by Geri Krotow
Nika cleared her throat. “The most important thing for you to know is that you’re safe, and we’re going to keep you safe. Since your mother has moved to the trailer park, and your father has left town, we think it’s a good idea for you to move in with me.”
“What will I tell the other kids? What about paying the bills at my house?” Rachel’s worries should have been about what to wear to the holiday formal and how to study for the chemistry exam. Not how to run a household.
“We’ll take care of it for you, Rachel.” Claudia spoke up. “Your father is still sending your mother alimony and child support?”
“Yes, and I have all the passwords for my mother’s checking account. She’s not in a place to manage numbers and let me take it over months ago.”
“How long have you really been doing this, Rachel?” Chief Todd chimed in.
Rachel’s face reddened. “Since freshman year. My dad was around less and less, and my mom wasn’t feeling well even then. But she didn’t get really crazy until after last Christmas. We were at the Silver Valley Community Church when the fire broke out. She saw it as a sign that she was supposed to stop going there and spend more time with her new friends.”
“The New Thought folks?” Bryce had been taking notes in his laptop the entire time. Mitch hoped like hell Rachel’s bravery was going to pay off sooner than later.
“Yes. But last year they were calling themselves the True Believers, and then after we found out about the undercover minister, they changed their name to New Thought.”
“That makes sense because the undercover minister was Zora, who happens to be my fiancée.” Bryce’s tired eyes lit up at the mere mention of Zora. Mitch understood why.
“Silver Valley is incestuous.” Rachel frowned and turned to Nika. “And I don’t want the whole school to know my mother is cray-cray. Are you going to let my classmates know you’re a cop?”
“No, not yet. After we’re done with the school’s part in this, after we figure out who’s been targeting the Rainbows and Mr. Everlock, I can either disappear or let the few kids in the chemistry class know. You don’t think anyone suspects I’m a cop, do you?”
Rachel shook her head. “Not at all. They’d be talking about it, believe me. We know there are undercover cops in the lunchroom and after school, behind the Dumpsters.” Rachel looked at Colt and Bryce. “That doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out.”
Nika laughed. “No, not when that’s where the kids go to get their pot.”
“And other things.” Rachel didn’t budge.
Colt grunted.
“We know there’s a big drug problem at school but we’re not the team focusing on that. Not now. Our job is to keep the Rainbows safe. We have to find out who the bad guy is here, Rachel, and we need your help. Are you willing to join our team?”
Rachel considered Colt as if he were a bug. “Do you mean am I willing to turn in my classmates for anything illegal?”
Colt shook his head. “Hell, no. That’s our job to find out, anyway, isn’t it?” He looked at Bryce and Nika for affirmation. “Just like Nika said, we’re in this to solve one issue—find out who wrote the blood messages on Mr. Everlock’s board, and who threw the two rocks, one through the classroom window and one off the pedestrian bridge into Nika’s windshield. It could be the same person. It could be three different thugs.”
“But you think it’s the same person, don’t you? And you definitely think they’re related to the cult my mother’s in.” Rachel stilled. “It’s not my mother. Is that what you think? Is that why you pulled me in here?”
“No, we don’t suspect your mother. I met her, remember?” Nika’s voice was calm, soothing. “But it could be someone in our chemistry class. The fact that they are going after Mitch as well as targeting me as the ‘new kid’ makes us think so. Do you disagree, or have any other ideas?”
Rachel sat quietly for a moment. In the silence, Nika’s gaze met his and Mitch wanted to be alone with her blue eyes, her full lips. If he could go back in time to the two of them in her bed during the storm he wouldn’t hesitate.
Except they wouldn’t be any closer to catching their criminal. A person who had wanted Nika dead.
“I don’t know anyone who would do this. There are a lot of parents going to these meetings in the trailer park, but most of them only show up once or twice a month. Some never come back. I’d have to figure out who the regulars are. And, believe me, you can trust me. I want you to get these crazy psychos out of Silver Valley more than anyone. They took advantage of my mother and the weak state of her mind.”
