Authors: Ribbon of Rain
“Let’s wait for her.”
Cody took off his apron, tossed it on the counter and headed for the door.
“I’m going for a walk.
Need to clear my head and think about this new development.”
At the word ‘walk’, Red stopped snoring, jumped up and wiggled around the room, his tail wagging with enough force to injure someone’s leg should they get in the way.
“Let’s go, Red.”
Jude took his coffee to the living room and sat on the couch watching several white puffy clouds coast across the blue sky.
Kat would take them to the spot on the lake, and he’d call
Why couldn’t he muster enthusiasm about being back in
Imagining his life without Kat weighed heavily on his heart.
The melancholy cry of a loon in the distance sounded peaceful.
Shit.
If he stayed here much longer, he’d be wearing red flannel shirts and splitting firewood when it was twenty below zero.
The place, as well as Kat, had won a corner of his heart.
Red’s frantic barking jarred him from his thoughts.
Readying his Beretta, he moved onto the porch.
His eyes narrowed at the sight of Cody forcing Brian Richardson across the lawn at gunpoint.
Cody shoved Brian forward.
Brian stumbled, but managed to stay on his feet.
“Look what I found lurking in the woods behind the generator shed.”
“I wasn’t lurking,” Brian vehemently denied, his face turning a dull shade of purple.
“I came to check on Kat.”
Jude put his pistol back in the holster.
“What happened to knocking on a door when you come to visit someone?”
“You know this guy?”
Cody asked, his gun still aimed at Brian’s head.
“He’s Brian Richardson, a local, and supposedly, a friend of Kat’s.
How’d you get here
I don’t see your boat and didn’t hear it, for that matter.”
“I beached it down the lake and walked the shore.”
Brian’s all-American boy persona Jude had witnessed at their first meeting was gone.
This man might as well have the word guilt written across his forehead.
“Why would you do that?”
Brian remained defiant.
“Look.
I don’t have to answer your questions.
Where’s Kat?”
His eyes darted around as if he expected to find her hiding behind a tree.
Jude flashed Cody a look over Brian’s head.
“It’s time to come clean,
You’re up to something, and you’re going to tell me what it is.”
“I told you all I know.”
He crossed his arms and gave Jude an insolent stare.
“Hey Jude, want me to soften him up?
I know lots of neat tricks guaranteed to make people talk.”
Jude fought a smile as he watched the color drain from Brian’s face.
Cody took the role of a cat tormenting a mouse.
“I don’t know, Cody.”
Jude answered, playing the game.
“Kat might get upset if we hurt her friend.”
“What the hell is going on?”
Jude turned at Kat’s sudden appearance on the porch.
“Cody, why are you holding a gun on Brian?”
All eyes zeroed in on the diminutive woman in a T-shirt that reached mid thigh.
“Someone better start talking.”
Jude grabbed the ball and ran with it.
“Cody found Brian sneaking around in the woods behind the generator shed.”
His eyes challenged Kat to side with Brian.
Kat turned her attention to Brian.
“Care to explain yourself?”
“I was worried about you…you know, being here alone with him.”
Brian’s head nodded in Jude’s direction.
“And then this…this...”
Brian appeared at a loss to describe Cody.
“Watch it,
Brian’s fear had vanished.
Jude wondered why.
“Cut the bullshit, Brian.”
Kat stepped off the porch, walking straight at Brian and Cody.
“I’ve known you forever, and I know you’re lying.
She grabbed the front of his shirt, and yanked him toward her face.
“You’ve got two options.
Tell me what you’re hiding or take a walk out back with Cody.”
Brian tried to pull away from her.
“Jesus, Kat.”
She let him go, and he took a few steps back.
“You’re right.
There’s weird shit going on here.
Some kind of secret operation.
That’s all I can tell you, because that’s all I know.”
Cody voiced the obvious question.
“Why haven’t you called the police?”
Brian swallowed and stared at the ground.
“Because they threatened to kill me and dump my body in the lake if I talked to anyone.”
“You expect us to believe you have no idea what’s going on?”
Jude scoffed.
“Who’s they?”
“I’m telling the truth.
I don’t know who they are, except it’s official government business.”
Brian faced Kat.
“You believe me, don’t you?”
“You disgust me.
How much are you being paid to keep your mouth shut?”
“They threatened me, Kat,” Brian pleaded.
“You’re pathetic.”
Kat glanced at Jude.
“Go call the police.”
Jude played along with her and turned toward the lodge.
“Sure.”
Brian’s words fell over one another.
“The storm knocked the tower down.
There’s no reception on the lake.”
“Oh?”
Kat’s eyes narrowed.
“Guess we’ll use the radio phone in the lodge.”
Brian’s brows puckered.
“It’s broken.
Did you get it fixed?”
Kat lunged at him, digging her fingers into his arms.
“And how do you know that?”
Jude saw Brian’s look of horror.
