“I saw Weiss’s man at the campground, and then all the stuff was gone when I got to the site. And I almost got caught.”
“You what?” He froze in his tracks. “What do you mean?”
Annoyance was now in James’s voice. “I heard somebody coming, trying to be all quiet, and at first, I thought it was the men. But I hid, just in case. It was the sheriff and Davis. I think Davis is a deputy now, and they found the meeting place.”
His mind raced as he considered the implications of what he’d been told. “You’re certain you weren’t seen?”
“Davis found a gun, and they were so interested in it, they didn’t hear me. I walked right by them.” As usual, James’s overconfidence annoyed him.
“What do you mean, Davis found a gun?” This was starting to sound worse.
“I think it might have been Brockman’s,” James informed him. “I think Harve and Brockman might have skipped town on us. And I’m telling you, the tent and everything were gone. The van’s not where it’s supposed to be, either. What do you want us to do now?”
“Let me think,” he ordered James. What would have enticed those two men to drop the plan and leave town? The answer was “nothing.” They wanted, no needed, the money they’d been promised too badly to simply quit. Tendrils of dread entered his stomach. No. He couldn’t operate based on assumptions. He’d continue on with the plan. “Harding Davis is doing what we wanted him to do; he’s a deputy now. Let’s sit quiet and let him get comfortable. We’ll let him become even more attached to the residents of Shadow.”
“Okay.”
He hung up the phone and sat down behind his desk. Something unexpected had to have happened with Harv and Brockman. They would show up with an explanation. Until then, things would continue. His plan would still work.
But just in case… He picked up the phone and dialed it.
“I thought we just said what we had to say.” Weiss’s cold voice answered.
“It's time to make Davis start to hurt. My son needs to see him be hurt.”
A sigh came out of the phone. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want H.B. Davis to die.”
“Consider it done.” The line went dead.
It wouldn’t be to his advantage to question Weiss about his employee conveniently turning up at the same time his own two men disappeared. He had a feeling Weiss had been having his man check on things in Shadow himself. And since Weiss stood to lose everything if they were caught, he couldn’t really blame him. For now, he’d stick to the plan.
Harding Davis Sr.’s death would solve two problems for him. It would show his son they were indeed, going to hurt the younger Davis, and it would remove the possibility of the old man talking. Yes. He should have already done this. It was time for Harding Davis to feel real pain.
Chapter 31
“So, how’s your great photography job going?” Matt Ashford took a healthy drink of iced tea before putting his glass back beside his plate. Hardy had been expecting the question since he walked into the diner and joined his friend at the table.
“Thankfully, there haven’t been any crimes to photograph, so it’s been pretty boring.” Hardy had been on the force for three days now, and there hadn’t been any more break-ins reported yet.
Matt waved his hand dismissively. “I don’t blame you for taking that job. If I had a choice between sitting behind the wheel of a truck watching the same scenery pass by, or the excitement of taking pictures of the crime scenes we’ve had around here lately, I’d have done the same thing you did.”
“It’s not that.” Hardy had to be careful with his words. “I’m still only here temporarily. When the sheriff catches whoever’s responsible for these crimes, he won’t have any need for a crime scene photographer. I’ll be out of here in a heartbeat.”
“You say that now,” Matt smoothly replied, “but who knows how you’ll feel in a few weeks? You might just decide to switch to becoming a full-time deputy.” He looked pointedly at the radio clipped to Hardy’s belt. “Looks like you’re already on call.”
Hardy shrugged. “The sheriff needs pictures right away if something happens.”
“The beef stew looks good.” Nancy’s pleasant voice interrupted their conversation. “Can I bring you some, Hardy?”
He smiled at her and nodded. “I’ll take a soda, too, Nancy. Thank you.”
The older lady returned his smile and headed for the counter.
Hardy turned back to face Matt. "How’s your route been going?”
Something resembling anger flashed in Matt’s eyes but was quickly replaced by forced casualness. “My job is the same as it ever was. It never changes.”
“Do you ever get lonely?” Both men waited until Nancy set Hardy’s glass on the table.
Matt dipped a French fry in ketchup. “Not really. I’ve had jobs where I worked with other people. They never lasted long.” He smiled self-depreciatingly. “I guess I’m not a team player.”
Hardy found it hard to believe the easy-going man in front of him had trouble getting along with others. “What kind of jobs have you tried?”
“Nothing that paid very well.” Matt’s frown grew. “I’ve done everything from bussing tables to managing an apartment building. All gigantic flops.”
“Managing a building?” Hardy sat back while Nancy placed a plate of beef stew and saucer stacked with bread slices in front of him. “Thanks, Nancy.” He acknowledged the friendly waitress before turning his attention back to Matt. "How did that come to be?”
Matt swallowed the last bite of his hamburger before answering. “A friend. The guy’s uncle owns several buildings, and he knew I needed a job.”
The beef stew was hot; Hardy was going to have to let it cool for a minute. He shifted his attention to Matt once more. “That’s not a team job. Why didn’t that work out?”
