Harlequin Romantic Suspense April 2021 by Karen Whiddon (interesting books to read for teens TXT) 📕

a doorway to the pub. The time stamp on the video clicked by, minutes passing in seconds.

People came and went. A man exited the pub. The time was listed as 11:47 p.m.

“Stop,” said Luis.

“Can you back up the video and slow the frame?” Julia asked.

The desk clerk rewound the video and slowed the image as it replayed. The door opened and a man stepped out. His back was to the camera that was across the lobby. He had a similar build to Tom Dolan. Was it him? Luis couldn’t be sure.

Then the man looked toward the front desk, almost directly at the camera.

“It’s him,” Julia said, breathless. “It’s Tom.”

Tom Dolan stood in the lobby, swaying slightly, as he shifted from foot to foot. “He’s alone, though.”

“It looks like he’s waiting for something,” said Julia. “Or someone.”

She’d been right. The pub’s door opened a second time and a tall woman exited.

The woman’s head was down, a tumble of blond hair forming a curtain around her face. “Damn,” said Luis. “It looks like Darcy.”

“You can’t even see her face,” said Julia, her tone snappish.

“True,” said Luis. He watched as the couple walked through the lobby and disappeared from the camera’s view. “But the coloring and build are the same.”

“Does another camera pick them up anywhere else?” Julia asked.

“Let me see,” said Kate. After a few keystrokes, she brought up video from the hallway outside the room. Tom and the woman entered his hotel room and exited a few minutes later. He staggered as he walked, his pixelated face showing a vacant expression. His female companion appeared to be holding him up as they walked away.

“Look up. Look up. Look up,” Luis said, trying to coax the woman’s image.

She never did. He assumed that the woman was aware of the cameras in the hotel and how to avoid being caught on tape. The couple walked out of the camera’s view and disappeared. Luis hadn’t seen everything, but he’d seen enough to know that they had a problem.

One woman—namely, Darcy Owens—was in custody for committing several serial killings. Another murder had taken place, and the circumstances were eerily similar to what had occurred before. Beyond that, the description for both Darcy and Tom’s companion matched.

He held up his phone with the email address for Katarina, RMJ’s communications expert, on the screen. “Can you send all of the video to this address? Along with everything you recorded last night.”

“Sure thing.” Kate typed on the keyboard.

Luis turned to Julia. “This woman had to arrive sometime. Even if she avoided all the cameras, maybe we’ll get lucky and find a license plate for her car.”

“Done,” said Kate. “You can stay here and look through the videos as long as you want, but I have to get back to the front desk. If you need anything else, just holler.”

“Thanks for your help,” said Julia at the same moment her cell pinged with an incoming message. Glancing at the phone, she read the text. “It’s Chloe. She wants to meet at your office about Tom Dolan.”

Chloe Ryder was the DA for Pleasant Pines, and the person who’d hired RMJ to be a part of the Darcy Owens case.

He wasn’t surprised that Chloe knew about the case, yet the fact that she wanted to meet at RMJ’s office meant that the agency was about to be officially involved in this newest investigation.

He lived for moments when all the pieces of a puzzle came together to form a picture that was the truth. And Luis was the logical choice of operatives—after all, he’d spent years as a detective.

Rolling his shoulders back, Luis realized that he’d been absorbed in his own thoughts for too long. For her part, Julia didn’t seem to have noticed. After tapping a message into her phone, she glanced up. “Two deputies are on their way to dust Tom Dolan’s room for prints. At some point, all the guys who traveled with Tom have to be interviewed. That’s a lot of work for a small department. My guess is that Chloe wants RMJ to assist the sheriff’s office. We have this case but several other open investigations, so I’ll welcome the help.”

It’s what he’d already guessed, so nothing new. “When’s the meeting?”

“Everyone’s there now.”

He moved to the door. Julia remained where she stood.

“What’re you waiting for?”

She held up her phone. The contact information for Tom Dolan’s parents was on the screen. “You ever make one of these calls before?”

“Sure,” he said. During his years with the Denver PD, he’d contacted dozens of families about deceased loved ones. It was his least favorite part of the job. “They’re a gut punch, I’m not going to lie.”

“I guess that explains why I feel sick.” She paused. “I mean, I’ve lost people in combat, but it was never my job to tell the family. I only spoke to them after they knew.”

“Want some advice?”

“Not usually,” she said, giving him a small smile. “But this time, I’ll take it.”

“Be honest, professional and kind. That’s what I always tried to do.”

“Honest. Professional. Kind. I think I can pull it off.”

“Of course, you can,” he said, dropping his hand on her shoulder. “You want a minute?”

Julia inhaled deeply. After blowing out her breath in a single huff, she nodded. “Thanks.”

“I’ll wait in the lobby,” said Luis as he hooked his thumb toward the door.

He paused on the threshold, glancing once over his shoulder. Standing with her back to Luis, Julia had the phone pressed to her ear. “Mr. Dolan, my name is Julia McCloud. I’m the sheriff in Pleasant Pines, Wyoming. I’m afraid I have some terrible news.”

Stepping out of the room, Luis’s chest got tight as it expanded with pride for Julia and her demeanor. Back in the day, she’d been a hell of a soldier. Then, at RMJ, she’d been second to none. Now, she was proving to be a capable and compassionate sheriff.

In short, anything she touched turned to gold.

It was the exact opposite of Luis, who’d pissed away every opportunity