Bait, page 4
Jake scooped up a glob of ketchup on his spoon and prepared to flick it at Caisey. Jenna sighed. “What is it about the two of you that brings out the inner twelve-year-old in each other?”
Liam waved to the waitress. “Can we have the check, please?”
Jenna got Andrea’s attention off Liam and said, “You guys should come back to ours for dessert.”
It was after eight by the time Caisey pulled onto the driveway. Grams was in the back with Jake, head back eyes closed and mouth open. Jenna was in the front passenger seat texting on her phone.
“Andrea said they’ll be here in a minute.”
Caisey parked the car. “Just don’t let Liam make the coffee. He likes it weak.”
Jenna gagged. “That’s gross.”
They piled out and Jenna went to Grams’ door to help her out. Even if they hung out in the living room Grams wouldn’t hear them if she was in her bedroom sleeping. Just so long as it didn’t get wild like the time Caisey was fifteen and her dad was gone on an assignment in Nevada for the week. Grams had marched out of her room and announced the party was over. No one messed with the crazy old British lady with wild hair and a peach bathrobe.
Liam pulled his SUV on the drive beside her Toyota. Caisey got two steps from the car and saw the open front door.
She bent like she needed to tie her shoe and pulled the gun from her ankle holster. The front door might be open but the alarm wasn’t beeping and the local police hadn’t been summoned by the security company. Either it hadn’t been set, or it had been disconnected by whoever broke in.
“Liam.” She called his name over the roof of the car.
He sauntered over. “You really need an upgrade in the car department.” He reached up and back over his shoulder, bleeping his car locks with a click of the remote button. “That thing is seriously boring.”
Caisey glanced at the front door. She looked back and saw his eyes flare. She kept her voice even so no one knew anything was wrong. “I’m not buying a new car just because you think mine ruins your street cred. If I want a wild ride I go in Jenna’s Mustang. Why do you think we won’t let Jake drive until he’s seventeen?”
Jenna’s hands went to her hips. “You said we were waiting until he was responsible. You didn’t say it was because I’m some crazy driver. Which I am not.”
Liam gave Caisey a short nod and turned to Andrea. “Take Grams, Jenna and Jake back to your place.” He handed over his car keys. “Go. Now.”
**
Caisey swept through her bedroom and the bathroom and left the shower curtain pulled back when she came out. “Clear in there too.”
Her leg hurt like nobody’s business and she really needed to take more Ibuprofen, but that would have to wait. She’d wanted to be off the crutches and was willing to be on her feet less to make it happen but it’d been a long day. She needed to get this done because it was time to lie down.
Liam stood beside her bed, his brow creased as he took in the room. “Did Jenna decorate in here?”
“No. I did.” Caisey put her free hand on her hip. “What’s wrong with it?” “Nothing. It’s just…very…uh, purple.”
“I happen to like purple.”
His lip twitched. “I guess so.”
“What now?”
Liam rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “So nothing was disturbed?”
“Not that I can see.” Caisey scratched her hair. “Front door ajar, alarm disconnected. Maybe when the perp left, they didn’t check it was shut. Or they were in a hurry.”
“They?”
Caisey shrugged. “But why break in and let us know you did if you aren’t going to take anything?”
“You guys didn’t leave it open?”
She shook her head. “I checked it myself.”
“Looking for something. Didn’t find it.” Liam’s face was set. “Sending you a message, maybe? We can get to you.”
“But why?”
“You tell me.”
Caisey trailed him down the stairs. “There’s nothing obvious I can think of, just the prison chaplain who visited earlier. He was looking for my dad, had a letter for Gabe Carlen.”
Liam frowned. “As in, the Toben Carlen case?”
Caisey nodded. “Gabe agreed to testify against his father. Dad hoped to get the uncle too, but the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. The uncle went back to work running guns, drugs, women. Toben went to jail and Gabe disappeared. Probably witness protection, but I was seventeen.”
