Heavy Traffic Page 2

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Caroline stepped back again and bumped into the wall. Dammit, Peaches would be pissed if he ever heard about this. Being aware of her surroundings and not getting boxed in like this was self-defense 101.

  “Aww, come on, I—”

  “Hey. Don’t be that guy. She’s clearly not interested, man. Go find someone who is.” A new voice interrupted. Caroline glanced behind the drunken creep and immediately wondered if the guy had magic or was magic, and cursed her completely human inability to tell. He stood just a bit taller than the drunk, and wasn’t built like he spent all his non-drinking time in the gym. Most importantly, he was clear-eyed despite the drink in his hand.

  Another blink and she realized that the drink in the newcomer’s hand was actually the one that the frat boy had been waving in her face a moment ago.

  “Fuck off, man. This is a private convo… conver… chat between me and this chick.” Fratboy clearly wasn’t good at taking hints. Caroline rolled her eyes and moved, since the distraction also loosened his hold.

  “Now that I can reach into my pocket, I can also reach the very special taser my friend gave me. He works in a government lab, and well… last time I pulled this thing out it made the news and I had to spend a week filling out incident report paperwork.” It was true. She’d also been relegated to desk duty for two weeks while she recovered from the magical backlash of using the device to disrupt a major spell being cast at the time.

  She leaned closer to his ear. “He said I should definitely try it out again now that he’s made some… adjustments.” Caroline grinned at Fratboy’s blanching face. He spluttered some barely understandable excuses and stumbled back into the crowd. She sighed as she watched him go and hoped that he didn’t corner any other victims.

  “What an ass,” the newcomer said. “My name’s Lucas, by the way. You okay?” He held out a hand in introduction and Caroline hesitated a moment before she took it. His voice held something that wasn’t entirely clear to her, but there was no threat or danger in it. Just mild concern and general friendliness.

  “Caroline. Thanks for the assist.”

  “I can’t stand entitled jackasses, what can I say?” He smiled at her, then glanced at the cup in his hand with a grimace. “I think I’d rather find some water.”

  “Me, too. There’s actually a cooler on the back deck with bottles in it.” She’d been somewhat surprised by that thoughtfulness, but then she supposed that these Thursday Night Throwdowns had been going on for long enough that there were some vaguely responsible traditions. Either that or there was someone in this house, at least, who was sober enough to think of these things.

  “Well, shall we?” Lucas bowed slightly and grinned. “Pray, allow me to accompany you, m’lady.” He bowed and held out his arm with a goofy grin on his face.

  Caroline laughed. “But of course, good sir.” She took his arm and led the way back through the kitchen which was suspiciously sticky on pretty much every surface, and out through the back door to the deck. There were couples outside taking advantage of the darker and relatively more private yard, but the volume of the music dropped dramatically enough for make Caroline’s ears ring and it felt almost empty of life by comparison.

  “Well, now that I can hear literally anything other than that music and people shouting…” Lucas shook his head, trying to clear his own ears, apparently.

  Caroline dug into the cooler and handed Lucas a bottle of water before snagging one for herself, the icy water feeling pleasant after the overheated house. The deck was surprisingly roomy and reasonably well cared for, though the yard— what little she could see of it in the dark— was weedy and could probably use some attention from a lawnmower. Abandoned bottles and half-full cups sat on the railing and any other available surface, and Caroline sighed. This was so not her scene.

  “So, now that I’ve had a good look at you, you don’t look like a student.” Caroline glanced over him again, and sure. Superficially he fit right in. Loose jeans, a tight t-shirt under an unzipped college hoodie. His brown hair artfully messy and the grin on his face welcoming and flirty. It was the too-aware look in his eyes and the fact that he was as blatantly sober as she was herself that tipped her off. And there was an air of… something else that she couldn’t put her finger on. Watchfulness, maybe?

