A Santini's Heart (The Santinis Book 10) (18 page)

“Killers.”

He nodded. “So, your thoughts are sure it wasn’t premeditated?”

Elle shrugged. “More than likely not premeditated, but that’s your job to figure out, right?”

His mouth twitched. “Always a hard case, Doc.”

“I know your wife. She wouldn’t let you get away with that either. But they did send some fingerprints over, and I have some from Joe’s shirt. If the subject touched him, we might get something. Plus, I swabbed some matter off the shirt, could be nothing, but it looked like ICE.”

“Great. I was pretty sure it was a junkie. Did you have anything else for me?”

She shook her head. “Charity has orders to ping us both when she has any results.”

“Thanks. Thought I would stop by to see Del on my way out.”

She chuckled. “Have fun with that. Avoid his bride-to-be. Emma is a little...overwhelmed at the moment.”

He nodded. “Thanks, Elle.”

“Just get the bastard. I really liked Joe. He always had a smile for anyone who stopped by, and he contributed a lot to that neighborhood. He is definitely going to be missed.”

“Will do.”

“Give my best to your wife and that pretty little girl of yours.”

He waved as he walked out the door. She looked down at her clothes and realized she needed to change out of her scrubs. Since the early call had ruined her chances at a shower, she felt grimy. Threading her fingers through her hair, she decided that she would grab a fast shower. It was the first time that morning she wasn’t busy doing something. Her stomach growled, and she made a face. She hadn’t brought her lunch because of the call this morning, which meant she had to go somewhere to pick something up. But she didn’t want to go far. There could be another call, so the coffee stand out front would work.

G
raeme McGregor was parking
his truck when he saw Elle Middleton sitting on a bench out in front of the TFH headquarters. He turned off his vehicle and watched her for a moment. The woman should have looked out of place, the English rose sitting amongst the tropical flowers. But somehow, she fit.

If anything, she added to the surroundings. Her pristine appearance enhanced the wild fauna that surrounded her. Of course, lately, she had started to take on a certain look. More local than haole. She’d let her short hair grow out just a little, and the humidity had added some curl to flaxen hair. More and more she had been wearing colorful tropical shirts like the one she had on today. The deep coral color brought out a glow to her skin.

He wanted to avoid her. They didn’t get along at all, but while he told himself to walk on, he found himself wandering over to her.

“Out early this morning.”

She blinked, then her eyes seemed to focus. “Oh, McGregor. Sorry. I didn’t get much sleep last night. Sort of zoned out there for a bit.”

He nodded, as he studied her. She held a cup of coffee in her hands, and an unwrapped sandwich sat on her lap. She definitely looked like she had been staying up late. In fact, she looked bloody awful. The dark bruising beneath her eyes was getting to be a regular sight on her. It had been that way since they’d found Jin months earlier.

“Did we catch a call?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’m helping fill in with HPD. Flu is wiping out their folks, and then Dennis’s wife went into labor yesterday.”

He nodded and, before he could tell himself not do it, he sat next to her. She didn’t physically move away, but he felt her pull away just the same. She had been like that since the first time they’d met, and he didn’t know why. He had thought with him being from Scotland, and she being a UK transplant, they would have had a lot in common. Apparently, the doctor thought otherwise.

“Was it a tough one?”

“Yes. You know the Wiki Market there right off of Schofield Barracks?”

He nodded.

“Joe Alana was shot in the chest, bled out at the scene.”

“Well, damn. Joe was a bloody good guy.”

She glanced at him, as she sipped at her coffee. “You knew him?”

“Yeah. I live up near the North Shore.”

She frowned. “I didn’t know that. I live in Haleiwa.”

He knew where she lived. Not exactly, but the area. He wasn’t a stalker. But he knew they lived closer to each other than any of the other people on the team.

“I live in Laie.”

She nodded and looked out over the lawn. “It was completely senseless. If you know Joe, you know they have the video of the kid.”

He opened his mouth, but her phone rang with “Georgia on my Mind” ringtone. He smiled.

“I'm assuming that’s Charity?”

She nodded and turned on her mobile. “Been waiting on the ballistics. Hey, Charity, what do you have for me?”

He watched her expressive face. Graeme had an idea that Elle thought she was cool as an English cucumber, but he knew better. When things really got to her, it was easy to see how it affected her by her facial expressions. He watched as whatever Charity was saying hit home for Elle.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

More silence.

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t that I don’t believe in your abilities.”

More silence.

“Bloody hell, I promise never to ask again. I’ll be right in. I was just grabbing a bite to eat outside.”

Graeme noticed that Elle hadn’t eaten the sandwich, but he knew better than to say anything about it.

She clicked off her mobile.

“Got a lead on the bullet?” he asked.

Elle nodded, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Damn, she was beautiful when she smiled—something he shouldn’t be thinking about. He forced himself not to be drawn in by the twinkle in those green eyes, or the way her dimples showed when she smiled.

