Corey's Catch

by Jill Sanders

“Okay.” Corey nodded.

  “Here’s your aunt’s account summary. She made a few transfers just before she passed.”

  “Transfers?” Corey asked.

  “Sure, the information is all in that stack of papers.” He nodded to the statements he handed Bella.

  Bella looked over the paperwork. There was a healthy chunk currently in the bank, at least half of what she’d found in cash around the house, which was now sitting safely in a checking account of her own at the same bank. There were a few larger deposits a few months ago and a couple bigger transfers, all with just account numbers on them.

  “What are these account numbers? Can we find out where this money was transferred to?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know much more. Just what is there. You can contact the bank it was transferred to for more information. I’m sure they will need a copy of your aunt’s will and death certificate to give you more information.”

  “Mr. Coulter, is there any possibility of someone removing funds from this account. Someone other than my aunt or myself?”

  He thought about it. “No, not that I’m aware. We have an online banking system, but our security is pretty tight. Besides, no one has touched your aunt’s money since the week before she passed.”

  The room was silent for a while. “Can I have instructions on how to log in to her account?”

  “You won’t need any. I can transfer your aunt’s funds into the checking account you opened with us two weeks ago. All I need is a signature.” He passed over a piece of paper. “I’m good at my job too.” The older man winked at her.

  As they drove back to the house, Bella was glued to the paperwork in front of her.

  “I guess I just don’t understand any of this.” Corey glanced at the paperwork and frowned. “No, I mean, the cryptic message from my aunt. The numbers. Why someone would break in and go through paperwork. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a good sum of money, but nothing like the rumor you say is going around.”

  “I’ve done some thinking about that,” he said, glancing over at her. “What about your family?”

  “My family?” She frowned.

  “Sure. I mean, not that they would be the one’s breaking in, but what if someone thought that Betty had money because of your family? You did say you came from a wealthy family.”

  She thought about it. “I doubt anyone would know how wealthy my family was or care. Besides, my aunt gave up her rights to her inheritance when she refused to marry the man my grandfather had ordered her to when she was my age.”

  “Oh?” he questioned.

  She nodded. “Yes, it was one of my favorite tales. Actually, I had thought about doing the same thing with Hugh.” She sighed and glanced out the window, remembering how tempted she’d been to tell her family she wasn’t going to finish school or marry the man they had wanted her to. But, she’d been too weak back then and, to be honest, too scared.

  “Did your parents arrange the whole thing?”

  “No, but they arranged the party that we met at. My mother doesn’t do anything without ulterior motives. She knew he would be there and that I would find him attractive. Before Hugh broke it off, he told me my parents had hinted for him to propose.” She sighed and tried to bring up some of the old hurt, but instead, she could only find relief. She was thankful she’d gone through all the pain and shame. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be where she was now. Glancing over, she smiled at Corey’s silhouette. He had a strong profile. His jaw was her favorite thing to look at on him besides his eyes and lips. He was so different than the clean-cut Hugh, who never would have gotten his fingers dirty. Glancing down, she could still see some purple paint under Corey’s nails and chuckled.

  “What?” He glanced at her.

  “You have purple paint under your nails.” She pointed to his fingers.

  “Kind of looks like I painted them, huh?”

  She chuckled again. For some reason, the contrast of his calloused tan hands with purple polish made her laugh. “Purple isn’t your color. You should try pink.” She giggled.

  “Keep it up.” He reached over and took her hand as they turned towards the house.

  “And you’ll what?” she teased.

  But his eyes were locked in front of him and she watched that jaw of his tighten. “Damn it!” He pulled the truck to a stop, spitting dirt up, causing dust to go flying.

  She looked forward and gasped.

  Her little Miata, which had sat under the tree at the end of her drive for over a month, was totaled. It looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Glass and plastic was everywhere.

  “Stay here.” Corey looked over at her. “I’ll go check it out and call it in.” He jumped from the truck as she rested back against the seat.

  Tears stung her eyes. She only had another year of payments on that car and had been planning on selling it to pay for the new asphalt driveway she wanted.

  She watched Corey walk around the car as he talked on his cell phone. He was very animated as he explained things. His hand was waving around, and then he glanced down at his watch and frowned. She could tell he was calculating how long they had been gone, so she glanced down and did the same.

  They’d only been gone for a little over an hour. Who could have done this? More important, who knew that they were gone?

  Corey came back to the truck and got in.

  “Well, they’re sending someone to take a report and a tow truck.” He turned to her. “I’m really sorry about your car.”

  She’d wiped the tears away, knowing they wouldn’t do any good. “It’s okay. I was going to sell it anyway. Now I can use the insurance money to pay for my driveway instead.” She tried to smile.

  Corey watched her closely and then reached over and pulled her into his arms. When she felt his chest against her cheek, the tears started flowing.

  He ran his hands over her hair and held her until she heard a car pull up beside them. “I’ll handle this. Here.” He leaned over and pulled out a small box of tissue from his glove box.

  “Thanks.” She watched him get out of the truck and sniffled into a tissue. She had to blink a few times to be able to see Sheriff Miller and Corey standing over her car, talking.

