Chapter 31
The signal from the Foxworth phone interrupted the sweetest dream Blaine had had in two years.
Then he opened his eyes and realized it hadn’t been a dream.
The faint, early morning light proved it.
He was in Erin’s bed, she was snuggled up behind him, her arm draped over his ribs, and he was instantly hot enough to ignore the electronic sound and roll over and start anew that glorious joining he’d thought was gone forever.
Ethan.
He jolted upright, scrambling for the jeans he’d shed in such a hurry last night, digging into the pocket for the Foxworth device. Erin was awake now, so he put it on speaker so they could both hear.
“We’ve got something. Two somethings, in fact.” Rafe’s voice was sharp, as if he were on alert. “I’m on my way to you, ETA fifteen. Then we rendezvous with Walker and Cutter. Be ready.”
“Copy,” Blaine said, almost reflexively.
The phone went silent. He looked at Erin, who was staring at him. “Well, that was…abrupt,” she said.
“This is something,” he said, his own voice tense. He rolled out of bed, his dreamed scenario of a joint shower and a revisiting of the joyous union that had clearly never faltered despite it all shoved back for now.
In fact, he was relieved—in fact downright grateful—that there was no time for discussion, no time to obsess about what had happened last night. No time for her to say she regretted it now, the morning after.
And she thinks she’s a coward?
He, of course, knew better. Erin was many, many things but a coward she was not. A coward wouldn’t have stuck it out when he’d been in such bad shape. Which was why he’d never understood why she’d left, after the fact, after fighting through the worst.
He’d almost forgotten how efficient she could be, under pressure.
But she showed it now, when she beat him getting washed up and dressed, and had coffee ready to boot.
Just as Rafe pulled into her driveway they exchanged a look, one he guessed they both knew said this was temporary, this time of setting themselves aside for the sake of their son.
“You know the park off the Ortega Highway just east of the freeway?” were Rafe’s first words.
When Blaine nodded, Rafe gestured at the driver’s seat and walked around to the other side.
Erin didn’t protest, but Rafe spoke as if she had.
“Dark tinted windows in the back,” he explained. “I’ll update you on the way.”
Blaine pulled out of the driveway, wondering how Erin must feel knowing that she was possibly a hindrance to their search that needed to be hidden, because they had to assume Ethan was still angry at her.
But she didn’t react, other than to quietly take a back seat. When he glanced at her before he turned back to face front after clearing the driveway, he saw her slender jaw was set, and knew that she’d do whatever it took to get Ethan back home safely.
“Walker picked up something late last night, cruising his target area. He thinks it’s solid, so we’re going to meet up with him at that park. But in the meantime Ty came up with something. From the message boards in one of Ethan’s games, that Ty also happens to play.”
“I thought those were private,” Erin said.
Rafe’s mouth quirked. “Frankly, I don’t think anything online is safely private when Ty goes after it. But he found a couple of exchanges, with different people but locals to here. All about a place they called Caspers.”
Blaine shot a look at Erin. She knew the place as well as he did. As kids they’d spent a lot of time in the big, regional park, hiking, and more than once camping out, to pretend they were on a vacation far from home.
“You know it,” Rafe said.
“Yes,” Blaine confirmed. “We’ve…spent some time there.”
“Big, from what I could find,” Rafe said.
“Eight thousand acres big,” Erin confirmed.
“Lots of places to hide?”
“Lots,” Blaine said, his mouth twisting sourly.
“But it’s November, so the trees will be mostly bare. They won’t provide as much cover as the rest of the year,” Erin pointed out.
Rafe nodded, looking thoughtful, as if an idea had come to him, but he didn’t say anything.
A few minutes later Blaine pulled the car into the small parking area at one end of the park.
He hadn’t been to the long, narrow greenbelt-style community park just off the Ortega Highway in a long time, but he remembered how to get there.
It was, he noted, on the inland side of the freeway from the convenience store in the robbery video.
He appreciated the choice of a residential neighborhood, blocks away from the main drag, making it a bit less likely they’d be noticed.
The Foxworth phone signaled again. It was a different sound than the ring of a call, but memories of last night still flooded his brain, and he almost wished this hadn’t come up, so he could have made love to her yet again.
They had, after all, two years to make up for.
But it was not the time, and this was the Foxworth phone and so could not be ignored.
Blaine pushed the flood of memories from last night out of his mind—and again resisted looking back at Erin in the back seat—when he saw the vehicle Walker had been driving, a slightly older version of the Foxworth one they were in, parked near the farthest boundary of the greenbelt.
He realized the phone notification must have been a signal.
“Up close?” he asked Rafe.
The man nodded. “It’ll be quick. Don’t even get out.”