A crooked smile appeared on Matt’s face. “I don’t have the temperament. Do you know how many things there are for apartment tenants to complain about?” He didn’t give Hardy time to answer. “Too cotton pickin’ many. You wouldn’t believe how many air conditioner vents don’t cool rooms enough, or how many spider infestations occur.” He shuddered exaggeratedly. “And I won’t ruin your meal by talking about clogged drains.”
“Thank you for that.” Hardy grinned at his friend before he pierced a large chunk of beef with his fork.
“But I will tell you it’s possible to flush a soda can down a toilet if it’s crushed enough, and you flush several times.” A wide grin appeared on Matt’s face. “Gives a whole new meaning to going to the can, doesn’t it?”
Hardy groaned at Matt’s joke. “Who do you entertain while you’re on the road? You can’t let that sense of humor go to waste.”
“Oh, I don’t,” Matt assured him. “I’m on my CB a lot. My handle is Snickers.”
Hardy shook his head as he took care of a large forkful of stew. “I’ll have to buy a base radio just so I can hear you in action.”
“Anything else, Matt?” Nancy stood beside the table, an order pad in her hands.
“Just the ticket.” Matt winked at her. “Unless you want to meet me for a movie after you get off, you gorgeous chunk of lady.”
The poor woman turned three shades darker red as she wrote on her pad. She appeared speechless while she tore out the ticket. Before she could place it on the table, it slipped out of her hand and fluttered to the floor.
“I’ve got it.” Matt leaned over to pick it up.
Hardy glanced at his friend, and his attention was immediately caught by a horribly discolored area showing beneath his shirt tail. He waited until Matt sat back up and Nancy left before he addressed the issue.
“That’s a nasty bruise on your side, Matt. How’d you get it?”
Matt shrugged. “I’m not sure. It probably happened while I was inspecting freight. You know, one of those things where you don’t notice it until the bruise shows up.”
“That’s an awfully big bruise n
ot to have noticed.” Hardy couldn’t hide his skepticism. “You didn’t get into a fight with somebody, did you?”
“Me?” Matt waved the thought away. “Who would I need to fight with? I’m a joker, not a fighter.”
Hardy couldn’t quite get the image of a large fist, or even a kick, landing on his friend’s lower rib cage out of his mind, but Matt was right. He just wasn’t the kind of guy to drive somebody to strike him.
“Well, be more careful,” Hardy advised him. “You’ll hurt something important.”
Matt stood up to his full six feet plus and saluted him. “Yes sir, officer.” He pulled a wallet out of his pocket and threw a few dollar bills on the table. “And as much as I appreciate your advice, Hardy, that tip is for Nancy. Not you.” He winked before he walked away.
Hardy chuckled as he went back to eating his meal. When the time came for him to move on, Matt was one of the people he would miss.
“Is this seat taken?” The soft, hesitant voice brought his eyes from his food to the woman standing there.
“Haley.” He stood up. “Please join me.”
She smiled and stood back while Nancy quickly cleaned Matt’s place off. Then Haley sat across from him.
“Can I just have a chef’s salad, please?” she asked Nancy. “French dressing on the side.”
“Be right out, Haley.” It was apparent Nancy not only liked Haley, she felt comfortable with her. It was the first time Hardy had ever seen the waitress interact with a customer without turning nine shades of red.
“So, what brings you out on a Wednesday evening?” Not that Hardy was about to complain.
“One of the dispatchers called in sick, so I got stuck working half the next shift.” She seemed more comfortable with him somehow. “It’s too late to go to Bible study, and the vegetable soup I heated for lunch is a memory, so here I am. You eat here a lot, don’t you?”
“Just about every night,” he admitted. “You’ve seen my trailer, so I don’t have to tell you cooking is pretty much out of the question.”
She frowned. “Where is your camper since you don’t work for Luke anymore?”
He took a drink of his soda. “It’s still out at the farm. They were nice enough to let me stay there until I figure out what I’m going to do.”
Hope was written all over her face. “You might stay here after all?”
“I can’t.” Hardy hated to see the way her face fell. “I’m only sticking around until this mess is cleared up. Then I have to go.”
Her smile looked forced. “I understand.” She studied her hands for a moment. “I missed you at church Sunday.”
“Sorry.” He figured his smile looked more like a grimace. “I just can’t do that. I have to be honest and tell you I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to again.”
“I believe you will,” she stated adamantly. “I’m praying for you, and I won’t give up.”
He needed to change the subject. “I want to know more about you. You told me you lost your parents. Do you have any extended family?”
“No.” She sat back while Nancy placed a large plate of salad in front of her. “Thank you, Nancy. That looks good.”
“You’re welcome, Haley.” Gone was the blushing, shy waitress Hardy was used to. “I hope you save some room for dessert. There’s a big piece of Maisie’s coconut cream pie with your name on it back there.”
Dimples appeared in Haley’s cheeks as she smiled. “I’ll take that even if I can’t eat it now. I can always have a midnight snack.”
“I’ll box it up for you.” Nancy turned her attention to Hardy. “Would you like dessert? There are a couple of pieces of cherry or apple left.”
“I’ll take a slice of apple pie if you’ll add a scoop of ice cream on top of it.” Hardy waited until the waitress left to go fetch his pie before he spoke to Haley again. “So, how is it you rate a huge slice of coconut cream pie while I only qualify for cherry or apple?”
