Conduit (19 page)

“What happened?”

“I was an accountant. I was married, had three kids, and a
great life, but I used to gamble a lot in college. I was really addicted, until
I met my wife. I cleaned up for her and found a proper job. She spent money
like crazy. Everything I earned ended up going toward new clothes, a new
hairdo, or a remodel on the house. So I thought I could make some quick cash by
playing poker.”

“And you became addicted again,” she said.

“I couldn’t help what I did. It’s a sickness I have. When I
played my first game and won, I didn’t want to stop. I made a lot of money at
first, but then I lost a lot more money. So I borrowed some from the company I
worked for. I planned on paying it back, except I never got around to it
because I kept losing money at poker. So I kept borrowing money.”

“That’s when you were caught.”

“I went to prison. My wife left me and got sole custody of
the kids. They let me out of prison and I found a job for a bit while I was on
parole. As soon as my parole was over, my boss fired me. I looked for another
job, but no one wanted a felon with a gambling addiction, so I gave up trying
to find a job and I live here.”

Tears threatened Emily’s eyes, but she restrained from being
too emotional. He wasn’t asking for sympathy in his tale, only answering her
initial question about not trusting the police, but her heart still broke for
him. “Thanks for sharing that with me,” she said. “I know that’s not easy to
talk about. Are any of your children girls?”

“Melissa and Mary.”

“Sam, I can’t possibly imagine how much you miss them. You
didn’t get to be a part of most of their lives, and that must be a horrible
feeling. The fathers of the women that were murdered, they are going through
the same thing as you did when you first lost your girls.”

He went to his shopping cart and rifled through the aluminum
cans.

She pressed on. “Even though they watched their girls grow
up to be young adults, they will never get to see them again. Some of them
never walked their daughter down the aisle, never held a grandchild in their
arms. For a couple of the fathers, they lost their only child. I know you can
relate to these fathers. You can help stop another father from losing his
daughter.”

Sam held his eyes to his cans, on a mission searching for
something only known to him.

Emily walked over to him. “Did you see the man who put the
girl in the alley last night?”

“Yes,” Sam said. “It was dark, but his trunk was open and I
saw his face with that light. I’ll never forget his face.”

“Can you make an exception and talk to the cops just this
one time?”

“Will you take Bob home with you?”

Emily lowered her head, her eyes landing on Bob sitting next
to her feet.

“Bob likes you. He needs a good home to feed him and take
care of him. I can’t feed him out here. I can barely feed myself most days.”

“I don’t know,” Emily said. “I’ve never thought about having
a cat before.”

“If you help Bob, I’ll help you.”

Bob lifted his head and gazed at her with sad, green eyes.
Emily knew it was an illusion but her heart told her a different story and made
her think the cat was communicating his wishes.

“I’ll take Bob home.”

“No shelters,” Sam said. “He goes home with you and he stays
home with you forever.”

“I promise.”

“Then I’ll talk to the cops.”

“I can’t believe you did that to me.”

Jake shifted on Emily’s couch so he could get a better look
at her. “What did I do to you?”

“You made me cry. Why would you do that?”

He laughed and walked over to the television stand. Pushing
the eject button on her Blu-ray player, he said, “I didn’t make you cry. The
movie made you cry.” He removed the disc and replaced it in its case.

“I still blame you,” Emily said. She picked up her wine
glass and drained the rest of the liquid at the bottom. “You knew it would make
me cry.”

“Guilty.” He settled down next to her on the couch. “But if
you didn’t cry when Frank Castle’s entire family was murdered, then I would
think you’re completely devoid of all emotion.”

“It was a really great movie.” She snatched the case out of
his hands. “The Punisher,” she read. “Wouldn’t it be great if he was out there
now, taking care of all those criminals his way?”

“Vigilante justice is highly debatable,” he said. “Besides,
he’s not a real person. What he does on-screen would never be allowed in the
real world.”

Emily giggled. “He did blow up a lot of stuff.” She handed
the movie back to Jake. “You know you cried a little, too.”

Her words pricked his ego. “I did not cry.”

“I think I saw a little tearing up there.”

“You were looking at me through a mass of tears in your own
eyes. That’s all you were seeing.”

