ToServeAndProtect (5 page)

“Shh,” Dawn cooed in a mothering manner. “Right now’s
not the time.” She wiped under McKenna’s eye with the pad of her thumb. “You
can do this.” She smiled half-heartedly. “Hey, you should be used to it..”

Her mother, her boyfriend, and now her father all
dead.
Oh yeah, just what she wanted to be used to
.

McKenna sat quietly on the hospital bed while Dawn
styled her hair into a knot at the nape of her neck. “I can’t do anything with
your face. Too many tears and scratches, you’re red all over.”

“At least the blood is gone.” McKenna picked up the
plastic bag labeled personal belongings.

“Leave it, Mickey. Walk out of here with your head
high but nothing else. You can’t let them see you as a victim, and you can’t
let them believe you had anything to do with what happened in Elliot’s
bedroom.”

Easy for Dawn to say. She hadn’t seen the remnants of
the massacre left behind. Until they were back at the house, she couldn’t
possibly understand, and McKenna was too tired to relive it again. The image of
blood spatters along the hall burned behind her eyes when she tried to sleep.
Yet, staying awake was worse. All she could think about was the scene, the
detective, and the confused, scared emotions swirling in her belly.

Once McKenna was ready, she walked out of the room
with Dawn at her side.

She stopped at the nurse’s station. “I’ll be leaving
now.”

“I’m not sure—” The nurse looked frantically around
for someone, probably a cop, to tell her what to do.

“Well, I’m sure. I feel fine, and I just want to go
home.” McKenna took a ballpoint pen from the cup on the counter. “Do you have
something for me to sign?” The nurse put a release form in front of her and
pushed the call button for the doctor on duty.

“If you’ll wait a minute, the doctor will be here.”

“You wait for him,” Dawn said testily. “We’re
leaving.” Dawn put her hand on McKenna’s back reminding her to stand straight
with her shoulders back. This was no time to look fragile and insecure.

She turned away from the counter and caught her
breath. The detective, who had been in her room only a few hours before, leaned
against the wall not more than a few feet from the nurse’s station.

Although Detective Pearce probably hadn’t had much
sleep either, he looked irritatingly at ease. Stubble along his jaw only caused
his cheeks to appear more chiseled and his lips subtly softer. Dark brown, a
bit long on top, his hair tapered in the back to his collar. With an easy
movement, he pushed away from the wall and sauntered toward her. He was
attractive, but that didn’t change how dangerous he was to her. “Are you ready
to take a ride to the station?”

Dawn stepped in front of McKenna like a mother bear
protecting her cub. “She told you she’d be there in the morning.” Dawn flipped
her feathery hair. “Her attorney will call your captain with a convenient time
for Ms. Porter. Until then, back off. You’re hovering like a vulture.”

Dustin couldn’t help but smile at the spunk Miss
Priss’s pal displayed. Her teeth dripped with venom, much more Tyson’s type. A
woman with that kind of temper collected trouble like trophies. With her around,
trying to gather information would be waste of time and it would be useless to
try any intimidation tactics on McKenna Porter, murderess.

“Tomorrow, at the station.”

Chapter
Four

McKenna sat in the front seat of Dawn’s car staring
blankly out the window. She didn’t want to return to her house. It had never
been filled with love and laughter, but it was the only home she’d ever known.

They approached the house. Yellow tape flapped in the
breeze. The delicate flowers that yesterday bloomed gloriously in the summer
sun now lay trampled and broken. The glass panels in the sturdy front security
door usually gleamed crystal clear, but reflected nothing beyond the smudged
greasy film left by the fingerprint dust.

“We don’t have to go in,” Dawn said with her hands
still resting on the steering wheel. “Mom wants you to come and stay at our
house. She’s worried.”

McKenna carefully pushed the door open with her
bandaged hands. “Not this time. Your family has always been there for me. I
probably would’ve turned out just like Elliot if it hadn’t been for you and
Scott…before he died.”

Dawn came around the car so McKenna could lean against
her until her legs steadied. “Scott failed you. He was selfish.” Dawn glared at
the dark sedan across the street. “Pigs,” she said disgustingly.

“They’re just doing their job.” She glanced at the
unmarked car. “Probably worried I’ll leave the country.”

“What do you think?” Dawn hollered at the two men in
the unmarked car. “Does she look dangerous? Go home! Leave her alone.” She
walked with McKenna into the house.

They both stopped and stared at the blood. Dawn was
the first to flinch but then walked over the spatters and stains as if nothing
was amiss.

McKenna sank into the leather loveseat in the great
room and lifted her feet onto the ottoman. “I’m scared. Detective Pearce
appears to be very capable. If this investigation goes too deep into my past
they’re going to find out about Scott. His family still blames me for his
death.”

The click of Dawn’s shoes against the hardwood
flooring echoed down the hall as she went to the kitchen. “Don’t go there,
Mickey.” She returned with a diet soda for each of them. “I’ve been thinking
about it. Everyone saw us leave the coffee shop together after yoga.” Dawn
popped the top of her soda and took a drink. “I dated a traffic cop. They’re
all the same, like sheep. Just lead them where you want them to go. If we want,
we’ll make them believe we were with each other the entire night.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you suggesting that
we went carousing all night? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Well, then, we’ll tell the cops we’re a couple.”

McKenna covered her mouth to keep soda from spraying
out her nose.

Dawn reached over, clasped their hands together, and
gently stroked the discoloring gauze wrapping her wounds. “Tell me what you did
after you left the yoga studio. Don’t leave out anything. You won’t be lying, I
will.”

