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He tested the door handle and found it locked. “Mrs. Olson, I’m a Milwaukee police detective and I have backup officers on the way. Are either of you hurt? There will be an ambulance, too, if needed.”
“We’re not hurt.” The woman’s voice sounded muffled and he couldn’t deny the feeling of relief.
“I’m glad. Why don’t you let me in? I’ll keep you safe from harm.”
“How do you know who I am?” Suspicion laced her tone and Miles had to give the woman credit. She might be scared to death, but she was thinking things through in a logical manner.
She had no reason to trust him.
“I came here to ask for help in locating your ex-husband.” Miles wanted to reassure her that he wasn’t there to hurt her.
“Why do you want to find Travis?”
“I’m working on a case and need to ask him a few questions, that’s all.”
Another gunshot boomed loudly and he dropped to his knees, a surge of adrenaline sending his heart thumping as he searched frantically for the source of the gunshot.
A scream echoed from inside the bathroom. Without hesitation, he slammed into the flimsy door with his shoulder, bursting inside. The bathroom window had a bullet hole and the shower curtain was closed over the tub.
He pushed the curtain aside, and found a slim woman he guessed to be in her late twenties, with glossy brown hair and green-gold eyes behind oval eyeglasses. She was clutching a small girl who looked just like her, sans glasses. “Why are they shooting at us?” Paige Olson asked hoarsely.
“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here.” Miles took her arm and helped her out of the tub, urging her out of the small bathroom to the kitchen and living room area.
“I don’t understand.” Her voice bordered on panic, not that he could blame her. “What’s going on?”
He had no idea what was happening, other than the strong possibility that the shooter outside might be related to Jason’s death.
“This way,” he said in a low voice, gesturing to the far side of the living room. There was a side window facing in the opposite direction from where he estimated the shooter was located. And it wasn’t far from where he’d left his car. They needed to get away from here as soon as possible.
He raised the window sash and pulled the screen out of the way.
“Maybe we should go into the basement,” Paige whispered.
“It’s better if we’re not trapped.” He wasn’t about to wait around a moment longer than necessary. When he had the window clear, he shrugged off his black leather jacket and held it out to her. “Put this on.”
She didn’t let go of her daughter, but managed to get her arms into the sleeves. When she was ready, he went outside first, then held out his hands. “It might be easier for me to hold your daughter.”
The child, who hadn’t spoken a word, shrank closer to her mother, clinging like a little monkey. He stepped back and held out a hand. “Never mind. Here, lean on me.”
Paige threw one leg over the sill, then ducked beneath the frame. She teetered there for a moment, so he quickly caught her in his arms and hauled her the rest of the way out of the window.
“See my car there along the curb?” He gestured to his navy blue sedan.
“Yes.”
“We’re getting out of here before anything else happens.”
She gave a terse nod, trusting him to keep them safe. He shielded them as best he could as they moved quickly across the snow-patched frozen ground to his car.
He didn’t have a booster seat for the child, but that wasn’t his top priority. Paige slid into the backseat with her daughter, leaving him to get behind the wheel. He quickly started the engine and put the car in gear.
Crack! Another gunshot echoed through the night, hitting the passenger side of his vehicle with a loud thud.
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt?”
“We’re okay,” Paige said in a muffled tone.
The faint sound of police sirens reached his ears, but Miles didn’t hesitate. He stomped hard on the accelerator and pulled away from the curb, speeding down the street as fast as possible, putting badly needed distance between his car and the gunman.
Leaving the scene of a crime was against the rules, but at the moment he was more concerned with making sure that Paige Olson and her daughter were safe.
They were clearly in danger, but why? Who would shoot at a woman and a child? Deep in his gut, he sensed there had to be a link between the shooter who’d just hit Paige’s house and his buddy’s murder.
He needed to figure it out, before any more blood was shed.
* * *
Thirty minutes after they’d left her normally quiet and safe neighborhood behind, Paige still couldn’t relax. The sound of gunfire continued to echo in her mind, over and over again until she thought she might scream.
