Manhunt

Eric huffed out a breath. “Okay, I get it.”

He should have, because Marshal Turner was technically their boss—Jonah’s boss. Two years from retirement, his gut hung over his belt and he spent his days in the office looking at pictures of yachts.

“I just want to ask if she’s seen or heard from her fugitive ex-boyfriend.”

As of a week ago, instead of being transferred to his permanent federal vacation in California, Farrell was now back on the 15 Most Wanted list. And worse, his escape made her miss breakfast the next morning with her daughter.

The security guard at the community’s gate frowned at their badges, but let them in. Was he going to call ahead and warn Princess Phelps they were coming? Hailey couldn’t do much about that, short of threatening him with her weapon. The security guard probably got paid more than she did, working in a neighborhood like this.

The streets were wide and free of cars, as if the residents had been threatened not to park there. The landscaping was immaculate, although waterlogged, since the rain was still falling steady. And yet, somehow not even a stray leaf was on the ground. It was eerie, unlike her homey neighborhood and the dated farmhouse she grew up in. Her roof leaked and the wind whistled through the upstairs hall, but at least her house wasn’t sterile and void of humanity like this place.

Hailey popped the trunk on her Honda and reached for her two pairs of cuffs, the extra magazines for her weapon, and her flashlight. Eric’s eyebrows rose under the bill of his government-issued baseball cap. Go team.

Hailey shook her head. “It’s just a precaution.” And more habit than necessity, even if it could be the difference between life and death. The extra supplies balanced out the professional weight of the star badge on her belt.

“I thought you weren’t worried about this. It isn’t a big thing, remember?”

Hailey rolled her eyes. Kerry liked to use that tone of voice when she needed to remind Hailey of something she’d said. It was like the kid was twelve going on twenty-five.

Eric’s lips twitched.

Hailey frowned at him. “You’re teasing me.”

He shrugged off his jacket and snapped his belt on below his Kevlar vest. “Only a little.”

“Must be a slow day.”

He laughed. The yellowing bruise on his neck from the beanbag round did nothing to mar his looks.

They both pulled on black jackets with US MARSHALS stenciled on the back, and Eric followed her through the ridiculous little gate in the white picket fence of Deirdre Phelps’s townhome.

Hailey unsnapped her gun and rested her hand on it. They were only there to ask Deirdre a few questions, but the possibility Farrell might be inside the residence couldn’t be ignored.

The walk sloped up to the front door, while the drive curved down to the garage, tucked away below ground level like it needed to be out of sight.

Hailey ignored the bell and hammered on the front door. “This is the US Marshals, Ms. Phelps. We need to speak with you.”

That would get the neighbors talking. Hailey would probably get into trouble for disturbing Princess Phelps’s life, but she just knew there was a connection between Deirdre and Farrell.

She pounded again. “Open the door, Ms. Phelps!”

The voice that came from behind the door was muffled, but high-pitched. “Go away.”

“Federal agents,” Eric called out. “Open the door.”

“No!” the female yelled. “I know my rights.”

She glanced at Eric, and they shared a grin. Why did no one ever worry about Hailey’s right to ask a simple question to someone who was clearly hiding something? That made her wonder again what secrets Eric was keeping, but there wasn’t time for that now.

Not to mention the last thing she needed in her life was another man who was going to hide stuff from her. Not when she was trying to keep life as simple as possible for her and her daughter.

Hailey banged on the door. “We just want to ask a few questions, Ms. Phelps. This won’t take long, and then you can go about your day.”

“I’ll go about my day when you leave me alone. This is police harassment!”

Hailey chuckled. “Open the door and tell me you don’t know where Steven Farrell is and we’ll be on our way.”

“No.”

Apparently Princess Phelps wasn’t interested in taking the easy way out. Hailey only had her suspicions. If Deirdre didn’t want to open the door and talk, there wasn’t much else she could do without probable cause and a warrant.

The neighbors probably loved the shouting match happening on their quiet little street, but this was pretty much the highlight of Hailey’s day. There was a rush to her work, a satisfaction in being part of an organization that brought down the worst of the worst criminals and put them away. Justice. Honor. She breathed these things. Her heart beat by them.

