Deep Into The Night (Hartz Island Series) (10 page)

Chapter Fourteen

J
ack pulled in next to the house and parked. “Gather some things in case we don’t make it back here tonight. I just want to get this stuff washed off, and then I’ll be ready to go.”

“If we’re not here, where would we be?”

“My place in Seattle.”

“Oh.”

His place in Seattle. She had no idea where that might be. In fact, she had very little knowledge of Jack’s life now. Cassie followed him into the house and headed upstairs to remove her disguise. When she finished, she took her small duffel, stuffed it with the few things she owned, and returned to the kitchen. Jack had his head under the kitchen faucet, scrubbing his hair with bar soap. He rinsed off, and then toweled his hair and turned to her.

“Where’s your stuff?”

She held up the bag.

“That’s all you have?”

Cassie nodded. She didn’t even want to guess what he was thinking.

“Do you have anything to read or do while I’m busy?”

Without bothering to answer, she went in search of a book. Her mom had always kept a box full of paperbacks in the storage closet under the stairs. Now with lights, it was easy to see everything in the closet. One of the walls now had shelves filled with books, puzzles, games, and photo albums. Cassie recognized the photo albums from her parent’s home in Bellevue. Mike had brought them up here. She reached for an album and opened it. Her grandmother as a young woman stared back at her. Some of her best memories of her childhood were spent with her grandmother.

“You look like her,” said Jack, peering over her shoulder.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded her head. “It’s my Irish grandmother. I wish I was more like her. She was a force to be reckoned with.”

He grinned. “And you’re not?”

She looked at him to see if he was making fun of her. He might have been grinning, but his eyes were serious.

“Believe it or not, when you were a teenager, you scared the bejesus out of me.”

Astonished, she stared at him.

“You still have it, just find it.” He waited until she put the album back and found a book before turning out the light. “We need to get going so we don’t miss the ferry. If you’re hungry, we can get a snack on the ferry or wait until we get to Anacortes.”

Jack locked the doors behind Cassie and joined her in the truck.

He stopped at the end of their drive.

“I know, I know. By the way, how long do I have to do this?” She ducked down.

“Until I nail the asshole.”

“When is that going to be?”

“Soon, I hope.”

During the thirty minute ride to the ferry terminal, Cassie stared out the window and thought about Jack’s comment. Alexa had made a similar one to her. Her grandmother would never have allowed herself to get into this situation. If it took scrubbing floors to stay independent, Gran would have. And that was the difference. Cassie had wanted the easy way out. She had become so self-absorbed that she was clueless to what was happening around her and to her.

The ferry had just docked.
How different it looks during the day than last night
, thought Cassie. Last night it seemed spooky because of all the tall evergreens and firs. The last car exited, and then they were waved on, directed to the right, parking up front with the best view. Going eastbound, the ferry stopped at one other island before Anacortes, which allowed enough time to get a drink or snack.

“Are you hungry?” Jack asked.

“I am, but I can wait. Coffee sounds good though. What about you?”

“Coffee does sound good.” His smartphone dinged. “I need to check my messages first.”

“Then I’m going to go ahead and go on up, if that’s okay with you?”

He nodded to Cassie with his cellphone to his ear. She grabbed her purse and headed to the upper deck.

Jack’s first message was from his FBI source updating him on Sergei Koslov and any persons of interest attached to that case. So far, Cassie was still in the clear, which was good because Jack didn’t want to have to arrest her. The second message was from Kip, saying to call him, which he did. Kip had put some feelers out to his sources in Los Angeles about Cassie, and one of them had gotten back to him.

“Jack, evidently Cassie took something of value from that Russian, and he wants it back. No one is saying what it is, but my source said she needs to be worried.”

“Ah, shit. What could she possibly have? She showed up with nothing but a few clothes. Not even a cellphone. How worried?”

“Extremely.”

“Ah, hell.”

“I’ll keep digging.”

“Thanks. I’ll see what I can find out from her.”

In one sense, Jack wanted to storm up to the ferry deck and demand she tell him what the hell was going on, but he also knew that would cause her to clam up. He saw fear in her eyes when he said he was staying behind and not walking the beach.

