For His Name's Sake (Psalm 23 Mysteries) (6 page)

A lump formed in his throat. The first baseball game of the season had been a tradition with him and Paul. Paul was gone. Time to start a new tradition.

Time to do a lot of things different.

He sat down on the couch but didn’t turn on the television, not wanting to wake Traci. She was sleeping for two and he wanted her to get as much rest as she needed. He dropped his head into his hands and struggled to quiet his mind, wanting to just be able to relax enough so he could go back to bed and get some sleep.

He had just about achieved some semblance of calm when he heard his phone vibrating on the kitchen counter. He’d been so distracted he’d forgotten to take it into the bedroom earlier. He got up and went to retrieve it. It was dispatch calling.

“Mark here,” he said quietly.

“You wanted to be alerted if there was any sign of trouble up at the Coulter residence.”

“Yes, and?” Mark asked, tensing up instantly.

“The alarm system was tripped about three minutes ago.”

“Has the owner called in?”

“No. We’re trying to reach him.”

“Alright, send squad cars.”

“Already done.”

“Good. I’m on my way.”

He hung up and nearly dashed outside in his pajamas. He gritted his teeth and scurried back into the bedroom trying to grab clothes silently in the dark. He didn’t want to wake Traci, especially since she’d ask what was going on and he’d have to admit there was trouble at Joseph’s. He didn’t want her worrying.

He finally managed to grab what he needed and he dressed hurriedly in the living room before grabbing his phone, gun, badge and keys and dashing out the door.

Cindy was restless. She tried to attribute it to sleeping in a bed that wasn’t hers, but it was more than that. Besides, she’d slept fine in this bed the night before. Of course, passed out was more akin to what had happened, she had been so exhausted.

Finally she got up. She threw on a cushy white robe that Joseph had supplied and which was hanging in her closet. Staying at his home was just like being at some really fancy hotel. There were slippers, too, but she was fine with just her socks.

She left her room, closing the door quietly behind her. She glanced at both Geanie and Jeremiah’s rooms, but there was no light coming from under either door. So much for someone else being up that she could talk to.

Maybe Joseph was. She headed down the hall, trying to remember where his room was. She was pretty sure it wasn’t located in the guest wing. She wasn’t sure it was even on the same floor. Maybe she’d get lucky and find him awake and prowling around just like her.

She hadn’t had a chance to call Gerald back and that was bothering her. She promised herself she would take care of that first thing in the morning. She rationalized it by telling herself that what was going on with Geanie and the potential attacks and everything to do with the wedding was more pressing than a cold case that had gone unsolved for who knew how long. It wasn’t like finding the answers would bring Paul back.

Still, she did feel bad. The sooner she could find answers the sooner hopefully Mark could get some closure with the whole thing. The need for closure was something she completely understood.

She headed down the grand staircase to the first floor, hoping to catch Joseph awake and prowling around the kitchen or living area. She didn’t see any lights on but the sky outside was clear and there was a full moon which was shining through the windows and providing more than enough light to find her way around.

None of the dogs appeared to be awake. Although she knew that Captain was sleeping in Jeremiah’s room and she suspected that one or more of Joseph’s prize poodles were in his room.

The kitchen was dark and empty and she hesitated there for a moment, thinking about making herself a sandwich. She was feeling rather hungry. Dinner had been hours before. Of course, if she could have slept like a normal person it wouldn’t be an issue.

There should still be a whole bunch of cold cuts in the fridge. Her stomach grumbled at the thought. Maybe a sandwich was a good idea.

She heard the creak of a door. It wasn’t very loud, and she could swear it was coming from the first floor. Maybe Joseph was awake after all.

She turned and left the kitchen, making her way to the foyer, hoping that once there she’d either see him or figure out where he’d gone.

She was nearly there when she heard a faint step, so light she thought for a moment she had imagined it. She walked out into the foyer and swiveled her head. Her eyes fell on the front door and she noticed that it was ever so slightly ajar. That made no sense.

She turned and screamed as she came face-to-face with a man in a mask.

Jeremiah awoke to the sound of Cindy screaming. He vaulted out of bed, yanked open his door and ran down the hall. The sound had come from far away, so it couldn’t be from just across the hall. He also registered as he ran that it was a sad statement on their recent lives that he could hear a scream and know that it was hers and not Geanie’s or someone else’s.

He made it to the stairs and glanced down. He saw moonlight shining on Cindy’s hair and he could see someone dressed all in black struggling with her, their hand clamped over her mouth.

Jeremiah vaulted the stairs, crouching to distribute the impact throughout his body as he landed so he wouldn’t break anything. At the thud of his landing the man jerked toward him.

Cindy bit the hand that was covering her mouth and the man made a sharp hissing motion but did not let go. Jeremiah blinked. It took years of training, experience, not to react to something that painful.

