“Thank you, sir.” He nodded at Caroline. “Ma’am.”
When he walked away, she looked at Jason. “Ma’am? Really? I’m not that old.”
He gave her another look she couldn’t decipher. “No, you aren’t. But he is that young.” He glanced around. “Where’s Henry?”
Caroline pointed toward the house. “He fell asleep as soon as the EMTs were done checking us out,” she said. “One of the officers gave me permission to lay him down in the pack ’n’ play. He can sleep through anything.”
Jason smiled. “I want to meet him, but I guess that will have to wait. Could you walk me through what happened?”
“Okay.”
Unease crept through her as she reentered the house. Was it from replaying the horrible memory of earlier that night? Or was it because the man walking behind her stood on this same spot thirteen years ago and broke her heart as he swore he’d never waste his life living in this little town? Nothing she could say had convinced him to stay. Even when she’d told him how she felt… Her skin warmed in the cool evening air. That was a long time ago. She’d been young. She’d been stupid.
She was neither of those things anymore.
She forced herself to stay in the present and went through the events of the evening, showing Jason how she’d come in, where she’d dropped her keys, the light that didn’t work in the garage.
When she got back to her car, she ran out of words. Someone had tried to kill her tonight. Her home, her haven, her sanctuary had been violated. And now, Jason was back.
Oh, Father, how did my life wind up this way?
She didn’t know how long she stared at her car—a still-life metaphor for her messed-up world.
A gentle tug on her elbow pulled her back to the present. Jason edged between her and the car and looked deep into her eyes. This time, she had no difficulty understanding the emotion she saw there. She’d recognize that look of determination anywhere.
“Caroline.” He swallowed hard and tried again. “You have no reason to trust me, or believe me, or even want me around.” Regret pierced every word. “But I promise you I will not stop until we’ve found out what’s going on.”
Caroline noted that he hadn’t said they’d catch the guy. She’d learned that much from Heidi. No matter what branch they were in, the really good law enforcement officers never made a promise they couldn’t keep. Still, there was comfort in his intensity.
“Thank you, Jason.”
He smiled and quirked an eyebrow at her. “Mom says you come by at least once a month.”
She would have appreciated the change of subject if it had been anything else. Were they going to talk about this now? Keep it light, she chanted to herself. “I like your mom.” She forced a smile. “Of course, I can’t go by more often. I gain five pounds every time I walk in the door.”
Jason patted his stomach. “Tell me about it. I’m having to put in a couple extra miles every day now.”
“You poor thing.” Caroline didn’t try to veil the sarcasm.
“I don’t want to hurt her feelings by not eating a slice of pie every night. And then for breakfast.”
Caroline couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled out. “You’re a good son,” she said. Jason laughed with her, and for a moment the fear lost its grip on her heart.
Jason leaned against the car. “But why do you do it? I doubt you visit all your high school friends’ parents.”
So much for keeping it light. Surely he hadn’t forgotten the promise she’d made—thirteen years ago—to keep an eye on his folks when he left for the Marine Corps. “You know why.”
She could see it on his face. He knew. So why ask? What had he been fishing for?
He walked to the front of the car and studied the bullet hole in her windshield. “I guess it’s just nice to know that some things never change.”
“True. That’s why I wasn’t surprised to hear that you were coming home. I knew you would,” she said.
Jason’s eyes met hers, sadness mingled with confusion.
“I’m sorry about your dad, Jason.”
She saw the muscles in his neck tighten. “Thanks,” he said, then cleared his throat. “Me, too.”
Another throat cleared nearby. Michael Ellis nodded at her. “We’re done in the house, Caroline. Thought you might want to put Henry in his crib.”
“Thanks, Michael. I appreciate that.”
Michael turned to Jason. “When you get a minute, we need to talk.”
Something in his tone sent a shudder through Caroline’s system. “If it’s about me, my house, my child or the man who tried to kill me tonight, why don’t you go ahead and say what you need to say?”
Michael’s eyes darted from Caroline’s face to Jason’s. It wouldn’t take a body language expert to read his silent plea for help.
“Caroline, if I promise to tell you everything, will you give me fifteen minutes to wrap things up? It would be easier if I can send as many of these guys home as possible. Then we can talk without being interrupted.”
Oh, how she wanted to argue. She knew Jason had thrown in the part about letting the others go home because it would play on her sympathies. The worst part was, he was right.
“Fine. Talk. Send people home. Then I want to hear everything. Tonight.”
Michael didn’t try to hide his relief.
Jason held her gaze. “I promise.”
*
Jason couldn’t deny he enjoyed seeing the feisty side of Caroline Harrison. “Why don’t you go inside? Grab something to drink. Get away from the chaos. I’ll finish up and be with you soon.”
Her eyes still held a hint of challenge. “Soon doesn’t mean an hour from now, Jason Drake.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She glared at him before she turned and walked away. He was glad to see the show of spirit, all the more because he could tell she was shaken. She kept chewing on her lip. She probably didn’t realize that she was clenching and unclenching her hands as she talked. Or that she’d been rocking back and forth on her heels.
