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He helped her to the asphalt and threaded his fingers through hers. “We want information. That means we have to appear to have faith in local law enforcement.”

“I can act with the best of them, Noah. Let’s do this so we can start our own investigation.” She drew in a ragged breath. “I also need to see Cami,” she murmured.

“We’ll work on that, all right? First, though, we’ll see what the detectives know or will share.”

Violet scowled. “They won’t share anything with me.”

“Maybe not. But it’s not a problem. We have a secret weapon in our corner.”

“We do?”

“Think about it. Who can get any information if it’s on a computer?”

She relaxed. “Zane.”

“That’s right. We’ll get the information, Violet. If the local cops can’t get the job done, we will. For now, you need to play the long game.”

“Don’t make an enemy out of them.”

“You got it.” Noah bent and brushed his mouth over hers, as much to comfort Violet as to stake his claim in front of the cops watching them from the headquarters building.

He broke the kiss a moment later and wrapped his hand around hers. “Let’s do this.”

In the building's lobby, the desk sergeant stared at them with suspicion in his eyes. “Help you?” he said gruffly.

“We need to speak to the detectives in charge of Camilla Trevelyan’s case.”

“Name?”

“Noah Mann. This is Camilla’s sister, Violet Trevelyan. These are our friends, Grant and Rayne.”

The animosity in the sergeant’s eyes shifted to pity in the blink of an eye. “Sorry about your loss, ma’am,” he murmured.

“Thanks.” Violet squeezed Noah’s hand tighter.

“Take a seat. I’ll see if the detectives are in yet.”

Noah escorted Violet to plastic chairs lined up like soldiers against the wall. Although he’d love nothing more than to wrap his arms around his woman and comfort her, no way would he make Violet seem weak. Artemis’ medic was one of the strongest people he’d met, and that was saying something since he’d worked with the toughest Special Forces soldiers ever trained by the military.

Violet clamped down on his hand, the only sign of her distress. Outwardly, she appeared to be calm and in control.

A plain-clothes detective walked into the lobby and headed for the desk sergeant. After a short, low-voiced conversation, the man turned toward Noah and the others.

Noah and Grant stood and helped Violet and Rayne to their feet.

“I’m Detective John Ellis.” He held out his hand to Noah.

“Noah Mann. This is my girlfriend, Violet Trevelyan.”

“Yes,” the other man murmured. “The resemblance is remarkable.” He shook Violet’s hand. “I’m sorry about the loss of your sister, Ms. Trevelyan.”

Before she could respond, he introduced himself to Grant and Rayne. “The bullpen is crazy today. One of our interrogation rooms is empty, though. Let’s go sit in there so we can talk.”

Ellis led the couples through the bullpen and down a long hall to a door marked with the letter C. He opened the door and waved the rest of them through to a room with a wooden table and four chairs. “I’ll be right back,” he muttered. The detective returned a moment later with two more chairs. “Can I get you anything? Soft drink, coffee, water?”

“Bottled water for all of us,” Grant said. “Sealed. No offense intended.”

Ellis’ eyebrows shot up. “You think I’d drug you?”

“We don’t know who is involved in Camilla’s death. We’d rather not risk becoming victims ourselves.”

“This is a police station. We’re not the bad guys here.”

“Ellis,” Noah said. “Grant, Rayne, and I used to be on the job. We all left those jobs because of dirty cops. Although Violet grew up here, the rest of us are strangers in town and we don’t trust easily.”

The cop gave a curt nod. “Four bottles of water with the seals intact.” He left the interrogation room, returning with the water and his partner. “This is Caleb Freeman, my partner. Caleb, Noah Mann, Grant, and Rayne. And this is Violet Trevelyan.”

Freeman ignored all of them except Violet. He stared long and hard. “Holy cow,” he murmured. “It’s like looking into Camilla’s face.”

“You knew my sister?” Violet asked.

“Morrison isn’t that large. We all know one another.”

“And get into each other’s business.” She grimaced. “Believe me, I know. I couldn’t do anything in this town without someone burning up the phone wires to call Aunt Rosalie and tattle on me if it was something stupid or wrong. The funny thing is no one ever called to tell Aunt Rosalie about the smart decisions I made or the kind things I did to help someone out.”

“Take a seat,” Freeman said. “We have some questions for you.”

Noah seated Violet and sat beside her. Rayne sat on her other side with Grant flanking her. He glanced around the interrogation room and noted the red light glowing on the camera.

“When was the last time you talked to your sister, Ms. Trevelyan?” Freeman pulled a notebook from his pocket along with a pen.”

Noah covered her hand with his and squeezed. “None of us will answer questions until the camera is off.”

Ellis watched him for a moment. “Recording interviews is a standard operating procedure.”

