19. Jaxson
CHAPTER 19
Jaxson
“ R oses are red, violets are blue, wherever I go, you’re coming too. By the seashore, by the seaside, I’ll be forgotten, swept away by the tide.”
The riddle is on repeat in my head as I continue staring at the words Lance wrote on the office whiteboard. Like a word problem, I start crossing off the information that I believe is clouding the true message.
Roses are red, violets are blue. That one is easy enough, it’s a simple beginning to tie the rest of it together. I draw a line through it.
Wherever I go, you’re coming too. That could simply refer to the fact that I’m trying to find her. Or referencing the fact that this person followed me from LA. I underline it with a green marker, then move onto the third part.
By the seashore, but the seaside, I’ll be forgotten, swept away by the tide.
Swept away by the tide .
Is she being held somewhere near the ocean?
The door opens and Michael strolls in. He offers me a paper cup full of coffee from Kyra’s bakery, then turns to face the board. “Any ideas?”
“None. And I’ve been staring at it for hours. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Is this the same format as the other riddles?” he asks.
“No. They were all different, but this one is lacking something the others had. He loved to put the information right in front of my face, that way when I saw it, it was a flashing neon sign to remind me how I failed.”
“You don’t think this one has it?”
“Possibly. But it’s too vague.” I circle the last part. “This is the portion I think is trying to point us somewhere. But there are hundreds of miles of shore and nothing leading us to any particular part.”
“We’ll figure it out. Elijah is running all kinds of programs to try and decipher.”
“We’re running out of time.” I set my untouched coffee aside, then turn and grip the back of my office chair. “She’s going to die, Michael. And for all we know, the stuff with Margot’s B&B is all tied to this, too. What if—” I can’t say it, the possibility far too much to deal with. If anything happens to Lanetti, I’ll be devastated.
But Margot? Matty? It will kill me.
“My sister and Matty are safe,” he reminds me. “My parents aren’t going to let anyone near them. Dad may be in a wheelchair, but he’s a great cop and an incredibly accurate shot. ”
“I’m afraid.”
“I know you are. We all are. Have you talked any more to your old partner?”
“Alaric said that he’s digging into old case files to see if there’s a possibility that we missed a familial connection. A lot of times when it’s a copycat, it’s someone who’s close to the killer.”
“You trust him?”
“With my life,” I reply without hesitation. “Alaric is as good as they come.”
“Good.” Michael claps me on the back. “Then let’s take a break and go eat.”
“What? I can’t go eat. I have to figure this out.”
“You won’t be any good to anyone if you starve. My mom invited us over for dinner, so let’s go get something to eat, then we can come back with fresh eyes.”
I swallow hard, staring at the board. It feels like I’m betraying Lanetti if I leave, but I know as well as anyone that sometimes a change of scenery can trigger something that breaks a case. “All right.”
“Great.” He lifts my coffee and hands it back to me. “Drink. You’re going to need all the caffeine you can get.”
“Why?”
“My dad knows you’re into my sister.”
I stop dead in my tracks. “What?”
Michael grins. “I might have told him you were putting the moves on Margot.”
The blood drains from my face. “What? Why? Why would you do that? ”
That smile spreads. “So you are putting the moves on my sister?”
I stare at him, unsure how to answer. What’s the procedure for sharing a near-kiss with the sister of one of your best friends?
“Relax, Jax. I know you’re into Margot. I picked up Matty before your date, remember?”
“Date—that was just dinner.”
Michael arches a brow. “Don’t lie to me, dude. We both know it was more. It’s cool. If it’s me you’re worried about, don’t be. I know you’re a good man and you won’t treat her poorly.”
“Never.”
“Then we have nothing to worry about.” He opens the door. “Now, onto dinner and a family grill session we go.”
The drive over is quiet, giving me the chance to continually break down what the riddle could possibly mean. It’s always a location, but Sheriff Vick has had deputies out on the shoreline all day, driving ATVs and using drones to canvas the area, and as of the phone call I had with him a few minutes ago, they’ve found nothing.
Not a single lead to follow.
Lanetti is still missing, and her kidnapper is in the wind.
Parking on the curb behind Michael’s truck, I take one final deep breath before climbing out of the truck. Matty is sitting on the front porch.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” I tell him.
“Mom said it was okay since you were right behind Uncle Michael. I’ve only been out here a few minutes.” His tone is off, almost worrisome.
“Are you doing okay?” I take a seat beside him.
