Before the Dawn

by Gail Chianese

  “You’re looking a little fierce, Marshal. Is everything okay?”

  “Da—” He cut himself off, remembering where he stood. “Everything’s great and you know what? We are going out tonight.”

  “But what about you know who?” She shot a glance over her shoulder, making sure the kids were not paying attention.

  “It’s fine. We’ll be in Mystic, not here. He hasn’t been tied to any activity there. Plus, there’s still a ton of tourists around. Safety in numbers. And if he sees us, good.”

  A small part of him hoped they would run into their arsonist. Shawn had memorized his face from all the sketches and he would love nothing more than taking this guy down.

  “Good? Have you lost your mind?” Kat shook her head, clearly convinced he’d gone off the deep end.

  “Maybe. But I refuse to be someone else’s puppet and you’re not going to be either.”

  “Wait. Is this a date or a setup?” Her eyes narrowed. “Are you using me as bait to draw him out?”

  “It’s a date.” If he does shows up, and I get the chance to end this, I’m not opposed. But he wasn’t going to tell Kat that and spoil the evening before it started.

  “We could kill two birds with one stone. Make it a date and a setup?”

  “No way.” Daines had already suggested using Kat as bait. His answer had been no then, and it was still no.

  “Why not?”

  “Because as much as I want to see this case solved and our guy arrested, your safety comes first.”

  “I thought you wanted this case solved before you left?” Exasperation filled her voice. He got it. Understood the feeling to the depths of his soul, but there had to be a better way.

  “I do, but what I want more than that is a night out with you.”

  Peter St. Pierre drove around the town square one last time before heading north. He pounded on the steering wheel and hit the gas, scaring the crap out of some old lady.

  His foot let up a little—after all, he didn’t want to kill some random person or attract the attention of the cops. As he exited to I-95, he breathed in deep and held it. He needed to calm down before he messed up. There was one thing Peter St. Pierre didn’t do. He didn’t make mistakes.

  At least, never more than once.

  All last weekend, he had waited in front of the television. Waited for reports on the apartment fire. Waited for them to confirm the sad demise of Katarina Jones.

  But it never came.

  Instead, they’d reported no fatalities. Praised the work of the local fire department in saving everyone and minimizing the damages. Those fools. Their arrival had ruined everything. All his hard work, his masterpiece . . . destroyed.

  It didn’t matter.

  He’d call it a learning experience, a trial run of sorts. And next time, oh yes. There would be a next time. He’d succeed. As soon as he found her.

  Her apartment was gone. Peter had followed the other two women from the agency, with no luck. When that hadn’t led to his muse, he’d stopped in at the local diner. Townies, they loved to gossip. Surprisingly, it had been rather quiet. He fared a little better at the bakery, where he overheard the clerk mention Katarina had gone on a trip. Let her run and hide. Eventually, she’d come home and forget. But he wouldn’t.

  Katarina Jones’s death would be his greatest moment.

  Chapter 18

  It was Shawn’s last day. In the morning he’d hop in his truck and head west. Kat knew exactly how her students felt. All day, she’d been watching the clock, silently urging the dismissal bell to ring. They hadn’t made any specific plans, just to spend it together. Of course, she hadn’t thought that it would be at the Camden Point Police station, or with almost a half dozen others. Talk about a buzzkill.

  Lexie’s text had been vague, but to the point. And Kat knew her best friend had her reasons. So there she was surrounded by people instead of getting lost in Shawn’s kisses.

  Shawn took the seat next to her. Lexie, her husband and police detective, Rafe Barandas, Detective Daines, and their interns, Ashley and Vinnie, filled the other seats.

  Well, Vinnie didn’t actually take a chair. Instead he stood over Ashley with a scowl in place, breathing down her neck, wearing black baggy jeans and a hoodie. Lexie caught Kat staring at Vinnie and the subsequent eyeroll his attire caused. Her best friend flashed her an I know look.

  Shawn looked around before turning to Daines. “What’s with the Scooby meeting?”

