Biloxi Blue (The Biloxi Series Book 2)

by Jerri Ledford

Kate felt the contentment that had settled in during dinner dissipate. She heard the anguish in Jack’s voice, but he was back to shutting her out, and she was done with it.

  “Why can’t you tell me?” Her voice was more desperate than she wanted it to be, but she felt desperate. Everything seemed to be slipping away and she had no idea how to stop it.

  “I really need you to trust me on this, okay?” Jack’s desperation mirrored her own.

  “Trust you?” Kate jumped out of her chair and started pacing. “How can I trust you? Every time I ask you about work, you avoid the topic. Then, after we talk specifically about me not wanting a new partner, you force one on me. You tell me it wasn’t your choice. Now you won’t even tell me whose choice it was.” Kate stopped pacing and turned to face Jack. She crossed her arms over her chest. “You want me to trust you, but you’re giving me nothing but secrets and evasion. How do I trust that?”

  “This is all I can do, Kate.” Jack’s voice was soft, devoid of emotion. “I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can. Until then,” he sighed deeply. “I hope you can find a way to believe that I’m just trying to protect you.”

  “From what?” Kate’s voice was louder than she intended for it to be. Frustration gnawed at her.

  No answer.

  “Why can’t you trust me?” Kate bit the inside of her cheek.

  Jack remained quiet.

  “From what?”

  Silence.

  Kate bit on the inside of her cheek again, working teeth against soft tissue until she tasted blood.

  Jack remained stone still, staring at the floor of the porch.

  He’s not going to answer me. He doesn’t trust me.

  Kate held her breath, fighting back tears. When she’d regained control, she said softly, “I’m going back to my place tonight. I think I need some time.”

  Jack nodded, but said nothing.

  Kate waited.

  Say something! Anything?

  Crickets chirped. Cars passed on the road. Jack said nothing.

  Kate stomped into the house to gather some things to take back to the apartment.

  “I’m not going to be able to keep our date for Wednesday night,” Jack said when she stepped back onto the porch, headed for her car. “I’m sorry, but something has come up.”

  Wednesday was the Police Explorer Program charity dinner. Kate was one of the organizers. It was something she got involved in while she was on medical leave. It started out as a way to occupy her time, but as Kate met the kids involved in the program, she’d become more interested and more involved.

  This fundraising dinner was a big event. Public figures like the mayor, area senators, and several high-powered judges and lawyers would be there, and Jack should be there, too. It was the first public appearance he would make as the new chief. His attendance would go a long way toward building goodwill for the department with the community.

  Kate bit back disappointment. She had been looking forward to putting on a little glitz and being out with Jack. “Guess I’ll have to find another escort.” She said the words with force. She had to be there. With or without Jack. Might as well find someone else to enjoy the night with.

  TWELVE

  Jack watched Kate pull down the drive. As she turned onto Highway 90, a piece of his heart went with her. What was going to happen to them? Was this the beginning of the end? Things had been strained between them since he was promoted. Jack understood her frustration. He just didn’t know how to fix it.

  Sadness made his steps heavy as he pulled the door open and trudged into the kitchen.

  He rinsed Kate’s coffee cup under warm water and then stacked it in the dishwasher along with all the other dishes Lisa had put in there. The teen – she was really more of a young woman now, he reminded himself – had done a good job. The pride Jack felt over the changes in Lisa didn’t help to chase away the shadow that had fallen over his heart.

  If anything, it made him feel worse. Lisa was going to be disappointed when she found out Kate went home.

  He understood. Letting Kate leave like that went against every fiber of his moral code. He wanted to chase after her. To grab her and pull her close and explain everything. He wanted to beg her to stay. Here. With him. For no other reason than because he loved her and he wanted her in his life always. But he couldn’t risk putting her in harm’s way. Not any more than she already was, anyway.

  He refilled his own cup and walked back out onto the front porch, leaving the inside door open. Through the screen, he could hear Lisa moving around upstairs. Music drifted down the stairs and accentuated the soft lap of the water in the nearby Gulf, the song of insects, and the occasional swoosh of cars passing on the highway.

  If everything weren’t so sideways, Jack would be convinced that all was right with the world.

  Nothing could be further from the truth.

  Am I going to lose her completely because of this?

  Kate going back to her apartment now, after being with him in his home for the last three months, felt wrong. In the space of one day, their whole relationship shifted.

  This didn’t just happen today.

  It didn’t. Jack felt the distance growing over the last few weeks. He knew Kate was frustrated. He had ignored it, hoping they would settle into a good rhythm and it would cease to be a problem.

  Then Kate went back to work. The timing was too perfect with Castille coming into the department. He knew Kate didn’t want a new partner. They had talked about it. But this was so much more than that.

  You feel better knowing she’s not out there alone.

  He did. He worried less about Kate knowing she was paired up with a partner like Caleb Castille. He was well-respected, and if David Alexander trusted him, then Jack knew he could, too. Still, something niggled at the back of his brain about the conversation he’d had with Castille, this morning. David hadn’t mentioned his female partner and that worried Jack. Why the omission. Was there something Jack should know, or was he just making too much out of it?