Hailey heard the ratchet of a shotgun.

Eric launched himself at her just before the front door exploded.

THREE

Raindrops hit Eric’s face. He blinked up at the gray sky and shot to his feet, his weapon already in his hand. “I’ll call it in.”

“There’s no time. He’ll get away.” Hailey hit the front step and Eric followed, their weapons angled down as they swept through the hall. Hailey probably wanted proof of Farrell’s presence, or Deirdre’s involvement, before they got reprimanded for going off on their own without informing anyone.

Eric hit the button on his Bluetooth and scanned the empty living room while he used voice dialing. “Duty phone.”

He saw Hailey react, but she kept her eyes on the room as they swept through it, clearing the designer luxury of the first floor, room by room.

“Deputy Marshal Ames.”

Eric didn’t hesitate. He lead straight in with, “Shots fired.” He gave the deputy marshal Deirdre’s address. “Backup requested at same address.”

“Farrell?”

“Possible location of escapee, but no sightings yet. House is not secure.” Eric ended the call. Most women didn’t pick a shotgun like that if they had the choice, though it wasn’t unheard of. He was guessing Farrell was here somewhere.

The throaty rev of a muscle car preceded a crash. Eric and Hailey both rushed to the front door. A black sports car roared up the short drive from the basement garage onto the street with a woman at the wheel. Where was Farrell?

“I’m guessing that was Deirdre.”

Hailey nodded. “We need to finish clearing the house. Then we can get a BOLO out on Deirdre. Farrell could still be in here.”

Eric followed her upstairs. The “be on the lookout” order was already out for Farrell, but if Deirdre knew where he was, finding her could be the quickest route to the escaped fugitive.

And yet, Hailey still wanted to find the fugitive all by herself. Of all the partners the task force could have assigned him, Eric was stuck with Hailey. She wasn’t the only marshal with something to prove, that was for sure. But couldn’t he have been paired up with someone who actually respected the rules? That must have been too much to ask for.

It just proved how far Eric had fallen. With his rank of inspector stripped, he was now a plain old deputy again, demoted through no fault of his own. Clinging to the bottom rung, he got routinely stepped on by the more senior members of the team on their way to the boss’s fancy coffeemaker. He was stuck with what they all saw as the weak link—the firecracker none of them had ever been able to bring in line. Why couldn’t she do what she was told?

Eric should have guessed when he saw her red hair. She wore it tied back all the time, like she was trying to tame her own nature, but little wisps of it always hung around the sides of her face. He supposed some might call her pretty, but he’d found her attitude eclipsed the understated way she dressed. Maybe she should work on toning down her personality.

The front bedroom was clear, as was the bathroom. Two toothbrushes were on the counter by the sink and the toilet seat was up. Hailey entered the rear bedroom first. A mattress on the floor in the corner looked to have been used recently.

The floor was covered with papers, photos and reports. All of their personnel files. Everything Farrell’s assault team needed to know about the four marshals who were supposed to have transferred him to that plane.

Hailey dug down and pulled out a map of the airfield. “They knew everything. Who we were, when we’d be there...all of it. Farrell has information on all of us.”

Eric shook his head. “Why would he still need it now? I figured he’d split town first thing, but he’s been staying here all week with this? Why?”

Hailey lifted a photo of a little girl and her whole body tightened. A picture of her daughter? The girl had Hailey’s green eyes and red hair. He knew from the guys she had a child.

Eric set his hand on her shoulder. “Easy.”

Hailey stepped away. “I’m fine.”

Eric sighed. She was going to pretend finding that here didn’t mean anything? “You’re allowed to have a reaction, Hailey. Take a minute, and when you’re good we’ll get back to work.”

“So I have a daughter. It doesn’t mean I need any special concessions.” She glanced out the window. “The team will be here in a minute. We should get downstairs.”

Thunder rumbled across the sky, reverberating in his chest like a bass guitar cranked up to ten. The day had suddenly flipped from work to personal.

All he wanted was to punch in, do his job, and then punch out at the end of the day. Not that going home to an empty apartment and all the stuff he hadn’t unpacked yet was all that great, but Eric didn’t much want to be chasing scum all day, running down outstanding warrants and hauling in criminals like some glorified trash collector, either.

