Stone Cold Heart (Tracers #13)(73)

“Yep.”

“So it’s a link to another crime,” she said, “but not a specific person.”

“Yep.”

Nolan sounded disappointed, and she knew he’d been hoping their unsub might have served time and be in the system already. It was a lot easier to find someone who had a track record with the police.

They walked to his pickup, which was even dustier than the last time she’d seen it. What had he been doing this week? She reached for the door before he could open it and slid inside.

His truck had a masculine smell that was becoming familiar, and she leaned back to enjoy it as he slid behind the wheel. He shot her a curious look as he backed out of the space. They exited the parking lot, and he turned east on the highway toward San Marcos.

He looked at her. “Where to?”

“Market Street and Elm,” she said. “I’m next door to the bakery.”

“The old paper factory.”

“You know it?”

“Yeah.”

Sara watched the scenery whisk by, feeling her tension drain as she got some distance between herself and work. She and Aaron had come in early and stayed late for the past three days.

“You want to tell me about it?” Nolan asked.

Sara looked at him.

“Whatever that deputy did to make you cry.”

“He didn’t make me cry.”

Nolan shot her a look.

“Okay, fine, I’m upset.” She sighed. “It’s this case we got yesterday. A child’s remains found wrapped in a blanket.”

“The Benson boy.”

“You know the case?”

He nodded.

She should have figured he’d know about it. “I did the autopsy last night. Based on my findings, we’re talking about a six-year-old who weighed thirty-four pounds at the time of death. He was forty inches tall.”

“Malnourished.”

She nodded, looking away as the tears welled up again. Children who aren’t loved don’t grow. It was a simple fact she’d learned from Underwood in the early days of her career.

“I’m sorry.”

She scoffed. “Why on earth are you sorry?”

“I hate that you have to see stuff like that.”

“You’ve seen it, too. I’m guessing that’s one reason you left Austin PD for a smaller town.”

“You see that stuff everywhere, which is why it sucks.” He cast a wary look at her. “And that’s not why I left APD.”

Silence settled over them as Sara studied his profile. She didn’t want to push, but she had the sudden urge to know. In some ways, they’d been as intimate as two people could be. In other ways, she felt like she hardly knew him.

“What happened there?” she asked. “You mentioned a ‘cloud of suspicion,’ but that doesn’t really tell me much.”

He was silent, and she figured she’d overstepped her bounds.

“I was with someone.” He cleared his throat. “Michelle. We were partners. Turned out she wasn’t the person I thought she was.”

“Partners as in—”

“We worked together. And later, after she transferred to Vice, we had a personal relationship, too. She got caught up in some stuff.” He shook his head. “I guess sometimes you never really know people.”

Sara watched his expression, trying to fill in the gaps. Had she taken bribes? Planted evidence? “What exactly—”

“There were some guys shaking down suspects while they were being collared for drug offenses. They had a ring going, you know, taking kickbacks to cut people loose. She got involved.”

Without asking, Sara knew with absolute certainty that he’d had no idea. His integrity was as much a part of him as his eye color.

“How did you find out?” she asked.

“Nathan. I didn’t believe him at first. We were at a bar when he told me, and I thought he was messing around. When I realized he was serious, I took a swing at him, damn near broke his nose.”

“You punched Nathan?” Sara tried to imagine it.

“Wasn’t much of a punch, but yeah.”

“Jeez, Nolan. And you’re still friends?” She recalled Alex’s words. Nolan’s a good guy. One of my favorite people. She’d said that about a man who had punched her husband at a bar.

“I apologized. We’re good now.”

Sara took a deep breath and blew it out. What an ordeal for him, both professionally and personally.

“Did you leave the department on bad terms?” she asked.

“Officially, no. It was never tied back to me, but there was still blowback. Some people had doubts, and I could feel it every time I came to work. I didn’t think I could be effective if even a handful of my coworkers didn’t have faith in me, so I made a move.”

“Are you glad?”

“Nothing about it makes me glad, really, but I think it’s for the better. I like what I’m doing now, I like being in a place where I know folks personally. It’s a smaller department, so I am able to have a bigger impact—that wasn’t just bullshit.” He glanced at her. “You asked me about this before, the night we went out for beers.”

That night seemed like ages ago now. So much had happened. They’d become friends, and more. Sara didn’t have a label for the more part, and she was too overwhelmed right now to think about it. She didn’t need one more iota of stress today.