Reunited by Danger

by Carol J. Post

  Fine. He wasn’t leaving until he’d questioned her. Her friends weren’t as innocent as they’d claimed all these years. And someone knew it. If he could get Liv focused long enough to figure out who, maybe they could solve this thing.

  Amber closed the door behind him and motioned toward the couch. “Have a seat. I haven’t heard a peep out of Liv, but I’ll go ahead and get her up.”

  She headed toward the hall, her ponytail swinging from side to side. A few seconds later her voice drifted to him. So did Liv’s moan. After several sharp raps on the door and more moans of protest, Amber returned to the living room.

  “I told her you’re here and need to talk to her. She assured me she’s getting up.”

  Nearby, a dresser drawer closed a little harder than necessary, confirmation that although Liv was up, she wasn’t happy about it.

  Amber sat on the other end of the couch. “Liv’s a late sleeper. When I left for work yesterday at almost noon, she still wasn’t up.” She lowered her voice. “She says it’s because of the medication she takes.”

  “What kind of medication?”

  “Antidepressants, I think. And some kind of antianxiety medication.” Her voice dipped even further. “Liv has issues. I knew she wasn’t working, but I thought she was between jobs. We talked about it more Sunday night. She’s on disability.”

  Amber sighed. “She’s had problems with depression going all the way back to high school. She always acted happy and ditsy, but I knew it was an act. Her home life was miserable. When this happened with Landon, she took it hard. She’s let it eat at her for the past ten years.”

  Caleb nodded and Amber continued.

  “Her mental state has really deteriorated since the reunion. Seeing her friends being knocked off one by one, knowing she could be next—she’s having a hard time coping with it.”

  Down the hall, a door creaked open. Liv stumbled into the room looking nowhere near ready to face the day. After rubbing both hands down her face, she squinted at him though half-closed eyes. Her face was clear of the heavy makeup she usually wore and yesterday’s gel had left her hair flat in some spots and spiking outward at weird angles in others.

  Amber offered her a smile. “Good morning, Liv.” Her tone was cheery but her eyes held compassion.

  His heart swelled with respect. He wouldn’t want to be in her shoes, but if anyone had the patience and empathy to deal with an emotionally fragile roommate, it was Amber.

  Liv flopped onto the love seat then repositioned herself to curl her legs under her. “You wanted to talk to me?”

  Caleb nodded. “Amber called last night and told me what you’d told her. I’d like to hear it from you.”

  Liv’s gaze shifted to the side and as she spoke, her expression alternated between distant, sad, tortured and blank. When she finished, her eyes again met his. The story she’d related was the same one she’d given Amber.

  He crossed one ankle over the other knee and entwined his fingers in his lap. “You said when they found Landon, he was dead. How did they determine that?”

  “Alex felt his wrist for a pulse. When he couldn’t find one, Vincent rolled him over and felt his neck. He wasn’t breathing, either.”

  “Where was the rock the guys thought he hit his head on?”

  “When they got there, he was lying on it. According to Mona, there were several of them around. She said it looked like someone had gathered them. A few were stacked in a small mound and a few more were scattered around. When Raymond realized Landon was dead, he freaked out. He started kicking the rocks and screaming about how they were all going to jail.”

  “Did you ever see this scarf of Mona’s?”

  “She was wearing it that night. I guess it was the same one. I never saw her wear it after that.”

  “You said Raymond is the one who first told you what had happened. Did you ever discuss it with anyone other than Raymond and Mona?”

  “Over the next couple of weeks I discussed it with all of them.” She cast a glance at Amber. “Except her.”

  “Did you tell anybody outside your little group?”

  “No.”

  “Did any of the others?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  Amber shifted on the couch next to him. “They wouldn’t have needed to. Logan spread the rumor all over town that I coerced Landon to come out to the woods and we killed him.”

  Amber was right. When investigators had spoken to Logan ten years ago, he’d been quite vocal with his allegations.

  “Did you guys ever return to your hangout?”

  “Uh-uh. We decided since there was supposedly a killer loose, it might look suspicious if we didn’t seem concerned about it. I didn’t want to, anyway. Knowing what the others did to Landon, I didn’t want to hang out with them anymore.”

  “Can you think of anything else that might help us figure out who’s doing this?”

  She shook her head. Apparently Liv had told him everything she knew. The problem was, the people he needed to talk to were dead. Only Vincent, Raymond, Alex and Ramona knew exactly what had happened.

  Caleb glanced at his watch. After leaving Amber’s, he’d call in the other details he’d received from Liv. Someone would give the new information to the medical examiner and have them take another look at the case to determine whether Landon’s death could have happened the way Liv said it had.

  But first he’d enjoy a leisurely breakfast with Amber. When he’d told her he was stopping by home to take care of Kira and Tess then heading over, she’d offered to feed him. He never turned down a free meal, especially when it meant not eating alone. Sharing it with Amber was an added plus, even though it would be a threesome.

  He looked at Liv. “One more thing. We might see about getting some help from the media.”

  Liv snapped suddenly to attention. “The media? What do you mean?”

