Fade-out: Take 2 of the Kanyon and Daylen Series, page 16
“Oh, damn. I hope you didn’t get twisted up on the wrong side of her, she’s a tough one,” Officer Jordan offered, opening the top box and looking for his donut of choice.
“Maple long johns are on the bottom. I got ya extra.” Kanyon gave him a wink.
“Sweet!” He restacked the boxes, flipping the last one open. His eyes went wide. “You are amazing Miss McKane.”
“Think that’s the other way around, but you are welcome. So can we go on up then?”
“Mmmhmm,” he groaned, already two bites in.
They stopped to empty their pockets. “No, no, go ahead. I got you,” he said over a mouthful of donut. “Lt. Ballbreaker is on the fifth floor.”
Punching the up arrow, Daylen looked over her shoulder at the wave of happiness Kanyon had left in her wake. “You are ridiculous. You do know that, right?”
“It’s a talent,” Kanyon replied smugly.
When they exited the elevator, despite the police department seeing their fair share of celebrities, Kanyon received countless openmouthed stares. Maybe it was that she wasn’t in cuffs as she paraded down the hallway, but Daylen thought it was more likely that it was just because she was Kanyon McKane, cuffed or otherwise.
As Daylen waited to check-in at the desk, she watched Kanyon sign the forearm of a good-looking cop, pose for a few photos, and give a teenager visiting her dad a hug. She couldn’t help but smile at the gracious manner in which Kanyon always treated her fans.
“Ms. Elliott. Ms. McKane. If you will wait here for a minute, I will have someone escort you back,” the young officer manning the desk instructed.
“No problem. Thank you,” Daylen offered.
A “booyah” came from the other side of the cube wall, to be followed by a slim, middle-aged man, wearing a badly tied tie, and a ‘it fit ten years ago’ shirt. “I’m Detective Anderson, your escort and the winner of rock, paper, scissors.” He leaned into Daylen. “These meatheads always go with rock. Totally paper all the way,” he whispered behind the back of his hand. “Therefore, I get the privilege of escorting the two of you back to the Lt.’s office. If you will follow me, please.”
They headed down a long corridor, taking a right at the end, opening a door about halfway down. “If you can wait in here,” he asked as he held the door open to a small conference room. “Lt. Boston is just finishing up a briefing and she’ll be with you shortly.”
Daylen smiled at the detective. “Thank you, Detective.”
“Can I get you anything while you wait?”
Kanyon stopped as she stepped past him through the doorway, smiled a slow smile, and lowered her voice to a sexy purr, giving his tie a flick with her finger. “I wouldn’t say no to a badge and a gun, if you have any extras laying around.”
Daylen grabbed Kanyon’s arm and pulled her in the room when she saw the detective actually reaching for his own badge. “We’re fine, she’s totally joking.”
“Right, of course,” he laughed awkwardly then quickly closed the door behind him.
Daylen rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Seriously?”
“Well, you won’t give me one so...” Kanyon shrugged her shoulders as she pulled out a conference room chair and dropped into it.
“Oh, silly me. ‘Cause I have absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t.” Daylen pulled out the chair next to Kanyon and sat. She flipped open her bag and retrieved her notebook and a pen. “We might as well go over what we have while we wait.”
“Okay.” Kanyon rocked back and spun in a slow circle in her chair. “Bad guy, maybe Rodney, sent Old MacDonald’s giant mutant man child to kill me, twice.” She rocked back again, giving her chair another push. “First time, I was leaving the museum. Second time,” rock, chair spin, “at the bookstore.” Rock, chair spin. “No one knew I was going to show up at the museum this morning except for you and Theo.” Rock, chair spin. “So he was either called up there after I arrived or…” Rock, chair spin.
“Or he was already there,” Daylen finished as she caught Kanyon’s chair arm, stopping her from taking another spin. “Can you please stop with the Tilt-A-Whirl?”
“Fine.” Kanyon planted her feet on the floor. “So if he was already there, that means the suspect was likely there as well.”
