Secrets Among the Cedars (Intertwined Book 2) (15 page)

"Monday?"

"Yes. D.A. Schwartz gave me the week off, so I'm going to take it."

"Are you coming back in town before then though?"

Kathryn sighed. What was this all about? "I don't know. Why?"

"Well, a man has called three times wanting to know when you'll be back. He won't leave his name. Kinda sounds mysterious. I wondered if he might want to ask you on a date."

"What did he say?"

"He asked if you are available for appointments, and I just figured it might be for a date."

"Why would you figure that?"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm just a romantic. Now that you make me second-guess myself, he did get kind of angry when none of us would tell him more information."

"Okay. Do me a favor. Tell D.A. Schwartz about him. And if he calls back, don't give out any information about me. At all. I'm afraid it could be related to the Ezzo case."

Phil jerked his head toward her and questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Kathryn shrugged. "I don't want him or anyone else who calls to know I'm off this case, and I don't want him especially to know anything about me."

"You got it. What have you been doing?"

She wasn't going to give up until she found out something gossip-worthy. "Relaxing. Having reactions to seafood. You know, the usual."

"You had an allergic reaction?"

"Sure did. Still under the influence of the antihistamine a bit."

"Oh wow! Did you know you were allergic?"

"Nope. I wouldn't have eaten it if I'd known." Kathryn sighed.

"Oh, yeah, obviously. Did someone help you or did you have to call 9-1-1?"

"Yes, I had help. Didn't have to go to the hospital." Kathryn sighed again.

"
Is Cedar Key on the Atlantic side or the Gulf?"

"It's on the Gulf down past the Suwannee River. It's a nature preserve, so there's no white beaches. Just salt marshes and estuaries, lots of fishing and great sunsets."
She was through with sharing information about her time in Cedar Key.

"Sounds great! Well, take care. Catch some sun for me."

"Okay." Kathryn ended the call.

"She sure was nosey.”

Kathryn shrugged. “Unusually so.”

"What's happening back at the office? Did I hear correctly my uncle's name?"

"Yep. Someone's been calling trying to find out information about me. He won't leave his name. It's probably one of your cousins."

"Your coworker didn't say anything to him?"

"No. She thought it was somebody wanting to ask me on a date. Like when does that ever happen?"

Phil laughed. "You sounded like you were using discretion when talking to her."

Kathryn nodded. "I'm not close to her. Not sure how much I can trust her yet. She's the new clerk for my judge, and she favors the men attorneys in the office over the women. I think she doesn't like women being in positions of authority. She doesn't take direction from me too well."

"She sounds intimidated."

"Maybe."

"You think she'd tell someone where you are?"

"I don't think so, but she might paint a bad picture of me to her coworkers. So I don't talk about my private life." Kathryn crossed her arms and rubbed her elbows.

"I don't miss that about practicing law. Your whole life is an open book."

"Yeah, I hate that part of it. I hate a lot about it."

"Well, you don't have to think about it anymore today. Let's try to find the gun so you can prosecute my uncle."

"Phil, you're terrible!"

"Why?"

"You know I'm off the case. Plus, why would you want your own uncle prosecuted?" She laughed and shook her head.

"I want the truth to come out…even if it means my good old uncle is guilty."

"I want that too."

"And I want you to be reinstated to the case, if that’s what you want."

"Yeah, I'm still thinking about that. But for now let's get on with our investigation."

"Hang on!" Phil slammed the brakes on and jammed the SUV into reverse. Gravel and crushed shells spewed out from underneath the car.

Kathryn grabbed on to the dashboard and braced herself with her feet pressed almost through the floorboard. "What are you doing?"

Phil put the car into drive, pressed the pedal to the floor, and nodded toward a house that fit the description of the tree house. "That's Drew's car."

Chapter Fifteen

The black Mercedes with dark tinted windows looked like a monster waiting to devour them. "What's he doing there?"

Phil turned left onto a desolate gravel road and stopped the vehicle. "I can only assume he's looking for the gun." He yanked off his sunglasses, rubbed his forehead, and pressed his fingers into his temples.

"What does this mean? What does this mean? What does this mean?" Kathryn couldn't stop waving her hands in the air. She'd felt anxiety and panic before, but this was the worst. Sweat broke out on her upper lip, and her pulse tapped out a beat in the notch between her collarbones.

"I don't know." Phil drummed the steering wheel.

"Did he hide it? Or did he just figure out that that's where it most likely was?"

Phil groaned. "Who knows? But I'm not taking the chance of him seeing us here together."

Kathryn buried her face in her hands. "No way!" Now they both needed protection. Who was going to protect her protector?

"We'll go into town and check out the rental at the old mill complex and wait it out at the park. We can come back by in a bit."

Kathryn slapped her legs and turned toward Phil. "What's the point? If he knows where the gun's at, it won't be here when we get back."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Drop me back off at my place and then come back and confront Drew yourself."

"Or…"

She slapped the console. "Phil, come on! If he's collecting the gun, it'll be gone! We'll never know."

