Slim To None (Cedar Tree #1) (14 page)

Palming his face, she pulled him close for a sweet kiss. "No, honey. Not hurt." She smiled up, tracing his beautiful rugged face with her eyes. This kind man, who simply walked in to her life, embraced her, all her issues and shortcomings and looked out for her. She'd never been on the receiving end and it was an amazing feeling. Letting her watch him become vulnerable in her hands  was an incredible gift of trust.

"You simply undo me." She whispered to him.

"S
o how is Emma doing?" Joe wanted to know, when Gus walked into his office in Cortez, pissed that he had been called in.

"Black and blue, but her head's feeling fine and she should be alright. She's tough."

"Noticed that about her." Joe agreed.

"That better be all you notice." Gus bit out, his eyes conveying he was not playing games.

Joe threw his hands up and chuckled. "Whoa there, buddy! It's not like that for me, but I can see she got to you."

"Just tell me what this meeting is about that had you call my ass in here, instead of henpecking me. I wasn't too happy about have to leave my charge."

Joe burst out laughing. "Your charge? Man, you're killing me here." Propping his feet on his desk and linking his hands on his belly, Joe watched him pour the black sludge they swear was coffee.

He could feel Joe's observant eyes, trying hard not to let the self-deprecating grin tugging at his mouth escape. "Enough busting my balls. What's the deal?"

Still chuckling, Joe sat forward in his chair. "I got a lead on the hit and run truck yesterday."

Gus was about to demand why in hell he hadn't been notified, but Joe already had his hand up and explained. "You were up to your eyeballs in looking after your 'woman'..." Joe threw him a glare.

"Besides the lead was thin to start with, so hear me out..."

Joe swiped a hand through his hair and Gus noticed for the first time that he looked like he might not have seen his bed last night. Rumpled and bleary-eyed, Joe looked like he was ready to pack it in.

"Go on." He urged.

"DMV came back with a hit on the partials we got from witness accounts at the scene. A navy 1994 Ford F-150 belonging to a Kelly Janssen from Mancos, who turns out to be the seventy-six year old widow of a former Colorado State Trooper. Now here is where it gets interesting. When one of our deputies went to talk to Mrs. Janssen, he found no one at home, but the truck was parked in the back of the property. From neighbors we discovered the lady has been in the hospital here in Cortez for the past two months."

Frustration is starting to slowly gnaw away at Gus' patience.

"So basically fuck-all."

"No. Not quite. Mrs. Janssen has cancer and hasn't been given very long to live. She obviously wasn't driving the truck, said it used to be her husband's and only her son drives it on very rare occasions, to move stuff."

At the mention of a son, Gus' head snapped up. "Do we have a name?" He leaned in, eager to move on something - anything, but especially the bastard who fucking hurt Emma.

"Randolph. I already checked, he hasn't visited her since last week. We weren't able to get more out of her at the time; the woman was exhausted already and the doc kicked us out. We'll have to go back to see what more we  can find out, 'cause the name Randolph Janssen doesn't bring anything up. We are on it. We're bringing in the truck and I've got someone going back out to Mancos today to talk to the neighbors again."

"So a name and possible access to what might have been the vehicle used to run Emma down. Anything else you've got? Something I could sink my teeth into?"

"The newer black truck Emma described following her and you saw pulling out of her drive, may have been rented from a National car rental office here in town. They reported a truck by a similar description rented a week or two ago for one week. When it wasn't returned immediately, they didn't think much of it at first. A corporate card had been used to rent it. It's not unusual for cars to be kept a day or two longer, but when it hadn't shown up yesterday, and they called the number they had been left with, it was not in service. They contacted the PD to report it. So now we have a BOLO out on the truck."

"Still nothing connecting anything to Corbin. I feel like we're treading water and it's just getting muddier and muddier."

"It always happens before shit starts floating to the surface." Joe got up from his chair. "I'm quickly going to check with the guys in the shop to see about the truck. They should have it in there by now. Just hang tight a sec."

Gus dropped his head in his hands, rubbing his temples to try and clear some of the pressure that was trying to build.

