Traces of Guilt

by Dee Henderson

  “Mom—”

  Karen sent Will a quelling look. “I can do that, Mrs. Thane,” she replied promptly.

  Marie laughed. “You’ll be good for my son. He gives you trouble, you just tell me. And it’s ‘Marie’ from now on.”

  Karen’s blush covered her face now, but her smile was real. “I can do that too, Marie.”

  Gabriel watched the exchange, gave Will a glance, saw relief under the embarrassment. Mom’s approval would matter for so many reasons, just as his father’s would. He hadn’t expected her to be quite so forward about matters, but it was clear Karen had just been welcomed to the family in more than a passing manner.

  “Gabriel, there’s your father,” Marie was saying. “He’s got more ice. Fill those glasses before you put them around.” Paul and Grace came in, both already in the yellow shirts. Gabriel saw his mom give Angel the job of carrying the salad bowls to the table and smiled at the girl’s concentration. Get assigned a job, you had a place in this family.

  He waited at the door for Grace to bring through the hot bread basket and the salad dressing options, softly said, “Your daughter has stolen Mom’s heart. She’s been hoping for a decade for some grandkids to enjoy.”

  Grace met his gaze and seemed to understand the deeper meaning. “I like your mom, I always have.”

  “She’s always wanted to see Chicago at Christmastime—all those decorations and places to shop,” he added.

  Grace smiled. “One holiday at a time, Gabriel.”

  Josh joined them with a questioning look, but Grace moved on to the table with the bread. Gabriel thought it likely their family Christmas was going to be spread out this year. He worked Christmas Day so that his deputies could be with their families, just as his dad had always done, so the Thane family was used to getting together a day or two early or late. Some would find a reason to go north this year, he expected, to stop and see Grace and her daughter.

  “Angel, come tell me if you think the turkey is done,” Josh called. He waited until the girl joined him before lifting the lid. He boosted her up to see, poked a long fork into it, watched the juice run clear. “What do you think, Angel?”

  She nodded decisively. “It’s done.”

  “Then I need you to bring me that big silver tray on the kitchen counter, the one with the turkey picture on it.”

  She went to get it as Josh shut down the grill. Josh lifted the bird onto the plate, brought it over to the table, and handed the carving knife to Caleb. Dad said grace, a particularly meaningful one, sliced the turkey, and the feast officially began.

  Gabriel wrapped the wishbone ends in two napkins and went to find Evie. She was sitting at the table on the deck with a piece of pumpkin pie, whipped cream on top, along with a side scoop of vanilla ice cream. Her conversation with Grace was mostly laughter. Gabriel almost hated to interrupt, but some things were important. He hunkered down beside her. “Make a wish.”

  Evie considered the offer and took a good competitive hold of her end. She closed her eyes. “Okay.”

  He tugged quick, having learned if he wanted to win, it took a swift break. But she must have had some experience in the matter too, and she twisted her wrist, grinning as she came up with the winning piece.

  “A good wish?”

  “One of the best,” she assured him.

  “Better be. I don’t get the wishbone for another four years.”

  She laughed.

  “I got a call from the banker in the Florist family,” he said quietly. “There’s a bank account in the name Simon Carnoff and a safe-deposit box. We’ll have to drill the box, which requires a court order and a locksmith. I’m getting it arranged for eight a.m. tomorrow. There will be time to see what’s there before we head over to interview Phil Peters and his wife.”

  Her sudden hug nearly toppled him. “Yes!” She grinned at him. “Have you told Paul? Your dad? They’re the ones who found the names.”

  “I’ll tell them next.” He realized he was wearing some of the whipped cream from her fork.

  “Oops,” she giggled as he wiped it off his shirt and licked his finger.

  “Enjoy the rest of your pie.”

  “It really is great news,” she told him again, her face alight.

  “It is.” But he wasn’t letting work intrude any further into the day, so he simply smiled and left to get a piece of pie of his own.

