The rest of the short ride home was made in silence. Emma continued to stare out the side window and Tate couldn’t help but notice that she had twisted a strand of her long hair around one finger. A sign he recognized only too well. His Em was either thinking really hard, worried or upset. Hell maybe she was all three. You’ve got to stop thinking of her as your Em. Been there, done that already. But in his heart Tate knew that she would always be his Em.
Tate stopped to grab the mail from his mailbox before pulling the SUV into the detached garage and parking it next to his personal car. Reaching for the door handle, Emma was surprised when Tate reached out and grabbed her arm pulling her around to face him.
Brushing Emma’s cheek with the backs of his fingers, he whispered, “Don’t worry Em. Everything will work out just the way it’s supposed to whether we like the end result or not.”
With the strangest urge to cry, Emma leaned into his hand. She tried to smile but her lips quivered and refused to cooperate. Instead they convinced her head to help them by turning into his caressing hand where those traitorous lips proceeded to press soft kisses against Tate’s palm.
Tate didn’t know what exactly was happening here but he really didn’t care either. Emma was here and she was kissing his hand. Hell, he’d take a crumb if that’s all there was in the bread box. He’d spent too much time thinking about the past or the future and for now, all he wanted to think about was this minute…just this one minute, nothing more.
Tate clasped his other hand behind Emma’s neck and pulled her forward until their lips met. The kiss was tentative at first, as if they were testing the water of an unknown river. A moan escaped Emma’s lips and that soft little sound pushed Tate over the proverbial edge. No more testing the water, he didn’t care how deep the river was. Pushing his tongue past Emma’s lips and into the sweetest warmth he’d ever known, Tate deepened the kiss pulling Emma tightly against him.
Emma’s brain screamed, STOP, but her heart and body weren’t listening. Instead, she moved closer, her hands climbing the hard planes of his chest. She grasped his shirt collar to pull him closer. Opening her mouth wider, Emma accepted all that Tate offered. Slowly, logic seeped like a dripping faucet from her brain to her heart.
Tate felt the change and pulled back far enough to look into Emma’s eyes. He saw what he already knew. It was just a kiss, nothing had changed for them. But what a kiss it was!
“I….I shouldn’t have let you kiss me. Can we just forg…”
Cutting her off, Tate said, “Emma, first of all it wasn’t just me kissing you, I seem to recall someone else’s tongue bouncing around in my mouth. Second of all, you can forget anything that you want. As for me, I doubt that I could forget it if I wanted to and third, well hell, I don’t want to forget.”
Sensing that he’d pushed the subject about as far as he could without totally ruining the moment, Tate jerked the door handle open and stepped out of the SUV. He went out the side door of the garage and into the back door of his house leaving Emma to find her way in. They could both probably use a little space.
Watching Tate’s back as he left the garage, Emma groaned. What are you doing Emma? You know better than to kiss him. Damn it!
Once out of the vehicle, Emma stomped toward the house. Slipping past the kitchen, she turned down the hall to the bedroom and gathered a clean pair of jeans, a faded t-shirt and some underwear. She stepped into the small bathroom and reached behind the curtain to turn the water on. Emma stripped, letting her clothes drop to the cool tile floor. Standing under the hot spray, she scrubbed at her lips trying to wash away the kiss she’d shared with Tate, but all that did was remind her of it more. The familiarity of his soft lips, the way that he tilted his head and, most of all, the way his hand felt on the back of her neck, massaging, caressing, loving…
”Stop it! Stop it right now, Emma Gage-Echo. All you’re doing is sensationalizing the whole thing. It was just a kiss; you didn’t even like it that much.” Enunciating the last words through gritted teeth Emma reached to turn the shower off knowing that she’d just told herself a big fat lie.
CHAPTER 26
Sitting on the front porch smoking a cigarette, Martin cursed when his cell phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID and seeing that it was dispatch, he groaned, “There go your plans for a quiet night at home making love to your wife, Martin.”