Haley looked even prettier as her cheeks turned pink. “I told you I don’t have any family. There are people—lots of people—in Shadow who are like family to me. They care about me and look after me.” She poured salad dressing over the lettuce. “Once, when I missed an entire week of work because I had pneumonia, a different person showed up at my apartment every day. They took care of me. Nancy came one day, and she baked a loaf of homemade bread while she was there.” Her eyes sought out the waitress for a minute. “I couldn’t taste very much of anything, but the smell of baking bread…I ate three slices of it, fresh out of the oven.”
An idea that had just begun to creep up on Hardy came tumbling to the ground. “You’d never leave Shadow for anything, would you? This is more than your home. These people are your family.”
She seemed to carefully consider his question before answering. “I would go if I believed it was what God wants me to do. But right now, I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be. Why?” Her face colored a shade brighter. “Are you asking me to go with you?”
For one split second, that was exactly what he’d wanted to do, but reality reared its head. “I couldn’t take you with me. It wouldn’t be safe for you.”
“I imagine adding a second person would make it hard to disappear.” Haley pushed salad around on her plate, not really eating it. Before he could comment, she smiled a little too brightly. “Can you tell me about your family, Beau? I mean, not their names, but about them as people.”
That, he could do. “My parents are great.” He had always been proud of them. “Dad is a retired police officer, and Mom is his wife.”
“She never worked outside the house?” Haley finally took a bite of her salad.
Hardy shook his head. “She made a career out of raising her kids and being a cop’s wife. I always thought I’d find a woman just like her someday.” The phrase that was beginning to be his mantra slid right past his lips. “Some things just aren’t meant to be.”
“You said kids. You have siblings?” Haley seemed willing to gloss over his poor choice of words.
“I have one sister.” He would forever regret he hadn’t taken the time to be closer to her when it was possible. ”Callie’s four years younger than me. She’s married, and they have two children. Blake is six, I think, and that would make Tabitha four.”
“Is your brother-in-law a police officer?”
“FSA.” Hardy had always been thankful his sister married a good, stable man like Elliott Lawrence. “He helped me disappear, and he helps me when I need to see my family from time to time.”
“Wow.” Haley’s blue eyes were as round as silver dollars. “You don’t believe in a boring life, do you?”
“I think I’d like to try one out sometime and see how it fits.”
“How often do you visit your family?” Concern was etched on her forehead.
His throat tightened. “I’ve had to go a couple of times lately. My dad had a stroke.”
Haley reached across the table and touched his hand. “I’m sorry, Beau. It must be terrible to know he’s sick and not be able to see him whenever you want.”
“They’d like you.” Hardy knew it was true as soon as he said it. ”My parents, sister, they would all like you.” He grinned as he thought of something. “My dad would call you Dimples.”
And that was what appeared on her cheeks in response to his words. “Why do you say that?”
He shrugged. “I know Dad. He’d take one look at your pretty smile and see those dimples, and that would be your name.”
“Was he a cop like you? Undercover, I mean.”
“No.” The mere idea made him smile. “Dad looks too much like a police officer to ever have passed for anything else. I think you could have dressed him in a clown costume, and people would have recognized him as a cop.”
Haley was back to pushing her salad around. “What made you decide to be an undercover officer, then?”
“I’m good at it.” It was as simple, and yet as complicated, as that. “I slid completely into m
y character. I became another person. The guys I was after couldn’t tell I was pretending, because in a way, I wasn’t.”
Her eyes were clouded as they met his. “Did you have to do things…drugs, girls…that you wouldn’t have done otherwise?” She looked more disappointed than embarrassed by the thought.
“I’ve never used drugs,” he could answer honestly. “The head of the ring I was trying to bring down didn’t like his guys to use them.” Hardy laughed derisively. “He’s responsible for roughly thirty percent of the drug trafficking in Chicago, but doesn’t want anybody close to him using the stuff.”
“And women?” Her voice was small.
Hardy had always tried to consider he would one day need to answer this question while he was making decisions as Joe Ryman. Now that it was time, the answer he’d thought so good seemed dishonorable.
“The first year was the hardest. There were a lot of women around, and to fit in, I had to act interested.” He’d found himself feeling nothing but sympathy for the women he met. “I kept things on the surface. I flirted, but never followed through.” And had his face slapped more than once. “I earned a reputation for being too choosy when it came to women.”
Haley was staring fixedly at the plate in front of her. “What happened after the first year?”
He wished more than anything she hadn’t asked that question. This was the part she probably would never be able to understand.
“There was a woman. Audrey was her name. Her uncle is the head of the organization, and he was always telling her what to do, how to live.” Hardy kept his eyes focused on Haley, wishing she would look at him. “She was in love with one of the guys who worked in the organization, but he wasn’t good enough to suit her uncle. One day, Audrey confronted me and told me she saw the games I was playing with women. She had a proposition.”
Hardy took a deep breath. “We would be a couple in front of everybody else, but in reality, I was a cover for her relationship with Cass. In return, she made it appear as though I was in a committed relationship. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than the alternatives.”
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