If Not for a Bee

by Carol Ross

  The other cop had reddish-brown hair, freckles and eyes that were an arrestingly pale shade of blue. He asked, “Dr. Aidan Hollings?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m Officer Adams and this is Officer Vetcher. We’re from the Rankins Police Department. Can we come in for a few minutes?”

  “No, sorry, I’m on my way out.”

  “We have some questions for you, Dr. Hollings.”

  “Can I ask what about?”

  Vetcher crossed his arms confidently over his chest and widened his stance, like he was trying to take up as much space as possible. Aidan assumed it was his attempt at intimidation.

  Adams said, “We’re here about the Gareth Everett case.”

  Aidan thought, Case? And the complex mechanism that was his brain began to hum.

  “We’ve got a search warrant, Dr. Hollings. We’d, uh, like to come in and search your place here.”

  “A search warrant? On what grounds? What are you looking for?”

  “We’re not at liberty to say but I can tell you that Gareth Everett was seen running out of here last week—on the same day he went truant from school. Anything you’d like to tell us about that?”

  Vetcher raised his brows like he already knew what they’d find.

  An electronic buzz emanated from somewhere on Officer Adams’s uniform. He plucked a phone off of his belt and glanced at the screen. He held up a finger as he stepped away to take the call.

  Vetcher took a step closer to Aidan and lowered his voice. “I know what you did to my son.”

  “What?”

  “I know that you’re responsible for my son getting beat up yesterday, the last day of school. Harmon told me about how the Everett boys cornered him and Riley in the locker room. I know you’ve been teaching those boys some kind of ninja moves or something. And he used those moves on my son.”

  Aidan felt a level of pride and satisfaction that he’d never quite felt before. The boys hadn’t told him. Aidan barely managed to keep the smile off of his face, but that became easier as Vetcher began to speak again.

  “You aren’t going to get away with this, Hollings. And neither are those Everett boys. I’m going to teach you all a lesson. As a matter of fact, I suspect that older boy may have been in the throes of a drug-induced rage. What else could he have had in his locker the other day that he needed to take off with and hide? That would also explain how he overpowered my boy and Riley Shriver. And that got me wondering where he may have gotten those drugs. I have it on good authority that you flew here directly from South America, and everyone knows that’s the drug capital of the world.”

  Was this guy serious? His ignorance would be amusing if he wasn’t so utterly and disturbingly sincere.

  * * *

  “I’M NOT HAVING my nails painted blue. It will look as if my fingers were slammed in the windowsill.”

  Saturday afternoon and Janie had already had a hot stone massage, a European facial with a papaya enzyme and a long soak in the mineral hot springs. She was positive she’d never experienced a weekend as relaxing as this one was shaping up to be. She’d slept for nine hours straight the night before on a bed she was pretty sure had been constructed out of angel feathers and unicorn fur. She was hoping for a repeat performance tonight.

  Hannah giggled. “But, Janie, the blue will match your dress and pop when you’re getting your groove on tonight.”

  Janie gazed up at her through her lashes. “My groove?”

  “Yeah, you know.” Hannah snapped her fingers and busted out some kind of impossible-looking dance move. Janie was impressed, but there wasn’t much that involved athletic ability that Hannah wasn’t good at; she used to be a professional skier.

  Hannah turned toward her cousin and younger sisters and asked, “What do you think, you guys? The blue, right?”

  Their cousin Adele had joined them for the weekend’s events. They hadn’t even known Adele existed until she’d come to Rankins the year before and revealed herself to be the long-lost daughter of their Uncle Eli. Emily had also surprised them all by flying in Shay and Hannah’s youngest sisters, Hazel and Iris, for the weekend. Hazel, Iris and their brother Seth were triplets and the youngest siblings in that branch of the family.

  Hazel said, “Blue.”

  Iris agreed.

  Adele shook her head. “Sorry, guys, I agree with Janie. I like the pink. Have to admit though, given I’ve spent my life waiting tables, conservative nails are a part of my job.”

