Cage (The K9 Files #27)

Chapter 6

R isa stayed hidden behind the curtain for the next twenty minutes, hoping against hope that Cage would get here sooner than later. She didn’t know what the hell this guy wanted, who he even was, or why he decided on her place as some place to sit and to pry into, but it was unnerving to say the least. When she’d seen the face in her window, she’d screamed out loud, and he had disappeared. She thought maybe he was gone for good, but, as she peered out the windows, she’d seen someone sneaking around the back.

She was on the second floor and that alone should have been enough of a deterrent, which is why she’d chosen a second-floor unit in the first place. But she also knew that plenty of guys could get in and out of apartment buildings without any trouble. Considering that she’d already had somebody knocking on her door earlier, only to find nobody there when she’d opened the door, was enough to unnerve her all over again.

When her phone buzzed with a text, she recognized it as Cage, reporting that he was outside and heading up. Clearly he was trying to prevent her from freaking out when he knocked on the door. She let out her pent-up breath slowly as she waited nervously for him to come. She felt such a sense of relief that he was here, but he wasn’t here, not yet, and that was the part that would drive her nuts until he arrived.

As soon as the doorbell rang, she headed over and called out, “Who is it?”

“It’s Cage,” he replied loudly. She quickly opened up her door and threw herself into his arms. He held her close, nudging her inside, so he could close her door again. “Hey,” he whispered. “It’s okay. Just hold tight.”

He got the door locked again and then pulled her to the couch, sat down, and just held her. She wasn’t crying, but apparently she was mumbling something, generally sounding like an idiot. Embarrassed and yet too relieved to care, she pulled back, looked up at him, and whispered, “Oh God, I am so relieved you are here.”

“Did you recognize him?”

She shook her head. “No, I didn’t, and he didn’t have a mask on, but he was looking directly in my windows.”

Cage frowned at that, looking over at the windows. “Are you okay if I go out and take a look?” She clutched him tighter, and he frowned. “I do need to check, to confirm somebody isn’t out there.”

“But what if he is out there?” she asked. “What if he goes after you?”

He smiled. “That would be okay by me. I haven’t had a workout since I left home.”

She stared at him and shook her head. “No, no, no, you can’t go out there and fight him.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t planning on fighting him,” Cage clarified, “but bringing him in and calling the cops while I hold him in place? That’s a different story.”

“Call them about what? You know how weak the laws are these days. A Peeping Tom basically gets a slap on the wrist for a first-time offense, if they even bother with that. Then they just leave him to continue on and to terrorize us some more.”

“Which is why they do it,” Cage agreed with a nod, “but that doesn’t mean they get to continue. We also have to figure out whether this is deliberate or random.”

“God, I don’t even want to think about it being deliberate.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s any nicer to think it’s random either,” he noted. “We just need to know who it is and put a stop to it. So, I want you to sit here quietly, and I promise I’ll be back in a few minutes.” With that, he got up and headed to the front door and whispered to her, right behind him, “Lock it behind me.”

She nodded and slammed it shut. She hated to even send him out there, but he was also adamant that he would go, so what else was she supposed to do?

She groaned as she walked over to the window and kept an eye on what was going on outside, but she still remained hidden. That was about the only way she would keep an eye on anything out there. It was so damn scary.

On the other hand, not being able to see anything also was unnerving, so she kept looking and pulling back, then looking again and feeling like a fool. When Cage texted to say he was coming back in, she raced to the door, then waited and let him in. “Did you see anything?” she asked.

“No, nothing obvious, and nobody is out there now,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean they weren’t there before or that they won’t come back,” he stated calmly. She gasped at that. He looked at her, then shrugged. “It all depends on what he’s after,” he pointed out, “and what he found. It makes a difference as to whether he’ll also be here because it’s a targeted attempt to find out who’s living here or if somebody already knows that it’s you.”

Risa shook her head in panic. “God, that’s very unnerving.”

“Did you see a face?”

She nodded. “Why?”

“Well, because you’re on the second floor,” he pointed out gently.

“I know. I understand that, and I know it sounds foolish, but, yes, it was a face in my window,” she declared. “And my balcony is right next to the one beside me.”

He headed to the balcony and turned on the light, then stepped outside and nodded. “A fire escape is right along the corner too, so it wouldn’t take too much to come up here. Interesting design.”

“Yeah, not such a great design as far as I’m concerned,” she muttered. “I mean, if they can come right up here, what’s the point of being on the second floor?”

