Rock Harbor Series - 03 - Into the Deep

by Colleen Coble

  “I’m admitting it. We’ve got a future together. I broke it off with Nick. There, are you happy? You’re the only man in my life.”

  His face lit with a joy she’d never seen. It awed her to think she was the reason for it. He took her in his arms and buried his face in her neck.

  “Ah, baby, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” He pulled back and cupped her face in his hands. “You love me. Say it.”

  “I love you,” she said.

  “Say it like you mean it,” he commanded playfully.

  She searched his gaze, seeing only unconditional love and acceptance there. “I love you, Kade Matthews. I love the way you tilt your head to one side when you’re talking, and I love your strength of character and your sense of humor. I love everything about you, including your stubbornness and determination to do what’s right.”

  He closed his eyes and sighed. “That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear. You’re going to marry me, okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  “When?”

  “I’m too happy to think straight. Let’s see what Anu says. I’ll need her help to plan the wedding.” Ridiculously, Bree felt her eyes burn and blur as tears found their way to the surface.

  “Why are you crying? You’re supposed to be happy.” His alarmed gaze searched her face, but a slow smile started at his eyes. He bent his head to kiss her.

  The sweet touch of his lips on hers blotted out every problem and worry she’d had over the weekend. She clung to him and felt her world rock to the tune of “Wear My Ring around Your Neck.”

  Kade pulled away first. “We’d better get going if we want to make it before dinner.” He sounded as rattled as she felt.

  Bree knew her grin had to make her look manic. She tried to temper it, but it stayed right there, stretching her lips from ear to ear. “I’m not sure I can keep this from anyone,” she said. “Maybe this wasn’t the right time for this conversation.”

  Kade’s smoldering look made her giggle. “Ooh, tough guy, you don’t scare me.” She touched his cheek.

  He grinned then and reached out to take her hand. “Maybe we’ll look for a ring this afternoon,” he said smugly.

  A ring. Somehow the word made panic rise in her belly. A ring was so . . . so . . . permanent. And real. She forced herself to breathe in and out, in and out. She loved Kade. This was right and good. He’d love her and Davy, and any other children who came along, with his whole heart.

  She smiled. “Okay.”

  Davy and Naomi came back out, and they headed for Wisconsin. It was after six by the time they found the hotel.

  “Davy and I have a date with a pizza,” Naomi announced when they got out. “You and Kade go out on the town.”

  “You sure?” Bree asked.

  “Yep. Go.” Naomi leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Don’t come back without a ring.”

  They checked into the hotel, then Bree kissed Davy good night and went down to the lobby to meet Kade.

  “Where to now?” he asked.

  “Maybe we’ll check out the jewelry stores,” she said.

  He grabbed her hand and hustled her to the Jeep. “We’re going before you change your mind!”

  By the time Bree stepped back into the hotel, she had a rock on her hand the size of the famous Ontonagon Copper Boulder. At least that’s what she told Kade when he kissed her good night at the door.

  Bree hardly slept a wink. By the time she’d told Naomi everything, it was nearly two. Then she kept waking up and looking at her ring in the moonlight. Engaged. She was engaged to marry Kade. It seemed almost surreal.

  Now to tell Davy.

  She ordered room service for breakfast. No way was she facing Kade looking like a hag. Davy sat on the chair swinging his legs as he ate his oatmeal.

  She sat in the chair beside him. “I have something to tell you, Davy.”

  He looked up at her. “Am I in trouble?”

  “No, sweetheart, not at all. This is good news.” She bit her lip. There was no breaking this easy. “You’re going to have a new daddy.”

  His eyes brightened. “Yay! I love Nick.”

  “It’s not Nick, honey. It’s Kade.”

  His face fell. “No! You’re lying, Mommy.”

  She pulled him onto her lap. “Kade loves you very much, Davy. We’ll do lots of things together. You and he are going to build a tree house in the backyard.”

  But nothing she said stopped the tears. Naomi finally took him and told her to go get her shower. “Don’t cater to him,” she said under her breath. “He’ll adjust, Bree.”

  “I’m not so sure,” Bree muttered as she went to the rest room.

