by Cindi Myers
“I saw them shooting, and I was so afraid they had hurt Aunt Maya. I ran and ran until I couldn’t run anymore. And then I didn’t know where I was.”
“You said one man,” Travis said. “There was only one man who shot at your aunt and Deputy Walker?”
Casey nodded.
“And there were two men who shot your mom and dad?” Travis asked. “And the man who shot at your aunt and Deputy Walker was one of them?”
Another nod.
“Was he a big man?” Travis asked. “Was he bigger than Deputy Walker?”
She studied Gage, sizing him up, then made a sign that clearly conveyed the man she’d seen was shorter, but broader, a fact Darla confirmed.
“What color was his hair?” Travis asked.
Casey shook her head and continued to sign.
“She says he was wearing a hat,” Darla said. “A knit cap, I think. It was black. All his clothes were black.”
“What about the second man?” Travis asked. “The one who was with this one at camp?”
Casey took a deep breath, the struggle to remember—or maybe all the sadness that went with remembering—playing out across her face. Then she began a series of rapid signs—too rapid for Gage to follow. “The other man was about as tall as Deputy Walker,” Darla said. “But...thicker. I think she means bulkier. He had a gun, too. She doesn’t know which one shot her mother and father. Maybe both of them.”
Casey leaned against Maya and closed her eyes. “I think she’s had enough questions for today,” Darla said.
“Just one more question,” Travis said. “Is there anything else she wants us to know?”
Darla tapped Casey’s arm to get her attention, then relayed the question. Casey looked at Gage, eyes big and bright with unshed tears. She made a series of signs he tried hard to understand, but could not. Darla gasped.
“What is it?” Gage asked. “What did she say?”
“She says the tall, bulky man saw her peeking out of the tent. He looked right at her and she thinks he shouted,” Darla said. “He may have tried to follow her but she got away. But she’s very afraid he will try to come after her and hurt her, too.”
Chapter Twelve
Darla’s words sent a cold shard of fear through Maya. Her first instinct was to grab Casey and pull her close, but she didn’t want to alarm the little girl. Casey was counting on the adults around her to keep her safe, so Maya couldn’t let her niece see her fear. She put a hand on Casey’s head. The little girl looked at her, her eyes intent. “I’ll protect you,” Maya signed, though she had no idea how to do that.
“We should go back to Denver,” she said out loud. “We’ll be safer there.”
Gage took her arm. “Darla, you and Travis stay with Casey while Maya and I talk.”
Maya started to protest that she didn’t want to leave Casey right now, but the look in Gage’s eyes warned her he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Arguing in front of the child didn’t seem like the best choice, so she reluctantly followed Gage into his office.
He shut the door and faced her. “Running away to Denver is a bad idea,” he said.
“I’m not running away,” she said. “Denver is my home. It’s Casey’s home.”
“I don’t think it’s safe,” he said. “The killers could follow you there.”
“It will be harder to find us in a big city.”
“How hard will it be for them to find out where you work—where you live?” he asked. “Once they know that, they can watch you and learn where Casey goes to school.” He moved closer, until his chest was almost touching hers. The move could have been threatening, but it only reminded her of how close they had been around that campfire. The memory flashed across her mind at the feel of his arms around her, his body pressed against hers. She pushed it away. She didn’t want to remember that moment—she couldn’t remember it right now.
“Eagle Mountain is a small town,” he continued. “Strangers and suspicious people stand out. You’ll have the whole town watching out for you here.”
Everything he said made sense, but it didn’t lessen her urge to run and hide. “I need time to think,” she said.
“I don’t want you to go,” he said.
She stared at him, her heart racing painfully. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Yes, you do.” He moved closer still, their bodies touching now. “You knew it when you kissed me there by the campfire. I never intended for it to happen, but I care about you. And I care about Casey. I want to help you protect her. I want to protect both of you.”
She tried to swallow, her mouth dry as she remembered the ferocity of that kiss, how that moment with him had cut through all the fear and uncertainty. And she remembered afterward, too, when he had been so gentle with Casey. The little girl had trusted him, at a time when she had every reason not to trust a stranger. She spread her palms on his chest, not pushing him away, but giving herself a little space. “This isn’t a good time for this,” she said. “For us.”
“You’re right—it isn’t. And it would be an easy out for me to use bad timing as an excuse to step back from this, but I won’t. I can’t.”
“I need time to think,” she said again.
He must have heard the desperation behind the words. He stepped back. “Think all you want,” he said. “But do it here, where I can help you and Casey.”
“I’d better go to her,” she said. “She’ll be wondering where I am.”
Casey was so engrossed in conversation with Darla that she scarcely looked up when Maya and Gage returned. “I was telling her about my cats,” Darla said. “One of them is a real goofball.”
“Thanks for distracting her,” Maya said. “And thank you for all your help today.”
“That’s my job, but it’s also something I enjoy a great deal.” Darla pressed a business card into Maya’s hand. “I’m officially Casey’s advocate now, so call me if you need anything at all. And I’ll be checking in with you again soon.”
