Chapter 1
Corey ended his call to his sister and dialed Mason. “I just heard from my sister,” he said without preamble.
“And?” Mason’s voice sounded unconcerned, as if having moved on to something else after their conversation from ten minutes ago.
Corey understood. He was like that himself. “She said Angela, the friend I met, has disappeared.”
“What?” There was a long pause. “She has nothing to do with the military, correct?”
“Not that I know of. She did ask me to meet her at that coffee shop near the base.”
“So that means the local police.” Mason paused for a long moment. “Has your sister contacted anyone?”
“She went to the police and reported Angela as missing.”
“Let’s get a hold of them first. Find out if a missing person’s file has been opened and if they know anything.”
Corey snorted. “You know, even if they have anything, they aren’t going to tell me.”
“Exactly, but we might be able to ask Alex to dig into this too. Get back on the phone. Get every last detail you can from your sister.” Again Mason hesitated. “What exactly did you and Angela talk about?”
Corey stared out the window. “Not much. It was just the ‘Hi, how are you? Isn’t it lovely weather?’ awkward conversation that happens when you haven’t seen somebody for years, someone you hadn’t expected to ever see again.”
“And yet she called you?”
“Yes, she did. And, yes, I should have been prepared. But I wasn’t. Seeing her again hit me like a punch to the gut.”
“But you did see her after the miscarriage?”
“Yes, I did. Several times.”
“How long since the last time you saw her?”
“Two days ago. Before that it had been twelve years.”
“Okay, get back to your sister. I’ll call Alex.”
Mason hung up. Corey was surprised to see he was shaking.
What he hadn’t told Mason was the shock of hearing her voice. That slam to his heart and his gut. The reason they’d broken up had been the miscarriage. But he hadn’t been the one who wanted to break up. He’d wanted to get married and try again. And she hadn’t wanted anything to do with that. He understood at the time she had been dealing with the miscarriage and the grief process.
But somehow she’d been unable to separate him from that horrible event. And had walked away. He’d tried hard to understand. He’d tried to stay in touch, but, every time he contacted her, she hadn’t responded. Finally he talked to several of her friends, and they all said the same things. “For her, it’s over. Move on.”
His method of moving on had been to join the navy. It had taken a lot of years to rebuild his life, and just the shock of seeing her walk back into it the way she had, had been very disorienting.
He’d been more than happy to meet up with her. In fact, he’d been excited to see her, hoping maybe, after all this time, they could at least be friends. But she hadn’t acted normal. She’d been nervous, tired, as if under a great deal of stress.
When he’d asked what was wrong, she’d shaken her head, given him a sad smile and said, “Life just is. You head down a path you think will lead somewhere good, only it doesn’t. But you’re too far down to change direction.”
He thought about every moment of that very short visit. He realized her gaze had never stopped searching the restaurant. He had even asked her, “Are you expecting somebody else?”
She had given him a false laugh and said, “Expecting? No. Wondering? Yes.”
He’d leaned back and stared at her. “What’s this all about?”
But she’d hedged. “What? Can’t I call up an old friend?”
“Is that what we are?”
She’d sat in her seat, stared at him for a long moment, her gaze going behind his shoulder before she said, “I was wrong to call you. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to dredge up bad memories.” She grabbed her purse, stood and walked outside.
He’d raced out behind her. “What do you mean, bad memories? I got over it. I was hoping you had too.”
She’d turned her glance his way. “Of course I got over it. But one never really forgets, does one?”
He took a deep breath, realizing just how much he hadn’t forgotten as he stared at the woman he’d loved for so long. But it had been a young love. He’d been an infatuated fool back then. He was much older, much wiser and a whole lot more experienced in relationships now. And what he realized today was that what they had was very sweet.
“No, we don’t forget,” he’d said quietly. “Plus I never went on to have a family.”
She’d glanced at him, startled, and then nodded. “I’m sorry.” In her vehicle, she’d turned on the engine and smiled. “Just forget I was ever here.” And she’d backed out of the parking lot and taken off. But, as she drove away, she’d turned to look behind her. And it wasn’t to catch another glimpse of him.
Now he realized all the telltale signs he had missed. If only he hadn’t been so rattled to see her, then he would have realized she was in trouble. He picked up his cell phone, just now wondering how she had gotten his number. And then realized his sister must have given it to her. He called Angela. Instead of ringing, the phone went straight to voice mail.
“Angela, this is Corey. Call me.”
Given that type of a message, the chances of her returning his call were pretty slim. But at least he’d opened the door. It was up to her if she walked through it or not. And then he winced. At least that was what he had thought two days ago.
