Page 20 of Under Fire

She couldn’t help but remember what he had said about thinking Halifax was not guilty. How had he reached that thought? Then for a split second, she wondered if she had possibly misjudged Detective Connors, and that he was being fair in this investigation.

***

After Locke ended the call with Nyla Roker, he stood and stretched, thinking she was a woman who clearly loved Karl and cared more about his welfare than her own. Although she didn’t disclose her whereabouts, she said she was fine and had everything she needed. She indicated that after hearing her parents had filed a missing persons report with the police, she unblocked their numbers. She called to assure them she was fine and not to worry about her.

They got angry when she told them she wouldn’t break up with Karl, no matter what they were reading in the papers, because she believed he was innocent. When the exchange got heated, she ended the call by telling them she’d block their numbers again.

She sounded just as stressed and worried as Striker mentioned that Karl was. The thought of Nyla and Karl being together under the protection of a bodyguard now made sense. After talking it over with Shogun and Macayle, they agreed.

Locke left his office to head to the kitchen to grab a beer from the refrigerator. He paused, sniffed the air, and smiled at the arousing scent Hollis had left behind, and he liked the fragrance. When his cell phone rang, he pulled it out of his pocket. He knew it was Hollis, calling him from the special phone he had given her. “Yes, Hollis?”

“Just letting you know I was followed again.”

“What the hell! Where are you?”

“On my way home.”

“You’re leading them to your place?”

“Of course not. I led him to an area of town where the mall wasn’t totally abandoned.”

He rubbed the top of his head in agitation. “Him, who?”

“Detective Myron Connors.”

“Why was he following you?”

It took her less than fifteen minutes to tell him. It probably would have taken her less if he hadn’t kept interrupting with questions. “I think Detective Connors meant what he said about not fully believing that Karl Halifax is guilty, Locke.”

“Well, I don’t. My guess is that he only told you that to soften you up.”

“I’m not a woman who can easily be softened. I believe he’s realizing some things aren’t adding up.”

“Like what?”

“I’m not sure, but I intend to find out what they are through my own investigation.”

Locke nodded. He had gotten files from Carol on Connors and Tomlin, along with those on the police officers who had shown up at the warehouse that night, but hadn’t reviewed them yet. He had spent a lot of time today going through the documentation on Nyla Roker.

“I made a decision about something,” he then said.

“About what?”

He told Hollis he’d decided to put Karl and Nyla in the same location under one bodyguard.

“I thought they were together already,” she said.

“No. She’s at some unknown location that only Karl knows about. Her parents filed a missing persons report, and she talked to them today to assure them she was okay.”

Hollis didn’t say anything for a minute and then asked. “When did you talk to Nyla Roker, and how long ago did she talk to her parents?”

“I talked to her not long before you called, and I believe she had just finished talking to them before I called her. Why?”

She told him about the phone call Detective Connors had gotten from his partner, what he’d said, and how he had rushed off. “You don’t think Nyla Roker’s hiding place has been discovered, do you, Locke?” she asked.

“Hell, I hope not. If her parents were having that call tracked, why would they expose her location to the authorities?”

“They probably did it thinking they were saving her from further harm. I doubt they know the real danger doing so could place their daughter in,” Hollis replied.