High-Risk Reunion

by Margaret Daley

  “I shouldn’t be long, then we’ll return to El Rio.” As he climbed from his car, Cade wondered if Kara needed to be protected. Did the killer get the information he wanted? Or would he come after Kara because he thought Pedro had told her something that could get her killed?

  While Cade walked the SAPD through the crime scene, one of their police officers stood by his SUV. He showed the detective what he’d found at the pallet in the corner to the rag and the toothpick. “Any DNA found on it, I’d like to know right away as well as the autopsy, especially time of death. I don’t think he was here long. There was a fast food bag wadded up on his bedding. No other sign of food.”

  “How long has he been missing?”

  “I’ve been looking for him ten days. His girlfriend heard from him a week ago. Nothing since then. We have several people still in danger. If you could put a rush on it, I’d appreciate it. In fact, another Texas Ranger should be here soon. He could use our lab to get a fast turnaround.”

  “I already heard from Steven Calhoun. He was delayed but will be here shortly. We’ve worked together before.”

  Cade wished he could work Pedro’s murder, but Steven was a top-notch Texas Ranger investigator. This part of the case was in good hands. “My phone number is on this.” Cade gave the detective his business card. “Call whenever you have any information.”

  He left and strode to the SUV. After thanking the police officer, Cade slid into the driver’s seat and glanced at Tory and Kara who was calm now. “Kara, I’d like you to stay with us tonight while I assess if you’re in any danger. I believe once the news that Pedro has been found gets out, no one will bother you.”

  “My daughter will be thrilled to talk to someone nearer her age, so I hope you’ll stay at my house. And the best part is Bella delivered three puppies who are adorable.”

  “I love dogs. If you’re sure.”

  Tory’s gaze linked with Cade’s. “I am.”

  Cade drove from the parking lot, and as before when he came to the warehouse, he kept an eye on the vehicles about him. If the mole was an El Rio police officer, he might be monitoring the police channel. He almost welcomed being followed. Then he could end this once and for all.

  * * *

  Finally quiet reigned in Tory’s house when Michelle and Kara went to sleep in Tory’s bedroom. At first she’d been surprised her daughter would even walk down the hallway, but Ben declared he was going to rest in a real bed and was going to use Michelle’s. Michelle and Kara moved Bella and the puppies back to Tory’s bedroom so they could watch over them. Tory had agreed but made them promise not to bring the dogs into her bed.

  Tory came into the kitchen. Cade’s attention glued to the laptop screen, he held up his mug. She detoured, took it and refilled it with freshly brewed coffee. With her own cup full, she sat beside him at the table. “Any progress?”

  “I or Uncle Ben have ruled over half the people at the police station out so far. It can be tedious running background checks on so many people, especially when you hear in your mind a clock ticking down.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Someone beside us is hunting the mole. I want to get to him before whoever interrogated Pedro does.”

  “Could the informant have killed Pedro?”

  “I don’t think so.” Cade’s gut knotted. “Something else is going on. I’m glad Buck and Mederos are in jail. Paul is keeping an eye on them. From what Blackwell and Jones confirmed, they’re the only ones who know who the person is besides Pedro possibly. We still don’t know that for sure.”

  “So why is someone else after the police mole?”

  “If I could answer that I think I would know who killed Judge Parks. I’ve been bothered by his murder from the beginning. It hasn’t fit with what else has been happening. Both Jones and Blackwell deny the gang had anything to do with it, yet gave us information on other serious crimes.”

  “How about Officer Sims’s shooting? Your two informants haven’t acknowledged anyone from the gang shot at him and me.”

  Cade cocked his head to the side. “No, which makes me think it wasn’t a gang member.”

  “The same person did both of them?”

  “Probably. Possibly in all the incidents happening one on top of another someone wanted to hide his agenda in the middle of the ongoing case. Mederos and his gang are good scapegoats if you want to get away with murder.”

  “Then we need to refocus on all the cases that had Judge Parks and Officer Sims on them. I can do that while you look for the mole. The list we started may be different if you take me out of the equation. I can access my records from home. I’ll go get my briefcase with my work computer in it.”

  Tory walked toward her bedroom. As she passed the bathroom, she shivered. As soon as life returned to normal, she was going to put the house on the market. Too many memories. She wanted a fresh start for her and Michelle. Maybe even a new job—one not so dangerous. As she passed her photo wall in the hallway, she glimpsed Belinda and her sitting at an outdoor café. But then her best friend had a safe job as a secretary, and she was murdered in a bank robbery. Cade would say she shouldn’t worry about what could happen. Instead, savor the moment.

  Tory quietly inched the door open and entered her bedroom. Bella looked up at her as she crossed to her closet while Michelle and Kara slept on the king-size bed. She hoped when this was over with she could sleep that soundly. After she grabbed her briefcase, she returned to the kitchen and sank into her chair.

  “I’ll start tonight, then work on this until I hear about the verdict. I should work on my next case, but I don’t think I can do it justice with everything happening around me.”

  Cade took a swig of his coffee. “That’s understandable.”

