by Sharon Sala
* * *
Jack came out of the utility room as Duke went out the back door.
“Where’s he going?” he asked.
“Someone from Vegas showed up in town looking for Cathy. I think it has to do with her ex-husband,” Hope said.
Jack frowned. “That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not, and Duke’s about to put himself in the middle of it.”
Jack felt a moment of panic, and then let it go.
“Duke’s a grown man in love with a woman who needs him. Now what do you need me to do next?”
Hope grinned. “I guess finish putting the leaves in the table. That’s what Duke was doing when I interrupted him.”
“You got it,” Jack said. “Don’t worry about my big brother. He can take care of himself.”
* * *
Cathy googled Blessings Bed and Breakfast to get Rachel’s number, but Bud answered.
“Hello, Blessings Bed and Breakfast. Bud Goodhope speaking.”
“Bud, this is Cathy Terry. Is Rachel there?”
“She just left to go to the Crown,” Bud said. “Can I help you?”
“Your guest, Gage Brewer, is looking for me, and I think my ex-husband is having me followed again. What’s he driving?”
Bud blinked. Wow…Rachel’s instincts were better than he’d imagined.
“Uh…a silver Cadillac Escalade. Late model.”
“And what does he look like?” Cathy asked.
“Are you in trouble?” Bud asked.
“Not yet, but he might be. I need a description.”
“Tall, slim, sandy-brown hair. I think he left wearing a black leather jacket.”
“Thank you,” Cathy said, and hung up.
Bud frowned. It sounded as if trouble was stirring in Blessings.
Cathy got her jacket and keys, then thought about the handgun she still hadn’t recovered from the police station and decided it was just as well she didn’t have it. But she still wasn’t going empty-handed, and dug through her hiking gear for the pepper spray. She found it and then headed out the door.
Her phone was ringing like crazy, but she guessed it was Duke and just let the calls go to voicemail. He’d try to talk her out of this, but it was time to stand her ground.
She got in the car with the pepper spray in the seat beside her. Logic told her Gage Brewer was looking for her, and if he was using Pamela St. James’s info, they probably knew what she was driving. So she was going to drive around the main part of Blessings and see if a silver Escalade popped up in her rearview mirror.
The first place she went was by the bed-and-breakfast to make sure he hadn’t gone back there. She didn’t even have to pull in to see he was gone, so she swung by All Saints Cemetery just to make sure that story wasn’t true. The only vehicles there were the groundskeepers’ and one little blue sedan, so she headed back toward Main.
Even though she came out on the far end of Main Street, she was surprised by the amount of traffic, and then guessed it was because of people shopping for Thanksgiving. The majority of traffic on Main was either coming from the Crown or going to it, so she decided to check out the parking lot next. It would be the perfect place to watch most everyone in town coming and going today, so she drove in behind an old red truck and a shiny black Lexus and then began cruising the parking lot on the pretense of looking for an empty parking place.
Everything was taken toward the front half of the lot, and the empty places were farther back. So she turned at the end of an aisle of cars and was headed toward the back of the lot when sunlight suddenly flashed on the windshield of a car, which caught her attention.
The strangest thing about it was that the driver was parked against the chain-link fence and had backed into a parking spot so that the car was facing the store.
On the face of it, that wasn’t an unusual thing to do, but backing into that particular space put the trunk of the car up against the fence, making it impossible to load groceries into it. And as she got closer, she realized it was, in fact, a silver Escalade…and the driver was wearing a dark leather jacket.
She accelerated toward the back of the lot, then pulled up directly in front of the car, blocking him in. The look on the man’s face went from shock to confusion…and then she got out, carrying the pepper spray.
She saw the recognition on his face as she started toward him, then watched him roll his eyes and slap the steering wheel with both hands. He knew he’d been made.
“Get out of the car,” Cathy said.
Gage hesitated. “Look, lady, I—”
“So…now I’m a stranger? I thought I was your friend Cathy from Las Vegas who’s going to help you with family research, and now you’re acting as if you don’t know who the hell I am? Get out of the car!”
Gage hadn’t expected confrontation. He opened the door and got out to try to minimize the noise she was making, because people were beginning to stare, and to his horror, a man had pulled out his cell phone and was recording them…sound and all.
“I’m out. So now what?” he said.
“Why are you here?” she snapped.
“I’m just doing a job. Nothing more,” he said.
“And the job was to find me? Then what? Are you the hitman Blaine Wagner sent to kill me?”
Gage gasped. “What? Hitman? Oh, hell no! I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just a PI working a case.”
“And I’m your case. My ex-husband, Blaine Wagner, is stalking me. I ran to get away from him after he threatened my life, and he obviously hired you to find me…so now when I turn up dead you’re going to be an accessory to murder.”
Gage felt sick. So this was why Rand Lawrence quit.
“Oh, Jesus, lady. I didn’t know. All he wanted from me was to find out where you were living.”
