Twin Embers (Rainbow Cove Book 2)

by Jet MacLeod

  “I’ve found that Sam is good with code and her program. I even tried to steal her for my company. Grace was a little perturbed with me over that.”

  “Really? Never would have guessed that one. What did Sam say, though?” Tabitha asked.

  “She said she’d love to, but policing was in her blood. She wants to do so much to help people. I guess I can understand her point-of-view. It takes a special person to be a police officer. More power to her for it, I know I couldn’t do it,” Reagan explained.

  “That may be true, but it also takes a special person to love a cop.”

  Reagan laughed.

  “That’s true,” Reagan replied.

  “Why do you say it like that?” Tabitha asked.

  “Have you met Gracie?”

  It was Tabitha’s turn to laugh.

  “You’re right. You must be a patient and very kind person. I don’t know how you deal with all her moods.”

  “One day at a time.”

  “But, I assume things are good between you both?”

  “Oh, yes, now, they are great. In the beginning, we wanted to kill each other. Then, she wanted me to live in a bubble.”

  “A bubble?”

  “Yeah, Gracie is a knight-in-shining-armor-type of girl. Always wants me to be safe and secure. Never wants anything to hurt me or for me to be in any form of pain. It was and is completely unrealistic,” Reagan said.

  “But, then?”

  “She met Catie,” Reagan answered, beaming.

  “Catie?” Tabitha questioned.

  “My daughter.”

  “My other client?” Tabitha asked, carefully.

  “Yeah.”

  “So, what happened when Gracie met Catie?” Tabitha asked, redirecting the conversation.

  “Gracie was so cute. She was scared as hell, and don’t let her tell you otherwise. My little pint-sized four year-old scared her. I thought she was gonna bolt on me, like most do when they find out I have a kid. She did bolt, but it wasn’t because of Catie. Catie turns Grace into a whole other person. I can’t describe it. She is just completely different when Catie is around,” Reagan answered, smiling.

  “If it isn’t painful, can you tell me why she ran?”

  “She found out about my case,” Reagan stated.

  “That made her bolt?”

  “Well, we had been dating. One thing finally led to another and we made love. The next day, they got a hit off the DNA to the first murder. Instead of it giving them a suspect to question, it brought her back to me and my case.”

  “Bloody Hell,” Tabitha replied.

  “Yeah, Grace freaked out. I got angry. We talked and we got over it.”

  “Well, that’s good.”

  “And, that is when she asked to meet Catie.”

  “Guess I’ll have to see them together to see what you mean about this other Grace I seemed to have never seen.”

  Reagan looked at her watch and then smiled, before saying, “That’ll be soon.”

  Just then, Grace called from the other room, “Reagan, Honey, I’m going to the school to pick up Catie. You need anything while I’m out? Do I need to get Catie anything?”

  “Just a snack and no McDonald’s. I would like something sweet, like maybe some ice cream. That sounds good,” Reagan called back.

  “Okay, Baby Girl, be back soon.”

  They heard Grace and Sam leave. Tabitha stared at Reagan. Reagan just looked at the look on Tabitha’s face before she started laughing. It was just too funny for Reagan. She knew how people thought of Grace. She never could resist their reactions when they saw Grace with Catie or heard her talk about Catie.

  “Who the bloody hell was that?” Tabitha asked.

  “It was Grace,” Reagan replied, still giggling.

  “Ballocks, that was not Grace.”

  “That is the only Grace O’Shea I know,” Reagan answered.

  Tabby shook her head. If she hadn’t seen it, heard it, and been there for the brief conversation, she wouldn’t have believed it herself. Tabitha had to admit that the softer, gentler side of Grace looked good on Grace.

  “How did you do that?” Tabitha questioned Reagan.

  “I didn’t do anything. I knew how hard and even-tempered Grace could be in high school. I also know the mean and wounded sides of her as well. But the giant, cuddle teddy bear that she had become, that…that was all Catie.”

  “Wow! I need to actually meet the new, lovable Gracie.”

