Tiger cate, p.12
Tiger Cate, page 12
“Does anyone have a phone charger that might work for this?”
From across the room, Bronnie gasped.
“Where did you find that?”
“The girl gave it to me. The foster at Desi’s? She asked me if Margaret was my sister, then handed me the phone.”
“How … how did she … ? Okay, that does it. I’m calling the sheriff’s office to come out here and get this report done. That phone is Margaret’s.” Anxiety creased Bronnie’s face, and Cate felt her own insides knotting.
“We should charge it just to be sure,” she replied with a glance at Levi, who had magically produced a case of neatly stored chargers and adaptors. The first cable he tried fit the phone, and it pinged as he plugged it in.
Bronnie picked up the discarded phone case, looked at it, then threw it on the table again.
“Cate, it’s hers. You saw the initials, right? We have to go talk with that child. But I want to get this report started first.”
“Ask if they can send Officer Gomez. I spoke with him at the hospital. He seemed sympathetic.”
Bronnie smiled faintly. “Miguel Gomez questioned you? Oh, that’s almost … ” She shook her head. “We’re … old friends. Sorry, Copperton is still a small town.”
“Maybe I should go over to Desi’s before the sheriff gets here. The girl might feel less intimidated with just one stranger asking her questions.” Cate now recalled having seen her a few times, scampering like a wild creature around corners and behind trees to avoid being seen.
Levi had been poised to go with her but sat back down and frowned at the charging phone in his hand. She crossed the room, squeezed alongside him in the easy chair, and whispered in his ear.
“Have I told you lately how grateful I am?”
“Hey, friends like us? We don’t let friends stay in jail,” he murmured, a smirk forming on his lips.
“Though we still have to talk about your sins of omission,” she whispered.
He wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her closer. She breathed in his scent — herbal and coconut, along with something musky and male. There it was again, that thing stirring deep inside her, like an itch. She rested her head on the side of his neck for a long moment. Could she trust a guy like him? Could he trust her? What would a future together look like? So much of hers would depend on the immediate days ahead. Wriggling out of the chair, she went out on the porch to see if any lights were on at Desi Mason’s house.
Chapter 23
Later that morning, Desi opened her door with an impish smile on her face. She was clearly delighted that Cate had asked to come and meet Rae.
“So, you’ve guessed who she is, right? Whose kid she is?” Desi’s over - the - top eagerness was nerve-wracking, given Cate’s early morning trauma.
“Your foster child? Uh, not really.”
Desi squeezed her eyes shut and gave her head a little perplexed shake.
“Why does she keep telling people that? She’s not a foster, Cate, she’s family. That’s Drew’s daughter.”
Cate gave her a hard look. This was not the time to be pranking her. She kept staring as Desi nodded and went on.
“Yep, my great disappearing act of a brother. Actually, he re-surfaced a while back. Contacted us from Tennessee, probably a dozen years ago now.”
Cate held up her hand, to stop the flow of information while she looked for a place to sit. The porch steps seemed the closest. The other woman looked like she was waiting for her to say something, but Cate couldn’t comment. An entire human being — her childhood friend and first love, Drew Mason — was resurrecting from her mental list of the dead.
“He seemed to be doing great — had a good job at a distillery in Lynchburg for a decade at least. Then, all of a sudden, we get word he’s in jail — I mean state penitentiary jail — and not for dealing drugs, either. No — attempted murder. Went after some hunter who accidentally shot his youngest son Jamie, oh, about eight years back.” She shook her head. “So sad.”
Cate wondered if there was a physical limit to the amount of shocking news someone could handle in a day. Desi pulled a chair up next to her.
“Hey, something else you may not know — your sister’s the one who made him leave the state back then. Those guys you kept insisting tried to run you off the road driving back from Copperton all those years ago?”
Cate faced her. “Margaret paid them to do it.” She was recalling the red-headed inmate’s comment to her in lockup.