“If you get caught, they’ll charge you with
interfering with an investigation or something.” She shook her head. “No, in
the morning I’ll go down to the station and speak with Detective Pearce.” If
she could keep her head together and not do something as stupid as stare at his
masculine face with chiseled features and his toned body built for getting the
bad guys. God, he thought she was one of the
bad guys
. She put a hand to
her forehead. Pain stabbed through her temples. The pressure seemed to build by
the minute.

“You can’t worry about me, Mickey. You need to think
of yourself—”

“I can’t worry about myself,” she interrupted. “I have
to look at the bigger picture. Someone was in this house. If they got to
Elliot, they can get to me. Go upstairs, Dawn, and look around. You could fill
a swimming pool with the blood. Someone was capable of doing that, and it
wasn’t me.”

“New plan,” Dawn said, the gears and wheels of her
mind clearly churning. “You play victim.” She stood and paced across the room.
“Don’t look at me like that. I know you hate to play games, but you do it so well.”

“I quit playing games when I killed my boyfriend!”

“Shut up! You didn’t kill him,” Dawn said impatiently.

“It amounts to the same. He’s dead, and it was my
fault.”

Dawn ignored her. “I’m thinking.” She rubbed her
forehead. “I still say we lie. What time did you get home?” She turned and
stood with her hands on her hips.

“We are not doing this. Look at me. I’m not a stupid
eighteen-year old girl afraid of her own shadow anymore.”

Dawn shook her head. “You didn’t learn anything from
Scott’s death. You want to believe the truth will set you free. It doesn’t.”

“I wasn’t there this time. No smoking gun. No motive.”
She laid her head against the back of the couch and covered her face with a
throw pillow.

“No motive? Instead of a suicide note, there’s a note hinting
at a
motive
.”

McKenna screamed into the pillow, muffling the sound.
“You win. I guess I got home about midnight. Might have been a little later.”

“Where the hell were you?” Dawn furrowed her brows.
“If I’d known you wanted to be out late, I would’ve jumped at the chance.”

“You had a date.” She shrugged. “Anyway, it grew late.
You know how I am. I listened to the concert for a while after you left. I
drove around then stopped for a diet soda.”

“Decision made. I’m going to the station and telling
them I was with you.” Dawn sat next to McKenna again. “You don’t know what
happened up there.” She pointed a finger at the ceiling. “I’m taking you home
with me unless you promise to play up to the detective.” She smiled. “It won’t
be difficult. He’s a hottie. Flirt, get his attention.”

“Oh, god. You’re warped.” She leaned back into the
couch cushions and rolled her eyes. “Now you want to set me up with the man who
thinks I killed my father.”

“Mickey, I’m scared, too. Obviously someone came into
this house without tripping the alarm. What if whoever did this didn’t get what
they wanted from Elliot? They could come back for you.” Tears slipped from
Dawn’s eyes.

With startling clarity, she recognized Dawn felt the
stress and fear as acutely as she did.  “I’m going to be fine. I didn’t kill my
father.”

“Please, let the detective get close enough to protect
you even if he believes he’s looking for evidence against you.”

McKenna groaned. As much as she wanted to believe this
was an awful dream she’d wake up from, the truth was that the nightmare was
just beginning. Dawn made good points and perhaps, at least for the short term,
she could buy some time with a few small lies.

“If this backfires, we’ll both end up in prison.” She
stood up. “Albert Wells has been Elliot’s attorney for years. He’s not a
defense attorney, but he’ll know who to recommend.”

Dawn sighed. “And in the meantime?”

“I make nice with the detective.”

“How nice?”

A flutter tickled her tummy. Damn good-looking men
with big weapons. “As nice as I need to be.”

* * * * *

The following day, Dustin sat at his desk with his
feet propped on the corner listening to Tyson describe in detail his date from
the previous night.

“When did you find time for a date?”

“Dustin, my friend, unless you’re dead or the equipment
is broken, there is always time for a little lovin’.”

“Don’t you think about anything besides sex?” Richard
Jasper slapped a manila folder on the table next to Dustin’s feet. “Initial
blood work results,” he said as an explanation as he walked past the desk
toward the captain’s office. Homicide wasn’t Jasper’s forte. He worked the gang
detail, but in a department the size of Olden, everyone’s cases overlapped.
They didn’t have big city budgets.

Tyson read over Dustin’s shoulder while they quickly
perused the findings in the file. “Interesting,” Tyson said.

And not what Dustin expected to read in the report.
What he hoped would be an open and shut case clearly had a few twist and turns.
He loved a challenging case, but this didn’t help McKenna Porter. Somewhere in
the back of his mind, where he didn’t want to acknowledge, he’d hoped for a
smoking gun…in someone else’s hand.

Tyson chuckled. “Our princess has some explaining to
do.”

“Yep.” Evidently, life in the Porter castle was not as
it appeared to the public.

“What time did her attorney say she’d be in?”

Dustin closed the file and tapped it on his chin.
Damn, he wanted to find evidence that proved McKenna innocent. She was scared.
He could see it in her eyes, but he’d also seen something else he found intriguing.
Something, that as the detective assigned to the Porter murder, he needed to
keep to himself or risk being taken off the case.

Dustin checked his watch. “She should be here any
minute.”

Walking away from Tyson, Dustin wondered if the
interview with McKenna would shed light on another possible suspect. He went
into the interrogation room to ensure the video surveillance worked properly.
The entire interview would be recorded. Most instances it became useful to use
a defendant’s own words against them.

Dustin’s captain poked his head into the room.
“Pearce?”

“Yeah?”

“My office.”

Dustin followed Captain Baird through the large room
littered with desks and filing cabinets. Telephones rang and scanners reported
activities underway in different parts of the community. Mostly domestic
disturbances, DUI’s, car accidents, and support for other public services like
the fire department.

Once in awhile there were crimes involving local
gangs. Olden boasted an impressive record of solved cases verses those left cold.
Dustin was determined to see this particular case to the end as well.