But she wasn’t falling apart. Not that he was surprised. Caroline Harrison was a rock. Always had been. Some things really didn’t change.
And some things did. Like him—back in town after he’d made it clear to her and everyone else that he would never return here. Could never live his life in this place. Not because it wasn’t beautiful or because he didn’t love his family.
Well, the family he claimed, anyway.
But the father he didn’t choose to claim—the biological parent who had made a misery of Jason’s childhood, and whom Jason had been thrilled to replace with a loving, honorable stepfather—lived here, too. He kept calling. Probably to express his disapproval of Jason’s career choices. Again.
He shoved the thoughts away. He had much bigger things to worry about right now. Like figuring out who would want to kill Caroline.
It took Jason thirty minutes to speak with Michael and wrap things up with the officers who’d converged on Caroline’s home. He wasn’t surprised to have multiple volunteers to provide a protective detail for the evening.
“Dalton and Michael, you guys take the watch tonight. We’ll decide if we need some sort of rotation for the rest of the week later.”
Dalton was inexperienced but energetic enough to stay awake after all the excitement died down. Michael was solid. If any trouble broke out, he’d be able to handle it.
Content that things were well in hand, he walked up the steps to Caroline’s front door. Should he knock? The place had been swarming with police officers and crime scene techs all evening, but now that things had quieted, he hated to be intrusive.
He tapped on the door and eased it open. “Caroline? You okay in there?”
“I’m good. Just getting Henry settled for the night. Come on in.”
Jason closed the door behind him. Caroline stood in the hallway with a drowsy Henry in her arms, his little head nestled on her shoulder, eyes half-shut. She shifted him gently, her
cheek resting on the top of his head. “Give me a moment,” she said in a whisper.
Motherhood suited her. He refused to dwell on the regret trying to surface. She’d never been his. They’d never had a future. She was a natural as a mother, but he had no plans to find out what kind of father he would be. He couldn’t risk being as terrible at it as the men in his own genetic family tree.
Caroline disappeared down the hall, and Jason looked around the ravaged living room again. Who would do this? Breakins happened, but this seemed like more. His fingers curled into fists. He’d find the person who did this one way or another.
Caroline returned a minute later. “So, what did Michael tell you that has you all riled up?”
“I’ll answer, but I need to ask a few questions first.”
She glared at him.
“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t consider all the possibilities.”
“Fine. Can I start cleaning up this mess while we talk?”
“Of course. I’ll help.” Caroline had always been a neat freak. Another thing that hadn’t changed. He pulled a throw pillow from the floor and tossed it onto the sofa. Caroline grabbed a blanket he recognized. Her grandmother had crocheted it for her years ago. She hugged it to her chest for a brief moment before she folded it and draped it over the corner of the sofa.
“Is there anyone in your life who would want to hurt you?”
“No.”
“What about at work? A disgruntled employee?” Caroline had an important upper-management position in her family’s company. If someone was unhappy at the plant, she’d be a visible target for their frustrations.
“No.”
“I’m going to need more than one-word answers.”
She huffed and righted an orchid that had been dumped on the floor. “Fine. No issues at work. I handle the finances, and I’m taking on more of the personnel responsibilities as Dad is turning over more control to Blake and me. But we haven’t fired anyone in years. Everyone is getting paid on time. No one is complaining. I can’t fathom anyone from HPI doing something like this.”
Harrison Plastics International had always been the place everyone in town wanted to work. Didn’t sound like anything had changed there.
“What about suppliers? Clients? Anyone unhappy?”
Caroline rolled her head from one side to the other. Was there someone unhappy? “What are you thinking?”
She placed the plant on the end table. “We’ve made a few changes recently. A new paper product vendor. A new printer lease. Blake changed a major raw material supplier. But nothing that would cause anyone to try to shoot me.”
He’d talk to Blake. Caroline’s brother had always been protective of his little sister. Which was probably why he hadn’t been particularly fond of Jason. But he might have a different perspective than Caroline on this subject.
“Where is Blake? For that matter, where is everybody?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your parents? Blake, Heidi and Maggie? I’m surprised we don’t have an entire contingent of the FBI here.”
Caroline scooped a handful of books from the floor. “Mom and Dad are on a mission trip to a refugee camp in Greece.”
“Didn’t your dad have a stroke a couple of years ago?”
“He did, but he’s made a full recovery.”
“That’s great.” He heard the wistfulness in his words. There would be no happy ending for his own dad. ALS would take his life, one agonizing piece at a time. “That explains where your parents are. What about Blake, Heidi and Maggie?”
“Blake and Maggie are on a father/daughter mission trip. They support a family in Haiti and went down over spring break with a group from the church. They’ll be back next week.”
“And Heidi is off doing something mysterious?”
“Exactly.”
He studied a family photo on her mantel. “Tell me about your new sister-in-law.”
“Heidi does a lot of undercover work. That’s what brought her here last year. That’s how she and Blake met. So sometimes she’s gone. Not as much as she used to be, and usually not for more than a day or two. I don’t know if Blake even knows what she does or where she goes.”