Desi nodded and went on. “He said they roughed him up good — broke his nose and a rib or two. Told him to get out of town if he wanted to keep living.”
Why would Margaret do something like that — go to those lengths just to pull her apart from Drew? Out of some sense of protection? More like rage and jealousy. And what had Cate ever done to deserve any of it?
She debated coming back another time to talk to Rae, but this new information didn’t really change anything. The past was in the past. Still, her brain was buzzing from the news.
Drew Mason, her childhood playmate, and first love, was not dead after all. She took a deep breath and then followed Desi up the stairs to talk with Drew’s daughter.
Chapter 24
Rae
When the doorbell rang, she knew she’d brought trouble on herself. But she’d felt so sorry for the shot-up horse in the field this morning. Rae had just wanted to give Pinto Lady something to make it hurt less like they’d tried to do for her after her mom and Davy had fallen off the bridge.
Desi had called Rae to come downstairs, but it was going to take more than that to get her to answer. Then she heard footsteps on the stairs and a real quiet knock on her bedroom door. When she opened it she saw Desi and Pinto Lady. They stood there with the smiles people wore who are going to ask hard questions, questions that might make you cry.
“Rae, this is Cate, an old friend of your daddy’s. And she’s Margaret’s sister. You know, the lady you’re going to start working for, whenever she gets back in town.”
That won’t be happening, Rae thought. The lady named Cate took a step toward her.
“Hi, Rae. We, um, talked a little in the pasture this morning. You … you gave me something — a gift — and I came to ask you about it.”
Rae turned and walked back into the room to look out the window at the pasture where cows and horses now grazed. The pasture where Margaret Finley had lain.
She felt Cate walking up to stand next to her, looking out the window.
“Rae, you aren’t in any trouble, okay?” She was trying to make her voice sound soft.
“I’m just … I’m curious about how you got the phone. Maybe you found it or” — Rae moved to sit on the bed, facing away — “maybe Margaret gave it to you?”
After a long silence, Rae turned to look at the lady. She studied her crazy hair — side - parted and hooked behind her ears today. The shiny dark brown roots turned to dull pink just above her shoulders, then spilled halfway down her back like melted peppermint ice cream. She saw hope and sadness under the smile Cate wore and wished she didn’t know what she knew. She wanted someone or something to wipe away everything in her head, all the bad thoughts and memories. Like cleaning grit from a windshield. She wanted to see a sparkling, new world out of her eyes again.
“She didn’t give it to me. I found it.” Her voice felt raspy, her throat dry.
“You found it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Where did you find it, Rae? It’s … it’s important that you tell us, because … Margaret is missing.” Cate’s voice had started to shake a little, but she kept it lifted like she was still hopeful. “She’s not in New Mexico where … where everyone thought she was. We need to find her, Rae.”
Rae looked down. She liked the sound of the lady’s voice and wished they could talk more without Rae having to tell.
Now the lady — Cate — was crying again, like she did in the field but more quietly, and it must have shamed her because she turned to go.
“I found her in the field,” said Rae, “in the middle. By the bunched-up trees.”
Cate turned back to look at her, eyes wide like a spooked cat. What had she said? It had come out all wrong.
“You … you found the phone in the field?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Cate’s voice was softer, not crying now. “Because you said ‘her’ just now.”
“I … I did?”
“Yes, you did. You said, ‘I found her’.”
Rae felt the cage door opening inside her. A wild animal crouched, ready to pounce. Something was rising in her, making her feel like ripping up her room, like punching at things. At herself, at her mama and brothers, at her daddy, at poor Margaret. She didn’t want to do this anymore—be the secret keeper, the only one left.
“I saw her — I did! I saw Margaret! She … she was lying, in the grass, in the trees.” Her breath was hard to catch. Small gasps between words. “Her face was—down. But the sparkly vest — so bloody — ruined. Somebody ruined it, somebody — ”
Then gasps and sobs — she couldn’t stop them. Holding her head, feeling the wail rise up out of her like an injured animal, she sank to the floor. Someone close by her was sobbing. Then arms were lifting her up, wrapping around her, holding her. It was Pinto Lady holding her close now and crying with her.
