Distortion (Moonlighters Series)

by Terri Blackstock

  He nodded.

  “It just stinks,” she said. “Losing your dad, having to deal with all this.”

  Abe wiped his nose. “I dreamed about him last night.”

  Zach looked at him. Abe’s face turned red and twisted as if he tried hard to hold back the emotion, but couldn’t keep it in.

  “You did?” she asked. “Tell me about it.”

  “I dreamed I saw him. He was just standing there, but he wouldn’t look at me. It was like he was ignoring me. I called out, ‘Dad! Dad!’ But he didn’t answer.”

  Juliet closed her eyes. Even in their son’s dreams, Bob was hurting him. “Just remember . . . it was a dream. I’m sure Dad wouldn’t have ignored you.”

  “I just can’t picture him gone,” he said. “I keep thinking he’s going to come home, that he’s just on a trip somewhere. He’s going to come back and we’ll all sit down and have tacos.”

  “I know,” she said. “I keep thinking things like that too.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t be gone all the time. I wish you would stay here with me. I don’t have anybody to talk to. Zach doesn’t want to talk.”

  Zach rolled his eyes, as if he resented the guilt trip.

  But that same guilt crushed her. “Sweetheart, you know what I’d love to do is be here with you 24/7, and make you and Zach my main focus as we get through this. But things have happened . . . and I’ve had no choice about where I’m spending my time.”

  “Yeah,” Abe said. “But that’s why I want to go to school.”

  She sighed. She would need to talk to the principal about security. “I’ll think about it. You know, if you need to talk to somebody besides me, I can get you a counselor.”

  “I don’t want to talk to anybody else,” he said.

  She slid her arms around Abe and held him close. How would she tell him about his father? When would she tell him? She could keep as much of it from him as possible, but soon it would be all over the news. Kids would mock the boys at school. Parents wouldn’t let their kids hang out with hers. They would think this family had too many secrets. She couldn’t stand the thought.

  But she couldn’t worry about that yet. One step at a time. First she had to feed her kids, then she could spend time with them. Then, when she got them to bed tonight, Michael, Cathy, and Holly were coming over for a strategy session. She wished it could wait, but it couldn’t. Too much was at stake. Too many dangers lurking.

  The only way to get to the other side was to plow through. Time could be running out for her and her kids.

  CHAPTER 30

  While Juliet was upstairs with the kids, Cathy, Michael, Holly, and Jay gathered on the back patio to go over the events of the day. It made Cathy sick to rehash it, but her siblings needed to know.

  “I can’t believe you left me out of this whole thing,” Holly spouted.

  Cathy didn’t want to fight. “Holly, I’m her attorney. We met at Michael’s. The FBI didn’t want a crowd there. But Juliet wanted Michael to hear it because it was about Leonard Miller.”

  “Just sayin’ . . .”

  “Hey, I’m left out of everything,” Jay said. “I hear everything after the fact.”

  “You’re watching the kids,” Cathy said. “That’s important. What do you guys want? It’s not about you. It’s about Juliet. She’s the one suffering.”

  “You don’t have to get huffy.” Holly sat in the rocking chair, her hand stroking her swollen belly. “I’m the one who’s supposed to get moody.”

  “You’re updated now, so get over it.”

  Always the peacemaker, Jay got to his feet. “Holly, come in and help me get some nachos together, will you?”

  Holly got up and followed him in, a pinched look on her face, as if she was disgusted with her sister.

  Cathy looked at Michael. “You believe her?”

  Michael shrugged. “She doesn’t realize how important this news was to us. Jay’s probably straightening her out.” He turned his chair to face her and leaned forward, touched her chin. “Sure you’re okay?”

  She met his eyes. “Okay, no. I’m not okay. Are you?”

  He drew in a deep breath. “Not really.”

  “The monster who killed Joe is out there, still doing what he was doing, partying and having a big time. And everything about both of our lives has changed.”

  A golden light danced on one side of Michael’s face, light cast by the flames in the fire pit. “We’re going to find him.”