“Do you think my dad lit the B&B on fire because of what I said to him at the church?”
“Absolutely not,” I reply without hesitation. “If he did light the fire, he didn’t do it because of you.”
“My mom doesn’t know if she’ll be able to reopen.”
The knots in my stomach grow, and my chest tightens. “We will figure it out, Matty.”
“I don’t know. I just—my dad has caused her so much pain. I try to pretend that I don’t know, that I didn’t see him—” His voice cracks, and a tear slips down his cheek.
Unsure what else to do, I wrap an arm around his shoulders. “What did you see?”
Matty is quiet a moment. “He hit her.”
My stomach plummets. Margot hadn’t ever wanted Matty to know what his father had done. It would break her heart to know that he’d seen the whole thing. “You saw it?”
He nods. “I saw him hit her. I heard her cry out.” More tears slip free. “But I’d been so afraid of him that I hid. I should have protected her. It was my job.” Seeing the weight this kid carries reminds me an awful lot of the one that had been on my shoulders.
And it breaks my heart.
“Matty, listen to me.”
He looks up at me, meeting my gaze. I see so much pain reflected in his gaze that it guts me .
“It wasn’t your job to protect her. It was your dad’s, and instead, he’s the one who hurt her. That’s not on you.”
“I hate him, Jaxson. I hate him so much.” He angrily wipes tears away.
“Did you know that my dad walked out on us when my brother and I were little?”
“Really?”
I nod, hoping that pulling the focus off of him will ease a bit of his pain. “Afterward, my mom abandoned us at a homeless shelter and never came back. When I knew we were on our own, I took my younger brother, and we lived on the streets, surviving as we could.”
Matty looks absolutely horrified, but it’s no longer pain in his eyes—it’s anger. “That’s awful.”
“It was. But we got through it. My dad has since tried to make contact with me again—through my brother—but I want nothing to do with him either.”
“He wants to talk to you like my dad wants to talk to me?”
“Yes. The thing is, we can forgive them for what they’ve done to us, but still not allow them to continue to cause us pain.”
“My mom took me to see Pastor Redding earlier, and he told me that I needed to work on letting go of the anger and forgiving him. But I don’t know how to do that. I’m so mad.”
We sit in companionable silence for a moment, both of us weighing what it means to forgive like we want to be forgiven. It’s heavy, and something much easier said than done.
I sigh. “Well, I’ll tell you what, if you figure it out, let me know, will ya?”
He lets out a light laugh. “You do the same?”
“Deal.” I remove my arm from around his shoulders and offer him my hand.
He shakes it, then we turn to look back out over the quiet neighborhood. “I’m worried about my mom.”
“She’s the strongest woman I’ve ever met,” I tell him. “You don’t need to worry about her.”
“You look after us too, right? I mean, I know that you’re not going to be living at the B&B anymore?—”
“Who said that?”
He stares at me like I’m supposed to know why he came to that conclusion. “The place burned to a crisp!”
“We’ll get it back. Then I fully intend on moving back in. If your mom will let me.” Truth be told, I’d live in a tent in the backyard just to be close to them.
“Really?” His entire expression lights up, and I get a heavy dose of instant regret because I’m worried I’ve crossed a line and promised something I shouldn’t have.
“I—”
The door opens, and Margot steps out onto the porch with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She’s breathtaking in a violet sundress, her hair loose around her face. “Hey, Matty, your grandmother is asking for help with the mashed potatoes. Think you can lend her a hand?”
“For sure.” He jumps up, then drops back down and wraps his arms around me in a quick hug that manages to catch me by surprise and completely fill my heart all at the same time. “Thanks for the talk, Jaxson. You’re the best.”
“Anytime, kid.” I pat him on the back, and he heads inside.
“Care for a walk?”
“Sure.” Nerves dancing in my gut, I follow her down a small path that leads through the houses down to the beach. It’s rockier here, meant more for strolling than sandcastles, but that doesn’t stop Margot from removing her sandals. “Is everything okay?” I ask after we’ve been walking in silence for a few minutes.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
She stops walking, so I move in front and face her. “You comforted him.”
“Matty? Of course. Why wouldn’t I have?”
“I heard what he told you. That he saw—” She closes her eyes and swallows hard. “I didn’t think he did.”
“It’s not your fault any more than it was his responsibility to protect you, Margot. You both deserved—deserve—so much better than that. Matty is a great kid, and you—” I stop speaking, completely unsure if I’m crossing a line here, but then instantly realizing that I honestly don’t care. “You are strong. Beautiful. Kind. And you’ve captivated me from the moment I first laid eyes on you.”