“Turn it off or we walk.”

“Have something to hide?” Freeman snapped.

Noah said nothing.

The silence lengthened until the detective shifted position, then looked at his partner.

Ellis gave a slight chin lift.

After a hard glare at Noah, Freeman shoved back from the table and left the room. Less than a minute later, the red light was off. The detective stalked back into the interrogation room and dropped into this chair. “Satisfied, Mann?”

Ignoring Freeman’s surly attitude, Noah turned his attention to Ellis. “Ask your questions.”

“Ms. Trevelyan, when was the last time you talked to your sister?”

She hesitated a beat, then said, “Two weeks ago.”

“Did she seem upset about anything?”

Violet shook her head.

Freeman sighed and tossed his pen down on his notepad. “Look, we’re trying to find your sister’s killer. You holding back isn’t helping us find this guy. Don’t you want to know who took your twin sister from you?”

“Of course I do.” She glared at the detective.

“Then give us more to work with.”

“Detective Freeman, I can’t give you information I don’t have. I haven’t stepped foot in Morrison since I was eighteen years old.”

He frowned. “When did you last see your sister?”

“Two months ago. We met in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, when Cami was attending a conference with her boss. We spent several hours together.”

“Would you characterize your relationship as close?” Ellis asked.

“Yes.”

Freeman snorted. “Close? You said you haven’t stepped foot in Morrison in years. How close can you be when you won’t come home to see your family?”

“Stay on point,” Noah warned. He could see where this line of questioning was going, and it wasn’t good. “Violet isn’t a suspect in her sister’s murder.”

“How do you know that?” Ellis demanded. “You don’t know the time of death.”

Actually, he did, but Noah didn’t intend to throw Zane under the bus. “Violet was notified about Camilla’s death yesterday afternoon. Before that, we were in Mexico for more than a week. Unless your police department is slow to notify family, we were out of the country when Camilla was killed.”

“Mexico.” Ellis folded his arms across his chest. “You were on vacation and couldn’t be bothered to answer your sister’s phone calls, Ms. Trevelyan?”

“I wasn’t on vacation, Detective. I was working.”

His eyes narrowed. “Doing what?”

“One of you called my workplace. You know I work for Fortress Security.”

Freeman rolled his eyes. “As some kind of administrative assistant? Come on. You weren’t too busy to answer your sister’s phone calls. You just didn’t bother to answer. What kind of sister does that make you?”

“That’s enough,” Noah said, fury roiling in his gut. “Either get back on point or this interview is over.”

“What is your job, Ms. Trevelyan?” Ellis asked.

“I’m a medic.”

The detectives stared. “You’re an EMT for a security company?”

“I’m a paramedic.”

Freeman snorted. “So you slap Band-Aids on paper cuts? Come on. What legitimate security company needs an EMT for that?”

“I’m a paramedic for a black ops unit,” she said flatly.

The detectives stared again. “Black ops,” Ellis repeated. “Are you serious?”

“Why would I lie about something you can check?”

“All right. Let’s say I believe you. If you’re in black ops, then you’re well trained and could sneak in and out of Morrison with no one knowing. You could have slipped into town, killed your sister, and left again with no one knowing.”

“Why would I?” Violet countered. “I loved my sister. I would never hurt her.”

“She called you twice in the past four days. You didn’t answer.”

“I couldn’t. I was on a mission with my unit.”

“Can anyone verify your claim?”

“All of us can,” Noah said.

More silence, then, “You’re all in the same black ops unit?” Ellis asked.

“I’m in the same unit as Violet,” Rayne said. “Noah and Grant are in a different unit.”

Ellis shifted his gaze to Noah. “You said you all could verify Ms. Trevelyan’s whereabouts for the past week. How can that be possible if the two of you are in separate units?”

“We were assigned to the same mission.”

“What mission?” Freeman demanded.

“Rescuing a high-value target.”

“What target?”

“We can’t divulge the identity of our client.”

“How are we supposed to verify your story without details?”

“I’m going to reach for my phone in my cargo pocket.”

“Slow,” Ellis snapped.

Noah followed orders, then laid his phone on the table. “You want the information I gave you verified? This is the only way to do it.”

“Go ahead.”

He called Zane.

“Yeah, Murphy. What do you need, Noah?”

“You’re on speaker with my teammates and two detectives from the Morrison police. They want verification of our whereabouts for the past week.”

“Understood. Detectives, I’m Zane Murphy from Fortress Security. I’m the head of our communications and technology division. I can verify that Violet, Noah, Grant, and Rayne were in Mexico for over seven days and returned to US soil yesterday.”

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” demanded Freeman. “You could be some friend of Mann’s paid to answer a call. For all we know, you could be reading from a script he handed you.”

