Jane Doe's Return (14 page)

He glanced at Shauna. Something didn’t add up. Whatever it was she hid, he figured it had to do with this case. He needed to get it from her without alienating her. He turned to see her looking out the window, deep in thought.

“I can hear you thinking over there. What’s up?” The truck jerked as he pulled up in front of his favorite little store.

“You’re not going to like this.”

“I don’t like rapists and murders much anyway.”

“The paper the note was on is the same paper that’s in my journals.” She shifted in the seat.

“Huh?” He blinked and then started again. “How can you be sure?”

“I’m not sure it’s from one of my journals, but

it’s the same brand. The lines, the colors, and the numbers all match. Even the perforation is doubled like mine.”

Travis slammed the truck back in gear, glanced over his shoulder and punched the gas pedal.

“What are you doing?” She touched his forearm.

“We’re going to go back to my place, collect all our stuff and head to the lake for the weekend. I need to talk with my buddy Jake. A fresh set of eyes might help.”

“I can’t go away with you for the weekend. What if we get called in or something?”

“Then it will be good that we are together.”

The drive to lake had been quiet, but that was okay with Travis. He’d been having crazy thoughts that Shauna might actually know where Jane Doe was hiding.

“Don’t your parents live down that road?” Shauna pointed as they passed Rockefeller Road.

“We’re going to Jake’s place first. I’d like to give him what we’ve got, that way, by Sunday, maybe he’ll have an angle on what we might have missed.” God, Travis hoped so. He had a sick feeling that the killings would just keep coming now. For some reason, the killer chose this time to get nervy. Hopefully, that meant he would get caught, and soon. Travis really didn’t want to see another dead body.

“Nice place,” Shauna commented.

He nodded, taking her arm as they headed down a pathway to Jake’s home. “Hey there, Katie.”

“Gumby!” Katie jumped from Lana’s arms and ran out the door toward them.

“Gumby?” Shauna lifted a brow.

“Don’t ask.” Travis picked Katie up and

twirled her around. “Does she even know my name?” He glanced from Katie to Lana. “Lana, this is my partner, Shauna Morgan. Shauna, this is Lana, Jake’s wife, and my cousin.” Travis kissed Lana’s cheek.

“Nice to meet you. Come on in. Jake’s in the family room with the twins.”

“I show ‘em, Mommy.” Katie tugged at Travis. “She’s pretty.” Katie winked. “Daddy say you need girfrend.”

“That’s enough, pumpkin.” Jake scooped up Katie. “Welcome to the nut house. This is Brent and Kyle.” Jake pointed to a playpen that housed two babies.

“Oh, my. They’re adorable.” Shauna leaned over the playpen.

Travis bent over and lifted one of the boys in his arms. “How old?”

“Three months now.” Jake put Katie down.

Travis blew raspberries on the baby’s belly, and the baby roared, laughing. The other one cried.

“Brent gets jealous. I gotcha, little buddy.” Jake lifted the other boy in his arms.

“May I?” Shauna stretched out her hands.

“Sure.” Jake handed her the baby, giving Travis an inquisitive glance.

She cooed with him, tickling the little boy making him belly laugh. She looked at Travis and smiled, then gave her attention back to the baby.

His heart jumped and tightened with a rush of an overwhelming sense of connectedness to her. It raged through his body and mind giving into ideas he thought he’d buried. Watching her with the little boy sent him down a path where he’d placed a roadblock. She made him want to knock it down.

He couldn’t take that fork and certainly not with her. Right now they were too good together as partners. She was smart and added things to his investigation that were invaluable in tracking down Jane Doe, which would lead him to his sister’s killer.

“Okay, who goes to bed first?” Lana asked, entering the room. “Looks like Brent made himself a friend.”

“He’s got good taste,” Jake commented.

“Just like his father.” Lana planted a wet kiss on her husband.

Travis cleared his throat.

“Get over yourself, Gumby Boy, and give me my baby back,” Lana teased. He gave Kyle a kiss and handed him to his mother.

“Can I help?” Shauna asked as the baby in her arms smiled and squealed in delight.

“If you want. But I’ll warn you, they can be stubborn mules, just like their father.”

“Oh, I can handle stubborn.” Shauna glanced at Travis.

“I bet you can.” Lana laughed, motioning Shauna toward the stairs.

“Nothing going on, my ass.” Jake nodded toward his office. “Thought I might have to lift your jaw up off the floor.”

“Knock it off, okay?” Travis cracked his neck, then sat in the chair across from a big old wooden desk. He dumped a file down in front of Jake.

“That bad?”

“I’d lose my job. I won’t risk it.”

“I think you already have.” Jake opened the file.

“Have not. I haven’t touched her.”

Jake’s eyes lifted from the paper he held in his hands. “I see.”

“Can we just focus on that file and not my love life?”

Jake dipped his eyes back to the paper. Silence filled the room. He just kept flipping through the file. “Looks like your killer’s getting antsy.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“You know him.”

“So he keeps telling me.” Travis stood and paced.

Jake pushed his chair back. “He knows you’ll be called, so he’s leaving you hints. I doubt he’s at the scene when you are, but he knows you’re coming. What I can’t figure out is how Shauna fits into this.”

“What are you thinking?” Travis made eye contact.

“I’m thinking he knows her, too. And I mean personally. I have nothing but my gut reaction, but it seems since you two started working together, he’s started playing games with you— both of you. That bothers the shit out of me.”

