Shattered Secrets (Cold Creek #1)(22)
“Tess,” he said, turning back to face her. “I’m not sorry it happened, though—the kiss.”
She nodded, maybe a bit too wildly. As he smiled, his features lifted, his eyebrows raised. His teeth were white and even.
She smiled back. For the first time in years, she felt good and—even standing on a slippery, lofty cliff path with thoughts about kids being kidnapped—almost safe.
*
After finding and bagging two discarded cans of spray paint and some wet cigarette butts, they headed back to town. Gabe didn’t want to drop Tess off and chided himself for acting as if this was some date when it was a kidnapping investigation. He’d kissed her. Kissed her! And wanted more. Was he nuts? Mad-dog Vic would have a fit.
“I’ll drop you off at your place,” he told her. “I’ll check with things at the station and crime scene, and then I’ll come back and we’ll walk through what we can recall from twenty years ago to see if anything hits you.”
“Don’t say it that way. But I know what you mean. Who is that honking?” she asked and looked out the back window. “Oh! I know that van. It’s Dane Thompson’s.”
“Right. I was going to talk to him later, and here he is.”
“It’s like he’s making a traffic stop on you.”
“Yeah. Sit tight.”
Gabe pulled over and got out. Maybe there was some emergency, but Dane was always a problem. The guy obviously believed the best defense was a good offense, but he evidently also liked being offensive. Ever since Gabe’s dad had Dane pegged as Tess’s most likely kidnapper, the guy had been on his case as much as the other way around.
Now Dane was yelling and shaking a fist at Gabe as they met partway between their vehicles.
“I hear that same state government agent’s back in town!” Dane shouted. His thin face was red clear to his hairline. Spittle flecked his lips. Didn’t he realize his demeanor made people dislike him? The man got along best with animals, maybe because he acted like one himself.
“Word travels fast to those who have a vested interest in a case,” Gabe said, fighting to keep calm, because, like Reese Owens, Dane always got him going.
“Of course I’m interested, and not only for some poor child. How about my own situation getting worse again? Police harassment. Local gossip. Slander that can hurt the business I’ve built. Years ago I should have gotten a restraining order on both Mr. Victor-BCI-agent and Sheriff McCord Senior! Now McCord Junior’s going to use the pick-on-Dane plan where they left off, I’ll bet!”
“If I had any proof—so far—that you were involved, you’d be in the holding cell in the police station.”
“So, have you got a suspect or a witness?” Dane demanded, squinting into the sun toward Gabe’s cruiser. “You pick on me again, and you’ll be sorry. Wait—is that Teresa Lockwood? My sister said that she was back.”
Dane started to walk closer. “Hold it right there,” Gabe said.
“What?” Dane rounded on him. “Like I’d hurt her now like I did before? Sheriff, if she got away from my place—which was searched, thoroughly, more than once in the months she was gone—would she have been found wandering a couple miles from town? No, she’d have been found closer. I just want to say hi, like my sister did. Teresa—I guess it’s Tess now—reciprocated with donuts, just the kind I like. Come on, she and I are cornfield neighbors again, Sheriff, and I don’t want any hard feelings, or wrong ones, between any of the three of us.”
As Gabe and Dane approached the cruiser, Gabe saw Tess had rolled the window halfway down on her side, maybe to hear what was being said.
“Hello, Dr. Thompson,” she said. She rolled the window the rest of the way down and stuck her hand out to shake his.
Looking surprised, Dane shook her hand and leaned down to talk while Gabe hovered. Something useful could come of this. Maybe Tess’s facing this guy would trigger something in her memory if Dane had anything to do with the initial crime years ago. He had to admire the firm front she was putting up when she’d seemed shaky to him at times.
“Teresa—I mean Tess—nice to have you back, even if it is to sell and move away for good,” Dane said.
“If you hear any of your clients—I won’t say patients, because my place isn’t ready to go to the dogs yet—would like an old house, let me know,” she told him.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” he said, evidently undecided whether to laugh at her little joke or not. “I’ll keep that in mind. I see you’re very well protected, but I just wanted you to know that you or the sheriff are welcome to visit our place anytime. Marva loves company. She never had children and lost her husband, so we’re getting on as best we can.”
“She’s been very kind.”
Gabe took it all in, amazed as Tess chatted about the fact that she didn’t have a husband or children either, but loved to be around kids, care for them and teach them. And about how good animals could be for little kids who were shy or afraid. She had calmed Dane down by the time he walked to his van and drove away.
But when Gabe got back in the cruiser, he saw she was shaking. Her hands were gripped so hard in her lap that her fingers had gone white. And tears were coursing down her cheeks.
“You remember something bad about him?” Gabe asked. “You carried on like that so he wouldn’t know?”