“If you can do that for us, that would be huge, Rachel. But we don’t want you to go back to the trailer park under any circumstances. You and Nika are going to have to work as a team at school and find out what you can.”
“Is there a deadline we have to meet to do this?” For being the youngest and only person in the room who hadn’t taken an oath to serve and protect, Rachel’s commitment was impressive.
“As soon as possible.” Bryce spoke with authority and Mitch bit his lip to stay quiet. Rachel was legally an adult at eighteen, but she didn’t need to know every frightening detail of the case. “We have one more Rainbows meeting before holiday break—the Silver Bells Ball, where we’ll have a table—and then our big welcome reception for new members in January. We need to get the criminal before then, because as much as we will always support the Rainbows and keep the club going, we can’t put students at risk.”
Rachel looked at Nika. “So what do we have to do?”
Chapter 19
“This is delicious, Nika.” Rachel gobbled up the pasta dish as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks. Nika wanted to weep at how alone Rachel must have felt, how afraid she’d been as she watched her family fall apart. And yet she’d managed to survive it all and was still willing to help SVPD catch a criminal.
“Thank you. It’s an easy recipe I can teach you. It’ll be perfect for when you’re in college. You can make it for your roommates.”
Doubt clouded Rachel’s eyes. “I don’t see how I’m going to be able to go to college, Nika. Not until I work for a few years and put money away.”
Mitch put his fork down. “Rachel, we’re going to get you into the best school we can. Now that we know why your grades have suffered, we’ll work around it. Your SAT scores are off the charts, and I have some contacts at Penn State. I know you originally wanted to go out of state—”
“Penn State would be wonderful, Mr. Everlock!” Rachel’s enthusiasm, and Mitch’s thoughtfulness, brought tears to Nika’s eyes. She sniffed and found both of her dinner companions staring at her.
“I...um, it’s allergies.”
“To fettuccine Alfredo?” Mitch teased.
*
Nika came back to the living room after showing Rachel the spare bedroom and bathroom.
“She’s going to take a long hot bath. Says she’s missed it since she and Belinda have had to cut corners and it wasn’t an option to use hot water for something as frivolous as a bath.”
“That’s awful. The poor kid. It makes me sick to think about how many other students of mine are going through something similar.”
“I know.”
Mitch walked to the coatrack and reached for his leather jacket. “I need to get a move on it. Tomorrow is going to come bright and early.”
He filled her foyer and Nika realized he’d filled her life. In four short weeks she’d gone from never thinking she’d be able to trust a man, especially one in law enforcement and former military, to wondering how she ever lived without him.
She didn’t think she’d ever be ready to commit to a man for the duration, but if she was, it’d be Mitch. The thought jerked her from her study of him and she crossed her arms in front of her.
Focus, focus, focus!
“What?” He stood with his hands on his hips, his leather jacket open and his scarf wrapped around his neck.
“You need to go. The next few days are
going to be long.”
“They might not be. Now that Rachel trusts us—you do think she trusts us, right?”
“Yes.” Nika loved how Mitch said “us.”
He closed the small distance between them and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Then there’s a good chance we’ll get to the bottom of the Rainbow Hater before the Silver Bells Ball.”
“And that’s significant why? Other than keeping the student body safe, of course.” She reached up and tugged on his scarf, bringing his face closer to hers.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’d be nice to spend the holiday free from this case, free to celebrate?” He lowered his lips to hers and used his mouth, his tongue and the hands that cupped her buttocks to communicate exactly what he meant. When he lifted his head Nika kept her eyes closed, savoring the moment.
“Look at me, Nika.” His eyes shone with an emotion she couldn’t name. Not yet.
She pushed him away and stepped back, hating how easily he let go, his arms dropped to his sides. “Rachel’s going to suspect we’re doing more than working on this case together if you don’t get out of here pronto.”
“I know. See you in the morning, babe.” He left and she stared at the door for a good while, as if willing him to come back and go to bed with her.