“Probably, but I guess he or she could have pre-written something in the book; if someone shows up asking about the diary then blah, blah, blah.”
They both took a second to think about it.
“Yeah, doesn’t really play right,” Daylen admitted.
“Nope,” Kanyon agreed.
“So who was there this morning?”
“I only saw Miranda, Rodney and Bea, but there were several other vehicles there. Plus, I saw some catering vehicles and…” She stopped, replaying what else she saw when she had driven in. “And a red Dodge truck. It was parked back by Miranda’s house.”
“Thoughts on Miranda actually being the mastermind?” Daylen asked.
“Yeah.” She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I don’t think she had anything to do with it.”
“It would make sense. She’s had all the opportunity and knows about the family stories.”
“Agreed. She seems like the logical person but…” she thought a moment, “after spending time with her this morning, I just don’t think it’s her. Plus, when we got locked in the closet-”
The rest of Kanyon’s words faded in the background as a tidal wave of images of Kanyon and Miranda spending time in a closet crashed in her mind. She was just about to say something she was very likely going to regret when the door opened behind them.
A tall, handsome, older man in a nice, non-polyester, fitted suit stepped in with a welcoming smile already on his face. “Daylen,” he said simply, his smile warming at the sight of her. His hand outstretched toward her in greeting. “I’m…” he hesitated, “Captain J.T. Laine,” he offered.
The Captain’s eyes were alight as he took in Daylen with obvious admiration, but Kanyon noted that it wasn’t in a pervy, get into my van kind of way, it was with genuine warm interest and affection. It was as if they were old friends, but Daylen didn’t seem to recognize him, and she had been under the earlier impression from her and Lt. Boston’s exchange that Daylen didn’t know him. Kanyon simply chalked it up as an adoring fan.
Daylen stood to greet him. “Captain Laine, it’s nice to meet you,” Daylen replied as they shook. “This is Kanyon McKane.”
At Daylen’s introduction, Captain Laine turned his smiling eyes on her. “Nice to meet you.” Kanyon offered him her hand. As their eyes met, there was something familiar about him Kanyon thought, searching his face as they shook.
“Lt. Boston has spoken… a lot about you,” he said with a little laugh in his voice.
She wasn’t always quick to judge… who was she kidding, she totally was, and in this particular case she took an instant liking to Captain J.T. Laine. “Oh, I’m sure she has. Actually that’s why we’re here, to drop off her official #1 fan button and her personalized fan club newsletter.”
He let out a genuine bark of laughter. “She will be most appreciative of that, I’m sure.” He spun a chair around and offered it to Daylen. “Please sit. Lt. Boston is tied up at the moment so I thought I would offer myself up if you need any assistance and to also take the opportunity to thank you for what you are doing to assist us in this matter and the other recent issues.”
“We appreciate the opportunity. We are more than happy to help in any way we can, but I have to say I’m not sure Lt. Boston feels the same way,” Daylen replied.
“Lt. Boston is very devoted and one of the best investigators I have, but even the best need some assistance from…” he stopped to think of his phrasing, “other resources from time to time.”
Daylen crooked her head slightly. That was interesting phrasing. Did he know about her, Kanyon, and her aunt? “How exactly did you find us? I mean, come to call on us for our,” she used his words, “resources?”
His warm smile dropped a little before he looked down at the table and let out a sigh. “I guess I should have known better,” he admitted.
“Known what?” Daylen asked.
He looked back up, returning the smile to his face, though it wasn’t as bright as it had been before. “I should have known your aunt wouldn’t have said anything about me.” He gave a little half chuckle, not willing to be the one that divulged their past. “It’s not important now anyway. We will just leave it as your aunt has helped me over the years, more so when I was out working the beat versus pushing paper like I do now. She helped me on, let’s just say, some of my more unusual cases. After I read the report on the ring and saw your name, I figured that maybe you had taken over the family business. So when this case came up…”
“I haven’t taken over. Aunt Ruby is still very much in charge, but we’re doing more of the fieldwork these days. So you know about...”
