Page 14

FOURTEEN

Gabriel

Liam seems okay so far. He even had to interact with Kenny before he was taken back to the department for his statement. Liam actually insisted that Kenny remain present until they found the dog, which the daughter ended up finding after about twenty minutes. Sadly, the dog didn’t seem to have any answers for us.

The origin of the steel tube was easier to locate than I ever fathomed it would since I had Liam’s quite specific details to run with, which makes me question how he even knows half of this shit. Matthew takes us back to get my car before Liam and I, tube in tow, head to the company who we’ve asked to keep our presence quiet so we don’t spook anyone into fleeing.

When we arrive, a man meets us out front, immediately confirming that the tubing is something they’re currently manufacturing.

“Yeah, this one would have ended up in our scrap pile. It’s definitely one of ours.”

“Does everyone have access to the scrap pile?” I ask. Liam is busy nosing around while I question the man, but I can tell he’s listening intently.

“They do. I mean, we have our zones, and I can tell you exactly who is working these machines, but anyone can grab something out of the scrap pile, even office workers or the cleaning crew. They’re not allowed to, but it doesn’t mean they can’t.”

“Do you have a time frame during which this would have been made?”

“We started manufacturing them about one week ago. Let me talk to the floor manager to see if he noticed anything.”

“Everyone clock in on time today?” I ask. “We know that the husband of the missing woman came home at ten this morning where he found his wife missing. She left the house a little after seven if she left after she’d texted Kenny.”

“So… if it was one of my employees who took something, we’d be looking at someone who either took today off or worked second or third shift.”

“Possibly. Do you have cameras in the section the scrap is in?”

“We do. We caught an employee taking scraps to the scrapyard and making money off company materials, so we started recording it. I can send that information over if it’ll help.”

“That’d be fantastic,” I say. “Could we get a list of people who weren’t here this morning?”

“Of course. It’ll take me a few, but I’ll get it sent.”

“While you do that, do you mind us walking around? Can you have your floor manager show us around and pretend we’re here for a different reason?” Liam asks. “We just want to get a good idea of things before we start investigating and don’t want to scare anyone off or give them time to come up with a story.”

“Of course. Let’s get you some hard hats, eye protection, and badges. We get people in all the time, so no one’s going to find your presence odd,” he says.

He flags down a man who gets us set up, and I realize that I never expected to find Liam pulling off a hard hat like he is right now. He even gives me a wink from beyond the safety glasses that make me feel things that I shouldn’t be feeling on a factory tour.

“This is Jax; feel free to ask him any questions you’d like. He was in a meeting with me all morning, so I know he couldn’t have been involved,” the boss says.

“Were there any managers out on the floor if there was a meeting?” I ask.

“No,” Jax answers. “Thankfully, the crew is pretty self-sufficient. Anything specific you’d like to see?”

“I’d like to see it all,” Liam says.

“Of course,” he agrees as he starts off. He does a good job pretending like we’re there for a simple factory tour as he moves through the building, pointing out different things of interest.

“Anything different happen this morning?” Liam asks.

“Nothing noteworthy,” Jax says.

I nod toward the large loading door. “There was a semi pulled up to the loading zone when we got here. Was it loaded this morning?”

“It was. Nothing unusual there.”

“Same people work on it?”

“Generally,” he says as Liam seems to notice something. I look over and see that he’s fixated on a clear plastic cup that’s currently sweating. A drink brought in this morning wouldn’t still be sweating like that. Liam stares at it for a few seconds before looking over at Jax. “How long are breaks?”

“Five minutes, typically. Lunch is at eleven thirty. Employees start by seven, but some start earlier and some start later. Like office workers often start at seven thirty.”

“Whose cup is that?” Liam asks.

He glances over at it and shakes his head. “I don’t know… Could be Taylor’s, but I think she’s filling in for the welder who’s out on paternity leave. Could be Cameron’s. Want me to ask?”

“He generally have time to get a cold drink on his break?” Liam asks.

The guy’s eyes drop down to the cup. “Shouldn’t. That place is more than five minutes from here.”

“Was he gone this morning?”

“I know he clocked in. Things shifted a bit because of the man out on leave. Let me ask around.”

“Where’s this Cameron guy?”

