In His Sights (2 page)

Not again, goddammit! I had this beat! What the fuck is wrong with me?

“Chris?”

Squinting up at Tonio, he realized the man had uncrossed his arms and was starting toward him in alarm. Pushing up from the bench, Chris stood, ignoring the sudden weakness in his legs and pasting on a cocky grin.

“Aww, you care. That's so sweet.”

“God, you're such a moron. I don't know why I bother.”

With that, Tonio gave up and strode for the door at the back leading to the showers. Stung, Chris watched him disappear into the other room and wondered why he and Tonio couldn't have the same relationship as Shane and his partner, Taylor Kayne. Shane and Taylor constantly traded barbs, gave each other no end of shit, but were as close as brothers.

Every time Chris tried to joke with Tonio, his attempt fell flatter than a pancake. The guy was strung tighter than a fucking banjo.

Yeah, and it didn't help that you mocked his concern. He knows something is wrong, and now he likely thinks his partner doesn't trust him.

With a sigh, Chris followed and headed to the showers. Tonio was standing in one of the stalls, only his bronzed upper body showing as he turned this way and that, rinsing off the soap. Chris took a stall next to him and made short work of cleaning up. By the time he was done, his partner was dried off and getting dressed by the lockers. Grabbing his towel, Chris dried off as well and then joined him, opening his own locker to retrieve his work clothes.

“I'm sorry,” he began. “I was an asshole.”

Tonio eyed him, and nodded. “Yeah, you were. But I get it.”

“Do you?”

The man's expression softened in understanding. “You're still not well, and you don't want anybody to guess. Am I right?”

“How do you
know
that?” he asked in
exasperation, pulling on his boxer briefs. “It's not like I've broadcast it.”

“You don't have to. You're my partner, Chris,” Tonio said earnestly. “I see more of you than even Shane does. He doesn't work by your side all day, so he doesn't see that you have little appetite and your energy is past gone by the end of shift. He's not always here at the gym to notice your workout gets slower every day. That yesterday you did twenty-five reps and today you only did fifteen.”

Chris blinked at him, heart sinking. “Damn. You're an observant son of a bitch.”

“Occupational hazard.” A hint of a smile was there and gone in a flash. “I get that you want to keep this quiet, but I'm your partner and the last person who should be in the dark when it comes to your health. The same applies to me keeping you in the loop, too.”

He looked away, guilt spearing his gut. “I
am
sorry. The last thing I want to do is put you or anyone else at risk on the job.”

“You won't, because I'm not going to let that happen. You're going to be honest with me and let me know before it gets that far.”

Blowing out a breath, he stared at the floor. What choice did he have? He'd just have to power through as long as possible. “All right. I will. But please don't say anything to anyone, including Shane.”

“I'm not going to lie to your cousin if he asks me point-blank.”

He knew Tonio wouldn't budge on this, so there was no point in arguing. “Fair enough.”

“Are you feeling well enough to work today?”

“Yes.”
But just barely.

“Good. Now let's get to the trenches, slacker.”

“Was that you
almost
making a joke?”

“In your dreams.”

From the man's tone, his mood was much improved by Chris's promise. As far as his stubborn partner was concerned, he'd spoken on the matter and that was it.

If only it was that simple.

They drove to the station separately, Chris arriving right after Tonio. They walked into the crowded briefing room and took seats next to each other, waiting for Rainey to get things rolling. All around them, their friends and colleagues on the day shift, including the two female officers, were laughing and joking, sipping coffee. Spirits were high today.

Shane and Taylor strolled in, the latter in the middle of telling Shane a story, apparently about Cara, his girlfriend.

“. . . and she says to me, ‘Do these jeans make my butt look fat?'”

“Uh-oh,” one of the guys interjected. “The loaded gun of all questions.”

Taylor nodded and gestured with one arm, almost sloshing his coffee. “Right? So I say, ‘They make your ass look like a ripe, juicy peach,' and she gets all pissed off and tells me peaches are fat! I said peaches are plump and sweet, but—”

“Plump?” Shane repeated, laughing. “Oh, man. Hope your couch is comfy.”

