He straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath. She wasn’t coming today. There was nothing for him to do but go back to the bed-and-breakfast where he was staying.
He whirled to leave, but his breath caught in his throat at the sight of Kate climbing the steps from the street to the deck. Even in uniform with a gun, handcuffs, magazine holder and assorted equipment hanging from her duty belt, she was more beautiful than he remembered. Her chestnut hair, parted in the middle and slicked back into a bun in police academy style, gleamed in the sun. Her willowy body and the slight sway of her hips when she walked reminded him of a runway model. Her dark brown eyes only added to the fascination that had overcome him the first time they met.
A frown puckered her forehead as she approached, but it disappeared when she stopped in front of him. “I’m sorry I’m late, but I got tied up over at the ferry with the other deputies. We were checking the cars leaving the island.”
He nodded. “Were you hoping to find the shooter from this morning?”
“We thought we might get lucky, but all we found were vacationing families who were heading for home. Maybe I was expecting to see something suspicious, but I didn’t. That may mean our shooter is still on the island. He could be a local who knows his way around. If he is, then he could be in plain sight all the time, and I wouldn’t know it.”
He tried to concentrate on her words, but his relief that she had come made it difficult. He smiled what he hoped was a friendly gesture. “You’ll find him, Kate. But you must be starved after the morning you’ve had. Let’s get something to eat.”
She glanced at her watch. “I don’t have much time.”
Brock pointed to a table near the back of the deck. “Why don’t we sit back there? I’ll go inside and order. Do you need a menu, or do you know what you want?”
Kate chuckled. “I think I know everything they serve here. I’ll have the Cajun pork sandwich and a glass of iced tea.”
Brock nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
Ten minutes later he juggled a tray loaded with two sandwiches, two glasses of iced tea and a basket heaped with French fries. She picked up one of the teas without speaking and took a long drink. “It’s been a long morning. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes. Out of the corner of his eye Brock watched the people entering and leaving the Sandwich Shop. A man and woman exited with a little boy about five years old. The woman leaned down to hear something the child was saying and burst out laughing. Turning to the man, she said something to him. He laughed, scooped up the little boy and set him on his shoulders. The three walked down the stairs to the street and within seconds were lost in the crowd.
He’d witnessed scenes of happy families together before, but today it affected him differently than before. The love the three shared showed on their faces. What would life be like if he and Kate had married? The truth was that no woman had looked at him that way since Kate, and it made him sad.
“Is something wrong?”
Kate’s voice penetrated his thoughts, and his body stiffened. Glancing down, he realized he’d been holding his sandwich in front of his mouth the whole time he was watching the family. His face warmed, and he laid his food down and smiled.
“I was just thinking how good it is to see you again.” He picked up his glass of tea and held it in front of him. “Here’s to old friends.”
She only hesitated a moment before she picked up her glass and clicked it against his. “To old friends.”
He chugged a drink of iced tea and relished the cold sensation sliding down his throat. Kate set her glass down, and the smile she directed at him set his heart to thudding. Suddenly he realized how much he had missed her, but it didn’t matter. The events he’d set in motion six years ago couldn’t be changed any more than he could bring Robert Sterling back to life.
Now he’d returned begging for Kate’s help. He had dreaded telling her why he’d come to the island, and now that he had, he wondered what she thought. The one thing he hadn’t told her, though, was that when his life had fallen apart three months ago, he had come to the conclusion that he was being punished for the selfish choices he’d made in the past.
That and his guilt over Robert Sterling’s death had brought him back to Ocracoke. He’d come for three reasons—to search for that elusive peace Kate’s mother told him about, to cleanse his soul for failing an innocent man and to gain her forgiveness.
He’d told her he wanted to find God here in the island paradise she said He created, but now Brock wasn’t so sure he could. One of the Ten Commandments his mother used to say to him was Thou shalt not kill. To his way of thinking he had helped kill Robert Sterling.
He doubted if there was any absolution for that sin.
He lowered the copy of the island newspaper just enough to stare over the top at the couple sitting at the table across the Sandwich Shop deck. He stared at Kate a moment before he glanced back at the front-page picture of her beside the article about island safety. What an appropriate subject, he thought.
The picture didn’t do her justice, though. She was much more attractive in person, and she appeared to be more relaxed than she’d been earlier this morning when he observed her through the binoculars. But she’d been at a murder scene then, and she’d probably been worried about having a killer on the island that the newspaper touted as the safest on the eastern seaboard.
However, there were many dangers on a remote island, and it was impossible to determine when one might strike. In a split second some unforeseen tragedy could occur that would shatter the tranquil image of a vacation paradise that the publicists up and down the barrier island chain worked to promote.
He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Too bad no one else could sense what he knew was about to come. When he was finished, this island and Kate and her friend would never be the same again. He would make sure of that.
In fact, the fun should start any minute now. He glanced at his watch.
A loud boom shattered the afternoon stillness.
Kate sprang from her chair and scanned the area in an effort to see where the sound had come from. Other customers on the deck of the Sandwich Shop bounded to their feet, but everyone appeared frozen in stunned silence.
