“Stay inside. And don’t go near the windows. I’m having Cape Coral Police sent right away.”
She still hadn’t answered his question. “What’s going on?”
“He knows where you live.”
“Who?” His mouth formed the word, but his mind was already racing ahead to how he was going to deal with this new information. If he had to stop working and go into hiding, he’d lose everything.
She barked an order and a voice responded. She was apparently on her radio with Dispatch. Leroy reached his property line. In another few seconds he’d be in Cody’s drive.
“My electrician’s here.”
Leroy began the turn into his driveway, and Cody pressed the remote start. The parking lights flashed and the horn sounded its clipped tone.
The next moment something hot and powerful slammed into him, and he was airborne, sailing in an arc toward the shrubbery. He landed with a thud in front of it. Pain exploded through his body. His ears felt as if they were stuffed full of cotton, and a high-pitched ring sounded from somewhere inside his head. What had just happened?
He sat up as another sound joined the ring, not as high pitched. It came from somewhere in the distance. When he looked around, Leroy’s Silverado was parked in the road. He’d just watched the man pull into his drive. How did his truck get out there?
The ringing in his ears was fading, but the other sound grew louder. It was sirens. Emergency vehicles were in the area. Were they there for him and whatever had just happened?
The Silverado’s driver door swung open. Leroy jumped out and ran toward him. “Are you okay?”
Cody cleared his throat, not sure how to answer the question. “What happened? I was getting ready to step down off the porch and...”
He swiveled his head to look in that direction, and his heart lodged in his throat, choking off whatever he’d planned to say. All that was left of the Acura was a burnt-out, mangled hunk of metal.
The sirens grew closer. Beyond the house next door, flashing blue and red lights appeared, probably the result of Erin’s call.
He squeezed his eyes shut and moved his head from side to side. Although the ringing in his ears was fading, his brain felt as if it had been slammed around and turned to mush. Someone had just blown up the Acura. No wonder Erin had called to warn him.
Erin! He’d been talking to her when it happened.
He pushed himself onto his hands and knees, and Leroy eased him back down. “Take it easy. You could be hurt.”
“I need my phone.” Erin would be beside herself.
He scanned the area. The blueprints he’d held lay between him and the porch, the roll bent at an odd angle. His phone had landed beneath one of his viburnum bushes, his keys several feet away.
“My phone’s there, under the hedge.” Cody pointed toward the house. He couldn’t have stood if he’d wanted to. His joints had turned to Jell-O. The broken ribs and other bruises weren’t feeling so well, either.
Leroy retrieved the phone, and as he approached, high-pitched shouts poured from it, reaching Cody before Leroy even handed it over. A Cape Coral police cruiser spun into his driveway and screeched to a halt. A second one stopped in the road right behind it.
Cody put the phone to his ear. “Erin?”
A river of words blasted through it, several pitches higher than normal. Actually, a geyser. He didn’t understand a single one.
“I’m okay.” He struggled to calm his racing heart. “Someone blew up the rental car.”
She continued to ramble, sprinkling in an intelligible word here and there—boom, scared, worried, dead. Then there was a hitched breath and what sounded like a strangled sob. Was she crying?
Maybe that was what he should be doing. Or praying, thanking God he was still alive. If he did that type of thing. He didn’t.
But he should feel something. Scared, relieved, thankful, shaken. Right now he just felt numb.
He tried to gather his scattered thoughts. “The police are here. I need to talk to them.”
“I’m headed your way.”
“It’s okay. I’m not hurt.” He didn’t want her driving in a panic.
“I’m coming anyway.”
That was fine with him. He wanted to see her. In fact, there was no one he wanted more. How much he longed for her should disturb him. Maybe it would. Later. Now the numbness was fading, and horror was setting in.
If that had been his Ram...
He loved his Ram. He’d bought it right after opening his business. It had served him well, but it was a basic model, none of the upgrades the Acura had boasted.
And no remote start.
If he’d had his Ram, he’d have been sitting in the cab when the engine turned over. And he’d be dead right now, pieces of him scattered all over the neighborhood. A shudder pulsed through him. He wished he could just stay numb.
Two police officers approached, and Leroy helped him to his feet.
The younger of the two spoke. “What happened here?”
“Somebody blew up my car.”
“I see that.” The officer pulled a notepad from the shirt pocket of his black uniform. He looked to be close to Cody’s age, possibly a year or two older. But his demeanor was much more relaxed. Maybe exploding vehicles weren’t a big deal to him. To Cody, they were, especially when he was supposed to have been inside.
“How about starting from the beginning?”
“I was heading out the door, clicked the remote start on the fob and boom!” He paused. “Well, that’s not the beginning.”
He filled the officer in on everything, starting with arriving at his grandfather’s apartment the day of the storm and ending with the events of a few minutes ago. “There’s already an ongoing investigation with Lee County.”
After jotting down some more notes, the officer turned to Leroy. “Did you see anything?”
“Just the explosion. I was pulling into the driveway when it happened. I threw the truck in Reverse, backed up and parked there.” He pointed to where his truck sat in the road, the right tires barely off the pavement.
