Oath of Honor

by Lynette Eason

  “Annie, it’s Izzy, I need to talk to Louis.”

  The door swung open and a short woman wearing a T-shirt and sweats stood there with a baseball bat in her right hand. “He ain’t here. He left around ten and said he had to meet someone.”

  “He didn’t make it to the meeting and he’s not answering his phone.”

  Annie frowned. “I don’t know where he is then. He probably stopped off at Red’s and had a few drinks. Could be he’s passed out somewhere.”

  “Maybe.” But Izzy seriously doubted it. “If he comes home, tell him to call me, all right? I don’t care what time it is.”

  “Yeah, I’ll tell him and you call me if you find him, all right?”

  “I will.”

  Annie shut the door and Izzy raked a hand over her ponytail. “Now what?”

  “Guess we head home and see if he contacts you in the next few hours.”

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Ryan.”

  “I know. I have the same feeling.”

  Izzy climbed back into the vehicle and Ryan aimed it toward her home. When he pulled into her drive, he parked and rubbed his chin. “I don’t want you here by yourself tonight. Someone was hanging around your gate and then shooting at you in the cemetery? I don’t like that at all.”

  “Can’t say I’m loving it.” She yawned. “But I’m beat. I need to get some rest. Mozart will sound the alarm if anything hinky happens.”

  “Right.” He walked her to the door and stepped inside, then shut the door behind him. Mozart bounded around his feet, tongue hanging over the side of his mouth. Ryan scratched his ears.

  “And just so you know, I’m going to church in the morning with my family, then having lunch with Gabby. You can come if you want.” She’d almost feel better having him there. Sort of a shield. To keep things from getting awkward. She was such a wimp.

  He shook his head. “Thanks, but I’d better stick close to my family for now. I may go into the office for a bit, though, depending on if Charice comes up with anything else.”

  “Okay.”

  “Iz …” His eyes caught hers and her breath snagged in her chest. That look in his gaze—

  “Yes?”

  Then it was gone. “You’ve got some blood on your face.”

  “Probably from the cement that sprayed me.”

  “Yeah. Well, I’ll … uh … see you later,” he said. “Get some rest.”

  “Yeah. You too.” She shut the door and leaned against it for a moment while she ordered her pounding heart to slow. Why was she developing these crazy feelings for a man she’d always considered out of her league? Why did the look in his eyes say he might be having the same feelings? Why did she want to explore where said feelings might take them when she’d sworn off men until she could trust her instincts—or at least learn to listen to them?

  But Ryan was Ryan. She trusted him.

  With her life.

  But someone had taken shots at her tonight after someone had been sneaking around her home.

  She didn’t like it any more than Ryan did.

  So that meant she’d be sleeping with her weapon on the nightstand and Mozart at the foot of her bed. If she slept at all.

  Saturday

  11

  After a restless night with only a few hours of being horizontal, Ryan drove to his parents’ home to find it crowded once again. While he appreciated the fact that people cared, he was getting tired of nodding and smiling and accepting condolences.

  And the longer Ryan stayed with his family, the more his nerves shredded. And none of it was their fault. Not the visitors and not his family. It was simply the fact that he was beyond frustrated at the lack of progress on Kevin’s case and he felt stifled by inactivity.

  Add in the fact that his mother, while she hadn’t said much of anything to him or anyone else, hadn’t let him leave her side for the past two hours, well … he’d about had it.

  “Mom, why don’t you sit down and rest?” he said. “I’ll get you a plate of something to eat.”

  She slid her hand into the crook of his elbow and said nothing. He sighed.

  His phone buzzed. “Excuse me, Mom, I’ve got to take this.”

  She nodded, but didn’t let go of his arm. He pressed the phone to his ear. “Grant, what’s up?”

  “Just wanted to let you know that Izzy had a quiet rest of the night. Nothing suspicious. She’s good.”