“I meant it in a
good
way! Who wants a skinny, shriveled-up peach?”

Chris laughed along with the guys, and even Tonio cracked a smile. The upbeat mood was almost enough to make him forget how awful he felt, and by the time the captain walked into the room, he figured he could make it.

“All right, people,” Rainey yelled over the noise. “Quiet down so we can get going.”

The first part was so boring Chris almost fell asleep listening to the captain drone on and on about quotas on traffic tickets and the city being up the chief's ass like a bad enema because the number of citations was down.

Blah, blah, blah.
Same shit, different day.

At the mention of the drug dog doing a sweep through a middle school and the high school, he perked up a bit. But while interesting, handling the K-9 unit wasn't his assignment and there were no plans as of yet to put someone undercover in the high school. Then the talk turned to something about the yearly presentation on Stranger Danger to the local first graders, so he drifted again and concentrated on deep breaths. Calming thoughts of the nearby Cumberland River, lazing around on the bank, anything to ease this damned headache—

“You good with that, Detective Ford?”

Blinking, he looked around and realized Rainey was speaking to him, not to Shane. He scrambled to save face. “You bet, Cap.”

“Great. Thanks for volunteering,” his superior said with a smirk. “You and Salvatore can pick up the suit from storage anytime.”

“Suit?” Crap, what the heck had he gotten himself into now?

Beside him, Tonio groaned. “I'm not wearing that smelly fucking thing—
you
are.”

Snickers sounded around the room, and Shane elbowed Taylor in the ribs, the two of them turning red from stifling their laughter.
Jerks
.

Austin strode forward with a folder in his hands and tossed it onto the table in front of Chris. “I don't care who wears it. Just follow the program and be at each school on time.”

With dread, he looked down at the folder and his worst suspicion was confirmed—smiling up at him was a cartoon rendering of Valor the Crime Dog wearing a police hat.

He and Tonio had just been stuck giving the one-hour Stranger Danger program for all of Sugarland's elementary schools.

“Fuck.” The others lost it, not even bothering to hide their laughter any longer, and their relief that they hadn't gotten the assignment this year. “You guys suck.”

Fantastic. Other than the fact that they got squirmy if they had to sit too long and had the attention span of mayflies, what he knew about little kids could fit onto the head of a pin. Oh, he loved kids; he just didn't know what to do with so many at one time.

Tonio grabbed the folder and opened it, peering at a typed sheet of paper inside. “We start next week, one school per week.”

“Like we don't have real jobs to do or anything,” he grumped.

“Come on, it won't be so bad. Besides, teaching people about crime and safety is part of our job—even if they're
small
people.”

“Thanks, Pollyanna. I'm sure it'll be a blast.”

“If you're done bitching, we'll continue.” The captain shuffled some papers on his podium. “Burglaries have risen dramatically in the last three months, most of them homes. I'm assigning Ford and Salvatore to look into these since they'll be out of the building a lot anyway.”

Beside him, Tonio spoke up. “Cap, why us? I mean, the responding officers usually follow up on those.”

“Good question, and you're right. Actually, they
have
followed up, and found these aren't typical burglaries. For one, there's been an entire string of them, not just one or two. Second, in the majority of these cases, little if anything was taken.”

Chris frowned. “Well, that's weird.”

“Yes, it is, and it raises a red flag. If the perps aren't breaking in to steal, then they're doing it for another reason. What that reason might be is what we need to find out.”

“We're on it,” Tonio said earnestly. “If there's a connection, we'll find it.”

“Good. Next, I want to point out . . .”

Chris resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his partner as Rainey droned on. Nobody was that much of a goody two-shoes. Except Tonio, apparently. He was about as much fun as a box of rocks. Jesus, what was this guy's damage?

