Текст книги "You're Not Safe"
Автор книги: Mary Burton
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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 21 страниц)
Chapter Sixteen
Saturday, June 7, 10 P.M.
Bragg stepped inside his front door and immediately spotted Mitch asleep on the couch. And cradled in his arms was the ugliest damn puppy he’d ever seen. So ugly, he paused to stare. Mitch didn’t stir, but the pup opened his eyes, no, eye, and glared at him as if he were the intruder. The pup growled. Bragg smiled.
Before he could approach, his phone rang so he stepped outside to take the call. “Bragg.”
“Ranger Bragg this is Austin dispatch. We just received a nine-one-one call from the Crisis Center.”
Austin was a big small town and if you had connections word traveled fast. He quickly learned the crisis center had received a threatening call. Normally, he’d not have been alerted, but dispatch indicated the volunteer involved had been Greer Templeton. Days ago, he’d flagged her name, making it clear that if her name came up, he wanted to know about it.
“Thanks.”
He rang off and checked his watch. Ten minutes after ten. If he hustled, he’d catch Greer before she’d left for the night.
When he pulled up in front of the center, Greer stood by the glass front door with a young girl who looked to be about twenty. Greer walked the girl to her car, wished her a good night, and then headed for her own truck.
“Greer,” he said.
She turned, her expression wide-eyed. He stepped out of the shadows.
He saw her clutching her fingers at her side and realized she held a can of Mace. Dread seeped from her body. She’d struck him as many things, but never jumpy. The caller had done this to her. A primal urge rose up in him, and if he could hunt the caller right now, he’d tear him from limb to limb.
When her gaze met his, the stress eased from her face. He wasn’t sure why that mattered, but it did.
The reverse lights on the dark-haired kid’s car lit up, and she backed up her car. She rolled down her window and glared at Bragg.
She was a slip of a girl, but her eyes burned with ferocity. She held up her phone. “Greer, who is this guy? I have the cops on speed dial.”
Greer shook her head, the ghost of a smile on her lips. “Thanks, Danni, but he is the cops. His name is Ranger Bragg.”
“Ranger Bragg.” Danni eyeballed him a moment longer. “And you know him, Greer?”
“I do.”
Bragg held Danni’s gaze as Greer approached him. “We met a few days ago.”
Danni’s gaze didn’t flicker from his. “Name some of the Rangers that work in the Austin office.”
Greer clutched her backpack with her hand. “It’s okay, Danni.”
Danni didn’t budge.
Bragg arched a brow, not sure if he should be annoyed or impressed. “This is a quiz?”
“Yeah, asshole, it’s a quiz. Give up some names or tell it to the cops.”
“Danni,” Greer warned.
He rested his hand on his hip. He admired Danni’s spunk. “Santos, Winchester, Beck.”
“Beck.” The Ranger’s name eased most of the suspicion in her face. “I know him.”
“Were you at his wedding?” Bragg tossed in the detail knowing not many outside the Ranger circles would know about the marriage.
That mention deflated the last of her trepidation. “No. I had to go back East and visit my mother. I would rather have been at the wedding. Beck’s wife, Lara, is my favorite teacher.”
Bragg arched a brow. “Does that mean you’re convinced I’m not here to bother Greer?”
She didn’t answer right away. “Yeah.”
Aware Greer watched him closely, he kept the menace and growl from his voice. “Good. Now scram so I can talk to her.”
Danni’s eyes narrowed. “This about the call and the trace?”
“It is.”
“So, you’ll figure out who rattled her?”
“I will.” And he meant it. The urge to put hands on the guy remained strong.
“Fine. See you next week, Greer. Looking forward to working the harvest.”
“Thanks, Danni, for everything. You’re a rock.”
She grinned. “I know.”
Both watched the kid drive off.
When her taillights vanished around a corner, Greer eyed Bragg. “How did you know about the call?”
He met her gaze, noting the dark circles under her eyes. She worked hard, maybe too hard. Technically, her life outside his case was none of his business. But he’d never wasted much time on technicalities. “Word gets around.”
