Count on Me (Petal, Georgia) (33 page)

He looked in the envelope and pulled nothing else out. He examined the photo and sighed. “Caroline, I may have to call in some people above my pay grade.”

Caroline moved to his side and saw a picture of her. She’d been sitting at a booth with Royal at the Honey Bear. Her eyes had been scratched over with black X marks and a black line was drawn over her throat.

They’d used black ink over Royal’s clothes to make it look like a black mourning suit.

She might have fallen over if Royal hadn’t put an arm around her waist.

“Call in whoever you have to, Shane. This is fucking not okay.” Royal shook his head. He was at the end of his patience with any and all this bull. Nope. “I apologize, Holly.”

“This is an F-word situation, Royal,” Holly agreed.

“What’s going to happen now? How are you going to keep her safe?” Royal didn’t want to do anything else until they knew.

“Working on that right now. I’ve got your statement, Holly.” Shane put the envelope and the picture in two different evidence bags. “Caroline, anything you want to add?”

“I came in and I knew something was wrong because Holly had a look on her face and then Edward came out and brought me back here. You came in shortly after that.”

“Has anything else happened since the car vandalism on Friday?”

“We’ve been at home mostly and it’s been quiet. There are some new calls on the tip line I haven’t heard yet. I checked yesterday but not yet today.”

She’d held off after listening to some early on and getting upset. Most were useless. Then there were perverts and weirdos, and some hostility. Royal had encouraged her to let Justin and Ron handle it like she’d agreed to do or at the very least take a break until the following day. He worried this case would consume her, but understood her need to push until she got the job done. It was part of who she was and a big reason why he loved her.

She called Ron and he played the messages over the speakerphone.

Shane got a pad to match the one Caroline had already placed at her right hand along with her pen.

There were four more messages since they’d checked the day before. Nothing pressing but Caroline took notes on one.

Ron told them he’d just checked the email tips, and there wasn’t anything connected or even vaguely threatening but he’d contact them both if that changed.

Shane scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m going to call some people. I’m going to tell you I don’t think we’ll get much help. This is bad and I take it seriously, but there’s not enough for us to operate on the sure knowledge that this is connected to the murder. Which
I believe it is
so don’t get that stuck-out chin on my account. I’m on your side. I’m going to have that envelope and the picture printed. One of my younger officers just got back from an eight-week forensics-training program. He’s going to wet himself over all this. Pretend that’s not weird.”

“I have no weird stones to cast.” Caroline snorted. She’d been sassy when he brought her in that morning. Happy and chatty. But her spine had slumped a little and there were lines around her eyes.

“What’s your plan today?” Shane asked.

“I have three client meetings, some research to do, a few motions on the calendar later at the courthouse. Lunch sometime in there. Then home to Royal’s place. My brother is bringing pizza and
28 Days Later
over at six. Then sleep. Or as much as a certain cat will allow because he likes to sit on my chest and lick my hair. Now that is weird.”

“Spike’s just concerned for your well-being.”

“Your cat is weird.”

As the cat liked to sit in the corner facing inward and stare at a burl in the hardwood floor, he really couldn’t argue. “Whatever. You carry him around on your shoulder.”

She snickered.

Shane shook his head. “Go about your business today, Caroline, but be aware. I’ll have someone from the police department cruise by regularly during the day. Nothing’s happened out at the ranch?”

“Nothing,” Royal answered. “The house sits on high ground so it’s pretty hard to approach it without being seen. I’ve got motion-detector lights around the outside. I’ve been extra careful about locking up too.”

Shane stood. “I’m going to get on this immediately. Try not to go out alone if you can help it. Downtown Petal is busy enough during the day I think walking to and from the courthouse or to lunch is fine.”

“I’m picking her up after she gets off work.” Royal would be doing so from now on, even if he had to drive her to whatever business she might have away from town. There’d be spats, which was fine. It helped her to work through her frustration on him, and it made for super hot make-up sex too.

