Shattered Secrets (Cold Creek #1)(74)
“Speaking of marriage under the strain of the man’s career, it was obviously hard for Gabe’s mother.”
He started to eat again. “Speaking of obvious, I had no idea you didn’t know about your father and Gabe’s mom.”
“It’s best I know. I don’t hold it against you. My family should have told me. But what you said about your wife too—no wonder Gabe has never married in his position.”
He narrowed his eyes and stared straight at her. “He and Ann were done before he found out she betrayed him, you know.”
“That’s what he said.”
“You thinking of the two of you—him and you?”
“Of course not. With all that’s going on, and I’ve only known him—as adults—for six days, no way! I’m heading back to Michigan as soon as this is all over.”
“‘Methinks the lady doth protest too much.’ That’s Shakespeare—impressive, huh? Look, I can see you two care for each other. That’s why he asked me to keep a good eye on you today at the church service for Sandy, the candle walk, all that.”
“I’ll be fine in the crowd.”
“Because the person or persons out to scare you off or keep you quiet only come out of cornfields and we’ll be uptown? Nope, I’m sticking by you today. You know,” he said, with a shake of his head and slight smile as he poured more maple syrup on his last few bites, “I saw a tabloid newspaper when Jill Stillwell went missing that claimed ‘the Hillbilly Kidnappings’ were done by the same aliens that make crop circles in the fields.”
“No kidding? What a joke! That’s terrible—saying Hillbilly too! I’ll bet Mayor Owens had a fit over that. But I guess, unless Marva confesses, aliens make as much sense as anything.” She hesitated for a moment. “Vic, one other thing.”
He looked hard at her as if he knew something bad was coming.
“I’m going to phone my father.”
She thought that would surprise him, or he’d speak against it, but he surprised her. “Take notes. Hey, I’ll clean up here. You go call him. And keep your spirits up in case he doesn’t want to talk. I tell you though, I’d give years of my life—my entire life—to talk to my girl again.”
*
Gabe saw Ann jump up from behind her desk when he and Jace came in with Jonas in handcuffs.
“Gabe!” she shouted. “What? What?”
“He’s agreed to answer some questions. Just call Peggy for me, get her out of bed again and tell her I need her in here on the desk.”
“But what’s the charge?”
“Ann!” Jonas said. “Get outta here and call us some fancy lawyer from Lake Azure, ’cause there’s a bunch of them there.”
“Us? Gabe...”
He took Jonas into the smaller conference room, uncuffed him and left Jace with him. He went back to Ann, took her arm and steered her toward her desk. “You said you were disappointed in me the other day for cooling off on you. But I—”
“Since Tess—”
“It’s not her fault. I’m more than disappointed in you. Now, I’d like you to sit down at your desk and write out a statement. How long and how often you’ve been tipping off Jonas or anyone else about my comings and goings. Specifically reference the warning call to Jonas to tell Hank McGuffey and the other meth cookers last night, right after I told you that’s where I was going. No wonder you didn’t tell me who owned that stuffed dog, then tried to talk me out of linking it to Jonas. Now I know why I never could break up his dogfights, let alone the drug dealers he was tipping off.”
She yanked her arm away and snatched her purse from behind her desk. “You’re a loser, you know that!” she shouted. She rushed over to the coat pegs on the far wall of the waiting area and grabbed her jacket. “You—like father, like son—couldn’t solve the biggest case this county’s ever seen, and I’ll bet the kidnapper’s right under your nose! Meanwhile, you waste your time with petty things. I am going to get a lawyer.”
He refused to shout like she did. He was hurt and furious, but she wasn’t worth his emotion, let alone his passion. He spoke calmly. “You were right under my nose, and you’ve been caught. You and Jonas both. If you don’t write out the statement right now, you can do it in a jail cell.”
“He’s an idiot to have told you anything! Excuse me—permanently—because I’m done wasting time and effort on you. Now I need to spend some of my hard-earned money to get a lawyer to protect me from something I’m not guilty of. By the way, Marva Green’s done the same thing. I took a call from her attorney this morning.” Her face puckered in a sneer; her voice was snotty. “He’ll contact you on Monday, but you’re not to see her without him present! Consider that my last duty and contribution around here!”
He snared her arm as she made for the door. “Take your hands off me!” she insisted.
Without a word, he marched her back to the holding cell, took her purse for Peggy to itemize and locked her in. He stomped back to her desk, got a pad and pen, and shoved them through the small food-tray opening at the bottom of the thick door. Through the grate, he said, “Jace will be right in to read you your rights and let you call a lawyer—unless you want to write out what I asked and leave to see a lawyer yourself.”