LIAM STRODE OVER with Gabe right behind him. “You all right?”
Caisey nodded, vigorous like she was trying to convince herself.
“The Chloroform Killer?”
Her eyes were glazed, as though the nightmare was still dissipating. “Then it was my dad, the prison chaplain, and then the sheriff. And he didn’t just stab me in the leg.”
“Someone stabbed you in the leg?” Gabe grasped her elbow, like she was about to fall over. “Are you okay?”
Caisey set her hand on his forearm. “We need to figure this out. I need it straight so my head can be straight.”
Liam nodded. “Sit down.” He took a seat on the armchair while Gabe sat with Caisey on the couch and handed her a full cup. “So we show up in town and immediately get on the sheriff’s radar. You spring Gabe out of his hands and what either one of us, or both of us, do is enough for the sheriff to come after you and Gabe and try to kill you.”
“But this wasn’t the Chloroform Killer, any of this.”
“Right.”
Caisey clutched her mug with both hands. “Are we assuming the sheriff killed Emma?”
Liam shrugged. “That would be my guess. Maybe he was trying to pin it on Gabe, make him look like the Chloroform Killer, or a copycat, but it fell through when you got in the middle of it.”
“And that was enough for him to try to kill us?” Caisey squeezed her eyes shut. “It’d make more sense to me if something else pushed the sheriff to come after us. Like Arturo.”
Gabe’s head whipped around. “He said Arturo before he came at us on the ATV. But what does my uncle have to do with the sheriff? He doesn’t even know I’m here.”
Liam’s brain connected the pieces like a puzzle. “And the two fake cops.”
Caisey gaped. “Both of them?”
Liam nodded.
“Then it’s all linked.” Caisey turned to Gabe. “Think about it, if your uncle wants to get rid of you, what better way than having an officer of the law pin a murder on you? You wind up in jail just like your dad. But Liam and I showed up and screwed up that plan, so he decides to gun us down and just get rid of us once and for all. To earn points with your uncle. Or because Arturo told him to.”
**
Caisey was supposed to be here to see the cabin, and maybe draw out the killer. Instead she’d walked back into Gabe’s world. Which might not be bad, if she hadn’t led Gabe’s uncle right to him.
Gabe glanced between her and Liam. “What about the two guys pretending to be cops?”
Liam scratched the stubble on his chin. “They arrived too fast to have been brought here by the sheriff. But what if Arturo sent them right after we arrived? Separate, but all tied together.”
Caisey nodded. “That makes sense. I’d love to get a look at the sheriff’s phone records, see if he called your uncle after we arrived.”
Gabe shook his head, like all this was unreal. “If he knew where I was this whole time, why now?”
She strode across the room and set her mug in the sink. “He might not have.” She sat again, her lips pressed together. “What if I led him right to you?”
Gabe’s face betrayed nothing. Was he mad at her? She hadn’t done it on purpose. “Did you?”
“Your father wrote a letter. The prison chaplain brought it to my house, looking for my dad to pass it on to you.”
Gabe’s eyes widened, and for a second Caisey saw a hurt little boy in there. “Why would he do that?”
Caisey bit her lip. This wasn’t the way she wanted to tell him this. “Your dad has terminal cancer. The prison chaplain said he recently became a believer. Evidently he wants to make amends.”
“So that’s why you’re here? To deliver the letter.”
Caisey shook her head. “The letter was stolen from my house during a break-in.”
“But you knew I was here? You came to tell me.”
“I had no idea you were living in my dad’s cabin all this time. Liam came here because of Emma, and I was going to check on the cabin and get some space for a few days while my leg heals.” Caisey scratched her hairline. “But if your uncle found out about the letter, maybe he thought I’d know where you were. He could have followed me up here. We might have led him straight to you.”
Gabe’s jaw flexed. He blew out a breath, took two steps away and then turned back. “So he’s still trying to kill me? Even after all these years he hasn’t let it go.”
Caisey’s heart hurt for him. “I’m sorry. But it doesn’t explain the Sheriff trying to pin Emma’s murder on you, if it really is connected.”
Gabe’s face softened. He didn’t say anything, but she couldn’t help thinking it meant he wasn’t sorry they got to meet each other. Caisey wanted that to be true, which wasn’t good at all. Why did her heart have to be so tied to a man who was virtually a stranger to her? Why couldn’t she have moved on?
“I’m sorry, Gabe.” She didn’t want to do this, but he needed to go if he was going to be safe. “You’re going to have to move again.”
Gabe turned away and walked down the hall.
Caisey looked at Liam. “I guess he didn’t take that too well.”
“He’ll be okay. And he’ll be alive.”
Caisey nodded, even though she didn’t like it.
“I’m going to head back to the sheriff’s office now. See you back in Denver.”
“What about the team?” She walked with him to the door. “Will you tell them not to come?”
“I’ll call Burkot and let him know it wasn’t the Chloroform Killer.”
“Will you tell him about Gabe?” Caisey wasn’t sure she wanted it to get out. “It’d be pretty easy for word to get out, and then his uncle will know we’re involved.”
Liam nodded. “I’ll let you decide on that one.”
“Okay.”
He squeezed her elbow. “Take care on the drive back, you look tired.”
**
Gabe stuffed his t-shirts into a duffel bag. His room was a mess, but he picked through the dissonant fragments of what had been his life for years and found what he needed. He was in the bathroom gathering up his razor and toothbrush when Caisey showed up in the doorway.
“You okay?”
Gabe shoved the stuff in his travel kit and zipped it up. What was the point in answering? It was clear his life was done. Again.
“As soon as you’re ready, I’ll leave too. Liam already went back to town.”