Maybe not. There was a darn good chance she wasn’t in any position to answer. And then what the hell would he do? He’d just come through a really rough time with Macklin, dealing with the murder of somebody he knew. And that had been somebody who had caused him nothing but trouble. How would Corey feel if somebody he had cared about deeply was in trouble and if he hadn’t stepped up to help?
“But she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong,” he muttered to the empty kitchen. Remembering Mason’s instructions, he called his sister back. She answered this time.
“Sis, Mason is checking with local police here. But I need you to give me all the details, everything you know about Angela. I saw her but only for about ten minutes. She looked pale, worn out, stressed.”
“Yes. She was stressed all right. She went to you for help,” his sister scolded.
“Well, we never got to that topic. And it would have been nice if you had given me some warning,” he snapped. “I get that you don’t care one bit about my history with Angela, but it was a hell of a shock seeing her.”
Her tone softened. “I’m sorry. Do you still care that much?”
“It doesn’t matter how much I care now. It was a long time ago. But, seeing her after all that time, remembering how she wouldn’t talk to me back then, it was a bit of an adjustment.” He shook his head. “No. I don’t have any excuse for the way I acted. I should have forced her to sit down and tell me what was going on right now. Instead, I let her run away. I should have known better. It’s what she’d done before. It’s what I felt like she always did.”
“She’s changed. That miscarriage really hurt her.”
“Ditto,” he snapped. “That doesn’t change the fact she’s in trouble now.”
“No. But she wouldn’t tell me exactly what was going on. She was looking to hire a private investigator. She wondered if you would know a good one.”
“No, it’s more than that.” He glared around his kitchen. It was still clean because he barely ever cooked in it. Just breakfast mostly. His life was simple. In many ways, hollow. “You could have asked me that. She could have asked me that. On the phone. So why meet me in person? Especially after twelve years?”
“I have been telling her about your life for the last decade,” his sister said on a bitter laugh. “It really surprised me when she said she was going to see you. I feel bad. I’ve been so busy with my studies and work that I haven’t had the time or energy to keep up with what’s going on with her. Any time I asked how she was she always said fine and just brushed me off. She was more worried about me staying focused on my work, she never told me how bad it was. That makes me feel like shit.”
Knowing his sister was tired and stressed, he hated to hear her take on more guilt. Her shoulders were broad, but they were overwhelmed at this stage. Corey tried to help. “I’ll find her and see what’s going on. And, if she’s in trouble, I am someone who might be able to help her.”
“Then why the hell did you let her walk away?” his sister cried. Almost immediately she calmed down. “I’m sorry. That’s so not fair. You’re right. I should have warned you. When she left my apartment, I should have called you and said that she was in trouble and that she was coming to you for help.”
“Yes. You should have,” Corey said. “Then I would have convinced her to talk to me more. I was just still so focused on what was happening with a friend of mine and then, seeing Angela like that out of the blue, … well, I was off my game. I’m sorry for that.”
“What happened? I heard something about a murder on the base.”
“An old stalker of Macklin’s was murdered.”
And suddenly his sister gasped in sympathy. “Oh, no. He’s such a teddy bear. He’s really had such shitty luck.”
Corey remembered explaining a little bit about Macklin’s problems in an earlier conversation. “Well, because it was his stalker who was murdered, the police immediately looked at him as a suspect.”
“But he wouldn’t hurt a fly,” his sister exclaimed. “He’s a sweetie.”
“Maybe. But he’s also very well-trained and could have snapped her neck in no time.”
“Is that how she died?”
“No. And that’s part of the problem. Anyway, they solved the case last night. I haven’t heard all the details, but Macklin now has a relationship with the detective from his case.”
She chuckled. “Good for him. I’m glad to see maybe his luck is turning.”
“True enough. Back to Angela. I need contact information. I need to know where she lived, where she worked and if you have any idea what was going on.”
“I don’t have much.” She rattled off the address. “Do you have her cell phone number?”
“I do. But my calls go to voice mail. What about where she worked?”
“She was a website designer. She had her own company and worked from home most of the time.”
“Interesting. Do you have keys to her place?”
“Yes, actually I do,” his sister said in surprise. “I never even thought about that. I drove past, but I didn’t go in.”
“You have a lot on your plate. No worries. I’ll come and take a look.”
“Good. Are you coming tonight? Because I won’t be home for several hours.”
“When are you out of school?”
“Never, as you well know. I’ll be very glad when this is all over.” She sounded more than just exhausted. “Come and stay overnight with me. It will be nice to spend some time together.”
Corey hated that this was adding to her stress. “How about I take you out for dinner tonight?”
“That would be nice,” she said with enthusiasm. “I’m really looking forward to seeing you.”
