Finely Ground

by Jennifer Templeman

At least she knew by the time spring was beginning, she’d either have her car or a brand new one to cruise around in. Knowing there wasn’t anything else to learn about her own claim, she moved to the information he’d given her about the risk-management companies.

  “When we spoke the last time, you told me about risk-management consultants. Do they usually pay for themselves in savings they bring to their clients?”

  “A good one can if a poorly organized company hires them. Most of the time, they bill a flat rate for the assessment, and then if you want their help writing procedures or doing training, the cost can skyrocket. I’ve seen national companies pay upwards of thirty to forty thousand over the course of a year.”

  “How can I easily find out the deductible a company has?” she asked.

  “The company should be able to give you a copy of their certificate of insurance. That would list out all their coverage and their relevant deductibles,” he explained.

  “Mr. Alberts, you have once again been incredibly helpful.”

  “It’s my pleasure,” he replied. “I can’t wait to tell my brother you called me back for more help.”

  Pleased that she’d obviously made him happy with the idea of being able to share something with his brother, Ellie typed up her suggestion that George get the certificates of insurance from each carrier to see how much of the loss they would have to eat themselves through their deductible. Then she suggested he reach out to RMA to see what package the carriers had purchased from them and if it had begun before the thefts or as a response to them. In some ways, it felt like she was telling him stuff he should already know, but until he began to take a little initiative, she was going to feel compelled to keep spoon feeding the next steps.

  Once that was done, she sat back and stretched. She’d gotten an earlier start to her day and was already feeling tired, even though it was barely lunchtime. When she shut her eyes, she saw the interior of her car and thought about all the people she should probably call to warn about the danger they were in.

  The conversation with Anne was probably the most important, but Phillips had said he was going to get a security detail worked out, so she decided to put that off until after she had a solution to offer to help reduce some of the immediate fear that talk was probably going to cause.

  Starting with the simplest one she could think of, she picked up her phone to call a number she hadn’t used in a while.

  “Robert Peters,” came the familiar voice after only two rings.

  “Agent Peters, it’s Ellie Michaels.”

  “Ellie, it’s great to hear from you.” He sounded genuinely happy. “It’s been a while. How are you?”

  “I’m fine.” She couldn’t get over how normal he sounded. It was as if the serial killer case hadn’t happened. “I actually needed to touch base with you on a case.”

  “Cool.” He sounded like the surfer he’d appeared to be when she saw him in California. “It’s strange to have the tables turned. How can I help you?”

  “I don’t need anything,” she clarified, “but I did want to be sure you were aware that the last case we worked together has resurfaced.”

  “You mean the serial killer?” he asked. “I thought she was dead.”

  “She is, but her brother was never captured,” Ellie reminded him, irritated that he didn’t realize what she’d meant. “I thought you were in charge of the taskforce to bring in Dr. Garrison.”

  “Oh him, yeah. We haven’t had any movement on that in a while. I think the last update I read was that he had probably left the country,” Peters suggested.

  “Wherever he’d been, he’s back now, and he’s in Richmond,” Ellie told him.

  “What’s he doing there?”

  “He’s not taking a vacation, if that’s what you’re asking,” Ellie bit out, not sure why Peters seemed to hook such irritation in her. “He’s been threatening me—or more specifically, my friends and family—as retribution for me playing a role in his sister’s death.”

  “That’s a bummer,” Peters replied. “Sometimes this job has some tough consequences like that.”

  “I’m glad you get that it’s part of the job, because Garrison’s latest contact included photos of people he’s been watching, and you were one of the people he had several snapshots of.”

  “Me?” Peters sounded shocked. “I haven’t seen you since you left Northern California.”

  “He appears to be in Virginia, not California, so I doubt you’re in any real danger. I wanted to call you myself just so you’d know to keep an eye out.”

  “Yeah, thanks. I’m not in the field as much since I got that promotion. Some days I feel like you, just reviewing files.” He seemed amused at the connection. “Honestly, I don’t know you do it all the time.”

  “Yeah, that’s a real bummer,” Ellie replied before disconnecting the call.

  ****

  Ellie called and made arrangements for a rental car to be dropped off at her home the next day. She knew she had a date to look forward to the following evening, so staying in was appealing. Unfortunately, after thirty minutes in the apartment, she had yet to settle down and was beginning to feel stir crazy. She considered unrolling her yoga mat because that usually helped to settle her mind, but when she remembered the taunt from Garrison with the gift of a new mat, she refused to do what he suggested she should. That left running. Since she’d had to skip her workout that morning, a short jog sounded perfect.

  Just before going down the stairs to the parking lot, she figured she should let Phillips know in case he came over to beg for dinner. She knocked on his door and waited while he opened it with a cell phone pressed to his ear. He looked at her clothes and narrowed his eyes, as though trying to tell her it was a bad idea.

  She tilted her head to the parking lot, indicating she was going and ignoring his look of exasperation with her stubbornness. Finally, he pointed to the badge at his hip and then lifted up two fingers, indicating there were two agents outside. She nodded and then turned to have some time to clear her head. She saw the black sedan and knew her detail was in it, so she walked over and waved to the passenger-side window. As she got closer, they rolled the window down.