He nodded slowly, as he studied the area. “And it would appear that he could because I don’t see any great hindrance to anybody who’ll persevere and who is reasonably fit,” he added, as he stared at the configuration of balconies. “It wouldn’t take all that much to climb up.”

“ Great ,” she muttered, “that’s not helpful.”

“Maybe not, but it is definitely something we can’t discount,” he noted, turning to her.

“Where are you staying anyway?”

“A block away from the house where Brian’s family used to live,” he shared, looking over at her. “That was deliberate on my part.”

“I didn’t realize you were there, so close by.”

“I wanted to keep an eye on it, just to see what was going on in the area, if anything is,” he noted. “The fact that somebody says Brian’s parents were murdered and that the police are keeping an eye on the house too, it just seemed like I should be closer.”

“Right.” She gave a headshake. “Somehow it never occurred to me that you would want to be closer.”

He smiled. “It’s not so much wanting to be closer, but wanting to get to the bottom of this.”

“You don’t think the dog is still running around free, do you?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Yet it’s possible. They certainly come back to what they know, and, if Scotty was in a place where he was happy or where he was desperate to come back and find Brian, Scotty could easily be returning to Brian’s former home.”

“It’s been months though, hasn’t it?” she pointed out.

He gave her a ghost of a smile. “Well, a month at best,” he replied. “Yet, just like many animals, they can be very persistent in trying to sort out where their family has gone. So, I won’t give up on the dog yet. If he’s in a good home, and he’s happy, and he has somehow found some peace with the fact that the little boy may be gone, or at least gone from his control, that’s a whole different story.”

She nodded. “The dog could be in another home and quite happy.”

“I’ve made several phone calls to the shelter that supposedly was called to take him, but nobody’s answered yet.”

“And don’t tell me that you go out wandering at nighttime, looking for him.”

“Yes,” he noted, with a smile, “I did go out looking.”

Frowning, she stared at him. “You know it’s dangerous.”

He burst out laughing. “The thing is, it’s dangerous no matter where you go. I’m not exactly a choir boy, and I have quite a bit of military training,” he reminded her, shaking his head. “So, yes, in a way, it’s dangerous, but it’s not necessarily any more dangerous than anything else I do.”

She shook her head. “Men are just very different creatures.”

He chuckled. “That we are. Now, why don’t you go back to bed, and I’ll stay on the couch and confirm you’re safe for the night.”

She stared up at him. “The trouble is,… the night doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“Then maybe we need to look at moving you to a safer place,” he suggested. “You have the right to feel safe in your own home.”

She glanced at the window and shuddered.

He added, “Go on. It’s fine. Get some sleep, and we’ll talk tomorrow morning.”

She nodded and slowly made her way back to her bedroom. It was terrible to feel so grateful that he was here. However, she had been unhappy and so seriously worried that it was hard to even imagine that she would drop off to sleep again. But it seemed as if she had absolutely no problem, once she realized that he intended to stay and fell into a deep, sound sleep.

When she woke up early the next morning, she instantly remembered and bolted from her bed, racing into the living room. There she found Cage up and about, already talking on the phone, fully dressed and sipping coffee. It took her a moment to reassess just where she was at and then grabbed herself a cup of coffee from the pot, as she sat down on the couch and waited for him to get off the phone.

She wasn’t sure whether it was his boss or somebody else Cage was talking to, but the discussion was a serious conversation. When he finished the call, she looked over at him. “Problems?”

“Not necessarily but nobody seems to know where Scotty is. The shelter admits that they brought him in, but he disappeared almost immediately. They tried to hide it, unsure if it would be a problem or not. Seems it’s a small shelter and not very sophisticated, not very well equipped or very well staffed. They had been told it was a War Dog because Brian told anyone who would listen, but they hadn’t really believed him. The chip, however, confirmed it.”

“So how did they lose him?”

“They apparently had the dog out for some exercise, just a walk around the block, and he got away from them and took off. They haven’t seen or heard anything of him since.”

“Any chance he’s still hanging around?”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Cage replied, staring off in the distance.

She watched him, realizing the wheels were turning in his head. However, he just wasn’t quite ready to tell her. “I can see that something’s going on in your brain.”

He smiled at her. “It’s not so much that something’s going on. It’s just that Scotty has limited options.”

“I know, and that worries me.”

“Worries for his sake, or worries for Brian’s sake?”

“Both. I love animals. You know that.”

He nodded. “Jason called too, and I gave him an update on what I was doing. He was pretty outraged at the little boy’s plight.”