The guys on the team thought they were so tough, going after criminals on a daily basis. And the crazy part was Hailey wanted to be exactly like them. As if being “one of the guys” was something to aspire to. Witness protection hadn’t just been a step up from this, career-wise—it had been a calling, and he’d loved every minute of it. Eric didn’t want to live in the past, but it was hard when he’d left behind so much.

Bye, bye dream job. Hello, hick town, Oregon.

He needed to succeed at fugitive apprehension, but he wasn’t going to sacrifice his heart and soul to do it. Not if he could help it. Eric couldn’t let it consume him the way WITSEC had.

It was too risky, because if it went wrong, he’d end up right back in those days after Sarah’s accident, when she didn’t want to see him because she thought he couldn’t love her anymore just because she was paralyzed. So she’d pushed him away, despite all his attempts to convince her he still loved her. Eventually Eric had been forced to face the fact she didn’t want him anymore.

He couldn’t let himself go there again. Not if he could help it. He just had to keep everything compartmentalized. Then there wouldn’t be any risk of getting in too deep.

Find Farrell, and keep his feelings out of it.

* * *

Hailey heard the sirens before the stream of cars tore around the corner onto Deirdre’s street and pulled up outside the house.

Hailey took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders as the pack of marshals climbed out of their cars into the rain. Their jackets and ball caps dampened fast, and she could barely distinguish the patter of rain from the stomp of boots up the front walk.

“Farrell might have been staying here since he escaped. We’re not sure.”

Jonah actually looked impressed for a second, like maybe Hailey had done something of note. The forty-something’s graying hair gave him a distinguished air, but she’d seen him cuff a four-hundred-pound biker without breaking a sweat.

The look of approval disappeared as fast as it had come when she told Jonah what they’d found.

“Not good.” His eyes darkened. “Looks like Princess Phelps has some explaining to do.”

Hailey nodded. This should have been a quick interview, a chance to bring new information to the team. Now someone—not Hailey—was going to have to tell Deirdre’s father she was wanted for questioning. For harboring a dangerous fugitive, no less.

Hailey checked her watch. One hour until Kerry caught the bus home and went to her dad’s for the weekend.

“Running late for something?”

She shot Parker a glance and scowled. “I’m focused. That’s how I found all this.”

Jonah stepped in front of her. “Parker, get upstairs and take a look.”

Hailey smirked, but Jonah turned and caught the look on her face. “They’re never going to warm to you if you don’t play nice.”

“It’s been four years since I joined the team. I figure if it hasn’t happened by now...”

Maybe their razzing her was their idea of respect. That was possible. But still, Hailey didn’t like double standards.

“Besides, why do I have to be the one that’s nice? Maybe they should go first.”

Jonah sighed. “Why does my job feel more like babysitting than federal law enforcement? And I’m not just talking about the criminals.”

Hailey opened her mouth, but Jonah lifted his hand, palm facing out. “Save it, Shelder. We’ll get the techs to go through all this. Find out who Deirdre and Farrell were working with.” Jonah folded his arms, his face completely neutral. “The BOLO will be updated to include Deirdre and her car. We’ll take this from here. You two head back to the office.”

Jonah wasn’t going to ream her for going off unsupervised? “What’s going on?”

“You want me to tell you that you did a good job?” Jonah asked.

“Might be nice.”

“That’s not going to happen. We all want to catch him, and you scored big with Deirdre and the files upstairs. Your actions versus the result, you barely broke even.”

“What?” Hailey couldn’t believe he thought she’d only done enough to outweigh her acting not exactly according to procedure. “But—”

“I get you want to catch Farrell, but this isn’t the way to do it. One of these days this jumping the gun is going to get you in serious trouble.”

Jonah ran a hand through his hair. “Once the team has finished processing the house we’ll run through what they’ve found.” He glanced at his watch. “How long until Kerry gets out of school?”

“You think Farrell’s going to come after my daughter this fast?” Some of the other guys on the task force had wives, kids. Would they be targeted, too? “Maybe we should put a detail on all the families. Just to be safe.”

