“Caden, just to follow procedure, we’ll do your interview tonight.” Matt’s no-nonsense declaration stifled any argument. “I told the captain you were on surveillance the day Ciera disappeared. I assume you have time-stamped photos to back that up?”
“I do. Damn, Captain carries a long grudge. I wasn’t that bad.”
“You punched a guy in cuffs.” Matt shook his head in the face of his siblings’ grins.
“If I hadn’t we’d have never found that girl, at least not alive. ’Sides, if I’d waited, you would’ve gotten to him first. What kind of example would that set?” Caden smirked at his eldest brother.
“Matt’s the one with all the starch up his ass. And by the way, Abby says that if there’s gonna be any further contact between you and the captain, she wants to be there.” Lucas, the one who usually caused trouble, nodded to Matt.
“You said she’s an attorney now?” Kaylee swallowed hard, guilt at involving Caden in her troubles etched in her furrowed brow.
“Yeah, big sis supervises Caden whenever he gets into trouble,” Billy clarified, giving Caden a knowing smile.
“Knock it off, guys. Kaylee doesn’t need to hear this shit.” Turning to Kaylee, Caden asked, “You said you have the SD card from your camera. Why don’t we take a look and see what’s on it?”
“Sure. It’s right here.” A soft click of the clasp released the locket’s flash card. Kaylee handed it to Lexi. “Sorry, but there’s a ton of shots on here.”
“No problem. Why don’t we sit in the living room, and I can throw them up on the big screen.” Without waiting, Lexi padded to the sofa and tossed the remote to Caden. “I’m not sure what misguided attempts you went through to set this up, so I’ll let you put it on the right channel.”
“You’re kidding. Something electronic you haven’t invaded?” Caden guided Kaylee to sit beside him. “I didn’t think I had any privacy at all.”
“You don’t unless you use Morse code. I just wanted to make you feel good.”
“She was probably afraid of confronting all the porn.” Lucas jutted his chin at Lexi.
“We’ll take a look before heading out. That is if you all can let up on Caden.” Matt dropped into a wing chair. “We checked out the café, the last place you remember, Kaylee. We didn’t find any trapdoors, secret passages, etc. Also, the owner and employees check out.”
“If it’s all right, I’ll duplicate the file while I’m at it.” Lexi’s fingers danced over the keyboard in arrhythmic clicks.
“No problem. I was just taking random shots of the city. Getting a feel for the changes in layout and architecture, some of which is fascinating by the way. There was an old church being renovated out on Devlin Avenue. I’d stopped and talked with the contractor who let me go inside and photograph their progress.”
“We used to go to that church, eons ago.” Ethan smiled at Lexi’s dropped jaw.
“You went to church?” Kaylee’s voice was little more than a squeak. “And it’s still standing?”
“Why do you think it needed repairs? Between Caden and Lucas, no physical sanctuary could withstand the force of their transgressions.” Billy carried his soda over to the couch and sat.
“Enough of the past. Can we focus on the now?” Caden sighed his frustration.
One picture after another defined her path through the city. “Dad made me promise to send pics from the science museum and the Lan Su Chinese garden. It’s spectacular with all the unusual plants. Most were brought over before the import ban.”
“When did you start on this card, Kaylee?” Caden studied each picture yet nothing looked out of place, no one repeatedly appearing in her photos. At the same time, he admired her obvious appreciation of nature.
“It has two days’ worth of photos. I started out at the Hoyt Arboretum and went from there. My brother and I used to love to hike, plus my family lived for camping. We’re all nature freaks.” A certain wistfulness crossed her expression as if remembering an experience she’d never repeat.
“Caden camps and hikes all the time.” Billy nodded to his brother. “He’s at home in the woods, but we’re always afraid the squirrels will stash him in storage for the winter.”
“Hey, that’s in the Denelli shopping center.” Caden nodded toward the screen.
“And how is it you recognize an upscale perfume shop?” Ethan’s dropped jaw echoed his widened gaze.