“Of course she got a hit, and it is linked to a crime from almost thirty years ago.”

B
UY
THE BOOK

* * *

C
harity Edwards stretched
her hands over her head and sighed. Taking Friday off had been a good idea. She had a lot of leave time, plus, her boss Del instituted a payback time policy. He believed they should take advantage of the slower times because there were periods that would have them working around the clock.

And this was definitely a slow time. It had been close to two full weeks since they’d had a case, and all of them were getting antsy. Task Force Hawaii handled high profile cases, and many ended up dragging on for weeks and involved several local, state, and federal departments. At the moment though, there was an eerie calm about their work. With each day that passed without a new case, the unnatural atmosphere worsened and all of them were on edge. None of them wanted to admit it, but it felt as if something was coming to get them.

She shook her head. Her mama always said she had an active imagination. Staying up late watching horror movies last night had been a bad idea.

Slipping out of bed, she decided to get some coffee and enjoy the morning views. After a quick trip to the bathroom, she made her way to the kitchen. She was a caffeine junky and needed it to be able to function. And not kill people. That was something that it helped with. After brewing a single cup, she headed out to her lanai.

She sipped her coffee and watched the busy traffic below. Then, she looked out toward the direction of Diamond Head. The sun was just starting to peek over the buildings, casting light and shadows on a city she was starting to adore.

Georgia was a far cry from her sixteenth floor apartment in Capitol Center in downtown Honolulu, or even the townhouse she’d had in Georgetown when she’d lived in DC. She missed what she had always thought of as home, but now, in less than a year, she had come to fall in love with the Hawaiian Islands, their customs and people.

Just thinking about Georgia made her think of her parents. An only child of only children, they had a small meddlesome family. Her mother liked to say that they all just knew each other better than most, Charity thought with a smile. She would give anything for one of her mother’s cinnamon rolls. Celeste Edwards knew how to make the most amazing sweets, and Charity had the hips to prove it.

“Morning,” Drew Franklin mumbled as he stepped out on the lanai.

She glanced at him. It had been six months since the shooting that almost took his life. He looked better, but he wasn’t truly fine. She knew that better than anyone. About a month ago, she’d made him move into her spare room. She had planned on making it her walk-in closet—and yes, she did have that many clothes—but she knew that Drew needed to live with her for a while. Otherwise, he would have stayed at his folks’ place and hidden from everyone. At least this way, she could force him out every now and then.

“Morning, champ.”

He sat down in the other chair and looked out at the city. He had always been one of the most positive people she had known. She could always count on him to cheer her up with an absurd joke or his observations on life. That is, until the shooting. Now, he was grumpy most of the time. Part of it was the pain, the other part of it was their teammate Cat. Their romance had withered after the shooting, and Charity wasn’t sure if they had actually talked since he’d left the hospital. She knew he hadn’t been back to work, so there was a good chance they hadn’t had a conversation.

Luke and Jess, her two cats, slunk out onto the lanai. She had grown up with dogs. Lots of them, and she loved them—along with most animals. But with her hours, and the fact that she lived in an apartment, she thought it best to stay with cats for the moment. Of course, they hated every single person on the face of the earth except her. That is, until Drew had moved in. They had taken to sleeping with him.

“Are you planning on heading out to your folks’ place today?”

He shrugged, as Luke jumped into Drew’s lap. Luke was a Himalayan she had rescued from behind her first apartment in Hawaii. He stared at her across the table with the most irritated look. Not to be ignored, Jess jumped into her lap and purred. Charity knew that she had been Jess’ second pick. The American short-haired/tiger mix stared at Drew, coveting him as she allowed Charity to pet her.

“I thought we could pop on by and see everyone. Get out. Get lunch somewhere since you won’t cook for me.”

He grunted. She hated that sound. And, at one time she let it go. He’d died twice on the operating table, and they had all handled him with kid gloves. She was thinking now might be time to take them off.

“Yes. We will go out.”

“I thought you said you took off to sleep in. You’re up earlier than you get up on a regular work day.”

“When I have to get up for work, I don’t want to get up. Don’t try to distract me. We’re going out today and have fun.”

He slunk down further in his chair. That was his only response. She could give him space, even let him be a pain in the ass for awhile. Acting like a sullen teenager was a little too much.

“No way out of it, Andrew Franklin. We are going out and you will get some sun. It will be good for you.”

Without waiting for his reply, she stood up and hurried off to get ready. The best thing her mama ever taught her was to just steamroll men. Don’t give them time to think. Men always created too many problems with they thought too much.

She grabbed another cup of coffee and headed off to her bedroom. Today was going to be a glorious day.

* * *

F
BI Agent TJ Callahan
was shutting down his computer as Freddy Santos came walking by his office. The California transplant had been TJ’s sponsor when he moved to Hawaii less than a year ago.

