Undercover Hunter

by Rachel Lee

  “You betcha.” She scooped up the last items and stuffed them into the cabinet.

  “He wants coffee.”

  “I’ll get it. You just keep him entertained.”

  Back in the living room, Cade sat across from Calvin. “DeeJay’s bringing the coffee.”

  “Thank you.” Calvin was still smiling, although to Cade his dark eyes held something not nearly as angelic as his face or smile. He dismissed it as imagination. He cast about for something to say.

  “DeeJay was pretty impressed with your crisis center. It must be difficult work.”

  “I like helping people,” Calvin replied. Cade felt another jolt as he recognized the absolute sincerity with which Calvin spoke those words. “I can’t imagine, though, why the sheriff thought travel writers would want to know about it.”

  A prickle crept along Cade’s neck. Was that fishing or an innocent question? And what the hell did he himself know about writing a travel piece? He sought for something that sounded sensible in answer. “People are going to spend a lot of money to come here,” he said slowly. “They like to know about important services.”

  Calvin’s smile widened. “What, are they afraid they’ll be in the middle of nowhere?”

  Cade managed a chuckle. “This part of Wyoming probably looks like that to a lot of them.”

  “Then why would they come?”

  Dang, thought Cade. He hadn’t prepped for this exam. “Because it’s new and different. But they still want to know they’ll have a hospital, police, that kind of thing.”

  “So they want to be in the middle of nowhere and still have all the conveniences?”

  This time Cade’s laugh was genuine. “Apparently so.”

  Calvin flashed a grin, then looked over as DeeJay joined them. She carried a tray—where the heck had she found that, Cade wondered—with three mugs, the coffeepot, a small pitcher of milk and some sugar. She set it on the end table.

  “Nice to see you again, Calvin,” she said brightly, offering her hand.

  He shook it—hanging on a little too long for Cade’s comfort—then spoke. “I was just wondering if we could set something up for you to come take pictures from my ranch. You should see those mountains in the dawn light. Takes your breath away.”

  “Help yourself to coffee,” DeeJay said, and came to sit beside Cade on the couch. “We were talking about that, weren’t we, Cade?”

  “We were,” he agreed. Although not in the way Calvin probably thought. “Early-morning light?”

  “That’s best,” Calvin said. “The air is so clear, the detail so sharp that you can see every little thing. At this time of year, with the sun so far south, there are enough shadows to give you a feeling for the ruggedness. Anyway, I know DeeJay said you’d have a professional come out here, but I thought you guys could give him some ideas.”

  Cade’s neck prickled again. He glanced at DeeJay and saw her face was perfectly smooth and pleasant. Oh, man, now he understood why she’d been almost positive that Calvin was their man. He was pushing this jaunt as if he’d get wealthy from it. Or as if his future depended on it.

  So he decided to be blunt. “What’s in it for you?” he asked. Then, as Calvin’s face started to darken, he spoke swiftly. “That isn’t meant to be critical. It’s just that most of the helpful people we meet have a horse in the race, if you follow me. Like the resort folks, for example. You’re being very generous.”

  Calvin’s face relaxed again. “I just want to be helpful. If that resort will be good for the people around here, then I’ll do what I can to make it a success. There’s a lot of beauty outside of town. That’s all.”

  His own little Chamber of Commerce, Cade thought. Not bloody likely. In fact, come to think of it, the area merchants hadn’t put on the dog for the travel writers. This town was still undecided about this resort and whether it would be good for them. And they were certainly more worried about the missing boys.

  Cade looked at DeeJay. “What do you think, honey?”

  “It won’t hurt to go and snap a few shots,” she said as if she were thinking about it. “I mean, we’re trying to make this sound like a place people should want to come for a variety of reasons. Like hiking and camping as well as the resort. And those mountains are beautiful.”

  Calvin smiled happily. “Good. You can at least give your photographer some ideas.”

  “He’ll probably want to come back in the summer, too,” DeeJay said. “For a different look. Is that okay?”

  Calvin’s hesitation was so infinitesimal that Cade nearly missed it.

  “Of course,” Calvin said finally. “So...tomorrow morning? Sunrise?”

  “Just a little before,” DeeJay said.

  “That’s great. Cade said you were about to go out, so I should be on my way. A few errands to run before work.”

  He stood, politely shook their hands, thanked them for the coffee, then left. They watched from the window as he disappeared down the street.

  “Why didn’t he just park out front?” DeeJay wondered.

  “No obvious connection with us for the neighbors to remember if we disappear.”

  Her head pivoted sharply toward him. “You think it’s him.”

  “I made up my mind when I saw him. He looks like one of his own victims. And now we’d better go and let Gage know.”

  “Calvin might see us.”

  “Better that he sees us popping in there and a few other places than that he sees another deputy stop here.”

  Her brows lifted. “You think he saw Micah?”

  “I don’t see how he could have missed him.”

  * * *

  Gage asked them to wait a couple of hours as he was involved in another case. Cade didn’t tell him much on the phone, which left DeeJay wondering if things could have moved faster.

