6. Wylie
Chapter 6
Wylie
I didn’t intend to stay the night, but Kat wrung me dry. She also shocked the hell out of me when I woke up and she was already coming out of the shower. I never sleep that soundly when I’m not at home. Her bra and underwear today are less impressive than last night’s, but that makes sense when she pulls a long-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of heavy corduroy pants out of her closet.
“Good morning, sunshine,” she says brightly. Her hair is in a single ponytail and her face is bare of make-up except for mascara and some pink lipstick: the no-nonsense lawyer from the other day is barely recognizable. “Thanks for last night. It was great. I’m making toaster waffles and bacon for breakfast if you want to stick around.”
I do, but I don’t. What started as strictly payback from a beautiful woman ended up as a fun evening even before we got to the main event. Her sense of humor is sharp, her will is steel, and her body is soft in all the right places. She’s perfect. Kat is the breath of fresh air I need in an existence I hadn’t realized had gone stagnant. She and her friends are bringing new life to Lonesome. They are forming the same kind of ties as the Lost Souls did when we were first drawn here. I can’t imagine a bunch of chicks on bikes, but the same core of truth is there: support, friendship, and passion looking for a useful direction.
I had taken a lot of flak when I asked Bishop about her while he was checking over the van. “She’s a ballbuster, but it’s all good. Until you piss her off. She’s not my type, but she’s a good friend to Violet and Romy.” From him, it is high praise.
Then Kat continues. “If you have any idea why Jefferson Cross pitched a fit at us purchasing an old summer camp, I’ll throw in a cup of coffee. You know him, right? The girls and I can’t figure out what he’s up to. We think that he may be the guy who offered to buy the property back from Romy a few months ago. He’s not the first person to be upset that his parents are spending his inheritance, but lawsuits accusing strangers of that level of elder abuse are practically unheard of. Shooting at me is a whole different level.”
Now I have to stay, because I want to know more. “Did you report it?” I ask.
Kat shakes her head. “I called the police and told them. They told me to come in this morning to file a report. But they also said it was a case of road rage, and since I didn’t get a licence plate and I didn’t recognize the drivers, there wasn’t much they could do. Bishop told me that he didn’t find any bullets in the van on the first pass, so there aren’t even any ballistics to get on file. Like I said, it’s all alleged associates of Jefferson Cross.”
“What about the vehicles?” I ask.
Kat shrugs. “I described the pickup and car, but since more than half the people around here drive pick-ups, gray was not an adequate description. Sometimes the law works against lawyers too.”
I will be calling Moritz as soon as I left. Kat might not know the owner, but I know it belongs to one of Cross’s buddies. If Moritz can’t track it down, we might be able to identify it from the security footage of the bar and grill’s parking lot. Jefferson and I will be talking soon. I’m nowhere close to being done with Kat, and I don’t want to be dodging snipers every time we get together. “Maybe Cross isn’t thinking about the current value of the property itself. Maybe there is something there from the past or that will be valuable in the future,” I say.
Her eyes light up. “Do you think he might be looking for something? An abandoned gold mine? Airdropped duffel bags full of cocaine gone astray? A secret stash of Pokémon cards that he buried as a kid and is now trying to find?”
That imagery is going to haunt me. “Definitely the last one.” My joke earns me a mug of coffee. It tastes slightly of cinnamon but it’s still palatable. “What are you up to today?”
“I’m going to be on site all day. Violet and I are cleaning out the dining room and kitchen building, the one that will be the classroom. We dropped off all the cleaning supplies yesterday morning. The water and electricity have already been turned on and are ready to go. How about you?”
“Staff meeting at the bar and grill.” I want to know what Jefferson Cross does when he’s in the bar. Who he talks to. Who he avoids. How he pays his bills. Now that I’m paying attention, it’s obvious that the few odd jobs that we throw him are not enough to pay for a brand-new pick-up.
Kat is putting her plate into the sink when her phone blows up with notifications. Then it rings with an incoming video call. “It’s Romy, she says.”
A blue-eyed woman appears on the screen. She looks panicked and has dripping brown hair and streaks of soot across her face. Behind her, wisps of smoke trail out the front door of a single-story building. “Kat, it’s arson.”
“What?”
“Bishop and I came extra early this morning because he wanted to make sure the garbage bin got set in the right area. We saw somebody going into one of the old cabins. Bishop yelled, and all of a sudden there was an explosion, and the place was on fire.”
“Get the fuck out of there and call the fire department, Romy. It’s going to take some time for them to get there,” Kat says. I realize she knows that the closest volunteer fire department is twenty miles away.
“They were my first call. I’ve got a hose. I keep squirting it through the door at anything that’s smoking.”
“Where’s Bishop?”
“He took off after the guy. We weren’t close enough to get a good look. He was thin. Really thin. Jeans and a T-shirt. Funny gloves. Bish chased him into the woods, then came racing back, jumped into his truck, and took off in hot pursuit.”
“I’ll be right there,” Kat says.
“Can you bring me fresh shoes and socks? My feet are soaked and freezing.”
“Done,” she promises as she ends the call. “Sorry to push you out the door…”
I dump my coffee into the sink. I want to be on Bishop’s trail before he gets too far away. I don’t know if it’s the same fucker who went after Kat two days ago, but if it is, he needs back-up. “I know you won’t stay away from the campground, but watch that ass of yours, Kat. I have plans for it later.”
“You know, Wylie, you can’t just assume I’m going to go out with you again without a kidnapping or something as motivation. What kind of girl do you think I am?”
My dick twitches at her attitude. “I’ll see what I can do.”