Walker had Cutter out on the grass on a leash, and Blaine heard the dog let out a low bark of greeting as they pulled up. Rafe rolled down his window as the second Foxworth man walked over to the passenger side door. And again he didn’t waste time on niceties.
“You should have an envelope somewhere in the glove box.”
Blaine blinked, puzzled, but only looked at Rafe, who already had the compartment open and was digging through the contents.
He pulled out a small manila envelope, showed it to Walker, who nodded.
Rafe pulled out the contents, which looked like the registration papers for the vehicle and put them back in the compartment.
“Okay, we’re negotiating here. When I say so, hand me the envelope, and I’ll give you the trained guard dog I just sold you.”
“You think they’re watching?” Rafe asked.
“Can’t be positive they’re not. They put up with me because I don’t pull anything on their turf, but they don’t take that for granted, either.”
“So,” Blaine said, “we’re what, buying drugs?”
Walker’s mouth quirked. “Nah, that would tick them off. That’s their main business. They put up with me because I don’t mess with their trade, so we’re warily in balance. And now I’m just selling a guard dog,” he said, nodding at Cutter.
Blaine shook his head slowly, wondering how the guy did it. And Erin asked from the back seat, “What about when you’re not doing this kind of…undercover thing? Don’t they think that’s suspicious?”
Walker gave her a crooked smile. “You’d be amazed the difference a haircut, shave and losing the tats makes.” He looked back at Rafe. “Anyway, wanted to meet up because I’m going to have to do that cleanup tomorrow. Amy’s boss has a client who needs some help. But I think this might do it.”
Rafe nodded. “Go ahead.”
“I was talking with one of the big guy’s lieutenants around two a.m. I got the same mention from two other lower-down guys.
About some kids, some wannabes that the boss is starting to take notice of.
They all confirmed he was thinking about it because having juveniles to pull stuff off is handy, because they do less time if they get caught. ”
Blaine grimaced.
“Charming. Not,” Erin said, sounding as sour as he felt.
“Yeah. But the important thing is, they all referred to them the same way. Called them the Caspers kids.”
Blaine went still. He sensed Erin’s sudden tension from behind him. But before either of them could speak Rafe did.
“Because?” Blaine could hear the alertness in the man’s voice, and knew he was just making sure the conclusion they’d already leaped to was right.
“Because they’re supposedly hanging out in Caspers Park. About another six miles up the road from here. It’s a big park and wildlife preserve—”
“I know,” Rafe said quickly, and explained what Ty had also discovered.
“Leave it to Ty,” Walker said with a grin. “Anyway, apparently one of them—I’d guess the big guy from the robbery vid, who looks about sixteen or seventeen—has a car.”
“Makes sense,” Rafe said. “Somebody with a driver’s license ID would make things easier.”
Walker nodded and went on. “Putting some pieces from different sources together, I think it’s an old, beat-up, maroon sedan with some bumper sticker on it, but that was about all I could get.
But it was worth a check with the park personnel, and one of them thought it sounded familiar, and that it might be connected to some kids they had to kick out of one of the regular campgrounds because you’re only allowed two weeks out of a month. ”
Blaine smiled at the guy who had disrupted everything to come back and help. “I feel like there really should be some money in that envelope we hand you.”
“Nah, Foxworth pays fine. And brought me back to Amy, thanks to this guy—” he bent to stroke Cutter’s dark head “—so I’m good.”
Blaine noticed Rafe was smiling. And Walker Cole looked like a happy man. He suddenly remembered what Rafe had said about the dog being, among his many other skills, a matchmaker.
“I haven’t been there in a while,” Blaine said, “but if I remember right, there are a lot of places you could hike into that the rangers wouldn’t know you were there. Problem would be the car, and the lack of paved roads.”
“And the park staff monitors those pretty well,” Walker said. “But there are places you could get to, if you weren’t too worried about what shape your car would end up in. Problem is, it’s a huge area to search.”
“Got an idea about that,” Rafe said as he handed over the empty envelope with the same care as if it had held a big payout.
Walker took it the same way, but all he said, with a nod toward the dog, was, “Amy’s gonna want to see this guy before you leave.”
“And she will,” Rafe promised as he reached out and hit the control that opened up the back of the SUV. Walker took the dog around, and he jumped willingly into the vehicle.
“Good working with you again, buddy,” Walker said as he gave the dog a final pat.
Then he looked at Rafe through the interior of the car.
“You, too,” he added with a grin. “Give me two or three days for this new case, and I should be able to get back with you, if you need it. But knowing you, I’d say you’ll have it safely wound up by then. ”
Blaine watched the man walk back to his car and drive off, as if what he’d done for them was just to be expected.
He silently hoped Walker was right about this coming to an end that fast.
And safely.