Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
GABE
For reasons only known to her, Nicole latched onto Gabe and insisted he stay with her while she answered the feds’ questions.
“I’m not a lawyer,” he’d told her. “I’m like the opposite of a lawyer. The anti-lawyer. I find ways to flout the law.”
Really, Chance, take this as the compliment it is.
He’d grabbed himself a cup of weak coffee but there had been no donuts in sight. Not even an empty box with evidence of there once having been sweet treats available. Eagan was probably the type who provided homemade fruit bars to her staff. Healthy, but not sugary goodness.
“I know you aren’t,” Nicole said quietly. “I’d just feel safer if you were with me.”
Klay must have realized Nicole wasn’t changing her mind. Maybe Gabe should have tried harder; he needed to get to the hospital.
Anyway, here they were, in the non-stinky sock interview room. A nice change.
“I saw you, didn’t I?” Gabe turned slightly toward Nicole.
“Leaving Heron’s Roost on Monday.” The younger woman bit her lower lip.
“You weren’t leaving the deli, you’d just seen Wilson’s body.
Which also explains why the door to the building wasn’t latched.
You left in a hurry and didn’t pull it closed. ”
Nicole hunched her shoulders in an active attempt to disappear into the floor. Gabe could relate. Klay gave him a keep talking chin nod, and he, Weir, and Gabe refocused their attention on Nicole.
“I should have connected the dots when I saw the truck at the Geoduck,” Gabe added.
“He was dead when I got there!” she whispered. “You have to believe me.”
“I believe you, I do. But why were you there? Were you meeting Roy Wilson or did you just happen upon him?”
She glanced around, and Gabe was again reminded of a rabbit. “I do odd jobs for Roy, was dropping off some stuff he’d had printed up. Roy was trying to help us, me and Calliope, get away from Mikal.”
Gabe nodded. They all did. The feds in the room consciously relaxed, encouraging Nicole to keep sharing her story.
“Um.” Her voice went lower than a whisper. “Nik and Ivan are the ones who are my cousins. Mikal Petyr is my uncle. Uncle Mikal doesn’t let family go.”
A low hum of comprehension shot around the group. Gabe didn’t fully understand what the agents suddenly did, but he knew a person in trouble, a human trying to escape a shit situation, when he saw one.
“Roy came into work last week, He said he had a plan, that Calli and I would be safe, and Mikal would never find me. But when I got to that place, he was dead.”
“Did you see anyone else?” Weir asked gently.
She shook her head and wrung her hands nervously, her gaze darting around the room. “No.”
Something about her tone had Gabe asking, “Was there something else?”
If possible, she shrank further into herself. “There was a note. You can run but you can’t hide.”
“Where’s the note now?” Gabe asked. He hadn’t seen anything resembling a note.
“I, I took it with me. I forgot to leave the box of flyers too. They’re both in my truck.”
Nicole went on to explain that she hadn’t known what to do when her chance at escape seemed to have evaporated.
She’d decided to pretend that everything was normal, which meant not missing her shifts, and thought maybe Mikal would leave her alone.
“Nothing happened Monday, so I thought I was okay, for a little while anyway.”
“But your cousins came in Tuesday while Elton and I were there.”
“Yeah.” She stopped, took a breath, and started again. “I left right away and called my friend who watches Calli. She said she could keep her for a few days, keep her safe. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You realize they might have already known where your daughter was?” Klay interjected.
“No, they wouldn’t. Jay knows about my situation. She took Calli and Emery away. Emery is Jay’s daughter,” she explained.
“Where are they, Nicole?” Weir asked intently.
She shook her head, lips in a tight, straight line, arms crossed over her chest. “No.”
“Nicole, these are dangerous men who won’t stop at murder. You, of all people, know this. You saw Wilson’s body,” Klay reminded her. “Imagine your friend or Emery or Calli in their hands. I lied to your cousins about having Mikal in custody. He is still very much at large.”
Nicole blanched and grabbed the edge of the table until her knuckles turned white.
“Breathe,” Gabe said, patting her back.
“Jay’s family has a cabin near Lake Cushman.” She rattled off an address and a description of property that sounded too far off the grid for Gabe. Who wanted to live where there was no possibility of pizza delivery? “There’s no cell service up there.”
Weir got up and left the room, presumably to relay the new information to the rest of the team.
“Nicole,” Gabe asked as kindly as he could, “why is your uncle doing this?”
She shrugged, her color more normal again but still pale.
“He thinks he owns everyone in the family, that he’s a king.
All Petyrs belong to him. It was the same when my great-uncle Stjepan was in charge.
But ever since my second cousin, Dany, got out and our uncle Franjo went to prison, Mikal’s become crazier about it, even more controlling than Franjo ever was.
As long as I was working here and checking in on the regular, he left me alone.
But then I found out I was pregnant.” She snorted.
“Like a fucking idiot who doesn’t know how to use birth control. But I love Calli. So much.”
Gabe knew that his own mother would have sympathized. Maybe not with the idiot part, but Heidi had loved him. In her own way.
It wasn’t an easy decision, Chance. I wouldn’t have changed it though. Even when you kept making friends everywhere you shouldn’t have.
Gabe asked, “Is the father involved?”
“No,” she sniffled. “He’s dead. He never got to meet her.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She swiped at her nose with the back of her hand, and Gabe handed her a tissue from the box sitting on the table. “He promised he was gonna change, and for a little while, he did. But then he slipped up and now he’s dead.”
Gabe was thinking about what Knute had told him about the Petyr family. Was this Mikal character expanding the family business back into Twana County or was this personal? A little of both, it sounded like.
Weir opened the door and leaned in. “Boss? Hernandez needs a word.”
Klay rose to his feet and left the room without a word. Weir took his place at the table. “What’d I miss?”
Instead of rehashing what had surely been recorded, Gabe said, “I need to go to the hospital and see my partner. But before that, I need a shower, a change of clothes, and coffee. Not in that order.”
And to check in with Elton and Knute, both of whom had been blowing up his phone with texts.
“Knute and Elton are here, waiting for me in the parking lot. You have my number, and I’m not going anywhere.”
With that, he exited the interview room and the station.