  But he was calmly coloring by the time she got back to the bedroom “What did you do?” she whispered to Naomi.

  “Talked about how jealous Timmy would be of that tree house. And said he’d probably get to help Kade with the baby animals.”

  Bree watched her son and knew it would be all right. He would feel their love and grow secure in it. “Thanks.” She grabbed her backpack. “Ready to go train?”

  Today would be hard, watching the other dogs and knowing Samson should be there. Bree wasn’t sure how she’d get through it, but she gritted her teeth and went toward the door. Her students needed her.

  The weekend flew by. Her students and their dogs spent hours climbing over concrete debris and bombed buildings. They were all still dragging when they got up Monday morning. Bree asked for a late departure for their room so Naomi could take Davy swimming in the pool while she and Kade checked out Jackson Pharmaceutical.

  They rode in companionable silence to downtown Milwaukee. “There. There’s the building,” she said.

  “Looks impressive,” Kade said, pulling the Jeep into a parking place. “You ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She unfastened her seat belt and got out.

  At the door, Bree told the security guard, “We’re here to see Mr. Leif Lindell.”

  The guard looked over his chart. “I don’t see your name.”

  “Just tell him Bree Nicholls and Kade Matthews are here to see him about the Rock Harbor project.”

  The guard shrugged and went to the phone. While he was talking, Bree looked around. Affluence betrayed itself in the gleaming furnishings of the reception room and in the expensive art on the walls.

  The guard returned. “Mr. Lindell has just a few minutes.” He showed them the elevator. “Top floor,” he said.

  They rode the elevator to the sixth floor. The elevator stopped smoothly, and they stepped out into a busy lab. The receptionist’s smile beamed a bright wattage. “Leif is over by the centrifuges.” She pointed out a balding man who reminded Bree of Danny DeVito.

  Leif was drying his hands. Bree’s stomach clenched with anticipation. “Mr. Lindell?” Bree said, extending her hand. “Thank you for seeing us without an appointment.”

  He nodded to them curtly. “Follow me,” he said. He led them to a stark conference room and shut the door behind him.

  “You shouldn’t have come here,” he whispered. “You should have called and I would have met you outside the building. If my boss hears about this, I’m in big trouble.”

  “I’m sorry. Cassie gave me your name, and we were in the area,” Bree began.

  Leif sighed and sank onto a chair. “It can’t be helped now. What do you want?”

  “People are turning up dead in Rock Harbor. Scientists at the lab. Is it possible someone here is paying to get rid of the scientists?”

  He blanched. Shaking his head, he held out his hand as though to ward off her accusations. “Absolutely not. No new drug is worth murder. We have plenty of other things in the pipeline. I’m not denying we’d like to have it, but no one here would stoop that low.”

  “Why were you feeding information to Cassie?” Kade wanted to know.

  Leif looked away and shrugged. “Money, of course. Her boss pays me enough to compensate for my pitiful salary here. Murder, you say? Who
was killed?”

  “Phil Taylor was shot, Ian Baird was killed by an explosion, and Cassie has had two attempts on her life.”

  “Oh dear, I had no idea. You must believe me when I say Jackson Pharmaceuticals had nothing to do with any of it. In fact, I think they’ve given up all hopes of getting the drug.”

  “Then why did they offer Phil money to turn over information?” Bree pressed.

  “I heard that offer was withdrawn. I couldn’t find out why.”

  He stood. “Now I’d better get back to work before I get fired.”

  Withdrawn. Bree frowned as she went toward the elevator. Could it be they had someone else willing to betray MJ Pharmaceuticals?”

  24

  Cassie waved to the nurse behind the desk at the end of the hall before entering her father’s room. The bed was empty. He was probably playing euchre in the rec hall. She laid her purse on the bed and followed the noise of a blaring TV.

  Poking her head in, she didn’t see her father’s familiar balding head. She didn’t know any of the residents in the room. A TV played an afternoon soap opera, three women sat knitting and talking in one corner, and four men were playing euchre.

  She ducked back out and went to the nurse she’d seen earlier. The woman’s blond head was bent over a crossword-puzzle book. She looked up when Cassie cleared her throat.

