“Bribed, huh?”
“Looks like I’m flying to Tuscaloosa for dinner when this case is wrapped up.”
Jake laughed. “I hope she’s worth it.”
“She sounded gorgeous on the phone.”
He laughed again. “I’m sure she is. What did you find out?”
“The roomie said Faye basically had two really good friends—Amber Callahan and our friend Gillette. Faye didn’t open up much to her, but the roomie said Faye was really tight with Gillette. He got into trouble, petty, stupid stuff. And she was always there to bail him out, sometimes literally. He has a record, most of it juvenile types of crimes. I got the impression Faye was like a mother hen, or even a bulldog when it came to being loyal to him.”
Jake thought back to the incredible night he’d spent with her, and then how quickly she’d turned on him to save Calvin. He laughed bitterly. “Yeah, you didn’t have to tell me that. I know where her loyalty lies.” Certainly not with him. He kicked at a dried branch lying near the log, smashing it in two.
“Is there something else you’re not telling me about what happened out there?” Dex asked.
“Nothing I’m going to share.”
“O...kay. We’ll just move along then. Assuming you can find your way out of there without me calling in the troops, what’s our next course of action? Should I get Holder to put out a BOLO for Gillette and Star?”
Jake stood and did a slow turn again, making sure he wasn’t about to become prey to something sneaking up behind him, before sitting back down on the log. “I wouldn’t have a clue what to tell them to be on the lookout for. Gillette, as far as I know, doesn’t have another car out here anywhere. And Faye didn’t have one at her shop. For all I know, they’re escaping by canoe or on foot. And knowing Faye, I don’t see her going down the highway back to civilization. She’ll take advantage of her knowledge of the Everglades and come out the other side, probably south of here, closer to the Big Cypress Preserve or the Tamiami Trail.”
“Then we’re just going to do, what, nothing?”
“You can look into Rossi.”
“The phantom killer. Waste of time, but okay. Back to my original question. What else are we going to do, if anything?”
“Give me a minute.” He scrubbed the stubble on his face that he hadn’t shaved because he’d forgotten to bring his razor. He wasn’t coming up with any amazing strategies, so he decided to play it by the book, to work it the way he would if he was undercover as a detective in Saint Augustine. And he’d use his knowledge of Faye to guide him—assuming he ever made it back to civilization and found her. “Okay. This is what we’re going to do.”
After listening to Jake’s plan, Dex said, “That’s it? That’s the brilliance you came up with?”
“You got something better?”
“No. But I haven’t been a police detective for the past ten years, either.”
“Bite me.”
Dex laughed and ended the call.
With a rough plan in place, he shoved his phone back in his pocket. He stood and looked around again, trying to get his bearings, trying to remember where he and Faye had emerged from the trees yesterday before going back in where they made camp. He considered himself to be observant. He’d been trained to remember things like hair color, height, approximate weight, even the clothing someone was wearing. He could look at a crowd of people for just a few seconds and remember how many men and women were in the crowd, even the mix of ethnicity, all as part of his training as a police officer. But remembering which clump of trees he and Faye had walked through was an entirely different skill set he apparently did not possess.
The sun was still high overhead, which meant he had several hours of false starts if necessary before he lost the light and had to give up for the night. Might as well start right now.
He picked what he thought might be the right direction and headed out. A few hours later, he was back in the exact same spot, cursing whoever had come up with that saying that lost people often went in circles. He certainly had. He took a deep sip of water, shoved the bottle back in his pack, then started out in what he hoped was the real right direction. Again.
“Don’t go that way unless you want to walk to Key West,” a soft voice called out.
He drew his gun and whirled around. Faye stood about twenty feet behind him, her expression a mixture of sadness and regret as she slowly lifted her hands in the air.
* * *
FAYE STOOD INSIDE her bedroom, relieved to be clean and dressed in a fresh blue skirt and top, but not at all pleased she would have to knock on her own door for Jake to let her out. Not that she could blame him for shoving a chair up under the handle so she wouldn’t disappear again while they both took showers. He was furious with her for letting Calvin go and had barely spoken on the trip back to Mystic Glades.
He was waging a war within himself about what to do with her. He’d admitted that the policeman inside him wanted to call Deputy Holder and the FBI agent who’d hired him and have her arrested. But he hadn’t. Not yet. She suspected, she hoped, the part he wasn’t telling her was that the lover she’d shared herself with didn’t want to turn her in. He did seem surprised and confused over why she’d come back for him.
The answer to that was easy. She couldn’t have lived with herself if something had happened because she’d abandoned him in the swamp. She couldn’t have done that to anyone, but especially not to Jake. Somehow he’d managed to work his way past her defenses to the point where she was willing to risk her life just by being with him, when she should have been running somewhere safe as Calvin was doing at this very moment.
She smoothed her skirts, flipped her hair back behind her shoulders and knocked on the door. Boots echoed on the hardwood floor from the living room. The chair on the other side scraped against wood before he opened the door.