Phil grabbed her hand and turned sideways in his seat. "Look, Kathryn, I don't want to get killed over this. If Drew's responsible for the murders, who's to say I won't be next? Especially if he realizes I know you."

She slumped. "We can't chance that." Kathryn tapped her foot on the floorboard. "Call him."

Phil puffed and ran his hands through his hair. "What?"

"Call him and get him to meet you somewhere else. I'll come here by myself and try to find the gun."

Phil turned off the ignition. "No way! You're forgetting one big problem. Barney. He doesn't care who he hurts."

"Make sure Barney is with Drew. Get them to help you do something at your grandmother's cottage. Distract them both, and I'll try to find it."

Phil groaned again and pulled his phone out of the console. "This is an impossible situation. I feel like I'm a married man trying to hide his mistress."

Kathryn giggled. "Well, you sure know how to turn an impossible situation into something comical."

Phil didn't laugh; he stared at Drew's number on the phone's display but didn't hit the call button.

"Look, Phil, if you don't want to call him, don’t. If you've got a better solution, tell me."

"No, I'll call him. I don't want you to think I'm a coward."

"Coward? How could I? You've done nothing but protect me ever since I arrived. You're not a coward. I understand if you don't want to get involved any further in this case. Really, I do."

Phil nodded and hit the call button. Kathryn couldn't read the look in his eyes, flecks of something painful clouding them. Was he frightened for her? Or did it go deeper than that? Was he really in fear for his life?

"Hey, Drew. What are you and Barney doing right now?" He squeezed the steering wheel with his left hand. "You're still in Cedar Key?" He nodded to Kathryn.

Drew's voice boomed through the earpiece, and her heart pounded.

"Yeah, can you guys come over to Grandma's place and help me move a few things around? I'm going to be painting in there next week, and I need to move the furniture to the center of the room." He squeezed the back of his neck and planted his gaze on the headliner. "Yeah, I called. She's not on the case anymore. Someone else is prosecuting.” He listened. “Why are you still interested in meeting her? She’s not a key element of the case anymore.”

So Drew was still determined to come after Kathryn. Phil should have told him that she’d had gone back to Georgia. Why couldn't things be as peaceful as they looked outside the car window? Light breeze. Birds fluttering in the bushes. Sunlight streaming through the trees.

D.A. Schwartz had thought he was ensuring her safety by removing her from the case and making her stay in Cedar Key, but he'd been wrong. Not even in Cedar Key was she safe.

Phil sighed. "I suppose the case will be dismissed without the murder weapon."

Could he convince Drew that there was no need for them to stay in Cedar Key? Maybe if they left, Kathryn could enjoy the rest of the week with Phil unthreatened. And maybe they'd find the gun.

"No, I didn't talk to Louie. I'll call the public defender later today and see what the evidence is, if he'll tell me." Phil cranked the car. "Okay, I'll see you over there in a few minutes."

Kathryn buckled her seatbelt. Somehow, she'd unbuckled it in her moment of panic, ready to flee the vehicle for the wooded area if the need had arisen. "He didn't suspect anything?"

"I don't think so." Phil pulled into the drive and around the back of the house. He slipped a key off his key ring and handed it to Kathryn. "Here. This is the key to the tree house rental. You follow me over there. If they're gone, you go in. If they're not, stay back. Don't let them see your car. They know what it looks like, remember?"

"Right. Got it." Kathryn's nerves erupted like an earthquake, and her entire body shook.

Phil grabbed her trembling hand. "Are you sure you're up for this after your allergic reaction?"

"Yes, I want to get this over with. The sooner we find the gun, the sooner we can get this case behind us."

He squeezed her hand. "And move forward?"

She nodded. "If you'd like to."

"Oh, I'd like to." Phil leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

When he pulled away, Kathryn leaned forward for a lingering moment. Why did it have to end? His lips were soft and comforting, yet there was passion in them. She could feel it.

"Kathryn?"

Her eyelids fluttered open. "Yes?"

"We had better get going. Unfortunately."

"Yeah. Unfortunately."

He cocked his head. "Maybe we can pick up with this later?"

"Rain check." Kathryn laughed and hopped out of his SUV. She skipped to her car with the same foxtrot she'd had earlier, almost forgetting about the threat to her life and his. Almost.

#

Drew and Barney were waiting on Phil when he arrived at Grandma's old cottage. Drew leaned against the car, and Barney stood on the front porch, looking as out-of-place here as Phil would look at a poker game with Uncle Louie's employees in the backroom of his shipping company.

Phil yanked his sunglasses off, grabbed his phone, and jumped out of his SUV. He straightened his shoulders and sucked in a deep breath preparing himself for his interaction with his cousins.

"Hey, Cuz. Thanks for making us work while we're down here." Drew dropped his cigarette on the ground and smashed it with the toe of his leather loafer.

"I needed the muscle power, and I figured you needed something to occupy your time other than looking for the gun."

"How do you know we're looking for the gun?" Barney tossed a toothpick on the ground.