“I know how to treat a lady, and it doesn’t entail gifting them with soft, furry, little monsters.” Caden’s dig at referencing his shared bond with Lexi earned him a glare from Ethan.
“Let’s see who’s in the background. That man off to the right doesn’t look like he’s shopping for perfume.” Matt leaned forward to get a better look. “Can you blow it up, Lexi?”
“No, Lucas is the explosive expert.” Billy used his hands to mime a large explosion. “Almost cost the family the garage as a kid.”
“I didn’t know you’d added other chemicals to the mix. Bunch of heathens,” Lucas grumbled.
“Figures. Here, I’ve enlarged it.” Lexi snorted amid the siblings’ guffaws.
“Oh my God.” Kaylee gasped and recoiled.
Each man dropped all pretense of lightening the tension in favor of concentrating on the screen’s image.
“Kaylee? Is it the man behind Ciera?” Caden dropped his arm from her shoulder to smooth his hand up and down her spine.
“No. No, see the man window-shopping? His shirt. I recognize it. And—the same greasy-looking hair, same size.” Kaylee shuddered and leaned harder into Caden.
“Lexi, can you—” Matt began.
“Already on it.” Lexi zoomed in on the window reflecting the man’s face. “It’ll be a little grainy until I can clean it up. I think he was in the process of turning, maybe trying to avoid Kaylee taking a direct picture.”
“That’s him! That’s the man from the tunnel and who broke into my house. I remember the crazy eyes and greasy hair, like a combination of stoned, demented, and filthy, all rolled into one.” Kaylee seized Caden’s knee in a death grip.
“Lexi, can you send that to my office and also put it on a flash?” Matt reached for his cell.
“Already done. I’ve sent it to each of you guys at work.”
“That’s my girl.” Ethan smirked as each of his brothers groaned. “What, you think she hasn’t had electronic access to each of your computers since we met? Get real.”
“Fine. I’ll call this in. The sooner we find this creep, the better.” Matt pushed to his feet and made the call from the kitchen.
“Speaking of finding someone—do you think he followed me after I took his picture?” Kaylee’s hand on Caden’s knee tightened.
“Probably,” Lucas replied.
“Let’s look through the rest of these. Though I suspect if anyone else kept tabs, they’d have done it from a greater distance.”
“You said you thought one of them was female?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, but with a weird accent, unless the drugs muddled my thinking.”
Through dozens of pictures of the Portland area and boats on the Columbia River, Caden hoped to see something stand out to his shutterbug, someone repeatedly cropping up in the background. Kaylee’s body remained tight until his tactile reassurance reminded her to take a deep breath.
“Do you think they grabbed me because I got their picture?”
“Could be. But we won’t know until we get more information,” Lucas suggested. “If he knew you’d just arrived, that might’ve made you a target.”
“How could he know?” Kaylee asked.
“You said you haven’t contacted old friends since your arrival. Did you contact rental agencies about a place to stay or did you set that up before moving?” Lexi continued to surf through the photos. “Can you remember any specific conversations with clerks, maybe mentioning that you’d just arrived in town?”
“I found the house through an online ad and contacted the owners while still in Pen
nsylvania. But they’re an older couple who’ve gone on vacation. I certainly wouldn’t suspect them. And yeah, like a stupid kid, I wanted to get to know people. Several of the sales clerks were friendly. We chatted.”
“We’ll start with the clerks in the shopping center.” Caden gave her arm a light squeeze before continuing. “Then we’ll have a talk with the abusive husband.”
“Considering your history, not a good idea, bro,” Billy advised.
“Actually, it’s perfect. I’ll catch him at work. He’ll be flustered enough that he’ll be off guard, and they’ll be witnesses should anything untoward happen.” A smile curved Caden’s lips at the thought of tripping the bastard up during an informal chat.
“Each of us can run this pic through our contacts. Lucas, you hit the streets. Billy, you run him through federal and contact NCB.” Matt ticked off items, one at a time.
“NCB?” Kaylee glanced to Caden for clarification.
