Covert Cover-Up, page 6
“And I stepped in to save the day.” She offered him a grin. “I know you didn’t want me involved, but, Beck, if what you’re telling me is the correct interpretation of the events, then that burglar could have killed you.”
He shrugged. “He came for the safe. I don’t think he was going to kill me initially, but then after I chased him and we ended up in the library, I think he made his decision to get rid of me. I know I didn’t act like I appreciated what you did, but I do. You probably saved my life last night.”
“You’re welcome. Thank you for saving mine, too.”
“I guess that makes us even.” He stared at her as though he might chuckle, but none of it was funny. “It took me too long to figure out that someone must have planted bugs or cameras in the house after Mia died, waiting for the moment when I would discover whatever Mia had hidden. Once I did, he came in to retrieve the items from the safe. Once those items were gone, I would have nothing to back up my claims that Mia had been murdered.” He sighed. “Once again I would look like a paranoid fool if I tried to go to the police.”
“Except that didn’t happen, Beck. I was there and I saw the guy. Things have obviously escalated, with the attack on me. Since I’ve seen the man’s face, I still need to go in to look at those mug shots, but I don’t hold out any hope he’s in them—I mean, if this is really cloak-and-dagger spy stuff.” She tried not to make it sound like she was making a joke. “And in that case, I can meet with a sketch artist, but first I want to see that safe.”
He nodded and pushed to his feet, offering Katelyn his hand. She didn’t want to become addicted to the feel of his grip, or even that surge of energy that shot through her at his touch. She had a feeling that was exactly what would happen. Beck stirred longings in her heart, and she thought she had more control over those feelings. So she pushed to her feet without his help.
She eyed Beck’s family, still at the picnic table. Ollie was on the slide. “What now?” This was his show, after all.
“Now, we go back to the table. You swing my son for me while I talk to my parents. I’ll only tell them enough to let them know to be wary of strangers or danger. Mom suspects something already. She’s always been able to read me.”
Katelyn walked with Beck back to the picnic table, only this time they didn’t hold hands—his parents noticed, but said nothing.
Mrs. Goodwin rose and smiled at them both. “There’s a few more cookies left. Please eat them up so I don’t need to pack them.” She opened the plastic container and offered the cookies. “Everything okay?”
“I’m going to hang out with Ollie.” Katelyn smiled, then left Beck to speak with his parents.
She approached the playground. Ollie had lost interest in the slide and was now crouching and playing with a stick.
“What are you looking at?” She squatted next to him.
“Oh, just a cricket.”
“Mind if I hang out with you? We could swing.”
“I guess so.” Ollie left the cricket to return to its business and raced to beat her to the swings.
He scrambled on and started rocking back and forth until he propelled his swing so high she was afraid he would fall out.
She was slower to get into the swing next to him, barely fitting her rear into it. She smiled at Ollie and started kicking her way to swinging high like him—something she used to do as a kid. But her insides went queasy now. She glanced at Beck and noted the serious expression on his face. His parents had their backs to Katelyn and Ollie so she couldn’t see if their faces reflected his somber appearance.
Ollie slowed his swing, then flew out of it, landing on his feet.
“Ollie, wait!” Katelyn hoped to prevent him from interrupting Beck’s conversation, but she was too late. He took off to the picnic table.
Beck smiled and wrapped his arm around Ollie. Katelyn watched as she made her way toward them. Ollie frowned and shrugged. What was that about? Everyone rose from the table as she approached.
“What’s going on?”
Beck’s intense gray eyes held her gaze. “Ollie’s going camping with Mom and Dad.”
The kid didn’t appear all that excited about the news. Katelyn guessed he wanted to come home and spend more time with his dad, and she so got that. Beck was a special kind of guy. She’d have to be an idiot not to see that.
“Baseball just ended, Ollie. This is the perfect time for you to hang out with Pops and Mimi.”
“But you’re not going to be there.”
Beck ruffled Ollie’s dark hair—he must take after his mother, Mia, in that department. “I know, but I have to work. And I promise once I finish, if I can, I’ll join you at the campsite.”
Ollie jerked his head to Katelyn. “Will our new friend come, too?”
Beck’s chuckle sounded forced as he glanced at her. “I don’t know, Ollie.”
“I need to get my fishing pole and my DS.”
“You don’t need electronics.” The man looked to his mother for help.
Mrs. Goodwin rose from the table. “Come on, Ollie. We have enough clothes for you. You don’t need to make a trip home. Pops has an extra fishing pole or we can buy one. We plan on heading out as soon as possible.”
Mrs. Goodwin hugged Beck and kissed him on both cheeks. “You be careful now.”
She eyed Katelyn and smiled, then shook her hand, pressing it between both of hers. “I’m so glad you’re here for Beck.”
Katelyn tried to absorb the heartfelt thanks and maybe with it she could get a sense of just what Beck might have told his mother. A lot? Or very little?
Ollie trudged off with his grandparents, leaving Katelyn more than curious. “Just what did you tell them?”
