Cold Case Tracker, page 12
Narrow eyes. Thin lips. Square jaw with an otherwise long face.
But even as the stranger began to come together on the page in front of her, the doctor’s words still echoed in the back of her mind. Her blood pressure had spiked. He’d wanted her to rest locally overnight and come back in the morning for more tests. And if things still didn’t look good, she might have to find a place close to the hospital in Huntsville and stay on complete bed rest until Skye arrived.
She set the sketch pad down in the grass beside her and ran her hands over her belly, feeling for the comforting contours of her daughter’s tiny form. The baby stirred softly.
Help me, Lord. I’ve never felt so alone. I don’t feel ready to be a mother and I’m terrified of failing her. Now my precious child may be in danger. I feel so alone and so completely helpless to protect her.
She heard the gentle jingling of dog tags. Amy opened her eyes to see Hudson trotting through the grass toward her in his official K-9 unit vest. She looked past him and didn’t see Jackson anywhere, but she knew he wouldn’t be far away. Hudson’s tail wagged. He lowered his head as he reached her and nuzzled his nose against her arm.
“Hey, you.” She ran her hand over his head. The dog licked her face gently then lay down beside her on the blanket. Amy buried her face in his fur and hugged him tightly.
Thank you, Jackson.
Somehow he’d known she didn’t want to be alone right now, but had probably also figured that he was the last person she wanted to see. So, he’d sent Hudson to her on a solo mission. She lay down beside the dog for a long moment, feeling his heartbeat and resting in the comfort of having him there. Then after a while, Hudson’s ears perked. The dog leaped to his feet. She sat up to see Jackson stepping around the side of the building.
He hesitated and seemed unsure whether to join them. Amy waved him over. Slowly, she sat up, cross-legged, resting her hands gently on her protruding belly.
“Blake told me I’d find you here,” he said. “Caleb’s with her now, waiting for the motel to sort out a room. Should be ready in a few minutes. They had someone leave early, they just hadn’t cleaned the room yet.”
“Well, I have something for you,” she said. “I did a sketch of our silent intruder.”
She nodded to the sketch pad that lay beside her in the grass. He sat down next to her and looked at it.
“This is incredible,” he said. “How did you figure out what he looked like?”
“I put it together from glimpses of what I’d seen,” she said. “I don’t know how accurate it is, but it’s my best guess.”
“Well, it’s really good,” Jackson said. “I’m going to send it to Finnick. He can assign someone to search the database for a match.”
He held up his phone and took a picture of it. She heard the swooshing sound of the email sending. Then they sat side by side for a long moment, without either of them speaking.
She wanted to tell him that while she was still angry at him and didn’t think what he’d done was even remotely okay, she believed he meant well. And she was glad to know there was someone on the case who cared about Gemma as much as he did.
“Blake said the doctor told you that you needed to rest and come back for more tests tomorrow?” he asked.
Concern creased his forehead. A deeper sorrow than she’d ever seen before pooled in his eyes.
“Yeah,” Amy said. “My blood pressure is still too high. He’s worried about the impact my ongoing stress will have on the baby. It’s too soon to know for sure if I’m facing a more serious problem. But if I don’t get better results tomorrow, I might be looking at complete and total bed rest until Skye is born.”
Her voice hitched with an unexpected sob.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Jackson said.
His hand brushed over hers then quickly pulled away, as if he’d just caught himself. But Amy grabbed his hand, even as he was pulling it back, and squeezed it tightly.
“I can’t let myself think about medical stuff right now,” she said. “Or I might fall apart. Please, I need a distraction. Tell me how things went at Pine Crest.”
“Okay,” Jackson said. Slowly their hands pulled apart. “First of all, Hudson was a really big hit.”
Although the dog’s head didn’t turn, Amy couldn’t help but notice Hudson’s ears twitch toward Jackson as he heard his name.
“Turns out Pine Crest is full of the most incredibly vibrant and opinionated seniors I’ve ever met,” Jackson said. “They are also extremely disappointed that the cops have failed to solve the twelve-year-old cold case of the deaths of three of their friends.”
“I can’t blame them,” she said.
“Police took DNA samples that they might have never even tested,” Jackson said. “Did you know that we don’t have a dedicated cold case unit in Ontario? Finnick—my boss, Inspector Ethan Finnick, head of the RCMP’s Ontario K-9 Unit—has been fighting for years for the creation of a single, multidisciplinary unit dedicated to solving cold cases. Which is something that exists in other parts of North America. He’s as passionate about unsolved crime as other people are about hockey or baseball. Now it looks like Gemma was too.”
She thought of the wall of faces and names in her friend’s hidden office.
“These are cases that were never closed,” he went on. “In some, families have no idea if their relatives are dead or alive. In others, they know they’re gone, but it was never even determined if someone was murdered, died by accident or of natural causes.” He sighed and leaned back on his elbows. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”
“No, I asked for a distraction,” Amy said. She lay back and looked up to the white clouds dotting a clear blue sky. “This is good.”
