Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Cactus Creek #3)(40)

“Of course. Understood. I’ll email you about the video analysis.”

“I don’t know how I can thank you, man. Again, you went above and beyond here.”

“No thanks needed. We were able to send three of our men home today, and gather new answers for two more families. Not a bad week’s work at all. You keep me updated, you hear?”

“Will do.”

After hanging up, he turned to see Lia standing beside the couch, breathing spaced evenly, fingers rubbing over the two rings on her necklace.

“Did they find his remains?” she asked in a wobbly, unreadable voice.

Christ, he couldn’t imagine what she was going through. “No, Leo wasn’t among the bodies found. Two sets of remains were ID’d via their dog tags and they determined that the third set belonged to someone older than Leo.”

She looked up at him and locked her gaze on his. “I saw the look on your face before you stopped taking notes earlier. What else did they find?”

“At one site, there was some inconclusive evidence of a possible capture.” The small gasp she couldn’t hold back ripped a jagged hole out of his heart. In recent years they’d seen how the reality of war time torture could be far worse than the imagination could conjure. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves with that one. There’s still a lot of investigation that needs to be done there.” He took a deep breath. “And actually, the last site has the evidence that we should be focusing on right now. There was positive evidence that a local woman may have provided aid to the soldier.”

Lia’s breathing stopped completely.

“Honey, it’s possible Leo survived...”

If she hadn’t already been sitting, Hudson had a strong suspicion Lia’s legs would’ve given out under her just then.

“And that’s not all. They also found a note, initialed with a letter L.” Unconsciously, he took a step toward her to try and comfort her. But her shuttered expression stopped him in his tracks. “I asked Clint to arrange a video forensic analysis online so you could view the letter—to see if it was from Leo.”

Suddenly, her apartment exploded in a symphony of sounds. Her cell phone started ringing in stereo with her landline. Her laptop began pinging like crazy with instant message and incoming email alerts. A string of musical beeps from her work cell alerted them to awaiting texts and tweets also.

The ringing of his cell phone was the last to join the bunch.

He hazarded a wild guess as to which of her brothers were calling. A glance at the caller ID confirmed it.

Phoenix Police Department

“Hi, Caine.”

“Is Lia okay?” The level of stricken concern in Caine’s voice told Hudson that Lia’s rigged watch probably didn’t activate the Spencer brother phone tree at this level of alarm very often. If ever.

Hudson gazed over and saw her talking calmly on her cell phone.

“She’s on the line with one of your brothers. Bottom line, she’s safe, just a little shaken. We just got some new evidence on Leo so she’s processing that right now. I know you’re worried but honestly, Drew can fill you in with what’s going on probably better than I can. I’m going to stay off the phone so I can be there for her. You good with that?”

A pause. Then: “Yeah, okay. I’ll call Drew right now. You tell Lia if she needs us, we’ll come right over.”

“Of course.”

“And Hudson?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks, man. I know this can’t be easy for you either.”

Try impossible. “I’ll be sure to update you guys if there are any new developments.”



*



TWO DAYS LATER, Lia was sitting on her living room couch as two blank online chat screens came to life on her flat screen TV, along with what looked like a view of a desktop computer in the background. Drew had walked them through hooking up her laptop to the TV so they’d be able to see the forensic video better.

Hudson hadn’t left her side the entire time.

“I called in sick,” he’d informed her yesterday with a shrug. “Since the last thing they want is for me to infect the entire cast with a rather explosive case of the stomach flu, they told me they’d switch a few scenes around so I could take off until today.”

That had almost succeeded in making her laugh.

All of a sudden, a pretty young woman appeared in one of the chat screens, next to the screen she was being projected in. Lia couldn’t place the woman, but she looked vaguely familiar.

The woman waved. “Hello? Can you see me too, or did I hook this up wrong?”

Lia smiled back. “No, I can see you. And hear you. So I think you wired everything correctly.”

The woman tilted her head. “You’re one of the wives of the five MIA, aren’t you?”

That’s where she’d seen the woman before. “Yes. I’m Lia. Private Lawson’s wife.”

“Sasha.” She waved again. “I’m Corporal Sheridan’s…ex-wife, I guess you could say. I’m still not sure myself.”

Drew was right, the TV screen was a hundred times better for viewing these videos. And as such, she could see that not only was there a wedding ring on Sasha’s left hand, but she was also clearly pregnant.