Jeremiah coiled himself to lunge, trying to see if the man was armed before he did so. The last thing he needed was for the intruder to cut him or Cindy because he failed to see a knife.

The man seemed to have his hands full with just Cindy, though, who was writhing and thrashing. She brought her foot down on his and elbowed him in the stomach.

He flung her away from him so hard that she fell and slid several feet across the marble floor, and turned to face Jeremiah head-on. Jeremiah brought his hands up, and began to circle, sizing up his opponent.

The man stared at him from behind a mask. In the darkness Jeremiah couldn’t make out the color of his eyes. He lifted his hands, lunged forward as if to attack, then at the last moment threw himself sideways.

He hit the door at a run and flung it open. Jeremiah chased after him. A moment later his bare feet were slapping against the asphalt of Joseph’s driveway. The thief was fast and he was already on the lawn heading for the woods.

Jeremiah heard the roar of a car engine a moment before a car rounded the last bend of the road leading up the hill. High beams hit him square in the face and Jeremiah staggered to a halt.

“Police!” someone shouted.

Jeremiah pointed. “The intruder went that way!” he shouted.

He heard a car door open and the sound of running feet as one of the officers gave chase. Jeremiah knew, though, the man would be too late. He bit back a curse, struggling to bring himself under control and hide his frustration. The police had terrible timing. Thirty seconds earlier or thirty seconds later and the guy would be in either their custody or Jeremiah’s.

The second officer got out of the car and approached Jeremiah cautiously. Just then Joseph, Cindy, and Geanie came out the front door. Jeremiah could hear another engine revving as someone pushed their car up the drive too fast. It sounded like there was another one just behind it, too.

Seconds later both of the other cars had parked. Two more officers had gone after the first and Mark was striding toward them, his face ashen.

“What happened here, is everyone okay?”

“Cindy startled an intruder,” Jeremiah said. “I chased him out here when your men intercepted me he got away.”

Mark stepped farther forward. “Are you hurt?” he asked Cindy.

“Just shaken.”

“Okay, let’s move this party inside,” he said.

Jeremiah took one last look out toward the forest, furious that the man had escaped, before turning and following the rest of them inside.

In the foyer Cindy recounted her experience of finding the intruder.

“And I’m guessing you heard her scream and came running?” Mark said drily as he glanced over at Jeremiah.

“Don’t I always?” Jeremiah asked with a shrug.

“Samaritan,” Mark muttered. It was an old joke between the two of them.

“He had grabbed Cindy and had his hand over her mouth when I...got down here,” Jeremiah said, omitting the part about vaulting the staircase.

Cindy either hadn’t seen that or didn’t let on. “I tried to bite him, elbow him, everything. When he saw Jeremiah though he threw me onto the floor.”

“I thought he was going to attack me, but instead he went out the door,” Jeremiah finished.

“Did either of you notice anything in particular about him?”

“He was close to my height, but he was dressed all in black, wearing a mask, can’t tell you anything else about him,” Jeremiah said.

“When he had hold of me, he did say something,” Cindy said, looking suddenly uneasy.

“Well, what was it?” Mark prodded.

Cindy glanced quickly at Geanie and then just as quickly away. “He said, ‘tell him there won’t be any happy ending’. That was it. His voice was low, raspy.”

There was silence for a moment and then Geanie sat down abruptly on the stairs. She looked like she was about to cry. “Who would try to sabotage our wedding?” she sobbed after a moment.

“That’s what we need to find out,” Mark said grimly. “At least now we have proof that that’s what’s going on here. I think it’s safe to rule yesterday’s events as anything but accidents.”

An officer came in, interrupting them.

“What is it?” Mark asked tersely.

“We discovered that the alarm system for the main house and grounds were tampered with, that’s why no audible alarm sounded. It was a real slick job, too, the guy knew what he was doing. Simply cutting the alarm triggers a signal but he worked around it somehow. He took out the phone line at the same time.”

“Then how did you guys know to show up?” Joseph asked, sounding bewildered.

“The independent system halfway down your hill that monitors all approaches up he missed. That triggers a silent alarm to the alarm company who called us,” Mark said. “And we tried to call you, but this explains why your phone line was down. It doesn’t explain, though, why you
weren’t picking up your cell phone. I tried calling a dozen times on my way here.”

“Battery’s dead,” Joseph said, flushing uncomfortably. I wore it out texting Geanie after we both turned in for the night.”

Mark rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.

“You should have called my phone,” Jeremiah said quietly.

“Well, clearly I wasn’t thinking straight. It’s been a bit of a crazy night, you know?” Mark snapped.

Jeremiah sensed more had happened than Mark was sharing, but he didn’t press. The detective would tell them what was going on in due time.

