THE blue and red lights of the police cruisers at Genie’s house caused a chill to run through Rafa. He pulled in behind one of the cruisers and quickly exited the car. He did a quick scan of the area. No ambulances. But that didn’t mean one hadn’t been there before he arrived. Had Genie been hurt? Rafa expelled a slow breath to calm his increasing heart rate. He didn’t know anything yet.
He darted up the driveway and burst through the front door. A couple of officers talking in the living room stopped when they saw him. “Where’s Genie?” Before they could answer, Genie rounded the corner with another officer. A hasty once-over told him she was unharmed, but why were officers here? He covered the distance between them in two long strides. She looked up at him when he touched her elbow and gently pulled her towards him. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m fine.” But her gaze wavered slightly. She thanked the officer and turned back to him.
“What happened?”
Genie let out a heavy breath. “When I arrived home, a neighbor was sitting on my front porch. She claimed something or someone was lurking around the property. Nothing seemed strange. All my doors and windows were secure, but then when I was inside, someone tried to break into my back door.”
“Tried?”
“Whoever it was left before I could identify him. A couple of officers are in the back, fingerprinting the door.” She moved past him toward the living room and the two officers. “Marks, Esposito. Did you two finish canvassing the neighborhood?” They sputtered and mumbled and Genie cut them off by holding up a hand. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get on it!” Both men rushed out of the house and Genie put a hand on her forehead. She drew it slowly down the side of her face, releasing a groan.
“Did your neighbor, by any chance, get a better look at the person?” Rafa asked.
She faced him again. Her eye caught something behind him and she began to head in that direction. Rafa closed his eyes in frustration. Couldn’t she see how worried he was about her? Breathing in a calming breath, he opened his eyes, pivoted, and followed her into the kitchen.
“Unfortunately, no, and I had just secured the back door and closed the blinds so I didn’t see anything either. I definitely heard the door being worked. Phelps, you got anything?” She squatted down to peer at the door handle he brushed.
Phelps grunted. He placed the latent fingerprint brush back into his kit. He frowned at Genie. “I’m thinking we aren’t going to get much here. Whoever was trying to break in smudged the prints pretty bad. It will be a miracle if I get a partial.” He pulled out tape and squinted at the doorknob.
“Hmm.” Genie’s brows scrunched together. “Well, do what you can to get me that partial. I want to catch the genius who thought he could break into my house.” She stood up and gave Rafa a determined look.
He crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing on the door. Genie was okay, he continued to tell himself. By the look on her face, if someone had crossed her path, she’d be the one left standing. But if the door had been unlocked… Rafa squelched the negative possibilities before they took on a mind of their own. He wouldn’t think about what could have happened to her alone, without him.
“What I can’t figure out is if this is connected to the case or not…”
Her thinking aloud brought his thoughts back to the present. Huera and Montenegro weren’t exactly amateurs. They knew how to pick a lock. An uncomfortable dread settled in his stomach. Even though Genie was capable, Rafa couldn’t picture her winning against those two. “Why do you say that?”
“Well, there have been a few home invasions in the area, but plenty of less-secure houses are in the neighborhood.” She shrugged. “What else could it be?”
“Who outside the department would know you’re on this case?”
Her eyes drifted upwards as she thought about the question. “Well, outside my family and my friend Audrey — they don’t know the particulars of the case, just it’s the most important one I’m working. So, essentially, no one.”
A funny look crossed her face and she refused to meet his eyes. Rafa’s brows came together in thought. Was she hiding something from him? “Are you sure? No one else knows?”
She cleared her throat and faced him. A flicker of impatience crossed her eyes. “I’m positive. How about you? Who have you told?” her tone half-accused.
“Other than my mother? And no details, of course.”
“Of course. Well then, if you didn’t tell, and I certainly didn’t, perhaps…”
Before she could mention the word “leak,” Rafa pulled her out of the kitchen to an adjoining hall, out of the earshot of the other officers. “Genie, I know where you’re headed and that's a serious accusation.” Investigations into officer misconduct never ended well. Once started, they’d overshadow their case and although officer misconduct was a grave offense, Springfield needed these murderers stopped, and that meant officers working the case.
Genie’s hands were on her hips. “Don’t you think I know that?” She did a quick glance over her shoulder at an officer who lingered in her living room, her eyes filled with both worry and skepticism.
“What about Franco?”
“What about him?”
“Do you think he might have let it slip?”
Genie half-snorted. “Franco’s a loudmouth, I’ll admit, but he wouldn’t be that stupid. He cares more about prestige than anything else. It'd be a major foul if this case tanked because he had leaked intimate details to someone wholly unconnected. No, he’d love to see me close the case so he can take his share of the credit.”
