *

Laney, Teague noted, had the same reaction many did to Quinn, a sort of awed silence. Despite the casual clothes, the polite words as he greeted them, and the way he was scratching the clearly delighted Cutter’s ears, what they called “command presence” fairly oozed from the guy. More than once Teague had caught himself about to salute him, and more often than that had thought if there were more like Quinn in the upper echelons, more brass that had come up the hard way instead of the political way, he never would have left the corps. When they talked about riding into the valley of hell, Quinn was the kind of guy it would take to lead that charge.

“Where is Hayley, anyway?” Teague asked. She wasn’t usually far away from Quinn or Cutter for long.

“Shopping.”

“Oh.”

“Clothes. Charlie,” Quinn said.

Teague grinned. “She’s still nervous about that, huh?”

Quinn grimaced. “Hell, I’m nervous about that. You know how Charlie can be.”

Since he’d had to go through a lengthy interview—more like an interrogation—with Foxworth’s CFO/CEO himself, Teague had all the sympathy in the world for anyone looking at their first meeting with the redoubtable Charlie Foxworth.

Quinn gave Cutter a final, roughhousing sort of rub behind both ears, then straightened up and looked at Laney.

“I can see he’s fine, and you’re not bandaged so I assume he didn’t bite you.”

Laney laughed, and Teague sensed her relax a little. “Cutter? Oh, no. He’s far too well-mannered for that.”

“That,” Quinn said dryly, “is up for debate. But if not that, what’s up?”

The “why are you here?” wasn’t spoken, but Teague heard it just the same. They didn’t bring people here unless they were already involved in their case, and Teague suddenly realized maybe he should have arranged a meeting somewhere else.

“Laney has...a problem.”

Quinn lifted a brow at him.

“One I think we could help with.”

“I see.” He focused on Laney, who had lapsed back into silence. Second thoughts? Teague wondered. Wishing she’d never agreed to this?

“I’m sorry,” she said, sounding intimidated. “Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe I—”

“Maybe you should just tell me what’s going on.” Quinn’s voice was gentle then, calming, encouraging. It was another facet of that ability to command, and Quinn had them in balance better than anyone Teague had ever known.

Quinn walked over to the table that was placed beside the expansive windows that looked out over the clearing to the thick stand of trees. Different shades of green marked the spots where maples and other deciduous trees stood against steady evergreens.

He cleared away some papers, closed an open laptop and slid it to one side. “Sit down,” he said, “and let’s go over it.”

Laney still looked a little nervous, and Teague guessed she was remembering how the police had reacted. She gave him a sideways glance that made it clear going through it all again for the intimidating Quinn seemed overwhelming to her.

So Teague began. In the back of his mind he’d been thinking how to present it all the way over here anyway. He managed a fairly concise assessment, and Quinn listened without comment or interrupting.

“At least you made sense out of it,” Laney muttered when he’d finished.

“Not much to go on,” Quinn said neutrally.

“I know that,” Laney said. “Believe me, I know that.”

“I thought maybe we could at least find her, make sure she’s okay, put Laney’s mind at ease,” Teague said, wondering if his first effort at bringing a job to Foxworth was going to be a miserable failure.

“And if she is, Amber will likely be so embarrassed she might never speak to me again,” Laney said. “I hadn’t really thought that far until now.”

“If she gets angry with you for worrying about her,” Quinn said, “she’s not much of a friend.”

Laney’s surprised expression told Teague she hadn’t expected that. But the cogent assessment seemed to help, because Laney slowly nodded.

“There’s one more thing,” he said to his boss. “One thing I left out.”

“What?”

Teague drew in a deep breath. “Cutter.”

Quinn drew back slightly. He glanced over to where the dog was curled up on his bed in a beam of late summer sunlight, snoozing peacefully.

“Uh-oh,” Quinn said, much as Teague had back in the shop.

“Yeah. He made it pretty clear.”

He described the dog’s actions until Quinn held up a hand.

“All right,” his boss said. And with a slight shake of his head, he added, “Then I guess we’re in.”

Laney’s startled look nearly made Teague grin.

“Wait,” she said, “you decided this because of Cutter’s behavior?”

