A Wanted Man (Cold Case Detectives Book 1)

by Jennifer Morey

  The burned-down barn.

  “Don’t go that way.”

  “Jax isn’t going to hurt me.” She shooed him away as she went to the door.

  Kadin grabbed her hand and hauled her back against him. With one last kiss, he let her go, swatting her rear as she reached for the bathroom doorknob. She glanced back at him in reprimand.

  Grinning, Kadin climbed into the shower, a tiled half wall with frosted glass on top concealing him from view. When Penny left the bathroom, he got out of the shower and stopped at the door. He didn’t hear Jax until she reached the living room.

  “Are you feeling all right?”

  “Yes. Fine.” She gave a self-conscious laugh. “Must have been something I ate.”

  Kadin almost chuckled as he finished searching the lower level, keeping an eye on Penny. They were slow to leave, Jax offering her a glass of soda to calm her stomach first. That gave him more time.

  In one of two bedrooms on the main level, Kadin found sporting goods stored in the closet. Snowshoes, skis, a golf set...climbing gear. He went still for a second when he saw that. A rope bag drew his attention most. Crouching, he unzipped it and removed a small kit from his pocket. He’d custom-made this kit for uses such as this. Right down to the tiny sample bags. Using a scissors, he clipped some samples from each and used a mini-tweezers to place them in a small plastic bag, tucking that with the kit into his back pocket.

  Leaving the closet, he paused at the side window, where he had a partial view of the back. He didn’t see Penny. Not hearing her voice, he went into the hallway, easing away from the concealment of the wall as he entered the main room. They must have left through the front.

  Going there, he peered out one of the big windows and spotted her walking beside Jax, hands moving as she talked, a bundle of energy. He left the house, hiding behind some aspen trees to make sure Jax hadn’t looked back. Then he jogged to the thick stand of trees, where he kept up the pace to catch up to them. At the end of the driveway, he watched them head down the dirt road he’d warned her not to take.

  Cursing softly, he crossed the driveway and stayed in the woods. He’d seen pictures and maps of this area from Cohen’s investigation. Jax planned to take her to the burned barn and boarded-up house. Why?

  Chapter 8

  Penny focused outwardly on the beautiful day and the idle talk between her and Jax, when inside she worried why he took her in this direction and whether his easy way with her was staged. Killers were practiced at deception. She didn’t give herself away by searching around for Kadin. She’d played coy with him when she said he’d be nearby, but not knowing his location disconcerted her.

  They reached the clearing at the barn and house and Penny stopped short with the sight of the destroyed barn.

  “Yeah, quite a mess, huh?” Jax said.

  Black charred wood lay in piles of rubble. Nothing was left of the structure. One hot, blazing fire had done that. The police had taken the shell of the truck for analysis.

  Jax took her hand and propelled her forward. She eased her hand free as they walked, looking toward the house and getting a strange feeling.

  “Do you want to go inside?” He turned an expectant look her way. “You went into the barn. You must have an adventurous spirit. Either that or old buildings intrigue you.”

  Why had he brought up her snooping in the barn? She kept her face neutral. “Both. I grew up on a farm.”

  Jax angled his head in curiosity, seeming genuine, harmless. “You did?”

  “I was a real Midwestern girl.”

  He smiled slightly. “Come on, let’s go see what’s inside.”

  “You mean you haven’t been in there since you bought the property?” She walked with him toward the old boarded-up house, unable to stop a glance behind and around her. No sign of Kadin. But he’d be near. Wouldn’t he?

  “No reason to,” Jax replied, looking back as though wondering why she had.

  “Were you planning to do something with the buildings?” Besides burn the barn down?

  “No.”

  “You could fix the place up and rent it out.”

  “Yes, I could.”

  He just didn’t want to. If she owned an abode this old and potentially charming, she’d turn it into a bed-and-breakfast or something. Or live in it.

  Did she really just have that thought?

  Penny stopped and really looked at the house. The square architecture featured rows of symmetrical windows on the first and second floors, one directly above the centered entry. A brick chimney stuck out from the middle of the medium-pitched roof. The wild growth of indigenous plants had long ago begun to engulf the first floor. The brick stoop covered by a rickety two-column portico led to a faded red door. Chipped and broken black shutters hung askance or had fallen off.

  Then she noticed something different. “The windows and doors were boarded before.”

  “Police removed them when they searched inside.”

  A plausible explanation, she supposed.

  The sound of the long, shrill call of cicadas added to Penny’s growing apprehension as Jax climbed the steps to the door. He produced a key and unlocked the door with an antique click. The door creaked as he pushed it open.

  She waited for him to precede her.

  He looked back at her with a grin, personifying the tall, lean executive who’d attracted her initially, his short-cropped hair neat and void of gray. “Scared?”

  She didn’t answer. Just stepped inside. Straight ahead, stairs rose to the second level. Only dust and fallen material furnished the rooms to the left and right, one a dining area off a disheveled kitchen, the other a living room with a wood-burning fireplace.

