Page 46 of Storm Warning

While he studied the screens, Andre considered who in his past life as a cop might try to locate him. Chances were excellent the searcher wasn’t looking for Andre to thank him. Might be a good time to go through his own personal files of threats from his law enforcement days.

He grimaced. He’d taken plenty of unhappy criminals off the streets. So which man or woman hated him enough to hunt him down and exact revenge? “Will you watch the screens for a minute? I need my laptop.”

“No problem.”

Andre pushed back from the table and dashed upstairs to his room. He grabbed his laptop and returned to the security room. “Any trouble?”

“Oh, yeah. We were under attack from a family of raccoons. You missed all the excitement.”

He chuckled and booted up his laptop. “We’ll have to stay on our toes with those critters around. Otherwise, they’ll make a mess digging through the trash.”

“The hamburgers attracted them to the cabin. You and Elias did a great job with them.”

“I’m glad you liked them because my repertoire of food is limited to hamburgers, chicken, and steaks. I can grill a mean potato. Other than that, I’m hopeless as a chef.”

Riley laughed. “I’ll make a note of that if we have another meal together that you volunteer to cook.”

“Not if, when. I will definitely grill for you, especially when the weather is good.”

“Sounds great to me.” She dove back into her work.

Andre logged in and opened his folder of problematic perps. His heart sank when he saw the number stored there. Holy smoke. He’d only been doing his job, and yet the perps blamed him when their lives went up in flames and they spent several years as guests of the state. The choice had been theirs. It was just their own bad luck to have him as the investigating officer.

He and his Echo unit teammates put away a lot of perps, making the streets of Arden safer. Few folks remembered that, though. He only got the blame, not a pat on the back or a handshake for doing his job.

Same deal in the military. He’d lost count of the people who labeled him as a mercenary or killer for hire, a fine thank you for protecting the citizens of his country.

Andre refocused on his personal file of perps who had made threats against him during his interactions with them. If he was lucky, he’d narrow the search to a handful before he or she exacted revenge and hurt Riley.

CHAPTER EIGHT

RILEY’S FINGERS FLEWover the keyboard as she dug deeper and deeper into the lives of Ambassador Wright and his son, Christopher. People all over the Internet praised Wright for his humanitarian efforts and his dedication to his job as ambassador to Brazil.

Once in a while, she caught a hint of trouble with people in his personal life but nothing definitive. Aidan Wright retaliated against those who crossed him on anything. According to rumors circulating in a couple of chat rooms, Wright’s wife had been a beautiful but mousy woman who catered to the ambassador’s every demand.

She frowned. Where was she? Did she know what was happening to Christopher? Riley shifted her search to Britta Wright. What she found brought her to a stunned halt. Poor Christopher.

Andre’s hands hovered over his keyboard. “Is something wrong?”

“Christopher’s mother is missing.”

He stared. “Someone kidnapped her?”

“The police report says there are no signs of a kidnapping. No ransom demand has been received, either. It’s possible Britta just walked away.”

“Or she’s dead.”

“Yeah, well, there aren’t signs of foul play, either, although I’m inclined to agree with you. I hope Britta was smart enough towalk away if her husband was abusive. But if that’s the case, she should have taken Chris with her. From what I’ve read, she’s an exceptional mother and adores her son. It makes little sense that she would walk away from her marriage without Chris.”

“Which leads us to the same conclusion. She’s dead at the ambassador’s hand.”

“If we’re right, why would the ambassador kill his wife? She was beautiful but mousy and did everything her husband told her to do.”

“Maybe Wright wanted his wife gone to leave an opening for a new wife.”

Riley flinched. “Out with the old, in with the new?”

“It’s an old story. Have you seen anything about a mistress or new friend of the ambassador?”