The Bribe (Calamity Montana)

“HEY, DUKE.” Carla gave me a puzzled look, then glanced at the calendar tacked to the wall beside her workstation. “What are you doing here?”

“Thought I’d get caught up on paperwork.”

“Oh. I thought you’d be spending your day off with Jade.”

“Nah. She’s got a friend in town. Giving them some space. What’s happening here?”

“Nothing.” She lifted a shoulder. “Not a single call. Not even a speeding ticket.”

“Good.” When you were a cop, a boring day was a good day. We all liked it when things were slow. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

She smiled and went back to the game of solitaire laid out on the desk in front of her.

Carla was the type who took initiative without having to be told. When she’d started, she’d spent months alphabetizing and reorganizing our filing system. She’d rearranged and decluttered the storage room to make more space. If she’d resorted to cards, things really were slow.

I’d have to dream up a project for her soon so she wouldn’t go crazy.

Before heading into my office, I swung by the break room and filled myself a cup of coffee. I yawned, taking it with me to my desk and sitting down with a sigh.

Last night had been a blast, both at the bar and in Lucy’s bedroom, but I wasn’t used to staying up like a guy in his twenties. Coffee was going to get me through today and then I was going to bed early.

I pushed up the sleeves of my zip up, one I kept in my small stash of clothes in Lucy’s closet. I didn’t look at all official today, in jeans, boots and ball cap—since Lucy had stolen my favorite, I was auditioning replacements. But if I could get ahead on some office work, I’d take an extra day off next week and get Lucy moved.

Even with Everly visiting, I didn’t see a reason to delay. We wouldn’t do it today, but there was no reason we couldn’t be living under the same roof by Monday. Everly could stay at the farmhouse or she could take one of the guest rooms at my place.

Our place.

I shook my mouse, waking up my computer, and slugged back my coffee as I worked through the lunch hour and into the early afternoon.

I’d left Lucy and Everly smiling and laughing and practically clinging to one another in the kitchen at the farmhouse. Lucy had missed her friend more than I’d noticed. So while I was here working, they were catching up. I’d promised to bring over pizza and beer for dinner.

“Hey, Duke.” Carla poked her head into my office as I was finishing up the last report on my to-do list. “You got a call on line one. Some cop from Nashville?” She looked at the yellow sticky note in her hand. “A Detective Markum.”

My heart stopped. Oh, shit.

“Send it through,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“You got it.” She nodded and turned to leave.

I stood and quickly shut the door to my office. What the hell did Markum want? How had he even known to call me here? Had Blake reached out to him?

I stared at the phone, waiting for the call to buzz through. On the first ring, I snatched the handset from the cradle. “Sheriff Duke Evans.”

“Hi, Sheriff Evans. My name is Detective Brandon Markum. I’m with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.” He sounded younger than I’d imagined and there was a panicked edge to his voice.

“What can I do for you, Detective?” I did my best to keep my voice calm through my racing heart.

“Well, Sheriff, I’m trying to locate a woman who I believe might be in Calamity at the moment.”

“Okay.”

Fuck. We’d known this was going to happen, right? Eventually, we were going to have to talk to the Nashville cops. But after last night, I’d wanted just a little more time with Lucy for myself.

“Her name is Everly Christian.”

I blinked. Why was he looking for Everly and not Lucy? “All right. The reason?”

“Ms. Christian has been working with me closely over the past month or so. She’s been in protective custody for the past five days after an attempt was made on her life. Late last night, she slipped out without telling the officer stationed to protect her and we’re trying to track her down. We’ve pulled credit card records and found an airline ticket she purchased yesterday to Bozeman along with an Uber charge this morning to Calamity. That and the fact that her phone records show a number of calls to your area.”

What. The. Fuck.

My jaw clenched and a red haze coated my vision. Everly had promised Lucy that nothing had happened. She’d sworn she hadn’t gotten a single email or phone call or text. But that had all been bullshit.

“Detective Markum,” I said, “I hope you’re sitting down. Because we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

To say he was pissed that I hadn’t reached out to him about Lucy would be an understatement, not that I blamed him. By the time I finished explaining how I’d met Lucy and Everly, how Lucy had told me about her stalker and the email she’d received, he was muttering a string of curses into the line.