  Cathy just looked away.

  With gentle fingers, he turned her face back and leaned closer. “Do you believe me?”

  She thought about that, then nodded. “Yeah, I do. It just . . . dredged it all back up, you know? I thought we were digging for one thing, and all of a sudden, we find something else. Leonard Miller seems to intrude into every area of our lives. So much would be different if Joe hadn’t been killed.”

  “But then we wouldn’t be here.”

  She knew he didn’t mean sitting on Jay’s patio. The two of them . . . the relationship that seemed unspoken, yet was so intense. And filled with so much guilt.

  “I’m not saying this is better or worse,” he added. “Just that it’s where we are. And I’m kind of tired of analyzing it and finding reasons to kick myself for it.”

  She felt her hard edges softening. “I know. I’m tired of it too.”

  “Maybe by finding Miller we can move on. Get over that barricade.”

  “And if we don’t? Then we don’t move on?”

  He smiled and kissed her, stroked her face. “No, we still move on. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me to get lost.”

  She managed to smile now. “That won’t happen.” She pressed her forehead against his, touched the stubble on his jaw, breathed in the scent that was so uniquely his. When their lips touched, she closed her eyes and savored the feeling. Hope . . . love . . .

  But the barricade still existed. Leonard Miller—the unfinished business that bound them together but kept them apart. Maybe if he could be extricated from their lives, instead of remaining a constant regret hanging over them like a thundercloud that hadn’t yet burst . . .

  When their kiss ended, they kept their foreheads together, Michael’s fingers laced through her hair. “I thank God for you.”

  Cathy let that sink in. “God. I still have issues with him. He takes so much away from us.”

  “But he gives us so much. Don’t miss what he’s given you.”

  She swallowed hard, wishing she could change her thinking. But loss still hung so heavy in her mind.

  But in spite of it all, she missed her relationship with her Creator. Her thoughts wandered to him often, and she found herself talking to him when she didn’t even plan to. She didn’t call it prayer. Prayer was too intentional. But those conversations she had with him were still wrought with sorrow and blame. She didn’t know if that would ever change.

  CHAPTER 31

  When the kids were finally in bed asleep, Juliet went downstairs and met her siblings and Michael on the patio. They sat in a circle around the fire pit—Cathy and Michael on the rattan love seat, Jay in a rocking chair, Holly with her feet curled up beneath her on a cushioned chair, her hands crossed over her small round belly—all of them lit in a pretty yellow glow.

  It reminded her of camping as a child, back when their father was still with the family. They’d roast marshmallows and make s’mores, until their faces and hands were sticky and soot-covered from the smoke that stuck to their sugarcoated skin.

  But these weren’t good times. Jay had made it as pleasant as he could, but they spoke outside so Zach wouldn’t wake up and sneak down the stairs to hear them. And there was nothing pleasant about this subject. She’d rather be in bed with the covers pulled over her head.

  “They’re asleep, finally,” she said, dropping into a chair. “So what are we going to do?”

  Michael had laid out equipment at the center of a patio table next to the fire pit—several cameras, binocul
ars, and a few things Juliet hadn’t seen before. “First, we talk to the security company we found on that card in Bob’s office and see if they can give us an address. I checked, and the security companies that wired your house and the clinic were different. So there must have been another property. I’m guessing it was where they received and held the drugs when deliveries came.”

  “Right,” Juliet said. “I’d forgotten about that card.”

  “Second, we’ll follow Amber and hope she’ll lead us to Miller or her other contacts.”

  “But don’t you think the feds are following her already?” Jay asked.

  Michael shrugged. “If they are, that’s fine, but it won’t hurt for us to do it too.”

  Juliet looked at the equipment, studying each item.

  “You know how to use some of this,” Michael said.

  Juliet nodded. She had learned through trial and error over the last few months as she’d followed Michael’s cases. She was glad he’d started paying them. She was going to need that money even more now. She’d never dreamed she’d have to use those skills to uncover her own husband’s crimes or to follow his mistress.