“I assume neither of you saw anyone suspicious?”
“No.” They answered in unison.
Whoever had planted the bomb had probably come during the night while everyone was fast asleep.
Cody swallowed hard. His heart rate was gradually slowing, but it would be a while before the shakiness left his limbs. “Someone from Lee County is on her way, one of the detectives. The Bureau of Fire, Arson and Explosives is involved, too.”
The Bureau was going to have more to investigate than the charges that had brought down the apartment building. Whoever was trying to kill him had a disturbing preoccupation with blowing things up.
FIVE
Erin stared up at the red light in front of her, hands clutching the wheel in a white-knuckled grip. Moisture coated her palms, and her right leg trembled, maintaining its pressure on the brake pedal. “Come on. Turn green.”
She drew in a stabilizing breath and loosened her grip. Cody had said he was okay. Maybe he was downplaying his injuries. But he wasn’t dead. And he wasn’t hurt too badly to communicate.
The light changed, and after a quick glance in both directions to make sure no one was infringing on her green, she jammed the gas and roared through the intersection.
Learning the killer knew Cody’s whereabouts had sent her pulse into overdrive. Hearing the explosion over the phone had almost put her into cardiac arrest. As the seconds stretched into a minute, then two, she’d believed the worst. And twenty-five minutes away in Fort Myers, there’d been nothing she could do beyond what she’d already done—asking Dispatch to call for help.
She made a right onto Colonial Boulevard and headed for Midpoint Bridge, straight ahead. As she descended a few minutes later, the Welcome to Cape Coral sign greeted her
, the Iwo Jima Memorial replica next to it, a variety of flags waving in the background. She’d crossed the Caloosahatchee River and was beyond the halfway point. Soon she’d see Cody with her own eyes and be assured he was okay.
The emotions colliding inside her during the moments between the explosion and Cody’s assurances had shaken her. As a law-enforcement officer, her job was to defend and protect the citizens of Lee County. No matter how long she served, she’d never become desensitized to the pain of others. It was what made her human.
But this was different. She’d been near hysteria, unable to bear the thought of losing Cody.
Losing Cody? He wasn’t hers to lose. She’d made her choice. If she had it to do over again, that choice would be no different.
When she’d come to Florida a year ago, she’d remembered the deal they’d made. But she hadn’t wanted to connect. She’d been afraid what they’d had that summer would no longer be there. And afraid it would be.
Twelve years had passed, but nothing had changed. In the ways that mattered, she was the same girl she’d been then, but with even less likelihood of a relationship in her future. Now she wasn’t only commitment phobic, she was commitment phobic with baggage. Just thinking about anything that hinted of “forever” almost made her hyperventilate.
After almost getting killed by an obsessed boyfriend, it had been a long time before she was willing to date again. Gradually, she’d gotten back out there. No one had ever hurt her after that. Not physically, anyway. After several casual relationships, she’d met someone wonderful and fallen hard. At least, she’d thought he was wonderful...until she’d caught him in bed with her best friend.
Then she’d fallen even harder. Hard enough she’d almost not been able to get back up.
Whatever she felt for Cody, she’d keep it to herself. If she allowed a romantic relationship to develop between them, she’d come to the same conclusion she had before—that no matter how much she loved him, she couldn’t do it. Hurting him like that once was enough.
When she turned from Trafalgar onto Twenty-Second Court, she leaned forward. Cody’s house stood in the distance. A white Silverado was parked in the street in front, a Cape Coral police cruiser behind it. She roared closer. A second police vehicle sat in the driveway behind the burnt-up rental car. Other than some dents and gouges and charred paint on one of the garage doors, the house looked undamaged.
She screeched to a halt behind the vehicles on the road. Some people had gathered in the front yard, two uniformed police officers and a man dressed in jeans and a polo shirt bearing a logo she couldn’t make out. He was probably the electrician Cody had mentioned. Cody stood among them.
As she sprang from the car, the officers turned and moved toward their vehicles, apparently finished with their reports. She swept past them without a second glance. When Cody’s eyes met hers, she had to squelch a sudden urge to throw her arms around him and bury her face in his chest.
“Are you the Lee County person Cody said was coming?”
The voice came from behind her. Several seconds passed before the question registered, along with the fact that it was addressed to her. She swiveled her head toward the officer who’d spoken.
“Yes.” The truth of that emphasized how inappropriate her actions would’ve been had she acted on impulse.
After a brief conversation with them, where they filled her in on the latest developments, she approached Cody and the other man. She could see the logo now. Jacobsen Electric.
She gave him a nod and turned to Cody. “You’re not safe here. You have to disappear.”
“And how am I supposed to support myself while I’m gone?”
She pursed her lips. She didn’t have an answer. She couldn’t even promise him it was temporary. Some people went into witness protection and remained there for years.
“Then stay with me.” The words were out before she thought them through.
“No way. This guy means business. While he’s blowing things up, he’s not worrying about innocent bystanders. I won’t put you in danger.”
Jacobsen held up an index finger. “While you guys discuss this, I’ll wait in my truck.”