  “I’m Cassie Hecko, and I’m looking for my father, Bernard.”

  A panicky expression crossed the woman’s face. “We have him signed out to your supervision,” she said. “Last night. See here.” She pulled the logbook around so Cassie could read it.

  The sheet was signed Cassie Hecko. “That’s not my signature,” she said. She stared at the script. It wasn’t her father’s scrawl either. Bree, maybe?

  “Did you see the woman who signed him out?”

  “No, see the time.” She pointed a finger tipped in red at the checkout column.

  “Nearly midnight. Isn’t that unusual?”

  “When I saw it, I assumed there was a family emergency of some kind.”

  “Let me call my sister and see if she has any idea what’s going on.” The phone rang just as Bree was headed out the door on another search for Samson. Her hope always rose when the phone rang. “Kitchigami Search and Rescue.”

  Mason’s deep voice came over the line. “Bree, I thought you’d want to know right away. We got the man who tried to attack Cassie last week.”

  Adrenaline tingled along her nerves. “Who was it?”

  “Some guy protesting the genetic altering of plants going on at the lab. He doesn’t seem to have any ties with NAWG as far as I can tell.”

  “You think he killed Phil and changed Cassie’s prescription?”

  “All we know for sure is he broke into Cassie’s house.”

  Bree thanked him and hung up the phone. Still so many unanswered questions.

  “I thought I’d find you here.” Naomi came through the door with Emily and Timmy in tow. Davy ran to meet them, and the children went out to play with Charley.

  “Yeah.”

  Naomi shot her a questioning look. “You sound tired.”

  “Just discouraged. It’s been nearly three weeks. I’m afraid Samson is long gone.” She pressed her fingers to her eyes.

  Naomi’s smile faded. “We can’t give up hope, Bree.”

  “I’m trying not to. But we have so little to go on.”

  Naomi squeezed her arm and dropped into a chair. “I’m bushed. The house is spotless, and I decided we’d get out before I succumbed to the urge to go buy paint and redo the kitchen cabinets. Besides, a certain bride-to-be needs to be giving me wedding gift ideas.”

  Bree smiled. She still couldn’t believe it. “You’re quite the Martha Stewart. I never knew you had it in you.”

  “You should see me with a toilet brush in my hand. The sight would terrify you.” Naomi stretched her legs out in front of her and pulled her long braid over one shoulder. “You need a break. I thought we’d go shopping for school clothes. And Davy’s birthday is next week. I bet you haven’t even bought anything yet.”

  “No, but it would be hard to buy something for him with him along,” Bree pointed out.

  “I could always buy it and he’d never notice.”

  “It’s hard to think about shopping when Samson has been kidnapped.”

  “I wish someone would kidnap Marika.” Naomi sighed.

  “Any more word from the welfare office or the lawyer about when you go to court?”

  Naomi shook her head. “I wish we could just get it over with.”

  “There’s no way Marika can win,” Bree said. She wished Donovan’s ex-wife would go away for other reasons. Cassie would probably be safer with the environmental group out of town.

  “I keep thinking that, but I can’t quite bring myself to believe it. She’s gotten this far and disrupted our family until we can hardly have a pleasant meal without Emily saying something hurtful.”

  “She’s just a kid and doesn’t get it.”

  “I know. I love her to pieces, but she doesn’t see it. She’s swallowed everything her mother has told her about how bad I am.”

  “She’ll figure it out sooner or later. Just give her some time.”

  “I know, I know.” Naomi twisted her braid in her fingers.

  “How’s Timmy been doing?”

  “Still not so good. His blood sugar has been all over the charts. I can’t figure it out. I’ve been following his diet to the T. I’ve had to take him to the hospital twice in the past week. Donovan is beside himself. He’s half afraid to go to work.”

  “Do you think Marika is giving him stuff he shouldn’t have?”

  “Oh, I’ve no doubt she is! But his sugar still shouldn’t be so hard to control. He only sees her every other weekend and maybe once a week for a few hours. But his blood sugar goes up and down like Superior’s tides.”

  “Makes no sense. Unless . . .” Bree frowned, remembering Cassie’s close call.