And at the time, Caisey had been in no condition to be inquisitive about her dad’s work. Not when knowing would put her in more danger than not knowing ever did.
Liam’s lips were a thin line. “I hate coincidences.”
“Me too, but there’s not much I can do. Except—”
Caisey could have kicked herself. She went back upstairs and pulled open the top drawer of her dresser where she’d stashed the letter. Liam was still at the bottom of the stairs when she sat on the top step, trying to hide the wince from both her leg and the situation. “The letter the chaplain gave me is gone.”
“So the uncle has either you or the prison on radar? I’d guess both. Chaplain visits you. Ping. He has someone break in to get the letter. What did it say?”
“I didn’t read it.”
“Do you know where Gabe Carlen is?”
“He’s been missing for years.”
“The uncle probably still wants revenge.”
Caisey shrugged. “I’d have thought he’d be busy, what with his gun-running, drug- dealing, flesh-peddling organization still in full swing. But what do I know?”
“Getting that close to being brought down, he probably still hates his nephew enough to use resources keeping tabs on people who might lead him to Gabe.”
“But I don’t know where Gabe is. It was years ago.”
The questions persisted, even after Grams, Jenna and Jake came home. After Liam was done on the phone with the security company making sure her system was still working fine. After Caisey had taken painkillers. And a bath, where she had to keep her leg out of the water the whole time. Which kind of defeated the purpose, but she didn’t care. Then she stretched out in bed and stared at the ceiling.
Why did his name have to come up again after all these years? Gabe had disappeared from her life and she’d made peace with that even if she didn’t understand why he’d never contacted her. It might carry a risk, but she would do everything she could so the person she cared about knew she had never forgotten them—which proved her theory that he hadn’t thought as much of their one date as she had. But that didn’t make sense at all. The signs had been there.
Or she thought they had.
Evidently Gabe had just been passing the time until he testified against his father. Blowing off steam, hanging out doing something normal before his whole life changed. She’d wanted to ask her father if Gabe had mentioned her at all after he left, but she’d never been able to muster the courage.
Then Gabe’s uncle had her kidnapped, and there was nothing more to say.
Chapter 6
THE FRONT DOOR of Gabe’s bookstore flew open. The bell above the door clanged back and forth and got jammed when the door shut behind her. “I got an A!”
Emma ran to the counter, waving papers above her head and trailing snow across the floor tiles that he would have to mop up before he left. Gabe closed the research book he’d been reading. “Congratulations.”
“I had no idea. I mean I knew it was good and stuff but I never thought I would get an A. Thank you so much for helping me, Mr. Thompson.”
“You’re welcome.”
Her head tipped to one side, her teenage face frowning. “I was failing this class and I just got, like, the best grade ever. You should be excited.”
“I am excited.”
“You don’t look so good. Are you getting sick? Am I going to catch it?”
Gabe rubbed the heel of his hand against the side of his head. “I’m not getting sick. I just got up early.”
“Did you have a nightmare? Do you have like—” she leaned in and whispered “— PTSD?”
“I do not have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
She worked her mouth like she didn’t believe him at all. “Whatever you say, Mr. Thompson.”
“You should probably get on to your dad’s office, Emma. He’ll be wondering where you are.”
She started to chew on her lip. “Mr. Thompson?”
“What is it, Emma?”
“You’re a man…I mean, it’s obvious you’re a man but what I mean is, when a guy says he likes you, but the—”
Gabe cleared his throat. “Is this really something you want to talk to me about?”
“It’s just…look at the way Becka, you know, from the diner, looks at you. She wipes down the counter without actually looking at it because she’s too busy staring at you.” A dreamy look washed over Emma’s face. “One time she knocked over the salt and the lid came off and salt went all over the counter. Mal was ticked.”
“Yes, well.” He looked down at the textbook and the picture of an Iron Age soldier on the front, wondering how fast this conversation could be over with. “What do you need to ask me?”