Silence, then, “Is he serious, Noah?”

“Unfortunately. The Morrison police aren’t enthusiastic about outsiders.”

The cops in question glared at him. Hey, he just called it like he saw it.

Ellis shifted his attention back to his phone’s screen. His eyes widened at whatever he’d read.

“Hold,” Zane said.

Seconds later, Brent Maddox said, “This better be good, Noah. I’m in the middle of a call with the president.”

He flinched. Yeah, not good. “Sorry, boss. You’re on speaker with my teammates and two detectives with the Morrison police, John Ellis and Caleb Freeman. Zane verified our location for the past week. The detectives aren’t convinced Zane is legitimate. They want another verification.”

“I see. Well, gentlemen, you’re out of luck. My name is Brent Maddox, and while I can verify that the four operatives in the room with you were in Mexico, I can’t be more specific than that. I can tell you they freed a hostage at significant risk to themselves. Other than that, you’ll have to take my word that they’re telling you the truth.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Ellis said.

“What?” Freeman shifted his glare to his partner.

“Thank you for your time, sir,” Ellis said.

“Anything else, Noah?” Brent asked.

“No, sir.”

“I want a report in six hours.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Maddox out.” The boss ended the call.

“What was that?” Freeman demanded of his partner. “How do we know that was legit? That guy might have been another friend who did Mann a favor.”

“It wasn’t. I know of Brent Maddox. Mann and the rest were in Mexico, like they claimed.”

“And you know this how?”

“Brent Maddox saved my brother’s life years ago when Harry was in the military. Believe me, I never forgot his name. If he says Ms. Trevelyan and her friends were in Mexico, then they were.”

“Well, nice to know we don’t have to do our jobs because the almighty Brent Maddox has done it for us,” Freeman said.

“Back on topic,” Noah reminded the detectives. “Clock’s ticking.”

“Got somewhere to be, Mann?”

“Yes. Get on with the questions, or I’ll assume you’re finished.”

“So, Ms. Trevelyan, you were in Mexico for the past week,” Ellis said.

“Please, call me Violet.”

“Violet, then. Your sister called you twice, but you didn’t answer the phone.”

Guilt and grief filled her eyes.

“Did she leave you a message?”

“She asked me to call her as soon as I could. She said she had something important to discuss with me.”

“Do you still have her messages?”

A slight nod from the medic.

“Play them for us, please.”

“I’m going to reach for my phone in my cargo pocket.”

Ellis nodded. “Go ahead.”

Like Noah, she laid her phone on the scarred wooden table and played the first of the messages.

A voice hauntingly similar to Violet’s said, “Vi, call me as soon as you can. I learned something I wanted to run by you. It’s not an emergency, okay? Be safe, whatever you’re doing. I love you.”

A tear streaked down Violet’s cheek. She brushed it away and played the second message. “You must be working. You should have told me you would be out of pocket, sis. Anyway, when you get a chance, please call me. I have to talk to you. Things are getting weird around here and I don’t know what to do. Wherever you are, please be careful. Remember that I love you, Violet.”

As her sister’s messages played, Violet covered her face with her hands.

Noah turned her into his embrace and held her while she cried.

Grant helped Rayne to her feet. He looked at the detectives. “Let’s give Noah and Violet a couple of minutes.”

In seconds, the room was empty except for Noah and Violet. He anchored her to him with one arm wrapped around her waist. His free hand cupped the back of her head, surrounding her with his body as much as possible.

Not knowing what else to do to help, Noah simply held her while she cried. He’d expected her to break at some point. Knowing his woman, though, she’d be aggravated about breaking down in front of the two detectives.

Minutes later, Violet sighed. “Sorry,” she said, voice raspy.

“Don’t. You’re allowed to grieve, sweetheart.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Noah.”

“That’s only fair, since I don’t know what I’d do without you. I don’t want to find out, either.”

She froze for a few seconds, then eased out of his arms to stare at him. “What does that mean?”

“Exactly what I said. I don’t lie unless it’s in the course of a job. You’re not a job to me and never have been.” He rested his forefinger against her lips. “We’ll talk more about this later. I have a feeling the detectives are eager to get on with their questions.”

“They know nothing.”

“Too early to tell.”

Her eyebrow rose. “You don’t have confidence in their ability to solve this murder.”

Not wanting to throw the detectives under the bus yet, he hedged. “They don’t see murders every day. This isn’t an enormous city. The detectives may have more experience than we know.”

“Not buying it, but you’re right. We need to finish the rest of this interview. We have other things to do today.”

He kissed her lightly and stood. Noah opened the door to the hallway. As he’d suspected, the detectives were waiting impatiently near the door. Grant and Rayne stood nearby. “She’s ready. Go easy.”