  The sheriff pulled out his cell phone and took a bunch of pictures while Corey stood back and filled out some paperwork. Leaning her head back against the headrest, she wondered why someone would break in to her place, steal some paperwork, stand over her and watch her sleep, and then destroy her car.

  There just wasn’t a pattern to anything. At least none that she was seeing. She’d taken some criminal justice classes in Austin where she’d learned how to get inside the head of a criminal, but nothing had prepared her for this. Nothing. This felt personal.

  Her mind played over the last conversation she’d had with Hugh. But why would he look through a box of old paperwork? Crossing him off her list, she moved on to Julie, her ex-best friend, who had been dating one of Hugh’s best friends. Julie was a wannabe trophy wife. Bella doubted she had the mind of a criminal, least of all someone who could figure out how to pick a lock.

  She went down a list of friend after friend. Even went as far as adding her parents into the mix. When no one added up, she started running a list of everyone she’d met locally.

  She didn’t know all of them well enough to know if they were a threat, but she decided that she would talk her list over with Corey later that night.

  Chapter Seventeen

  He only got more frustrated as he answered all the questions, explaining what had happened. So many things upset him as he kept glancing down at her broken car.

  At least one thing had been confirmed in his mind—whoever was doing this was dangerous. Corey glanced up and noticed Bella sitting in his truck, her eyes glued straight ahead. At least the crying had stopped. He hated feeling helpless as she cried. He wanted to do something, anything, to make it all stop.

  “Any idea who would have done this?” Sheriff Miller
asked.

  “None.” His voice reflected his emotions. “We were only gone about an hour. Which means they were either watching the place or…” He dropped off as he thought of something. “Do me a favor—follow us up to the house.” He said this last part after he turned his back towards Bella.

  “You think they messed with the house again?”

  “I have a hunch. I’m hoping I’m wrong.” He shook his head.

  “Tell you what, if the house looks okay, why don’t you ride with me to your place. We’ll check them both out.”

  “I doubt they’d mess with my place.”

  “Just in case.”

  He nodded. “Fine.” He started walking back to the truck and then stopped. “I’ll tell Bella you want some tea while we wait for the tow truck.”

  The sheriff nodded. “Sure could use some.” He wiped his forehead with his sleeve.

  “Is everything okay?” Bella asked when he got in.

  “Yeah, the sheriff is going to wait up at the house with us. I offered him some tea.”

  “Okay,” she said, watching her car as they started driving by it.

  When they arrived, it was just as he feared. The front door stood open as the dogs raced around the yard.

  “Damn it!” He threw the car into gear. “Stay here.” When he looked over at her, he noticed that all of the blood had drained from her face. “Hey.” He reached over and took her in his arms. “It’s okay.” He held her, burying her head into his shoulder.

  “What does he want?”

  There was a quick knock on the window, causing them both to jump. He let out a breath when he saw the sheriff outside and rolled down the glass.

  “Stay put, I’ll go check it out,” the sheriff said, and then he disappeared through the busted door.

  “So much for the new alarm,” he growled.

  “Are the dogs…” She glanced up and sighed when she saw all three playing in the yard. She glanced towards the house.

  “I’m sure Beggar is fine.”

  “How can you be sure?” She started to move.

  “No, stay put. You heard the sheriff. Let him do his job.” He pulled her back into his arms.

  “Corey, why is this happening? There’s no more money. They can’t get to the bank account now.” She rested back against the seat.

  “I’m not sure.”

  She turned to him. “Did my aunt have any enemies?”

  “Everyone loved your aunt. Even my old man went out of his way to help her out.”

  She looked over at him, waiting.

  “Dad used to come muck out the stalls when she was sick. He helped shoe the horses and occasionally your aunt would pay him back when she had a cow slaughtered by giving him some steak.” When her eyebrows shot up, he smiled. “We’re a small town; we don’t pay for everything with cash.”

  “If it’s not that, then it has to be about me.” She sighed. “I’ve been thinking about—” But her sentence was cut off when the sheriff walked back out.

  They both got out of the truck. “Well?” Bella asked.

  “The place is a mess. I think it would be best if you took Bella and the animals over to your place for the night. We’ll look around and clean everything up.” He sighed and put his arm out to stop Bella from rushing into the house.

  “I have to see.” She glanced up at the sheriff. “I need to see it.”

  The sheriff looked to Corey, who nodded slowly. Corey reached over and took Bella’s hand.

  “Together.” He waited until her eyes met his. Then she nodded and he followed her into the house.

  The sheriff was right. Nothing had been spared. Not even her new sofa. Its soft cushions were cut open, spilling their white cotton stuffing all over the floor.

  The small tables were broken in pieces, and all the books from the shelves were tossed around. Papers and glass filled the floors.

  “Beggar?” she called, only to have the cat peek it’s head out from a cushion, like it was a game of hide-and-seek. Bella rushed over and picked him up, holding him close to her chest.

  “He’s okay,” Corey said, next to her. “I think the dogs helped.” He turned and saw the paw prints in some flour in the kitchen. “They probably thought it was all too fun.”

