When Cade got up and roamed about the living room, he ended up standing at the living room window that faced the driveway. He prayed the pain ricocheting from his chest to his back would subside with the pill he’d taken, and he forced away the idea of taking another. Just then, a car pulled into the driveway, and he watched a beautiful and leggy woman step from the car. “Uh, I think you’re about to have company,” he said, turning to Valerie.
Valerie rushed to his side and peeped out the window to the car. “Oh, just great. She’s the last person I need to see right now,” she said.
“Sweet,” Cade mumbled, watching the woman cross over the walkway to climb the stairs to the porch in her five-inch heels. “Is she a friend?”
“Something like that. She’s my sister, Lynne.”
“She looks familiar.” Cade’s expression was hopeful. “Maybe I know her.”
“She can’t find you here, so please go upstairs.” When he simply stared at her, taking offense at her demand, Valerie crossed her arms over her chest.
“Oh, so you want to challenge me now? Hum, okay, fine. Stay down here,” she said, walking toward the front door. “And, by the way, my sister probably looks so familiar to you is because she’s the TV news reporter who interviewed your family.”
***
Valerie
Valerie watched Cade hustle across the living room, through the front hallway, and up the stairs to the second floor. But before she could open the front door, her words resounded in her head at the uncanny connection that Lynne had in this whole situation.
She opened the door to Lynne just as Cade closed the door to the guest bedroom.
Lynne breezed into the house, removing her coat while blowing air kisses in Valerie’s direction. After slinging her coat across the back of the couch and flopping down, she launched into a complaint. “Damn, Val, I wished you’d told me that you were going to be skipping town for a whole week. I had to call your office to find out. So what gives with the secrecy?”
As best she could, Valerie tried not to squirm under Lynne’s narrowed eyes assessing her when she sat in the chair opposite the couch, facing the foyer. She wasn’t surprised to see the door to the guest bedroom ease open, and Cade’s head poke out. “It was a last-minute thing for work. What’s going on with you that brought you here this morning?”
Kicking the pumps off her feet, Lynne stretched. “Morning. Girl, don’t you know it’s the afternoon already? Anyway, I had to be at the station at seven-thirty this morning to finish a segment that aired on the noon news,” Lynne said, standing. “I’ve got a little break and thought I’d come over and hang out on my lunch hour. Zoe told me you were home today.”
When Lynne hiked up her short pencil skirt, Valerie nearly fell out of the chair. “Wh-what’re you doing, Lynne?” She glanced up the stairs, horrified to find Cade opening the guest bedroom door further and easing far enough out into the hallway to see down into the living room. “Do you want to fix your clothes like a lady and perhaps in the bathroom?”
Ignoring her prude of a sister, Lynne began rolling her pantyhose down her hips, then shimmied them down her long, shapely legs. “Val, chill out. You know how much I hate these things,” Lynne said, sliding her short skirt back into place and tucking her hose into her purse. “Lord, this brings back memories of sneaking home after a date. You remember those days, don’t you, Val?” Lynne grinned at her sister’s pinched expression. “You know if it wasn’t for work, I would only wear hosiery for my hubby. They’re such a turn on for Thomas. Go figure,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Oh, speaking of Thomas, he has a friend who is single and decent looking,” Lynne said. She sent her sister a sly glance before she stretched her arms high above her head, then bent completely over, grasping her ankles and stretching out her spine. “Oh, that feels good. I either need a back massage or some of Daddy’s smelly liniment.”
Valerie was beyond embarrassed. But to see Cade openly ogling her sister’s nearly naked rear-end up in the air was more than she could stand. “Lynne, please sit down. You’re making me dizzy staring up at you,” she said.
Flopping down on the couch, Lynne spotted the two coffee mugs on the coffee table and grinned from ear to ear. “Hmm, two coffee mugs…you have company, you little sneak?” she whispered, pointing a finger up to the second floor.