  “I don’t know,” Ashley said. “But is every building in this town freezing?”

  “It takes a while to acclimate,” Lexie answered, shooting Kat a look.

  Yeah, she’d have to talk to Lexie about Vinnie’s distrust of their newest employee. He still hadn’t given her a reason, other than his gut instinct. Granted, most of the time his gut was dead on the money. But Kat hadn’t found anything off in her background check, so she’d been ignoring him. Sounded like he’d upped his haunting game to outside the office.

  “I’m from New York, not Florida.” Ashley shivered and hunched in on herself.

  “Here.” Daines slipped off his jacket and handed it to her. He turned to the rest of the room, but focused on Kat and Shawn. “Good news. Ashley found Sara Wallis.”

  “That’s great,” Kat said.

  “She’s alive and well.” At Daines’s words, Shawn whole body shifted, as the tension apparently fled, as did her own. “She’s been staying with some distant relatives in Warwick. Word got back to her that she’d been seen talking to a cop outside of Paddy’s. She was afraid she was going to get killed for snitching.”

  “She should have called,” Shawn said. “I would have made sure she was safe.”

  “Kid hasn’t had a lot of people in her life that she could count on. Her parents didn’t do anything to find her and the one person she knew she could trust was dead,” Daines said.

  “Are you any closer to solving her brother’s death?” Kat slipped her hand under the table and linked fingers with Shawn. At least he could leave in the morning with one less weight on his shoulders. But she didn’t want to think about tomorrow.

  “Thanks to Sara, we got one of the gang members to crack. He says he wasn’t part of what went down. Heard some of the others talking about a special cocktail they’d made just for rats,” Daines said.

  Chills ran up and down Kat’s arms. So young to die. So young to take a life. It happened, way more often than anyone liked to think about. If fate hadn’t been smiling down on her and gifted her the parents she had . . . who knew?

  She could have been Sara. Could have been Brian. All it took was being born to a different set of parents, into a different set of circumstances, and the odds were forever stacked against a person. She’d have to look deeper, see what, if anything, they could do to change those odds for Sara Wallis. The girl had already paid too high a price in life.

  Daines cleared his throat and went on. “Same member gave up their supplier, but he also told us she’s just the middleman.”

  “She?” Lexie asked.

  “Yep, the upstanding physician’s assistant, Lenore Orwell. She’s been supplying the kids with prescription opioids and cooking the books to cover the discrepancies. We’ve got a hunch she might have screwed over her supplier.”

  “I’m guessing we don’t know who’s at the top of the food chain yet?” Kat asked.

  “We’ve brought her in, but she’s not talking. We’ve got a team of techs going through her computer and phone right now.”

  “That’s all good, but?” Ashley asked.

  “Problem is, we don’t think the supplier is the arsonist. Doesn’t fit.”

  “And you still don't know who that is?” Shawn said.

  Kat’s fingers were starting to go numb from Shawn’s grip on her hand. She got it. He’d feel a lot better leaving here with both cases solved. From what she’d learned about Shawn Randall, he took the weight of the world on his shoulders. He cared about those around him. Adrenaline-seek
ing behavior might have been a factor behind him becoming a firefighter initially, but there might also be a bit of savior complex mixed into the equation. He talked about his mom, his grandmother, his cousin, but never a dad. It wouldn’t be surprising for him to have developed the idea at a young age that he had to keep everyone safe. If he were sticking around, she’d push more on the topic.

  As it was, she let it go.

  Knowing him better, deeper, meant risking herself on a deeper level, too. Something she didn’t think she could handle. Was afraid she couldn’t handle or come back from.

  “No, we don't.” Daines answered. “We've only got one witness that can put our guy in the sketch at the apartment fire. Your friend, Devin Brannigan. Unfortunately, Miss Brannigan doesn't recall what kind of car he was in and didn't look at the plate. She didn't think anything of him sitting there, other than he was a resident who was in shock over the fire.”

  “Not surprising, as she was worried about Kat,” Rafe said.

  “Where does that leave us?” Shawn asked.

