Chapter Nineteen
Nerves swam like a school of fish chasing the leader in circles. Jo left the station early, made sure Glynis had the calls forwarded to her for the night.
Gill had dropped Miss Gina off and pulled in the driveway shortly after Jo.
Jo grilled, she didn’t cook. Outside of a couple of steaks and some vegetables she could toss on the barbeque, they’d have to do without. Doing the whole domestic thing was like trying to wear two left shoes. Uncomfortable.
“I have beer, water, or milk,” Jo announced once Gill had returned from her backyard, where he had heated up the grill.
“Milk is for breakfast.”
Jo handed him a beer, twisted the cap off of one for herself.
“Your dad’s cabin is every hunter’s dream.”
“Are you a hunter?” she asked, wanting to get the pleasantries of his trip out of the way so she could determine what he’d learned.
“No. From what I saw, your dad didn’t dedicate all his time up there to searching for venison.”
“He’d bring back a deer once in a while. It wasn’t a big priority for him. The cabin was more a place to get away without going too far.”
“Because he was married to his work.” Gill’s statement made her pause.
“After my mom, yeah.”
Jo seasoned the steaks while they spoke.
“Does everyone in town know about the cabin?”
She nodded.
“Even the kids?”
“Not sure about those that have grown into their teenage years since his death, but yeah. Growing up, everyone I hung out with knew about the place. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was used by kids hooking up.”
Gill looked at her over the neck of his beer. “But not you?”
Jo’s skin crawled. “That place was always my dad’s. The idea of getting naked there with a boyfriend was about as appealing as having sex at the station.”
She lifted the platter with the food and encouraged Gill to follow her outside. Once there, Gill took the food from her and proceeded to take over the cooking detail.
Jo let him.
“On the report from your dad’s file, it listed more than a dozen names of men he’d been known to go up to the cabin with to hunt.”
“My guess is the list is short. Just about everyone with a shotgun went up there with my dad at one time or another. There were a few regulars, which is what the list is referring to.”
“His death was ruled accidental from the start.”
She nodded. “I made a stink, and because he was the sheriff, they made a second pass at the cabin, but by then there had been so many hands and eyes going through the place the prints they found were all accounted for.”
“Was your father a clean freak?”
“Define freak.”
“Everything has its place, spit shine and polish everything after it’s used?”
“He was neat,” Jo said. “Bleach clean . . . no. Not completely. He hated clutter but wasn’t big on using the vacuum obsessively.”
Gill flipped the steaks, lowered the flame on the gas grill. “That weekend he was up there alone, no visitors?”
“I was living in Waterville at the time. But that’s what Karl gave in his report. He’d asked Luke’s father to join him, but the garage was unusually busy, probably because of the class reunion.”
Gill tilted his beer back and then asked, “Class reunion?”
“Yeah, every year, within a couple weeks of my father’s death, there is a River Bend High class reunion. The ten-year reunions are always at the school gym.”
“What about a twenty-year, or thirty-year?”
Jo shook her head. “The school makes the effort for ten years, it’s up to the alumni to manage anything beyond that.”
“Was there a twenty that year?”
Jo scratched her head. “I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask.”
“Miss Gina didn’t know of a back way in and out from the cabin, do you know of any?”
Jo shook her head.
Gill shuffled the veggies on the grill a few times, kept his eye on their steaks. “At face value, I would have to agree with the original investigation, Jo.”
Her nose flared. “Face value?”
“Yeah. But there is something that bugs me about the whole thing.”
That, she wanted to hear. “Which is?”
“It was too easy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone knew when your father took time off, right?”
“Right.”
“And most knew exactly where he was going to go during his time off.”
“Yep.”
“So if your father had an enemy, they’d know where to find him alone and have an easy explanation for his death unless there was a struggle.”
Jo didn’t like the sound of it, but yes.
“There wasn’t a struggle,” Gill said as he removed their dinner from the grill.
“Which means the person who murdered him knew him.” Jo had already come up with that conclusion. “My dad didn’t have enemies.”
Gill gave her a sideways glance. “Everyone has enemies.”
A lack of outside furniture moved them both inside, where they dished up their food and sat at the small kitchen table. “Ask around town, Gill. Everyone loved my dad. Pillar of the community, respected.”
Gill cut into his steak, pointed a piece of meat at her with his fork. “If you believe he was murdered, he must have had an enemy.”
“I haven’t figured out who that is,” she said.
“Someone familiar with that cabin. Someone he trusted completely.”
