Down to the Wire Read online

When Declan went out the front door, he noticed that Tess had made her way closer to the cluster of sheriff’s department vehicles parked in her driveway. Was it his imagination or was she trying to get away from Allan Gray?

  He kept his gaze focused on doing his job, but as soon as the team had finished checking the yard, he hurried over to Tess. “Everything is fine,” he assured her.

  “Good to know,” she said softly. “Can I go inside now?”

  Declan nodded, unwilling to say too much in front of her weird neighbor.

  “See you later, Allan,” Tess said, before turning away. Declan gave the guy a quick nod and then followed her inside.

  “You can’t stay here, Tess,” he said the minute he’d shut the door behind him. “Just because we didn’t find a bomb doesn’t mean that you’ll be safe here.”

  “You already said that, Declan,” she responded testily. “I just want to see if there’s any indication Bobby has been here since this morning, okay?”

  Declan sensed he was skating on thin ice and tried to stay back, giving her plenty of room. Tess had been through a lot today, not to mention being worried about her missing brother. He knew better than to take her tense mood personally.

  She disappeared upstairs and he stood in the living room, noticing how the side window gave a clear view of Allan’s house.

  Did the guy watch Tess on a regular basis? Did he have a pair of binoculars that he used to spy on her? Declan couldn’t explain why he didn’t like him. After all, Gray hadn’t done anything overt, although he had admitted to watching Bobby and Tess leave earlier this morning.

  Declan made a mental note to do a thorough background check on Allan Gray as soon as possible. Maybe he was overreacting, but it was clear to him that the guy was a bit obsessed with Tess.

  But if the nosy neighbor was interested in Tess, why would he try to hurt her?

  Declan didn’t have an answer to that question, but that didn’t mean the guy didn’t have something to hide, either. He glanced at his watch, realizing Tess had been upstairs for a long time. Despite promising himself he’d give her some space, he found himself taking the stairs two at a time, to get to the second floor.

  “Tess? Is everything okay?” he called.

  For several long seconds there was no response, and he had taken several steps toward her bedroom when she emerged carrying a small suitcase.

  “Why wouldn’t everything be okay?” she asked, stopping short when she saw him standing there.

  Declan felt stupid for worrying. What was wrong with him? Hadn’t he already checked the house and deemed it safe at least in the short term?

  “I’ll take your suitcase for you,” he offered.

  She handed it over and then brushed past him to precede him down the stairs. “I want to leave a note on the door for Bobby, because I’m sure he’ll come looking for me.”

  “All right.” He followed her back down to the main level, setting the suitcase beside the door while she disappeared into the kitchen to write her brother a note.

  He couldn’t help smiling when she chose a neon-green sheet of paper for her message, taping it to the front door where it could be easily seen from the driveway.

  Isaac crossed over to meet them. “We’ll be clearing both your vehicle and hers next, Deck. I’ll let you know as soon as we’re finished.”

  “Thanks.” He clapped Isaac on the back and watched as the rest of his team made their way back to their vehicles. Then he turned to Tess. “All set?” he asked, taking the suitcase over to his car. He glanced over his shoulder, half expecting to see Allan Gray peering at them through his window.

  “I guess,” Tess murmured, in a less than enthusiastic tone. “I really hope Bobby contacts me soon.”

  He nodded, hoping for her sake that her brother would get in touch with her. The fact that they hadn’t found anything at her house reassured him that the kid had probably skipped school on his own, rather than being a target for the bomber.

  “Can I borrow your phone again?” Tess asked. “I’d like to send Bobby a text message.”

  “Sure.” He handed over his phone, keeping his attention on the road. “We could stop and pick you up a new phone.”

  “Really?” The spark of hope in her eyes made him feel like a jerk for not thinking of this option sooner. “That would be a huge relief.”

  “No problem.”

  It didn’t take long to stop at her wireless carrier store and upgrade her current phone to a new one. When they exchanged phone numbers, he was relieved to have a way of getting in touch with her.

  “So, where are we going?” she asked once they were settled back in his vehicle.

  “There’s a small hotel called the Forty Winks, not far from where I live. Their rates are very reasonable, and the place is clean.” He remembered the location from a while ago when Caleb had been on the run, trying to clear his name. Caleb, Noelle and his daughter, Kaitlin, had stayed there for a night, and he figured if it was good enough for Noelle, it should be okay for Tess.

  “As long as it’s not too far from my house, then I’m fine,” she said.

  Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up in front of the hotel and shut off the engine. Tess slid out of her seat, heading inside the lobby, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  “Tess, I think it’s best if I pay for the room.”

  She scowled and shook her head. “I’d rather pay my own way.”

  “It’s not about paying your way, it’s about keeping you safe,” he said, unable to contain his exasperation. “Please don’t argue about this. Don’t you understand that I don’t want anyone to know where you are?”

  Her gaze clashed with his for several long seconds. “Fine,” she grumbled. “But I think you’re being overly cautious.”

  “Thank you.” He pulled her suitcase out of the back and then followed her into the lobby. The woman behind the counter agreed to take cash for the room, probably because of his cop uniform, but insisted on having a credit card on file in case there was any damage.

