When She Wasn't Looking (18 page)

“You’re not making any sense.”

“Maybe this would help.” He shoved her into her chair and took out his gun.

All the color drained from the woman’s already pale face. Amazing how a weapon could change the conversation. Get it back on track.

“What are you doing with that?” she asked.

“I need you to tell Courtney to come here. Alone.” He picked up the receiver and held it in front of Ellie’s face.

“I don’t—”

Kurt grabbed Ellie’s purse off the edge of her desk and dug around for her cell phone. He dumped that on the desk, too. Between a call and a test, Ellie would get the job done.

Or she better. “I am not in the mood to deal with the deputy police chief. He needs to stay away. Tell Courtney to come alone.”

Ellie shook her head, sending her blond hair swinging. “He won’t leave her side.”

“Then you better be convincing. Make Courtney think you’ll die if she doesn’t slip away and get here.” Kurt inched forward until the gun touched the woman’s forehead. “Because, Ellie, you will.”

* * *

J
ONAS WATCHED
C
ADE
put his wallet and gun on the desk for the inventory clerk to tag. They were at the police station. Jonas had done everything he could to intimidate the other man on the drive over. Nothing really worked, since Cade hadn’t said a word or even looked up since Jonas walked him in the building.

Neither had Courtney. Even now, she sat in Jonas’s big desk chair and stared straight ahead.

Rich joined Jonas in the doorway to his office, and after a quick glance in Courtney’s direction, joined in watching Cade. “She okay?”

“No.” Jonas wondered if she would ever be okay.

How could a person live through everything she had and come out the other side? She’d fostered her hatred for Cade, and when faced with the moment of victory, she’d looked as confused and panicked as a little kid lost in a department store.

Rich crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you think about this Willis character?”

The man in question mumbled answers to whatever questions he was being asked. He nodded and shuffled his feet. His wet shirt hung untucked, as if he had just come through a fight, which he had.

Hardly the actions of a trained assassin out for a fresh kill. Cade struck Jonas more like a lost male version of Courtney.

“Courtney hates him,” he said.

“You know that’s not what I’m asking.”

“His face when I mentioned Eckert…” Jonas shook his head and closed his eyes when the small shake sent pain bouncing around in there. “I don’t think it was guilt. The accusation he killed his partner shook him, as if he was out there trying to find the murderer.”

“So Willis really came here just to scare the crap out of Courtney and ended up getting his friend killed?” Rich whistled. “Try living with that.”

Jonas had. Every single day since he left his last job he struggled with the crushing regret.

He’d shot a kid during a drug bust and then had to defend his actions when the kid’s gangbanger friend and vocal family insisted Jonas pulled first. As if dealing with the death of a kid at his hands wasn’t bad enough, he had to handle the aftermath. The fallout included a suspension and mandatory check-ins with an office shrink. The newspaper stories detailing the abuses of the Los Angeles Division of the DEA and its rogue officer—him—came later.

Not one word of the vile story was true, but the damage had been done. Jonas lost pay and the respect of his team. The entire division had to undergo special training. New regulations came down requiring more warnings before a shooting. The new protocol for delayed engagement put the agents at risk.

Basically, the administrative folks did everything they could think of to tie the hands of the people in the field. And everyone blamed Jonas. Everyone except Henry.

The case took a toll, wore Jonas down physically and mentally. His refusal to take medicine earned him an extended suspension. When he finally returned to the job things went okay for a while.

His boss would later call the disaster the result of a loss of self-confidence. Jonas called it a fast track to Henry’s death. Out on a call, Henry waited to pull a gun. So did Jonas. But by the time the weapons came out Henry was on the ground and his killers were off and running.

Henry McCarthy, dead at thirty-one.

That’s how the newspaper article started. The sentence was seared into Jonas’s brain.

Jonas looked at Cade’s slumped shoulders. Jonas tried to block out the heartbreak that had pounded off of Cade when he stood in the parking lot and talked about his father. Jonas tried to imagine how far he would go to clear his father’s name. He’d do anything for the man who raised him and died before he witnessed Jonas’s shame.