“That would be just about everyone. Sure, there are a few people in town that stepped out of line over the years that needed my dad to reel them in. Zoe’s father was one of them, but he was in jail at the time of my dad’s death, and he wouldn’t have trusted Ziggy with a second of his time.”
Gill paused, started to laugh. “Zoe’s father’s name was Ziggy?”
Jo waved him off. “Long story.”
He spoke around his food. “What about Zoe’s mom, was she upset about her husband’s arrest?”
“The arrest happened long before my dad died. From what Zoe tells me, right after Ziggy went to jail, her family finally relaxed and learned to smile once in a while. The man was a real dirtbag,” Jo informed him. She took the first bite of her steak, hardly realizing that she wasn’t eating. “You grill a good steak.”
“Meat is my only cooking talent.”
“Great, mine, too. Malnourishment might be in our futures.”
That didn’t stop him from putting more in his mouth.
“I’ll continue looking, Jo. I’m not sure I’ll find anything.”
The fact that he looked was enough for her. “Thank you.”
Gill’s cell phone rang in his back pocket. He swallowed his food with a swig from his bottle and answered. “Hey, Shauna.”
Jo listened to the one-way conversation between Agent Burton and Gill, watched Gill’s body language. His smile moved to a frown, his brows pinched together, and he looked at his watch.
“When is this starting?” he asked.
Jo took another bite.
Gill pushed back from the table.
“I’ll be there.”
The steak in Jo’s throat went cold. As would Gill’s dinner, if she wasn’t mistaken.
He released a sigh as he placed his phone in his back pocket. “I have to go.”
“I thought as much. What’s going on?”
“The kids we’ve had our eye on have organized a rave-style party.”
“So you’re crashing a rave.”
He laughed, looked down at his broad chest. “I don’t blend, JoAnne. But surveillance will give us something, with any luck.”
Jo followed him into her bedroom, where he gathered the small bag he’d brought with him holding a change of clothes and a toothbrush.
“I’m sorry I have to rush out.”
“Don’t be. I completely understand.” Even if she was a little disappointed she wouldn’t be cuddling with the man that night.
Gill wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I’m going to miss you.”
“You’re a distraction,” she told him, not committing to the missing him words.
He kissed her with a smile, warmed into the kiss before letting her go. “Okay, going now.”
She walked him to her garage, opened the door so he could pull his bike out. “Be safe.”
He pulled his helmet over his head, tucked his fingers into riding gloves, and kicked the bike over. With a wink, he backed out of her driveway and waved as he drove away.
She watched until his bike disappeared completely, waited another minute before the noise of the Harley faded. When she turned to go back inside, her skin prickled, and she twisted around. None of her neighbors had stepped outside, but she was fairly certain someone watched.
Mel had roped Jo into doing some crafty crap for the upcoming reunion all day Monday, and then Zoe came over to add her ideas . . . then there were cocktails, as in more than two, which was rare for Jo when in town. Mondays were routinely her day off, and since she’d met Gill, she was reminded to have a life of her own. If he could escape his duty with the FBI, she certainly could manage a day without carrying her gun or wearing her uniform at all.
By Wednesday she was into her routine, her morning run over, the afternoon planned, which included a trip into Waterville with her squad car for the recall. Something about brake failure after fifty thousand miles. There had been enough cars in their fleet to warrant a recall for officer safety. Fitzpatrick was on call, and Emery was at the helm.
All her plans went to hell with one frantic phone call.
“Someone stole her. My Jezebel. Oh, my God. You have to find her.”
Cherie was borderline hysterical.
The call came in as Jo was passing R&B’s. She hit the brakes, which were not yet faulty, to take the call. “Cherie, calm down. Start from the beginning.”
“Someone stole her, Jo. I let Jezebel outside to do her thing. She’s never long. I leave the back door open for her. She’s gone. Gone!” Cherie spoke in short bits and spurts. “The puppies are barking. She never ignores her babies.”
“How long has she been gone?”
“Half an hour.”
Jo checked the time. Chances were the dog chased a squirrel or some such animal and ended up on the other side of the fence. In light of the dog issues, she couldn’t leave without checking around the neighborhood.
“Keep looking for her, I’m on my way over.”
By the time Jo arrived at Cherie’s home, which was on the other end of town, the timeline of the dog’s disappearance ran on forty-five minutes.
From inside the house, Jo heard a couple of the dogs barking at the excitement. She walked around the back instead of knocking on the door. Cherie kept her fence secure; the automatic closing arm and heavy spring couldn’t be manipulated by the dogs.
Cherie was at the far end of the yard, calling the dog’s name.
