Traces of Guilt

THREE

Gabriel Thane

Gabriel finished his mowing in the rain, came inside shaking water off his jacket, resigned to the fact that if the rain turned heavy it would overflow the gutters he hadn’t had time to clear. He turned on the kitchen television, settling on ESPN’s Saturday-night football game for diversion as he put together a simple meal and sat down at the table to eat. November’s on-again off-again weather would last a few weeks, then December’s grip of winter and blast of arctic air would arrive with a vengeance. Any of his job outdoors would get rather miserable for a few months.

The fireplace, opening both to the kitchen and living room, had been sufficient to warm the main level the night before. Gabriel stirred the remaining wood, added kindling, new logs, and set a match to it in preparation for Ann’s visit. He had stopped to pick up chocolate chip ice cream, her favorite. He started coffee brewing and sorted through the mail while he waited. He also mentally shuffled work schedules for the coming week to free up time to help on the two cold cases. He was finishing up invoice payments when he heard a car pulling into the drive. He met Ann at the front door. “Evie asleep?” he asked.

“She’s settled and grateful for the pain pills,” Ann replied as she stepped inside. “I doubt she moves before morning, and even then I’ll encourage her to sleep in. She asked me to pick up saltine crackers, 7-Up, and more Tylenol, so she’s already thinking about dealing with day-after aches and pains-it’s not the first time she’s had a day like this.”

“I can handle those items with what I’ve got around here. She’s been banged up before?”

“She took a bad fall a few years back. While chasing a suspect into a tear-down, the floor gave way and dropped her into the basement. And a few years before that, she walked away from a helicopter crash.”

He winced at the images. “Well, I guess this one gets on the list as another close call.” Gabriel motioned back to the kitchen. “You want to join me for some coffee or would you prefer hot chocolate?”

“Coffee is fine.”

Ann settled into a chair at the kitchen table, holding her hands near the fire. He fixed a mug for her, filled his own, took a seat on the other side.

“A long day,” she said over the mug’s rim.

He nodded. “I’m thinking we’re both going to have longer ones over the next weeks. This morning my plans were to mow, clean the gutters, have dinner with Will, look at blueprints for his new barn. One phone call and it all turned into something very different. But I already like your Evie Blackwell. In principle I even like the idea for the new task force. The honor of being the first county chosen, though… I would have been more comfortable being fourth or fifth.”

“I suggested this one be first for personal reasons,” Ann confessed. “Evie was planning on going north for her vacation and starting with Bridgewood County, just outside Chicago, with its five cases that fit the profile. But Evie’s got a guy up that way, and he’s in the ‘What do you think about marriage?’ stage of the relationship. She’s not on that page and needed a break from the drama. So we came south instead.”

“Rob Turney. Paul mentioned the name.”

“Yeah. Banker type. I keep telling Evie if she moves on, this is not going to be the last guy interested in her. Evie outclasses him.”

“Odd you’d have such a strong opinion,” Gabriel mentioned, amused, though he had to admit Ann rarely voiced such a firm one.

“The day after Flight 174 crashed,” Ann said, turning serious, “Evie did this impromptu puppet thing with the kids at church, a brilliant teaching moment about life after death. And Rob sat in the back of the room, listening politely, then smirked as she finished. I had violent thoughts.”

“That would do it,” Gabriel said. “And Evie’s point was…?”

“She said something like…” Ann closed her eyes, recalling. “‘People die. But when they love Jesus, they don’t stay dead. They are raised to life again so they can be with Jesus. And for all eternity, for years and years and years of forever, they never have to think about death. It will never be something that will happen again. They will always and forever be alive, in heaven.’”

Gabriel waited until Ann opened her eyes. “Agreed. He’s a jerk.”

Ann slapped her hand on the table. “Thank you! I knew I wasn’t overreacting to that arrogant smirk. The kids got the point, and that was the reason it mattered. Rob didn’t see that. He just reacted to the ‘years and years and years of forever’ way she chose to phrase it.”

