COLIN FINALLY CONSENTED to release Nell into the custody of her brother the next morning. He drove her to her parents’ house and waited until Felix came to the door. After the briefest of introductions, he then issued instructions and extracted a promise from them both to meet him for lunch.
In bemusement, her brother watched Colin stride back to his SUV. Shaking his head, he shut the door. “What’s got him hot and bothered? I know he’s the guy who found you, but why are you still hooked up with him?”
She peered cautiously past him. “Is Mom home?”
He looked troubled. “Yes, but she went back upstairs when I told her you were coming. Neither she nor Dad said a word about you last night. Does that have anything to do with what’s got your cop stirred up?”
“Uh...no.” She sighed. “Yesterday was eventful.”
“Well, I haven’t had breakfast. Why don’t we go out?”
“Please,” she begged, stealing another furtive look up the stairs at the still-empty hall.
He took her to a Pancake Haus and wolfed down a truly enormous breakfast while she nibbled on toast and sipped coffee. He listened, his expression still worried, as she told him about her talk with their parents.
“Mom is excellent at denial” was his only comment.
He reacted with predictable alarm to the rest of her story. “Maybe you should buy a gun.” He shook his head. “No, you don’t have to say it. Dumb idea. Maddie...maybe what you should do is leave. Go back to Seattle.”
He was the one person besides Colin she had told about her life in the past twelve years. If nothing else good came out of this journey back in time, finding her brother made the trip worth it. Now she had family. He’d even talked about job hunting in Seattle once he completed law school. Her flicker of pleasure at the idea of having Felix near had been drowned by grief at what she’d lose when she went back.
But...maybe that wouldn’t happen. Colin hadn’t said he loved her, but he had implied.
What we’re going to do, though, Nell, it’s making love.
Unless he were only trying to make her feel good about it. Distinguish between the act that shamed her and an honest sharing with a man who cared.
The look on his face yesterday when he walked toward her at the Hales’ had stunned her. She had good friends, but no one had ever looked at her like that, as if his world would end if she died. That was more than caring, wasn’t it?
Now, she told Felix what Colin had pointed out—that if he could find her, so could other people. It would be easier now. The publicity about her return might well have reached Seattle. Chances were good she’d find herself a minicelebrity when she went back to work at the library. Too many people would know plain Nell Smith was also Maddie Dubeau.
“That makes sense,” Felix agreed, his forehead still creased. “What if you come home with me for a little while?”
She smiled tremulously at him. “Thank you, but I’d have to resume my life at some point, and then what would happen? I’m here to try to remember what happened.”
“And if you can’t?”
Nell didn’t answer. Somebody wanted her dead. Recovering her memory and finding out who might be her only hope.
* * *
HIS PHONE RANG and Colin glanced at it impatiently. Considering he planned to take a whack out of his day for Nell... And then he saw the name of the caller.
He picked the phone up. “Cait?” he answered in disbelief.
“It’s me,” his sister said. “I, um, just called to say hi.”
“To say hi,” he repeated. It had been years since she’d called for any reason, never mind to chat.
“I’m sorry we didn’t get more time when you were in Seattle. Blake wanted to come with me, and then you and I didn’t get much chance to talk.”
“No, we didn’t,” he said.
“I shouldn’t have told him I was meeting you.”
She couldn’t have simply told the guy she was getting together with her brother and she’d rather go on her own?
“He wanted to meet you,” she added, as if reading his mind.
“I see.” He frowned. “Cait, are you okay?”
“Of course I am,” she said hastily, but for the first time he realized how soft and uncertain she sounded. Not okay at all.
To get her to open up, he asked how her Ph.D. dissertation was going, and her voice gained some animation. She hoped to have it done by summer, which meant she’d be job-hunting in the not-too-distant future. She asked about his work, and they talked superficially about their lives for maybe five minutes. Colin relaxed some, but didn’t lose his worry that something was wrong. Whatever that something was, it became apparent she hadn’t called to tell him.