  “Give it about thirty minutes and you will. I told her just to bring Catie here. I figured if you needed to see me, you would need to see Catie, too. If Gracie Lynn and Catie are together, that teddy bear is, too.”

  “Thank you,” Tabitha said.

  Reagan’s head snapped at the comment. She wasn’t expecting it. Tabitha went back to sketching. Reagan sat there, puzzled.

  Finally, she asked, “Beg your pardon?”

  “Huh?”

  “Why did you just thank me?”

  “You make Gracie happy. You are the one that had put that goofy smile on her face. Good Lord, she deserves it after everything that she has been through.”

  “What do you mean?” Reagan inquired.

  “Umm…nothing.”

  “Tabitha, look, I may not know everything that happened between graduation and last year. She hasn’t told me much. I mean, I haven’t learned much from what I’ve pried out of her. I know enough to know that she wasn’t happy when came walking in my bar last year, after she left Atlanta. If something happened in the in-between that might affect us, I’d like to know,” Reagan said.

  “I understand that, but it really isn’t my place to say.”

  “Is there something I need to ask her about?” Reagan questioned, trying to get something.

  “Has she told you anything about her time in the Army?”

  “Not really, no.”

  “Then, that is where I would begin,” Tabitha stated.

  “Thank you,” Reagan replied.

  “Be prepared. You might not like everything you hear. And, believe me when I tell you, that your bar isn’t the first one she’s gone in to drown her problems. But, I can say that it is a wonderful thing to not see pain in her eyes, for once.”

  “Thanks,” Reagan said, smiling.

  “Who knew that it would take a pint-sized woman and her daughter to put that ridiculous smile on Grace’s face?” Tabitha mused out loud.

  “What ridiculous smile?” Grace asked, coming back into the studio with Sam and Catie in tow.

  Reagan grinned even bigger. Sam looked just a clueless as Grace. Tabitha was highly amused by all of them. Catie smiled just like her mom.

  “You must be Catie,” Tabitha stated, trying to change the subject somewhat.

  Catie became shy and hid behind Grace.

  “Catie, this is Miss Grey. Can you say ‘hi?’ She is working with Gracie and me. Can you do me a favor? I need you to help us, too,” Reagan said.

  Catie slowly peered from around Grace’s leg. She looked at her mom and then up at Grace, who nodded in ascension. Catie looked at Tabitha and finally came out fully from behind Grace. She casually, as a child can, walked across the room to Reagan.

  “You talk funny,” Catie said.

  Tabitha and Grace laughed. Sam smiled. Reagan shook her head.

  “Catie, dear, that’s not very polite,” Reagan told her.

  “Sorry, Miss Grey,” Catie immediately responded.

  “It’s okay, Catie. I do sound funny. You want to know why?” Tabby asked before continuing, “I’m not from here. That is why I sound funny to you.”

  “Are you an alien?” Catie asked her.

  “Not quite.”

  “Oh, well…that’s okay. It’d just be cooler if you was an alien. So…what are you then?”

  “I am an artist,” Tabitha answered.

  “So am I!” Catie exclaimed.

  “You are?”

  “Yup, except Gracie doesn’t always like my pictures,”
Catie answered.

  “Why is that?” Tabitha asked, looking straight at Grace.

  “Cause sometimes I decorate,” Catie replied.

  “Decorate?” Tabitha questioned.

  “Yeah, I draw on the walls. They are so boring. I make ‘em better.”

  “Really? So, what does your mom say about it? Does she like them?” Tabitha asked Catie, trying not to crack a grin.

  “Sometimes, she does. Other times, she gets mad like Gracie. Then she makes me clean it all back off. Then, the walls are boring, again,” Catie told her, complete with animations and excitement.

  Tabitha roared into laughter. Sam joined in on the laughter. Grace didn’t look too happy about it which just made Tabitha laugh harder. Eventually, Reagan joined in on the laughter.

  When Tabitha finally caught her breath, she slapped Grace on the back and said, “You and I have a lot to catch up on, my friend.”

  “So, Mama, what am I going to do?” Catie asked, bringing everyone back to the task at hand.

