Page 29 of Deadly Storms (Sunrise Lake #3)

The pain in her body made her feel physically ill, but she refused to give in to her lurching stomach. She’d been having trouble eating for the last week, and once she started being sick, she wouldn’t be able to even look at or smell food—not a good thing when she owned and operated a café.

Just the idea of facing her staff and customers was daunting.

She couldn’t bear the idea of seeing anyone, especially when she was certain one of her staff had betrayed her.

The spices had to have been stolen from the café’s kitchen.

She considered calling Vaughn and telling him they would need to close the café for a few days, but that would mean her staff wouldn’t be paid.

She couldn’t afford to pay them if she didn’t have the café open.

Malik rushed to the window and gave a short bark, jerking her out of her internal monologue. It wasn’t his alarm bark, or a challenge, but more a greeting. She pulled out her phone and looked at the camera with a little sigh.

The trouble with having friends was they just showed up when you absolutely didn’t want to see a single soul. What happened to the call-ahead policy? Hadn’t they always done that? She couldn’t remember. They all had the code to her gate, and no one thought a thing about using it.

Her back was to the door. They were just going to push their way right in, sweeping her against the wall.

Maybe they wouldn’t see her behind the open door.

There was no way to hide the state she was in.

It wasn’t as if she could pull herself together and go whip up a meal for everyone in the next half hour.

She scooted on her butt away from the door but just stayed on the floor.

Zahra shoved open the door, and Daisy bounded in.

The little Jack Russell leapt at Shabina’s raised knees in an attempt to get into her nonexistent lap, giving her location away immediately.

Zahra hesitated but turned back to help Raine into the house.

As usual, Raine had her computer bag with her.

Zahra had Misty on a leash and brought her crate in after she helped Raine to one of Shabina’s comfortable chairs.

“Have the dogs been fed?” Zahra asked, all business. She put Misty in the crate and pulled the dogs’ beds from the closet where she knew Shabina kept them stored.

Shabina silently shook her head.

“Give me a minute and I’ll get that done. I know where everything is. Raine, you’ll have to direct Daisy to her bed unless you want me to go ahead and feed her now as well.”

“She hasn’t eaten either,” Raine confirmed. “I would appreciate it, thanks, Zahra.” She pulled her laptop from the bag and began to set it up. “I’m sorry for the invasion without calling first, Shabina, but after your text, I received a very alarming call from Lawyer Collins.”

Shabina hadn’t thought anything could bring her out of her dark well of memories and back to the present, but at the mention of the man who had installed the security system at her place of business, she lifted her head and looked at Raine.

“Bale obviously believes Lawyer installed your home system as well as the one at the café. He called Lawyer tonight and demanded he destroy all the feeds, the recordings and every bit of stored data you might have here and in the café,” Raine announced.

Zahra came all the way out of the kitchen. “Bale did what? Seriously?” Not only did she sound outraged, she looked it. “Why would he think Lawyer would do that? If others using his security system found out, they’d drop him. He’d go out of business.”

“Exactly what I asked,” Raine replied with her usual calm. She waited until Zahra returned to the kitchen and her task of filling dog dishes.

Shabina threaded her fingers together and hugged her legs tightly, chin on the tops of her knees, gaze steady on Raine.

“Apparently, when they were kids, Bale and his merry little band were into robbing people, specifically in the parking lot after a football game once most everyone had gone home. He despised his football coach, who was a young man at the time with a couple of kids. The coach didn’t make much money, but when they surrounded him and demanded his money, wearing ski masks of course, he refused to give them his wallet.

Bale and the others beat him up and he ended up in the hospital.

Lawyer was there that night. It was the only night he went with them, but Bale had a camera set up somewhere to record the robberies.

He claims he kept the footage and insists if Lawyer doesn’t do what he says, he’ll expose him to everyone in Knightly.

The coach and his wife still reside here, although he’s retired now and has grandchildren. ”

Shabina was stunned. She didn’t know why she was.

More and more, she was beginning to believe Bale was capable of murder.

Not only of cold-blooded murder but of masterminding a plot to pin a series of murders on her simply because he hated her.

