The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon citm-4

by Leann Sweeney

  People from his past. The past he’d refused to talk about since I’d known him. I said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this angry.”

  “Oh, I am more than angry. But anger is wasted energy. Maybe talking about this with you will straighten everything out in my head and help me get rid of the anger.” He chugged the rest of his beer and set the empty can on the coffee table. He reached over Merlot and took my hand. His fierce grip was cold and wet from the beer and I shivered a little. He went on. “I’ve been pretty good in the past at keeping stuff locked away in a corner of my mind, but there’s a couple of things I should have shared. Problems. It’s time, I guess.”

  “Go for it.” I turned a little more on the sofa, tucking a leg underneath me. Merlot squeaked his displeasure but moved to accommodate me. He knew I was stressed and wanted to be as close as possible. Sort of like Tom, I thought.

  He smiled briefly. Then his eyes seemed to focus beyond me, as if he were remembering. A few seconds passed before he spoke. “I was married once to a woman named Hilary. You’d think a cop would know a liar right off the bat, but I was stupid in love.”

  A small voice in the back of my head was asking, A wife? This is big. Bigger than I imagined. “How many years ago?” I said softly.

  “The marriage or the divorce?” He didn’t meet my gaze.

  “Either, both. It doesn’t matter.” I squeezed his hand. “If you start talking and keep going, the telling might get easier.”

  He met my gaze. “You are nothing like her and that is so good.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, here goes. I met her while I was still on the force in North Carolina. I’d moved around a lot. Been on several different police forces. See, I followed my mother. Felt like I had to protect her from herself. She’d marry every man she’d meet, get tired of the husband of the month and move on after the divorce. Did that five times. The last man was actually decent, though. Helped her get sober, gave her a good life and then he up and died. The only time she didn’t run off, and the guy dies.” Tom shook his head.

  “All this happened in North Carolina, then?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “But,” I said, “she’s been with Ed now for a while. They seem to care a lot for each other.” Ed owned Ed’s Swap Shop and was one of the most generous, kindest men I’d ever met. Strange guy, yes, but he had a big heart and was no more strange than Karen.

  “I guess I’m not including Ed since he’s part of the here and now,” Tom said. “He’s the reason I ended up in Mercy. Following Mom again. She met Ed when he came to an antique auction in North Carolina, and they had an instant connection. She moved here, bought a house and when I decided I was done with police work, done with Hilary, I came here, too.”

  “I have to say, you are a good son, looking out for your mom for so many years,” I said.

  “My mom didn’t always make good choices, but she and I were always close,” he said. “She’s settled in for the long haul with Ed and I am so glad she found another decent man. Guess I’m talking about her past because I don’t want to talk about Hilary. I better share what happened in the past few days, though. Maybe then I’ll have the wits to solve a few pressing problems.”

  “Start with when you met Hilary or I might get confused. You said this was in North Carolina?” I prompted.

  “Yes. In court. I was testifying on a case,” he said with disgust. “That should have been a red flag. She was a witness against her former boss. His business was more than a little illegal since money was being laundered every other hour. I told myself she’d been a pawn, had no idea what her boss was doing until he started asking her to shred anything shredable. Thinking she was innocent was my first mistake. She had these eyes, this way about her. I was toast the minute I saw her.”

  “How long before you two married?” I asked. Something in my voice must have bothered Syrah because he reached a paw out and rested it on my shoulder. Syrah was right. Hearing about Tom’s marriage bothered me. No, the fact that he hadn’t told me before today is what bothered me.

  “Three months after we met, we tied the knot. Three short months. Same pattern my mother followed. But the love affair wasn’t simply with her. She had a twelve-year-old kid. I cared about Finn—short for Finnian—and missed another red flag. If his mother was as fantastic as I thought she was, why was Finn the most melancholy kid on the planet?”

  Not only an ex-wife, but a boy he loved. Wow. “Bet you made Finn less sad. You do that for me all the time.”

