Читать книгу The Deputy's Witness - Tyler Anne Snell - Страница 11

Chapter Four

Caleb was pacing. An action he actively tried to avoid doing.

For one, people who paced were not in control of their current situation. Hence the nervous movement edged with anxiety and uncertainty. His career—and his personality if he was being frank—had made his desire to be in control, well, desirable. So he wasn’t a fan of walking back and forth trying to burn anxious energy. Second, pacing usually meant someone was waiting for something to happen, and patience was also not Caleb’s strongest suit.

Yet here he was, moving back and forth just inside the entrance of the courthouse on repeat. Burning a hole in the lobby’s faded carpet.

It had been three hours since the fire alarm went off. Since there was no fire in the building, or even smoke, Caleb had put his bet on the culprit being a punk kid or a disgruntled attendee. Someone who wanted to break up their day with a little excitement. That is, until he’d seen the alarm that had been pulled.

Smashed beyond recognition. Obliterated. It had been a miracle the sirens had managed to keep blaring after the alarm had been pulled and then destroyed. They’d had to wait for the fire department to shut it all down. One firefighter had whistled low at the broken shell of the alarm and asked what was the point of pulling it and breaking it.

Caleb hadn’t had an answer. He’d officially gone on alert, a feeling of foreboding lying heavy in the pit of his stomach. Hours later, that heaviness hadn’t gone away. Not when deputies had come over from the sheriff’s department next door. Not when they had gone through the entire building, room by room, looking for anything suspicious. And not when the security footage hadn’t been helpful, thanks to a gap in the recording, which was due to poor funding.

“It happens sometimes,” the other deputy had said with a shrug. “The courthouse isn’t the only place in town waiting on funding to come through to get a better system.”

“Sounds like an excuse,” Caleb said beneath his breath. The deputy hadn’t heard him, and he wanted to keep it that way.

Again, he didn’t know how Carpenter, or Riker County, truly worked. He didn’t know their struggles or their points of pride. Jumping to conclusions about a broken fire alarm at an underfunded courthouse wasn’t something he needed to do. He certainly didn’t need to overstep his job description by trying to investigate a situation that probably wasn’t anything more than someone caught in the heat of the moment and deciding to break something.

At that thought, Caleb’s body went cold.

His hands balled into fists.

His thoughts turned tumultuous in a fraction of a second. Memories of what he’d done flew through his head.

“Foster! Stop! Dammit, Foster! STOP!”

But Caleb hadn’t stopped.

And now he was in Riker County because of it.

He began to pace again.

* * *

ALYSSA WAVED GOODBYE to Robbie and Eleanor. They drove away from the courthouse in Robbie’s little red pickup, both smiling as they disappeared down the street. Alyssa couldn’t help but smile too. There was nothing like spending a few hours at Danny’s—a local café with the best cake, according to Eleanor—with the couple to get her back into a good mood. Them laughing and smiling at each other had been contagious. Being with them always reminded Alyssa she was missing something they had been lucky enough to find. A partner. A best friend. Someone who would buy her morning cake without flinching.

Being that close to such a strong couple brought out a sense of peace in her too. Like the sight of calm waters after looking over the edge of your boat.

It had helped that, despite it being the day of the trial, they had sidestepped any talk of the Storm Chasers. It was a groove that had become familiar with them over the last year. A rhythm that had become second nature. They talked about happier topics, even mundane ones. Anything that filled the time.

But now Alyssa was back, staring at the front of the courthouse.

How she wished she could go inside, tell the jury what she’d seen and then watch as Dupree and Anna were led away in cuffs. Forever.

Alyssa let out a long sigh. She still had a few hours to go before she could get her wish.

“I might as well go soak in a bath,” she muttered to herself. If there was ever an answer to quell unwanted anxiety, a quiet, citrus-scented bath had to be at the top of the to-do list. She had started to walk around the building, mind already made up, when the sound of footsteps sounded behind her.

“Excuse me!”

Alyssa turned to see a man jogging toward her. He was brandishing a set of keys.

“You dropped these,” he explained, motioning to where she’d been standing when she was dropped off.