“I’d better go,” she said finally, even though neither had said anything very important. “I love you, Colin.”
A stab of emotion made his voice gruff. “I love you, too, Cait. You know, I’m here if you need me.”
“I do know.” She said that so quietly, he barely heard. “Goodbye.”
She was gone, leaving him to continue brooding about why she’d called. My sister, the stranger, he thought.
All he could think was, Cait had felt lonely. She’d needed a connection, and he’d gotten elected. Maybe she’d had a fight with their mother. Or with the boyfriend. Or both.
He didn’t like to think of her lonely, but didn’t see what else he could have said.
Disconcerted, he realized that a month ago he’d have been as lonely as she sounded. Now he wasn’t.
He looked at the clock, wishing it was time to meet Nell.
* * *
“THE KID BROTHER,” Hailey said with a grin when Nell and Felix arrived at the bistro. “And so much better-looking than you were back then.”
He snorted. “You were the fat girl then.”
She only laughed. “Now I’m the fat chef.”
“Nah.” One eyebrow rose as he appraised her. “Now you’re pleasingly plump. A peach.”
Watching the flirtatious byplay, Nell found herself laughing, too. Her brother must have women lined up. As if she’d ever see him if he did move to Seattle.
“As it happens, I have a lovely peach tart available today. I think you’ve earned a freebie,” Hailey told Felix. “In a manner of speaking. Ah. Here comes Captain Sexy.”
Nell turned as she heard the creak of the door and felt a rush of cold air. He appraised the room in one sweep, as he always did new surroundings, then had eyes only for her. She suspected that, despite the brevity of that survey, he could have described every single person in the room down to the color of nail polish or the tattoo peeking out of one shirt collar. Her heart drummed at the sight of him, tall and strong in one of his well-cut suits, today’s a dark gray.
“Safe and sound,” she informed him.
Menus in her hands, Hailey was already heading for a table at the back, Felix following. Nell basked in Colin’s smile as the two of them trailed behind.
“Did he have to throw his body between you and danger?” Colin asked.
“No, but he did whisk me out of the house before Mom came downstairs,” she confessed with wrinkled nose.
“Good enough,” he murmured in her ear. She thought he nuzzled her slightly, the contact still enough to send electricity through her sensitized body.
Too late, she saw that Felix had turned and was watching quizzically.
He didn’t comment, though, and once they were seated she and Felix described their morning—a drive out to the Nordic Center, then some shopping downtown.
Not until they had ordered did she ask about Colin’s morning.
“I did some wandering at your dad’s resort.”
“Why?” she asked, puzzled. Felix, too, she saw, was looking at him in surprise.
“It just seems the resort is at the center of too much. I’ve been out there, but not really taken a look around. Somehow, I hadn’t quite realized how sprawling it is. I think it’s expanded since the last time I was there.”
Felix told them both about the stages of expansion, starting with the airfield not long before Maddie disappeared. “That was pure genius,” he said, admiration in his voice. “It’s an attraction for people with real money. They wanted more luxury, so Dad tore down some of the old cabins and added the monster places. That’s when he decided to go time-share with them and, later, some of the smaller cabins. Brought in solid capital and the yearly maintenance fees besides.”
Hailey herself delivered their lunches and bantered with Felix again. Nell might have thought they were interested in each other, even though he was three years younger. But maybe, it occurred to her, the difference in age didn’t matter much now that both were in their twenties.
She was still thinking about the spark her friend and her brother had as they all dug in to their food.
Colin and Felix had continued to talk about her father’s resort.
“I’m surprised your father didn’t talk Duane into ditching law enforcement and going to work for him,” Colin commented. “He’d have made a hell of a lot more money.”
“Uncle Duane moonlights as security out there sometimes.” Felix grimaced. “Who’d want to work for Dad full-time?”
