by Beverly Long
“Go back to the car,” Blade said, his voice hard. “Right now. Lock the doors.”
“I have to go—”
“No, not inside,” Blade said, seeing where her head was going. “Please, just do what I’m asking.” He looked her in the eye. “I don’t want Raven alone in the car.”
She knew that was maybe partly true, but she also knew that Blade was using the lever that he knew would gain her cooperation. “Fine,” she muttered. Her house had been broken into. Her sweet little house that she’d lived in less than a week had been...violated. She felt sick.
She wrapped an arm around Sophie’s shoulders and together they went back to the car, both getting in the back seat, because Raven was now sitting in front.
“What’s wrong?” Raven asked, turning around.
“Somebody kicked our door in,” Sophie said.
“Oh, my God. Who does that!” Raven exclaimed.
Who indeed, thought Daisy. She watched Blade who now had his cell phone up to his ear. Who was he talking to?
She didn’t have long to wonder because it was just minutes later that a black SUV came fast around the corner, flashing lights on. It was a Knoware Police Department vehicle, and she saw the officer quickly get out.
“It’s Marcus,” Raven said.
Blade’s friend. Had he been on duty or had Blade reached out directly to him? She was grateful for the fast response, but this was going to be awkward. He was going to ask her questions. She had a choice. Was she brave enough to answer truthfully, knowing that Blade would be there, listening, maybe judging?
If she lied, and it was Jacob, then she might be exposing herself, but more importantly, Sophie, to danger. That was unacceptable. She’d been willing to keep her counsel up to this point, but this upped the ante.
She watched the two men confer for a minute. The porch light captured the energy, the intensity of the discussion. Finally, with Marcus shaking his head, he entered her house with Blade on his heels.
* * *
Blade wasn’t sure what Marcus had been thinking when he’d told him to wait outside. “Hell, no,” he’d said.
“Then at least stay behind me,” his friend had muttered.
He agreed to that. Marcus was the one with the gun. And if the person who had broken down Daisy’s door and caused her to press her hand against her chest in immediate anguish happened to get shot, well, so be it. He’d taken an extra thirty seconds on the porch to fill Marcus in on Daisy’s car trouble because it had dawned on him as Daisy and Sophie walked back to his SUV that this wasn’t the first bit of trouble for them this evening.
Had somebody deliberately tried to delay them in order to have more time in their house?
He really, really wanted the son of a bitch to be inside. While he’d been waiting for Marcus to arrive, he’d stepped to the side of the house where he could see both the front door and most of the backyard. If they had spooked somebody inside by their sudden arrival, Blade was going to make damn sure they didn’t get away. But he’d seen or heard nothing unusual.
Marcus and he advanced into the Cape Cod home. Daisy had left the foyer light on. They flipped more switches as they walked. Kitchen, living room, downstairs bath, bedroom. It was the first time he’d seen Daisy’s bedroom, and he thought that even if he hadn’t known it was hers, he still would have easily guessed. It smelled like her. And the bedspread with brightly colored flamingoes seemed to fit her perfectly.
There was nobody downstairs. And it didn’t appear that anything had been damaged.
They went upstairs. Sophie’s bedroom and bath were empty. The sliding door to the back deck was locked. Marcus unlocked it, and the two of them stepped out. Marcus shone his powerful flashlight on the small backyard.
“I’m going to check the garage,” Blade said. “I’ve got her keys. I can find the right one for the side door.”
Marcus gave him a glance that would have put most people in their rightful place. “I do not attempt to insert IV lines at an accident scene. Because I know that’s your job. I’ll check the garage,” he added. “If you want to stay a respectful distance behind, that’s your business. If you get killed, I’m going to swear that I didn’t know you were there.”
“Okay. I get it. You’re the cop, I’m the firefighter-paramedic. We all know our place.”
Three minutes later, the garage had been searched. It was empty, and both the overhead door and the side entrance door had been secured.
“Let’s get everybody inside,” Marcus said. “Easier to chat where it’s warm.”
Blade walked back to his SUV. He opened the driver’s door. “There’s nobody inside and I don’t see any damage,” he said.
He heard Daisy’s release of breath.
“Marcus wants everybody inside. Probably has a few questions,” he added, looking at Daisy.
Everybody got out. Raven and Sophie went first. He walked next to Daisy. Halfway up the sidewalk, he leaned close. “It will be important that you tell Marcus anything that might be helpful.”
“Of course.”
He hoped she understood what he was saying. Because if he saw any attempt to skirt the truth, he was going to call her out. Her safety was too important.
When Daisy entered, even though she’d been assured that there was no danger, her eyes still darted from corner to corner, as if needing to see for herself. Marcus walked up and extended a hand. “I’m Marcus Price,” he said. “We met briefly last Friday at Headstone Canyon.”
“I remember,” Daisy said.
“Great. Why don’t you have a seat,” he said, motioning her to the couch. “I think it would probably be best if the girls went upstairs. That okay with both of you?” he asked, looking at Daisy and Blade.
Blade was reminded of why Marcus generally got people to do what he wanted them to do. He knew how to phrase the question.