  Tess’s room was on the second floor. When she used her key to open the door, he was glad the place didn’t smell old and musty. “Thanks, Declan,” she said, when he swung her suitcase onto the bed.

  “Stay safe, Tess. I’ll get in touch with you as soon as possible.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she reiterated.

  He hesitated, not liking the thought of leaving her here alone. If it wasn’t for the fact that his boss was waiting for him to report back, he’d take her out to lunch.

  His phone rang, and he suppressed a sigh when he saw that Griff was calling. “I’m on my way,” he said in lieu of a greeting.

  “You better be,” his boss said in a gruff tone. “The FBI is here and they want to talk to you.”

  He couldn’t hide his surprise. “We’ve been keeping them updated on the investigation, and they’ve admitted they don’t think the bombs are related to terrorism. Have they changed their mind?”

  “Not that I know of, but apparently they want to talk to you. So get back here, now.”

  “I’ll be there in ten,” Declan promised. He disconnected from the call and glanced at Tess. “I have to go, but you need to know that the FBI has been involved in this since we discovered the first bomb, and they may want to interview you.”

  She nodded grimly. “All right, let me know.”

  Declan had the insane urge to give her a reassuring hug, so he stepped back toward the door. “Remember, don’t open for anyone but me.”

  “Or Bobby,” she added.

  “Call me if you need anything.” He told himself to stop procrastinating and to leave already. After all, his boss and the FBI were waiting.

  But leaving Tess wasn’t easy, and he silently promised to return as soon as he’d fulfilled his SWAT
duties.

  * * *

  Tess stared at the door, long after Declan had left her alone in the hotel room. Ridiculous to miss him when he’d been gone all of two minutes.

  She gave herself a mental shake and quickly unpacked her small suitcase. She found a small bottle of over-the-counter painkillers and took a few, hoping that her headache would start to feel better. Then she sat on the edge of the bed, feeling as if she should be doing something to find Bobby.

  But what could she do without a car? She could call for a taxi, that’s what. Actually she’d rather rent a car, but that wouldn’t work until she had her driver’s license back. She made a mental note to make sure Declan returned her personal items from the school, before she used her brand-new smartphone to search for taxi services.

  Twenty minutes later, she left her hotel room and went down to wait for the taxi to arrive. She was glad to have found her spare stash of cash back at the house, or she’d be totally dependent on Declan for everything.

  “Where to?” the cabbie asked in a thick New York accent. She wondered why he’d moved to Wisconsin from New York.

  “Jackson Park, it’s on the corner of Elmhurst and Morrow.”

  The cabbie looked confused for a moment but then shrugged. “Okay, lady, it’s your dime.”

  She clipped on her seat belt, staring through the window as they approached Jackson Park. There were batting cages there, and she knew Bobby used to go there when he was still playing for the Greenland High baseball team.

  It was a long shot, but she couldn’t think of where else her brother might be hanging out.

  The cabbie pulled up to the entrance of the park, and she asked him to wait for her while she checked out the area. He didn’t seem happy but reluctantly nodded.

  She ran up to the batting cages, sweeping her gaze around the parking lot to see if she could spot Bobby’s truck. There wasn’t any sign of the truck or of Bobby himself, when she went from one batting cage to the next.

  Discouraged, she returned to the taxi. She wasn’t surprised he’d kept the meter running and she gave him the address of another park, one on the other side of the city.

  But Bobby wasn’t there, either. She had the cabbie swing by the school one last time, before heading back to the hotel. Eighty-five dollars later, she still hadn’t found her brother.

  As she used the key card to unlock her door, her new phone rang. When she glanced at the screen, her heart leaped with excitement when she recognized Bobby’s number.

  “Hello? Bobby?” she answered quickly.

  “Tess?”

  She gripped the phone tightly, as the rest of the message was garbled from a bad connection. And then the line went dead.

  “No!” She quickly punched the redial button, hoping to catch her brother, but the call went straight to voice mail. She tried over and over again, but each time the call went to voice mail.

  The brief connection to her brother had been severed.

  And she still had no idea if Bobby was safe, or being held against his will.

  She sat on the edge of the bed, staring at her phone, her eyes filling with helpless tears.

  Please, Lord, please keep Bobby safe in Your care!

  FIVE

  Declan strove for patience as FBI agents Stuart Walker and Lynette Piermont asked him a series of questions. The same questions they’d barraged him with the last time he disarmed the bomb that had been planted beneath the counter of the custard stand. His boss, Griff Vaughn, sat beside him, a stern expression on his face.

  He knew he didn’t have anything to feel guilty about, but he couldn’t help feeling as if he were the one on trial, instead of the perp who’d set all the bombs.

  “Tell us again how you disarmed the device,” Agent Walker said.

  Declan suppressed a sigh. “First I found and removed all the dummy wires. Then I clipped the wire that was associated with the timer. From there, I cut the wire leading to the explosive.”

  “How did you know which wires to clip?” Agent Walker asked.