“You told me,” he stammered.
Kat increased the pressure on his arms.
“I didn’t tell you anything.
You know because you’re the one who sabotaged it.”
“I didn’t….”
“Get off my property Brian Richardson.”
Kat interrupted him.
“Trespass here again, and you’ll leave in a body bag.”
Brian bolted for the woods at a run.
Kat reached over and took Cody’s gun.
Dropping to her knee she took aim.
She waited until Brian was next to a spruce tree and squeezed the trigger, hitting the tree dead center.
Bark flew, striking Brian’s face.
He kept running.
“You’re crazy, Kat Tenney,” he shouted over his shoulder before he disappeared in the thick foliage.
“Let’s go eat.”
Kat stalked toward the lodge.
Jude and Cody exchanged a look and followed.
An uncomfortable silence filled the lodge while Cody finished preparing breakfast.
Kat poured herself a cup of coffee and perched on the barstool in the kitchen.
Cody placed food on the table, the aroma boosting Jude’s appetite.
Jude broke the silence.
“Perhaps we should have kept Brian here.
He knows something he’s not telling us.”
“Perhaps, he does,” Kat acknowledged, “but I doubt he knows the real story.”
Kat sighed, pushing her food around the plate.
“I’m sorry if I blew it, but I wanted him gone.”
Cody interjected, talking with his mouth full.
“It’s obvious he’s been told to spy on you.
I wonder why.”
“I wonder if he got a whiff of the stolen gems?”
Jude pondered his own question.
“We’ve got to call
That storm was bad, so Brian might be telling the truth about the tower.”
Kat placed her fork down and pushed her plate away.
“We could drive to Rockwood and use a pay phone.”
“That’s a six hour round trip.”
Jude complained.
“I’ll go,” Cody volunteered.
“Would the FBI talk to me?”
“I could make sure they would.
Give you information no one would know but me.
Even if they checked you out first, it wouldn’t take long.
Sure you don’t mind?”
Kat interrupted.
“We’ll all go.
I think it’s important to stay together.”
*****
Within the hour, they were paddling down the lake.
Cody at the stern, Kat in the bow and Jude in the middle where she figured he’d do the least amount of harm.
Red curled up behind Kat and took a nap.
“Shortest way is straight down the middle of the lake, but with all that’s going on, we’d be safer to stay close to shore.
That way we can bail out and swim for cover if things get rough.”
No one argued the point.
Kat slipped into a trancelike state as she often did when paddling.
Cody and Jude talked to one another, but their words didn’t register.
Brian’s treachery hurt.
She thought they were best of friends.
If she ever discovered he was directly connected to her parents’ murders, he was dead.
She’d see to it personally.
“Hey Kat,” Jude’s voice jarred her from her thoughts.
“Is there a decent restaurant in the
“What do you think?
Don’t you ever think of anything but your stomach?”
“Just asked,” he mumbled.
Kat felt guilty for being such a bitch.
Meeting Jude Callahan was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
She was drawn to him.
He made her feel safe and cared for.
No one was at fault for them being star-crossed lovers.
Unless one of them had a major transformation, they had no future together.
Should she give city living a try?
No.
That would never work and trying would only prolong the heartbreak for both of them.
“Here we are,” Cody said.
“That didn’t take long.
Nice SUV, Callahan,” she quipped.
Our tax dollars at work, I imagine?”
Jude gave her a heart-stopping grin.
Kat jumped from the canoe and walked over to the Land Rover.
She frowned at the four flat tires.
She checked out Cody’s vehicle and groaned.
“We’re not going anywhere.”
Jude climbed the bank.
“Why not?”
She pointed toward his vehicle.
“Cody’s, too.”
Cody ran his fingers over the tires.
“Slashed.
With a knife or screwdriver.
Think Brian would do it, just for spite?”
Kat picked up a flat rock and skipped it across the water.
“If someone’s paying him, he’d do whatever he was told to do.”
“Where’s your truck, Kat?”
Cody inquired.
“About a half mile from here.
There’s another landing that belongs to the lodge.
It’s private.
Paying guests used to park there.”
“Should we check it out?
Kat shrugged.
“Might as well, since we’re down this way.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Seems like the rules have changed.
Two days ago, someone tried to scare me into leaving.
Now they’re making sure no leaves.”
The canoe slid silently through the calm water.
Not even a breeze stirred the leaves in the trees.
Kat became mesmerized at the beautiful mirror image of the shoreline on the lake.
If a photo, it could be viewed upside down without realizing it.
The lake was seldom this calm.
A movement in the reflection grabbed her attention.
She pulled her paddle out of the water and signaled to Jude and Cody to do likewise.
There it was.
A camo-clad body leaned against a tree not far ahead of them.
He faced away from them.
She used her hand to gesture to the men to bring the canoe close to shore.
Thirty more feet and they’d be at the landing.