The ferry neared the Bremerton Ferry Terminal dock. Along with the other passengers, Cole and Jo returned totheir vehicle on the ferry. After docking, Cole steered the Yukon, following the line of cars disembarking. Detective Hargrove had informed Jo she could pick up the keys to her vehicle from the vehicle maintenance supervisor at the terminal.
What a complicated day.
Keys in hand, he parked next to her vehicle in the Kitsap Transit parking lot. “I’ll follow you back to Forestview. If there’s any trouble while—”
“Trouble?” She cut him off. Looking exhausted, she angled toward him and arched a brow. “What kind of trouble are you expecting?”
Was she serious? “I’m not expecting trouble so much as planning for all contingencies. If anyone were to follow us, let me handle it. I’ll text you or call you. I’m just asking you to follow my lead if anything happens.”
“I’m not worried about anyone bothering me while I’m driving that monster. Maybe I should give it a name. What do you think?”
She could make him crack a smile at the weirdest times. He loved her sense of humor. “I’ll have to think on it. When did you get that anyway? You were driving an old Ford pickup last time I saw you.” Why’d he bring up the reminder of his disappearance? Yeah, he dug himself into that hole.
“Pop got it on a steal. He was always into customizing and modifying vehicles. Insisted I should drive it, and he wanted me to have it.” Without another word, she got out of his Yukon and climbed into her custom Land Rover on twenty-two-inch wheels, so not really a monster truck with gigantic wheels. But it looked good and mean.
And that gave him a thought.
Had Dodge suspected a day would come when he’d have to leave Jo? And on that day, he wanted her to have a good, solid, intimidating vehicle? Nah. Cole was overthinking. IfCole were trying to protect someone, he would have gone about it in another way. A Hummer, maybe.
The Land Rover rumbled to life, sounding intimidating. What was under the hood? Would Jo even know?
Cole followed her out of the parking lot. You couldn’t driveacrossthe Olympic Peninsula because there were no roads through the mountains. You had to drive along what looked like, on the map, a coast-hugging lasso around the mountains. Jo chose the northern route through Port Angeles, taking Highway 101 around the peninsula to the west side of the state. He followed right behind her. It could take two to three hours to get there, so he streamed Christian artist TobyMac’s upbeat music from his cell to keep him awake and alert. At some point, he’d lose cell reception and then he would wish he’d downloaded the songs.
But this time alone in his vehicle would give him a chance to reflect on the events of the day. He wasn’t sure how far Jo wanted him to go when it came to her father. Should he have Allison run the background checks and dig into his past? That would definitely be part of the threat analysis to protect Jo, but this was a touchy matter for her, so he’d tread very carefully.
Via his Bluetooth head unit, he called Allison before he lost reception. She was a tech genius and a great resource for any detective agency, especially one utilizing military vets.
She answered quickly. “You’re out there making a name for yourself.”
“What, no ‘Hello, how are you doing, Cole?’”
“Do you know you’re all over social media?” she asked.
“Notme. Jo’s the one.”
“No,you. The media has identifiedyouas a hotshot private detective.”
He cringed inside. “I don’t want to hear it. Nothing I can do about that.”
“It’s great for business,” she said. “You’re a hero. CGIS has actually been getting calls from people who need protection detail.”
“Okay. Moving right along. I need you to look into a few things for me. First, Jo’s father—Raymond Dodge.”
“Her father? What does that have to do with the incident on the ferry?”
“It doesn’t.”
“I need some context here, Cole,” Allison said.
“She was trying to find her father when she was on the ferry.” Or rather, she’d given up on finding him. “Look into him, and also look into Advanced Technologies. They have offices in the Columbia Center, downtown Seattle. Dodge was there today. I want to know everything you can find out on both.”
“And this has to do with her mother’s investigation, then?”
“Nope. But that’s the other thing I need. Monitor the ferry incident, and I need to know what you can find out about the victim.”
“If it’s separate, why are you spending time and energy on the ferry incident?”
“I’m not. You are.”
