“If you feel like company, I can swing by the motel later and even stay the night,” Tracey offered as she climbed out.
The thought of me sharing a bed with her and Wookie made me chuckle.
“Wookie would try and sleep between us and you’d have a heart attack right there.” I offered her a tense smile. “Thanks, but I’m good. Go home to Fluffy. He’s probably shredded every piece of furniture in your house and knocked anything of value off the counters.”
“He’s a good cat. Just misunderstood.”
When I got back to my motel room, Wookie was excited to see me. I took him for a long slow walk and told him about my day. He wasn’t at all judgmental about the fact that I pulled a stupid move and almost got myself and Tracey shot. That’s the good thing about having a dog. I tossed a tennis ball for him for about half an hour. Neither of us were looking forward to going back to the motel but it was starting to rain.
In the room I gave Wookie a lengthy belly rub and ear scratch as I told him about how worried I was about Garrett and he licked my hands to comfort me. I was tossing his stuffed rabbit around for him when my cell phone rang. It was Preston. I didn’t want to deal with the house or my neighbors but, still, I made myself take the call.
“Hi, how are things on the home front?”
“Good. Great,” he said. “Thought I’d call with an update.”
Hurray.
“All the carpet and lino have been pulled out of the kitchen and living room. I remember Garrett saying something about you guys wanting to switch to hardwood.”
“Yeah, we’d talked about doing that eventually.”
“Well, now is eventually.” He laughed. “The insurance will pay for the amount it would’ve cost to replace what was there, so you’d only be paying the difference for the upgrade. Much cheaper to do it now than in a couple years down the road when you’d have to get everything ripped up again.”
“That makes sense but, honest, I’m a little busy right now so—”
“I know, and I guess Garrett’s still away on business, right?”
“Yes.”
“Right. Well, I got the flooring guy to leave you a few samples on the counter. Maybe you can send Garrett pictures and the two of you can decide that way. If the wood is in stock, I’m sure they can get it in lickety split.”
“Yeah. Sure.” I dragged a hand through my hair. “I’ll come by first thing in the morning and take a look. Thanks.”
“No problem. Also, I’m going to be out of town for the next couple days myself, but I’ve got Phil watching your place.”
There was an awkward pause where Preston was probably wanting me to ask him about where he was going but I really wasn’t interested. “Okay. Thanks, for everything. I really do appreciate all you’ve done.”
“Just being a good neighbor,” he said. “By the way, when you hear from Garrett tell him to give me a call. There’s something I want to talk to him about.”
You’re not the only one.
“Sure.”
I tried to watch some TV, but my heart and head hurt. I got an angry text from Agent Powel telling me to stop snooping or I was going to hurt her ability to track down Garrett. She informed me that another agent had been in the pub and had seen me and Tracey chatting up Jerry Mayer. Obviously that agent hadn’t seen Jerry threaten us in the back parking lot or Agent Karla Powel would’ve mentioned it.
I apologized for doing what I shouldn’t, but I didn’t tell her I’d stop. If I was missing, Garrett wouldn’t stop searching for me. If I was gone, he’d be tearing up the entire state with his bare hands and running around with guns blazing. My hands tightened into fists and Wookie sauntered over and shoved his well-chewed rope onto my lap.
“Thanks, boy.” I rubbed Wookie’s head and we curled up on the bed together while a sitcom played too loud on the television.
I nodded off briefly and woke up with my neck stiff and Wookie growling low in his throat. New motel neighbors were coming and going from their room, opening and closing their door repeatedly with a slam, and Wookie had a strong opinion about that. It was close to midnight, but now I was wide awake.
“How about a car ride, boy?”
He was off the bed and at the motel door in a heartbeat and I smiled as I slipped on my runners and grabbed his leash.
My house was only a few minutes away and Wookie began to whine as we got closer. He knew we were going home. I hated to disappoint him that it was only for a few minutes to look at floor samples. I pulled up in the driveway, and my headlights illuminated the exterior of the house and created long-fingered shadows from the shrubs to the door. I looked longingly at the spot where Garrett would normally park his car. I ached with worry for him and I missed being home.
It was late and dark. Suburbia was so quiet you could hear the crunch of my feet on the aggregate sidewalk and Wookie’s panting breath as his feet padded alongside me.
The turn of the dead bolt echoed inside and when we entered, the loud hum of half a dozen industrial-sized fans were an assault. All the furniture had been taken from the living room and kitchen and piled in the back rooms so workers could take out the flooring. My feet sounded loud walking on the plywood to the kitchen counter where I could see the floor samples.
Wookie hesitated at the door, then ran from one room to the next, squeezing his considerable girth between the chairs and tables stacked neatly in the hall. He whined at the door to the den. He was looking for Garrett and it gave my chest a painful squeeze.
Six wood samples were spread out on the kitchen counter and it felt like a formidable task to choose one. If Garrett were here I’d have him choose because he would have a definite opinion. I didn’t want to make this decision except for one point; the quicker the flooring happened, the sooner I could be back home. And when Garrett came home, I didn’t want him returning to this disaster. I might not be able to protect my man from whatever was happening to him, but at least I could give him a comfortable place to come home to.
