Dangerous Reunion (Love Inspired Suspense)

by Robbins, Sandra

  Kate chuckled and glanced at him. “He’s good at that. He does it to me all the time. Treasury says—”

  Before she could finish, her phone rang, and she pulled it from the clip on her belt. Betsy’s cell phone number flashed on the caller ID. “Hi, Betsy. Do you need something?”

  A soft cry of alarm caused Kate to sit up straight. “K-Kate, I’m so sc-scared.”

  Kate pulled the car to the side of the street and stopped. “What’s wrong, Betsy?”

  “I can’t find Emma.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m at home. Emma and I ate lunch with Treasury after church, and then we came home. I told Emma that I needed to get a painting to take back to the booth at the festival and for her to wait for me in the car. When I came back outside, she was gone.” Betsy’s last words dissolved into tears.

  Fear knotted Kate’s stomach. “How long has she been gone?”

  “About thirty minutes. I looked all through the house, in the yard, then I went out to the beach. She’s nowhere to be found. Oh, Kate, what if that man who tried to burn her took her?”

  Glancing in the rearview mirror, Kate made a U-turn and headed back through town, the siren on her squad car blaring. “We don’t know that’s happened, Betsy. Brock and I will be there in a few minutes. If we don’t find her, I’ll call the rescue team to help us search.”

  “Oh, Kate,” Betsy cried. “Please hurry. I’m so scared.”

  Kate accelerated the car and looked over at Brock, who clutched the car seat. His wide eyes told her he understood what had happened. He licked his lips. “Has Emma disappeared?”

  Kate bit her lip, nodded and blinked back tears. This was no time to get emotional. Betsy sounded almost hysterical, and Kate needed to stay focused so they could find Emma. The thought of her being the victim of the madman who was terrorizing the island made her nauseous. She’d seen Russell’s and Rose’s bodies as well as Doug’s. She couldn’t let that happen to her little sister.

  The car roared down the road to the house Kate shared with her sisters, and she skidded to a stop at the end of the driveway. Betsy stood in the yard. Tears streaked her face, and she clutched her hands in front of her.

  When Kate stepped from the car, Betsy rushed to her. “Kate, we’ve got to find her. I’ll never forgive myself for leaving her alone if something’s happened to her.”

  Brock touched Betsy’s shoulder. “We’ll find her, Betsy. I don’t know where she is, but I have a gut feeling that she’s okay.”

  Tears filled Betsy’s eyes. “I hope you’re right.”

  Kate scanned the area for anything that would give her a clue as to what had happened to Emma. She spotted Emma’s footprints in the sandy soil and pointed to them. “It looks like she might have gone toward the beach.”

  Betsy’s face paled. “What if she went in the water and the riptide took her out to sea?”

  Kate frowned at her sister. “We can’t think like that.” She strode toward the break in the ridge that led onto the beach. “Come on, Brock. Let’s see what we can find.”

  They climbed the ridge and stepped onto the beach. All that Kate could see in either direction was a long stretch of sand and the water rolling in. She turned back to Brock. “Maybe we should go in different directions. You search the beach area to our left, and I’ll go to our right.”

  He nodded. “That sounds good. If you find anything, call me on my cell phone, and I’ll do the same.”

  “I think we should keep in touch. Let me…” Kate frowned. “What was that I heard?”

  Brock shook his head. “I didn’t hear anything but the waves crashing on the shore.”

  “No, listen.” They stood silent for a moment before Kate’s eyebrows arched, and she turned to him. “I heard it again. It sounds like someone calling my name.”

  They turned and stared up the beach. Kate squinted and shielded her eyes from the sun. In the distance she could make out a figure running toward them. As it got closer, the image dissolved into the form of a child, and then into Emma.

  Emma ran toward them, Rascal in her arms. “Kate! Kate!” she shouted. The ocean obscured the rest of what she was saying.

  Kate and Brock sprinted toward her. Both reached her at the same time, but Kate grabbed Emma and hugged her. Between them, Rascal squirmed to jump out of Emma’s arms, but she held on to him.

  “K-Kate, I—I—I f-found it.” Emma panted for breath, making it difficult to understand what she was saying.

