Forever Hers

by Walters, Ednah

  The conversation they had about his father’s recipe flashed in her head. He’d said his mother hadn’t been around to contribute to the family cookbook.

  “She left your family?”

  Eddie shrugged. “She chose her career and stardom over us, but we moved on. My little sister was only five at the time, but she turned out great. My father dealt with her betrayal and so did I. We survived without her.”

  Amy’s heart squeezed. She wanted to close the gap between them and touch him, but they didn’t have that kind of a relationship. Instead, she gripped the counter and said, “I’m so sorry.”

  “For what?” Eddie ground out. “It’s not your fault. Besides, it was a long time ago. Like I said, I’ve moved on.”

  Not from where she was standing.

  “Your turn. Why do you distrust cops?”

  “Nolan is a cop. He was mean, abusive and controlling. I tried to file a complaint, but the other cops refused to believe me. It didn’t matter which stations I visited. As soon as they realized he was one of them, they called him and believed his version of the story.”

  Eddie muttered a curse under his breath, his eyes fierce.

  “After we were divorced, he continued to stalk and harass me. I couldn’t report him because, as he eloquently put it, his friends would give him an airtight alibi while I’d come across as unhinged and someone unfit to raise a child. He threatened to have Raelynn taken from me.”

  Eddie’s hand fisted. He shook his head. “That’s crazy.”

  “He is crazy, and it’s up to me to stop him.”

  “No. It’s up to me to stop him. Randal is meeting him tonight and I plan to be there.”

  Hearing the conviction in his words should have eased her mind somewhat, but it didn’t. This was her battle. Besides, Nolan was once again using someone to do his dirty work. “I’m coming with you.”

  “Hell no.”

  “Don’t you “hell no” me. I know how Nolan thinks. He is crafty and will use every trick in the book to make himself the victim and you the perpetrator. You can’t use the law to bring him down.”

  “Then I’ll go outside the law,” Eddie vowed.

  Amy shook her head. “No way. I have enough on my conscience without adding you on the list.”

  “What is that supposed mean?”

  “You could lose your job over this.”

  He gave her a tight smile. “I’m already halfway there, sweetheart, and you had nothing to do with it.” He pushed back against the counter and stepped back. “Do you want to practice now?”

  “No. What do you mean by “halfway there”?”

  “Long story. I’m going for a swim.”

  Amy watched him walk away, not sure whether telling him about Nolan was such a good idea. If he did something unlawful and lost his job, she’d never forgive herself. That meant she couldn’t sit back while he went to that bar with the service tech and faced Nolan’s henchman. After everything Nolan put her through, she’d recognize his machinations a mile away. Chances were Nolan would be in the same bar, watching everything from a distance, never getting his hands dirty.

  She waited until Eddie left the house then picked up her phone and dialed Lauren’s number.

  “Do you have plans for this evening?” Amy asked.

  “Nothing solid. I was hoping a certain Fitzgerald would call me. Is he still around?”

  Amy thumped her forehead. She’d completely forgotten Lauren wanted a fling with Eddie. “Yes, and I’m sure he will. But right now I need a favor. Nolan is here.”

  “No-oo. How do you know?”

  Amy quickly explained seeing Nolan at the grocery store, the incident at the car shop and Eddie’s plan to go to the bar.

  “Have you called the police? You know the ones here don’t know him and will not support him blindly like his buddies in Virginia.”

  After Eddie’s reaction, she was beginning to see that not all cops were the same. “Eddie is a cop, Lauren, so technically I’m depending on one. I just don’t want him meeting with Nolan and his sidekick without me. I’m afraid he might do something crazy and jeopardize his career.”

  “Or Nolan might have Eddie thrown in jail and leave you vulnerable, the sick bastard. How can I help?”

  “Could you watch Raelynn for me this evening? Just for an hour, two tops. I promise to make it up to you. I wouldn’t ask if you aren’t the only other person she loves. I know it’s asking too much because it’s Saturday night and—”

  “I’ll watch over the little sweetheart, Amy. When do you want me there?”

