On the Line (18 page)

“I understand,” Patrick replied with a nod.

Janelle motioned for the kids to come out of the house and say their goodbyes. Patrick
squatted to their level and gave them one of his charming
smiles, and Janelle smirked
fondly. With a grin like that, it wasn’t any wonder why every woman he worked with
fell at his feet.

Zoe threw her arms around his neck and planted a big kiss on his cheek. Patrick wrapped
an arm around her waist and pulled her little body closer to his in an enveloping
hug. Janelle’s heart skipped in her chest, and she felt a wistful tug as she pictured
Nathan in Patrick’s place.

She promptly shook that thought away.

When Zoe eventually released her prey, Patrick held his arms outstretched and looked
expectantly at Zach. Zach held his ground next to Janelle, pouting as he looked at
Patrick. Janelle put her hand on Zach’s shoulder and tried to nudge him closer.

“You said you wouldn’t go,” Zach said soulfully. “You promised.”

“Zach, I said I had no choice, but that I would be back as soon as possible.” Patrick
held his squat and waddled closer to Zach. “I told you there’s a difference between
acting and lying and what I do is act. I would never lie to you. I don’t lie to people
I love.”

“Do you love me?” Zach asked, his pout disappearing slightly.

“Of course I do,” Patrick replied softly. Zach inched closer until Patrick could
wrap his arms around him. “Can you promise me to be a good boy? Do what your mom
and your aunt ask you to do and don’t be afraid to tell Andrew what you’re thinking
and feeling, okay.”

Zach nodded as he laid his head on Patrick’s shoulder, and Janelle melted. Patrick
sounded so paternalistic and Janelle hated to admit that she was slightly surprised.

“Will you call me?” Zach’s muffled voice asked.

Patrick bobbed his head as he held Zach against him. “Absolutely. And if you want
to talk to me, just ask Aunt Kelsey to call.”

“Even if it’s every day?” Zach stood and looked Patrick in the face.

“Even if,” Patrick answered with a smile.

Zach’s shoulders lifted and fell with his sigh, and he lowered his head and backed
away. He and Zoe turned and went back into the house as Patrick rose to his feet.

“That’s sweet of you,” Janelle said when he was standing in front of her again.

“I was serious. If Zach wants to talk to me, call me. If it goes to voicemail
make
sure to leave a message and I will call as soon as I can,” Patrick said somberly
and looked at Kelsey. “Janelle, please keep me updated. I don’t know if I trust Kelsey
to tell me everything that happens. Especially if she thinks I won’t like it.” He
met Janelle’s gaze again. “She says she’s holding up well, but she’s still having
nightmares. And I know her leg is bothering her more than she’s letting on. If you
think she needs me, tell me and I’ll be here as soon as humanly possible.”

Janelle smiled. “You’re being a little dramatic, don’t you think?”

Patrick’s cheeks pinkened, and he looked down. “She’s the most important person to
me and I want her to be happy and healthy.” He shook his head as he lifted his gaze.
“I hate leaving her.”

Janelle gave him another quick hug. “Then I’ll let you say your goodbyes. Hurry
back.”

Patrick nodded as Janelle turned and went into the house to give the lovebirds privacy
for their farewells.

Twelve

Nathan left Captain Little’s office feeling more frustrated than when he had walked
in. He had hoped to have good news about the Internal Affairs investigation and better
news about the investigation into Richard’s death. He had only gotten bad news—on
both accounts. It seemed they weren’t even willing to start the IA investigation
until Richard’s case was closed. And they weren’t even approaching that point yet.

He didn’t understand why things were still dragging. Richard killed himself. Planned
or not, it was still suicide. No one needed to be blamed. No one else needed to be
held responsible. Bonner and Hayes were doing Richard’s family a disservice by not
ending their investigation. Especially when there was nothing to investigate.

Once again, that man was keeping Nathan and Janelle apart. Even from the grave, Richard
Wagoner was still a thorn in his side.

His head down, his thoughts elsewhere, he didn’t see Detective Bonner until it was
too late.

“Watch it, Harris,” the older man growled.

Nathan stopped and immediately pulled his shoulders up and stepped back. “Sorry,”
he said automatically. He went to step around the other man, but Bonner moved into
his path.

“Are you snooping around my investigation?” His lip curled in a sneer. “What’s wrong?
Don’t you trust me?”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed sharply on him. It never took long in Bonner’s presence for
Nathan to remember why he disliked the man so much. Aside from his bad breath and
slight body odor, Detective Bonner and Nathan had never hit it off.

Reginald Bonner had started his career as a police officer placed under
Nathan’s
father, Lieutenant John Harris’s, command. From the beginning, Bonner had never liked
the discipline his lieutenant demanded of his officers. Officer Bonner would always
do what was necessary, but not much else. His uniforms may have always been pristine,
his gun always well maintained, but when it came to investigations, he almost always
played in the gray area.

That’s what had gotten him in trouble with Lieutenant Harris.

Officer Bonner had been assigned to investigate a breaking and entering case that
would have assured his promotion to corporal. He’d done the legwork properly, collected
fingerprints and statements, and taken pictures of the scene. He’d also made assumptions
about who the guilty party was—namely, he’d suspected the homeowner of staging the
elaborate scene to collect from his insurance company.

All evidence pointed elsewhere, but Bonner hadn’t cared. When he went to Lieutenant
Harris with his findings, the lieutenant looked through the evidence and came to
a different conclusion. It had taken the senior Harris another six weeks to collect
more sufficient evidence and find the actual culprit. Because of his neglect in the
investigation, Officer Bonner had remained Officer Bonner.