Her lips part, her gaze locked on mine. “I care about you,” she says softly. “And so does my son. He’s my priority, Jaxson. I have to know that you won’t hurt him. ”
“Never,” he replies. “I will never hurt either of you.”
Margot takes a step closer, and I reach out, cupping her cheek. I rub my thumb over her soft skin, and she leans into my touch. Every single moment I spend with her, I find myself even more captivated than in the last.
I thought I’d loved before.
But even that love pales in comparison to the affection I feel for this woman. “I’ve been dreaming about kissing you since we met.”
She tilts her face up and opens those gorgeous almond eyes. “Then do something about it, Detective.”
I smile, then lean in. We’re a breath away when my phone rings. If I weren’t in the middle of a case where a girl is missing, I might have ignored it. But I am, so I don’t. “I’m sorry,” I mutter.
She laughs. “It’s fine. We seem to have terrible timing.”
“We’re going to change that,” I reply, then note the unknown flashing across the screen. “Hello?”
“I give the girl a riddle to tell you and you’re playing date night on the beach?” The voice is disguised using some kind of device, so it’s robotic and I can’t tell whether it’s male or female.
I rip Margot behind me, putting her between the ocean and me as I scan the shoreline. “Why don’t you just break it down for me? The riddle you gave me was too complicated.”
“It was not. You’ve solved harder. A girl’s life is on the line, Payne, and you’re playing house with a harlot and her son. ”
Anger burns in my veins, but I swallow it down. Right now, I need to stay levelheaded. Focused on getting him to reveal something—anything. “Then give me something else to go off of. Because I’ve been staring at that riddle since you had Lanetti tell it to me.” Frantically, I continue scanning the shoreline, looking for any sign that someone is out here with us. How does he see us?
“Here’s one for you. Hickory dickory dock, you’ve broken the clock. Time is up, the girl will drown, hickory dickory dock.” The call ends, so I shove the phone into my pocket and pull Margot up the beach. We make it ten steps when I hear the faint click of a pressure plate beneath my boot.
If I hadn’t been in combat zones, I might not have even noticed it. But I have been. And the realization that I may not walk away from this settles over me.
“Stop moving!” I yell, and she freezes. “Did you feel anything beneath your feet?”
“No. Just sand.”
Given that she’s barefoot, she would have felt it before I did. My phone rings again. Carefully, I reach into my pocket with the hand not holding Margot’s and pull it out, then press the button and put it to my ear, knowing without looking who will be on the other end of the line.
“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” the voice says. “Or it’s going to get messy.”
“You did this.”
“I gambled on your obsession with the harlot. You’d want to get her alone. I planned for it. ”
“How did you know it would be us? Anyone could have wandered down here.”
“I suppose I just got lucky. Though I’d hoped it would be you watching her die. I suppose I’ll have to watch the show and see what happens next. Tick, tock, Payne.” The line ends.
“Stay where you are. Don’t move.” I pull up Michael’s contact and tap the screen.
“Where’d you go?” he asks.
“I need you to call Sheriff Vick and get a bomb squad down to the beach.”
“What happened?”
“I stepped on a land mine, and I’m not sure if Margot did, too.”
“On it. Don’t move.” He ends the call. I can’t risk glancing back at Margot, but I gently squeeze the hand that I’m still holding.
“A land mine?” she chokes out.
“It was a trap for you,” I tell her, “So I’d say I’m pretty grateful it was me who stepped on it and not you or anyone else.”
“Jaxson—”
“Stay calm, okay? It’s going to be fine. Not my first land mine.”
She chokes on a sob. “That doesn’t make it any better.”
“Just breathe.”
Just ahead, on the path we’d been coming down, Michael and Reyna race down the stairs. Michael has his phone to his ear, but he stops before stepping off the final stair, and I know it’s because he’s worried there are more.
“We came down that way,” I tell him. “But I wouldn’t risk it.”
“Sheriff Vick is on his way. They don’t have much in the way of a bomb squad, but he made a call and a team is headed here. He’s bringing metal detectors, so we should be able to get a good idea of where they are.”
If they’re made of metal. I don’t need him to finish the thought to understand just how much trouble we’re in. Depending on how this was made, we could be dealing with a crude plastic explosive that the detectors won’t pick up.
One wrong step from someone and—boom.