  Jack’s thoughts drifted back to Kate. The only circumstance that would make him feel better was if Kate left police work. She’d had a rough career, and this last year had been dangerous for her. He wanted her to be happy, but he also wanted her to be safe. One thing about Castille was that his size alone would make people think twice before they messed with Kate. Maybe that would help with whatever was going on in the department, too. Jack knew trying to keep her safe was a selfish move on his part, but he couldn’t imagine spending the rest of his life without her, and he would do anything he could to protect her. Even if she didn’t like it.

  If Jack was being honest, he also wanted her to leave police work because he wasn’t sure he planned to stay at the department.

  You’re sure. You know good and well that once this case is cleared up, you’re going somewhere else. Somewhere with less politics, less restrictions.

  Right. He knew that once they found Darnow’s killer and straightened out the corruption in the department he was done. The politics of police work were too much.

  The challenge right now was getting past the politics and relationships forged through years on the job to get at the truth of what was happening inside the Biloxi PD.

  Jack set his coffee cup on the table between his chair and the one Kate had occupied a short while ago. He stared at the chair, willing her to come back, sit down, and talk to him. If she would come back, he would tell her everything. Despite what Tradewell said about keeping it from her. Maybe if he talked to her this would all make more sense to him. Maybe she could help him put the pieces together.

  He trusted her more than he trusted Castille. Yes, David said Caleb was a good guy. A great investigator. But something in their conversation today bothered him. It was more than just the new information about his female partner. That was probably no big deal. There was something else making Jack’s neurons fire, but he couldn’t create a cohesive image out of that something. Frustrated, he tapped his f
oot against the floor of the porch.

  Maybe he should give Tradewell a call? Update him on Castille’s first day and suss out some more information about the man?

  Jack unhooked his iPhone from the clip at his waist, but hesitated before dialing. Tradewell had been largely ineffective in getting someone from IA here to start with. Even with his requests and the favors he pulled, it took weeks. Would he be any more helpful in finding out information about Castille? Jack doubted it. Tradewell handed this investigation to Jack because he wanted it handled quietly and efficiently. Bothering him with the background on Castille would likely only irritate him.

  Jack didn’t mind irritating the mayor. They had history. They served in the military together and had gotten on each other’s nerves often during their operations. It was because they both had strong opinions.

  Jack knew he could trust his life to Tradewell. Had many times. This was different. It wasn’t a life or death situation. It was politics, and politics changed the landscape of the battleground.

  He was still debating the call to Tradewell when the phone in his hand vibrated. In the second before the screen lit up, displaying the caller ID, Jack imagined it was Kate, calling to say she wanted to come back. She only wanted to be with him and they would work through whatever was wrong in this moment.

  Then David Alexander’s photo appeared on the screen and his heart clenched. His chest tightened. He tried to hide the disappointment he felt when he slid his finger across the cool glass screen and answered the call.

  “David. Late for a call from you, isn’t it?”

  “I figured this would be the best time to catch you.” David sounded tired. It made Jack realize just how exhausted he felt, himself.

  “Are you somewhere you can talk?” David asked.

  “I am. Sitting by myself on the front porch.”

  “Where’s Kate?” As one of Jack’s best friends, David knew about Jack and Kate’s relationship. He also knew Kate had been staying at Jack’s house.

  Jack debated how much to tell him. He finally decided on basics. “She went home. She’s pretty unhappy with me right now.” He tried to keep his tone even, but the words tightened his chest further. He concentrated on his breathing. Deep, even. It was a trick he learned in the military to calm himself during intense times of stress.

  “Man. That’s not good,” David said. It sounded to Jack like David was moving around. And only half listening to him. “Listen, I wanted to call you because we found some information you need to know.”

  David was a contractor. Some might call him a private investigator, but his work went beyond the usual cheating spouses and insurance fraud. David contracted with State, Federal, and private agencies to investigate and gather information on everything from gang movements to drug smuggling and organized crime. A career in the military, followed by several years in Internal Affairs with various police departments prepared him well for the jobs he took on. People in a position to hire someone like David knew he was good at the job.

  Jack listened as David continued. “Word on the street is that Locos Mamoncetes sent a cleaner to Biloxi to handle the situation with John Juarez’s death. I don’t know who he is, but I thought you might like to know that trouble is headed your way, if it’s not already there.”

  Jack forgot his concerns about Caleb. He forgot everything except Kate. She killed Juarez. That put a target squarely on her back. And she just went home alone. He needed to call her. Now.

  “Jack, are you listening to me?” David’s voice rose from the other end of the connection.

  “Yeah. I need to go.” Jack had to force himself not to disconnect without explanation. “I need to call Kate and warn her.”

  Without waiting for a reply, he disconnected the call and pulled up Kate’s number. The call connected and rang six times before her voicemail picked up.

  “Come on Kate.” Jack dialed again. This time only three rings before he went to voicemail. She wanted him to know she was intentionally ignoring him.

  Call me. It’s urgent. Jack tapped out the quick text message and pressed send. He pushed out of his chair. Paced the length of the porch and then turned back. “Come on Kate!” He stared at the screen willing her to call, but his screen dimmed and he tapped it to keep it awake.

