Cain felt the press of a frown on his forehead. “Occupations? Do they all own a business?”
Shadow didn’t answer right away. “Hard to say. Like I said, I’ve been working on this case for almost two years. Still can’t tie a string around anything.” The agent’s tone had edged a bit higher, a bit tenser. He cleared his throat. “There’re times I wonder if the cartel knows I’m DEA and they’re just keeping me busy to muddy the waters. If so, one day I’ll wake up dead.”
That feeling was one all too familiar from the undercover work Cain had done over his career. One hard to explain to people who didn’t walk that fine line going to work every day. One an agent didn’t talk about often.
“My guess” —Shadow was back to his normal investigative voice— “is that you’re going try to find out what’s going on here in your hometown. Now you’re going to try to see where Betsy fits in to everything. Can’t say I blame you. Just don’t get yourself killed, Doc. I may need someone to save my life again.”
“Yeah. You still haven’t got me that Stetson you promised in payment.” Cain laughed as he turned toward his truck, feeling himself fall back into the way he’d felt for the past ten years. There were assignments. There were bullets. And best of all, there were friends who always knew what to say to make a situation better. “Stay safe, Shadow. Stay safe.”
As Cain walked on toward his silver extended pickup, he heard the black truck pull out of the overflow lot and head down the street. Nice and slow and easy.
He felt like he’d been gut-punched. Hard. Gut-punched and left on the street to find his way home. Pressing the button on his key fob, the lights on his truck flashed once before he reached the door, yanked it open and jumped inside.
Earlier tonight, what had Betsy said about Crayton changing? Nothing specific, just that things were different. But he hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary since he’d been back in town. Or had he been so busy trying to push thoughts of DEA business out of his mind that he’d overlooked his natural instincts shouting beware right in front of him?
Doubting Betsy was not on his radar. There could be a dozen reasons why someone would be watching her…well, at least a few. Yet he had no reason to doubt anything Shadow had told him either. Somewhere in all that was a clue. And he didn’t plan to leave town without answers. For now, doubting Betsy was still not on his radar.
Without another thought he pulled out his phone and tapped the number two call button. JB picked up on the first ring.
Cain didn’t wait for him to say anything. “We need to talk.”
“Where and when?”
Cain raked his hand across his head. He needed some sleep. He needed to think. He needed to decide. “My lake lot, the one where my dad’s cabin used to be. Five in the morning.”
“Got it.”
He checked his gun and laid it on the passenger seat. His friendly hometown trust had been dented tonight. Until he had some answers, the only person he’d trust was JB. “Don’t tell anyone I called..”
“Okay, but?—”
“No buts, JB.” Cain’s gut feeling made him wish he hadn’t come back to Crayton. “Friendship only goes so far when we’re talking drugs and crime and your sister-in-law Betsy.”
CHAPTER SIX
After re-entering Joanie’s, Betsy kept her head down and walked straight to the restroom. Once there she took refuge in one of the empty stalls and slowly slowed the pounding of her heart.
Her strength of self-control had won the struggle between what might be a future of possibility and all her mistakes from the past. Still, she couldn’t explain the split-second feeling she’d had from Cain’s kiss out in the parking lot. One that seemed to put a crack in the barricade she’d built around events better left locked away.
A few minutes later she made a quick stop at the checkout counter. Chatted a couple minutes with her friend. Just long enough to convince her there was nothing to tell ... Cain was just a friend. Then Betsy grabbed a to-go cup of soda and headed out the front door.
She shivered with the lukewarm air blowing from her car vents. Living at the edge of town had its good points, one being it only took five to ten minutes to get from any place in Crayton to her home. Still, her car should have warmed up by now. She shivered again. Someone in the maintenance shop needed to look at her car’s heater system.
Her thoughts turned to what she’d just witnessed in the glare of her car’s headlights as she exited Joanie’s parking lot. There’d been nothing unusual about Cain and another man shooting the breeze as they stood by their trucks. Always seemed like men would rather carry on a conversation in the dark than the light of day. Maybe it gave them more courage to play out the bragging rights they were sharing.
Something about this scene had grabbed her attention and shouted a warning, though. Like the first night she’d caught Phillip making a drug deal years ago.
The split second her headlights had flashed on the two men in the overflow parking lot, she’d sensed something clandestine. Cain had quickly crouched behind a truck. Meanwhile, the unknown man had stepped back into the shadows. Both defensive moves. What were they afraid of? What were their secrets?
Maybe she should circle the block. Phone-video whatever was taking place. See if her instincts were right.
Then what?
She couldn’t call her uncle the sheriff, he was still laid up, recuperating in St. Louis. And if she called Acting Sheriff JB, who also happened to be her brother-in law, or Deputy Evans? They’d probably ask her for more proof than just some dark images in a parking lot. Even her sister Marcy would tell her she was letting her imagination get the better of her. Maybe she was mixing the past with the present and coming up with improbable situations.
Still...why had Cain and the other man dodged the lights?
“Stop it, Betsy,” she said to herself and the empty car. “Not every man out there is going to be like Phillip. He was one of a kind.”