“Interpol. We don’t know if these guys are taking girls overseas or keeping them local. Foreign accents might suggest the latter. If they’re dealing internationally, Interpol might have a line on them. It would be nice to start connecting a few dots,” Caden wondered about the size of the cesspool they’d found.
“Migrants and runaways, any marginalized group will add to the number of victims. Most are women and children, and there’s a lot more of it within the states than you’d think,” Ethan added.
“All right. Let’s get to it.” Matt gestured to Lexi. “If you come up with anything else on street cams, let me know.”
“I’ll dig in first thing in the morning.” Spoken through her yawn, Lexi closed out her program in preparation to leave.
“I’ll do Caden’s interview while you guys close up for the night. We don’t want him infecting the mosquito population.” Matt nodded toward the bank of windows in the kitchen. Billy, Lucas, and Ethan closed the windows and curtains, each remarking about what a great spot he had for family gatherings.
Kaylee’s tentative glance spoke volumes. “Um, I’m gonna go help close up.”
“I won’t be long, Gracie. It’s just procedure.”
Matt retrieved his tape recorder and began taking a formal statement. “Don’t leave any of the day’s details out. ’Cuz if anything else pops up, it won’t be me asking the questions, and it won’t be done here.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. But I haven’t seen Ciera in the last year, not even from across the street.”
“That’s definitely in our favor.”
“I’m kinda surprised the captain hasn’t warned me off the case.”
“He can’t. Ciera’s parents carry a lot of weight. And they want you searching.”
“All right. Let’s get this over with.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Okay, folks. Thank you for dropping in. For future reference, a call ahead is always welcome.” Caden stood, the abrupt coolness of Kaylee’s absence felt bone deep. Having most of his family present during his recounting of the day’s events when Ciera disappeared likened to time as a child, chastised by his parents while his brothers snickered.
“Yeah, we’d hate to walk in while you’ve got your nose stuck in a jar of hot sauce to open up your sinuses.” Billy’s eyes reflected the humor of his words.
Each sibling murmured farewell before shuffling out the door, a certain hesitancy in their steps. When the last of his guests had gone, Caden’s sudden awkwardness manifested in blowing his cheeks out before slowly releasing the air.
Until facing his own mortality, the need to know another more intimately than a physical tie had never surfaced. Returning to the couch where Kaylee sat, he suggested, “You want to watch a movie or something?”
“Sure. Let’s see what’s on. I’m too wired to go to bed.”
During his family meeting, small yet significant changes had crumbled the thin veneer of her emotional armor. A gaze she couldn’t hold, slight rounding of her shoulders, and her most noticeable tell, nibbling her bottom lip between her teeth, all asserted her veil of conviction tarnished, her self-confidence deflating. She reached for the remote and flicked through the channels until finding a spy movie.
Caden rested his arm on the sofa’s back. “You want a drink?”
“Nah, I’m good. Now, ya want to tell me why you’re suddenly nervous around me?” A slight wobble in her voice belied the determination of her arms crossed over her chest.
The differences framing their viewpoints could fill an ocean; she dissected her choices, considered her options and weighed each one against a relentless well of practical experience before forming a plan. On the other hand, he’d always chosen whatever path suited him in that moment. “Listen, I know you think of me as a skirt chaser.”
“So what? As your friend, I’d just want to make sure you carried plenty of protection and didn’t tangle with the wrong kind of woman. You should probably own stock in the condom industry.”
Nothing could stop his groan. “Okay. I used to be that guy. The one who’d nail a different girl every week.” Closing his eyes in pain, he continued. “But I’m not like that anymore. I’ve seen too much, experienced too much, and want more from life than meaningless sex.” Crossing one ankle over his other knee and bouncing it expended excess energy.
“Wow. All that before the age of thirty? And since when does a guy use meaningless and sex in the same sentence?” A minute of silence and a slightly furrowed brow registered her obvious understanding with a quiet inhale and open mouth. “Let me guess, your furry experience really did give you a different outlook?”
