The tears threatened again, but behind them came a great wave of anger. Not only for Carly, but for all of the lives that had been impacted so negatively by the selfish, violent act of a single man.
“Ainsley.”
She looked up, saw that Cal was watching her with concern.
“I’m just so freaking pissed off.”
“Which you’re allowed to be. You never got closure, or any kind of justice. An unsolved murder is an open wound.”
“It is. It really is. Which is one reason that family members and cops push so hard to find a suspect, and then after they’ve found one, push for a conviction. Even if they have the wrong person.” She sighed. “But this isn’t helping Sabrina, and it isn’t helping our task.” She glanced down at the page again. “Here,” she said, pointing. “Just like we thought. Wesley Fisher. God, he’s just a kid here. A freshman, which is what? Fourteen?” But even kids were capable of vicious crimes. “I don’t see any other names I recognize, though. You should look.”
She handed him the yearbook. “Any luck with yours?”
“Not this one.” He set it aside. “This is my freshman year, so Carly hadn’t started high school yet, and I don’t see any names that jump out.” He looked at the yearbook Ainsley had given him. “Looks like this was my sophomore year, so yeah, Carly was a freshman and so was Wes. They were both a year behind me.” He squinted, and then stabbed his finger toward a picture on the page. “Here. Look familiar?”
Ainsley leaned forward to look, and then her gaze snapped up to meet Callum’s. “Tanner Cross?”
Cal’s expression was grim. “His eagerness to have lunch with you makes sense. He was probably pumping you for information.”
“He said he was away for the past two weeks. But that’s easy enough to check out.” She pressed a hand to her jumping stomach. “I need to call Ben.”
Cal pulled out his phone, swiped the screen. “Here you go.”
Ainsley brought it to her ear, waited for Ben to answer. And swore when it went to his voicemail. “Ben, it’s me. Tanner Cross was in the photography club with Carly. He claims he was away for the past two weeks, but you need to look at him hard. Call me back as soon as you’re able.”
She ended the call, handed the phone to Cal.
“I’m going to go crazy just sitting here.”
“What do you propose we do?” Cal asked, and nodded toward the window. “It’s almost dark. You’re injured. Ben is already at the winery or on his way to the winery. You’ve told him what we suspect.”
“I know.” Ainsley brought her fingertips to her temples and pressed. “But that doesn’t make me any more patient. What if Bree asked Tanner Cross for permission to enter his property? And told him why? That would explain how he knew about the journals. Maybe he was there with her, or maybe he followed her after she and Wesley left. If Wesley was the one who was with her. And if she and Wes drove separately, Tanner might have only been able to follow one of them – Sabrina. Maybe she saw him and… I don’t know. Pulled over to talk? And then things got out of hand for some reason? But if she’d actually read the journals, why would she have called him to ask permission, if he were incriminated? And if she hadn’t read them, why did she present a threat? ” She pressed harder. “This is making my head hurt. We’re missing something.”
“And maybe Ben can fill in the missing pieces. There’s only so much you can do, Ainsley.”
“You’re right.” She sighed, and then smiled at him. “But thanks for letting me rant.”
“Since I’m such a nice guy, I’ll also offer to distract you while we wait for Ben to call back.”
“Might I assume that this distraction involves a certain lack of clothing?”
“It is pretty warm in here.”
“How generous of you.”
Cal shrugged, elaborately casual. “I do what I can. And I’d like to do what I can in my bedroom this time, where I have room to really impress you with my moves.”
Ainsley again found herself laughing, when she’d been crying only minutes before.
And damn him. He was going to make leaving when this was over and they – please God – had found Sabrina, doubly hard.
But she wouldn’t think about that yet.
“You know,” she pointed out. “We never did get that shower.”
“You know,” he agreed. “You’re right.”
Beaumont yawned when Cal displaced him from her lap, but curled into a ball and promptly went back to sleep. And even though Ainsley had expected it, her heart still fluttered a little when Cal picked her up, positioned her against his chest.
“I probably shouldn’t enjoy this so much,” she said.
“Why not? I do. And unlike the first time I packed you across the creek, I don’t have to restrain myself from grabbing your ass.”
“Speaking of asses,” she said as he started toward the stairs. “I had a mighty fine view of yours during the aforementioned packing. I have a new appreciation for Levi Strauss.”
“Not as much appreciation as I have for the person who invented yoga pants.” He slanted a glance her way. “You weren’t just teasing me when you mentioned them earlier. Were you?”
“You say that as if you didn’t go through my luggage.”
“I was hoping you’d forgotten that.”
Cal’s foot was on the bottom tread when Beau rolled over and started barking.
“No, you’re not coming with us,” Cal said over his shoulder. “Go back to sleep.”
But Beau wasn’t looking at them. He was staring at the back window.
They both looked at the dog, and then at each other.
“Stay here,” Cal said after a moment, setting her down on the stairs. Then he unsnapped his holster, and handed her his phone. “I’m going to check that out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
BEN branched off from the winery’s main thoroughfare, taking the road that wound through the trees toward Tanner Cross’s home. Mist rolled up from the stream that gurgled along beside the drive, reaching with ghostly fingers toward the pavement. Ben’s heart bumped along with his SUV as he drove over a wooden bridge, but he did his best to marshal his emotions. He’d called for backup, just in case… well, just in case.
