Cold Case Recruit (9 page)

Disturbed by that unwanted revelation, he joined Drury in the cockpit. He sat down in the copilot chair.

“Does it bother you whenever you see couples like that?” she asked without looking at him.

“No.”

“You looked bothered.”

“It’s not every day you see a couple like that.” He sure hoped she’d stop talking.

“No, but it’s a lot more often than you think.” As the engine revved to readiness, she turned to him.

“I’ve never noticed it before.”

“Before now?” Instead of cornering him and challenging his beliefs, she seemed to honestly want to know.

“No.”

She contemplated him for a while. “Maybe that’s been your problem all along. You turned a blind eye.”

Even though he sensed her thinking the same as him, he was glad she didn’t put the thought into words. Kissing her had opened his eyes. Wanting her made him see things he otherwise wouldn’t have.
True love
.

He shut down any further analysis. Just because he’d noticed the young couple in love didn’t mean he felt the same for Drury.

*

Drury landed on the dirt landing strip where a car waited to take the couple to their remote and romantic getaway. Mr. Canterbury was the son of a wealthy hotelier and a recent grad from Harvard. His new wife was a book editor. She’d learned that from their reservation information and talk from the ground crew. But Brycen’s notice of the couple had her most preoccupied. She resisted the urge to believe he’d change his thinking. Seeing the couple’s love had penetrated his stubbornness, but would he let down his guard?

She didn’t think so.

Nor did she feel ready to let go of her husband. Well...she didn’t
think
she was ready. She
chose
not to be ready. She needed to solve his murder first.

With the couple deboarded and on their way to their destination, the ground crew—which was minimal in these parts—prepared them for their return. They had about an hour.

She left the plane with Brycen and headed for the single building. The wind blew at a pretty good clip, biting through her outer layers and chilling her. “I’m going to get another cup of coffee.”

“I’ll meet you in the terminal. I’ve drunk too much coffee.”

Inside the building, he headed for the bathroom and she went to the only kiosk selling items travelers might need. Food. Snacks. Drinks. Books. Not much in the way of quantity but an impressive variety for somewhere this remote.

She paid for a coffee and turned to head back to the plane.

A man fell into step beside her. “Drury Decoteau?”

Startled, she nearly dropped her coffee and took a few steps back from the tall dark-haired man with glowing blue eyes. Fit and well built, he had a menacing air about him despite his good looks.

“Who are you?” She glanced around for Brycen and didn’t see him.

The stranger held up his hands. “I didn’t come here to hurt you.”

“Who are you?” she repeated.

He lowered his hands. “I came here to warn you.”

“I’ve had plenty of those.” She started walking for the exit. There weren’t many people here but enough to make it difficult for him to try anything.

He walked with her. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. Send that cop home and forget about your husband’s murder. You can’t do this without a lot more help.”

Do what? She started to push through the door, but the man stopped her with his hand on her arm.

“If you want to live, forget about investigating his murder, Mrs. Decoteau. Leave it to the police. I’m sorry for your loss, but I’d sure hate to see something happen to you if you keep digging where you shouldn’t.”

“I’ll ask you again, mister. Who are you?”

He let go of her arm and stepped back. “Let’s just say, I know the people you’re crossing, and they aren’t the kind who give second chances. Back off and you’ll be all right.”

He didn’t talk like a man out to kill her, or use violence to stop her.

“Why are you warning me?”

He hesitated and glanced around, probably searching for Brycen. “I met your husband. He was a good man. I don’t like it that he was killed.”

“If you know something, you should talk to Brycen. The police.”

“I wish I could, ma’am. Unfortunately I made my bed long ago. I’m stuck in dirty sheets.” He began to back away.

“Wait. Please. You can help us.”

He shook his head. “Back off, Mrs. Decoteau. Stop investigating your husband’s murder, at least until you can get a bigger team, like the FBI.” He turned and walked away.

The FBI? What did the man know? She would have tried to get him to tell her, but knew he would not.

“I can’t,” she said to his back.

The man saw Brycen coming out of the restroom and hurried in the opposite direction.

