“I already know the answer to that. It was on the record I saw. Lieutenant Marty Weaver was the arresting officer.”
Seth sucked in his breath. “You don’t say. That’s very interesting. Thanks again, Rick.”
“Call if you need anything.”
Seth disconnected the call and sat there lost in thought for a moment. “Well,” Callie said, “are you going to tell me what he said?”
Seth gave a start and straightened in his chair. “Oh, sorry about that.”
For the next few minutes, he replayed the phone conversation for her. When he’d finished, she bit down on her lip and frowned. “So Lieutenant Weaver pops up again. Do you think they might have had some kind of connection?”
Seth pushed to his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. But I’m not about to bring suspicion down on a fellow officer until I have more to go on than I do now.”
“I understand that. So what’s our next move?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “After what happened tonight, what makes you think there’s going to be a next time? When you’re not at the hospital with Dan, you need to stay here. That way I can make sure you’re safe. A police officer will be out front, and this time you need to take his presence more seriously.”
Callie took a deep breath and rose to face him. “I promise I will, but I’ve been thinking about this. I think the danger to me may be over.”
“Oh? What makes you think that?”
“The only way I could be a threat to whoever is after Uncle Dan is by identifying the man who attacked him in the hospital. Carlos had the star tattoo and scar on his face, so I’m sure he’s the one I saw in the Critical Care Unit. Now that he’s dead, there’s no one else I can point to, so maybe we don’t need to be so cautious.”
Seth smiled. “That’s a good try, Callie, but I don’t think the threat is going away that easily. You’re forgetting the two men at the department store. Even if one of them was Carlos, we still don’t know who the other one was. I’m concerned these people will come after you again.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment. “That may be true, but I still want to get to the bottom of this. Uncle Dan must have had a reason to leave that flyer about the Midtown Mission in his notebook. I know you’ll go down there, and I want to be with you. Please don’t deny me the chance to help find out who is responsible for everything that’s happened.”
He started to tell her no, but the pleading look in her eyes made him swallow the words. With a sigh he nodded. “All right. You can go with me to the mission, but you have to do exactly what I say. Understand?”
“Yes, and I promise I won’t cause any problems like I did tonight.”
“Good. Now I need to get some sleep. I have to be at the office early in the morning, but I can drop you at the hospital on my way and come back for you when I get ready to go to the shelter. You should be safe with the marshal there.”
She nodded. “That sounds great. I’ll see you at breakfast.”
He watched her leave the kitchen before he picked up their coffee cups and carried them to the sink. He stood there a moment, staring out the window into the darkness beyond and thought about what she’d said about not causing him any problems.