  “You got me,” Lucas said with a quiet laugh. “I’m here looking for my cousin.” Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The cousin part at least was a lie, but it was told so easily that even her odd talent for hearing extra layers of information in a person’s voice had a hard time hearing the untruth.

  “Your cousin.” She raised an eyebrow.

  “Okay, well, she’s technically not a relative at all, but my mom and her mom have been friends since they were in kindergarten so…” he shrugged and grinned through another complete fabrication. Interesting. “Anyway, she’s been calling her mom every couple of days since she moved into the dorms until last weekend, and apparently the local cops weren’t super helpful when auntie Louisa called, so she asked if I’d come track her down.”

  The familial connection was definitely a lie, even if her gift had a hard time picking it up. The missing girl and his concern for her, though, were completely genuine. And not in a creepy sort of way. Lucas was honestly concerned about this girl.

  “Is her name Janine?” Caroline blurted.

  Lucas blinked at her and raised his brows. “No. Sara.” He pulled his phone out and flipped through some photos. “Sara Jackson.” He showed her a picture of a pretty, petite girl glancing back over her shoulder to grin joyfully at the camera with her hair pulled up into a waterfall of braids from the crown of her head and an impish sparkle in her cocoa brown eyes.

  Two girls missing the same weekend…

  “Shit.”

  “I take it you haven’t seen her, then?” Lucas turned the phone to stare at the picture again before flicking the screen dark again and replacing it in his pocket. “And that something’s more wrong than I was starting to believe.”

  “No, I haven’t seen her but I’ll definitely keep my eyes peeled. Sara Jackson, you said?”

  “From North Carolina, yep. Her mom heard from her last Sunday morning, then nothing all week. They’re really close, so it’s unusual to say the least. Her roommate hasn’t seen her either, thought there was some kind of family emergency or something so she wasn’t there for a couple of days. Local hospitals haven’t seen her either. I heard about this giant party here tonight and was hoping I’d find someone who has seen her.”

  “Last weekend seems to have been a rough time to be out and about. And why the hell are we paying those cops’ salaries if they’re not going to actually do their jobs?” Caroline fumed. She snatched up a pair of abandoned beer bottles and dumped the contents over the railing into the bushes before storming over to the trash can and tossing them in to clank alarmingly against each other.

  “Shelly went to them last weekend, and I went this afternoon, and they all but laughed at the idea that they should be doing anything besides sitting on their asses.” She snatched another bottle and a plastic cup full of something pink, and they got the same treatment as the first bottles. She was vaguely aware of Lucas standing quietly to the side of the deck.

  “Now there’s another girl missing and even parents are getting the same shit? Ugh. I don’t know that I have any strings I can pull, but maybe I can tal to Point, because this is absolutely ridiculous. Just because there’s a Federal office here doesn’t mean that the local police don’t have to actually work at their jobs.”

  Lucas watched her storming back and forth while she ranted with raised brows and a faint smile, though she had to give him credit for not saying anything. She stopped and pointed a finger at him.

  “And now you’re stuck doing the same thing I am, doing their damn job for them! Oh man I know some people at work, and this is not going to go super well when I tell them, I’d bet,” she growled. If Darien and Greg ever heard so
me of what that desk sergeant had said to her that afternoon… Lucas threw his hands up in surrender and grinned.

  “Remind me never to get on your bad side for real,” he said.

  “Ugh.” Caroline tossed the last bottle into the can with a final crashing clink and blew a frustrated breath out. She turned to Lucas and glared. “I know some people in law enforcement. I’m studying law enforcement! Those jerks have a job to do and they’re more interested in playing solitaire on their computers! I have every right to be pissed.”

  “Hey, I’m with you on this. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be angry,” Lucas’ smile faded and his hands dropped to his side. “Maybe you should call your friends. If Sara isn’t the only one missing girl, then it seems like there’s more going on than just someone getting lost. Two girls missing in one weekend, in the same area, under similar circumstances? That feels more than simply unusual to me.”