“It was a life-changing event.” He knew before she opened her mouth what would come next. In divulging the details of his own nightmare, maybe he could lend assurance that surfacing on the other side of terror didn’t make one weak.
But that’s how I feel.
“Might help if you talk about it.” With a hand on his ankle, she waggled his leg.
“Ahh, okay. I was supposed to be protecting Lexi from a psychopathic stalker. Turned out, he was right under our noses the whole time. He’d been working in digital forensics to manipulate evidence to hide his tracks.”
“Holy shit. That’s a sudden upcoming.”
Caden swallowed hard and closed his eyes with the memories flooding his mind. “He showed up at Ethan’s house, drugged us both and poisoned me. When I started to rouse, we were covered with enraged rats wanting to rip us to shreds.” He pointed to the scars on his hands. “If not for Lexi, I would have died.”
“Hence your close connection.”
“Yeah, sometimes it drives Ethan crazy. Even though he knows I don’t think of her in a sexual way. She’s the sister I’ve adopted.”
“And that turned you around?”
“That actually began when I started dating Ciera, after she’d left her abusive ex-boyfriend.”
“But she was into drugs?”
“Not so much at first, or maybe I just didn’t see the signs. It progressed. I can and have gotten into a lot of stupid things in my time, but drugs were never one of them.”
“So now you want more out of life.”
“I want a like-minded individual who stands on equal ground.”
“So you’re not the man-whore—”
“No, I’m not like Lucas. Not even close.”
“When you retched down in the tunnels…I know my time down there will give me sleepless nights. Do you still have nightmares?”
“Not as frequently. Most nights, I just fall asleep on the couch instead of sleeping in my bed.” More like—every night.
He hadn’t realized he’d been caressing her shoulder until his fingers snagged in her braid. His absentminded search for comfort had led to contact with Kaylee. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s relaxing.” She leaned into him for long moments of contemplative silence before admitting. “I’m wondering if I’ll ever stay in bed all night again.” Spoken hesitantly, there existed a wealth of uncertainty in her words.
“It’ll take time, but you will.” He didn’t tell her he slept on the couch because he didn’t want to get too comfortable in his bed. Staying downstairs at night forced a lighter sleep and afforded the ability to see anything coming at him. With Kaylee’s visit, he’d stay upstairs to be closer to her room, knowing she might wake up screaming.
A brief conversation with Ethan one day had revealed Lexi’s suffering of the occasional aftereffect of their shared ordeal. Fortunately for her, nightmares weren’t as often, and she was easily distracted with exercise or cuddling.
He couldn’t bring himself to keep a woman for distraction. When faced with the brink of death, he’d grappled with an epiphany to discover what he’d been missing and the specifics needed to feel complete. His daily struggle with righting his world had precluded him from joining the dating pool. “We have a lot to do tomorrow, but I say we go have a bit of fun in the afternoon.”
“Yeah, I’m ready to get my mind off all that’s been happening.”
A little squirm settled her solidly in the nook of his frame while the contagiousness of his yawn didn’t dampen her obvious resolve to remain downstairs. He couldn’t force himself to urge her to bed when her body molded to his side and centered his soul.
“I usually watch a streaming nature show at night.” On the off chance the producers decided to showcase his nemeses, he kept the volume low, which also allowed his mind to regulate the sound to white noise and for a dozing rest to eventually come.
Other than his sister, he labeled few women as friends. They were either acquaintances or ex-girlfriends. Lexi was the exception, partly because of their shared past, and partly due to her being Ethan’s soul mate.
“I love nature shows. Reese was studying to be a vet. He was gonna transfer out here to finish.” As if seeking shelter from an encroaching enemy, Kaylee turned her face to his chest.
The pain in her voice tightened the knot in his throat. She’d endured so much yet didn’t complain. Knowing she didn’t want to be alone, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, holding her tight for the mere purpose of offering whatever strength she would take.
Bound By Shadows (The McAllister Justice Series Book 2) Page 11