Sybil nodded with renewed vigor. “Yes. Yes. Good idea.”
“In the meantime…”
“Where are you going?” Sybil hissed.
“I need to lock the door and grab a weapon.”
“You’re just going to leave me?”
“I’m right here.”
“I’m going with you.” She clutched Auri’s arm, her nails digging into the tender flesh underneath, but Auri didn’t mind. She was freaking, too.
She dialed her granddad before getting up to lock the door, but before it rang, the front door opened. Both of them clawed at each other and screamed bloody murder for thirty seconds before realizing it was the very man she was trying to call.
He watched them a moment before answering his phone with absolute calmness. “Auri?” he asked, even though she stood right in front of him. “Are you okay?”
Her brain having turned to mush, she put her phone to her ear to answer before realizing she didn’t need to. She pointed sheepishly toward the kitchen window. “There’s someone outside.”
He didn’t hesitate. He closed and locked the door, then keyed in the code to her mother’s safe to grab her extra sidearm, a black 9 mm with inferiority issues, according to her mom. Then he turned out the lights so he could see outside, only Sybil had not been expecting the lights to go out and the shriek that erupted out of her lungs would’ve rivaled that of a velociraptor.
When she was finished, Auri’s grandpa asked, “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
The nightlight from the kitchen was enough to see Sybil nod, but she didn’t dare let go of her lifeline. Aka, Auri.
“You two sit down and stay here.”
“Okay,” Sybil squeaked, sinking onto the couch and dragging Auri with her.
As much as Auri wanted to follow her grandfather, she couldn’t leave Sybil alone. She’d never seen her in such a state of panic. Not even after her ordeal with a kidnapper.
“I don’t see anyone,” he said before checking the other windows. “What exactly did you see?”
He was asking Auri, who was beginning to feel more than a little sheepish. “I didn’t see anything. Sybil saw a man outside.”
“Dark hair. Beady eyes. He practically screamed serial killer.”
Her granddad’s brows slid together. He grabbed the flashlight her mom always kept in the kitchen. “I’ll check outside. Lock the door behind me.”
Auri nodded. “Thanks, Grandpa.” Thankfully, Sybil let her up long enough to lock the door behind her grandfather.
Sybil clamped onto her arm again and whispered, “This is so going into my super-secret project.”
Auri watched the flashlight bounce around as he circled the house. She glanced over her shoulder. “You have a super-secret project? What is it?”
Sybil pursed her lips, clearly disappointed in her bestie. “It’s super secret.”
“Right,” she said, turning away so Sybil wouldn’t see her grin. “Sorry.”
After a quick trek out to his storage shed and checking the lock there, her grandpa walked back. She let him in and waited for the verdict.
“I didn’t see anyone, but the ground below the window has been disturbed. You two get your things and come to the house.”
“I should probably get home,” Sybil said, clearly feeling she was no longer safe.
Auri understood. She grabbed the extra set of keys to her grandma’s Buick her mom kept on a hook next to the safe. “I’ll drive you home,” she said, putting an arm around her friend’s shoulders.
“Nice try, peanut.” He took the keys from her and waited for them to gather their things.
“Oh, how was Cruz?” Auri asked as they followed him to his truck.
“Fast asleep.”
“So … he was breathing? You checked?”
“Effortlessly.” He squeezed her shoulders as he opened the door for them. “He’s okay for now, hon.”
“Thank you for doing that, Grandpa.”
“Of course.” He closed the door behind them and walked around as Auri’s heart leapt into her chest. A car drove past the house and the light from its headlamps illuminated a figure in the trees across the street. She didn’t want to say anything. Sybil was already on her last thread of sanity. But if she didn’t know better, she would’ve sworn it was the former sheriff of Del Sol, Tim Redding’s father.
8
Driver stated there was no reason to tailgate her when she was doing 50 in a 35. And the flashing lights on top of my car look ridiculous.
—POLICE BLOTTER: DEPUTY ROJAS
“You did this on purpose so you could see me again.” Sun looked up as US Marshal Vincent Deleon strolled into the hospital like he owned the place. She’d been briefing the state police officers on what she knew, which was next to nothing, and hoping to get a briefing in return. Mainly, how the hell Wynn Ravinder set up a prison break right under her nose.
“You think I’d stage a prison break just to see you?”
He lifted a shoulder, as though it were the only logical explanation. Sun had met Marshal Deleon when she’d first taken office. There had been a prison break then, too, and Sun was beginning to question the prison’s hiring standards.
“You look good,” she said, his skin rich and dark, his eyes as full of mischief as the first time she met him.
“You look like you’ve missed a few nights’ sleep.”
“Thanks.” She walked to a row of chairs in the hall and sat beside Quincy, who was talking to one of his cop friends in Albuquerque, “Where’s your partner?”
Deleon sat beside her. “Vacation in Hawaii.”
“Lucky.”
“Right? How’d you end up in the middle of this?”
The smile she let slide across her face held little humor. “I know how this looks, Deleon.”
She and Quince had been at the hospital for three hours and had already been fielding questions about her involvement. Because it was Sun who had him transferred from Arizona State Prison to the state pen in Santa Fe.
“Do you?”
She let out a long breath. “What do you need to know?”
“We could start with why you had him transferred in the first place. Guy’s been here less than a week and he’s already out?”
“It was for another case we’re working on. He offered to give testimony and produce a weapon in exchange for a transfer.”
“So, he said jump and you said how high?”
“No.” She stood and started pacing again. “He’s helping with another case as well. One that involves a threat to a local businessman.” She’d tried to call that businessman, to let Levi know what was going on with his uncle, but naturally he didn’t pick up. She left a message for him to call her immediately. Police business. Maybe that would work.
“Ah, yes.” Deleon opened a file he’d been carrying. “I see on your transfer request he was going to help you close a decades-old murder and help you with an ongoing investigation.”
“Yes.”
“And you just happened to be at the very hospital he vanished from.” He glanced up at her. “Bit of a big coincidence pill to swallow, if you ask me.”