The phone rang. Trent picked up the receiver and held his palm over the mouthpiece. “Go. But finish that report before you leave and call me if you learn anything.” He waved her away. “Davis,” he said into the phone.
Returning to her desk, she texted Josh back and told him she was nearly on her way. Quickly, she went to work, finished the report and emailed it to Trent and Chief Williams. She had exactly six minutes to drive down Maple Boulevard to meet someone who was deeply connected to the investigation.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
HIS SLING NOTWITHSTANDING, Josh looked every bit the handsome celebrity driver he was, dressed in white summer slacks, a midnight blue knit shirt and navy leather loafers as he greeted her at the door.
Violet couldn’t help the appreciative smile she gave him. “You look—good. Healthy.”
“I’ve been in the sun. Helping Katia in the garden, cleaning the pool. Stuff to keep busy. My tennis game is a bit off, considering—” he lifted his sling “—the circumstances.”
Without another word he leaned over and kissed her cheek.
Violet felt warmth down her spine and her rigid, official stance softened. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that she was a fool to allow emotions to block her duty, she couldn’t help it. Her heart told her he was a good man. She wanted to think only the very best about Josh, but in the end, her eyes told her another story. Josh had met with Miguel. There was a story there. Was it conspiracy? She wondered...
“I got here as soon as I finished my report. Miguel Garcia was spotted in town last night.” She said it casually, almost not wanting to hear his answer.
“Is that so?” Josh put his good arm around her shoulders. “We need to go. I don’t want to be late.”
His smile didn’t falter as they walked to her squad car.
She took out the car keys and went around to the driver’s side, leaning on the roof as Josh opened the passenger door. “So he didn’t contact you?”
“On the advice of my attorney, I wouldn’t tell you if he did. Besides, I don’t want to even think about Miguel. I’d rather think about us.”
“Us?” Violet felt a warm glow start in her heart and spread throughout her chest. She didn’t want to think about Miguel, either.
“Uh-huh.” He flashed her a charming smile. “Now, can we go?”
“Yeah.”
As Josh got in and buckled his seat belt, Violet berated herself for how easily she shoved aside her duty and responsibilities whenever she was with Josh.
One kiss on the cheek and I’m toast.
* * *
“CHILDREN? THIS IS the surprise?” Violet asked as they entered the car museum and were met with twenty-three smiling kids. Then she saw her sister, Isabelle, along with Bella and little Michael.
“Aunt Violet!” Bella exclaimed and rushed up to hug Violet. Michael clung to Isabelle’s leg.
“Honey, Aunt Violet won’t hurt you. She’s just in uniform is all,” Isabelle explained.
Michael tilted his head to the left, observing Violet as if he didn’t recognize her. Slowly, his blue eyes widened. “Auntie Vi!” He trundled over and joined Bella in hugging Violet.
“I didn’t know you’d be here,” Violet said, glancing up at Josh who beamed down at her.
“So, good surprise?” he asked with a wink.
“Very good surprise,” she replied.
Beatrice Wilcox Nelson, the owner of the Indian Lake Youth Camp, waved at Violet. “Hi, Violet.” She beamed as she held the hand of her two adopted foster boys, Eli and Chris. Beatrice had recently married Rand Nelson, a firefighter in Indian Lake. Beatrice walked the boys over to Violet and Josh.
Eli, the younger of the two, couldn’t take his eyes off Josh.
Chris’s stare was glued to Violet’s gun and holster.
“I saw your crash on TV,” Eli said to Josh. “Does it hurt?”
Josh looked at his arm. “Not anymore. The doctor said I’m healing fast.”
“But it’ll take a long time. Mom hurt her foot last summer during a fire when she rescued me. She had to use crutches for a while. Right, Mom?”
Beatrice smiled and ruffled Eli’s thick hair. “I did. But the rehab and therapy exercises are vital.”
“Oh, I plan to follow the doctor’s instructions to the letter,” Josh replied. He shook Beatrice’s hand. “I’m so glad you brought all these kids. When we set this up, you weren’t sure about the number.”
“To be honest, we have quite a few more kids than planned. Some are from Chris’s vacation bible school group. Almost none of the kids have been out here to the museum. Thanks for thinking of us.”
“Thank Mrs. Beabots. While we were discussing plans for the new foster child care center, she told me about your camp and the work you do with the foster kids. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you in person. And, hey, Rand is a great guy. I met him at Mrs. Beabots’s house.”
“Yes! He told me. She’s a love, always making pies and treats not only for the firefighters but for my camp kids.”
Violet listened to the exchange as if it was music to her ears. Clearly, Josh was already making plans to do more for the center than writing a check.
And walking away.
“You were talking to Mrs. Beabots?” she asked. “When was this?”
“That particular conversation? A few days ago. We talk every day, actually.”
“Oh.” Violet had been careful not to tell her landlady any aspect of her ongoing investigation of Josh. The night she’d rushed out of the house and told Mrs. Beabots to lock the doors and check the security cameras and lights, and she returned, she’d told Mrs. Beabots only that she’d followed a suspect.
“Beatrice, would you mind giving me your input for the center?” Josh asked.