  “Between five and five-thirty.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “I owe you.”

  “Just help Eddie catch the bastard.”

  After hanging up, Amy started plotting. The trick was to convince Eddie she should go with him. She was pacing when Eddie entered the house drying his hair with a towel. Water droplets dotted his chest and muscles rippled with each step. The wet swim trunks clung to his masculine thighs and groin. When she saw movement, Amy’s eyes shifted upwards and connected with his.

  He grinned. “Don’t look at me like that, unless you plan to do more than just look.”

  Her jaw dropped. Did he just throw that awful come on at her? She couldn’t think up a retort, so she snapped shut her mouth and humphed. The doorbell rang, coming to her rescue. Eddie followed her to the front door. The rotunda’s windows were opaque, so she used the peek hole.

  “Who is it?” he asked, so close the heat from his body leaped to hers. She shivered, yet warmth turned her insides into jelly

  “A UPS delivery guy.”

  “Or someone pretending to be one,” he said. “Move over.”

  “It’s the middle of the day, Eddie. I can handle this.”

  “I know you can. Just humor me for now,” he said, flashing that charming smile she’d missed the last couple of days.

  Amy stepped aside and let him open the door. A short, older man in a brown uniform stood on the welcome mat with a brown package. “Amy Kincaid?”

  Eddie studied the man as though he was an escaped felon masquerading as a mailman. “Where is your truck?”

  The man jabbed a thumb to indicate the other end of the house. “In the driveway behind the station wagon.”

  “Show me some I.D.,” Eddie added.

  Seriously? Amy nudged Eddie aside and signed for the package. It had the label of an online store. She ripped through the tape and opened the flaps as soon as she reached the kitchen.

  “Ah, your surveillance system.”

  Amy grinned. “Yeah, the fake mailman planned to blow us up with it.”

  Eddie made a face. “Very funny.”

  “You are. Once I have them up, Nolan won’t come near the house without us knowing.”

  Eddie didn’t look convinced. “You still need to learn self-defense.”

  “I know, but right now I want this baby up and running.” She removed one of the four wireless cameras and studied it, then reached for the instruction pamphlet. Although the online instructions had seemed easy, now that she had everything in front of her, she didn’t know where to start. She’d always been technically challenged. She glanced at the half-naked man beside her. “Are you good with electronics?”

  Eddie chuckled. “Oh yeah. I’ll be right back. I have to change.”

  Not on my account, she wanted to say, but that was a can of worms she wasn’t ready to open. By the time he came back, his gorgeous body covered up in jeans and a polo shirt, she’d removed everything from the box—four cameras that looked like heads of a one-eyed robot, four stands and installation screws, AC adapters, a CD and a USB receiver.

  They spent the next hour pouring over instructions and putting the system together. They placed one camera on the table by the wall between the kitchen and the living room, facing the back door. They hid it between potted plants so it wasn’t obvious.

  “No infra-red for night vision,” Eddie murmured.

  Th
e company had some with night vision, but the price was way out of her range. “The security lights turn on at night and since the patio wall is made of clear glass and has no curtains, the camera can still capture images.”

  They placed the second camera outside the front door in a flower bed and used an outside socket to power it. Eddie suggested they bury the cable and camouflage the camera with rocks.

  “By the time he notices it, it would be too late,” Amy said with glee.

  They placed the third one in the garage and the fourth in Raelynn’s room facing her bed. Next they loaded the software on her desktop and attached the USB receiver. When they opened the menu and clicked on the quad view icon, the four screens split evenly on her desktop screen. One showed Raelynn sleeping peacefully. He zoomed in. Amy touched the screen as though to touch her daughter. She was so innocent.

  Eddie shifted from quad viewing to single camera, changing the angles of the cameras for maximum feed. He showed her how to switch from full-time to timed recording when there was motion detected.