“I’ve been working Lucy’s case for nearly a fucking year,” he snapped. “You didn’t think letting the authorities in Nashville know her whereabouts was prudent? What the hell kind of show are you running there, Sheriff Evans?”

“Listen, if I were in your shoes, I’d be angry too. But this was Lucy’s decision. Right or wrong, I wasn’t going to betray her on this. She’s been safe. I’ve made sure of it personally.”

“Wait, are you screwing her? You are, aren’t you?”

“Watch yourself, Detective. Or this phone call is over.”

He blew a deep breath into the phone. “Sorry. That was uncalled for. I just . . . Lucy disappeared and we’ve been worried. I’ve been worried. I’ve been working her case for a long damn time and I’m mad that she didn’t come to me first before falling off the face of the earth. Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. She’s safe. And yes, the two of us are in a relationship.”

“And Everly?”

“Arrived this morning. And as soon as I hang up with you, I’ll be having a word with her about keeping this from Lucy. But before then, I’d like to know more about what’s happened this past month and what you know about the stalker.”

“I’ve worked numerous stalking cases here. This one . . . the guy is a ghost. Never makes a mistake.”

“Are you sure whoever came for Everly is the same guy stalking Lucy?”

“Positive. It’s the same pattern, though more aggressive. When Lucy disappeared, I suspect the stalker moved on to Everly in the hope of driving Lucy out of hiding.”

Which it almost had. Thank fuck I’d shown up at the farmhouse the night she’d been packing her suitcases.

“Any idea who it is?”

“Unfortunately, no. We’ve got an entire team trying to narrow down a suspect list. But like I said, he’s good. And he’s off his rocker. I knew it when he killed Lucy’s dog. But this attempt on Everly was extreme.”

“What happened?”

“He shot twelve rounds through her balcony door from the building across the street.”

“Fuck.” It must have come from the same place where he’d taken that first photo of her and emailed it to Lucy.

“We suspect he’s been breaking into that apartment across the street since Lucy and Everly moved into theirs. He’s smart. He knew when the place would be empty. Didn’t leave a trace behind. The tenants never suspected someone had been in their house all day.”

“You’ve got a suspect list, though, correct?”

“We do. It’s a mile long. It includes everyone at their record label. Everyone who was on Lucy’s staff. Everyone who worked for the tour stage crews. We’ve looked into them all and have no leads.”

If it wasn’t someone Lucy knew, then it was probably a crazed fan.

“Shit,” I muttered. “What else happened with Everly?”

“Pictures. Texts. Emails. Just in a condensed timeline. Lucy got an email once a week. Everly is getting them daily.”

Christ, this was bad. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “He’s desperate. I don’t like desperate.”

And I really didn’t like that Everly had come here.

“I assume Everly and Lucy are together?” Detective Markum asked.

“Yep.” As soon as I left here, those two wouldn’t be out of my sight. They could hang out in an interrogation room while I worked.

If Markum had traced Everly here, there was no telling how quickly the stalker would too.

“I’m going to need a favor, Detective.”

“What can I do?”

“Send me everything you’ve got. For both Lucy and Everly.”

“Done.”

“Also, I’ve got a friend in Nashville right now doing some digging too. He’s in private security but he’s good. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to share with him too.”

“It’s not our protocol,” he said. “I’ll have to run it up the chain of command here.”

“That’s fine.” No matter what they said, I was leaking the information to Blake. I wanted him equipped with as many details as possible as he worked. Besides, I suspected that the files Detective Markum had weren’t going to add up to much if they hadn’t even shortened the list of suspects.

“Anything else?” he asked after I rattled off my email address and cell phone number.

“No, but let me think on it. I’ll be in touch. Appreciate the call, Detective.”

“Just keep me in the loop. Please. I don’t want to see anything bad happen to Lucy or Everly.”

Neither did I. “Talk soon.”

I pressed the button in the cradle to end the call, then immediately dialed Lucy’s cell.

“Hey,” she answered with a smile in her voice. “Are you regretting going to work already? You can always come back and hang with us. We were just talking about opening up a bottle of wine.”

“Hold that thought. I’ll be there soon and we need to talk.”

