Detection Mission (Texas K-9 Unit) Read online

  “Probably figured there was some beef stew left over for him.”

  “And he’d be right. Molly has been known to sneak him some people food when I’m not looking.”

  Molly appeared in the hallway. “Anyone for dessert?”

  “Sure,” Lee immediately answered while Heidi continued to pet Kip. “How about you?” He glanced at her.

  “When I grew up, I couldn’t eat dessert until I’d finished my whole dinner. I’m afraid I left some on...” Heidi straightened.

  “You remembered something from your childhood?”

  “Yes, and I’m sure it’s right.” She grinned. “But I’m not a little girl anymore. I make my own decisions. I’ve decided pecan pie with ice cream sounds perfect.”

  “We’re coming, Molly.” Lee put his hand at the small of Heidi’s back, and they headed for the kitchen.

  Heidi tried to focus on where that tidbit from her childhood had come from, but when she searched her mind, all she found were dark holes and no other sense of who she was.

  * * *

  The next day in the Lost Woods, with Kip sitting next to him, Lee stood over another grave, now empty. He’d prayed this wouldn’t be the outcome of Keevers’s disappearance. He’d hoped they would find him alive somewhere.

  The crime-scene techs and the ME had just left with Pauly Keevers’s body. At least they knew what had happened to Keevers. He was shot execution style just like Ned Adams. From the condition of the body it was probably not long after he disappeared, but the ME would tell him a more accurate time of death after the autopsy.

  Any way he looked at it, finding Keevers’s body an hour ago answered some questions but posed more. Did the same person kill both Adams and Keevers? He wouldn’t be surprised if ballistics came back saying both were murdered with the same gun.

  Is that same person behind Zoller and his attempt on Heidi?

  Kip barked, pulling Lee from his thoughts. So many questions. Few answers.

  “C’mon, boy. We need to get back to the station. It’s been a long day.”

  Half an hour later, Lee dragged himself into the police station. He’d deposited Kip over at the training center so he could fill out the paperwork on finding Pauly Keevers’s body. On his way back to the station, he’d swung by Zoller’s apartment building, looking for the man’s pickup in the parking lot. It was gone. He didn’t like not knowing where the suspect was at this moment. Heidi was protected with Valerie, but the unknown factors always ate at him.

  He liked to control his surroundings—well, as much as he could. But especially lately, he realized how little control he had. He had command over his reactions but not over others’ actions. He looked at Dan Harwood’s desk across the room. His ex-fiancée had given birth to Dan’s son six weeks ago, and he had to see Dan’s family pictures of Josh up on the bulletin board in the break room whenever he went in there. Mostly he avoided the room.

  Why be constantly reminded of his past romantic failure? If truth be known, he had been glad Kip had interrupted that heated moment between Heidi and him last night. Otherwise he would have kissed her, and that would have been a mistake. He’d thought he’d known Alexa and he hadn’t. With Heidi he knew he didn’t know her. She didn’t even know herself.

  He was running late. He needed to get the report finished and on his captain’s desk. Lee sat down and began filling it out. Thirty minutes later, he completed it and gave it to Lorna, then he crossed to the back door. The training center for the canines was behind the police station. A minute later he entered it and came to a halt a few feet inside.

  Alexa stood with Dan, showing her new baby to Harry Markham and Kaitlin Mathers, two of the trainers. Kaitlin’s enthralled expression fixed on Josh’s tiny features. Lee knew of Kaitlin’s love of children—he shared that same love. And the woman he’d wanted to have those kids with was only a few feet away, holding another man’s baby. Alexa slanted her gaze toward him and stiffened. Dan peered at him and then immediately looked away.

  “I’d better be getting home,” Alexa said, taking her baby back from Kaitlin. “I’m sure you all have work to do.”

  “Actually, I was heading home. I’ll walk with you two.” Harry grabbed a set of keys from his desk and accompanied the couple who avoided eye contact with Lee as they passed him in the suddenly small training center.