  For the first time since we sat on the sofa, I felt Tom relax. He even smiled. Chablis wasn’t fooled by the smile because she crawled off my lap, over a disgruntled Merlot and onto Tom’s. She sensed he needed comfort. He stroked her champagne-colored fur with his free hand. “Finn and I bonded. Did all the father-son stuff. Baseball, Nintendo, hiking, camping. Looking back, meeting Finn was the best thing that came out of marrying Hilary.”

  Though he needed to know about the other problems, like the half brother who had taken up residence at his place and his sick cat, my news could wait. Tom had lots more to say about the past. “How long were you and Hilary married?” I asked.

  “A year,” he said. “Her true colors came out—and hers were mostly black. What did Shakespeare say? Something about smiling and smiling and being a villain? That’s Hilary.”

  “Those irreconcilable differences caused the divorce?” I asked, worried I was wandering too far into painful territory.

  “That and the fact she cheated on me with my partner, Nolan Roth.” He closed his eyes, jaw tight. “I almost stayed for Finn’s sake, because I understood why he was so miserable. She felt nothing for him. But I knew the marriage couldn’t work. When we divorced, leaving him with her was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I feel guilty about it to this day. But I had no choice. I hadn’t adopted him—though I should have—and had no parental rights. Now he’s disappeared and Hilary and Nolan think I encouraged him to run away.” Tom stared down at the purring Chablis. “I didn’t, but I wish I had. Wish I’d found a way to take him away long ago.”

  “He ran away? How old is he?” I said.

  “Just turned eighteen,” he said.

  “And why would those two think you had anything to do with his disappearance?” I asked.

  “Because even though I had no legal standing as far as Finn was concerned and was warned to keep my distance—because Hilary said I was a ‘negative influence’—I’ve kept in touch with him. I thought Hilary didn’t know. Obviously she did. Her jerk of a husband took me by surprise the other day. Came busting into my house.”

  “Like broke in?” I said. “How frightening.”

  “Yup. He had a gun,” Tom said. “Searched my house, looking for Finn. Said he logged on to Finn’s computer and saw all the e-mails between us—e-mails going back a long time. Stupid to use e-mail, but Finn told me those two completely ignored him, couldn’t have cared less about what he was doing in his spare time.”

  “You hadn’t heard from Finn, though?” I said.

  “No. What Nolan told me was the scary part—how Finn went missing in the middle of the night. I asked a lot of questions and got no answers except for a pistol whipping. Long story short, we drove in my car all the way to North Carolina to where he and Hilary and Finn lived.” Tom parted his dark hair near his temple and I saw a large gash.

  I winced. “Looks like you could have used stitches.”

  “Too late for doctoring now, but you can guess I was pretty messed up. He tied a rope from my knee to the steering wheel and cuffed my right hand to the other side of the wheel. We drove for hours like that.”

  “What about his car?” I was thinking about the white Ford I saw at Tom’s place, but I had assumed it belonged to Bob. “And why did Nolan need to take you all the way to North Carolina?”

  “Okay, going where Nolan and Hilary lived was my idea. A stupid one, looking back. See, I was afraid Nolan was aware how close Finn and my mother were and that he’d end up at h
er house. Maybe he’d terrorize her trying to get information. I had to protect my mother from him.”

  “There’s nothing stupid about protecting Karen,” I said. “How did you convince him to leave Mercy with you?”

  “I told him how I was in the security business and could hack into Finn’s computer and discover information from instant messages or any social networking sites Finn frequented, maybe find him through his Internet friends. I called my neighbor to take care of Dashiell and phoned Kara and asked her to handle the business.”

  “Why did you drive, though?” I said.

  “I told him in this small town people would know I’d disappeared if my car and my van were in the driveway and I was out of touch,” he said. “So we ditched Nolan’s car near the creek and came back to my house. I was dumb enough to think we’d take my van with all my tools. I told Nolan I needed them. But remember, he was a cop once. He knew I probably had at least one gun in the van, not to mention communication equipment. He wasn’t about to offer me any opportunity to get the jump on him. Plus, Nolan figured we wouldn’t have to stop if we took the Prius. For the first time ever, I was pissed off about having a full tank of gas.”