Valerie was coming apart at the seams and scrambled to come up with an answer. “My, ah…neighbor stopped over. She accepted a package for me while I was away.”
“Damn, girl, you’re as uptight as a caged rabbit, and you didn’t offer me a cup of coffee.”
“Sorry, my trip was busy, and unfortunately, I ended up…bringing the baggage home with me. Come on back to the kitchen,” Valerie said, picking up the two mugs, hoping Lynne would follow her. To her dismay, Lynne declined to join her in the kitchen.
Minutes later, Valerie returned to see Cade lounging against the guest room door frame before passing Lynne a mug of coffee with trembling fingers, which Lynne’s noticed.
“Valerie, what’s going on? Have you been talking to those dead people again?” Lynne’s snicker advanced to a hearty laugh as she stretched her long legs out onto the coffee table.
Valerie caught Cade staring right at her with his palms up in a “what the hell” hand gesture. “I don’t talk to dead people, Lynne,” she said, trying to ignore Cade thrusting his hands onto his hips and nodding his head.
“Well, you sure seem more spaced out lately, that’s all I’m saying, and honestly, I think it’s because you haven’t gotten back on the dating scene yet. Now, before you blast me with your reasons to say no, I want you to think about a date with Thomas’s friend. If nothing pans out, you’ll at least go on a date, because I don’t think talking to those ghostly creatures,” Lynne flashed air quotes, “isn’t going to cut it in the romance department, and I’d seriously doubt they could even get it up.”
Valerie cringed to see Cade grab his crotch, smile, and nod his head.
“Look, Lynne, I didn’t get any sleep after coming home so late.” Valerie’s patience was waning. “I don’t have much in the house to make you some lunch unless you want a BLT.” When Lynne declined lunch, Valerie was quick to ask what her sister had been working on at the station. “Anything I’d be interested in?”
“Hell, yes, you’d be interested.” Lynne dropped her feet to the floor and sat up quickly. “There’s some scuttlebutt going on concerning Congressman Owen that’s got him scared shitless.”
Valerie leaned forward as Cade drew closer to the railing. “So what’s up with him?”
“Well, a few months ago, this guy called the station anonymously saying he had some information that he believed traced back to the congressman. He told me how he’d stumbled on the information and then feared that his life was in jeopardy. He went on to say if he didn’t call back, then I could bet he was dead, and guess what, Val? I haven’t heard back from him.”
When Lynne paused to take another sip of coffee, Valerie glanced up at Cade only to realize Lynne had been watching her over the rim of her coffee mug.
“Damn it, Valerie. I’m out of here if you start that mess of zoning out and trying to make me believe you’re seeing dead zombies floating above my head or hanging out upstairs.”
“I was just reminding myself to call Zoe today. So if you’re though berating me, Lynne, tell me about the guy who called the station.”
“I thought he just disappeared on me because that happens with snitches sometimes.”
“He could have been one of those random crazies that always call the station, and besides, you know better than to listen to people with a gripe against an elected official,” Valerie said.
“That’s true.” Lynne reached into her bag, pulling out her iPad, and after tapping a few keys, she pulled up her notes. “This guy called me four times. He didn’t have a complaint to voice. He said he had information on Owen, and he was right that his life was in danger.”
“Why?”
“Nate?” Valerie repeated the name.
“Yes, Nate Burton was his name.”
Valerie watched a frown cross Cade’s face before quickly turning her attention back to Lynne. “What were his allegations concerning Owen?”
Lynne glanced around as if to confirm they were alone. “For one thing, Nate told me that Owen’s wife was getting it on hot and heavy with a trusted member of his staff. He said he almost caught them in the boathouse behind the mansion while Owen was home entertaining.”
“I meant anything conclusive about his claim of Owen’s wrongdoing?”