“Cade is as sure of his father’s innocence as Courtney is of her father’s,” Jonas said.

“What do you think?” Rich asked.

“I’m wondering if they’re both victims.” Jonas knew she hated the word, but it fit here. Two families destroyed by a horrible act, spending years pointing fingers at each other instead of healing. “Their focus on each other could have let the person really responsible slip under the radar.”

Rich exhaled. “You know what that means, right?”

“That another killer is loose in Aberdeen.” Jonas glanced at Rich’s fixed jaw. “We’ve both known that for a half hour and have been trying not to say it.”

“I wanted it to be Willis so we could wrap the case up and end it.”

“Me, too.”

Rich kept his focus on Cade. “It’s pretty hard to fathom all that death so close to a place many think makes Mayberry look a little loose.”

“Let him go.” Courtney’s firm voice shot out of the back of the office.

Both Rich and Jonas turned around at the same time. She hadn’t gotten up. Hadn’t moved even an inch, as far as Jonas could tell. Her hands remained folded on top of his desk and her back stayed straight.

She was on the verge of falling apart. Under all that strength, she shook and trembled. Jonas never would have noticed it before. He saw it now. The determination hid a lifetime of pain. The attitude covered all the insecurities.

“He assaulted an officer.” That was the charge Jonas put on the sheet. It would stick. Witnesses across the street and the motel manager saw Cade drag Courtney out of the car, saw it all unfold.

Her eyes finally focused. For the first time in what felt like forever, she stared at Jonas instead of looking through him. “Cade had it all figured out in his mind. You killed Eckert. Cade thought you were trying to kill him like you did his partner. It was self-defense.”

Rich scoffed. “That’s bull—”

“Cade was out of line and deserves a takedown. Rogue agents with a badge don’t serve anyone.” Jonas struggled to keep his voice calm. She didn’t need any more drama today.

“Yeah.” She pushed out of the seat and walked across the room. Even her footsteps seemed unsure and uneven. “But it was instinct.”

Jonas snorted. “I’m not ready to forgive.”

“You think
I
am? I still don’t understand what’s going on.” Her wide eyes mirrored the confusion in her voice.

“Do you think he’s the one who’s trying to kill you?” Rich asked.

“No.”

Her answer surprised Jonas. “Why?”

“He carries a gun and a badge and could have walked right up to my door and taken me away without ever involving you. So few people know me here that it would have taken days, maybe weeks, for anyone to notice I was gone. By then I would have been dead.” She sighed as if the weight of the world had been dropped on her shoulders. “No, this is something deeper.”

“The real killer?” Rich separated each word with a pause.

She let out a harsh laugh. “I don’t even know how to answer that.”

Jonas’s heart ripped in two over the sight of this beautiful, amazing woman brought to her knees. “Courtney—”

“I was so sure Tad Willis killed them all.” She looked up at Jonas, her eyes clouded with tears. “What if I was wrong?”

He cupped her cheek. “And what if he read his dad all wrong? Maybe his dad did it.”

“And Cade is not exactly innocent in this. He wanted to scare you, to break you,” Rich said.

Jonas was deathly afraid Cade had succeeded.

She turned her head and pressed a kiss in Jonas’s open palm. “I just want to go home and go to sleep.”

Her words kicked him right in the gut, each syllable a crack against his ribs. “I don’t think your house is safe.”

“I mean your place.” She dropped Jonas’s hand and walked back into his office. “Let Cade go while I get my stuff.”

Rich watched her. “That’s a fine woman right there.”

Jonas wasn’t sure how he felt about the house thing, but he sure didn’t hate it. The idea of waking up with her, holding her, settled inside him on a wave on contentment. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

If she could make this bold move, he could answer with one of his own. He stepped up to the counter. They were about the same height but he seemed to loom over Cade. The man shrank as he stood.

Jonas signaled to the man behind the desk. “Give Agent Willis his property back.”

The officer frowned. “Sir?”

For the first time since they walked in the door, the other man looked up. Jonas could feel the heat of Cade’s stare. “Ms. Allen has decided not to press charges. I’m holding off…for now.”

Cade finally faced Jonas. “Why?”

