Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Cain had spent the last hour driving to Nature’s Crossing, and as he closed in on the location, he still couldn’t stop puzzling together everything that had happened in the Crayton case.
They were close, but missing parts were still out there.
Hopefully, some out-of-sight clues might unexpectedly fall into their hands.
Finding others would require some outside-the-box thinking.
Right now, though, when, where and who kept evading him.
He needed to free his mind. Let it wander. That’s one reason he’d brought his motorcycle along. This time of year, he tended to feel cooped up by the cold and ice and snow. His riding coveralls hadn’t been cheap, but they were worth it when he chanced a road trip on the cycle in this weather.
Although today, the sun had made an appearance. Felt like a false spring day. Especially since the forecast was for more freezing rain and snow.
He’d fill up his thermos at Red’s Corner Market where he was supposed to meet Wheat McIntosh. He was a state trooper with the Missouri Highway Patrol, and also the owner of the acreage for sale. Some kind of inheritance he was splitting into a few one-fifty- to two-hundred-acre plots.
Which brought him to the other reason he’d wrangled the motorcycle into the truck bed.
Of course, he’d done that so many times, it all fell into place like clockwork because his truck bed had been specially fitted for an on-off ramp, wheel chock and tie-down straps and hooks.
Since he didn’t have a Gator yet, riding the land on the cycle would give him at least a partial view of the pros and cons.
Cain had been looking for land like this for years.
He’d shared with Betsy how much this would mean to him, to his planned business, to the family he hoped to raise one day.
She’d listened, even seemed to understand.
Yet the way she’d responded this morning when he asked her to come along to view the property, he’d evidently misread what he thought they had been building in their relationship.
Evidently, his dreams and hers had split.
Or maybe his plans had never been her vision and she’d only pretended.
Come to think about it, she never talked about the future.
She was all about the past. Taking care of top priorities ASAP.
Making sure she could take care of Sadie, Marcy and Summer.
And she’d also included Truman, JB, Joanie, and her uncle, along with his family, under her umbrella of responsibility.
Life hadn’t been kind to her at times, but it hadn’t always been kind to him either.
He’d learned a long time ago that all you can do is learn from the past and move forward.
Embrace the hopes and dreams and plans with open arms, because the past would beat you to the ground and stomp on you if you didn’t learn to fight back.
“Damn it, Betsy. What are you doing?” He slammed his palm against the side of the steering wheel. “I’m right here for you. Why can’t you see that? Why? Don’t you know I need you just as much as you need me?”
The Nature’s Crossing Welcome sign greeted him, and the flashing stop light signaled he was at the four-way junction.
And there it was—Red’s Corner Market. Cain checked how long the trip had taken and calculated when he would need to leave by to make the meeting with Earl Millerton and his attorney back at the Crayton Police headquarters.
A little longer than he’d anticipated, but he’d slowed down at times to avoid damaging the cycle. He’d have to amp it up on the way back.
Stretching as he walked to the small grocery’s front door, he smiled at the porcupine boot and shoe mud scraper next to the doormat. Pausing only a moment, he stepped inside the door and was greeted by an alert bell and a large sleeping dog near the end of the counter. He liked the town already.
“Cain. Cain Connery.” The greeting came from the opposite direction, where a man stepped towards him.
His hand automatically jerked toward his side a second before he paused. Grinned and held out his hand for a brothers-in-arms shake to the CIA agent he’d worked alongside on a couple of cases a few years back. “Mark. Mark Garmund. I didn’t know this is where you lived now.”
Mark returned the gesture, and the two men slapped each other on the shoulder. “Good to see you, man. When Wheat said you were coming to look at his property, I knew I had to be here. That was before he got called out for an emergency. He asked Red and me to make you feel at home. Show you around.”
“Red? I don’t think I know him,” Cain said.
Mark stepped around the dog.and nodded towards the man coming out of the curtained doorway behind the front counter. “Cain, this is Patrick ‘Red’ Horton. CIA for a whole lot of years before he retired and moved to Nature’s Crossing.”
Cain grinned, again. He knew the man, knew his reputation anyway, knew his courage in battle. He took the offered handshake. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet the man behind the newspaper photos.”
All three of them laughed at the memory of the case involving wrong photos in Washington, D.C.