He nods over at a dark-haired man punching numbers into a machine before he slides open the door to check something on the machine. Once he’s finished, he closes it again and returns to the computer attached to it, having no idea of the attention currently on him.

Jax walks over to a neighboring machine and calls the man aside as I look at Liam.

“You know they’re not going to take a sweating drink as proof.”

“It’s better than nothing,” Liam says as he watches the man’s back.

Jax returns. “Well… I was told he wasn’t in this section until about ten. Before then, he was helping them load, which is quite typical. He was floating a bit today. The loaders remember seeing him. Would you like to speak to him?”

“Not yet,” Liam says, and I know he’s aware that if we wait to see if the cameras come up with something, we’d have something to hold him on. So for now, we’ll wait to keep him from realizing that we’re interested in him.

Our team searches through the recordings, but besides the person who moves the scrap out, there’s no one who goes wandering through it. The culprit could have taken it off the line or when the scrap was being transported, but we have no proof of either. At this point, we have nothing, but we can’t do nothing. So we end up calling Cameron to the side to question him.

The man is confused the moment we ask to speak to him and even more confused when we tell him who we are.

“Did something happen?” he asks.

“Can you tell us everything you’ve done since you’ve arrived?” Liam requests, and he goes through his schedule that pretty much matches what we were given by Jax and the employees who’d been working with him.

“When did you get the drink?” Liam asks.

“This morning before work. I ended up getting called out to the loading dock, so I stuck it in the fridge and tossed more ice in it when I headed back out. We have an ice machine in the break room. I didn’t skip out,” he says. “I know a few employees do to get drinks and shit, but I like getting my shit done.”

Liam asks him where he was the night Jane Doe died, but he states that he was at home with his wife Jessica, who backs up his story. Honestly, the whole thing goes nowhere, but Liam seems determined not to look away from him. He’s like a predator that’s latched on and isn’t prepared to let go.

By the end of the day, we’ve run into dead end after dead end. Liam’s confident, though, and asks the crew to start deep diving into this Cameron man, but so far, it’s turned up nothing, and I can tell some of them are starting to think it’s a waste of time.

Michaels sends us home at about six while we’re left waiting for answers, none of which have given Liam what he needs to hear. I think Michaels believes he’s doing him a solid getting him out of the office while they deal with Kenny, but I honestly think Liam would prefer to harass Kenny’s statement out of him and then make the lives of at least ten others more difficult.

“Can you drop me off at my place to get my car?” Liam asks. “I have to go sign some stuff with the house before work tomorrow… unless you’re going with me and will be signing your name on it.”

“No, no, but after work, I’d love to break it in,” I say with a wink.

Liam hesitates. “We can go break it in right now.”

“Not break into the house to break it in.”

“What if we go break it in tomorrow morning?”

“What are we breaking in?” Jesse asks as he walks out with us. “Matthew, Liam wants you to go break something in with him.”

Matthew hurries up to reach us. “Oh fun. Should I come just wearing my bathrobe? Jesse, an apron might be best for you.”

“I actually want to try out my sexy maid outfit since Gabriel is going as a sexy nurse and I don’t want to feel left out,” Jesse says.

Liam looks around in disgust. “Why have these people suddenly started interacting with me like I care about them in any way?”

“This is what having friends feels like,” I assure him.

Liam recoils. “Well, I want a fucking refund. It feels awful.”

“If you want to know why I do it, it’s because I get enjoyment out of watching the way your face twists up in disgust,” Jesse says. “I’m surrounded by dead people all day. I gotta get my kicks any way I can.”

“Don’t you work with Marge?” I ask.

“Yeah, but she’s so old and boring, she’s practically dead herself. Hell, the dead ones have more personality than she does,” Jesse whines. “So when I break free, I want to enjoy the misery of others.”

“That’s fine. I love misery, but not my own misery,” Liam says as he tries shooing them off like they’re feral cats. “Go stalk that Cameron guy. I’m confident he’s the culprit.”

“Oh, no, I’ve done my work for the day,” Jesse responds.

“My job was just to look pretty,” Matthew says as he pretends to do a hair toss.

“I liked it better when you were both intimidated by me. Let’s go back to those days. I miss those days.” Then Liam quickly gets in the car like that’s the only way to end any of this.

“I think we’re breaking him down,” Matthew says, pleased by this.