  “You should have told him,” she said irritably.

  “What exactly? At this point, we’ve got no case against Calvin Sweet. Gage is tied up with something and, anyway, I don’t want to give him extra time to come up with a million objections.”

  Still she fumed. And finally she realized what bothered her. “You should have talked to me before you called Gage.” Her truculence was unmistakable and deserved exactly the response it got.

  “Did I step on those toes of yours?”

  Her temper flared. “Yes, you did. We’re partners, right? I should have some say on how things are handled.”

  “You’ve had plenty of say.” Now he was looking irritated. “What is it with you, DeeJay? Do I have to walk on eggshells every single minute with you? Like you haven’t done some stuff on your own?”

  “Eggshells?”

  “Eggshells,” he repeated. “I’ve been walking on them since we met.”

  “So this nice guy isn’t the real you?” She threw up a hand. “Fine. Have it all your way. I’m used to that.”

  “You could fool me.”

  They glared at each other, but DeeJay realized something else was working beneath her anger. Standing there almost toe to toe with Cade, she knew she was about to break something. The way she had with other guys she had dated. Smashing every potentially good thing because...because she couldn’t trust a guy. Just simply couldn’t. Sudden, unexpected self-understanding hit her in the gut. In a flash, she saw herself, and what she saw didn’t make her proud or happy.

  “Oh, hell,” she said, but the words emerged quietly as she turned. “I’m doing it again.”

  “Doing what?”

  She didn’t want to tell him, didn’t want to admit the truth, even as she finally admitted it to herself.

  “DeeJay?” His tone had changed to something softer. “A squabble isn’t the end of the world.”

  “For me it is.” And, boy, was she good at starting them.
r />   All of a sudden she felt him take her shoulders from behind, a gentle grip. Instinct made her want to shrug off his touch, but a stronger feeling made her afraid to lose it.

  “Tell me,” he said quietly. “Please.”

  She closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around herself and struggled internally. It was like facing a parachute jump off a plane, unable to take that first step but needing to. She’d already exposed so much to this man. So much. She must trust him, at least to some extent. But trust was so difficult for her.

  He said nothing, simply continuing to hold her shoulders as if offering support. She recalled their lovemaking, the way he’d understood her so often, his kindness. He wasn’t like anyone she’d known before. Or at least not anyone she’d let herself know. Maybe the few men she’d chosen to date in the past had been selected simply because she knew it wouldn’t work.

  This time she didn’t know if it could work but, damn, she wanted to find out.

  She swallowed. “I just realized something.”

  “What’s that?” he asked quietly.

  “I protect myself by picking fights. I blow things up before they can blow up on me.”

  “I see. Do you want to get rid of me?”

  “No!” The word burst out of her. “But Cade, it’s so hard for me to trust.”

  “Ahh.” He began rubbing her shoulders gently. “Have I done anything to make you distrust me?”

  “No. But you will. Sooner or later...”

  He spun her around suddenly, his blue eyes boring into her. “Sooner or later you’re going to learn I’m exactly the man I seem to be. And you can go kicking and screaming if you want, but I’m not ready to end whatever is happening between us.”

  “You don’t have the right...”

  “We’re not talking about rights here. We’re talking about giving things time. Do I scare you that much?”

  He terrified her, she realized. He terrified her as much as anyone she had ever known because she knew he could hurt her so badly, worse than anything in her life. And the longer she was with him, the more he could hurt her. All because she was truly coming to care for him, something she had never really let herself do before.

  Hiding behind her emotional walls kept life from dealing devastating blows. But in just a few days, Cade had shown her some of what she’d been hiding from, and she honestly wondered if she wanted to keep missing so much.

  She’d taken a lot of risks in her life, but the one thing she had never risked was her heart.

  A long, long time ago, she had vowed she would never cry again. She’d kept that promise to herself, but now, with Cade, the possibility of crying hot tears of anguish once again had become a possibility.

  Why had she ever let him come this close? And now that she had, what choices remained? Sooner or later this was going to hurt.

  He drew her close, wrapping her in his arms.

  “Just hang with me, DeeJay. That’s all you have to do. Just hang in. We’ll solve this case and then see.”

  He made it sound so easy, but deep in her heart she knew that nothing ever was.

  We’ll see? That was a hell of a risky proposition.

  Chapter 13

  They set out a short while later, stopping in a few places to check them out as if they were just looking for things to write about. People welcomed them a little more warmly now that everyone had heard something about them, and Melinda at the bakery sent them on their way with a bag of fresh rolls to try.

  “This travel-writer gig could have some advantages,” Cade remarked after they stepped out onto the street. DeeJay laughed while they walked to the sheriff’s offices.

  The sidewalks were clear but wet from the melting snow that created berms between them and the street. Every few feet, shop owners had carved an opening in the snow so people could cross the berm as needed. Between the snow and the cars that needed to park away from it so that people could get out the passenger side, she figured the street had narrowed to about half its usual width.

  The day felt warm after the past few, though. She didn’t know if it was actually warmer or if she was just getting used to it, but before they reached the sheriff she unzipped her jacket. Certainly she felt no need for the ski mask today.