“I’d love to help,” Beatrice offered. “Just name it.”
“I’d like to come out to the camp and spend a day with you. I think your take on the kids’ learning basic skills is important.”
“Yeah.” Eli frowned. “She taught us how to knit during the winter.”
Violet smiled. “You don’t like knitting?”
Eli looked up at Violet. “It’s hard! First you have to count all those knots. And the needles are big.”
“I didn’t mind it,” Chris said, and looked at Violet’s gun again. “I like to learn new things. I bet you’re really good with your gun, huh?”
Violet didn’t know much about Chris’s background, except for what Scott had told her. Both Chris and Eli had been abandoned by their drug dealer parents. Child Protective Services took over, and they’d spent the bulk of last summer at the youth camp. Violet wondered if Chris’s father or mother had guns. Did he have firsthand knowledge? “Have you ever handled a gun, Chris?”
“Nah.”
“But you want to?” she asked.
“I want to protect people when I grow up. Like my new dad. He’s a firefighter. Police protect people, too. Like little kids who can’t take care of themselves.”
Violet’s heart swelled. She hadn’t met him before, but in less than five minutes, she knew she wanted to get to know him better. Be a friend to him. “Chris, protecting people is more than just having a gun. And remember, I was trained to use it safely. It took a lot of lessons. But anytime you want to know about my career, I’m here to talk to. Okay?”
“Okay. Thanks,” he said with an intake of breath that puffed out his chest.
Josh turned to the group. “Okay, kids! I want to take you through the museum and show you the cars and tell you a bit about their history. I’ve started to rearrange some of the cars so that you can follow the progression of technology from the early years.”
* * *
ONCE INSIDE THE MUSEUM, Josh began the tour. He was full of fun and interesting facts about all the cars.
; Violet had been to the museum several times, both for fund-raisers and due to the fact that she’d always been intrigued by antique cars. Growing up in Indian Lake, the Cruise Night party on the first Friday night in June had always been her favorite. For the past thirty years, every owner of an antique car in the surrounding area paraded up and down Main Street from dusk till nightfall. It was almost impossible not to know something about antique cars.
And in the Hawks family, with three brothers who tinkered with anything mechanical, she learned about cars by osmosis.
The 1919 Daimler that Josh was talking about now, however, was a very recent acquisition. It wasn’t here the night of the fund-raiser in May.
As the kids listened to him, gone was the “celebrity worship” she’d seen in them when they first arrived. He took them on a journey back in time. He told of the hardworking inventors whose passion for the future drove them.
“Auntie Vi.” Little Michael tugged on her hand. “Hold me up.”
Violet looked at Isabelle, who smiled and urged her to pick Michael up. The toddler had always clung to Isabelle, but something was different today.
Violet leaned down and hoisted him up. He flung his little arms around the back of her neck. He smiled. “Thanks.”
Then he looked at Josh and the car. He pointed. “I like that one.”
Michael pressed his soft cheek next to hers. He smelled like baby powder and herbal shampoo. Isabelle had dressed him in a sky blue summer T-shirt and matching shorts. He had sneakers, and white socks with a Cubs logo on them. Violet inhaled and felt his velvety skin. Scott had been right about kids. All they wanted were hugs and kisses. It didn’t matter how tired and cranky they got; if you paid attention to them and treated them like people and not nuisances, they were precious.
“It’s a very pretty car,” she said.
“No. I like him. He’s nice to me.”
She inclined her head back and looked at him. “Josh is nice to you?”
“He hugs me.”
“When was this?”
“At Daddy’s store.”
“Josh went to the Java Stop? You saw him there?”
“Uh-huh. He read a book about cars to me.” Michael kissed her cheek. “I like hugging.”
“I like it, too, Michael. I especially like your hugs.”
As Josh took the group to the next car and the next, Violet continued to hold Michael, who had no urge to leave her arms.
Violet didn’t hear a lot of his presentation. Her mind was occupied with filling in a spreadsheet of unknown facts about Josh’s daily activities.
She’d been remiss in thinking that recuperation for Josh meant he would spend idle days resting. Apparently, the guy was up earlier than she, walking uptown for early-morning coffee with Scott. He played with her niece and nephew, sometimes reading to them. He talked to Mrs. Beabots on nearly a daily basis while Violet was on the job or at the station. He worked with Gina Barzonni and Sarah Bosworth on the plans for the new foster child care center. He knew Beatrice and Rand Nelson. And from her own conversations with him, she knew that he conducted business with his manager, held phone interviews with newspapers and race magazines. He cut a couple podcasts.
And he’d met with Miguel Garcia.
“That’s the end of our tour, kids. I hope you liked it.” Josh’s loud announcement broke through Violet’s thoughts.
Applause rang through the museum.
Beatrice went up to Josh. “I can’t thank you enough for this, Josh. It was a pleasure.”
Josh hugged her. “You’ve been great to bring the kids here. What do you say we do it again in a month when you have new campers come in?”
“You mean it?”
Violet’s sister held Bella’s hand as she joined them. “Josh, you’re the greatest,” Isabelle said. “Believe him, Beatrice. He’s helped out at the bookstore and giving Scott those interviews...”