She knew she should be glad that the police detective had risked his life to save them, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that he’d only come to see her in the first place because of Travis.
For a moment she squeezed her eyes shut in frustrated anger. Her ex-husband had cheated on her practically from the moment they’d gotten married, although she hadn’t found out about the other women he went out with until Abby was born and one of the women showed up at the hospital looking for Travis.
He’d apologized to Paige and promised to be faithful, but of course that hadn’t lasted more than a couple of months. She finally divorced him when Abby was two and she’d made it a point to do her best to get along with him, for their daughter’s sake.
But now it looked as if Travis was in trouble again. He’d called her a few weeks ago, asking if she’d keep Abby over the weekend he was supposed to take her. Of course she’d agreed, but she’d also sensed tension in his tone.
She’d asked what was wrong and he blamed his stress on work. As he was the director of research and development for Sci-Tech, she hadn’t thought too much about it.
But now she couldn’t help but wonder if there had been more to it than that.
Paige took several deep breaths, burying her face in the collar of the detective’s black leather jacket. The scent of leather, combined with his aftershave, was surprisingly calming. She turned her attention to her daughter. Abby was plastered against her, hanging on as if she’d never let go. She was glad to realize that Abby had managed to keep a firm grip on Ellie. Having her favorite toy with her should assist in keeping her calm.
“Hey, Abby, you can sit up if you like. We’re safe now. The nice policeman, Detective...” She frowned, forgetting the guy’s name.
“Miles,” he supplied in a low, masculine tone.
“Detective Miles helped us get away.”
Abby moved her head a bit, as if seeking a more comfortable angle, but didn’t say anything in response.
“Mrs. Olson?” He glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
“You may as well call me Paige.” She forced a smile. The detective was wearing a long-sleeved light blue shirt and dark slacks, and she wondered if he was cold, since she still had his jacket. “Thanks for helping us.”
“You’re welcome. Please, call me Miles.” He cleared his throat. “Will you walk me through the events that happened before I arrived?”
She swallowed hard. “I was finishing up the dinner dishes while Abby was playing in her room. I heard a crash and hurried over to see she’d dropped her tablet. She must have been afraid that I’d yell at her, because she was hiding under the bed.”
“Go on,” he urged.
“When I bent down to check if she was under there, the window shattered. I heard a loud bang and realized that someone was shooting at the house. I was able to get Abby to come out and my plan was to hide in the bathroom until the police arrived.”
“Did you call them?”
“No.” She realized her phone was still on the kitchen counter. “I didn’t have my phone. I thought about going back to the kitchen, but then I wondered if it might be better to hide.” She didn’t want to say exactly what she’d thought, since she knew Abby was listening.
“I was outside the front of your house when I heard the gunshots,” he said.
Now that it was over, she was grateful for his impeccable timing. “I’m glad.”
“When was the last time you spoke to your ex-husband?” Miles asked.
She grimaced. “Last week. He was supposed to take Abby for the weekend, but he called to cancel again.”
“Again?”
“He’s supposed to take her every other weekend, but he’s canceled three times in a row. But I know he keeps in touch with Abby on ChatTime, right, Abby?”
Her daughter pressed her face more firmly against Paige’s neck but nodded her head.
“ChatTime?” Miles repeated. “They communicate face-to-face using the tablet?”
“Yes. It was Travis’s idea, even though I’ve tried to tell him that ChatTime isn’t the same as spending time together actually doing things.” Yet another bone of contention between them.
“Abby? Did you talk to your daddy tonight?” Miles asked.
Paige was surprised when every muscle in her daughter’s body went tense.
“Abby, honey, it’s okay,” she murmured, stroking the child’s hair, the exact same color as her own. “We’re safe now. I’m not mad at you for dropping the tablet. We can always get another one.”
Abby didn’t relax or lift her head, or indicate in any way that she’d heard either of them talking, even though Paige was certain she had.
“Abby, please say something.” Her motherly instincts were screaming at her that something was wrong with her daughter. But what?
