Chapter Sixteen
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C assie walked into the far-too-familiar reception area of the Sheriff’s Office and found Ryder waiting there for her. He hadn’t told her why she needed to meet him here, just that it was something related to her case.
“Hi. Noah’s still on scene, but one of his deputies is going to meet with us,” he said, giving her an assessing look. “You holding up okay?”
“Yes.” She was tired. So, so tired physically—and of all this shit. She wanted her life back, for things to go back to normal. That’s why she’d moved here, to get away from all the toxicity of her past.
He led her down the hall to an office where a young male deputy was waiting. “Thanks for coming down,” he said to them, waiting until they had shut the door and were comfortably seated before beginning. He slid a photograph toward her across his desk. “Do you recognize this man?”
He was clearly dead, his head turned to the side, eyes half-open. Late twenties, maybe early thirties. Light brown hair. Brown eyes. Several days’ worth of facial hair.
She shook her head. “No idea who he is.”
“He was found dead by a neighbor in an old cottage outside of town several hours ago. Shot in the torso at close range. No sign of forced entry, so it’s possible he knew his killer. We also found illicit drugs there, along with a bag of the same pills that were planted in your trunk.”
Okay, now she understood why they’d wanted to talk to her. “You think he’s the dealer?”
“No, we think he may have planted them. But given the timing of that and his murder, along with the highway shooting, we’re looking at all the events as if they’re connected.”
She nodded, agreeing completely.
“Any more insight into who might want to frame you?” Ryder asked.
“I’ve been thinking about it.” Nonstop since the shooting. “As a police officer I obviously arrested a lot of people—”
“Could it be someone from the Vegas PD?” Ryder asked.
She glanced at him sharply. He’d just spoken her deepest fear aloud, named the thing that had been whispering at the back of her mind.
Ryder knew about her anti-corruption case and some of what had led to it. He’d told her it was partly why they had hired her. Because he and the other managers at CPS admired her integrity.
It had been an incredibly dark time in her life.
So dark, she’d done everything humanly possible to put it behind her.
She’d left Vegas, everything she’d had there and everyone she’d known, and moved up here to the Pacific Northwest to get away from it all.
And yet it seemed it might have followed her anyway.
Once again, things were starting to spiral out of control, but this time there wasn’t a damned thing she could do to stop it.
“Could be,” she allowed. There were definitely people who carried a grudge against her in Vegas, including the force. Thankfully the most dangerous suspects were in prison.
“Can you give us a list of names you think could be linked to any of this?” the deputy asked.
Cassie kept looking at Ryder. She didn’t want to involve the local cops. If she had to dig up her past, she would much rather do it with the team at CPS. They weren’t law enforcement and could keep any digging under wraps. “I’ll see what I can do.”
It took another ten minutes to finish the meeting. Cassie left with Ryder. “Give me a list of names, and I’ll have our people start looking into them,” he told her. “I understand why you’d hesitate to involve the cops here.”
“Okay. Thanks. And I’m sorry for all the trouble. I—”
Ryder stopped and turned to face her. “None of this is your fault. Hear me? None of it. You’ve been an exemplary employee and agent. And we take care of our own. We’ll do everything we can to find out who’s responsible, then help bring them to justice.”
“Thank you,” she whispered because her throat was suddenly tight. She swallowed hard. “I can’t figure out how they’re tracking me.”
“Let’s have a tech check your car, see if they find a tracker. And you’re using a new phone, so they shouldn’t have been able to follow you that way.”
She nodded, thinking. Had someone managed to follow her, and she hadn’t noticed? If the dead guy had been the one to plant the drugs, then he would have had to follow her and wait for her to park at the grocery store.
The pie place had a small lot. He would have been too conspicuous there, and she would have potentially been able to see him from inside the diner.
But the Albertson’s lot was huge, with lots of traffic and people moving around.
No one would even give him a second glance as he approached her vehicle.
Ryder studied her a moment. “You sure you’re ready to report for duty?”
“I’m sure. I need to keep going. Unless you think I’m too much of a liability now—”
“No. You and Tristan will be flying to Seattle with the client on a private jet. If someone’s targeting you, a change of scenery is the best thing.”
She nodded, relieved. “Agreed.”
