Chapter Eighteen
The sound of a boat motor grew louder.
Dylan grabbed the envelope and started to open it when he realized the outboard motor had stopped.
He quickly glanced out the window to see a boat pull in at Beau’s dock.
Two figures, one male, one female, were climbing out.
The female secured the boat, the male had already started toward them.
“Let’s go,”
he said putting the envelope into his jacket pocket and reaching for Cat.
They hurried out the back door and into his pickup.
He was backing out when he saw the male come around the corner of the house.
He hit the gas as he whipped the pickup around and took off, losing sight of the man as they sped off.
“Did you recognize the man?”
Cat asked.
“No, you?”
“Luca Harmon,”
Cat said as Dylan drove while watching his rearview mirror to see if they were followed.
“Sharese’s brother.
I found a high school photo of him.”
“I know what Fuller said about not destroying the document—if that’s what’s in this envelope, but I don’t like having it in my possession.”
He glanced at her.
“Because it puts me in danger too,”
she said.
“I am trained for this, you know.”
“I know,”
he said and looked over at her again.
“But I can’t bear the thought of something happening to you and your baby.”
He pulled out his phone to make the call.
When the man answered, he said without preamble, “Fuller, I have it.
How do I get it to you?”
He listened to the directions the man gave him.
“I’m on my way.
I just have one stop to make.”
“You trust Fuller?”
Cat asked after he’d disconnected.
“I don’t trust anyone.”
He looked over at her.
“But you.”
As Dylan started out of the wrecking yard, following Cat’s patrol SUV, his cell rang. “Ike,”
he said, hoping his friend had some good news.
“There seems to be a problem with the DNA found at the scene of the bombing.
They can’t find a match and some of the DNA has been misplaced.”
“What does that mean? I was told that my brother and wife were in that car.”
He realized that while he’d seen Ginny get into the car, he’d never seen the driver.
It was only later that he learned it had been Beau behind the wheel.
“Are you telling me it wasn’t my brother?”
“I’m telling you that they are running the DNA again.
It was probably just a mix-up at the lab and that will be the end of it.
I thought this would relieve your mind.”
Dylan only wished it had.
He found himself questioning everything.
“Has anyone else that we know died recently?”
“You’re asking about Allen Zimmerman.”
“I am.
If someone had a list of names and was coming after us…”
“It doesn’t appear so,” Ike said.
“I’m wondering who leaked the list.”
Dylan couldn’t believe he was saying this.
“Not our own boss,”
his friend said.
“I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Thanks.”
He hated to think he might be right.
He had trusted Zimmerman with his life numerous times.
But he also knew that people changed, circumstances changed.
He took out the envelope they’d found in the Monopoly game and opened it as he drove.
Inside was a very slim thumb drive and a note in his brother’s handwriting:
Be careful who you give this to.
That’s all it said.
He put it back and followed Cat to Fortune Creek.
Once he saw her safely into her office, he thought about going by the ranch to put the drive into his computer to see if the list was actually on it.
But going near the ranch right now felt too dangerous.
Only one person knew where he was going at this moment.
Officer Fuller.
That thought made him suddenly uneasy.
Be careful who you give this to.
Dylan swore.
He didn’t know who to trust.
But at least Cat should be safe back at her office.
He told himself that this would all be over soon.
But would they find his nephew?
He’d done his best not to think about the missing baby.
It hurt too much to think that Beau had left something so precious, and Dylan might never get to see his nephew, let alone hold him.
He had to end this, but was giving the thumb drive to Fuller the right move?
He checked his rearview mirror to make sure he hadn’t picked up a tail.
Earlier he’d worried that he and Cat might be followed from the wrecking yard.
They hadn’t.
It was hard to follow anyone on these narrow highways with so little traffic—unless you didn’t mind being seen, he thought, remembering his big truck trying to force Cat off the road.
Dylan had insisted on following Cat back to Fortune Creek.
He now sat behind the wheel of his pickup parked in front of the sheriff’s office determined to make sure she was safely inside.
She waved as she pushed open the door and Helen looked up, pursed her lips and went back to her knitting.
Cat turned to see Dylan drive away, her heart in her throat.
She hoped he was doing the right thing giving the information to Fuller.
“Any messages?”
Cat asked.
“On your desk.”
“Any chance the baby has been found?”
Helen looked up, her needles still going.
“Probably would have mentioned that right away if he had been.”
Maybe, Cat thought, not so sure about that.
“And I would have appreciated it.”
She saw that Helen was now making something small out of pink yarn.
Turning away, she headed for her office.
Dylan had the document.
Once he handed it over and word was released that the list had been found and was back in safe keeping, this still wouldn’t be over.
It wouldn’t be finished until Athena’s and Beau’s infant son was found.
In her office, Cat dropped into her chair.
Her daughter had been kicking all day, especially when she’d recognized the truck that had hit Taylor.
The statute of limitations on hit-and-run in Montana was three years.
Whoever was driving that truck that night six months ago could still be arrested and convicted.
Was it the same person who’d tried to run her off the road last night?
She went through her messages.
Most were updates on the case.
It had been Athena’s blood in the passenger side seat of Patty Cooper’s car.
The baby had also been in the car.
But there was no update on where Patty or the baby were now.
Same with Rowena.
She too was missing.
Cat assumed Dylan would tell Fuller about Luca Harmon coming to the lake house as they were leaving with another individual, probably his sister Sharese.
According to the message from the DCI lab, DNA was taken from the truck windshield and steering wheel.
No word on a match yet.
There was a BOLO out on Rowena and Patty, but neither had been found.
And Athena’s baby was still missing.
There had been numerous sightings of a woman with a baby, but none of them had turned up Patty Cooper and the missing baby boy.
Cat filed the messages, followed up on a few other things, cleaned her desk and noticed the time.
The day was almost over.
Helen was already packing up her things to go home and let dispatch in Eureka take over.
“You look tired,”
Helen said, appearing at Cat’s office door.
“You should go upstairs and get some rest.”
Surprised at Helen’s concern, Cat opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Before she could respond, the older woman turned and left, locking the front door behind her.
She found herself smiling.
That was the nicest Helen had been to her since she’d started this job.
She was winning the woman over.
It was a small victory, but Cat would take it.
She picked up her belongings and turned out the light as she headed for the back door and the stairs that would take her up to her apartment.
Her thoughts circled back to Dylan Walker, as they had since the day she’d met him.
She’d let down her guard with him in a way that shocked her.
She more than liked him, and she felt that he liked her as well.
But they both had so much baggage.
She cupped her protruding baby bump.
Not to mention, the timing was definitely off. The last thing she wanted was Dylan to feel guilty for what had happened to Taylor and think he could make it right by…by what? Being with her?
What had happened the other day at the lake house, the way she’d surrendered to the passion, made her wonder.
He’d done it for her pleasure, her satisfaction, she told herself as she climbed the stairs to her apartment.
What about his own? He’d said another time, but another time hadn’t presented itself.
Because he thought their lovemaking had been a mistake?
Opening the apartment door, she reached in and flicked on the light.
For a second, she was blinded by the sudden brightness.
For a second, she didn’t see the shape standing silhouetted against the front window.
For a second, she didn’t recognize the woman from the photographs she’d seen of her.
She did a double take, her voice cracking with both her fright and her shock as she said, “I thought you were dead.”