  “Kip’s out back. Sorry you came in on that.” Kaitlin’s voice pulled his attention back to the reason he’d come to the center. “He still had some energy to run off. I hear he did good today in the woods.”

  “Yeah, he found another body buried much like the other one.”

  Kaitlin brushed a stray lock of honey-blond hair off her face. “Are you through searching the area?”

  “We pushed to really get as much done today as possible. Tomorrow, Austin and I should be through. We still have about a third of the woods left.”

  “I hope you don’t find any more bodies,” she said.

  “Me, too. Kip might be a cadaver dog, but I celebrate when he doesn’t find a dead person.”

  Compassion gleamed in her hazel eyes. “But every family needs closure. Kip gives them that when he finds their loved ones.”

  Lee trailed Kaitlin to the back of the training center where Kip was waiting for him, his tail wagging. No doubt his partner heard him talking to Kaitlin.

  “What are you going to do when we have social occasions for the precinct?” Kaitlin asked as she unlocked the gate.

  Kip pranced out and jumped up on Lee to greet him as if his dog knew he needed some attention in that moment. “Be civil.”

  “That wasn’t what I was asking. I know you’ll be that. You were engaged to her eight months ago. Now she’s married to another man and had his child. I know your desire to have a family. You can’t tell me it doesn’t hurt.”

  “It did, but Alexa and I weren’t meant to be together.” He sighed. “I would have hated bringing a child into this world and discovering that a little late. I have a peace about what happened.”

  She patted his upper arm. “There’s a woman out there for you. Don’t give up looking.”

  As Lee took Kip from the training center, Kaitlin’s words rang in his mind. He wasn’t in any hurry to find a woman. Alexa and he had known each other for several years and dated for a good amount of that time seriously before becoming engaged. And still he hadn’t known her like he should have. That realization chilled him in the cool February air.

  * * *

  “You have a way with dogs. Lexi took to you in no time.” Valerie sat in the chair she and Heidi had just carried into the renovated third-floor apartment.

  The dog in question came to Heidi to be scratched along her back. She wiggled when Heidi hit a certain spot, her bobbed tail vibrating in excitement. “I’ve been discovering that with Kip and Eliza. I wonder if I have a pet somewhere. If I do, I hope someone is taking care of it.” For a few seconds an image of a small, white bichon pranced across her mind, tail curled, big, brown eyes dominating her face. “Cottonballs,” she whispered.

  “What?” Valerie leaned forward.

  Heidi blinked. “I think I had a bichon. At least at some time in my past. Her name was Cottonballs.”

  “You’re remembering?” Eagerness took hold of Valerie’s face. “That’s great.”

  The image faded and nothing else came to mind. “I’m not sure. Maybe it’s wishful thinking.”

  “Or maybe it’s the first of many memories to come.”

  “A bichon named Cottonballs is hardly evidence to discover who I am,” Heidi said wryly.

  “No, but the next memory may be something to help us find out.”

  Closing her eyes, Heidi plowed her fingers through her hair and willed another image to materialize in her mind. Nothing. She pounded her fist against the arm of a chair she sat in. “It won’t come. Since I woke up, I’ve been trying to remember.”

  “Maybe you’re trying too hard. Don’t think about it...just enjoy the moment. You get a ch
ance to get to know yourself without the baggage from your past.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way.” She stared out the living room window. “I didn’t realize it was so late. Shouldn’t Lee be home by now? Do you think he found another body in the woods?”

  “It’s a big area. He told me he wanted the search completed by tomorrow so he may be pushing to get as much done as possible. He said something about taking you to San Antonio after that. Do you think you’re from there?”

  “No, I don’t like big cities.” As soon as the sentence left her lips, Heidi clasped her hand over her mouth. “I did it again. I can’t tell you why I feel that way about big cities, but I know it’s true.”

  “Sagebrush is about as big a town as I want,” Valerie said.

  “What’s the population?”

  “About sixty to seventy thousand.”

  “Give or take a thousand or two,” a deep male voice said.