  “Did you find anything on Finn’s computer once you got to their place?” I asked.

  “I pretended to go through the motions, checked out files and chat rooms and Web sites and told him there was nothing. About then the lightbulb finally came on for Nolan. He figured out I was stalling. So the beatings started—and they weren’t because he thought I could tell him anything. He hated me for sending him to jail.” Tom gave a mirthless laugh. “He enjoyed the heck out of kicking my ass, too.”

  “You sent him to jail?” I said, feeling my eyes widen in surprise.

  He nodded. “Oh yeah. Nolan Roth was a dirty cop and I turned him in. He was sure it was because he was sleeping with Hilary. It wasn’t. I’d already made plans to leave her. Nope, I ratted him out because there’s no place on any police force for common criminals.”

  “How hard was it to do something like that?” I asked.

  “I never lost any sleep,” he said.

  “Okay, so what about your ex? Did she… participate in your… abduction?”

  “She was too smart to show her face once we arrived at their house. But she probably had a hand in this. Lucky for me, the second night I was there, Nolan drank too much and passed out. I’d been working on those zip tie restraints every chance I got and they finally gave. I took off. Would have been easier if I’d left in my own car, but Nolan had my keys, my phone and my wallet. I couldn’t risk waking him to get to them.”

  “Why didn’t you go straight to the police?” I said.

  “Are you forgetting I was a cop, too? I know from experience that going to the North Carolina police would put the focus on an ex-con’s assaulting me rather than on finding Finn. I’d be spending time doing paperwork and talking to one person after another. Nope. I need to find Finn. That’s my priority.”

  I was silent, trying to make sense of all he’d told me.

  “I know. I know,” Tom said. “I should have told you all this before, but I—I couldn’t. I kept it locked away, afraid to open that particular compartment in my brain. I left a kid with a woman I hated, left Finn in what I should have predicted would turn out to be a bad situation. How I wish I’d done things differently.”

  “You kept in touch with Finn. You cared. Now I’m wondering how I can help. Because this is awful,” I said. “Do you know if this Nolan Roth or Hilary went to the North Carolina police about Finn’s disappearance before Roth came after you?”

  “I doubt they’d do anything even remotely responsible. Plus, Finn’s of legal age. Thousands of people disappear every year, most often by choice. Cops always consider kids Finn’s age to be runaways rather than missing persons unless there’s absolute proof of foul play. I don’t like the attitude, but more often than not, it proves to be true.”

  Tom stroked Chablis gently. He seemed more like the Tom I knew now that he’d gotten some of this difficult story out—a man in control and ready to problem solve.

  These revelations were troubling, though, and I said, “This missing kid is not a priority to the police, and the people searching for him are… well, plain mean. Any chance Roth really cares about Finn and wants to find him?”

  “Not a chance in hell. I don’t know what my ex and Nolan are up to, but I intend to find out.”

  I gently touched his swollen cheek. “So Nolan came straight for you—and came hard,” I said.

  “Not because he cares about Finn, though. A lot of his actions were focused on revenge. But I’m wondering if Finn might have taken cash they’d stashed in the house. Missing money would have motivated them, for sure. Could have been serious money, too, since Nolan might still be working for his drug-dealing friends. See, he went to jail for stealing drugs from our busts and then selling them.”

  “Sounds like a terrible man.” My gaze traveled over his battered face. “He did all this to you?”

  “Yup. I’ll say this: The coward had to restrain me or he’d look worse than me right now.” He held out his hands to show me the angry red marks from the zip ties.

  “You’ve got to tell Mike Baca about this right away,” I said.

  Tom shook his head and was vehement when he said, “No. I’m handling this.”

  I could see he was getting upset again. I touched a bruise with the tip of my finger and said, “I know you want to deal with this on your own. I’ll help you. But first, there are a few things I have to tell you.”