Gabriel smiled. “I once explained it not quite so eloquently as: Death is similar to a sneeze-you can feel it coming, but then you sneeze and it’s over. You can tell people you sneezed, but you can never do that same one again even if you wanted to…”

He stopped as Ann started laughing. “You know I’m going to tell that to Paul,” she said between chuckles, “and he’s going to mention it to Bryce, and a few weeks from now Bryce is going to write on a chalkboard in front of a thousand people, Death is a sneeze, and have them in stitches. So, tell me, how much attribution would you like? I’ll go with your initials if you want to save yourself some humorous fame.”

“Anonymous might be best,” Gabriel replied with a grin. He turned his mug in his hand as he enjoyed her humor, then finished the thought. “We think about death, you and I, cops in general, more than most people. It helps to tame that monster down to size occasionally. I’m going to enjoy heaven. The weight on my shoulders that I’ll die in a work-related tragedy will one day be gone forever. That’s enough reason for faith right there. Alive forever with Jesus, death never again being something you have to think about…”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Ann said, getting up to pour herself more coffee and topping off his too. “When Evie talks about death, she’s remembering a lot of crime scenes. You can hear that reality in her voice. Similarly, when she says Jesus loves everyone, she’s got faces in mind-both those who have done horrific crimes and those of innocent victims. Her faith is part of her life. Evie’s an optimist about justice and life and things working out. Rob doesn’t seem to connect with that. He says the right words, but that’s all it is-words.”

“You sound worried.”

Ann lifted a shoulder. “I have a lot of friends, but female cop friends are a special lot. I like her personally. Professionally she’s simply a solid cop.” She stopped to smile. “No, let me rephrase that. She’s a solid detective. Evie doesn’t like being a cop in its broad definition. She doesn’t want to be the officer someone calls when the couple next door are fighting, or there’s a car crash, or someone is shooting up a store. She wants to be the one called when a car is stolen or someone is dead in an alley. She does the cop part when necessary so she can have the part she loves-being a detective.”

“She would hate being a sheriff. It’s ninety percent cop, ten percent detective.”

“Precisely,” Ann said. “What she enjoys is solving real-life puzzles.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” Gabe’s hands circled his mug. “I’m enjoying the conversation, but you rarely take a turn like this by accident.”

“You’re going to be around Evie for a couple weeks,” Ann replied. “I want you to have a sense of her, and I want her to get a sense of you. You’re a cop and good in that role. If she marries Rob, leaves state investigations because of its travel demands, takes a job at the local police department, she’s going to get squeezed back into that cop role. I want her to be sure. If she quits entirely-Rob would prefer that, I’m sure-I don’t know what Evie does. In my case, I quit because I knew writing was as powerful a passion for me as being a detective, and there was a transition already in place. Evie doesn’t have that in mind, at least not yet.”

Gabriel drank the last of his coffee, thoughtful. “You worry Rob’s going to do a Christmas-party proposal in front of family and friends, and Evie’s going to say yes because she’s got a tender heart, didn’t say no before it reached that point, and doesn’t want to embarrass him or others present.”

“I am. Call it intuition, whatever. I can see a problem coming, and as her friend, I’m worried. I don’t want that to be the decision point for her, that path of least resistance. I want her to have a future with the right man, like I have with Paul.” She smiled. “Rob might turn out to be a fine husband, and I think anyone getting Evie will have a very good wife, so it’s not doom-and-gloom ahead. I’m just concerned about something less than I would hope for her.”

“I kind of doubt Evie gets pushed into something this big unless she wants that direction.” He turned to stir the logs in the fireplace, added another one. “Though this topic does make me curious-did you ever consider declining Paul’s proposal?”

Ann didn’t answer for a long moment. “I thought seriously about declining, yes.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed that from this vantage point.”

“My caution wasn’t about Paul, but about the necessary accommodations-on both sides-that being married would require. I’ve always functioned best with significant blocks of solitude. Paul loves me enough to still give me that time. The hours alone in the plane for the flight here today, the flight home tomorrow, are as important to our marriage as the fact I shared an early breakfast with Paul before I left this morning, and will be back to have dinner with him tomorrow evening.”