“Let’s go back to the B and B and see about lunch,” Maya signed to Casey.
They said goodbye to Darla, and started across the lobby with Gage when Adelaide called to them. “Come over here a minute,” she said. “There’s something I want to show you.”
The three of them moved to Adelaide’s desk. “All of this is for you,” she said, pulling out a plastic box filled with cards and several stuffed animals. “People have been dropping them off since yesterday.”
Maya translated this news to Casey, whose eyes widened. The little girl plucked a pink rabbit from the box and squeezed it to her chest. Maya blinked back sudden tears. “I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“The whole town is so glad to know that Casey is safe.” Adelaide handed her one of the cards. “You should read a few.”
Maya slid the card from the envelope and opened it. I helped with the search and stayed up nights worrying about that little girl. I cried tears of joy when I heard the news she was safe. I’m so sorry you both have had to go through such sorrow, but remember you are really a part of all of us now. Best wishes for a happy future. Barbara.
Maya stared at the mound of cards in the box. “This is amazing.”
“You take them home and read through them.” Adelaide handed over the box. “We opened them all, just to make sure there were no nasty-grams. I’m sorry it has to be that way, but you can’t be too careful.”
“I understand,” she said.
While Maya and Casey looked through more of the cards, Maya was dimly aware of the front door to the station opening. She glanced back at the stocky man in a red T-shirt who entered. “Hey, Gage, you’re just the man I wanted to see,” the newcomer said. “I might have a lead on those thefts from the high school.”
“Would you mind waiting just a minute?” Gage asked her.
“Go
ahead. We’ll be fine waiting here.” Casey hadn’t even looked up from the cards. A stuffed animal under each arm, she traced one finger over a colorful photograph of wildflowers on the front of one card. Later, when they were alone, Maya would ask her niece what she thought of this outpouring of support. For Maya, it helped ease her pain a little to know they weren’t alone.
* * *
GAGE LED WADE Tomlinson into his office and shut the door behind them. “What can I do for you?” Gage asked.
“Is that little Casey out there?” Wade asked. “She looks like she’s doing pretty good for a kid who was lost in the woods for two nights.”
“She’s a remarkable little girl.” And her aunt was a remarkable woman—one who had turned Gage’s easygoing life upside down. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
Wade lowered his stocky frame into the chair across from Gage’s desk. “You said you wanted to know anything that might help you track down the school robbers. I might have something, though I don’t know if it will really be any help to you.”
The high school case seemed to have happened weeks ago, though Gage realized it had only been two days since the second break-in. He sat behind his desk and picked up a pen, prepared to make notes. “What have you got?”
“Brock and I were climbing over in Shakes Canyon yesterday afternoon and we ran into two guys we haven’t seen around here before. Young skinhead types—you know the kind—shaved heads and Nazi tattoos. Bad attitudes. I talked to them a little—they said they’re camped out in the woods south of town. I’m not saying they’re the ones behind the vandalism, but something about them struck me as wrong, you know?”
It wasn’t much to go on, but it wouldn’t hurt to give these two a closer look. “Thanks,” Gage said. “We’ll check them out.”
Wade stood. “Something about them wasn’t right,” he said. “And I don’t mean just the Nazi stuff. Maybe they had something to do with the shooting of that little girl’s parents.”
“We aren’t ruling out anyone at this point.” He stood also, and moved toward the door.
“Has Casey been able to give you a description of the killer or anything?” Wade asked.
“She’s told us some. We’re still working with her on that.”
“Yeah. I guess little kids aren’t the most reliable witnesses.”
“Casey is reliable,” Gage said. “She’s going to be a big help to us.”
He escorted Wade out, then joined Maya and Casey at Adelaide’s desk. “Look at all this,” Maya said, indicating the bin full of cards and toys. “I still can’t believe people brought them for Casey. It’s amazing.”
“Everybody was concerned about her,” he said. “We’re all glad she’s safe.” He squeezed her shoulder, hoping she would understand that he would do everything in his power to keep her that way.
He picked up the bin and she and Casey followed him out to his cruiser. “Did that man know who took those items from the high school?” Maya asked, as she fastened Casey into the booster seat in the back of the SUV.
“He had an idea about a couple of people he thought I should check out—I’ll follow up on them.”
Casey, still clutching the pink bunny, tugged on Maya’s sleeve. When she had her aunt’s attention, she signed. Maya smiled. “She says she’s going to name the bunny Bitty Bunny.”
“Cute name,” Gage said.
When they were all buckled in, Gage started the cruiser and headed out onto Eagle Mountain’s main street. “Is sign language hard to learn?” he asked.
“American Sign Language isn’t any more difficult than any other language,” Maya said. “Easier than most, I imagine. We all started learning it as soon as Casey was born and it didn’t seem like it took that long. I guess the main difference is that it’s a physical language instead of a spoken one. The movements of your fingers and hands are important, but so is your expression.”
“I’ve been watching you and Casey talk,” he said. “It’s like you’re communicating with your whole bodies.”
“In a way, we are. I think it’s a very beautiful language.”