“Well, I don’t have any answers for the people at Pine Crest,” he said. “Twelve years ago, there was a string of thefts. Then three elderly residents died of what may have been an accidental or intentional overdose of their pain medication IVs.”
“What was stolen?” she asked.
“Umm...” He seemed to be thinking. “Well, first of all, money. Everybody started missing cash, big and small. Then there was a lot of jewelry of varying value. Some gold coins. And a bunch of memorabilia from when Gordon served in the Second World War.”
“And there’s a suspect,” Amy said.
“Yup, Kenny Stanton,” Jackson said. “Charming guy, with brown or blond hair, depending who you ask. Everybody loved him and police initially cleared him. But when he didn’t show up for work and dropped off the map, everybody became suspicious.”
She glanced down at the face she’d sketched on her notepad. “I don’t know if I’d consider him charming.”
Jackson’s phone suddenly pinged with a text notification. He sat up.
“Whoa,” he said. “Maybe not, but your sketch did the trick. We now know who our silent intruder is.”
TEN
“Are you serious?” Amy asked. “That was incredibly fast.”
“Well, your picture was really good,” he said.
She sat up and looked at the mug shot on Jackson’s phone. The face that stared back at her was so close to the composite sketch they might’ve been twins.
“His name is Reese Cyan,” Jackson read. “Age thirty-eight. Born in Ireland but moved to Canada when he was two, so his accent is definitely exaggerated. Long criminal record and several outstanding warrants for theft, breaking and entering, grand larceny, and trafficking in stolen property.”
“Wow.”
“But besides one minor assault charge, there’s nothing violent on his record. Nothing like kidnapping or murder. He just steals stuff, sells it and also sells stuff that other people have stolen. So, whatever’s going on here is a complete break in his pattern.”
“He looks vaguely familiar,” Amy said, “but I don’t know for sure if I’ve ever seen him before.”
“Maybe he was hanging around outside the bookstore?” Jackson suggested.
“Maybe,” Amy said. “So, we have one answer and even more questions. Is Reese Cyan also Kenny Stanton? Did Gemma figure out he was behind the murders at Pine Crest?”
“I don’t know.” Jackson sighed. “I just wish Gemma had confided in me about all this. Maybe I would have let her down, but I just wish she’d given me the opportunity to be there for her.”
“Well, you two were never close,” Amy said gently. “She never talked about you or even told me you were now a K-9 cop.”
Was that because Gemma was ashamed of her brother? Or because Amy was deep in the middle of a crisis and Gemma was hiding her own secrets? It was hard to judge a person’s true thoughts and feelings by what got talked about in the middle of a hurricane.
“We actually used to be really close,” Jackson said. “We were best friends when we were kids. People thought we were twins, because even though she was a grade above me, our classes were often combined.”
“Really?” She’d had no idea.
“Everything changed when Gemma started grade seven and moved to a new school without me,” Jackson said. “Suddenly she had this whole new life that I wasn’t a part of and everything I did embarrassed her. She matured a lot faster than me. My parents were going through a divorce at the time, and I felt like everyone had forgotten I existed. So I got really loud and started doing stupid stuff to get attention. Figured being in trouble was better than being invisible.” He ran his hand over his neck. “I’m not proud of it.”
She thought of the note she’d found hidden in the camper. Part of her was glad he hadn’t asked her out when they were teenagers, because she definitely hadn’t been interested in romance back then. But maybe it would’ve been nice to be friends.
“I’m sorry,” Amy said. “I never meant to take your best friend away from you. Everyone talked about how close Gemma and I were. Joined at the hip. Thick as thieves. I never intended for you to be left out.”
“Well, it was pretty clear you hated me,” Jackson said, quietly and without meeting her eyes. “Especially when you sent my letter back with ‘I Hate You! Never Talk to Me Again!’ written across it in huge block letters. Not that I blame you.”
“I never did that!” Amy jolted upright. “You never sent me any letters!”
“Yes, I did,” Jackson said. “I sent you one. When I was fifteen. After I crashed your grandmother’s car into the lake at your birthday party, I got arrested.”
“I remember,” Amy said.
Gemma had been so embarrassed of her brother. There had been dozens of cops. It had been chaos.
“I got probation,” Jackson said, “and ended up in this special group program for kids with behavioral problems. It probably saved my life, and there were a lot of great people working there. But that’s also how I got this dent in my nose. Some other kids were bullying me when we were doing our public service hours cleaning up trash, and the incredibly terrible cops guarding us decided not to step in, for reasons I can only imagine.”
“I’m so sorry.” Amy’s hand brushed his arm.
“Thanks,” he said. “Something about seeing both the best and the worst from people in law enforcement inspired me to become a cop and pushed me to pursue justice and rescue people for a living. They also had service dogs there, and they were just incredible. But I also think watching what I went through was another one of the reasons my sister doesn’t really trust police. Gemma never understood how I could just forgive and move on. Despite our differences, she was really protective of me. Anyway, one of the steps I took was writing apology letters to everyone I harmed. My parents were in charge of passing them out. I wrote you one. Are you telling me you never got it?”