“You are at your best, Ann, when you are alone with God. That’s probably true of every Christian to one degree or another.”

She nodded her appreciation of the simple but profound truth. “It’s a fundamental fact about me. Had Paul not seen it, understood, and accepted what it meant, our marriage wouldn’t have been able to flourish. I don’t draw energy from being married, I draw energy from being alone, which I can then feed into my marriage. Cut the solitude out of my routine and I’m in trouble. It’s not the same degree with everyone, but for me it was core.” Ann paused for a moment. “That’s what I worry about when I look at Evie, that Rob hasn’t grasped the critical few things that make her who she is. She’s going to marry him, then struggle to make life work. I don’t want that for her, Gabe.”

He got up and lifted the gallon of ice cream out of the refrigerator, scooped generously, set two bowls on the table, and slid the container back in the freezer. He sat back into his chair before he answered. “I rather doubt Evie’s blind to the concerns you’ve mentioned, Ann. And if she hasn’t seen all the ways a marriage can go wrong, she’s no doubt seen the majority of them during her first years being a uniform cop on patrol. Trust her judgment, is my advice. I doubt she got to this point in her career without being willing to do hard things. I’m sure she’ll tell Rob no to a marriage proposal if that’s what she decides is best.”

“I hope that’s the case.”

Gabriel studied his friend as he dug into his ice cream. “A final comment and then we’ll leave the topic of Evie. When she’s wearing an engagement ring, but before the wedding ring, tell her your concerns once more. Until then, you’re writing the future. That’s something you’re gifted at doing, but it’s not real yet. So let it set.”

“Let it set,” Ann repeated, scooping up another spoonful from her bowl. “Okay. Letting it set.”

Gabriel considered her a moment, smiled. “You’ll figure this out, Ann. There’s a reason God brought the two of you together to be friends.”

“Thanks for that.”

He ate more ice cream, his thoughts shifting to why she’d come over this evening. “All right, now tell me about Karen Lewis.”

“Before I do, is it your opinion the relationship between your brother and Karen is serious on Will’s part, and a good thing for him?”

Gabriel didn’t have to reflect on his answer. “Yes to both.”

“Then I’m going to tell you a story tonight, because Karen and I have talked at length today, and we’re in agreement that your opinion would be useful to have. But what’s said here stays with me, with Karen, possibly with Paul-no one else-until Karen comes to a decision about the situation. If a circumstance develops where security is a concern, if it’s an imminent safety issue, you tell anyone you feel is crucial for need-to-know.”

Gabriel studied her expression, having seen it on rare occasions in the past. Ann was about to give up one of her secret people, and she only did so with a great deal of reluctance. “Agreed.”

“Her name isn’t Karen Joy Lewis. It’s Karen Josephine Spencer. Three and a half years ago she was a line chef at a neighborhood restaurant in Chicago, one with a really good reputation for Italian cuisine. The couple who ran the business were killed after closing hours… stabbed to death. Karen saw the tail end of the murders, saw the man who did it, gave the police a sketch, picked him out of a lineup, testified at the trial. The jury didn’t believe her; they returned a verdict of not guilty. He walked away from a double murder, is now walking the streets a free man.”

Gabriel instantly knew where this was going and felt his stomach clench. Very few things bothered a cop more than the situation she just described. But he didn’t comment, choosing to let Ann give him the rest of the details first.

“His name is Tom Lander. He blames Karen for the loss of his reputation, his marriage, his business. At the time, he managed money for private clients, who promptly, wisely, moved their funds away from him. He’s a very dangerous man. He walked free on a double murder and he’s felt pretty invincible ever since. He found it amusing to set out to destroy Karen’s life, and he nearly succeeded. Saying he scared her doesn’t do justice to what happened. Paul and I got her out of Chicago, gave her a new name, a new age, for that matter-because it was only a matter of time before he would take her life. Since that trial he’s also killed his ex-wife. There’s no arrest yet on that stabbing, but it isn’t for lack of Chicago PD’s efforts to make the case.”

