S.O.S. Perk (S.O.S. #6)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“Your night was certainly more exciting than mine,” Perk told Sloane when they finally connected later. They were both home, talking on the phone after they’d hit their respective mattresses.

“Sometimes I prefer boring,” Sloane admitted to him. “What’s going on with you?”

“Jeremy,” Perk complained. “He’s a tiresome little shit, despite his inspired money-grabbing scheme. I’m completely convinced now that he’s a pawn, because there’s no way he could have thought up this stuff on his own.”

“The mother is who I have my sights on,” Sloane told him.

“Me, too,” Perk agreed.

“Do you think Jeremy knows what happened to his father?” Sloane asked.

Perk shook his head even though Sloane couldn’t see him. “I don’t believe so. He keeps talking about the extended trip his dad is on, and when I asked him if they talked, he said his father was in a place where there’s no cell phone service, but he was hoping to hear from him soon.”

“No cell service,” Sloane snorted. “That’s hitting it on the nose. There’s certainly no connectivity at the bottom of a pond.” She sucked in an audible breath. “Listen. I want you to be extra careful now that we know someone has offed Mr. Nelsin. I don’t want you being the next vic if you rock the boat too much and they catch on.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Perk told her. “I only have one more day of school, and I’ve already told Jeremy I can’t see him tomorrow night because I have to stay home and pack for an early flight on Saturday morning. That means I’m nearly finished with the Nelsin’s until we come back from winter break.”

“About winter break…”

Sloane sounded hesitant, and Perk needed to nip any insecurities she had, in the bud. She had to know he wanted to spend as much time as possible with her over the next two weeks.

“Don’t think I’m not going to be seeking you out, every free minute I have,” Perk warned her. “And that might be a lot, because Del gave me the entire fourteen days off for basically being on call 24/7 over the past few weeks.”

“I know,” she revealed. “He told the Bureau he was going to surprise you with a couple weeks of paid vacation.”

Sloane paused, and he let her regroup. Something was on her mind.

“Knowing that you’d have time off, I asked the director if I could be absent from my office as well. He agreed, as long as I continue my research on the case, remotely.”

“He did?” Perk sat up in bed, blood suddenly pumping through various parts of his body that had been at rest. “You will?”

Sloane laughed, clearly picking up on his excitement. “Yup. I thought maybe…given a bit of time together, we might discover exactly what’s going on between us. I think we deserve that.”

Perk scoffed to himself. He already knew exactly how he felt.

He was in love with Sloane. Head-over-heels in love. Nothing she could do or say at this point would sway him from those feelings. But with nearly two weeks at his disposal, he’d be damned eager to convince her she felt the same.

“Did you have something in mind for us?” he asked, trying to slow his racing heart. If she didn’t have plans, he’d make something up on the fly.

“Well, a few years back I did some winter camping as a team-building exercise with my fellow agents. In yurts. There’s this great place in Maine where you can rent them, you know.”

Perk actually laughed. “I wonder if we’re thinking of the same spot?” He named a town just twenty minutes north of where his family lived.

“That’s it,” Sloane confirmed happily. “You’ve been there?”

“Uh, yeah. It’s actually pretty close to where I grew up. Me and my brothers have spent a few summer days fishing nearby.”

There was silence for a moment.

“Sloane?” he asked.

“Umm, would you rather we find a different place?”

She was probably remembering what he’d said about how he and his family interacted in less than a healthy way.

“Nope.” Perk made up his mind on the spot. This was perfect. He’d wanted to introduce Sloane to his family. He just hadn’t known it would be this soon. “We’ll take a few days for ourselves, then I’ll interface with them and see what they’ve got going on for Christmas. They usually want me to come home, but last year I was on a job and I couldn’t make it. That means my mother has been at me for the past few weeks to give her an answer for this year, which up until a few days ago I wasn’t sure about. But now…”

Sloane, when she came back to him, sounded a little shocked. “You want me not only to meet your family, but spend…Christmas with them?”