“Not that fast.”
“It does when I tell everyone with a pulse that I want to hear about it if your name comes up.”
She arched a brow as annoyance snapped. “Really?”
He didn’t mind the annoyance and preferred it to the fear that had flashed when he’d first called out her name. With no hint of apology, he nodded. “Until my case is solved and my nephew is off your property I’m keeping an eye on you.”
Her fingers clutched the strap of her backpack. “I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
Ignoring her statement, he said, “There’s a coffee shop a couple of blocks away. Let’s grab a cup.”
She combed long fingers through her hair. Bracelets rattled. “I have an early call at the vineyard.”
He wasn’t going to let her go that easily. “Me, too. But a half hour won’t make a difference either way. I’ll follow you.” Saying please didn’t come easily to him. He wanted to find out about the caller and to spend time with her. “Please.”
Finally, she nodded. “See you there in a few.”
In his SUV, he followed her the two blocks and when she climbed out of her truck, he was there. Inside he ordered a house coffee, black, and she ordered a latte. With soy. He reached for his wallet.
“I got this,” she said.
He shook his head. “No, I do.”
“I can pay.”
“Not while I’m breathing.” He tossed a twenty-dollar bill on the counter and a scrawny teen with spiked hair scooped it up.
When they were settled in a booth he gave her a moment to sip her coffee and savor. In the café’s brighter light those circles under her eyes looked darker and her hair a little messier as if she’d run her hands through it. She wore the silver bracelets like always. Even at the fancy party the other night she’d worn the bracelets.
“Tell me about the call.”
She stiffened. “Creepy. We tape all our calls.”
“I’ll be sure to listen to it. But I want to hear it from you.”
She shook her head as she traced the rim of her coffee cup with her fingertip. “I’ve heard it all. Sad people. Angry people. Despondent. Desperate. But this gal. She said my name as if we’d met.”
“A woman?”
“Yeah. She had a strange voice. Almost childlike.”
“Did you recognize the voice?”
“No.”
“Did you use your name when you answered the phone?”
“Yes. I always do. It makes it more personal.”
“Greer is an unusual name.”
“Kind of why I used it. It was different from Elizabeth.”
“Is it a family name?”
“No.” She sipped her coffee. “My mom loved old movies. Greer Garson was one of her favorites. Jeffrey’s middle name was Robert for Robert Taylor.”
He sipped his coffee. Right before dispatch had called tonight he’d been fighting fatigue. Now he was wide awake. Not because of the coffee but because of Greer. She injected energy into him. “So what did the caller say?”
“She talked about sin.”
As she gave him the rundown anger and fear banded in his body. He really did want to take this person apart. “What did she mean by ‘you and the others?’”
“I don’t know. But she must know about me and my past.”
“Your past is not hard to dig up. A Google search tossed out a good bit of it when I searched.”
She frowned as if the idea unsettled. “At first I thought it was someone’s idea of a sick joke.” She ran her finger under the bracelets. He caught the faintest glimpse of those thin white scars. “But she was serious. She believes everything she said.”
“Did she mention Rory or Sara?”
“No.”
“Anyone else from Shady Grove?”
“No.”
Her hands and the silver bracelets encircling her wrists drew his gaze. The urge to lay his hand over hers intensified as the seconds ticked by. “What do the bracelets mean? You never take them off.”
The question caught her off guard. She glanced at them and realized she’d been touching them. Straightening, she shrugged. “They’re just bracelets.”
“You always wear them. Always. And when you’re tense you touch them. They’re important to you. There are three of them.”
She stared at them, her gaze pensive. “You are a Ranger, what do you think?”
He sat back in his booth and stared at the challenge in her gaze. “In the accident three people died. Your brother, his girlfriend, and Elizabeth.”
She nodded slowly. “Bingo.”
“But you didn’t die.”
“The person I was did perish. I could never have slipped back into Elizabeth’s life after the accident.”
“It’s been twelve years.”
“And time changes nothing. Jeff and Sydney are still dead. I never want to forget what happened.”