  The silence in the house urged her to utilize this time to see where she and Cade stood in their relationship. At the least they needed to decide what to do about Michelle. Now that her daughter knew, Tory felt she couldn’t keep it a secret from others. She would have to tell Derek’s parents. She understood why Derek didn’t let Cade talk to her when he called. All that had occurred with her being pregnant that led to bed rest the last month and the fast wedding had put a strain on her, and her body reacted. She didn’t want to pretend something that wasn’t right, and she couldn’t ask Michelle to.

  As she signed in to her work network, she said, “When this is over, I’ll be telling Derek’s parents that you were Michelle’s biological father. I’d wanted to tell them years ago, but Derek didn’t want them to know. I respected his wishes.”

  Cade peered up from the laptop and stopped typing. “Derek always had a lot of pride.”

  “He couldn’t have children. I think that embarrassed him, letting others know that he was infertile.”

  “That explains a lot. Derek once talked to me about having enough kids to make a basketball team.”

  “That many?”

  “Yep. Of course, then I had to one-up him and tell him I wanted a football team. That changed when I came back from the war. I didn’t have what it took to be a dad to even one child.”

  “Detective Alexander served later than you. I’ve heard him tell Paul he appreciated his marine training, especially since he was a military police officer, but he was glad he didn’t have any children. He didn’t like how the world was going.”

  “There was a time I felt that way, then as I grew in my faith, I’d wished I did have children and helped to raise someone who would make a difference.”

  His intense look captured her, and time seemed to come to a standstill. “You’ve got Michelle now,” she whispered as her love for him swelled into her throat.

  “Yeah, but where do I stand with her?”

  “Your relationship might be better than mine at the moment.” Tory twisted in her chair so she could face him. “When we’re not d
ealing with some kind of mad man, we’ll talk with Michelle.”

  Turning toward her, he took her hand in his. “Where do we stand?” His fingers delved into her hair, and he cupped her head. “I never really ever fell out of love with you. We’ve changed over the years, but that’s to be expected. I love you even more now. I don’t want any misunderstandings between us. I want you to know exactly how I feel about you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” Leaning forward, he bridged the distance between them and kissed her as he pulled her closer. “I’m discovering I need to express how I feel rather than wait for a better time.”

  She laid her palm against his jawline, feeling the slight roughness of his day-old beard. “I love you. And I don’t think I ever stopped loving you. I didn’t understand what happened fifteen years ago to us, and let my anger and insecurity dictate what I should do. If I’d listened to my heart and not my head, I would have waited. I want us to be a family, but our daughter has a say in that. She’s gone through so much turmoil recently.”

  “As hard as this is to say, I agree. If we have to wait until she leaves for college, then we will. I want you as my wife. No one else.”

  Happiness swept through her, chased by fear that Michelle would never accept Cade at least as her husband.

  * * *

  After catching a few hours of sleep midmorning, Cade rose from the kitchen table and stretched, his muscles protesting the inactivity. “I can’t find where Officer Sims grew up. I know he was born in El Paso, but he and his family left there when he was eight. That’s ten years unaccounted for.”

  “How about the others at the station?” Tory arched her back and rolled her shoulders. “Police work is tedious.”

  “Yes, it can be.” Cade looked at his list of employees of the police department. “I’m down to the last two. I’m not going into as much depth for anyone who has been here all his life, which is surprisingly not as many as I thought.”

  “Remember how much El Rio has grown since we were teenagers.”

  “Have you found anything?” Cade sat again in front of the laptop.

  “I keep going back to a copy of cases that have either the judge or Officer Sims involved. Each one involves the biker gang in some way. I’m part of some of them but not all. What if someone is trying to hurt the biker gang? Setting them up?”

  “Because we haven’t been able to make a conviction stick with a lot of them, especially Mederos and his lieutenants?”

  Tory nodded. “I know I’m probably reaching, but maybe we should think outside the box. Look at the only ones involved with Mederos. Everything seems to revolve around that man. What if the person can’t get to Mederos but wants the man to pay for something. It’s not like Mederos isn’t responsible for a lot of bad things happening.”

  “Okay. I’d already looked at Roberts, and he’s dead. Dead men don’t kill. Lindsey has disappeared from El Rio months ago.”

  “But what about his family? Clarence Roberts’s trial was different from the others I convicted in the gang. It was too easy. I remember the young man. He didn’t have an alibi when the rape took place. Usually Mederos’s gang members had alibis, often through lies and intimidation of others.” Tory could remember his demeanor change through the short trial from cocky to apprehensive.

  “What was the evidence?”

  “The woman picked him out of a lineup, although I got the feeling she wasn’t 100 percent sure, and an earring he often wore was found at the crime scene. He hardly said a word through the trial with a court appointed lawyer who botched the case. He should have challenged the woman’s ID of Clarence as the rapist. At the time I was just glad to put a member of the gang in prison. But when I look at it from a different angle and take into consideration other cases with Mederos’s minions, something was off.”

  “Who else?”

  “Bobby Lindsey. You could never find him. What happened to him? He was one angry guy. I wasn’t surprised he started working for Mederos. He was so angry and mean. Are you sure he isn’t in El Rio?” She felt like she was grasping at straws. She was glad she didn’t do investigating as a profession.