His thoughts were inadvertently drifting back to this morning, when he left the bed rather abruptly after receiving Joe's call. He was an ass. One moment he had a fucking beautiful woman wrapped around him, opening up to him, telling him in so many words the effect he was having on her, and the next he walked out the door with barely a goodbye. Thing of it was, it had been on the tip of his tongue to give her everything. Every last little bit of what he had been pretending didn't affect him anymore. The friendly but firm demeanor he displayed to the outside world had become part of him. It just wasn't all of him and for some reason he wanted Emma to know every scarred and ugly bit. That's why he had asked her to look at him. He really wanted her to see him, to see all of him. He hadn't held a thing back, letting it all show in his eyes, on his face. Yet she still cared, still stroked, still held. It had been on his lips to break the seal on his fucked up past. To bring it out, have her see and acknowledge it and then to be able to leave it behind him for good. He would know he finally had the balls to face someone without any reservation, who could reflect back all that he was feeling, and trust it wouldn't change a thing. All of that had been right there. On his lips, in his eyes and in his heart. And then the fucking phone had pulled him away from the moment. Coward that he was, he had jumped on it, leaving Emma looking sated but a little hurt and confused in bed. He dressed, gave her a quick kiss and told her he'd be back as soon as possible, leaving the team to cover her while he was gone. Asshole.

*****

F
or a minute she thought she had reached him with her words, but then the phone call had interrupted their 'moment'. She could see a hint of relief flick over his face when he took the call and told her he had to meet up with Joe in Cortez. He left her lying in bed, wondering if perhaps she had shown a bit too much of herself too soon.

Emma felt a little tender in areas that hadn't seen the kind of action they had just been subjected to in many moons, but otherwise surprisingly good, considering. Carefully rolling out of bed, Emma made her way into the shower. She would make it a quick one, because as soon as she heard low voices coming from her kitchen, she was pretty sure her baby-sitting crew had arrived.

Still slightly damp from her shower, she was grateful for the AC the little bungalow boasted, otherwise she'd never dry completely. Emma pushed her walker into the kitchen, needing its stability this morning. She found it in the corner of the bedroom where Gus must've left it.

"Morning - again." Katie said, once again hanging out by the coffee pot wearing a little smile. "You have two less muffins, I'm afraid. I pounced when I smelled them."

Emma grinned. "Good. That's what they're there for."

"I wasn't alone, though. Gus was stuffing his face with the other one on his way out the door. Guess he needed some quick energy." She said with a snicker.

Flicking a glance at Katie, Emma was relieved to find no malice in the other woman's eyes. She still wasn't going to touch that. "He said something about Caleb coming too?"

"Yup. Called him in. He's having a quick shower and will be over after. I told Gus to go ahead and go. We can manage for those fifteen minutes."

A knock at the door had them both turning their heads.

"That'll be him. I'll get it." Katie said, making her way to the door while Emma headed for the coffee pot, eager to grab a cup. She would get a new pot started before the next team member came in. She could hear Katie talking to whomever was at the door, which didn't sound like it was Caleb after all. Curious to see who it was, Emma looked down the hall to the front to see Ralph standing on the doorstep.

"Oh hey Ralph! What brings you out? Any news?" She turned to grab another cup down from the cupboard, and added, "Come on in, I'm just making fresh."

She barely registered the shuffling behind her at first, but the slam of the front door and the loud crash quickly snapped her to attention. When she whipped around she found Ralph standing only two feet behind her. Looking beyond him, on the hallway floor she could see Katie lying on her back, unmoving. Frozen in shock and disbelief, her body seemed rooted to the spot, while her eyes slowly drifted back to a man she though she knew. When she saw the cold and calculated mask on his face, the hot tendrils of terror broke through her apathy and she opened her mouth to scream. But before she was able to scream, the last thing she saw was the arm arcing down towards her - and then nothing.

"I
t might be our truck." Joe said as he walked back into his office. "The guys just got it in, but they didn't have a lot of time with it yet. A preliminary look showed the left front end had some damage and a trace of possible red paint on the underside of the driver's side door was found. We're trying to confirm if that sample is consistent with Emma's walker. They're running some tests now, but they'll be limited. We don't have a full lab here."

"I don't care, I'm not worried about building a court case, I'm just interested in nabbing this guy before he tries something again."

Joe nodded his head in agreement.

