TO DIE FOR (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 8) - Willow Rose Page 0,11
to her. “You’re being weird about it.”
I stopped briefly at the top of the stairs, biting my lip, thinking back on Scott and what had happened back then, then sighed. Angel’s insistent cries pulled me back to reality, and I rushed into her nursery and smiled as I saw her beautiful face staring back at me from inside the crib. It was amazing how one small smile from such a little creature could make all my problems and bad thoughts disappear in a heartbeat. I grabbed her in my arms, then heard the front door slam shut as Matt left for work.
Chapter 11
“Eva Rae Thomas!”
I opened the door to Detective Jake Perez’s office at Rockledge Police Department. He was part of the Criminal Investigations Division, and he was the lead investigator on the case of the missing Sarah Abbey. I had worked another case with him ten years ago, back when he was in Tallahassee, and I had saved his life in a shootout with a serial killer who strangled his victims as part of a sexual ritual.
Jake looked at Angel, who was strapped to my chest in her sling.
“Cute kid. I can’t believe you’re still having more?”
I sat down in a chair across from him, ignoring his comment that obviously revealed that he thought I was a little old for having a baby.
“What can I do for you?” he asked. “You said on the phone that it was about the Sarah Abbey case? What’s your interest in that?”
“It’s a long story,” I said, looking down briefly at the baby as she started to complain. I found the pacifier and tried to get her to take it, but she hadn’t really accepted it yet and spat it out as soon as I tried.
“I have a lot of time,” Jake said.
“I just want to ask you for some details, if I may,” I said.
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “I’m not really allowed to since you’re technically not working. You quit, right?”
“Yeah, well, that didn’t really work. Work has sort of kept following me since I stopped. But technically, no, I’m not FBI anymore.”
He bit the inside of his cheek, then shook his head. “I don’t think I can help you, Eva Rae; I’m sorry.”
Angel fussed, and I tried the pacifier once more. It stuck for about a second before she spat it right out again. I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t take it. All my other children had loved their pacifiers from the first moment I introduced them.
“Come on, Jake. I just need to take a look.”
He gave me a glare across the room, then tilted his head while rubbing his stubble. “Oh, I have a feeling I’m going to regret this big time.”
I smiled. “You’re the best, Jake.”
He pointed at me. “But that means we’re even.”
I gaped. “What? I saved your life. No way does that make us even.”
He rolled his office chair to the file cabinet, then flipped through the dividers and pulled one out. He threw it on the desk in front of me.
“I’m going for coffee. You have ten minutes.”
“That’s all I need,” I said.
He walked out while I opened the file, trying to calm Angel, but she was getting annoyed now and wouldn’t keep quiet. I flipped through the pages, reading the details when I came to something that made me pause and reread it just to be sure. I stared at the page for a few seconds, pondering the information, then continued. By the time Jake came back, I was done and rose to my feet.
“You leaving so soon?” he said, holding two cups of coffee in his hands. I smiled at his sweet gesture. Angel was not just fussing now but starting to cry. “As much as I would love to stay and catch up on old times, I have to get this one home and feed her before she gets really upset,” I said and rushed out the door, feeling satisfied that I had gotten what I came for, and then some.
Chapter 12
He was sitting in the corner of Juice ‘N Java, a local coffee shop in Cocoa Beach. Lily Mitchell spotted him from behind the counter and smiled as she took the customer's credit card and swiped it. It had been like this all morning. He would sit there, stare at her, and their eyes would meet. She smiled back, showing him what her boyfriend referred to as her charming overbite.