“Really?” Even though they were clearly hers—the wineglass pendant Gabby had given her was glinting in the sunlight—Alyssa still opened her purse to look inside and confirm they weren’t there. “Wow. I don’t know how I did that. I could’ve sworn they were buried in my purse.”

The man pushed his glasses up his nose. Alyssa mimicked the motion on reflex. Gabby always made fun of her for the “nerd” move, but when Alyssa was around her own glasses-wearing kind, she was happy for the little inclusion.

“You must have been thinking of other things,” he offered. “This Storm Chasers business has a lot of people around here distracted.”

Alyssa took her keys and tried on a polite smile. Though she didn’t like the way the man had said “here,” she agreed with him.

“Yes, it definitely has the attention of the entire community. It’ll be nice when it’s all over.” She jingled her keys, wanting to end the conversation. “Thank you for being less distracted than me.”

The man grinned.

“No problem,” he said. “Have a nice day.”

The way he said the last part, just like the word here, was so odd that it caught Alyssa a little off guard. She hesitated a few seconds too long. His smile wavered.

“Thanks again.” She tried to recover, heat exploding into her cheeks. She turned away and hurried to her car. When had she dropped her keys? And how?

She tried to mentally retrace her actions, and none of them included her opening her purse, let alone taking her keys out.

“Maybe I am way more stressed than I originally thought,” she mumbled, unlocking her door with the key fob. The day was hot and twinged with growing humidity. She held the unlock button down a few seconds longer. The front windows rolled down in response. She waited a moment, still trying to puzzle out the question of her keys leaving her possession, as a wave of heat poured out. It pressed against her skin with a maliciousness she’d come to expect from Alabama summers.

And here she was, about to go get into a hot bath. She sighed, wondering how that made sense, and tossed her purse into the passenger’s seat. She smoothed down the back of her pencil skirt and plopped down into the driver’s seat.

Click.

Alyssa paused, confused.

Click.

“What?” she muttered, trying to find the source of the noise. Last time she checked, her car had never clicked before. “I swear if it’s the AC crapping out...”

Alyssa didn’t have to look far. “Oh my God.”

* * *

CALEB’S PACING GAVE him a front row view of the woman named Alyssa Garner. He watched as Robbie and, presumably, his wife had dropped her off and then watched as she had started for the parking lot.

For a moment she had seemed happy, lighter than she had been that morning. Almost carefree. Her head was tilted up, lips in the same direction, and her shoulders were relaxed. At some point, wherever she’d gone, she’d even let her hair down. It cascaded over her shoulders and back, shining in the sun, more red than brown as it had looked inside. He wondered how she looked without her trendy black pair of frames on. Either way, he couldn’t deny that he found her attractive.

Alyssa seemed to be a quiet woman with an equally quiet beauty.

But Caleb now wondered if that was true...especially after what she’d done at the bank.

That anger that had startled him before began to rise in his chest again just thinking about the man Dupree Slater.

Caleb wondered if she had a scar from him.

Surprised again, he caught his thoughts before they became even darker.

He didn’t know Alyssa. At least not personally. He hadn’t even known she existed until that morning. He wasn’t close to her or, in fact, to anyone in Carpenter or Riker County. Having feelings for her like he was didn’t make sense. And wasn’t wanted.

You won’t be here long, he thought, resolute. Keep your head down, follow orders, and then you’re back home.

Caleb had started to turn away from the glass doors, giving Alyssa some privacy and his thoughts a firm shake away from her, when movement stilled his motion. A man ran up to her. He gave Alyssa something, but from Caleb’s angle he couldn’t see what it was. Or what the man looked like.

Could be a friend, he reasoned. Or a boyfriend.

No sooner had he thought that than he dismissed it. While he couldn’t see the man’s expression, he watched as Alyssa’s changed. Her brow furrowed and she frowned. Then she was smiling, but in a flash that smile fell away.

She was confused or unhappy. He couldn’t tell which, but it was enough to keep him watching as she left the man’s side and went to her car.

The man watched her go. He must have known her, Caleb thought. Why else would he just stand there watching?

Maybe he was admiring her too?

Either way, Caleb didn’t like it.

He left his post and stepped out into the heat. The humidity was suffocating. It amazed him that it still caught him off guard. And that people chose to live in it.

“Excuse me?” Caleb called out.

The man didn’t move.

