Unexpected Partners Read online

  Dana had learned over the years to pay attention to the instincts of fellow cops. A simple hunch could be the stepping stone to solving a case. “Did he give you a name?”

  “He did. It’s the same man you saw staring at Chloe this morning: Sylvio Caprazzio.”

  She was impressed. Looked like the Tisbury PD had cops with good instincts.

  “I’m on my way to you now,” Maribel went on. “I think I have a way to get Chloe to start talking about this.”

  “How?” Dana asked, suddenly curious.

  “I’ll show you when I get there. See you in a few.”

  Chapter Three

  Chloe shifted uncomfortably. She had a feeling the phone call was about her.

  Dana’s eyes found hers again as she ended the call and sat back down on the edge of the bed. “Is there anything you’d like to share with me?”

  “No.” Her back bristled. She didn’t like where this was headed. Dana was treating her like a victim.

  “That man at the station…” Dana blinked once, twice, never taking her eyes from Chloe’s. “Did you recognize him as the man who abducted you?”

  Chloe took a breath to steady herself. “I’d like you to leave.” She pressed the call button for the nurse. She needed to get out of here. Now.

  Dana remained on the edge of the bed and made no move to honor her wishes. “You’ve interviewed dozens of victims since you joined the BPD. Everyone talks about how you have this way of getting inside a victim’s head. You seem to know just the right thing to say to get their walls to come down.” She sighed. “What would you say if you were in my shoes right now?”

  A young nurse rapped softly on the door and poked her head inside. “You’re awake. How are you feeling?”

  “Better.” Chloe held up her arm with the IV. “Can you take this out?”

  “I’ll have to clear it with the doctor first—”

  “Take it out now, or I’ll take it out myself.”

  The young nurse frowned as she looked back and forth between her and Dana, obviously sensing the tension. “Give me a minute, and I’ll take care of it.” She withdrew her head from the doorway and disappeared.

  “Talk to me, Chloe.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about.” She reached over with her free hand and peeled the sticky tape from the IV. In one fluid motion, she ripped out the catheter and held her arm until the bleeding stopped. She felt underneath her gown for the electrodes and peeled them off. “Where are my clothes?” she asked without looking up.

  Dana stood, walked to the closet, and withdrew a plastic bag. She tossed the bag on the bed and turned so her back was to Chloe. “Go ahead and change. I’m not leaving.”

  Well, I sure as hell am. Furious, Chloe climbed out of bed, stepped into her pants, and fastened her bra. She’d just slipped out of her hospital gown and into her shirt when there was another knock at the door.

  Without waiting for a reply, Maribel Murphy opened the hospital room door and stepped inside. She set her briefcase in a chair and walked up to Chloe. Her dark eyes, fair skin, auburn hair, and high cheekbones—combined with her telltale last name—left little doubt about her Irish heritage. She was dressed to kill in a power suit and black high heels. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Just overtired,” Chloe lied.

  “Dana says you’re refusing to talk about what happened two years ago.”

  “That’s because there’s nothing to talk about.”

  “I’ve been doing this a long time, Chloe.” She glanced at Dana. “We both have. Give us a little more credit than flat-out denial.”

  Chloe put her hands on her hips and held her ground. She had no intention of opening this can of worms anywhere but in the privacy of her own mind.

  Maribel withdrew a folder from her briefcase, opened it, and dumped about thirty photos on the bed.

  Mortified, Chloe leaned over to pick one up. “How’d you get these?”

  “Contacted the Tisbury PD. They still have it on file as an unsolved case. Your former captain told me you were abducted in the middle of the night after your fiancé was murdered. He said your abductor kept you for twenty-five days. You turned up later, half-dead.”

  Chloe felt the heat rising in her cheeks. “What else did he say?”

  “That you were beaten so badly you suffered total memory loss of what happened. Your inability to recover those memories impeded their investigation, forcing them to put it on ice until further notice.”

