Free Believing Again by Peggy Bird Page B

they’d hashed it all out and had decided a more extensive visit to the Veterans’ Medical Services Clinic was in order. It wasn’t merely the availability of cardboard sign material there that led them to that conclusion, although Jake’s clinic
was
the most likely source. Sam had visited Outside In, the other place where East State Medical Supplies, Inc. had donated supplies, had seen their indoor recycling bins, asked who had access to the cardboard and concluded it was a less likely source because of their process of handling recycling. Not to mention that Outside In treated street teens, not homeless vets.
    The determining factor, however, wasn’t the cardboard. It was that all three shooting victims got care from Jake Abrams at VMSC. It was hard to know the significance of that fact. Had Jake somehow put his patients in danger? Or was someone trying to get at him through them? Did he know something he wasn’t telling them or, more likely, did he have information he didn’t know he possessed? If he did, how could they figure out what it was?
    Sam and Danny headed for Old Town, the part of the city where many of the social services for the homeless were housed, and where VMSC was located. They planned to interview as many of the staff and volunteers as they could to see what additional information — if any — they could gather.
    Sam had cruised by the clinic when he was checking out their recycling bins. Danny hadn’t ever been there. She wasn’t sure if she wanted Jake to be there or not. She was curious to see him working but she wasn’t sure how they’d react to each other after a weekend that was pretty much spent in bed exploring each other’s bodies. Merely thinking about their hot weekend together was enough to make her pulse pound.
    But it could be awkward. She’d never been involved with someone she met through an investigation. Not that anyone suspected Jake Abrams of being the killer. They’d already established where he’d been at the time of all the shootings and it was nowhere near the homeless camps.
    Still, Danny wondered if she should tell L.T. about her relationship with him. Riding the light rail to work that morning she’d debated whether she should ask Sam for advice. He and Amanda had first gotten together when Amanda was suspected of actually being a perp in one of his homicides. But she also knew that giving her partner any more information about her involvement with Jake would fuel his curiosity and make him ask questions she might not want to answer.
    During the ride to the clinic in Old Town, she took a chance and broached the subject.
    “Sam, do you think L.T. needs to know that Jake and I are … that we’re … well, you know.”
    Sam grinned. “Actually I don’t know exactly because you won’t tell me. But I can guess. And my imagination’s running wild.”
    Danny began to regret her decision to ask his advice.
    Then he redeemed himself. “Seriously, I wouldn’t worry about it. We’ve cleared Jake of any involvement in this other than as a source of information. I’d tell you to be careful with what you say to him about what we find but I know you’d do that with anyone you were with.”
    “Yeah, I would.” She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “It must have been pretty complicated getting involved with Amanda when she was suspected of murder.”
    “Complicated hardly begins to describe it. But it worked out okay. I mean, how could she resist falling for the man who was not only the best looking guy she’d ever seen but who kept rescuing her from the guys who wanted to make her take the fall for them? I even took a bullet for her.”
    “That part I know. I was there, remember?” She snorted trying to suppress a laugh. “I wonder if Amanda would answer the question the same way?”
    “She better. But let’s get back to the original question — I only told L.T. about Amanda and me after she became a suspect. This thing with Jake