“You might want to keep that on for a bit.” He jerked his head backwards. “You have company.”
Eddie looked up, his glasses covered in steam. He took them off and wiped them against the sleeve of his shirt. “He means Dad is here. He’s out front talking to Marcie.”
She lifted an eyebrow as she made a show of looking at her watch. “Did your dad pick you up early from school?”
Her son shook his head. “No. I forgot to tell him the seniors were having a ditch day today,” Eddie said, referring to the annual ritual that happened every June as the end of the school year drew near. “So the rest of us got out early.” His mouth pulled down as he gave her a long-suffering look. “I came straight here, didn’t even stop to talk with anyone.”
Ricki would have been impressed by that if it weren’t for the hamburger cooking away on the grill. The odds were Eddie had hightailed it to the diner because he was hungry. Lately, no amount of food seemed to fill him up.
She walked over and laid a hand on her son’s shoulder. “Want to clue me on why your dad is here?”
“He’s taking a tour out this weekend. Those people from Portland.”
Surprised, Ricki cocked her head to the side. “I thought he passed that one up.”
“He did. But some lady called him last night and asked if he would take it as a favor to her.”
Eddie grabbed the plate Anchorman was holding out to him. A toasted bun was already laid out on it, waiting for a burger. When he turned to finish putting together his sandwich, Ricki glanced toward her cook.
“Lady?”
Anchorman lifted his heavy shoulders, then let them down again. “Don’t ask me. It’s not my job to keep track of your ex’s love life.”
Ricki frowned. She didn’t care one iota about Bear’s love life. She’d given up that right the minute she’d signed their final divorce papers, but she did care about who was referring people to their business. They’d both worked to build up a solid reputation for Adventure Tours, and had managed to carve out a boutique, exclusive niche in wilderness camping.
Their website and questionnaire made it clear their trips were only for experienced hikers and campers. The last thing they needed was for Bear to find himself miles from any amenities and stuck with a group of amateur outdoor wannabes. Knowing him the way she did, she was sure he’d get fed up and abandon the group and might not even bother to send anyone else into Olympic Park to guide them back.
It was fine for Bear to take that attitude. He had that comfortable inheritance, and the truth was he didn’t need to work at all. But she needed the summer boost to her income that their little joint enterprise provided. The diner brought in good money during the tourist season but barely broke even in the winter, and while her government paycheck covered her and Eddie’s expenses, there was still the bill for the nursing home taking care of her mom. Taking on a steady paycheck again had been a huge help. But she still needed her side gigs to keep all her balls juggling in the air.
Since there wasn’t much she could do to avoid having a talk with her former husband, Ricki quietly left Eddie to enjoy his hamburger and pushed through the swinging doors leading into the dining room. Bear was sitting at the counter, a mug of coffee in his large hands. He was smiling as he listened to whatever Marcie was saying to him. When he spotted Ricki, his smile stayed firmly in place, but his eyes took on a wary look.
She nodded a greeting before heading to the coffee machine with a full pot sitting on the warming plate. Ricki picked up an empty mug and slowly filled it to the brim before carrying it and the pot of coffee over to the counter. She set her mug down and lifted the pot up, refilling Bear’s cup to the brim as well.
“I hear you took on a tour for the weekend,” she said casually, keeping her tone friendly and her gaze on his face.
Bear topped out at six foot four and had a trim waist, wide shoulders, and massive arms left over from his high school football days. It was his prowess on the field that had earned him his nickname, and the admiration of every teenage girl in town. But it was Ricki who’d been his girl from their first year in high school, and no matter what had gone on between then and now, she’d always have a soft spot for Bear. It was just buried much deeper on some days than others.
Marcie took the coffeepot out of her hands. “I’ll take this and make the rounds while you two talk.” She poked a sturdy finger into Ricki’s shoulder. “Have you eaten anything today?”
Used to her waitress always trying to feed her, Ricki gave a quick bob of her head. “I had a muffin with butter and cinnamon sugar at home, and a rice cake on the way to headquarters.”
“To balance out the sugar, which I’m sure does no such thing,” Marcie said. “And a puny little muffin isn’t enough to keep a bird alive, even if it is paired up with a rice cake. I’ll bring you a PB&J special.”
Bear instantly made a face. “You still eat those things?”
She mimicked his facial expression right back at him. A fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich was one of her favorite foods, and he’d known that when he married her. “Yes, it is. And don’t change the subject.”
“What subject?” Bear asked. “We haven’t said anything yet.”
Ricki’s booted foot began to tap against the tile floor. “The tour. I asked you about the weekend tour.”
“Oh, yeah. Sure. That’s what I came to tell you. I booked a four-day tour to go over the weekend.” He peered at her over the rim of his coffee cup. “I thought you’d be happy about it. You’re always saying we need to grow the business.”
“Not quite, Bear,” she said evenly. “I always say we need to grow the right kind of business. Did you check out this group? Are they up for a four-day hike? Where are you going?”