  Chloe couldn’t help but stare at the photos. Bruised, swollen, bloodied and broken, there wasn’t a single inch of her body spared.

  Dana stepped over and picked up several photos that had fallen to the tile. One by one, she collected them—gently, almost reverently. Dana stood, studying the photos in her hands with an intensity that surprised Chloe. “My God, Chloe.” She finally looked up, a tangled expression of rage and disbelief on her face. “Did that bastard at the station do this to you?”

  She hesitated, but only briefly. “Yes.”

  Maribel stepped closer. “Your former captain said they had a person of interest, but you were never able to make a positive ID. What changed?”

  Chloe shook her head and sighed, resigned to the fact that these two women were obviously too intelligent and intuitive to be shaken off her trail so easily. She might as well come clean. “The memories started returning a few months ago…just after I was hired at the BPD.”

  “Why didn’t you contact one of the detectives at your old house?” Dana asked.

  “Because the memories are scattered. They come in bits and pieces. I was waiting until…” She trailed off, unable to put her thoughts into words. A perfectionist by nature, she wanted to be able to recall everything that happened during those twenty-five days as accurately as humanly possible. She longed to provide the details that would warrant reopening the case—the details that felt tantalizingly close but were still somehow just beyond her reach.

  “You were waiting until all the pieces fit together,” Dana finished for her. “You wanted to have everything straight in your own head before reopening the case. I get it. I’d do exactly the same.”

  Chloe looked up from the floor and met Dana’s gaze, grateful for their connection.

  “How much do you remember?” Maribel asked.

  “There are a lot of blank spaces I’m still trying to fill in,” she admitted. “When I saw him at the station this morning, more came back.” She squeezed her eyes shut against the images inside her own mind. “But not everything. It’s been pretty much a steady trickle day by day.”

  “Has anyone been helping you remember?” Dana asked. “A therapist…someone like that?”

  She shook her head. “I wanted to remember things on my own. I didn’t want a defense attorney claiming my memories were manufactured by an outside influence.”

  Dana stepped closer. “So you’ve been facing this all alone?”

  “I haven’t been alone,” she said, touched by Dana’s concern. “I have Taz.”

  “Who’s Taz?” Maribel and Dana asked in unison.

  “My German shepherd. He’s a trained attack dog. He goes everywhere with me.” She could feel the pity oozing from each of the women standing before her as tangibly as if it was solid matter. “I’ve been dealing just fine,” she assured them. “I’m strong. I can handle this on my own.”

  “Well, now you don’t have to.” Maribel wrapped her hand around Chloe’s arm and gave it a squeeze. “Dana and I are in this with you from here on out.”

  “Every step,” Dana added. “We can help you remember more.”

  “Do you have enough right now to make an ID?” Maribel pressed.

  Chloe nodded as she looked Maribel square in the eye. “I know it’s him. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

  “Okay. My office will bring charges against him forthwith. In the meantime”—Maribel turned to Dana—“she shouldn’t be alone.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Chloe argued. “I promise not to fall apart.”

  “I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about him and the threat he poses to you once he’s charged. I’ll fight like hell to make sure he stays behind bars pending trial. But this guy has plenty of money, and I’m sure he’ll hire the best defense money can buy. Bail could very well be granted.”

  Chloe said nothing because she realized Maribel was right. She knew firsthand how dangerous Sylvio was. If he knew his freedom was in jeopardy, she had no doubt he’d come after her.

  “I’ll stay with her,” Dana offered. “I can use my vacation time.”

  “You don’t have to—”

  “I want to,” Dana said, cutting her off. She met Chloe’s eyes with razor-sharp determination. “Like Maribel said, we’re in this together.”

  “Besides, Dana hasn’t used a vacation day in…” Maribel looked to Dana. “How long has it been?”

  “Five years next month. Captain threatened to buy me a ticket to the Bahamas and have me escorted to the airport in handcuffs. He’ll be happy about this, believe me. It won’t be a vacation, of course, but it’ll look that way on the books. That’s all he cares about.”