“About your special investigative skills?” he offered. “I know of your aunt’s. I’m only assuming you have inherited her same knack for locating items of special interest?”
Daylen leaned forward. “I didn’t know anyone here knew. Does Lt. Boston know?”
“Know what?” Lt. Boston said as she pushed open the conference room door. “Know that your aunt, in her heyday of playing private detective, nearly killed our Captain?”
Daylen spun her chair toward Captain Laine. “She what?”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t exactly like that. I was the one that made the mistake, not your aunt.” He stood then, looked down at Daylen and gave her the same warm smile that he had when he first walked into the room. “And the answer is no, that was just between your aunt and I.” He stepped to Kanyon and held out his hand. “It was very nice to meet you, Kanyon.”
She stood and took his hand. “Nice to meet you as well.”
He laid his other hand over hers and gave her a little squeeze as he leaned in to speak to only her. “I hope you succeed where I failed.” He stepped back, giving her a wink before releasing her hand. “Daylen, please tell your aunt hello for me. And it was so good to see you again.”
Again? Daylen thought, but before she could ask him to clarify he turned and left the room.
“So do you guys have something for me or are you just here to pester me and make all my cops go collectively stupid?” She shot a glare at the cops that were dancing on their tiptoes to look over the band of frosted glass that only offered partial privacy into the room.
“Just to pester,” Kanyon answered. “Turning cops stupid is just an added benefit.”
Lt. Boston huffed her disgust then turned back to Daylen and Kanyon as she flipped open a notebook.
Daylen, still pondering the encounter with Captain Laine, absently flipped open her own notebook in an effort to focus on the real reason they had come. “We’re not sure what we have, but we need you to run a plate.” She spun her notebook to the Lieutenant.
Lt. Boston copied the license plate number in big block writing, ripped off the page, then slammed it against the glass wall where officers were still peek-a-booing it to get a quick look at the famous guests. She held the page in place for a second then came back to the table, taking a seat. “Now tell me why I’m doing that.”
Daylen turned to Kanyon, letting her explain the reasoning. “The truck wanted to play bumper cars down the hill with me this morning after I left the museum.”
“That would explain the skid marks and the shoulders of the road being torn up. You fared okay I take it?” Lt. Boston asked.
“Yeah. Car has a couple of scratches, but all is good.”
“How about the shots fired? You better not tell me that was you.”
Daylen whipped her head to Lt. Boston. “What shots fired?”
“Oh, your girlfriend didn’t tell you?” Lt. Boston looked at Kanyon. “I’m assuming that was part of your little chase.
Daylen turned narrowed eyes on Kanyon. “You didn’t say anything about him shooting at you!”
Kanyon shrugged and scratched at an imaginary spot on the table. “I was going to but we kind of… got distracted, remember?”
“I’m really not interested in that part of the story,” Lt. Boston cut in. “I’m more interested in why I’m just now hearing about it. Let me guess, you didn’t have time between playing kissy face with one woman, then a car chase, getting shot at, and then… playing detective and whatever else you did with this one,” she flicked her pen at Daylen, “this afternoon.”
“Kissy face?” Daylen asked.
Kanyon didn’t look at Daylen, instead directing her comments to Lt. Boston. “There was nothing going on with Miranda.”
“That’s not what I saw,” Lt. Boston baited.
“You didn’t see anything and you know it!” Kanyon spun to Daylen. “She saw Miranda saying good-bye to me and that’s it. I told you nothing happened.”
“Work your Days of Our Lives drama out on your own time. Let’s get back to this truck. Did you see the driver?”
“Not at the time. No.” Kanyon leaned back in her chair, frustrated.
“The driver shot at you though?”
“Yeah.”
Daylen let out an exasperated breath. “Nice.” She turned away from Kanyon, throwing herself back in her own chair.
Lt. Boston continued to question Kanyon about the events of the morning.
Kanyon answered them all, skirting around their supernatural suspicions and her supernatural passenger.
An officer knocked and came in when Lt. Boston yelled out, “Yah!” He handed her a piece of paper, smiled widely at Kanyon, then slinked back out again.
