She was dodging his calls and it pissed him off. Suzanne wouldn’t return Mom’s and Dad’s calls either. After giving her a couple of days to cool off, Jack decided to drive out to the house she had rented and check on her.
The house was in a newer part of town. It was a nice slate-blue raised bungalow with white trim. It was a short two blocks from the beach at Baker’s Cove, and in fact, all the streets in the area had played with the baker theme.
The little bungalow Suzie was renting was on Patisserie Point. Her car was in the drive and the children’s toys lay haphazard around the yard. He could hear Layla laughing in the backyard, so he walked on through.
Layla was in the kiddie pool, while Hank was asleep in his playpen in the shade. Layla ran to him and wrapped her very wet little self around his legs. He grabbed her up into his arms, which made sure he was soaked from head to toe.
Suzie turned from her gardening and looked at Jack. For a moment, he read a scowl on her face, but it quickly evaporated. She put down the trowel and stripped off her mud-covered gloves.
“Jack, I didn’t realize you were going to stop by today.” She relieved Jack of the squirming girl in his arms and set her down. With a pat on the rear she sent Layla back out in the yard to play. “Can I get you something to drink?” She gestured to the pitcher of lemonade on the patio table.
He nodded as she poured glasses for the two of them and a sippy cup for Layla.
“We just hadn’t heard from you for a few days and with you and Mom having a fight, I wanted to make sure you and the kids were okay.”
“A fight?”
“On Saturday. Mom said you were pretty upset when you left.”
“Oh, I guess I was.” She shrugged. “You know how it is with mothers and daughters. You say things. She says things. I guess that could be called a fight.”
Jack narrowed his eyes. She really thought it was no big deal. She hadn’t returned any of their calls for days. Even when he had called to see if he could take them all out for ice cream last night he only spoke to the answering machine.
“I think Mom and Dad are under the impression you aren’t talking to them.”
“Why would they think that? That’s silly!”
“You didn’t return anyone’s calls.”
“Oh.” She looked as if she were remembering something. “The damn phone line here. I need to get Bell to come and check that out. I don’t think it’s working correctly.”
He nodded. “I can call the technician we use to come and check it out for you, if you’d like.”
“I would love that,” she said happily. “That would be such a timesaver. I spend most of my day running after Layla or feeding and changing little Hank.”
“Sure I will set that up.” He took a long swallow of the perfectly sweetened lemonade. “I also wanted to talk to you about what happened at dinner last week with Cait.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t really want to talk about her.”
“I think it’s important, don’t you?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I thought about it and you will get tired of Logan’s seconds soon enough and move on. She’s not the marrying kind or you would have married her the first time around.”
She turned her attention to Layla, who was picking a dandelion bouquet. “Don’t forget to put them in water!” she yelled to Layla and pointed to a paper cup for the flowers.
“That’s not fair, Suzie. And even if it was, that is my business. I would have married her then, and I will marry her now.”
“No. You won’t.” She was shaking her head.
“I know you are upset about Logan.”
“No, you don’t know,” she said seriously, her eyes narrowing. “He loved me, and if it hadn’t been for her, we would have been together.”
Jack was sure nothing could have been further from the truth.
“I am sureyou think so, but Logan wasn’t the right kind of man for you, sweetheart. Whatever you think you could have had with him, wouldn’t have worked out.”
“You don’t know that.” Her eyes darkened with anger, but then she shook it off, and gave a nervous laugh. “But it doesn’t matter anymore anyway. No one can change the past.”
He nodded. “No, we can’t.” He laid one hand over hers. “I am sorry if they hurt you too. Neither of them set out to do that.”
She let him hold her hand for a minute and then shrugged it off as she stood. “Can you stay for lunch?”
“No, I better get back to work. I have a site inspection in half an hour.”
He left feeling only a little better than he had when he arrived. He couldn’t get over that she thought there was something between her and Logan. Something that Cait had come between.
As far as he knew, Suzie had only seen Logan a handful of times after she had graduated high school. Maybe the crush went back further, though he knew Logan wouldn’t have encouraged it. Suzie had never been his type.
He sighed. At the least he could let Mom know that Suzie was fine and considered the fight a moot point. Mom would likely be confused but pleased.
* * * * *
Cait was pleased to see Sam coming to class more regularly and like today, even on her own. Not that she minded when Sam’s hot husband came, but she got the impression that Sam, like her, was trying to do things on her own.
The lunch-hour power-flow class was the most popular class and her class was nearly overflowing. Cait couldn’t help the sense of pride and accomplishment that washed over her as she looked at her studio and her students. She had done it.
She guided the class out of Savasana, ending with their hands at heart center as they bowed together. “Namaste,” they said in unison.
As the class gathered their things, she glanced out the window and saw the crew that Jack had sent coming back from their lunch break. She nodded to them through the patio doors.