  Chloe looked down at the floor as she fought back tears. These two women were pretty extraordinary. She realized how fortunate she was in that moment to have them by her side.

  Dana cleared her throat. “There’s one condition.”

  Chloe looked up. “What’s that?”

  “Taz can’t eat me.”

  She smiled through the tears. “I can’t make any promises, but if you have some goat cheese handy, you’ll make a friend for life.”

  “Goat cheese?” Dana asked, frowning. “What self-respecting attack dog eats goat cheese?”

  * * *

  Dana texted disp
atch, and soon a familiar face from their station emerged from an unmarked car outside the hospital. Hunter threw the keys to Dana and sauntered up to Chloe.

  “How’re you feeling, Chloe? Everyone’s worried about you.”

  “Better now. Too much coffee, not enough water,” she lied.

  Hunter patted his gut and laughed. “Too many doughnuts, not enough veggies.”

  Chloe couldn’t help but smile. She’d liked the guy from the moment they’d met. He reminded her of Jim Belushi in the movie K-9.

  A patrol car pulled up alongside Hunter. He climbed in, slammed the door, and rolled down his window. “Where are you ladies off to now?”

  “Working a case,” was all Dana offered.

  Hunter thrust his chin out as the car pulled forward. “Be safe out there.”

  Dana opened the passenger’s door on the silver Ford Focus and motioned for her to get inside. Chloe stared up at the sky from her window as Dana walked around to the driver’s side and slipped behind the wheel.

  Thick, dark clouds roiled overhead, waving their fists and threatening the day with afternoon showers. Chloe nestled her hands between her thighs for warmth. Already halfway through November, Thanksgiving was just over a week away. “Where are we going?” she asked, lowering her gaze to the stop sign ahead.

  Dana rolled through the stop sign and swung into the far left lane on the one-way street. “We’ll make a quick stop at your place so you can pack some clothes, grab Taz, and then head over to my house. You two can spend the night in my guest room.”

  Chloe glanced down and noticed for the first time that her badge was missing from the front of her blazer. No gun. No badge. She felt naked. “Did my badge and gun go on strike for higher wages and better working conditions?”

  Dana laughed. “I have them.”

  “I’d like them back.”

  The air between them grew suddenly heavy. “Not yet.”

  Chloe felt her anger rising to the surface. “Why the hell not?”

  Dana pulled to the side of the road, cut the engine, and turned to her. “You went for your gun in the bathroom and tried to draw on me. I can’t return your weapon until I’m confident something like that isn’t going to happen again.”

  Chloe met her gaze, haunted by the sudden memory of doing just what Dana said she did. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “I know you didn’t, which is why I didn’t tell anyone about it. That’s between us.” She smiled reassuringly. “Just don’t shoot me anytime soon, and no one will be the wiser.”

  They parked in the driveway of Chloe’s condo twenty minutes later. Dana told her to sit tight while she went in to have a look around.

  “Do you have a death wish?”

  Already out of the car, Dana opened the rear door and bent over to look back in at her. “What?”

  “Taz is waiting inside,” Chloe reminded her.

  Dana reached into the back seat, withdrew a small plastic container, and held it up. “Goat cheese.”

  “Where’d you get that?”

  “Hospital cafeteria.” Dana grinned, obviously proud of herself.

  “Doesn’t matter. He’ll still tear you to pieces.”

  Dana frowned. “But I have goat cheese.”

  Chloe shook her head. Dana clearly didn’t know anything about German shepherds. “I have to introduce you first. Otherwise, he’ll think you’re an intruder, and you’ll have to shoot him. You and I will no longer be friends if you kill my dog.” Chloe waited patiently as Dana pondered the situation. “Besides, I have a state-of-the-art security system in addition to the attack dog. I highly doubt anyone is waiting inside to ambush me.”

  “Fine. You win. We go in together.”

