Page 13 of Christmas Under Fire

The man’s gaze narrowed when he saw Brody standing in the middle of the room.

“I thought you two didn’t know each other.” His voice emerged flat.

Brody gave him a tight smile. “As I said before, I am a private investigator hired to find her. After we left the station, we talked, then I followed her home to make sure the area was safe because of the attack earlier.”

“Yeah, yeah. Who did you say was looking for her?” Green barked out.

“I hadn’t. But it was her paternal grandmother.”

“Your grandma?” Green turned his stern gaze on Jenna. “You didn’t keep in touch with her?”

Jenna stiffened at the insinuation. “I was adopted as a child. My birth family wanted to reconnect.”

Her lips pressed together. She didn’t like the direction this interrogation was moving.

Neither did he. Without even hearing what happened, he was focusing on the backstory instead of the main event.

It seemed like an hour before Officer Green changed topics. “Run me through what happened today.”

Jenna sighed. He couldn’t tell if it was relief or impatience. Probably a mixture of the two emotions. “After we left the police station, Brody and I went to a restaurant to discuss my grandmother.”

Did Officer Green hear the brief hesitation in her voice when she mentioned Claudia Ellis, her grandmother? He didn’t think so.

“Okay. Did anything significant happen there?” The officer asked, still focused on them.

“No. But when we left, we decided that Brody would follow me home. I was still shaken up about the attack at my office.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms.

Brody admired her skill. Not only did she conceal that he’d had to convince her to allow him to follow her home, she also did so without any lies.

“When we got here, he checked the rooms for me. Then I noticed my journal.” She explained what she’d seen. “Then I checked the rest of the rooms, but nothing else seemed out of place.”

Unexpectedly, Officer Green’s expression grew intent. “You’d never put anything on top of your Bible.”

She blinked. Brody’s jaw dropped before he recalled himself and snapped it shut.

“I wouldn’t.” She agreed. “Not ever.”

Officer Green shifted his gaze to Brody. “When you checked the rooms, did you touch anything? Move anything out of the way?”

Brody pulled the latex gloves from his pockets. “I wore these the entire time. I checked under tables and lampshades for any bugs or tapping devices.”

The officer rubbed his chin. “I’ll need to get a team in here. We’ll check for those sorts of things. I’m assuming you think he was here before he attacked, trying to find something. Maybe he attacked because he couldn’t find it. I don’t know, but I’ll need to get a team in to dust for prints and photograph the scene.”

“You won’t find any.” Brody had already decided that. “This guy was good enough to almost completely disguise his presence. He wouldn’t be so gauche as to leave prints.”

“Gauche.” Officer Green snorted. “Like those fancy words, do you? But I have to agree. Can you find somewhere else to stay tonight? Somewhere I can reach you easily?”

Jenna pressed her lips together.

Brody thought he understood. She wasn’t a woman who enjoyed being told what to do. He suspected she had more than a little steel in her soul.

However, she’d also been through a horrible experience. He’d give her grace and not judge her too harshly.

Finally, she spoke. “I plan to go to Illinois and meet my biological grandmother.”

“Now?” Skepticism dripped from the officer’s words.

She lifted her right shoulder. “Now’s as good a time as any. I have no family nearby and I can’t stay in my house while you investigate. And if there is someone after me, I don’t want to sit here making myself a target.”