by Lily LaVae
“Personal question.” Her own voice purred into the phone.
“At four thirty in the morning?” His deadpan made her giggle.
“Yes, because we’re both curled up in bed. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were curled in bed, together?”
He laughed slightly. “No, because I’d never get any sleep. I just came off of a twelve-hour shift with a massive accident on the interstate. As much as your body calls to me…a man needs his z’s.”
She almost felt guilty, but not quite. He’d asked her to do this. He’d set himself up for the early-morning call. “Aw, I’m sorry for waking you.” Mostly, she just wanted to slide right in next to him and wake up all knotted up with him. “I’ll let you go back to your beauty sleep now. Wouldn’t want you to miss it.”
She heard his sigh and laughed again.
“Thanks, and Melody? If this guy does get more aggressive, call the police or me, or even Special Agent Hernandez. You don’t have to handle it alone.”
Her heart melted and his assurance made her feel like she could actually get some sleep. “I will, I promise.”
Chapter 18
The four thirty wake-up call had left Gage not only wide awake, but concerned. Melody would be fine, she had to be, she’d agreed to run the story. She’d promised to call someone if she were in danger. He’d been counting on the fact that she kept her physical address private, but how hard would it be for someone to follow her home?
Shit, he’d practically made her bait.
His phone rang after he’d laid there for hours, trying to fall back to sleep. He punched the green phone button. “Yeah.”
“You sitting down?” Alexander’s voice was measured, with worry and something deeper.
Gage glanced down at his prone body. “Yeah, about as sitting down as I can get.”
“We got a call this morning. Burner phone. Guy is obviously not normally the criminal type, wanted to know where we got our information for that news story. Pissed as hell.”
Gage sat up and shoved the blankets off, then swung his legs off the bed. “He sent Melody some texts too.”
“I haven’t heard from her yet, but if the number matches, that will only make our case stronger.”
He shoved his legs into a pair of jeans and slid them up, leaving them hanging open. “Wait, you already know who he is?”
“I was able to find out what company sold that cell number with a little hunting online. The guy didn’t bother to pay for security, so they gave me all the information I wanted without much fuss. Do you want to go with when we talk to him?”
He’d like to punch the guy in the face for scaring Melody, but she didn’t need him to do that and if he wanted to get this case closed, he had to keep his emotions in check. “Yeah, I would. When are you going to go talk to him?”
“I’ll be there in about three hours. We’ll have to frame our questions in a way that make him admit what he’s done, otherwise, we’ll have to look through hours of store surveillance to find this guy buying those buckets. The ignition device is child’s play. Literally, it was ordered from Acme Shop Kits, a place where science teachers order soldering kits.”
“Is this guy a teacher?” How else would he get more than one kit, or know how to combine them?
“No, one of my guys found a video online how to build the device and where to order parts. I’ve got one of my guys trying to locate him now.”
“Seems like you can find about anything online now.”
Alexander chuckled. “Yeah, but everything you search for leaves a trace. Be sure to warn your chief you won’t be available today.”
He glanced at the calendar to remind him what day it was. “Today is my day off.”
“Yeah, I know. I used to volunteer too. Then I lost a buddy and decided to join the feds. I may not get to put out fires like I used to, but I still get to work some scenes. I know that drive to be there whenever the alarm rings, no matter what day it is, it’s always there.”
Alexander was right. The only time Gage didn’t answer the call was if he was on the ambulance that would be on-scene anyway. “I’ll let him know.”
“Your department can handle it. With our guy busy, there shouldn’t be anything big that goes down.”
“Yeah, unless he has a way of starting fires remotely,” Gage said. “That would be a pretty good way of looking innocent, to make a fire happen when he shouldn’t be able to set one.”
“I don’t think he’s that smart, or prepared. He has to break into all of these houses and put the devices in. He has to do it when they aren’t home, or at the very least, they have to be asleep.”
