Touching Silver (16 page)

Olivia left Isaac with the officers who responded to her call, though a part of her didn’t want to walk away from him. But she could do more good if she went to work and left him to collect witness statements. Yellow tape cordoned off her entire yard, and Tiberius watched the whole affair with a curious eye from her living room window. They had found tracks all around the house, including in her flowerbed outside the back door. To be on the safe side, they were going to lift prints from her doors and windows. She managed to keep her voice calm as she said goodbye to a distracted Isaac, but as soon as she was in the car and around the corner, she punched in her angriest CD and let the driving bass line thrum through her all the way to the station.

Changes were in order. Tiberius would not be locked in his bedroom again. He’d be free to roam the house, even if that meant they had to put up with him sleeping at the foot of the bed. She called a locksmith and scheduled an appointment for that evening. There wasn’t any sign of a forced entry, but there hadn’t been any sign of a forced entry at Isaac’s apartment either. She also stopped by the hardware store and bought a large floodlight with an automatic sensor. If the asshole came around again, she’d be ready for him.

There were nearly a dozen messages waiting for her when she reached her office. The first, from the Santa Monica PD, would have had her bouncing off the walls any other day.

We have a rapist here who matches the MO of the Jackie Carey case from three years ago. Is that one of yours?

The second came from her mother.

Hi dear, don’t forget the party tomorrow night. I know you’re busy, but you know what the doctors say…this may be Grandma’s last Christmas
.

The third was from forensics.

We’ve got a report on the envelope you sent down, Olivia. Give me a call
.

And that wasn’t even counting the emails.

She dealt with everything in the order she received them, except for the call to her mother and the visit to the lab, which she saved for last. She kept an eye on her voicemail and pager as she made her calls, hoping to hear from Isaac, but he never rang.

I’ll stop by his desk this afternoon. Make sure he’s fine
. She dialed her mother’s number. The past several days had been so hectic she’d missed her weekly call.

Candace Wright picked up after the third ring. “Oh, Olivia. Did you get my message?”

Obviously I did, or I wouldn’t be calling.
“Yeah, Mom. How are you?”

“Good, good. Busy. Tom is flying in from Atlanta! Can you believe it?”

Olivia grimaced. Tom wasn’t so much the black sheep of the family as the pain-in-the-ass of the family. “No, I thought he was going to be busy with work this year.”

“Well, he was, but you know how much he loves Grandma. She’s been asking about you, too, you know. She wants to know if you’ll be at the party.”

“Mom, have I ever missed the family Christmas party?” Olivia scanned through the fresh email that had accumulated while she’d been dealing with the overnight stuff.
Trash, trash, trash, spam, spam
.

“You just seem so busy lately.” For a moment, Candace’s voice wavered and she sounded very unsure. And very old.

“Mom, I have been busy. I’m working on a big case right now. Seven missing girls, but I think they’re still alive, and I think we can find them. But that doesn’t mean I can’t take a night off to spend time with my family.”

“Oh, I know. I’m just being silly.”

“You’re not silly. I’ve got a long day ahead of me, so I’ve got to go. Do you need me to bring anything?”

“No, of course not. Just bring yourself.” Olivia made a mental note to stop at the store and buy some pies. “Oh, your Uncle Rich says he’s bringing somebody he’d like you to meet.”

“Mom, you can’t fix me up at the family Christmas party.”

“I’m not fixing you up with anybody! But Rich says he’s a good kid. We think you’ll like him.”

Kid?
“I appreciate it, but…”

“No buts, he’s already invited. We can’t un-invite him. That would be rude.”

Olivia sighed. “Of course it would be. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re right and I’ll like him a lot. I’ve got to go now.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow night, then. Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas.”

She didn’t have a free moment to get to the lab until lunchtime. Jon greeted her with a smile, her report in hand. He was one of a few who always went that extra mile for her. Treating techs with respect had a way of paying off.

“Isn’t that Detective McGuire in the photos?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Not usually your jurisdiction, is it?”

Olivia arched her brow. “What have you got for me? Are there any prints?”

