Tough Customer

CHAPTER 18

IT DIDN'T AMOUNT TO ANYTHING," DODGE SAID AS HE POURED a shot of whiskey into a highball glass and passed it to Berry.

"No, thanks."

"Take a couple of sips. It'll help steady you."

"I can't drink. I'm leaving for Houston soon."

He pushed the glass into her shaking hand. "Couple of sips."

Dodge had followed Berry and Caroline back to the lake house, staying on Berry's bumper for the duration of the trip. When they reached the turnoff to the house, he lowered the window on his car and told the reserve deputy on guard that if he saw somebody on the property who didn't belong to shoot first and ask questions later.

"What's Ski say?"

"He says to shoot twice," Dodge lied. "Pass it on to your buddy on the pier."

Once inside the house and satisfied that its security hadn't been breached, he'd asked Caroline if she had any liquor. When she pointed him to a cabinet in the living room, he took out a bottle of bourbon and poured the shot for Berry, which she now sipped as advised.

"Thanks."

"What about Sally Buckland?" Caroline asked.

Dodge sighed but knew she would persist until he gave her a full explanation. "As I said, my one conversation with her didn't amount to anything. I called her--"

"Why were you calling her?"

"Because I thought maybe I could get more information out of her than Ski had. He's good, but his bedside manner needs some work."

"And yours has been perfected."

"Mother, please," Berry said wearily. "Let him tell us what he knows." To Dodge she said, "How did you obtain Sally's phone numbers?"

"I'll get to that. The point is, I called her cell phone several times. Got no answer but finally reached her on her landline. She was as evasive with me as she had been with Ski. The shooting here was none of her business, she hadn't seen any of the people involved since she left Delray Marketing, yada yada."

Berry asked, "Did she say I was lying when I called Oren a stalker?"

"Almost word for word what she'd told Ski."

"Incomprehensible," Berry murmured.

"I got the same runaround from the lady that Ski did. I decided to let her sleep on it, then tried calling her again this morning, hoping to catch her in a more cooperative mood. No answer on either number."

"She would have recognized your number on caller ID," Berry said. "She didn't want to talk, so she didn't answer."

"Figured that," Dodge said. "So I planned to drive down today for a face-to-face, see if I could get a better read, but you know what it's been like around here today."

She didn't know about the photos he'd tricked the deputy into giving him, and, for the time being, he wasn't going to tell her. Apparently Ski was of the same mind, or he would have told her about them. Oren's telephone call had knocked her on her can. Caroline was looking none too steady herself. Ski had put him in charge of protecting them, and that included withholding information that wasn't absolutely necessary for them to know. Knowing about the photographs would only add to their fear.

Dodge picked up the topic where he'd left off. "Yesterday Sally Buckland defended Oren Starks. Today he's using her cell phone."

Berry pulled her lower lip through her teeth. "That doesn't bode well, does it?"

"Not at all."

"I'm worried about her."

"You should be."

"You think she's in danger?"

Dodge frowned. "That wasn't what I was going to say."

"You're thinking something," Caroline said. "What?"

"Starks and Sally Buckland could be in cahoots."

"I refuse to accept that," Berry said.

"Then give me something better."

"I can't, Dodge. But I know with certainty that Sally loathed Oren. Maybe even feared him just as I came to."

"Even antagonists can team up against a greater foe," Dodge said.

"Me? I'm the foe?"

"Don't get your panties in a wad. I'm just bouncing around some ideas. Is it even remotely possible that they teamed up to get back at you for something?"

Berry took another sip of the bourbon. Dodge noticed that her hand was shaking as she raised the glass to her mouth.

The silence stretched out. Eventually Caroline said, "I trust Ski to wring some answers out of Sally Buckland."

"First thing he's going to ask her is about Amanda Lofland."

Dodge deliberately dropped that statement like a lead weight and then watched closely for Berry's reaction to it. Her astonishment seemed genuine, even to his keen eye. "Amanda and Sally? What's the connection?"

"You don't know?"

"I wasn't aware they knew each other."

"Well, they do."

"How do you know?"

"I pinched Amanda Lofland's phone yesterday."

"You what?" Berry said. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Curiosity. I checked her contacts and call log."

"And found Sally Buckland's number among them," Caroline said.

"Yep. Calls going back and forth for several weeks--the lady must never wipe her log clean. Later I gave the phone back to Ski. If he's done his homework, and I think we can assume he has, he'll see those same calls and wonder what those two ladies, along with Oren Starks, have in common. Astute boy that he is, he'll come up with the same thing I did." He looked at Berry. "You."

Berry didn't comment. Instead she lowered her head and stared into the contents of her glass.

Caroline said, "But Ski hasn't specifically talked to you about Amanda Lofland?"