He braced his arms against the frame. Neither of them said anything for a moment, facing off like the adversaries they’d become.
“You hungry?” he asked, his voice sounding strained.
The suggestion of food elicited an immediate growl from her stomach. She slapped her hand against her belly. “Apparently I am.”
His lips curved in an almost smile. After this morning, she was grateful for that much at least.
He stepped back and waved his hand toward her eat-in kitchen. A mixed salad sat in the middle of the table. Sandwiches sat on a plate beside it.
“Based on the frightening lack of meat in your refrigerator,” he said, “I’m guessing you’re a vegetarian of some kind. All I could find for sandwiches was cheese. But it’s better than beef jerky and granola bars. Hopefully.”
“I eat cheese sandwiches all the time. It looks great. Thank you.”
He surprised her by pulling out her chair for her before taking his own seat. Since both of them had skipped lunch and dinner in their rush to get back to Mystic Glades before nightfall, they were both hungry and ate quickly. Faye didn’t mind. It meant no stilted conversation and that she could eat without being grilled with dozens of questions. But as soon as she finished her last bite and put her fork down, Jake did the same, as if he’d been going through the motions of eating just until she was done.
With both of them helping, the cleanup went fast. Too fast. Soon there was nothing left to do except sit on the couch and start the interrogation.
They both sat sideways, facing each other.
“Go ahead,” she said. “Get it over with. Ask your questions.”
“What’s the real reason you came back for me?” he asked. “What’s the catch?”
She stiffened. “No catch. I never intended to leave you stranded. As soon as Calvin was safe, I went looking for you.”
“Again, why?”
If he couldn’t figure out that she cared about him, she sure wasn’t
going to tell him. “Because you’re a human being. I wouldn’t leave anyone out there to fend for themselves. It wouldn’t be right.”
His eyes searched hers, as if he could divine the truth. “That’s the only reason?”
“Of course. What other reason would there be?”
His mouth tightened, making her wonder what he’d expected her to say.
“Where’s Gillette?”
“Gone, where no one will find him.”
He cursed and shook his head. “He’s a fugitive, Faye. He needs to face up to his past.”
“We’re both fugitives, according to you. But neither of us has done anything wrong.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her toward him. “Faye, I found him once. I’ll find him again. But if you help me, it would make things easier on you. I can tell the Feds you cooperated. That might help your own case.”
She tugged his hands off her shoulders and sat back. “Make things easier on me? In case you haven’t figured it out yet, that’s not the kind of person I am. I don’t hurt other people so I can take the easy way out.”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “You went to college for four years. You had a future ahead of you, and you gave it up to hide out in Mystic Glades. I don’t buy your fear of policemen as the only answer. There’s something more. What did you and Calvin do that makes you too afraid to go to the cops even though you think a killer might be looking for you?”
When she didn’t answer, his brows drew down like a dark cloud. “Faye, I can help you. But you have to trust me. You have to open up to me.”
“By telling you where Calvin is? So you can have him arrested for a crime he didn’t commit?” She shook her head, her lip curling with disgust. “We may not be blood-related siblings, but I have more loyalty to him than that. I would never trade my safety for his. I thought you would understand that since you knew what it was like to lose your only sibling.”
He winced as if she’d hit him, immediately making her regret her harsh words. But what was done was done. She needed to convince him to leave so she could leave, too. She was trying to put a brave face on everything, but in reality, she was terrified. Her past had already caught up to her, and she had to get out of here before it was too late.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Jake to help her. She believed he’d do everything he could if she let him. But that would only put him in danger. And even though she wasn’t a murderer, she wasn’t completely innocent. If he found out what she had done, he’d have to make a choice. And she was very much afraid that keeping her secret was a choice he wouldn’t make.
He sat there a long time, watching her, perhaps waiting for her to change her mind. But she’d already made up her mind. Nothing could make her risk Jake’s life to help her out of a mess of her own making. He deserved better than that.
Finally, he stood. And without another word, he left the apartment.
She blinked in surprise. Was he letting her go then? She ran to the window at the end of the living room and looked down into the street. Moments later, Jake’s black Charger turned out of the side alley beside her store, out onto the main drag. He didn’t look up at the window as he drove by. And soon, he passed through the gates of Mystic Glades and disappeared from sight.
She sank down to the floor, stunned. He was letting her go. Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. He’s letting me go. He’d forced his way into her life, into her heart, and he was letting her go. She wrapped her arms around her knees, and for the first time in a very long time, she stopped being strong, stopped trying to bottle up her frustrations, her fears, her regrets. The tears flowed freely, branding hot tracks down her cheeks and falling to the floor.
A long time later, when the room had gone dark around her, she drew a shaky breath. She went into the bathroom and washed her face. She was ashamed that she’d allowed herself to sit there so long feeling sorry for herself. She didn’t have time for that. Staying here was no longer an option. The past had caught up to her and Calvin.