Kate’s lapel mic crackled. “Ten-eighty in alley next to the Sun Shop. Possible injury.”
“Ten-four. Get the EMS en route,” Kate replied.
Kate ran across the deck with Brock right behind. He called out to her. “Did I hear your dispatcher say a bomb had exploded?”
“Yes.”
At the bottom of the steps she turned right and raced down the street toward the Sun Shop. As she approached, customers poured out the front door and streamed down the steps of the store that boasted the lowest-priced T-shirts on the island. Kate rounded the corner of the building and into the alley. A teenage boy lay on the ground halfway down the narrow pathway.
“Stay back! Let Deputy Michaels take care of this situation.” Behind her Brock’s voice of authority barked out the order, and she turned to see him blocking the entrance to the alley.
The teenager on the ground struggled to sit up. Kate’s hand on his shoulder restrained him. “Don’t move. There’s an ambulance on the way.”
The boy’s face paled as he caught sight of the blood pouring from his leg. He sank back on the ground and groaned. Kate knelt beside him. “I’m going to look at your injury.”
The teen wore mesh athletic shorts that came to his knees. Blood poured from a gaping hole halfway down his shin. The wound needed a tourniquet right away.
Kate unhooked her duty belt and placed it on the ground. With a quick tug she yanked the belt in the pants loops of her uniform free and wrapped it around the boy’s leg just above the wound. He groaned as she pulled it as tight as she could. “You’re going to be all right. Try to lie still. The ambulance will be here any minute.”
It seemed an eternity before she heard the familiar wai
l. Brock’s voice rose above the ambulance’s siren. “All right, folks. You need to move so the ambulance can back into the alley. Please get out of the way.”
Kate looked over her shoulder as the Ocracoke Emergency Vehicle backed toward her. Before the driver had stopped, one of the EMTs jumped from the passenger side and ran to the teen on the ground.
He dropped to his knees next to Kate. “Thanks, Kate. I’ll take over now.” He studied the wound and glanced back up at Kate. “What caused this?”
Kate grabbed her duty belt from the ground and pushed to her feet. “It was an explosion. I don’t know what yet.”
She replaced the equipment around her waist as the second EMT rushed past her and knelt next to the boy who seemed alert. The man squeezed the teenager’s shoulder and smiled. “That’s a nasty wound you got there. What happened?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I cut down this alley to get to the house my family rented on the next street. I saw this two-liter soda bottle on the ground. Just before I got to it, the thing blew up.”
Kate glanced around the alley. Pieces of a plastic bottle littered the area. At that moment Doug and Calvin pushed through the crowd and stopped next to her. Calvin glanced at the boy and back at her. “What happened?”
“Somebody left a bottle bomb in the alley. This kid happened by just as it exploded.”
Calvin shook his head. “Who would leave something like that?”
Brock walked over to them and stopped beside Kate. “I’ve seen a lot of these in Nashville. This boy is lucky he wasn’t hurt worse.”
Calvin frowned and glanced from Brock to Kate. “Didn’t I see you earlier at the station?”
Brock nodded. “I’m Brock Gentry. I was with Kate when the bottle exploded.”
Kate’s face warmed under the surprised gazes on Calvin’s and Doug’s faces. “Brock is a policeman in Nashville. We knew each other in college.”
Calvin stuck out his hand. “Welcome to Ocracoke, Brock. I hope you don’t think we always welcome tourists this way.”
He cocked an eyebrow and grasped Calvin’s hand, then Doug’s. “Glad to meet two fellow officers.”
Calvin and Doug turned questioning glances toward Kate, and her face grew warm. She pointed to the bottle fragments. “Calvin, you and Doug gather up all the remains you can find. I’m going to the Health Center with this boy. After Doc checks him out, he may be able to remember something that will help us catch whoever left this thing.” Kate watched them walk away before she turned back to Brock. “I guess our lunch is over. It’s back to work for me.”
He smiled. “I understand. I’ll go back to where I’m staying for now.” He hesitated before he turned. “Can I see you later?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what this afternoon will bring, and my sisters and I are having dinner with Treasury Wilkes. She’s been like a second mother to us since our parents died.”
He smiled. “Then that’s perfect. I’m staying at Ms. Wilkes’ bed-and-breakfast, and she invited me to dinner tonight.”
Kate’s mouth gaped. “You’re staying at the Island Connection Bed-and-Breakfast?”
“Yes. I remembered her from when I was here before. So that was where I wanted to stay.”
“It’s a second home to my sisters and me.”
He turned away from her, placed his hand on the back of his neck and rubbed. When he faced her again, he sighed. “I remember Mrs. Wilkes was your mother’s best friend. If it makes you uncomfortable for me to stay there, I’ll move somewhere else.”
She shook her head. “Of course you can stay there. After all, it’s the best bed-and-breakfast on the island.”
A smile flashed across his face. “Good. Then I’ll see you there.”
Before she could respond, he turned and walked from the alley. When he disappeared, she glanced back at Calvin and Doug, who appeared engrossed in their task of collecting evidence and placing it in the plastic bags they held.