Daisy nodded. “I’ll be up soon,” she said, looking at Sophie.
A message passed between mother and daughter. He couldn’t decipher it, but he was confident that neither one needed words right now to communicate.
“Raven,” Blade said, “please lock Sophie’s sliding door. We unlocked it when we went outside and checked the backyard and garage.”
Once the teenagers were out of the room, Marcus asked, “Anything look out of place or missing?” He’d taken a seat across from Daisy. Blade stood behind her.
Daisy shook her head. “I mean, I haven’t looked at everything, but it looks just how we left it.”
“What time was it that you left?”
“About 7:15.”
“And where did you go?”
“To Know Your Scoop. To meet Blade and Raven,” Daisy said.
“You went straight there? No stops for gas or groceries, maybe bread or milk?” he asked, flashing Blade a quick look.
“No,” she said.
“How long were you at Know Your Scoop?”
Daisy turned her head to meet his eyes. “About forty-five minutes?” she said.
Blade nodded.
“So you all left about eight o’clock?” Marcus asked.
“Yes. I tried to start my car, but the engine wouldn’t turn over. Fortunately Blade had walked me to my car, saw the trouble and offered us a ride home.”
“You came straight home?” Marcus asked.
“Yes,” Daisy said.
Marcus sat back in his chair. “Any idea who might have been responsible for kicking your door in?”
Blade moved from behind Daisy to a spot where he could see her face. She looked at Marcus, then at him, and finally back to Marcus. “I might have some idea,” she said.
“Who?” Blade demanded.
Marcus threw him a look, but didn’t tell him to shut up. “Who might that be?” he asked in a much more moderate tone.
“There’s a m
an. His name is Jacob Posse.”
“Tell me about Mr. Posse,” Marcus said.
“Well, before I moved here, we had sort of a whirlwind romance. He seemed perfect. He was polite to everyone and nice to Sophie and my grandmother, although my grandmother never really liked him. She was smart. I was dumb. He told me that he was temporarily in a hotel because he’d been transferred to Denver on business. He showed me pictures of his house back in Iowa and took me with him on house-hunting trips in Denver. He was full of fun anecdotes about his job and his coworkers.” She stopped. “To make a long story short, everything he told me was a lie. I know this because once we got engaged, I saw some behaviors that concerned me. Possessiveness. Angry outbursts when I worked late. Attempts to isolate me from my friends.”
She drew in a breath. “When I told him that this was unacceptable, he’d always apologize and tell me that it was just because he loved me so much. When he tried to convince me to move up the wedding date by months, I got really nervous.” She licked her lips.
There was something she wasn’t saying.
“Was he physically abusive?” Marcus asked.
Blade felt his gut tighten and when Daisy sent him a pleading glance before answering, he mentally started disemboweling Posse.
“Once,” she said. “He slapped me. Hard enough that he knocked me out of a chair.”
Blade stared at the floor. Before he started work on the man’s innards, he was going to break every bone in his hands. Slam his face against the floor, hard enough to break a nose, crush a cheekbone.
“I worked with somebody whose husband was a cop, and she volunteered to have her husband check him out. He discovered that he wasn’t a banker with an MBA. He drove a truck. He didn’t have a great house in Iowa but rather he lived outside of Denver in an old house with at least fifteen other people. A commune of sorts. And the kicker was, he was the leader. The business trips were excuses for him to go back to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where a similar group of people lived. He picked up work that would take him through the Midwest from various companies.”
“What happened after you learned the truth?” Marcus asked.
“I broke off the engagement. He was furious. He told me that he was the chosen one and that he’d been waiting for his soul mate. I was her, and there was no way that he was ever going to let me go. I reported him to the police. I got a restraining order.”
“But he continued to harass you?” Marcus asked.
“Indirectly. Anonymous letters and phone calls. Unexpected gifts. I’d look up from my grocery cart and he’d be across the store. I’d be shopping at the mall and he’d be sitting in his car in the parking lot. He’d stay the required distance away from me, but he’d make sure that I saw him. I went back to the police. They said there was nothing they could do.”
She sounded so weary. Blade almost told Marcus to stop, that they had heard enough. But he stayed quiet. They needed to hear everything. Because they needed to find him.
“Does Mr. Posse know that you’re in Knoware?” Marcus asked.
“I’ve done my very best to prevent that. When I resigned from my old job, I lied and told people that I’d inherited a little money after my grandmother’s death and would be traveling for a while. The forwarding address that I had to leave with the post office is a box at the Seattle post office. I figured I could get there every so often to see if anything of importance had arrived.”
“What about Sophie?” Blade asked. There was no way that she wasn’t in contact with kids from Denver. The move had been difficult for her. She’d have probably wanted to complain about it to friends either in person or more likely online, where most anybody could find it if they tried hard enough.
“She knows about Jacob. I had to tell her, had to warn her to be careful. Not everything,” she added quickly.
He suspected that Sophie didn’t know that Daisy had been physically attacked.
