Lethal Lawman

by Carla Cassidy

  Frank smiled. “Sorry—didn’t mean to talk to you like you weren’t present.”

  “So, what do you think of the idea, Marlene?” Jimmy asked. “I think we all agree that we can trust Travis to keep his mouth shut and that nobody will know you’re in one of those rooms above the bar.”

  “And I can have a thirst for a drink every night of the week and sneak upstairs to check on you,” Frank added.

  “Sounds to me like you all have already made the decision,” she replied.

  “You’ve said your aunt’s house is probably no longer safe for you, and I’m afraid to have you here for any length of time since we were together on the night of the shooting,” Frank replied.

  “I still wonder if maybe we’re all overreacting a bit,” she replied. “Maybe the shooting at the shop was nothing more than an attempted robbery gone bad and I wasn’t the specific target.”

  “We might consider that if it wasn’t for the note you received,” Jimmy said.

  “And the new note I found taped to the police-station door this morning,” Steve added soberly.

  Marlene’s heartbeat quickened and the coffee she’d just swallowed sat like a heavy rock in her stomach. “What note?” she asked, even though she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know.

  Steve withdrew a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “This is just a copy. The original has already been bagged and sent off to the Hershey lab. There was no name on the front of the envelope, but it’s obvious it’s from the same person who left the note at your apartment.”

  He used two fingers and shoved the folded paper across the top of the table toward her. She looked at Frank, whose features had hardened with a grim expression.

  Her heartbeat accelerated yet again as she moved the note in front of her and opened it. Big red letters splashed like fresh blood before her eyes, just like the ones that had been on the previous note.

  “AN EYE FOR AN EYE,” and it was signed, “The Avenging Angel.”

  “We have to assume this note was meant for you,” Frank said, his voice deep and somber. “It’s just like the one you received before, only this time the person has identified himself.”

  “‘The avenging angel’? What kind of an identification is that?” she asked in frustration. “We’re obviously dealing with some kind of a nut.”

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t make the threat any less real,” Jimmy replied.

  “‘An eye for an eye.’ It sounds like this person thinks I did something to them.” Marlene knew she was repeating herself, but she was also trying to make sense of this newest development.

  “Nut or not, it’s obvious this person not only thinks you did something to him but he wants payback, and the best thing we can continue to do is keep you someplace secret, someplace safe where we’re the only ones who know you are there. I think one of the rooms upstairs at the Wolf’s Head Tavern is our best bet,” Frank said.

  He looked at her, as if trying to convey a sense of comfort to her. “I’m game for whatever,” she said, a surge of strength rising up inside her. She’d work their plan, whatever it might be, to get to the bottom of this. “I just want you all to find this creep and figure out why he has targeted me.”

  “That’s our plan,” Jimmy said and then drained his cup of coffee.

  “We’re going to check into Patricia Burns and see if we can find any indication that she might have had something to do with your aunt’s disappearance, but for now we’re keeping our main focus on what’s happening with you,” Steve said.

  “So when do I make the move to Travis’s room?” she asked, a touch of weariness in her voice.

  “I’m leaving here now to go talk to Travis and set things up,” Jimmy said as he got up from the table. “I should have things arranged by later this morning.”

  “Whoever it is, he must know that you have some sort of connection with Frank, otherwise the note wouldn’t have been left at the police station.” Steve frowned thoughtfully. “And I think it’s important that Frank goes through today like usual. He needs to go into work and have nothing to do with us moving you.”

  “Then you apparently have a plan,” Frank said as he looked at Steve.

  “I’ll take her with me to the Dollhouse for the day. She can hang around upstairs. There’s no way anyone is going to get through Roxy and the other staff to harm you, and since today is my day off, it wouldn’t be unusual for me to hang out at the Dollhouse until Roxy gets off work.” Steve’s blue eyes held her gaze. “Nobody is going to hurt you or Roxy while I’m on the premises.”

  “And after that, I’ll swing by the Dollhouse after dark and pick you up,” Jimmy said, picking up where Steve had left off. “We’ll sneak you through the back door into the kitchen and up the stairs at the Wolf’s Head Tavern and nobody should be the wiser. Since it’s Saturday night, the place will be packed, and that only makes it easier for us to get in and upstairs without anyone paying attention to us.”

  “What about the kitchen help?” Marlene asked, looking for any weakness that might be in their plan. The steps that led to the upstairs room were just inside the back door in the kitchen area of the tavern. While Travis didn’t offer an elaborate menu, he did have kitchen staff who prepared the usual sports-bar type food.

  “I’ll make sure either we get their cooperation or Travis can make sure they’re out of the kitchen when we move you in,” Jimmy replied.

  “When are we starting this process of musical cars?” Marlene asked.

  “Just as soon as you can get your things together,” Steve replied. He also got up from the table and carried his coffee cup to the sink. “I’m going to head outside and take a look around, make sure there isn’t any unusual activity around the house or on the street.”

  “And I’ll just go get my things together.” She got up from the table and headed back to the bedroom, to pack away the few things she’d pulled out of her duffel bag.

