Assumed Identity by Julie Miller Read Free Book Online

“Who came charging over here in the middle of the night when she thought Emma or I might be hurt?”
    “I didn’t stop to think about it—I just did it. And you are hurt.” Hope tucked a damp, frizzing tendril behind her ear. “But talking to those detectives in your office without stumbling over my words and sounding like an idiot? Trust me, I’d rather babysit.”
    “Well, I’m grateful.” Robin leaned in and pressed a goodbye kiss to Emma’s soft, warm cheek. She pulled back with a stern, sisterly warning for her friend. “Make sure one of the officers walks you across the street. Even that short distance isn’t safe anymore.”
    “I will. I saw Maggie Wheeler outside, blocking off the parking lot with crime scene tape. She’s a client of mine. I’m planning her wedding to that Marine, remember? I ordered her flowers through you—”
    “Detective Montgomery?” The back door slammed shut and a man’s deep voice called out, interrupting Hope’s soft gasp. The pungent smell of wet dog tickled Robin’s nose a split second before Hope hugged Emma tightly to her chest and retreated a step.
    “Hope? What is it?” Robin turned at her friend’s stricken expression to see a K-9 officer with his brown-and-tan German shepherd partner striding down the hallway. The dog paused when his handler did, and shook himself from nose to tail. The cop pulled off his black KCPD ball cap and knocked the excess water against his pant leg, leaving a similar spray of water droplets on the concrete floor.
    “Detective Montgomery?” The officer rapped sharply on the frame of the door to Robin’s office. His square jaw warmed with a shade of pink when he realized the two women were staring at him. “Sorry, ma’am. If you point me to a mop, I can clean up after Hans and me.”
    Robin suspected the blush on those rugged features meant the apology was sincere. “That’s okay. I deal with plenty of water around all these flowers. That’s why the floor is sealed and the walls have moisture-resistant wallpaper. I’ll wait until everyone’s done before I tackle the footprints and rain we’ve all tracked in.”
    “Pike?” Spencer Montgomery, the red-haired detective who seemed to be running this whole show, looked up from the notepad where he’d been jotting information and joined them at the doorway. He tucked the notepad and pen inside the pocket of his suit jacket. “Did you two find anything?”
    “Rain’s washed away any scent we can track.” The nameplate on the officer’s uniform identified him as E. Taylor. Pike must be a nickname. “Looks like there was a scuffle in the alley, though—away from the loading dock where Ms. Carter said she ended up. The perp could have escaped through there easily enough. As for the man you claim rescued you—”
    “He did.”
    “—I’ve got no clue where he disappeared to. There’s no car, no footprints, no sign of him anywhere.”
    Spencer Montgomery nodded. “His sudden departure might mean he has reason to avoid talking to the police.”
    The need to defend the man who’d saved her life charged Robin’s weary body with renewed energy. “And it might mean he had to get to work at an early morning job. Or go home to his family.”
    As soon as she said the words, Robin wondered if there was any truth to them. There was something about Mr. No-Name Lonergan—his reluctance to hold Emma, his gruff demeanor and brute strength, that odd comment he’d made about not knowing if there were any children in his life—that made Robin think he was a man without any familial connections to civilize him. What kind of man roamed a downtown neighborhood in the middle of the night during a storm without benefit of umbrella, raincoat or even a cap? Where had he come from? Why had he disappeared? Where had he learned that choke-hold thing he’d done to her attacker? He’d never given her his first name, and she’d been too out of it to even think to ask. What if Lonergan was a