CHAPTER THIRTEEN #2
Melanie tapped her lip with her forefinger. “I can’t see why he thought our evening was so great, but I want to talk with him again. That’ll be easier if we’re somewhere he feels comfortable.”
“Bad idea, Mel. He acted defensive when you brought up the night you were assaulted. That’s a signal he could be hiding something.”
“Which is all the more reason for me to try again. Maybe he has a suspicion about who attacked me.”
“Or maybe he’s the attacker. Not happening, sweetheart.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t ‘sweetheart’ me, Gage Landry. I’m not reckless or careless. I agree going to Chase’s house isn’t smart. I don’t want to be alone with him. Plus, cooking for me smacks too much of romance and I’m not interested in him that way.”
“Damn straight you’re not,” he growled.
“I’ll suggest we meet for coffee at the bakery,” she decided, ignoring his comment. “It’s a comfortable space and it’ll give me another chance to learn what he knows.” Her gaze locked on his. “Why do you two dislike each other so much?”
“Besides him being a pretentious dick, Shane and I intervened when he hit his wife. They’d been out to dinner at Easy Money. Asshole was drunk.”
“He hit her? In public?”
“Yeah, and that’s why I consider him the most likely suspect from your list.” His eyes glittered with intensity. “You’re right not to trust him.”
“Is this what you came to tell me? You could have texted me.”
He gave a humorless laugh. “There’s not much I’ll put in a text. Bradford reacted strongly when you brought up the assault. He mostly held it in, but he was angry. I want you safe and that means being careful in your dealings with him.”
“Okay.” She couldn’t argue with his logic.
Her thumbs flew across her phone screen as she typed out a response.
She held it up and leaned toward Gage, angling the phone so he could see the screen.
“See? I suggested we meet at Three Sisters Bakery at one on Friday so we can talk. It shouldn’t be crowded then.
Hopefully, he can take a late lunch.” He nodded and she hit send.
“Someone from our group should be there. Not with you, but at a table where they can keep an eye on things,” Gage said. “Bradford and I irritate the hell out of each other so it’s better if it’s not me.”
“What did he mean about you playing ranch hand?”
He shrugged. “I worked on Shane’s ranch when I first got here.
Bradford assumed that was my primary occupation.
I didn’t set him straight. Beyond being honest work, it’s none of his fucking business what I do.
Plus, it was hard to resist giving him the opportunity to show the world he’s an asshole.
” He drummed his fingers on his thigh. “Keeley and Delaney would be better backup.”
“I don’t know. I’ve only recently reconnected with those two. I don’t want to impose. If you think it’s important, I can ask Mom or Paul.”
“You could, but I’m positive Keeley and Delaney would like to be there for you. Like I said, Keeley already laid into me about excluding the women from our investigation.”
“I’ll have to thank her for that. We’re seeing Delaney at the farm tomorrow.
I’ll see how that goes before asking her.
” She shifted so she was facing him. “I don’t think you’re wrong to suspect Chase.
It’s awful to think he’s capable of doing what was done to me.
If it’s true and he’s exposed, it’ll shake up this town.
The Bradfords have been a big deal in Sisters for a long time. ”
She narrowed her eyes at his change in expression. “What’s that look about?”
“Nothing I can talk about.”
Realization dawned. “That night at Easy Money, Chase claimed the FBI was harassing him, and you said they tried to limit their harassment to criminals. Is the FBI investigating Chase?”
“Good memory, but I still can’t talk about it.”
She nodded slowly. “Wow. That makes things more complicated.” She picked up her phone when it signaled. “Chase says Friday at one at the bakery is fine.”
“He accepted damn quick,” Gage muttered.
His arm rested along the back of the couch. She shifted under his watchful gaze, worrying he could see more than she wanted to reveal. She set her phone on the coffee table. “Anything else bring you here tonight?”
“Besides you? I want to go over what I’d found in my initial search of the people on your spreadsheet.”
Besides you? Why did a throwaway comment like that make her feel all sparkly inside? She gave herself an internal get it together admonishment. “Right. Why don’t you add what you found to the spreadsheet? I made it so you could edit it too.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Not putting anything in a document someone with the hacking skills of a third grader could get into.”
