Chapter Fourteen
Camden slowed his pace as he neared the alleyway behind the apartment complex.
Splitting up from Rochelle sent his pulse through the roof.
The effect it had on him had caught him off guard.
However, it couldn’t be helped. She was a professional who was very good at her job. She knew how to handle herself.
So why the hell was he stressed about leaving her to do it?
The woman with black hair turned around to check behind her twice, but he was relatively certain she hadn’t seen him. Her quick glances and his ability to blend into his environment seemed enough to keep him out of her line of sight at critical moments.
There was no car parked in the alleyway.
The black-haired lady picked up her pace to a jog the farther she got away from Kage’s apartment.
Camden noticed that she had on a tight blouse and a short-short miniskirt that could only be called a micro mini.
He hoped she didn’t overpay for it because she only had on about four dollars’ worth of material, his Grandma Lacey would say. He missed her more than words.
Right now, though, he had to maintain focus.
The high-heel boots the black-haired lady was running in had him scratching his head. He would never understand how someone could run with their heels on what looked like the points of needles, let alone do it in an alley filled with potholes.
She half wobbled, half ran toward the strip shopping center that Rochelle had told him was at the end of the alley.
The woman rolled her ankle. She landed on her left thigh before her bottom nailed the gravel. She let out a yelp and a groan as she hit the ground.
The lady couldn’t get up and out of there fast enough.
Rather than hobbling, she was limping at this point, hopping on her right foot.
How she maintained balance was a question he would never be able to answer, but she made it to the strip center before disappearing left.
Camden moved down the alley quietly. Dogs barked, still riled up from her.
She made her way to a white, two-door hatchback as he peeked around the corner into the lot.
Camden retrieved his cell phone and took a picture of the license plate. It should be easy enough to find her address from here, so he doubled back toward Rochelle. An uneasy feeling had settled over him and he couldn’t get back to her fast enough.
From a place down deep, Camden needed to know Rochelle was okay.
Running as fast as he could toward Kage’s apartment, Camden’s heart pounded his ribs so hard he feared it might crack one.
As he rounded the corner, he almost ran smack into her. She was frantic, causing his heart to free-fall.
“There’s a shooter,” she said. “He’s here. He followed me here and barely missed.”
Camden hauled her against his chest, wrapping her in his arm protectively as he scanned the area.
“Where is he?”
“Gone,” she answered. “I think. We should be safe here, but I need to call it in.” She took a step away and flattened her back against the wall. Phone in hand, she made the call to her supervisor while Camden risked a glance around the building.
He didn’t see anything or anyone. Didn’t mean the perp wasn’t out there.
“Yes, sir,” she said into the phone. “The shooter was in a tree across the street from the Sentinel Apartment Complex.” She paused.
“We were here to interview a possible witness.” Another pause.
“The suspect should be considered armed and dangerous.” She paused for a few more beats.
“Yes, it would make sense that it is the same person from last night. Do we have a ballistics report?” She fell quiet again.
“My partner and I will stay on the scene until a uniform arrives.” She shook her head. “No, sir, I lost visual on the perp.”
Camden could almost feel the frustration rolling off Rochelle in palpable waves. She ended the call to her supervisor and then turned her attention toward him.
“I can’t believe I lost that son of a bitch,” she said.
“This doesn’t exactly clear Kage of suspicion, does it?”
“You deal with people with nothing to lose all the time and yet you haven’t been convinced that Kage would pull a stunt like firing at an officer,” she said. “He would have had to go pretty far off the rails to do something like this, wouldn’t he?”
“Yes,” he said. “He would. So someone is either trying to teach us a lesson, scare us away, or kill us.”
“Kill me, you mean.” Rochelle issued a sharp sigh. “So far, this perp followed me to my home and now here. I seem to be the only one who’s getting shot at.”
He couldn’t argue her point there.
“Kage would know that firing at my task-force partner would only make me more determined to find him and lock him behind bars,” he said.
“It would mean war. And the only reasons I could think of for him to attack my partner and not me is to teach me a lesson.” He tensed.
“But then that doesn’t make any sense either. ”
“It doesn’t?” she asked. “Didn’t you take his life away from him when you arrested him?”
“You make a good point there,” he said. “I still think he would come after my family instead of my task-force partner.”
“Anyone who knows anything about law enforcement realizes when two people work together they become family real fast,” she said.
“Again, you make a good point,” he admitted. “If he means to make this personal, we can go to war. Either way, I’m going to do my job and right now my job is to protect you.”
Sirens blared in the distance. Help was on the way.
“I’m guessing the ballistics report is in based on your conversation with your supervisor,” he said.
“You would be correct,” she said.
“Good, then we’ll have this bullet fragment to match up with the other,” he said.
“What are the odds they’re not gonna match?” she asked.
“I’d say they’re pretty slim,” he said. “I didn’t hear it.”
It was impossible not to feel like he’d failed her a second time.
“The lady you were following,” Rochelle said as she remembered the reason he’d taken off in the other direction. “What happened?”