  “Taking a run,” she told them, and when they looked uncertain as to what to do, she added, “I’m going to cross the street and do a lap in the park over there. It’s not my usual time or my typical route, so I should be okay, but I wanted to let you know where to find me.”

  They thanked her, and she noticed as she moved through the parking lot to cross the street that they followed her in the car. Something about knowing they wouldn’t be able to drive behind her once she got into the park made her happy, and she took off as soon as there was a break in the traffic.

  After taking three laps through the park, she was beginning to feel more settled, so she headed back home. Once she came out of the tree-lined path and into the open, she saw the sedan back out of its parking space and follow behind her. The distraction of the security caused her to not realize how quickly a car was coming down the road. When a vehicle behind her from the park laid on its horn, she stepped back just as the car zoomed past. It was possible she would have made it across in time, but realizing her distraction had almost gotten her seriously hurt, or even killed based on how fast that car was going, she stood there with her hands on her knees, catching her breath from such a near miss.

  Once she felt more pulled together, she stood up and looked back at the park, eager to thank whoever had alerted her by honking their horn. As she looked at the few vehicles in the lot, there didn’t appear to be a person in any of them. She glanced at the agents in the sedan next to her and asked, “Did you guys honk the horn?”

  “Nah, it came from the lot.”

  She took another look, still not seeing anybody, and then turned to look each way several times before running back home.

  After she shut the door, she leaned against it and looked around. There was no excuse for her to be that careless. “Th
anks, Daddy,” she called out, assuming the guardian angel had come from somewhere and that it might have been him.

  Chapter 10

  Ellie opened her door and smiled at the sight of Joe standing there. He was in a pair of worn jeans with black boots underneath and one of his standard button-up shirts with the sleeves rolled up more than usual so that the tattoo on the inside of his arm was visible. It might be cold to most people, but he seemed to work this look year round, and as great as he looked at the moment, she wasn’t about to ask if he needed a coat.

  “You look great,” he said before she could speak, taking his time to look at her, from her hair which she’d intentionally styled to wear down, to her dark-blue pullover sweater and her tan pants. She hadn’t thought to ask what they were doing, so she hoped that her outfit would blend in wherever they ended up. “It’s making me rethink my plans.”

  “What were your plans?” she asked, gripping the door handle tighter to keep from fidgeting with her hands.

  “When I asked you, I’d planned on taking you to a restaurant downtown that has live music and thought we’d either make a night of it there or figure out something else after that.” He took a step closer, crossing over the threshold of her apartment. “But after we watched the surveillance footage in my office yesterday, I thought it might be nice to stay in, so I planned on taking you to a place close to where I live that makes a great steak, and after we eat, if you’re up to it, we could go back to my house and watch a movie.”

  “Why are you rethinking your plans?” Ellie wondered, thinking both options sounded good to her.

  “You look good enough to take out and show off, but I also want to keep you all to myself and skip the restaurant completely.” He closed the rest of the space between them and stood right in her space. “What do you want to do, Ellie?”

  Hearing him say her name, almost at a whisper, caused her to lean toward him. “You asked me out… It’s all on you to plan it.”

  “It’s supposed to be a date,” he said, as though talking to himself. He leaned down just enough to press an easy kiss on her forehead. He lingered only slightly before pulling back and taking her hand. “We’re going to dinner,” he told her, softly squeezing her hand.

  Joe took her to the Roaming Angus, a restaurant only ten minutes from her house. She’d driven by it several times since it opened last year but hadn’t had an occasion to go in. She’d read the reviews and it sounded wonderful, but when they walked in and the scents met her nose, she was glad he’d made the decision to bring them here.

  The center of the restaurant was filled with well-lit tables. Around the edges were booths that were more in shadows. She was pleased to see them moved to a booth in the back where they’d both have a view of the whole seating area. Ellie loved to watch people, something that she’d always enjoyed as a game she and her dad would play.

  Ellie watched Joe scan the entire restaurant twice and smiled. He caught her expression and raised an eyebrow, she assumed questioning what had her so amused.

  “Are we secure?” she asked, motioning to the rest of the dining room. “Are there any shifty-looking waiters or maybe an overly aggressive set of mounted steer horns?”

  “Old habits die hard,” he admitted, not put off by her questions. “There were times when my ability to scan a room kept me alive.”

  He didn’t usually speak about his time as a sniper, and she waited to see if he’d say more. When he didn’t, she asked, “Do you always do it, or are you more diligent because you’re here with me?”

  “I always do it, but I doubled my efforts, because the doctor seems to have you in his sights,” Joe confessed.

  “Is it safe to relax now?” she teased him further.

  “Not until he’s caught,” Joe warned, apparently not seeing the humor in the situation that she did. “But we’re probably safe here.”

  “I don’t know…” She was determined to see him smile again. “That hostess at the door doesn’t seem stable in her heels. I think we should keep an eye on her to be sure she doesn’t throw an ankle when she’s near our table.”

  “Got it.” He sat back a little. “Take the threat level down a notch and keep an eye on the hostess.”