“Hey, Hammer. Boss wants to see you.”

Damn. This close to freedom. “Why?”

Freddy shrugged. “I was in his office and your old supervisor called in. Said he needed you right now.”

Fuck. He hated meetings. He especially hated to have anything to do with DC. He’d left a year ago, and he hadn’t regretted it one bit. But, overall, meetings sucked. They always took too long and were a lot of wasted time. They could accomplish what needed to be done in about half the time. TJ knew it was a bad thing to be called into the supervisor’s office on a Friday. They might be the FBI, but they were in Honolulu. Officially, they were still at work, but late on a Friday afternoon, the Aloha Friday spirit was alive and well—even in their office.

With regret, he watched many of his coworkers, including Santos, start to head to the elevators. Aloha Friday was definitely upon them, and the lucky bastards were getting a head start. TJ could almost taste the Longboard Ale he had chilling in his fridge at home. He closed his eyes and licked his lips.

“Callahan,” his boss bellowed from down the hall.

TJ opened his eyes and decided to pay the piper. The sooner he could get done with that, the sooner he could get to work at home. Since buying his house a few months ago, he had relished his weekends. No more eighty-hour work weeks for Agent Callahan. No way. Here, he left early on Fridays and spent his weekends surfing and refurbishing his house in Waimanalo.

Sighing, he stood and made his way to Agent Tsu’s office. Since TJ’s transfer, things had been easy. He did most of his work at his desk, where he was most comfortable. It was something he had insisted upon after the FUBAR in DC. His last assignment had gone south, and he’d been in the hospital for a week afterwards. He did not want to go through that again.

TJ stepped into Tsu’s office and saw his former boss on the big screen.

“Hey, Hammer. How’s it going?” Agent Remington said.

Remington was a hell of a guy, and had been a kick ass boss. He had been one of the first agents assigned to cyber terrorism back in the day. Working for him had been one of the highlights of TJ’s career so far. Unfortunately, it had brought about some very bad times as well.

Fifteen years older than TJ, Stan Remington showed his age in the fine wisps of grey littering his dark brown hair. But his face, hell, he looked like he had aged five years in the last year. Dark circles beneath his eyes accented the fine lines, and his skin now looked sallow. More than likely, he had slept in the office the night before…and the night before that.

“Why don’t you have a seat?” Agent Tsu, his present supervisor, said. “We have a situation.”

TJ got the itch on the back of his neck that told him trouble was just around the corner.

“And that would be?” he asked, as he took the other seat in front of the big screen.

“Seems like someone at Task Force Hawaii has been naughty,” Remington said. “There has been some...breaches of security in the last few months. Leads all the way back to their people.”

“What kind of breaches?”

“Nothing
that
big, until this past weekend. Seems someone was trying to access security codes to find operative names,” Remington said. “We caught it on time and we informed the operatives.”

“Location?” he asked.

“Far East.”

That didn’t sound good. Not good at all. Remington was being evasive, and that always meant he wanted TJ to do something that might not be kosher with the bosses—or TJ for that matter.

“So, you want me to question them?” he asked.

“No,” Tsu said. “We want you to be the liaison to TFH. They’ve been asking for one for months. This gives you the perfect cover.”

TJ glanced at the screen, then back to Tsu.

“One of the agreements of me taking this job was not to go undercover. Not after the last job.”

“It won’t be anything dangerous. In fact, we just want background. But, it is the first lead we’ve had on Foley in over a year.”

Ice danced over his nerve endings. Then, anticipation surged before he could control it.

“And you want me to put myself out there again.”

He’d requested the job in Hawaii. After the mess of Remington’s investigation, TJ had pressed to escape the political minefield of DC. All of the FBI was political, but there it was insane. He wanted to work in his office again, no more undercover. He might carry a sidearm, but he didn’t want to use it on a daily basis. He’d had enough of that last year.

“I wouldn’t ask if we didn’t need this. But we haven’t been able to get a hit on Foley until now. The fact that he appeared in your backyard is a good thing. Or, at least using someone in your backyard.”

Foley liked to do that. He would find a woman with expertise, or a young man who was looking for a father figure. They would do all the work, break all the laws, and Foley would disappear. Their thank you for the job was usually a bullet to the back of the head—or a lifetime in prison.

“You’re considered the expert on him,” TJ said.

“True, but it would be best if I don’t pop up there and cause a ruckus. You know if I do, he might disappear again,” Remington said.

“This way, you can at least get inside the building,” Tsu said. “They tend to keep to themselves unless it is required otherwise.”

“So we, as a federal agency, are going to play patty cake to try to find something out?”

It sounded like a shit job all the way around. Sure, he might find a lead on Foley, but they wouldn’t let him follow it. He would be ordered to hand it off to Remington.