Because if he sensed that Cross knew more about Sabrina than he was saying, Ben didn’t fully trust himself not to beat the information out of the other man. And as a law enforcement officer who’d taken an oath to his community, he couldn’t in good conscience kill the little twerp while acting in an official capacity.
Lights broke the gloom as Ben rounded a corner, and Cross’s house – what Ben thought of as a cabin on high dose steroids – came into view.
Ben parked, glanced at his watch. One of his deputies should be here within a few minutes, and he convinced himself to wait. Whatever happened, he wanted it to go down legally and in a way that didn’t risk anything he discovered being thrown out of court.
Not to mention that didn’t risk landing himself in prison for a capital crime.
However, as he sat there waiting, the porch light came on, right before the front door opened.
Jason Prescott stepped outside, hands on hips, and glared in Ben’s direction.
Ben debated for a second, and then shut off the ignition. He climbed from the SUV, made his way to the base of the wide porch stairs.
“Good evening,” he said to Jason.
Prescott’s handsome face set into sour lines. “Well, it was, at any rate.”
“Look,” Ben said, wanting to put his best foot forward, considering what was at stake. “I know you’re pissed about what happened at the old store yesterday.” He paused, considering how best to phrase this. “And I know you’re looking out for Tanner’s interests. But you have to understand that we’re dealing with a missing person – my sister. My sister is missing. And time is running out.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Jason said. “Really. But I’m not going to let you railroad Tanner –”
/> “It’s okay,” the man himself said, stepping out onto the porch behind Jason and laying a hand on his shoulder. And from the look the two men exchanged, Ben surmised that the rumors surrounding them were true. They were business partners, but also lovers.
Which didn’t, of course, rule out Tanner – or Jason for that matter – as a person of interest in Bree’s disappearance. There were all sorts of motives for kidnapping and other violent crimes, from anger to avarice. Sex might have nothing to do with it.
Jason bristled, but Tanner stepped around him, motioning Ben up the stairs. “You might as well come on in.”
Ben hesitated – he really should wait for backup – but he went against his better judgment. If Cross knew something, anything, that could lead Ben to Sabrina, he needed to know it now.
The expression on Jason’s face could have reduced the mountain the house sat on to rubble, but Ben ignored him. Instead, he waited for both men to step inside, and then he followed after them.
“Can I offer you something to drink? Water?” His smile turned wry. “Wine?”
“No. Thank you.”
“Well then. How about if we at least have a seat?”
He gestured toward a room off of the expansive entry hall, a two story great room that contained various seating arrangements, a roaring fire, and a bank of windows that probably offered absolutely breathtaking daylight views.
Cross seated himself in a leather club chair, and Ben took the one opposite, while Jason hovered behind Tanner like a protective mama bear.
“So,” Tanner said, getting straight to the point. “Jason tells me that you’ve found some sort of evidence in the old store –”
“Which he entered without a warrant.”
Tanner shot a quelling look at Jason. “As my attorney has informed us, Jason, abandoned properties don’t operate under the same expectation of privacy as one’s own home.”
Despite the man’s congenial tone, Ben sensed that Cross hadn’t been pleased with that information. Well, too bad. Ben wasn’t pleased with a whole lot of things at the moment.
“We found evidence that my sister, and perhaps another individual – we’re still waiting on some lab results to say for sure – were recently in your grandfather’s store. If our timeline is correct, almost immediately following leaving the property, my sister, for reasons unknown, left her car alongside the road near the old mill, and subsequently disappeared.”
“If you think Tanner had something to do with that, you’re high. He was out of town, and has the travel itinerary to prove it.”
“Jason.” Tanner held up a hand, appearing legitimately irritated. “I can speak for myself.”
Prescott bristled again, and crossed his arms, moving to lean back against the mantel. “Fine. I won’t say another word.”
Cross sighed, but looked Ben in the eye. “As Jason said, I was out of town for the past two weeks – and I do have the travel itinerary to prove it. Which means I was only made aware of your sister’s disappearance yesterday, when I happened to bump into your cousin, I believe? So I’m not sure how I can help you.”
“Who has access to the winery when you’re not here? After hours, specifically.”
The congenial expression on his face shifted toward something slightly less friendly. “Why?”
Ben stared at the man, knowing that while he might be as pleasant as he often appeared, he was also a businessman. A pretty fierce businessman who’d turned his grandfather’s nearly derelict farm into a very successful winery. And so Ben had to tread carefully, because the man would surely close ranks if he thought one of his employees – and therefore his business – might be implicated.
“Right now I’m simply trying to piece together as much of Sabrina’s life prior to her disappearance as possible. My cousin – Ainsley, whom you met yesterday – received a phone call from Sabrina a little less than two weeks ago. It was made from the telephone number attached to the winery. After operating hours.”
Jason jerked away from the mantel. “I have the key. And no way did I invite your sister on some kind of ‘private’ winery tour while Tanner was gone. I didn’t,” he said to Cross, looking torn between pleading and fury. “You know me better than that.”