“No sane person forgets that kind of an accident, Greer. No one. You don’t need bracelets to remember.”
“I’m afraid I will.” She whispered the words as if it were a dark secret. “I’m afraid one day I won’t think about Jeff or Sydney and it will be as if they never lived. I can’t let that happen.”
“When did you start wearing the bracelets?”
“My aunt Lydia gave them to me when I told her I was afraid of forgetting. She pulled the three bracelets out of her jewelry box and clasped them around my wrist.”
“Did you wear a bracelet at Shady Grove?”
Her brow furrowed. “Yeah. Red rope bracelets. I made them for everyone. I called us the red team. I left mine behind.”
Both his victims had worn red rope bracelets. His gut knotted.
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” He managed a smile. For now, he’d keep the detail close. “Do you always wear those bracelets?”
She hesitated as if the words bore too heavily. “On the anniversary of the accident, I go to church and have them blessed by the priest. I pray for the dead. I want them to know I still care. Still remember.”
So much life bubbled inside of Greer. He saw it every time he looked at her. She had much to offer, but the past hung around her neck like an anchor. “Anybody go with you?”
“No.”
“Your mother?”
She sighed. “Mom tries. She does. But losing Jeff just about killed her. He was all she could ever have dreamed of in a son. No mother should have to bury a child.”
“I’ve read the accident reports, Greer. You were fifteen and no one should have let you drive home that night. No one.”
“I thought I could handle it.”
“You were a kid. It wasn’t your call.”
“I didn’t want to disappoint Jeffrey.”
“He shouldn’t have put you in that position.”
“You make it sound like it was his fault. I’m the one that swerved off the road.”
He nodded. “It was partly his fault. He was twenty-one and had a blood alcohol three times the legal limit. His girlfriend was equally drunk.”
She shook her head. “I really don’t want to sit here and malign them.”
“I’m not asking you to. But let me be clear. That accident wasn’t all your fault.” He thought about her claims about the second driver, claims the officer at the scene had dismissed. “What can you tell me about the other driver?”
Her gaze sharpened. “No one has ever asked me about him. They think I made him up.”
Desperation radiated from her. Whatever the cops believed, she believed there’d been a second driver. “I’m asking.”
She fingered the bracelets and pursed her lips. “We were driving home. Everything was fine. I was sober. And then the headlights on the road. I didn’t think about it at first. And then he switched into my lane. I thought he’d move, but he kept coming. I hit the horn. And he kept coming. At the last second before we were to cross a narrow bridge I panicked and swerved. I hit the tree. My air bags deployed, but Jeff and Sydney were thrown clear.”
Her hands trembled now and the urge to touch her intensified. “Anything else you can tell me about the second car?”
“Until last night, no.”
“What happened last night?”
“I dreamed about the accident. I dreamed the other driver came up to my car and touched my hair. Told me I’d saved his life.” She shook her head. “I guess the stress of Rory and Sara is pulling all kinds of weird stuff out of my brain.”
“Or a memory.”
“The police never found traces of a second car.”
“By the time you were conscious and mentioned the second car it had rained heavily. If there’d been traces, they were washed away.”
A half smile tugged the edge of her mouth. “It sounds like you believe me.”
“I do.”
Her gaze sharpened. “Really? Why? Everyone else thought I made the second driver up.”
“Summing people up is what I do for a living. I believe you.”
Her gaze softened and held his for a long moment. “Thanks.”
She’d trusted him. Now he’d trust her.
“I believe Sara was murdered.”
Her face paled. “What?”
“We found her car miles away from where we found her body, and she didn’t strike me as the kind of gal who walked that kind of distance especially in heels. There is no record she called a cab or a friend to drive her to the second location.”
A wrinkle furrowed the soft skin between her eyes. “Sara was murdered.”
“Yeah.”
“So she couldn’t have killed Rory?”
“I don’t know how the two figure together. But I’ve two people who both stayed at Shady Grove and both are dead from apparent suicide.” He tapped the edge of his cup with his index finger trying to gauge how much he should tell her. Like a fisherman tosses a baited line in the water, he opted to give her a detail. “I went to Shady Grove the day before yesterday to get the list of kids who were there the same time you were.”