Emily leaned in, and all playfulness left her voice. “I don’t
think so.”

Her kiss was soft at first, but Jake grabbed the back of her
head and kept her close to him. Their lips matched each other in a heated
battle, and her sweet breath entered his lungs. Jake tasted remnants of rich,
full-bodied red wine on her sensuous mouth, fueling his desire. He entangled
his hands in her hair as her smooth, flushed skin caressed the rough stubble on
his face. He never wanted to let her go.

The nagging voice in the back of his head started up again,
the same one that rambled about commitment and settling down. It told him to go
slow with Emily, and that they needed to wait to take their relationship
further until that perfect moment. It whispered Emily was the girl he had been
searching for his entire life and he’d better not screw it up for what he
assumed would be an amazing night in bed with her.

The voice won and he parted from her. He realized she must
have the same badgering voice in her mind when she said, “We need to start having
all of our dates in a very public location.”

He moistened his lips, the lingering taste of her mouth a nice
surprise. “I think we’ve shown incredible self-control thus far.”

“I don’t know how much longer that will last.”

A nudge on his calf grabbed his attention. He leaned over to
get a look at the freshly groomed Bob. “Now that the movie’s over, tell me how
you just so happened to end up with this guy between last night and now.”

Emily scooped Bob into her arms. The cat responded by
rubbing his cheek against hers. “Cassie and I were helping out Uncle Leo on a
case—”

“Wait a minute. First you go to a memorial service for a
case, and now you adopt a cat. What kind of crazy private detective agency are
you running?”

She wrinkled her nose. “It does seem kind of strange, but our
cases usually aren’t this interesting.”

“Uncle Leo. Tell me about him again. Is he Cassie’s uncle?”

“Lionel is her mom’s brother. Because I’ve known Cassie
since high school, Uncle Leo and his wife, Aunt Barbara, have always been like
family to me.”

“Where are Cassie’s parents?”

“When Cassie turned eighteen, they took the idea of starting
their lives over as a literal concept and moved overseas to England. They’re
living their dream.”

“Cassie must love to go on visits.”

“She does, but we’re so busy at the office that she rarely
gets to go. We have each other and we have Uncle Leo and Aunt Barbara.”

Jake scratched under Bob’s chin, and Bob closed his eyes to
enjoy the massage. “How did Bob end up coming home with you during your case
today?”

“We were helping Uncle Leo out on a case when we met Sam. He’s
a homeless guy who also happens to be a witness Uncle Leo desperately needed. I
convinced Sam to help the police, but he would only do it on the condition that
I take Bob and give him a good home. He didn’t think Bob would make it much
longer if he stayed on the streets.”

Jake regarded Bob’s thin sides. “I think Sam may have been
right about that.”

Emily smiled at the cat. “He’s already fattened up since I
brought him home from the vet today. The vet cleaned him up, gave him his shots,
and declared him good to go. He has a checkup next week to make sure he’s doing
well. I’m just glad he was already neutered.”

“And just like that, Bob gets a good home and you become a
responsible cat owner.”

“Do you like cats?”

Jake hesitated. “They like me.”

She grinned and swatted Jake’s arm. “That’s not an answer. Cats
always like people like us.”

“Fine,” he said. “I like
your
cat.”

Emily smiled with satisfaction. “Bob likes you, too.” She
put the cat back down on the floor and picked up their empty wine glasses off
the coffee table. “Would you like another one?”

“No, thank you,” he said, as she walked toward the kitchen. “You
go ahead.”

“You won’t think I’m a drunk if I do?”

“Never.” Bob jumped up on the couch and climbed on his lap. “You
deserve it for rescuing this cute little guy here.” Jake resumed scratching his
chin.

A minute later, Emily sauntered back into the living room
with a half-filled wine glass. “He is adorable, isn’t he?”

“He is,” Jake said. Bob walked across his lap and onto Emily’s.
“What kind of cop is your Uncle Leo?” He didn’t know where the question came
from, but the idea of her working on a case with him lingered in his mind as an
unresolved thought.

Oblivious to his concerned tone, she stroked Bob’s fur. “Lieutenant
in the Homicide Division.”