  She nodded and started walking upstairs. He followed close behind.

  The mattress was turned over, the headboard broken off the frame. Her dresser was lying on its front, the drawers empty.

  “I…” She turned and ran right into his arms. “I want to go now.”

  He held her close and started walking out. “You sit tight in the car, and I’ll grab a few things.”

  She nodded and then climbed up into the truck with Beggar in her arms. When he whistled, the dogs jumped into the back of the truck. As he walked back into the house, two more patrol cars came up the driveway.

  Walking back upstairs, he grabbed a bag and tossed some clothes in for the both of them. He didn’t know what kind of things she would need from the bathroom, so he tossed most everything into another bag.

  “Hey, Corey,” Wes said, standing in the doorway. “What a mess.” He shook his head.

  “Yeah, I’m going to get Bella settled, and then I’ll be back over to help clean up.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I talked to my family and Haley is watching the kids so everyone else can come over and clean up. We’ll have it done by morning.”

  Corey nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed. “Thanks.”

  “Sure, no problem. Travis says that if you want, you’re welcome to stay…”

  He shook his head, stopping Wes. “No, we’re good at my place.”

  “Okay.” Wes looked around and Corey could tell there was something else.

  “What?” He sighed, hoping the news wasn’t bad.

  “It’s just, well, the sheriff called and asked us to stop by your place before coming over here.”

  “Damn it!” He growled. “Not there too.”

  “No.” Wes shook his head. “Your place looked fine, but I did notice this.” He pulled out a piece of paper, in a bag. “Pinned to the front door.”

  “It should be mine. That bitch doesn’t deserve any of it. Stay away from her.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” He felt like kicking something, then noticed the dresser and shoved his foot towards it, but missed.

  “Not sure, but we’ll get to the bottom of it. Saw you two walking into the bank today. Anything you should tell us?”

  “Nothing much. Betty had a checking account she added money to and transferred money out of. The money that was there Mr. Coulter has already moved to Bella’s account. This can’t be over that or the money Bella found lying around this place.” He looked around again and felt his temper grow.

  “Probably not, not all this for just a few grand.” He shook his head. “Well, we’ll figure it out.”

  Corey nodded and grabbed the bags. “If you need me, you know where to find me,” he said before storming out.

  Tossing the bags in the back, he climbed in and peeled out in the dirt as he drove to his place.

  “Corey,” Bella said when he parked the truck in his driveway.

  “Yeah.” He turned to her, trying to hide his anger from her.

  “I’m sorry.” She sniffled.

  “Don’t be. This isn’t your fault.” His mind flashed to the note as he pulled her back into his arms. Beggar meowed and rubbed his head against his chin.

  “Come on, let’s get these guys inside.”

  Bella sat on Corey’s sofa, watching him move around the small kitchen as he made them dinner.

  “I can help you know,” she said once more.

  “Nope, I’ve got it. Besides, I’m working off my anger,” he said over his shoulder.

  She was thankful. Instead of angry, she was just feeling tired and run down. Wes had come over about an hour ago and told them that they hadn’t found any new evidence.

  “It’s ready,” Corey said, breaking into her thoug
hts.

  “I have a list,” she said, biting her bottom lip.

  “A list?” he asked as he set the pan of spaghetti down on the small table.

  “Of potential people. All men, because I know what I saw that night and it wasn’t a woman standing over me.” She shivered.

  “Okay.” He walked into the kitchen and pulled out a notepad and pencil from a drawer. Then he sat down next to her. “Dish up, then dish out.” He smiled.

  “First one on my list, which I had previously discounted, but after seeing my car, I’ve added back, is Hugh.” She waited for his response. Corey hadn’t told her about the note yet, so he shook his head.

  “Doesn’t jibe,” he said, then filled her in about what it had said.

  “Okay.” She sighed. “At least we’re getting somewhere. So, it is about my inheritance.” She leaned in and took a bite of food. “Maybe it’s not about the money at all. Maybe it’s about the house? The land?”

  He thought about it. “The only one that’s had an eye on that place is me. I’ve wanted to live there since I was a kid.”

  She glanced at him, tilting her head as she looked at him. “It can’t be you. You were with me both times.” She smiled and reached over to take his hand. “Besides, you would have never harmed Snubs.”

  “At least we have that.” He smiled and squeezed her hand.

  “It can’t be your father, he’s… tied up.” She cringed.

  “Dad never liked the extra land. He’s a simple man and only wants to own an acre at a time. And you’re right, he’s been busy.” He frowned.

  “Anyone else you can think of?” she asked after they had finished the dishes and moved into the living room. The television was on mute as the news played on the screen.

  Corey’s list was short. Very short. Most of the names he had scratched out.

  “I’ll pass this on to the sheriff and he’ll check them out. For now, we stay put.” He put his arm over her shoulder.

  She sighed and rested back while petting Beggar, who was sitting on her lap. “Snubs is supposed to come home tomorrow.”

  She couldn’t wait to get the cat back and smother him with love. Out of all the animals, she had bonded most with the cat that didn’t like anyone, except her.