“She is,” he said. “Finding out that her brother was responsible for her parents’ death was a brutal blow.”
“Stay in Seattle as long as you need to be there,” Mel said. “Help Julia deal with this. I’ll call you if we have another job for you.” Her voice softened. “Unless you need to get away.”
“Why would I want to get away?” he asked.
Mel sighed. “Sometimes I think men are a different species,” she said. “Let me know when you’re coming back to Helena.”
She ended the call, and Nico stared at his phone. What the hell had Mel been talking about?
No way could she know how he felt about Julia. He’d been nothing but professional when Mel had been at Zoe’s party. He’d acted no differently with Julia than he did with any other protectee.
Before he could puzzle it out, the bathroom door opened, releasing a cloud of sweetly scented steam into the room. Julia walked out with a towel wrapped around her torso. “Forgot my clothes,” she said, without meeting his eyes.
Fumbling in her suitcase, she grabbed a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. Underwear. Then she hurried back to the bathroom and closed the door.
The cool caution of strangers shimmered between them. Even though they were both trying to protect themselves, it still stung.
After a late breakfast in the hotel restaurant, they took the elevator down to the garage. The discomfort of their conversation at breakfast lingered. It had been strained. Julia didn’t want to talk about what had happened the night before and Nico hadn’t wanted to intrude on her grief. The drive to the police station was equally awkward.
Walking into the station had been a relief. He didn’t want to deal with the emotional baggage between him and Julia. Talking to Gorowski let them delay the conversation a little longer.
Detective Gorowski took them to a conference room. “Dawson’s been denied bail,” she said as soon as the door was closed and they were seated. “He’s a flight risk, even though both his US and Canadian passports were confiscated. And I’m certain he’d go after you, Julia, if he was out of jail. So he’s staying put until he’s tried. Or until he confesses and cuts a deal.” Her mouth thinned. “Which I think is highly unlikely.”
“Did you get a match on his fingerprints?” Julia asked, leaning toward the detective.
“We did,” Gorowski said with a triumphant smile. “And that, along with his own words that you recorded on your cellphone, should be plenty to convict him. If we can find Carole Hastings, her testimony would be the icing on the cake.”
“Speaking of Carole,” Julia said. “Have you talked to her daughter Harper? Did she have any idea where her mother might have gone? Or do you think Dawson grabbed her and killed her when she walked out of jail?”
Nico noticed that she didn’t call him Jeff. Or brother.
Borowski shook her head. “He denies that he had anything to do with her disappearance. He admitted that it was his attorney who bailed her out. And that he was waiting on the street for her to walk out of the building. But he never saw her.”
Julia frowned. “Wouldn’t all inmates leave through the same door?”
“Yes,” Borowski said. “For security’s sake, we escort them to the front door and watch them leave. Once they’re on the sidewalk, they’re on their own.”
Julia sat back in her chair, and Nico could practically see the wheels turning in her head. Suddenly she sat up straight. “My God! I have a crazy idea!”