Not just a guilty man going free, but a violent one with a taste for payback. Gabriel had gotten to know Karen since she’d moved to Carin, and his opinion of her was rising with every word Ann said. She was young to have faced this, strong to have weathered it, war-toughened just as his brother had been, even though her fight had not been on a battlefield. No wonder Will found something in Karen that intensely attracted him. She was a realist with a strong backbone and a willingness to do what had to be done. Will would instinctively be drawn to that. It also was no doubt why Karen understood the combat-medic side of his brother.

“Lander’s still in Chicago,” Ann continued. “A friend keeps an eye on him for us. So far he has no idea where Karen has gone. Her family members and friends have had their homes broken into, laptops, phones, and phone records stolen, so we know he’s hiring people to find a lead.”

“That’s pretty aggressive on his part.”

“Very.” Ann shifted in her chair, her worry about the situation apparent. “Karen didn’t want to leave Illinois, so I chose Carin. It’s close enough that Paul and I can keep tabs, and if she needs to leave quickly, I’ve got the airport close by. She’s been able to relax here, to breathe again, and she’s not looking over her shoulder. Here she’s coming back from a deep, black hole. Having Will’s attention, the normalcy of a guy being nice to her, has literally helped save her. With Karen having to leave behind everyone she knew, cut ties to everything in her past, Will has given her something in the present to hold on to and rebuild around, which has been a lifesaver.

“The jury’s not-guilty verdict shredded something inside her, Gabriel. She told the truth, and she wasn’t believed. Add that on top of the horror of seeing the murders, and this young woman took the hardest hit I’ve seen a civilian take in recent years. When he walked free, it was like ‘Hell, Part Two’ closing in on her. She couldn’t turn around without him being there, watching her, following her, worse-walking up to her friends and introducing himself. He was toying with her, and we were going to get a call that she’d been stabbed to death.”

“You were right to get her out of there.”

Ann nodded. “Moving Karen was a drastic but necessary solution. This is behind Karen so long as Tom Lander doesn’t locate her. And if Karen one day marries Will, it buries her under another layer of name changes and public records. But if Lander finds her, it becomes a problem with its own dimensions. He’s not the type to move on, to forget a perceived wrong. He won’t let up if he locates her. He will harass her, spook her, terrify her in creative and insidious ways, and then do her physical harm, probably kill her. And I think I know your brother well enough to predict that Will moving away from here, starting over somewhere else with a new name for himself and his wife, is a lot less likely than Will finding a way to permanently stop Tom Lander from ever terrorizing his wife again. He’s got the training, the know-how.”

“And then we’d have another murder to deal with.” Gabriel shook his head, leaned forward to steeple his hands in front of him. “From Will’s perspective, the guy found her once, he’ll find her again, so end the problem for good,” he finished softy.

“Exactly,” Ann said. “Staying hidden for a year is different from staying hidden for five years, or ten. Something’s going to give this sanctuary away. Karen’s going to want to go back to Chicago to visit a family member in hospice care, attend a funeral or a wedding. She’ll eventually make contact with Chicago and leave a trail. Or Lander is going to get creative on how to find her, launch one of those social media campaigns, ‘help me find this woman,’ posting Karen’s last-known photo, and someone’s going to want the money and send a response, ‘I saw her yesterday in Carin, Illinois.’”

Ann’s expression turned more troubled. “There is no way to protect Karen from ever being found again. The only protection is to move her if she’s discovered. Maybe it’s next year, or five years from now, but the day will come when for her own safety and the safety of those around her, Karen needs to leave here and cut all her ties to Carin County. And if she’s married to Will, what’s the answer to that dilemma? What if she has a two-year-old daughter…?” Ann didn’t try to finish the thought.

Gabriel was already there. “I’m running that story thread into the future, seeing those collisions too.”

