Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

him, her blue eyes searching his. ‘Do you think they took Ford? Bill or George?’ The way she asked let him know that she wasn’t sure anymore either.
    ‘I’m leaning toward no at the moment. I sure as hell want to know who Doug is.’
    She was still looking at him, still searching. ‘Have you told me everything?’
    Paige gave him a look, her black brows arched. Like, Don’t fuck this up, buddy .
    Which meant they’d learned something he hadn’t told them. Consorting with PIs was making this situation more difficult than it otherwise might have been. He pitied Grayson, always having to worry about what his fiancée was capable of digging up.
    No, I don’t . His brother had found what most people spent their whole lives looking for. The woman made just for him. The thought that maybe, just maybe the woman made for Joseph himself was staring up at him with blue eyes full of questions . . . Joseph wanted the questions gone, answered. He wanted to see trust. And other things.
    ‘No, I haven’t, but not because I don’t trust you. There are some aspects of the Zacharias crime scene I thought you’d be better off not knowing.’
    ‘Like?’
    Like Zacharias’s head was nearly severed from his body, which means that the person who took your son is capable of doing the same to him . But there was no way he’d tell her that. Even if it meant she never trusted him.
    ‘Like Zacharias was shot with a taser stolen from a cop who lives about thirty miles from Kimberly’s parents’ house in Philly.’ None of this surprised her, he could see. ‘Kimberly’s got a record for theft. You dealt her down. And her sister was reported missing last night. Tell me when I say something you don’t already know.’
    Trust crept into her eyes. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about the taser and Kimberly?’
    ‘Because if it was used on Zacharias, it was probably used on Ford and it’s not a pleasant experience. The Kim connection?’ He shrugged. ‘I wasn’t thinking about it. Any more than I was thinking about the guns in Bill’s trunk that were also stolen in that Philly burglary. That blood matching Zacharias’s type was found on the knife that stabbed Deputy Welch was information I didn’t have until after we’d hung up.’
    ‘Wait,’ Paige said briskly. ‘ Bill Millhouse had guns linked to the tasers at Tuzak’s crime scene and George Millhouse had the knife that was used to kill Tuzak and we’re still considering that they didn’t take Ford? What’s wrong with this picture?’
    ‘I said I was leaning toward no,’ Joseph said, irritated, ‘not that I’d decided. I’m checking every house that Richard Odum bought with Bill’s donation money. We are looking for Ford and that baby, whoever it belongs to. We’re digging into Kimberly, finding out if she connects to the Millhouses and how. I’m proceeding as if the Millhouses kidnapped Ford, okay?’
    Paige blinked at his sudden show of temper. ‘Okay.’
    Daphne tugged on his hand, reminding him he still held hers. ‘But?’
    ‘But the timing bothers me. The involvement of Kimberly bothers me. That text from the alley bothers me.’
    Daphne frowned. ‘I just figured they sent the text because they wanted to delay us looking for Ford. Buy themselves time. What bothers you about it?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ he said honestly. ‘Other than why they’d need to buy themselves time? They’d planned violence at the courthouse, either from within or without. Either way, they’d be kicking up a huge cloud of dust. So why try to hide that they’d taken Ford?’ Joseph’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. It was Bo. ‘You ready to roll?’
    ‘Just waiting for you.’
    ‘I’ll be there in two.’ Joseph hung up and squeezed Daphne’s hand. ‘No,’ he said when she opened her mouth. ‘You’ll just have to be angry with me, but you can’t go.’
    ‘I was going to say “Hurry”,’ she said.
    He made himself let go of her hand and took off through the halls at a run.

Chapter Ten
    Tuesday, December 3, 5.50 P.M.
    ‘ A nd be careful,’ Daphne murmured. She clasped her hands together, warming the one he hadn’t touched with the hand he’d held. Hurry . Please hurry . Please find him .
    Paige put an arm around her shoulders, urging her to a chair. ‘Breathe, honey.’
    Daphne’s knees gave out as she lowered herself into the chair. She pressed her folded hands to her lips, trying to quell the panic that rose in her throat, threatening to