They’d had a terrible fight after leaving Jake in the swamp, the same fight they’d had several times over the past few months. Her answer to his question remained the same as it always had—no. He’d been furious, but there was nothing he could do about her decision. She took him to a friend’s cabin near the highway. The last she saw of Calvin, he was staring at her from the passenger seat as Eddie drove him back to Naples to collect his things. The plan was for Calvin to get a bus ticket and find his own place for a new start. A few months from now, when they were both settled and Calvin’s anger cooled, they’d contact each other through email and reconnect. They’d both apologize and everything would be fine. That was the constant cycle of their relationship.
She sighed and started packing another one of her backpacks. Eddie had been insistent that she didn’t need to pay him for taking Calvin to Naples. But he didn’t make much money and she knew he couldn’t afford the gas. Since neither she nor Calvin had cash on them, she’d promised to return later. She would stop at Eddie’s place first, then continue south to the Tamiami Trail. Maybe she’d keep going all the way to the Florida Keys. It was probably beautiful this time of year. And she could probably get a job waiting tables at any number of tourist traps down there. It wouldn’t be her beloved Everglades, but she could think of worse things than living near the ocean every day.
Since she couldn’t be sure that Jake wouldn’t change his mind and come back, possibly bringing the police with him, she couldn’t risk taking the extra time to say goodbye to her friends. She’d have to tell Amy, of course, since she took care of the shop. And she’d have to make sure Amy continued to feed Sampson every day. But other than that, it was time to go.
The grief over leaving her friends, and leaving Mystic Glades, clogged her throat. But she couldn’t give in. She had to hurry.
She hid another knife in the sheath sewn into the folds of her skirts. The knife and pistol Jake had made her toss back in the woods had ended up somewhere in the muddy bog. She hadn’t taken the time to try to find them. She regretted that now. Hopefully she wouldn’t get into a tight spot where she needed a gun.
Her money situation wasn’t great, but thanks to the generosity of her “adopted” Callahan family, she’d be okay for several months before she’d start getting desperate. By then, hopefully she’d have a new job—one that paid cash under the table and didn’t require a Social Security number.
She took one last look around, then headed downstairs.
* * *
JAKE HAD TAKEN a gamble. Based on Faye’s pattern, he was assuming she would run again after he left. The gamble was that he was betting she wouldn’t be watching out the window for his car to turn around and drive back through the main entrance of Mystic Glades. As soon as he’d driven back inside, he’d turned a sharp left and parked his car behind one of the other businesses off the main road, a bookstore called Between the Covers.
He hopped out and hurried back toward The Moon and Star, keeping to the backs of the shops, close to the tree line. He’d just tucked himself behind a thick live oak behind Faye’s store when the back door opened. She stood in the doorway with Amy. They said something to each other and hugged. Faye had her backpack on, and from the tears streaming down Amy’s face, it was obvious Faye had no intention of coming back.
She jogged to the edge of the trees, only ten feet from where Jake stood watching her. She waved at Amy and disappeared with a flick of her deep blue skirts.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Faye was moving fast, so fast that Jake had a hard time keeping up with her. Not that he couldn’t outrun her. His legs were much longer than hers. But to make his way through the unfamiliar terrain of the Everglades, at night, without getting stuck in a bog or crashing through the low-hanging tree limbs and alerting her of his presence slowed him down far more than he’d anticipat
ed. Hopefully he’d catch her before she got so far ahead that he couldn’t hear her.
He followed her for over two hours, something he couldn’t have done if the moon wasn’t so bright. But then again, if the moon wasn’t bright tonight he’d have never let her take off into the woods. He’d have had to come up with a new plan.
She rarely stopped to catch her breath. He was usually gasping for air by the time she did. He considered himself to be in excellent shape, but he wasn’t in the habit of running marathons.
There were a couple of times when he lost her and started to panic. But since she obviously didn’t think anyone was following her, she made no attempt to be quiet or disguise her tracks. He watched for broken branches and footprints as she’d done when they’d been searching for Gillette together, and he was able to pick up her trail again.
When they started on their third hour, everything suddenly went silent. Jake hurried forward until he could see her and ducked behind some bushes. Thirty feet ahead, she stood in what appeared to be as much of a yard as one could have out in the marsh. In front of her was a tiny building, one of the smallest houses Jake had ever seen. But it was well kept, with a lean-to on the side that sheltered the car parked there. She looked around, as if to make sure she was alone, before knocking on the door.
“It’s Faye, Eddie,” she said. “Can I come in?”
A full minute went by. No one opened the door. She knocked again and tried the doorknob. The door cracked open a few inches.
“Eddie?” she called, before stepping inside and closing the door.
Who the hell was Eddie? Was Calvin in there with him?
Jake checked his phone, hoping to call Dex again and give him an update. But unsurprisingly, there wasn’t any service.
A scream sounded from inside the house.
Jake vaulted over a bush and sprinted for the door, pulling his pistol as he went. The door burst open just as he reached it. Faye ran outside, practically knocking him down as she barreled into him.
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