In the Arms of the Enemy

by Carol Ericson

  “I thought about that, but the kidnappings occurred twenty-five years ago. I doubt Rocky Whitecotton is still talking about his past crimes. If he’s connected to Johnny Diamond, I’m sure he has new crimes to talk about.” Cole snapped his fingers. “That reminds me. I contacted my partner about looking into any connections Diamond could’ve had with Whitecotton.”

  “I thought Rocky Whitecotton had fallen off the face of the earth?”

  “That’s my understanding, but he’s not someone we ever had on our radar—at least not recently. The FBI may have moved him back up their list based on the new information regarding the kidnappings, but we’ve never searched for him.”

  “Are we still going to explore Timberline to see if anything jogs my memory?”

  “Yeah, give me a minute in the room to call my partner, Craig.”

  As Cole talked to his partner, Caroline called Linda to check up on her.

  “Have you gone to the sheriff’s station yet?”

  Caroline corrected her. “Police station. Not yet. I’m still leaving Timberline, Linda, even though I’m so grateful for everything you did.”

  “I know you are.” The bells on the shop door jingled. “Customer just walked in. We’ll talk later.”

  Caroline ended the call with a tear trembling on her eyelash. She might not have another opportunity to talk to Linda again.

  A few minutes later, Cole ended his own call. “That’s interesting. Still no leads on Whitecotton. Unless he changed his name and went into some kind of criminals’ witness protection program, he really has disappeared. Maybe he was smuggled out of the country.”

  Caroline dropped her phone. “Spanish.”

  “What?”

  “I told you I knew Spanish.”

  “You told me you could understand some Spanish on a TV show.”

  “It’s more than that, Cole. I can speak Spanish fluently.” She tried it out, the words and phrases coming to her lips naturally.

  Cole spoke Spanish, too, and kept up the conversation for another minute. He switched back to English. “As far as I can tell, you have a dialect from Mexico.”

  “Really? You can hear that?”

  “I’m not great at it. My partner’s better.” He held out his phone. “Would you be willing to talk to him? His name’s Craig Delgado.”

  “Of course.”

  He placed a call to his partner again and gave him some background on her that left out all the bad parts. Then he put the phone on speaker and handed it to her.

  She and Craig spoke for a few minutes—about the weather, about the Timberline landscape and about Cole—until he snatched the phone from her.

  “What do you think, Craig?”

  “I think I’d better continue giving her the lowdown on you.”

  Cole rolled his eyes at Caroline. “I mean about the accent.”

  “Yeah, that’s definitely Mexico. I’d go even further and say northern interior, maybe around Chihuahua.”

  Caroline leaned toward the phone in Cole’s hand. “Is that a desert climate, Craig?”

  “It can be. The Chihuahua Desert extends from New Mexico all the way down south into Mexico.”

  “Craig, does the FBI have any leads on Whitecotton going to Mexico?”

  “I can check on it, and you know our boy Johnny Diamond made several trips down there—illegal ones.”

  “Check out Whitecotton for me.”

  “When are you coming back from your so-called vacation?”

  “Dude, I think that vacation just ended.”

  His conversation with Craig over, Cole tapped the phone against his chin. “You may have been down in Mexico with these guys.”

  Caroline folded her arms over the knots forming in her belly. “I’m scared, Cole. What was I doing with them? What was I doing in Mexico?”

  “Your fingerprints might tell us everything we need to know.”

  She uncrossed her arms and studied the tips of her fingers as if she could read her past there. She saw nothing.

  Cole took both her hands and pressed her palms against his chest. “It’s going to be okay, Car...”

  He stopped when she flashed him a look. She wasn’t going to lash out at him for calling her Caroline again. He was just trying to help, but he was dreaming. He wanted to rescue her because he hadn’t been able to rescue his wife from her demons.

  “It’s not going to be all right, is it? I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but my situation keeps getting worse and worse.”

  “You know what might make you feel better?” He pressed a kiss against the inside of her left wrist. “Let’s get out of this hotel room and explore Timberline. It’s better than waiting around for the police to call.”

  “You’re right.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I’m going to face everything head-on today.”

  As Caroline buckled her seat belt in his car, she said, “Where to first?”

  “How about Evergreen Software? Have you been there yet?”

  “You think I came here for Evergreen Software?”

  “Let’s take a drive to the facility. You never know. We’re close by, anyway.”

  About five minutes later, Caroline took in the modern white buildings that comprised the Evergreen campus, but she felt no twinges of recognition or familiarity. “I don’t think I came back for this, Cole.”

  “It’s impressive though, isn’t it? I thought I read somewhere that the Brice family had some property out here, too, that they sold to Evergreen.”

  “I felt sorry for James Brice.”

  “Yeah, I slammed him against that car pretty hard.”

  Caroline punched Cole’s arm. “Not that. He seemed sad to be here wrapping up everything for his parents.”

  “I don’t blame the parents for taking off. I can’t imagine what they went through—to lose a child like that.”

  “And the guilt.”

  “Guilt?” He swung through the Evergreen parking lot once more before exiting the facility. “Why would they feel guilty?”