Chapter 25
Cate
Later that day, Cate slouched on the front porch steps at Desi’s with Samson the Rottweiler and watched as a sheriff’s SUV pulled into the yard. Deputy Miguel Gomez emerged from the driver’s side and a fresh-faced young deputy slammed the passenger door. Cate recognized him as one of the responding officers from the night she was arrested. Perfect. The two deputies conferred briefly by the car while the dispatch radio barked static in the background. It was only early afternoon, but Cate felt emotionally drained and not up to more police interaction.
Too much had happened in too few days. She felt fragile and crabby—afraid she would do or say something rash. Then, just as Gomez approached, a switch flipped in her head, and she became a more capable version of herself. Cate 2.0. She’d be damned if these men would see her fall apart.
“Officer Gomez,” she held out her hand. “Thanks for coming down.”
“No problem, Cate. This is Detective Royce of Criminal Investigations.”
To his credit, Royce didn’t refer to their previous contact, but his expression made it clear she wasn’t above suspicion. Not at all.
“I hear you have reason to believe your sister, uh, has passed. Is that correct?”
“Yes, I talked to the girl who lives here with her aunt and uncle. She says she saw my sister lying, um, unconscious in the pasture about twelve days ago, maybe?”
Royce shot a glance at the house. “We’re going to need to speak with the girl — Rae is her name? She’ll need a relative or guardian present.”
“That’s me. I’m her aunt,” said Desi, who’d been listening inside the screened door. “But can we wait for her therapist? Dr. Bauman has been treating her, and I’m worried she might be overwhelmed by the police, you know, questioning her. She’s being treated for previous PTSD.”
“Maybe we can start by asking you a few questions about the day she says she saw Ms. Finley … er, Margaret. Is there a reason no one reported this sooner?”
The two deputies walked inside with Desi, and Cate was again alone with the dog. She heard the rattle of a distressed motor and saw Levi riding up in Bronnie’s ancient ATV. Cate sidled over to greet him as he parked alongside the SUV.
“You didn’t bring it, did you?” Cate asked in a low voice.
“Well, no, not after you phoned me, but are you sure that’s wise? It’s evidence, Cate.”
“Right now, it’s the only link with my sister that’s still in my possession. Do you think you can get into it?”
“It would be optimal if we could get her passcode. Otherwise, I gotta crash the lock screen and hope she didn’t opt for sophisticated encryption.”
Cate squinted her eyes at him and tilted her head. “Who are you again?” Levi laughed and studied his fingers. “Seriously, my sister’s not very techie, from what I saw of her computer the other day. I’m surprised she even had a smartphone.”
Gomez came out the front door and walked up to them.
“The girl isn’t really talking to us right now. Maybe when the doctor gets here, they can give her something. She’s, uh, quite upset.”
Cate gazed back at the house and felt a pang for Drew’s young daughter.
“Yeah, she was pretty emotional when she told us about it this morning. Can’t we — can’t you just start searching the pasture? She said she saw Margaret in the grove of trees out there.”
“We need something of hers that has her scent. A toothbrush or article of clothing. We just happen to have a search dog in the car today. Doesn’t always happen that way.”
Now Cate realized why Samson had parked himself by the rear hatch of the SUV. He was crouched down, his nub of a tail wagging, and fixated on something through the smoked windows.
Looking at the hulking dog now, she remembered their first meeting on the road. He had retrieved some cloth from the bushes. She’d thought it was a gopher carcass but then realized it was a dirty sock. He had carried it the whole way home and into his doghouse. A sock.
Rae had said she thought Margaret was barefoot or at least shoeless. Cate had a sudden urge to go find that sock.