“I’d like to learn,” he said. “It would probably help me in my work.”
Maya turned to face Casey. “I’m telling her you want to learn sign language,” she said. “She says you should—then the two of you could talk.”
He pulled the cruiser to the curb in front of the Bear’s Den. “I’ll stop by when I get off shift this evening,” he said.
“You don’t—” She stopped and shook her head. “That would be great,” she said, and turned to help Casey.
He watched them make their way up the walk and into the B and B. She had been about to tell him that he didn’t need to stop by—that they would be fine without him. He wondered what had changed her mind. Was she beginning to see him as an important part of her life?
He pulled away from the curb, thoughts churning. Maybe he should let Maya do what she wanted and take Casey back to Denver. He could talk to the police there and arrange for them to keep an eye on her. That would be the easiest solution. Without them here, he would be freer to focus on his work and go back to the no-hassles, stress-free personal life he had worked hard to put together these last few years.
His head told him that was the right thing to do—but he wasn’t so sure his heart was down with that plan.
* * *
MAYA SET THE box of cards and toys on the table in the hall. Paige had left a note, her writing a cramped scrawl on a piece of torn notebook paper. Out running errands, it read. The other guests are out as well. I have a new couple checking in this afternoon. I should be home before they arrive, but if they show up early, their check-in packet is on my desk in my office, next to the dining room.
“I’m hungry,” Casey signed.
“I’ll see if there’s anything in the kitchen for lunch.” Maya set the note aside. “You take the stuffed animals upstairs to our room. We can look through the cards together after we eat.”
Casey grabbed a blue bear and a purple hippo out of the bin and raced up the stairs with them and the pink bunny. Maya felt a little lighter as she listened to the girl’s feet pound up the stairs. It was such a normal kid noise—and maybe a sign that the trauma she had endured hadn’t permanently damaged her.
In the kitchen, she found tuna, mayonnaise, pickles and bread. She decided to make tuna sandwiches. Later, she would go shopping and replace the supplies, but she didn’t think Paige would begrudge them to her now. She would look for something special as a gift for their hostess as well—maybe some good chocolates or fancy cookies.
She was assembling the sandwiches when she thought she heard the front door open. “Paige, I’m in here,” she called.
But Paige didn’t answer. Maya finished making lunch and washed her hands, but she couldn’t shake the certainty that she had heard the front door. “Paige?” she called again, and moved into the front room.
No one was there, and a glance out the front window showed Paige’s car wasn’t parked at the curb or in the driveway. Maybe Maya had imagined the noise. Her nerves had certainly been on edge the past few days. Maybe what she had heard had just been the normal settling of a place this old. She started up the stairs to tell Casey lunch was ready.
Halfway up, a strangled scream broke the afternoon silence. “Casey!” Maya shouted, and ran up the remaining stairs. She raced toward the closed door to the bedroom she and Casey shared and was struggling with the knob when pain exploded at the back of her head and everything went black.
Chapter Thirteen
“We are still interviewing Casey about what happened to her,” Travis told the assembled reporters. “We’re working with specialists to make sure we get everything she can tell us about the killer or killers, without causing her any more pain than necessary. In the meantime, we are investigating other angles of this case.
I’m confident we are going to track down these people and stop them.”
Some of the crowd gathered in the conference room at the Rayford County Sheriff’s Department applauded as Travis completed his prepared statement to the press, while other hands flew into the air and reporters began firing questions. Gage stood next to and slightly behind his brother, studying the crowd. The mayor was here, impatiently shifting from foot to foot and glowering at the crowd, as the sheriff responded to six variations of the same question, which was asked first by a reporter from the Denver paper. “Who do you think did this and why?”
“Our investigation is ongoing.” Travis repeated this and variations of the phrase for the next ten minutes until Gage, on a prearranged signal, stepped forward and took the microphone. “Thank you all for coming today,” he said. “That’s all the questions we have time for.”
Mayor Larry Rowe moved to the microphone. “I’d just like to say that the town of Eagle Mountain is shocked and horrified by these recent events,” he said. “And that this is not at all in keeping with the character of our town and its citizens.” He glared out at the room, as if expecting questions, but another officer was already ushering the press out of the room.
Gage waited until the mayor had also left, then turned to Travis. “Want to ride out and look for these two skinheads Wade reported?”
“Where do you plan to start looking?” Travis asked.
“They were climbing in Shakes Canyon. We’ll start there.”
The two brothers left the conference room. Adelaide hurried toward them. “Dispatch just requested a unit report to 192 Elm Court,” she said. “They got a 911 call from that address, but no response.”
It took half a second for the address to register. “That’s the Bear’s Den,” he said. “Who made the call?”
“The dispatcher says the line is still open, but she’s not getting any response.”
Gage was running now, Travis right behind him, already on the line to dispatch. “Put out a call for backup,” he ordered.
Gage raced to his SUV. He had dropped off Maya and Casey less than twenty minutes ago and they had been fine. He should have gone into the house with them. What if the killer had discovered where they were staying and had been in there waiting for them? Gage should have thought of that.