Cody nodded at the man. “Thanks, Leroy. We still have to go by the Hutchinsons’. I’ll just be a minute.”
Erin crossed her arms. He didn’t need to be going anywhere except away from Lee County. “Staying here isn’t an option. I wouldn’t put it past this guy to burn your house down with you inside.”
His jaw tightened, and his eyebrows dipped toward his nose. “Both my house and I would be safer if I was somewhere else.”
“What about out-of-state friends?”
“I’ve got several, but I don’t want any of them to support me. I’ve had my own source of income since I was sixteen.”
Yes, he had. When she’d met him, he’d been working for his uncle, a general contractor, on weekends and during summers and school breaks for the prior two years. He’d had a decent car that he’d paid for himself and already had a skill that wasn’t related to sports or video games. She’d been impressed.
He wasn’t backing down. “I need to be close enough to run my business, meet with customers and assign work to my subcontractors.”
“I have an idea.” It was feasible. A way to help him and benefit her at the same time. “I bought a fixer-upper four months ago. I’m living with avocado-green countertops and harvest-gold appliances that are older than I am. I’m amazed they still work. I’d planned to have most of the work done by now, but I haven’t even started.” Now she could get it done without sacrificing her peace of mind.
She held up a hand. “Before you say no, I’ve got a gun and a dog. And I have a monitored security system. As long as you stay put, no one will know you’re there. I’ll pick up what you need or have Lowe’s or Home Depot deliver it.”
There was only one downside—Mimi and Opa. But no one would be looking for Cody in Fort Myers. And with Mimi’s independent streak, Erin didn’t expect their visit to last much longer than three days.
Cody stood in silence, thoughts churning behind those brown eyes. Finally, he gave a sharp nod. “All right. I’ll cut you a deal. I’d do the work for free in exchange for the place to stay if I didn’t have to still pay my bills. Hopefully, by the time I finish your job and am ready to start the next, this will all be over.”
Erin expelled a relieved sigh. Cody would be safe, and she’d get her renovations completed without anxiety. At least not the kind that came with the thought of trusting a strange man with access to her haven.
Instead, there’d be the stress of guarding her heart, keeping the walls around it intact enough to be impervious to Cody’s charm and good looks and the history between them. But she was an adult. She’d deal.
“All right, then. If you still insist on making that stop you mentioned, you ride with Leroy and I’ll follow. I want to make sure you’re not tailed.”
“I have to get some things together, unless you want to share your toothbrush and deodorant. I also need to grab some tools. Unfortunately, the stuff I used for doing estimates and light work was in a toolbox in the trunk of the Acura.”
As she followed him toward the house, a quivery weakness lingered in her limbs. Cody wasn’t doing much better. His eyes were haunted, and the color still hadn’t returned to his face.
She stepped inside and looked around. She’d been here twice but hadn’t gone into the house either time. With its stuccoed exterior and gables in varying sizes, she’d guessed at a modern interior with vaulted ceilings. She’d been right.
“This is nice. Did you build it?”
“I did.”
It was an open floor plan, with a large combo living/dining area. The dining room led to a kitchen that was separated from the living room by an eight-foot-high wall. The ledge on top held a couple of model boats, painted wooden ducks and a series
of collector mugs.
A shirt was draped over the arm of the couch, and crumbs lined the plate he’d left sitting on his desk. The empty glass on the coffee table had a coaster under it to protect the wooden surface. The house looked lived in, not overly neat, but not messy, either.
“I’m getting my stuff together, so make yourself at home.”
He disappeared down the hall and returned five minutes later wheeling a large suitcase. In the living room, he put his laptop in its bag, along with the power cord and mouse, then pulled a loose-leaf binder from a bookcase. “A portfolio of some of the work I’ve done. It might give you some ideas.” He handed it to her with a grin. “At least it’ll help assure you that I know what I’m doing.”
He continued to a door off the side of the dining area. “We’ll take everything through the garage, since I’ve got tools to get. Fortunately, I’ve got extras of all of the small stuff.”
She followed him through the door into a well-stocked workshop, equipped with a table saw, lathe, band saw, radial arm saw and a few other items she couldn’t identify. Two long racks held wood, and a variety of smaller tools hung from hooks pressed into pegboards.
“Now I see why you park in the driveway even though you have a two-car garage.”
He gave her a sheepish smile. “This was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, but it’s turned into more than five years. Eventually, I’ll build a workshop in the back. Then I’ll actually have a garage.”
Cody loaded everything he needed for the foreseeable future into her car. “One more thing. I’ve got stuff in the fridge that’s going to be spoiled before I get back. I’d rather not have a laboratory going on in there. Have you got room for a few things?”
“I’ll make room.”
He disappeared inside, then came out wheeling a large cooler. After putting it in the back of the Explorer, he climbed into the Silverado. When they arrived at the Hutchinson home on the other side of Cape Coral, a man was circling the yard on a riding mower. Erin parked on the road and picked up Cody’s portfolio. As she flipped through the pages, she studied each photo for ideas. She’d made a wise choice having Cody tackle her projects. He did beautiful work.
Trailing a Killer Page 8