“I’ve tried to shield her from the scarier details,” Daisy said. “When we moved, I told her that she absolutely could not tell any of her friends that we were going to Knoware. She could tell them that we were moving to the Pacific Northwest but nothing more than that. We went over it a hundred times. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but she knew. And earlier this week, after I got the gift basket with no card, I asked her if she’d told anybody. She said that she had not.”
Maybe she’d told the truth and maybe she hadn’t, Blade thought. Kids lied, especially when they did something that they knew wasn’t going to sit quite right with their parents. Self-preservation. The need to please. Whatever the reason, it happened.
“Describe Jacob Posse,” Marcus said.
“Five-eleven. Slim build. Brown hair. Brown eyes.”
The description could fit the stranger who’d been in to Gertie’s Café and Feisty Pete’s bar. Like he’d thought before, it could roughly fit a whole lot of people, including him.
She didn’t compare him in any way to Jacob Posse, did she? The thought made him ill.
“Do you happen to have a photo of Jacob Posse?” Marcus asked.
“On my phone,” she said. She reached for her purse. When she had her phone, it took her a couple minutes to find it. “Here,” she said. She passed the phone to Marcus.
He studied it, then gave the phone to Blade.
It would have been so easy for him to find fault. The man’s eyes were a little too close together. His nose a tad long. Maybe his ears stuck out from his head. But in truth, he was a good-looking guy wearing a nice shirt and pants. He didn’t look evil. Certainly didn’t look like somebody who would hit a woman and knock her out of her chair. He gave Daisy back her phone.
“Send that photo to me,” Marcus said. He gave her a card. “Text it to this number.”
He waited while she did it. Then he continued. “Daisy, I don’t want to scare you more than necessary, but this week, there were two separate break-ins in our downtown area. One at Gertie’s Café and one at Feisty Pete’s bar. Both establishments reported that a man matching that general description was a customer.”
She closed her eyes as if her worst fear was being realized.
“Were you aware,” Marcus continued, “during your association with Jacob Posse, of him committing any similar crimes?”
She drew in a deep breath and opened her eyes. “No. But honestly, it would not surprise me. He was...pretty free with his money. He took me to nice restaurants. To entertainment where the tickets were pricey. It fit his image of successful businessman. Where he got that money, I have no idea.”
“I’ll show his photo to folks at Gertie’s and Feisty Pete’s. We’ll see if anybody recognizes him,” Marcus said. “Is there anything else that you can tell us that might be helpful?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Okay. Your plan was to have your vehicle towed in by Savick’s Garage?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to want a copy of their findings.”
“You think it was tampered with?” Daisy asked.
“I don’t know. But I think we need more information. For now, how do you feel about staying in this house?”
“No,” Blade interjected. “Absolutely not.”
Marcus didn’t react to Blade’s comment. He stayed focused on Daisy.
“I...uh. I’m not crazy about the idea. I guess Sophie and I could go to a motel. I’m sure there are vacancies this time of year.”
“Absolutely not,” Blade said again. He was a broken record. He moved closer to Daisy. “You and Sophie can stay with me, in my duplex. Sophie can bunk in Raven’s room. She’s got two twin beds. You can have my room and I’ll take the couch.”
“I... I...” Daisy stopped.
“Take a minute,” Marcus said, standing up. “Blade, follow me, would you?” He didn’t wait for an answer.
“Don’t tell me it�
��s a bad idea,” Blade said once they were in the kitchen.
“I have no intention of telling you that. What I want to remind you is that she’s had a tough night. Likely feels as if she’s boxed into a corner. You demanding she take certain specific actions doesn’t help her still feel independent and in control.”
Blade stared at his friend. “I really hate it when you’re right,” he said finally.
“I’ve had a little bit more experience with this,” he said. “Sadly, domestic issues are still one of our major crime categories.”
“Posse hit her,” Blade said, his voice cracking.
“I know. And I want you to remember that you’ll only be hurting yourself and your family if you try to avenge that. Don’t be stupid, Blade.”
“I’m not a fool,” he said.
“Yeah. But I don’t think you’ve ever been in exactly this situation before, either.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve known you since you were six,” Marcus said. “When you look at Daisy, it’s a look that I’ve never seen before, not even when you were married to Sheila, no matter how hard you tried to make your marriage work.”
Blade let out a sigh. “You and Jamie told me to be a friend. A pal. I want more.”
“Of course you do,” Marcus said. “And while I don’t know her nearly as well, I get the distinct impression that she’s interested in more than friendship when she looks at you. I’m just telling you to be careful. She’s likely feeling pretty vulnerable right now. You aren’t going to want to take advantage of that.”
That pissed Blade off. “You think I’d take advantage of her?”
“Not knowingly. In a hundred years, you wouldn’t do that. I’m just saying be careful.”
“This from a guy who has had more women in his bed in the last month than I have in my entire lifetime.”
“Exactly. I know what I’m talking about. I didn’t love any of those women. Liked, yes. Respected, always. Enjoyed, generally. Not love. The stakes are higher for you.”
“I never said I loved her.”
Marcus shook his head. “You didn’t need to.”
