Free The Marine Next Door by Julie Miller Page A

of John’s neck. First the elevator in their building was out of commission, and now the landline phone wasn’t working? Travis had mentioned something on the elevator last week about needing to know a safe place where he could go. Those fine hairs jumped to full attention. What the hell was going on next door with Maggie Wheeler? “Why are you looking for your mom? Are you okay? Is she okay?”
    “I don’t know. Practice got done early because of the rain and there’s no one here. Well, nobody I know. There are some people who were watching practice still here, but… She was supposed to pick me up, but she’s late.” Suspecting Travis was standing out in the rain was worrisome enough, but there was something ominous about the pause in the boy’s voice. “Mom’s never late.”
    John plucked his hat from the desk and pulled out his keys. “I’m on my way.”

Chapter Five
    “Are you kidding me? Two cops called my work this afternoon.”
    Maggie deleted the vile message on her phone and hurried up the steps of the Fourth Precinct parking garage. The clock on her cell phone flipped over to 6:30 as another message from Danny Wheeler began to play. Her uniform and skin were damp from the rain outside, and she could feel the loose hairs sticking to her face kinking into curls. But she hadn’t bothered with a jacket or umbrella because she was running so far behind.
    “They talked to my parole officer.” Danny’s voice was full of accusation. “They came to my job. What did you tell them about me, Mags?”
    Nothing that wasn’t already in his arrest or prison record. But, like usual, if things had gone wrong with Danny’s day, it was somehow her fault. And if she hadn’t caused the problem, then he expected her to save him from it.
    Reaching the third level, she jogged across the concrete toward her truck. She hit Delete again, praying the next message would be another from Travis, telling her that the parents of one of his teammates had agreed to wait with him after all, or had given him a ride home.
    If she hadn’t been so busy pulling files and going over them with the detectives, absorbing every nugget of wisdom about what made one convicted rapist a viable suspect and another one not, she would have gotten Travis’s call. She would have excused herself from the debriefing with Montgomery and Fensom, even appealed to Chief Taylor if necessary, in order to leave early to pick up her son.
    With no update from Travis after his first call, and his cell phone now going straight to voice mail, Maggie quickened her pace. It had always been her and Travis. As his only legal parent, he relied on her entirely for his transportation, food, love and safety. Letting him down, even when the weather and a chain of events beyond her control messed up her schedule, wasn’t an option she could live with.
    She pulled her keys from her leather shoulder bag and punched the remote to unlock her truck.
    Oh, hell. Danny had left yet another message. Whether he was upset about KCPD approaching him over making contact with her or if this was about his being a person of interest in the Rose Red Rapist case didn’t matter right now. “…asking me about my wife? My whereabouts? I remembered your favorite flower, didn’t I? You’re supposed to have my back, Mags. I am not going back to prison. Understand that? You will not send me back there.”
    “Officer Wheeler?” Startled by the real voice behind her, Maggie silenced her phone and whirled around. “Maggie Wheeler?”
    “Yes?” Settling back into her skin, she made a quick assessment of the man approaching her. His dark hair and easy stride were familiar, although she couldn’t place him. Civilian clothes. Unarmed. He looked friendly enough, but something about the piercing blue eyes put her guard up.
    “Gabriel Knight. Kansas City Journal. ” He flashed the press card hanging alongside a camera around his neck “I’ve managed to get a few words from the other