Dangerous Reunion (Love Inspired Suspense) (3 page)

“Did you know the man?”

Brock shook his head. “No, but I’d read about the case, and I knew he was on death row. Anyway, late one afternoon I was alone in the office when my phone rang. It was a man who said that he’d wrestled with his conscience for years and that he could prove Robert Sterling was innocent. He said he was facing some serious surgery and that he didn’t want to die without telling what he knew.”

“Did you believe him?”

“I didn’t know. I told him we were interested in what he had to say. Since he was so sick, I told him my partner and I would come see him the next day. He agreed. I took his name and phone number and told him I’d call him the next morning to arrange a time. I also told him we would check out anything he told us. He said it was crucial that we get on this right away because Sterling’s execution date was only a few weeks away.”

Kate exhaled. “It sounds like he was sure the man was innocent.”

Brock nodded. “I thought so, too. I hung up and was getting ready to leave for the day when the phone rang again. It was a friend of my father’s in Los Angeles. He was calling to tell me that Dad had been in a serious car accident and wasn’t expected to live. He was asking to see me before he died.”

Kate’s eyes grew wide. “Your father? I didn’t think you had any contact with him.”

“I hadn’t in years, not since he deserted my mother and me when I was ten years old. I knew if my father was calling for me, I had to see him and ask him why he never got in touch with me when I was growing up.” Brock’s eyes filled with tears, and his lips quivered. “Do you understand how important that was to me?”

“Yes, Brock. I understand.”

He took a deep breath. “I scribbled a note to my partner and asked him to follow up on the Robert Sterling matter the next morning. Then I left it on his desk and rushed home. Within hours I was on a plane to Los Angeles.” He hesitated for a moment. “The good news is that my father didn’t die. I ended up staying with him for six weeks, and they were some of the happiest of my life. We bonded for the first time, and all of a sudden I had the father I’d always wanted.”

Kate smiled. “I’m glad, Brock. I remember how you always wanted to know him.”

His face clouded. “But there’s more. The bad news is that when I returned home, I discovered my partner had never found the note I left for him. He didn’t read it, he didn’t contact the witness and Robert Sterling was executed.”

Kate gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth. She stared at Brock and lowered her hand. “How horrible.”

“It is, but there’s more. When I failed to call the witness, he tried to reach me. Whoever he talked to at the station evidently didn’t know I’d left town. They put him through to my voice mail to leave a message.”

“And no one checked your messages?”

Brock shook his head. “No. The man entered the hospital the next day and had his surgery. He was sedated for days. When he was finally conscious, he realized nothing had been done. That’s when he called Sterling’s lawyers. They went to the district attorney but were unable to get the case reopened, and Sterling was executed. The lawyers broke the story to the newspapers along with my name.”

Kate couldn’t believe what she was hearing. As a police officer, she knew how devastating it could be if a miscarriage of justice caused an innocent person to suffer, let alone be killed. She wanted to go around the desk and comfort Brock, but she remained in her seat. “I’m so sorry, Brock.”

“Yeah, me, too. I was cleared by my superiors of any wrongdoing, but I can’t forgive myself, Kate. I keep asking myself why I didn’t ask the chief when I called to update him on my father’s condition if they’d questioned the witness. The only answer I have is that I was so worried about my father, I wasn’t thinking about anything else.” He paused and took a deep breath. “And now there’s a law professor and a group of his students who are digging into Sterling’s case. It looks like he was innocent after all.”

“Have you talked to the witness since you came back from California?”

Brock shook his head. “No. He died while he was still in the hospital. The doctors said it was a heart attack.”

Kate frowned. “This sounds like it was a series of mishaps that no one could have prevented. You can’t blame yourself for what happened.”

Brock stared at her with tortured eyes. “But I do, Kate. I should have followed through on what the man told me.”

Kate took a deep breath. “You can’t change what’s happened. You’re going to have to find a way of living with it.”

He leaned back in his chair. The muscle in his jaw twitched. “That’s why I’m here.”