  “I think there would always be that element of what you could’ve done differently as a parent. Just those three were taken. Why those three? Did the bikers who were involved in the kidnappings ever say why?”

  “Those bikers were all dead by the time the truth came out. Only Dax Kennedy is still around, and he was a younger member of the motorcycle gang at the time and wasn’t directly involved in the kidnapping.”

  “Well, I’m sure those parents drove themselves crazy wondering why. The siblings, too. Poor James.”

  “It was hard on the siblings. In fact, the kidnapped boy’s brother duplicated the kidnappings just a few months ago.”

  “Oh, my God. This town has been through a lot. Was Johnny Diamond involved in the kidnappings? Maybe that’s how he knows Rocky.”

  “He wasn’t around then, too young, but there’s no doubt that his membership in the Lords of Chaos connects him to Whitecotton.” Cole pulled up to a fork in the road and idled the engine. “Do you want to head to the forest? There are a couple of nice trails out there. The peace and tranquility might do you good.”

  She checked the time on her phone. “Especially since the police department should be calling anytime now. They did say afternoon, right?”

  “They might be waiting for all the fingerprints to come in, but I’m guessing there were a lot in Dr. Shipman’s office.”

  “Speaking of guilt.” Caroline squeezed her eyes shut. “She would be off on her trip right now if I hadn’t become her patient.”

  “I know it’s hard, Caroline, but you need to put the blame on her killer.”

  She sat forward suddenly. “Can we stop by Linda’s shop on our way through town? I want to check up on her.”

&nbs
p; “Did she sound okay on the phone?”

  “She did, but she had a rough time of it the other night and maybe she’s trying to get back on her feet too quickly.”

  “Especially if it was poison.” Cole jerked the steering wheel to the right to go into downtown Timberline. “She’s a fighter, that one.”

  As Cole’s car traveled down Main Street, Caroline spotted flashing emergency lights ahead, and butterflies swirled in her stomach. “Look at that.”

  “Excitement in downtown Timberline. I hope nobody’s hurt.”

  “Cole.” She grabbed his thigh, digging her fingernails into the denim of his jeans. “Is that ambulance in front of Timberline Treasures?”

  He swore. “It looks like it is.”

  “Hurry, hurry.” She sat up, straining against the seat belt, her heart thundering in her chest.

  “I can’t get any closer. I’m pulling up here.”

  When he parked the car, Caroline tumbled from the passenger side and ran down the sidewalk. She pushed through the clutch of people gathered near the door of Linda’s shop. “Let me by.”

  Quentin Stevens, one of the Timberline Sheriff’s Department deputies, held up his hand as she charged toward the door. “Hold on, please.”

  “Is it Linda Gunderson? I’m her...cousin.”

  Deputy Stevens’s eyes widened. “Are you Caroline?”

  “Yes, yes.”

  Cole had caught up with her and placed a steadying hand on her back. “What happened, Deputy?”

  “Aggravated assault and robbery.”

  Caroline covered her mouth. “Assault? Someone assaulted Linda?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Is—is she...alive?”

  “She’s alive, sustained some injuries.”

  “I need to see her.”

  “She’s been asking for you, so go on in, but she’s being treated so don’t get in the way of the EMTs doing their job.”

  Caroline grabbed Cole’s hand, dragging him along with her in case Stevens tried to stop him.

  She bolted toward Linda, who was bloodied and stretched out on a gurney, with two EMTs cleaning her wounds and taking her vitals.

  Caroline cried out and dropped to the side of the gurney, clutching Linda’s hand. “Oh, my God. What happened?”

  Linda parted swollen lips, but no sound came out.

  Another deputy tapped Caroline on the shoulder. “You’re Ms. Gunderson’s cousin?”

  She rose to face him. “Yes, can you tell me what happened? Is Linda going to be okay?”

  “You’ll have to ask the EMTs about that.” He shook Cole’s hand. “I’m Deputy Unger.”

  “Cole Pierson. This is Caroline Johnson. Do you know what went down in here?”

  “Ms. Gunderson’s having a hard time communicating, but it sounds like a man entered the shop, threatened her with a knife and took all the money from the register. Why he felt he had to beat her up is a mystery to me. Must be some kind of sadist or hard-core criminal.”

  Caroline leaned against Cole for support. “It—it was a robbery? He stole her money?”

  “Yeah, in broad daylight, too.” The officer shook his head. “Sometimes I wonder what Evergreen Software is bringing in, with all the jobs and revitalization.”

  One of the EMTs spoke up. “Ma’am, we’re taking her to emergency if you want to come by the hospital later.”

  “Was she injured badly?”

  “She has a nasty cut on her head and she lost a lot of blood. I’m surprised she’s still conscious, but she’s hanging in there.”

  Caroline felt a soft tap against her calf and crouched beside the gurney.

  Linda grabbed on to Caroline’s sleeve and pulled.

  Caroline moved closer as Linda mouthed some words.

  “What is it?”

  Linda shifted her eyes to the deputy and then whispered in Caroline’s ear. “The man wanted information about you. I told him the story you made up.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Linda’s head fell to the side as her eyes closed and her mouth gaped open.