  Nothing. An eternity ticked by, but when he looked at the time in the top, right corner of the phone’s screen, less than a minute had passed.

  He growled in frustration. Nothing. He couldn’t do this. The backlight on the phone dimmed again and the screen went black.

  He turned it back on and dialed Kate’s number again, but this time it rolled straight to voicemail. Kate had turned off her phone. At least, Jack hoped that was what happened.

  THIRTEEN

  Frankie watched as Kate climbed into her car. Dumb luck had him in the right place at the right time. His intention had been only to drive by Jack’s house to see if he could catch a glimpse of Kate. His luck kicked in, and she and Jack were out on the porch. From where his car sat in the public parking spot on the beach road, he didn’t have a great view of them. He could see them, but he couldn’t make out any details at all.

  After a while, Kate went back into the house, returning a few minutes later lugging a suitcase behind her, and now she was pulling onto the beach road. Was she going back to her apartment? Frankie waited a few minutes before pulling into traffic a short distance behind her.

  As he followed along behind her, Frankie thought about how nice being back around her was. He wanted to touch her. To tell her all the plans he had for their future. But the timing was still wrong. For now, he would settle knowing that she was close, but the ache in his chest at the thought of being without her for much longer let him know that it wouldn’t be long before he would have to act.

  How would a life with Kate be? He knew that in the beginning she would be difficult. All women were during the learning stage. They had to be reminded that a woman’s place is at her man’s feet, not in front of him, or behind him. She was decoration for him. A partner, though not equal, that could provide him with the things that he needed to stay focused in this world.

  Frankie continued to daydream about what life with Kate might be like after he broke her current mindset. It aroused him. He wanted their future together to start today. He always loved breaking a new woman in, and he was certain that Kate would provide the biggest thrill yet.

  There was the problem of her job, though. Being a homicide detective made Kate think she was as good as any man, and that attitude wasn’t going to work in their new life together. Frankie also knew from experience that the best way to handle her job was for her to decide to leave it. If he could find a way to get her to walk away, that was one less hurdle he would have to mount in breaking her. He underestimated her. He’d learned that much today. Making her quit wasn’t going to be easy.

  If he could make her look inept in front of her peers, that might do the trick. He already had people in the department making her life difficult. The question now was, what was the one thing that would push her over the edge?

  Frankie imagined a variety of scenarios from planting drugs in her car to making sure evidence was lost in this case she was working now. Those would be frustrations for sure, but would they be enough to make her quit? The drugs might do it, but there was no flourish in it. Nothing that Frankie could point to when the time was right and say, “I did that because it was best for you at the time. See, I’ve always had your best interests at heart.”

  No. That wouldn’t work. Losing evidence could cause problems, too. It might be possible to make it look like Kate’s fault, but it would be equally possible that whoever was responsible for making the evidence disappear would get caught in the crossfire. If the evidence just didn’t exist, though. That might work.

  Frankie chewed on that for a few minutes as cars flashed by on his left. He focused on Kate and let his mind play with the idea. Ahead, her car turned left. He waited through a light and then fol
lowed. She was definitely headed home. Frankie ached to spend some quality time with her, but tonight wasn’t the night. He turned off, leaving her at a red light, and dialed his phone.

  “Yeah?” The voice on the other end said by way of a greeting.

  “I need you to meet me somewhere in a couple of hours, Bubba.” Frankie ran through a checklist of what he needed to do and how long it would take.

  “What for?” Bubba sounded bored. If Frankie had to guess, he would say Bubba was probably asleep on the couch in front of the television when the phone rang. What a waste. If he wasn’t such a lazy slob, Bubba might have made something of himself.

  “I’ll explain when I see you. Just make sure you’re on time.” Frankie disconnected the call and grinned. He had a brilliant plan. One that even Bubba couldn’t screw up.

  He turned onto another street and pressed the accelerator. As he blew through a red light, his phone rang again. He looked at the name on the caller ID and his grin grew larger. Things were getting interesting.

  FOURTEEN

  The apartment complex looked just like any other mid-level complex along the Gulf Coast. The most surprising part was that it was not a gated community. In fact, there was no real security that Ryan could see as he made a slow circle around the giant conglomeration of buildings, looking for the right building number.

  When he found it, he cruised past, looking for her car. After a few hours’ sleep, he’d taken the time to look into her activities over the last few years. He wasn’t surprised by anything he found. Except maybe this complex. As a cop, he would have expected that she lived in a more secure location. He wondered if she got a discount on the rent for being the on-duty security officer?

  That didn’t sound like Kate, and she probably didn’t need it. As a detective, she made a sufficient living to be comfortable if she was responsible with her money. She didn’t used to be the kind of person who spent money on frivolous stuff. Except maybe for her cars. It hadn’t taken long for him to learn of the wreck that totaled her Mustang last year. She’d replaced the classic with a new model Charger. He wondered if she liked the new car as he slid the Monte Carlo into a spot with a good view of her breezeway. How much had Kate changed over the years?