Chapter 25 #2
I found Hugh about two thirds of the way down one path to the boat dock. Sprawled face-down. Shot in the back five times. He lay in what had been a puddle of blood, now dried and dark.
I just stood there, staring at his body, though I knew I should leave.
It would look bad for me, if Meechum told the cops he had been forced to give me this address, and if any security cameras placed me near the scene.
I hoped Meechum was at least smart enough to understand his best hope lay with me.
I’d find some way to give the police an anonymous tip, so Hugh’s body could be properly attended to, but later for that. The living came first.
I got back into my car and sped away as if fleeing a pursuer. Clemens had been a sleazy, manipulative user, but he hadn’t deserved that. Disgrace and jail time, maybe. A good, hard, ass-kicking, certainly. But not being shot in the back and left in the mud.
It triggered all my worst nightmares about Shane’s fate.
The ones that had haunted my waking and sleeping moments ever since they took him.
I’d learned to function at a high level through them.
Both Freya and I had to keep our shit together for Holly’s sake.
But looking at a dead man lying in the mud stripped away the hopeful masks.
The keep-on-keeping-on bullshit. It exposed the bloody skeleton of raw fear beneath it.
They’d made me feel it, those filthy motherfuckers. They’d scored a point, and I fucking hated them for it.
I was back on the highway, driving well over the posted speed limit, when the call came in. It was Shelby’s number on the screen. I hit “talk.” “Yeah?”
“Kat’s gone,” Shelby blurted out. “She flew the coop. I don’t know what the fuck she was thinking. What, that we were holding her hostage? Jesus!”
I was horrified. “What…fuck! How?”
“Trey came back with all the stuff he bought to secure her house, and we knocked on the door so we could start installing it. She didn’t answer.
We waited for a while, in case she was in the bathroom.
Then we went in. She’s gone. Purse gone.
Bedroom window open. She left money and a note for the landlady. A note for you.”
“What did it say?”
“Just ‘Sorry, thanks for everything, it was wonderful.’ Real touching. Real useful.”
“What about Joanna? What does she say?”
“A whole hell of a lot, and it’s pissing me off! She’s right here, boss. Goddamn it, hold still…shit! That hurt!”
“Don’t manhandle me, you overgrown prick!” Joanna’s voice was shrill.
“I’m outside her mother’s house now,” Shelby said. “She told her demon cat to bite me.” Bumps, thuds, raised voices, as Shelby argued with Joanna. Shelby got back on the line. “Talk sense into her, if that’s even possible,” he snarled. “Which I doubt.”
“Screw you, too!” Joanna yelled. “Dick!”
“Joanna?” I made my voice even, soothing, “Do you know where Kat is?”
“I don’t! But I wouldn’t tell you even if I did!”
I let out a silent sigh. “We’re not the enemy,” I told her, keeping my voice as even as I could. “We’re trying to protect her.”
“Guess what, buddy? She’s trying to protect you, too! She said, yeah, you’ve got your enemies, and they suck, but she says hers are worse!”
“This is a game I really wish I could lose, Joanna, but my enemies would wipe the fucking floor with her enemies,” I told her.
“Well, Kat doesn’t think so! And it totally breaks her heart to leave, ‘cause she’s totally in love with you, but she can’t stand to see more people she loves killed!”
“Joanna. If you want her to live, tell me where she went,” I pleaded.
“She didn’t tell me, ‘cause she’s protecting me, too!
” Joanna’s voice was froggy with tears. “Kat wants to protect everybody. That’s just who she is, in spite of all the bad shit she’s been through.
She tries not to make friends, because she’s trying to protect them, but people glom onto her anyway.
But she’s so freaking stressed, you know?
Everything’s a threat, with her. She always does these crazy rituals when she leaves her house—”
“Yeah? What rituals?”
“You know, like putting hairs over the door handles, and the drawer and closet handles. That’s how she knew you’d been through her underwear drawer, dude!”
“But I wasn’t,” I said. “Not ever. Didn’t touch them. No reason to lie.”
Joanna was silent for a moment, struck by that. “Um…so who did, then?”
“Good question. Put Shelby back on,” I directed.
“Yo, boss. Shelby here.”
“Go back to Kat’s house. Go into her closet and open the soles of her shoes. Look for trackers.” I waited while Shelby jogged across the street and into Kat’s place, breathing heavily into the phone. After a couple of minutes, I heard a hiss of dismay.
“Fuck me,” he said. “Both pairs, the boots and the running shoes. They must have gotten her address and dusted her place that first day. Bastards are efficient, I’ll give ‘em that.”
“Is Joanna still there with you?”
“Yeah, actually.” Shelby sounded aggrieved. “She followed me back into the house, even though I did not invite her to.”
“Put me on speaker with her,” I said.
“Done, boss.”
“Joanna, did you see what he found?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Joanna’s voice was small. “Jeez. So…this is like, the real deal?”
“Oh, yes,” I said forcefully. “My enemies, those guys who attacked us three days ago, have a tracker planted on Kat. She has no idea, and she’s all alone. So, if you know anything about where she might have gone, please tell us.”
“I wish I did know!” Joanna sniffed loudly. “I took her to the bus station, is all. She wouldn’t tell me where she was going. I don’t think she knew herself.”
Shit. “Go home,” I said. “Don’t get near Kat’s place until we’ve cleaned up this mess. You don’t want those bastards to take notice of you, understand? Kat wouldn’t want that either. Shelby, go to the bus station with Trey, see what you can find.”
“On it, boss.”
I called Mick, who picked up on the first ring. “Yeah?”
I explained the situation, and Mick whistled under his breath. “Fuck,” he murmured. “Ethan, I’m sorry. But you really can’t protect someone who doesn’t want to be protected. Maybe you should just let her—”
“Do you want to help me, or do you want to go job hunting?”
“Chill,” Mick soothed. “I’ll help. Did you give her that smartphone you took this morning?”
“Why?” I sat up straighter, electrified. “Is there a tracker in it?”
“Of course, there’s a fucking tracker in it. Who do you think you’re dealing with? I’m old school, man. Spy first, apologize later.”
“It’s in her purse. I forgot to tell her about it. Can you locate her with it?”
“Sure. Sending the data now. Watch it on your phone, or put it up on the car’s screen. Where are Shelby and Trey?”
“I sent them to the bus station,” I said.
“Where are you right now?”
“Heading east on 90, from Bellevue,” I told him.
“Looks like she’s moving south on I-5 toward Tacoma,” Mick said.
He kept talking, but all I heard was the engine’s roar as the car surged forward.