The Unrelenting Tide (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans - Christian Romantic Suspense) (24 page)

He looked back down at the phone. No name. Only a number. He pressed the green button to dial it. “Where was she going?”

“Hawaii. She’s not supposed to be back for a couple weeks.”

So was it Honey screaming? And if not her, who?

“Lang!?” Niemeyer had her gun out and waited for his instructions at the top of the stairs.

The phone rang once.

He gestured for her to wait.

Twice.

He glanced into the bedroom where Marissa still slept peacefully.

Three times.

No way could they take Marissa out into the unknown. And no way could he leave Devynne here with her by herself. And he wasn’t about to send another officer out into the unknown alone.

Four times.

The screaming was most likely a trap. Still, a real person was being used as bait. He couldn’t just leave them in distress without help.

The screaming stopped and eerie silence muffled the evening.

A message clicked on. “The person whose phone you have dialed has not set up their mailbox to receive messages. If you feel you’ve reached this message in error—” He punched the phone off, resisting the desire to hurl it against the wall. It had been too much to hope for anyhow. He glanced at his watch. Donny would be here any moment. “Two of us will go when Sanchez gets here. For now, we’re all going down to the basement.” If the perp started a fire they’d all fry like bugs in a zapper up here on the third floor. He motioned Devynne toward Marissa. “Grab her.”

Thankfully Devynne did so without question.

As they headed down the stairs together he squeezed his radio. “Donny, there was a woman screaming one house to the north. Let me know when you get here and Niemeyer will come back you up.”

“I’m here. I heard her.” Gravel crunched under tires. “Sounded like it was coming from her back deck. Tell Niemeyer to meet me there.”

Niemeyer was already headed for the door.

“Niemeyer will cover you till you can get down here. Then you can both head that way together.” He nodded for Shannon to code and open the door even as he held out one arm to hold Devynne back in the relative safety of the stairwell behind him.

Sinking to a crouch, Niemeyer covered the back hillside as Sanchez took the stairs down from the drive two at a time. He reached her without incident and nodded to Carcen over her shoulder.

“Go.” Carcen gestured them in the direction the screams had come from. “I’ll stay here with Dev. Stay together and watch each other’s backs!”

“Ten-four,” Niemeyer called over her shoulder.

And with that they disappeared into the deepening twilight.

Carcen locked the black drape-clad door behind them and armed the alarm, sending up a prayer for their safety. He motioned Devynne down to the lowest level and did another quick sweep of the place before he let Dev lay Marissa on the floor of her sewing room closet.

Devynne fluttered her hands over blankets already firmly tucked around Marissa. Pain etched her features. “This is all my fault.”

“Look at me.” He pulled her a few steps away and bent until she met his gaze. Keeping his voice low, he said, “This is
not
your fault. It’s
his
. Whoever he is,
he
made this choice, not you.”

“I should have told you sooner.” A spark of distant hope lit her gaze. “Did you get any information from Dawson?”

He sighed. “Dev. I don’t think Dawson knows much about this other guy. I didn’t get a chance to finish interrogating him, but he looked shocked when I asked him about your sister and the bomb that ended up on your doorstep. He admitted to being hired to scare you, but said he never met the man who hired him.”

She collapsed back against the wall and rubbed her temples with trembling hands. “Carcen, I’m so afraid.”

“Shhhh,” he snagged her waist and pulled her into his chest, praying she didn’t feel his own terror shuddering through his torso. This lowlife was as slippery as an eel. Perps always made mistakes. He just hoped no one else got hurt before he could discover what this one’s were.

He rested his cheek against Dev’s and spoke low in her ear. “That’s exactly what he wants. He’s feeling desperate or he wouldn’t be acting out. If you’re right and he did kill Kent, he’s known where you were for four years and hasn’t made a move. So something has set him off. Something has him worried. I just need to figure out what it is.”

“Carcen,” Devynne laid her palm against his cheek and bit her lower lip. She gave him a look so full of emotion his heart threatened to crash through his ribs.

“What?”

“I think it’s us.”

“Us?” his mind was a spinning cursor – trying hard but going nowhere fast.

