The Plain Jane Mystery Box Set 2

by Traci Tyne Hilton

  Gemma made it to the old Crawford place sometime after midnight. Jane was still awake, but safely tucked away in a bedroom that was not Jake’s.

  Of course, he was with her, but that wasn’t anybody’s business but theirs and all they did was talk anyway.

  They talked about the wedding and how they could probably pull it off in six weeks after all. They also talked about the psycho-stalker Brad.

  “Tomorrow I don’t have anything official to do until a three pm coffee thing with the wife of the guy who owns Speedy Rotor. They’re interested in supporting our work.”

  “That’s great. You deserve to sleep in.”

  Jake laughed and lifted Jane’s hand to his lips. “I thought I’d go to the office with you instead. I know that Jeremiah didn’t tell Brad your hours or anything like that, but that doesn’t mean he’s not parked across the street waiting for you.”

  Jane squeezed his hand. “I won’t turn down your company.”

  Gemma popped the bedroom door open, and knocked on it. “Any room in the inn?”

  “Welcome to the Crawford Protection Agency, Home for Troubled Girls.”

  Gemma curled up on the bed. “You can call me troubled, just don’t call me late for dinner.”

  “You missed dinner entirely.”

  Gemma giggled. “Not if you think of tonight as tomorrow. In that case, I’m very, very early.”

  Jake kissed the top of Jane’s head. “Good night, baby. See you in the morning.”

  “Night.” Jane climbed into the other bed, still in her clothes.

  “So things with this case are pretty serious, huh?”

  “More so than I wanted them to be. There’s this guy who seems really threatening. He knows something, and instead of telling us what it is, he is trying to silence us. Me. Not us. We think he’s the guy who hit Phoebe.”

  “Do you think maybe you are in over your head?” Gemma yawned.

  “No.” Jane pulled her blanket up to her chin. “If I have been called to do this, God will give me the resources I need to get it done.” She rolled towards the wall, so she didn’t have to look at her cousin in the other twin bed. And she prayed that she would believe what she had just said, because she really, really didn’t want to die before her honeymoon.

  Chapter 16

  “Hey, babe, Phoebe just called and she needs me to pick her up at the hospital this morning.” Jake gave her the news as he handed her a cup of coffee. It helped.

  She sipped the coffee before responding. “Okay.”

  “Can you call Flora and ask her if you can meet her later? Explain about the terrifying stalker guy and how you’d prefer to come with me.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Jane stretched her arms over her head. Jake had dark circles under his eyes, and a worry line right between his eyebrows. But Jane felt perfectly fine. The sun sent streaks of thin light through her curtains. The coffee was hot and strong. Nothing was as bad in the morning as it was at night.

  He looked at his watch, and then at her again. “Sorry I let you sleep so late.”

  She glanced at the bedside clock—8:30. Eight thirty? She sprung from bed. “How? Why? It’s almost three hours later than usual. What on earth?” She flung herself from the bed.

  “You really needed sleep. You’ve been working too hard the last, um, twenty-three years.”

  “Jake, not funny. I had a client this morning.”

  “A cleaning client?”

  Jane rubbed her eyes. Then she took another sip of her coffee. “No, I didn’t. I just do so often.”

  “Then calm down. Take a deep breath. Come with me to get Phoebe, and then after we deliver her safely home we can go see Flora and Rocky and discuss how to handle it when a contact goes crazy.

  “I’d feel better if I could have that conversation sooner rather than later.”

  Jake’s jaw twitched. “And I’d feel better if I could send you out into the world with a concealed weapon.”

  “I’ll put it on the to-do list, right after getting a shower and some breakfast. Now scat.”

  “I think you should put it right before the shower, but it’s your list.” Jake gave her a half smile and left.

  She made quick work of her shower and breakfast and hit the road for Oregon City.

  She parked behind the building that housed the SCoRI office. Her hands felt oddly empty, like she should be carrying a briefcase full of evidence. But she didn’t have one. Just her regular little purse with her regular phone, and the story Jeremiah shared the night before.