She sensed he was about to tell her something she’d rather not hear. “I don’t understand.”

His elbows rested on his knees, and he leaned forward. “I didn’t come here to dredge up old memories, Kate, but there’s one that’s haunted me for years. I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind for the past three months.”

She didn’t want to hear what haunted him. She had her own memories to deal with. She needed to tell him to go, to leave before he reopened wounds she’d thought healed. She started to rise. “I don’t think it will do any good to relive the past, Brock.”

He held up his hand to stop her. “Please. Hear me out.”

She didn’t want to hear him out. She wanted him to go, but the pleading look he directed at her begged her to listen. She nodded. “All right.”

“When we graduated from college six years ago, we each went home for the summer. But I came to Ocracoke in June for us to plan our fall wedding. Remember?”

Kate struggled to show no emotion on her face, but her heart pounded in her chest. “I remember.”

“I knew your mother was dying of cancer, and I wanted to help you get through the ordeal of losing her. As heartbroken as I was over that, I wasn’t prepared that you’d decided you had to stay on Ocracoke after her death and take care of your family.”

The corners of Kate’s mouth puckered into tight lines. “Are you forgetting that I had two sisters who were sixteen and four years old who were about to lose their mother? Not to mention a father who was devastated. They needed me.” She spat the words at him.

He didn’t flinch from the anger in her voice. “I know, but you made your decision without discussing it with me. You had assumed I would agree and live with you here. When I told you I didn’t want that, we decided it was best if we call off the wedding.”

“If I remember correctly, you decided to call off the wedding. I thought you’d find a job on the mainland and commute so that I could stay here and take care of my two younger sisters.”

Brock raked his hand through his hair. “I told you how unreasonable that was. It’s a two and a half hour ferry ride to the mainland from here, and then it’s another fifty or sixty miles to a town with a large police force. I didn’t want that kind of commute every day. I thought you’d understand that.”

Kate started to rise from her chair again. “I don’t want to discuss our history, Brock. Maybe you should leave.”

“No.” He jumped up and planted his palms on her desk. “Please let me finish.”

She hesitated a moment before she sank down in the chair. “Okay, but make it fast.”

He nodded and eased back into his chair. “I will. Whatever happened then is in the past, but I have to tell you one more thing that happened that summer. On the last day I was here, your mother felt better, and she asked me to take her out to the beach. She wanted to watch the waves roll in. We sat on the sand, and she told me about her life on the island, how much she loved her family and about her peace of dying. She said she’d trusted God all her life, and now she was ready to trust him after death.”

Tears burned Kate’s eyes. “That sounds like her.”

Brock clenched his hands in his lap and stared down at them. When he looked up again, Kate saw a hint of tears in his eyes. “Then she said she was sorry that her dying had caused you and me to break up. I tried to convince her she wasn’t at fault, but she just smiled that sad little smile that said she knew better. She stared at the waves for a long time. Then she said she knew how much I’d missed having a father, but there was another father who wanted to love me and show me the special plan He had for my life.”

Kate closed her eyes, and she imagined how her mother must have looked that day. She could almost hear her mother’s soft voice speaking of God’s love as she did so often. “What did you say?”

“You know I never put much stock in the existence of God, but I didn’t want to upset her. I thanked her for her concern. Then she turned to me and said, ‘We can’t go through life without God. Someday you’re going to think your life is falling apart. Think of me sitting on this beautiful beach God created and come back to Ocracoke. God is everywhere here, Brock. All you have to do is look for Him, and you’ll find the peace you need.’”

Kate sat in stunned silence before she was able to speak. “Did she say anything else?”

He shook his head. “No, but like I said, I can’t get her words out of my mind. Maybe she realized that with the attitude I had that it was only a matter of time before something would knock me down, and she wanted me to know where I could find help.”

Kate blinked back tears. “Did you come back thinking I’d help you?”