“You and me. I think he doesn’t like the thought of me being with anyone but him.” He felt her tremble. Tears balanced on her lower lids, shimmering, one blink away from cascading into rivulets.

“But you said strange things have been happening around here for several weeks now. And you and I only…”

A blush heated her face so swiftly his eyebrows rose.

“You remember I told you my books would go missing?”

He nodded.

“My diary…”

A jolt of warm sentiment lasered through him at that revelation. She’d written about him in her diary? Okay that could be a—

A gunshot reverberated through the night. He flinched.
Please God, don’t let me lose anyone else tonight
.

Chapter 20

Carcen jolted upright, his hand firming around her upper arm. “Dev I need you to get in with Marissa.” He snagged her gun from his waistband and pressed it into her palm. “Here. Don’t open the closet for anyone but me, got it?”

He was going out into the shooting! Metallic fear prickled across her tongue and she clutched at his wrist. “Carcen, you can’t go out there!”

“I have to.” He touched her cheek but his attention had already turned from her to assessing the curtained sliding door as though his mind was walking through what he would need to do once he got to the other side. He didn’t give her a chance to say more, but thrust her into the dark interior of the closet and pulled the door shut with one last command. “Pray.”

Her breathing sounded loud and rapid in the tight space. From the floor Marissa’s soft snores came gentle and steady. Devynne tried to emulate the child’s serenity. Oh to be able to rest so peacefully at a time like this!

Digital beeps sounded as he unarmed the alarm system. Then the sound of metal rolling on metal as the slider rolled open and she felt a cool puff of air blow under the closet door. She heard the soft scuff of his boots against the deck. And then silence.

Holding her breath she tilted her head to listen. He was out there alone. He needed someone to back him up. And she was the only one left. But she couldn’t leave Marissa!

Still, she wouldn’t be able help him at all while hiding inside a closet.

Softly she eased open the door and stepped out pushing it shut behind her. Outlined by the doorframe, Carcen stood still scanning the back yard. The curtain, pushed open at one side of the frame, billowed inward on a draft of air. Outside, the porch light was on so she doubted anyone would be able to see her in the darkened room, but what if Marissa woke up and made a noise?

She wouldn’t go far, but she wanted to be able to help Carcen if she could. She pressed her back to the wall next to the glass doors and listened.

A deck board groaned under Carcen’s weight and she heard the slider start to roll shut, but stop suddenly. “You there! This is Sheriff Lang. Freeze!”

Bushes rustled and then a man’s voice called, “Carcen, it’s me. Listen—”

“Randy?” There was an edge of hurt in Carcen’s tone. But there was also something that indicated he’d halfway expected the man.

Devynne let her breath go in a whoosh and such a dizzy spell hit her that she had to lean her head back against the wall for support.
Randy
? Carcen had to have had some suspicions because he’d asked Shannon to run a background check on him earlier. That would explain the resignation she heard in his tone.

“Dear Jesus,” she whispered. She’d been out on a date with the man!

But of course. Everything made sense. He’d lived on the island since just about the time that Kent had been killed.

Had he been keeping tabs on her for all those years? A shiver sluiced down her spine.

Why had he only recently evidenced a renewed interest in her?

It had to be what she’d reasoned earlier with Carcen.
He’s jealous
. And Carcen, the man he was jealous of, was out there with him, right now. Nausea clenched a fist around her stomach.

He’d known so much about her at the restaurant. And he’d invited her out to his boat to watch a movie!

She shuddered. What would have happened if she’d gone with him that night?

The strength left her legs and she sank into a crouch, suddenly praying like she’d never prayed in her life.
Lord, if ever there was a time we needed your protection it’s now. Keep Carcen safe, please. And Marissa. And the other officers
.

“Get down on your knees. Hands behind your head.” Carcen’s low words emerged gravelly and hoarse, as though they were the hardest thing he’d ever had to say.

“Carcen listen—”

“Don’t listen to him!” That was Donny Sanchez. Brush crackled and snapped as he apparently bounded down the hillside. “He shot her!”

Shannon
?
Or Honey
? Devynne’s eyes widened and then slammed shut. One more person’s death credited to her account.