"No, but he called while I was in the car, following you here. His mind is following the same track as mine. He asked if I thought it was possible that Sally Buckland and Oren are working together, that maybe she scooped Starks off that Walmart parking lot."

"What led him to think that?" Caroline asked.

"He'd already heard back from Houston PD. Officers dispatched to Buckland's house report there's no one there. Garage is empty. They've put out an APB on her car. Her cell phone goes straight to voice mail. Which isn't surprising. After calling Berry, Starks would know better than to leave it on."

"Which brings me to another question," Caroline said. "Why did he use that phone to call Berry? Why call her at all?"

"Ski and I gnawed on that, too," Dodge admitted. "Doesn't make good sense. Starks would know we could track him that way, except that he picked a damn good location to call from. Guess where." Before either could venture a guess, he told them. "Minute Maid Park. He called just as the Astros game was ending. HPD was all over it, but nobody knows what Starks is driving."

"Sally Buckland's car?" Caroline said.

"Best guess. But no one knows with absolute certainty that's what he's in. Even if he is, it took a while to get her license plate number into the pipeline, so he could have escaped before anyone was looking for that car. Adding to the confusion, there were thousands leaving the ball game. Traffic was snarled." Grudgingly, Dodge added, "Couldn't have been smarter of the son of a bitch."

Berry said huskily, "What you're telling us is that he's escaped again."

"Yeah," he said heavily. "That's what I'm telling you. But I gotta add that signaling the authorities to his location seems like a stupid thing for a man on the run to do."

"He's not stupid. Far from it. He used Sally's phone for a reason. He called me for a reason. We don't know what those reasons are, but I assure you that everything Oren does is part of his master plan." She set the unfinished glass of bourbon on the coffee table and stood up. "I'm going up to pack."

Dodge said, "You'd just as well finish that whiskey, because you're not going to Houston tonight."

Her chin went up a notch. "I most certainly am."

"No, ma'am. Get that plan right outta your head."

"I've got to be at Delray Marketing tomorrow morning to make my presentation."

"Did you clear that with Ski?"

"I'm not obligated to."

"He'll have a shitfit."

"He's got his work, his career, and I've got mine. The deadline for that campaign is tomorrow. It was assigned to me. It represents a whole year's work. It's my baby. I'm presenting it on schedule."

Caroline said, "Berry, I know how important that commitment is to you. But given the circumstances, everyone at Delray, as well as the client, would understand if you asked for a postponement."

"Would you postpone an important closing?"

Caroline seemed about to answer one way, changed her mind and said softly, "Probably not."

"Then you can understand why I have to be there tomorrow. Ben can't be. I made a promise to be there on his behalf. The client expects me to come through, and so does Delray."

"Screw Delray, screw Lofland, the client, and every-damn-body," Dodge exclaimed. "Have both of you forgotten that a freaking lunatic has threatened to kill you?"

"If I hide here, put my life on hold, Oren's won," Berry argued. "I'm going." She left the room and started up the stairs.

Dodge placed his hands on his hips and fixed a baleful stare on Caroline. "Are you just going to stand there? Do something. Stop her."

"How? I tried. I'm open to suggestions."

"I don't know how, just do it. Reason with her."

"Impossible, Dodge."

"Right. Because she's just as bullheaded as you."

She brushed past him on her way to the staircase. "And as ambitious as you."

Berry was determined to keep her appointment the next morning, and Caroline was equally determined not to be left behind. Dodge had pledged to Ski not to let Berry out of his sight. Bottom line: all of them were going to Houston.

Dodge put up credible objections and grumbled about the long drive facing them, but he was secretly glad the trip was on. Berry's stubbornness gave him an excuse to go where he wanted to be anyway. He wanted to confront the son of a bitch who'd been terrorizing his daughter. Once Starks was in custody and behind bars, it would be more difficult for Dodge to tell him how lucky he was to be intact and breathing.

And if Dodge was fortunate enough to catch Starks before the authorities did, the man wouldn't live to see the inside of a jail cell.

It was decided that they would take Caroline's car, which had a roomier and more comfortable interior than his rental. Knowing he couldn't smoke in it, he inhaled as many cigarettes as he could while waiting for the two women to gather up what they would take with them.

Berry was the first to join him outside. As she came down the back steps carrying a large leather portfolio and a small suitcase, she eyed the cigarette butts he had extinguished in the pot of caladiums. "Do you think those will sustain you till we get there?"

"Do I have a choice?"

His querulousness caused her to smile. Together they stashed her things in the trunk. She was about to get into the backseat when she hesitated. "I know you consider this assignment glorified babysitting. You'd much rather be in on the action. But, for what it's worth, I'm glad you have my back, Dodge." She reached out and touched his hand. "Thanks."