, years ago. Red filled mugs for the three of them while they lingered over stories of previous assignments, pausing just long enough to tend to customers that came and went. Something inside Cain slowly eased.
He liked the men standing in front of him.
Liked how their wives had already taken Betsy in without even meeting her.
Liked what he'd seen of Nature's Crossing so far.
If the land lived up to his expectations, he'd finally found his place.
Found what he'd been looking for. His boss at the DEA would be happy for him.
Would Betsy? If only she'd come with him today. If only—
“Whenever you’re ready I’ll take you out to Wheat’s three plots that are for sale,” Mark said. “I see you brought your motorcycle, but I’ve got the keys to Wheat’s Gator and can drive us around in that.”
Suddenly a double beep sounded just outside the front door. A few seconds later Mark held the front door open and kissed the woman entering.
“This is my wife, Ashley. And this is Cain, the man I told you was coming to look at property in the area.”
She held out her hand. “Hello, it’s nice to meet you. You’ll love this little town.”
A cold wind blew in from the curtained doorway behind the counter, then a shorter lady with pinkish-blonde hair raced through and kissed Red on the cheek.
“And this is the love of my life who puts up with all my shenanigans, Janie.” Patrick beamed with the happiness of a man who’d found his dream. “This is Cain Connery.”
“Hi and bye, Ashley and I are headed to Surryfield, the closest thing to big city shopping in the area. And we’re already getting a late start. Welcome to town, tell your wife or significant other to give us a call.” The two women rushed out the door. “We’ll take her with us the next time.”
“I’m working on that.” Cain couldn’t believe the friendliness of the people here. “Tell me Mark, Red. How did you give up your life with the CIA and move to this small town and end up with two women who clearly adore you?”
“Luck!” Patrick smiled.
“Luck, and in my case, a dance.” Mark nodded. “What about you, Cain? I heard about all the trouble over in Crayton. Heard you’d taken a leave of absence from the DEA to consult with the Crayton police. Even heard a rumor there was something going on between you and a lady named Betsy.”
Cain shook his head at himself. What was he doing here?
How could he have left Betsy, even for a few hours, while she was still in danger?
She wasn’t a chain around him like his dad used to say about his mom.
Betsy was the woman he loved. The one he’d give his life for.
The one he wanted and needed with every ounce of his being.
He swiped his palm across his hair. “You know, sometimes I’m just a flat-out fool. I went off and left her there in Crayton today just so I could see this land. Just because we’d had a spat…and it wasn’t even that, it was just a disagreement.”
Red walked up beside him. “We’ve all been there, man. We’ve all been fools and worse. Takes a little time to realize the give and take in love is two-sided. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.”
“Do you love Betsy?” Mark cut right to the chase.
“Yes. I think—I know—I love her.” Cain swallowed the emotion he heard in his voice, felt in his whole body. “And I don’t want to see the property for the first time without her by my side.”
“Then get on out of here. Tell her how you feel and go from there. We’ll explain everything to Wheat. He’ll understand.”
Cain shook both their hands and headed out the door, then turned back. He rolled ten hundred dollar bills out of his pocket and handed them to Mark. “Tell Wheat this is a deposit on one of the parcels.”
“What if she says no?” Red asked.
“I still want one of the parcels”—he stepped outside as the men followed him to his truck—“but sooner or later, I’m banking on her saying yes. Sooner would be a hell of a lot better.”
He texted Betsy that he was starting home, then started his truck and headed down the road. Back to Crayton. Back to Betsy. When he was well over halfway back, JB called and said Mr. Howard, Earl’s attorney, had called, asking for the meeting to be moved up an hour.
“Why?” Cain asked as he pulled into a gas station to fill his gas tank.
“Said his client was nervous. Felt like someone was watching him. Earl said he knows for sure there’s a price on his and his son Steven’s life.”
“That means he knows about their two names being on the business life insurance policy that Mr. Crestfall told Betsy and me about.” Cain finished and jumped back in the truck. “Means he knows more than we thought.”
JB grunted. “That’s my thought, too.”
“I’ll be there in less than thirty minutes.”
Their call ended and Cain called Betsy. She didn’t answer. Instead, he was left leaving a message on her voicemail:
“Betsy, I’m on my way back and we need to talk about our individual plans and dreams, because…well, I didn’t plan to say this on voicemail, but damn it, Betsy—I love you! See you soon. Call me.”