“His instincts are...I won’t say infallible, but he hasn’t made a mistake yet,” Quinn said.

Laney looked from Quinn to Teague and then back again. She spoke slowly, carefully. “I love dogs as much as anyone, and more than most. But you’re letting a dog decide this?”

“No.” Quinn glanced at Cutter again. “I’m letting
that
dog decide this. Because that’s what he does.”

“He brings you cases?”

“He finds them. After that it’s up to us.”

She gaped at Quinn. Teague couldn’t resist poking a little more.

“And he trusts us with them, unless he feels we’re not moving fast enough, or in the right direction. Then he butts in again.”

Quinn chuckled. “Makes you wonder how we functioned at all before he came along, doesn’t it?

Laney shook her head. “I think I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole.”

“Nope,” Teague said, more cheerful than he had been, now that Quinn had agreed to take it on. “But you are in Cutter’s world now. And you’ll find things go smoother if you just accept that. He’s got his own sort of code, and a way of making sure we all follow it.”

“And when we don’t, things tend to go haywire,” Quinn said, his tone only half joking.

“And when you do?”

“Then things seem to work out.”

“You’ll see,” Teague said at Laney’s expression. “But the most important thing is, you’ll know for sure about Amber.”

And he could tell by the change in those expressive cinnamon eyes that he’d managed to say the right thing.

And Foxworth had a new case.

Chapter 6

“I
’m not sure of Edward’s last name. His aunt’s name was Reed. Nancy Reed.” She grimaced. “I always thought it was nice he was willing to help her out picking up her dog at my old shop. Not every guy’s secure enough to be walking around with a three-pound Yorkie with a pink bow.”

“I’d be afraid I’d break it,” Teague said. “Or drop it.”

“He was always very gentle with her. I think that’s why I...”

Her voice trailed off.

“Trusted him?” Quinn asked.

She looked miserable as she nodded.

Teague couldn’t think of a thing to say that would make her feel better. Nothing had ever really made him feel better about Terri, so maybe the words didn’t exist.

“Can you tell us anything else about him?”

She’d already given a good description of him to Tyler Hewitt, their tech genius, who had used his own software, tweaked even further by former Foxworth client Dane Burdette’s company, to produce a very lifelike image of the man. Two, actually, one with and one without the ball cap with a boat on the front that Laney said he’d been wearing that day at the mall; people tended to focus on things like that. Printed on photo paper, you’d swear they were actual photographs of him. She’d been more observant than she’d realized, once she got into it, Teague thought. She’d remembered not just the cap but a mole behind his right ear and a small indentation over his left eyebrow.

“And I think Peachy may have bitten him once,” she’d said. “He had a couple of little scars on his right hand.”

“I wish I could be more help about him,” Laney said now, sounding upset with herself.

“You gave a great description,” Teague said.

“I feel so...self-absorbed. I never really noticed him that much at all, until he asked me out. Colleen, my boss and trainer at the shop there, usually handled the drop-offs and pickups, because she knew all the customers.”

Teague’s gaze flicked to Quinn, who gave him a barely perceptible nod. He was clearly giving Teague the lead on this, and Teague wasn’t sure how that made him feel.

“Did she ever say anything to you about him?”

“I’ve been trying to remember,” she said. “She never gossiped, said it wasn’t good business. The only thing I can think of was that once after he picked up Peachy for his aunt, I said how thoughtful that was. She laughed, and said something about him knowing where his bread was buttered. I’m not sure what she meant.”

“How about the aunt? Ever see or meet her?”

“Once. She was older than I expected, he’s only in his thirties. I think she might be Edward’s great-aunt, really.” She started to go on, then stopped.

“Laney?” Teague prompted.

“I don’t want to be mean,” she said. “And it doesn’t have anything to do with Amber.”

“We need everything you can tell us. For Amber’s sake,” Quinn said. “Let us decide if there’s a connection. It’s what we do.”

Laney sighed.

“She was older than I expected, but trying to hide it. I think she’d had surgery on her face. It had that kind of tight, wide-eyed look. But her hands...they were old.”

Teague flicked another glance at Quinn, saw he’d picked up on the two things Teague had.

