by Carmen Cook
“We’re fine now,” Gavin replied. “Your night obviously didn’t go nearly as well as mine.”
Connor sank into his office chair with a grunt. “There was another overdose last night. Luckily his parents found him in time to get him to the hospital in Missoula, but he’s the third one this month.”
Gavin frowned. “Any clue what they’re taking?”
“None yet. But you can bet your ass I’m going to be turning up the heat with the kids. Starting with Andy.”
Mitchell sauntered into the room, lifting his own coffee cup in a silent salute that had Connor’s eyebrows pulling down and making Gavin grin. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, taking the seat next to Gavin, across the desk from where Connor sat.
“Don’t tell me you went home with Chloe,” Connor groaned. “All I heard from Bethany last night was how romantic the two of you are, how you rushed to the aid of the women. Fucking pansies, with your dopey smiles, the both of you.”
“Aw, don’t hate,” Mitchell said with a laugh. “And nothing happened. Chloe and Erin watched some sappy chick movie and passed out on the couch before the credits rolled.
“Are you needing some tips in the romance department, Chief? I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“Fuck you,” Connor responded. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a marriage alive? Seeing you idiots gave Beth all sorts of ideas.”
Gavin just grinned. He couldn’t help it. If it hadn’t been for this meeting he would have stayed in Regan’s fake bed all morning.
“Knock it off,” Connor ordered, giving his chair a kick as he walked by to refill his mug. “We need to figure the rest of this out. I don’t like having people attacked in town.”
Mitchell snorted. “I don’t think there’s a police chief anywhere in the country who enjoys having people attacked. God, this place is different from LA. No one gets this type of personal attention there.”
“That’s not a bad thing,” Gavin reminded him, swirling the swill Connor was passing for coffee around his cup. “The people you guard in LA come here for a reason. They feel safe here.”
“Not so much anymore,” Mitchell reported. “Erin’s thinking about packing up and heading back. Her label isn’t thrilled with her slumming it and ‘nearly winding up dead’—their words—at the hands of a couple idiots tossing a car.”
“Is that what you think this is?”
“Me?” Mitchell shook his head. “No. Them? Hell, who knows what they’re thinking. The truth is her people didn’t want her up here anyway, but agreed that after that intruder was found in her house she needed somewhere safe to prepare for the tour.”
“Did the techs get a chance to go over Chloe’s car last night?” Gavin asked, knowing it was highly unlikely, but worth asking. “And did you find out why Regan’s asshole ex-husband is here?”
Connor shook his head and took a slug of his own coffee, grimacing as the sludge hit his tongue and putting his cup down with a decided bang. “He insisted he was invited,” he said, answering Gavin’s last question first. “Her parents gave him the key and, according to him, said she’d be happy to see him when she got home. He’s staying with them. As for the car, the techs still have it. I don’t expect to hear anything before next week.”
“What about the men who attacked them?” Mitch asked.
Again, Connor shook his head. “Still looking,” he said shortly.
There was a commotion in the outer office, bringing all three men to their feet. At the entrance stood Deanna, Gavin’s office manager, with her teenaged son, Julian. A picture of teen obstinacy, he glared around the room, his jaw tight and arms crossed tightly over his chest. Shaggy dark hair in front of his eyes. His tennis shoes were scuffed, his jeans baggy and torn, and his jacket was barely hanging on to his narrow shoulders.
For a second Gavin thought about the differences between Deanna, who’d been left by her no-good boyfriend after finding out she was pregnant, and Connor and Bethany. Without the support of her family her friends had quickly scattered, and Deanna had to scratch out a place for herself. He’d been critical of Jason hiring her, but after the break-in, she’d stayed late to put things right for the following morning. Seeing her now, standing there looking so defeated, Gavin couldn’t hide the stab of guilt he felt. Yeah, she’d been far from employee of the year, but he’d never given any thought to the challenges she was facing outside of work.
“What’s going on?” Connor asked, sounding annoyed. Gavin cut his eyes toward his brother, wondering if something else had happened he wasn’t aware of. Connor was one of the most easygoing, level-headed people around.
Deanna released the grip on her son’s arm. “Tell them,” she demanded, her voice wobbly. “Tell them exactly what you told me, and tell them the names.”
“What are you talking about?” Gavin asked.
“What names?” Connor asked.
Drawing a deep breath Gavin stepped back, allowing Connor to take charge of the situation.
Connor asked again, moderating his tone. “What names?”
The kid swallowed hard and didn’t meet Connor’s eyes as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “Some of the guys were bragging last night. About breaking into a car.” He glanced up. “I think they meant Chloe’s car.”
The room went completely still. Gavin wanted to howl in frustration. How did this kid know Chloe? What in the hell was going on? “How do you know about that?”
“That’s my fault,” Deanna admitted. “Jason told me and Julian overheard.”
Connor pointed at the kid. “Talk. Now.” And with that he pivoted on his heel and headed back into his office.
They all marched into the office and crowded into the small room before closing the door. Once the door closed Gavin held the chair for Deanna to sit, then rested his hand on her shoulder. She glanced up at him, a small smile of appreciation on her face.