  “You’re enjoying this,” Amy said.

  A boyish grin curled his lips. “I like to mess around with electronics and machines. In middle school, my cousins and I formed a garage band and—”

  She laughed. “You sang in a garage band?”

  He snickered. “Hell no. Stu Granger did the singing; Chase was on the keyboard and Baron the guitar. I was the sound man,” he said proudly.

  Stu Granger was a professional baseball player now. Go figure the Fitzgerald family would know him. “Sound man doesn’t sound glamorous,” she teased.

  He cocked his brow. “Don’t knock it till you see what I can do with a mixer and a power amp. Any idiot can pound on an instrument and call it music. It takes skills and a good ear to make a band sound good, to turn the chaos into music. I even had to modify a few things here and there.”

  Amy cupped her chin and studied him. He was so cute when he bragged. “Do you guys still play?”

  He laughed. “Nah. Our band didn’t make it to high school. Now I focus on modifying motorcycles. One day I’d like to custom-make them.”

  Something in his voice said this was important. “For fun or to sell?”

  “To sell to people with discriminating tastes, but don’t have the time to do the modification by themselves. In fact, I just finished one for Lex.”

  “Isn’t he the CEO of your family’s company?”

  “Yes, but he likes to skip the boardroom meetings now and then, join me and…” Eddie looked at his watch and frowned. Then he gave her a self-effacing smile. “And I have to get going if I want to make my four o’clock meeting.”

  Amy almost asked the identity of the person he was meeting. For the first time since he arrived here, they’d talked without arguing. “Will you be back for dinner?”

  “No, I plan on meeting with Randal afterwards at that pub.”

  “About that, I really think I should come with you.”

  He cocked his brow. “Not a good idea.”

  “Why?”

  “This is police work, Amy. If things get complicated, I don’t want you caught in the midst of it.”

  “I know Nolan, Eddie. He will be inside that restaurant, watching you. I can point him out.”

  Eddie shook his head. “No, I’ll be fine.”

  Stubborn man. Luckily, she knew how to deal with men like him.

  CHAPTER 7

  The police station looked abandoned. A couple of patrol cars, motorbikes, bicycles and Segway Personal Transporters dotted the parking lot. At his station in L.A., Eddie would be lucky to find a parking spot on a Saturday afternoon.

  Inside was equally quiet and empty. An older woman manning the front desk sat up and grinned, an appreciative gleam in her eyes.

  “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” she said, standing up. “You must be that young man who called this morning. Fitzgerald.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Sally and the Ol’ Bear Briggs are waiting for yah,” the police woman said, chuckling. “This way, please.”

  Eddie followed the woman past empty desks to an office. He hadn’t known he would be meeting Berry Briggs. The man was a considered a legend, his meticulous method of solving a case used as an example at the Academy. Briggs had left Seattle P.D. with a perfect record after thirty years of service, moved to Sandpoint and continued making waves. He should have been made chief by now, but it was rumored he’d turned it down more than once, preferring to continue solving cases. Working a case with him would be an honor.

  A statuesque blonde about his age, maybe older, opened the door from the inside before they reached it. Hair cut short, crisp uniform, she had traffic cop written all over her. Behind her sat a heavyset older man with craggy eyebrows, full head of white hair and a full beard. He didn’t get up.

  “Nice to finally meet you, Detective Fitzgerald,” the blonde said. “I’m Sally Paige and this is—”

  “Captain Briggs,” Eddy finished. He shook Sally’s hand then focused on the detective who eyed him with narrowed eyes. “Everyone has heard of Ol’ Bear Briggs.”

  Briggs didn’t crack a smile. “Don’t believe everything you hear, City Slicker.”

  Eddie grinned. “Were you not the man who seized the largest marijuana growing farm with an estimated street value of $80-point-something million just a few months ago? Dismantled a meth smuggling ring—”

  “Okay, okay, so you’re more than just a shootin’, tottin’ city cop. You still have a problem with people in authority?”