“Uh, yeah?” He wouldn’t push, but it seemed like a pretty good idea to him. Still, knowing Sloane’s family history, Christmas probably didn’t have warm and fuzzy connotations for her. He’d tread lightly. “But only if you want to. I can make my excuses and we can hide out for the entire two weeks if you’d rather.”

That actually didn’t sound like a bad idea. He and Sloane. Alone in a yurt. A roaring fire. Piles of blankets on a king-sized bed…

Maybe visiting family should be postponed.

“You know what? We’ll do it.” Sloane surprised him, getting some steel in her voice. “You mentioned how they still see you as a floundering kid?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Then I’m just the person to set them straight. By the time I get through with them,” she warned, and he could almost see her rubbing her hands together in glee, “they’ll have no doubt that you’re a man.”

Perk laugh-groaned. “What are you planning, Sloane?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” she returned smugly. “Now let me get off the phone and make some yurt reservations.”

“Time frame?” he asked, feeling a little hesitant now. Perk had never been one to rock the boat with his family; letting them have their say over what they thought he should be doing with his life. Normally he bided his time being around them until he could escape to Boston; go back to ignoring their unwavering expectations. Now, however…

“If there’s any availability, we could aim for heading up Saturday,” she suggested.

“Sounds like a plan,” he managed.

This would either go very well or very poorly. But if Sloane was up for the challenge, so was he.

“Great,” she answered. “Now let me get off the phone and see if there’s a yurt with our name on it.”

“King-sized bed and a wood stove,” Perk blurted out. “Uh, I mean if there’s one like that available,” he added sheepishly.

“Great minds think alike, Perk,” she chuckled. “I’ll text you with deets once I see what’s up.”

“Okay. Good night, Sloane.”

“Good night.”

Ten minutes later he was just dropping off to sleep with visions of snow-covered yurts dancing in his head, when his phone chimed with a text. He opened it to a huge smiley face, followed by a link.

Perk clicked on the link and saw exactly what he’d been envisioning; a wood framed, canvas-covered carousel of a tiny home, looking cozy and warm with a crackling fire glowing inside a wood stove. A massive bed covered in flannel blankets and comforters took up the majority of the room.

Heaven.

The description continued boasting of a miniscule bath, a kitchenette, and when under the covers, a round, domed window in the structure’s peak directly above, that gave tremendous views of the night sky.

Perfect , Perk texted back almost immediately. When?

Check in time is three o’clock Saturday!

Did the exclamation point mean she was surprised, or excited? Either way, Perk could work with it.

Perfect. I’ll be leaving with Smalley and Tertia in the “family” vehicle—complete with all our luggage if anybody is watching—around eight AM on Saturday. They’ll drop me at my condo, where I’ll pick up my truck, then I’ll come get you. He realized he didn’t know where in Brookline she lived. Address?

She shot it back to him without a second’s hesitation.

Perk was pumped.

Look at them, making good progress on all fronts.

I can’t wait to see you, he dared.

Ditto, she returned.

It wasn’t the love-laden response he wanted, but he vowed to get Sloane on board with his feelings before their winter vacation came to an end.

****

By one-thirty the next day, Perk was fidgeting. He was so over, not only the whole school thing, but shmoozing fellow students for Jeremy had grown equally as stale. There were only so many inroads, even as the gregarious youth Perk pretended to be, who could make it into cliques and groups that had formed as far back as grammar school.

Perk really looked forward to the day being finished.

When at lunch, he’d taken what he’d figured was his final leave of Jeremy. He’d promised the kid he’d start infecting his old friends’ phones with Jeremy’s game as soon as he hooked back up with them.

“Mr. Perdudan.” The teacher called his name and snapped him out of his thoughts.

Perk looked up.

“I understand there’s only thirty minutes left until you’re set free, but we’re still on the clock here. I’ll repeat my question. Can you tell me exactly what you’d look for if your car refused to start in the morning?”

Perk hadn’t been listening, but because of his previous expertise with all types of vehicles, he went down the list of things that could go wrong, starting with a dead battery and ending with a faulty fuel pump.