He stared into her eyes. “I suppose I hoped so, but I didn’t dare let myself believe you would care what happened to me one way or another. I don’t want to cause you any problems, Kate, but I’ve come to the point in my life that I need the peace your mother talked about. I figured the first step would be trying to gain your forgiveness.”

Kate pushed to her feet and walked to the window. With her back to Brock she stared out at the alley that ran behind the building. Mixed emotions surged through her—happiness for Brock’s reconciliation with his father, sorrow for the death of an innocent man and leftover anger from years ago. Now he wanted her forgiveness.

She whirled around to unleash her rage on him, but the sight of him slumped in the chair touched her heart. How could she disregard the words of hope her mother had given to Brock? Then there were the flowers for her mother’s grave. She walked over to where Brock sat and stopped beside him. “After all that’s happened between us, it must have taken a great deal of courage to come here.”

She steeled herself for the old Brock to give a flippant answer. When he spoke, she knew the words came from his heart. He took a deep breath. “It did, but I meant what I said, Kate. Please believe me.”

She reached out to touch his shoulder but drew her hand back before it made contact. “My mother was the most forgiving person I’ve ever known, and she tried to teach her children that trait. Although I know Jesus expects us to follow the example He gave us, I’m afraid I haven’t reached that point yet. I can’t promise I will ever forgive you, but I will promise that I’ll pray about it. In the meantime you have to find your own way to God. He’s there waiting. Maybe you’re not listening.”

He nodded and pushed to his feet. “That could be true. I know hearing me out hasn’t been easy for you because you probably still hate me. But maybe we can heal some old wounds while I’m on the island.” He held out his hand. “Can we try to be friends again?”

Kate stared at his hand for a moment. “I don’t—”

“I’m not asking to go back to where we were. Just friends. I think your mother would want us to be.” He arched his eyebrows and after a moment she slipped her hand into his. He grasped it and squeezed. “Thank you, Kate. Maybe we can start off by meeting for lunch today.”

She shook her head and pointed to her waiting paperwork. “I can’t, Brock. I’m too busy. Maybe some other time.”

“You have to eat. Just lunch. That’s all.”

What would one lunch hurt? She sighed and pinned him with her gaze. “I take my lunch break at one o’clock. I can’t promise, but I’ll try to be at the Sandwich Shop then. That’s the best I can do.”

He smiled and backed toward the door. “I’ll be waiting in case you can make it.”

Kate heard him tell Lisa goodbye as he walked through the outer office, and then the door closed. She dropped into her chair and clasped her hands on her desk. What had she done?

Some days she didn’t think about Brock at all, and she’d considered it a good sign that she had finally dismissed him from her life. Now he’d shown up with a story that had ripped her heart. Her mother had always felt God’s presence on the beaches of Ocracoke as she watched the waves roll in. Kate could imagine how she must have looked the day she talked with Brock.

Now Brock had come back because of words spoken by her mother six years ago. She’d always known her mother had a special insight into the needs of others. Even when she was dying, she’d wanted Brock to know the joy she’d had from living her life for the God she loved.

Her mother had taught her that Jesus never turned away someone who was hurting, and a true believer would never do that, either. Maybe in some way her mother had known that after her death Kate would shoulder overwhelming responsibilities. And she had. Her mother had also known how hurt Kate was over the broken engagement and how hard it was for her to forgive. Perhaps her mother had been thinking of her, also, at the time.

If so, then this could be God’s way of helping her, too. In searching for Brock’s peace of mind, she might also learn to forgive and put all the hurts of the past six years behind her.

If she could do that, being around Brock Gentry would be worth it in the long run.

B
rock leaned against the railing around the deck of the Sandwich Shop and scanned the traffic on the street below. How many minutes past one was it now? He fought the urge to check his watch again. It couldn’t have been more than a minute since the last time he’d looked. He’d give her some more time. After all, she had to deal with that murder and couldn’t drop everything to rush off to lunch.

