“I had no doubt you would.”
Cassidy tried to hide her smile as she strode to the doors, confident Jake and Max would be right behind. When they emerged, the sun was close to the horizon, the golden rays of the autumn day morphing into orange and red in their last hurrah. In the shadowy corners of the fairgrounds, lights were coming on. She looked to her right and saw the golf cart was missing.
“We’ve been cart-jacked.”
“It was probably your water boy, gone off to fetch you whatever you might need, Ms. Walker,” he mocked.
She snorted. “Keep it up. I haven’t seen Jealous Jake since Andy Schmidt asked me to come over to his house so he could copy my biology notes.”
Jake scowled and her smile widened. He’d been no slouch back when they were in school, but Andy had been the quarterback and captain of the football team. She’d thought she’d reached a diplomatic solution by getting the secretary to let her run off copies in the school office, but teenage Jake had simmered for a day or two after. He was so cool and contained now, it was hard to imagine him seething over anything.
“I’m not jealous.” He looked down at Max, his lips quirking at the corners. “Much.”
For his part, Max strained at his shortened lead.
“He looks ready to get back in the action.”
Jake nodded but still failed to meet her eyes. “He loves his job.”
Deciding she’d let him off the hook—for now—she started down the hill. “Let’s let him get back to it.”
She’d only gone a few yards when the German shepherd caught up to her, towing Jake behind him. “Hey, no overdoing it, buddy,” she admonished, giving him a pat on the neck. “Light duty for you.”
They were passing the dairy farms booth when they ran into the team lead for the firefighters.
“Hey,” Jake said to the man with “Furst” printed above the emblem on his chest. “How’s it going down there?”
“I have a team finishing up in the hog pens.” He nodded to Cassidy. “Talked to your guy a couple minutes ago. He had nothing suspicious to report.”
“Thank you.” Then, remembering the golf cart, she said, “Hey, I think your trainee took off with my cart.”
Furst looked puzzled. “Trainee?”
“Yeah. He’s been checking on me all afternoon,” she told him, hoping to jog his memory. “If you see him, would you tell him to bring the cart down to where Bud and the other guys on surveillance are set up?”
“Uh-huh,” Furst said with a vague nod. As they started to move past them, he reached out and snagged her arm. “Wait. We don’t have any trainees on site.”
“What?” She blinked, confused by both his assertion and his firm grip.
“We don’t bring trainees out on calls like this,” he said, his voice growing strident. Jake shot a pointed look at the man’s hand and the firefighter instantly released her, holding his hand high as if swearing an oath. “Sorry, ma’am.”
Cassidy could not have cared less about the man’s hand. Her brain was pinging. She glanced at Jake then back to Furst. “There’s a guy here wearing a navy-blue shirt with the word ‘Trainee’ printed below the LRFD. He’s been checking in on me regularly.” She paused. “Had a hat like yours.” She pointed to the cap Furst wore.
Furst tilted his head. “Our trainees don’t have special shirts. They wear standard issue. We have them wear vests when we’re running a drill but…” He shook his head. It was clear from his expression he knew no such person existed.
Whirling, she pinned Jake with a stare. “You saw him, right?”
Jake nodded. “Earlier, and again a few minutes ago,” he confirmed. “What did you call him?”
Everything slowed inside her, sound and light blurring and slurring in the moment before the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. “T.B.,” she murmured. “He said everyone called him T.B. Troy—”
“Baker,” she and Jake said at the same time.
“Now we know how he always knew what was going on.”
“He was walking right up to me all day,” she said, incredulous. “He’s been toying with us the whole time.”
Jake grabbed her hand. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to calm her or to keep her from running off to look for Baker. Either way, it was effective.