Of course he didn’t, and she had to face facts. If they had all the time in the world to spend together, would she ever be the kind of woman a man like Mitch Everlock would settle for? A woman who put her life on the line every day, as Mitch did when he was on a Trail Hikers’ mission?
“Nika?” Rachel stood in the living room, wrapped in the old terry robe Nika had lent her, the wise-old expression on her face incongruous with her teenage years.
“Hey. Mitch, um, I mean Mr. Everlock just left.”
“I figured that out. Are you two a couple?”
Nika could tell her no, could justify the lie with the needs of the case. But if she were to be Rachel’s real friend, it started now.
“Not a couple in that we’re not officially together. Are we dating? I guess we’re not really doing that, either. But we’ve spent time together, outside of the case.”
“And you’ll spend time with him after the case is solved.”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Rachel pursed her lips and raised one eyebrow in a manner befitting a Hollywood actress. Nika relented. “Okay, yes. Hell, yes. But it’s not the priority now. Catching the Rainbow Hater is.” She looked at Rachel’s dry hair. “You didn’t take a bath?”
“I wanted to make double sure it’s okay.” In an instant Rachel looked five years old, afraid of being punished.
“Yes, yes. I never use up my hot water, even when I have guests. It’s an extra large heater for a town house. There are lavender bath salts in there, too. Please, help yourself.”
“Thanks, I will. And, Nika?”
“Yes?”
“It’s hard for me to take all this in, but thank you. I know it can’t be the most fun, having a high school kid shoved into your lap like this.”
“For the record, Rachel, this is my choice. You could have stayed with another friend, or one of your other relatives that live in the area. But since we’re friends I want you to know you can count on me not just now, but after we catch the son of a bitch who’s got a hard-on for the Rainbows. I’m here.”
Rachel took the three steps that separated them and gave Nika a bear hug. Her arms and rib cage were dreadfully thin, something Nika hadn’t noticed under the heavy sweatshirts and sweaters Rachel normally wore. No wonder she’d devoured dinner so ferociously.
“Thanks, Nika.” Rachel stepped back and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of the robe. “I may sit in the tub for a long time, if that’s okay.”
“Of course. I have wireless speakers if you want to borrow them for your phone. Do you have music on your phone?”
Rachel laughed. “Yes, I always did put a couple of bucks away for music. And there’s a lot to stream for free, too.”
While Rachel took her bath, Nika sat in front of the fireplace with her yellow legal pad and started brainstorming. Someone they saw every day at Silver Valley High had to know who the stalker was.
*
Sunday afternoon Nika invited Mitch, Claudia, Bryce and Colt back to her house with Rachel. She knew it would have been easier to meet at SVPD but didn’t want anyone seeing Rachel around the station. They were too close to getting to the core of this case.
“Thank you all for coming over on such short notice. And thank you, Colt, for the doughnuts.”
“Hells yes!” Rachel fist pumped the air as she bit into a maple-glazed, old-fashioned cake doughnut. She looked around at everyone at the sudden silence and her cheeks turned red. “Um, sorry. I just love doughnuts, and maple is my favorite.”
“No worries, Rachel.” Claudia helped herself to a doughnut and Nika wondered if she was doing it to put Rachel at ease. Claudia was fitter than most people twenty years younger and didn’t look like she indulged in sweets very often.
“What’s up, Nika?” Bryce looked the most put out to be in her living room on a Sunday afternoon. She didn’t blame him; with his wedding less than two weeks away, his time was precious.
But so was everyone’s, with Christmas just next week.
“I was brainstorming, and going over every piece of evidence that we have from the multiple SMART Board messages, the two rocks—the classroom and the one through my windshield—and I still can’t find a way to determine the person doing this. So that leaves the most tried-and-true method.”
Everyone stared at her and she smiled. “A stakeout.”
Bryce groaned. “What, are you going to dress like a Navy SEAL and camp out in Mitch’s classroom?”