“Everything.”
Katelyn felt her jaw drop again. She’d thought Beck had intended to hold something back. “Wait. Everything?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“I realized they weren’t going to settle for half truths.”
Beck frowned as he watched them get into their SUV and quickly drive away. He waved at his son as the SUV headed around the park to the exit, then turned his full attention on Katelyn.
“What did they say?” she asked. “How did they respond?”
“They think I need help.”
* * *
Back in town, Beck took Katelyn to the county sheriff’s offices. He waited while she sat at a desk in the corner and looked through stacks of mug shots. Katelyn didn’t see the intruder in the photographs. Beck hadn’t thought she would, but they’d needed to get that out of the way. The county forensic artist was recovering from surgery, so it would be next week before Katelyn would meet with him.
Then it was on to the moment they had both been waiting for—when Beck would show Katelyn the safe. He parked his vehicle at the curb down the street from his house instead of in the driveway, or even in front.
“Why are you parking here?”
“Just want to hang back and see if anyone is lurking about.”
Katelyn said nothing to that, but he knew she had more she wanted to say. She had kept quiet during the drive back and he appreciated her sensitivity. He tried to rise above how profoundly his parents’ reaction affected him. They hadn’t exactly come out and said they didn’t believe him, but he saw it plain as day in their eyes. Mom had asked him several times about seeing her counselor friend. She and Dad both thought that Beck had suffered some sort of emotional break with reality since Mia’s death. His biggest fear where they were concerned was that they could possibly try to take Ollie away from him—but then again, his parents knew that Ollie would have none of that. Beck was good for Ollie, and he loved his son dearly.
Still, it broke his heart when at the table today his mother had reached over, taken his hand and said, “For your son’s sake, Beck, please, can’t you see this is only going to make things worse?”
He released a long and heavy sigh that Katelyn couldn’t have missed, but she didn’t comment. Now he was curious about what she was thinking. But he could wait her out. He didn’t trust himself to speak just yet, anyway.
Katelyn shifted to look at him. “Okay, well, under normal circumstances this would be the moment I should say thank you for an interesting day. Then I would get out and head home. But I want to see what all the fuss is about, and what someone has tried to kill me twice over.”
He turned to face her. Took in her lovely features. Soft smile, and amazing eyes. That hair. Careful, Beck. “Thanks for that, Katelyn.”
“To some degree, I know what you’re going through—I mean, how hard it is when others don’t believe in you. You begin to second-guess everything. To doubt yourself.” Katelyn gazed off into the distance like she was far from him as she spoke.
“Sometime, I’d like to hear your story.”
“My story?” She jerked her gaze to him.
“What happened to you before that helps you to understand what I’m going through right now.”
Her smile was tenuous. “I can’t truly understand, but I’m trying.”
“You have no idea how much that means to me,” Beck said. “Now let me sign those papers and we’ll go look at the safe.”
The private-investigator contract signed, they hiked down the street and tromped up the front walk. Would Clara be watching? At the front door, Katelyn brandished her weapon. “Let’s make sure it’s safe inside the house and no one is waiting for us.”
“I have my own gun.” Beck tugged his gun from the small holster at his waist. Carrying a concealed weapon was a new and necessary habit for him. “But you’re the ex-cop who knows more about how to wield a deadly weapon. You first then.” He gestured for her to take the lead because he knew she wanted that. She appeared to be in her element and he wouldn’t take the moment from her.
She was definitely a take-charge woman and he loved that about her.
Once they were sure no one was in the home, Beck tucked his gun away. “He doesn’t need to be here in the house to hear us and see us.”
“You mean the bugs.”
“I do.”
“Let’s exterminate them. You take that side of the house, I’ll take this side.”
“Um, I don’t exactly have a lot of experience with this. What am I looking for?”
“I know a little about it.” Her shrug was cute. “I don’t use bugs or cameras in the PI business, don’t get the wrong idea.” She explained what he should look for and they each scoured the home.
Katelyn found a small camera in the living room. “That was it.”
“I found a listening device in my bedroom. Guess the police weren’t exactly looking for bugs and cameras. Just prints and any DNA left behind by the intruder.”
“Right. And there could still be more that we missed,” she said.
“I figure that we have limited time before someone else shows up here. The doors are locked and the alarm is armed.”
Katelyn shoved back her hair and twisted it into a ponytail. “Okay, so show me the safe.”
Beck led her down a hallway and into the basement. He hadn’t found any bugs or cameras down here, but that didn’t mean anything. What difference did it make at this juncture, since the safe had already been discovered? He feared that the contents had already been stolen. At the wall, he removed the Sheetrock that he’d put back in place to hide the safe.
“Now that we’re looking at it, any chance you know how to open it?”
“I’ve tried birth dates and anniversaries.” He frowned. “Any suggestions?”
“We could hire someone to open it,” she said.
“That would be my last choice.”
