Free Bad to the Bone by Debra Dixon Page B

anger. The search was purposeful, deliberate, and intended to shake her. The man knew exactly how to get to her.
    Threats, raising his voice, rough handling … none of that would have fazed her, and he knew it. He wanted her off balance. He wanted the truth any way he could get it. The man was a bloodhound, and he’d sniffed out her lies before she’d ever told them. Now that he had concrete proof of his suspicions he wasn’t going to let this go. All good cops were like that. Part bloodhound, part hellhound.
    Jessica decided Sully was more one than the other.
    When he was satisfied she was clean, he let her go. “Now you want to tell me who you are and why you carry the peashooter? And don’t tell me it’s for self-defense.I’m getting real tired of bein’ lied to. Or would you rather wait until I run you through the computer?” He tapped his pocket. “You do have a license for this, don’t you?”
    Jessica narrowed her eyes and pulled her shirt together with as much dignity as she could muster. Her shoulders hurt from being pinned back. Refusing to let Sully rattle her, she shook off the ache and fastened every button before she answered. “I carry it for the same reason you carry your weapon. I might need it.”
    “For what?”
    “Shooting two-legged rats.”
    Sully didn’t like what he heard or what he saw in her eyes. She wasn’t joking, and yet she couldn’t possibly be serious. With a careless air she swung her hair forward and finger-combed the tangles from it.
    “Shot many lately, have you?” he asked.
    “No. Not a one.” Her dark gaze never wavered from his. She never hesitated. The swiftness of her answer should have placated him. It didn’t.
    “Who are you, Jessie?”
    He thought she wasn’t going to answer. Finally she told him, “Why don’t you ask Iris?”
    “Now there’s a fine idea.”
    A few seconds later he’d ushered Iris in and stood behind her, hands on the girl’s shoulders. Iris had on purple biker shorts with lace eyelet trim and an incredibly loud tie-dyed T-shirt. Kid clothes on an old soul. After Iris looked expectantly at Sully and then at Jessica, she asked, “Are we in trouble again?”
    “Just me. Tell him.”
    “Tell him what?”
    “The truth.”
    “But we already told him the truth.”
    Jessica shook her head and smiled in spite of herself.Iris was a trooper, loyal to the end. “No, it’s time for the ‘truth truth.’ The gig’s up. If I’m not mistaken, Detective Kincaid thinks I’ve done something with your father.”
    Appalled, Iris turned to Sully. “She didn’t know anything about Daddy being missing. Not until I called her.”
    “You didn’t talk to Phil Munro yesterday?” Sully fired the question at Jessica like a missile.
    “No. I haven’t talked to Phil for a very long time.”
    “Why’d you lie?”
    “Isn’t that obvious? I didn’t want to create an unnecessary panic. Iris could’ve been overreacting.”
    “About what?” His attention returned to Iris, who fiddled with her harmony ball as she answered.
    “Daddy calls every Sunday if he’s out of town. He didn’t call this week. He always calls.” She looked up then. She was biting her lip.
    “Always?” Sully asked. “Never misses? Ever?”
    Iris shook her head. “No, sir. There’s no special time, but he calls on Sunday. Always.”
    Frowning, Sully considered the situation for a moment. Then he looked sharply at Jessica. “He’s almost forty-eight hours overdue.”
    “I know.”
    “I don’t like it.”
    “Iris and I weren’t real happy about it either. I was going to give him until tomorrow.” When his eyes narrowed, she quietly added, “I
would
have called you tomorrow.”
    “And in the meantime you thought you’d do a little investigating yourself.”
    “I thought I might.”
    “Who are you, Jessica? And where’d you come from?”
    Iris spoke up as she crossed the room to be with Jessica. “She’s one of Daddy’s special bodyguards. There’re