His reasons didn’t have to make sense to anyone else, only to him.

“How old was Lawyer?” She whispered the question because her voice didn’t seem capable of rising above that volume.

“He said he was sixteen. He was so shocked at the level of violence he just stood there and didn’t help the coach. He claims he didn’t hit the man or kick the man, but he did pick up the wallet and hand it to Bale with the idea that Bale would stop kicking the coach,” Raine said.

Zahra called the Dobermans to her. Shabina hastily gave them a release signal so they knew they were free to take the food from their friend.

“He wants Lawyer to destroy any recordings from here because he was waiting for me after my run. He threatened to kill the dogs again, called me names, and then when he hit the driver’s-side door with his hand, Malik rushed him through the window.

He pulled a gun, but I had mine out, so it was a standoff.

I reminded him he was on my property and cameras were recording everything he said and did. ”

She couldn’t bring herself to put any animation in her voice. She was exhausted. Sick of trying to keep her head above water.

“You have to report him,” Zahra insisted. “This has gone on long enough.”

“Rafferty is his uncle,” Raine reminded.

“Every piece of evidence against Bale disappears. You know that, Zahra. When we make our complaint, it’s going to an outside source, and we’re going to have ironclad evidence against him.

I’ve been gathering it for a while from the Grill, the café, here and even the grocery store.

Don’t worry, I have permission from the owners. ”

“If Lawyer didn’t install Shabina’s security system, who did?” Zahra asked.

Shabina sighed and rubbed her chin on her knees. “Who do you think?”

“Rainier had the cameras on this property installed,” Raine answered for her. “They’re high-tech, and there is no way Bale could destroy any of the recordings, not where they’re stored.”

“Someone is spying on us?” Zahra asked. “Can Rainier see what Shabina is doing whenever he’d like?”

“If he could,” Shabina said, “it would have been nice for him to have been watching the Bale show.”

“It wouldn’t have been nice for Bale,” Raine objected.

“In any case, what Bale is unaware of is that Lawyer told his parents what happened a few days after the incident. He refused to name the other boys, but he went to the coach, admitted he’d been there and apologized.

He said he would take the blame if the coach wanted to turn him in.

Regardless, he was going to work off the money that was stolen.

The coach didn’t give the sheriff Lawyer’s identity.

Lawyer was certain the coach suspected Bale, Edward and Sean were involved, but he didn’t ever say.

He accepted the money with the interest Lawyer’s father insisted be paid to him. ”

“Bale and the others don’t know?” Zahra said. She put a treat in the crate for Misty so the little puppy could have something while the other dogs ate and then gave Daisy her food.

“No. The coach never said a word and neither did Lawyer. Over the years, Lawyer told me he became friends with the coach and his wife, and he still looks after them,” Raine said.

“He was extremely concerned that Bale has centered his attention on you, Shabina. He’s known Bale a long time, and he’s obviously worried. He said the man is vindictive.”

“That’s not news,” Zahra said.

“If that isn’t bad enough,” Shabina said, “I think someone broke into my café and stole spices and dates from my kitchen. I buy them specifically from Saudi Arabia or from a shop here in the States that carries them. Some of the spices and dates were dumped in a bush where I run along the canal. If someone else is murdered and there is some kind of ritual altar with spices and dates on it, that would point straight back to me.”

There was absolute silence. “No wonder you wanted me to sort through the recordings from the café,” Raine finally said. “This is bad, Shabina. It does sound as if you’re being set up.”

The alarm indicating someone was at the gate sounded, and Shabina nearly jumped out of her skin. She caught up her phone to stare in a kind of dazed terror at the two men sitting in their car, waiting for permission to drive up to her house.

“Get in the shower, Shabina,” Raine said.

“Zahra will let them in. I’m armed. I won’t look like a threat to them because I look injured with my pathetic little leg.

I can turn on the cameras in here as well.

Take a quick shower and come out looking your usual composed self.

We won’t leave you alone with them. Whatever they want they can say right in front of us. ”

Shabina wasn’t certain she could stand up, but she gave her phone to Zahra so Raine could use it to talk to the two men at the gate.

“Raine O’Mallory here. What can I do for you?”