She shook her head. “And I’ll bet you didn’t get much.”
“Not yet. But I will.”
“Use your biggest legal guns on them, Ranger. Their clients paid for supersecrecy, and they expect their secrets to stay buried forever.”
“I’ll get the answers I need.” He frowned. “Has anyone else bothered you lately?”
She sighed. “Rick Dowd. Sydney’s brother.”
“When?” he growled.
“At the feed store the other day. He’s hurting. I know that. But he was rude.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
She met his gaze. “No, don’t. Like I said, he still grieves for his sister, and seeing me was a surprise.”
“Was it a surprise?”
“It was for me.”
“And you’re sure it was for him?”
A wrinkle furrowed her brow. “I assumed so.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, you’ll let this drop and leave him be.”
“I’m not making any promises on that score.” She stared at him as if searching. “What do you want to say?”
“I’m not sure I should. You might go raging out of here.”
He raised a brow. “I don’t rage. Too much.”
His honesty made her smile. She studied him as if she too were doing a little fishing. “I spoke to a woman today who was with me at Shady Grove.”
“I thought you didn’t know any real names.” He fought a surge of frustration.
“I saw her a couple of years ago at a wine festival. She told me the name of her dress shop. I tracked her that way.”
When they’d met and discussed Sara, why hadn’t she told him about this person? But he didn’t press, sensing the brittleness of Greer’s trust.
Carefully she picked up her cup and took a sip. “I visited her yesterday after I talked to you about Sara. I wanted to make sure she was okay.” She tossed him a tentative if not guilty smile. “I told her I wouldn’t tell anyone about her.”
“Why?”
“She has a new life. She doesn’t want to remember the past. When she approached me two years ago, I wasn’t happy to see her. And I don’t think she’d have talked to me if she weren’t a little drunk.”
Secrets simmered in this elite group of the privileged. And if he pushed as much as his gut demanded, she’d scramble back into her ivory tower never to be seen again. And so he did what he didn’t do well. He waited.
She shoved out a breath. “I asked her about Sara. Asked if she’d seen her recently. She hadn’t. Nor had she seen Rory. And like I suspected she didn’t want to talk.”
“What’s her name?”
Her brow furrowed as she studied his face. She wanted to trust him. Wanted to, but wasn’t ready to make the leap. “I told her I wouldn’t reveal her past.”
Greer needed to learn he was a man she could trust. Just like she enticed those nags to trust her, he needed to persuade her. “I can’t protect her if I don’t know her name.”
“She’ll be upset.”
His muscles tightened and pinched with impatience but he kept his voice steady. “Greer, I can’t help her or you if you don’t put faith in me.”
She fiddled with her bracelets.
“Greer. Tell me.”
Her gaze locked on his, she nodded as if deciding to leap. “Jennifer Bell. She owns a dress shop in Austin called Elegance.”
Satisfaction venturing beyond the job burned through him. He’d extended a hand to her and she’d taken it. “I will talk to her.”
Her cheeks flushed as if she’d betrayed a dark secret. “She won’t talk to you.”
“Why do you say that? I can be subtle when I put my mind to it.”
His rare attempt at humor passed her by. “Because she’s afraid her past will be exposed. A lot of the kids at Shady Grove came from families who value status above all else. My parents were like that.”
“And yet you’re talking to me.”
“I left that world behind. For me it was about survival.”
“She might not be as attached to that world as you think.”
“She is.”
“I need to talk to her, Greer. That’s not negotiable.”
Frustration churned in her gaze. “I told you she didn’t keep up with the other two.”
“I’ll ask my own questions during an investigation.”
“Jennifer and I were friends at camp. If she’d planned to talk to anyone, it would have been me.”
“I can be persuasive.”
A frown furrowed her brow. “She’ll know I sent you.”
“If she’s smart, it won’t be a big leap for her.” He leaned forward a fraction, wanting to ease the anxiety rippling through her. “She doesn’t need to know you sent me.”
