Guilty as Sin by Jami Alden Page B

sure Tricia gets home unharmed.”
    “That’s all any of us want.” Kate turned to Jackson, unable to stop herself from reaching out to take his hand. “I know this sounds trite, and nobody will ever know what you’re going through, but after what my family experienced, know that I’m going to use everything I’ve learned in the decade I’ve worked with the foundation to find Tricia.” Jackson nodded stiffly and swallowed hard, his big hand closing around hers with almost desperate strength. He was doing his best to remain stoic, but Kate could feel the pain and anxiety emanating from his body, and her own eyes stung with tears. She swallowed them back, cautioning herself to push her own emotions aside.
    It would be too easy to let herself sink into the dark hole of empathetic grief. It was a struggle with every case the foundation worked on; it was nearly impossible to learn about these kids, meet with their families, and see what they were going through and not let their sadness bring her own screaming back to the surface. But her job was not to grieve with them, it was to maintain a clear head at a time when emotions were beyond overwhelming. She was the linchpin, connecting the family with law enforcement, volunteers, and the media.
    And usually with any outside investigators brought in to help. But Jackson had brought in Tommy himself, and though they seemed to have entered into an uneasy truce, she was more than happy to let Jackson deal with him directly.
    “CJ, can you bring me up to speed on the investigation? How many people are involved?”
    “I’m heading up the investigation myself, as you know,” he said, gesturing with his chin at the report on the table in front of Kate. “But our resources here are limited. I made some calls to the state police district office, but so far they’ve only made contact by phone.”
    “Hopefully the additional media exposure will give them a kick in the ass,” Kate murmured. “Support from the community is critical. The first thing we need to do is coordinate the volunteers. We need to set up central headquarters—”
    “Tracy helped us print up some flyers and has been taking the calls here,” Jackson said.
    Kate shook her head. “We’re talking about coordinating dozens of people—you don’t want to have that many people in your house. Not to mention, while we like to think everyone would be helping out of the pure goodness of their hearts, there are a lot of twisted people who are attracted to cases like this, attracted to victims. You don’t want those people to have access to your personal space.”
    Kate felt a knot in her stomach. She of all people knew that. She had spent years protecting herself, and even she hadn’t been smart enough to spot the wolf in sheep’s clothing she’d ushered through her own front door.
    “We need to find a print shop in town that will help print flyers and set up a tip line and get people to man the phones. CJ, maybe you can put me in touch—”
    “I’ll help you with that,” Tommy said impatiently. “CJ needs to keep his focus on the investigation itself, not deal with logistics a high schooler could handle.”
    Every cell in her body rejected the idea. She needed someone who knew the local business owners, someone to make introductions, someone who would be her constant companion for at least the next couple of days.
    No way was she spending that kind of time in close contactwith Tommy Ibarra. “But CJ knows the town and as the sheriff he’s got the respect—”
    Tommy made a scoffing sound. “And the fact that my family has been here for five generations and that I still live here more than half the year doesn’t count for anything.”
    Even before he said it, Kate knew how stupid her protest sounded. Of course Tommy was connected with the local business owners as well as—if not better than—CJ was.
    “And despite your father’s opinion of me,” Tommy bit out, “I’m still pretty well liked