“Oh, well, Nate told me that he’d told his friend about everything, and together they would get the proof by checking into Owen’s finances first and seeing if there were any dummy accounts. But then Nate’s friend went missing right after they’d planned how to get the goods on Owen. He’d given me the friend’s cell phone number, but that was turned off. I fear Nate’s friend may have disappeared along with him…damn shame,” Lynne said.
“That’s terrible.”
“It really is. I’ve interviewed the family of Nate’s friend in their home, and when I’ve watched the tape to edit it for broadcast, there were few dry eyes in the station when I’m done. “The parents were strong on camera, but when the interview is over, they just crash. I’m in a dilemma, Val,” Lynne said.
“Because you don’t have a lead story?” Valerie asked.
“No, Val. It’s because I found out that Nate’s dead. The police report indicates he had been shot. His body was found a couple of months ago in a dumpster. Before he died, Nate sent his wife and son down to Mississippi to stay with their family, and I’m sure he believed they could end up dead, like his friend.”
Valerie watched Cade go back into the bedroom. But his shadow was visible by the slightly opened door. Lynne’s ringing cell phone pulled her attention away from Cade. She watched Lynne quickly snap her iPad tablet close before draining her coffee mug, then saying she had to get back to the station.
***
Cade
At the point he’d heard Valerie’s sister mention Congressman Owen’s name, Cade’s mind reeled, forcing him to grip the upstairs railing to keep his legs from buckling. The more Lynne spoke about the man, her snitch, the more Cade remembered him.
Nate Burton was his friend.
Pulling his notebook from the nightstand drawer, he flipped back several pages to where he’d jotted down names, and at the time, none of them made any sense. But there was a name he’d written.
Nate.
Sitting on the side of the bed, Cade let his mind open to the memories that poured out.
Nate had come to him about a computer program he’d been tinkering around with. He’d then become petrified when he accidentally hacked into the email account of a Ted Baxter who, after some checking, turned out to be the financial guru to Congressman Roy Owen. Although Cade wasn’t a need-to-know person for things that didn’t concern him, and politicians left a sour taste in his mouth, as a favor he’d decided to look at the emails at Nate’s insistence. After digging a little deeper, Cade was glad he had.
In a short amount of time, he and Nate had been able to access both work and home email accounts of Ted Baxter, but Nate kept digging until he had hacked into Congressman Owen’s encrypted financial records, both public and private, then into the man’s email accounts.
By the time Cade had gotten back to him, Nate was in a near panic. Ted Baxter realized his email account had was hacked and set up a dummy account that traced back to identify the initial hacker, Nate. But it had been too late.
Baxter’s people were quicker than anticipated, and that’s when Nate began receiving threatening emails. Then Nate’s twelve-year-old son was knocked off his bike on his way home from school and sustained a broken leg. When a neighbor reported that she had captured the hit-and-run accident on her home surveillance system, Nate realized he’d been targeted. There was little doubt that his son was followed and the car purposely hit him. On several occasions, Nate’s wife had come home in a near panic, sure someone was following her. The final straw occurred when Nate and his wife’s house caught fire and burned to the ground while they were at the movies. The cause of the fire was determined to be a faulty space heater.
He later told Cade that they never owned a space heater. Getting up from the bed, Cade walked over to the window and glanced down into the backyard. He couldn’t believe Nate was dead…killed, murdered, according to Valerie’s sister, and now Cade suspected why he was killed.
He was a link to Nate.
Absently staring down at the shed in the backyard, Cade noticed the door needed realigning and made a mental note to fix that for Valerie…
…and for the tenth time, he wished Nate had come to him sooner.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Valerie
While filling the dishwasher, Valerie had been replaying in her head what Lynne told her. It seemed an odd coincidence that Congressmen Owen’s name would come up in another conversation and not favorably either, she thought, recalling Sarah’s comments.