Finally, the briefing was over and Chris went to see Rainey for a moment, taking the report from him that contained the names and addresses of the victims of the break-ins. Bracing himself for boring grunt work, he also had to admit it was better than wearing a dog costume.

“May as well get started talking to some of these folks,” Chris said to his partner as they left the room.

“I'll drive.”

He didn't argue. It didn't much matter to him who drove, and Tonio liked to be behind the wheel. He gri- maced inwardly, though, at the sight of his partner's serviceable 2010 Taurus sitting like a dark blob in the parking lot. Not everybody was into American muscle like Shane, Taylor, and himself, but damn. Even though nobody was getting rich on a cop's salary, surely the man could afford something less grandfatherly.

In a rare moment of common sense, Chris kept the thought to himself.

Sliding into the passenger's seat, he laid the crime dog folder and burglary list on the seat between them and buckled his seat belt.

“What's the first address?” Tonio asked.

He picked up the sheet and read it off. “Home belongs to George Fell. His was one of the earliest break-ins, almost three months ago. Honestly, I don't know what we're supposed to get out of investigating these.”

“That's why we're called
detectives
, Sherlock.” Tonio tossed him a rare grin. “We'll figure it out.”

“Ha-ha, smart-ass.”

“Better than being a dumb-ass.”

Chris was quiet for a minute, watching the town roll past his window. As was typical, he couldn't keep his mouth shut for long. “How's your mom and sister?”

Chris knew Tonio and Julian's family still lived in San Antonio and that their mother hadn't been happy that both of her sons had moved so far away.

“They're fine. Mamacita may come for a visit soon, but I don't know if Sis will come with her or not.”

“That's good. At least you can see your mom.”

“I suppose. I miss my mother, but she's a bit overwhelming.”

“I miss mine, too,” he replied before he thought the better of it.

“Why don't you invite her here?”

“She's dead. Cancer, when I was twelve.”

“Shit, I'm sorry.” His partner glanced over, his expression contrite.

“No, it's fine. I don't talk about it much. My dad's still alive, but we don't keep in touch.” He could feel his partner's unspoken question, so he decided to keep it simple. “He's an asshole. I don't know how Mom stood him as long as she did.”

“Ah.”

The rest of the ride was quiet, Tonio forgoing any more questions. Chris honestly wouldn't have minded answering, because that meant he could ask a few more of his own. It occurred to him that was probably why the man didn't probe further.

Ten minutes later, Tonio parked in front of a modest frame house and killed the engine. They got out and walked up to the front porch, and Chris knocked. After a few moments of silence, footsteps creaked on the other side of the door, then paused as though the person on the other side was peering out of the peephole.

The door opened slowly, and an older man's face appeared in the crack. “Can I help you?”

“Mr. Fell?” Chris inquired.

“That's me.” The man eyed them suspiciously.

Chris gestured to the shield clipped to his belt, and nodded. “I'm Detective Chris Ford, and this is my partner, Tonio Salvatore. May we come in for a few minutes?”

“Sure, I suppose,” the man said warily, then stepped back to allow them inside.

Once they were in, he tried to give the man a reassuring smile. “We're just here to follow up on the break-in you had a few months ago. There's been a rash of them since then, and we'd like to speak with you about what happened here, see if we can find any similarities.”

“Oh.” Fell scratched his balding head. “I haven't thought much about that in a while. My wife passed away about a month after the bastards broke in, and it just didn't seem that important anymore.”

“I'm very sorry for your loss,” he said sincerely. “If you prefer, we can come back some other time.”

“No, no. Might as well stay. There's not that much to tell anyhow.”

“All right, if you're sure.”

Tonio took a small notepad and pen from his pocket and got ready to write while Chris questioned the man.

“Mr. Fell, when did you first notice your home had been burglarized?”

“Oh, one morning after I'd been out running errands with my wife, I guess it was. No, it was afternoon, because we stopped and ate lunch before we came home.”

“Do you believe the break-in took place during that morning, or could it have been the previous night while you were both sleeping?”