If he’d encountered someone, or had almost been caught at the first site, that might have been why a snowbird home was chosen for the second house. “Do you think that’s why he chose an empty house for the second fire? He had time to set two devices because no one was home to catch him?”
“Possibly,” Alexander said. “We’ll ask all those questions once we get him to admit what’s going on.”
“Who is he?” Gage didn’t think he’d know the man, but it was possible if it really was someone from town.
“His name is James Axe. He’s the accountant for DemaCrane.”
“Shit.” He’d really hoped there would be no connection. It would be too easy for Melody to step into “I told you so” mode. It was nice to get along with her, but that would do just the opposite.
“Yeah, that lead panned out. But, I’m still not convinced it’s the company itself. DemaCrane is out of Albuquerque and, as you know from the drive, it’s not much fun to drive back and forth. “Axe is from Blackjack, so he probably works from home most of the time. If there was a resort right in Santinas, he could have a cushy office. It could still be completely personal.”
“People do shit for stupid reasons,” Gage said, shaking his head. Two people had lost homes, not to mention Lucas and the danger he and Rabbit had been in at the second fire. Could greed really be so blinding?
“They do. I’m going to let you go so I can grab everything I need. This isn’t a warrant serve, just a questioning, more of a ‘we’re onto you’ to scare him into doing something stupid. So, let me do the talking.”
“Got it. I’ll be ready.”
Three hours later, Alexander picked up Gage in the black Suburban. It was impeccably clean inside.
“Nice truck,” Gage said. If there was ever a reason to talk to Alexander after the case, they obviously had one thing in common. Maybe he was a military brat too.
“Yeah, I take heat for it all the time. No food, drinks, garbage, anything in my truck. I hate a mess.”
Gage knew the feeling, when he and Melody had used his truck, that was the closest he’d come to allowing chaos in there. “Mine’s the same. The last guy that called me a pussy for keeping it that way, lost a bet in an embarrassing way.”
Alexander laughed and shifted the truck into gear. “Don’t care what they think. If anyone else wants to live in a hell hole, go for it. It’s not for me.”
On the outskirts of Blackjack, where the yards got wider and homes had more kids, Alexander pulled up in front of a green ranch-style home. It was small and neat, probably built in the fifties when so many homes were built row upon row in that style.
“Not what you were expecting, is it?” Alexander raised an eyebrow. “Not every criminal lives in a dirty apartment, walking around in a wife-beater, cursing at the cops.”
“I didn’t expect him to live in a neighborhood with kids, no.” He hated the implication that he didn’t know his job or that he should expect the unexpected.
“Let’s go.” Alexander touched his right side, then slipped his keys into his pocket.
Gage wasn’t armed, but he shouldn’t need to be. As Alexander had said, this was just a howdy-do, not a hands up.
A woman with a stiff bun and a bright pink apron came bustling out of the house, carrying a bucket full of cleaners and brushes.
“Hola,” she said as her
eyes widened. “The sen͂or is not home.”
Alexander stopped and crossed his arms. “Do you know where he went, we’d like to speak to him.”
She shook her head, her eyes still wide. “No. He said he would be gone for a long time. I’m to keep cleaning once a week until he gets back. I clean.”
Gage glanced at the bushes and down the street. Was this guy playing with them, hiding? Or had he gone in search of Melody? His stomach twisted and he wanted to get into that house and verify he was right where he should be, and nowhere near Santinas, but since they had no warrant, Alexander had more pull than he did.
Somehow, he had to have been tipped off or had gotten scared after contacting Alexander. Gage turned back for the truck and Alexander went to the house as he spoke with the woman. “Would you mind if we took a quick look around, ma’am? It’s important that we speak to him.”
“I can’t do that!” she said, looking scared and nervous. “It’s no’ my house.”
Gage stood back, and watched as Alexander schmoozed the woman into letting him in. There was no other way to be sure Axe wasn’t in that house, but if he wasn’t, that meant he could have been anywhere, including finding and following Melody. Gage had been fairly certain there was no chance this guy would go after her, but he hadn’t expected the guy to skip town, either.
