She struggled to maintain her composure. “I tried to put pressure on my father’s wound. There was blood everywhere, and he was having trouble breathing.” She cleared her throat.
“I thought Acosta was just some crazy, deranged man until his connection to David was made clear to me by Detective Lester the next morning. I was at the hospital, my clothes still covered in blood, and I’d just been told my father was dead when Lester took me to the station and questioned me for the first time.” She should have known something was wrong when he insisted she come in when she was at her weakest. And certainly when the policewoman had come in and made her strip and took her clothes and tested her hands for gunshot residue.
“He kept asking about the backpack, but I’d never seen any backpack, had no idea what he was talking about. I wasn’t driving my car, I’d been driving my mother’s for the last two weeks, because I was trying to avoid David. If he put a backpack in the back of my usual car, someone stole it. Otherwise my mom would have found it and turned the money in.
“But I don’t believe there ever was a backpack. I believe David spent the money on drugs and partying, and threw me as a bone to Acosta as revenge for breaking things off with him.”
What better way to keep a rape victim from testifying against him, than to pay her off with drug money?
There. She’d acknowledged what happened. It didn’t help the pain to go away, it only solidified what had happened to her.
What else could the money have been for?
She repeated the same information she shared with Zach the day before, and the police over and over again years before. She told him about Detective Lester’s determination to prosecute her, his harassment, his attempts to end her education. The internal affairs investigation.
“Why didn’t you demand a settlement?” Sherman asked. “I mean other than court costs and your lawyer’s fee?”
So he had already looked into the internal affairs investigation. “It wasn’t about money, Detective. It was about Lester’s unrelenting harassment. I just wanted it to end. For me, for my family. We’d been through enough. I can work and make my own money. I’ve never expected to be given anything for free. I just wanted the right to live my life. He was just as determined to make sure I couldn’t.
“Two years later, when he testified at Acosta’s trial, he made it plain it wasn’t over, that it would never be over. He pointed the finger at me as an accessory. Painted me as part of the whole drug thing, even though every part of my life had been investigated over and over, and no evidence of any kind was ever uncovered. There was never any connection, because all I did was date the wrong man. It was a five-week mistake that cost me dearly. My father…. It’s still costing me to this day.” She closed her eyes against the rush of emotion.
Finally she cleared her throat and continued. “During the original investigation, I offered to take a lie detector test. They refused to give me one. They tested my blood and took hair samples to see if I’d taken drugs. I hadn’t. Lester ignored everything.”
“My family has never recovered from my father’s death or the things Lester did.” They’d never forgiven her for it, either. She was a reminder of what they’d lost and what they went through afterward. “He harassed them every bit as much as he did me.”
“Then why did you come back to San Diego?” he asked.
“My mother begged me to. And when Dr. Dorsey asked me if I wanted to buy into the business, I told myself the chance that Lester would find out I was back were slim. I prayed he’d moved on. So I said yes. I just wanted to be close to my mom.”
Her throat hurt, her head pounded, and she felt slightly sick. She fought it back and reached for her purse. She withdrew the envelope and note.
“Sherry, one our receptionists, said a Detective Schneider and another policeman came by asking questions about me on Friday. Her description of the second policeman matched Lester. On Saturday, Zach and I stopped by a grocery store, and I ran in to get something.
“Lester was there. I don’t know if he was already there, or followed me inside, but when I saw him, I slipped through the aisles so I wouldn’t have to speak to him. I spotted him actively looking for me, so I pretended to drop my purse so he wouldn’t see me when he came by the checkout line. Then yesterday Sherry found this note in the mail, but it hadn’t been mailed, just slipped into the stack delivered yesterday. After I got out of surgery yesterday, I came here to see Zach, and Lester showed up with you.”
Nausea overwhelmed her and she rose. “I have to have a minute…Please excuse me.” She rushed down the hall to the bathroom.
*
Zach forced himself to stay seated when every instinct insisted he go check on Piper. Instead he turned his attention on Detective Sherman. The longer Piper had spoken, and the paler she’d become, the more ferocious his anger grew.
“I know there are issues with you opening a closed case. Piper’s father’s death and Costa’s arrest are cut and dried. Henderlight’s arrest is old news, too. But are you going to look into any of this, or are you just going to allow Lester to jack her around again?”
Sherman’s gaze went flat and dispassionate. “I’m going to look into everything, Ensign.”
“Lester knows the steps to take to isolate his target. He used them all before. He harassed the people around her until they got out of his way and left Piper to cope alone. Destroyed their trust so they’d stay away. Then he had free rein. Seven years ago, he made it so difficult for Piper’s family, she shut herself out of their lives rather than allow him to harass them any longer. I may be shipping out in three or four weeks, and she’ll be alone. At his mercy again. That note proves he means to pursue this again.”
When Sherman remained silent, Zach continued. “This is not what being a police officer is about. It’s about finding facts and evidence to prove guilt. Piper’s been investigated. Several times, and in several different ways. She doesn’t know anything about the money. I’d bet my SEAL pin on it. You need to go back to David Henderlight and find out who does know, so she can put this behind her.”
