Page 37 of Targeted at Christmas

“I’m sensing a but…” Gabriella said.

Lexi laughed. “You know me too well.” She eyed her considerately. “Apart from the fact that I’m pretty swamped right now with projects, I’ve met someone.” Lexi knew that Gabriella had wanted her to get back into the dating world and start living again for a while now.

“Oh?” Gabriella’s gaze widened with interest. “Tell me about him.”

Lexi was more than happy to share her romantic involvement with Cooper, how they met—while sparing her the unsettling details—and the potential there was for a future. If so, it would also include his getting to know her closest relatives, which was important to Lexi and seemed the same for Cooper.

“Well, I can’t wait to meet your FBI beau,” her sister said. “He’ll always be welcome at our house. I know that Mom and Dad would feel the same way. And Quentin, too,” Gabriella added of their brother, currently single while living his life as an up-and-coming musician.

Lexi beamed at the thought of introducing Cooper to her family. “Thanks, and I appreciate it.” More than she could say. But she was sure that Gabriella understood that.

They spoke a bit more before her sister had to tend to family matters. Lexi welcomed the respite and connecting with Gabriella.

Now feeling a bit restless, she decided to go for a run to recharge her batteries. She changed into jogging attire, stopped Pepper from trying to accompany her and headed out.

Lexi looked toward Eleanor’s house and spotted her elderly neighbor sitting by the window in her favorite leather recliner chair while reading a book. She waved at her and Eleanor waved back before Lexi started her run.

Her plan was to jog to the nearby Camelback Mountain, then turn around and jog back. As Lexi ran down the sidewalk alongside East Camelback Road, she caught out of her periphery a dark-colored SUV that moved toward the direction from which she’d come. She couldn’t see the driver’s face. It brought back fresh thoughts of the SUV that she’d once believed had been following her.

Refusing to give in to paranoia again, Lexi dismissed the thought and continued on her way to Camelback Mountain.

Chapter Thirteen

Under other circumstances, Cooper would just as soon have sent Frank Magistretti to speak with Neal Zapponi’s widow, Rachelle Zapponi. But as his former CI, who was probably killed because of information Zapponi was prepared to divulge to him at the construction site for a shopping center, Cooper felt it was incumbent upon him to question the contractor’s pregnant wife himself. He knew that Hallie had already paid her a visit, having to notify her of Zapponi’s death in the course of the detective’s investigation of the homicide—and had gotten nothing from the widow, aside from the shock and grief from losing her husband.

I need to see if Zapponi left any clues about what was on his mind before he was killed, Cooper told himself as he drove to Zapponi’s house on West Tamarisk Avenue.

Turning his thoughts to Lexi, Cooper couldn’t help but feel a warmth in his heart for the architect that went beyond anything he could have anticipated in getting to know her. Their lovemaking was incredible, as they seemed perfectly in sync with each other in bed. But it was much more than that. Being with Lexi made him want to be with her even more—if that was even possible, given their steady work lives—with feelings that were bordering on love. He once wondered if he would ever be able to tap into that emotion again after losing Melanie. Now he felt that it might be all but impossible to turn it off like a faucet that couldn’t seem to stop dripping.

Refocusing on his investigation into public corruption and two homicides that were all but certainly attributable to it, Cooper could only hope that neither victim’s death would go unpunished as the search was on for all of the culprits involved.

He arrived at the ranch-style house and saw a green Subaru Crosstrek in the driveway. Neal Zapponi’s Mazda CX-70 SUV was currently being held by the police department as evidence in the carjacking investigation.

When the front door to the house opened, Cooper laid eyes on a tall African American female in her late thirties, with blond hair in a bowl-cut Afro. He guessed that she was five to six months pregnant.

“Are you Rachelle Zapponi?” Cooper asked assumingly.

“Yeah, that’s me.” She peered at him through sad brown eyes. “And you are?”

Whipping out his identification, he responded, “FBI Special Agent Reid. I’m investigating your husband’s death—along with the police department.”

Rachelle sighed. “Come in.”

Cooper followed her inside to a small living room-dining room area with gray carpeting and contemporary furnishings. There was a decorated artificial Christmas tree in a corner, with some wrapped gifts underneath it. “First of all, I’d like to offer my condolences,” he told her sincerely, hating the thought that his former CI seemed to have almost foretold his death as related to the public corruption probe.

“I’m still kind of shocked that Neal is dead,” Rachelle said maudlinly, sitting on a caramel-colored faux leather sofa. “Why did they have to kill him?”

I feel the same way, Cooper told himself as he sat next to her. The idea that her child would have to grow up without a birth father was a tough pill to swallow. Especially where it concerned an act of criminality that was avoidable were it not for the unsubs’ deliberate actions. “That’s what we intend to find out,” he told her firmly, rejecting any assumption that it was a straight carjacking. “Did Neal say anything to you about what may have led to this?”

“Not that I can think of.” Rachelle sucked in a deep breath. “He never talked much about what he was thinking…outside of our marriage and the baby we’re having—or I guess it’s just me now,” she added sadly.

Cooper was sympathetic to her predicament after losing both parents so young in his life. “So, he never dropped any names of anyone he might have felt threatened by?”

She stared at the question. “Neal did seem a bit stressed about something—or someone—but kept it mostly to himself.” Rachelle paused. “I think he may have felt that something was going on with a developer, but he didn’t say which one… When I tried to ask him for more, he simply changed the subject.”

“I think he was just trying to protect you,” Cooper surmised, and understandably so, all things considered.

“Maybe.” She sighed, frowning. “Now who’s going to protect me—” she rubbed her stomach “—us?”