  “After the fire, I looked into who owned this place before I bought the property,” Jax said, stopping in the living room and tipping his head back at the detailed crown molding that bordered the ceiling. “This place was passed down from generation to generation since the homestead was built in 1910.”

  She walked toward the back, where an arched doorway led to a family room with an entrance to the kitchen. “It stayed in the same family?”

  “Yes.” Jax followed her.

  She admired the French windows taking up most of the back and imagined a few decades ago there must have been a wonderful view of the forest. Right now the only view they offered were sections of plywood. Going to the back door, she unlocked and opened it to let in some light. There had once been some green grass grown in the yard, and the remnants of a treehouse hung precariously from a big, tall tree.

  She turned to face Jax. “Do you know what happened?”

  “The owners were about to foreclose but were fighting the bank. I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.”

  “You paid them more than market value?”

  “I paid them a fair value. I hope it was enough to settle their debts. They had more than a hundred thousand above what they owed. They were just a couple with grown kids who’d run into hard times. I thought I helped them.”

  “When instead you drove them out of their family home.”

  “Unintentionally.”

  Had he really done something so noble? Paid more than the asking price because the previous owners faced foreclosure? Or was he only trying to make himself appear like a good guy?

  Jax moved over to a window and fingered a loose nail. “The husband came to see me a few months after I finished building my house.”

  Penny wondered if he’d hesitated telling her that. He sounded tentative and yet compelled to share in an almost casual way.

  “Why?”

  He looked back at her. “He wanted to know what I was going to do with this house and the barn. I don’t think he liked it when I said nothing. I think my words were something along the lines of I’m going to let
it be part of nature. That didn’t seem to satisfy him. He explained how much the land meant to him, and that he’d grown up there and didn’t know any other way of living. He seemed lost. Sad.” Sincerity shone in his brown eyes. “His last words were Take care of my house.”

  Well, that sounded kind of creepy.

  Jax walked to the open back door, pushing it wider and keeping his hand on the edge. “And then, the day after you took that walk and found the barn, I saw a man in the woods.”

  Penny’s breath came harder and she stopped herself from interrupting.

  “He just stood there, watching my house.” He gazed out toward the edge of the woods in back of the house.

  Penny moved so that she could see his profile. “What did he look like?”

  “I don’t know. He wore a sweatshirt with the hood up.”

  How could Jax have known that unless he’d actually seen the man? The same man she had...

  “Have you told the police?” she asked.

  “I didn’t think it was significant until now.”

  Hadn’t he? Someone had been sneaking around on his property and he hadn’t thought that relevant?

  “He looked like he was hiking,” Jax said.

  Penny didn’t know whether to believe him or not. She decided not to reveal the times she’d seen the stranger.

  “Is there something going on between you and Tandy?”

  “What do you mean?” she stalled. Why had he asked that? To change the subject? Maybe, but he also wanted to know about her and Kadin.

  “He’s hanging around a lot.” Jax stepped closer, a man on a quest to unveil any secrets his woman might be keeping.

  Ordinarily she’d tell a man who got too possessive that she belonged to no one, but these were extenuating circumstances. “Someone has been trying to kill me. He’s protecting me.”

  “Yeah, but he seems— I don’t know...maybe he’s using that as an excuse.”

  To be close to her? “His only goal is to catch Sara Wolfe’s killer.” She could go on with a lengthy explanation on the truth of that statement. But doing so might reveal her own insecurities. And she didn’t have a reputation for being insecure. Come to think of it, neither did Jax.

  “You seem interested in him,” he said.

  She studied his now quite impassive face. Why was he asking about Kadin? Maybe she had this all wrong. Maybe he suspected she and Kadin were setting him up—or trying to. Maybe he had his own hand to play.

  She relied on her diplomatic nature to formulate a response. “He’s good-looking and interesting, but he’s not available.”

  “He’s not married.” Jax moved toward the entrance of the kitchen.

  “No, but he lost his wife and daughter.”

  He stopped and faced her again. “Three years ago.”

  Hearing his argumentative tone, Penny decided to expand a little. “Imagine if someone kidnapped and murdered Quinten when he was a young boy. If you were in love with his mother and she ended up overdosing, how would you feel?”

  Jax blinked once and then sighed. “Yeah. I see your point.”

  “It would devastate you.”

  He nodded a few times. “I love my son. If anything were to happen to him, I’d feel like dying myself. He’s my world.”

  She believed that. He’d raised his son as a single parent. Their bond must be close, closer than she’d already guessed just by seeing them together.

  Jax smiled slightly and then moved his gaze from her to the family room walls, drywall breaking apart in places. “What would you do to this place if it was yours?”

  Penny looked over the disrepair. “Bed-and-breakfast.”

  “You’d run it?”

  She laughed a little. “Are you kidding? I can’t cook. Okay, I’d fix it up and then sell it.”

  “I like my isolation.”

  That comment seemed odd coming from such a dynamic and successful businessman. He interacted with many people on a daily basis, engaged in big projects. Did his competitiveness with his brother have something to do with what he had become? Or did he hide a darker side of himself?