Sherman’s brows, much darker than his hair, clenched in a frown, his first show of emotion during the entire interview. “You don’t need to tell me what my job is, Ensign.” He paused. “How do I know you weren’t the one to write the note to stir the pot on Lester?”
“You don’t. But I’ll be glad to give you a handwriting sample. I knew about Piper’s father’s death, but I didn’t know anything about the harassment until yesterday, after you left when Piper told me the whole story. They don’t put internal affairs investigations in the paper.”
Sherman reached for the note, but didn’t ask for a handwriting sample. “I need to take this with me.”
Zach nodded. “I scanned and copied it after Piper showed it to me yesterday.”
Sherman reached inside his jacket for a notebook and wrote out a receipt.
They continued to stare at each other while they waited for Piper to return.
“Was Lester ever partnered with Detective Schneider?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
At least he’d gotten that much.
Piper returned, composed but pale.
Detective Sherman rose. “I need to take the note, Dr. Bertinelli.” He extended the receipt he’d written.
She nodded and accepted it.
“What store was it you stopped at on Saturday?”
“Vons, close to the Silver Strand.”
“I’ll be in touch to update you and your partners on the break-in.”
Her voice sounded hoarse. “Thank you, Detective.”
Detective Sherman saw himself out.
Piper sat on the couch and raked her hair back from her face. “Thank you for being here with me. You’d think this would get easier, but it doesn’t.”
“It was a traumatic time for you, and having to relive it over and over again may help in some ways, but current events have have brought the pain and
the stress back to the surface.”
She stared at her hands as she clenched and unclenched them. “Do you ever have flashbacks?”
“Yeah. I’ve had them. And I have memories that leap out and grab me now and then. And dreams. Some of things I’ve seen and had to do are hard to put away. Which is why we go through psych evals periodically to make sure we’re steady.”
He gripped her hands. “We have some time. What kind of sailor are you?”
She brushed a long strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ve only been on a boat twice, but I didn’t get sick.”
“Good. You’ll be fine, but we’ll take some Dramamine with us just in case.” He drew her to her feet.
Gracie raised her head from her paws, her ears going up. The hopeful look on her face made him feel guilty as hell. He’d been taking her with him everywhere he went, but on board a boat would be a little risky. He bent to give her a quick rub. “Sorry, baby. Not this time. But we’ll only be gone a couple of hours.”
As they came out of the apartment and walked to his SUV, a red Hyundai zipped by, and he followed its progress down the street. Three cars down the street, a man sat in an older Chevy Tahoe too far away for him to clearly see his features.
Zach blocked Piper’s view as he opened the SUV door. She’d had enough for one day.
After he got her settled in the car, he took out his phone and pretended to be checking a text while he took a picture of the car. He’d told Sherman Lester wouldn’t give up. He hoped he wasn’t right.
Chapter 27
‡
The wind stung Piper’s cheeks and had a briny smell to it. Chilled, she tugged together the desert camouflage shirt Zach loaned her and buttoned it. It hung down over her hands, almost to her knees. Piper braced her hip against the aluminum support for the awning overhead and enjoyed the view from the fly bridge atop the cabin cruiser, where she could see past the bow. The water was a little choppy, but she found the bouncing motion of the bow stimulating.
Zach motioned for her to come closer and offered her a hand. He drew her in front of him and placed her hands on the wheel, speaking directly into her ear so she could hear him. “You’re the captain. Just stay parallel to the shoreline.”
How was she supposed to do that? They were far enough out to be out of the ebb and flow of the surf, but still within sight of land. The distance seemed impossible to judge.
He rested his hands on her shoulders and she relaxed. Though his touch wasn’t sexual, and there were layers of cloth between her skin and his hands, she still felt safe, a powerful experience, since she hadn’t felt truly secure with a man in years. But she did with Zach. Safe led into a giddy tug of desire that heated her blood and had an ache of need blossoming inside her. Not just for sex, but other things, too.
The mistakes of the past didn’t seem so horribly insurmountable with him standing at her back.
Piper caught her breath when a black and white shape leapt out of the water in front of the bow of the boat, then another, racing ahead of them breaching in the spray of the bow and the waves. She was surprised by their size until others of every size and length suddenly appeared around them, breaking the water with sleek power. Beneath the surface she could see their powerful tails working.
“What should we do?”
“Just keep going. There’s probably a school of fish they’ve been following, and they’ve decided to race us.”
“What if we hit one?”
“We won’t unless we make a sudden turn.”
“Oh, my God, they’re beautiful.” Her heart raced. And every time one got close to the boat, she caught her breath.
Finally the dolphins cut away, disappearing beneath the surface as quickly as they had appeared.
“That—” She drew a breath. “Wow. That was amazing.”
Zach’s smile mirrored her own “Yeah, it was. In all the years I’ve been fishing in this area, it’s only happened to me one other time. Do you want me to take over now?”