What if she ignored his invitation? He pushed away from the railing, turned his back to the street and strode to the far end of the deck. Doubts drifted into his mind. Perhaps he shouldn’t have come to Ocracoke. It might be too soon to expect her to sit down for a meal with him. He should have waited before he spilled the story about Robert Sterling’s death and that last day he spent with Kate’s mother.

He straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath. She wasn’t coming today. There was nothing for him to do but go back to the bed-and-breakfast where he was staying.

He whirled to leave, but his breath caught in his throat at the sight of Kate climbing the steps from the street to the deck. Even in uniform with a gun, handcuffs, magazine holder and assorted equipment hanging from her duty belt, she was more beautiful than he remembered. Her chestnut hair, parted in the middle and slicked back into a bun in police academy style, gleamed in the sun. Her willowy body and the slight sway of her hips when she walked reminded him of a runway model. Her dark brown eyes only added to the fascination that had overcome him the first time they met.

A frown puckered her forehead as she approached, but it disappeared when she stopped in front of him. “I’m sorry I’m late, but I got tied up over at the ferry with the other deputies. We were checking the cars leaving the island.”

He nodded. “Were you hoping to find the shooter from this morning?”

“We thought we might get lucky, but all we found were vacationing families who were heading for home. Maybe I was expecting to see something suspicious, but I didn’t. That may mean our shooter is still on the island. He could be a local who knows his way around. If he is, then he could be in plain sight all the time, and I wouldn’t know it.”

He tried to concentrate on her words, but his relief that she had come made it difficult. He smiled what he hoped was a friendly gesture. “You’ll find him, Kate. But you must be starved after the morning you’ve had. Let’s get something to eat.”

She glanced at her watch. “I don’t have much time.”

Brock pointed to a table near the back of the deck. “Why don’t we sit back there? I’ll go inside and order. Do you need a menu, or do you know what you want?”

Kate chuckled. “I think I know everything they serve here. I’ll have the Cajun pork sandwich and a glass of iced tea.”

Brock nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

Ten minutes later he juggled a tray loaded with two sandwiches, two glasses of iced tea and a basket heaped with French fries. She picked up one of the teas without speaking and took a long drink. “It’s been a long morning. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Out of the corner of his eye Brock watched the people entering and leaving the Sandwich Shop. A man and woman exited with a little boy about five years old. The woman leaned down to hear something the child was saying and burst out laughing. Turning to the man, she said something to him. He laughed, scooped up the little boy and set him on his shoulders. The three walked down the stairs to the street and within seconds were lost in the crowd.

He’d witnessed scenes of happy families together before, but today it affected him differently than before. The love the three shared showed on their faces. What would life be like if he and Kate had married? The truth was that no woman had looked at him that way since Kate, and it made him sad.

“Is something wrong?”

Kate’s voice penetrated his thoughts, and his body stiffened. Glancing down, he realized he’d been holding his sandwich in front of his mouth the whole time he was watching the family. His face warmed, and he laid his food down and smiled.

“I was just thinking how good it is to see you again.” He picked up his glass of tea and held it in front of him. “Here’s to old friends.”

She only hesitated a moment before she picked up her glass and clicked it against his. “To old friends.”

He chugged a drink of iced tea and relished the cold sensation sliding down his throat. Kate set her glass down, and the smile she directed at him set his heart to thudding. Suddenly he realized how much he had missed her, but it didn’t matter. The events he’d set in motion six years ago couldn’t be changed any more than he could bring Robert Sterling back to life.

Now he’d returned begging for Kate’s help. He had dreaded telling her why he’d come to the island, and now that he had, he wondered what she thought. The one thing he hadn’t told her, though, was that when his life had fallen apart three months ago, he had come to the conclusion that he was being punished for the selfish choices he’d made in the past.

That and his guilt over Robert Sterling’s death had brought him back to Ocracoke. He’d come for three reasons—to search for that elusive peace Kate’s mother told him about, to cleanse his soul for failing an innocent man and to gain her forgiveness.