Jesse looks around, acting like he’s confused. “Oh… were we accomplishing something? I was just enjoying the fact that I could take my passive-aggressiveness out on someone who was even more passive-aggressive. Like I don’t have to feel guilty if it’s Liam I’m being mean to.”

“You’re so tiny and cute; how could you be passive-aggressive?” Matthew asks.

Jesse’s eyes narrow. “It’s from all of the people telling me I’m tiny and cute,” he says before heading toward his car.

Matthew hesitates before rushing after him. “I’m so sorry! It was a joke, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”

“I’m kidding, Matthew,” Jesse reassures him.

I slide into the passenger seat of my car. “I think those two would be cute together.”

Liam looks up and then peers all around, like he’s confused about which two I’m referring to. “I’m sorry… who? The only way Matthew would be cute is if he was with something so hideous it made him look cute. Like if it was between him and a worm, I’d be like ‘I guess I’d pick Matthew just because he has fingers.’”

“So you don’t choose him out of friendship or anything else. Just the fact that he has fingers.”

“Yeah. Like how the fuck else is he supposed to hand me his cream stick?”

I sigh and decide that Liam’s a lost cause. “So… we’re going back to get your car because you’re going to drive back to my house and then go sign some papers in the morning.”

“Correct.”

“And not because you’re going to go stalk Cameron without permission or reasoning that would stand up in court.”

“The reasoning is that I’m almighty and everyone should obey me,” he says as he starts driving. I realize we’re heading away from his house, and in a few minutes, he pulls into the drive-through at a café. Once he asks what I want, he orders three drinks and hands me mine while he sets the third to the side. It doesn’t take long for me to realize it’s the same drink Cameron had.

“What are you up to now?” I ask as I sip my iced coffee, even though it’s a bit chilly outside. I probably should have gotten something hot, but they knew just how to sucker me in with this holiday spice shit.

“Come, come,” Liam says as he reaches his house and hurries inside. He sets the third drink in the sink and fills the sink with hot water, causing the ice to melt. I feel like I’m watching some half-price science experiment as I sip my iced coffee and decide that I could probably drink this every day for the rest of my life. My view adds a nice touch—sexy Liam waving at an unsexy cup. He clearly expects me to be amazed by whatever is happening, but I’m more amazed at the way these flavors mesh.

“Yeah?” I ask. “When hot water touches ice, it does melt. Very sexy demonstration. Taste this.”

He willingly takes a sip and gives me an approving nod. “Yes, very good, but come on, Gabriel. Just because I took a year off doesn’t mean you get to skip using your brain.”

“I am using my brain! It’s now filled with things like ‘Why did Liam unscrew Matthew’s chair? Why did Liam rearrange the keys on Michaels’ keyboard? And why is this drink so damn good?’ Those kinds of things.”

Liam grins at the fun memories. “No, stop. Don’t distract me.”

“Let me try yours,” I say as I eagerly hold my hand out.

He quickly hands it over and I take a sip, very much enjoying it when I do. “Ooh, that one’s good too.”

“You want it? You can have it.”

“No, I’m not going to just take your drink.”

“You can have my cat too,” he offers. “Anything of mine is yours.”

“Nope. Okay. I’m being focused now. Let me see.” I stare at the third drink and realize what he’s getting at. “The color is quite diluted. They used a shit ton of ice, so the drink is now watered down, but Cameron claimed he put ice in it.”

“Right. He didn’t say that the ice hadn’t melted. He said he put ice in it.”

“ But others are looking into him as we speak. Just because we went home doesn’t mean we’ve washed our hands of it. There are others who work for the department, so we need to let them do their jobs.”

He sighs and his shoulders slump. It’s all quite dramatic. “Gabriel, why do you hurt me like this?”

“Because I don’t think you should go fucking karate chop some random guy when the only proof we have is that his ice didn’t melt.”

“I could suffocate him with ice and the evidence will melt. That’ll teach him for lying to me,” Liam says, smiling until he gets a decent look at my face.

“Will it teach him? Because he’ll be dead.”

“Instead of finding the missing woman, I suppose I could just sit pretty.”

“Please sit pretty.”

Liam sighs again. “You are the most beautiful torturer that I’ve met in my life.”