She nodded and realized she was shaking. She’d been afraid of hitting one of the dolphins if she turned the wheel. But she was excited, too.
Zach guided the cabin cruiser around in a large U and headed out to sea.
Piper nestled in close to him. “Thanks for bringing me out here.”
Zach’s arm tightened around her.
Her breathing came easier. The feeling of oppression from the emotional pain eased. She breathed in the sea air, releasing the last of her tension.
She’d never met anyone so willing to put himself in harm’s way for someone else. But it was what he did for a living. It wouldn’t be right for Zach to try and shield her and be rewarded by having his life disrupted. She couldn’t permit herself to depend on him. She had to deal with this herself. But not yet. Lester couldn’t reach her out here. She was safe for these few moments.
Zach slowed the cabin cruiser and the boat rose and fell as it was caught in the wash of its own wake. His arm tightened around her, holding her steady. “I’m going to drop anchor. You okay with hanging out here for a little while?”
Piper nodded.
He released her and descended the ladder to the deck below.
*
Zach tried to judge Piper’s mood while he unfolded two deck chairs and waited for her to take a seat.
“After I get back from deployments, I spend a lot of time out on the water. As soon as you cut ties to land, it’s like you’ve cut ties to things weighing on you, and you’re able to leave them behind. And when you get way out here,” He nodded out to the horizon. “Where you can’t see land anymore, the quiet sets in, and you’re able to think without a dozen voices yammering in your head. So when I have to make important decisions, I want to be out here.”
“I can understand that.”
“Sky diving is the same way. You’re cocooned in your gear, and you’re surrounded by nothing but open space and your chute above you as you float down.”
“So you won’t be afraid to jump again?”
He didn’t want her to fixate on how dangerous some of his training was, or his job. He stubbornly brushed aside the reasons he felt that way. “No. My hip was a freak accident. You have a greater risk of getting killed in a car accident than skydiving.”
She looked out to sea. Sunlight glinted off the warm, chestnut highlights in her hair and kissed her light olive skin. The wind had whipped color back in her cheeks. He could spend the rest of the day just looking at her, even though her eyes were shadowed by what must have been as sleepless a night as he had.
Her sherry-tinted eyes swung to him. “That’s the feeling I get from working with animals. At UC Davis we worked with horses. Some of them had been abused, others had behavior issues, some were really ill. But there were times when I could look into their eyes and make a connection. There they were, these fourteen hundred-pound animals, trusting me to do what was right for them. And there was a kind of peace working with them. Solving their health issues. Earning their trust.”
The stress seemed to drain from her just talking about it. They fell into an easy silence that lasted a few minutes.
“You need to walk away from me, Zach.”
The calm resolve he read in her expression punched him harder than the combined emotional fallout of the last two days.
He scooted his chair to face her and caught her hands. “We don’t know for certain Lester will come after you again.” He couldn’t bring himself tell her about the car across the street from his house, or that he was certain it had followed them to the marina. If he did, the moment they docked, she’d run as far from him as she could.
One perfect weekend together wasn’t enough. They deserved more. “We don’t know Sherman will refuse to look into the things you told him today.”
“They always stick together. It’s their code.” She withdrew her hands and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s like being caught in a spider’s web, and you’re the fly. It doesn’t matter that you’re inn
ocent. He can twist the law to point a finger at you, whether you’ve done anything or not. You can’t risk your career, Zach.”
His career was important. He’d worked hard to become a SEAL. But what he was made it impossible for him to retreat. A SEAL never gave up. “We need to take things one day at a time. Okay?”
He read the struggle in her face. “Is this why you were reluctant to go out with me?”
“Yes. It’s part of the reason I’ve held everyone at a distance for a long time.”
“How long will you let this convince you to put your life on hold? I’m not talking about your career; I’m talking about your life.”
She seemed reluctant to answer, but murmured grudgingly, “I haven’t felt like I had a choice. Part of being in a relationship with someone is being able to share the truth about yourself. Once I shared my truths, no one wanted to stick around.”
“I want to stick around and help you resolve this, Piper.”
“Why?” She searched his face.
“Because I think we’ve both wasted enough time dwelling on the past. Don’t you?”
“We both know it’s not so simple, Zach.”
His dad had said the same thing. Given him warning after warning. Telling him to stay clear of all of it, of her.
“So what do you plan to do? Run? Sell your part of your practice and leave San Diego?”
“If I have to.” Her expression had gone blank when she looked up. “I’ll have to distance myself from my family again, until I know what’s going to happen. I wish I didn’t have to say this, but it’s easier. I don’t have to worry about how they’re being treated.”
He wasn’t surprised.
“Are you going to tell your partners?”
“Dr. Dorsey already knows the whole story. He was one of the professors Lester interviewed. If Lester pursues me again, I won’t have a choice but to tell the others.”
Breaking Out (Military Romantic Suspense) (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 6) Page 24