Jack headed to the upper deck and found her on the outside rail, staring out. He noticed she’d been doing that a lot. Even though her hair had been tied in a ponytail, the breeze had loosened much of it and curled it around like licorice curls, one of his favorite treats.

“Hey, Cass.”

She turned, and smiled. All the licorice curls blew around her face. “Did you get some coffee?”

“No, I was waiting for you.”

“Let’s go inside and sit. It’s chilly out here.”

Jack pointed to a table near the windows, away from people, and started to walk toward it.

“Wait, Jack.”

He stopped.

“I’m buying. How do you like your coffee?” she asked.

Taken aback, he paused, and then replied, “This seems like a two sugars and cream sort of day. If they have flavored creamers, pick out Irish Crème.”

Now he had to be a butt and try to get personal information from a woman buying him coffee with gorgeous licorice curls for hair. Cassie returned with a handful of flavored creamers, including Irish Crème. They both took their time prepping their coffee, then sipping away. The silence between them was filled with the sounds of the ferry chugging along.

In unison, they both said the other’s name, and then chuckled.

“Ladies first.”

“I don’t know anything about you now, if you are married, have kids, or anything.”

“No and no.” He grinned. “Not that I’m aware of.”

She smiled faintly at his humor. “Have you ever been married?”

“No. I was engaged twice, but she called one off, and I called the other off.”

“Oh. Why?”

“I suppose it’s the nature of my work. I was gone a lot. What about you?”

She took her time answering. “No. I was very caught up on being an actress and all the trappings.” She shrugged and glanced away but then looked at him square in the eye. He swore he saw a glint of anger from the old Cassie days. “Do you know there’s a classification in Hollywood? I’m not even a B-grade actress.”

“I saw you on your series. I thought you were pretty good.”

“Oh, right. Now you’re being patronizing.”

“No, no, I’m not. I don’t know anything about this stuff, but I thought you were good.”

“Thank you.”

“What about the man you were living with? What happened there?” Oddly, he really wanted to know.

She bit her lip and concentrated on her coffee. Jack sensed she was trying to sort through it. He knew he judged people to a higher standard, and this could be one of those times. Bob and Marie Ryan had raised their children with moral fiber, so he wondered how she justified it all.

“Half the job in Hollywood is being seen. You need to go to the top nightclubs, be at the best parties, wear the right clothes. I had a few commercials, got my hair gig, and then landed my daytime series, but still I was never considered hot, where your agent has so many offers they don’t know what to do. But I kept trying. After Mom and Dad died, I just fell apart.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. After a few moments, she looked at Jack and shrugged, but then bit her lip. He had an idea of what she was thinking about and nodded his head.

“Dad had leveraged everything, including our home in Bellevue. But no one knew, not even Mike. Payroll had always been met. The morning after the funeral, the nightmare started unfolding. Marliss had gone on home to sleep, but Mike had stayed with me at the house. At seven in the morning, the doorbell just kept ringing. Mike came and got me out of bed and told me to get dressed in a hurry. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. My mother’s Mercedes Benz was being repossessed. Mike didn’t want the neighbors to see, so he drove it out and I followed in his car. My parent’s cars had been leased, and no payments had been made for some time. Dad’s was totaled from the accident, so they came for Mom’s. From then on, it just got worse. Without my dad and his wheeling and dealing, the construction company couldn’t go on. The creditors were like piranhas. Everything was liquidated. At that point, Mike just wanted to save my parent’s reputation.”

“I knew it had been bad, but you still had the island house.”

“Only because a trust had been created years ago for the island house and the two rentals Dad and Mom had. Dad put my name and Mike’s on the trust as a protection in case he went belly-up. Trust me, the creditors and bankers tried to get it all.”

“So you were twenty-eight and everything you knew and the life you’d been raised with was taken away from you. And with it, your parents.”

Cassie didn’t speak, just nodded, and wiped away a tear. Jack left and returned with fresh coffee.

“Tell me the rest,” he said quietly.

“Money was tight, but I didn’t quit. One of the guys who lived in my apartment building worked as a doorman at one of the hottest clubs, and he’d let me in for free, otherwise I couldn’t get in.”

“Why not?” If she’d stood at his nightclub, he’d let her in in a heartbeat.