“Ditto.” He hung up and turned to look around his small apartment. He shouldn’t need an overnight bag, but, not knowing where this trip would take him, he decided to go prepared to stay for several days, just in case something unusual popped up. Given that Angela worked from home, Corey imagined she had attracted a cyberstalker. Maybe it was just Macklin’s recent stalker case filling Corey’s mind with scenarios, but it was a start. Plus too many people were too transparent on the internet with all the various social media outlets. Based on that, he wondered which IT specialist in his circle to contact.
He had a bunch of them to choose from. Particularly doing the missions they did in the military. Some of the men in his unit were incredibly talented, and a lot were really good hackers. It wasn’t what they did full-time, but it was what they did on their time off.
Corey pulled out eggs and sausage from the refrigerator. He quickly made himself a solid meal. Just as he sat to eat, his phone rang again. He fished it out if his pocket to see it was Mason. “What did you find out?” He took a bite of egg as he listened.
“Her file was opened but extremely sketchy in details. They want to talk to you.”
Corey groaned. “I was heading out to see my sister. I wanted to check out Angela’s place. Apparently she’s a graphic artist, and she builds websites for a living.”
“Sounds interesting. Yet it could be a wasted trip.”
“Still, we need to check out where she was, what she was doing, see if there’s any sign of who she was running from or running to.”
“We?”
Corey sat back. “I was hoping one of the many IT guys we have in our nice little circle might be available.”
“Take Warrick. He’s got several days off. Supposedly to see his girlfriend. They were going to the coast for a couple days, but they just broke up.”
“What? Warrick and Sandra broke up?”
“Yeah. Happened last weekend. That’s the way it works sometimes. Warrick is now single, but Macklin looks to be involved.”
“Good for Macklin. Not for Warrick. Although he and Sandra had been fighting off and on since forever, so it wasn’t exactly a match made in heaven.”
“True. He needs to find somebody like Tesla. Hell, you need to find somebody like Tesla.”
“Dude, if Tesla could be cloned, we’d all have made copies and grabbed one for ourselves. She’s fantastic.”
“Well, Devlin wouldn’t take a copy. He’s pretty darn happy with Bristol.”
“You all make me sick sometimes,” Corey said with a laugh before he shoved a bite of sausage in his mouth. “I’ll contact Warrick. Then I’ll stop by the police station, give them a statement before I head out to my sister’s for the night. If I can drag Warrick along with me, I will.”
“And I’ll run interference here. Somebody needs to check some street cameras. The ideal scenario would be if we found out she was being followed.”
“There’s nothing ideal about that,” Corey said, his heart sinking at the thought. Surely he’d have noticed, wouldn’t he? “I did stand in the coffee shop parking lot for a few minutes, and vehicles were pulling in and out at that time, but I wasn’t watching them.”
“Tell the cops that. They can check the cameras at the coffee shop. Or at least cameras at the closest intersections and see if anybody was on her tail.”
“Will do.” He hung up, finished off his breakfast, grabbed a bag and started packing. Then realized he hadn’t called Warrick. He dialed his friend’s number. “Hey, I hear you have a few days with nothing to do.”
“Yeah. Apparently I have the rest of my life free too.” Warrick’s tone was snippy.
“How about coming with me for a couple days to get your mind off things?”
“What’s up?” Warrick asked, his interest piquing in spite of himself.
Corey laughed. “Any disaster in our world makes us happy, doesn’t it?”
“What kind of disaster?”
“A friend of mine might be in trouble.” He explained what had happened. “I’m heading to my sister’s. We’ll stay overnight. I’ll go through Angela’s apartment. It might be our only way of knowing what’s going on. I want to get there before the police do.”
“Are you allowed to?”
“I wasn’t planning on asking for permission,” Corey said cheerfully. “Are you in or out?”
“Hell, I’m in. Can’t say I’m too thrilled about the first stop at the police station, but I’m up for visiting your sister and definitely interested in helping out your friend. When are we leaving?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
*
Angela gripped the steering wheel with more force than necessary. She tried to relax, to unclench her grip around the leather, but it was as if her fingers were claws. She didn’t have a clue where she was going. Somehow she had taken a wrong turn, and, instead of heading to her aunt’s cabin, she had ended up on this bloody highway. A turnoff was up ahead. She took it and slowed down, realizing belatedly the speed she’d been traveling. Her nerves were shot, and she could swear to God she’d been followed for the large part of this journey.
A black pickup seemed to sit on her ass for the last several hours as she drove up the California coast.
Then suddenly there was no sign of it. That made her more worried than ever. She’d wanted to stop and check in with Bridget, let her know she was okay, but she was afraid her phone was being tracked, so she had turned it off. It was just way too easy to get people you loved in deep trouble. And that was something she couldn’t handle.