Another officer came in. “No sign of the intruder.”

Jeremiah wasn’t surprised but Mark looked like he was ready to kill someone. “Great, just great,” the detective said, heaving an exasperated sigh.

Jeremiah held his tongue, not wanting to end up the focus of the other man’s frustration. He glanced at Cindy who was staring at Geanie with a worried look on her face. He knew it had killed her to admit in front of the other woman what the assailant had said to her, but the truth had to come out sooner or later. Geanie deserved to know that she really was in danger. He could only imagine what might have happened if it had been Geanie who surprised the intruder and not Cindy. This whole night could have easily turned tragic.

Mark passed a hand in front of his face. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to regroup in the morning, put our heads together, and see if we can’t figure
this out. I’m hoping some sleep will help us all to think more clearly. I know I, for one, can use the rest.”

“Okay,” Joseph said, sitting down beside Geanie and putting his arm around her. She leaned her head against his shoulder and nodded.

“It’s settled then. I’ll be back here in the morning. Hopefully then we can straighten this entire mess out so we can all get on with our lives.”

Mark stationed officers outside, roaming the grounds of the mansion even though everyone agreed that whoever had tried to break in probably wouldn’t try again that night. Once they were in place and the rest of the officers had left Cindy took Mark and Jeremiah into the sitting room.

“We need to talk,” she told them both.

“Is everything okay?” Jeremiah asked.

“It’s fine. It’s just that I have some new information about Paul,” Cindy said.

“That’s okay, I don’t need to hear it. And you can drop the hunt, but thanks for all your help,” Mark said.

“Oh, you want to pick it back up after we figure out what’s going on with Geanie. That makes perfect sense. We can’t afford to be distracted from that,” Cindy said.

“You don’t understand. I’m not sure...sure I want to pursue this anymore,” Mark said.

Cindy stared at him, convinced she couldn’t have heard right. “Why? This has been so important to you. And now we’re getting closer. I thought the truth was all that mattered.”

“Yeah, but that was before,” Mark mumbled.

“Before?” Jeremiah asked sharply.

“What’s happened? Has someone threatened you? Are you worried you’ll find out something you wished you hadn’t?” she pressed.

“No, it’s nothing like that.”

“Then what is it like? Before what?”

“Before I found out I was going to be a father.”

There was silence for a moment as what he’d just said sunk in.

“Congratulations,” Jeremiah said, the first to speak.

“Mark, Traci’s pregnant? That’s wonderful!” Cindy said, finding her voice.

“Yes. Wonderful. Terrifying. All of it. The point is, I’ve got to start being more careful, take less risks. I want to be there for my kid as he or she grows up, you know?”

“That’s perfectly understandable,” Jeremiah said.

Cindy took a deep breath. She knew Mark wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. “That sounds good and noble and like the right thing to do, but I know you. Not knowing is going to keep eating away at you year after year and eventually it’s going to be too much. I think you owe it to your child to find out the truth so you can finally have some peace, some closure, and be able to focus all your attention on them.”

She braced herself, waiting for him to argue, to explode, something. Instead he just stood there quietly. She glanced at Jeremiah who just shrugged. She was right. She knew she was. Whether or not Mark was ready to deal with that was another story altogether.

“I need to think,” Mark said at last, sounding very tired. He pressed his hand to his forehead as though he had a headache. “It’s just...a lot...you know.”

“I know,” she said. “We’re here for you, though,” she said, reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve always been there for us.”

“Thank you,” Mark said, voice shaking slightly. “Look, I need to call it a night. We’ll regroup tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” Jeremiah said softly. “Try to get some rest. I think we’re all going to need it.”

“I have a terrible feeling that you’re right about that,” Mark said.

As soon as Mark had left Jeremiah turned to Cindy. “Well, that was a surprise.”

“It sure was,” she said quietly.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just, Mark and Traci are having a baby. That’s amazing.”

Jeremiah smiled. “People have babies all the time.”

“I know it’s just usually not the people I know. I mean,
really
know. I almost feel like I’m going to be an aunt.”

He grinned at her. “You’d make a wonderful aunt.”

“You think?”

“I do. I also think you’d make a wonderful mother.”

As soon as the words escaped his mouth he regretted them.

Cindy looked up at him sharply and her cheeks turned red. He forced himself to smile. “Come on, let’s raid Joseph’s refrigerator, I’m hungry. Last one there makes the sandwiches.”

“You’re on,” Cindy said before racing toward the kitchen.

Jeremiah ran behind her, but let her win by just a hair. She turned, laughing, her hand on the refrigerator handle.

“I’d like a roast beef with cheddar cheese.”

“At least you didn’t ask for ham,” he said with a smile.