"Oh, and another thing. The deputy at the hospital called; Mrs. Janssen was awake and had something interesting. When he prompted her on the whereabouts of her son,  she said he shouldn't be too hard to find, since he was one of us. When he told her there is no deputy Janssen with the Sheriff's Office, she threw him for a loop. She said he wouldn't be called Janssen, but Murphy. His father's last name. State Trooper Janssen had been his stepfather, and her second husband. Her son's name is deputy Murphy. Deputy Randolph Murphy."

Gus had already been halfway out the door before Joe had a chance to finish his sentence.

"Where the fuck you off to?" He yelled after Gus.

"Randolph is Ralph, Frank's deputy in Cedar Tree." Gus barked back, taking the stairs two at a time on his way down to the parking lot and his truck. He was already pulling out his phone to try and reach his team.

"Gus! Get in my truck! I drive, you call." Joe's instructed.

Without objection, Gus changed direction immediately towards Joe's vehicle. He knew he'd get a lot further in the speeding truck of a well-known Cortez chief deputy than he would in his own. Besides, it would leave his hands free to make calls.

Joe intercepted a young deputy in the parking lot, and yelled at Gus to toss his keys at him. The young man was instructed to hold onto them until further instructions. Gus was trying to get through to Katie's number once again as he was getting into the passenger side of Joe's truck. Impatiently pushing end, he was about to call Caleb, when the phone rang and Caleb's name showed up.

"We have a problem." Gus started, not giving Caleb a chance.

"I know, boss. I'm at the house, Emma is gone, Katie is down and hurt. Call an ambulance, she's lost a lot of blood." Caleb sounded grim.

"Fuck!" Slamming his fist on the dashboard, he turned to Joe to fill him in. He had been on his phone getting teams mobilized, while working his way through traffic trying to get out of Cortez as fast as humanly possible.

"Boss!" Caleb called again for his attention. "Katie was in the hall, but there was more blood in the kitchen... Emma was nowhere in the house. I have to go, I've gotta take care of Katie."

The line went dead and all feeling seemed to flood into Gus' stomach... swirling around and threatening to pull him under.

"Ambulance for Katie. Emma's gone." He bit out, barely holding it together.

"Got it."  Joe said and immediately relayed the information to the station on the other line.

A rage was slowly fighting through the shock and numbness, at the thought of his Emma hurt, in danger - or worse. "Gonna kill that fucker with my bare hands." He ground out, his hands clenching his own thighs so hard, he'd likely leave bruises.

"We'll get her." Joe placated him, before turning his attention back to Frank, who was on the phone now.

"Put Frank on speaker"

Joe took one look at his clenched jaw and fierce eyes and did as he asked.

"Frank, you're on speaker." Joe warned him.

"Frank." Gus was trying to reign it in. "He driving a department car or his own?"

"Uhh, I'd have to go check. Sometimes he'd take a patrol car home, if he had an early shift next day."

"Why don't you fucking go check, Frank. Jesus. Fuck me!"

"Hey, listen now, I'd hate for anything to happen to Emma as much as you do; You ass. So get off your high horse; and my back while you're at it!"

"You know fuck-all about me or my woman; You dick. Your fuckin' deputy harms one hair on her head, and I'm not fuckin' responsible for what I'm gonna do!"

"Pissed because once again she got hurt on your watch, big guy? Huh? Mighty fine job you're doing protecting that 'woman' of yours."

With the sheriff now taunting him and an already volatile situation rapidly getting completely out of hand, Joe jumped in sending everyone to their corners. "Shut the fuck up. Both of you." Joe bellowed, "We've got one woman with unknown injuries and another missing and possibly injured. We have a suspect who also happens to be a law enforcement officer. We have limited resources, little time and a fucking humungous amount of area to disappear into around us. So both of you, save your energy, 'cause we are going to bloody well need it."

Red in the face from his tirade, Joe took a few deep breaths before continuing, "Getting back on track; we need details on the patrol car and his personal ride. Frank, can you get that? Inform the Durango State Patrol office. Have them ask their boys to keep an eye out  and maybe notify New Mexico and Utah as well. Just in case. We don't want them to be able to get too far. If they get over state lines, we lose all control of the situation. It's going to be enough of a challenge working together, without adding more agencies to the mix. Unless it becomes absolutely necessary, let's avoid it."