Undercover Justice (19 page)

“I would like that,” I said shyly, stepping out of his arms.

“I’m going to take Nora inside to meet Betty,” Jed called to Skip. “I’ll let her know that you’ll be a few more minutes.”

“Thanks, Jed,” Skip called back. “Save me a slice of that strawberry pie I saw sitting on the counter earlier.”

“Will do.”

We walked out of the barn and headed toward the house. It looked so warm and inviting with the lights of the wide wraparound porch glowing out brilliantly into the yard. A large porch swing hung on one end.

“Slow up a minute,” Jed said turning me toward a large crab apple tree that stood between the house and the barn. It was just out of reach of the porch glow.

“Why?” I asked warily.

Stopping a few feet from the tree, Jed said gruffly, “I’m going to kiss you now.”

“You are?” I said, taking a step back.

“That’s right,” Jed said taking a determined step towards me.

“I thought you just told Skip we were going in to meet Betty, and have a piece of her strawberry pie.” Great. I’m rambling. How pathetic. Taking another step backward, I felt my back hit the tree. Seeing I was trapped, Jed quickly closed the distance between us.

“There is no one here to interrupt us now,” he said, tilting my chin up and leaning down towards me.

“Wait!” I said throwing my hands up. They connected with his solid chest.

Lifting his head, he said teasingly, “What? Nervous?”

I was not nervous, I told myself stubbornly. Indignant, I lifted my hands off his chest. That was my first mistake. He took advantage of the moment. Closing my eyes, I sighed. Every other thought totally blew away in the breeze. I have never been kissed so expertly. Not that I have had a lot of previous experience to compare it against, but man, could he kiss.

Clinging to Jed, I ran my hands through his hair and down to his shoulders. As my hands found their way to his muscular biceps and hard chest, I could feel his pulse racing and his breathing getting faster.

Groaning, he slowed down and giving me one last gentle kiss, lifted his head to look me in the eye. “We need to stop,” he said breathing hard. Carefully he pushed me away and stepped back.

Still a little stunned and woozy, I stood there stupidly, my mouth hanging open and what I was sure was a dazed and confused expression on my face.

“I know honey, I know,” he said, taking a deep breath.

Gently taking my hand off his shoulder, he said, “Come on, let’s get up to the house before I do something stupid.”

Together, we slowly walked the rest of the way to the house, enjoying just being together. For me, I think, I fell a little bit in love with him at that moment. I know for him, I was just another girl. It was just another kiss. But for that one moment as we walked, arms around each other, the world felt totally right.

Setting his high-powered camera down, Martin Vecelli grinned to himself from his perch in a tall pine. It was his lucky day. Who knew that the little number from the mall who had gotten away, was apparently Greyson’s girl. His head still hurt from where she had hit him in the head at the mill. He was really going to enjoy teaching them both a lesson. He would just have to bide his time until he could get her alone. Climbing down from the tree, he headed back to where he had left his car, whistling as he went. Dialing his phone, he said, “I got it.”

Chapter 15

As I walked into the house and shut the door behind me, I looked up and dropped my purse, startled. My father was standing against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed against his chest as if waiting for me. Why did I feel guilty all of a sudden, like I was caught doing something wrong?

My dad cut right to the chase. “So he found you. What happened to his motorcycle?”

“Who found me? Jed?”

“Yes. Jed,” My dad said with disgust. “He came here looking for you and Kent this afternoon.”

“Oh. Well he found us.”

“You didn’t answer my question about his motorcycle. Why is he driving a truck now and what are you doing with him by yourself?”

“After Kent and Charlotte went to the movies, Jed took me back to his house to watch his horse have a brand new baby. Then he drove me home. It was so exciting Daddy,” I said. Clearly he was upset about something. If Kent was anything like him, then I knew where this was headed.

“You went to his house by yourself!” he roared. “Was anyone else there? You don’t even know this boy!”

Ok. That was enough. I was sick of every male in my life being overly protective of me. “Yes someone else was there! And yes, I do too know him! I like him,” I argued.

“Guys like that are only trouble to nice girls like you. I don’t want you seeing him again.”

“He is not trouble!” I said, stomping my foot. “He is kind and smart and… and gentle. You would like him.” That was maybe a stretch, seeing as how Kent could barely trust him to stand next to me. But it sounded good.

“What do you mean by gentle?” he said narrowing his eyes.

Oh, he caught that. “I mean umm…he was really gentle with his horse.”

“Is that so?” he asked skeptically. I think he knew exactly what I was referring too. And it wasn’t Jed’s horse. He must have decided to let it go because he said firmly with no hit of compromise, “Well, I still don’t think he is right for you, and I don’t want you seeing him again.”

Wrapping his arm around my shoulders, he walked us into the family room where my mother sat curled up on the couch reading a book. It was hard to make small talk after knowing how my father felt about Jed. I excused myself and went up to get ready for bed. Kent wasn’t home yet, but I didn’t feel like waiting up.

As I knelt by my window, thoughts of Jed and of our new relationship kept me up.

Thank you Lord for the way you have blessed me and for keeping us all safe today. Please be with me and show me your will in all things. I really like Jed. Is that a good thing Lord? I don’t know if he knows you. If he doesn’t, please guide him. Please send the Holy Spirit to work in his heart. I want our relationship to glorify you. In Your name I pray. Amen.

After pulling out of Nora’s driveway, Jed pulled out his cell phone and dialed Mike Parker.

When Mike answered Jed said, “You on tonight?”

“Nope, decided the overtime wasn’t worth it.”

Good, Jed thought. “I have a proposition for you.”