  He pressed a hand against his right rib cage and grimaced. “Whoa. I’m feeling Nolan’s boot in my side all over again. Is something as wrong as your face is telegraphing?”

  I took a deep breath and offered a small smile. “It’s not all bad news. See, I was so worried when I couldn’t reach you that I went to your house.”

  “Uh-oh. Is Dashiell all right?” he said.

  “Good news there. See, Dashiell did have a little blood sugar trouble, but he’s with Doc Jensen now and he’ll be fine.” I rested a hand on his forearm. “There’s something else, though.”

  “My mother? Did Nolan come back here and—”

  “No. It doesn’t concern Karen—well, not directly. When I went to your house, I met your brother. Seems he’s made himself at home.”

  “Which brother?”

  Five

  Which brother? Yet another surprise. “Bob,” I said.

  Tom’s jaw muscles flexed. “Figures. I’m not sure I want to hear anything about Bob right now. Let me call Doc about Dashiell and then maybe you can give me a lift home. I’ll deal with my brother face-to-face.”

  “Of course,” I said. “There isn’t much to tell except he seems to have made himself comfortable over at your place.”

  “Sounds like the same old Bob. Can I use your phone?” Tom called Doc Jensen at home—it was after six now—and learned Dashiell was doing well and could be released tomorrow.

  I set out treats for the cats before Tom and I left, feeling guilty about dragging them around in the van all last week. We still had one more trip coming up in a few days and I was already considering leaving them at home. Maybe Kara would care for them.

  Though I asked Tom about any other brothers as we headed toward his house, he said he just couldn’t talk about his family right now. I respected this. Though I had no ex-husbands in my past, I’d never mentioned my parents’ divorce or me moving in with my grandparents when I was a child. But I vowed to do so once the current problems were solved—and I was sure Tom would find Finn. He wouldn’t quit until he did. We’d only gotten halfway to his house when Candace and Morris’s patrol car flew by us heading in the opposite direction, lights flashing and siren squealing.

  “I wonder what’s happening,” I said.

  “If I’m lucky, they’re taking Bob to jail for breaking into my house,” Tom said. “Though I doubt they’d fire up all their lights for something so mundane. N
ope, whatever it is, it’s more important than Bob Cochran—which will probably be a shock to him.”

  “You’re confirming what I’d already decided about him,” I said. Okay, but I was still curious about the family members he’d never mentioned.

  “My brother Bob is— What the hey?” Tom said. He pointed up ahead. “Look. On the side of the road.”

  My headlights revealed a figure walking on the shoulder. He wore a dark hoodie and seemed to be burdened by a heavy backpack. Trotting beside this person was a dog.

  “I sure hope that’s who I think it is,” Tom said. “Pull onto the shoulder ahead of him, okay?”

  “You recognize this person?” I asked.

  “Nolan mentioned Finn’s dog was missing, too. He even looked for dog poop in my backyard when he was sure Finn and the dog were at my house. Finn once texted me a picture and the dog was white with spots—just like this one.”

  We closed in and indeed it was a small, spotted dog. I slowed and carefully steered off the road in front of them.

  Once I’d come to a halt, Tom said, “Let me check on these two. Can you stay in the van?”

  “No problem.” I watched in the mirror as he approached the small-framed young man. Within seconds, he wrapped the boy in an embrace. The little dog rose on its hind legs and jumped like a jack-in-the-box beside them. The sight melted my heart.

  Soon Finn and his dog climbed into my backseat. He pulled down the hood of his sweatshirt and I saw he had big brown eyes and sandy hair, which was longish and messed up from being trapped under a hood. I greeted them with a smile and a Carolina, “Hey there.” I wanted to reach out to the dog so he could smell me, but he was panting and focused so intently on Finn, I figured a greeting could wait.

  Tom reclaimed the front passenger seat. He sounded almost giddy with elation when he said, “This is my good friend I always talk about, Finn. Jillian Hart. Jillian, this is Finn and his best friend, Yoshi.”