Colin frowned at Nell. “You still haven’t seen Duane, have you? He took it as hard as your parents did when you disappeared. Harder, maybe, because he insisted on taking charge of the investigation and then felt like a failure when we didn’t find you.”
She shook her head. “I’ve been a little busy, you know. And I haven’t been in town very long.” She thought back. “Nine days?”
“That’s true,” Colin agreed, but the creases remained in his forehead. “Duane told me he bowed out of the dinner because Felix had showed up and he didn’t want to get in the way. Listen, why don’t I have him to the house for dinner?” He raised his eyebrows at her brother. “Maybe you can join us?”
“Sure.” Felix sounded pleased. “I saw Uncle Duane at Thanksgiving, but not since I’ve been home this time. I have to head back to Salem on Sunday, though.”
“Tomorrow night, then.” Colin’s eyes glinted with amusement. “Here comes your peach tart.”
“Both kinds,” her brother murmured, then winked at Nell’s astonishment.
* * *
COLIN STOPPED BY the detective’s division to pick up Jane Vahalik before the meeting with Bystrom. Once again, he was accompanying her only to provide the authority of someone in a senior position. Backup, he thought, with a small grin.
She was waiting for him with news. A sergeant on the Bend police force who had served for ten years on the Drug Enforcement Team had immediately known the man in the picture, the one engaged in an intense conversation with Angel Butte’s own police chief.
“James Lewis, although that may be an alias. He’s a pilot who the DEA had been watching for years. They know damn well he was ferrying drug shipments. Before they were able to make an arrest, he dropped off everyone’s radar about five years ago. The assumption seems to be that he’s dead. Bend had gotten a tip about him, but by the time they caught up with him and his plane, it was clean and he had insisted he was only flying some skiers in from Southern California. A rich couple backed up his story. Nobody believed him, or them, but what could they do?”
“So our police chief just happens to have been conversing with a likely drug trafficker at a private airfield.”
“Right about the time he started pocketing some nice payments.”
Duane had joined them and heard the update. “Would you prefer I step in for Jane this afternoon?” he asked.
Colin shook his head. “She’s doing a good job. And me, I’ve already got a bright red bull’s-eye painted on my chest. Best if some people with seniority around here keep their heads down when the bullets start flying.”
Duane chuckled. “You know me. I like nothing better than hunkering down.”
“I wanted to talk to you.” Colin stepped to one side, his lieutenant joining him. “You still haven’t seen Maddie.”
“Things have been happening....” He grunted and rubbed a hand over his thinning hair. “Hell, I can’t lie to you. I think I’ve been making excuses to myself. I’m not kidding myself about what kind of reception she’s probably getting at home, and that makes me feel guilty. I knew she wasn’t very happy back in the day. My sister...” He hesitated. “She’s got problems. Reasons for ’em, but I’m not sure that excuses her for being as hard on Maddie as she was. All I’ve been able to think all these years is that maybe I could have made more of a difference if I’d tried harder.”
“You never said any of this.”
“Helen is my sister,” he said simply. “With Maddie gone, there was no point.”
“I’m sorry,” Colin offered. “I didn’t realize. I expected you to be first in line to greet her.”
“Honestly—I think I’ve been holding on to the memory of her as a little girl,” he said gruffly. “I really loved her. I don’t know the adult she is now. I guess I don’t want to find out she’s changed too much.”
Colin had no trouble understanding that. He was having enough inner conflict himself over the girl she had been and the woman she was now. Explaining that, though, would give too much away. Something told him Uncle Duane wouldn’t like finding out Colin was sleeping with his little Maddie.
“She would like to see you, though,” he said. “Any chance you could come to dinner tomorrow night? Felix will be there, too.”
Duane’s face worked, as though he were struggling to hide too many emotions. “Yeah,” he said finally, clearing his throat. “Yeah, that sounds good. Have her let me know if she wants me to pick her up. Felix, too.”