They had never experienced a day like this on Ocracoke. First a murder, shots fired at an officer and an island resident, and now a victim of an exploding bottle. With hundreds of tourists arriving and departing each day, finding out who left the bottle in the alley, who killed Jake or who tried to kill her promised to be a daunting task. That didn’t matter, though. As long as she was an officer of the law, she would do everything in her power to protect the citizens and tourists on Ocracoke. The one thing she did dread, however, was that she had agreed to help the one person in the world she’d hoped she would never see again.
Summer had just started, and it already threatened to be like no other. Shaking her head, she headed to her squad car.
Thirty minutes later after a stop by the police station, Kate stepped into the Health Center and looked around the deserted waiting room. No one sat at the reception desk.
She started to call out for Sharon, the receptionist, but she stopped when the telephone on Sharon’s desk rang. Kate waited for a moment before she stepped to the door and peered down the hall that was lined with examining rooms. “Doc, your phone’s ringing.”
“That you, Kate? Sharon’s at lunch. Will you see who’s calling?”
Kate had learned long ago that a police officer’s duties on Ocracoke required more than keeping the peace. It also meant serving the needs of the residents, and right now Doc needed someone to answer the phone. Smiling, she plopped down in the chair behind Sharon’s desk, cleared her throat and picked up the receiver. “Ocracoke Health Center. May I help you?”
“I’m trying to reach Deputy Michaels. I saw her enter the Health Center a few minutes ago.”
Kate’s skin prickled at the singsong voice on the phone, and she tightened her grip on the receiver. “This is Deputy Michaels. How can I help you?”
“I wanted to check on that poor boy who was hurt at the Sun Shop.”
“Are you a family member?”
A low chuckle sounded. “Oh, no.”
Kate reached for a pencil. “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name.”
“That’s because I didn’t give it.”
Kate’s heart pounded. She didn’t know who this was, but something told her he was up to no good. “I’ll ask you again. How can I help you?”
He laughed. “I really caused an uproar with my bomb, didn’t I? It was quite exciting to watch.”
Kate sat up straight in the chair and gripped the receiver tighter. “You left that bottle bomb? But why?”
“It’s not time for you to know the answer to that, but you will soon.”
Kate gritted her teeth. “Look, whoever you are, don’t you realize that boy could have been killed?”
“I know, but he wasn’t. He didn’t look dead to me when they loaded him into the ambulance.”
Anger boiled up in Kate. “Wanting to hurt someone you don’t even know sounds sick.”
“I assure you I’m not sick.” His voice hardened with each word.
A thought popped into Kate’s head. “You wouldn’t happen to be wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, would you?”
He chuckled. “Very good, Deputy Michaels. You’ve caught on to me. I must confess I was wearing those items when I saw you at the beach.”
The icy inkling she’d had earlier flowed through her body. “So you were watching from that fishing skiff. Why? Did you kill Jake?”
“Jake?” The voice held a hint of surprise. “Oh, you mean the man on the beach. Well, you’re the police expert. I’m sure you’ll figure it out sooner or later. But I must say, I thought you handled that crime scene quite well. I enjoyed watching you.”
“And did you arrange for the shooter?”
“My, my, Deputy. You’re just full of questions, aren’t you?”
Kate’s fingers tightened on the receiver. “That’s part of my job. I ask questions so I can find people who break the law.” She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “Your voice is unfamiliar to me, so I know you don’t live on Ocracoke. Why would you come to a place
where families are vacationing and try to hurt someone?”
Laughter rumbled in her ear. “I’m not interested in the tourists, Deputy Michaels. It’s you who fascinates me. Before long, you’ll be wishing I’d gone somewhere else besides Ocracoke. There’s the title of an old song that I want you to think about over the next few days. It’s one especially for you, Kate.”
“What song?”
“‘I’ll Be Seeing You.’”
The whispered words drifted into her ear as if they rode on a foggy mist. They flowed through her body, giving her a sense of helplessness and vulnerability like she’d never experienced. Her heart pounded, and the cold sensation she’d felt on the beach earlier coursed through her veins. Someone she didn’t know was watching her movements and had spoken the most chilling words she’d ever heard.
Kate opened her mouth to speak, but the phone line went dead. Kate pulled the receiver from her ear and stared at it. She punched the caller ID button and shook her head when Private number was displayed.
Placing the phone back in its cradle, she replayed the phone conversation and what she’d learned from it in her head. She now knew she was right about someone watching from the fishing skiff earlier this morning. He had also admitted leaving the bottle bomb. He hadn’t admitted to killing Jake or arranging for the shooter, and that puzzled her. Why wouldn’t he take credit for those as well? And most of all, why was he fascinated with her?
She stood, walked to the window and looked up and down the street. She saw no parked cars or anyone walking on the sidewalk. Yet the caller said he’d seen her at the Sun Shop and as she entered the Health Center. Chills raced up her spine at the thought of how his voice sounded. The menacing whine of impending danger rang through her mind.
She didn’t know what was about to happen, but she did know one thing: someone with an unknown agenda walked around Ocracoke, and he’d made her his target. Maybe Jake had been his first. She prayed that she could find this mysterious person before he carried through with his intentions.
Dangerous Reunion (Love Inspired Suspense) Page 4