Drury pointed, jabbing the air. “That man!”

Brycen looked in that direction, but the man had vanished.

She took Brycen’s hand and tugged him that way. “He just stopped me and warned me. After I got coffee. He must have been waiting for me. Except he didn’t seem threatening. I mean he warned me to stop investigating Noah’s murder, but it was more to protect me. He said he met Noah, but he wouldn’t say how or where.”

“Do you recognize him?”

At the corner, she stopped and searched the corridor. A few people walked this way and that, not very busy, but no sign of the stranger. Where had he gone? Side doors and restrooms could have given him a way out. She stopped and looked back. They’d passed another men’s restroom, a different one from the one Brycen had used.

“No,” she said.

Brycen backtracked their steps and went into the men’s restroom. When he reemerged, he said, “He’s gone.”

“Of course he is. He knew you’d be here. He didn’t try to approach me until he saw you go into the restroom.”

She went to the front entrance to the small airport terminal, opposite the entrance she’d used from the tarmac. She didn’t go outside. No cars moved. A couple approached the entrance. The stranger had planned to get in and out fast. He’d planned carefully, and he’d taken a risk in coming here to warn her. A friendly face on the inside of a dangerous crowd. Whatever Noah had begun to uncover, it was more than a domestic violence call or a robbery or an attempted sexual assault. One of those calls, or another he’d responded to, had led him into something much, much darker.

*

Brycen didn’t like how easily a stranger had penetrated his watch over Drury. But it told him a lot about his adversary. He didn’t work alone, and Noah had threatened him with more than an arrest in relation to responses for calls for help. Talking to Noah’s partner wouldn’t help. Carter didn’t appear to know much.

Through the SUV windows, he spotted Drury tugging Junior toward the vehicle. The boy pouted and resisted, clearly not wanting to go with her.

Her parents came out onto the porch and waved at Brycen. He waved back, watching Madeline wrap her long sweater tighter.

Junior broke free from her grasp and would have run back to his grandparents if Drury hadn’t snagged him by his arm. She pulled him to face her and crouched before him, talking to him sternly until the boy’s head lowered and he finally nodded. Whatever talk she’d had with him hadn’t worked. Taking his hand, she stood and took him down the sidewalk, turning to wave to her parents. They waved back and continued to watch.

Drury opened the back door and Junior climbed in, head low, giving in to a good pout.

“What’s the matter, Junior?” Drury asked in the open doorway.

Junior’s gaze lifted and he glowered at Brycen. His guess would be he now understood his father was dead but had difficulty accepting another man in his mother’s life. His curiosity had taken a backseat to the threat of having to give up on his father ever coming home.

“Nothing,” Junior said.

“I thought we had a nice talk last night. Is something bothering you about that?”

“No.” His curt response said the opposite.

With a sigh, Drury started to move out of the doorway.

“Why don’t you give me a minute alone with him?” Brycen suggested.

She looked at him a moment and then nodded. Closing the door.

Junior slouched in the back, mouth tight, smooth skin creased above his nose. Getting out, Brycen went to sit in the back. Junior ignored him.

“I was an only child,” Brycen said.

The boy still ignored him and didn’t look at him, but began kicking the back of the front seat as he swung his foot.

“I can’t say I know what it’s like to lose my dad. I had a pretty good relationship with him. But my parents didn’t love each other and ended up divorcing. Do you know what that means?”

Junior nodded, still without looking up.

“I was older than you when they did so it didn’t really affect me much.” After he felt an inner feeling disagree, he decided honesty would work best with a kid like Junior. “Well, I mean, I didn’t think it did. But it did bother me. I didn’t understand why they stayed married so long. I still don’t. But they’re both happier now.” Drury had made him see that. “I was mad at them for not splitting up sooner, maybe I was mad at them for getting married in the first place.” He grunted derisively. “Which is kind of self-defeating. If they hadn’t been together, I’d never have been born.”

The boy stopped swinging his foot and finally looked up at him.