Martin stepped back into the house to grab his gun, keys and hat. “Sorry, hun,” he called to his wife, “but I’ve got to make a run over to Walt Mabry’s. Jewel called the station a little bit ago and said she hadn’t been able to get a hold of Walt all day.”
Drying her hands on a faded kitchen towel, Barbara stepped out of the dining room, a worried frown creasing her forehead. “I sure hope Walt is okay, it would just kill Jewel if something happened to her daddy.”
Nodding, Martin said, “Jewel’s been out of town for two days and she’s worried that Walt may have had another heart attack and not been able to get to the phone. It’s not like him to ignore Jewel when she calls.”
He kissed Barb’s forehead. “This shouldn’t take long and I’ll be back in time to watch that movie you rented.”
Wrapping her arms around his thick middle, Barbara gave Martin a tight squeeze resting her head on his shoulder for a minute.
Twenty minutes later dust flew behind the patrol car as Martin turned into Walt’s driveway and sped up to the house. Hmm, no lights on and no truck in the driveway. Martin got out of the cruiser and grabbed his police issued flashlight. He cautiously stepped up onto the porch and knocked on the door. No answer.
Shining his flashlight through the living room window Martin thought, Everything looks in order, at least in this part of the house. Martin made his way around to the back, and then reached above the door frame for the spare key that Jewel had said was there when she called the station. Unlocking the door, Martin entered the house. If Walt were here, he didn’t want to scare him or have Walt pull out that old shotgun of his, thinking that there was an intruder.
“Walt. It’s Martin Crawley. You here buddy?” Not getting a response, Martin moved from room to room, searching the small frame house for Walt or signs of trouble. Turning his flashlight off, Martin flipped the kitchen light on illuminating the small room. No mess, no signs of foul play, nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe Walt was just out later than usual and Jewel missed him when she called. Leaving the house the same way he had entered, Martin locked the door behind him. He hit redial on his cell and had the dispatcher forward his call to Jewel as he walked around the house to his cruiser. He assured her that he would come back by the house in the morning to check on Walt and she promised to call if she heard from her daddy. Martin backed out of the drive and drove home to his waiting wife.
The following morning, Martin kissed Barb goodbye on the porch and took the travel mug of hot coffee that she always had ready for him. He waved goodbye. Since he hadn’t heard from Jewel the night before or this morning, he planned to stop by Walt’s on his way to the station. Taking a slug from his cup Martin thought, Maybe I’ll get a refill from Walt. Anything is better than that watery coffee that comes from the machine in the break room. He was sure Walt would have turned up by now.
Pulling into the driveway, Martin was shocked to see that Walt’s truck still wasn’t parked in its usual spot. He got out, knocked on the back door and then let himself in when he didn’t get an answer. Martin was greeted by the same empty house he had walked through the night before. Not a thing had been disturbed. Once back in the cruiser, Martin took a small dirt road that went down the east side of Walt’s property. Maybe he was down at the barn. Martin hadn’t checked the barn last night but now he was worried. It wasn’t like Walt to be out all night. There must be something wrong.
After a quick trip down to the barn turned up nothing, Martin drove back the way that he had come. As he was leaving, Martin called the station and asked Kevin Walker, the desk clerk on duty if there had been any reports during t
he night regarding Walt Mabry. There hadn’t. “Kevin, do me a favor and call the county hospital to see if by some chance Walt was admitted. Check for John Does as well since he may have not been able to ID himself. I sure hope we find him because I don’t want to have to call Jewel and tell her that her daddy is still missing.”
Martin was disappointed when he arrived at the courthouse a few minutes later and found that there had been no record of Walt being admitted to the hospital and there were no John Doe’s either. He couldn’t put it off any longer, he had to call Jewel. Martin closed his office door and dialed Walt’s daughter.
CHAPTER 27
Silently, Emma slid into a chair across from Tate at the small table in his kitchen. The tension of last night’s encounter in the garage had lessened, but still stood like a wall between them.