  She slung her purse over her shoulder and paused by the car to get her thoughts in order. What exactly was she asking from her mentors today? How to protect herself from a potential stalker? How to be a detective without inspiring stalkers? How to catch a stalker with your bare hands? She chuckled to herself. Better to just lay the facts out for the team and see what they have to say. She could pose specific questions as they occurred to her.

  She took a step forward, but her purse strap was stuck. She gave it a jerk, but it jerked back.

  “Glad to see I didn’t miss you.” The voice hissed in her ear, but she recognized it: Brad Carter.

  She slid her arms over her head and twisted, slipping out of the strap of her purse. Then she ran. But he ran, too and caught her around the waist. “Come on. I’ve got to show you something.”

  She tried to slither out from his grasp, but he transferred his arm to hers, hooking her in.

  He didn’t punch, hit, or threaten. And he didn’t appear to have a weapon. So she didn’t scream. There’d be time for screaming after she learned what he wanted.

  They walked calmly to his Honda, where he popped the door open for her. “Get in.”

  It occurred to Jane that it might be a good time to start screaming, but she still held it in reserve. “Not gonna happen.”

  “I warned you this was a dangerous case. I answered your boss’s questions. But you won’t drop it and you won’t leave me alone. You want to know what I know? I’ll show you. But you’ve got to come with me now, and quietly.”

  If Jane had had the concealed weapon Jake had been promoting she would have been able to take the situation in hand, by force. Until then she’d have to use her wits and trust God. Oh, and the mace in her purse. She thanked God for the small miracle of that tiny can of painful spray. “If you have something important to show me, I will follow you. But I won’t get in the car.”

  Brad gritted his teeth so hard she could hear them. Then he slammed the door. “Fine. Your car. But I drive.”

  “I haven’t screamed yet, but I still could. My car, I drive. Your car, you drive. I follow. Does that make sense? Or I run and scream and you get arrested. Up to you.”

  Brad cracked his knuckles. “Fine. Fine. You just need to come with me. It’s for your own good.” He handed her purse back. “Don’t try any funny business.”

  Jane wondered if that had sounded as stupid to him as it had to her as she got into her car. She took his willingness to let her follow as a good sign. He hesitated at the passenger door to her car, but eventually turned and went to his own.

  As soon as his back was to her, she texted Flora. “Following Brad the journalist somewhere. Could be dangerous. Don’t know if I’m being smart or stupid.”

  Flora didn’t respond.

  Brad flashed his lights at Jane, as though they had a prearranged sign. She rolled her eyes and followed him. He led her the back way to SE Portland. He drove past her normal stomping grounds and a shiver of fear raced up and down her spine. At a long stop light she glanced at her phone, but there was no new message from Flora. She would have given her left hand to have Jake with her.

  They went so far out on Foster Road, Jane thought for a moment he was going to lead her to the wilderness to kill her, but a quick glance at the street sign showed her she had overreacted. They were just a few blocks past 92nd. You couldn’t be that close to the mall and worry about being hacked to death—could you?

  He turned into
an industrial area—it looked like some kind of quarry, and maybe a recycling plant. Large, aluminum structures sent long dark shadows across the parking lot.

  Jane took a snapshot of the sign at the nearest building and sent it with a text to Flora. “This is where he took me, if I never make it out.” She bit the inside of her cheek, willing herself to believe her words were just a joke.

  Brad parked in a crowded parking lot. Plenty of people were around, working, running the heavy equipment in the background, but none of them paid attention to Jane or Brad.

  He jerked his thumb at a charming old white clapboard building. “He’s in there. Act nonchalant.”

  “Who?” Jane did not follow as Brad began his walk toward the building.

  He stopped, stared at her, and shook his head. Then he walked on.

  He couldn’t mean Kyle. There was no way he was just…hanging out here.

