Trailing a Killer

by Carol J. Post

  At the paramedic’s request, Cody opened his mouth for him to look at his throat. Erin was undergoing the same assessments, and judging from the comments he overheard, the man wasn’t happy with what he was seeing. Something about soot in airway passages, red and irritated eyes and rapid breathing.

  The paramedic tending Erin stepped back. “We’re hooking you up to oxygen right away, but we need to take you both in for observation. You might think you’re okay now, but things can worsen in a hurry as swelling and mucus increase. Breathing isn’t something to play around with.”

  Cody nodded. “Take her. I’ll follow.”

  Erin nailed him with a stern glare. “Oh, no, you don’t. If I’m going to the hospital, you are, too.”

  He held up both hands in surrender. “I’m going, just not in an ambulance. When this is over, we’re going to need a ride home.”

  “I’ve got friends. Coworkers, too. Any number of them will be willing to pick us up.”

  “No need for that. I’m perfectly capable of driving.” He wanted to be able to get out of there as soon as the doctor released him. He hated hospitals, at least when he was the patient.

  She narrowed her eyes. “If I find out you bailed, I’ll hunt you down and bring you in myself. In handcuffs, if I have to.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll be right behind the ambulance and won’t leave until I get a clean bill of health. Now get on that gurney and let them get some oxygen in you.”

  “When did you get so bossy?”

  He left the question unanswered. The fire was out, and the firemen were putting away their equipment. Wisps of smoke rose from a collapsed and smoldering center, capped by the two ends still standing.

  An investigator would likely make contact with Erin tomorrow. She’d also need to report the incident to her insurance company. Then would come all the work of filing a claim, obtaining estimates and getting her home rebuilt.

  But the first priority was taking care of her medical needs. His, too. Because if he skipped getting checked out, she’d do just what she threatened.

  Soon, everything would go back to normal. He’d return home, and there’d be no reason for him and Erin to have contact beyond what they wanted. He didn’t know what Erin wanted, but he knew his own desires. In a perfect world, he’d keep Erin by his side forever.

  But it wasn’t a perfect world. It was a world where plans changed on a whim and hearts got so badly broken they never fully healed.

  The first time Erin left him, he’d been devastated. If he gave his heart to her and she walked away a second time, it would destroy him.

  It was a risk he wasn’t willing to take.

  * * *

  The television broadcast its morning programming into an otherwise silent room. Erin lay in the bed, staring out the tall, narrow window, a small hose feeding oxygen into her nose.

  Over the past few hours the rain had come and gone. The storm did make that projected eastward turn, so the Fort Myers area had been spared the worst. She was one of a handful of people in her neighborhood who’d boarded windows to protect their homes. Then she’d lost hers to a fire.

  She picked up her phone from the bedside table. No missed calls or texts. Cody had texted her at seven o’clock. After being kept awake by a nasty cough for several hours, she’d finally fallen into a fitful sleep and hadn’t woken up for the notification. Her return text at eight fifteen had gone unanswered so far. Now it was almost ten.

  She’d already called her insurance company and, between coughing fits, told the representative what had happened. They’d promised to send an adjuster to survey the damage later that day.

  She’d also taken a call from a panicked Courtney, who’d thought she might have heard sirens over the sounds of her white noise machine but had missed the other commotion. Courtney hadn’t seen the condition of the house until she’d left for work that morning.

  The familiar tickle in Erin’s throat started again, and she leaned forward as more deep coughs overtook her body. When the spell passed, she plopped back against the bed. Her chest hurt and her abdominal muscles felt as if she’d completed a couple hundred sit-ups.

  Her head was killing her, too. Whether from the smoke she’d inhaled or all the coughing she’d done, she wasn’t sure. The mucus was forming faster than she could get rid of it. Her hopes of being discharged today were growing dimmer by the hour.

  She shifted her gaze back to the window. Maybe she should try calling Cody. No, if his night had gone like hers, he was probably sleeping. She was just bored; no reason to disturb his rest.

  Okay, maybe it was more than boredom. She was restless, confused. They were at a crossroads, and she had no idea where she stood.

  Over the past few weeks they’d fallen into an easy camaraderie. She’d hoped that could continue, that they’d maintain a friendship. She’d been sure that was all she wanted.

  Then he’d kissed her. Just thinking about it sent her pulse into overdrive. That kiss had to have meant something. Or maybe it had just been an impulsive response to emotional stress, the uncertainty of not knowing whether they’d survive the night.

  Footsteps sounded outside her room. She turned away from the window, expecting a nurse. Instead, Cody approached wearing a warm smile and a pair of shorts and T-shirt she’d never seen before. A plastic bag dangled from one hand. In his other hand, he held two more bags.

  Her stomach did a backflip. Then she narrowed her eyes. “Why aren’t you in a hospital gown?”

  He’d texted her to see how she was doing. He hadn’t mentioned anything about his own treatment. If he’d reneged on his promise to get checked out, she was going to flog him.