Alexander followed the cleaning lady back into the house and Gage whipped out his phone. He had no idea where Melody would be during the day, but he had to reach her and let her know she should be careful.
He hit the button and it rang twice. “Hey, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you,” she smiled into the phone. He hated to bring her down. She’d been frightened that morning and he’d managed to relieve that. He didn’t want her scared, just aware.
“Where are you?” Damn, that wasn’t the best way to start.
“Um…I’m at the coffee shop, working. Why?” Apprehension suddenly laced her words.
“Is anyone in the shop with you?” Look around and tell me everything is fine. Come on, babe.
“There are a couple people sitting around me. What’s going on Gage, you’re kind of pissing me off. You told me not to worry and now you’re messing with me.”
“I’m not messing with you. Alexander and I were trying to question the guy who sent you those texts this morning, but he’s disappeared.”
“Disappeared? As in, you don’t know where he is? As in, he probably understands you’re out looking for him, so he’s pissed?” she yelled into the phone. “I was worried about this from the start. I never should’ve offered to help you.” He heard her chair scrape against the floor.
“Wait, Melody. Where are you going?”
“Home, where I belong. I should’ve just stayed there today.”
“I’d rather you sit tight at the coffee shop, out in the open where others can see you. There’s safety in numbers. I’ll come pick you up as soon as I can.”
“Out in the open? You mean, where he can find me easily with the great big front windows? My photo is right next to my name in the paper. This isn’t a big town, this little shop doesn’t have many people in it. What numbers are you looking for? There’s like, two people here.”
He raked his hand through his hair. Why did she always have to jump on his every word? Couldn’t she just listen and trust him? “Just don’t move. I want you where I can find you.”
“No. Don’t bother. I can see why you suddenly decided it was okay to let me in. You needed bait. Fuck you, Gage.”
Chapter 19
Alexander glanced over at him for about the tenth time since they’d gotten back in the Suburban.
“What’s eating at you? We’ll find him. I don’t know how he figured out we’d be coming but sometimes any contact scares them off, even contact they initiate. It’s not the end of the world, just a setback.”
Gage scrubbed his face and stared at his phone again. The lack of sleep had started to get to him, but he was used to surviving on very little. “I called Melody to warn her he’s missing. She’s pissed. She thinks we set her up.”
Alexander pulled up to Gage’s apartment to drop him off. “She’ll get over it. You’ll get her to get over it. We need her in case this guy hasn’t gone far and is still reading the paper. I’ve got to get back to the office and get a few of my guys working on this. Why don’t you head to Blackjack and see if they’ve got a police file on this guy? I’ll call ahead and let them know you’re coming. All these precincts out here have their own rules about filing. Never know, there might be some hand-written stuff laying around, notes or whatever. Go. Dig.”
He didn’t want to go dig, he wanted to check the coffee shop for Melody, but he hadn’t heard from her since she’d told him off. If she didn’t want to talk to him, maybe he could make a peace offering. He got out of the Suburban and whipped out his phone as he walked around the building to his truck. Once inside, he wrote out a text to Melody.
Gage: Hey. I know you’re pissed. Meet me tonight at The Boot to talk.
He waited for a minute for a reply, not really expecting to get one. Once she was in a mood, she might need to cool down before replying. Of course, if she acted like she had until now, she’d just blast him again. He’d have to keep an eye on his phone and hope she responded. If she didn’t, he’d go down to The Boot for supper and hope she met him there.
The little satellite police office in Santinas wasn’t even big enough for three people to sit in and didn’t even have a computer, so Gage would have to go all the way to Blackjack. It was only about twenty minutes away via the interstate, but it felt farther, especially since he’d just been there with Alexander. Once he arrived, he went inside and waited to be let in by a uniformed officer.