“Okay,” she drawled. “Everything all right?”

“I just got off the phone with Detective Markum.”

“What?” I heard her moving, her bare footsteps slapping on the wood stairs. Then the door to her bedroom closed with a familiar squeak to the hinge. “Did you call him? I thought we were going to wait until we heard from Blake.”

“He called me.”

“Oh, God.” She gulped. “How did he find me? What did he say?”

“I’ll explain it all when I get there. Just do me a favor, keep the front door locked. You and Everly stay there and stay inside.” It was a nice fall day and Lucy loved to go for walks down the gravel road. I didn’t want her and Everly out of the house. Or worse, coming into town because they wanted to explore.

“It is already.”

“Don’t answer it. For anyone.”

“You’re scaring me, Duke.”

“Don’t be scared, baby. I’ll be there soon.”

“Okay.” The fact that she let me hang up without demanding answers spoke to how much she trusted me. I’d kiss her for that later, if she’d let me. Because before I kissed her, there was a very real chance I’d strangle her best friend.

The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end. The nagging feeling in my gut screamed that Everly’s trip had basically circled Calamity in red on the stalker’s map.

I grabbed my keys and flew from the office, jogging through the bullpen. “Gotta go, Carla.”

“Everything okay?”

I didn’t answer. I just lifted a hand and shoved through the doors that led me outside. The afternoon sun was so bright that on my way out, I collided with a woman on her way in.

“Duke.” Melanie gasped, latching on to my arms since I’d nearly plowed her over.

“Mel? What’s up?”

“I can’t find Travis.”

“What do you mean, you can’t find him? It’s a Friday. He’s at school.”

“No, the office just called me and said he didn’t show up for his first three periods and I hadn’t called to excuse him so they were checking to make sure he wasn’t sick.” Melanie’s hands flailed in the air as the words rushed from her mouth. “After I got home from the bar last night, we got into a fight. He’s mad at me because a while back, I was seeing this guy from out of town. Travis didn’t like him and made me promise to break it off.”

“Did you?”

She shook her head. “It’s not serious. We just see each other here and there. Last night after I left the bar, he called and Travis overheard us talking.”

“Then you got into a fight.”

“Yes. He was still mad at me this morning and wouldn’t talk to me before school. But this doesn’t seem like something to skip over, does it? Did something bad happen? Have you heard from him?”

“No.” I dug my phone from my pocket and pulled up Travis’s name. It rang and rang until his voicemail kicked in. “Travis, call me back.”

Melanie ran a hand through her hair. “He’s not at my parents’ house either.”

“What about his friends?”

“I asked the school and they’re all in class except for Savannah.”

I frowned. “Then he’s with her. Call her mom. Call her stepdad. Call Hux.”

“I did. April hung up on me, Hux didn’t answer, and Savannah’s stepdad was in a meeting at his firm.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Will you help me find him? Please?”

Son of a bitch. I needed to make sure Lucy was okay, but I also didn’t trust Travis to stay out of trouble, especially if he was with Savannah. That girl could talk him into anything stupid, like ditching school.

“Are you working?” I asked.

“When the school called, I left and took the rest of the day off.”

“Go home,” I told Melanie. “If he shows up, call me.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “Thank you. I’m sorry.”

There was genuine fear in her face, which meant their fight last night had to have been a bad one. Travis rarely got mad at his mother, at least outwardly.

“I’ll find him.” I walked to my truck, climbing in and dialing his number once more. When I got voicemail again, I didn’t bother with another message but I did send him a text to call me. Then I dialed Hux. He didn’t answer.

“Fuck,” I spat, turning on the truck and reversing out of the parking lot, driving straight for the gallery downtown.

The peaceful day I’d hoped for, waking up with Lucy in my arms, had slipped through my fingers. With my pulse racing, I had a hard time concentrating on the road.

Where was Travis? I didn’t have time to deal with this. Why wasn’t he at school? And where was Savannah?

Enough was enough with those kids. My guess was there’d been another incident with Savannah’s stepfather, and it was time to step in. That girl needed help and not from another sixteen-year-old.

“Goddamn it.” I pounded a fist on the steering wheel as I came up on a tractor on the highway and slowed to a near crawl. “Come on.”