  Evie Blackwell

  Evie noticed Ann on the pier and headed down to join her. Josh had taken Grace and Angel along with Karen out for a boat ride, and it didn’t take much to interpret the child’s laughter over the water. Josh was letting the child steer the boat as they came back toward the pier.

  “I’ll be sad to see Grace leave,” Evie said, watching the boat head in. Grace and her daughter would be flying back to Chicago with Ann and Paul later tonight.

  Ann waved at the little girl. “Grace handled her time here better than I thought she would. But she’s ready to go home, be with Angel, focus on Christmas plans. Josh will get the search of the land finished in another week, depending on the weather. Either way, I think Grace will be able to accept the news, whichever way it goes.”

  Evie agreed with that assessment. “I’ll call you if the bank box yields anything interesting. If the Florist family ran, the box is empty, and if they didn’t, the box has something in it. I can’t decide which answer I want.”

  “You’re making progress, Evie. You’ve still got three more days.”

  Evie smiled. “Hope springs eternal that a cold case can get solved.”

  “The task force is going to face a lot of days like this one,” Ann noted.

  “I just wanted to impress him, you know? Pick the one. Governor Bliss, Gabriel, the other cops who are going to be on the task force. Solving the disappearance of a deputy and his family—my ambition has never been a problem.”

  “You’ve still got the interview with the Peters tomorrow. I can come down this weekend to do a last review of the case if you like.”

  Evie shook her head. “That’s okay, Ann. The Dayton case is solved, and I can live with one out of two. Gabriel and I will talk over the Florist case one more time during the drive back from the interview tomorrow, and I’ll be ready to let it go. If we don’t get a break and solve it now, it’s time to put it back in the box.”

  “Has it been fun, Evie? The last couple of weeks?” Ann asked. “And I use the word fun deliberately.”

  She thought about it and nodded. “It’s been a wide open case, where you can consider whatever you can come up with, and I’ve needed that, Ann. I wasn’t standing over a bloodstained dead body in a bedroom, trying to figure out if the husband did it or the son. As serious as this case is—a family of three missing—it didn’t have the weight that something more immediate would have. I needed the freedom a cold case gave me just to explore what might be answers without having to worry about what the idea sounded like in a daily progress report.”

  Ann nodded. “That’s one reason I didn’t try very hard to talk you out of using your vacation time for this. The pace of your job, the immediacy of cases, has a different tempo than this kind of work. I think you’ll enjoy being on the task force, going after these unsolved cases. Some of them can be miserable, as the Dayton one became, but some of them can be like the Florists, a challenging puzzle to solve. And you will solve any number of them, Evie.”

  “I’m becoming resigned to the fact that someone else is going to locate the missing piece of this one. I know it’s there. I also know I don’t have it yet. Maybe we get lucky with the safe-deposit box tomorrow, or the partner interview, but I’m probably clutching at straws.”

  “I’d like to have lunch with you and debrief these two weeks sometime later in December, after you’ve gotten some distance from the work, both in time and space.”

  “We’ll do that, Ann,” Evie said, pleased at the suggestion. She was having a hard time imagining life back on the job, being home in Springfield, and that was going to b
e her reality in just a few days. This working vacation had been a true break for her in that respect—it had pushed normal so far into the background, it was no longer a clear picture in her mind.

  Gabriel’s life will get back to normal too, she realized, once their temporary work area was cleared and the cases boxed away again. She’d turn in her yellow convertible, pick up keys to her now-repaired car, and collect the dogs. Life was moving back toward its normal routine again. She’d adjust—a day or two back on the job and this would seem like a distant memory. But she’d miss Carin County, the people, and especially the Thanes.

  She watched Gabriel and Will walk out of the bait shop with their father, talking with Paul. An interesting family, the Thanes. Saying she was going to miss them didn’t quite fit the emotions she was feeling.

  “Friends don’t cease being friends,” Ann commented softly. Evie glanced over, realized Ann had noticed her gaze.