Jake hadn’t told him anything he wasn’t already thinking. But Jake’s opinion meant a lot to Travis and his validation took away the guilt that he had about checking out his partner. “Any info from Saratoga?”

“Just basic facts. Her parents are divorced. Father remarried. Town drunk. Brother disappeared. Believed to be involved in drugs. That’s about it for now. He’s still digging.”

Travis could hear Lana and Shauna coming toward the office, so he stopped talking. Thus far, all he had was validation that he was moving on the right track. That was enough for him.

Now to figure out how in God’s name he was going to spend the night in one of the most sensual places on earth, with the hottest woman on the planet, and not touch her.

****

A few hours later, Shauna sat on the front deck of Travis’s family home and stared at the sky. There were so many stars that the lake rippled with the bright glow, making the moon dance softly across the tiny waves as they gently crashed against the shoreline. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She could still smell the babies. God, she loved babies.

She opened her eyes in anger. Her rapist still had so much control over her life. Hate was too mild a word to describe her feelings for the monster who took away not only her innocence, but her womanhood. Her entire self. Her therapist had warned her about coming home and how her inner demons would resurface. It was important she pull back all the control and take charge. Live her life. The only problem, by coming back here and working with Travis, her life ended up back in the past. Or maybe she’d never really left.

“I hope you’re not thinking about me?” Travis pulled up a chair and sat down next to her, two beers in hand. “It’s been a long day, want one?”

She took the beer and swigged it. Swallowing hard, she held back a cough. It had been a long time since she had a beer. She forgot how bad it tasted, but she needed to relax. “Thanks.”

“I’ve got wine if you’d prefer.”

She turned to him. The moonlight hit his eyes and knocked her senseless. “Next time, tell me that before I start on this.” She held the beer up and studied him as he turned and sipped his beer. “You like kids, don’t you?” she asked, taking another sip of courage.

“What’s not to like about them?” He cracked his knuckles.

“I hate that.”

He did it again and smiled.

Damn
him
.
She smiled back. He was way too cute. “Want any? Kids, I mean.” She turned and felt her cheeks flush. Why would she get so personal with him? Personal was dangerous.

He took a sip of beer and seemed to ponder the question. “I did once.” His sip became a chug.

“What happened to change your mind?”

“My fiancée decided that the timing was off and had an abortion.” He tipped his beer and finished it.

“Without your knowledge?” She swung her feet to the side of the lounge chair, putting her elbows on her knees and resting her chin in her hands.

“Oh, she told me. But I couldn’t change her mind. She had this plan.” He tilted his chin. “We were supposed to get married when she finished law school, first kid two years after she made partner, then maybe a second two years after that, but she wasn’t sold on having more than one.” Travis tried not to laugh.

“You asked this woman to marry you?” Shauna’s voice went up an octave.

Travis batted her nose. “Nope.”

“Now I’m really confused.”

“The plan. It was all a part of her plan. I thought I loved her, so the plan seemed to be okay with me. I just thought when she got pregnant ‘The Plan’ would be adjusted. She didn’t.”

“Where’s she now?” Shauna looked down at her lap. Travis’s finger danced on her knee.

“Working as a lawyer in New York City. She married another lawyer, and I’m sure as soon as she makes partner, she might have a kid.”

“She’s a fool,” Shauna said.

“No fool. Her plan’s working just fine for her. I just wasn’t the right guy. Too bad for me I found that out too late.” Travis stood, placing his hands on the railing and looking out over the lake.

Shauna joined him, leaning slightly against his arm. “Because of her, you no longer want to have a family?”

“It’s not entirely her fault. Gina and I knew each other in high school. She knew my sister and I thought she understood my drive.” He rubbed his jaw. “I need to find Jane Doe.” He shot Shauna a cold stare that shocked her system. All the kindness he usually carried had been replaced with pure rage and anguish. She looked into the depths of a man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

“She holds the key. We need to flush her out.”

“Leave the ‘we’ out of it.” Her stomach churned with the beer hitting the back of her throat. “I know what it’s like to walk around and wonder if your attacker is following you, waiting for the right time to do it again. I won’t put her in that position.”
First lie,
she thought to herself.

“She’s already out there, and we have the power to protect her.” Travis’s voice changed. She hated it when he used the voice of reason without knowing the effect he had on her.

“She may not even be alive.” She wanted that to be true. Jane Doe had died for her the night she snuck away and went back to being Shauna Morgan. She touched his arm. “Even if she is alive, I understand her. I know what it is like to have the world push you to identify your rapist. I couldn’t. I closed my eyes and what little I did see, I have tucked so far back in my mind that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to remember everything.”

His hand rested against her cheek and he looked deep into her eyes. “Don’t you want to make sure that bastard pays for what he did to you?”

“For all I know, he has. He could be in jail right now.” She blinked. Now that was a big lie.

“And that’s good enough for you?”

“Of course not!” Rage coursed through her veins, igniting her vengeance. “I want the bastard to pay. I’d love to cut his balls off myself, but that’s not the point.”

Travis smiled. “What is the point?”

She opened her mouth just as the light bulb went on. She calmed herself a little and then spoke clearly, without anger. “This guy now has a name. He’s going make national headlines. If Jane Doe figures this is her attacker, she will either get scared and hide or come to us. I bet she comes to us, eventually.”

She studied him as he processed the information.

“I need another beer,” he muttered, opening the slider. In a flash, he closed it.

Shauna knew him well enough to know he would chew on that for a few and realize she had a point. Travis was a lot of things, but he never shot down a reasonable explanation. She won that small battle, but she knew there would be more.

Chapter Eight