“Up to the glacier. I already called for the permits and got them approved. I can pick them up tomorrow.”
No surprise there, Ricki thought. Bear considered every ranger who worked in the park a drinking buddy.
“This group is a hiking club out of Portland. When they first called, I’d never heard of them, but a good friend of mine vouched for them. Said they could make the glacier hike without a problem.”
Noticing he hadn’t used any word that would indicate the gender of this new friend of his, Ricki’s eyebrows winged up. “A friend of yours?” As Bear’s cheeks took on an even redder hue, the devil inside her had Ricki’s mouth curling into a knowing grin. “Is this a ‘she’ by any chance?”
“Just a friend, babe.” His jaw was set into a stubborn line. “You’re a woman and we’re friends, aren’t we? That’s what you keep telling me, anyway.”
Touché. There was no way she was going to get sucked into that old argument, so she only nodded. “Fine. If you think the group will hold up, then it’s okay with me.”
“The thing is, I’ll be leaving Friday, so I have to go into Tacoma tomorrow to pick up some gear for the trip.”
Gear? The man had to be kidding. He had two sheds full of gear, not to mention the huge pile under a tarp on his patio. When she continued to stare silently at him, he doggedly plowed on.
“Anyway, Eddie will need to stay with you tomorrow, and Monday night. If that doesn’t work for you, he can stay with my mom.”
As much as she still liked her former mother-in-law, who lived right outside of town, Ricki wasn’t going to give up spending a few extra days with her son.
“Of course Eddie will stay with me.” She waited until Bear started to relax. “What kind of gear?”
She watched in satisfaction as he immediately tensed up. “Just some little stuff.” His cheeks started to heat up again. “I get a good deal at Mountain Outfitters.” The red spread faster across his face.
Interesting. Bear used to swear by another store. She didn’t know when he’d started going to Mountain Outfitters instead. He hopped off his stool and took a hasty step backward under Ricki’s steady gaze.
“I gotta go, babe. I’ll see you Tuesday.”
“Oh, no ru
sh,” Ricki said sweetly. “Take your time.”
As he practically ran for the front door, Ricki barely managed to keep herself from laughing out loud. Marcie strolled up, carrying a plate with a fried PB&J sitting next to a small mound of salad greens.
“That boy’s up to something. It was all over his face the minute he walked in the door.”
“Yeah, he is. And I’d say it has something to do with a good friend that works at Mountain Outfitters.”
Correctly hearing what Ricki hadn’t said, Marcie’s mouth dropped in surprise. “Is that right?” She set the plate down and faced Ricki from across the counter. “How do you feel about that? After all, the man was your first love.”
Ricki shrugged, but silently admitted to herself she really didn’t know. In all their years together, Bear had hardly even looked at another woman. She turned her head and stared at the empty stool where he’d been sitting a few minutes ago. It would definitely take some getting used to.
“Your first love, but maybe not your only one,” Marcie said. “A man’s been standing at the front for a while now, staring in your direction.” She winked at Ricki. “Do you have another admirer besides the chief?”
Ricki looked over to the front of the diner, then grinned and pointed at a nearby booth.
“Not an admirer,” she told Marcie. “A kind of assistant partner.”
As she walked away, she heard Marcie say under her breath, “What in the world is an assistant partner?”
Chapter Nine
Ricki set her plate down and slid into the booth opposite Dan. The wooden framework attached to the wall creaked as she scooted across the cloth seat to reach for the pepper shaker kept in a small metal carrier next to the wall along with the salt, ketchup, and Tabasco sauce. Looking over the booth was a framed photograph of Mount Olympus in its full winter glory. She watched Dan studying the place while she dumped a fair amount of pepper onto her salad, enough to make him wince when he glanced over at her.
“Are you going to eat that?”
She smiled, unwrapped her fork from the paper towel the Sunny Side Up used in place of a napkin, and stabbed at a piece of lettuce covered in brown speckles.
“Uh-huh,” she said just before popping the greenery into her mouth. “Do you want anything?”
He stared at her plate of food before pointing at her sandwich. “What is that?”
“A peanut butter and jelly sandwich fried in butter.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” Ricki picked up the sweet and salty mix, cushioned between two slices of crispy bread, and took a large bite. “Are you hungry? Anchorman will make one for you.”
“I thought the chief was kidding when he said that was your favorite meal.” He looked at her plate again and shook his head. “A fried sandwich and a salad drowning in pepper. Really?”
“We all like to eat different things, that’s why there are restaurants and grocery stores with aisles filled with food,” Ricki said dryly. She liked Dan, although she was hard-pressed to admit it. After all, she might have accepted his prior life working for the CIA, but he still should have told her about it up front when they’d started working together on her first case back as an agent. But no. All he’d said was that he’d transferred to Olympic Park after working at Independence Hall for a year. He hadn’t breathed a word about what he’d done before that, and she’d just assumed he’d been assigned to another park, not mucking around with covert operations.
“How’s your shoulder?”