She shot him a look but didn’t say anything. But he knew it would come out later. His lovely Caro was chafing under all these controls in her life.

“You’ll keep me apprised?” She rose and they walked with Shane to the outer door.

“Of course.” Shane’s attention snapped to his father, who walked out to join them. “I need the tape of the footage from the hallway.”

“There’s a camera here?”

“There is, yes. Actually there are three. However they’re offline for a week. Some part or other burned out and it’s on order. It’s legitimate. It won’t be back on until next Tuesday.”

“Convenient.” Shane looked annoyed.

“These folks have been doing the security cameras here for us for six years now.” Edward sighed.

“Doesn’t mean it’s not on a schedule somewhere. Or someone’s brother/boyfriend/neighbor whatever relayed the info without meaning to. You’d be surprised.” Shane made a note. “I’ll check on that.” He looked up at Caroline. “I’m going to get this straight, you got me? I don’t like people who threaten women.” His expression darkened, and Royal remembered Shane’s wife had been repeatedly stalked, attacked and nearly killed by an ex so he had a hot button on this issue.

Caroline blew out a breath. “Okay. Thank you.”

Shane said goodbye to his father and left.

“You need to go to work.” She looked up at him, her mouth set in a way that told him she wasn’t going to hear any answer but yes.

But he wasn’t sure he should give it to her.

“What’s your schedule today? Do you have to be out a lot?”

“Come into my office, please.”

Holly gave him a sympathetic look as they passed by.

She closed her door. “Look, I understand you’re feeling worried.
I’m
worried, believe me. I take my life very seriously. But I really can’t have you hanging around here all day on the off-chance something will happen and you can stop it or save me or whatever. You have a ranch to run. You took all of yesterday off and it’s spring. Go. I mean it. I’ll see you at quitting time.”

“Caroline…”

“What? Come on, Royal. If I can’t walk around in broad daylight in downtown Petal or be in my office, I may as well just give up. I don’t want to give up. This guy has stolen enough from me. I’m a badass! I can’t be badass with you loping around looking all sexy and wholesome at the same time. I’ll be distracted and you’ll be distracting just because you’re you and then I’ll be annoyed and you’ll be hurt that I’m annoyed because you’re just being nice. Which you are. And I appreciate it. But you have to go. I’ll see you at five thirty, and if I need anything, or anything else comes up, I’ll contact you immediately. I’m not stupid.”

“No of course you’re not stupid. But you’re fun sized. And this guy could be Shane’s size or bigger.” He touched her cheek briefly. “You
are
badass. Without a doubt. But you’re fragile too. Going to be impossible to get anything done today knowing you’re here without me.”

“He’s a coward. He’s not going to put himself in harm’s way. He’ll come at me again, but it won’t be as I’m walking three blocks up to the courthouse. This isn’t over. I know that’s not a statement you’re comforted by and I understand. But until we figure out who this is, he’ll be out there and threatened. We have to hold on until it’s finished. I’m sure this isn’t the way you imagined falling in love with someone. I come with a metric shitton of baggage.”

“You think I care about that? Scratch that. I
do
care but not like you think. It makes you who you are. Since I love who you are, it’s just a fact that it’s something we’ll get through together.” He kissed her nose so he wouldn’t smudge her lipstick. “I’ll go. But, please, if there’s a problem and you can’t reach me, call my aunt and uncle and they’ll come find me. Promise.”

“That’s fair.”

He hugged her and left her to her day, which looked to be incredibly busy, and she supposed that was a good thing because it kept her from obsessing or freaking out.

Chapter Twenty

Shep came in with the pizza and a smile. Caroline led him through the house to the kitchen where Royal was feeding Spike.

“Hey, Royal.”

“Shep. How’s it going?”

“Well, I would have liked to know you got a death threat today.” Shep gave her a face and she sighed.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have found a way to tell you. I wanted it to be in person, and I didn’t want to go to the high school or the house. Silly when Petal is lightning fast with gossip. I’ll tell you everything once we get settled.”