She brushed some fingerprint dust off the upright piano. “I’m going to need to try to find her, though. She’s the only one who understands the security system.”
“Why her?”
“When we had that trouble at the plant—I’m assuming your mom told you about that?”
“Oh, yeah.” His mom had bent his ear for three hours that night. After he’d joined the sheriff’s department, he’d learned the whole story. The one that had somehow never fully been told in the press. Heidi’s team, with Blake’s assistance, had prevented a nationwide anthrax outbreak.
“Heidi revamped all the security systems here and at the plant. We have motion detectors, cameras, safe rooms and probably a bunch of other stuff I don’t even know about. It’s not an out-of-the-box system. It doesn’t have a local monitoring station, although it is monitored somewhere. Maybe in DC? It has Department of Defense–level encryption. Very hard to hack.”
“Is it possible you forgot to turn it on before you left this morning?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“How can you know? I forget stuff all the time.”
She smirked at him. “I remember because Henry was screaming his head off and I was singing to him as I punched in the code.”
That sounded like a solid memory, unfortunately. The idea that this highly advanced system had been on when the intruder arrived worried him because it meant the intruder knew how to turn it off. So either they were dealing with a tech expert way beyond the typical, garden-variety thief, or the intruder was someone she knew and trusted. He wasn’t sure which possibility was worse.
But either way, she deserved to know what they were dealing with.
“From what you described to me,” he said, “it doesn’t sound like the security system was on when you got home. Who else knows the code? A housekeeper, maybe?” He took a deep breath. “Boyfriend?”
She shot him a withering look. “I have a full-time job and a baby. Romance isn’t a high priority these days.”
Jason didn’t bother to process why her words sent a wave of relief crashing through his soul.
“What about Julia? Does she still clean for you?”
The Harrisons’ housekeeper had always been gracious to him as a kid.
“Yes, but I change the code every week. She calls me when she gets here, and I give her the new code.”
“You change the code every week?”
“Heidi is a stickler about it. I change it every Sunday night.”
The weight of her words hit him hard. “Caroline, whoever this guy is, he was able to come inside and disable your security system. We have to consider the possibility that he is highly skilled and he’s been watching you and your family and knew you were up here alone tonight.”
Caroline’s hand shook as she reached for her glass and took a sip. “So this wasn’t a random attack. You think he was targeting me on purpose.”
“Right. And he may not be done.”
THREE
The knock at the door startled Caroline. The way Jason’s hand flew to the gun at his waist told her it had caught him off guard, as well.
“Open up.” Hearing Michael’s voice put Caroline at ease, but Jason didn’t remove his hand from his weapon.
“You didn’t answer your phone, man,” Michael called. “We had the guys grab sub sandwiches, and if you don’t like what’s on yours, you have no one to blame but yourself. Open up.”
It was almost ten o’clock. He hadn’t eaten? Her cheeks burned with the realization that coming to her rescue had interrupted his evening plans. “I’m so sorry. You should have told me.”
He waved her off. “I had a candy bar. I’m fine.”
He opened the door, and Micha
el held out a cellophane bag. “Got you a club. There’s a bag of chips in there, too.” He smiled at Caroline. “Don’t worry about anything tonight. Dalton and I will keep a close eye on things.”
“Wha—”
“Thanks, man. I’ll talk to you in a little while.” Jason closed the door on the still-smiling Michael before he could say another word.
“What was he talking about?”
“Just a precaution. You’re up here alone with Henry and—”
“And someone knows how to get into my house.”
Jason studied the contents of his bag instead of replying.
“Fine,” she said. “Let’s sit down in the kitchen. You eat, and we’ll catch up on the last thirteen years.”
“Mind if I wash up first?”
Caroline pointed out the bathroom door and walked into her kitchen. When the click of the door reached her ears, she slid onto a bar stool.
What was happening? Why was it happening? And why did Jason Drake have to be the one responsible for her case?
Jason.
Part of her longed to have him sitting beside her. Shoulders touching, feet propped up on the coffee table—the way they’d watched hours of Duke basketball games in their teens.
Part of her wanted to kick him out and tell him to stay away forever.
It wouldn’t be easy, but it could be done. She’d been doing it quite successfully for the past few months. She’d avoided him, and any mention of him.
Why should she hide from him, though? She hadn’t done anything wrong, and she had nothing to apologize for. The way things had ended between them was embarrassing, but surely he couldn’t think she still had feelings for him. What happened was ancient history. And if the sheriff thought he was the best person to close this case, then she had to trust in that. She couldn’t take any risks when it came to her safety or Henry’s.
“Caroline, are you okay?”
Her stomach somersaulted at his voice. Ancient history or current event?
No. She’d learned her lesson. Jason Drake had been a fabulous friend, but he’d made it clear he wanted nothing more. “I’m fine.” She pointed him to a seat at the table. “Let me get you some tea.” History shouldn’t be repeated. For tonight, she’d be thankful she had a friend looking out for her. For the future, she’d remember to look out for herself.
Hidden Legacy Page 2