“Shoot. I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs.”

“You up to dusting off some of the skills from our youth?”

“Depend on which skill that was,” Mike said interested.

“I was thinking along the lines of acquiring some information, not using the traditional channels,” Jed had wanted to get into the Country Club, but it was too late tonight, so he had decided to try something else.

“Is this regarding the case?”

“Yeah. You in?”

“Getting ready as we speak. Where should I meet you?”

“Meet me at the high school.”

“See you in ten,” Mike said, disconnecting.

Hanging up his phone, Jed pulled the key out of his pocket and looked at it. He felt bad about taking it from Ollie. It had been a simple matter of taking it out of Ollie’s backpack when he wasn’t looking. Jed knew he was going to have to get it back to him, before he noticed it missing. He wouldn’t want Ollie to get in trouble with the teacher for losing it.

Knowing he had a few minutes before Mike got there, he dialed Skip. He hadn’t had a chance to ask him about the car parked on the road. The car had been gone when he had taken Nora home.

“Hey Skip, I didn’t have a chance to ask you about a car parked down on the road by the driveway. Do you know anything about it?”

“Nobody approached the house asking for help,” Skip said concerned. “I don’t remember seeing a car when I ran out to the Feed and Seed after dinner. It must have been parked after that. Why? Was it still there when you left?”

“No, it was gone. Must be nothing. Listen, thanks Skip, but I need to go, I’m meeting Mike to go over the case.”

“Sure Jed, see you later.”

Jed had been afraid of that. He found it suspicious that the car was parked there and then moved without any sign of someone around. That meant that someone had been nearby without Jed or Skip knowing.

Jed dialed Nora while he waited. He had been anxious about just dropping her off without walking her in. She had thought it would be better for her to try to sneak in by herself. She didn’t answer, so Jed left a message telling her what a nice time he had tonight with her and that he would see her tomorrow.

Mike pulled up three minutes early. “You must have been half way here when I called,” Jed teased, knowing his friend had a nasty habit of driving too fast.

“Right. Half way,” he said, sheepishly zipping up his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. “So what’s the plan? I assume we are doing a little B and E?”

“No breaking,” Jed said holding up the key. “Just a little entering. Let’s go.”

Quickly entering the building, Jed shut and locked the door behind them. Switching on his thin penlight, so that it couldn’t be seen from outside, Jed said, “Ok, we need to use one of these computers to hack into the main office computer. Do you think you can do that?”

“But of course,” Mike said with a fake accent, cracking his knuckles.

“Great. Let’s use this one over by the corner,” The computer was tucked into a small alcove. It looked like the newest one in the room.

Jed paced the room as Mike sat down to work. “We’re in luck. Most of the information we need I can pull off the school’s mainframe.”

“I’m looking for a list of students who attended the school around 1981.”

“Let me start with those who graduated in 1981,” Mike said running a search. “That’s odd.”

“What?” Jed said, walking over to look over Mike’s shoulder.

“There are two choices that come up. One is for the Pine Hill High School Graduates of 1981. The other is for Pine Hill C.C. graduates of 1981,” Mike said looking at the screen.

“What is Pine Hill C.C? Country Club? Can you click on that and see what comes up?”

“I tried. It just says ‘in archive’. That is what comes up for all the years with C.C. graduates. Not every year has an additional list.”

“What about 2013?”

“Interesting. It says, site being updated.”

“Can you print out that information?”

“Sure,” Mike said, hitting the print button. “Here’s the list of graduates, for the year 1981 first.”

When the printer was finished spitting them out, Jed picked them up and thumbed through them quickly.

“This is going to take some time. I have never heard of any of these people.”

“The real questions are; Where is the archive for the other list? Who’s on it? And what does it mean?” Mike said, shutting down the computer. “I‘m also going to check the other high schools in the area and see if they have similar lists.”

“That’s a good idea, let me know what you find out. I have a hunch about the other list, but I need to find it first.”

“It looks like this is turning into a pretty interesting case,” Mike said, as they walked out of the building and locked the door behind them.

“Jealous?” Jed teased. “Are you getting sick of doing the desk work?”

“Let’s just say, I pictured myself doing something else, when I signed up for this unit.”

“You’ll get your turn man,” Jed said slapping him on the back. “Then it will be me doing the desk work.”

“Like you will be able to sit still long enough,” Mike joked. “There aren’t many women who come through the doors there.”

Jed knew Mike was referring to Jed’s reputation of enjoying women. Deciding it was time to straighten Mike out, Jed admitted, “Most of what you have heard about me, has been exaggerations. I am a one-woman guy. ”

“Oh yeah? Does that mean now?”

“It means then and now, especially now.”

Mike raised his eyebrow, “Does that mean things are working out with that girl, what was her name, from your class?”

Jed grinned, “Her name is Nora, and yes, things are working out.”

“That’s great buddy!” Mike said supportively, “Just remember she’s part of the case.”

“Don’t worry, I couldn’t forget it if I tried,” Jed answered, thinking about the threats on Nora.

“See you tomorrow at the meeting,” Mike said, climbing into his truck and rolling his window down.

“The meeting? Oh right. I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me. See you later man.”

“Later,” Mike waved as he pulled away.

Jed had a lot of questions for the group that he needed answered before he met tomorrow with the task force of Lieutenant Davis, Sheriff Miller, Detective Cooper, Mike Parker and himself.

“How was the movie?” I asked Charlotte, as we headed into class together the next morning. Jed’s motorcycle had been parked in the parking lot, but I had yet to see him. I found myself glancing over my shoulder hoping to see him. I think Kent was starting notice.