Violet detected a sudden darkening of Josh’s expression.
Isabelle rushed on. “I’m thinking your accident has been a blessing to all of us in Indian Lake.”
“Well, my counselors, Maisie and Cindy, are back with the SUVs to take the kids back to camp and to the church. I gotta go.” Beatrice hugged Violet, kissed Michael’s cheek and hugged Bella, then hugged Isabelle, saying her goodbyes.
“Yeah,” Isabelle added. “I’m off to the grocery and the art supply store.”
“A new painting?” Violet asked.
“Yeah, I’m inspired.” Isabelle winked at Josh, who smiled back at her. She took Michael from Violet’s arms. “See you soon, sis. Bye.”
“Bye,” Violet said, noticing the quiet after the children were gone. She turned to Josh. “So, where do you want me to drop you off? The Java Stop? Mrs. Beabots’s house? Austin’s house?”
He took her hand. “You were great with the kids. I was afraid your uniform might intimidate them.”
“They barely knew I was here. You’re a megastar to them. You were all they could see.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s it.”
Josh tugged on her hand. “Come on.” He started walking.
“Where are we going?”
“Over here,” he said.
Josh unhooked a burgundy velvet rope from a brass stand. He held out his right arm. “After you.”
She looked at the priceless Daimler. “What are we doing?”
“Get in.”
“What?”
“Trust me, I’m not going to crank it up and go for a spin.” He opened the door. The interior was luxurious, the seats in tufted dove-gray velvet. The handles and bud vases on the walls were sterling silver.
“Sit next to me.”
“Are you sure about this?” she asked. “This feels like trespassing.”
“It’s not. I paid for this rental.”
“You rented this car? Why?”
“Well—” he held her hand, lacing his fingers with hers “—while I’m here, I’ve agreed to help Austin at the museum. This Daimler is one of my new ideas. Austin will continue to buy cars and keep them, but I suggested he increase the museum’s exposure and media presence by touring rare cars through here. The cars come in for three months and then move on to another museum. This one is from the Los Angeles Museum.”
“It’s a brilliant idea.”
“And fun. But that’s not the only reason I wanted this car,” he said earnestly. “I wanted a special place that you would always remember.”
“Remember what?”
“I love you, Violet,” he said, raising her hand to his lips and kissing her palm, though his eyes never left hers. “I’ve never said that to a woman. You should know that. I’ve never said it because this hasn’t happened—not to me. I have a sense of belonging that I didn’t think I’d ever find.”
“Josh...”
He put his arm around her and pulled her close. “Don’t say anything. Don’t say something you don’t feel. I had to say it, though. I’ve gone crazy trying to deny it.”
He kissed her with so much passion, Violet felt consumed. The love he had for her enveloped them both. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. She slid her fingers up the back of his strong neck and into his hair.
Her heart opened and filled with love.
Though he pulled away, his reluctance caused him to kiss her eyelids, cheeks and throat. He nuzzled her ear. “I’ve spent my life racing around the world trying to find my life, and then you came along...” He held her face with his right hand and traced the edge of her jaw. “I want to be truthful with you, Violet.”
She sucked in a breath. “I want that, too.” And she meant it. Her prayer was that the investigation would end soon and when it was over, she could finally be honest and open with him. Nothing would hold her back.
“I feel like
I’m going three hundred miles an hour, about to take off with you, but I hold myself back.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not here—” he pointed to his heart “—with me. I think deep down you want to be. I know you’re investigating me. My connection to Diego. I mean Miguel. It’s your job and that’s serious to you. But this is real and I don’t want any suspicions or false motives between us, Violet.”
“Josh—”
“You want to know about Miguel. The thing is, there’s nothing. And if you don’t believe that...”
“I do believe that.”
“But the ILPD doesn’t.”
“No, they don’t. And that begs me to ask, why don’t you go in to talk to them? Tell them everything you know about Miguel?”
“On the advice of my attorney and agent, it would look not just a little bad, but big-time bad for me in the media if it got out that the cops and I were talking. Not to mention that, honestly, I believe Miguel is a loose cannon. I don’t know what he’d do.”
“He’d come after you?”
“Or you.”
“You’re worried about me?”
“I am.”
She was overwhelmed. She hadn’t expected his declaration this morning of all mornings.
If Josh was lying about his relationship with Miguel to protect him, the flip side would be a very black ending. It would be proven that Josh had been and was a part of Diego Lopez/Miguel Garcia’s criminal gang. Josh would be arrested, tried and convicted. He would go to prison.
And she would never forget him.
“Josh, you know I have feelings for you...”
“But do you think you could ever love me?”
She lifted her eyes to his and felt as if she were falling into an abyss. It was terrifying. It was the step that all fools took. “I do.”
He kissed her again, and Violet knew she could never turn back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE QUARTER MOON hung low in the summer night sky, with vivid Mercury above it. A slight breeze rustled through the silver maple trees and overgrown bushes around the farmhouse. Violet wore a Kevlar vest over her long-sleeved uniform shirt with the ILPD letters emblazoned in gold on the back.
Hers to Protect Page 20