“Right.” Gabe ran a hand through his hair. “Is this normal for you guys? Because if it is, it’s insane. In one day we’ve been shot at, you killed a man, we were pushed off a ravine into freezing water, practically got hypothermia, and now I find out my uncle is coming for me again.”
Caisey’s lips twitched. “Not usually all at once, no. I’ll give you that. But my job isn’t exactly boring.”
“Why on earth would you choose to do it?”
“Why do you love historical books?”
Gabe frowned. “I love discovering something new about how people lived hundreds of years ago. It gives us insight into past events and their implications on today.”
“It’s not that different from what I do. Except I discover things about people who live now, ones who commit crimes. It keeps people safe.”
“What about you?” He frowned. “Who keeps you safe?”
“I won’t tell you there isn’t an element of risk. You were there today. You’re not dumb and I’m not going to sugar-coat it. It is what it is.”
Gabe sighed. “I just don’t get why you would want to.”
“What made you testify against your dad?” Her voice was quiet and she shifted, like she didn’t know how he might react to the question. Or did she regret putting distance between them? He supposed it was for the best, since they were going their separate ways…again.
“I thought it was the right thing to do, to put away someone who had hurt a lot of people. Turns out he wasn’t the real threat.”
Caisey squeezed his hand. “It was the right thing to do. You put a criminal away, and that’s exactly how I feel about my job. I can’t live with any self-respect if I don’t do everything I can to protect the people I love.”
She moved aside so Gabe could exit the bathroom. He went into his room, but he still had something he wanted to say to her. When he turned back she was leaning against the doorframe looking bone-tired.
“What if the people you love are the ones you need to protect everyone else from? I did the right thing and I thought it would feel different than this. Better. But it doesn’t feel good at all that I tore my family apart and had to live the rest of my life in hiding.”
“Gabe—”
He shook his head. “Let’s just get moving, okay? It’s late and we’re both too tired for this conversation.” Not to mention, did it even matter if they understood each other if there was little chance they were going to see each other again?
Mitch would miss him until he could explain. Would Caisey? He’d thought he would never get to meet her and now that he had, well…he’d assumed it would go differently. Holding on to the dream, the desire of his heart, for years, he’d prayed that God would someday bring it all together. He’d get the girl, and testifying wouldn’t have meant his world was destroyed. There would still be something salvageable.
Work had been enough for a long time. But now he’d seen Caisey’s strength, her pure convictions, the sound of her voice, and the way her mouth crept up at one side when she thought something was funny. Despite denying it for so long, Gabe needed to face the fact that he was a romantic. And there was nothing he could do about it, because one day soon his uncle was going to find him again.
Gabe loaded up his Jeep. When he shut the back, Caisey was right there. He didn’t want to say goodbye, so instead he said, “What’s your phone number?”
**
Caisey hit the button for speakerphone and set her cell in her lap. “Okay, I’ll admit it. This was a good idea to stay awake.”
Highway stretched out in front of her, thick and black, except for the covering of stars overhead. Gabe might be heading in the other direction, but the presence of his voice made it feel like the miles between them weren’t multiplying.
“I have them from time to time.”
Caisey gripped the steering wheel with one hand. “So tell me something, then. We have to talk if we’re going to stay awake.”
“True. We wouldn’t want to talk about nothing in particular when we could be deep and meaningful at two a.m.”
Caisey smiled. She would have laughed, but she was way too tired to worry about anything except getting home and going to bed. After she slept for two days she would figure out what they were going to do about Gabe’s uncle. Although, she’d already pretty much decided she was going to call him and set up a meeting. She needed to get to the bottom of what happened with the sheriff and the two guys pretending to be the state police.
The sheriff’s death needed to be investigated and she’d have to follow up on the statement she’d given, but the state police could do that through the FBI office in Denver.
There were procedures.
Then there was Gabe.
He was nice, good looking, and seemed like a decent guy instead of any of the parade of losers she’d met who either still lived in their mom’s house, or they didn’t have a job they could share in polite company. She really didn’t want to date someone she’d end up having to arrest.
“Caisey?”
“What?”
“Deep in thought, or asleep?” His voice shook with humor.
Someone who saw the lighter side of life would be good for her, since she was so exposed to the darkness in the world.
“Well?”
She watched a lone trucker pass going the other direction. “Not asleep, just thinking.”
“About what?”
Of course he asked that. And what was she going to tell him? He didn’t need to know she had already written off their relationship or, at least, the lack of potential for one.
There was no way on earth she could see how they would ever be able to merge their lives. It would take an act of…oh, right.
Okay, God. Here it is. I don’t ask for much, it seems like you’ve given me the skills to take care of whatever gets thrown at me. So how about this? Gabe is it for me, isn’t he? It feels like this is my one chance to have everything I want, but it looks impossible. So…how about you take the reins on this one? She sucked in a breath, suddenly incredibly nervous. I’m giving it to you…giving him to you, because this one’s too big for me.
“Caisey?”
She needed to say something before Gabe got worried she really had fallen asleep. “I was just thinking about how funny life is. It never really works out the way we think, does it?”
Gabe’s voice came back. “Okay, maybe it is too late for deep and meaningful. I’m not sure I can cogitate this right now. But I do know what you mean. It’s never sunshine and roses. Why do we think it should be?”
Caisey shifted in her seat, trying to shake some life into her heavy shoulders. “My pastor says it has to do with heaven. We’re discontent with what’s happening here on earth, because we know we’re destined for something better.”
“Like how Adam and Eve messed up what was supposed to be the real plan? Perfection, walking with God.”
“Yeah,” Caisey sighed, glad he was on the page with her. “That’s proof right there God desires something better for us. We get little glimpses of it on earth, like a good marriage, and a little kid laughing, and cream-filled chocolate-covered donuts.”