“Do third graders have hacking skills?”
“You’d be surprised. I investigated a case where a twelve-year-old hacked his school’s computer system. He changed his bully’s name to ‘Imma Asshole’ and his grades to straight Fs.”
“Maybe I could hire him to transfer Liam to one of the other elementary schools.”
“He probably could do that for you.”
“Yikes.”
Gage pulled his phone from his pocket and moved closer until they were shoulder to shoulder.
He angled the screen so she could see and opened an app.
“This app allows you to store and manipulate data and provides encryption. I transferred the information from your spreadsheet and added notes on what I found. You’d listed twenty-one people. There are a few with red flags.”
“What were you looking for?”
“Criminal records, court and civil records, police reports, complaints. Anything that suggests a pattern of violence against women.”
“This seems intrusive, like an invasion of privacy.”
He gave her a you’ve got to be kidding look. “Cops would do this and more if they were to reopen the case. That’s what you’re aiming for, right?”
“I guess so. I don’t have the full plan worked out yet, but I figured I’d start by talking with Delaney, see if she knows who still lives in Sisters and reach out to them.
She might be able to help me identify others I missed and, hopefully, give me contact info for them.
Once I have that, I’ll start making calls. ”
His green eyes were sharp as he studied her. “The information I found indicates most recent known addresses and should inform who we look at first and what we ask them.”
“We?”
“Yeah, we. We’re doing this together.” She must be softening because she didn’t even bother protesting. Somehow she’d acquired a hunky ex-FBI agent security consultant whose expertise could mean the difference between success and failure in her quest.
He went on, “Download this app. I’ll authorize you on my account and we can share information that way.”
“Right.” She reached over a snoozing Pancake to retrieve her phone. She downloaded the app. “You move fast, you know that?”
“This is important.”
Melanie filled in the required fields, then handed over her phone so Gage could link the app to his account.
With that done, he pointed to the screen.
“Tap here and you’ll find my notes on each person.
One subject died in a car accident about six years ago and one from an overdose a year and a half ago.
Of the couples you identified, three married, and a fourth married and divorced.
One female subject was arrested for DUI and a male subject served time for domestic violence.
Only fourteen from the list still live in Sisters. ”
“Oh man. Pete Orona is the one who died in a car accident. He was a nice guy. At least I think he was.” When she spoke again, her voice was subdued.
“The person who attacked me grabbed me from behind and put a hood over my head. I never saw him. One of the awful consequences is I suspected everyone. Any one of those guys I knew could act like a normal guy, but it could be a mask over an evil soul. It makes it hard to trust anyone.”
“You say that, but you trusted Walker enough to testify in his defense.”
“True. But I knew Walker from being friends with Delaney. He’s always had this unshakable integrity.
During my sophomore year I had a flat tire on my way home from choir practice at the high school.
It was dark, the road was deserted. He came by on his motorcycle and stopped.
He changed the tire and loaned me his cell so I could call Mom.
And all the while he was changing the tire he talked about Delaney. ”
She shrugged. “During our senior year, he would pick up Delaney after school on his motorcycle. He had this hot bad boy vibe. You’d think he was in a boy band because the girls loved him.
One day there was a group of senior boys, Chase Bradford, Greg Delano, and some others, making crude comments to girls as they walked by.
Walker was pissed. He confronted them and whatever he said shut them up. ”
He gave her a considering look. “It took a lot of faith in Walker to stand up in court and defend him.”
“I did have faith in him. I can’t see a rapist acting like he did. But that’s not all. Walker’s a big guy. He’s tall and has big hands. The man I fought against that night didn’t seem as big. But because I couldn’t see anything, the prosecutor was dismissive of my claims.”
“Which made you feel powerless all over again.”
She nodded, surprised at his insight.
“Tell me more about Chase in high school.”
She sorted through her memories. “He was popular, especially our senior year. The football team made it to the state championships, and he was quarterback. They’d only had one loss all season, which was attributed to a bad call on his part. In fact, the bootlegger was the day after that game.”
“Any questionable behavior you know about?”
She told Gage about Chase defending Thad Stimson only to later slam the boy into the lockers.
“Sounds like a fucking narcissist.”