The ranger had been shot a month and a half ago, and she still felt responsible for his injury. He’d been working on her case.
In response to her question, Dan rolled it back and forth several times. “Good as new.”
An awkward silence fell between them. Dan had once said that they didn’t know much about each other, and that was true. He was in his early fifties, with a comfortable face and a quiet, unassuming manner. Aside from his stints at Independence Hall and with the CIA, Ricki didn’t know much about him, which wasn’t a great basis to have any kind of conversation. It didn’t help that she was uncomfortable that he knew a great deal more about her than where she’d been working for the last few years. It seemed the entire law enforcement community knew that her last partner had died in an ambush, that she had an uncle with the park service, and she was divorced. At this point, she was sure all the rangers based at Olympic, including Dan Wilkes, knew she’d gone on a date with the local police chief.
Finally, Dan sat up a little straighter and cleared his throat. “Um. Thanks for letting me help out.”
“Sure,” Ricki said. “I appreciate the help. I’m just sorry that we don’t have much to go on.”
Dan pulled his cell phone out of the pocket of the jacket he’d laid across the seat. “The pictures were interesting.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What pictures?”
“The ones from the Tacoma PD forensic guys.” He looked down at his phone. “Chief Thomas forwarded them to me.”
She frowned at the unspoken “because you didn’t” in his voice. “I didn’t know they’d sent anything. I had to deal with Bear, so I haven’t had a chance to look at my phone.” She pulled her phone out of its case clipped to her belt and set it on the table beside her plate.
“Bear?” Dan glanced over at the counter where she and Bear had been talking. “That was Bear? That walking mountain was your husband?”
Resigned to everyone knowing her business, she took another stab at a piece of lettuce and nodded. “My ex-husband and yeah.” When she glanced up, he had an almost comical look on his face. “Who did you think he was?”
“Um. Another agent.” Dan looked down and fiddled with the buttons on his phone. “I thought maybe the ISB had hired another agent with a lot of muscle to work with you.”
“So you think I need a lot of muscle to tag along on my investigations?” Ricki asked, her words carrying no heat as she studied him. Puzzled by his reaction, she put her fork down and leaned back against the cushioned padding of the booth. “No. The only other agent in the office is on medical leave from an automobile accident, and I took the place of the one who retired. There aren’t any openings in the Seattle office at the moment.” She’d added that last bit to see if he’d take the bait and tell her what was bothering him about the idea of another agent, big muscles and all, paying her a visit.
“Oh. So there are only two agents in Seattle?”
Her curiosity piqued even more, Ricki slowly nodded, keeping her gaze on his face. “There aren’t that many agents to begin with, so yeah, there’s only two and an agent in charge assigned to Seattle.” She paused for a moment. “But if you’re interested in openings, I can ask if there are any in one of the other offices.”
“No, no,” Dan quickly protested. “I like the park service.” She counted off a full three seconds before he added, “Do you think the guy on medical leave will be coming back?” When she smiled, he shrugged. “I just thought you might like some help.”
Thinking this day was full of surprises, Ricki shrugged. Since Dan clearly didn’t want to admit to her that he was interested in the ISB, she reached for her phone and started a one-handed search through her email. “Let’s look at the pictures. Did you see anything interesting?” She opened the email from Captain Davis that had several attachments. One looked like a file folder, and the second one was labeled Preliminary Autopsy Report: John Doe Number 15. Ignoring the report for the moment, she opened up the file, and a long series of pictures began to populate her screen.
“The first group of photos are from your cold case.” Dan looked up. “I’m assuming since all that’s left is a skeleton that you consider this a cold case?”
“Doesn’t get much colder,” Ricki agreed. She pulled up the fifth photo and studied it, using two fingers to enlarge it on her screen. From what she could see, it looked like the same uniform the rangers wore today. “Looks the same as the one you have on, so not much help there.”
“As in, he can’t be older than this date because that’s when the uniforms changed?”
He nodded. “Exactly. I’ll study the uniform, but it’s really picture number twelve that’s the key.”
“Twelve?” Ricki scrolled through the files, stopping at number twelve. Again she enlarged the photograph on her screen. “It’s the park service badge.”
“Uh-huh. It’s a little different from yours, since you have the shield with the eagle on top.”
She raised her gaze from her phone and frowned at her assistant partner. “Okay. That’s the ranger badge. So you’re saying the victim was a ranger?” Something she already knew just from the uniform.
“Well yeah, that too,” Dan said. “But over the years the badges have changed. I’m not really sure when, I just know they have because I saw a display once at the Northeast’s regional office back in Philadelphia. I don’t remember the dates exactly, but I do know the badge has been redesigned more than a couple of times, and each new design was released in a specific year.”
“Then you’re looking to see the maximum number of years back the vic could have been a ranger,” Ricki said, following his train of thought.
“And if we’re lucky, maybe there’s a number. I didn’t see any photos of the back.”
One Last Scream (Special Agent Ricki James Book 2) Page 7