“Your situation is a lot different than mine,” Brycen went on. “I’m not trying to make it seem like we have anything in common there. I guess my point is things happen with your parents that you don’t always understand. It’s tough to work through, but eventually you will.”

“I miss my daddy.” He sounded defiant, mad. Probably that was a good sign.

“Yeah. If I lost my dad, I’d miss him, too.”

“I want him to come home, but Mommy says he can’t.” Again, angry defiance gave bite to his words.

Junior understood his father would never come home but didn’t want to accept it. Acceptance would take some time. He needed relief, sympathy or for someone to tell him everything was going to be okay.

“I wish I could bring him back home for you,” Brycen said. “But all I can do is catch the man who took him from you.”

The boy lowered his head again. Several seconds passed before he asked, “Is that really why you’re here?”

Junior wanted the bad guy caught but struggled with another man getting close to his mother. “Yes.” Brycen had to reassure him in a way that wouldn’t end up being a lie if he couldn’t control his desire for Drury. “Your mom’s a pretty special woman, Junior. You probably feel like you need to step up for her now that your dad is gone.”

Junior shrugged without looking at him.

“I like her,” Brycen said. “But I think you need to know that no matter what happens between me and her, I would never try to take your dad’s place.”

The boy looked up at him again, no longer antagonistic. Now he listened. Really listened.

“I’m not your dad. I won’t try to be. I’ll just be your friend...if you let me.”

Junior took some time mulling over that. Then he asked, “Are you going to leave after you catch the bad guy?”

Why did he ask such a question? Did he rebel out of fear of abandonment or did he feel threatened over the possibility another man could end up with his mother? Brycen suspected it was a little of both, but probably more of an abandonment issue.

“Is that what you want me to do?” Brycen finally asked. “Leave?”

With the boy’s hesitation, he took heart. Then he shrugged.

“Not sure?” Brycen asked.

With a quick glance up at Brycen, Junior nodded.

“You want me to catch your dad’s killer, but you’re not sure if you want me to leave once I do.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, after I solve your dad’s case, I’ll have to go back to Chicago where I live.”

When Junior started kicking the back of the seat again and didn’t respond in any other way, Brycen knew the boy suffered from abandonment issues. He may have imagined the cool detective staying. They’d play games together and do boy stuff. Likely Junior had not imagined such things since before his father passed. But he did not want his mother with another man.

“How do you feel about that?”

Junior shrugged.

“Tell you what,” Brycen said. “How about we be friends like I suggested earlier? We’ll start with that. How does that sound?”

Junior looked up at him. “Will you be my mommy’s friend, too?”

“I’m already her friend. And no matter what happens between me and your mother, she’ll always be here for you and I’ll always be your friend.”

He didn’t respond, only continued to look at him.

“But if I do something you don’t like, let me know and we’ll work through it, okay? If I have boogers in my nose or I start drooling, you’ll let me know, right?”

Junior smiled with a laugh and nodded.

“Everything’s going to be all right, kiddo. You’re going to be all right.” Brycen messed up the top of his head. “Okay?”

“Okay.” He was still smiling.

Brycen had started to get out of the backseat when Junior said, “Mr. Cage?”

He looked back. “If we’re going to be friends, you have to call me Brycen.”

“Why did my mommy want you to come here?”

He kept asking that. “Because it’s my job to catch bad guys and I’m told I’m pretty good at what I do.”

“Is she in trouble?”

Trouble? Why would he think such a thing? “No. Why do you ask?”

The boy tentatively looked over at him a few times. “She wanted you because you’re the best?”

“Yes.” He must have already been told that but needed reassurance. And Brycen began to suspect why. “Nothing or no one can take your mother away from you.”

“But...someone took my daddy from me. What if the same thing happens to her?”

The poor kid dealt with a serious burden. Had he revealed this fear to anyone else? Brycen crouched in the open door and reached over to put his hand on Junior’s where it rested on the seat. “I won’t let anyone hurt her the way your dad was hurt. No one is going to take your mother away from you.”

“But what about when you leave?”

“I won’t leave until I’m sure no one will hurt her.”