  Caroline choked. “What’s wrong? What’s wrong with her?”

  “She lost consciousness. We’re moving her now. Back up, please.”

  As Cole helped Caroline to her feet, the EMTs expanded the legs of the gurney and wheeled Linda out of the store to the waiting ambulance.

  The deputies asked Caroline a few more questions, and while they continued collecting evidence from the store and dusting for prints, she sat in the corner with her hands pinned between her knees, Linda’s whisper echoing in her head.

  Someone had roughed up her friend trying to get information about her, and it seemed that Linda had known she’d been lying all along.

  When Deputy Stevens stopped by to tell her they’d wrapped things up for now, she said, “Did Linda give a description of the man? Did anyone on the street see him leaving the store?”

  “White guy, but dark complexion, wore his hair in a ponytail.”

  Caroline furrowed her brow. “D-did she tell you what he said to her?”

  “Told her to hand over the money in the register and to be quick about it. After he stuffed the money in his pockets, he came around the counter and hit her. Knocked her to the ground and kicked her.”

  Caroline gasped and nausea claimed her stomach. “Anything else? Did he say anything else?”

  “Nope. Headed out the back door to the alley.” Stevens waved his hand in the air. “You can stay here if you’d like to clean up. We have what we need and it’s no longer a crime scene, but you may want to close up shop for the day.”

  So, Linda had lied for her again.

  “I will, thanks.”

  When all the deputies had left the store and only a few people remained on the sidewalk out front, Caroline locked the door and flipped over the sign to read Closed.

  She sank back in the chair while Cole paced through the racks.

  “This is too much of a coincidence. This has to be connected to Johnny Diamond and...you,” he finally muttered.

  “It is.”

  “I don’t know why this guy came in here and robbed Linda and then knocked her around, but he was probably hoping to find you here, and then covered his tracks.”

  “He didn’t even cover his tracks.”

  Cole stopped pacing like a caged animal and stationed himself in front of her. “How do you know?”

  “Linda told me.”

  “Linda told you what?” His green eyes narrowed to slits, making him look like a dangerous jungle cat. “She could barely speak and then passed out.”

  “She whispered to me, Cole. She told me the man was trying to get information about me. She told me she stuck with my story.”

  “Oh, God.” He spanned his forehead with one hand and massaged his temples. “He must’ve demanded answers and then punched her when he didn’t get the ones he wanted. Miserable coward.”

  “This has to end. Everything and everyone I touch is getting destroyed.”

  “Wait. So Linda knew you weren’t telling the truth all this time?”

  “I guess she must’ve suspected something was off. Maybe it was when I thought someone had searched my place.”

  “She turned out to be a loyal friend.”

  “Too loyal.” Caroline’s cell phone buzzed and she pulled it from her pocket. The number on the display didn’t even send terror into her heart like she’d thought it would. “Hello.”

  “Ms. Johnson, this is Detective Rowan with Clallam County Homicide. We’re ready to take your prints now at the Port Angeles Police Department. Can you come in this afternoon?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  * * *

  COLE GLANCED SI
DEWAYS at Caroline. She’d been so quiet since leaving Timberline Treasures, blaming herself for everything, no doubt.

  She’d called the hospital before they left for Port Angeles, and the nurse on duty told her Linda had some swelling on the brain and they were keeping her in a coma for now, but that she was out of immediate danger.

  At least the thug who’d beat up Linda must know by now that Caroline wouldn’t or couldn’t spill the beans about whatever they were afraid of. If they wanted Diamond’s money back from Caroline, they were out of luck. The DEA had it now.

  “We’re almost there. Are you ready?” Cole squeezed her knee and it bounced under his touch.

  “I am ready. What’s the plan?”

  “We’ll walk in and get you fingerprinted. Then they’ll run them to verify your identity, which can take about thirty minutes.”

  “They’re not going to come back to a Caroline Johnson, so then what?”

  “If you have a criminal record, I’ll step in at that point and tell them that you’re working with the DEA. Then we’ll research everything there is to know about your real identity before I...bring you in.”

  Her lips puckered for a soft whistle. “And what happens if the prints come back for someone who doesn’t have a criminal record—but the name isn’t Caroline Johnson?”

  “Again, I’ll step in and make up some plausible story. Even if you weren’t a criminal in your other life, technically it’s illegal to give a false name to the police, but I can smooth that over for you.”

  She traced the knuckles of his hand, still on her knee. “You’ve done that a lot, Cole. Thanks.”

  “And once we find out you don’t have a criminal past, I’m going to get you the best psychiatrist in the world and you’re going to get better.”

  “Then I’ll help you figure out the connection between Johnny Diamond, Rocky Whitecotton and the Timberline Trio.”

  The police station came into view. Caroline’s posture stiffened and she licked her lips.

  She jumped out of the car and made a beeline for the station, staring straight ahead, placing one foot in front of the other as if afraid to veer off course.

  Cole took a few long strides to catch up with her and opened the door of the facility, placing a steadying hand on Caroline’s back. The Port Angeles station was small, as befitted a small town. Detective Rowan from the county wasn’t going to be here, but the Port Angeles cops were under orders to email the results to him immediately.