Tracy Hayes, Apprentice PI

Chapter Seventeen

I swiveled around with a shriek, and shoved my phone forward as if it was the pepper spray. Good thing it wasn't, because Detective Lonny Peters, still dressed in his rumpled suit, would've got a face-full in that case. It would have served him right, though, frightening me like that.

"You're out late," he said.

My mind blank, I struggled to come up with anything sensible. "Are you working?" I eyed the entrance to the station with longing. Jarod was nowhere in sight. He must have gone down the steps while I was talking on the phone.

"No, just cruising. Do you need a lift home?" He indicated a large black SUV that was idling right next to us. Had it been there a moment earlier? Surely I would've noticed.

Then again, I had been talking on the phone.

"Thanks." I only barely managed to make it sound sincere. "But I've a friend waiting."

"He can come too."

Had he seen Jarod with me? The notion that he'd kept an eye on me made a shiver of fear run down my spine, or maybe it was his tone. I felt threatened by him. I don't know why when I had found him so jovial earlier, but I wasn't willing to get into his car, with or without Jarod.

"Really, we're good."

"I'm afraid I have to insist."

"You do?" I asked baffled. "What for?"

"So we can go get the dog."

"What dog?" At that moment I honestly couldn't remember, even though I'd just spent an hour searching for him.

"The one you found," he said with a smile that seemed more sinister than amused.

"We placed him into foster care." I was proud I could remember that detail with how sluggish my brain was.

"I know. And you're going to show me where."

He pulled out a gun from his pocket and pointed it at me. I'd never been held at gunpoint and couldn't quite fathom the gravity of the situation. It was as if I were in a movie all of a sudden.

"I don't know their address."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Honestly. I only started at the agency yesterday and don't know where Jackson placed him." Not entirely a lie, since I didn't know where Cheryl lived. "You'll have to ask him."

He stared at me for a pregnant moment. "Then we'll do that. Together." He opened the back door of the car and pointed with the gun for me to get in. Out of options, that's what I did, stumbling a little as I climbed to the high backseat.

We weren't alone in the car. Lonnie took the backseat with me, and in the driver's seat was Jonny Moreira. Seeing him drove in the seriousness of the situation much better than Lonnie's gun had.

"You're working for Craig Douglas?" I asked Lonnie, barely believing it. It hadn't even occurred to me.

"It's the only sensible option. He's going to rule the place, and anyone getting in his way is utterly foolish."

"And you're trying to get to his good graces by finding the dog?" It came out more mocking than I intended, but really it was absurd. The gun turned back to point at me.

"Just tell us where to find your boss."

A moment of panic seized my innards because I didn't know Jackson's address either, but then I remembered: "He's staying at the office because the door is broken."