  It didn’t take long for her to have her things ready. Before she left the bedroom, Frank came in. “Are you okay with all this?” he asked, his eyes radiating concern.

  “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me—just spend your time figuring this out so that I can get my life back.”

  He raised a hand, as if to touch her hair or caress her cheek, but then dropped it back to his side. “I want you to get your life back and I want this creep behind bars.” The blue of his eyes softened. “And I want to tell you that last night was amazing.”

  “It was,” she agreed, a new desire to repeat the experience swelling in her heart. But this wasn’t some fantasy to explore. It was reality, and the truth was that neither of them was in a position to even think about a future together.

  At that moment Jimmy appeared in the door, halting any other personal conversation they might have shared. “Steve is ready whenever you are.”

  Marlene picked up her small bag as Frank grabbed the large duffel. “Then let’s do it.” Although she flashed the men a confident smile, inside she trembled with the fear of the unknown.

  It didn’t take long for her bags to be placed in the back of Steve’s car and her to be in the passenger seat. “Roxy will be thrilled to get a chance to spend the day with you,” Steve said as he pulled out of Frank’s driveway.

  “Actually, I’m looking forward to spending a little time with her,” Marlene replied. It was way past time she told her sisters about her marriage, about the loss of the little girl who would have been their niece.

  She was ready to come out of the shadows of her past and move forward, but in order to do that she wanted both of her sisters to know where she had been.

  “Has she completely moved in with you and Tommy?” Marlene asked, thinking of Roxy.

  Steve flashed her a quick smile. “Her furniture is still upstairs at the Dollhouse, but for all intents and purposes, she
’s pretty much living with us. Tommy adores her and she’s great with him.”

  “I’m so happy for all of you. Of the three of us, Roxy was the one I always worried about being able to trust anyone. She had seven years of bad memories of life with our mother and I worried that those would scar her forever.”

  “Trust me, she wasn’t exactly an easy catch,” he said with a touch of humor. “And speaking of catches, you and Frank look like you’re getting pretty close.”

  “He’s a nice man. I like him.”

  “And it’s obvious he cares about you beyond just working a case. I’m glad to see a new spark in his eyes that I think you put there. He deserves some happiness after his wife’s suicide.”

  Marlene’s heart stuttered in shock. “Suicide?”

  Steve shot her a quick glance. “You didn’t know?”

  “I knew she’d passed away, but I just assumed it was from cancer or some other illness.” Her head spun to take in this new detail, this piece of history that belonged to Frank.

  “She was bipolar and suffered from bouts of deep depression. Frank didn’t know anything about her mental issues when he married her, but we all knew their marriage was kind of a roller-coaster ride. One morning she kissed him goodbye and when he left for work she downed a handful of pills. He found her body in their bed when he got home from work that evening.”

  “That’s horrible,” she said softly, her heart aching with pain for Frank and for the young woman who had chosen to take her own life.

  “It was definitely traumatic. Frank changed after that. He got quieter, smiled less. He was like a ghost just going through the motions. But lately I’ve seen him coming back around. The old sparkle is back in his eyes, and I think you put it back there.”

  “I think you are giving me far too much credit,” she replied. “Maybe it’s just this case, or the fact that enough time has passed for him to finally heal.”

  “Nah, I know Frank, and when he looks at you, I see that he cares about you, and I think you care about him, too.”

  “Neither Frank nor I are in a position to want anything long-term. Circumstances have forced us to spend an unusual amount of time together. I’ll admit that I do care about him, but I don’t expect anything to come of it.”

  “That’s too bad. Frank seems happier when you’re around, and to be honest, you seem warmer, more human when he’s around. I think you two would be awesome together,” Steve replied as he turned into the back lot of the Dollhouse, the three-story Victorian that housed Roxy’s successful restaurant.

  As she got out of the car, Steve popped his trunk lid to retrieve her bags. She was suddenly eager to share with her sister the trauma of her marriage, and she was also vaguely surprised to discover a tiny bit of anger focused on Frank.

  She’d bared her heart and soul to him, told him all the secrets that she’d fought so hard to protect over the past year, and it appeared that he had kept from her a very important part of his own past.

  He’d allowed her to believe that his wife had died after a lingering illness. Now she not only had to try to figure out who might want her dead but also why Frank would keep such a big secret from her.

  * * *

  Since the moment he’d awakened with her next to him in the bed that morning, Frank’s head had been filled with the memory of her warmth, the generous passion she’d shared with him so willingly, so eagerly.

  He knew he was getting too involved with her and he also knew she was the kind of woman he should never get close to again. She was emotionally fragile, just beginning to start the healing process of everything she’d suffered over the past couple of years.

  He didn’t want fragile back in his life. He didn’t want vulnerable or healing. If and when he decided to bind his life with another woman, it would be a strong, independent woman who had no baggage, no need for him, just want.

  She was beautiful enough to be a princess in a castle, a socialite on a yacht in the middle of the tropics. She’d look more at home in an upscale loft in New York City than in a rented room above a seedy tavern.