“When a guy obviously likes you, I mean, not just likes, but seriously actually likes you like forever marriage kind of likes you maybe even loves you…”
Gabe blinked. It was like a completely different language, except he spoke and read several ancient languages and it wasn’t any of them.
“And he wants to take you out, but he doesn’t want to come and talk to your dad first, like to ask if it’s okay because he wants you to do the asking…is that weird?”
Yes, she was actually asking him for relationship advice.
“If this guy isn’t willing to talk to your dad then you need to seriously consider if he’s going to be it for you. You want to be with someone who doesn’t even have the guts to look your dad in the eye?” She blinked, but Gabe kept talking. “The right guy is going to be someone who gets your dad the way you do, someone who see’s past the gruff to the kind of man he’s trying to be, even if he doesn’t always do a great job of being a human as well as a lawyer. That’s the man for you, someone who’ll be part of your family. Not who’ll take you away from your world like being together means you have to separate yourself from who you were.”
Emma smiled shook her head. “I think that’s the most words I’ve ever heard you say at one time.”
Gabe smiled. “Maybe you’ve been a good influence on me.”
“But what if I tell him what you said, and he doesn’t agree?”
“That alone tells you what you need to know.”
She walked to the door. “You know, I keep telling people you’re not what everyone thinks but they never listen.”
Gabe’s chest shook with silent laughter. “Good job on your paper, Emma.”
A smile stretched her mouth and shone in her eyes. She shut the door behind her but the light of her lingered in the late afternoon sun that shone through the front windows, though it was barely thirty degrees outside. Not much more than that inside.
He’d seen that light before, on the face of another girl what seemed like a lifetime ago now. That Gabe had had family and a future. This Gabe ran a musty bookstore that barely made enough to cover the rent and utilities on the Main Street store-front. Not that he even needed that income, but it was nice to see paper copies of novels with his penname on display in the front window.
The sound of an incoming call cut through the quiet. Gabe crossed the room, flipped the sign to CLOSED and locked the door. He lifted the lid of his laptop, clicked to answer the call and settled back on his stool.
“Man, you look as bad as I feel.”
Gabe crossed his arms. “Thanks, Mitch. That’s really nice. What time is it there?”
The camera flickered and Mitch’s image came on screen. “It’s like one thirty in the morning.”
Gabe stared. “What is that thing on your head?”
Mitch’s grin filled his whole face. “It’s a fez.”
“Seriously?”
Mitch laughed. “You do a good impression of a grumpy old man, but you forget how well I know you. Down deep you have a marshmallow center you don’t want anyone to see.”
Gabe didn’t say anything for a minute. He just sat with one eyebrow up long enough for Mitch to get the message.
“Right. Anyway, the reason I called is because we found something today I thought you’d like to look at.”
“What is it?”
Mitch grinned. “A letter. I’m emailing you the picture now.”
Gabe minimized the call window and went to his inbox. “It’s not there yet.”
“I’m sending it now, hang on a minute. You know how bad the internet connection is here.”
He refreshed it and an email from Mitch appeared. “Got it.” He downloaded the image and scanned the Arabic text like a former captive with his first cheeseburger. Plot ideas weaved like a spider web from the words. Gabe grinned.
“I’ll leave you alone with your contraband.”
Gabe laughed.
“I have to sleep or I’ll be worthless tomorrow.”
“Thanks for this.”
Mitch nodded. “Sure. Soon, okay?”
Gabe lifted his chin to his friend. Mitch had ended their calls that way every time— once a week for seventeen years. The seventeen years since they last saw each other, as classmates in Ancient History, though Gabe had been the teacher’s assistant.
Sighing, he readied the store for the next day, locked up the cash he kept on hand and put the books he would need tonight in his backpack, along with a print out of the picture Mitch had sent. He pulled a wool hat down over his ears, which pushed hair into his eyes. He really needed a haircut.