“What matters is what I’m about to tell you.” Jonas leaned against the counter and pitched his voice low. He didn’t need an audience for this. Some conversation had to be handled man-to-man. “You finish whatever business you have here over the Eckert murder, then you leave. You don’t come near Courtney ever again. You don’t talk with her or contact her. Hell, I don’t want you thinking about her.”

Something that looked like hope moved in Cade’s green eyes. “And?”

“You do that and manage to clean your reputation over the Eckert murder and him being in town, and I’ll leave you alone. You can have your life back, but you’re on your own on your part in getting Eckert to come to Aberdeen. You get to explain that to your people.” Jonas exhaled. “But I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“I appreciate that.”

“But you bother her in any way, or have anyone else do it by tracking her down or following her, and criminal charges will be the least of your problems.”

“You.”

“Yeah, me.” Jonas leaned in closer. “Look, I don’t know the answer about the murders, but I’m thinking someone is setting you both up. You investigate somewhere else, and away from her, and I’ll stay out of your business.”

Cade nodded. “Why are you letting me go now?”

“It was her, not me.” Jonas slipped the arrest paperwork off the desk and crumpled it in a ball. “She’s giving you a chance. I’d take it.”

Cade stared at Jonas in a visual showdown that quickly fizzled. He grabbed his property and turned around. “I didn’t send any of those men except Eckert.”

“Meaning?”

“I’m not a killer.”

“So you keep saying.”

“There’s someone else after her, and I’m thinking that person could clear my dad.”

Jonas’s stomach turned over at the thought. He could fight a foe he could see. This mystery attacker added layers Jonas didn’t need. “That’s for me to worry about. You get lost.”

Chapter Twenty-One

After all that had happened, Courtney’s nerves went numb. She couldn’t feel anything. Her muscles worked, but her arms and legs weighed more than she could lift. Even walking hurt. And her brain was set to permanent misfire.

She didn’t understand how she could put her life back together again or where to turn. All she knew was that she wasn’t ready to leave Jonas’s side. Good news was that he didn’t seem inclined to push her away.

“Courtney?” He called out from the dining room. “Everything okay in there?”

“Sure.”

“You can turn on the television.”

She didn’t have the strength or the interest to search for the remote. Sitting sucked up all her energy. She hovered at the point of having to remind her lungs to breathe.

They’d been home from the station, from Jonas’s latest beating on her behalf, for less than an hour and already he was back to work. He had the files spread out on the table and the boxes opened. Where the burst of energy came from, she’d never know.

Rich had promised to check on Ellie, then he would be by to assist. That allowed Courtney time to concentrate very hard on doing nothing.

She lay curled up on the couch with a blanket pulled up over her feet and ran her fingers through her still-damp hair. The rhythmic pull allowed her to get lost in random thoughts. She’d changed into dry clothes, but her body refused to get warm.

She knew she should stand up and walk into the dining room and help. She’d memorized every paper about the case that she could get her hands on over the past ten years. There could be new information in the boxes. Combining the facts in her head with whatever new information waited in those files could resolve everything.

But her brain needed rest. She wanted to go one hour, one minute even, without thinking about Cade Willis or her family or anything related to murder and attacks.

If she closed her eyes she saw Cade’s mental implosion in the parking lot. If she opened them, she saw her father’s face pleading with her to clear his name.

Even without those competing images, the idea of hiding in her thoughts proved impossible. A killer still lurked and no one in Aberdeen was safe until they figured out the person’s identity and stopped him.

“Courtney?” She heard Jonas’s chair scrape against the floor as he got up. Then his hands touched her shoulders and rubbed in a gentle massage. “Where are you? Your body is here but I’m not reaching the rest of you.”

“I’m just distracted.”

Jonas balanced his leg on the armrest behind her. “If you need to do some work, we can set up a place for your illustration. I won’t pretend to know what you need, but I can figure out something.”

He is a good man.

She leaned back and inhaled the fresh scent of his soap. The fight had left his clothes ripped and his body bruised. He’d changed now and insisted the shower revived him. Even asked her to join him in the stall, but she couldn’t.