Left to Kill (Adele Sharp #4) - Blake Pierce Page 0,53

the tinted windows of the car.

She wiped angrily at her face. “Come on, get it together,” she muttered to herself.

She wasn’t helping anyone like this. Pity parties didn’t help. She breathed, inhaling, holding it, then exhaling, trying to calm herself through a breathing exercise.

She could feel Ms. Jayne, as if she were a god, staring down, watching. The timer was ticking, grains of sand sluicing by. The Germans were starting to be less helpful. She knew that eventually they would edge her and John out. And then what? Then, too many hands on the case. Too many bureaucracies. Too much red tape. Everyone would want to do it their way. Everyone would try to interject. Everyone would want to handle their own cases, and then start shielding information. The cynicism would set in. No agency would cooperate. Eventually, the case would collapse. Adele had seen it many times before. The more agencies that got involved, the less likely the case was solved. People just didn’t get along that well.

But in this case, there were still others out there. Others like Ha Eun. Others who could end up in a field, half naked and bloodied. Corpses.

She couldn’t allow it. This was her job. This was what she had been placed on this earth to do. With a shaking hand, she lifted the phone, staring at it. She flipped through the numbers, clicking contacts and throwing her head back in a sigh. She spun through her contacts again, again.

There was no help. Nothing out there could solve it.

And yet, somehow, she found her finger hovering over her father. Sometimes she changed the stored name to Dad, but other times, back to The Sergeant. Today it was the latter.

She clicked his number and started a video call. For a moment, she thought to hang up. He needed to sleep after the last night. But after the second ring, the phone vibrated.

Her father’s face appeared. He was sitting at a table.

“Dad?” she said.

He blinked a few times, his eyes bloodshot. His head hung low, even in the frame of the video.

“Adele,” he said.

The Sergeant lowered something with his other hand, and Adele realized he’d been eating two strips of bacon gripped in one hand dripping with grease.

“You’re awake?” she said.

“It’s nearly ten AM,” he said. “Course I’m awake.” Another bite from the bacon.

“I heard you were out all night last night,” she said.

“Yes, well, it didn’t pay off. I’ll be out there again in an hour. Just gotta finish breakfast and then drive over.”

Adele swallowed. “All right,” she said. Her fingers trembled for a moment, but she gripped the phone, staring at the screen, wondering why she’d called to begin with. “Take care of yourself.”

He didn’t reply. Took another bite of the greasy strips of meat.

“How did the search go?” she said.

“Like I said, nothing,” he replied, curtly. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard a note of anger in his tone.

“Yeah,” she said, gently, “well, it was still very good of you to try.”

He munched on another strip of bacon, folding it into his mouth, then grunted, flecks of grease speckling the camera on his end. Angrily he wiped at the screen with a finger, only smudging the streak of opaque droplets. “Trying isn’t that useful.” He grunted.

Adele could feel her own frustration mounting. Why did he make it so difficult to be nice to him?

“You didn’t see anything? Meet anyone? Nothing out of the ordinary?”

Her father shook his head dismissively, but then hesitated.

“What?” she said.

“Nothing, not really. I did meet a nice, pleasant, older couple. About my age, maybe even older. They were just living off-grid. Have their own farm and everything. Sustainable living. Honestly, got me thinking.”

“Right, so you met an older couple?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing. They’re very kind. Very nice. They have nothing to do with it. But like I said, it got me thinking. I,” he swallowed, “I’m thinking, maybe it might be smart for me to move out into the woods or something. I’ve always liked hunting and fishing. I don’t know. Maybe it’s time I sold the house.”

Adele stared. “What brought this on?”

“You know what, forget about it. I’m just tired. How about you? Did you find anything? What’s new with the case?”

Adele hesitated, glancing along the hood of her vehicle toward the crime scene, then turning back, staring out across the empty fields again.

“It’s not good,” she said. “We found a body. One of the missing people. They’d been gone for three years,” she said. “She