  “A little closer, but not close enough. Daines?”

  “If Lenore's not talking, you might never know who she works for. You'll never find the arsonist. He’ll be out there, waiting for me.” Kat stood and paced across the small space. She was never getting her life back. Not with this piece of scum calling the shots. Definitely not by hiding.

  “We won’t let him near you, Kat,” Rafe said.

  “How? More bodyguards? Keeping me in hiding?”

  How long until she cracked?

  It’d only been a week since the fire and she was starting to climb the walls. If not for Shawn keeping her distracted, she’d have lost her mind already. But he was leaving in less than twenty-four hours. What then? Have some professional bodyguard lurking around, following her everywhere? That wasn’t life. It wasn’t living. It was existing like a scared mouse with a hungry cat waiting to pounce.

  She refused to be a mouse.

  She spun around. Eyed the group and held her head high. “I'm not doing it anymore. No more bodyguards, no more cops outside at night. I won't be a victim, and I won't be a prisoner for a crime I didn't commit."

  “Kat, that’s not what any of us are suggesting,” Lexie said.

  “Isn’t it? I haven’t had a minute alone since the fire. Either I’m with you, or in class, where there’s a cop outside, or with Shawn. I’m losing my mind.”

  Last night had been a mistake. Going out to dinner with Shawn, relaxing over a carefree dinner at the restaurant. Walking around downtown Mystic like a normal person. Shopping. Laughing. Living.

  She’d gotten a taste of her old life back. A taste of freedom and now she was supposed to give it back up?

  The room erupted with suggestion and coddling, trying to assure her that they were looking after her, trying to protect her, that it was just going to be a little longer. She ignored them all and walked out. She needed air and one fucking minute alone.

  Vinnie followed. "I'm not leaving you unprotected and don't think smudging the house is going to keep me out either. That's just a bunch of woohoo."

  “I’m not helpless,” she muttered as she stalked through the police station.

  “Never said you were. I’ve been watching over you your whole life. I know what you’re capable of. I know your strengths and your weaknesses. You’re smart, strong, and stubborn. You’ve never been stupid, either. But you don’t have eyes in the back of your head.”

  “What are you getting at, Vin?”

  “You need someone to watch your six. We all need someone to see what we can’t, a second pair of eyes. Trust me, I know better than most.”

  Guilt ate at her anger. “I’m sorry, Vin.”

  “I got whacked because one of the agents watching over me decided to take a break. He left his partner unprotected. We both paid the price.”

  Vinnie’s form wavered. Streaks of red and black circled around him.

  The last thing she wanted to do was bring up bad memories for him. She wasn’t trying to push anyone away, just have room to breathe.

  “Vin, I didn’t know.”

  “Yeah, it’s not something I like to talk about.”

  “If I promise to stay right here, right next to the door, can you give me a few minutes alone? I need to hear my own thoughts.”

  “Sure, kid. I’ll be nearby though, just in case.” With that his form disappeared entirely. The air around her warmed. For the first time in days no one hovered over her. Okay, well, not entirely true as Vinnie was still around. Probably just out of her sensory range, but she felt normal-ish. No one to stop her from going for a walk. Or popping into the bakery or a store to shop. If her car wasn’t parked in Rafe’s garage, she’d hop in and drive to the beach. Do common, everyday people things.

  The door to the police station quietly clicked closed. Without looking, Kat knew it was Shawn. It probably wasn’t a good thing that she was so viscerally aware, so connected to a person when he was walking out of her life in a few hours. It foretold of many pints of Ben & Jerry’s over the coming weeks.

  “I feel like I owe you an apology.” His voice was low, smooth, and warm, wrapping her frazzled nerves in a giant hug.

  “You don’t. If anything, I’m the one who should apologize. I’m frustrated.”

  He chuckled and glanced down at her. “I know a way to solve that.”

  “Ha. Not that kind of frustration.”

  “You sure?” He tilted his head, one corner of his mouth lifting. “Sometimes they feel the same.”

  “Pretty sure you already resolved that frustration.”