“It might be your only choice.” Katelyn glanced around the basement. “Let’s do a little research about this kind of safe and how we could break it open.”
He chuckled.
“People learn how to build bombs on the internet. I wouldn’t be surprised if we could learn how to open this safe without the combination.”
“The internet connection isn’t so great down here. Let’s go upstairs. I’m parched. We can get a drink while we research.” Once upstairs, Beck shut all the mini blinds. “Don’t want anyone looking in.”
Katelyn glanced through a slat in one of the blinds. “I don’t see any suspicious vehicles out there. The sooner we get this over with, the better.”
Beck poured a glass of milk and offered it to her.
Katelyn frowned. “Got any chocolate syrup?”
“I have an eight-year-old.” He grabbed the syrup and handed it to Katelyn. “Of course I do.”
He watched her pour syrup into her milk and then laughed. “You’re as bad as Ollie. I have to do it or he abuses the privilege.”
She smiled and winked, then drank from the glass, her eyes never leaving his. He downed his milk and wiped away the residual moustache. Time to get busy. While Katelyn used her cell phone to search for information, he focused on his laptop, which was open at the kitchen counter. He was very aware of Katelyn Bradley’s every move. Every breath. Every twitch of her nose. Every pucker of her lips.
Katelyn Bradley was quickly getting under his skin.
He reminded himself that Mia, whether for the right reasons or the wrong reasons, had lied to him and acted duplicitously. No one could ever truly be trusted, including Beck. He hoped that Katelyn knew she shouldn’t trust him.
Lost in his thoughts about Katelyn, he didn’t realize she’d moved from her position until she hovered much too near and looked over his shoulder. “So I have a question. What happens if we open the safe and we find...nothing?”
He whirled in the chair. “What do you mean if we find nothing?”
“You’re hinging everything on what’s in the safe, Beck. What if there’s nothing—nothing in the safe? Then what?”
He frowned. “It could mean that someone already got to the safe and took everything.”
“Or it could mean there was nothing in there to begin with. Who owned this house before you? Could be it belonged to someone else and the information wasn’t passed along to you by the Realtor or the previous owner.”
“The safe and its hiding spot are all new. I explained that.” And he thought she believed him.
“Is there any chance you could be wrong about that? Even the slightest chance?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, so what happens if we open the safe and you find something...incriminating? Or even something to prove that Mia was a government agent. Then what?”
“I don’t know.”
“I do. We need to give the information to the authorities.”
“You mean the police.”
“I’m sorry, but yes. What else can you do with it? You’re trying to prove that someone killed Mia. You can’t do that on your own.”
“I’m not doing it on my own. I hired you, remember?”
Her ponytail sagging, Katelyn weaved her fingers through her hair. “Beck, I’m not the police. I can investigate but at the end of the day the information—especially incriminating information—will need to be handed over.”
“Don’t forget, I tried telling the police before.”
“Before you had any actual evidence. I’m just trying to establish some game rules here. Or rather ground rules. We find something. We turn it over.”
“You mean to your brother.” Beck shoved from the counter and paced his kitchen, loathing that he seemed to be doing that an awful lot lately. “I thought we’d already addressed this and you were on board with it. Katelyn, you’re in danger. You’ve already experienced that. Each person you tell will then be in danger.”
“You told your parents.”
“Because they need to know in order to keep Ollie safe.” He rubbed his temples. “We need to get into that safe. In the meantime, act normal. Like everything’s normal. Even to your brother.”
“How am I supposed to ask questions and investigate? That’s why you hired me, remember?”
Beck pressed his palms against the counter and leaned forward, hanging his head.
“Beck.” She touched his back. “Why don’t you just move and leave the safe, leave it all behind?”
He turned to face her. He couldn’t help it. He gently grabbed her shoulders. “Whoever was behind killing my wife, whoever was behind the attack in my home and on you, will keep coming. Don’t you get it? I have to know what’s inside that safe. I have to know the truth in order to protect those I care about.”
With the words, Beck knew that he cared deeply about Katelyn, deeper than he had a right to. With the shimmer in her gaze, Katelyn knew that, too.
She slowly nodded. “For everyone’s sake, I want you to know the truth, too. Let’s go break into that safe.”
SEVEN
With growing exasperation, Katelyn pressed her head against the safe and groaned. She’d tried to find the combination, using the techniques she’d read about, but it remained locked. She dropped her hands and growled, then marched away from the stupid safe.
“I don’t get it! I’ve tried this ten times and I still can’t open it. It shouldn’t be this hard. What am I doing wrong?” She stretched out her arm and opened up her palm. “I think we should hire someone. We’re wasting time trying to do this ourselves.”
Beck’s face remained stone, but a scowl brewed behind his gaze. “I’ll give it a try.”
She knew he didn’t want to hire someone, but this was ridiculous. “You’ve already tried, remember? We’re done. This is taking too long, Beck.”
He approached the safe and stared at it.
“So it’s in the wall, but is it heavy to lift?” she asked.