  They stepped into a quiet hive of activity at the sheriff’s. Deputies were on the phone. The dispatcher, an elderly woman who croaked like a frog and defied all possible laws by puffing on a cigarette, spoke to patrol cars. Whatever had been happening earlier to delay Gage had settled down.

  The dispatcher eyed them. “He’s in the back waiting for you.” Then she went back to annoying some deputy about his bowling game the night before. On the radio.

  Apparently, things operated differently here. At least when they were quiet.

  Cade led the way back to a narrow hall, which was framed by closed doors with plates on them, everything from individual names to designations like Interrogation and Janitorial.

  DeeJay figured this building must run behind many of the storefronts that framed the street facing the square. It was certainly much bigger than it looked from the outside.

  One door was open, however, and there sat Gage behind a loaded desk. Between heaps of paper and the computer, the man was almost invisible. He had a phone glued to his ear and waved them to seats while he listened and talked.

  At another gesture from Gage, Cade closed the door behind them.

  “Okay, got it. Thanks.” Gage hung up the phone. He leaned back, grimacing faintly. “I’ve got some news for you. Who talks first?”

  Cade looked at DeeJay. After what she’d said to him such a short time ago, she realized he was going to let her decide the agenda. She almost blushed with embarrassment. On the other hand, he was reminding her that he trusted her judgment.

  She looked at Gage. “You’ve probably got more than we have, information-wise, so you start.”

  “Okay.” Gage nodded. “Sweet’s job application, first of all. He worked for a crisis line in Boston, got a stellar recommendation from his last boss. He didn’t just visit Houston—he lived there for over a year also working for a crisis line. The interesting thing is that he didn’t mention being anywhere else. A big gap in his résumé. But the point is, he lied about only having visited Houston. I have a deputy working on finding out if he lived in those other cities the FBI told you about.”

  DeeJay nodded. “I’m betting he did.”

  “I won’t be surprised at this point. I’ve had Sarah Ironheart going over the phone logs for the hotline. There’s no personal information about the nature of the call in them, but I can tell you she found one thing, and she’s got a whole lot more to go through. I didn’t realize the service was that busy. Anyway, to get to the point, the last boy who disappeared called the line and talked to Sweet three days before he vanished. Just one call.”

  DeeJay felt her heart flip. Then her stomach turned over. “My God,” she whispered. When Cade had brought it up earlier, it had been just a speculation, and they’d been doing a lot of speculating. Her emotional reaction had been milder before because she didn’t know if it was true. It was entirely different to discover that that man had actually been setting his lures by holding himself out as someone who could help these kids.

  “Makes you sick, doesn’t it?” Gage agreed. “Gain their trust and then go from there. You were right, DeeJay. Absolutely right. He lures them.”

  Being right didn’t make her feel any better. Not one bit. “It was just one call. We still don’t have anything for a warrant.”

  “Not a thing,” Gage agreed. “But when this many pieces start to fit, you know that you’ve got a good theory. Now we have to catch the bastard somehow.”

  “And that’s what we’re here about,” Cade said. Again he looked at DeeJay, and now she felt about an inch tall. She didn�
��t want him deferring to her all the time. Damn her and her native distrust and her stupid blowup earlier.

  “You go ahead,” she said. “You were the one who saw it.”

  “Saw what?” Gage demanded.

  “Calvin Sweet came to see us. He wants us out at his place by dawn tomorrow to take some photos of the mountains.”

  Gage leaned forward, putting his elbows on the desk. “My, my, he’s a little eager to get you out there. Both of you? Why not just DeeJay?”

  “I’ve been wondering about that,” DeeJay said. “Then I asked myself a question. We’re supposedly here to write a travel piece. Would anybody give a damn if we just didn’t show up again? Even our landlord wouldn’t wonder for a while. But Cade would, if I didn’t come back.”

  Gage swore quite inventively. DeeJay hadn’t heard anyone cut loose like that since she left the army, and she couldn’t help grinning.

  “What’s there to smile about?” Cade asked.

  “I’d like to introduce you both to a master sergeant I used to know.”

  Both men smiled as they understood. But then Cade returned them to business.

  “The thing is, for me this was all theory—good theory but still just theory—until I met Sweet.”

  Gage’s brow lifted. “What convinced you?”

  “You know him, maybe too well to see it. But he looks like he could be the brother of any one of his victims.”

  Gage closed his eyes a minute, then his face seemed to sag. “You’re right. Damn it, you’re right.”

  “It jolted me the instant I saw him. Maybe because I’ve spent so much time looking at the photos of those boys and hadn’t met Sweet before. Did you ever find a photo of his mother?”

  “Not yet. The woman didn’t know anyone, didn’t go anywhere. If a photo of her exists anywhere outside the Sweet house, we haven’t found it. She was a true recluse.”

  “Well, the female victims resemble him, too, although not as strongly. I assume when he goes for a woman, he’s going for his mother.”

  “It would fit,” DeeJay said.