Looking over the morning paper, Tate announced, “Your plate is in the oven.” He let the newspaper slide back up so that the morning news blocked his grin. Emma had barely spoken ten words to him last night after the kiss, but he could almost see her mind as it analyzed and compartmentalized the events that occurred in the garage.
You’re getting to her Echo, just don’t push her too hard or you know she’ll run.
Emma opened the oven door, and pulled a plate rounded with bacon and eggs out of the warm box. She slid it onto a placemat, then sat down and picked up her fork. She paused and cleared her throat, “Tate, I know that it was a little awkward last night, but can’t we just move forward? We need to push everything but the case to the back burner for now and find the killer. What do you say?”
Letting the paper drop a few inches Tate’s grey eyes bored into Emma’s blue ones from across the table, one corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile. “Whatever you think SSA Gage-Echo.”
Emma breathed a sigh of relief that Tate wasn’t going to make a big deal about the kiss. Thank God for that. She had been afraid that one little kiss was going to be a dark cloud hanging over them for the rest of her trip. Pushing another fork of eggs into her mouth she smiled back at Tate. “Glad to see that you know who’s in charge, Chief Echo,” she teased. Emma’s smile broadened and then she giggled.
Tate stared at her in puzzled surprise, “What the heck is so funny? You’re losing it.”
Emma continued to laugh, pushing back from the table and hugging her middle as the giggle turned into a full out laugh. “Oh, Tate, I just realized that you’re now Chief Echo. Chief as in Indian Chief!”
Catching her meaning, Tate scowled at Emma from across the table. Laying the paper aside, he warned, “Do not laugh at my heritage Em. The chief will have to order you to be staked to the bed and tortured if you keep it up, and I promise, you will enjoy the particular torture that I have in mind.”
Forcing the laughter down Emma giggled, “Bet the guys at the office give you hell with that that one, huh?”
Standing to rinse his plate Tate said, “Not to my face they don’t, but I’ve heard rumors. So what’s on the agenda for today, Em? You still want to see the Parker scene?”
“Yeah, I do. Also last night I got a call back from the owner of the geocaching website. He agreed to email me all the information for people that logged finds in the county the last two months. I already downloaded the finds that the Babcock family logged that were within a fifty mile radius of Pine Ridge. I wanted to cross reference the logs and see if anything pops.”
Tate leaned against the counter with his coffee cup in hand. “Sounds like a solid plan. Did he say how long it would take? I left a message to that damn place two days ago and they haven’t even returned my call, what’d you say to get them on the ball?”
“Simple, F-B-I. That got me to the right person in about three seconds.” Emma continued, “Mr. CEO promised he would get the information to me no later than one p.m. this afternoon. Seems it’s a pretty easy process for the website owner. I also thought that we should check the bureau database to see if there have been any similar cases recorded at other State or National parks. As many parks as there are spread across the country, what’s to say that this guy is specific to South Dakota?”
Tate frowned as he rinsed his cup and placed it into the dishwasher, “Well, I did check the systems that I have access to with no results but I was searching based on the killer’s signature. Now that we are aware of the park’s link and the geocaching, maybe we could come up with some tighter search parameters.”
Stepping around Tate, Emma rinsed her plate and placed it neatly into the dishwasher next to his. “Let me grab my computer and I’ll be ready.” Emma headed down the hallway to Tate’s office where she had left her computer to charge. As she pushed the office door open she heard Tate’s cell phone ringing in the background.
Tate glanced at the caller idea then answered, “Good morning Sheriff. What’s up with County?”
“Tate, it seems that Walt Mabry is missing. Jewel called yesterday and said she hadn’t been able to get a hold of him all day. I went by the house and his truck is gone and appears that King is with him wherever he is. No sign of foul play at the house.”
Cutting in, Tate asked, “Slow down a minute. Have you checked the hospitals? We all know that Walt has a weak heart maybe he drove himself over and got checked in.”