  She snapped several more pictures of her location, and one of Brad and his car license plate, only this time she used Instagram. She wasn’t interested in being discreet. She was interested in being found if he tied her up and locked her in Devon’s office.

  She sighed. Her jokes weren’t funny and they weren’t covering her fear very well. When Jake joked around, it always helped.

  Jane ran to catch up with Brad. The feeling that she was running to her death made her breath catch in her chest, but she forged ahead. If she found Kyle here, alive, she would have done one solid thing to help Maggie in her time of crisis, and that was worth the risk.

  Brad led her into the old building and down a long, dark corridor lined with doors. Two were opened.

  Jane forced a smile onto her lips, and waved as she passed, catching the eye of a girl about her age with long dirty blonde hair in one office, and an older man with a scruffy beard in another. He looked annoyed, but she was glad he noticed her.

  A single rectangular fluorescent light flickered dully on the ceiling, casting its bluish glow in the center of the hall, but not to the ends. Most of the doors didn’t have business name plaques on them. The hall felt desolate like an abandoned school.

  They turned a corner. This new hall was unlit, and very quiet.

  Brad led her to a door at the far end of the hall. She had counted fifteen doors between herself and the turn they had taken. The door they stopped at had an extra deadbolt. Brad stared at it, and then spoke in a low voice. “The night of the wedding rehearsal, I was supposed to interview Devon. He said he scheduled it for during the dinner because he hated big crowds and wanted a reason to leave early. We were supposed to meet here, at his office.”

  “Did you?”

  “We planned to meet at eight p.m.” Brad shivered.

  “And was Devon here?”

  “I parked around the side of the building. I was about fifteen minutes early, so I stayed in my car to get my notes in order. I wanted to ask him about his feelings regarding the test on his device. Had the test of play been fair, considering the quality of the game that was used? That kind of thing.” He hesitated

  “What happened next?” Jane backed away a little, wanting to draw him out, but wanting to be able to make a quick escape.

  “This office has a window facing the woods.”

  “The woods where they found Devon’s body?” Jane shivered.

  “Yeah. And while I sat in my car, someone climbed out the window.”

  “Ayla said his windows were nailed shut.”

  “I had heard that rumor, too. So I thought at first maybe it was the wrong window. It wasn’t dark, but the person was in the shadow, and had a hoodie on, hood up.”

  “Did you call the police?”

  “I thought about it. But the person was gone too fast. And I don’t know, it could have been anything.”

  “Not usually.” Jane stared at the door as well. Why had they had to come here to tell the story? It didn’t add up. “People who climb out windows are trying to escape unnoticed.”

  “He didn’t. I noticed. But I couldn’t tell who it was.”

  “And then what happened?” Jane gripped her phone. There was nothing to report, nothing to record, so far.

  Brad’s eyes were glued to the impassive door.

  “I waited a couple more minutes and went in. I came back here, to the office. I double checked the suite number and all of that, and then I was sure whoever had escaped had left this office. I knocked on the door and got no answer.”

  “Why are we here, Brad?”

  Brad swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “We’re here to find Kyle. He’s in there.”

  “How do you know?”

  “When no one answered my knock, I tried calling. Kyle answered.”

  “Devon’s cell?”

  “No, his office number.”

  “Okay…” Jane’s heart skipped a beat. This was something worth hearing. “What did he say?”

  “Kyle and I are in the same line of work. We know each other. I recognized his voice.”

  “But what did he say?”

  “He said, ‘This is Devon.’ I said, ‘No it’s not. What’s going on?’ and Kyle hung up.”

  “But it’s been two weeks. Why do you think he’s still in there?”

  “Because he just disappeared. He came into that office and no one has seen him since. And afterwards, after they found Devon’s body, no one around here reported seeing anyone leave the office that night.”

  Jane leaned against the wall opposite of Devon’s door. “But I’m sure the cops have been in already. They would know if he was in there…” She didn’t add that if he was dead they’d be able to smell him all the way in the hall.