  “All right, thanks for keeping an eye on her.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Ryan had called in a favor and gotten Izzy’s house covered for the remainder of the night. He wouldn’t have been able to leave otherwise. But now his attention swung back to his present situation.

  People swarmed the house. Cops, relatives, friends, probably a reporter or two in disguise.

  “Ryan?”

  He turned to see a familiar face. “Lee?” He placed a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “This is Lee Filmore. He served with Chris in Afghanistan.”

  “Oh!” His mother shuddered and for a moment, she was back, the blank stare replaced with a burst of life. She pressed her fingers to her lips, the white tissue peeking out from between her knuckles. “You knew Chris. Of course you did. I remember you.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I was here for Christmas about five years ago. I was going through a hard time and Chris told me I’d be welcome here for the holidays. He was one of my best friends.”

  Tears spilled over his mother’s lower lashes, but she didn’t seem to notice. Ryan’s throat tightened.

  “I’ve lost two boys now,” she whispered.

  “I know. I’m so sorry.” Lee’s eyes reddened and he looked away for a moment. When he looked back, his mouth worked. He snapped his lips shut, then rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I just came to pay my respects to your family, Mrs. Marshall. Chris—” he cleared his throat—“was a good man. One of the best.”

  “Yes, yes he was. And so was Kevin.”

  “Chris talked about Kevin a lot. He—he talked about all of you and how much he missed being home. And about how much he missed your Sunday roast.”

  She gasped and more tears fell.

  Ryan held up a hand. “Lee, I don’t think—”

  “No.” His mother managed a wobbly smile. “I want to hear those things. Need to hear them. Thank you.”

  “Of course.” He nodded at Ryan. “I just flew in a couple of hours ago and have to leave again in a bit, but I got your message and thought we could talk here.”

  “Excellent. Thank you.”

  “What is it you do, Lee?” his mother asked.

  “I’m a private pilot. I fly on demand.”

  “A pilot?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Well, thank you for coming. I would love to hear more stories if you have the time.”

  Lee’s eyes softened. “I think that can be arranged.”

  Ryan’s sister, Cathy, slipped up beside them and put her arm around their mother. “Excuse me, Mom, Aunt Jessica and Uncle Phil are here and she’s got food to put in the refrigerator. Do you think you can help her?”

  “What? Now? She was just here this morning with a casserole.”

  “Well, now she’s got more and I think she’s planning on spending the night—if the overnight bag Uncle Phil was carrying is any indication.”

  “Oh, for the love of—” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Of course. Thanks for letting me know.” She turned back to Lee. “Thank you again.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  His mother headed for the kitchen and Ryan figured that while she was tired to the point of exhaustion, she was also grateful for something to do. Lying in bed with nothing to do but think about the two sons she’d lost probably wasn’t very appealing to her right now. He could relate. At least the blank stare was gone. Maybe he should be grateful for all the people surrounding them instead of being annoyed.

  He turned back to his brother’s friend. “How much time do you have?”

 
“About half an hour.”

  “Won’t take that long.”

  Cathy patted his arm. “Come find me when you’re done.” She headed toward the kitchen.

  Turning back to Lee, Ryan motioned him to the side of the room. “I just needed to ask if you would be willing to take a look at some pictures.”

  “Sure. What pictures?”

  “I don’t have them yet, but hopefully soon.”

  He told him about the banquet Chris and Jonathan had attended and Lee nodded. “Chris told me about going to that banquet. Told me about meeting Jonathan too. Said the two of them were planning to open up a shelter for homeless vets.”

  Ryan stilled. “He did? They were?”

  “Yeah. He talked about it a lot while we were overseas. Said he’d already gotten the ball rolling and was ready to get out of the service and work with those vets full time.”

  “How did I not know this?”

  Lee shrugged. “Chris was a private man. You know that better than anyone. He was leery of talking about the future, but sometimes, late at night, when it was just the six of us, he’d talk.”

  “I see. Do you know who the third man could have been with him and Jonathan at the Gills’ home that day?”