“What kind of car did he drive?”

Laney blinked. “I... Uh, a racy little import. You know, one of those classics-brought-back kind of things. Red.”

Something in her tone made Teague ask, “You didn’t like it?”

“A bit much for me. I’m more of a utilitarian kind of person.”

“Did the aunt impress you as well-off?” Quinn asked.

Laney frowned “Wealthy, you mean? I suppose. She lived in a nice neighborhood. She did have diamond earrings, and a big ring on her right hand the one time I saw her, but it’s not like she was dripping in them. Nice clothes. I didn’t see her car. And if she did have plastic surgery, I suppose she must be. Why?”

“Diamonds, nice clothes, nephew drives a fancy car and knows where his bread is buttered.”

Laney’s eyes widened as Teague ran through the list. “You think he was just helping her out because he gets money from her?”

“Or plans to,” Teague said. “If she’s older, he may be playing a long game.”

She got there quickly. “Expecting to inherit?”

“It’s been done.”

Her nose wrinkled in distaste. Teague liked her for that. Or he just liked the cute way she did it.

Slapping that thought back, he made himself focus. “Anything else about him? Did he live with his aunt?”

“I’m not sure. She lived near the U-District.”

“The university?” Teague asked. “Good hunting ground if you’re a thirty-plus-year-old guy into fresh-out-of-high-school women.”

Again her nose wrinkled. She muttered something under her breath that sounded like “ew.” Teague suppressed a smile and wondered what the hell he was finding so amusing about all this.

“Wouldn’t Amber be too old for him, then? She’s my age.”

Teague couldn’t picture anybody over sixteen thinking Laney Adams was too old. Too hot, maybe.

“Never mind,” Laney said, answering herself. “For a woman who looks like Amber, what guy wouldn’t make an exception?”

Teague was glad she’d gotten there on her own, because he had a feeling anything he would have said would have come out wrong.

“Did Amber have a passport?” Quinn asked.

“I don’t think so. But she had one of the travel ID cards. We used to go up to Victoria sometimes, at Christmas. Figured it was as close as we’d ever get to Christmas in London.”

“So she could have made the trip, technically.”

“Yes,” Laney admitted. “And I’m not saying she wouldn’t, just that I can’t believe she’d fly someplace that’s only a three-hour drive.”

“People in love change,” Teague said carefully.

“Amen,” Quinn said dryly.

Teague grinned at his boss, admitting the statement had been double-edged.

“And thankfully so,” Quinn added, with a smile Teague had come to know, an inwardly directed expression of pure love that made clear his thoughts were of the woman who had so changed his life.

“I know they do,” Laney said, her voice tentative, as if she didn’t want to interrupt Quinn’s pleasant musings. “But Amber never did. And I’ve been through a lot of guys with her. She’s always had guys after her. But she never blew me off for one of them.”

“Until now. With Edward. If that’s what’s happened,” Teague added carefully.

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t go out with him. Wouldn’t.” Teague hadn’t meant to ask that, but he’d been saying a few things he hadn’t meant to lately.

“I told you, I wasn’t attracted.”

Quinn seemed to ponder that. “Good-looking guy, nice car, money, potentially a lot of money.”

He sounded like he was only musing out loud, but Laney answered somewhat defensively, “I don’t need money, or things, or even looks, but character and kindness and honesty. I’m really picky.”

“And Amber isn’t.”

And there it was, Teague thought. Damn, Quinn was good at this. Laney drew back, looking almost hurt at first, but then thoughtful.

“No,” she finally said, very softly. “She isn’t. Particular, but not picky. A difference she often pointed out to me.”

I’ll take picky,
Teague thought.
What could be better than knowing a picky woman had picked you?

He caught himself again, wondering where the hell this tendency to personalize every damn thing had come from. This was work, this was a job, and he’d better attend to it or he was going to royally mess it up.

He’d promised her they’d find Amber, one way or another. And that was what he intended to do. All he intended to do. Laney was vulnerable, hurting, and his screwy reaction to her was just his protective instincts in overdrive.

To prove it, he focused completely on the matter at hand as Quinn worked out the next steps. Foxworth was on a case, and that was where his unruly mind would stay.