“I heard about what happened,” said a quiet voice beside her. “But it looks like the guys will have it repainted this week.
“Yes. It does.” She turned to the tiny blonde. “Thank you, Sam.”
“For what?”
“For not being too uncomfortable to mention it.”
She shrugged. “Do they have any idea who did it?”
Cait sighed. “Not that they are saying. It was probably just random. My turn for some bad luck.”
Sam didn’t look convinced. “Don’t do that.” She looked grim. “Don’t brush it off as nothing. If your gut is saying it’s something more, then trust it.”
“I don’t know. I could just be paranoid, and that’s not helpful.”
“Yes. Yes it is.” Sam absently rubbed her neck. “I wish I had been more paranoid.”
“What happened?” Cait asked, then thought better of it. She didn’t want to put Sam on the spot or make her uncomfortable. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Even though they were alone, Samlooked around the studio to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard.
“I was working at one of the top restaurants in Vancouver. I was the pastry chef and my creations were well known and just beginning to win awards. They were that good.” She smiled proudly. “I loved what I did. I loved the spotlight and attention that I was receiving. Rationally I know I’m not to blame, but maybe I shouldn’t have liked the attention so much. Because it drew a stalker to me.”
“Oh sweetie.” Cait drew her in for an encouraging embrace, which Sam tentatively returned.
“She played into my ego at first, saying she wanted to learn from me. She worked in our kitchen too, so I thought hey, sure. I was happy to teach her, but then things got weird, just a little at a time.
“The bank called because we had applied for a loan for us to open our own restaurant that I knew nothing about. She had my account information, my credit history. She had the whole business plan put together with what looked like my signature.”
Cait couldn’t hide her surprise that someone would do that. It seemed like a plot straight out of a movie.
“It came to a head because the bank called the cops. She had stolen my account information. She was trying to set up a loan in my name. She came to restaurant that night furious. She started screaming at me in the kitchen and pointing a knife at whoever got too close. She was scary good with a knife. But she couldn’t get close enough, and the staff had called the police. We could hear sirens coming. I thought they would get there and take her into custody.”
Cait squeezed her hand.
“Okay, so maybe that was a little naïve,” she conceded with a wry laugh. “She couldn’t get close enough to me to stab me, so she picked up a pot of boiling oil and threw it at me. I turned, shielding my face, but the oil hit my neck, shoulder, splashed down my side. Well, you can see what it did.”
“What happened then?”
Sam stared at Cait for a minute then said, “Thank you, for not being afraid to ask that question.” She took another deep breath. “As the crazy bitch is watching me scream in pain, our sous-chef whacks her upside the head with a frying pan and knocks her out. The police arrived moments later, and the paramedics shortly after that. I went to the hospital.”
“I hope the bitch is rotting in a jail cell.”
“Close. She is in a psych ward for what I hope will be the rest of her life. And I moved across the country to start new.”
“With Patrick?”
“No.” Sam grinned. “Patrick came after. He’s what I like to think of as my reward for a surviving a particularly shitty time.”
“Sweet reward.” Cait winked.
“Don’t I know it?” Sam’s grin was short-lived. “I don’t want to be a cautionary tale, but if it helps, so be it. Listen to your gut. If you don’t think this was random, or just teen vandals, then don’t take any chances.”
“I promise, I won’t.” And Cait meant it. Her gut was beginning to tell her this was something else. Something personal, she just didn’t know who or why. “Besides, with the exception of the studio, I’m not being allowed to go anywhere alone. Jack or Ben or Sophie are always with me.”
“Okay then.” Sam seemed mollified. “And speaking of Sophie, I was wondering if you were doing the girls’ thing again this week and well, if I could take you up on your offer to come along.”
Cait squealed with delight. “Of course you can!”
* * * * *
Cait wasn’t so delighted a few hours later when Jack pulled the truck up to the curb. Jack started to dial 9-1-1, but Cait was already out of the truck and running up the walk. She circled around the house, wishing it not to be true. But it was. Every window in her home was broken. Smashed.
Jack caught her by the waist when she wanted to go inside. “Not until the cops are here, honey. Come on. You don’t want to trample the evidence.”
“It’s not evidence!” she cried out. “It’s my house.” She turned and sobbed into his shoulder, as he guided her back to the truck. He put down the tailgate and sat with her until the police arrived.
By the time the cops pulled up nearly an hour later, Cait wasn’t crying anymore. Ben and Sophie were there, as were Sam and Patrick. The latter couple had packed a basket of sandwiches and sweets. Cait was marching over to the car before they had time to put it into park.
Jack started after her but a hand on his arm stopped him. Sam shook her head.
“Look at this,” she yelled. “Does this look random to you?” She gestured toward her house. “Do you want to ask me again if I have an alibi?”
