Page 90 of Shadow of Doubt
“Just get moving. Now!” Luka frowned and reached past Kane to shove her.
She stumbled, then started walking. Slowly. Dragging her feet, she glanced back at Kane. “Did you want to hurt me like this when we were together or only after I took off?”
“Honestly, each time we made out and you pushed me away before we got very far, I wanted to smack you. Being a virgin at your age is an embarrassment. I’m a catch, and you were lucky I wanted you.” He stopped at the refrigerator and took out a large plastic bag.
She swallowed down her snort before she made him madder and climbed into the truck, her side screaming with every move. She feared Luka was right and he’d broken a rib or two with that sharp kick. Kane climbed in after her, but he really had to struggle. His face was contorted with pain. Not that she took comfort in his suffering. He might be a bad person, making bad decisions, but she still didn’t relish seeing another human suffer.
Luka fired up the diesel engine, and Sumo thundered with a deep reverberation. Not a roar like a lion, but more like a rumble of distant thunder mixed with the intensity of a primal roar. Scary. Very. Her palms started sweating.
Luka pulled out of the garage and turned right onto a narrow dirt drive that ran along the river. The picturesque waterway waslined with dense forests of majestic, native evergreens so typical of the Pacific Northwest. The river was known for salmon and steelhead runs. Great fishing. Maybe food for Sumo. If cats ate fish. She had no idea. All she knew was the rapidly rushing water prevented her escape in that direction.
Kane and Luka started talking about unloading Sumo, but she kept her eyes on the verdant landscape. On more of God’s beauty, trying to calm her nerves. It no longer worked. Fear was creeping in like a snake slithering into his den.
Oh, Father, please, if it’s Your will spare me such a horrid death, send help. Send Colin.
22
Colin turned into the parking lot for the Veritas Center and aimed for the ramp to the garage. He hadn’t wanted to go back to the lab, but they had to regroup to find Brooklyn. Dev had called one of his buddies at the Clackamas County Sheriff’s office to see if he would run the jacked-up pickup’s plate, but his buddy didn’t answer, and Dev had to leave a message. If the deputy didn’t call back by the time they reached Nick’s lab at the Veritas Center, he would hack the DMV database to search for the license plate.
Colin’s phone rang. “It’s Micha. Maybe he has something on the gun we recovered.”
He pulled up to the barrier and answered his phone. “Tell me you have something to help.”
“Boy, do I.” The excitement in Micha’s tone sent hope growing in Colin. “I finished calling local gun dealers.”
“And?” Colin almost snapped out as he was eager to hear the news and didn’t want to wait.
“And I found the dealer who sold the Sig to Tarver. Of course, that’s not the name he used to buy it.” He paused, and Colin wanted to push him more but waited. “He went under thename of Lionel French, and the address matches the house that burned down.”
“The name doesn’t mean anything to me.” He looked at Nick. “What about you?”
He shook his head. “But I can get a search going right away. See what we can learn.”
“He likely assumed a deceased individual’s identity,” Dev said.
“Good lead, right?” Micha asked.
“Maybe,” Colin said.
“C’mon, man. You have to admit it’s the best thing we’ve found so far.”
Colin shared the license plate number for the truck.
“Oh, man, the crime boss has her? Well, yeah, you should be able to track that plate down.”
“I hope so. Having this name is great, but if it’s tied to the address Tarver bailed on, and even if we find information on Lionel French, we’re probably already too late for it to help bring the guy in.”
More importantly, too late to save Brooklyn from the terrible fate Albertelli had planned for her.
They all piled out of the truck near the enclosure. The space didn’t surprise Brooklyn, except for the size of the fenced area. She estimated it to be thirty-by-thirty. Way larger than the kennel-type structure at the house that had burned. The grassy area held two large maple trees and a big water trough. Kane had surrounded the area with heavy metal panels, much like she’d seen with cattle fencing. But unlike the type used for cattle, this fencing was two sections high, making it ten feet tall or taller.She assumed that jaguars could jump high, and of course, he wanted to keep the cat inside.
Kane stroked the fencing as if it were a favorite pet as he gazed at her with a mixture of hatred and admiration. “Took me weeks to build this. When I wasn’t trying to find you, I was here.”
She wasn’t stepping in that enclosure if she could help it, and maybe she could delay by questioning him. He’d always liked to brag about himself, so hopefully, he would go along with her and Luka would let him talk. “You were never one for pets. Not that I guess Sumo is a pet, but why a jaguar?”
Kane leaned against the fence, his face still holding a great measure of pain. “I didn’t plan to keep him. Got into wildlife trafficking as a side hustle and bought Sumo to sell to a big-time drug dealer. Before I could deliver him, the dude got himself arrested and sent away for twenty years. He obviously couldn’t take Sumo to prison with him, so he was out as my buyer. I tried to find another one. Didn’t happen right away, and I started to like having the stupid cat around. Found out when I went out to feed him that I could talk to him.”
Wow, and a personal thought she never expected he would share with her. “You could make a human friend to talk to. That would be a lot easier than keeping—what?—a two hundred pound cat alive?”