Cathy glared. “Why would he need to know that? We’ve been divorced for close to a year. I’m calling the police. I’m filing charges against you for whatever they can pin on you. You can work out the details of your job versus my safety with the local police. You are a low-life, scum-sucking…”
Gage forgot about the boy with the cell phone as he lunged toward her, intent on stopping her from following through on her threat.
Cathy screamed and staggered backward, getting in one good shot of pepper spray just before a big black truck came flying out of nowhere. She heard a screech of brakes, got a brief glimpse of Duke coming out of the truck, and the next thing she knew, he’d body-slammed Brewer against the Escalade.
Gage’s face and eyes were on fire, and he was in a panic. H e didn’t know where the hell this man had come from, but he hit him like a linebacker and knocked the breath clean out of him. He couldn’t inhale. He couldn’t talk. Then when the man spun him around and shoved him facedown onto the hood of his car, he thought he was going to die.
“My eyes, my eyes… Can’t breathe…” he finally gasped.
Duke grabbed him by the back of the neck, yanked him upright, and then twisted both of his arms behind his back.
“Move and I’ll break your neck,” Duke said.
It was the calm, deadly tone in the threat that ended Gage’s struggles.
Cathy was still in shock. “Where did you—”
“You didn’t answer your phone,” he said.
Defiant, she lifted her chin. “I was busy.”
He arched an eyebrow.
Gage Brewer couldn’t see, but he was getting his breath back and trying to talk his way out of this.
“My eyes…my eyes…I need help.”
“You need to shut up,” Duke said.
Gage groaned. “I’m a licensed private investigator on a case. You have no right to—”
Duke tightened his grip. “You lost your rights when you went after my girl.”
“Oh God…please,
my eyes…I need help. You have to believe me, I am innocent in—”
And that’s when Chief Pittman finally rolled up on the scene. He got out of his patrol car, shaking his head at Cathy.
“You still have my gun,” Cathy said, and handed him the pepper spray.
Lon glanced at Duke, who had the perp still pinned to the car. “It appears she found him first,” Lon said.
Duke shrugged. “I warned you. I took him down as he was about to grab her.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt her! I have identification. I’m a licensed PI,” Gage said, and then moaned. “My eyes… Someone help.”
“I’m Chief Pittman. An ambulance is on the way. They’ll wash them out.”
Gage felt like an idiot. He was trying to plead his case, and he was crying like a baby from the spray.
“I didn’t commit any crime. I was just parked here. I was hired to find her, and she approached me and started all of this.”
Cathy shook her head. “No, that’s not the whole story, Chief. My ex-husband threatened my life back in Vegas. He’s had people watching me and stalking me for months. It’s why I left Vegas, and I had no reason to believe this man wasn’t a hitman. I want him arrested for stalking…and whatever else you can charge him with.”
Gage groaned. “I was just sitting in my car.”
“Why did you come to Blessings?” Cathy asked.
Gage repeated the same story. “To find you. But it was just a job.”
Duke twisted Gage’s arms a little tighter. “Chief, he lied to Rachel Goodhope at breakfast and told her Cathy Terry was a friend. He told Rachel that he and Cathy had plans to spend the day together.”
Lon turned and looked at Cathy.
“Miss Terry, do you know this man?”
“No.”
“So you are a stranger asking her whereabouts…and setting up a timeline that would give you the freedom to abduct her without anyone thinking she’d gone missing. How is she supposed to react when she’s already afraid of her ex?” Lon asked.
“But I didn’t know that,” Gage said.
Lon put him in handcuffs. “What I know is that you came to Blessings to find her. And then I find you staked out at the busiest place in town, hoping she’d show up,” Lon said. “Only she found out about your presence before I did. Now, you’re under arrest for stalking and attempted assault. Even if they don’t stick, those are the charges for now. And your boss might have some questions to answer, too, before all this is over.”
The ambulance arrived, and by now, half the people shopping in the Crown were either watching from the parking lot or looking out the windows of the store.
Gage groaned as the chief led him to the ambulance. The EMTs flushed out his eyes, and then the chief took him to jail.
Duke took one look at Cathy and saw past her defiance to the muscle ticking at the side of her jaw and cupped the back of her neck.
“Can you drive yourself home?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I’m right behind you,” he said.
Cathy was beginning to shake from the drop of adrenaline as she drove back to her house with Duke on her tail. She got all the way inside before she turned around, walked into his arms, and burst into tears.
“It’s never going to be over,” she sobbed. “I will never be free of him. Why won’t he just leave me alone?”
Duke didn’t talk. He just held her…pulling her closer, holding her tighter, until her tears lessened and she could breathe without choking.
He kissed her forehead. “Go pack a bag. I’m taking you home with me. We have two extra bedrooms upstairs.”
Cathy sighed. “I can’t hide there forever. And I’m not taking trouble into your house.”
“Then at least consider yourself a house guest for the holiday,” Duke said.
“Not until you clear it with Hope and Jack.”
Duke pulled out his phone and made the call in front of her.
Hope answered. “Duke? Is everything okay?”