  Frowning, Kate knelt in front of Emma, took the child by the shoulders and held her at arms’ length. Now that Emma was safe, her fear had changed to anger. “What do you mean running off and not telling Betsy? You scared us to death.”

  “It was Rascal’s fault. He ran away from me and wouldn’t come back. I called and called him, but he just ran down the beach. I had to go get him.”

  Kate gave Emma a little shake. “No, you didn’t. Don’t ever go off without telling us. Do you understand?”

  Tears trickled down Emma’s cheeks. “I didn’t mean to make you mad. I thought you’d be happy because I found it.”

  “Found what?”

  “Blackbeard’s treasure.”

  Kate gasped and glanced up at Brock, who looked as perplexed as she felt. She frowned and looked back at Emma. “What are you talking about?”

  Emma wiped a grubby hand across her eyes and tightened her grip on Rascal, who still tried to escape her grasp. “Rascal ran and ran. I chased him all the way to Calvin’s house, and I saw him crawl through a loose board at the bottom of Calvin’s boathouse and go inside.”

  Kate scowled at Emma. “You didn’t go in Calvin’s boathouse, did you? You know how careful he is with his boat.”

  Emma scrunched her eyes shut, and the tears shot out. “But I had to, Kate. I had to get Rascal. I ran around the deck of the boathouse and tried all the windows until I found one that I could slide open, and I climbed in. Rascal ran under some old blankets that were piled in the corner of the walkway around the boat slip. When I pulled them back, a box next to Rascal tipped over, and part of Blackbeard’s treasure fell out.”

  Kate glanced up at Brock, and he dropped to his knees beside Emma. He put his hand on her shoulder and leaned closer. “We don’t understand, Emma. You say you found Blackbeard’s treasure. How did you know what it was?”

  “Because I’ve heard Grady tell about the treasure for as long as I can remember.” Emma tilted her head to one side. “But it doesn’t really look like what Grady said. And it wasn’t like the pirate’s chest that we had in the play. It was just an old box. Rascal sat down next to it and purred, and I emptied it all out on the floor and looked through it. There was all kinds of stuff in it just like Grady told me. You know, things that a pirate would steal. There were rings, and earrings, and bracelets.”

  “Did you put everything back like you found it?” Kate asked.

  “Yes.”

  Kate put her finger under Emma’s chin and tilted her face up. “Emma, I’ve told you and told you there isn’t a treasure. That’s just a story Grady tells the tourists. You probably found an old box of jewelry that belonged to Calvin’s mother. She died a year ago, and Calvin brought all her belongings here from her home in Virginia.” She stood and dusted the sand from the knees of her uniform. “Come on, Emma. We need to let Betsy know we found you.”

  Emma hung her head and dug her toe in the sand. Her lips protruded in a pout. “It was a treasure. I know it was.” She jerked her head up, and her eyes grew wide. “Oh, no. I forgot.”

  Kate had taken a step to leave, but she stopped and faced Emma. “What?”

  “I tried one of the bracelets on Rascal for a collar. I forgot to put it back.”

  Kate sighed and moved back to where Emma stood. “How could you do that? Now we’re really going to have to apologize to Calvin. Let me see it.”

  Emma held the cat up, and Kate and Brock leaned forward to get a good look.

  Brock gave a low whistle.
“Wow, would you look at that. Calvin’s mother must have had some nice jewelry.”

  Disbelief kicked Kate in the stomach, and her mouth gaped open. After a moment, she swallowed and glanced at Brock. “I don’t think we’re going to have to apologize to Calvin at all.”

  Brock frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Kate raised a trembling finger and pointed to the bracelet that circled Rascal’s neck. The emeralds and diamonds sparkled in the afternoon sun exactly like she’d imagined they would when she first saw the picture Sheriff Baxter had sent of items stolen in the mainland burglaries.

  “Calvin needs to explain how a twenty-five-thousand-dollar bracelet that was reported stolen in a home robbery on the mainland found its way into his boathouse.”