  “Then I’d fix it up and use it as a guesthouse. Maybe hire some help to take care of some horses.”

  “Good idea. I might do that. Except there’s really no one I’d have over as guests. I get enough interaction at the office.”

  She smiled. “Quinten, then. Someday he’ll get married. It would make a great place for kids. Growing up on a farm was for me.”

  “Yeah, he might like it here.” He looked into the living room and then followed the intricate trim. “There are some nice touches.”

  “Yes. Fixed up, this could be a real gem.”

  Jax walked into the kitchen, skirting the edge of an old, dirty red mosaic rug, the only adornment in the house. White cabinets with silver handles had seen shinier days, as did the laminate countertops. Meager light streamed in from the open back door. She saw a footprint on the floor, and then spotted more.

  Looking behind her, she saw there were others mingled with the ones they’d just made.

  “Police,” Jax said when he saw where she looked. “Search warrant.”

  “Right.” She smiled back. Doing her best to look apologetic.

  Stepping forward, she walked over the rug toward him. On her second step, the floor made a snapping noise and then opened under her feet. Penny had a split second to process what happened, reaching for Jax, or something—anything—to get her to safety, even as the thought flashed that he might have led her in here for this reason. He’d skirted the rug. She’d walked right onto it. She tried to grab the edge, a surprisingly clean edge, as though it had been cut. The rug engulfed her and she fell with a scream.

  “Penny!” Jax yelled.

  She hit the basement floor with a loud crash and billow of dirt and dust, her head banging against something hard. In an instant, she went unconscious.

  * * *

  Kadin heard Penny scream and ran for the old house, furious with her for agreeing to go with Jax and tortured with fear for her safety. What happened? He had about twenty yards to go when gunfire erupted.

  He dove for the ground and heard a bullet strike the side of the house. As he crawled across the ground, another bullet hit the dirt in front of him. Making it to the stoop, he kept his head low as more bullets struck the brick. Raising his head, he had to duck again as he saw a man firing from the trees.

  Someone was going to great lengths to kill Penny—and him, since he’d involved himself in this investigation. Would stopping them divert suspicion away from whomever shot at him? Maybe the shooter wasn’t threatened by Detective Cohen.

  Adrenaline spiking, Kadin looked to the end of the house. The simple Colonial style offered little protection. If he ran to the side of the house to get in from the back, he’d risk getting shot. If he crawled up the stairs, the same risk applied.

  Removing one of his pistols, he readied it to fire. When the bullets stopped, he figured the gunman was reloading. Rising up, he started firing and ran up the stairs and then into the house, shutting the door.

  “Help! In here!” Jax shouted.

  Jax knelt by an open door in the floor.

  “Penny’s fallen. She’s not moving!”

  Not hearing any bullets hitting the house, Kadin rushed there, sick with the time it had taken him to get into the house and afraid the gunman would come after them. Seeing Penny lying unconscious on a pile of rubble sent him into urgent mode.

  “She fell through. The door...” Jax looked with him at the still-swinging door, as though wondering along with him why such a thing had been installed in the dining room of this old house.

  Putting his gun away, Kadin sat with his legs hanging into the hole. Then he gripped the floor and lowered himself down
far enough to jump to the floor below, careful not to land on Penny. She still hadn’t stirred.

  The sting of ripe apprehension chilled him and nearly interfered with what needed to be done. He crouched beside her.

  “Penny.” He touched her face, not moving her at all.

  He began to check her body.

  “Is she all right?” Jax called from above.

  Kadin looked up at him. “Why didn’t you come down here and help her?”

  The fear in his eyes cleared as Kadin’s meaning penetrated. “You don’t think that I—”

  He felt Penny’s head and found the edge of a bump where she’d struck the ground. He looked up again. “Someone shot at me outside. Any idea who that is?”

  “What? No. I thought I heard shots.” He stood up and looked toward the front door.

  “You thought?” Kadin touched Penny’s face again. “Penny.”

  Her eyes began to flutter open. She groaned.

  “Lie still.” Then to Jax, “Are you just going to watch or are you going to call 911?”

  “Right.” He swore. “I was afraid for Penny. I’ll run home and call.”

  “Don’t get shot on the way,” Kadin said, “but something tells me you won’t.”

  “I didn’t plan for this.”

  “Get out of my sight.”

  Jax left the house and Kadin wondered if he’d actually call for help.

  “Kadin?”

  “I’m here, my darling. You’re safe.” For now. He looked up at the square hole. Enough light from the upper level revealed that some new hardware had been installed with some kind of weight-triggering device. The cut edge of the floor looked fresh.

  Penny got up onto her elbows.

  “Don’t move.” He touched her shoulder.

  “I’m all right. I can move everything. I just hit my head.”

  He looked around him at the dark basement. Low ceilings and a stemwall offered no escape. Near a concrete support pier, he spotted an open-plank stairway. Standing, he took Penny’s hand and gently helped her to her feet.