Making sure the gate was closed behind her, Jo walked along the fence toward Cherie, looking for places the dog could have escaped.
The woman was close to tears. “This isn’t like her. Even before the puppies, she wasn’t the one to run off.”
Jo placed a hand on Cherie’s shoulder. “We’ll find her.”
They walked the fence together. Toward the south corner of the yard, a second gate gave access to the field beyond. The latch was secure. “How often do you use this gate?” Jo asked.
“Daily. I take the dogs on walks out in the woods to avoid my neighbors.”
A path ran from the gate to a patch of trees. “Have you checked out there?”
“To the tree line. I didn’t want to leave the puppies or miss it if she came back.”
“She’ll come back,” Jo assured her.
“This isn’t like her at all. I know my dogs. This is her second litter, and she’s a very good mom. Cried when I found homes for her last puppies.”
Jo didn’t care for the sound of that. “Do any of the dogs wander off to a neighbor’s?”
“The neighbors who called Deputy Emery on me? No.”
Those same neighbors had called Jo, but she wasn’t about to tell her that.
Jo opened the back gate. “You stay here in case she shows up. I’ll search the woods.”
“Okay.” Cherie reached into the pocket of the windbreaker she was wearing. “Here, a treat for her.”
Jo took the dog food and put it in the front pocket of her pants.
It was spring in Oregon, which called for cloudy skies and misty weather most days. This one had a breeze that bordered on brisk. Under the cover of the pine trees, it was downright cold.
Jo walked through an obvious trail, calling the dog’s name. Twenty minutes down the trail, Jo doubled back without luck.
Cherie was on her back porch, the alpha at her side.
“I called my brother.”
“Good. I’ll drive around.”
Cherie wiped a tear from her eyes. “I need to feed her babies.”
Which meant bottles for the puppies and hours of time and effort. It was in the middle of the school day or Jo would solicit some of her runners to help.
“You take care of the puppies, I’ll find their mom. Dogs don’t just disappear.”
Only Cherie didn’t look convinced.
Drew walked behind Tina, her ass keeping the attention of his eyes and the hardness in his dick. Not that he needed a visual for that. He was seventeen, the damn thing had a mind of its own.
He placed both hands on her hips in a playful tickle.
She laughed and skirted out of his reach in a playful way.
He took the action as a positive sign.
“We’re supposed to be looking for a dog.”
The entire distance team was asked to run in different parts of town, in pairs. They could train and try to find a missing dog.
Drew actually liked dogs, and the searching in pairs thing was a complete win when Tina was playing nice.
“We are looking for a dog.” Drew blew a whistle. “We’re also supposed to be running.”
“Yeah, well . . .”
Tina sat on the fence of rebellion. With a little work, the girl could be a perfect mix of naughty and sweet. But the naughty part also gave her an edge that sometimes turned on him in a negative way. She was one of the prettiest girls in school and she had a decent rack. And Drew liked boobs.
Thinking about those boobs had him shuffling his legs in an effort to not embarrass himself with a raging hard-on.
They were a good two miles deep in the woods, the backyard he’d grown up in and an open space between the dog lady’s property and his parents’. Everything connected eventually, but this part of the open space that surrounded River Bend happened to be the center of Drew’s childhood. Tina lived on the other side of town, where the houses were a little bigger and the people had a little more money than the rest of them.
Tina whistled. “Here, doggie.”
“Bet the thing is on the road to Waterville,” Drew said.
“Yeah. Probably. But Coach Ward doesn’t ask us to do this kind of thing very often.”
Girls liked guys who liked animals. “It’s probably scared.” He dipped his voice, pretended he really cared.
Tina gave him a coy little smile. A grin that told him he was working it.
“Maybe we should split up,” Tina suggested.
“That’s not a good idea. It’s easy to get lost out here.”
Tina stopped, looked around. She pointed behind them. “That’s the way back to your house.”
Drew moved beside her, captured her hand, and moved it a foot. “More like over there.”
“Oh.”
When she dropped her hand, he kept a hold of it. Before too long, Tina laced her fingers with his.
Holding hands was nice, but what he really wanted to do was make out, maybe get a little further.
They walked a few more feet, neither one of them acknowledging their hand holding outside of a smile.
“Prom’s coming up,” Drew said.
Tina squeezed his hand. Her voice trembled a little when she spoke. “I know.”
“Looks like it will be fun.”
He noticed the color rise to Tina’s cheeks, the sparkle of hope in her eye. “It does.”
“It could be lame, too.”
She frowned.
“Prom can’t be lame.”
“Oh, I don’t know. It would be lame if you didn’t go. Sitting at home on prom night when everyone else is dressed up and having fun.”