He passed her the file. “One partial print that doesn’t match you or McGuire.”

“Did you run it against the database?”

“There wasn’t enough to make a positive match,” Jon said, with a note of apology in his voice.

“Someone vandalized Detective McGuire’s car last night. They’re brushing for prints, but I don’t know if they lifted any. If they do, could you try to match them against this? Even if we can’t get an ID right now, it’ll be good to know we’re dealing with the same guy.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“There was nothing else, though?”

“No. How’s he doing? I don’t know if I’d be sleeping too well, knowing somebody was watching me.”

She couldn’t speak for Isaac, but she didn’t see any peaceful nights in her future until this was resolved. “Hopefully we’ll be able to catch this asshole and he won’t have to worry about it anymore. Thanks.”

She couldn’t help her disappointment. She hadn’t said anything to Isaac about it, but she had really hoped they were dealing with somebody too stupid to wear gloves. Or somebody stupid enough to seal the envelope with their tongue instead of a sponge. But they found no traces of DNA.

There was one potential witness. Olivia resisted the temptation to cut through the precinct to stop and see Isaac and instead went directly to the front desk. She approached the young officer with a smile and introduced herself. “Can you tell me who was on duty two days ago, around one o’clock?”

He smiled at her. “That would be me. I’ve got the day-shift all month.”

“Great. I hope you can help me out—” she leaned over and looked at his nametag, “—Chris.”

“I can try. What do you need?”

“Two days ago, somebody dropped an envelope off for Detective McGuire.”

Chris brightened. “Oh yeah, I remember that.”

She frowned. “You do?”

“It’s not every day a girl like that comes by, you know?”

“A girl? A girl dropped this off for Isaac?” Suddenly her list of possible leads expanded to include every woman he had a relationship with. Had he broken someone’s heart?

“Yeah. Tall, leggy. Big…I mean, she was well endowed. Long, dark hair.” He got a distant smile on his face. “I couldn’t tell how old she was. Maybe late twenties?”

Yeah, not too many gang members looking like that these days
. “Did she leave a name or say anything?”

“No, she just handed me the envelope and asked me to deliver it to McGuire. She said it was important.”

She passed him one of her cards. “Look, if you remember anything else, or if she comes by again, call me.”

“No problem. Is she bad news?”

“She might be.”

She returned to her office, mildly frustrated. On the one hand, a partial print and an eyewitness description was better than working with nothing. On the other, her suspect list had exploded and she didn’t even have a jumping off point. There was nothing to do but push on to the third part of her plan—gathering names.

Isaac knocked on her door as Olivia cut the chicken for the skillet. It was just after eight, and she’d thought they would go out, but eventually she got tired of waiting. Of course the minute she got tired of waiting he finally showed up. She unlocked the new deadbolt and opened her mouth to tease him for his tardiness, but one look at his face stopped the words.

“Tell me you’re not giving me a hard time tonight.” He made no move to come in. “I can’t deal with any more shit today.”

Do I usually give you a hard time, jerk?

“I hadn’t planned to, no.” She held the door open. “Can you deal with some stir-fry?”

“God, yes.”

Crossing the threshold seemed to strip a veneer of strength from his body, and his shoulders slumped long before he hit the living room. Tiberius wound around his legs, but Isaac mostly ignored him, scratching the top of his head only perfunctorily before collapsing into the corner of the couch.

“Did you know we work with idiots?”

“I’ve always suspected as much.” Olivia settled beside him. She touched the back of his neck softly, stroking him with her fingertips. “What happened?”

His eyes closed, but every line of his body remained like steel. “Idiots saying blue book is less than what it takes to fix my car, that the CDs that got stolen were worth more than my car even. Idiots at the impound taking two hours to get me a replacement vehicle. Idiots at the department asking if they should start calling you Tina to my Ike because I’ll be riding your coattails next. My idiot captain reaming me for losing Tomas. Oh, and this.” Without opening his eyes, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope, tossing it onto her lap. “They released my DB from the arson the other night to the family. No evidence of foul play, so no reason to hold him. I can’t even go over the body to look for evidence to link the fire to Gabriel.”