“It’s not that. I’m not afraid of what she’ll say. I feel like I’m betraying her. But I’m afraid if I stay silent, she could be hurt.”
“You were right to tell me.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Why did she end up at Shady Grove?”
She shook her head. “No. That’s for her to tell you, not me.”
“How did she try to kill herself?”
“Ask her.”
Bragg admired Greer’s loyalty. When Greer pledged her fidelity he knew it was rare. He wanted her full trust. He wanted her on his side. He wanted her. “Fair enough.”
Bragg rarely offered information during an interview. He took. Didn’t give. But he sensed if he offered her a measure of trust he’d reap more than he gave.
“Red rope bracelets were found at both Rory and Sara’s crime scenes.”
“What?”
“They were made of a standard crafting yarn. Three strands, braided tightly together, and tied in a knot.”
She swallowed. “Sounds like what we had at Shady Grove.”
“Who else knew about the bracelets? Was it a tradition at the camp?”
“No. It was just our pod. My idea. They symbolized our friendship. How would anyone know?”
“That’s what I need to find out.”
“Do you think I could have caused this?”
“No.” He injected harsh determination into the word. “This is not your fault.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t allow this killer to add to your burden.”
She tried a smile, but it failed. “Carrying burdens seems to be my thing.”
Worry flattened her mouth into a thin line, and he wanted to ease it. “I saw that damn ugly dog sleeping with Mitch on the couch at home tonight.”
“That would be Jasper. He’s smart.”
He didn’t miss her defensive tone. She was also a champion of lost dogs. “Well at least the Good Lord didn’t shortchange that dog totally. Where the hell did you find him?”
“Feed-and-seed store. No one wanted him.”
But you took him. “He’s lucky you happened along.”
“I think we’ll find we’re the lucky ones.”
“Maybe.”
A silence settled between them and then finally she sipped her coffee and pushed it away. “The vineyard is calling. There’s much to be done.”
As she rose so did he. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
“Thanks.”
Her easy acceptance spoke to how much the caller had rattled her. He followed her outside the coffee shop, holding the door for her. She moved quickly but her short strides couldn’t have kept pace with his long legs if he’d walked his normal pace. He slowed his stride and found he liked having her beside him. Liked the way the top of her head barely reached his shoulders. Liked the perkiness radiating from her. Liked the curve of her body and the way her hips swayed as she walked.
At her truck she opened the door and slid behind the wheel. She started the engine and rolled down the window. “Go easy on Jennifer. She talks tough but she’s not.”
“You’re always taking care of everyone. Who looks out for you?”
“I do.” She shifted into reverse. “Have a good night, Ranger Bragg.”
“Be careful.”
She smiled. “Always.”
He watched her drive away and with each rotation of her tires, a bone-deep resolve took root. “Going forward, Greer Templeton, I’ll be looking out for you.”
Jackson watched Greer drive away in her truck, wanting to follow, but not daring because the Ranger stood there for a long moment staring after her truck.
“Calling her tonight wasn’t smart,” he said.
“An indulgence, I’ll agree. But I wanted to talk to her. Wanted to connect. You care so much about her. Curiosity got the better of me.”
“You should have stayed out of it.”
She laughed. “That’s not my style.”
“It’s not Greer’s time yet.”
“I know. But that doesn’t mean I can’t play a little. Want to know what she said?”
He hesitated. He liked watching her and learning new bits of information about her. “Sure.”
“I scared her. She was rattled when I hung up, but she’s smart. She had the call traced.”
“And that’s what brought the Ranger.” He hadn’t been happy with the Ranger. Hadn’t liked the way he’d looked at Greer, as if he’d staked a claim. The Ranger was a miscalculation. An unforeseen complication that had to be managed. But where there was a will, there was a way.
He thought about the Ranger’s raw desire for Greer. The Ranger could want Greer. He could care for her. Desire her.
But in the end the Ranger would not win the fair Greer. He would.
He would grant her dying wish.
And there was nothing the Ranger could do to stop him.