  Heidi swiveled around to find Lee in the open doorway. “Where’s Kip?”

  His eyebrows rose. “No, ‘Hi, honey, I’m glad you’re home’? Instead, only concern for my dog.” He covered the distance between them. “He’s downstairs eating. Nothing comes between him and his dinner—not even a pretty lady.”

  Valerie rose. “Which is my cue to take my hungry dog home and feed her.”

  “No problems?” Lee asked as he passed the rookie cop.

  “We had a bit of trouble getting the large coffee table through the doorway, but other than that it has been quiet.” In the hallway, Valerie turned back. “Oh, by the way, we left the heavy pieces of furniture for you and Mark to haul up here. Mark said he’d help you first thing tomorrow morning before you go to work and he gets some shut-eye.”

  “So he’s finished with testifying in court today?”

  “Yeah. It only took a day. Not too bad. See you, Heidi.” Valerie waved, then disappeared down the stairs.

  “I like her. As you can see, we managed to move most of the furniture and items Molly had in here back except for the mattress, couch and chest of drawers. I’m sharing the kitchen downstairs since there isn’t a full one up here.” She paused. Molly told me this used to be the nursery and this area was the playroom with the bedroom through there, but she and her husband never had any children, so slowly over the years it became a storage place. I get the feeling she thinks of you as the son she never had.”

  “The feeling is mutual. She’s filled a hole in my life since my parents are both dead.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. My mom’s gone, but my father is alive.”

  Surprise brightened his eyes. “He is? Where?”

  She thought about what she’d said, again trying to force herself to remember. “I don’t know, but I feel I have a father somewhere. This is the second time today that I’ve had a flashback. Earlier I told Valerie I had a dog, at least once in my life.”

  He smiled. “This is great. The doc said you might remember all at once or slowly.”

  “Or never.”

  “But you are beginning to so I’m optimistic you will continue. Did you recall anything when Valerie took you to see Peterson’s car in the impound?”

  “No. Not from lack of trying. If my fingerprints hadn’t been in it, I would say I didn’t have anything to do with the car, but fingerprints don’t lie.”

  “True, fingerprints are a tangible piece of evidence, but I wouldn’t worry. You know what the car looks like. You might remember something later.” He turned toward the door. “I’ll go downstairs and clean up. Molly said dinner would be on the table in half an hour.”

  Heidi jumped to her feet. “Oh, I’ve got to finish what I cooked for tonight.”

  “You did dinner?”

  “Part of it. Nothing fancy. I made cornbread salad to go along with the chili Molly fixed, and I made a dessert.”

  “Dessert. Two days in a row.”

  “Molly said I needed to put some pounds back on my body.”

  “What kind of dessert?” he asked with a grin.

  “Peach cobbler. She had some peaches she canned last summer. They were perfect for the recipe.”

  “So you like peaches?”

  “Anyone in their right mind would love these peaches, but yes, I seemed to have a hankering for fruit—all kinds.” Heidi strolled toward the small hallway outside her apartment. “In some ways, it’s kind of fun discovering what I like and don’t like.”

  Lee’s eyes flickered with interest. “What don’t you like?”

  “Coffee. I’m sure Molly’s is great, but I couldn’t stand the stuff. Now sweet tea is totally different. Love it.”

  “Take it from a coffee drinker...hers is wonderful. Anything else?”

  “I’m impatient and a perfectionist. At least when it comes to sewing a quilt. I wanted to help Molly, but I’m not so sure I helped her much with the quilt she’s working on.”

  “So sewing isn’t for you?” Lee halted at the door to his apartment.

  “No, not at all, but I need something to do and it is for a good cause—helping children in need.”

  “You like children?”

  “Yes.”

  “No hesitation. How do you know?”

  “I just do. When you were talking about Brady in the hospital, I thought about it and I knew. It made me wonder if I worked with children.”

  Lee unlocked his door. “Do you think you could have some?”

  “I don’t think so. For one thing, I wouldn’t go off and leave a child of mine. I’m not from around here so that means I came from a ways off. Besides, I wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. I even checked with Gail about that when I came into the hospital.”