  “I’ve been discharged. I was asleep when you texted me back, didn’t wake up till the doctor came in. He said he was releasing me later this morning, so I figured I’d come in person and surprise you instead of sending a text.” He pulled a pair of sneakers from one of the bags and plopped them on the floor.

  “You’ve got my tennis shoes.”

  “Yeah.” He pulled the chair up beside the bed. “After they loaded you in the ambulance, I asked the firemen if I could grab my keys and wallet and shoes since I was driving myself to the hospital. The fire was completely out at that point, and anything that was going to fall had already fallen. But they still wouldn’t let me go inside. Rather than leaving me stranded, though, one offered to get what I needed. While he was at it, I asked him if he could grab some shoes for you, too.”

  “Thanks.”

  “There’s more. Bobby called right after the doctor left. When I told him what had happened, he asked if there was anything he could do. I asked him to swing by Walmart and pick us each up a change of clothes.” He pulled a T-shirt and some exercise pants out of the second bag. “I hope I got your size close. At least spandex is pretty forgiving.”

  She held the items up. “It looks like you did pretty well.”

  “I have one more surprise for you.” He reached into the last bag and pulled out her devotional book.

  Her mouth dropped. “But how...?” The book had been in the living room. There was no way it survived the fire.

  “I sent Bobby on one other errand. I asked him to go by the Christian bookstore and pick up two copies of Jesus Calling.”

  “Two?”

  “One for each of us. Since I’m going home, it’ll be a little hard for us to share.”

  Erin couldn’t stop the grin that spread across her face. “And the Bible?”

  “I haven’t gotten one yet. But I did find a free app for my phone. Bobby said I should start in the Book of John.”

  “Courtney said the same thing. Good advice.” She paused. “So what brought this about?”

  “I had trouble sleeping last night. I couldn’t stop thinking about how close I came to dying. That kept going through my mind, along with bits of your pastor’s message a
nd our conversation afterward, as well as some of the things I’ve been reading in your book. I finally told God that my life is a mess, but if He wants it, it’s His.”

  She reached out and squeezed his hand. “You won’t regret it.” She certainly hadn’t.

  He sat back in the chair. “When are they releasing you?”

  “Not today. I’m still coughing up a lot of junk. They’re doing another chest X-ray this afternoon, making sure no delayed lung injury shows up.”

  His brows drew together over eyes filled with concern. “Are you having shortness of breath?”

  “A little. That’s another thing they’re concerned about.”

  “When they do let you out, you’re welcome to stay with me until your house is livable again.” He gave her a crooked smile. “I’ll get to return some of that Southern hospitality.”

  “Thanks for the offer, but Courtney beat you to it.”

  “Already?”

  “I got a call from her right after I talked to the insurance company. She was leaving for work, saw my car still sitting in the drive and the house half destroyed.” She gave him a wry smile. “It took me a while to calm her down.”

  Two soft raps sounded on the doorjamb, and Erin looked past Cody to where a Lee County detective stood just inside the room.

  “Jeff, come on in.”

  He approached, shaking his head and making clucking sounds of disapproval. “You’re back on duty one day after a four-day vacation, and now this. You’ll do anything to finagle more time off.”

  She laughed. As she made introductions, Cody stood and offered the detective his chair, taking the one farther away. Erin filled Jeff in on what had happened inside the house from the time Cody showed up in her bedroom doorway until she’d leaped from the attic.

  Jeff released a whistle. “Scary.”

  Yeah. It would probably give her fodder for some pretty serious nightmares. Not that she didn’t have enough already.

  But they hadn’t come last night. Her cough hadn’t allowed her to get into REM sleep. Once life got back to normal, she’d be adding fire and the thought of being burned alive to the other terrors that tormented her sleep.

  Or maybe, if she truly trusted God for the healing she craved, she’d defeat all of them.

  Jeff intertwined his fingers over his abdomen. “We finally got the toxicology report back, not that it matters at this point. The soup was positive for arsenic.”

  Though Erin had expected as much, the news was still jarring. She shook her head. “I still can’t believe Jordan McIntyre was the one behind all of this. I’m usually a good judge of character. I don’t suppose anyone has gotten him to talk.”

  “That’s another reason I stopped by, other than to check on you. Those background checks we did turned up some interesting things.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “He did a short stint in the military and was dishonorably discharged fifteen years ago.”

  “What was his assignment?”

  “He worked on a demolition crew.”

  She raised her brows. “As in blowing things up?”

  He nodded. “That was part of it. Since his discharge, he’s done a variety of construction-type jobs.”

  “That fits with what he told me.”

  “Part of it. Your report says he came from Wisconsin.”

  “That’s what he told me.”

  “He did come from Wisconsin...by way of New York and New Jersey.”

  She frowned. “Why didn’t he mention those states? Were his stays there brief?”

  “A total of almost six years. While in the Northeast, he worked for three different demolition companies. Apparently, when he left, he took some souvenirs.”

  Her eyes widened. “No wonder he didn’t mention New York and New Jersey.”

  He nodded. “It was safe to tell you about Wisconsin, because he held carpentry jobs there. Demolition companies in his work history would’ve raised too many red flags.”