“Karen wants a future with Will, she wants to be free of this, but there’s no answer that gives her that,” Ann said. “Until Tom Lander is in jail or dead, Karen and everyone she cares about is at risk.”

Gabriel absorbed that. “What does Karen need to hear from me, Ann?”

“Her question is simple. If she tells Will this story, says she doesn’t want to marry him because of it, will he accept that decision?” She hesitated, then added, “My read of it-she’s not going to marry him and take the risk that trouble could find her again and touch her new family. That’s her bottom line. Maybe she sees it differently in three years, five, but I don’t know. She’s not the first person I know to face this catch-22, and it has no real solution. For right now, she wants to stay here in Carin with Will as a friend, if she can do that without having to carry the burden of knowing he’s put his life on hold for her.”

“Okay.” Gabriel said it quietly, mentally getting his arms around the problem. “Okay,” he breathed again. He’d been a cop a long time. He had lost his naïveté about the world years ago. Ann was right that there was no solution-at least no good one-to this problem. Tom Lander would do what he could, and Karen would have to respond in whatever way she could. Not pulling someone else into her problem was instinctive on her part. To the extent she could keep Will at arm’s length, a friend but no romantic entanglement, she could protect him should she need to again cut ties and drop out of sight. Gabriel understood how Karen had reached this point.

But he also knew Will was not a man easily shifted off his own course of thinking. Will hadn’t mentioned marriage in his casual conversations yet, he hadn’t changed direction in his plans for the next year, but it was clear to any who knew him well that he was carving out room in his life for Karen. When she walked into a room, his face would light up, and he’d often say softly, “There’s my girl.” His affection for her, his demeanor in public, was clearly staking a claim. It was clear to family and friends the relationship was deeply serious on his part.

Gabriel’s opinion of the two as a couple hadn’t changed with Ann’s news and the insights it gave. He’d thought last night Karen was right for his brother, and he still thought the same tonight. But how they could get past the implications of this was an enormous hurdle.

Ann rose to pour them the last of the coffee. “That’s the story, Gabriel, at least the highlights. I apologize that it got this complicated, that your family got pulled in, before I told you this. I was walking a narrow line on what was best for Karen. She needed this last year to heal, and I watched that happen in large part because of Will. I haven’t wanted to take her away from that. But it has reached a decision point. It may well be that the better course is not to tell Will. Instead, she simply tells him she’s not interested in pursuing the relationship further and he should look for someone else to date.”

Gabriel grimaced at that suggestion, shook his head. “That’s not going to fly.” He couldn’t fault Ann’s reasoning that the tightest security was no one knowing Karen’s situation. But now there was Will…

Gabriel gestured with his coffee mug. “If Will helped save Karen’s life, as you put it, you need to understand she’s done something similar for him. I haven’t seen Will as content, as at peace since he came back from the war. This relationship has been helping them both in equal measure. Will cares about Karen more than any other woman he’s ever dated, going back to high school. She’s inside the circle of people Will considers his to protect. He’s going to take care of her, Ann, romance or not.”

Gabriel paused, thinking about his brother. “Will’s tied to this place, this land-by history, by family. Karen’s correct about that, and I’m glad she appreciates it. But she may not be seeing the broader picture. Will was away at war for six years, hasn’t said much about where he was, what was going on, but he stayed in touch with family, he stayed connected all through it. If Will had to change names and take Karen five states away, spend a decade there to keep her safe, he could do it and see it as a temporary necessity, much like going on deployment. I see him able to segment life away from here for a while. So leaving Carin might be an acceptable fallback plan in Will’s view of this. The day in the future when Lander is no longer a threat is the day they would return.”

“That could be a very long wait,” Ann cautioned.

Gabriel’s phone rang. He seriously considered ignoring it, but at this time of night didn’t have that luxury. “Hold that thought.” He got it from his pocket and rose. “Sheriff Thane.”

He listened to his dispatcher. “Patch the call through,” he replied, then covered the phone. “This is going to take a few minutes, Ann. Get some more ice cream, make more coffee-”

“I’m fine. Go do what you need to do.”