Her head began to ache as she listened to his litany of complaints. She wasn’t surprised the blue book of his old Toyota was less than the price to fix it, and she really wasn’t surprised it took him so long to obtain a replacement. It annoyed her by now that every single man and woman in the department—and probably their spouses and neighbors—knew she and Isaac were dating, but that was like trying to fight the tides. No sense in worrying about it.

“He shouldn’t have reamed you out about Tomas.” The platitudes she used to comfort grieving or angry families wouldn’t work on Isaac. He’d see through them before they were out of her mouth. Best approach was straight to the point. “It undermines all my efforts to convince you it wasn’t your fault. And I’m sorry about the DB. That’s just shitty.”

“How do they expect us to nail this bastard if they take away everything we need to get it done?” Isaac leaned his head back, trapping her hand against his neck, and reached out to curl his fingers around her thigh. “The only good thing I got before getting here tonight was a call from Nathan. He’s coming home tomorrow.”

“That’s good.” She began to the massage his stiff tendons. “What time does their plane land? Maybe we can all meet for dinner, if they’re up to it.”

He finally opened his eyes again, and when they turned toward her, some of the flinty anger had gone. “Even if Nathan gives us shit the whole time? I haven’t been in a serious relationship in a decade. He’s got ten years of wisecracks to use on me.”

Serious relationship
. They had known each other for a week, and they were in a
serious relationship
. She didn’t disagree with the assessment. It was how quickly this had happened that left her flummoxed. But that did remind her she wanted to ask Isaac about any recent girlfriends—or one night stands.
Maybe later
.

“I can put up with it if you can.” Unable to resist, she kissed his mouth softly. “I was in the middle of cooking dinner. Oh, I have something for you.”

“Tell me it’s edible off your skin and I’m your slave for life.”

Olivia smiled. “Not edible, no. But I’ll keep that in mind.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a newly cut key. “I had the locks changed this evening.”

Some of the amusement faded from his eyes. Closing his hand around hers, Isaac pulled it up to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. “I’m sorry your place got targeted. You didn’t sign up for this shit.”

“No, actually I
did
sign up for it when I insisted you stay here instead of sending you to a hotel. Besides, this is just a precaution.” She took his hand and pressed the key into his palm. “I don’t know how long you’ll be here, and I know we don’t have anything like normal schedules.”

He looked at the key for a long time, long enough to make Olivia uncomfortable. Giving him the key was purely pragmatic. She’d repeated that to herself all day. The way he regarded it, however, threatened to undermine that.

“Thanks.” He slipped the key into his pocket. “I noticed you got a new floodlight installed outside. Anything else I should know about?”

“I’m not keeping Tiberius in his room. Which means he might end up sleeping on the bed with us. Which is a problem for you, because you’re in his spot. You two will have to fight it out, I guess.”

Isaac glanced down to where Tiberius slept at their feet. “It’s worth it. Even though I know I’m totally going to lose that fight.”

Olivia kissed his jaw, just below his ear. “Well, since I don’t want to see either of my guys get hurt, I’ll encourage him to stay on the floor.”

When she began to pull away, Isaac caught her, tugging until she sprawled across his lap. His body was hard beneath her, but the hands that roamed along her waist were gentle, tender even, and the mouth at her neck was warm.

“You’re the only thing I had to look forward to all day. Every time I thought I was going to blow, I’d think about you. About kissing you. If I had my way, I’d keep you in bed until dinner with Nathan tomorrow night. Forget all the shit out there. Just you and me and a bottle of wine. Or eggnog. We’ll make it fit the season.”

The season. Oh shit
.

“Isaac? I totally forgot, but I can’t do dinner tomorrow night. I’ve got other plans. It’s a whole family Christmas thing.”

He was frowning when he pulled away. “Your family’s local?”

“I’m an Angelino, born and raised. Most of my siblings and cousins and extended family are spread across the country. But everybody flies home for Christmas. Or, for December. It’s hard to schedule a dinner that works for everybody, so it’s not usually
on
Christmas. Anyway, my mom would kill me if I missed it.”