Gabe locked up the store and walked down Main Street in Buckshot, Colorado. Past the bar with a row of Harley Davidson’s parked outside and the hardware store, around the corner to the diner. It was just past five but the diner was nearly full. Gabe’s usual table was free of people and the kid who bussed dirty dishes was clearing it off.
He nodded to a couple of people he’d only seen around—he didn’t know their names—and when the table was wiped clean he said a quick, “Thanks,” to the kid and slid in.
“That’s cool. What is it?”
Becka’s honey voice washed over him and Gabe glanced up from the printout. “It’s a letter.”
Her brow furrowed behind the red-framed glasses she wore. “Well aren’t you full of surprises?”
Gabe swallowed. She had no idea.
Becka tapped her pen on the side of her notepad. “I just assumed you were reading the newspaper. Did you hear they tried to catch that serial killer over in Idaho Springs?”
Gabe shook his head. “Recently?” He’d seen something online about the Chloroform Killer when he last checked the news website he preferred, but didn’t know this.
“Like last weekend or something. An FBI agent from Denver pretended to be one of the victims and he abducted her. They tried to catch him and he got away. Can you believe that? It’s like a movie or something, not real life.” Becka shuddered. “I’m still going to carry my gun, though. You never know who’s lurking these days.”
He smiled. Now that Emma had told him how Becka felt he looked at her and tried to see past the yellow waitress uniform. She was probably mid-twenties, a little young for him but pleasant in pretty much every other way. Gabe wasn’t the tallest man in the world so any woman had to be in the low five feet so they didn’t tower over him. “How are you, Becka?”
“Uh…” She blinked. “Fine, I guess. Sorry I went on and on about that. Did you want to order? I can make you some green tea.”
“That sounds great. How about dinner some time?”
She blinked and then laughed. “You’re sitting here right now. You need a menu?”
“No. That’s not what I meant.” Gabe sighed. “I’m not very good at this. I meant do you want to have dinner with me some time?”
She blushed. “Oh. Well, yes. Actually, I’d like that a lot.”
“Good. Tomorrow?”
“I’m working tomorrow, but I can do Thursday.”
“Thursday sounds good.”
She took a step back and bumped into a couple walking by her. “Oops. Sorry. I’ll um…go get your tea then.”
“I’ll have the veggie burger.”
“The veggie burger.” Becka smoothed down the side of her short red hair, now matched by the shade of her cheeks. “Right.”
Gabe nodded and looked down at the picture again. This was good. Moving on and building a life in this town didn’t just mean running a business. It could mean having relationships, and even a family one day. Well, maybe he wouldn’t go that far. Families were a minefield he wasn’t sure he wanted to go traipsing around in.
A blonde woman walked past the front window. Her mouth stretched into a smile directed at the man she was walking with and he was jarred back to that night years ago. The face was different, but Gabe still saw her on that one perfect date that lasted until the next morning in a diner not much different than this one, eating pancakes. Before his life ended.
When his meal came, Gabe bowed his head and closed his eyes.
It’s been years since I left Denver. Why do I still feel tied to her?
He didn’t even want to think her name.
**
The Chloroform Killer blew on his icy fingers and watched the girl strut down the sidewalk, flashing her smile at every person she passed like she was in a fashion parade or on a red carpet. She turned the corner and he started up the vehicle.
It wouldn’t be long now.
**
Gabe rolled over to look at his alarm clock and sighed. He tossed the blanket back and added another log to the stove. Shadows of the past danced in the corners of the room. Menacing specters that laughed at the man he was, the man he’d always thought he should have been. Emma hadn’t been entirely wrong about PTSD, though he wasn’t about to search out a doctor for a diagnosis. Didn’t everyone have something that kept them up at night? Maybe it wasn’t that he relived the day he watched someone die, but that didn’t make it easier to deal with. Gabe wouldn’t wish his demons on anyone else.
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