He nodded and headed into his home office while a call from the deputy in the next county transferred to him.

Gabriel found Ann in the living room, settled in one of the comfortable leather chairs by the fireplace, paging through a book she’d picked up from his side table. He mentally shifted from the rash of vandalized cars his caller wanted help on back to their conversation about Karen and Will. He took a seat near hers. “Karen needs to tell Will the story, tell him all of it, then give him some room to think. Tom Lander is a nasty problem, one I don’t underestimate, but there are options that might let a relationship between Will and Karen work. Don’t bet against Will, Ann. That’s what a lifetime as his brother has taught me.”

Ann set aside the book and gave a thoughtful nod. “I’ll tell Karen your perspective. If she agrees, she tells Will the details, I do, or you do. I think I’d prefer to be the one-an initial angry reaction at not having been told about this already is not only likely, it’s to be expected. Karen is sensitive to even a hint of anger right now. She would flinch and blame herself for having not told him, even though she was following my advice. It wouldn’t be a good setup for the rest of the conversation they need to have. I’ll take the blame for Karen’s silence, give it time for things to settle before Will and Karen talk.”

“Will would handle it with some care if she told him herself. But see if she’s comfortable with you and I having the conversation with him.”

“I’ll talk with her tonight, let you know,” Ann agreed.

It was a plan. Gabriel leaned back in his chair, crossed his ankles, and gave a small smile. “That leaves Grace.”

Ann simply closed her eyes and dropped her head back.

“That bad, huh?”

Ann sighed and shifted in the chair to look over at him. “Will and Karen are the knot you can see. You can work with it to try to find a solution, even though you know the cleanest way to undo the knot is to cut it. Take that kind of problem, square it, square it again, and you’ll begin to get a sense of what’s going on with Grace Arnett.”

“It’s become a night for hard things. Lay it on me, Ann.”

She smiled at his attempted humor. “Oh, I wish I could share the weight of this, Gabriel, because it’s crushing me.”

She took a deep breath and eased into it. “I’ve known Grace since she was sixteen. I met her shortly after she moved away from Carin. She’s become a good friend. If I had a younger sister, this relationship would be it. She’s told me some things over the years, and I’ve told her some things-it’s definitely not a card-at-Christmastime bond. She’s one of the few I let inside my life. And she’s chosen to let me into hers. That underlies what I’m going to tell you, Gabe.”

Ann went quiet, absorbed in her own thoughts before she continued. “Grace is planning to ask Josh for a favor, and if she does, I’m encouraging him to say yes. He’ll do whatever he can to help her-I know that about Josh. But Grace isn’t ready for what she’s decided to do. I’ve got an inkling of what’s coming, and I know it will be more than she can manage, and yet I can’t talk her out of it.” Ann gave a small shrug. “I don’t mind painful truths coming out-that’s the way people come to healing, the way justice finally gets done. But there is a season, a time, for that truth. I know what Grace is already dealing with. I’m afraid the truth she wants to find isn’t going to be that simple. She’ll break, and it will be a crippling wound, difficult to heal, and will forever leave its mark.”

“Ann, you’re being cryptic.”

“And deliberately so.”

“What’s Grace coming back to do?”

Ann shook her head. “If I can persuade her to wait-and I haven’t given up on that-I’d rather you not have those details yet. If she does go ahead and ask Josh, he’ll tell you, and you and I will have, without question, a rather intense conversation then.”

“Is there a security concern?”

“No, there’s nothing like that in her situation. I’m simply a friend wishing I could get her to delay the course she’s set herself on.”

“A good friend, Ann.” He wasn’t going to get anything more at this point, and he accepted that. “You think Grace is coming this way in the next few days?”

“Tuesday would be my guess. If the task force hadn’t decided to focus on Carin County, I would have found another reason to be in the area. I’m not letting Grace do this without a friend around.”

He nodded. “I’ll help her, and help you too, however I can. Just let me know what you need.”

