Page 66 of Protected By Duval
She stood up and stepped away from the picnic table. “I’m… I’m going to call him right now.”
“Thank you.” West settled onto the end of the bench seat.
Katie came outside and greeted West warmly. She looked at Noelle, smiling. “Ciela is out like a light. I don’t think she’ll wake up until tomorrow morning she’s sleeping so well.”
Duval turned to look at Noelle and saw her smiling, her face lighter than it had been since West had started to talk about the missing woman.
“She’s either up and down or out like a light.”
Duval heard Patricia’s voice before he saw her. “If she’s sleeping that soundly now, she’s going to be a bear to get back to sleep later.” Patricia sat down and took a pen out of her purse. She looked up at West, gesturing at the paper in front of her. “Can I write down his number for you?”
West nodded. “Please.”
Patricia spoke as she wrote. “Eduardo Rodriguez. You can call him Eduardo or Edward. He answers to both. And…” she handed the paper back to West, “here. He’s happy to help you with the case.”
West thanked her. “I know I might have sounded like a hardass-”
Patricia shook her head. “I understand. Truly. I want you to find out who killed that young woman. I can’t imagine what they went through when she went missing.” She reached out a hand and touched Noelle’s shoulder. “I don’t even want to think about something like that happening…”
She shook herself and stopped talking as if she was tempting fate.
West shuffled the papers back together and put them in the envelope that he’d brought with him. “I better head out and get home. Tracy might just kick me out of bed if I’m gone much longer.”
He said his goodbyes and walked away around the corner of the house, disappearing into the dark beyond the outside lights.
Duval turned and saw Patricia yawning, obviously exhausted.
He opened his mouth to speak, but his mother beat him to it.
“Patricia? Ciela’s asleep, why don’t you stay over, too. We can have breakfast together in the morning.”
Patricia hesitated and Katie piped up.
“I can take Ciela out to the barn again tomorrow. She can see the cats and she can ride with me when I check the fence-line.”
Patricia smiled at that. “She does love that hat you got her. And the boots, too.”
Duval saw the joy in his mother’s eyes.
“You can take my room, Patricia.” He smiled at her. “I was going to head back to town tonight. I had to work in the afternoon.”
Patricia turned to Noelle. “Honey, do you need do something tomorrow morning?”
Duval could tell that Noelle was exhausted and likely in no condition to drive.
“I have some work I need to do for that children’s book for Mister Anatomy.” She yawned and tried to stretch her back. “If I stay here, I’ll probably oversleep.” She smiled at his mother. “There’s something soothing about this place.”
She didn’t know it, but she’d just etched her name into his mother’s heart.
“Sweetie, you’re exhausted and in no condition to drive,”
He felt Noelle tense beside him, but he did agree with his mother that Noelle shouldn’t drive. “We can leave your car here with your mom and she can bring Ciela home tomorrow. I’ll drive you home so you can get an early start.”
There was a moment when he felt like Noelle might argue with him.
He knew that he could be a bear when he was tired. He’d had some hard days on patrol when he hadn’t gotten enough sleep.
Whatever Noelle wanted to do, he’d make sure it happened.