  “I’m not sure that’s what I said,” Ellie replied, not caring for the way the last part sounded.

  “You’ve got nothing to worry about,” he assured her. “I’ve only got eyes for you.”

  As their meal came, the conversation never stopped, and Ellie was amazed at how easy it was to be around Joe now. When they’d first met, she’d wondered what it would take to feel comfortable, but something had shifted, and before she knew it, they’d spent over ninety minutes eating and laughing.

  After admitting they couldn’t eat another thing, Joe paid for their meal and then glanced at his watch. “It’s not quite eight. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, or we can go back to my place for some coffee and a movie.”

  “You know you had me at coffee,” she said.

  ****

  Ellie wasn’t sure what she expected, but the small brick single-story home wasn’t it. Nestled into a community of primarily retired folks, his house was neatly kept with a row of trimmed boxwood shrubs all along the parameter. Aside from the dark painted shutters and the security light on the porch, there were no other ornamentals to call attention to his home.

  He unlocked the door, but before he pushed it open, he turned back and said, “I’ll take you home anytime. Let me know when you’re ready or if you just get tired of my company. I don’t want you to feel trapped just because this is my place.”

  “Didn’t you promise me coffee?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He turned back to open the door and stepped out of her way. “And I will definitely deliver.” Joe let her walk in first and told her, “Feel free to look around.”

  Not one to turn down such an invitation, she quickly realized the house was small—what used to be referred to as a starter home. All on one floor, there was a combined kitchen/dining area that flowed straight into the living room. From the living room there was a short hallway that ended at two small bedrooms with a shared bath between them. There were no knickknacks and only a few pictures sitting on a bookshelf. A glass-covered box held several medals. Some of the shapes were familiar to her, but she didn’t know for certain what they were for, other than his service in the military. She ran her fingers lightly over the glass and wondered what he’d been faced with to have gotten so many commendations. Moving from those to the pictures, she picked up the first one, which showed Joe in fatigues against what looked like the backdrop of a desert. Another had him standing with three other men, all in dress uniforms, none of them smiling. Ellie thought of Janice complaining that her father would never smile for a picture either and wondered if it were a male trait in general. The final print was of Phillips and Joe together. They were side by side in front of a Christmas tree, and instead of just smiles, they were laughing hysterically. Ellie figured if they’d intended this to be a standard portrait of the cousins, the photographer must have been disappointed at their inability to keep it together.

  “That was the year our grandmother gave us all quilts.” Joe managed to sneak up behind her and pointed to the picture she was holding. “Right before Mom took that picture, Grandma said she expected we didn’t understand the importance of such a gift but that the women we’d marry would be happy to have the blankets to keep them warm at night. I can’t remember if Mom took it after I looked at Garrett and asked if he thought his wife would appreciate the gesture or when he managed to tell me he was insulted that Grandma thought he’d need help keeping his wife warm at night. I told him rubber tended to stay cool, and we couldn’t keep a straight face to save our lives. Mom stormed off, mad that we couldn’t appreciate such a sentimental gift, and the last thing we heard was Grandma asking our mom why we’d have rubber beds at our age.”

  “Have you two always been close?”

  “Yeah,” Joe answered, stil
l smiling at the picture. “We’re nearly the same age, and we were the only boys in a sea of sisters and female cousins, plus we both enjoyed roughhousing and things that got our adrenaline pumping. Our family was pretty tight, so we spent a lot of time together growing up.”

  Ellie returned the picture to its place on the shelf and then glanced to the bedroom doors. “Do you still have the quilt?”

  He nodded, took her hand, and led her to the room on the right, turning on the light and stepping back. There was a beautiful quilt covering the bed, made in dark-blue and green fabrics with a cross taking up the center of each twelve-inch square. The design stitching was tiny, and Ellie realized people didn’t make things like this anymore. “You use it as a bedspread?”

  “Turns out she was right… The thing is really warm,” he confessed, looking down at the floor as though admitting it was somehow embarrassing. Once he looked up, he asked, “Still exploring, or ready for something to drink?”

  “I’m good for a cup of coffee, but I reserve the right to explore a little some other time.”

  “You’ve got an open invitation,” he promised, leading her back down the short hall to the kitchen.

  Other than the second bedroom, his house wasn’t much bigger than her apartment, yet it felt so much homier. Joe was comfortable here, and it showed. Ellie wondered if she looked as at ease in her apartment as he managed to in his house.

  “It’s just decaf,” he qualified as he handed her a mug with the word Army in block letters.

  Walking to the living area, he sat on the corner of the sofa and patted the cushion right next to his. They sat side by side most of the time in his shop on the loveseat in his office, but this felt different because he was asking her to eliminate the space that a sofa might provide, and for the first time since they set off on their evening together, she felt awkward.

  “It’s just like at the shop,” he promised, setting his cup down on the end table and turning slightly to face her.

  She used the coffee table in front of the sofa and then sat beside him as he’d invited her to do. It wasn’t until she sat down and looked around the living room that she noticed a few books were scattered on the shelf under the table holding her coffee. Aside from that, there were a couple on the end tables and one under the television on a shelf. “You like to read?”