When Nathan began on the force ten years later, two years after his father’s death,
Bonner had worked his way up to the rank of sergeant. He’d never forgotten John Harris’s
role in preventing him from moving up faster and had done everything he could to
make Nathan’s first few years on the force unpleasant. Eight years later, Nathan
was a newly minted sergeant and Bonner was ready to move up again. Together, they
were assigned to a homicide case.

From the beginning, Bonner had made his hypothesis clear to everyone working with
him. He’d learned to collect only the evidence that would point in the direction
he wanted it to go, to make sure he didn’t get caught fudging the facts again. Nathan,
on the other hand, had collected all evidence from the crime scene, taken pictures
of almost everything, and fingerprinted and talked to everyone. Nathan’s evidence
showed Bonner was wrong, but when he presented it to him, Bonner dismissed his findings
and arrested the person he’d suspected all along.

When Nathan and Bonner had to give their testimony to their superiors before the
prosecution could begin, they gave very different accounts. While
Bonner insisted
they had the right man behind bars, Nathan persisted in showing his evidence to the
contrary. The captain at the time looked at all of the evidence presented, agreed
with Nathan, and released their suspect. Bonner was reprimanded, his promotion denied,
and was told he would not be eligible for another promotion for five years.

That brought them to today.

“No, I’m not snooping around anything. I came in to speak to the captain about the
IA investigation,” Nathan answered coolly. He tried to step around the senior officer
again.

“Is that all?” Bonner, maintaining his grotesque sneer, stepped into Nathan’s path
again. “I would think you’d want to know how the Wagoner investigation is progressing.
Seems to me you’d be very interested in knowing how soon you can see the merry widow
again.”

Nathan’s blood warmed unpleasantly in his veins.

“I know you can’t see her until that case is closed,” Bonner stated. “And I know
you think I’m not always thorough in my investigations.” He leaned menacingly close
to Nathan. “So I’m making sure to be very exhaustive this time. I’m covering all
my bases before I reach any conclusion on this one.”

“I’m not sure I believe you,” Nathan said calmly. “You made it clear in your questioning
that you’ve already reached your conclusion.”

“Did I?” Bonner stepped back and narrowed his eyes. “You don’t think I’ve learned
my lesson? A man can change.”

“I think this is a pretty clear case. Richard shot himself, end of story,” Nathan
said and walked around Bonner. “Case closed.”

“I’m sure that’s what you’d like to think.”

Nathan froze.

“But I think you’re too personally invested in the outcome of this case to see the
evidence as clearly as I do.”

Nathan slowly turned again. “You never see anything clearly, Bonner. You always look
through the filter of your suspicions. You’ve willingly sent one innocent man to
jail because of your assumptions.” Nathan allowed a feral grin to stretch his lips.
“Are you going for two?”

Bonner’s face and broad forehead turned pink and his mouth opened and closed, but
no words came out. Nathan had his answer.

“A word of advice,” Nathan said as he took a step toward Bonner. “Quit
while you’re
ahead. You’ve already falsely arrested one man for murder, you should leave it at
that.” Nathan turned and walked away and could hear Bonner’s blustering behind him.

When he was outside of the building, Nathan had the strong urge to visit Janelle,
if for no other reason than to convince himself she was safe. He still wanted answers
from her, still needed to know why she’d kept his child from him and if he had a
place in his daughter’s life. He needed to know if they might have a chance at a
future. If she said yes, he had the sneaking suspicion that he’d wrap his arms around
her and never let her go.

But he had to wait for these investigations to be over.

He’d always thought of himself as a patient man, but this waiting thing was getting
old fast.

“Okay, Zach, would you like to play with your puppets today?” Andrew asked as he
followed Janelle and Zach into the room.

Janelle immediately took her seat as she tried to stifle a yawn. In one of their
early sessions, Andrew had suggested getting Zach back into a normal routine, which
included having him sleep in his own bed. Janelle had followed that suggestion, and
they’d been doing fine. But Zach had been having nightmares since the night Patrick
left and, as a result, had crawled into bed with her. Getting them both back to sleep
hadn’t been an easy task and had taken longer than she’d expected. In the last four
nights, she figured she’d only had about four hours of sleep each night.

She pulled her attention back to the moment and watched Andrew pull Zach’s special
tub off the shelf and set it on the floor in front of him. Zach immediately began
rummaging through the puppets and promptly found what he was looking for. He stood
and threw the puppet he held across the room then kicked the tub away.

“Zach,” Janelle said as she started to rise. Andrew, with his back to her, held his
hand out to stop her. She looked at the puppet on the floor between her and Zach
and gasped. It was Patrick’s superhero puppet. Her chest tightened as she looked
at her child.

Andrew strolled to the puppet and picked it up. “Has something
happened with Patrick?”
he asked as he walked toward Zach. He squatted down in front of Zach and held the
Patrick puppet up between them.

Zach nodded and pushed the puppet away.

“What was it?” Andrew cast a quick glance at Janelle and gave his head a slight shake.
She frowned but sat further back on the couch.

Zach was focusing on his feet, but his small voice reached Janelle anyway. “He left.
I asked him not to go, but he did anyway.”

“I see,” Andrew said calmly. “Is he coming back or has he gone away for good?”

Zach’s little shoulder lifted slightly. “He says he’s coming back. But Grandma says
he won’t. She says he’ll leave Aunt Kelsey and find someone better.”

Janelle’s heart ached to hear her mother’s cruel words repeated so innocently. Tears
stung her eyes and she couldn’t watch.

“Is that so?” Andrew asked casually. “Well, what does Patrick say about that?”

“He says he loves Aunt Kelsey and he’s coming home as soon as he can,” Zach muttered.

“Zach, who has a better idea of what Patrick will do? Patrick or Grandma?”

Zach mumbled something Janelle couldn’t understand and she cast her eyes in their
direction again. Andrew was staring at Zach, his face full of patience and concern.
“Patrick?” Zach finally answered.