  “If so, he has been hiding for six months. The last anyone saw him was at the beginning of summer. He isn’t from around here, and I even checked Paris, Texas, where he grew up. I asked Blackwell and Jones about Lindsey too. Jones said he was there one day and gone the next.”

  “So he should stay on the list. We can’t rule him out. Did you ever hear back about Matthew Thorne after he was picked up for a parole violation?”

  Cade winced. “Yes. I forgot to tell you. So much has been going on. Thorne is a dead end. He has an alibi for Judge Parks’s murder. He was three states away and picked up for drunk driving. He couldn’t have done it.”

  “What about your list? Officer Sims lived in El Paso and so did Mederos at one time.”

  “But not the same time. I know that Mederos came to El Rio from Laredo and before that Van Horn.”

  “We could go ask Officer Sims. He’s been at the station some. I saw him that day I came from the trial when Ben and Michelle were in Paul’s office. He told me he couldn’t sit around doing nothing while he recuperated. He hated being on medical leave.”

  Cade chuckled. “I know the feeling. When you’re used to action and work, resting can be a jolt to your system. Not a bad idea. I’ll finish up with the last three people at the station then if the verdict hasn’t come in we should track down Officer Sims.”

  “Who else do you have?”

  “Detective Alexander, Lieutenant Sanders and Officer McKay.” Cade returned to his laptop.

  Tory stood. “Kara’s granddad should be here soon to pick her up. Michelle will miss her, but hopefully this will end soon. I really think the threat to Michelle and me is over. It was connected to the trial. I’m going to let her go back to school next Monday.” When Cade tensed, she added, “Unless you can convince me otherwise.” Cade should have a say in Michelle’s safety—her life.

  “You’re probably right. Unless the jury is still debating a verdict.”

  Tory started for the hallway. “Please don’t say that. I’m starting to think Mederos got to one of the jurors although they have been sequestered since the trial began.” As she made her way into the living room, her cell phone rang. It was Rachel. “Is the jury back?”

  “Yes,” her secretary said.

  “I’ll be right there.” Tory backtracked to the kitchen. “Give me ten minutes to get ready, then I need to go to the courthouse, Cade.”

  He glanced up. “The verdict is in?”

  “Yes.”

  Michelle came up behind Tory. “It is. I can’t believe how excited I am to be going back to school. Can I tomorrow?”

  “You should be able to by Monday but hold off celebrating until we hear the verdict and reassess the situation.”

  Michelle skirted Tory and went into the kitchen. “Cade, do you agree with that?”

  Surprise flitted across his face. “Yes.”

  Michelle let out a loud sigh then went back into the living room.

  “I hope she was asking not just because I’m guarding her but that I’m her father.”

  “Maybe it’s a little of both.” Tory left him sitting in the kitchen, trying not to get too optimistic just yet. Maybe they would get their lives back soon.

  * * *

  Cade escorted Tory out of the courtroom after the guilty verdict had been declared. Mederos would be sentenced tomorrow. The press covering the trial immediately surrounded Tory.

  A reporter stuck a microphone into Tory’s face. “Does this mean the end of the recent violence?”

  “I can’t predict the future, but the right verdict was reached in this trial. A father who stood up against a person who terrorized others can sleep peacefully now.”

  To
ry continued to answer a couple more questions as she walked with Cade toward the elevator. He blocked the reporters from trying to get on with them.

  The second the doors swished closed, Tory collapsed back against the wall and shut her eyes. “That was the most intense few minutes waiting for the verdict. Justice has finally prevailed.”

  “Ready to celebrate?”

  “Yes, but first I have something I need to do. Paul told me Officer Sims didn’t come in today to help, so I thought we would stop by his house. Other than seeing him briefly the other day at the police station, I haven’t had time to talk to him since he was shot.”

  Cade hesitated, not sure if she should until everything was wrapped up neatly.

  “Cade, I need my life back. As I said before, I don’t think I’m a target now. The trial is over. The star witness testified. Killing me won’t change anything now. My death won’t stop the harassment and fear the gang used to wield. Carlos Dietz was an example of what has to be done to stop crime. Paul told me another citizen has come forward to accuse Buck of shaking him down if he didn’t pay his protection fee as expected. I think more store owners will come forward now.”

  “I haven’t finished checking out Officer Sims.”

  “I’ll be okay. You’ll be with me. I can’t see him harming me even if he was the station mole. What good would that do? Instead he would be covering his tracks. And besides, if he is the mole, why was he shot at? I was the target that day, not him. He took a bullet while guarding me. I’d like to stop at the bakery and bring him some chocolate fudge. I’ve heard he loves that.”

  “Fine. I know an argument I can’t win.” He tossed her a grin as they left the courthouse. “You’re right,” he continued after they were settled in the armored SUV. “Which means I’ll have to return this and start looking for a car since the insurance company totaled mine.”

  “When we return to my house, are you and Ben leaving tonight?”

  “Do you want me to?”

  “Honestly, no. I don’t want to stay at my place. Just walking by the bathroom gives me the chills.”