Explosive Attraction - By Lena Diaz Page 0,56

pictures were all taken in the same courtroom.”

“Actually, no. I don’t have a theory.”

“Don’t sound so disappointed,” Rafe said. “I think you’re on to something. If we focus only on cases tried in Thompson’s courtroom, that could significantly reduce the number we have to sort through.”

He pulled out his phone. “I’ll let Buresh know what you came up with. It might be the break we need.”

Darby left him to his phone call. She crossed to her bed and sat down amidst the pile of folders and papers strewn across the comforter. She was sick of sitting at the table, going through computer files. She’d rather look at the files that were printed out.

Not the most exciting way to spend an evening in a hotel with a hot-looking guy. It was getting harder and harder to hide her growing fascination with him. Sometimes she caught him looking at her, and she wondered if he was remembering the way he’d touched her back at the hospital. But then he’d look away, his jaw would tighten, reminding her that even if he did desire her, there was no possibility of a relationship between them. He was too stubborn, too closed-minded, too set on a world of black-and-white when her world was full of gray.

“Darby, are you listening?”

She looked up, surprised to see Rafe standing beside the bed. His grim expression told her what he was going to say before he said another word.

“There’s been another abduction.”

* * *

DARBY WAS STILL REELING from the news that another victim had been abducted. But she and Rafe were trying not to dwell on how awful that was. Instead, they were brainstorming, trying to come up with a list of suspects.

“You said his latest victim is a private investigator?” Darby said from her perch on the foot of her bed.

Rafe looked down at her, his hands shoved into his pockets. “Yes, Clive McHenry. I’ve never worked with him on a court case before, so that seems to blow the theory that all the victims were related through Judge Thompson’s courtroom.”

“You said you’ve never worked with him on a court case. Does that mean you’ve worked with him in some other capacity? You knew him?”

He was quiet for so long she thought he wasn’t going to answer.

“I knew him. Let’s leave it at that.” His voice was nearly as cold as his eyes.

“But if you knew him, and he—”

“Drop it, Darby. I’m not going to discuss it.”

She waited, but he remained silent. She let out a long sigh. “Okay, we won’t discuss how you knew him. But I don’t want to drop the Judge Thompson angle just yet. Maybe McHenry was involved in a court case and you just don’t remember.”

“Or you don’t,” he said, his eyes lighting with renewed interest. “Do you use private investigators in your casework?”

“Sometimes. We do background checks so we know the kind of person we’re dealing with, and whether he’s being honest with us. But the name McHenry doesn’t ring any bells.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s see if it rings any search-engine bells.”

Darby laughed and sat down in front of her laptop. “All right, I’ll see what I can find.” She opened the directory with her files and performed a quick search. “No files with McHenry in them. Is he independent or part of a larger firm?”

“A firm.” Rafe stood behind her. He gave her the name of the private investigation agency that employed McHenry.

Again, her quick search didn’t get any hits. On a hunch, she broadened the time frame to include all of her archived files, regardless of date. The search took several minutes. Rafe pulled up a chair beside her and propped his chin in his palm while they waited.

A few minutes later, he straightened. “You’ve got a hit.”

Excitement surged through Darby. She opened the file and quickly read the summary. “Looks like I hired McHenry’s firm to do a background check on a client.”

“Looks like? You don’t remember hiring them?”

“I focus on therapy. Mindy...” She swallowed hard, and forced thoughts of her friend lying in the hospital out of her mind so she could concentrate. “Mindy took care of ordering background checks. Although this one was well before she started working for me, so a different assistant ordered this one. The client’s name was Jerry Fullerton.”

“That name sounds familiar.”

“It should. He was a defendant in one of your cases.”

“Let me guess. You testified in his defense.”

“Actually, no. It looks like I testified for