No
, she reminded herself of Carcen’s words. These choices weren’t hers. Someone else had chosen this.

Randy
had chosen this.

She simply needed to make the most of a bad situation. She was only accountable for her own choices and this was it. She was choosing to stand up for the one’s she loved. She was terrified to leave her sleeping daughter in a closet across the room, for mercy’s sake! If she didn’t stand up to this man right now, that might be the way she had to live the rest of her life!

God help me
!

She adjusted her grip on the gun, fingered the safety off, and slid closer to the door. Which side were they talking from? She eased the curtain back a little more and peered around it. The room was dark, and the men all stood in a pool of illumination cast by the porch light, so it was easy to see them.

There. To the left. Randy on his knees just off the front edge of the ground-level deck. Carcen between her and Randy. And Donny at the far left edge of the deck.

“Carcen…” Leaves rustled as Randy shifted. “I need you to listen to me. I know I should have told you sooner but—”

“Hey!” Donny yelled, dashing a couple steps closer, his gun firmly extended toward Randy. “Shut up! He shot her, Lang! He shot Niemeyer!”

Devynne swallowed. So it was Shannon. The woman had deserved better than that. But was Honey okay, then? Had it really been her screaming?

Sanchez glanced back at the house, but standing out in the porch light as he was, his gaze skimmed across the doorway where she stood without seeing her. “Where’s Devynne? We have to keep her safe!”

Devynne’s heart pounded. Her safety had to come second to anyone else who might get hurt by Randy Wiseman.

“Donny, calm down!” Carcen snapped the words but his voice remained cool. He shifted to the right and she could partially see Randy’s face now, hands lifted in the air by his side. Carcen cleared his throat still speaking in a soothing tone to Donny. “How badly is she hurt?”

“She’s dead! And that’s not all. We found Boyd. He’s been killed too!”

Air hissed from Carcen’s lips. “Alright, Donny we aren’t going to panic, you hear? Pull it together for me.” His took another step to the right and she could see Randy clearly now, outlined in a shimmering strip of buttermilk moonlight reflecting off the sea.

Thoughts of all the agony that man had forced on her drifted through her mind. The death of her sister. Her career. Her marriage. The terror she’d lived with day in and day out for years.

She raised her gun, but was careful not to squeeze the crimson trace.

“Randy, lock your hands behind your head. I’m willing to listen to your side, but first you’re going to have to come down to the jail with me.”

Listen to his side
? Did the man
deserve
to have his side heard? Her sister hadn’t gotten the chance to have her side heard! She’d died in a flaming ball of fire and gouging metal debris. Kent hadn’t gotten a chance to have his side heard. He’d died before he hit the floor, a bullet through his head. She gritted her teeth, hands trembling.

Then a soft whisper caressed her spirit.

She was not like this man. Didn’t
want
to be like him. And if she couldn’t trust God to bring about righteous judgment, who could she trust?

A slow breath eased through her pursed lips and she dropped the point of the gun toward the ground. She would not become evil in order to stop it.

“Donny,” Carcen jerked his head toward the house, “Devynne’s in the house. Go in and make sure she’s safe.”

“You got it, Boss.”

Relief flooded her. Everything was going to be fine. She shoved her gun into the waistband of her jeans and pulled her shirt over it.

Donny jogged over and stepped through the doorway. “Hey,” he whispered. “Where’s Marissa? We should get you guys away from here.”

She tipped her head toward the closet. “In there. I’ll get her.” Pulling open the bi-fold doors she bent down and scooped Marissa into her arms.

“Carcen,” Randy’s voice coming from outside sounded strained, “think things through here. Think of the angle. I was coming from the south. The shot was on the north side and only a couple seconds before you came out. I’m in private security. I was hired by Devynne’s agent years ago to protect her. And I’ve—”

“Come on, come on, come on!” Donny motioned for her to hurry up the stairs.

Marissa rubbed her eyes sleepily and peered over at Donny. “I knew you’d find him, Mommy.”

One foot on the first stair, Devynne froze. She glanced from Donny to Marissa and back. A cold wash of horror sluiced down her spine.