“I’ll do that.” Colin didn’t know why he was hiding the fact that Nell was living at his place, even from Duane. It was better if no one at all knew, he told himself. Saved him from admitting how much time they were spending together. “Six o’clock?”
“Sounds good.” Duane glanced at his watch. “You’d better be on your way.”
Five minutes later, Jane and Colin walked into the conference room to find only their accountant present. Ten minutes later, a Bend attorney Colin had encountered in courtrooms before arrived to say that his client was angered at this intrusive investigation and had chosen not to cooperate. He saw this as a political attempt to get rid of him. He would be speaking to Mayor Chandler and possibly filing a civil suit against the city, in particular naming Captain McAllister.
When he left, the three of them looked at each other. Colin nodded after a minute, resigned.
“I’ll call the mayor.” He looked at the accountant. “Anything you can tell us?”
“The questionable payments are from two sources, both corporate holding companies that consist of nothing but some named officers—all attorneys—and a post office box. Going deeper is beyond my means. I’ve got to tell you, though, entities like this raise obvious red flags.”
“So, since explaining is problematic, he’s decided to see if he can get by with not explaining.” Colin nodded again to them both. “Thank you for coming. I’ll let you know what we need to do for follow-up.”
The two left him alone to make the call.
He stood at the window looking out at the river as he dialed. He was put through to Noah Chandler right away. Colin explained what he knew.
The silence felt reflective, and he waited patiently.
“I think this investigation needs to get bigger,” Chandler finally said. “If he’d cooperated, I would have been willing to keep this confidential until we had answers. As it is, I’ll let him know that any hope of keeping his job is conditional on that cooperation. If he won’t give it, I’ll ask for his resignation. Give me a day before you take any further steps.”
“All right.”
“What do you want to do next?”
Like most cops, Colin didn’t love bringing in the feds, but the time had come.
“We need to bring the DEA in on this.” He told the mayor what the accountant had reported. “They have the resources to dig deeper into the source of that money than we can.” He hesitated. “I think it’s important that, for both our sakes, we avoid the appearance of this being some kind of coup.”
There was a moment of silence.
“I’ve heard a lot of gossip about drug shipments moving through this area,” Chandler said bluntly. “What I haven’t heard about is the number of arrests you’d expect. Not a lot of shipments seized, either.”
Colin had given up being anything but blunt. “Detective Vahalik is currently coordinating with the members of the Drug Enforcement Team in an attempt to find out whether these payments coincide in any way with failed raids.”
“Good. What worries me is that he couldn’t act alone. If he warned about raids, who gave him the information in the first place? You know we’re heading toward an internal investigation. Who else has been paid off?”
Colin swore under his breath. “Every officer in this department is going to feel unfairly targeted. Morale is already poor. This may be the killing blow.”
“You’re suggesting we let it go?”
“No.” He squeezed the back of his neck. “No, of course not. It has to be done.”
“All right. Let’s hold off for a day or two, see where we get with Bystrom. Then I think we can’t afford to wait.”
They talked for a minute more about the whys and hows. A minute later, Colin ended the call and growled a few words he didn’t usually allow himself.
Before he knew it, the finances of colleagues and friends within the police department would be under intense scrutiny. These were men and women he had trusted and would need to trust again in the future. But he knew as well as Chandler did that, if the police chief had been on the take, there had to be others.
Goddamn it. He would have liked to warn Brian Cooper, his counterpart in Patrol Services, a straight arrow if he’d ever known one. And Duane. Blindsiding a longtime friend like Duane didn’t sit well with him. But he also knew he wouldn’t say a word to either.
This wasn’t how he’d anticipated accomplishing his longtime goal of cleaning up the Angel Butte Police Department. He wouldn’t be a popular man by the time he was finished. He would be traveling a dangerous road, and essentially doing it on his own. His only backup would be a man he hardly knew, the political outsider who had become mayor.