  “You collect friends this way, don’t you?” Evie said. “A day or two in a place, put down a marker, come back again and fill in more of the picture with another day or two.” She was beginning to understand what had puzzled her about Ann.

  “Sure.” Ann tipped her head toward Josh, who was getting ready to tie up the boat. “You didn’t spend much time with Josh the last couple of weeks, but I bet you have a pretty good sense of him. The same with Will.”

  “I do. Mostly through what Gabriel has said, or times I’ve seen them as a family.”

  “Just take that knowledge and start adding layers to it. People who know them mention something, adding to comments you hear about what’s going on in their lives. The Thanes are an easy family in which to form friendships because there isn’t tension within its members. You come in the door with one person and end up knowing the group if you pay attention to the details.”

  “You do that so easily, Ann,” Evie remarked.

  “It’s just practice, and listening,” Ann replied. “Gabriel isn’t sure how he wants things left with you. That was obvious today. He’s aware you’ve got a life away from here, don’t plan to come back this way, but he’s not inclined to simply accept a goodbye. I have a feeling he’ll let you decide that. That’s his way. For his brothers, Josh and Grace are renewing a childhood friendship that mattered to both of them. Will and Karen are falling in love. Back to Gabe—he would make room for you in his life, if you want that. He can be a good friend. If you see that in your future, or something more than that one day, he’s a safe and comfortable guy, Evie.”

  “The ‘something more’ part, I don’t know that I do, at least not right now.”

  Ann thoughtfully nodded. “Then accept some advice, friend, no matter what you conclude about Gabriel. Make a point to stop this way when business has you in the area, start layering in friendships with Marie, with Karen. They’re the kind of women who can appreciate who you are as a cop and yet give you room to breathe. You’ll never regret that kind of relationship.”

  It made sense what Ann was suggesting, staying tied into the dynamic here, and for so many reasons. Evie wanted the circles of friends Ann seemed to naturally form around her, and she was seeing how they could be built. She could start a circle of her own here in Carin. She’d be welcome, understood, and she was beginning to grasp the significance of having that in her life.

  Paul strolled down to the dock to join them, and Ann went to meet him, slipping her arms under his for a hug. Evie watched them together, let herself consider that picture. Ann was a good cop who had decided a guy mattered. Evie knew her own world might be better off if she decided to go that way one day. But it isn’t today, she concluded. She looked back as Josh helped Angel hop out of the boat onto the dock, her smile turned up to his face. A child’s delight without shadows. Evie wished the world was all such joy.

  Okay, it was time to get back to work, finish what she’d come here to do, and then pack to go home. Whatever Carin County was going to be to her in the future would sort itself out. She had a final three days, and she was determined to make the most of them.

  Joshua Thane

  “Grace has a daughter.”

  Josh turned with a smile at the quiet words of his mother, patted the seat on the bench beside him. The evening was wrapping up as most holidays did, with leftovers boxed and distributed for family to take home, and with a few spare moments of time just to sit and think.

  Marie took the seat beside him. “I thought for a moment I was seeing things, when you walked up the path with Angel riding on your shoulders, and I saw that smile she has, that joy. I remember Grace when she was five, when she still had that same smile. It was like being transported back in time.”

  “I saw that in your expression, that fleeting sense of shock. Thanks for making the shift so quickly so Angel felt your welcome.”

  “It’s impossible not to welcome that little girl,” his mom answered with a smile. “Are you doing okay, honey?”

  “The news was a punch, I’ll admit that, but yeah, I’m good,” Josh replied. “In a way it’s easier, knowing Grace went on with her life, made some mistakes of her own, but at least let a guy love her once. She has a daughter. I was afraid she was going to be so off men after what she’d been through, no one would ever get close. As painful as it must be to have a relationship fail, to be a single mom, she at least was willing to let someone in.”

  “Looking for love.”