  Janie grinned at Adele, and then shrugged a shoulder at her younger cousins. “Sorry, girls, wisdom wins out on this one.” She smiled at the nail technician. “I will take this lovely shade of pink.”

  “Good choice—very safe.”

  “Aka boring,” Hannah said out the side of her mouth.

  Janie thought about the fashionable and exotic-looking Meredith. Meredith—Aidan’s ex. Young, hip, fashionable Meredith who probably wouldn’t be caught dead wearing pink nail polish...

  Well, that was too bad—Janie wasn’t about to change who she was for anybody.

  * * *

  AIDAN HAD THE presence of mind to ask for an attorney. A quick call to Jonah and the lawyer informed him that under no circumstances should he allow the police inside. Jonah asked to speak with Officer Adams. Officer Adams moved away and spoke briefly into the phone, before walking back and handing it to Aidan again.

  He put the phone to his ear. “Jonah? What’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure. This is weird. Unfortunately, Aidan, they have a search warrant—you have to let them in. But stall until I get there so I can take a look at it. I’ll be there in about two minutes, I’m getting in my car right now.”

  Jonah lived in town with his grandfather, Caleb, in a large home on the waterfront, which also housed the law office of Cedar & Cedar that they shared.

  “I appreciate this, Jonah. I don’t have anything to hide.”

  Aidan glanced up and met Marv Vetcher’s smug glare.

  He listened as Jonah continued to do some stalling himself, reassuring Aidan that he’d help him however he could and instructed him not to say anything further to the police.

  “Got it, but, Jonah, is there any way I can request that a certain officer not be involved in the search?”

  * * *

  JANIE SILENTLY VOWED that she would never again criticize Piper’s nosiness or her penchant for gossip. And even if that wasn’t possible, she would forever be grateful for her in this specific case.

  The women were eating breakfast on Sunday morning before they met Tag at the little town of Mariana’s airport for the return flight to Rankins.

  Hannah looked up from her phone. “Janie, did you know that Gareth got into a fight with Harmon Vetcher?”

  Janie lowered the bite of crab-and-cheese omelet she’d been about to shovel into her mouth. “What?”

  “Yeah, Piper texted me that on Friday—the last day of school, Gareth apparently got into a fight with Harmon? Reagan and Riley Shriver were there, too. Piper knows because Harmon’s dad has been spreading the story around town. The grapevine in Rankins is working overtime.”

  Janie tried to process this information. They would have already departed for this weekend trip when all of this went down. Neither Gareth nor Reagan had mentioned the incident when she’d spoken to them on the phone this weekend. Her mom hadn’t said anything, which probably meant that the boys hadn’t told her, either. She wondered if Aidan knew.

  Hannah’s phone chimed again. “Piper says that Marv Vetcher wants to file assault charges.”

  Assault? Janie tipped her head down and placed a hand across her forehead. This was exactly the kind of thing she had been afraid of. That Aidan’s problem solving would cause more problems. Trust me, Aidan had said. I know what I’m doing... He�
�d promised her that she wouldn’t regret this.

  The bottom line was that Gareth had hurt someone and he could be in very serious trouble. And it was all Aidan’s fault. No, it wasn’t all Aidan’s fault. She had put her stamp of approval on the boxing lessons. Janie felt a surge of anger and disappointment and tried to keep the feelings directed mainly at herself, but she couldn’t help but cast some blame at Aidan, too.

  But she should have known better than to put the fate of her children in someone else’s hands. She never should have let any of that deceptively harmless, heartbreakingly dangerous...we seep into her life. She’d let go and her worst fears had come true.

  Shay reached over and patted her hand. “I’ll call Jonah. Janie, I’m sure nothing will come of it. Marv Vetcher is a jerk and he’s raising that kid of his to be the same. If Gareth did something to him there’s no doubt in my mind that he deserved it.”