Tina narrowed her eyes. “You can always go to prom, even without a date.”
“Who said anything about a date?”
She was frowning now.
Drew kept a straight face, turned away, and whistled for the dog.
As if reminded about their task, Tina called for “doggie” again.
A few more feet and still holding hands, Drew tested the waters. “Do you have a date for prom?”
Tina shook her head. “No, do you?”
“No.”
That seemed to make her happy.
He waited a few steps, then asked, “If I asked you to prom, would you say yes?”
She stopped. “If you asked me?”
Drew stepped in front of her, looked down. “Yeah, if I asked you.”
“If you asked me, I might say yes. Depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“How you asked me.”
“How?”
Tina shrugged. “Yeah, like will you ask me with flowers? Or will you put a sign in the school gym asking me? Make a big fuss during a track meet? You know, how you ask.”
Drew cussed all the guys before him that had started the traditions of grand gestures to ask a girl to prom. “You know all the guys who do that already know the girl is going to say yes, right?” He made that up but hoped he’d said it in a convincing enough way that Tina would believe him.
“Really?”
He turned, her hand still in his, and kept walking. “You can’t tell your girlfriends this. It’s part of the guy code.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. So the guys who do all those crazy things wouldn’t do it if a girl is going to turn them down. When was the last time you saw that?”
Tina mused that over for a moment. “Never.”
“See.”
“Hmm.” She walked, obviously weighing the truth in his words. “Ask me,” she finally said.
Drew smiled. “Okay, I will.”
She stopped. “No. Ask me now.”
He took both her hands in his. He’d seen that in a late movie once. “Tina, will you go to prom with me?”
Straight teeth flashed. “I’d love to go to prom with you.”
Drew licked his lips and made his move.
They’d made out before, at the beginning of the school year, but somewhere along the line Tina freaked out and stopped wanting to be with him.
They were both a little older. Six months in high school made a difference, at least in his head. He wasn’t sure if Tina had been practicing on her pillow or watching some kind of porn on her phone, but her kissing had improved.
He was raging within seconds of their tongues touching, but he kept his cool and let her get used to him being in her personal space.
Tina wrapped her arms around his back and he had no choice but to move closer. The contact of his boner touching her stomach used to make her jump. Not now.
He wondered why, but then she pulled back for air and kissed him harder.
Tina had definitely changed. When he ran his hand up her back and touched the side of one of her boobs, she didn’t stop him.
This was worth a trip to prom.
Drew took it further, a full palm with a full boob. His hard-on screamed.
It wasn’t until he reached for the edges of her shirt and lifted it up that he felt Tina hesitate.
He backed off. Disappointed but hopeful. “Too much?” he asked.
“A little.” Her sheepish smile was a little adorable.
“Can we still make out?”
She nodded and lifted her lips to his.
Drew backed her up to a tree, like he’d seen in that movie.
Tina seemed to like it.
He went back where he was, kissing her, one hand on one boob until he felt her nipple under the fabric tighten. Then he moved to the other.
Tina kept her hand on his back until he pushed one down over his ass. At first she just let it sit there, and then she squeezed.
He thought he was going to come, right there in the woods, completely clothed. He stopped kissing her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing.” He saw stars. “This is really good.”
When his hips pushed her into the tree, the light in her head must have turned on.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Sorry. I can’t help it.”
His words must have relaxed her. “I know. It’s okay.”
There she was, looking all adorable at him. “We should probably stop. I don’t want to scare you.”
“I’m not scared. Just not ready.”
“We don’t have to rush.” How he wanted to rush, but he wasn’t stupid. Prom was over a month away. A lot could happen in a month.
“Let’s head back,” Tina suggested. “That stupid dog isn’t out here.”
They walked, hand in hand, for about a mile. Then decided to run so it looked like they’d followed all of Coach Ward’s instructions.
About a half a mile to his house, Tina’s shoe came untied.
They used the last bit of hiding in the woods to practice their kissing. Drew went straight for her boobs, and she grabbed his butt without him suggesting it. When they broke for air, his body protested, but his head knew he was getting there. They dodged off the path, taking a shortcut that would bring them out of the woods a few minutes later.
They ran by a fallen log, and something caught Drew’s eye.
He slowed down. “Tina, hold up,” he yelled.
Drew stepped over the log and around the trunk of a big tree.
He froze. “Christ!”
“What is it?”
Drew turned so fast he nearly fell over the dead tree on the ground. “Don’t look,” he yelled.
But it was too late, and Tina started to scream.