“Let me know if anything else comes up in the meantime. And the sooner you give me those names, the sooner we can start digging.”
“Will do.” The list was depressingly long.
People she’d arrested. People she’d exposed and put in prison.
Plenty of motivation to make any of them want to target her.
But the few names that automatically jumped to the top of the list seemed unlikely.
“I’ll take my car into the office now, see if anyone can sweep it for me. ”
“I’ll let them know you’re coming.”
She was extra vigilant as she got in her car and drove to the office.
Looking for any hint that someone might be tailing her.
The urge to call Tristan was strong, but after their dinner and nearly crossing the line, talking to him wasn’t a good idea.
Especially since they would be working in close proximity together over the next few days.
A tech was waiting for her when she arrived at CPS. He checked the car inside and out with a high-sensitivity scanner. “Looks like you’re clear,” he said.
Someone had eyes on her without her being able to see them. They could be tracking her phone somehow. Or someone who knew where she lived had been following her when she’d left the house.
Instead of parking in her driveway, she pulled around back into the narrow alley behind her house and left it behind a stand of cedars so it was at least hidden from view from the street.
Once locked inside with a cup of fresh coffee, she caved and texted Tristan, filling him in briefly on what had happened.
You okay? he sent back almost immediately.
Think so. Talked to Ryder about tomorrow. We’re flying to Seattle with the client.
I heard. You wanna talk about it?
She wasn’t sure if he meant the job or her situation, but guessed probably both.
Not right now, but thanks.
She wasn’t ready to tell him about Vegas yet. Though at some point she would have to. She didn’t want to involve him in that, or wade any deeper into the murky waters they were both in.
See you at the office tomorrow , she typed . 06:00?
Yep. Call me if you change your mind.
Will do. Thanks. But she wouldn’t.
She had barely set the phone down when it rang. Half-expecting it to be him, she was surprised to see a Vegas area code.
She almost didn’t answer, but her anger and curiosity got the better of her. “Hello?” she said crisply, heart rate picking up.
“Cass, it’s Dane.”
She blinked in surprise, her pulse settling. “Dane.” Her former patrol partner. Several years older than she was, a family man with six years more experience on the force than she had. She hadn’t talked to him since right after leaving Vegas.
He was one of the good guys. One of the few in her department who hadn’t been involved in the IA investigation and all the resulting fallout. “How’d you get my number?”
“From the chief. I just heard what happened last week. That’s...shit, I’m sorry. And there’s a stupid rumor floating around here that you got arrested or some shit yesterday. I knew it was bullshit as soon as I heard it, but I wanted to call you myself and see if you’re okay.”
“I’m doing the best I can,” she told him honestly. “And no, I wasn’t arrested or even charged with anything. So you can kill that rumor right now.”
“Oh, I’m all over it. What the hell’s going on up there? I thought you were looking for peace and quiet.”
She gave a humorless laugh and rubbed her forehead. “Looks like someone’s out to get me.”
A beat of silence followed. “You think it’s someone from here?”
“I don’t know who else it could be.”
“Fuuuuck.” He gave a ragged sigh, and she pictured him dragging a hand down his face the way he did when he was stressed. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“You know why.” She said it gently.
“Yeah. I know. But you know you can trust me, right?”
For just a fleeting moment, a tiny part of her wondered if there was any way he could be involved in this.
An instant later she dismissed the thought, feeling guilty as shit that she’d even thought it. He knew everyone involved in the corruption, too, had stood up for her when no one else had, even though he’d received threats and it could have cost him his career.
“Course I do,” she said, then changed the subject. “Anyway, how are Bonnie and the kids?”
They talked for another ten minutes, catching up. He was thinking of trying for detective. He asked about her life in Crimson Point and about her job with CPS.
After ending the call, she set her phone down on the kitchen table, thinking about the list of names she needed to send to Ryder.
There were almost a dozen names she could give him.
But of those, only a few were serious contenders, and even then, she couldn’t see any of them having the balls to stage a shooting in the middle of a highway in broad daylight.
For what purpose? That had been one hell of a big risk for all involved.
She got up and strode to her bedroom to pack for the overnight stay in Seattle tomorrow. Whoever was targeting her, they weren’t stopping her. She was ready to get back to work and her life.