“It is now. I want to invite Cathy to stay in one of our guest rooms for a couple of days. I’ll take her home after Thanksgiving.”
“Absolutely,” Hope said. “You don’t have to ask us to invite people into your own home, honey. Is she okay?”
“She will be. We’ll be there as soon as she can pack a bag.”
“You can put her in the room next to yours. I’ll send Jack to change out the sheets. Everything else is fine. And tell her we’ll love having her with us.”
“I will. See you soon,” he said, and hung up. “You’ve been doubly invited, and they’re happy to have you.”
Cathy’s shoulders slumped. Defeated, she went into her bedroom to pack.
* * *
Junior Cooper ran into the newspaper office, waving his phone. The Blessings Tribune had recently been sold, and Mavis Webb, the new owner, was still waiting to prove herself.
She’d covered all of the new births and a funeral or two, along with coverage of the local football games at the high school, but she’d told Junior to be on the lookout for spur-of-the-moment news.
She’d expected something along the lines of accidents or following the police answering calls at the Blue Ivy Bar until Junior, her photographer, came into the front office, yelling, “Boss…do I have a story for you!”
Mavis looked up from her desk.
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense…talk.”
“Watch this,” Junior said, then hit Play and handed her his phone.
Mavis’s eyes widened, and she was already envisioning a front-page spread when she heard “threatened to kill me” and “hitman.”
“Holy Ghost! Who is this woman? I want to get a statement from her. And who’s the hero who saved the day?”
“The woman is Cathy Terry. The lady who took down the rabid coyote in the park. She’s new to Blessings. The hero is Duke Talbot. He grew up in the area. He and his brother have a farm outside of town.”
“Do we have contact info?”
“No, but I can get it from Chief Pittman,” Junior said.
“Then get it. I want to get a statement from her before I run the story. Meanwhile I’m going to watch this again. I didn’t get the name of her ex-husband.”
“Oh…Blaine Wagner from Las Vegas,” Junior said. “The dude who got arrested is also from Vegas. He kept claiming he was a PI Wagner had hired to find her.”
Mavis rubbed her hands together and grinned.
“Get me contact info, please.”
“On it,” Junior said, and ran to the office phone to call the PD.
Avery, the day dispatcher, answered. “Blessings Police Department.”
“Avery, this is Junior Cooper. Is the chief in? I need to talk to him.”
“Hang on a sec. I’ll ring his office.”
Lon was in his office writing up the arrest report, while Deputy Ralph booked Gage Brewer into jail. When Lon’s phone rang, he put it on speaker and kept typing.
“Hello, Chief Pittman speaking.”
“Chief, this is Junior Cooper from the Tribune. I videoed the confrontation between Cathy Terry and the man you just arrested on my cell phone, and my boss is going to do a story on it. She wondered if you might have Ms. Terry’s contact info to get a statement from her.”
“I’ll call her. If she wants to give you a statement, I’ll call you back with her number, okay?”
“Yes. Thank you,” Junior said. “I’ll be waiting to hear.”
Lon disconnected, then called Cathy’s cell.
* * *
Cathy was in her room packing when her cell phone rang. When she saw it was from the PD, she frowned.
“Hello?”
“Cathy, this is Chief Pittman. It appears the photographer for the Blessings Tribune got your altercation with M
r. Brewer on video, and his boss at the newspaper wants to get a statement from you. Are you okay with me giving her your phone number?”
Cathy groaned. “Oh my God. Really?”
Duke was walking down the hall when he heard her phone ring, and walked in just in time to hear her.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked.
“Chief, hang on a second, please,” Cathy said.
“Sure.”
Cathy covered her phone. “The photographer from the newspaper videoed that mess, and now they want a statement from me.”
Duke immediately saw a way to put a positive spin on Cathy’s situation.
“What would happen if the news of this got back to Vegas? What would Wagner’s friends think about this?”
Cathy’s eyes widened. “Oh my God! This would be a complete embarrassment…and his business associates would not like the publicity of this at all.”
Duke was still angry at what had happened to her, and the hard tone of his voice echoed what he was feeling.
“So, give them a statement they won’t forget. Tell your whole story…from the threat he made to the onset of being followed to having to run for fear for your life. And then the fact that Wagner had you followed all the way across the country, leading you to believe the PI was a hitman.”
“Really?” Cathy said.
“Yes, honey. Really.”
Cathy returned to the call. “Yes, you can give them my number. I’m willing to make a statement.”
“Will do,” Lon said, and immediately called Junior back with her number.
“Thanks so much!” Junior said as he wrote it down, and then headed back to Mavis’s desk. “Got it!” he said, and plopped it down in front of her.
“Awesome,” Mavis said. “Now upload this video to my website, and while you’re at it, make me some stills. Pick out scenes you know would be good front-page fodder, and then research the name Blaine Wagner and Las Vegas and see what pops up while I talk to her.”
Junior hurried to his desk while Mavis called the number.
Cathy had finished packing and was sitting in the living room waiting when her cell phone rang.