“Lieutenant in Homicide.” He remembered a press conference
he saw on the news a few days earlier. “Isn’t that a pretty important position
on the force?”

“Absolutely,” she said, her voice laced with pride.

“Lieutenant Lionel Edwards?”

Her hand slowed in traveling across Bob’s back. “Yes, that’s
him.”

“I suppose with the task force he’s heading up for the
Wichita Police Department on that serial killer case, he doesn’t have much time
for other cases.”

“How do you know what case he’s working on?”

“There was a press conference last week and he was mentioned
several times.” Jake’s stomach twisted into little knots of anxiety. “If he’s
working on the serial killer case, then what case are you working with him?”

Bob jumped off her lap, and she reached for her glass of
wine. She took a long sip without saying a word.

“No, Emily. Tell me you’re not working on that case.”

Emily shrugged. “I wish I could.”

“What memorial service did you go to Sunday?” he asked.

“I shouldn’t talk about it.”

“Em, it’s important.”

“The one for Diane Murphy, the fifth victim.”

“And where did you get Bob from today?”

“From the crime scene of the body found this morning. Sam
witnessed the killer leaving the body last night.” She twisted in her seat and
faced him. “But the body wasn’t there when we visited the crime scene, so it’s
okay.”

Panic swallowed him, and he said, “Emily, nothing about this
is okay. There’s a guy out there killing women. What if he was watching the
crime scene and saw you and Cassie there? Or what if he was at the memorial
service on Sunday? You and Cassie could have unknowingly put yourselves in
danger. Why would your Uncle Leo have either of you working on this case?”

Her eyes pleaded with Jake to understand. “The police have
nothing on the killer at all. The FBI is coming on Monday to help out, but until
then, Cassie and I agreed to take a look at things and see if we could find
anything new, and we did. We not only found a witness who saw the killer
dumping the body last night, but we got him to agree to cooperate with police.
He sat down with a sketch artist this afternoon and—”

“Emily, I don’t...” Jake paused. He knew what he wanted to
say, but he didn’t want the words to come out wrong. “Look, we’ve known each
other since Saturday night. That’s only three days, but I feel like it’s been a
lot longer than that. With you, I...I know and...and you know.” He took a deep
breath. His mind battled against everything his heart wanted to say. “I knew
the moment I saw you Saturday night.”

Emily’s teeth tugged at her bottom lip. “I knew then, too.”

“Because of that, I think I have the right to tell you that
I don’t want you anywhere near this case.”

“But Jake, just as we know with each other, it’s the same
thing with this case. I knew the minute Uncle Leo walked into our office that I
had to be involved in it.”

“No,” Jake said, shaking his head. “That means you
shouldn’t
be involved in this case. You
should run like hell and forget you ever heard about it.” His heart jumped into
his throat. He moved closer to her on the couch and gently took hold of her
arms. “I want you far away from this case. Tell your Uncle Leo that he needs to
find someone else.” The tears that she joked about him having during the movie
stung his eyes. “Please, Emily.”

The seriousness of his words touched her face with sadness.
He could tell she wanted to convince him the case wasn’t a problem, but she
remained silent. Jake had probably upset her, but he didn’t care as long as he
got his point across and she listened. The idea of her being involved with this
case in even the slightest manner terrified him beyond all understanding.

Her resolve faded before his eyes. “The FBI is coming on
Monday to help out the task force. Until then, I will only do very minimal work
on the case, I promise. Is that okay?”

It wasn’t okay, Jake thought. It wouldn’t be okay until she
was back to her cheating spouse and insurance scamming cases, but since he
couldn’t force her to stop, it would have to do for now. “I’ll check in with
you a lot more,” he said. “Now that I’m off work until Friday, I have all the
time in the world.”

“I understand, and I’m fine with that. In fact, let’s have
lunch tomorrow. I’m behind at the office so I can’t go out for long, but maybe I
can sneak away for little bit.”

“Then I’ll bring lunch to you.”

“Thank you, Jake,” she said with a smile.

He pulled her to him and circled his arms around her. She
buried her head in his shoulder and he held her tight. He wanted nothing more
than to keep her safe and provide everything she could ever want or need.
Whatever it took, he would make sure she was protected at all times. He just
hoped his instinct about her needing it was wrong.