“Of course he would be,” Risa replied gently “If anybody could understand where Brian was at, it would be Jason.”

“I can imagine it myself to some degree, and I don’t have the same physical limitations that he has. And frankly Jason doesn’t have very many,” he stated, looking at her. “Obviously there are some, but he has done phenomenally well.”

“I’m really glad,” she said. “Every time I see him, he blows me away—if for no other reason than he’s just so positive and happy.”

“He also has a girlfriend. Did I tell you that?”

She smiled at him and then shook her head. “You didn’t tell me that, but good for him and good for her. Not necessarily an easy role, but not a hard one either, once you’re all in.”

“I think that’s the trick, the all-in part,” Cage declared, with a smile. “Of course you’ll be happy to hear that Jason also adamantly demanded that I bring Brian home.”

“What do you mean by home?”

“Really, you have no idea?” he asked, with a laugh. “My brother thinks we would make great foster parents.”

“Will they let you?”

“I have no idea.” Cage had to chuckle at the thought. “I can’t see that it’s even something we could contemplate, just because of our lifestyles. And surely Social Services would want somebody employed full-time. They certainly wouldn’t consider a sixteen-year-old as an adult for purposes of adopting or fostering. So it would have to be me.” He rolled his eyes. “That’s a whole different commitment too.”

“Of course it is,” she agreed, staring at him, “but it does say an awful lot about Jason.”

“What it says is that he feels as if Brian would have a much better life if he were around Jason, so Brian could get support and could see the possibilities.”

“I won’t argue that, but I think it would be the same for anybody with the same experiences as Jason.”

“Exactly, and so, in his mind, it’s why not him . I also told him that I ran into you.”

“What did he say to that?” she asked hesitantly.

“I think he was happy. He basically told me, It’s about time .”

She winced. “Yeah, and who knew? I just carried on with my world after the initial hurt had died down. I didn’t really let myself think about it. I just went and got an education.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Cage said, “because that is the best answer. When you don’t know what’s going on, and you don’t have anything else for answers, you should just pick up and carry on,” he shared. “So that was the right thing to do.”

“I should have tried to reach you,” she replied, “but I didn’t. I didn’t trust you enough, and I should have.”

“No need to rehash any of that,” Cage noted, with a smile. “We’re already past that.”

“Maybe, but I do have to examine who and what I was and why that was an okay thing to do. I had no reason not to contact you, except that you didn’t contact me,” she shared, with a shrug, “and that feels very selfish.”

“Or very immature or very insecure. Pick a word, but really, does it matter?”

She frowned. “It should matter.”

“No, it shouldn’t,” he countered. “Just because we all have traumas in our past doesn’t mean we need to relive them in order to let them go.… Just decide to let them go. We don’t have to go through that pain twice. Nobody says that we have to torture ourselves to redeem ourselves. We just move on knowing that, next time, we’ll do the best we can to not end up in the same situation.” She stared at him, her mouth hanging open. He laughed. “Yes, I’ve gone through therapy, lots of it.” He rolled his eyes. “In case you couldn’t tell.”

“Yes, I can tell,… and it looks pretty good on you.”

He smiled at that. “Good.”

“So now what? You can’t go to the shelter because they don’t have the dog, and they have no records of the dog?”

“They have records of it, but they don’t have any follow-up as to what happened to it. The guy I spoke to was gonna send me a copy of what he had in an email, but I haven’t got that yet.”

“Do you trust him?”

“No, trust is a tough one for something like this, but do I believe him. I would like to think that somebody there would tell us the truth, but, if somebody did something that hurt Scotty or if the way they lost him was grossly negligent or if in any way they feel as if they’ll get charged or in trouble over it, I expect they will all lie,” he admitted, with a smile in her direction. “It’s human nature to protect ourselves.”

“Well, it sucks,” she declared, “because people need answers, particularly one little boy.”

Cage glanced over at Risa. “I’ll need to leave.” And he walked over, pulled her into his arms, and gave her a big hug. With a gentle kiss, he asked, “Will you be okay?”

“I want to come with you,” she said, and he stopped and frowned. She shook her head, then gave him a small smile. “I’ve got the day off,… several days off, and I would like to come.”

“It could be bad.”

“I know it could be bad,” she replied, “but, if you’re looking for a dog and if we’re trying to help a little boy, I want to help. Besides, I want to take you out for breakfast.”

He rolled his eyes at that. “I want to do a walk around the property first.”

“Good enough. We might even see Celine.”

“Maybe,” he said reluctantly.