  He shrugged and spread his hands. “I don’t know what to tell you other than I seem to have a knack for defusing bombs.”

  “Deputy Shaw, don’t you think it’s odd that you always seem to know how to disarm these devices?” Agent Walker asked, leaning forward. “After all, your fellow SWAT team member James Carron lost his life when he tried to disarm the bomb at the minimart.”

  Declan reined in his temper with considerable effort. “That was the same explosion that put my sister in the hospital, too, remember? I don’t like what you’re insinuating. So what if I happen to be good at disarming bombs? It’s an uncanny gift and I don’t see anyone else complaining.”

  Griff crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the FBI agents. “Are you accusing one of my deputies of committing a crime?” he asked.

  “No, of course not,” Agent Lynette Piermont said in a consoling tone. “But you have to admit, it’s a little strange that Deputy Shaw always manages to disarm these devices.”

  “Except for the one that went off today that nearly killed him,” Griff Vaughn pointed out. “Or maybe you think that was just a ruse to derail the investigation?”

  Declan appreciated his boss’s support, although he was annoyed to be put in a position to need it. He tried to keep his tone even and nondefensive. “We have a suspect that was identified at the crime scene and that very likely set the bomb that caused damage to my vehicle as well as to Ms. Collin’s car. We have videotape of this perp being there as well, and our crime scene tech is working to identify this man. So if you’re not going to help us solve this series of crimes, then maybe you should leave us alone so we can get back to work.” He didn’t care that his tone bordered on rudeness.

  “I agree with my deputy,” Griff said. “Do you have anything besides allegations to contribute to our investigation? Because, if not, this interview is over.”

  “Do you have any reason to suspect that these bombings are related to terrorist activities?” Agent Piermont asked.

  “No, we don’t,” Declan said. “I believe this is the work of someone who wants to be the center of attention. Someone who is choosing his targets because they mean something personally to him. I believe this perp is from the area.”

  The two agents exchanged a knowing look. Because they believed him? Or because he was from the area himself? It took every ounce of willpower to keep from lashing out in anger. How dare they insinuate he might be a suspect?

  “Anything else?” Griff asked. “Because I need to debrief with my team.”

  “That’s all for now,” Agent Walker said, rising slowly to his feet. “But we’ll need to be kept in the loop on your investigation. I’d like a progress report by the end of the day.”

  Griff grunted in what could have been an agreement or something else entirely.

  Declan glanced at his boss after the two federal agents left the room. “Do you honestly believe I had something to do with this?”

  “Of course not,” Griff said wearily. “They’re just mad that you’ve managed to disarm so many of these devices. And they’re itching to get their hands into our investigation, which they really can’t if there isn’t any link to Homeland Security or say a bigger target than just these few local events. Forget about the feds for now, and let’s concentrate on working this case.”

  Declan felt a little better, although the pall of being a suspect wouldn’t go away. Was this how his buddy Caleb had felt when everyone suspected him of being a murderer? Declan couldn’t even begin to imagine being tossed in jail. He took a deep breath and gathered his scattered thoughts. “I have a couple of potential suspects that I’d like to follow up on, Allan Gray and Jeff Berg. Both have connections to Tess—one is a former boyfriend and the other is a neighbor who clearly has a crush on her.” />
  “All right, anything else?”

  Declan shook his head. “Not so far. We cleared her house, and according to Caleb and Isaac, her vehicle is clean, too. Her car suffered some cosmetic damage, but it still runs.”

  “What about your vehicle?” Griff asked.

  “Not good. The engine didn’t start, so Isaac and Caleb had it towed to the garage.”

  Griff sighed heavily and scrubbed his hands over his face. “The sheriff isn’t going to like the negative impact on the budget.”

  Declan understood where his boss was coming from, but what could he say? They had no way of knowing that another bomb had been planted so close to the parking lot. It was just bad luck that his truck had taken the brunt of the blast.

  “I’m sorry, I’ll use whatever car you assign.”

  “Come with me to my office. I’ll see what’s available.” Griff rose to his feet and made his way through the building to the other side of the office area. After shuffling through a stack of paperwork, Griff found the list. “Take 7918. It should be ready to roll.”

  “Thanks.” For a moment he almost felt sorry for his boss; dealing with the massive amount of paperwork that government agencies demanded couldn’t be easy. And Griff was a huge step up from their former boss who’d tried to frame Caleb for murder.

  “Get me the background information on your two suspects as soon as possible,” Griff added. “I’ll need to include them in my report to the feds.”

  “Yes, sir.” Declan escaped his boss’s office and went to his own cubicle to log on to the computer. He decided to run a background check on Allan Gray first, and was almost disappointed that he didn’t find anything more than a couple of traffic violations.

  Same thing happened when he ran the background check on Jeff Berg. He scowled and drummed his fingers on the desktop. Just because they didn’t have criminal backgrounds didn’t mean they weren’t guilty.

  He performed an internet search on Allan Gray and soon discovered that Gray actually graduated from Greenland High School the same year he had. Declan sat back in his chair for a moment, surprised by the information. What were the odds?