  “No, he’s there. I know he is. He has to be. If the cops searched it, then they’re in on it together.” Brad paced back and forth, fidgety steps, his arms jerking restlessly by his sides. “He’s in there.”

  Paranoid. Brad was a paranoid mess. “And how are we getting in?”

  “That’s why I brought you.” He turned to face her. “You’re a PI. You must know how to pick locks.”

  Jane laughed, one single burst of pent up anxiety. “I don’t. And I wouldn’t if I could.”

  He thrust himself forward, his fingers grasping for her shoulders.

  She was pinned against the wall, but she twisted, sliding down, and then back up.

  His wild hands caught hold of her purse strap and pulled it, dragging her from the wall.

  She lunged and leaned forward, slipping out of her strap. She crouched, panting, not sure if she should run, or grab the bag with her car keys first.

  He shook her purse dumped it, her lip gloss, hair brush, wallet, loose change, and tiny bottle of mace fell to the ground. Her keys slapped her in the face as they dropped. With one swift motion she grabbed her mace.

  Brad was focused on the bag and didn’t seem to notice her at all.

  She stayed low, and clutched the mace to her chest.

  He kicked her wallet down the hall. “Where is it?” He shook the bag.

  She snagged her keys and shoved them in her pocket.

  “We have to get in there. Kyle is in there. He must have stabbed Devon. Devon fled and died of his wounds. We can’t let him get away with it.” Brad’s eyes were wild, he turned the fabric purse inside out and then threw it across the hall, hitting the door with a thud. “Unlock that door.” He grabbed Jane by the elbow and pulled her to her feet.

  She turned her head away from him, closed her eyes, and sprayed mace in the general direction of Brad’s face. “Help!” Her scream was pretty good, probably because she had been holding it in for so long.

  “What are you doing?” Brad screamed and kicked wildly, landing one on Jane’s knee.

  Jane curled in a ball on the ground to avoid the overspray. She wanted to run, but she really didn’t want to go blind trying.

  Heavy footsteps sounded. “What’s going on here?” A deep voice called.

  Jane peaked through her fingers. The voice belonged to the older man in the ball ca
p. She got up and ran so that he stood between her and Brad. “He jumped me. Grabbed my purse, dumped it all out. I don’t know what’s going on.”

  The man stood with his hands on his hips, legs spread apart, making a sort of wall between Jane and Brad.

  “I wanted to get her keys.” Brad’s hands were over his eyes and he choked his words out. “She went crazy.”

  “What are you two doing down here?” The man’s deep voice dripped with authority.

  “We’re just going in to get something.” Brad rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. Tears streamed down his face.

  “Well, you don’t get to.” He glanced over his shoulder at Jane. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I think so.” She kept her on her mace, though she knew she was going to be fine now. She had the chance to get Brad arrested right now. She should probably take it. “No, I’m not.” She lifted her phone and dialed 911. The operator answered immediately.

  “Fire, Police, or Ambulance?”

  “Police. I’ve been attacked.” Jane gave the address and stayed on the line as directed.

  Brad made a run for it, head first like he wanted to barrel past Jane and her defender, but the old man stopped him with a strong armed clothesline.

  Brad dropped, grasping his neck. “Why are you all trying to kill me?” He barely got the words out this time.

  The man stepped on Brad with a booted foot. It was a dramatic way to keep him in place, but considering Brad’s violent tendencies, Jane approved.

  Whether the address had rung a bell with the police or if they had just been nearby, Jane wasn’t sure, but the siren could be heard in the parking lot almost seconds after her call, and the cops came down the hallway before she had had time to think up a lie to cover their actions.

  Two officers, a woman about Jane’s height but broader and armed, and a tall, lanky man put themselves between Jane and Brad.

  “So, what’s going on here?” the female officer’s voice was firm but calm.

  Jane took a deep breath before speaking. “I came here with Brad Carter because he thought Kyle Fish, the missing guy, was hiding in the office. Apparently he thought I carried a lock picking set with me and when I didn’t have one he jumped me and kicked me and stuff.”