“Now,” Connor began, “start at the beginning. Where were you last night? Who were you with?”
The kid breathed deeply, his nostrils flaring. “I was up at the clearing, just hanging out,” he said, referring to the field north of town that overlooked the valley. It had been a popular gathering place for years. “It wasn’t a big deal. But then these guys showed up. They aren’t locals, but I’ve seen them up there a couple times, and they were talking about breaking into this car and how everything almost went to shit when the women showed up.”
“Language,” Connor barked out, which made Gavin stifle a grin.
“I’m just telling you what they said,” Julian said sullenly.
The muscle in Connor’s jaw was flexing. Taking pity on everyone, Gavin asked, “Do you know their names?”
“No,” Julian answered. “They’ve been around for a while, but I don’t know who they are. That’s all I know. Can I go now?”
“Yeah,” Connor answered, even though the boy was looking at his mom. “We might have more questions, but for now, that’s enough,” he told her. Connor stood and extended his hand to Julian. “Thank you for coming in and sharing the information.”
The boy’s shoulders straightened as he shook Connor’s hand. Gavin once again suppressed a smile at the interaction. This type of unconscious politics was why Connor was so good at his job. He treated everyone with respect.
All three men remained on their feet while they watched Deanna and Julian leave the police station. Once the door closed behind them, Gavin blew out a breath and looked at his brother. Connor’s brows were drawn into a tight V and he was pinching the bridge of his nose, a sure sign his wheels were turning. “What are you thinking?”
Connor looked at Mitchell. “Have you seen anyone suspicious since you’ve been in town?”
“Nah,” the bodyguard replied. “It’s been quiet, both at the rehearsal site and the house.”
“There’s something else going on,” Connor began, scrubbing his hand over his face. “I can’t put my finger on, but it’s there. The overdoses, the break-ins…ther
e has to be a connection.”
There was a soft knock at the door.
“Sorry to interrupt,” said the young deputy with a gulp, his Adam’s apple bobbing. Tommy was tall and skinny and looked suspiciously like a cartoon character. Gavin wasn’t sure how the belt wasn’t dragging the kid’s pants down to his knees. It probably weighed more than he did.
“Gavin, your ex-wife just called in a burglary. Derek is responding,” he said, referring to another deputy, “but since I knew you were here I thought you’d want to know.”
All three men were on their feet before Tommy had finished, barely making it out of the way before they all piled out the door.
Gavin had experienced fear before, but not like this. He and Kathy weren’t great friends, but the thought of someone hurting her—or God forbid one of his kids—sent a ball of ice deep in his gut. Connor hadn’t waited as he sprinted to his official vehicle and hitting the lights and siren, sped away. Gavin pulled his truck keys from his pocket, pausing next to the door as his vision dimmed. Fuck. He needed to get his shit together before he got behind the wheel.
“Shove over,” Mitchell ordered, grabbing the keys from Gavin’s hand and getting into the driver’s seat of the truck. “I’m driving.”
Gavin closed his eyes briefly before rounding the truck and climbing in the passenger seat. The door was barely closed when Mitch pulled a U-turn and spun gravel into the air as he pulled out of the parking lot. “They live on the ridge,” he told Mitchell.
“Got it,” was all Mitchell said, pulling off Main. The tension in the cab was mounting the higher they climbed. The churning in Gavin’s stomach was threatening to unman him.
“Nothing happened to them.”
It took a minute for Mitchell’s words to penetrate Gavin’s panic. “How do you know?”
Mitch glanced at him, but didn’t ease up on the gas as he continued to race though the streets. “Connor got the information from Tommy while you were racing out the door. They weren’t home when it happened. It happened while they were gone.”
Gavin nodded, waiting for the band of panic to loosen around his chest, but it didn’t. Every argument he and Kathy had had about him quitting the law firm and opening Peaks Security was running through his mind.
“Could this be related to Chloe’s car?”
Mitch’s question grounded Gavin, helping pull him back to the present rather than reliving the past. “How could it?”
Shrugging, Mitch slowed the truck to take a turn on one of the hairpin turns that dotted the newer neighborhoods that climbed the side of the mountain. “It seems like too much of a coincidence to not be connected. If this stuff really doesn’t happen here in Mountain Mayberry, that is.”
Gavin stared, trying to wrap his mind around what Mitch was suggesting. Was it possible that the break-in at his ex-wife’s house was related to the sister of his…friend’s…car? That was a leap, no matter how much he’d like it to be connected. And that just sounded wrong, wanting it to be connected. But at least then there might be an explanation for both events.
They screeched to a stop behind two cop cars and Gavin leapt from the vehicle while it was still rocking to a halt. Kathy saw him coming and raced to meet him halfway across the yard.
“They’re okay,” she assured him. “Shane took the kids for ice cream as soon as we realized what had happened.”
“Okay.” Gavin didn’t know what to say so he simply pulled her in for a quick hug, grateful that she and the kids were all right. “What happened?”
Kathy pulled from his embrace and eyed Mitchell, who was standing a distance away, giving them a moment of privacy. “Who’s that?”