“Well, if a departmental leak is the theory we’re going on, then it’s probably best not to mention it in front of the other officers.”
She closed her eyes in resignation, and sighed. “I know. Perhaps I’m a bit hasty.” She cast a doubtful glance at the officers in her living room who were engaged in a lively conversation. “Maybe there isn’t a leak.”
“Maybe not.”
“Mmm-hmm. I’m sure of it. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Her eyes remained averted. The thought of her being the leak was preposterous. What worried him was it just might be probable. She had a competitive streak a mile wide. What if she saw an opportunity to solve the case on her own and disclosed information to someone she thought could help? “Maybe we should wait for the fingerprint results before we start questioning the department.”
Genie nodded. She turned a shoulder away and shuddered. The frown and the worry lines between her eyes marred the brave face she tried to put on to the rest of the officers. A powerful urge to draw her into his arms came over him, but he resisted. Instead, he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. She offered a brief emotionless smile in return and walked back toward the kitchen.
Rafa moved onto the porch. The night air cooled his face and calmed his nerves. He’d ask Genie about what she was hiding, but not in front of other officers. He didn’t want another fight and she’d give him one as soon as he confronted her. Rafa sighed, raking a hand through his hair. How could he ask her without sounding accusatory? Well, Phelps would be working on her kitchen door for a while so he had time to think. It troubled him that she was keeping something from him. He couldn’t imagine she’d conceal something that could help solve the case. If it meant a promotion?
A couple of officers walked up the path to the front door. “Anything else we should know about?” Rafa asked when they were near.
They shook their heads. The taller of the two spoke. “No, sir. We canvassed half the neighborhood and no one saw anything. Marks and Esposito are still out but they’ve radioed in the last two minutes with nothing to report.”
Rafa thanked the men and released them to handle other business.
Genie walked onto the porch. “Well, they were able to get a partial, but it will have to be run through the system and that could take time.”
“That’s positive news.”
“We might get a match.”
“Well, until there is, we
need to talk about protection.” He put his hands on his hips.
Genie scrunched her brows. “Protection?”
“For you.”
“For what?” she scoffed.
“Um, the break-in?” He couldn’t help the impatience in his tone.
“Rafael, there was an attempted break-in, not a real one. Two different things.”
“Eugenia, we have to assume the attempted break-in is connected to the case.”
“We don’t have any proof of that!”
Rafa sucked in a breath, gritting his teeth. “It was your idea.”
She put her hands on her hips. “And I’ve changed my mind.”
Her determined stare did nothing to break his resolve. “Proof or no proof, you still need protection. We aren’t dealing with some petty, high school gang here. If there’s a sliver of a chance the Snakes know you’re connected to the case, you could be a target.”
“So could you.” She arched a challenging brow.
Rafa took in the hands on her hips, the set jaw, and the obstinate look in her eyes. All at once the breath from his lungs drained and the thump of his heart slowed. Her lips moved but the sound of her voice was off in the distance somewhere, as were the closing doors of the cop cars in front of the house, and the voices of the officers in her home. He could count on one hand the number of civil conversations they’d had. All other times were spent making their way toward each other’s jugular. Genie seemed bent on being argumentative at every turn and Rafa couldn’t help but love it … and encourage it. “Do you look for ways to be bullheaded?”
That stopped her.
“Did you just hear what I said?”
Well, perhaps not.
“I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
Genie rolled her eyes. “Where were you, space?”
She also knew how to push his buttons with precision. “Genie,” he said slowly, hoping to draw her focus in. “Please. Your safety is…” His voice died. What did her safety mean to him? The image of her house surrounded by police cars flashed in his mind. Officers mulling about, crime-scene investigators dusting for prints… He once again felt the jolt of fear of her lying inside on the floor in a pool of her own blood, the wounds on her chest in the shape of a serpent.
“What?” She breathed, breaking through his grim thoughts.
He caught a brief trace of expectancy in her gaze, but it quickly vanished.
“Paramount.” He nearly choked the word out. To hear the truth verbalized stunned him. It seemed to stun her, too. Her eyes widened, and her lower lip dropped. The seconds ticked away as they stared at each other, neither wanting to break the spell.
Genie broke away first. “How ‘bout we compromise?” she whispered.
“Sure,” he swallowed. A “her way or no way” kind of woman, he was eager to hear her “compromise.”
She took a deep breath. “I’ll agree to protection, if and only if my life is in danger.”
So much for compromise. “That’s it?”
“That’s what I have to offer.”
“How ‘bout this.” Rafa crossed his arms over his chest. “I stick to you like glue.”