“I don’t think that you did,” Cross assured him. “And I’m not sure that Sheriff Paulson was implying anything illicit.” He returned his attention to Ben, eyebrows raised. “Were you?”
“I’m not implying anything. I’m stating the fact that my cousin received an after-hours phone call from my sister, placed from your winery, apparently while you were out of town. So I need to know who aside from yourself and Mr. Prescott here, if anyone, has access to the keys.”
He stared at Ben for several moments. “I think these questions may be better answered after I consult with my attorney.”
A buzzing sound began in Ben’s ears, and it took all of his willpower not to lean forward and grasp the other man by the collar, to shake him until he got the answers he sought. But he knew, categorically, that if he laid a hand on Cross, not only wouldn’t he get those answers, but he’d be facing a lawsuit for brutality.
And he’d be that much farther away from finding his sister.
Ben actually closed his eyes, as anger and worry and panic for Sabrina all coalesced into a ball of helpless misery. Of impotent fury.
Not again. Dear God, he couldn’t go through this – or put his mother through this – again. Especially not when it was his job to find her this time. His responsibility.
“Please,” he heard himself saying, the word little more than a croak strained between his aching vocal cords.
He felt a hand come to rest rather hesitantly upon his knee, to pat it once, twice, before being pulled away.
When he opened his eyes, Cross was leaning back again, a sorrowful expression on his face. “I was friends,” he said “with your sister. Carly, I mean. I didn’t really know Sabrina in high school. But Carly was kind to me. And not everyone was. I’m gay,” he admitted. “But I guess you probably know that, even though we’ve” and here he looked up at Jason “never made our relationship a public thing. Not out of shame, because I have no shame in who I am, or in how I feel about Jason. But simply because it’s none of anyone else’s business. Anyway, I was… confused in high school. I didn’t have the feelings toward girls that I thought I should. That my grandfather insisted I have, sometimes at the end of a belt or a fist, because I wasn’t a man. I was an embarrassment to the family name. I think Carly sensed that, and even though she never said anything about it directly, she went out of her way to be my friend. Maybe because I wasn’t a potential… conquest for her. With me, she was just Carly. She’s actually the reason I joined the photography club, even though I had no real interest or special ability to take great pictures. But it gave us a chance to hang out. Her death hit me hard, and it also motivated me to… be true to myself. To go after my dreams, and to go after what – and who – I wanted, because life is just too short.” He sighed, and when Jason’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, Tanner reached up to clasp it.
“There are several individuals who have keys to the winery buildings. I’ll get you a list.”
Ben cleared his throat, but found it impossible to speak. His phone rang, and he glanced at the readout, saw that it was Ainsley. He’d call her back as soon as he was out of here.
The doorbell rang, and Ben looked up. “That might be one of my deputies.”
“I’ll get it,” Jason said, and shot another look at Ben before stalking out of the room.
Ben ignored him, and instead leaned toward Tanner. “Thank you.”
“I don’t really know Sabrina, but I’m very sorry that you’re experiencing something so traumatic. Again.”
Ben nodded, and then they both looked up when Grady Nelson followed Jason into the room. The deputy nodded toward Tanner, and then addressed Ben. “Can I see you for just a moment?”
“I’ll just go print up that list,” Tanner said, ris
ing. “So you can feel free to speak here.”
Ben stood, waiting for the other two men to file out of the room before motioning Grady over. “What happened?”
“Well, it’s the photographer. Wes Fisher?”
Shit. Please don’t let him have died. His head injury hadn’t seemed that bad. “What about him?”
“He checked himself out of the hospital against medical advice.”
Ben’s heart kicked in his chest. “And no one stopped him?”
“Well, it was against medical advice. And you didn’t station one of us at the hospital to watch him.”
“Because he was fucking unconscious,” Ben said. “And looked like he was going to stay that way for a while. Christ.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Any idea how he left the hospital? Where he went?”
“No.” Grady shook his head. “Should we issue a BOLO?”
Be on the lookout. They didn’t have evidence that Fisher was guilty of anything other than taking nude photos of Sabrina and of being under a set of shelves when they fell. But they certainly needed to question him, and the fact that he’d checked out AMA made that need even more immediate.
“Yes,” Ben answered Grady. “I’ll do that right away.”
“Sheriff Paulson?” Tanner said, hovering at the doorway to the room. “I have your list.”
“Thanks,” Ben said, crossing over to take it. “You’ve been a big help.”
CAL considered his options. He could flip on the back porch lights, make a big ruckus, scare off whatever animal had caught Beau’s attention – if indeed it was an animal. That was the likeliest scenario, but he’d be an idiot not to consider that this particular animal was of the two-legged variety. He and Ainsley had both experienced breakins in the past few days, not to mention the fun fact that they’d been run off the road.
And then there was the situation with Wes Fisher. Cal didn’t believe for a minute that those shelves had fallen over on their own.
He uttered a harsh hush to the dog, who miraculously did as he was told. Cal didn’t want the barking to scare off whatever or whoever was out there. When you had a chance to flush your enemy into the open, you took it.
The Southern Comfort Prequel Trilogy Box Set Page 54