“Got a license plate.” He compressed his lips in a frown.
“Better than nothing,” she said.
“What about the note?” he asked.
“I didn’t touch it for fear the evidence would be inadmissible in court,” she said. “Then, a bullet whizzed past my ear, so I didn’t stick around long enough for the perp to hit me with a second shot.”
A marked SUV came roaring up, sirens blaring. It was probably safe to come around the corner of the building. Rochelle gave the area a once-over and headed toward the SUV. A female officer emerged from the driver’s side.
“Gabby David,” the officer said after closing the door behind her. She offered a quick handshake.
“Detective Paddock, but you can call me Rochelle.”
“Only if you call me Gabby,” the officer said with a small nod as she skimmed the area. Her gaze fixed on Camden. “I take it that’s US Marshal Remington.”
“Yes, it is,” Rochelle confirmed before giving a quick rundown of the situation.
Gabby looked to be in her early thirties. She had brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail and a CrossFit-honed physique.
“There’s a note,” Rochelle informed her, motioning toward Kage’s door.
The pair joined Camden after Gabby grabbed tongs and a paper evidence bag from her vehicle.
With the tongs, Gabby removed the note. It was folded in two, making it easy to open without destroying or adding fingerprints. It read: Not cool how you left me. I thought we had something special.
“Kage was having a relationship with the black-haired woman?” Rochelle asked. The same question was most likely on everyone else’s mind.
“Interesting,” Camden said before giving Gabby a summary of Kage’s background and history with law enforcement.
“Did he have any priors before the mail fraud?” Gabby asked.
“No,” Camden responded.
“I’m no detective,” Gabby started, “but isn’t it a stretch to go from mail fraud to murder?”
“And kidnapping,” Rochelle added before outlining the torture victims endured.
Gabby shook her head.
“You reported not being able to see who was in the trees,” Gabby continued.
“That’s correct.”
“Or being able to make out who came to your home last night,” Gabby added.
“Correct again.”
Gabby turned to Camden. “Can you think of any reason someone would want to set Kage up?”
“Maybe our black-haired witness can shed some light into Kage’s personality,” Camden said.
Rochelle thought about Millie. The Laundromat owner did nothing but sing Kage’s praises. The photo sent a cold chill up her spine. The doppelg?nger theory was too out there to mention to Gabby. And yet, it would explain a lot.
Still, why would a doppelg?nger haunt the same places as Kage? Why make it seem like he was guilty?
To throw law enforcement off the real trail?
A doppelg?nger was also a convenient excuse. No, Detective, it wasn’t me. It was my evil twin. How many times had she heard that excuse thrown out during an investigation?
More times than she cared to count.
“Did you send in the plate?” she asked Camden.
“Yes,” he said. “My supervisor should have a res—”
His cell dinged, stopping him in midsentence. He checked the screen already in his palm. “Detective, we have an address.”
Rochelle shifted her gaze to Gabby. “Are you fine here if we head out?” As she spoke, a second SUV pulled up and parked.
“I’m good,” Gabby said.
After exchanging courtesies and contact information, Rochelle and Camden headed back to his truck.
On arrival, they discovered four flat tires and an obscene word written on the front windshield of the passenger side.
“What the hell?”
The anger in Camden’s voice said this was war. Again, Rochelle noticed the attack had targeted her.
Was someone taunting Camden?
“Now, we have to wait for roadside assistance,” Camden said after assessing the damage.
Was someone trying to slow them down?
“The shooter?” she asked.
“That’s my guess too.” Camden didn’t look up from his cell, obviously busy making arrangements.
“It takes a lot of guts to vandalize the vehicle of someone in law enforcement while they’re investigating you,” she pointed out. Kage?
He gave the impression he couldn’t get far enough away from them. Would he circle back?
A few minutes later, Camden said, “My supervisor is sending a new vehicle and a tow truck.” He shook his head as his lips formed a thin line. “This is getting more and more personal.”
Which meant they were getting close.
“A good sign, don’t you think?”
Camden stared at her like she had two foreheads.
“This person is telling us to back off,” she said.
“Or the perp is trying to show us who is really in charge,” he said.
“Because they don’t believe we’re smart enough to catch them,” she added.
Camden bit down on his bottom lip. “Which could mean the person is hiding behind something.”
“Or someone.”
“Kage,” he said. “But how?”
A tow truck pulled up with a Ford Bronco a car length behind. The driver introduced himself and reassured Camden that his truck would be up and running in a matter of hours.
After they were inside the Bronco, Rochelle decided to ask the question that had been on her mind ever since hearing they would get a replacement vehicle.
“Why didn’t the tow-truck driver just change your tires?” she asked.
“Precaution,” he said.
The implication smacked her like a ton of bricks as the tow-truck driver swept his hand along the outline of the truck. Whoever tried to shoot her could have dropped a tracking device or bug on the truck. They might have done other things she didn’t want to think about.
As she watched the men sweep the truck in the sideview mirror, horror struck as they slowly backed away from the truck.
Bomb?