  “I didn’t mean to crowd or treat you like a helpless victim.”

  Lacing her fingers through his, she leaned her head on his shoulder. “You haven’t. Last night was amazing. And I’m talking about dinner and walking through town, not what happened after we got home.”

  He clutched his chest. “You wound me, woman.”

  “I think your ego can take it.” It felt good to laugh, to flirt with this man. A month ago, she didn’t even remember him. Now, she couldn’t picture life without him. But she’d have to learn to. Tears threatened to fall as she thought of the days ahead. She struggled to push those thoughts away. “Thank you for being there this week. For making me forget this nightmare that my life has turned into.”

  “Hey, slow down. It sounds like you’re already saying goodbye. We still have tonight to live out our wildest fantasies. I’m thinking of you in a French maid’s outfit.”

  “So cliché.”

  They started to walk to the car, when Kat stopped and looked at the police station. “I should go back in, apologize.”

  “Don’t. No one expects you. They all understood where you were coming from. Besides, the clock is ticking and I’ve got plans for us. But first, Kat, promise me you’ll be careful, that you’ll keep your guard up. Maybe even wait another week or two before going out and about.”

  “I’ll be careful, but that’s all I’m promising. Now, we can stand her arguing over some moot point, or we can start working on those plans you had. Your call.”

  Shawn clamped his mouth shut and opened his truck door. Good call. Because Kat wouldn’t give in. It was her life and she was going to live it her way.

  Shawn let himself into Rafe’s place not long after, juggling the bag of takeout, surprised and a bit worried to find the house empty. He was prepared to go on a search-and-rescue mission, sure Kat had been taken, when he spied her on the back patio.

  She was wrapped in a blanket, sitting next to the propane firepit. He stepped outside, but she didn’t turn around.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Watching the sunset.”

  He looked up, noticing for the first time the dark slashes of orange and purple against the bright blue. A slight shiver danced across his skin. He wasn’t sure if it was from the chilled air or a portent of something to come. Ever since their afternoon meeting, his gut had been churning, leaving him unsettl
ed.

  When he didn’t sit, Kat swiveled around to look at him. “Everything okay?”

  Is it? “I brought dinner. We can eat out here if you want.” A six-foot privacy fence surrounded the property, but he knew from his nightly patrols the gate didn’t have a lock. Anyone could waltz right in. Before he left in the morning, he’d have to check to see if Rafe had left a lock for it.

  Just the thought of leaving twisted Shawn up inside. Maybe he could postpone his move? He could tell his new captain that they needed his help on the case. Except if he checked, he’d find out today had been Shawn’s last day. He’d also given up his apartment and turned in his keys. Besides, even if he did postpone his departure, it wouldn’t change anything. It didn’t guarantee Kat’s safety. Only solving the case could do that. And then there was the other issue—extending their time together would only make it harder to leave.

  Not that it was a piece of cake now.

  “You’re like a million miles away,” Kat’s soft voice penetrated his thoughts.

  “Sorry, just thinking.”

  “About passing up on the opportunity to hang out with your crew tonight? If you’d rather be with them than babysit, I’ll understand.”

  “Does this answer your question?” He leaned over her, captured her mouth with his, and devoured it. When he broke the kiss, her pupils were dilated and her breathing labored. “I have everything, everyone I need right here. Unless you’d rather head out to a bar full of loud, obnoxious drunks.”

  She linked her hand with his. “You’re the only one I want to be with tonight.” A small, sad smile reached out and captured his heart. Saying goodbye was going to kill him.

  “You better be hungry. I got Chinese food.”

  “Our first and last dinner together.”

  Her words were a knife to his heart. He didn’t want it to be their last anything. “I’ll be right back.” While he set out the food, Kat went straight to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine. Once outside, they each grabbed a carton and dug in.

  He didn’t want to think about today’s meeting or tomorrow. Relief had washed over him when he’d heard Sara Wallis was safe, but the threat against Kat kept him from celebrating. An idea had been brewing, but he needed to think on it first.