Jonah folded his arms. “Look, we still don’t know if Farrell was injured last week or not. It depends if he’s already split town or if he’s sticking around to pay us back.”

“This is my lead, and it’s Charles’s weekend. Put someone on his house.”

Jonah strode away down the hall.

“Come on, Hailey.” Eric motioned to the front door.

Apparently Eric thought she’d done the wrong thing, too. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Together they stepped outside. The rain was falling in a steady stream. It felt like she was standing with her face against a sprinkler.

Hailey followed him to the curb, her drenched hair getting plastered to her head. “Jonah’s going to take all the credit.”

Eric looked back at her. Raindrops ran down his face. “You think?”

Hailey swiped the rain from her forehead. She should have grabbed a ball cap that morning. “Of course. That’s the only explanation for why he wants us out of here. Haven’t you learned anything? Jonah is going to make it look like I’m the victim and claim the lead for himself.”

“But Farrell will be off the streets. Isn’t that what we want?”

Hailey wanted to kick the gate. “That’s not the point...or not the whole point.”

“I thought our task force was a team.”

“That might have been in the brochure and all, but guys like Jonah only know one thing. Being top dog.”

Eric frowned. “Well, then, why do you stay if they treat you like this?”

“Why do you?”

“I’m trying to get my life back on track. And if you weren’t so contrary, I’d ask if we could help each other out.”

“Like allies?”

Eric’s lips curled into a smile. “A peace treaty. What do you say?”

Hailey opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say. No one had ever offered to stand with her before. She stood on the sidewalk with rain running into the collar of her jacket.

Why couldn’t she say yes? It shouldn’t be this difficult to accept a good offer from a fellow marshal. A marshal who had worked witness protection had to be trustworthy. Why shouldn’t they have a true partnership?

His offer touched something that had lain dormant for so many years. She’d almost forgotten that place in her existed.

His anticipation seemed to fall away. “Forget it. Let’s go.”

FOUR

Eric poured two coffees and set one in front of Hailey. She tapped a brisk rhythm on the edge of her desk with her pen. He was disappointed she hadn’t accepted his offer of partnership. Why couldn’t she see how much more they could achieve if they simply combined their efforts instead of butting heads all the time?

He typed his password in and brought up Deirdre Phelps’s cell phone records. She didn’t have a landline, but she did have internet service. He wanted to get his hands on her computer, check what websites she or Farrell had been looking at. He’d always loved computer forensics, and now that it played a bigger role in his work, he could add to the short tally of good things in his life.

The office’s double door beeped. A lanky man in an expensive suit pushed it open, and then shook out his umbrella on the entryway floor. His dark hair was shiny, either from the rain or from copious amounts of whatever he’d smeared in it to hold its expensive style.

Hailey lifted her head. “Great.”

Eric rolled his chair toward her desk. “Who is that?”

“His name is Charles Turpin. He’s the mayor.”

The mayor looked at Hailey behind her desk, but didn’t react the way people did when they saw someone they knew. Or someone they liked. Still, he came over, his Italian loafers clicking on the floor. “Hailey.”

Hailey kept her eyes on her paper, her back rigid. “Social visit?”

Eric turned to his computer and clicked on the next page of phone numbers. The digits blurred together, so he rubbed his eyes. He probably should have remembered to bring his reading glasses with him to work, since staring at a screen for more than fifteen minutes gave him a headache.

The mayor said, “I have a meeting with Marshal Turner about preparations, in case there’s any flooding over the next few days.”

Hailey’s eyes widened. “I thought the rain was dying down. It’s supposed to get worse?”

Charles motioned to the door to Turner’s office. “I should get to it.”

She nodded. “Any plans this weekend?”

Eric’s finger paused on his mouse. Were they dating? This Charles guy didn’t seem like the kind of man Hailey would be interested in, but there was clearly something between them. It just didn’t look like, whatever it was, was necessarily good.

Could this be her ex-husband? He’d heard through the grapevine that she was divorced from Kerry’s father. But, this guy? He couldn’t picture it. The mayor was way too suave, and Hailey was way too down-to-earth to fall for that.