  Caroline looked at him and saw the worry in his eyes that matched the concern in his voice. Whatever else his deal was, Lucas was worried about the missing girls and wanted them found.

  “Yeah. I planned to talk to them tomorrow anyway, but now…”

  “And…” Lucas frowned and looked over Caroline’s shoulder back into the house full of drunken, careless college students, and sighed. “Maybe you should let me walk you home. Just in case. Or maybe call someone to pick yo up and let me wait with you till your ride gets here.”

  Caroline glanced back into the party herself, then off to the gate at the side of the house, leading into the dark, quiet street, and a shiver of unease crept down her spine. Just because she could probably take care of herself didn’t mean she had to be arrogant about it. Then she turned to look speculatively at Lucas.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I think I will let you walk me back. You can tell me about yourself on the way.”

  3

  “Point, do you have a minute?” Caroline peeked in the doorway to Chief Point’s office. He sat ensconced in his specially designed office chair and growled at his computer before looking up. His face softened, which was always interesting for Caroline to think since the man looked like he was chiseled out of a cliff face to begin with. It was a bit like watching one gargoyle morph into a different one.

  “Sure thing, C. I could use an excuse to stop reading this incident report,” he said with a sigh. He reached for his coffee cup with one hand while the other rubbed over his head, trying to smooth back his short hair. “Remind me not to send Mitch out in the field with Leafa again, okay? Those two will either end up murdering each other or making babies and then I’d have them both out at the same time for either suspension or family leave. I love babies as much as the next troll, but jeez.”

  Caroline laughed. “I’m going to put money on babies if there’s a pool started. What happened?”

  “Without giving you details, I’m going to have to pay damages to the motel so that they can replace the lighting and security cameras in their parking lot, three room doors, and the swimming pool. ” Point drained his coffee in one long pull, then set the empty mug down with a sigh. “What can I do for you? How’s classes?”

  “They’re okay. They’ll probably be better once I get the boring freshman intro stuff out of the way.” She shrugged. Classes were easy and dull, and definitely not on her mind right now.

  “I can understand that. But having a good foundation of the basics is important to pretty much anything you ever want to do,” he said. He was getting his Kindly Uncle voice out, getting ready to give her some advice. It was something she’d learned about him right before she started her internship: he didn’t have a lot of actual relatives left, and so had adopted some people to treat accordingly. Caroline wasn’t sure if Point knew that she was his favorite niece in the office or not.

  “That’s true. I’m not entirely sure how some of it will relate in the future, but better to know it and not need it, right?” she said.

  “That’s very true.” Point nodded. “And you’ll be surprised where the need for a particular skill or nugget of knowledge pops up. Especially round here.”

  “Oh I bet.” She grinned and glanced out the windows to the bullpen for a second. “But today I’ve got a problem outside of classes and I need some advice.”

  “Oh yeah? Not sure how much help I can be with human social issues, kid, but I’m happy to listen. Wait. There’s no property damage, right?” Point grinned, flashing his needle-sharp teeth.

  “Um, not that I know of, but there are two missing girls,” she said. Point’s grin dropped and the crease between his eyebrows reappeared.

  “What do you mean, missing? Did they just run off for a few days with their boyfriends?”

  Caroline shook her head. “No. I know for a fact that one of the girls wasn’t seeing anyone and was far too cautious and shy to go anywhere without telling her best friend. That’s how I found out about this. I don’t know as much about the other girl, but her mother hasn’t heard from her in long enough that she called the police, for all the good that did her. I met her honorary cousin at a party where he was hoping to find some news of her. Neither of us were very successful.”

  Point’s eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. “Tell me what you know.”

  So she did. Everything that Caroline had herself seen of Shelly and Janine in classes, everything Shelly told her about going out to that party and then looking for her friend. The cops’ response to Shelly, and then to Caroline herself when they went looking for help. Then she repeated everything Lucas told her at the party the previous evening, and that’s when things went a little off her plan.