“We already have surveillance cameras in the chemistry classroom and lab, Nika.” Colt spoke evenly, obviously trying not to embarrass her.
“Yes, we do. But so far we haven’t captured anyone on the cameras, have we?”
“They’re too obvious.” Rachel spoke up, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “There were never potted plants in the chemistry room before. It’s too much of a coincidence that they were put there after they wrote that last message.”
Nika nodded. “Exactly. And the culprit can easily cover them when they come in the classroom, without being caught on camera. I’m more concerned about the time line. The previous incidents, except for the rock through the windshield, happened on the same day as the Rainbows meetings, right?”
“Go on.” Mitch spoke.
“Mitch, you can’t be in the classroom or your office because he’ll know you’re there. The writing has never happened when you’re in your office, even with the door closed. It’s always before school starts or when you’re very obviously out of the building.”
“True.”
“I’m going to hang out in the lab cupboard, under the counter and in front of the whiteboard. I’ll see whoever comes in and stop him.” Nika watched everyone’s expression as she spoke, waiting for argument.
“That’s brilliant, Nika. But whoever is doing this is escalating the stakes. How can we be certain they’ll stick to something as innocuous as writing on the wall again, or that they won’t be carrying?” Bryce sat on the arm of the sofa.
“We can’t. Let’s face it. If someone wants to, they can get around the tightest security measures in place at the school, including the metal detectors. There are too many ways to get in and out of such a huge campus. Which is why I need to do this. I may wait there for nothing. But since the last few messages were left in the morning, my bet is that the writer will do it in the afternoon, like they did when they started a few months ago. Mitch has a teacher conference day that’s been on the schedule for months. He’ll leave at noon and be back for the Rainbows meeting after school. It’s the perfect time for the hater to strike again.”
“Is it well-known that the Rainbows are going to meet on a Friday instead of Tuesday or Thursday?” Claudia spoke as a true social media person would, but
Nika saw her Trail Hikers CEO strategy.
“All it takes is a few Snapchats and everyone will know. And most groups that have raised enough money to have a table at the dance will be meeting then, too.” Rachel looked at Claudia. “You know what Snapchat is, right?”
Claudia smiled. “I sure do.”
Rachel turned back to Nika. “This is perfect, Nika. I can be in the hallway and text you if I see anyone hanging around outside the classroom—”
“No. No way. You are not going to be anywhere near where the culprit could be.” Mitch spoke, his protective tone startling. Rachel looked like she was going to protest, but remained quiet.
“Mitch, Rachel has proven she’s able to handle herself in sticky situations.” Nika needed to stick up for Rachel, but she did have the same reservations as Mitch. “What would help me more, Rachel, is if you get the word out that I’m out of school for the afternoon for a dental appointment, a follow-up for the one I had earlier. Make it clear that the chemistry classroom is closed until the Rainbows meeting. We’ll put more signs up in the hallway encouraging people to visit the Rainbows dessert table at the Silver Bells Ball. That will give us the exposure that whoever the Rainbow Hater is doesn’t like.”
“It’s your op in the high school, Nika. I support your decision. As long as you’re not putting any other students at risk.” Colt looked at Bryce. “You okay with it?”
“Yes, sir. I’m not sure we’ll get them, but it wouldn’t be the first time the most simple tactic took down the bad guy.” Bryce mirrored Nika’s enthusiasm. They’d worked for so long on this case, and with the probable tie to the New Thought cult, they might be solving more than one crime this week.
“You should be armed if you’re going to face this bad guy. They’re playing for real, Nika,” said Mitch. “But you’ll also be in the midst of a lot of volatile chemicals.”
“I know.” She looked at him and it was as if no one else was there; her whole world shrunk to Mitch.
Colt coughed. “Make sure you have what you need to arrest them, and I want two SVPD units on standby to assist. They can wait in the middle school parking lot—it’s Anti-Drug Day for the middle school, so no one will think twice about the cruisers.”