“One, I didn’t have the money to go clubbing. Two, I wasn’t on the A list. I didn’t party hard, didn’t have sex with the world, wasn’t in any major movies. These guys at the front are paid to know. The club where my friend Scott worked was where Sergei and his pals hung out. Scott warned me about Sergei, but I thought he was mysterious and intriguing. I was thirty-three, and I just wanted someone to care about me. When Sergei found out I was good friends with an international bank owner’s wife in Beverly Hills, that sealed the deal and I never knew it.” Crossing her arms, she shook her head gently, looking away. “I must have been…the most…” She shrugged, and sighed. “I missed my mom and dad so much that I mistook it all for something that it wasn’t.” Her voice had dropped to a whisper, and she blinked her eyes quickly.

Jack concentrated on staying neutral, but his gut was seething.

“So he used you to get to the next hierarchy up. Your friend entertained, you were included, and since he was your boyfriend, it was a done deal. The guy had money, but you had class and legitimacy. You were his ticket in to a world he wanted.” He raised his brows and took a sip of coffee, watching her. “And you never knew what he did?”

“In the beginning, I was clueless, but then I heard rumors. In the end, I didn’t want to know.”

“Why didn’t you leave?”

“It’s not that easy.” She shifted around in her chair and cast her eyes downward. Jack knew he was asking some tough questions. “I tried once, but he…threatened me.”

“You could have called Mike.”

“I was too embarrassed. Besides, if I’d called Mike, he would have called you and then you would have had to rescue my butt—again.” She glanced up at him and faintly smiled. So she did remember that time. “But an opportunity presented itself and I left.”

“A quick exit.”

“Yep. I grabbed a few things and I was out of there.”

So they still had a cat and mouse game going. No one was admitting to being in the house with the FBI. “Who knows you’re here?”

“No one.” She looked at him, and he held her gaze. “I never spoke of the island to anyone, not even my best friend.”

“Keep it that way.”

The chugging of the ferry engine slowed, signaling their next stop. After that, it would be Anacortes. They refilled their Styrofoam cups and headed to Jack’s truck. He preferred the warmth of the truck cab. Cassie stood at the rail watching the water, her hair blowing in the wind. It’d taken an enormous restraint not to show his anger over what happened to her. At this point, he was certain Cassie had been the maid he’d interrogated.
B actress my ass
.

Koslov might have threatened her, but he’d also hit her. In his book, it was payback time. He didn’t care who it was, nobody deserved that treatment. As his mother would say, “Do onto others as you would like them to do onto you.”
Well, let’s just see how you like getting your lights punched out, dirtbag
.

Chapter Fifteen

T
hey grabbed burgers in town and then headed back to the ferry terminal office to view the closed-circuit TV of the ferry traffic from the day before. The Washington State Department of Transportation offered Ferry Cams for a quick way for ferry users to view real time traffic and the back-ups. WSDOT had Ferry Cams at all the major terminals, which made Jack’s job easy. He also requested the camera footage of boarding cars and passengers.

“Do you need my help?” Cassie asked.

“No, but thanks. At this point, I’m not sure what I’m looking for.”

Cassie pulled out her book and thumbed through it. Jack started viewing the afternoon ferry traffic. He scanned through the footage until he spotted a stalled pick-up truck. He zoomed in and then spotted his truck passing it. Did she not think it odd he hadn’t quizzed her how she’d gotten to the island?

“Hey, Cass, can you look at this?”

She leaned over his shoulder and watched him click through each screen, updating every five seconds. She sucked in her breath. A very clear picture of Cassie Ryan leaning against an old pick-up truck looking forlorn dominated the screen.

“What happened to your truck?”

“It died.”

“I can see that. Where is it now?”

“It was towed to a place here in town. I’m supposed to call them or something.”

Jack rubbed his forehead and decided it was not the time to quiz her about the truck—or much else for that matter. The expression on her face matched the screen. “No problem. We can stop after we’re done here. You do know the name?”

“Yes. Look, do you mind if I sit here next to you? I can’t concentrate on my book.”

“Not at all.”

She pulled up a chair next to him. They viewed screen by screen, with Jack jumping over to the footage of the road coming into the loading area and then each vehicle driving on.

“It would help if you tell me what you’re looking for.”