  There was a part of him that was grateful she was gone for now, leaving behind only the sweet fragrance of her perfume. Making love with her, falling asleep with her in his arms, had touched him more profoundly than he had expected.

  She’d made him remember what it had once been like to have a wife, a partner. She’d made him remember what it had been like to be a part of something bigger than himself, to be a couple.

  He didn’t want to go there again. The idea of depending on somebody, of somebody else depending on him, for personal and emotional support scared the hell out of him.

  At least he could be grateful that Marlene seemed to be in the same place he was...unwilling to take the risk on love and commitment again.

  It wasn’t long after everyone left his house that Frank got dressed and headed into the station. He knew they were missing something, that there was some clue, some piece of this mystery that was being overlooked and not seen at all by anyone. He needed to figure out what that might be.

  This was a small town, and they had an old cold case, one person recently missing and another in danger, and no real person of interest in any of the cases. What in the hell were they missing?

  He entered the station as Chelsea was getting prepared for her duty as Michael Arello’s shadow. Her blond hair was covered by a short black wig, and without makeup she looked surprisingly pretty.

  “This has got to be the most boring duty I’ve ever had,” she grumbled as she pulled a Pittsburgh Steelers ball cap on top of her wig. “This kid sleeps half the day away, does his trash detail and then hangs out with his friends. I think I’m wasting my time tailing him because he never goes anywhere else except to the tavern in the evenings to drink and hang out with his buddies.”

  Frank thought of the newest note that had shown up that morning. “Let’s give it another week or so,” he said. The last thing he wanted to do was pull Chelsea off duty if Michael was the person after Marlene. He was afraid to pull the plug too soon.

  “I’ve spent more time parked in front of the Wolf’s Head Tavern than drinking in it,” she replied. “When he goes inside I can’t exactly follow him in because I’m afraid that despite this ridiculous getup somebody will recognize me and want to know where the costume party is being held.”

  Frank grinned at her. “You’re just upset because you can’t enjoy a few beers and some dancing like you’re used to while you’re on this particular duty.”

  “Darn right. How am I supposed to find a husband if I’m spending all my time in an ugly wig and following around some snot-nosed kid?”

  “Chelsea, your prince will come when you aren’t looking for him so hard. As far as tailing Michael, let’s give it another week or so, and then we’ll see where we are,” Frank replied. Again he thought of the note that had shown up at the station that morning.

  An eye for an eye.

  He had the feeling of danger creeping closer, that whoever was after Marlene might be growing impatient. Avenging Angel. What the hell? Hopefully impatience might force the Avenging Angel to make mistakes, mistakes that they could use to catch the perp before he acted out on whatever rage drove him to want to destroy Marlene.

  After Chelsea left by the back door of the building, Frank sank down at his desk and fought the desire to bang his head against the wooden top in sheer frustration.

  Jimmy was busy making the arrangements at the Wolf’s Head Tavern, Steve would be guarding Marlene at the Dollhouse throughout the day and Frank wasn’t sure what he was going to do in an effort to move the investigation forward, to figure out what was going on.

  He hadn’t felt this helpless since the evening he’d walked into his home and had found Grace dead. She’d looked like a sleeping angel, but the unmistakable scent of death had hung i
n the room and he’d known she’d done something terrible, something so tragic he couldn’t wrap his head around it.

  He’d seen two pill bottles on the nightstand, prescription bottles he’d never seen before, and he’d been cast in a sea of confusion and misery.

  He shoved the torturous memory aside along with the weight of guilt that always attempted to grab him by the throat and choke the life out of him.

  Work. He had to focus on the work. Not on Grace. Not on Marlene, but on the crime itself. That was what he excelled at...solving crimes, not being a hero in any woman’s life.

  * * *

  Liz Marcoli had turned into a raving madwoman. The silence, the utter isolation had worked on her very last nerve. She wanted out. She wanted answers, and each time a meal or clean clothes were delivered via the doggy door, she screamed and cursed at the person on the other side.

  She knew she had lost all sense of her humanity, that she was becoming like a caged animal and would have chewed off her own arm if it meant escape.

  But there was no means of escape, and she was trapped in a world of mindless rage and unknowing and fear.

  If whoever held her captive somehow thought he’d break her spirit through the silence and the isolation, he or she had another think coming.

  Liz was strong. She’d had to be strong to survive the unexpected death of her husband at a young age, to take on the caretaking for three little girls who had been left on her doorstep. She was strong and whoever held her would never, ever break her.

  Tonight when her evening meal had been delivered, she’d tried to claw at the gloved hands that pushed the tray through the little door. She’d screamed obscenities that she hadn’t even known were in her vocabulary. The hands had retreated quickly and the door had slammed shut with a resounding bang.

  She’d eaten every bite of the food served to her, determined to keep up her strength for when the possibility of an escape might arise.

  When she was finished eating, she carried her fork to the back wall, where line after line had been dug into the earth, marking the days of her imprisonment.