  She reached for a camera. “This is the one I’ve used?”

  “Probably,” Michael said. “It’s all set up. The zoom lens will come in handy.”

  “We need to be constantly armed,” Cathy said, “except for Michael, of course.”

  Juliet nodded. “Totally agree.”

  “The cartridges and clips are right here,” Michael said, pointing but not touching them. He wasn’t allowed to be in possession of firearms or ammo, so Juliet assumed Cathy had provided these. “Juliet, you’ve had shooting practice. You know what to do.”

  “I just don’t want to do it,” she said.

  Jay got up, put his hands into his jeans pockets, and paced across the concrete. “Look, I know what you guys are doing really works. You helped solve Annalee’s murder. But I’m worried about this. I don’t like having my sisters in danger.”

  Juliet regarded her younger brother. “I know, Jay. That’s exactly what I said a few months ago when we were working on Annalee’s case. I didn’t want to moonlight as a private investigator. I didn’t want Holly doing it, and I didn’t want Cathy doing it. But if we hadn’t, you would be in prison right now, and Jackson might be dead.”

  She saw the color drain from his face. “I know,” he said. “It’s important. I just wish the feds would solve all this so you guys wouldn’t have to.”

  “Maybe they will,” Juliet said. “But I don’t have a choice. I have to help get to the bottom of all this. My children’s lives could be in danger. We’ll never get our lives back to normal until all this is resolved. I can’t even begin trying.”

  Michael spoke again. “Remember, things got this far even though the feds were watching Bob. Now Bob is dead, someone is threatening Juliet, her house is torn up . . . Believe me, the more people we have working on this, the better.”

  Juliet nodded. “And whatever we find we’ll share with the feds. They’ll just be a phone call away. We won’t keep anything from them.”

  Jay turned back to Michael. “I’m worried about you too, dude.”

  “Why?” Michael asked.

  “Because of this gun thing. You can’t shoot. I don’t want you dead, and I also don’t want you to go to prison.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m careful. I know the rules.”

  “But you’re the one I would’ve trusted most to take care of my sisters, and now you can’t.”

  Juliet looked at Michael, wishing Jay hadn’t brought that up. Michael looked down at his feet.

  “Michael takes care of us in a lot of ways,” Cathy said. “He’s taught us everything we need to know. We can do this.”

  “So when do we start?” Juliet asked.

  “I think pretty early tomorrow morning,” Michael said. “Whoever’s watching Amber’s house needs to be there at six thirty or so, to make sure that if she leaves, we can follow her. She’s probably unemployed since Bob’s clinic has closed. But if we follow her she may lead us to the others. Juliet and Holly, you start out watching her. Cathy and I are going to go hunting for Leonard Miller.”

  “Do you have any leads?” Juliet asked.

  “No, not yet. But we can ask old neighbors, stake out his mother’s old house. I think his sister lives there.”

  By the end of the meeting, Juliet had a plan and a strategy that made her feel a little more confident. Anything could happen tomorrow—the people tormenting her could do something even more tragic to her family. Or the feds could make a dozen arrests and put the case to bed.

  As she went back up to get a few hours’ sleep, she prayed that God would intervene in this mess and protect them all.

  CHAPTER 32

  Wednesday morning Cathy read back over the blog she’d just written, conflicted about whether to upload it or delete it. For the last two and a half years, she’d written about murder cases that interested her. But this one . . . this murder of her brother-in-law that seemed related to the murder of her fiancé . . . interest wasn’t the word that described it. She was inescapably tangled up in this case, and her passion just might lead her to say something that would tip off the killers.

  Two and a half years ago, when my fiancé was gunned down by a man who later walked away scot-free, I started this blog in the hope of making sure murderers paid for their crimes. Along the way, some have and some haven’t. But I’ve done my share of investigative journalism. I’ve discovered evidence that prosecutors had missed, and in some cases that has led to a conviction.