  Josh nodded his agreement with her quiet statement. “Yeah.” He didn’t try to sort out the rest of what he was feeling. Grace was working her way back from the pain of what had happened to her, the pain of what she’d done to herself, but she was facing it and dealing with it. He understood what courage looked like. “Angel is fascinating—has such a big view of life and loves her mom. She’s a wonderful girl. You see the two of them together and it’s a great picture.”

  Marie patted his knee. “Which is one reason why I keep waiting for my sons to marry, give me grandkids. There’s a lifetime of those memories when you have children around.”

  Josh smiled. “I’m thinking Will and Karen will give you those grandchildren in the next few years. Gabriel and I . . . we’re going to remain your problem sons for a while yet.”

  Marie laughed. “My sons keep me young, which is as it should be.” She rested her hands on either side of his face, studied him closely, nodded at what she saw in his expression. “Grace returns to Chicago, and you finish the search she’s asked of you. That’s what a Thane does, for the girl he had a crush on in grade school. Then you call her, you talk, and this time she isn’t the girl who leaves and is gone. Yes?”

  Josh had to smile at the way she worded it. “Yes.”

  She rose to her feet. “Time will solve the rest. Don’t sit out so late tonight you catch yourself a cold.”

  “Mom—”

  She laughed at his protest that could make two syllables out of mom, waved goodbye.

  Josh watched her walk down the path around the house and thought he was a most blessed son to have her as his mother. Wherever matters went with Grace and Angel, he’d have family around to share that journey.

  He turned back to studying the fading sunset, content to have a stunning day of surprises now end quietly. Grace has a daughter. The world had tilted on its axis today and become a different shape. The door had now opened for him to get to know Angel too. He suspected Angel would share her life easily, while Grace would still hold on to layers of reserve for a considerable amount of time. He’d learned patience watching Will. He’d adapt. He had two good reasons to do so now.

  He pushed his hands into his pockets, admitted to himself he was beginning to get chilled. Trust Mom to always be right. He gave himself a few more minutes, then rose to go inside. Grace and Angel would be arriving back in Chicago soon, and Grace had promised a text to say they were safely home. After that came through, he’d call it an early night himself. This day had taken enough turns, and it was time to have it behind him.

  FIFTEEN

  Evie Blac
kwell

  Evie had never witnessed a safe-deposit box’s lock being drilled out before. She found it fascinating even if rather swiftly over. The long drill bit cut through with ease, and then the man cut the power and lifted his goggles. “There you go,” the locksmith said. He gathered up his tools. “I’ll send my bill to the bank.”

  “Thank you, Kyle.”

  “Anytime, Sheriff, anytime.”

  Gabriel turned to the bank manager. “Mr. Nelson, I appreciate you arranging this for us. Now it’s police business, and I’ll need to ask you to step outside.” With notable reluctance, the manager left with the locksmith.

  Evie stepped over to the safe-deposit box, twelve by ten inches and quite deep. Gabriel pulled the box from its slot. “It doesn’t feel empty,” he said as he set it on a roll-cart table. They had the room to themselves, so he didn’t suggest the privacy booth but merely stepped back. “Want to do the honors, Evie?”

  She’d hoped he would ask. “Sure.” She moved to the end of the box, feeling a mixture of anticipation and dread. She lifted the lid, braced to find it mostly empty. Instead, neat stacks of deposit envelopes at one end reached nearly to the top of the box. At the other end were wrapped pieces of fabric—from a cut-up pillowcase, she thought after a moment’s study.

  Gabriel opened one of the envelopes. “Cash.” He quickly counted up the bills. “Looks to be the duplicate mortgage payment Susan was withdrawing. So twenty-four envelopes like this one will give us about twenty-eight thousand total. The rest of the envelopes . . .” He chose one at random to open. “There’s three hundred dollars in this one.” He did a quick count of envelopes in the sacks. “If that’s representative, say another ten thousand in cash.”

  “So the money has been here all along,” Evie said.

  “What’s the cloth about?”

  Evie picked up the top item, unfolded it, found several watches and bracelets. “Easy items to pawn, I think, probably worth a thousand.”