  “When did you get his insulin filled last? And from what pharmacy?”

  “We get it through the mail from somewhere in Ohio, a place Donovan’s insurance pays better. We got a new shipment a month ago.”

  “Right about when Timmy started having problems. But it’s not the pharmacy here in town.”

  “Why are you asking?”

  “I was thinking about how someone broke into the computer and altered Cassie’s prescription.”

  “He’s taking the right stuff here,” Naomi said. “He takes fast-acting and the slower kind both. But what if Marika isn’t doing it right when he’s at her house?”

  “Would she deliberately do that?”

  “I would hope not. She used to give him shots before she left. She knows the protocol.”

  “Would a mother do something like that to her own child? What if he died from it?” Bree tried to keep the censure from her voice. They were just guessing.

  “No normal mother would put her child in harm’s way. But Marika isn’t normal.”

  “You want to keep the kids and let me go talk to Marika? She might talk to me where she wouldn’t talk to you. I’ve been wanting to ask her some questions about the lab explosion anyway.”

  Naomi hesitated then nodded. “I’d like to be there, but I know I’d just muck it up. She and I rub each other the wrong way.”

  “I’ll be back as soon as I’m done. We’ll go shopping then.” Bree promised.

  She drove through town looking for Marika’s blue Honda. She found it parked outside The Coffee Place. She pulled in beside the Honda and stepped inside.

  The aroma of coffee made her mouth water. She saw Marika at the corner table with Yancy. That woman had more men hanging around than anyone she’d seen. Maybe he’d leave if Bree hung around long enough.

  Bree knew she shouldn’t have anything but decaf, but her craving overcame her good sense, and she ordered an iced double mocha.

  She sat at a table and watched Marika. Strikingly
beautiful, her lustrous hair was tied loosely at the nape of her neck with a ribbon. The simple but dramatic hairstyle suited her patrician features.

  Yancy finally took the last swig of his coffee and stood. “Call me if you need any more information,” he said. He nodded to Bree as he left.

  Now was Bree’s chance. She walked to Marika’s table. “Hello. You’re Marika, Donovan’s ex-wife, right?”

  “That’s what I hear.” Marika smiled up at her. “Who are you?”

  Bree tried not to wince. “I’m Bree Nicholls. I’d like to talk to you a minute.”

  “Oh yes. I recognized you. I’ve heard wonderful things about you.”

  The woman’s smile seemed sincere. Bree sat down. “I’m investigating Phil Taylor’s death and the incidents at the mine. Did you know Phil at all?”

  “I came to town after he died.”

  An answer that adroitly answered without actually answering, Bree noticed. “The firm that employs you—NAWG—how did they learn what Phil’s lab was researching?”

  “A tip, same as we hear everything.” Her smile widened. “Don’t believe everything you hear about our organization. Things are changing with us.”

  “Who tipped you off?” Bree wanted to rattle her somehow but wasn’t sure how to go about it.

  Marika shrugged her slim shoulders. “That’s privileged information.”

  “It wouldn’t have been Phil Taylor, would it?”

  “Why would he try to sabotage his own project? I’ve never talked to the man.”

  “What about the bombing at the lab? Your organization has been known to use violence in the past.”

  “We’ve put violence behind us. The evidence will show we had nothing to do with it.”

  “But you have to admit it looks suspicious.” Marika just smiled and shrugged. Bree thought she’d try a shot in the dark. “I hear you’re a computer whiz.”

  “So?” Marika said. She looked away.

  Bingo. “How’d you learn so much about computers? Someone said you even know how to hack into the government computers. Is that how you learned about the research here? You’re a hacker?”

  “There are two kinds of computer work, Bree: hackers and crackers. A hacker is someone who does no damage. They just like to go look around, a cyber–Peeping Tom if you will. Crackers, on the other hand, do more than just look. They do damage or steal information. So yeah, I’m a hacker. And proud of it. But there’s nothing to be ashamed of in what I do. I’m the IT person for NAWG, and I scan the Net learning what I can about the atrocities capitalists are perpetrating on the world. I know a lot of people look down on our mission, but someday they’ll thank us when they still have clean water to drink and fresh air to breathe.”