I snapped a picture of all the samples and sent the photos in a text to Garrett. He wasn’t going to reply to that message, like he hadn’t to any of my others. But at this point it felt like a diary to send him my messages. A one-sided conversation that took the weight off my mind.
I texted: I wish you were here. And regretted it the second the message went because it sounded weak and like we were on separate vacations instead of me here worrying that he was held captive somewhere or on the run with a brother-in-law connected to a drug cartel. Still, I sent another: I love you. I’m scared. And, even though it sounded like a whine, it was true.
With a sigh I picked up each sample of wood flooring and stared at it hard. As I looked at the samples, I tried to imagine each of them covering the area beneath my feet.
Too dark.
Too light.
Too knotted.
Quickly I eliminated half and then traced the other three with the tips of my fingers.
“What do you think?” I asked Garrett as if he stood in the echoey room with me.
Somewhere in the neighborhood a car door slammed, and an engine started, and the sound was muffled by the loud hum of the fans in the rooms around me.
I eliminated another sample and now was down to two: Nevada Maple and Ginger Oak.
Wookie jogged out of the back hall and was growling low in his throat.
“What do you think, boy?” I grabbed the two wood samples and lowered them to mid-thigh. “Can you choose which one Daddy would like?”
At my singsong tone Wookie jogged over and licked one of the samples.
“Nevada Maple it is!” I proclaimed, giving him a scratch behind his ears. “Now if Garrett hates it, I’ll tell him you’re the one to blame.”
I stacked all the other samples off to the side, took a pen and paper out of the drawer and left a note that simply said
This one.
After one last look around the empty kitchen and living room, I tenderly touched the pewter urn holding my mom’s ashes with a sigh and told Wookie it was time to go. I would’ve liked to just bring him to our bedroom, but the workers were scheduled to be back at the house first thing in the morning and I didn’t want to have to deal with them.
“Only a few more days, boy,” I promised Wookie as we headed out the door. “Then we’ll all be home again. Even that dumb cat.”
We stepped out the door, and I turned my key in the dead bolt. From the corner of my vision, a bright glow startled me. I turned and was alarmed at the sight of my Jeep. Bright golden flames three feet high licked the hood of my vehicle.
“Holy shi—”
There was a roaring whoosh and the entire car was engulfed.
Chapter Ten
The lights in the neighboring houses began to flicker on at the sound of emergency vehicles, who all seemed to arrive at the house at once. I brought Wookie in, then stepped back outside to watch the responders deal with the flames. Wookie howled and barked at the window, desperately wanting to be part of the action. Firefighters surrounded the vehicle and extinguished the blaze quickly. My mind was trying to wrap itself around the fact that I’d been in that vehicle only a few minutes earlier.
“Oh my God, what happened? Are you okay?” Phil had come up behind me.
“I don’t know what happened.” I blinked in shock. “I’m okay. My car, on the other hand, is fried.” I glanced over at his concerned face. “So sorry to wake you up.”
“Preston told me to keep an eye on the place since you haven’t been staying at the house. When I saw all the fire trucks here, I freaked out.” He covered his face briefly with his hands and blew out a breath. “I thought maybe some kind of equipment in the house caught fire. I’m just glad nobody was hurt, and your house is okay.”
Preston and Phil were good guys. I was going to have to try to be nicer to my neighbors.
“I’ve never seen a vehicle just go up in flames like that,” he said.
“Me either.” I couldn’t believe how calm my voice sounded when my heart was racing.
We stood shoulder-to-shoulder and watched the firefighters and police circle the vehicle. I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered in the cool night air.
“I’m being a horrible neighbor,” Phil said. “Do you want to come to my place while they deal with this? I could fix you a drink?” Then he hit his forehead with the palm of his hand and quickly added, “Sorry. You don’t drink. Duh.”
And now I was remembering why being neighborly didn’t come naturally to me. I didn’t like the fact that everyone knew my business. My struggle with alcohol was mine and I liked to be the one to pick and choose who got to be part of that knowledge. The fact that Garrett had shared that with Phil and Preston irked me.
“How about a smoothie?” he asked.
Was smoothie the proper beverage to console an alcoholic when their vehicle exploded in their driveway? I stifled a stupid giggle and covered it up with a cough.
“Thanks,” I told him. “But I’m really exhausted. Wookie and I are just going to call a cab and go back to the motel as soon as they’re finished up there.”
“I could drive you. And Wookie. I love dogs.” He beamed.
Ugh. Just leave me alone.
“Um. Okay. Sure.” He was obviously desperate to be helpful and I would need a ride. “That’s very kind of you. I’ll come knock on your door when everything is done here.”
He started to walk away but when an officer and firefighter approached, he changed his mind and took a step closer.
“Found a jerry can in the ditch beside your vehicle,” the firefighter reported, indicating behind him with his thumb.
“Appears your entire vehicle was doused with gas, inside and out,” the officer finished.