  Brock stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. His gaze flitted from her to the bracelet and back to her face. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Kate patted Rascal’s head, slid her fingers down to the catch of the bracelet and unfastened it. The gems winked at her as she held the bracelet up for Brock to see. “Emma, was there a lot of jewelry in Blackbeard’s treasure?”

  Emma nodded. “There was a big box full.”

  Kate shook her head in silent protest. It couldn’t be true. Calvin was a trusted law enforcement officer. Thoughts of all the times she, Calvin and Doug had spent together drifted through her mind. They called themselves the Ocracoke Trio. Had Calvin been laughing at her and Doug all that time?

  They had trusted Calvin completely and depended on him in dangerous situations. The thought that he might be a thief seemed too ridiculous to even entertain. Yet she held the evidence in her hand. Why would he have a stolen bracelet and, according to Emma, quite a bit more jewelry in a box in his boathouse?

  Something else niggled at the back of her mind. It was a piece of information that could be important, but what was it? She wracked her brain, and it popped into her mind. She smiled at the memory of her conversation with Lisa after Doug’s death. The Lakeview Lodge on the mainland. Who had Calvin really been meeting there?

  Brock touched her shoulder, and she turned to stare at him. “What are you going to do?”

  She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “I need to get in touch with Sheriff Baxter right away and tell him to detain Calvin for questioning when the ferry docks at Swan Quarter, and also to have a deputy check out who Calvin has been meeting at the Lakeview Lodge in Swan Quarter.”

  “I’ve never heard you mention the Lakeview Lodge. How does that tie in?”

  “The burglaries haven’t been the work of one person. Maybe someone at that motel can tell us who Calvin has been meeting there.” She glanced at her watch. “The ferry left about thirty minutes ago. So we still have two hours before it gets to shore. If Sheriff Baxter can get me a search warrant for Calvin’s house and boathouse right away, we may find more evidence before he ever gets off that boat.”

  Kate took Emma by the hand and hurried back down the beach toward their house. Her father had always told her there was nothing lower than a law officer who violated the trust the people put in him by breaking the law. She hadn’t believed that could happen to a deputy on her island, but now it probably had. The thought made her sick.

  She lengthened her stride, and Emma ran to keep up with her. If Calvin was involved in the burglary ring on the mainland, he deserved everything that was about to happen to him. And the sooner the better.

  FOURTEEN

  Five hours later Brock stood beside Austin Whitman in the back room of the police station and stared at the items spread across a long table in the center. An array of watches, bracelets, rings and earrings covered half the table, while the other end held an assortment of digital cameras, video recorders and photographic equipment. A table set against the wall held power tools, media players and several laptops.

  Brock took a sip of the coffee from the cup he held and chuckled. “Calvin has been a busy boy.”

  The agent nodded. “Yeah, but according to Kate there are a lot of other items reported stolen that weren’t found. He must have a fence somewhere that takes this stuff off his hands.”

  “Maybe Sheriff Baxter can get him to tell how he’s been getting rid of the stuff. Kate said they picked Calvin up when he drove off the ferry. They’re questioning him right now.”

  Brock caught a glimpse of Kate as she walked by the open door to the room. She held her cell phone to her ear and appeared to be in deep conversation.

  He wished they could get a few minutes alone to talk. So much had happened since they returned from the beach that he’d barely had a moment with her. Since his name wasn’t listed on the search warrant, he hadn’t been allowed to accompany Kate and the agents on the search of Calvin’s property. Although he’d been disappointed, he knew she was right. After all, he had no official capacity on the island, and the ATF agents did.

  Kate reappeared at the door and placed her cell phone back in the clip on her belt. A big smile curled her lips. “I’ve been on the phone with Sheriff Baxter. Calvin’s in shock that he’s been arrested, and he’s scared.”

  Brock chuckled and glanced at Austin. “Good. Maybe he’ll talk.”

  Kate’s eyes sparkled, and she glanced from one to the other. “He already has, and what he’s said has tied up a lot of loose ends for us.”

  Brock and Austin walked around the table and stopped in front of her. “Like what?” Brock asked.

  “Let’s go sit in my office, and I’ll catch you up on everything.” Kate turned and walked out the door with Brock and Austin right behind.