Phil sent a disapproving look toward the litterbugs. "Aren't you?"

"Drew wants the gun. I'm looking for that D.A. The gun is probably long gone by now. Fun with the D.A. is a job perk."

Phil was just about to reach his boiling point. He'd just as soon cut Barney's arms off than let him put one single finger on Kathryn.
Stay calm!
"I told Drew she's not on the case anymore. What makes you think she's even here?"

"I told
you
that we heard she was down here, and we're going to convince her to drop her search."

He threw his hands in the air. These buffoons were relentless. "Who cares if she's here, guys? She's off the case."

"So what. It'll be fun to mess with her." Barney rubbed his hands back and forth against each other and grinned.

"You mean more than you already have?" Phil couldn't ask them about Kathryn's tires because if they found out he knew her, they'd force him to tell them where she was. Or they'd follow him to her. "You're ridiculous. Don't you have better things to do with your time?"

Barney unwrapped a stick of gum, folded it into his mouth, and threw the wrapper on the ground. "Not really."

Phil stepped up onto the front porch and glared at Barney. "Pick that wrapper up. I'm not your mama."

"Whatever. Let's get this done. I'm getting hungry."

Phil unlocked the door, and the two lumbering men followed him inside the dark and stuffy cottage. He kept the blinds drawn to keep the heat out and to keep vandals from knowing the place was unoccupied.

Drew ripped off his silk button down shirt revealing a white V-neck T-shirt underneath. "It's hot in here."

"Yeah, that's summertime in Florida. I don't run the air if nobody's here. You know Ma and Pops. They don't like to waste electricity."

"Yeah, they're cheapskates." Drew laughed.

"No, they're smart with their money. They're a lot smarter with theirs than you are with yours, I'm sure." Phil clicked the thermostat to come on. His two cousins provided more than enough hot air for this tiny place.

Drew scoffed, "Maybe but I always seem to find my way to more when I need it."

"Okay, okay, you guys, let's quit with the insults and get busy moving this furniture. I hate manual labor." Barney was dressed in a yellow-checkered silk dress shirt and black dress pants, as if he was going to a business dinner. What a way not to fit in here in Cedar Key.

They began in the living room shifting the flower-patterned plush furniture and wooden end tables and coffee table to the center of the room.

Barney grunted. "Why are you painting in here?"

"It hasn't been freshened up since Grandma lived here. Ma and Pops wanted to change things around and update. They're thinking of retiring here to be close to me. Well, that’s Ma’s idea. Not sure Pops could give up his golf course."

Barney nodded as if it made sense to him. "Yeah, remember coming down here during the summer when we were younger?"

Drew whacked Phil on the back, knocking him off balance. "Yeah, those were the days."

Phil grunted and put some distance between him and his cousins. "
Some
days. All I remember is defending myself against you two thugs. And trying not to drown in the swimming pool. About as bad as when we used to go to
Cayuga Lake.
"

Drew let out a whoop. "Yeah, now those were great days."

Barney closed the distance between them and pinched Phil's right cheek. "We just tried to toughen you up, Phil. You were always such a mama's boy."

"That's not true. I've just never been one to fight."

Drew glared at him with squinted eyes. "Yeah, what about in high school when you beat the snot out of Jimmy Mulligan?"

"Again, I was defending myself."

"Yeah, right."

"He's right, Drew. Phil was more the type for loving the ladies."

Phil shook his head. "Nope, I wasn't after what you guys were after."

"Your loss."

"Yeah, whatever, Drew. Let's get this finished up."

They moved the furniture to the center of each room, standing the mattresses up on their sides in the bedrooms, and then Phil had had enough of his cousins. He needed to get back to Kathryn. Maybe she'd found the gun.

"So we're done here?" Drew asked, moved to Phil's side, and held out his hand.

Phil accepted Drew's gesture. "Yeah, guess so. Thanks. I couldn't have done it without you guys." As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't have moved everything without their brute force.

"Anything for family. Right, Drew?" Barney moved to Phil's other side and slapped him on the back.

"How about I buy you guys something cold to drink in town?" Phil took a step back and walked toward the door.

"Maybe next time. You can return the favor by calling Louie."

Phil nodded. He'd promise them anything to get rid of them.

#

Kathryn ran up the stairs to the front porch of the tree house cottage and fumbled with the key to unlock the door. She scooted inside and locked the door behind her, then leaned against it to catch her breath. Sweat poured down her face and between her shoulder blades, and her heart raced.

The cottage, streaming with sunlight, was no bigger than a single wide mobile home, decorated with salmon-colored cushioned rattan furnishings and straw mats on the tile floors. There couldn't be too many places to hide a gun in this quaint getaway, but she'd never know if she didn't get started. She began by lifting the cushions on the sofa and chairs, then bent to her knees and looked underneath all of the furniture. She lifted the mats in case there was a hidden compartment underneath any of them. Nothing. Only someone desperate to escape quickly would hide a weapon in the living area of a cottage.