  “If we make these new details public, maybe the killer will hear and realize Landon’s death was an accident and you and Amber weren’t involved. Maybe a ‘What Really Happened to Landon Cleary?’ feature.”

  “No, that’s not a good idea.” Liv’s eyes filled with something bordering on panic.

  “We don’t have to mention your name.”

  She straightened her legs and planted both feet on the floor, her posture stiff. “Landon is gone. It’s not right to ruin his good name.”

  Amber spread her arms, palms up. “His good name? After what he did to you, do you really feel he deserves a good name?”

  Liv’s gaze dipped to her hands, now clutched in her lap. “He’s dead. Let him rest in peace.”

  Amber shook her head. Caleb had the same sentiment. He’d heard of rare instances of rape victims falling in love with their rapists, but he’d never witnessed it firsthand.

  “I can’t make any promises. The final decision is in the hands of someone whose pay grade is way above mine.”

  When Amber stood, he pushed himself to his feet to follow her, ready to help with breakfast. He had little interest in cooking alone, but he knew his way around a kitchen. He used to help his wife regularly.

  Amber pulled a large bowl from one of the lower cabinets and placed it on the counter, then took a whisk from a drawer. Last, she removed a carton of eggs from the fridge. “You can crack six of these, add a little milk and whip them together.”

  “I think I can handle it.”

  The smile she gave him made his insides draw together. As she moved about the room, laying out ingredients for their breakfast casserole, the tightness became an ache.

  The things he’d missed over the past four years were too many to count. But it was remembering the insignificant activities that tortured him the most—working in the kitchen together, critiquing movies, talking about current events and crazy fads and sometime
s total nonsense.

  He pulled his thoughts from things domestic and redirected them toward the case. The killer wasn’t likely to strike anytime soon. With Liv and Amber being guarded as closely as heads of state, anyone meaning them harm would be hard pressed to get near them.

  Meanwhile, law enforcement would keep working to identify the killer. Maybe someone Logan had talked to had gone overboard and taken it upon himself to mete out justice. Logan probably wasn’t experiencing any sorrow over the four who’d been killed. But as the primary suspect, cooperating would be to his advantage.

  For Liv’s sake, sometime soon, they needed a break. Ever since the reunion, her emotional state had been heading downhill faster than a runaway freight train.

  If they didn’t solve this case soon, her tenuous grip on sanity was going to disappear altogether.

  TEN

  Amber forced her eyes open. They immediately drifted closed again. Somewhere in the distance an alarm was going off, a high-pitched squeal.

  She tried to ignore it but, if anything, it grew louder, more persistent. Couldn’t someone make it stop? She was so tired. All she wanted was to sleep.

  Something else was disturbing her peace, too, a plaintive cry, even closer than the alarm. There it was again. And again, more and more frequent. The cry was worse than the alarm. Was it a baby?

  Now there were shouts, deep male voices. She dragged her eyes open again and something pungent filled her nostrils.

  Smoke.

  She bolted upright in bed and tried to shake the sleep from her brain. But her head felt as if it was stuffed full of quilt batting. What was wrong with her?

  More shouts sounded from the front yard, followed by the sharp crack of splitting wood. Someone had kicked in the front door.

  Now the sources of the other sounds registered. The squeal wasn’t an alarm. It was sirens from emergency vehicles. As she sat trying to make sense of everything, they grew louder. Another cry came from under her bed. Tippy.

  Her door burst open and she reached for her bedside lamp. Light flooded the room. One of the deputies who’d been guarding her made it to her in two large strides.

  She looked around, confusion refusing to release its grip on her befuddled brain. One siren grew to ear-piercing levels then fell silent. A second was still building in volume as it drew closer. A gray haze hung in the air, an even thicker cloud of smoke billowing in through the open door. Her eyes stung and her throat closed in reflex.

  Something was on fire.

  The deputy grasped her hand. “Come on. We’ve got to get you out of here.”

  After he helped her to her feet, a fit of coughing overtook her. She straightened, swiping at the tears streaming down her face. There was something important she was forgetting.

  Liv! As heavily as she slept, she’d never wake up on her own.

  Before she could say as much, a fur-covered streak shot out from under the bed and into the hall.

  “Tippy, no!” Her shout was more of a rasp.

  She dashed off after the cat, pointing at the closed spare bedroom door. “Wake Liv up.” She clamped a hand over her mouth, determined not to breathe in any more smoke than necessary. But when she got to the end of the hall, she almost gasped. Flames engulfed the kitchen and dining area and were spreading to the living room. As she watched, they climbed over the love seat and danced across its surface.

  Tippy apparently had the same stunned reaction. She froze in the center of the room, back arched and tail twice its normal size. After doing a complete one-eighty, seemingly in midair, she darted up the hall and disappeared into the bedroom.

  Amber tore off after her. When she passed Liv’s room, the door was open and the deputy was rousing Liv. Amber slammed her own door and sucked in a gulp of smoke-filled air, which induced another coughing fit. After recovering, she dropped to her hands and knees. As expected, Tippy had returned to her hiding place under the bed. When Amber reached for her, the cat swatted at her, leaving four bloody streaks down her arm.