“Mitchell. I work with him. Kathy, what happened? Was anything taken?”
She shook her head and led them back to where Connor was talking to the responding officer. “I was just telling Detective Lewis that I can’t see anything is missing. Mostly they went through the kids’ room and closets.”
Derek Lewis came to join them and reached out to shake Gavin’s hand. “Kathy is going to call if she notices anything missing so we can add it to the report, but for now it looks pretty cut and dry.”
They watched Derek drive off. It was only then that Kathy turned on them. “Spill,” she ordered. “What’s really going on?”
Gavin stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
“You think I can’t read between the lines? You show up here, more scared than I’ve ever seen you, and I’m supposed to believe that it’s just out of the goodness of your heart because someone broke into my house? Give me a little credit.”
“This could have been bad, Kathy.”
“I need to understand what we’re working with here, Gavin.”
He let out a sigh. “We don’t know.”
“Try to explain it to me.”
Kathy listened as he outlined what he knew, which wasn’t a whole lot. He could see her thinking, calculating everything he was telling her. Much to his surprise, she didn’t seem to be jumping to blame him. “This could have something to do with one of Shane’s cases, just as easily as it could with whatever is happening at Peaks and in town.” She reached out and touched his arm. “Are Regan and her sister okay?”
Taken aback by her concern, Gavin nodded. “Yeah. Mostly.” He ran his hand up over his head. “Nothing makes any sense right now.”
“Gavin,” she said gently, “give yourself a break. This isn’t your fault.”
“Maybe,” he admitted, not wanting to admit to the relief that had washed through him at the idea that maybe he wasn’t the one who had brought this to his kids’ door. “Either way, you need to be careful. Call me if you realize anything is missing.”
“Sure,” she replied dryly. “Right after I call the police and my boyfriend.”
“And turn on your alarm,” he reminded her, continuing as if she hadn’t spoken. She might not be blaming him, but this was connected to everything else that was happening. He just needed to figure out how.
Gavin watched Kathy walk into the house before he looked around. It was an upscale neighborhood, cut right into the side of the mountain with the trees from the Lolo National Forest coming to meet the manicured lawns. There were plenty of places where someone could have approached the house without being seen from the road or even by one of the neighbors. Would this have been his life had he stayed with the law firm rather than changing gears and opening Peaks? If he and Kathy had stayed together? He’d never regretted his decision, despite the fact it had pushed his family out the door.
His job change had been a symptom of his need to take control of his life and create a different future for himself. Seeing the stark difference between the life that Kathy had created and Regan’s hodgepodge of items, he felt something settle in his chest. He’d never realized exactly how much he disliked the structured life he’d begun to build, but it was blatantly obvious now.
He waved to the neighbor woman watching everything from the security of her own living room window before turning back to Mitchell and Connor, who were standing at the edge of the driveway.
“Anything?” he asked as he approached.
Mitchell shook his head. “This is a logistical nightmare.”
“Agreed. And Kathy indicated that good ol‘ Shane was working on a case that could have brought something like this to them.”
Connor’s brow lifted. “I’d better have a chat with Shane to find out what’s happening on that front.”
Mitch nodded toward the neighboring house. “Think she saw anything?”
“Doubtful. If she did she’d have been out here chewing Connor’s ear off.”
Mitch slid behind the wheel again and since he still had the keys to the truck, Gavin didn’t argue, hopping into the passenger seat again. Something was off here. “You notice anything out here?”
“Other than the fact that everything feels very Stepford around here, with all the houses looking the same, to all the same types of cars in the driveways
?”
Gavin chuckled. That was one way to describe the neighborhood.
“All that sameness means that whoever this was couldn’t have approached from the street.”
“There are plenty of entry points along the edges of the area. None of them monitored, from what I can tell. None but Kathy’s have a security system either.”
“I can’t figure out how this could be linked to everything else, but it has to be, right? It’s too much to be a coincidence.”
Mitch shot him a look. “What type of law does Shane practice?”
“Property disputes, mostly. At least that’s what he used to specialize in. I haven’t kept up.”
“And your ex thinks this could be related to whatever he’s got going on?”
“She said it’s a possibility. When I was with the firm, nothing that contentious ever came across the desk. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen, but it doesn’t fit. If someone was angry about a ruling on their case, they’d do more damage than breaking in and going through some closets.”
“Agreed,” Mitch said, slowing to a stop as a doe stood frozen in the middle of the road, staring at them before hopping off into the brush. “This feels personal. The break-in at your offices could have been random, but that combined with everything isn’t. I think we’re close to figuring it out without even realizing it.”
“We need to shut it down before someone gets hurt.”
Mitch grunted his agreement and they once again fell into an easy silence while Mitchell navigated them back into the parking lot between the Bitterroot Tavern and Lucy’s Café, the local diner that had been around since the beginning of time.
“Erin and Gwen said they were going to grab Regan for breakfast this morning and to meet them here after we finished with Connor.” He tossed Gavin the keys before stepping out of the truck, heading to the entrance of Lucy’s without waiting for Gavin.
“Gwen was there this morning too?”
“She had a little problem she wanted to talk about, so she came by before work.”