He’d told her he wanted to find God here in the island paradise she said He created, but now Brock wasn’t so sure he could. One of the Ten Commandments his mother used to say to him was
Thou shalt not kill.
To his way of thinking he had helped kill Robert Sterling.

He doubted if there was any absolution for that sin.

He lowered the copy of the island newspaper just enough to stare over the top at the couple sitting at the table across the Sandwich Shop deck. He stared at Kate a moment before he glanced back at the front-page picture of her beside the article about island safety.
What an appropriate subject,
he thought.

The picture didn’t do her justice, though. She was much more attractive in person, and she appeared to be more relaxed than she’d been earlier this morning when he observed her through the binoculars. But she’d been at a murder scene then, and she’d probably been worried about having a killer on the island that the newspaper touted as the safest on the eastern seaboard.

However, there were many dangers on a remote island, and it was impossible to determine when one might strike. In a split second some unforeseen tragedy could occur that would shatter the tranquil image of a vacation paradise that the publicists up and down the barrier island chain worked to promote.

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Too bad no one else could sense what he knew was about to come. When he was finished, this island and Kate and her friend would never be the same again. He would make sure of that.

In fact, the fun should start any minute now. He glanced at his watch.

A loud boom shattered the afternoon stillness.

Kate sprang from her chair and scanned the area in an effort to see where the sound had come from. Other customers on the deck of the Sandwich Shop bounded to their feet, but everyone appeared frozen in stunned silence.

Kate’s lapel mic crackled. “Ten-eighty in alley next to the Sun Shop. Possible injury.”

“Ten-four. Get the EMS en route,” Kate replied.

Kate ran across the deck with Brock right behind. He called out to her. “Did I hear your dispatcher say a bomb had exploded?”

“Yes.”

At the bottom of the steps she turned right and raced down the street toward the Sun Shop. As she approached, customers poured out the front door and streamed down the steps of the store that boasted the lowest-priced T-shirts on the island. Kate rounded the corner of the building and into the alley. A teenage boy lay on the ground halfway down the narrow pathway.

“Stay back! Let Deputy Michaels take care of this situation.” Behind her Brock’s voice of authority barked out the order, and she turned to see him blocking the entrance to the alley.

The teenager on the ground struggled to sit up. Kate’s hand on his shoulder restrained him. “Don’t move. There’s an ambulance on the way.”

The boy’s face paled as he caught sight of the blood pouring from his leg. He sank back on the ground and groaned. Kate knelt beside him. “I’m going to look at your injury.”

The teen wore mesh athletic shorts that came to his knees. Blood poured from a gaping hole halfway down his shin. The wound needed a tourniquet right away.

Kate unhooked her duty belt and placed it on the ground. With a quick tug she yanked the belt in the pants loops of her uniform free and wrapped it around the boy’s leg just above the wound. He groaned as she pulled it as tight as she could. “You’re going to be all right. Try to lie still. The ambulance will be here any minute.”

It seemed an eternity before she heard the familiar wail. Brock’s voice rose above the ambulance’s siren. “All right, folks. You need to move so the ambulance can back into the alley. Please get out of the way.”

Kate looked over her shoulder as the Ocracoke Emergency Vehicle backed toward her. Before the driver had stopped, one of the EMTs jumped from the passenger side and ran to the teen on the ground.

He dropped to his knees next to Kate. “Thanks, Kate. I’ll take over now.” He studied the wound and glanced back up at Kate. “What caused this?”

Kate grabbed her duty belt from the ground and pushed to her feet. “It was an explosion. I don’t know what yet.”

She replaced the equipment around her waist as the second EMT rushed past her and knelt next to the boy who seemed alert. The man squeezed the teenager’s shoulder and smiled. “That’s a nasty wound you got there. What happened?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I cut down this alley to get to the house my family rented on the next street. I saw this two-liter soda bottle on the ground. Just before I got to it, the thing blew up.”