  Chloe opened her car door and climbed out. She walked past Dana and up the brick steps to the door of her condo. Taz barked viciously on the other side of the door, alerting her to the fact that something wasn’t right. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she pressed her index finger against a side panel to disengage the alarm system. She was hurriedly turning the key in the lock when a bullet blasted a hole in the door. With lightning-quick reflexes, Dana shoved her inside and pushed her to the floor.

  Dana was on top of her, now nose to nose with Taz. He bared his teeth menacingly and growled deep in his throat. “Goat cheese,” Dana whispered frantically. “I have goat cheese.”

  Chloe gave Taz the command to stand down and back away as she and Dana dove around the corner.

  Dana drew her gun, snapped the safety off. “You hurt?”

  “No.” She was just about to ask the same when her eyes caught the torn, bloody sleeve of Dana’s sweater. “Now might be a good time to give me back my gun.”

  Dana remained silent and studied her for long seconds as they both listened for signs of the shooter. Chloe’s mind was spinning. Had Sylvio returned to kill her? Was their encounter in the station a warning that he was coming for her? She frowned. Sylvio seemed too careful and meticulous to go around shooting at her in broad daylight. He was the type of psychopath who planned every detail well in advance and savored the long drawn-out suffering of his victims. She didn’t know for a fact there were other victims. She was just making an educated guess. Men like Sylvio lived for the thrill of watching others suffer.

  Waiting obediently a few feet away, Taz’s entire body was on high alert. He was focused on something outside. She could tell from the tension in his body he was ready to spring into action. Chloe instructed him to lie down. He did.

  Dana finally reached under her sweater and pulled out a gun from the small of her back. She handed it over, tossed the badge to go with it, and unclipped her cell from her belt to call in for backup.

  Chloe clipped the badge to the outside of her blazer. Taz flattened his ears, bared his teeth, and growled in warning, his attention still on something—or someone—just outside the door. Chloe caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She had to find a way to get this door closed and put a solid barricade between them and the shooter—preferably without exposing her body and making herself an easy target.

  There was an umbrella stand within reach. She grabbed an umbrella and used the curved handle to hook the door as a 9 mm came into view just beyond the door’s threshold. It was fitted with a silencer. Two more bullets sailed through the air. One embedded itself in the wall. The other pierced the umbrella and lodged itself in the wood floor. She finally managed to shut the door the rest of the way. The lock automatically engaged.

  Dana ended the call. “You hit?”

  “No.” Chloe tossed the umbrella aside and shook out her stinging hands. The bullet had ricocheted off the metal rod inside the umbrella. The impact had radiated out to both hands. Taz whined and army crawled over to her.

  “Backup’s on the way.”

  Chloe nodded, reassured Taz with a scratch under his chin, and lifted her gun from the floor. She noticed some red spatters on the wall and a few drops on the carpet. Dana’s blood.

  They stared at one another in silence and listened intently as rain smacked the pavement outside. Chloe draped an arm around Taz to keep him close. They couldn’t cross the living room. Too many windows. Their best bet, Chloe knew, was to stay put and wait until backup arrived.

  Chapter Four

  With lights and sirens blazing, several BPD squad cars gunned their engines down Chloe’s street and came to a screeching halt in front of the condo. Sirens from additional units erupted in the distance. Whenever one of their own was the target of a shooter, Chloe knew it was all hands on deck.

  On Dana’s orders, uniformed police officers scoured the immediate property, then spread to the surrounding neighborhoods, posting checkpoints and lookouts within a two mile radius. Neither Chloe nor Dana had heard a vehicle engine before or after the shooting. Whether the shooter was on foot, or had merely parked out of earshot of Chloe’s condo, he could be anywhere. But if anyone could flush him out, it was the Boston Police.

  All they had to go on was Chloe’s eyewitness account of the shooter’s weapon, his black leather jacket, and her mental image of his hand. It wasn’t much, but at least it was something.

  After giving their statements, Dana, Chloe, and Taz remained safely inside the condo.