He raised his eyebrows and waited expectantly for me to make some kind of shocked sound but that was done by Phil who, at first, clutched his hands together and muttered, “Oh good Lord!” Then reached to put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. Phil excused himself to go back to his house and left me to “deal with things.”
“Someone poured gas on my Jeep? Are you sure?” I asked the officer and firefighter who’d joined him. “I mean...why would anyone...”
As I tried to wrap my head around what they were saying, I explained to them about the burst pipe in my kitchen.
“A burst pipe and now this, huh?” The firefighter gave me a sympathetic look.
“Yeah, I’ve been staying at a motel a couple blocks away during repairs. I got a call from my neighbor Preston—” I nodded next door “—saying there were floor samples left here for me to choose. I couldn’t sleep so Wookie and I—” I pointed to my dog still barking out the window “—decided to come and look at those samples. We were inside the house less than ten minutes. When we came back out...” I pointed to the charcoaled carcass of my Jeep and bit my lip to keep in a strangled sob. “I’m sorry... I’m a little overwhelmed. I don’t know what to say.”
My mind was racing. This felt like a definite warning. But was it directed at me, or Garrett? While the vehicle was still blazing I’d snapped a picture with my phone but stopped myself from sending it to Garrett. No matter what, he didn’t need the added stress that I might be in danger. I did send the picture to Agent Powel.
The officer asked me a lot of questions but, in the end, he concluded that it might have just been neighborhood thugs.
“The high school was vandalized, and the dumpster set on fire last week,” he explained as if the two must be connected. “Could be some idjits were walking by with a jerry can and took it upon themselves to just light up your Jeep.”
I was slowly nodding as if that was completely plausible. I didn’t launch into the fact that my boyfriend was a federal agent hunting a drug cartel because that information was going to be far beyond his pay scale.
Agent Karla Powel tried to call me, but I declined the phone call. I texted her that I’d call her in a few minutes.
It seemed to take forever for everyone to take care of the scene. In the end my poor Jeep sat in a blackened puddle, and the grass on either side of the driveway was singed black. I went inside and spent a few minutes doing breathing exercises to calm down before snapping a leash on Wookie and heading to Phil’s. He opened the door before I could even knock. He was either eager to drive me back to the motel or, like me, wanted to put the horrid night behind him and go back to bed.
“I really appreciate this,” I told him as I crammed my one-hundred-thirty pound dog into the back seat of his compact car.
“No bother at all. The least I can do. Preston told me to keep an eye on things.” He started up the car. “He’s going to absolutely die when he hears what happened.”
Yes, I imagined my continued misfortune would make quite the discussion.
“So vandals, huh?” he asked.
“What?” I frowned at him as he backed out of his driveway.
“I overheard the police say there’d been some vandalism at the school and they think they targeted your car. I’m going to have to tell everyone in the neighborhood to be extra cautious from now on.”
“Right.”
“Do we even have a neighborhood watch?” he asked, and I replied that I had no idea.
The drive to the motel was short but strained since Phil was talking nonstop as if he was afraid to allow a silence between us. “I’m sure once I tell Preston about this he’ll want me to reassure you that we’ll make sure nothing like that happens around your place again.”
How the hell were they going to do that? “I don’t think you can have an eye on my place twenty-four-seven and I really don’t expect you to.” As we pulled up in front of the motel I added, “And I bet Preston is going to be thrilled that it was my Jeep and not his Alfa Romeo Spider.”
“Ha!” Phil made a face. “I hate that car.” He turned to me and put his car in park. “Don’t you worry. We’re going to be vigilant. Preston has most of the neighbors on an email list and I’m sure by the time he’s back in town he’ll have people so worked up nobody will be sleeping.”
Yeah that sounded like the way to go. Get the entire neighborhood all freaked out. I should probably have a talk with Preston before this gets blown out of proportion. “When does Preston get back again from—?”
“Portland. Tomorrow night.”
“Okay. Thanks for driving me, Phil.” I stifled a yawn as I opened the door.
“No problem. Did you manage to choose the wood flooring you wanted?”
“Yes. I left a note for the contractor.”
“Too bad the workers didn’t have the samples ready when Garrett was at the house this morning, but he was in and gone before any of the contractors showed.”
“What?” I’d been about to climb out of the car but now I turned and put a hand on Phil’s arm. “Garrett was at the house this morning?”
“Yes.” His chatty smile had vanished. “Didn’t you know? It was early, like around sunrise. I got up to get a glass of water then decided to make tea and when I plugged in the kettle right by the window I saw him.”
“You actually saw him?” I squeezed his arm hard and he yanked it away.
“Yeah. I saw him. He ran into the house, but he was only inside for a few seconds. I know that because the kettle hadn’t even boiled yet and he was running back to his car and backing out of the driveway before my water boiled.” He frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “His phone, um, hasn’t been working and so I wasn’t able to reach him. Was he alone?”
Phil squished his face in concentration. “There may have been someone in the passenger seat. Honestly, I couldn’t get a clear view of the car because our rhododendron is just starting to bloom and—”
“Thanks again for giving us a ride and, of course, for watching the house.” I climbed out of the car.
A Grave Peril Page 14