  “So, let me sum up a little,” Point rumbled, the favorite uncle tone gone from his voice and replaced by irritated federal agent. “You heard that one of your classmates was missing, and after the police were less than helpful in a way that will prompt me to make some phone calls at the very least, you decided that a good plan was to go to a wild party, without telling anyone, to investigate a possible kidnapping? Alone?”

  “Uh… yes?” There was no right answer here, she could tell. Well, no. There was a right answer, but she would hav to lie to his face, and that didn’t seem to be a smart choice. Might as well stick with the truth.

  Point picked up his phone and punched a couple of buttons. “Darien? Would you come to my office, please?” A moment of silence and he cradled the phone.

  “Um, I didn’t actually think that she’d been kidnapped or something until Lucas told me about his cousin,” Caroline said. “I mean, not by an actual criminal conspiracy style kidnappers or anything. I thought maybe it was more of a went for a walk with someone and got into trouble sort of thing.”

  “But you knew something was off about the situation. Your instincts are too good not to have been concerned about this mess.” The door opened behind her and then shut softly. “Your instincts and your relatively cool head in a crisis are two of the reasons you got this job in the first place, but since you got here you have also shown a disturbing disinclination for thinking things all the way through. So, instead of phoning me, or either of your partners, about girls going missing which would seem to me to be a first step sort of move, you went to a block-long bacchanalia where you discovered that you don’t like beer and that there’s more than one missing girl. And then you let a complete stranger walk you home. For safety.”

  Darien growled quietly from where he perched on the sofa. “What can I do, Point?” Well, there went her pleasant and peaceful workday.

  “You can keep an eye on Sam Spade over here, for one thing.” Point leveled a finger at Caroline and glared at her.

  “Come on, guys. When I went to the party last night, I didn’t know anyone but Janine was missing. She could just as easily have been hit by a car or something and ended up a Jane Doe in the hospital,” Caroline protested. “I was going to call around to emergency rooms again today if I didn’t hear anything last night, but Lucas’ friend is missing, too, so I thought…”

  Point ign
ored her and continued talking to Darien. “While you’re doing that, you can take her through our procedures for missing persons, and then she can show you the place that this— Janine Whittaker, was it? See where Janine disappeared from. And go talk to the friends. Did you get this Lucas’ phone number while you were flirting and putting yourself into unnecessary danger, at least?” Point cocked an eyebrow at her.

  “Um…” Caroline just wanted to sink into her chair. “Yes? We thought that maybe if one of us found our friend…”

  “Good. Call him and get as much information as you can. Now get out of here, I have some phone calls to make.”

  Caroline hurried out of Point’s office and made a beeline for the break room. She was going to need some coffee and maybe a few large slabs of chocolate to deal with the lectures she knew she was about to get.

  “So, do you want to fill me in on the details, Sunshine? Did I understand Point right? College girls are going missing and you go off alone with a random stranger?” Darien’s gaze drilled holes into her back. She pulled the candy bar from the vending machine’s slot and sighed as she straightened.

  “One of my classmates went missing last weekend. That’s the short version,” she said. “The long version is that there’s absolutely no reason for her to have run off on her own, seeing as how it almost took a pry bar to get her out of her room to socialize in the first place and she’s not super comfortable around people she doesn’t know. Her friend, Shelly, found her bag under a hedge and the cops made fun of her when she tried to report Janine as missing. Then they made fun of me when I went to talk to someone about it yesterday.”

  Darien glared, but stepped into the room and sat down while she fussed with the candy bar wrapper.

  “And the appropriate reaction to that, of course, was to go to a party. That makes sense,” he said. Caroline was pretty sure that anyone could hear the dry sarcasm in his voice. It wasn’t just special for her weird talent.

  “Well, I knew that some of the people she’d seen last weekend would be at the Thursday Night Throwdown, so I was going to try to ask around. If anyone had seen her this week, you know?” Caroline shrugged. “I didn’t know that another girl went missing last weekend until after Lucas scared off the creepy frat dude.”