  “Remember when Sam took those pictures?” Reagan asked her.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, since, Tabitha, I mean Miss Grey, is an artist. She is going to take some more and do some drawings of our faces. I need you to try and be still for her. Can you do that?” Reagan asked Catie.

  “I’ll try.”

  “That is all I ask, Baby Girl,” Reagan told her.

  “Okay, Mama,” Catie replied.

  Tabitha put out her hand for Catie. Catie reluctantly took it. Reagan smiled at them both as Catie took her place. Tabitha picked Catie up and placed her on the stool. She, then, grabbed her sketch book before posing Catie in some of the same poses that Reagan had been in. They were all amazed at how easy Catie made things go.

  Sam was looking over the sketches and pictures that Tabitha had done. A thought ran through her head. It was the same thought she’d had six months ago. It was the same thought that Grace had every time she put Catie to bed.

  “She looks just like her mother,” Sam said, quietly.

  “I know.”

  “But, Tabitha is the best, you know that, right?” Reagan asked them

  “She is.”

  “You think she can do this?” Sam asked.

  “She has found paperclips in photos, that even I couldn’t see,” Grace answered.

  “She sees things others can’t. It’s her curse. It’s our blessing,” Sam added.

  “Good. Hopefully, she can give him a name. So, you can solve the case,” Reagan replied.

  Chapter Nine

  Tabitha stared at her sketches. She had to admit to herself that his time she may have met her match. Mother Nature may have finally gotten the better of her. She could see paperclips in pictures and solve the case off of that, but trying to do a reverse parental sketch was hard enough. This one was damn near impossible.

  “It can’t be possible,” Tabitha said, aloud.

  She had put the sketches up around her studio. There would be one with Reagan and next to it a similar sketch of Catie. Sometimes there were corresponding photos in the groupings.

  “It is like they are fucking identical twins!”

  Tabitha couldn’t shake the resemblance. She had even been toying with the age progression program that Sam had on the computer. It only gave her an older, more twin-like Catie. It was unnerving and uncanny.

  “What the bloody hell am I supposed to do? It is pure ballocks. Gahhh!!!!”

  Tabitha threw her hands up in exasperation. She was frustrated. She was pissed. But, she was determined. She decided that she needed a break before it drove her mad. And, that was all Grace would need, a crazy British artist.

  Grace had come into the apartment without Tabitha knowing. It didn’t really surprise Tabitha to see Grace there. She was surprised that their friend Alex wasn’t there, too. Tabitha knew Grace well enough to know that Grace ran to Alex when she was distressed.

  “Well, hello.”

  “Hi. Sorry, I didn’t announce myself, earlier. You looked busy,” Grace said.

  “Looked busy? You mean when I was cursing the sketches. Yeah, I was real busy. I would have enjoyed the interruption. What brings you to darken my door?”

  “She looks just like Reagan.”

  “I know that. Trust me, I know that. Don’t believe me, you can go look at them all for yourself,” Tabitha told Grace.

  “I thought it was a good thing, but it isn’t.”

  “Why would you say that?” Tabitha asked, suddenly worried about Grace’s mood.”

  “We aren’t going to find him this way.”

  “We don’t know that, yet,” Tabitha replied.

  “You know whether or not you want to admit it, you know it. All the pictures and sketches prove it.”

  “Gracie…”

  “Tell me I’m wrong. Show me I’m wrong. Prove it to me,” Grace told her.

  “I can’t,” Tabitha said, sighing in defeat.

  “I knew it was a long shot. I just didn’t know how long of a shot it was going to be. The longer I’ve been with Reagan the more identical Catie looks.”

  “Don’t go look at the progressions, then,” Tabitha replied, sarcastically.

  “There has to be something that we can do. There has to be something, anything we can do. There has to be. I can’t let this go.”

  “I know, Gracie. Everyone involved knows that, Grace. We are all trying our best because of it. No one wants to see Reagan in pain. And, we all know, least of all you.”

