Unshakeable Pursuit (Christian Romantic Suspense)

Chapter 3a

Maylin had never met Detective Carter before, but the Sonoma police detective obviously knew Monica well. He cupped the younger woman's cheek. "Are you all right?" he asked in a gravelly voice.

"I'm fine, Horatio." Monica smiled at him. "I hope I didn't take you away from dinner with Aunt Becca."

"No, your aunt and I have dinner reservations at Lorianne's Cafe for tomorrow night, so I was working late tonight."

The officers who arrived with Detective Carter were more like the other Sonoma PD officers Maylin had dealt with when they came to the clinic, courteous and concerned. After they gave their statements to the officers, Detective Carter came to speak to them himself.

He had kind gray eyes under his thinning red hair that made her feel comfortable telling him everything that had happened. 

"Why were you all here at the clinic this late?" he asked them.

Geoffrey hesitated, then glanced at her as he had done before. This time, Maylin told him about the girl who had warned Geoffrey about the danger to him and herself. She also explained about looking for her on the video surveillance.

"I'll need to take a look at that." Detective Carter raised his eyebrows at Monica.

"Sure, I have the master key for the security room. I can get that for you."

"As far as we know, she's not involved with the two men," Geoffrey said. "She was trying to warn us against them. But if you discover something about her ..."

"I'll let you know." The detective sighed. "Your family seems to have a track record for getting in trouble."

"But Geoffrey's only a second cousin," Monica said with an innocent look.

"And there are two bullet holes in your clinic," the detective pointed out.

Monica and Geoffrey winced, looking at each other.

"The two men were the same ones who came to the clinic earlier this afternoon," Geoffrey said.

"This afternoon?" The detective obviously hadn't heard about it.

Geoffrey filled him in, mentioning how the officer hadn't seen the men running out of the clinic. As he listened, Detective Carter's mouth grew grim. "I'll talk to Officer Malcolm," he promised, making a note in his notebook.

"Why was he here? We didn't call for any police officers." Sometimes Geoffrey called the Sonoma PD if there was a chance the child they were caring for was in some sort of danger, but that hadn't happened very often.

Detective Carter's eyes grew harder than steel. "I heard rumors he's dating a nurse. He's been reprimanded before about doing personal business during his shift."

Geoffrey wondered briefly if Officer Malcolm's "personal business" had prevented him from seeing the two men fleeing the clinic.

He finished by telling him about what had happened this evening when the two men returned.

Detective Carter asked a few more questions, taking notes in his notebook. He gave his business card to Maylin and Geoffrey, then said, "I'll need your cell phone numbers in case I need to get in touch with you."

They gave the numbers to him. Geoffrey said, "We'll probably be sticking close to each other until this gets resolved."

"We will?" Maylin glared at him. Sebastian had been insistent on keeping her close, saying that he only wanted to protect her. There were some things about Geoffrey that were nothing like Sebastian, but she couldn't help reacting automatically, with suspicion and annoyance. It didn't help that Geoffrey was confident, like Sebastian.