  “You weren’t wearing one when I found you in the woods, and you were pretty tan. You lost some of that while you were in the hospital, but I was looking for any evidence that might help me find out who you were.” His gaze fixed on her left hand, her ring finger. Had Heidi ever been in love? Had she been hurt or betrayed in the past? Like him?

  “I’d better go and help Molly. See you soon,” she said into the silence that suddenly hovered between them.

  Lee watched Heidi as she descended the stairs to the first floor. In the short time since she had awakened, she was remembering more and more. Would she recall enough in time to help them find out what was going on in Sagebrush? Would she get to a point and stop? But mostly he wondered what she would remember—what kind of life did she have before she was hurt? The woman intrigued him. She was handling having amnesia a lot better than he would have.

  As he entered his apartment, his cell went off. The number was blocked so he couldn’t tell who the call was from. “Hello.”

  “Officer Calloway?”

  “Yes?” The voice sounded familiar.

  “I want to talk.”

  “Zoller?”

  “Yeah,” the caller rasped out.

  “I can meet you down at the police station.”

  “No! I’ll be at your place in fifteen minutes.” Fear coated each word. “I’ll come to the back door of Molly’s.”

  Before Lee could tell him no, the man clicked off. He didn’t want the man near Heidi. He’d talk with him outside. Instead of taking a shower and changing, Lee checked his gun and then headed downstairs to the kitchen. He walked to the back door and brought Kip in.

  “I thought you were changing,” Heidi said as she set the table.

  “I want you two to go to Molly’s with Kip. I have someone coming to see me.”

  Molly stirred the pot on the stove. “Who? Dinner is almost ready. Have the person stay. I have plenty.”

  “No.”

  His landlady’s forehead crinkled. “Who’s coming to my house?”

  “Zoller, and I’m meeting with him outside in the backyard. I’m not inviting him inside.”

  A fork clinked to the kitchen table, and Heidi’s mouth fell open. “How could you bring the man here?”

  “He hung up before I could say no. Besides, I heard fear in the man’s vo
ice. His information might help, especially if he can tell us who hired him to attack you. This could end soon.”

  Molly turned the burner on the stove down to low. “Let’s go, Heidi. I’ll get my gun. You’ll be all right.”

  As Heidi left with Molly, all Lee could see were her large brown eyes growing even wider.

  When a rap came on the back door, Lee hurried to answer it. He squeezed through the small opening. “What do you want to tell me, Zoller?”

  The man lifted his right hand, something white clasped in it.

  * * *

  Heidi paced the length of Molly’s living room, biting her thumbnail. She hated not knowing what was going on between Lee and Zoller. For a few seconds, memories of Zoller going after her in the hospital inundated her. “I don’t like this one bit. What if Zoller is laying a trap?”

  “Lee can take care of himself.”

  If something happened to Lee because of her, how would she forgive herself? He’d already been attacked trying to protect her. “I’m sure he can, but—”

  A gunshot pierced the air.

  Heidi dropped to the floor.

  * * *

  The blast of a shot sounded at the same time Zoller collapsed onto the stoop. A bullet whizzed by the left side of Lee’s head and lodged in the doorjamb behind him. Blood spread outward from a hole in Zoller’s chest. Drawing his gun, Lee ducked back into the house. After he flipped off the light in the kitchen, he went to the window in the alcove and peered out between the blind slats. Darkness blanketed the backyard, no sign of any movement.

  The shot came from the right and from the angle of the bullet hole in Zoller and the one in the doorjamb, at an upward trajectory. The top step of the stoop was about four feet from the ground. That meant the killer—he had no doubt Zoller was dead from the direct hit to the man’s heart—hid behind the bushes near the side of the garage.

  “Lee, are you okay?” Heidi’s voice came from the direction of the entrance into the kitchen.

  “Yes, stay back and call 911.” He didn’t want to take his eyes off the backyard long enough to make the call.