Ann nodded back. “I appreciate that, Gabriel, more than you can know. If Paul’s not able to be here, you’re going to get my initial reaction. Which could be ugly because I can’t afford to show those emotions to Grace.” She picked up the coffee mug she’d brought into the living room and stood. “Despite appearances, I really didn’t set out to complicate your life with this visit. It’s just… well, you know me, enough stuff happens that weeks like this are inevitable once in a while.”

He smiled. He did indeed know her. “Paul’s coming down?” he asked as he stood too.

“Yeah. We’re going to be doing some back-and-forth flights. I’ll have those hours in the air to talk with him, he can be here for half a day, adding his perspective to what’s happening, and I can have him back in the FBI office the next day. It works for us.”

“I’ve watched it work.” Gabe started heading toward the kitchen. “Let’s get those things for Evie before you leave. You look tired, Ann, and this hasn’t even begun yet. Evie digging into the two cases, Karen and Will sorting things out, Grace coming back… you’d better catch some rest yourself along with Evie.”

“I’m going that way next. Thanks for the visit.”

“What are friends for?”

She smiled. “I’ve been blessed with having two of the Thane brothers in that role for years.” Ann followed him into the kitchen and set her coffee mug in the sink.

Gabriel got out an empty grocery sack, retrieved two 7-Up bottles from the refrigerator, a bottle of Tylenol he kept in the spice cabinet, then opened the drawer next to the silverware. Every chili and soup order he called in came with cracker packages, and he added a handful to the sack. “I think I’ve remembered everything on Evie’s list.”

Ann accepted the sack. “She’ll appreciate this. Thanks.”

He walked with her to the front door. “Call Paul.”

“We’ve got a phone date in”-she glanced at her watch-“forty minutes.”

“I like that about the two of you.” He held her jacket as she slipped it on.

“Thanks again.” Ann tugged keys out of her pocket. “If by tomorrow Evie’s headache has eased off, she’s going to eat lunch and then want to get to work, so I figure we’ll be at the post-office building during the afternoon. I plan to leave for Chicago around four p.m. I’ll be back Tuesday, early morning.”

Gabriel made a mental note of the schedule. “I’ll make a point to stop by the post office before you leave. The case files she needs should be there by the time you come in.” He leaned against the doorframe as she walked out to her car. “Take care, Ann.”

She lifted a hand in farewell. Gabriel pushed his hands into his pockets as he watched her pull out of the drive. His brothers had a hard week coming at them: Will hearing the truth about Karen, and Josh helping Grace… with what, he didn’t know yet. The Florist case would make it an equally rough week for him. “God, help me be ready for whatever’s coming,” he whispered.

Being sheriff of Carin County meant carrying heavy truths about those who lived here. Name a crime and he could pretty much identify someone around Carin who had committed it, either in the distant or recent past.

Karen had been hiding in plain sight. He had to admire that about her. She’d concealed her connection to Chicago and the murder trial with such skill, he had never had cause to wonder what she was hiding, and he was a man whose second nature was to listen for those false notes in someone’s story. Ann had done a superb job coaching her on how to handle it all.

He was sure there were other buried secrets, dark skeletons or worse in his county… maybe even a living monster around. Ann’s concern about Grace suggested there was another story he didn’t know about. Yet, he thought. The truth was going to come into the light as it always did. He’d deal with it because that went with the job.

Gabriel shut off the porch light and walked through the house, banked the fire and closed the doors on it, set the house alarm, and headed upstairs. He sincerely hoped the phone would not ring again during the night.

Ann Falcon

Ann nudged off her shoes inside the front door of Evie’s vacation rental, walked upstairs, heard the radio playing faintly in Evie’s bedroom. She eased open the door, confirmed Evie was comfortably sleeping, her back and neck elevated with pillows, and quietly closed the door again. Ann walked to the third of the four bedrooms and sank into the soft mountain of pillows. She got out her phone, hit the speed dial.