Kate glanced around the alley. Pieces of a plastic bottle littered the area. At that moment Doug and Calvin pushed through the crowd and stopped next to her. Calvin glanced at the boy and back at her. “What happened?”

“Somebody left a bottle bomb in the alley. This kid happened by just as it exploded.”

Calvin shook his head. “Who would leave something like that?”

Brock walked over to them and stopped beside Kate. “I’ve seen a lot of these in Nashville. This boy is lucky he wasn’t hurt worse.”

Calvin frowned and glanced from Brock to Kate. “Didn’t I see you earlier at the station?”

Brock nodded. “I’m Brock Gentry. I was with Kate when the bottle exploded.”

Kate’s face warmed under the surprised gazes on Calvin’s and Doug’s faces. “Brock is a policeman in Nashville. We knew each other in college.”

Calvin stuck out his hand. “Welcome to Ocracoke, Brock. I hope you don’t think we always welcome tourists this way.”

He cocked an eyebrow and grasped Calvin’s hand, then Doug’s. “Glad to meet two fellow officers.”

Calvin and Doug turned questioning glances toward Kate, and her face grew warm. She pointed to the bottle fragments. “Calvin, you and Doug gather up all the remains you can find. I’m going to the Health Center with this boy. After Doc checks him out, he may be able to remember something that will help us catch whoever left this thing.” Kate watched them walk away before she turned back to Brock. “I guess our lunch is over. It’s back to work for me.”

He smiled. “I understand. I’ll go back to where I’m staying for now.” He hesitated before he turned. “Can I see you later?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what this afternoon will bring, and my sisters and I are having dinner with Treasury Wilkes. She’s been like a second mother to us since our parents died.”

He smiled. “Then that’s perfect. I’m staying at Ms. Wilkes’ bed-and-breakfast, and she invited me to dinner tonight.”

Kate’s mouth gaped. “You’re staying at the Island Connection Bed-and-Breakfast?”

“Yes. I remembered her from when I was here before. So that was where I wanted to stay.”

“It’s a second home to my sisters and me.”

He turned away from her, placed his hand on the back of his neck and rubbed. When he faced her again, he sighed. “I remember Mrs. Wilkes was your mother’s best friend. If it makes you uncomfortable for me to stay there, I’ll move somewhere else.”

She shook her head. “Of course you can stay there. After all, it’s the best bed-and-breakfast on the island.”

A smile flashed across his face. “Good. Then I’ll see you there.”

Before she could respond, he turned and walked from the alley. When he disappeared, she glanced back at Calvin and Doug, who appeared engrossed in their task of collecting evidence and placing it in the plastic bags they held.

They had never experienced a day like this on Ocracoke. First a murder, shots fired at an officer and an island resident, and now a victim of an exploding bottle. With hundreds of tourists arriving and departing each day, finding out who left the bottle in the alley, who killed Jake or who tried to kill her promised to be a daunting task. That didn’t matter, though. As long as she was an officer of the law, she would do everything in her power to protect the citizens and tourists on Ocracoke. The one thing she did dread, however, was that she had agreed to help the one person in the world she’d hoped she would never see again.

Summer had just started, and it already threatened to be like no other. Shaking her head, she headed to her squad car.

Thirty minutes later after a stop by the police station, Kate stepped into the Health Center and looked around the deserted waiting room. No one sat at the reception desk.

She started to call out for Sharon, the receptionist, but she stopped when the telephone on Sharon’s desk rang. Kate waited for a moment before she stepped to the door and peered down the hall that was lined with examining rooms. “Doc, your phone’s ringing.”

“That you, Kate? Sharon’s at lunch. Will you see who’s calling?”

Kate had learned long ago that a police officer’s duties on Ocracoke required more than keeping the peace. It also meant serving the needs of the residents, and right now Doc needed someone to answer the phone. Smiling, she plopped down in the chair behind Sharon’s desk, cleared her throat and picked up the receiver. “Ocracoke Health Center. May I help you?”