In an instant, a light flashed behind her eyes, and she went completely still. Closing her eyes tightly, she saw a shadowy picture of the congressman. He was removing a mask to reveal a face that was contorted with rage, and his eyes were black holes. When the picture faded away, a knot of tension hit the pit of her stomach. Gasping, she thought no one would ever have to convince her how evil the man really was behind his smooth veneer. The handsome, fatherly face, light-brown skin, jet black hair, and perfectly aligned, capped teeth didn’t hide the fact that on the inside he was mean and ugly.
She could hear Cade moving about upstairs, and having finished in the kitchen, she ran up the stairs. As she reached the top landing, he rushed from the guest room, almost colliding with her. “Cade, you don’t look well. Are you okay?”
“Yes. No,” he said. “I have to tell you something.”
He guided her into the guest bedroom, where Valerie dropped down onto the bed, which she noticed he’d made up. When he sat beside her, she could see that he was deeply troubled, and she was suddenly apprehensive about what he was going to say. The heat coming off his body was intense. “What is it, Cade?” she asked.
“Valerie, I don’t know what to make of any of this. But what your sister said downstairs…”
“Oh, ignore her. She and my brother-in-law are always trying to set me up on dates.”
“Not that part.”
“Oh, what part then?”
“I’m the friend,” he said quietly.
Staring at him and not comprehending, Valerie shrugged her shoulders.
“Nate Burton was my friend.”
With abrupt clarity and understanding, Valerie let out an unladylike expletive. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, my words exactly.”
“Whoa, what exactly is the connection between your friend, Nate, and my sister, Lynne?”
“Your sister is not the connection. Nate Burton and I were working together.”
“Listen, Cade, let’s regroup here. Your amnesia and memories are probably disjointed and all over the place. Maybe you’re confused by what you heard downstairs.”
“Remember I told you that I was hired to acquire some encrypted files?”
“You said steal some data,” she corrected him.
“Right, well, it’s like this…”
Valerie sat in stunned silence, listening as Cade explained how Nate Burton hacked into some big wig politician’s computer and that had cost him his life.
***
Cade
Cade couldn’t say if it was returning to DC, his hometo
wn, Valerie’s gift, or if it was just time for his memories to return, but it was happening. It was as if the dam blocking his memories had burst, and they came flooding out, sometimes tangled and confusing and tripping over themselves to escape his befuddled brain. There were still some troubling blanks and fuzzy parts—like his family members’ faces that he couldn’t visualize yet—but other things were slipping into place.
It began back at Bryland after Valerie’s arrival. As memories were surfacing, one involved a man—a dark elusive malevolent figure shrouded in evil. His dreams left him with impressions that he was in danger. He’d begun to understand how he could’ve ended up in the sanitarium with amnesia.
On the flight from Maine, he’d used Valerie’s laptop to check out things that had occurred in DC over the past few months. That’s when a story had caught his attention. The caption read that Congressman and Mrs. Owen were guests of honor at a formal dinner function in Washington, DC.
Owen.
The name was a tickle inside his brain that he couldn’t scratch. It meant something…but what? Just the man’s name put a knot in his gut the size of a soccer ball. He’d need to check it out further.
It was only after he’d crept back downstairs an hour after they had arrived at Valerie’s home that he’d been able to do more checking. He’d gotten his second wind after gulping down the seltzer, and when she’d given him a tour of her house, he noticed she had a home computer. So motivated to check out the name Owen, he’d waited until Valerie went to bed, locked behind her bedroom door, no doubt, and he’d come downstairs and powered up the computer. It hadn’t taken him long to find out about Congressman Roy Owen. Page after page of information appeared, and he quickly scrolled through it, but nothing caught his attention.
But how was Valerie connected to Owen? That’s what he’d wanted to know. Sure, on some level, he thought she was off her rocker and ready for the loony bin, but deep down inside, he just didn’t feel that she was. Something was riding just below the surface of his memory, and try as he might, he just couldn’t grasp it. But whatever it was, it was stronger since Valerie’s sister breezed out of the house to return to the TV station.
Finding Cade (Dream Catcher Series Book 1) Page 21