Paul answered on the first ring. She could see on her phone’s screen that he was home in their shared office, the artwork behind him one of her favorite pieces.

“Hello, darling.”

Her eyes filled at his simple greeting.

Paul shut down his laptop. “Rough day?”

“Just long. Gabriel and I talked for close to two hours.”

“Did you tell him?”

She shook her head, whispered, “No, not yet. Only about Karen.”

She read the quiet empathy in his eyes. “Okay.”

“I should have.”

Paul shook his head. “If you couldn’t tell him tonight, it was because it wasn’t ready to be said. Grace is going to get through this,” Paul reassured. “You’ll be there for her. Josh will help her. I’ll be around. Rachel will come if needed. Her doctor will be on call. Grace will have people she trusts to help her-she won’t face this alone.”

“Just get me to next weekend and I’ll be able to believe it.” There was nothing else she could do tonight, so Ann forced herself to change the subject, looking for something lighter to think about. “How did your Saturday go?”

“We had to arrest a state congressman for leaving lewd messages in women’s public restrooms, canceled a 10K race because of bomb threats-called it a permit problem-and finally managed to catch the guy who has been tossing rotten eggs at FBI cars leaving the parking garage. That gets me to about three p.m. when I thankfully came home. The world didn’t stop going crazy, though. I just decided it could wait until Monday. I shared a late lunch with the dog-we had BLTs-then we played in the park and went to visit Jasmine. Black is a happy boy.” Paul tilted the camera. “Say hi to Mom.”

The dog swished his tail on the floor but didn’t bother to roll over. He had four feet in the air and was comfortably napping upside down whenever food or conversation was not directed his way.

“Hey, Black.” Ann laughed at the dog’s body language. She had seen him in that pose many times. Every time she was away, she regretted the trip. “I wish I was home.”

“Tomorrow night you sleep in your own bed, can snuggle with your favorite guy-that would be me. Favorite guy number two will happily welcome you home by snoring to break the silence.”

Ann laughed. “Oh, yeah, that’s home. That sounds nice.”

“We both miss you too, Ann. One of us even more than the other.”

“Paul, next time our new governor calls, I’m going to say no.”

He simply smiled. “You only said yes because you wanted to get Evie established in the group, and to prove to yourself your skills haven’t gotten rusty in the last couple years. By inauguration day I predict the task force will be ready to officially get to work, and you’ll be ready to dive into another writing project.”

“I’m already close. The task force will get to work as soon as Bliss is inaugurated and signs the paperwork.”

“You’re efficient and effective, which is why he wanted you involved. Solve the two cases in Carin and put a bow around the task-force announcement.”

“That would be ideal. It’s going to be good to have you down here occasionally.”

He smiled at his wife. “I’ll bring my special kind of FBI super-agent magic, dazzle everyone with some truly geeky lab reports. They changed the letterhead again. It actually says Geeky Lab Report on our internal docs.”

“You know that’s part of the fun, figuring out how long it takes the boss to notice and what he’s going to do about it.”

“Well, Agent Top Dog-get it?-sent in a Blackie paw print with a request to ID the thief who just ate someone’s paycheck.”

Ann laughed so hard, she had to wipe her eyes. “And now I’m supposed to sleep for a few hours?”

“It’s called levity, minor humor, ‘I miss you, so let me make you laugh,’ with the hope of banishing that haunted look in your eyes as only your beloved husband can do.”

“As only you can do,” Ann agreed softly.

“Go to early church, help Evie get started, then fly home. Black and I will take care of you once you’re here.”

“That sounds like a wonderful deal. Good night, Paul.”

“Sleep well, Ann.”

She put down the phone, only to lift it again to send Charlotte Bishop a text: Could you sketch me an “Agent Top Dog” logo? I need a whimsical Christmas present for Paul. I’ll forward a photo of Black to base it on. Let me know. Thanks.

Ann set her phone on the bedside table, knowing Paul would call first thing in the morning to say good morning. She set her clock so she could make the early service at the Thanes’ church, then turned in for the night, grateful to have the day done.