  “I know, but—“

  “But, what? We can’t change what has happened, to anyone. We can only try to learn from it and become stronger, better. Right now, we need to focus on what we have and use it. I’m sorry that I can’t give you what you need, this time. I’m still trying, though.”

  “I know. I know, Tabitha. Thanks. I guess I just needed someone to ground me. I think I’m too close to the case, but I’m not willing to give it up,” Grace stated.

  “Who asked you to leave the case?”

  “Danica did. She didn’t ask me to drop it or give it up. She asked me to think about it. She doesn’t question my ability. She is questioning my resolve and my objectivity. I am too, now,” Grace explained.

  “Gracie Lynn O’Shea!!!”

  “What?!?”

  “You are capable of handling this case. You know it. I know it. And, your boss Danica knows it. She is trying to give you an out if it all becomes too personal for you. She must see how much this case is tearing you up. She is trying to save your sanity and probably her best detective. So, stop it.”

  “Thanks, Tabby, for everything.”

  “So, where’s Alex?” Tabby asked.

  “Working on her house.”

  “House?”

  “Yeah, she’s building a house out at the Cove,” Grace answered.

  “A house? As in a dwelling? A domicile?” Tabitha asked.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Any reason why the ‘Russian Princess’ has finally decided to build herself a house?” Tabby questioned.

  “I don’t think it’s for her,” Grace stated.

  “Tell me you’re joking. Tell me she isn’t building it for Emma. Tell me she finally decided to leave that job and is heading her father’s contracting business. Tell me something.”

  “I don’t know the specifics yet. Honestly, I have no idea what Alex has been up to lately. I’ve been so busy with the case. I’m a bad friend, you know that.”

  “You’re not a bad friend. You’ve never been a bad friend. You’re just busy. We all understand that, though. It’s your job and we are thankful for everything you do. I know I couldn’t do it,” Tabby replied.

  “Thanks,” Grace said with a chuckle, “I guess I should call her later.”

  “I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.”

  “Do you think there is any hope of finding the guy?” Grace asked, changing the subject back to the problem at hand.

  “Yeah, from what I’ve he
ard, he may be escalating, but maybe it is making him get sloppy. Sam did find that footprint. And, unfortunately, each killing is giving you more information. I could try and do the reversal, but I don’t think it’ll help. I’m gonna keep trying, anyway. You have to as well,” Tabitha told her.

  “I know. I can’t give up. I have to keep at it. It isn’t just for Reagan anymore. It could be anyone, now. I have a duty to protect and serve. I intend on doing that. I’m not going to let this sick sonuvabitch stop me.”

  “Good.”

  “Wanna look over the crime scene photos with me? Maybe there is something that Sam or I missed. It will give us something to do. Plus, we might find something,” Grace suggested.

  “Sure, come on,” Tabitha answered.

  Chapter Ten

  Sam and Reagan were hard at work trying to tweak the program. Sam had come to Reagan with a list of suggestions from Tabitha. Sam didn’t tell Reagan about the difficulties that Tabby was having with the sketches. She didn’t want to upset Reagan any more than she had been by the whole experience. It was a novel idea, but one she was choosing to uphold. Sam could only hope that once the suggestions were implemented that Tabitha would have a better time with the program.

  “Sam?”

  “Yeah, Reagan,” Sam replied.

  “How are things coming?”

  “Good. Really good. These upgrades should make it easier and faster for the program to make us a composite. I think it will give the composites more depth and feeling. They’ll look more real and 3D.”

  “Liar.”

  “Excuse me?” Sam questioned.

  “You can’t tell me that Tabitha has even come up with a good working composite. If she had come up with anything, you would have already shown it to me. So, tell me, what’s wrong? Why haven’t I seen anything yet? Is it Catie?” Reagan questioned.

  “Not exactly,” Sam said.

  “Then what? What is it? Tell me, Samantha,” Reagan commanded.

  “Reagan, please, we are trying. Give us some more time. I’ll show you everything. I promise. When Tabitha is ready to disclose, you’ll be the first to know. Just give us some time. You know that my program isn’t perfect,” Sam answered.