  But once again my family has been rocked by murder. My sister is a grieving widow now because a man gunned her husband down in a parking lot. Her children will grow up without their father. To make matters worse, her husband had secrets that reach back to my Joe’s death. But we’re uncovering those secrets, and the killers should take note. We are coming for them. They will not get away with it this time.

  No, she couldn’t write that. She couldn’t let Leonard Miller know they were closing in on him. She couldn’t let him know they had linked him to Bob, and she couldn’t yet reveal Bob’s criminal bent to the world.

  So far, to Juliet’s great relief, the local media hadn’t gotten wind of Bob’s criminal life. Cathy wouldn’t be the one to reveal it. She deleted the last part and stared at the computer screen again. What was there to write, if not the truth? Always before, she had dived in without much thought to her family’s comfort. She was never part of the case—defense or prosecution—so her opinions were considered nothing more than speculation. But this was different.

  This case left an acid burn in her stomach. She wanted to write about it but couldn’t.

  Sighing, she deleted the rest of the blog post and decided to wait a while longer to write about this family tragedy. The moment the media connected her with Bob, they would do exactly what she would have ordinarily done. They’d barrage her with interview requests. That would instantly elevate the story to national news. She could hear it now: Popular blogger Cathy Cramer, whose fiancé was murdered two years ago, is now dealing with another family murder—her sister’s husband, Dr. Bob Cole . . .

  No, none of them could handle having the news bloodhounds sniffing around this case. Not yet.

  Her phone rang, and the caller ID said Michael Hogan. She clicked it on.

  “Cathy, you busy?”

  “No, just banging my head against my computer screen. Did you talk to the security company guy?”

  He sighed. “No. I called his office, but he’s been on vacation in Colorado. They told me they’d have him call me, and they gave me his cell number, but I can’t reach him. I’ll keep trying him.”

  “Did you ask them if we could get an address?”

  “Yes, and they said it would be up to Sid.”

  “Can Juliet get access to Bob’s account now that he’s dead?”

  “Again, up to Sid. They said he’d probably need to see evidence
that she’s his next of kin. So all we can do is wait. But start getting the paperwork together for her. Marriage license, his death certificate, that sort of thing.”

  “Okay, but I thought we were going to hunt Miller,” Cathy said.

  “I decided I should watch the Harper brothers.”

  “Who?”

  “The guys who made that first phone call to Juliet,” Michael said. “They led us to Jerome Henderson. They might also lead us to Miller.”

  “I could help you after I get my blog done,” Cathy said. “My advertisers are breathing down my neck for new content. I haven’t blogged since the shooting.”

  “You talking about Bob?”

  “Not yet. I’ve decided it’s not wise to say more than I’ve already said.”

  “Good. They might follow your blog to see what you say.”

  “I’ll write about some other case, if I can just focus.”

  “Okay. Give me a call when you finish and I’ll tell you where I am.”

  She hung up and stared down at Michael’s picture on her phone. Ironic that she’d cropped his face out of a photo that included him, Max, and Joe. He was laughing and looked carefree. She didn’t think his eyes had carried that much joy since before Joe’s death.

  If only they could get Leonard Miller put away this time. If only they could take down the crime ring that Joe had died trying to bust. If only they could get to the bottom of Bob’s role in all of this.

  Then maybe they could help Juliet deal with it and get on with her grief. Cathy knew about unhealed wounds, and she wanted better for her sister.

  CHAPTER 33

  Juliet parked on the street that ran parallel to Amber’s. From their vantage point, she and Holly could see straight past the houses between them to Amber’s front door and driveway on the next street over. With her camera’s zoom lens she could look through the window to see movement inside the house.

  Though Michael had balked about her buying this minivan with blacked-out back windows, she’d bought it anyway. It was great for transporting her kids, along with their soccer gear and a million other things that moms were required to load into their cars, and it also made surveillance easier. But Michael claimed that the best vehicle for PI work was a small nondescript car, not a clichéd van that he feared would attract suspicion. He alternated between his gray Trailblazer and an old Chevy Caprice. He usually made Holly drive the Caprice instead of her taxi when he sent her to do surveillance.