As Gomez unlocked the back of the SUV, the Rottweiler’s excitement grew. Gomez spoke to him commandingly and the dog immediately sat. Remembering how possessive Samson had been, Cate used this distraction to edge over to the doghouse and peer into its depths as Levi eyed her with curiosity.
The Rottie had a stash of toys. She tentatively reached her hand in and rifled through stuffed animals, garden tools, tennis balls, and half-chewed rawhide pieces.
Behind her, she heard Samson barking at the police dog. Far in the corner of the doghouse, Cate spied a piece of light cloth and grasped it.
Suddenly, Samson was at her side. As she pulled out the sock, he grabbed it and ran off a short distance, turning to look at her triumphantly. She debated letting it go. What were the chances it was Margaret’s sock?
Cate walked over to where Gomez was connecting a leash to a ragged, hunched German shepherd with protruding hips and ribs. The dog looked up at her with a benign expression on his grizzled face.
“Wow, is that dog going to be okay?”
Gomez shot her a glance and then laughed. “Considering he’s about ninety-three in human years, he’s getting around pretty well.”
The vet’s kid in her spoke up. “So, about fifteen, then. And you’re still working him at that age?”
“Actually, we’re both supposed to be retired, but you just can’t keep a good cop home.”
Cate gingerly petted the animal’s bony back with new respect.
“This is your own dog?”
“After ten years on the job together in NYC, you don’t break up the team. This is Jorge,” he said, pronouncing it hor - hay. “Please don’t call him ‘George.’ He gets insulted.”
Levi approached and put his hand out to Jorge, who sniffed it politely before turning his eyes back on Gomez.
“I think we might have found one of Margaret’s socks. The bad news is, it’s in his teeth.” Cate pointed at Samson, who shook the sock and gave them the “You feel lucky, punk?” stare.
Gomez dropped Jorge’s leash, and the dog instantly sank in a crouch. Then the deputy walked over to Samson and stood in front of him holding up one index finger.
“Drop it!” he commanded.
The dog immediately sat and opened his mouth. The sock fell to the ground and Samson hovered over it protectively, just like he’d done on the road with Cate.
“Leave it!” Gomez said, again with a sharp, commanding tone. Samson sat back up, mesmerized by the deputy’s upright index finger. With his other hand, Gomez reached down and grabbed the sock before the dog could focus back on it. With a practiced movement, he flipped the dog a treat that had been hiding in his upright hand. Samson opened his massive jaws and caught the treat in midair, then walked off toward his doghouse.
After a moment, Cate said, “Okay, that was pretty amazing.”
Levi nodded and chuckled. “So, you’re a canine officer.”
“Not here, but I do help out in the county with search and rescue as needed. I spent a dozen years in K9 in New York. But this? This was dog whispering one-oh-one.” He pulled on latex gloves, and the other two watched as he picked up the sock and examined it.
“Doesn’t appear that the dog did much chewing on it, so that’s a plus. We’ll need to get an analysis back at the lab. We still need to get something of Margaret’s for comparison.”
The phone was looming in Cate’s mind, but she couldn’t bring herself to hand it over yet. Not until Levi could crack the passcode.
“Um, check with Leelee at the stables. I bet Margaret kept a sweatshirt or barn jacket down there. If my memory serves, my sister carried used tissues in her barn coat pockets for her allergies. I’d go over and get it myself, but …” she said over her shoulder as she climbed into the ATV, “I’m banned from entering my family’s ranch.”
She’d done her part. The sheriff needed to move forward with an investigation into Estelle Parker and her cohorts. Levi climbed into the driver’s side of the vehicle. Cate leaned in and whispered, “I’m hungry. Let’s see what Bronnie’s got in her cupboards and surprise her with dinner when she gets home.”
Back at the cottage, they made spaghetti carbonara, using the linguini pasta and canned sauce Bronnie had on hand and adding fresh tomatoes and peppers from her garden. As they sat on the porch of the gingerbread house, Cate chuckled and shook her head. Levi gave her a quizzical smile.