  “What about the Camry? McIntyre drives a red Tacoma, and that’s the only vehicle titled to him. We checked.”

  “He got the Camry a while back, never transferred the tag. He rents warehouse storage space in Cape Coral where he keeps it stashed.”

  Erin shook her head. “I still don’t understand why he did it. He had a good job, no money problems.” Or so they’d thought until learning he’d hit his friends up for money.

  “There’s where you’re wrong. Once we told him everything we’d learned, he came clean with the rest of it. Turns out he has a gambling problem and got in over his head. He’d been stringing the guys along for a few months. They finally threatened a slow and painful death if he didn’t pay up.”

  Erin nodded. The last of their questions had been answered. After saying his goodbyes and wishing Erin well, Jeff left the room.

  Cody took the chair he’d vacated. “It’s hard to believe it’s finally over.”

  “I know.”

  Ever since escaping the house, she’d been waiting for that sense of relief to settle in. It was there, but too many other emotions overshadowed it.

  Now that the danger was over, Cody would return to his own home. As friends, they’d occasionally get together. But with no real excuse to see each other, those times would grow further and further apart, until they lost touch completely. She’d had more than one friendship disintegrate that way. Sometimes she regretted not having a social-media presence. It at least kept people loosely connected.

  Somehow, she’d make sure she didn’t lose contact with Cody. He’d become an important part of her life and she wasn’t ready to let him go.

  Who was she kidding? What she felt went way deeper than that. She didn’t just care for him. She’d fallen in love with him. Judging from everything he’d poured into that kiss, he had to be feeling at least some of what she was.

  “I’ll be heading home today, getting back to doing estimates and meeting with customers without a babysitter.” His words cut across her thoughts, so practical and unemotional compared to the path hers had taken. “I’d leave you your spare key, but if you’re going to have me do the repair work, you might want me to hang on to it.”

  “That would be a good idea.”

  “Would you like me to pick up Alcee and take her home with me till you get out of here?”

  “That would be great.”

  Their interactions had become stiff. What was he feeling? She had to know.

  “You kissed me in the attic.”

  His gaze dipped to the floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I was afraid we weren’t going to make it out of there alive.” He met her eyes. “It won’t happen again.”

  “No problem.” She forced the words past a lump in her throat.

  The kiss had meant nothing. It was just what she’d thought but hoped against—an impulsive reaction in an emotional moment.

  At one time he’d been ready to commit to forever. She’d wanted the freedom to experience life. Over the past twelve years she’d learned adulthood wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Neither was freedom.

  She’d removed the rose-colored glasses and found what she really wanted had been right in front of her.

  But that window of opportunity had closed.

  ELEVEN

  Cody strolled next to Erin, the Punta Gorda Harborwalk stretching before them. Peace River lay to their left, reflecting a blue sky dotted by a handful of clouds. A light breeze negated the September heat and humidity.

  Erin smiled up at him. “Thank you for dinner.” They’d left Hurricane Charley’s Raw Bar and Grill a few minutes ago and would soon cross under the southbound Tamiami Trail bridge. “Alcee says thanks, too. She’s gotten spoiled with all this fine dining.”

  “No problem.” He gave Erin a smile of his own. “I owe you at least two more thank-you-
for-saving-my-life dinners. Or is it three? It’s happened so many times, I’ve lost count.”

  A week had passed since Erin had been released from the hospital. They’d kept her a day and a half longer than they had him. Now they were both back at work. He didn’t know about her workload, but between finishing the Hutchinson addition and continuing to provide estimates, he’d been slammed. They’d talked but had seen each other only once.

  Sunday morning he’d surprised her by sliding into the pew next to her. He’d gotten to meet Pastor Mike in person, along with several of the other church members. Now he had a new activity in his schedule—weekly church attendance. He hoped it would be with Erin. If not, he’d try Pops’s church. If Pops could see him now, he’d be smiling.

  A box truck roared closer as they stepped into the shade of the overpass. Cody waited for it to move by, his smile fading. “I’m afraid I owe you guys more than a few dinners. You lost your house because of me.” He frowned. “But now that it’s over, I’ll get my debt paid eventually.”

  She gave him a little push. “There’s no debt. None of it was your fault. But I’m sure if Alcee could talk, she’d tell you to keep the dinners coming.”

  He grinned. “I’m sure she would.”

  Even though he hadn’t seen much of Erin, she’d never left his thoughts. He missed her, more than he ever imagined he would. Two nights ago he’d clicked on the TV, hoping to dispel his loneliness with some evening sitcoms, and found they made a poor substitute for the nearness of one amazing woman and her dog.

  So yesterday he’d come to a decision, made a trip to the Punta Gorda Post Office, then called Erin to set up today’s outing. Now he needed to work up the courage to continue with his plan.

  The Harborwalk made a couple of bends, and the northbound Tamiami Trail bridge stood in front of them. Soon, they’d be back at Laishley Park, where he’d left his truck.

  And where he’d hidden a key.