“We’re going to dinner at Milton’s.”

“The steak place?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

“Kerry’s a vegetarian.”

“Since when?”

Eric looked up and saw Hailey shrug. “I figured she’d get sick of it after the first few weeks, but it’s been going on a month now. You didn’t know?”

“How am I supposed to know anything about that girl? She changes her mind as fast as the weather.”

Eric glanced at the window. It’d been raining steady for days.

Hailey’s exhale was controlled, like she was trying not to react. “Well, have a good weekend.”

“Thank you, Hailey.” Charles stepped away, but stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot. What with my meeting and all, I was going to have Beth-Ann pick up Kerry from the bus stop.”

Hailey’s entire body snapped taut at the name Beth-Ann.

“But Beth-Ann apparently has an appointment. You can get Kerry, can’t you? Bring her by my place around seven.”

“Charles.” Hailey took a breath, like she was trying to rein in her frustration. Eric had never seen her act this way. “I’m in the middle of a case. I need to focus. There’s an escaped federal fugitive out there who might be targeting us. And it’s your weekend.”

“I won’t be able to get away,” Charles said. Apparently unaffected, he strode off into Marshal Turner’s office.

Hailey stared at the door, even after it had closed.

Eric wasn’t sure which question to ask first. “I’m guessing it’s complicated.”

Hailey blinked and focused on him. When she saw he was amused, her eyes lit with a smile. “You don’t know the half of it.”

Eric chuckled. “Beth-Ann?”

Hailey rolled her eyes. “Charles’s new wife.”

Eric kept his expression straight. He had to handle this right or she would close off instead of opening up. “You and Charles were married?”

Her face shut down, as though she’d heard accusation in his voice. “Until seven years ago.”

“Joint custody?” She nodded, but he didn’t feel right leaving it at that. “Are you okay?”

Hailey studied him. “You’re not going to interrogate me for all the juicy details?”

“I figure if you want me to know then you’ll tell me.”

Eric was more than curious about what caused a vibrant woman like Hailey to marry suave Mr. Mayor. They did not fit together at all, which might explain the divorce, especially with Charles being remarried. Had he cheated on Hailey? Eric was glad he hadn’t been in town early enough to vote for the guy because he’d probably have volunteered to hand out flyers for his opponent.

No wonder she hadn’t accepted Eric’s partnership.

Hailey pulled open her top drawer and drew out a photo, which she handed to him. “That was a year ago.”

An older man who’d bequeathed Hailey a wide jaw and his nose sat with Hailey and a red-haired girl around a restaurant table. The same girl Eric had seen in the picture at Deirdre’s house. Hailey’s daughter.

“How old is she?”

“Kerry will be thirteen next month.”

Eric was thirty-two, which meant Hailey could easily be older than him, by at least a couple of years.

Her jaw flexed, and she answered his unspoken question. “I’m thirty-five.”

Eric hesitated, measuring his words. “High school sweethearts?”

Hailey’s face morphed into something that looked like pain. “We did get married because of Kerry, but we were in college. It wasn’t long before I realized Charles was only pretending he wanted to be there. He loves Kerry in his own way. It’s just me he wasn’t able to live with.”

“Did he cheat on you?”

Hailey brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen loose. “Let’s just get back to work, okay?”

Eric shrugged like his world wasn’t still spinning faster than normal. “Sure.”

He knew she and Kerry lived with her dad. The guys on the team had told him that much about her when they’d warned him about his new partner. Prickly was the word they’d used. That had been an understatement. Getting her to open up even a little bit felt like a victory, one he wasn’t going to take lightly.

No wonder she’d hesitated before, when he suggested they partner up. He hadn’t even thought Hailey might be concerned about whether she could trust him or not. It made him want to prove himself, to tell her about his life and his own family so she would know for sure she could rely on him.

Eric studied her, and she didn’t look away, so he turned in his chair to face her. “Thank you for sharing with me. You know I worked with WITSEC. That means I know a little something about keeping secrets. And finding someone you can trust with part of yourself is huge.”

She waved away his words. “Whatever. It’s not a big deal, Hanning.”