“That’s correct,” the teacher huffed. “I was pretty sure you weren’t paying attention, but well done. You did, however, forget to mention a failed timing belt.”

Perk shrugged. It was low on the list of what a backyard mechanic would be able to replace.

The teacher launched into wrapping things up, giving them hints of a few more topics he wished to cover in the new year when they returned. By the time the guy was finished, the final bell was ringing.

Thank God.

Perk slipped from the classroom and quickly approached his locker where… Fuck . Jeremy stood.

Dammit. Perk had thought he could escape before having to see the kid again.

“Hey, Jeremy. What’s up?” He pretended interest while he spun the combination on his locker.

“I just wanted to make sure you know exactly what you’re doing,” Jeremy said nervously, looking around to make sure no one was listening.

Perk grunted. “We’ve only been over it a hundred times. Chill, dude. I’m pretty sure your game will be in a bunch of phones by Monday.” He didn’t want to make the process seem too easy by promising anything quicker. It might raise red flags.

“Yeah, well, my m—” Jeremy caught himself, and wasn’t that just a shame. Perk was pretty sure the kid had almost implicated his mother.

“The boss is a little salty, that’s all,” Jeremy amended. “They want to make sure you don’t blow this.”

“No worries. I’m going to slay it.”

Jeremy grumbled, but hitched his backpack further up his shoulder. “Okay then. Have a nice vacation with the fam.”

“You too,” Perk returned, although Jeremy probably didn’t know he’d never enjoy another holiday with his father again.

Jeremy loped off down the hall, and Perk spent a little time fussing about in his locker, saying goodbye to a few more acquaintances, and otherwise letting the clock tick. He didn’t want to have yet another fruitless conversation with Jeremy in the parking lot. The kid seemed really uptight, but seriously? Jeremy was the one playing with fire, so he needed to own it.

As soon as Perk was safely in his Volvo, he started it up, put it in drive, and took out the phone he used for real life. He hit Sloane’s number.

“Hey,” she answered, her voice sounding upbeat. “Are you finally free from education hell?”

“You better believe I am,” he confirmed. “The only thing finer will be picking you up tomorrow morning.”

Sloane actually chuckled. “I’m so excited, I actually packed last night. And today has been very productive,” she added.

“Yeah? How so?” Perk knew he’d detected an uncustomarily positive note in her tone. He’d hoped it had to do with him, but he’d share the limelight with progress on the case if need be.

“We have a cause and a time of death for Felix Nelsin.”

“Oh?” Perk was momentarily blindsided. “Are you saying he didn’t drown?”

They’d assumed the man had been knocked out before his car had been sent into the pond, and his lungs had filled with water while he was unconscious.

“Nope. He was actually shot. Felix was dead before he hit the drink.”

Perk grunted. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Killing was killing, and somebody had clearly wanted to make damned sure that Nelsin was out of the picture.

“A nine-millimeter round under his left arm,” Sloane apprised. “A direct shot to the heart.”

“From a SIG M18?” Perk speculated.

They’d determined that Mr. Shultz, one of their two suspects, had been discharged from the Army six years prior. He’d been a computer expert while deployed, but he’d have to have known how to shoot, and the SIG was a standard weapon at the time of his service.

“You guessed it. Forensics took a look at the barrel rifling, and the markings make that assumption ninety-nine percent accurate.”

“So now we have to locate the gun,” Perk suggested, wondering if an agent would be tasked with breaking into Shultz’s house to have a look around.

“That’s true, because we have even more reason to assume it’s Shultz’s,” Sloane continued. “The time of death was a little tricky due to the freezing water, but the team determined Mr. Nelsin died anywhere between four and six weeks ago. That jives with the five-week dry-cleaning sighting, so I started scouring streets for Shultz during that time period, and guess what I found?”

“Something interesting?” Perk angled.

“Yup. Mr. Shultz’s was in Plymouth Center on the night of November 14 th .”