  “No.” Lee shook his head. “Could have been anyone. Did Jonathan’s mother indicate if the other guy was in the service?”

  “No, she didn’t say.”

  Lee glanced at his watch. “Then I couldn’t begin to guess. Let me know when you’ve got those pictures. I’m happy to take a look when I’m in town or you can email them to me.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” He saw Lee out the door, then went to find his sister. She stood at the entrance to the hall, her expression pensive. Sad. And like she’d rather be anywhere else in the world than where she was.

  “What’s up, Cath? Did you want to talk?”

  “Not about anything specific.” She started down the hall and Ryan followed her. “First Chris and now Kevin. It’s not right—or fair—or—” Tears welled in her eyes, but she held them back, even as she stopped in front of Kevin’s closed bedroom door.

  Ryan nodded and swallowed against the lump that wanted to grow in his throat. Rubbing a hand over his face, he gathered his emotions and stuffed them into a tight ball. “I should have talked him out of being a cop, Cathy.”

  “You tried.” She twisted the knob and stepped inside Kevin’s room.

  “I should have tried harder.” Ryan followed her inside and looked around. “He wasn’t ready. I mean, look at this room. It’s like he was still a teenager.” Baseball posters hung on the wall. Trophies lined his shelves and a pair of jeans still lay where he’d tossed them in the corner next to the desk that held his laptop. “What made him think he could be a cop? He wasn’t even an adult yet. I should have tried harder. I should have …” He pressed his fingers to his burning eyes.

  She huffed. “Do you really think it would have made a difference? Do you honestly think you could have changed his mind?”

  For a moment Ryan didn’t answer, then shook his head. “Probably not, but we’ll never know now, will we?”

  “Don’t put this on yourself, Ry, it will just make you crazy. Kevin was a big boy and he knew his own mind.”

  “Yeah.” Ryan walked over to the desk and pulled open the top drawer.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Looking for something.”

  “What?”

  “Izzy has Kevin’s phone. He asked her to hide it the night he was killed.”

  She gasped. “What?”

  “Yeah. And I need the six-digit code Kevin used for the password on his phone.” He glanced at her. “You have any idea?”

  “No, but it’s probably a birthday.”

  He paused. “Interesting. That’s what we think too.”

  Ryan went back to searching and pulled a handful of pictures from the drawer. He flipped through them. “They’re pictures of Kevin and Izzy.”

  “All of them?”

  “Not all, but a lot. Here’s one with Kevin and that girl, Miranda, he dated for a while. What was her birthday?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “I can find it.” A quick search for her driver’s license and he would have it.

  “It might not be a birthday,” Cathy said.

  “Maybe, but you know Kevin and his birthday celebrations. He loved them.”

  “And made a big deal out of everyone’s. You’re probably right.”

  “But whose?”

  She joined in the search. “There’s no journal, nothing like that. Just those pictures.”

  He tucked them into his jacket pocket. “I’ll go over them later. Let’s get back out there.”

  Ryan led the way out of the room and back into the den. He looked around and found his mother sitting in the wing-backed chair next to the fireplace. The vacant stare was back and she was ignoring whatever his aunt Jessica was saying to her.

  His seventeen-year-old cousin, Lilianna, had taken a seat in the recliner, her attention focused on her iPhone.

  “This is a zoo,” Cathy whispered. “It’s been two days. Why don’t they all just leave?”

  “I know.” He hugged his sister. “They think they’re helping. Just be patient and we’ll get through this.”

  “But at what cost?”

  He didn’t even try to come up with an answer for that one. “I’m going to go say hey to Lilianna.”

  “Okay.”

  Ryan walked over to her. “Hey, kid.”

  She didn’t bother to look up. “Hey.”

  “You ignoring everyone?”

  Lilianna tilted her head at him in a practiced pose he figured she used on boys she wanted to flirt with. “Most everyone. Not you.” She stuck her phone in her pocket and stood to give him a hug. “I guess the next few days are going to be just like when Chris died, huh?”