The farmer behind the wheel bounced as the large tires rolled.

Rather than wait, I ducked down a side street, flipping on my lights with no siren. I arrived at the gallery and parked in the back lot, hurrying down the narrow stretch in between buildings to get to the sidewalk that ran along First.

The gallery was located across the street from the White Oak Café. A man I didn’t recognize stood out front, staring at me. He didn’t wave. He didn’t move. He just stood there, wearing a navy polo tucked into khaki pants, and stared.

What the hell? Who was he? I kept an eye on him as I opened the door to the gallery. Still, the man didn’t move.

“Hi, Duke,” the receptionist greeted me.

“Uh, hey.” I walked inside. “Is Hux in?”

“Not yet. He texted that he was up late working last night so I don’t expect him until one or two.”

“Damn.” He was probably sleeping. “Can you have him call me as soon as you hear from him?”

“Sure,” she said to my back since I was already walking for the door.

The guy at the café was gone and I scanned the street, looking for him again. My eyes landed on a black car, one block down.

It had Colorado plates. The windows were tinted nearly the same shade as the exterior. There was a man behind the steering wheel, speaking on the phone, but it wasn’t the same guy from the café. He was wearing shades and had dark hair, while the other guy had been blond. But like the other man, his unwavering attention was fixed on my face.

I took a step closer, ready to pound on his window and demand some ID, just as he started the car’s engine and reversed out of the space.

The knot in my gut loosened for just a moment. He was only a tourist, an innocent man sitting in his car wondering why I was staring at him. No doubt the blond guy was too. Damn it, I was getting paranoid. But with good reason. If Everly had made it to Calamity before noon, her stalker would be here before midnight.

I took out my phone and dialed Lucy’s number as I made my way back to my truck.

“Hey,” she answered, breathless.

“Hey. You okay?”

“Yes. No.” She sniffled.

“Everly told you what’s been going on.”

“Yeah. I told her that Detective Markum called you and you were freaked out about something. She started crying and . . . Duke, she doesn’t cry.”

“It’s going to be fine.”

“Are you on your way here?”

“Not yet. Change of plan. Melanie came to the station because she can’t find Travis. He skipped school today because they got in a fight last night. I’m trying to find him.”

“Oh, no. Any ideas where he could be?”

“Maybe the park. I’m going to drive there, then search around town for a while. You stay home.”

“We will.”

“Do you want me to come there?”

“No. You should find him. We’re fine. But do you think . . . do you think the stalker is here?”

“Probably not yet,” I answered honestly. “But I think at this point, it’s only a matter of time.”

“Everly promised she was careful. No one knows she came here.”

Except she’d paid for a ticket in her own name and with a fucking credit card.

“Just stay put. Keep the door locked. I’ll be there soon.” Travis was getting an hour. If I hadn’t found him before then, I’d pull my deputies into the search.

“Okay. I love you.”

“I love you too.” And I’d do anything to keep her safe. Even if that meant putting a bullet in the man who’d been making her life a living hell.

The next call I made was to the station. “Carla, can you have one of the guys on patrol drive out to Widow Ashleigh’s farmhouse for me?”

“Uh, sure. Why?”

“Just because.”

“You got it,” she said. “Grayson should be closest. I’ll radio him now.”

“Thanks.” It wasn’t the same as being there myself but having someone else’s cruiser parked out there was a little peace of mind.

I spent the next thirty minutes driving around town. It was quiet, as it normally was. Kids were in school. Parents were working. The park was empty and the leaves that had fallen from the trees were blowing across the browning grass.

Travis’s car wasn’t parked at any of his friends’ places. It wasn’t at Savannah’s. Whether he liked it or not, next week I was installing a LoJack system on it, like the ones we had on patrol cruisers.

With no sign of him anywhere, I checked in with Mel. She hadn’t heard from him. So then I drove to the high school, wishing I were in uniform and had my gun on my belt because when I interrogated his friends, it would make getting information a hell of a lot easier.

All the while, a nagging dread tortured my gut. I needed to see Lucy and have her with me. I needed to talk to Everly and find out what the fuck was going on and why she hadn’t mentioned any of this before.

But first, I was going to find the closest thing I’d ever had to a son.