He had ridiculed people who got mushy over their kids. He'd believed them to be goddamn fools, bores, and probably liars. But when Berry smiled at him, touched his hand, he understood the absurd, inexplicable, boundless scope of parental love.

It was several minutes before he recovered his breath and the tightness in his chest relaxed.

Once they were under way, he tried to reach Ski but got his voice mail. He left a message, briefly apprising him of their plans. There was no response until they were halfway to Houston and had stopped to take a break at a large service station. Dodge was standing guard outside the ladies' room when his cell phone rang.

He checked the caller ID, sighed, and braced himself for what he knew was coming. "I swear I tried." He let Ski rant profanely for a full thirty seconds before butting in. "She's damned and determined to make that meeting tomorrow."

Ski expelled his breath, and along with it another series of swearwords. "I want her back in Merritt as soon as it's over."

"I hear you. What's going on at your end?"

Ski talked for several minutes, then asked, "How's Berry? I mean besides being a massive pain in the ass."

"Abnormally quiet."

"Scared?"

"Yeah. And she doesn't even know about those pictures."

"You haven't told her or Caroline?"

"No."

"Good." He paused before continuing. "I had a deputy return Amanda Lofland's cell phone to her. Let's not pretend that you didn't dig into it."

"You saw Sally Buckland's numbers?"

"Hard to miss."

"Berry wasn't aware the two women even knew each other."

"You asked?"

"Yeah, and she looked surprised to learn they'd been in contact. What do you suppose they had to talk about?"

Ski refrained from answering. Tersely he said, "Drive safely," and clicked off.

Caroline and Berry came out of the restroom as Dodge was replacing his phone in the holster on his belt.

"Who was that?" Berry asked.

"Ski."

"Any news?"

"We'll talk about it in the car." He waited until they were back on the road before passing along Ski's update. "He's outside Buckland's house, waiting for a search warrant so he can go in, but this is Sunday. They're having to track down a judge."

He glanced at Berry in the rearview mirror. "He also asked me what the expletive deleted you think you're doing running off to Houston. He wasn't happy about it, let me tell you. He thought you were tucked in safe and sound at the lake house with his heavily armed guys, including me, guarding you."

"I didn't need his permission."

"I'll buy a ticket to watch when you tell him that. But between now and then, he's nixed us staying at your place overnight. Even with HPD officers posted as guards, which he thinks he could get, he's not comfortable with you being where Starks could so easily find you."

"So where are we staying?" Caroline asked.

"Ski's gonna book us rooms at a hotel. Says since you and Sheriff Drummond are such close personal, social friends, he's sure he can get him to approve the expense." Ski had said nothing of the sort regarding Caroline and the sheriff, but Dodge threw it in out of jealous spite.

"Soon as Ski's got the rooms reserved, he'll let us know where to go. He'll try to get a hotel close to Delray. And, Berry, he wants your, uh,

rear end back in Merritt tomorrow as soon as your meeting is over. I promised to get you there. No argument. Understood?"

"Loud and clear. And I can see the advisability of staying in a hotel, but I've got to stop at my house first."

"How come?"

"I've got to pick up something to wear."

"What's wrong with what you've got on?"

She and Caroline both looked at him like he was an imbecile.

Resigned, he said, "Five minutes tops. Deal?"

"Deal," Berry said.

"Tell me how to get there."

Traffic increased as they approached the city. Seemingly half the population of Houston was pouring back into town after being away on weekend excursions. Dodge was itching to smoke and was relieved when Berry finally told him to take the next exit off the clogged freeway.

The neighborhood into which she directed him was well tended and bespoke affluence, and, when she pointed out her house to him, he was even more impressed. He could never have provided his daughter anything as grand as what she had acquired on her own. Of course, Caroline could have finagled a good deal for her on the house, but still.

He felt humbled, intimidated, and inadequate as he followed the two of them up the walkway to the front door. Needing to reassert himself, he slid his handgun from the holster at the small of his back. "I'll go in first."

"I need to disengage the alarm."

"Remember what happened to Davis Coldare."

Without further argument, Berry gave him the code, then she and Caroline waited on the porch while he went in, disengaged the alarm, and, following his nose from room to room, flipped on switches and flooded the one-story house with light. Satisfied that Starks wasn't lying in wait for Berry's return, he replaced his pistol in its holster and gave them the all clear to come inside.

"Make yourselves at home." Berry headed down the hall toward her bedroom.

"Five minutes," Dodge called after her.

If circumstances had been different, he would have liked to explore his daughter's home. You could tell a lot about a person--things he would like to know about Berry--by the stuff in her house, how it was maintained, how it was arranged. Just this brief exposure to her place indicated that, when it came to neatness and home decor, she took after Caroline a whole lot more than she did him.

He was about to remark on that to Caroline when Berry screamed.