“She’s in black ops,” Freeman said. “She can handle whatever we dish out.”

“She could,” Noah agreed. “I won’t let you badger her. Ask your questions. We have another appointment this morning.”

“Pardon us for interrupting your busy schedule.”

“Enough,” Ellis murmured. He gestured toward the interrogation room. “Let’s resume our discussion.”

Noah returned to his seat, joined by their teammates.

Ellis closed the door and dropped into his seat across from the operatives. “Violet, did you talk to your sister after the messages she left you?”

She shook her head. “Our teams were in a hot zone. Once we rescued our principal, I treated her for a gunshot wound and monitored her throughout the flight to the US.”

Ellis’ gaze sharpened. “She was wounded during the rescue?”

“Yes.”

“Did you take her to a hospital?”

“We were in a hostile environment. Taking her to the hospital in Mexico would have put her life in jeopardy. She also would have been in danger of falling back into the enemy’s hands, so I treated her on the jet.”

“You’re only a paramedic,” Freeman said.

“I have more training than many doctors. However, I was in contact with one of our physicians throughout the flight.”

“This isn’t relevant,” Grant said. “Get back on topic, gentlemen.”

“So you were too busy to talk to your only sibling and now she’s dead,” Freeman said, a sneer on his face.

“That’s enough.” Noah stood, slammed his hands on the wooden tabletop, and leaned toward the detectives. “One more comment like that, and we’ll be out of here.”

Freeman’s face reddened. “You can’t….”

Ellis held up his hand to stop his partner’s response. “You’re right. We apologize. Please, take a seat and we’ll finish this interview so you can get on with the things you need to do.” When Noah sat again, Ellis said, “Violet, did Camilla’s message give you any idea what she wanted to talk about?”

She shook her head.

“Nothing in earlier conversations gave you a hint?”

Another head shake.

Ellis frowned. “Do you know anyone with a grievance against your sister?”

“Not really.” Her voice, though, said something different.

“Are you sure?”

Under the cover of the table, Noah wrapped his hand around Violet’s and squeezed. “Someone’s name popped into your head, perhaps more than one person. Who was it?”

Her gaze locked with his. “I’m being ridiculous. It can’t be true, Noah.”

“You’d be surprised what people you thought you knew can do. Give the detectives the names. If the people you name are innocent, the detectives will clear them and move on to the next person on the list.”

“No one will know you passed along a name for us to check out,” Ellis said.

Violet closed her eyes for a second and sighed. “She’ll know and blame me for besmirching her good name.”

Freeman straightened. “What’s her name?”

“Rosalie Trevelyan, my aunt.”

The detectives stared at her. “Do you really think your aunt could murder one of her nieces?” Freeman demanded.

“According to Aunt Rosalie, we’re the reason she could never enjoy the perfect life.”

“Your aunt and Camilla didn’t get along?”

“Not even close. Despite that, Cami was the good sister.” She gave a wry smile. “I was always the black sheep of the family.”

“Is that why you left town at eighteen without looking back and never returned?”

“Aunt Rosalie kicked both of us out of the house the day we turned 18. We hadn’t even finished high school yet. We had to scrimp to pay for an apartment during our last year of school. Both of us worked 30 hours a week to pay for our expenses and carried a full load at school, including several honors classes.”

“Where did you go after graduation?” Ellis asked.

“Boot camp.”

“Why didn’t you go to college?”

“Even with the scholarships, I couldn’t afford the tuition. The Army promised to help me pay for school and give me a chance to see the world.”

“Did you?” Freeman asked.

“If you count seeing cesspools as world travel, then, yes, I saw the world.”

“Do you regret your decision to join the military?” Ellis asked.

“Never. I love what I do, Detective Ellis. I found my calling as a medic. Joining the Army was the right decision for me.”

“Then why did you join Fortress Security?”

She tilted her head. “What does that have to do with finding my sister’s killer?”

“Curiosity on my part.”

“I deployed a lot during my military service, several times to war zones. I missed Cami and wanted to spend more time with her between deployments with Fortress.”

“Did that work out like you expected?”

Violet’s face lit up as she smiled. “Better than I expected. Every time I had a month off from deployments, Cami and I would spend a weekend together.”

“But not in Morrison.”

“No.”

“Do you believe your aunt could physically stab your sister to death?”

“I couldn’t say, as I haven’t seen her since I left town. However, she could have had someone else do the deed for her.”

Freeman snorted. “A murder for hire? Come on.”

“Who said money was involved?” she countered.

“Since you’re so determined to throw your aunt in jail, I have to wonder what else you’re capable of, Ms. Trevelyan.” Freeman stared at her. “The Army trained you well. No telling what Fortress Security has taught you. I’d say you’re capable of just about anything, even murdering your sister.”