She was desperate to get Joshua back, but she didn’t know how to accomplish that.
For some wild reason, she’d thought Corey would be able to help her. But she hadn’t even stayed long enough to explain it to him. How would she tell him, as the father of the child she’d lost, that the father of her second child was trying to take her out of the equation?
She gave a bitter laugh. “I can really choose men. I walked away from a good one and ended up with a crazy one.”
She pulled into a gas station and got out. She not only needed to fill the tank in the car but she needed food and a rest stop.
She finished pumping gas, paid for it with her credit card and then froze. She pounded the roof of her car and bowed her head. “Shit. Shit. Shit. Somebody can track my credit card use.”
She stared bleakly out at the world around her as she parked her car by the nearby restaurant. “I was not cut out to do this.”
Exhausted, worried, she walked inside, ordered coffee and a sandwich, and sat down in the far corner. She’d very quickly learned to sit in such a way where she could watch the traffic coming and going, keeping an eye on anybody who appeared to be watching her. When her coffee arrived, she stared at it with longing. It would still be at least two minutes before it cooled enough for her to drink it.
And she was rather desperate for the caffeine hit. When the sandwich arrived soon afterward, she swallowed that down in several bites and then sat back to enjoy the coffee. She didn’t know where she was going at the moment. She needed to ask somebody for help, but she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself. She had a GPS option on her phone, but the roads in the area were not well-enough marked to use it. She brought out the address from her pocket and the old map she had stuffed in the back of the car’s glove box, then had transferred to her purse.
Once she had figured out where she was, she realized she’d taken a wrong turn about forty minutes back. She groaned. “I’ll be a couple more hours getting there.”
At least she had filled up with gas, and this coffee would hold her for a little bit. Her aunt’s cabin was completely empty and hadn’t been inhabited for at least a year, which meant there wouldn’t be food or supplies. There was no getting away from the fact that Angela was already at the end of her rope and more tired than she thought possible. She needed this trip to just end.
When she finished her meal, she ordered a second sandwich and travel mug of coffee to go. While all that was being done, she used the ladies’ room, washed her hands and face, brushed her hair and straightened her clothing so she didn’t look like the vagabond she appeared to be.
When she walked back out, she paid for the food, collected her order and headed outside. She reversed out of the space and drove down the road, headed back to the turn she had missed. Forty minutes later, she saw the correct turn ahead. She turned right and took the final leg of the journey to her aunt’s cabin. It had been a roundabout trip, so, when she finally turned into the driveway and drove up the gravel road, her heart warmed.
This was the place she had spent many hours when she was a young child. She had a lot of good memories here. She also felt a sense of homecoming—even if it had been twelve years. They’d had such great summers on the lake. She got out, walked around to the cabin door and used the key hidden underneath the mat. Inside the cabin was cold, wet, chilly. Her aunt had promised to turn on the power, and, as Angela flipped the switch, with a sense of joy Angela realized her aunt had been true to her word. With lights inside and wood outside, Angela knew she’d be warm in no time. She walked back out to her car and unloaded her belongings.
What she really needed next was the internet. And she had paid a special price to get that here. It was just a matter of setting it up on her phone and laptop. Or at least Angela hoped so. She had to keep working. She lit the fire in the old wood stove, bringing in more kindling and wood from outside so she had enough for the night. It was summertime, but it was cooler up here, especially at night. The lake was more of a hunting area but recently had become popular with wealthier families, and they were building summer cabins all up and down the shores. With a fire going, a kettle full of water on the stove, she checked out the supplies to see if anything was left.
She was delighted to find dry goods, like flour and bread crumbs, plus coffee, tea, canned goods. Added to that was the box of food she had brought with her. She unpacked everything but her clothing and then made herself a cup of tea. She walked onto the veranda, welcoming the darkness of evening settling across the shores.
What she still had to do was move her car. To make sure nobody would easily see it sitting out front. Not wanting to take that chance and getting too comfortable without having taken that last safety precaution, she returned to her car, drove it around the cabin and parked it in front of the basement doors. Her aunt usually rented out the basement to students during the summer. And one of them in particular had parked down here. But no renters were due to show up this summer.
With her vehicle now out of sight from the road and from the driveway, plus mostly hidden from across the lake because of the trees, she walked back inside, suddenly exhausted. She locked all the doors except the sliding glass one to the veranda, walked out with her tea and collapsed on the ratty deck chairs.
For better or for worse, she was committed to this step. She only hoped it was the right decision. If she was wrong, there could be devastating repercussions.
As she settled in, kicking her feet up on the railing, she closed her eyes and whispered, “Have a good night, Joshua. Mommy loves you.”