“Whatever. She’ll move on to the next guy soon and you’ll be the one with the memories of tapping that.”
Hunt never really paid attention to the guys talking in the office. But now realized that Officer Reid was usually the one instigating the locker-room-type talk.
Hunt leaned back in his chair. “You and I are going to have a real problem if you don’t drop this.”
“Whatever.”
“Let me make myself clear. You will never speak about Cyn in that way ever again. You will not lie about being with her ever again. If you do, I’ll tell everyone you lied. You won’t be able to back up your stories, because I know more about Cyn than you ever will.”
Officer Reid hooked his hands on his gun belt and shrugged. “Fine.” He turned to leave, but shifted back around. “Is she okay?”
“A little banged up and sore, but better today. Thanks for asking.”
“She’s a little crazy, you know.”
“She’s Cyn.” He liked her just the way she was.
“She makes a man want to sin, that’s for sure.”
Hunt couldn’t help the grin, because Officer Reid spoke the truth. He changed the subject. “Do you have an update on Rad?”
“We had an officer on him after he left the station and went to work, but the officer got called away for an accident. By the time he made it back to the garage, Rad had left. He didn’t go home, though. He’s not at his parents’ place either.”
“Shit. We need to hire more officers.”
“The city needs to increase the budget if we’re going to keep the officers we have and find new ones.”
“Wait. You said Rad went to work at the garage?” That couldn’t be right.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because he was fired a couple days ago.”
“Then what was he doing at the garage?”
Hunt had a hunch, but didn’t know if he was right. Yet. “I’m looking into a home invasion where I found the car seen at the crime parked out back at the garage. I had it processed. Rad’s prints were found inside.”
“He works at the garage, probably drove the car in and out of the bay to work on it, or at least that’s what he’ll claim.”
“Exactly. But there was another home burglary last night. I was just going to pull the information for any and all vehicle descriptions in the various cases here and in neighboring towns and see if I can trace them back to the garage.”
Officer Reid nodded. “I see where you’re going with this. Definitely sounds promising. Let me know if you need help. I’m heading out to check in with the search teams. I’ll let you know if there’s anything on Angela or Lana. If I’m honest, since they weren’t in the car, I’m betting they’re nowhere near that area.”
“You think he just ditched the car there.” Hunt thought the same.
“The missing car seat gives away that he didn’t drive the baby out there. He’s got a car seat in his truck. He said their parents bought them each a car seat when Lana arrived.”
Made sense to have one in each of their cars, just in case. Chase and Shelby each had a car seat in their cars for Eliza.
Hunt hated that they didn’t have anything solid on Rad. The guy wasn’t that smart, yet he’d gotten away with whatever he’d done to Angela and Lana so far. “Listen. I planned to tell everyone today at the daily briefing, but you should know Rad threatened Cyn.”
“Did you arrest him?”
“It was real but vague.” So it didn’t meet the criteria for an arrest.
“Does Cyn know?”
“Yes. My brothers are watching her today. I’ll do my best to make sure she’s never alone, but she likes her independence, and where her sister and niece are concerned—”