Caleb’s gut started to talk.

And he didn’t like what it was trying to say.

“Hey,” he tried again, taking a few steps forward and giving the man the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he hadn’t heard him. “Hey, buddy!”

The man, now a few yards away, turned around. It was a slow, lazy movement. He didn’t seem surprised at a slightly agitated court deputy’s appearance, but the same couldn’t be said for Caleb.

“You.”

The man with the horn-rimmed glasses grinned. “Hello, Deputy. How can I help you?”

Caleb hung back at the bottom of the stairs. His gut was full-out yelling now. It prompted him to really look at the man.

Over six feet and thin, the man wore glasses, but they had the opposite effect that Alyssa’s had on her. Instead of giving the impression that he might be on the quiet side, they turned his sharp facial features and thinness into an overall look of aggression. The descriptor popped into Caleb’s head so fast he realized he’d already had the thought the first time he saw the man. It didn’t help that his body was seemingly speaking an entirely different language with how he was dressed—slacks, a dark red vest and dress shoes—and where he was.

He was comfortable and anxious. While he greeted Caleb with a grin, Caleb noticed one of his hands against his thighs, his fingers tapping out a rhythm. A nervous tic. An anxious activity like pacing but more controlled.

“What are you doing out here?” Caleb asked, acutely aware of the space between them. “Are you still waiting for your friend?”

The man’s grin widened.

“You’re good with faces,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d remember mine. But no, I’ve already seen my friend.” He glanced toward the parking lot and then back to Caleb. “I’m on my way now. Have a good day, Deputy.”

He didn’t wait for a response. Putting both hands in his pockets, he moved away from Caleb to the sidewalk in front of the courthouse. Caleb thought about following him and demanding his name at the very least, but then his gut was twisting again.

He turned back to the parking lot.

Something felt off.

Alyssa’s outline could be seen in her car in the middle of the visitors’ lot, but she hadn’t started it yet. Why she hadn’t at least turned the ignition just to get the AC going, Caleb didn’t know. Maybe Alabamians were made with more heat resistance than he was.

Still, the lot wasn’t in the shade and the sun wasn’t being kind. It beat down on the little Honda like it had been doing all morning.

The inside had to be hot as hell.

Caleb took a moment to debate whether or not he should check on her. Maybe she was having issues with her car. Or maybe the man with the glasses had said something that upset her. Maybe it wasn’t any of his business either way.

Caleb adjusted his belt and turned back toward the courthouse.

Keep your head low, he reminded himself. It isn’t your place.

Halfway up the stairs, his feet stalled.

No, it was going to be impossible to keep his head low when his gut was telling him to do otherwise.

* * *

IT WAS SO HOT.

Alyssa’s muscles were straining to not move while sweat began to roll down her skin without any such constraints. While the windows were down, no breeze moved throughout the car. Her only company was a stifling, unforgiving blanket of wet heat. It was turning her situation into more of a nightmare. The hammering of her heart hadn’t broken the silence, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t beating against her chest in terror.

Sure, there was a chance she was overreacting. Paranoia. But what if she wasn’t?

She tried to take in another deep breath to help tamp down her nerves.

It didn’t help.

Especially not when someone approached the open window.

“Excuse me?”

Alyssa let out a shriek and gave a small jump in her seat. It was enough movement to make her adrenaline surge higher.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” the man said.

Alyssa allowed herself just enough movement to look at the stranger. Although he wasn’t just any man. The golden-haired deputy was staring back at her. She found his eyes, the perfect middle ground between golden and green, and felt genuine relief at his presence. However, she guessed her expression said something else entirely. His light brows drew together so quickly that she knew he knew something was wrong. “Are you okay?” he asked, voice ringing with authority.

Alyssa took a deep, wavering breath. “Have you seen the Lethal Weapon movies? You know, with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as cops?” she asked.

The deputy raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Yeah...”

“Well, you know the one where Danny Glover’s character is sitting on the toilet?”

“Yeah, that’s the second movie,” he said. “When he realizes there’s a bomb strapped to it. Why?”

A chill ran up Alyssa’s spine at that four-letter word.

“Well, this is probably going to sound ridiculous,” she started, “but I think there’s a bomb under my seat.”