Carolina Rain (24 page)

Taking the tracking devic
e out of his pocket, Manny slid
it
across the table
. “We don’t know how this ended up under the bumper of one of our SUVs
. We
want to know who, how,
why,
and when.”

Turning the oblong box over in his fingers, Braxton raised his eyebrows. “This is expensive so it wasn’t bein’ done half
-
assed, ya know. You already send in the serial number?”

“We did,” answered
Josh
.

“Let me know what you find, but I might
dig up
something sooner,” said Braxton
,
standing.

Manny noticed his accent had almost vanished again. Just like in Puerto Rico.
One of these days, h
e’d have to ask him why that happened
.

“You sound like you know something,” said Manny.

Braxton’s laugh was more like a roar. “Was it my face or my voice dat gave me away?”

The accent was back. Curious.

“Both,” said Manny.

“I’d love to stay and hear about dis other ting, but let me see what I can do with dese other problems.”

Then he was gone, the only sound was the creaking of the
floor
as he left the
room
.

“Thank you for indulging us those few minutes,” said Josh, swiveling back to the
c
aptain.

“No problem here, it could be a
long night anyway. This is your show. Where do you want to
start?”

Tanner looked down to his
ringing
phone by the legal pad and box of ballpoint pins.

“Shit. I need to take this.”

The
c
aptain’s face never changed expression
only
Manny noticed the color partially drain from his leathered face
. He
felt his stomach turn upside down.

“I got it. We’ll get some people out there shortly.”

Tanner hung up.

“Remember what I said about a long night? It just got longer.”

“Another victim?” asked M
an
n
y.

“Yes. In an old hotel off Oleander.”

“We need to get out there. We can
meet after we process the scene,
” said Alex as he
,
Dean
, and Dana
stood in unison.

Tanner nod
ded, then hesitated, h
is face not really recovering from the news the call had brought.

“What?” said Josh.

“It seems she’s thrown another twist
in
to her
. . .
vocation.”

CHAPTER-32

Reaching across the table in the semi
-
darkness, Chloe grabbed Jen’s arm. “I want ya to hide under the table and do it now, Lass.”

“O-okay, Chloe. I’m there,” her voice strained, but steady. Just like her old man.

She heard Jen push the chair back along the hardwood floor and scramble under the end of the long oak table nearest the wall.

“What the hell is going on?” demanded Gavin.

She heard leather and metal make love and kn
ew Gavin had pulled his weapon.

“I don’t know, but I didn’t leave my paranoia at the altar
,
”
she answered. Her fierceness surprising her.

Stre
t
ching
down to her ankle, she pulled
her
black-handled Smith and Wesson .
22
. She mo
ved quickly to the front of the house where Sampson was now standing erect, growling in a low guttural quiver that
raised the
hair on the back of her
neck
.

“Gavin. Go to the back and see if you can see anything out the patio door. Stay low.
”

“Got it
. Y
ou do the same.”

She heard him drop to his knees and grunt in protest
.
As he shuffled on hands and knees to the rear of the house, she heard him mutter. “I’m getting way too old for this shit.”

His comment was a
ccompanied by a giggle from Jen. Despite the unknown, the girl
had
found a light in their situation. Another lesson Chloe could learn.

Reaching the
front
window, she pulled
Sampson
away from the silhouetted shadows straining
through the large pane. He came
grudgingly
,
but he did move
,
then sat directly between
her and the window, protecting her from getting closer to the shouting that was now more like a chorus as three separate voices were talking and yelling at once.

Chloe had never had a dog
in her life
. She’d not had time to take care of one when she was young and never mind that option when she
’d
joined the Bureau
. L
iving out of a small one
-
bedroom apartment in
DC
,
and being on assignment for weeks
on end,
was hardly conducive to pet
-
rearing. But watching Sampson
—
better yet, feeling what the
B
ig
D
og was about
—
told her she’d missed something.

She stroked h
im on the neck and bent to his
ear. “Stay,
Sampson
.
I
’ve
got to check this out,” she
sai
d.

Sampson grabbed her hand with his mouth and held firmly, then released it, licked it,
and
sat still. She could feel his gaze. If she didn’t know better, she was sure he was telling her to be careful.

“I will. Now go to Jen.”

The black Lab hesitated
,
then slunk into the other room. His actions caused her to go from unsettled to grateful back to unsettled. She knew he’d die protecting Jen
,
but
Chloe
had no idea what was
happening
. That wasn’t helped by the abrupt
silence
surrounding the outside of
her home.