“Do you?” Scott asked indignantly.
“Do I?” She glared at the constable. “You’re damned right I do. I was in my studio all day while some asshole broke all my windows. Now can you tell me why?”
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Scott continued. “Why would someone want to do this to you?”
“Now you want me to do your job for you? I don’t know. I don’t have any enemies. I have a yoga studio. I teach breathing and meditation and all that touchy-feely shit that has nothing to do with smashing someone’s windows, or painting Die Whore on their place of business.”
Chet was the calming one, the good guy on this team. “Now, Miss McKenzie, I know you are upset.” She gave him a look that said Ya think? “But we need to look at this piece by piece. Have any of you been inside yet?”
“No,” she grumbled. “They wouldn’t let me go in.”
“Then give me your keys.”
She handed them to him begrudgingly, but she didn’t want them breaking down her goddamn door either.
“Goback to your truck,” he suggested, “and please wait for us to ensure the house is clear.” He nodded to Scott and they began to approach the house with weapons at the ready.
The group watched from the relative safety of the truck as the officers unlocked the door and went inside. A few tense minutes later, they were back out with their weapons holstered.
“All is clear inside,” Scott informed them. “But we are going to need statements from each of you.”
“Chet, we have to get these windows boarded up. Can we start doing that?” Jack asked.
Chet wanted to say no but he finally nodded in agreement.
Ben began making calls. Cait was impressed with their efficiency because they still had the window measurements on file from when Steele Construction had assessed the property. After just a few minutes Ben was able to assure her that some guys back at the shop were already cutting the pieces they’d need to cover the windows.
“Are you going to get your windows replaced for free too?” Scott asked, with sarcasm dripping from each syllable.
“Now you just watch it,” Sophie said, pushing between Cait and Scott. The officer pushed back her shoulders and stood tall, staring Sophie down. Before Sophie could make any threats, an arm snaked around her waist, pulling her away. She grabbed Cait’s hand dragging her along.
“What the hell are you thinking?” Sophie demanded when she saw it was Chet who had kept her from getting in Constable Scott’s face.
Chet looked at Cait, his mouth a grim line. “I’m thinking we’re doing our job, whether you like it or not, and you are getting in our way,” he growled, staring down at her. At nearly six foot, he towered over Sophie.
“Cait needs protection not accusations,” she warned him.
“And you need to remember that I may lick your boots in the bedroom, but this is my world. My job. You don’t get to interfere.”
He stormed away from her, and Sophie was ready to chase after him but Cait stopped her. “It’s okay. I know you want to help me, but don’t mess things up with him for my sake. He has a job to do.”
Sophie didn’t look happy but she didn’t disagree either. When they finally followed Chet, it was to ask that he let Cait in to pick up a few things. He escorted Cait inside as Sophie returned to the truck to wait with Patrick and Sam.
Cait didn’t need to grab a lot, and she wasn’t careful about packing. She shoved some clothes and cosmetics into a cotton shopping bag. Jackson was waiting when she came back out and he drew her to his side. His arm wrapped protectively around her waist.
Scott was asking more questions about the house, its insurance and mortgage state. She seemed to like implying this could be another insurance scam.
“Beginning your interrogation already?” Jack asked.
“There is no interrogation,” Chet told them with a sigh.
“Adams,” Scott complained. He shook his head, effectively cutting her off with a look.
“Guys, get the windows boarded up. Just don’t touch the doors. I won’t know if the whackadoo tried to get into the house or not until I have a team come in tomorrow morning to dust for prints so I don’t want anyone near them.”
Chet turned then to the women who had closed ranks around Cait. “Why don’t you three go out for dinner or, Sophie, take them to your place and order in Chinese from Ho-Ho’s. Then everyone just drop into the station tomorrow to give a statement.”
Scott didn’t look happy with her partner, but she said nothing, turning and walking toward the squad car.
“Do you mind if I go home with Sophie?” she asked Jack.
“We shouldn’t be too long here.” He told her, smoothing her hair back off her face. “You need to unwind a bit with the girls. Have a glass of wine or three.”
She laughed. “I just may do that.”
“I wish I could surround you in bubble wrap to know you are safe,” he told her. “Don’t think for a moment that my instincts aren’t telling me to do just that. To drag you back to my place and not let you leave until this psycho is caught.”
On some level Cait could admit she’d like that Jack was overprotective, but she appreciated that he also wasn’t using it as an excuse to smother her. Not yet anyway. If any more shit went down, she knew Jack would probably try to get Chet to put her on house arrest. At Jack’s house where he could keep an eye on her. The thought made her grin.
She hated that someone had violated the safety of her house. But it also made her angry. She needed some time to calm down, and wine and Chinese food at Sophie’s sounded like a great idea.