What kind of flattery is this? “I don’t know how to take that… but thank you. I’m going to head home and get dinner started. Tomorrow night, maybe we could work on packing and getting your stuff moved to your new house?”

“Sure.”

“That’s so exciting. Your new place is so nice,” I say, realizing that I really need to give him an answer about moving in. I guess I just need a bit more time to get all of my thoughts straight before I cave. I’d have to figure out what to do with my house and… there’s just a lot to think about when we’ve been dating a little over a month.

Then I give him a kiss and hurry out the door.

Lucille Pawl and Butter are probably convinced they’ve been deprived of love, and I can even see Lucille sitting in the window when I pull into the driveway. What’s less pleasant to see is Cole glancing at me before quickly tucking his head and rushing back toward his house. But there’s no fucking way to miss his black eye. I don’t want to be rash, it could have happened somewhere else, but what if our suspicions are right and Cole’s father Davey is being abusive? Would Cole trust me now? Would he take my side if I pushed again for help? Or would he fight it like he has every time in the past?

I see Cole’s father standing out on the porch watching me. He seems to observe things for a moment before he grabs his son’s arm and starts over into my yard.

“Fucking hell,” I whisper before throwing on my best friendly neighbor smile.

“Hey, Davey. Hey, Cole,” I say.

“What’s this I hear that you’re taking my fucking son out of school?” he growls.

I hesitate. “What? No, he had to do a shadow career day. The school signed off on it with our boss. Your signature was on the paper.”

“I didn’t fucking know he’d be out with some fucking queers. Who knows what you did with him,” Davey accuses, the smell of alcohol wafting closer to me.

Lovely. Such a lovely end to my day. “I would like you to get off my property. If you have an issue, I would love to sit down with you to talk this over at the school or at the station, but we’re not fighting about this in the middle of my yard, thank you.”

Davey’s clearly not done as he rushes forward and grabs the front of my shirt. I put my hands up, not wanting to engage. “You need to stay the fuck out of my son’s life, you fucking hear me? And if you don’t get the fuck out of my son’s life, I’m going to?—”

“Dad, stop!” Cole says as he rushes forward to grab his father’s hand. His dad slams his elbow into Cole’s face, knocking him back hard enough that he drops down on his ass.

Rage burns deep inside of me that he could literally hurt his child like that and not bat an eye. But at least I finally have proof and will do everything I can to get Cole away from this monster, no matter how hard Cole tries to fight me on it. “You do not hit him, do you understand me?” I snap. “You get your hand off me before I arrest you for being on my property and hitting your child.”

“You don’t fucking tell me what to do,” he retorts before punching me in the face.

I’d been too distracted by Cole bleeding to even see the hit coming, so he gets me right in the face, startling me. I reach up to get him off me, but before I can, he’s torn away from me.

I hadn’t even heard Liam until he was driving Davey off me. I assume he’s going to bark at him to get his hands up, but Liam does no such thing as he slams his fist right into Davey’s face.

“You fucking parasite, you think you can touch what is mine and get away with it? You feast on preying on people you can abuse, don’t you?” Liam snarls as he slams his fist into Davey’s face again.

Davey throws a punch, but Liam catches it and uses Davey’s momentum to throw him to the ground hard enough that I hear the air whoosh out of him. Liam follows him down and Davey tries to twist to get free, but Liam smashes his face against the ground, pinning him there as he punches him again. I see blood spray out with each hit and realize that I need to stop this now.

“Liam, come on, that’s enough. I’m okay,” I assure him, but Liam won’t even look at me. It’s like something primal has consumed him as he whales on Davey.

“You fucking asshole, I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!” Davey yells, but he can’t get free of Liam’s grip. He can’t even twist away when Liam has him pinned down, has him completely vulnerable. Liam’s going to tear him apart if I don’t stop him, and I’m afraid that I don’t know how to make him stop. His rage seems uncontrollable.

“Liam!” I yell as I grab him, but I can’t even budge him. I know Liam’s strong, but he’s always been so gentle with me that I had no idea how fucking strong he is. His body frame doesn’t make him appear like he’d be hard to control, but tearing him back is proving futile when all he can fixate on is the man screaming slurs and cursing at us.

I hook Liam under the arms, trying to yank him off or find a way to knock him off balance, but he’s fucking solid. He knows what he’s doing. This is a man who’s done this more than once.