Gage hadn’t worked much with the Blackjack PD as a fireman, but he’d sent enough accidents from I-25 their way that he knew a few of them. He recognized Warren Hathaway right away and strode over to his desk, then waited for Warren to look up from what he was doing.
“Hathaway, you got a few minutes? I’m looking for some information that I can’t get over in Santinas.”
Warren shook Gage’s hand then they both sat. “I got the call from Hernandez. You’re a volunteer, so I can’t tell you much. What’re you looking for?”
Gage slid a couple papers across the desk. “This is what I have on a guy named James Axe. We don’t have anything solid on him yet, other than making a suspicious phone call and some texts from a burner number.” He waited for Warren to pull something up on his computer.
“I’m working with Agent Hernandez with the ATF and he hasn’t run a crime search yet. I don’t have a warrant to check his house. We just discovered his possible connection to two fires in Santinas this morning. He has potentially skipped town, so, we’re looking for where he may have gone.”
Warren took a minute to look over the papers and punched some more information into his computer. “I’ve got a few pictures of him. A mug shot from an arrest two years ago and what might be a security camera shot. Guy looks like the Hulk. That’s all public info, so I can get you that.”
Gage drummed his fingers on the desk. “If he’s that big, I wonder how he’s breaking into houses?”
Warren scrolled a little bit and clicked on a few things. “Don’t know. I haven’t been following the fires. Looks to me like he’s got a number of petty misdemeanors, mostly in relation to the Twenty-Four/Seven Fitness Center. Harassment, one minor assault…again, all of that was listed in the paper, so public info.” He glanced at Gage. “What, specifically, do you need from me?”
Gage tried to glance at the screen but couldn’t see anything from where he sat. “Any write up on those cases, victim notes? Anything that wouldn’t be in the Federal system? If you can’t give it to me, you can send it to Hernandez.”
Warren squinted at the screen, his eyes moving quickly back and forth as he scanned the page. “Some. The guy’s an asshole. Looks like he would target people in the gym and publicly shame and harass them. Mul
tiple warnings didn’t deter him. Hulk’s got a beef with overweight people.”
Gage couldn’t think of a connection. Neither of the houses had been owned by overweight people. “What happened to that gym? It closed a few months ago, didn’t it?” Was it possible the guy was just aggressive now that he had nowhere to vent?
Warren nodded. “If memory serves, it went bankrupt and no one bought it.”
“Axe may have had the money to buy it, he’s an accountant, but as such, he wouldn’t have had time to run it.”
Gage stared at the picture Warren had printed out for him. The orange jumpsuit barely fit over the guy’s massive shoulder muscles. His dark hair and eyes were piercing, and he had to admit, if he met that guy in an alley, preservation would take over.
“So, does he have family in the area? Anyone known to take him in?”
Warren looked again and his lips pursed, doubtful. “Not really. He may have friends, but we don’t have record of any other address. If you’ve got proof, I can start a warrant for you. If not, best to not start it at all. You get one shot.”
Gage took a deep breath. “The agent on this case will take it from here. We’ve got links, but nothing conclusive that ties this guy to the fires, only to being a jerk, which he already proved with his record. Thanks for your help.”
Gage shook Warren’s hand again and left. It felt like the clock was ticking right over his head. Not just with the case, but with Melody. Something had to break, and hopefully it was the case.
Melody shoved the door to her apartment open, slamming it against the wall. Damn him. Asshole. He’d assured her just that morning she had nothing to worry about. Now, she was stuck in her house waiting for…who knew, because Gage hadn’t told her anything. Just to be careful. He’d told her to wait there in the open, like a sitting duck.
“Be careful of what, Gage?” she yelled to the dead silence. “I don’t even know who to watch for. You said it could be anyone.” It dawned on her that he could be testing her. She had been at both scenes. A story like he’d just made up would make sense if she was still on the criminal list and had to be weeded out. If she was genuinely worried, it would make it more likely she wasn’t actually responsible. That pissed her off even more. She’d forwarded the texts to Alexander that morning. They had to know she wasn’t involved.