  She jerked back and stood. How was she going to get Tippy to safety without her escaping? The two cat carriers were in the storage closet off the other end of the kitchen. Even if they were still usable, she’d never be able to reach them.

  She glanced around the room then stripped the case from one of her pillows. When she pulled the cat from under the bed, Tippy was all legs and feet, claws extended. More bloody tracks found their way onto her body.

  “Tippy, calm down.” She plopped the cat onto the bed and gripped her by the scruff of the neck. Tippy flattened her ears and hissed. With her free hand, Amber pulled the pillow case over the squirming body. When that was accomplished, she flipped her upside down and gathered the top edge of the fabric.

  “Amber, are you inside?”

  The voice belonged to friend and fireman Wade Tanner. She grabbed a fleece robe and threw it over her silk PJs. After slipping her weapon into her purse, she scooped up her squirming bundle and raced into the hall. The smoke had thickened and the entire living room looked to be in flames.

  She pulled her robe over her nose. “We’re fine. Work on the fire.”

  As she closed her door the deputy ushered her inside the other bedroom. Liv was standing outside the open window, eyes wide. Amber had never seen her so perky after having just woken up. Apparently Liv needed a life-or-death emergency to get herself moving.

  The deputy motioned toward the window. “Now it’s your turn.”

  After she handed the pillow case and her purse to Liv, the deputy knelt, offering her one bent leg to use as a step.

  By the time she was on her feet outside, Wade and his partner Joe Stearn had unrolled the fire hose.

  Joe walked to the truck, leaving Wade holding the end. The hose swelled and an arc-shaped spray burst from its metal tip.

  Amber turned toward the deputy, who had climbed outside. “What happened? Did you see anything?”

  “We didn’t. By the time we knew something was wrong, the house was already on fire. With the blinds drawn, it was hard to tell what was going on. We saw light inside and realized it didn’t look right. Once we figured it out, I called it in then busted the door down to get you ladies out while the other guys went in search of whoever started it.”

  After taking her items from Liv, she held the pillow case to her chest, cooing softly. Tippy was no longer struggling. Maybe she felt secure in her makeshift cocoon.

  As she watched Wade and Joe busy at work, a crushing weight bore down on her, sadness mixed with bone-weary exhaustion. Driven out of her home. Her belongings destroyed. She couldn’t think about it tonight. She’d deal with it in the light of a new day.

  She leaned against the oak in her front yard and closed her eyes. A wave of dizziness hit her. For the past four nights she’d stayed up far too late talking with Liv. Two of those four nights, she’d had her sleep interrupted.

  As far as her fuzzy brain went, all the smoke she’d inhaled likely accounted for part of her problem. Her head hurt and it was still hard to focus. There was no telling what kinds of chemicals were emitted when household items burned.

  Soon the fire was out and Wade and Joe rolled up the hose and put their equipment away. Chief Sandlin of the Cedar Key Police Department had arrived, too, and spoken with the deputies. They’d searched the surrounding area and found nothing suspicious. But while checking the house, one of them had discovered the back door unlocked, with a broken pane of glass near the doorknob. Since they patrolled constantly, leaving no section of the house out of sight for more than a minute or so, they couldn’t explain how someone was able to get in, set the fire and get out without being seen.

  Wade approached. “Are you sure you don’t need any kind of medical treatment?”

  Liv shook her head and Amber did, too. Once the chemicals dissipated, she’d fee
l fine. If not, she’d go to the doctor.

  Wade continued. “This will be investigated as arson, so you’re not going to be able to go inside for a few days. Once the investigators clear it, we’ll let you know.”

  Amber looked at the house with its splintered door jamb and burned-out interior. First thing in the morning, she’d call her landlord, who spent summers in New York.

  As far as her possessions, she had them insured. Most of what she’d lost could be replaced. What couldn’t...well, she and Liv had made it out, and she had her cat. Her and Liv’s and Tippy’s safety was all that mattered.

  If she still had all five cats, she’d never have gotten them all out. Caleb had pushed her to return the four foster cats. She owed him a huge thank-you.

  As if her thoughts had conjured him up, a blue Ford F-150 screeched to a stop across the street and Caleb jumped out. He raced toward her through the beams of the fire truck’s headlights. As he drew closer, his gaze swept her from head to toe.

  He grasped her by the shoulders and his mouth met hers in a sudden, emotional kiss. It was fast, a little rough and impulsive, but she felt it all the way to her toes.

  Before she could recover, he wrapped his arms around her, his face pressed into her hair. “I heard your house was on fire and you were inside. I was so worried.”

  Between them, Tippy squirmed and emitted a muffled meow.

  He stepped away but instead of releasing her, he held her at arm’s length. For several moments he stared, as if trying to convince himself that she was all right.

  She answered his unspoken question. “We’re fine. The fire started in the kitchen. We were in our bedrooms with the doors closed. Tippy woke me up meowing.”

  He dropped his hands and smiled. “Watch cat.”

  “Actually, it was the combination of Tippy meowing, the sirens squealing and the deputy hollering. I was sleeping like a log.” She sighed. “I guess I’m going back to my brother’s house. Liv will have to sleep on the couch. I might take you up on your offer to keep Tippy.”