“Are you sure she’s not hurt?” Miles asked in a concerned tone.
“I don’t know.” Paige ran her hands up and down Abby’s small body, feeling for anything abnormal.
When her daughter shook her head from side to side, she stopped. “Are you hurt?” she asked.
Another head shake.
“Are you upset about something?”
Definite head nod up and down.
“What’s wrong? Will you tell me why you’re upset?”
Another head shake no.
“Why won’t you talk to me?” Paige asked helplessly.
“She’s probably still scared from everything that’s happened,” Miles said, as if trying to reassure her. “Rather than taking you to the police station, we’ll stay at a motel for the rest of the night. Tomorrow you’ll need to give a statement. Maybe Abby will feel better by then, too.”
“Did you hear that, Abby? Detective Miles is taking us to a motel. Maybe they’ll have a swimming pool. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
No response.
Fear squeezed like a fist around her heart. Abby loved to swim. She was normally a bright, talkative little girl. In fact, her kindergarten teacher sent notes home on a weekly basis complaining about Abby being such a chatterbox.
Paige thought back to when she’d heard the tablet drop on the floor, the way her daughter had been hiding under the bed, clutching her stuffed elephant with teary eyes, moments before Paige heard the sound of gunfire.
And she knew something was terribly wrong. More than just the gunfire they’d experienced had caused such a drastic change in her daughter.
But what?
TWO (#ulink_9ab8bdd7-c709-5316-9e6b-61244ad80795)
Miles kept an eye on the road behind him, making sure there wasn’t anyone following them as he drove through the night. The hour wasn’t that late, so there was more traffic than he would have liked, forcing him to make several turns, heading in a zigzag pattern to the Ravenswood Motel, a place he’d learned about a few months ago when his older brother, Marc, had hidden out there with a witness. A witness that he’d ended up marrying just a month ago.
As happy as he was for Marc, no way was he going down that same path. Serious relationships were not for him.
Pulling his thoughts back to the situation at hand, Miles tried to put the puzzle pieces of his case together. Jason’s body had been found in a Dumpster a few minutes before three o’clock in the morning, after succumbing to injuries from a gunshot wound to the chest. The only person Jason had seemed to have issues with was his boss, Travis Olson. Miles had gone to Sci-Tech first, but had been told that Travis wasn’t there. He’d gone to Olson’s condo, but he hadn’t been there, either. So he’d dug into Travis Olson’s background, finding out about his ex-wife, Paige, and their daughter, Abigail. So he’d headed over, only to find Travis’s ex caught in the middle of an ambush.
Coincidence? Not likely, although it would be nice to have ballistics prove a connection. Maybe the slugs they’d find in Paige’s house would match the type that had been used on Jason.
But why shoot at the woman and child in the first place? That was another link he couldn’t ignore.
He wasn’t going to allow anything to happen to an innocent woman and her child, so if that meant bypassing normal police procedures, then fine. Their safety had to come first.
“Miles?” Paige’s voice was soft, tentative.
“Yes?” He met her gaze in the rearview mirror.
“When do you think I’ll be able to take Abby home?”
He grimaced and shook his head. “Not anytime soon, unfortunately. Once the crime scene techs have finished gathering evidence, you can authorize the repairs to the windows, but that’s it. You can’t return until we know who’s after you and why.”
“Don’t you think it might be a mistake? That maybe some other house was the real target?” There was a thin thread of hope in her voice, one that he didn’t like having to destroy with the blunt truth.
“No, I don’t.” He wished there was something to say to make her feel better. “How much do you know about your husband’s work at Sci-Tech?”
“Ex-husband,” she corrected tersely. “Not a lot. I know he’s involved in artificial intelligence, but he didn’t confide in me about the specifics. In fact, he always made a point to remind me that his work is highly confidential.”
Highly confidential? That’s exactly what Jason Whitfield had told him when he’d asked about what he was working on. Was it possible Sci-Tech was doing classified work for the government?
“How long have you been divorced?”