Gathering a breath, then releasing it slowly, she turned the brass knob and pulled the door with painstaking deliberation until it reached about a third of the way open. Chloe dropped down to one knee and edged closer to the storm
door’s
cold glass and peered through, squinting to see anything. Motion, light, heavy breathing, footsteps, anything at all. It appeared that the front lawn, devoid of snow
and
still on
the
ugly
side of winter brown, was as
quie
t as a church on Monday morning.

Just as she reached for the latch to open the outside door, a strong, rough hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to the seat of her pants. Panic rose as she tried to bring her weapon around
,
then
it
dissipated as she heard the gruff hiss.

“What the hell you doing,
A
gent? Going out that door alone ain’t no procedure any cop ever learned from any training I’ve seen or done. You don’t go out that door without backup. Got it?”

Gavin’s voice sounded more like a parent that a polic
e
commissioner
and he was right, usually.

“I know, but you’re supposed to be watching the back and Jen won’t be coming with me just yet, don’t ya know?” she answered softly.

“I can’t see shit out there
,
and the door’s got a double lock
. B
esides, I gave her my backup revolver.”

Chloe wanted to respond to
the idea of
a seventeen-year-old having a loaded .38 in her hand but the shouting
had
beg
u
n again
,
and this time
,
she
felt like she
could reach out and touch the man
who
had
just
yelled. She snapped her head around and saw three shadows enter the yard from the west side of the house. Two were a step behind the third, all running full bore, and yelling for the third figure to stop. Chloe switched on the porch light just in
time to see the chasers pounce
on the third
,
sending the three into a tangled heap of arms and legs in the cold, wet grass.

“Get the hell off me, ya buffoons,” came the stern order from the person on the bottom of the heap.

Standing, her mouth open with the utter shock of hearing that voice, Chloe ran out the door and reached the three just as the two blues were bringing the intruder to an upright, sitting
position. Then they jerked the last person in the world Chloe expected to see on this side of the
planet
,
let
alone in her front yard, to a full standing posture.

“Wha-what the hell is going on? What are ya doing here? You’re supposed to be
—
”

The fiery eyes of
the
intruder caused her to stop.

“Now where else on God’s green earth would I be? And that’s the worst damn greetin’ I ever got.”

Then Haley Rose Franson broke loose from the two cops and wrapped her daughter in her strong arms.

CHAPTER-33

“Ya can lock the door now darlin’. We ain’t getting no more customers today and I don’t want none either, not after eight o’clock
,
” urged
J.R.
, pointing at Lily with the greasy black spatula that must have been a hundred years old. “And I appreciate you coming back in at four to help out. I’m gonna fire that other wench for callin’ in sick two of the last four days.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. It had been a
long afternoon and not just because of the busy schedule but because of the fire that was now burning bright inside her. It had only been a little more than six hours
since she’d left the Scarecrow M
an in that hotel room. He’d gone from the delusion that he was in control to the reality that everyone comes to grips with eventually; he was going to die
,
and die he did. But now she wanted
more, more of what made her fee
l
truly
alive. That desire was going to be fulfilled because
s
he had already picked out her next lover. In a couple of hours, he’d answer the door and they’d play. She closed her eyes as her heart jumped in her chest. This must be what kids experienced before opening gifts
on
Christmas morning. That incomprehensible excitement was something she
’d
never understood, until now.

“You
daydreamin'
, Lily? If ya are, do it on your own damn time. I’m fixing to get out of here and I can’t leave some rookie-ass waitress to close up.”

“Yep. Daydreaming about what happens when I get out of here
—
and when you’ll treat me like an adult, you old bastard.”

The quick, genuine smile left his gray-stubbled face
as fast as it had come,
replaced by the constant frown
of an
universal ex-military m
a
n who’d grown to old
-
fart status.

“Watch who in the hell you’re calling an old bastard. I can still kick your round ass
,
and you ain’t earned no damn adult status in this here establishment. You work hard enough and that hitch in your cute little get
-
along has gotten better since ya started,
‘cept
that don’t mean shit.”

“Really?
What
the hell does that mean? Earning adult status
, I mean
. Particularly in a greasy diner in a sleepy beach town like Kure Beach.”

“It can mean a lot
of
things, smartass, but the main meanin
’
here has to do with you stayin. You ain’t
been workin’
in this old diner long enough for me to count on ya lockin up and such.”