Lt. Boston unfolded the sheet of paper, read it, then dropped it on the table, spinning it toward Daylen. “Dale Randals.”
“The groundskeeper,” Daylen stated.
Lt. Boston stood. “I’ll send a unit to go pick him up, pull him in for questioning for today’s little hit and run and shooting at you; then maybe while he’s talking he’ll confess to the theft.”
“I don’t want to press charges,” Kanyon quickly interjected.
“Excuse me? A guy tries to run you off a cliff while taking pot shots at you and you don’t want to press charges?”
“No,” Kanyon answered. “At least not yet, I think we should do a little more investigating first.” She stood to go. “I’ll let you know if I change my mind.”
“I can still pull him in.”
“Give us a little time, please Lieutenant,” Daylen asked softly as she came to stand next to Kanyon.
Lt. Boston gave both of them a hard look but finally relented, giving Daylen a slow nod. “Forty-eight hours.”
“Thank you,” Daylen replied.
Kanyon had already started for the door when Lt. Boston stopped Daylen. “Daylen.”
“Yeah?”
“A moment?”
Kanyon wanted to protest, wanted to get Daylen out of the building as quickly as possible so she could explain and fix what the Lieutenant had already undone. But at Daylen’s nod she stepped out of the room, not before she shot what she hoped Lt. Boston understood as a you can fuck with me all you want, but you don’t do it to her look.
Lt. Boston understood perfectly well Kanyon’s silent message and though she didn’t like most people, she disliked Kanyon just a little less at that moment. The woman might be all fame and money, but there was a real spine in that too perfect body of her’s and she didn’t need to like her to respect her. She shut the door then met Daylen’s concerned look. “Yeah so, I just wanted to say that I shoot my mouth off a lot and for whatever reason, Ms. CoverGirl out there, makes me do it even more than normal. I was just taking some pot shots at her, but in doing so I kind of overshot my intended target.”
“Okay,” Daylen started. “So what does that mean exactly?”
“Means Kanyon wasn’t you know, doing anything with Miranda when I walked up. Actually what I witnessed was quite the opposite, she was giving her the polite blow off, an ‘I’m already taken’ kind of thing.”
Daylen grinned at her. “Thank you Lt. Boston for the clarification.”
“Yeah, anyways.” She waved off the now uncomfortable goody-goody vibe in the room. “I’m still not happy with this arrangement. Only going along because the boss has a thing for you and your aunt, which I absolutely don’t understand.” She swiped her notebook from the table with a little too much force. “But I’ll deal with it. At least for the next forty-eight hours, that is.”
“Can I ask you a question before you go?”
The Lieutenant glanced at her watch. “You got two, I’m due in an interview.”
“My aunt and the Captain? You said she almost got him killed?”
“That’s the word on the street.”
Daylen furrowed her brow. “Do you know what happened?”
“Well, there’s a lot of different stories out there. The only two that know for sure would be them.”
“But-”
The Lieutenant tapped her watch, already walking away. “Got an interview. I would suggest asking your auntie,” she replied as she flung open the conference room door and stepped quickly toward Kanyon, who was leaning against the wall. “Fire, car chases, shots fired, this isn’t one of your movies, Jane Bond. This is the real world. You can actually get killed out there.” Lt. Boston took another step then paused again. “FYI, I cleared that little misunderstanding up.” She was off again before Kanyon could reply.
“Ready?” Daylen asked.
“Sure. Are we… I mean, you don’t believe…?”
“I’m not happy you didn’t tell me about the guy shooting at you.”
“I know. I was going to say something but well, things kind of happened and…” Kanyon fell into step alongside Daylen. “I was afraid you would kind of freak, and then…” Kanyon nodded and waved at people as they moved through the main office.
“Then what?” Daylen asked when they were alone at the elevator.
“You would try to push me away,” Kanyon confessed.
Daylen couldn’t argue with Kanyon’s assumptions. She was freaked and her instincts were definitely screaming to push her away in an effort to protect her. “Tell me next time,” Daylen murmured.