  In her office, Kate plopped down in the chair behind her desk and motioned for them to have seats. When they were settled, she leaned forward and folded her arms on the table. “Well, for starters, Sheriff Baxter had a deputy question the manager at the Lakeview Lodge before the ferry landed. The man gave descriptions of two men whom Calvin had been meeting there. One of them sounded much like Jake Morgan. The other one he described as a young man with long hair, in his early twenties, with a faint scar running across his cheek from his earlobe toward his nose.”

  Brock sat up straighter. “Mike Thornton?”

  Kate arched her eyebrows. “Sounds like him, doesn’t it?”

  Agent Whitman frowned. “Mike Thornton? Wasn’t he supposed to help set up the fireworks display?”

  Kate nodded. “He was.”

  “Does Sheriff Baxter think Mike and Jake were involved with Calvin in the burglary ring?” Brock asked.

  “Yes, but it gets better.” Kate’s eyes sparkled as she glanced from one to the other. “They’ve been questioning Calvin for the past two hours at the station in Swan Quarter. When they told him they knew about the meetings at the Lakeview Lodge, Calvin got really nervous and said he wanted a lawyer.”

  Disappointment surged through Brock. “So he quit talking?”

  Kate grinned and shook her head. “No, Calvin knows the law. He spoke with his lawyer for a while before they called Sheriff Baxter back in. The lawyer told them that Calvin would plead guilty to the burglary charges, and he could give them the name of Jake’s killer. But only if he wasn’t charged in the murder.”

  Brock relaxed and glanced at Austin. “So he wanted to make a deal. Did they agree?”

  Kate nodded. “The district attorney okayed it, and Calvin told the whole story. It seems that one night Calvin interrupted Jake selling drugs to Mike. When he started to arrest them, Jake told Calvin he could help him make a lot of money. He’d been doing small robberies for years, but he was ready to go bigger. The more he talked, the more interested Calvin was, and he decided he’d like some quick money, too.”

  Austin leaned forward in his chair. “How does Mike Thornton figure into this?”

  “He’d developed a bad cocaine problem while he was at school, and he was into Jake for a lot of money. Jake told him he could work his debt off by helping him with the robberies. So, the three of them began planning where they’d strike. With three of them working to
gether, they could rob homes at the same time all across the county.”

  Brock smiled at Kate. “Does Sheriff Baxter want you to arrest Mike for burglary?”

  She shook her head. “No. He wants me to arrest him for murder and for assault on an officer.”

  Brock bolted upright in the chair and stared at Kate. “Murder?”

  “Yes. Calvin is willing to testify that he was present on the beach with Jake and Mike the night Jake was murdered. They were arguing because Jake had cut off Mike’s cocaine supply. Calvin turned and started back to his car when he heard a shot. He ran back and found Mike standing over Jake’s body. He’d shot him in the back. Calvin told Mike he didn’t want anything to do with murder, and he left. Later when he found out that I had been shot at on the beach, Calvin went to Mike, and Mike said he never intended to kill me. He just wanted to throw a scare into me.”

  The longer Kate talked, the more concerned Brock became. “Wanted to scare you? Why?”

  “Because he thinks I’ve picked on him ever since he was a teenager. He wanted to get back at me. And we know he had the opportunity to be at the beach that morning. Remember? He was late to work when the boat from the marina was stolen.”

  “That’s right! And he acted so cocky out at the ferry station when you tried to question him.” Brock gave a snort of disgust. “I wonder what he’ll think when you arrest him.”

  Kate bit her bottom lip, and her forehead wrinkled in thought. “I couldn’t figure out how the shooter at the beach disappeared so quickly. Now it all makes sense. Mike’s driven all over this island for years and knows every back road and path. He must have cut off on one from the main road without Doug seeing him and then driven back to town and showed up late to work at the marina.”

  Austin nodded. “So Calvin decided he’d better play ball with the police and get a lighter sentence.”

  “Like I said, Calvin is smart. He knows that the sentence for murder in North Carolina is life in prison with no parole, while home burglary with no one in the house is a Class G felony. The punishment for that is only four and a half years.” She grinned. “But then he’s going to have multiple charges.”