“No.” Amy shook her head. “There’s no way I’d forgot that.”
Had Gemma intercepted it, pretended to be Amy and sent it back? Why would her best friend do something like that? Frown lines creased Jackson’s forehead, and she was pretty sure he was thinking the exact same thing. But neither of them said it.
“I didn’t hate you,” Amy said. She stared down at the grass. “I liked you. At least until you started doing stupid stuff. I thought you were really cool, adventurous and smart. Maybe I even had a bit of a crush on you, and I wanted to get to know you better.”
If she was honest, she had even more than a crush on him now. She was attracted to this man—for a dozen different incredible and wonderful reasons. But she couldn’t even begin to trust what she was feeling, let alone act on it.
“Oh,” Jackson said. “Well, I had a crush on you too.”
“I know,” she said. “I found a note you wrote hidden in one of your books in the camper.”
“Wow.” He brushed a hand through his hair.
“Just to be clear,” she said, “I didn’t like everything you did. I wasn’t into people who pulled stupid antics. You became loud and obnoxious that summer you crashed the car. But I liked you before that. When you were the guy who carried adventure books around and were the only one brave enough to climb up onto the roof or jump off the highest rock in the lake. I liked that Ajay.”
“So do I in retrospect,” Jackson said. “I just wish I’d liked him back then.”
His phone chimed with another text. Jackson glanced at it.
“Blake says your room is finally ready if you want to go lie down and nap,” he said.
“Yeah, I probably should.”
Jackson stood then reached for her hands; she took them and he helped her to her feet. They remained there a moment, face-to-face, with her fingers still linked in his.
“Again, I’m incredibly sorry for being stupid, both when I was younger and also yesterday,” Jackson said. “But I hope you know that you’re like a sister to Gemma. I know you’re grateful for how she took care of you in the past few months. But if she were here right now, she’d tell you how thankful she is for everything you’ve done for her over the years. You were there for her when our parents were divorcing. And even though your lives took different paths, no matter where you are in the world, if she ever had a crisis—anytime, day or night—you’d answer the phone to be there for her. And she’d want to know that someone was taking care of you now.”
He looked down at his hands enveloping hers. But somehow he didn’t pull away, and Amy didn’t either.
“I got some really bad news today when I was out on the porch talking to Finnick,” he said. “I’m guessing you could tell.”
“Yeah, you looked like you’d been shot,” she said.
“Officially, I’m not allowed to brief you yet,” he said. “Because we don’t know anything for sure. But I don’t want a stranger breaking bad news to you. And honestly, I’d rather get hit with a reprimand than hide something from you ever again.”
She closed her eyes tightly as the worst thought she could imagine filled her heart. “Did they find Gemma? Is she dead?”
“Maybe,” he said. “They don’t know for sure, but they think it’s possible. They found a Jane Doe they think is her.”
Dread and pain washed over her in a cold, icy wave.
And he’d been keeping that news from her for hours? While he’d rescued her from the island, calmed her down when she was in labor and taken all the anger she’d unleashed at him when she’d found out he was Gemma’s brother, he’d secretly been hiding the pain that his sister might be dead.
“Oh, Jackson. I’m so sorry.”
She pulled her hands from his, wrapped them around his neck and hugged him tightly. He hesitated, then slowly embraced her.
“I want you to know that whatever you need, I’m here for you and Skye,” Jackson said. “Just like Gemma would be if she were here. You are not alone. If you need me to help you find a place to stay until the baby is delivered, hire someone to live with you, or help cover your bills, I’m on it. If you want me to take time off work and drive you around, I will. Or if you want to avoid my grumpy mug altogether, we can find another way for me to help. It’s up to you.”
“Thank you.” She hugged him tighter, as if they were both broken. Her head fell into the crook of his neck.
“You’re not alone,” Jackson said. “I care about you, I’m here for you and I’ve got your back. Whatever you need. I won’t let you down.”
She swallowed hard and gazed up into his handsome face. Sincerity filled his green eyes. Suddenly she wondered what their lives would’ve been like if they hadn’t both made so many bad decisions.
His lips brushed against her forehead. Amy’s heart raced. Warning bells clanged in the back of her mind, telling her not to make the same mistakes she’d made in the past.
But she found herself tilting her chin up toward him.
Softly and gently, their lips met in a kiss.
* * *
Jackson was kissing Amy Scout. The most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life was in his arms, despite the fact there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in his mind that he didn’t deserve her. And yet, her fingers were brushing the back of his neck, and her lips pressed gently against his in a gesture that was so tender and sweet, it made him feel both stronger and weaker than he ever had in his life.
Hudson growled, then started to bark furiously. Jackson heard the snapping sound of a footstep in the woods behind them. They weren’t alone. Someone was watching them! Jackson and Amy sprung apart. He glanced to the tree line just in time to see a figure in a dark hoodie take off through the forest.
“Get behind me!” he shouted to Amy. He yanked out his phone and dialed Caleb.