“Negative on that, Martin replied. “We checked the hospital both here and in White River with no Walt and no John Does either. Jewel says that she talked to him the night before last and he was fine.”
Tate looked up as Emma entered the room with her bag in hand. Holding up one finger he signaled that it would be just a minute.
“With Walt’s known medical condition, I think you should go ahead and issue a Silver Alert. Walt isn’t exactly over the hill, but he is considered elderly. Did Jewel say what Walt had planned for the day yesterday?”
“She didn’t know if he had any plans or not but she did mention that she’d given him a hand held GPS for his birthday last week and thought he might be out looking for geocaches. Said she gave it to him hoping that he’d get out and walk more. Jewel’s real worried that he got out and had an attack and wasn’t able to get back into town. I didn’t want to scare Jewel more than she already is, so I didn’t mention the possible link in the Parker and Babcock murders to geocaching, but I’m real worried about Walt. I’ve got patrols on the county roads now hoping that we can locate him. I was hoping that you could add a couple cars to help broaden the search.”
Tate agreed, “That goes without saying. I was just about to run by the Parker house and let Em have a look at the scene, but we’ll table that for now. I’ll call dispatch and have all available patrols assigned to the search. Keep the line open so that they can reach out to coordinate directions with you. Em and I will join the search as well. Any particular place you want us to start?”
After coordinating an initial search area with Martin, Tate hung up and turned to see Emma staring at the newspaper he’d left on the table, a frown creasing her brow. “Did you see the picture in today’s paper?” Folding the paper backward on the crease she handed it to him.
“Son of a bitch!” Tate cursed. Page three featured a picture of him and Emma embracing when he’d picked her up at the airport. “Police Chief cavorts with an unknown woman while killer runs free.” Slamming the paper down on the table Tate seethed. “I’m going to kill him for this.”
Emma placed one hand on Tate’s forearm. “Kill who? Why does something like this warrant a picture in the paper?”
Disgust lacing his voice, Tate fumed, “Em, we have a leak in either my department or Martin’s. Someone has been feeding information on the murders to the locals, stirring up trouble and hard feelings and generally trying to make a fool out of me. Martin thinks he knows who it is and has someone from internal affairs assigned as the guy’s partner hoping to flush out some proof but that’s not helping me solve these murders or maintain my standing as police chief. Damn it.”
“So why does someone want to undermine your position or the investigation?”
“Pretty simple, Em, I’d been gone a few years and one of Martin’s guys, Pete Green, had a son that just graduated top of his class from the academy. Seems he thought his son was a shoo-in for the job and then I got in the way. I can’t believe the Mayor hasn’t called yet. Rumor around town according to a waitress over at the diner is that I must have been a lousy FBI agent if I had to come back to Pine Ridge to get a job.”
“So you didn’t tell them about our divorce or that the Bureau practically begged you to stay and even offered you a transfer if you’d take it?”
“I didn’t tell them anything, Em. It’s none of their damned business why I moved back home. Right now, I have more important things to worry about. Walt Mabry has been missing since yesterday. His daughter just gave him a GPS for his birthday and thinks he may have gone caching and had a heart attack. Since we were at the lake yesterday and know where some of the caches are out there, Martin asked that we patrol that particular area in case Walt went there to search for caches too. He’s got all available staff searching the back roads and I’m adding city staff to the search as well.”
“Damn, we’ve got to find this guy before we have a third murder on our hands. But I also want to do a little reputation saving starting today. What time does the next shift come in? Or, better yet, since the department is so small, what do think about calling them all in for a briefing first thing tomorrow morning?” Pulling the strap of her computer bag up over one shoulder Emma moved to the back door without waiting for Tate to answer.
On the drive in to the courthouse Emma outlined her plan, “I want to call a press conference, admit that I’m with the FBI and that I’m here on an unofficial basis as a personal favor to you. Then I want to share the tentative profile information that I have on the UnSub with the staff so that they have a better idea about what we’re dealing with. That should shut the leak up for a while and give the press something new to focus on.”
Caching Out Page 12