Royal washed his hands and pointed at the paper plates. “You two should eat.”

“You’re not staying?” Shep asked Royal.

“I know this is your time with your sister. I just wanted to be out of the way.”

Shep snorted. “She’s my annoying sister, but since you’re her boyfriend and she’s living with you and all, I suppose getting to know you better is a good thing.”

Caroline grinned. “See? I told you.” She opened the pizza box and hummed happily. “Yay, pizza. I need to drown my troubles in melted cheese and carbs.”

They loaded up and moved to the couch. She told Shep about all the threats and what the authorities were doing to help. He shook his head, clearly worried, but she assured him she was fine and everyone was keeping her safe.

“How can anyone deny our mom wasn’t killed by our dad at this point? Clearly this is related to the murder and your reaching out for tips in the media. The person who did it is going to do all he can to shut you up. I don’t want you to end up like her.”

Caroline swallowed hard. “I don’t want that either. I’m being as safe as I can without totally up and leaving town or traveling with armed guards. So, you believe me then? About Dad?”

He was clearly upset, but he was also a seventeen-year-old boy so he wolfed down five pieces of pizza before elaborating.

“I read everything you gave me. I did a lot of soul searching. I talked to Mr. Chase. He told me I could if I ever wanted to so I did and he’s pretty cool. He thinks you’re pretty awesome, you know?”

“Which Mr. Chase?”

“Oh yeah, whoops. Edward. I see them at church pretty often. When you first moved back, he told me if I ever wanted to talk about it he’d be happy to. I think he told Mindy that too. But.”

It hurt a great deal to imagine this distance between herself and her sister would last any length of time. She’d come to Petal to get closer and she’d finally managed to totally estrange her grandparents. She still spoke to Mindy but with Garrett crowing all over the place about how horrible Caroline was, it was uncomfortable.

“Well, do you have questions or anything?”

“Just how can I help? I feel…guilty maybe? Bad. Sad. Angry. Resentful. I’m sorry you have done this on your own all this time. I’m sorry Grandma and Grandpa are so blind to this that they’ve pushed you out of the family. Maybe a little jealous that you had them as parents all those years and I never really did.”

Caroline hugged him, kissing his cheek. “You get to feel how you feel. But I’m not mad and they wouldn’t have been mad at you either. You know what you’re told. And they never told you anything but this one thing. How could you have done anything else?”

“You did.”

“I’m fourteen years older than you. You were two when this happened. I was nearly sixteen. There’s a world of difference there. And you know, it sucks that Grandma and Grandpa are being closed off right now, but you have so much more family than you really know. They’ve wanted to see you since the murder.”

His chin jutted out just like their mother used to do, and it made her smile even as it made her sad. “Yeah? Well where have they been then?”

“They tried to see you guys, but Grandma and Grandpa fought them so hard they were worried it would hurt you worse.”

“Grandma told me they didn’t care to see us if we didn’t believe in his innocence.”

“I’m walking a really fine line, Shep. For all intents and purpose here, you’re their son.” She wanted him to know, but this was complicated and she needed to step carefully.

“I’m nearly an adult! You’re my sister. They were my parents. I deserve to know the whole truth. Why would they lie? Why would they push you and our other family away? I don’t get it.”

“Our grandparents loved our mother very much. This is a fact and I will never say otherwise. She was their golden light. A homecoming queen. She was prom queen and you know all that. Popular. Beautiful. Super smart. And here comes this guy. Our dad wasn’t any of that stuff. Well scratch that, he was really smart. He went to UCLA and graduated near the top of his class. And he came here the summer after he got his degree and ended up working at the railroad depot. He was quiet. He worked really hard and he kept his head down, but when he met Mom, nothing could keep them apart. She brought home not the captain of the football team. Not the nice boy from church. But Enrique Mendoza.”