All I've Ever Wanted - Adrianne Byrd [15]
Both men’s eyes darkened as they responded. “Keenan Lawrence.”
Scardino nodded in approval. “Find him.”
Dossman gave a mock salute before jumping up from his chair. “We’ll get right on it,” he said, and left the office.
Max started to follow his partner to the door, but stopped in the doorway, feeling a need to apologize for Dossman’s strange behavior.
Before he spoke, Scardino said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m used to Mike’s antics.” It was as if she’d read his mind.
The familiar manner in which she’d used Dossman’s nickname heightened Max’s curiosity about the pair, but he said nothing. He just smiled apologetically and shook his head.
When he returned to his desk, he retrieved the small plastic Ziploc bag containing the locket he’d found.
“I thought you were going to admit that into evidence?” Dossman said, plopping into the chair behind his own desk.
“It wasn’t exactly discovered in the crime-scene investigation.”
“But I thought you had a hunch that it’s connected?”
“I did…I do.” He threw his hands up. “I don’t know what I believe, actually. I think I’m still searching too hard on this one.” He tossed the bag back down onto his desk.
Dossman lifted his brows as he studied his partner. Then, leaning his weight forward, he reached for the bag. “Pretty,” he said, extracting the necklace. “It could belong to one of the promiscuous teenagers we’ve heard hang out in those woods.”
“I thought of that, too.”
Dossman opened the locket. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“What?”
“What do you mean ‘What’? Don’t you know who this is?”
Max frowned. “Should I?”
“Come here.” Dossman stood and gestured for his partner to follow.
Curious, Max did so.
When they reached the awards case, Dossman pointed to a plaque toward the back.
Max leaned closer, and then blinked in surprise as he noticed a duplicate of the picture encased in the locket he’d found. “‘Lieutenant Preston K. St. James,’” he read off the card beneath the photo. He smiled as he pulled his large frame erect. “I think it’s time to pay a little visit to the lieutenant’s daughter.”
Chapter 7
Wednesday, 7:45 p.m.
Kennedy sighed in relief when she arrived at her English class only to find that it had been canceled. Instead of being angry about having stayed up late working on her essay, she was grateful that she’d be able to crawl in bed early tonight.
As she waited at the bus stop, she couldn’t stop worrying about her missing locket. If it were found, could it be traced to her? The blade of anxiety plunged deeper into her heart. She swore under her breath, tired of running over the list of fatal possibilities and constantly looking over her shoulder.
The bus arrived and Kennedy forced the negative thoughts out of her head. As she reevaluated the situation she had to laugh at herself. The chances that anyone could trace the necklace to her were slim.
Max slid into the passenger seat of Dossman’s car and locked his seat belt one-handed. Neither partner said anything until they’d pulled out onto the main road.
“Are you all right, man?” Dossman finally asked.
Max instantly relaxed his features, convinced that his troubled thoughts had chiseled lines into his face that had given him away. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“That much I know.” He shrugged. “I just thought that maybe you wanted to talk about it. I mean, we are partners—right?”
Max thought about denying that anything was wrong, but one downside of being partners with someone is that they tend to really get to know you. “Jacinda.”
“Oh,” Dossman nodded as if he finally understood. “I’d forgotten about your court date. I take it that things didn’t go well?”
“No,” Max’s words were barely audible. He prided himself on controlling his emotions. That was something his mother had drummed into his head. “Men don’t cry. Never show your emotions. Whatever happens in the family stays in the family.”
When he’d been younger, the lessons had been hard to learn. But, as an adult, the controlled mask he often wore protected him from his stressful job