“It’s a good idea, and you should be happy.”

He gave a bark of laughter. “I’m always happy to spend time with you,” he muttered. “It wasn’t why I came to town, but…”

“I know it wasn’t,” she noted. “I still think it’s a good idea though. Besides, we only have a few days. You’re here for however long and then you’re gone.”

He nodded, and that didn’t make her feel any better.

Risa and Cage stopped off at one of the little breakfast places and had a quick meal. “You weren’t very hungry?” she asked him, as they got back outside.

“No, I’m still pretty full from last night.”

She nodded. “You’re also walking with a bit of a limp this morning.”

He glanced at her and shrugged. “I didn’t take off my prosthetic last night, so it’s a little sore.”

She stopped and stared at him. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think of that.”

“Not yours to think about,” he muttered. “That’s on me.”

Risa shook her head. “You were a guest at my house, and you came over to help me. Plus, I am a physical therapist. The least I could have done was offered you a little more care than that.”

He shrugged. “I don’t need more care.”

There was the slightest bite to his tone, yet she understood it. Nobody really wanted to have their disability discussed like this. She frowned at him.

He raised his hand. “I’m fine. I just need to take it off tonight and spend some time without it to give my leg a bit of a break.”

“Fine,” she muttered, “be stubborn.”

He laughed. “I will be just as stubborn as I’ve always been.”

“ Great . I’d forgotten that side of you.”

“I’m sure you’ll remember it soon enough,” he quipped. They walked up the sidewalk, and he stopped, turned, and looked around several times.

“What is it you’re looking for?” she asked curiously.

He frowned, then shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. I’m just looking.” As they got closer to the front door of Brian’s former home, Cage thought he heard a dog in the distance. He stopped again, his ears keenly listening.

She asked, “That was a dog, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean it was Scotty.”

“No, of course not. I’m sure lots of people have dogs around here.”

He nodded. “No doubt. Lots of people enjoy having a family dog.”

“Of course nobody ever makes arrangements for who should get the dog if something happens to them, do they?”

“I don’t think it’s generally something that most people think of,” Cage noted, “but that’s hardly my issue today.” As they walked up to the front door, he felt an eeriness to the place. Maybe because it was empty, or maybe because he knew that the family had died and their little boy desperately wanted to be back here with them.

“It feels sad, doesn’t it?” she asked. “Everything seems overgrown, deserted. I suppose everything is still caught up in probate and all.” She stopped and looked at him. “But everything should be Brian’s, shouldn’t it?”

He shrugged. “In theory, but I don’t know what the parents’ will says, and I don’t know who the trustee is, since the boy is a minor.”

“Somebody should be looking after him.”

“Maybe, but looking after him sometimes means losing an inheritance ,” he pointed out.

Risa asked, “Nobody would have killed the family to get the house, would they?” He stopped, then looked at her, and she winced. “Right, stupid question.”

“People do all kinds of shit and regularly kill for a lot less than a house,” he shared. “So that’s something we can never really let go of.”

“It really sucks though,” she muttered. “Brian’s such a great kid, and anyone should be happy to have him as part of their family.”

“They would if they were prepared to take on his disabilities,” Cage added, “but not everybody is, though it’s mostly out of ignorance. Ignorance and fear.”

She just shook her head at that, and he smiled and kept on walking. As they got up to the front door, she muttered, “Too bad we can’t go in.”

With that, he turned to give her a smile, then reached up above the doorframe for the key that Detective Hendricks had told him about and held it up for her. “We are absolutely going inside. I was given permission by the police this morning.”

“Seriously?” she asked, turning to him. “Wow, you do have some pull, don’t you?”

“I don’t, but Badger does.”

“Badger?” she repeated. “Who is that?”

“He’s my boss,” he added helpfully.

“Oh, right, the one you’re always talking to on the phone.”

“Yep, that’s him, and his wife makes my prosthetics. She’s a hell of a designer,” he added warmly.

“Wow, that field would be something I would absolutely love to get into, but I wouldn’t have the first idea how.”

“In her case, I think she came by it naturally because she’s missing a leg herself.”

“What? It’s not all that common to have two of you with prosthetics.”

“Oh, she deals with lots of us. Badger has a missing leg too and God-only-knows what else,” he said with a smile. “They’re a well-matched pair in so many ways.”

“That’s good,” she replied. “I think people with disabilities get the short end of the stick most of the time.”

“Unless they’re like my brother, and they reach out and grab what they want.” He turned and cast her a sideways glance. “Did I tell you he’s got a girlfriend?”