  * * *

  “IT’S NOT MINE.” Aidan shook his head. “Jonah, seriously it’s not mine.”

  Aidan sat across from Jonah in the Rankins police station. His jail cell looked like something from an old Western movie; thick iron bars with a lock secured by an oversize metal key and a green army cot in the corner. There were exactly two cells and, thankfully, Officer Adams, who seemed like a decent human being, had put the drunk driver who had been arrested the evening before in the neighboring cell. At least Aidan had only had to listen to the guy snoring all night.

  “I believe you, Aidan. I do. But I stayed with Vetcher every second of the search. If he planted the stuff, he didn’t do it yesterday.”

  Aidan tried to think the situation through.

  “I don’t even want to say this, but do you think it’s possible that it could be Gareth’s?”

  Aidan didn’t want to believe it was Gareth’s. He didn’t believe it was Gareth’s. The only thing that Aidan could think of was that somehow Vetcher had broken in and put the small plastic bag of heroin in his place.

  “How long before you can get me out of here?”

  “Gramps is trying to get ahold of Judge Bingley. No one seems to know where he is and he refuses to carry a cell phone. But we’re working on it, Aidan. Hang in there.”

  * * *

  BY THE TIME they touched down in Rankins Janie’s imagination was working overtime. Because in spite of the fact that Harmon probably did deserve whatever Gareth had dished out, his actions had landed him in trouble with the police—more trouble. How difficult could Marv Vetcher make this situation? The truancy episode hadn’t even been resolved yet. And here she’d been so happy about the improvement she’d seen in Gareth...

  Bering met them at the tiny airport. Janie didn’t find it odd that her brother would show up to greet his wife—until he walked straight to her instead.

  “Janie, I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just going to—Aidan is in jail and the police are looking for Gareth.”

  “What do you mean ‘looking for Gareth?’”

  “Gareth is missing.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT motherhood that brings out the superhero in women, because how else could Janie have managed to hold it together? Her thirteen-year-old son was missing and the police wanted to question her eleven-year-old. Gareth had allegedly assaulted another boy using the skills that Aidan had taught him, and now Aidan—the man that she had entrusted her boys with for untold hours over the last two months—was in jail on drug charges.

  But...drugs? That was ridiculous. Aidan didn’t do drugs. She just...knew it. Then again, she didn’t think Gareth could possibly be doing drugs, either. But why else would he have disappeared? He had hidden the letters to his dad in Aidan’s place, but it appeared that maybe he had hidden more than letters.

  Janie didn’t want to believe it, yet she didn’t want to be that mother who refused to see what was right in front of her face. Aidan had pointed out the existence of that unfortunate trait already, and she’d received the message loud and clear. Or she thought she had...

  Officially, the police wanted to question Gareth because Marv Vetcher claimed that Gareth had assaulted Harmon. Riley Shriver and Reagan were both supposed to have witnessed the incident, but neither of them had been questioned yet. Jonah knew the police would wait until Janie returned to Rankins to approach Reagan because he was underage. And, according to Jonah, Marv had also alluded to the possibility that the drugs belonged to Gareth.

  Her first priority was to find Gareth.

  She sat at her mom’s kitchen table with Bering while they made a list of possible places he could be. Tag was already out searching with a couple of his paramedic buddies.

  “All of my cabins have guests in them right now, but he could be out at the cabin on the bluff.” That was the cabin Bering reserved for his personal use, and for the use of his family.

  “It feels too obvious.” Janie drummed her fingers on the oak tabletop.

  Bering ran an impatient hand over his jaw. “That’s what I’m thinking, too. The problem, which is also a blessing, with Gareth is that he already knows so much about wilderness survival. If he took off into the bush...” His voice trailed off, and then he looked Janie squarely in the eye. “Janie, it could conceivably be a while before we find him.”

  “Bering, don’t say things like that.” Emily had been busy putting together some food for Bering and Janie so they could head out to search.

