The Men With the Golden Cuffs(117)
“I don’t care about his marriage,” Jake said frankly. Yeah, he would give Hernandez another look. They hadn’t found anything, but Adam would have to look deeper. “I only care whether or not he does his job. And I got the feeling you didn’t approve of Serena’s career, either.”
Chitwood shook his head. “I don’t get it, but I don’t particularly care one way or the other. It doesn’t matter what she does for a living. She deserves to be able to make that living without fearing for her life. I took an oath, and I intend to honor it. My home life is hard right now, too, but I won’t let it affect my ability to protect her. Speaking of, I got the profile you sent over. Excellent work. Your profiler seems very capable.”
Eve had been the best the FBI had to offer until a case had taken a terrible turn. “So, you agree that this is someone she knows?”
“I’m not sure. I certainly think the perpetrator believes she’s committed a great wrong that touches the stalker’s life.” Chitwood frowned and stared at his feet for a moment. “I know what you think.”
Jake simply waited for Chitwood to prove he wasn’t as dumb as he’d first looked.
“You think it’s me or Mike. Given that the violent threats occurred after the police were called in, and given our response, I would logically put us both on a list of suspects. I think, after today, that we should recuse ourselves and let this whole case start over.”
Chitwood was saying all the right things. But that wouldn’t make Jake back off. “I think that would be a good idea.”
A little smile played on the detective’s lips. “Of course, it would be exactly the right play if I wanted to throw you off the scent. Feel free to have us followed, Mr. Dean. We are exactly what we come off as, a detective looking forward to retirement and…dear god, Mike, put that down.” He shook his head back toward the racks where Hernandez was studying an enormous anal plug. “A detective looking toward retirement and his idiot partner. That’s all you’ll find.”
Jake wasn’t so sure about that, but Adam hadn’t found anything on either man just yet. He’d already known Hernandez was separated and living at the Y, which could make any man cranky, and Chitwood’s wife was fighting cancer. Still, Chitwood was described as deeply religious, his church’s website posting some strong warnings against what they called the pornography of the world.
He would keep an eye on both. He felt much better about the plainclothes officer they had brought with them. She was a young woman with a bright smile who didn’t seem at all offended that she was working in a toy store. She’d laughed with Grace about something before she’d started doing perimeter sweeps.
“Where’s the agent?” Adam asked, coming in from outside. There was a line of readers, almost all women with stacks of books. It was a bit of a madhouse outside. Ian himself was handling the security, and surreptitiously taking pictures of everyone for later research. If the stalker was here, they would at least have a picture to go from.
“She’s in the back.” Jake pointed to the door that led to the owner’s office and the large room which she used for storage. Jake had walked through the room, making sure the one door to the outside was locked up tight. There was a DPD officer standing guard outside. The officer had been very helpful, opening the door for Lara and Brian as they carted in books and boxes. Lara was in the quiet back room, unpacking books and merchandise. “I saw Chris helping her out, though he stated he was doing it under protest and that Lara was still on probation. And the other guy was down there, too, though he mostly seems to just be frowning at his wife.”
“Brian Anderson?” Adam frowned. “I was told he ran the mainstream arm of the business and didn’t particularly like having to deal with the lower-end clients.”
Chris stopped in front of them, a large stack of Their Sweetheart Slave in his arms. “Are you talking about Brian? He kind of hates us. Oh, he tries to hide it, but I overheard him saying that Lara ruined their reputation as an agency when she brought us in as clients. You know we erotic romance authors are responsible for the fall of Western civilization.”
“Then why’s he here?” Jake asked. “He wasn’t on the list, but Serena cleared him.”
“Well, even a snob likes cash. I think Brian finally realized that genre fiction pays the bills, Jake. Can I call you Jake now that you’re back in our girl’s good graces? By the way, I meant the whole ‘cutting your balls off’ thing if you hurt her again. I’ll just be mentioning that right up to your not wholly legal wedding day, which I assume is coming soon or I’ll have to do the whole ‘cutting your balls off’ thing and I really don’t like that. It’s messy.”