  Eddie winced. The captain must have read his file. “Only when they put politics above serving and protecting people.”

  “Or attempt to destroy the reputation of your partner,” Detective Briggs added. “I admire loyalty, except when it is misplaced. Is it misplaced, City Slicker?”

  “I’d stake my reputation on his, sir.”

  “So I heard. The name is Briggs or captain. I don’t go for no sir, yes sir like you city folks.” The detective indicated the chair across from his. “Take the load off. You too, Sally.”

  Eddie waited until the woman sat then settled on his chair. “So how can I be of service, captain?”

  Briggs chuckled. “Depends on whether your reputation is real or a mere fart in the wind.”

  Eddie grinned. “Give me a chance and you can find out for yourself.”

  He stared at Eddie then leaned forward. “I think I’ll just do that. I pulled somethin’ huntin’ a few weeks ago, so Sally here has been my legs, eyes and ears. But too many fresh faced detectives around here want to sink their teeth in my case and claim they bested Ol’ Bear, but I’ve got some juice left in these old bones. So if you have the time, go through the evidence and find me somethin’, by then I’ll be back on track.”

  Eddie nodded. “I have time. When do I start?”

  “Now. You’ll be workin’ with Sally.” Briggs grinned at the female cop, who pinched her right earlobe, her cheeks reddening. According to Baron and Kara, she had been passed over for promotion a few times. Briggs must have taken her under his wings.

  “You see, City Slicker,” Briggs continued, reaching for a crutch propped against the wall behind him. “You were never here, but if you crack the case, I will owe you one.”

  Eddie stood and wondered whether to offer the captain a hand as he struggled to his feet. Sally must have seen his reaction because she shook her head. Eddie waited for the captain to hobble to the door.

  “How bad are things?” he asked as soon the door closed behind the old man.

  “Pretty bad, so the chief’s pushing Ol’ Bear hard for results. He might act like we don’t need your help, but we do. He read up on you, you know. Liked what he read too.” Sally indicated the chair.

  Eddie sat. “So how many robberies so far?”

  “Six, four across the lake from your house and two on your side. The burglars are slick,” she continued. “They’re in and out. No broken locks or windows. No alarms. Nothing. At
first, they targeted empty homes, just entering and grabbing. The fifth one, the couple renting the house woke up and busted them. They held the couple at gunpoint and trashed up the place all but good. At the last house, they roughed up one of the renters.”

  Most criminals had a method of operation. They never change, unless something happened to prompt them to. He’d have to take a look at the files before he could say anything.

  “Sounds like they are getting cocky,” Eddie said.

  “And more violent,” Sally added.

  “Have you talked to people with access to the houses?”

  “Oh yes. We started with the rental companies and their employees, then the home security folks who wired the alarms, housecleaning companies, the yard guys. Clean as a whistle, every last one of them. We even investigated the guests to see if they knew each other or had a connection. We found nothing.”

  “Do you have the files on all the robberies?”

  Sally reached inside her breast pocket and pulled out a thumb drive. “All the interviews we did, lists and pictures of evidence collected are all here. Don’t you just love technology.”

  Eddie nodded.

  She went to a side table and fired up a desktop then turned and faced him. “Do you have access to a computer?”

  “I do.”

  “Then you can take this with you,” she indicated the thumb drive, “But right now I want to show you something and see what you think.”

  While she retrieved the files, Eddie looked around. The office was clean and spacious with a metal file cabinet to one side and bookshelves crammed with framed certificates and pictures of the captain with who-was-who in the law enforcement giving him commendations. There was even one of him with the current president.

  “Okay,” Sally said. “These are the interviews of the suspects we hauled in here for questioning. See if you can read some of them.”

  Eddie studied each suspect, but none showed the usual telltale signs of lying—shorter sentences, rapid blinking, more fidgeting, more speech errors punctuated with ‘uh’ and ‘mm’, out of sync body language or sweating.