He hesitated for a moment, but realized she had a valid point. Two sets of eyes were better than one. “I’m hoping to spot the two men that were in the photo and on the ferry with you. Who dropped them off?”

“Why didn’t you say so? You’re doing this all wrong. Keep it zoomed out so we can see where someone might make a U-turn sort of thing.”

Taken aback, he highlighted areas on the screen and tried to enlarge them. Cassie sighed over and over, which he found distracting.

“Would you just let me do it?”

“Have at it.” He threw up his arms and switched places with her.

Her fingers moved fast over the keyboard, clicking, double clicking, and zooming in and out. He was in awe.

“We need to look for a white van.”

“Why white?”

“Because in the movies, it’s always a white van or a black one.”

He smiled at her logic.

If they weren’t looking, they would have missed the little spec of white in the corner. Enlarged, they barely saw a van stopped on the shoulder. Clicking through the next sequences, the van pulled back into traffic, leaving two people walking down the road.

“I’ll be damned. I would have missed that. Can you get a license plate number?”

Cassie tried everything but couldn’t. Using Ferry Cam, she displayed the holding area for Anacortes. “I don’t know about you, but I see a lot of vans waiting to get on the ferry. Not all of them are in line for Hartz Island. Some are headed directly to Friday Harbor. Maybe we need to watch the footage of the vehicles loading specifically for the Hartz run.”

“Yes, but we also need to watch for Friday Harbor, too. I want the license plate of every van boarding the ferry at this time.”

When they were finished, they had counted and recorded twelve light-colored vans and printed the photo of the men boarding the ferry.

He nudged her with his elbow. “You’re a real natural at the computer.”

“Thanks.”

It mattered that he didn’t think her a complete loser. She smiled up at him. A look she could not decipher had settled in his eyes—very intent, almost guarded. Something about it all caused her pulse to skyrocket and her body got hot.

Finally, she said, “It helps having a computer whiz for a brother.”

He cleared his throat and got up quickly from his chair. “Let’s go find your truck. It’s getting late.”

If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he wanted to kiss her.

Cassie gave Jack the card from the tow truck driver, and he tapped in the address on the Tahoe’s GPS. The routing showed less than three miles to the repair garage. Not far from where they got burgers.

Jack started quizzing her on what she thought was wrong with the truck. Playing ignorance, knowing she’d run out of oil, made it a long three miles. Her truck was parked in the front. Jack pulled in next to it and stared. Cassie saw the surprise on his face, but then he hid it.

“Is that your truck?”

Cassie wanted to say
duh, it’s the only one with California plates
but instead nodded. Old Blue looked tired and worn out, kind of how she felt.

“And you drove that up from L.A.?”

“Yes.”

“I’m impressed.”

There was a lot she wanted to add to his comment but remained silent and hopped out of the Tahoe. Jack followed her into the office. At this point, she was pretty sure he had several questions, none she wanted to answer. The tow truck driver from yesterday stood at the counter studying a clipboard. He looked up and smiled.

“Perfect timing,” he said. “I just did a quick look at the truck and wondered how to get a hold of you.”

“What did you find out?” Her stomach clenched. She was clueless to what these sorts of things cost.

“You have a couple of options: sell the truck the way it is, basically junk it, or put in a used engine. The question is: what’s it worth to you?”

For just a moment, she closed her eyes and sucked in her breath. It had been her fault, she’d caused this. “What would a used engine cost?”

“I just did a quick Internet search and found an ’85 F-150 for just under six hundred dollars. Plus labor, you’re looking around nineteen hundred.”

She stared at him.

He cleared his throat. “A cash discount would bring it down…”

“I need to crunch some numbers.” He might as well have said a million dollars. “Can I call you…tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Or even the next day, or the day after.”

She could tell by the sympathetic look he felt bad, but business was business. Jack handed her his truck keys. She beelined out before she made a fool of herself crying.

She heard him open the door and climb in but kept her head down, braced on her arms against the dashboard. “It’s my entire fault,” she mumbled. “If I would have just listened, none of this would have happened. Everybody warned me, even José.” The thought of José unleashed her emotions into body jerking sobs. “Blue deserves better than this.” She wiped her nose with her back hand. The tears started again. “You have no idea. If it wasn’t for this truck…this truck…I’ve let everyone that matters down. Even Old Blue.”