She stared at him in delight. “Yep, you did, but I’m bummed that he didn’t tell me himself. We see each other in passing periodically.”

“He’s probably afraid you’ll tease him.”

“Oh, I would have,” she agreed, “but it would have been all in good fun. I’m absolutely thrilled for him, and it would take a special girl.”

“Absolutely. It takes a special girl, but he is a very special young man,” he noted warmly.

“Could you possibly be any prouder of him? It’s clear that you love him more than ever.”

“Oh, yes, he’s not just my brother but my best friend. We’ve been through a lot together. That creates a very special bond, no matter what the blood relationship is.”

“I never had any siblings,” she murmured. “I often wondered how my life would have been different if I had had a brother or a sister.”

“It’s hard to say, especially with that mother of yours. It may be for the best that nobody else suffered the pain.”

“I know, and I think of that sometimes. Yet I was left to endure it all alone, and that wasn’t the easiest either.”

“Of course not.” He nodded, turning to her. “Shall we go in?” He unlocked the door and pushed it open.

They stepped inside, and she wrinkled up her nose immediately. “It’s really stale smelling, isn’t it?”

“Of course. Nobody is here to freshen it up and to air it out,” he noted. “Unfortunately nobody has come through to confirm no break-ins, vandalism, or other trouble has been going on either.”

It was like walking through a mausoleum. All the furniture was here, and still some canned goods remained in the cupboards. She sighed, the sadness creeping through her tone. “It’s as if a life has been interrupted.”

“More than interrupted,” he clarified. “It’s a life that’s been put on life support. This should be all Brian’s, but, until I get through to the lawyer handling the estate, I won’t know for sure.”

“Who will tell you that?”

“The detective assigned to the murder investigation should know, so I just need to call him.”

“I highly doubt he would tell you.”

“You would be surprised. If it’s pertinent to their case, or pertinent to mine, generally people work together.”

“Sure, but you’re talking about two completely different cases.”

He nodded and didn’t say anything. They wandered through the lower part of the house and then upstairs.

When they stopped at a huge dog bed at the top of the stairs, Risa sighed. “This just breaks my heart.”

She pushed open the door and there, inside the child’s room, was another large dog bed. “Well, we know where Scotty stayed.”

“Yes, the two were quite bonded,” Cage agreed, struggling to keep the sadness out of his own words. “Sometimes there are just no good answers, not for anyone.” She winced at that. They kept walking through to the master bedroom. He frowned, as he looked around. “According to the police they didn’t find anything in here that would give them any clue as to what happened to the parents.”

“You don’t believe that though, do you?”

“Let’s just say that, until I take a look myself, I won’t believe it.”

“But, if they weren’t wealthy, weren’t involved in drugs or anything illegal, which I guess nobody really knows,” she suggested, “there wasn’t really any reason to kill them.”

“People kill for all kinds of reasons,” Cage pointed out, “and not the least of which is money, power, and hate, which is the flip side of love.”

“I don’t know about a flip side,” she muttered. “It sounds as if a sick side to me.”

He chuckled. “That’s definitely one of the ways to look at it.” He walked over to the night table, took a quick look in the drawer, but not a whole lot was there. He lifted up the pillows and then on an impulse—while Risa rifled through the closets, still full of clothes—he lifted up the mattress so he could see underneath. He called her over. “Can you reach that?”

Something was taped underneath the mattress. She bent down, pulled it loose, and handed it to him. “What do you think it is?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but let’s find out right now.”

He quickly opened the envelope and inside were legal documents. He quickly shoved them back into the envelope and put them into his pocket. “That’ll be something for the police and the lawyer to sort out,” he stated, as he glanced around. “Did you see anything else?”

She shook her head, glancing nervously around. “No. Now that you’ve found that, I feel as if we need to leave.”

He nodded, but there was an absentmindedness to it. “I agree, but that’s a completely separate issue, as opposed to finding Scotty.” And, with that, he stepped out onto the balcony and looked around the neighborhood, once again hearing a dog barking in the distance.

Risa heard it too. “It’s good that people have dogs, but it’s very distracting when you’re looking for one in particular.”

“It is,” he muttered, “but…” He moved back to the little boy’s room. It didn’t have a balcony, but it did have a large window. He stepped up to the window and looked out. “Ah, now that makes sense. Come on. We have a dog to go meet.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, as she tried to keep up with him.

He laughed. “You’ll see in a minute.” And, with that, he raced outside.