  But Janie had already thought of that. “No, he’s right, Emily. We can’t underestimate Gareth—he might not have Reagan’s IQ, but when it comes to surviving in the outdoors he takes after his Uncle Bering.”

  Emily asked, “Have you asked Reagan? He’s so honest, maybe—”

  “Which is exactly why Gareth wouldn’t tell him,” Janie said.

  “Cricket has already volunteered his plane if we need it to search. And if we don’t find Gareth by tomorrow I think we should send him and Tag both up in the air.”

  Janie agreed.

  Bering’s phone chimed. He picked it up and read the text. “That’s Jonah. Aidan is out of jail. They are going to start searching some of the places where the boys have been out bee hunting with Aidan.”

  * * *

  JONAH DROVE AIDAN to his place so he could change his clothes and collect a few supplies. He desperately wanted a shower after his time spent in jail, trying not to wonder about the smelly mattress and the stained green blanket he’d had to use. But he knew he couldn’t spare the time.

  He wanted to see Janie—to try and explain, to apologize. But he knew that she would only be focused on finding Gareth right now, and so was he.

  Blake walked in while he was stuffing items in his pack. His face twisted with confusion as he looked around. “What the hell happened in here? It looks like I’ve been living here by myself for the last two months.”

  “The police searched the place.”

  “The police? What for?”

  “Drugs.”

  “Drugs?”

  “Yep, I just got out of jail, where I spent the night incarcerated on suspicion of drug possession.”

  Blake’s jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. “Uh-oh...”

  Aidan stared at Blake. “Blake?”

  “Aidan, oh, man, I am so sorry. I have papers for the opium. Duke O’Neil gave me a sample to show you to see if you could perform a source identification. He’s having a hard time with this batch—he’s thinking maybe the drug producers are trying to throw the authorities off by adding other markers. Anyway, I can’t believe I forgot to give it to you.” Blake walked over and retrieved a duffel bag that lay on its side on the floor. He scrounged around and pulled out an envelope. “Here’s the paperwork.”

  Aidan quickly explained to Jonah that he’d done volunteer work in the past for an antidrug organization that analyzed sei
zed drugs in order to identify which region the drug had come from. The information could be helpful to law enforcement in determining the chain of delivery.

  Blake handed the envelope to Jonah. Jonah perused the paperwork, his face slowly blooming with a grin. “I can’t wait to see the look on Vetcher’s face.”

  “Why isn’t the sample in an official package?”

  Blake winced. “My fault—I was in a hurry. Duke had just received the sample, but he wanted to keep part of it to match against another, so I split it up and didn’t take the time...” He shrugged a shoulder. “It’s such a small amount, I figured if I got questioned the paperwork would be enough.”

  Aidan agreed with Jonah that it would indeed be sweet to tell Vetcher his drug charges were bogus. But that raised another question. The drugs didn’t belong to Gareth, so why had he taken off? And why had Vetcher wanted to search his place if he hadn’t known the drugs would be there?

  * * *

  HER MOM HAD last seen Gareth early Sunday morning, she told Janie. She’d made the kids a breakfast of pancakes and sausages. Gareth had eaten with his usual astounding teenager’s appetite. Soon after, the police had shown up asking to speak to Gareth. Claire had immediately phoned Jonah, who had told her not to let them in or to allow them to see Gareth.

  After the police departed, she’d explained the situation to Gareth, and Claire related that he’d taken the news well and hadn’t seemed overly upset. Of course, she was beating herself up for that assumption now. She should have known better than to try and guess at Gareth’s emotional state. When she’d finished getting the twins dressed, Claire had sought out Gareth and Reagan to go over their plans for the day.

  She hadn’t been able to find Gareth and immediately asked Reagan if he knew where Gareth had gone. Reagan hadn’t known nor had he seen him leave. Claire had waited awhile, thinking he would show up, but soon accepted the fact that Gareth had left.