  “You remember those days, I suppose?”

  “Like they were yesterday.”

  Of course she did. It had only been eighteen months. Seemed like longer.

  Her blue eyes clouded. “I’m sorry about Kevin.”

  “Me too.”

  “I overheard Mom talking and she said he did something stupid and got himself killed.”

  Ryan stiffened. “Where’d she hear that from?”

  “I don’t know. I was listening to her talk on the phone.”

  “I see.”

  “Did he?”

  Ryan hung his head for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, he did. But I hope that’s not the only thing he’s remembered for—and it was for a good reason. He just …” He shrugged.

  When he looked up, she hugged him again. “Thanks for being honest with me. You’re about the only one who will be.”

  “I’m sorry about that. Sometimes it’s just hard for adults to admit something they’d rather not. Even to themselves. Don’t take it personally.”

  “Right.” She shifted and wiped away a tear. “I’m mad at him for being stupid, but I’ll remember him for all the funny stuff we used to do together,” she said.

  “Like the practical jokes he used to play on your dad?”

  “Yeah—and the time he threw me into the pool because I swiped his phone and texted his girlfriend that he wanted to marry her.”

  “You did that?”

  She flushed. “I was young and stupid.” She grimaced. “At least I get to grow up to regret my stupidity.”

  “Yeah.” He hugged her and said a silent prayer over her. “Hey, what was her name, you remember?”

  She laughed. “I’m not likely to ever forget it. Sherry Livingston. Why?”

  “You don’t happen to know her birthday, do you?”

  “No. Again, why?”

  “It was just a thought I had. I need to look at something on Kevin’s phone and we’re pretty sure his password is a birthdate, but we have no idea whose it could be.”

  “Hmm. Me either. Sorry.”

  “Okay. Thanks.
”

  “Sure.”

  He glanced at his phone and noted the time. “I’ve got to go find Izzy. You going to be okay?”

  She pulled out her iPhone and waved it at him. “I’ll be just fine. I have my coping mechanism to help me tune out the rest of the world.”

  “Yeah. I plan to do that sometime soon myself.”

  “We’ll be leaving soon anyway. Mom said something about Aunt Gena needing some rest.”

  “Right.”

  She plugged back in and he went to find Cathy to let her know he was leaving. He found her standing in front of the fireplace, staring at the pictures on the mantel. Pictures containing two of their fallen brothers. The rage swelled. He tamped it down. “I was planning to stay the night, but now that Jessica and Phil are here, I feel better about leaving.”

  Cathy turned. “Where are you going?”

  “To see Izzy. I need to talk to her.”

  “Poor Izzy. Her parents were here just before you got here. Chief St. John said they’re all just heartbroken, especially Izzy. She and Kevin were like best friends. Or brother and sister.”

  “I know.”

  “Go check on her.”

  “All right. See you tomorrow.”

  Ryan said his goodbyes and slipped out the back door. As he climbed into his vehicle, he noticed Chief’s car in the driveway across the street. No doubt she was working at home. Her husband, Izzy’s father, was a defense attorney. He knew the husband and wife often went toe-to-toe on some of the cases that crossed his desk. And yet, they managed to make their marriage work even while they battled it out in their professional lives.

  He called Izzy and got her voice mail. “I need to see Kevin’s phone. I’m going to come by and we’re going to try to work on his password again, okay?”

  He hung up and remembered. She’d gone to church this morning, then had planned to eat with Gabby. He knew just where to find her.

  12

  Izzy walked out of the church with her father. It had been just the two of them this morning. She enjoyed the Saturday morning service and attended whenever she could—especially if she was going to be working on Sunday. It was a small service and more like a Bible study than a full-blown worship service, made up mostly of stay-at-home moms and other law enforcement officers. But it refreshed her spirit and she thanked God for a church that was sensitive to the fact that not everyone’s schedule allowed for Sunday morning attendance.