I grab him around the neck and pull back. “Liam, if you don’t fucking stop, I’m leaving you. I’m done!” I shout, and even though I know it’s a lie, even though I know this isn’t enough to drive me away, I know it’s something that will bother Liam when everything else I’ve done hasn’t.

Liam hesitates, fist lifted, and I hook my arm over it and jerk him back, throwing him off the man and sliding between them. Liam growls something indiscernible, but he’s respecting me claiming the space between them when it’s clear he doesn’t have to.

I look down at Davey whose face is covered in red; every breath he takes, blood bubbles out from his mouth and nose. And then over at Cole who is sitting on the ground with wide eyes.

“I-I called the police,” someone says, and I turn to see an elderly neighbor standing safely in her yard.

I find myself nodding, but I don’t know why. None of this is good. None of this is fucking good at all. I’m afraid to look at Liam because I don’t even know what expression to wear. Do I tell him it’s okay, the guy is an asshole? Do I tell him that he should have arrested him instead of beating him until his face looked like that?

Liam’s always so calculating, so precise, but this was animalistic.

The police arrive before I can even piece together what I want to say or do. I feel like I’m choking on blood from my nose but really, I’m choking on what the fuck to do with this situation.

When Officer Hernandez gets out, he’s surprised to see the two of us. Not only was he imprisoned with me when Tobias had taken us, but he’s also facing Liam, the man who saved his life, who’s now hovering near my neighbor who is bleeding all over my fucking yard.

“Detectives?” he asks in confusion. “What happened?”

I have to make this all work and quickly. “T-This is my neighbor Davey White. He came over… evidently irritated that his son Cole had shadowed me at work. And when I asked if we could speak about this at the school or station, he grabbed me. His son reached out to help and he maliciously elbowed Cole in the face before punching me in the face. L-Liam drove him off me to keep him from hurting any of us further,” I say, stopping there.

Davey lets out a cruel laugh as blood bubbles out. “That fucking cocksucker tried to kill me.”

“I asked you to get off my property and you refused and proceeded to assault me,” I snap. “I insist that CPS looks into the care that his son is receiving. I called them previously and I’m aware the school has also called them.”

“You don’t fucking worry about my son!” he snarls.

“I worry about him when he shows up with a bruise on his face,” I retort.

Davey stupidly gets up and starts toward me, and I realize that this will save Liam more than anything. Getting Davey to act irrationally will make it clear why Liam did what he did, so I don’t deescalate the situation like I normally would.

“I believe your son is being abused, and I hope that he feels comfortable enough with me to know that I’m doing what’s best for him. He shouldn’t protect you—there is so much better out there for him than the abuse you put him through.” I turn and make eye contact with Cole. “Please, Cole, you can’t keep defending your father. Please understand that the people around you want to help you. They want to be there for you. You are such a good kid, and you deserve the world. Your parents should make you feel safe. Your parents are the ones who should protect you, not who you should need to be protected from.”

“You shut the fuck up,” Davey yells, and even though Hernandez has a hand on him, he tries to pull away to get at me. “You don’t know fucking anything. You fucking asshole. You better keep a fucking eye open.”

Hernandez starts reading Davey his rights as Hernandez’s partner comes over to talk to me and get all the information she can before she goes and sits down next to Cole. Cole looks shaken up, but she’s doing her best to make him feel comfortable.

Liam still hasn’t said anything, and when I look over at him, I find that he’s staring at the ground, knuckles bloody.

I want to go to him, but at the moment, I need to keep Cole from defending his father. So I squeeze Liam’s arm before heading over to Cole and kneeling in front of him.

“Are you in a lot of pain?” I ask, afraid his nose is broken.

“What’s going to happen?” he asks, a catch to his voice.

“Cole, it’s so important for you to trust us. You saw what it was like to be an officer. You saw how hard we try to help people. You really seemed interested in Penny’s job. Now imagine getting to have a job like that. You could do so much, so don’t let him stop that.”

Cole nods slowly. “Okay. I’ll tell them what happened. I don’t want you two to get in trouble because of him.”

“Don’t do it for us. You have to do it for yourself,” I say firmly.

He nods again, and when he’s finally taken away, I realize I now have to deal with Liam. Liam… who has disappeared.