Chapter 8

Ellie came skidding into James’ office and froze when she saw Agent Brooks sitting in front of his desk. James looked up with a frown.

“What has you looking panicked Ellie?”

“I need to speak with you James. Alone.”

He scowled at her. “I don’t have time for one of your panic attacks, Ellie. Whatever it is just spit it out.” His brows suddenly lowered. “This doesn’t have anything to do with your, um, leave, does it?” He gestured to her belly.

She shook her head. “No, not that. It does have something to so with a mutual friend who may have some personal problems, I’d rather not discuss in public.” She glowered at the FBI agent.

Agent Brooks glowered back; however, he stood and pushed past her, stepping through the door. “I certainly don’t want to stick my nose into your town’s little problems. I think I’ll head over to the diner and grab some lunch. I could use a bite to eat.”

The second he was gone, Ellie shoved the office door shut and turned on James. “Poco was in my stable this morning. I went up the mountain and Chloe’s cabin is empty, she and Slate are both gone.”

James ran a hand over his face, leaving it to cover his eyes. “What else is missing?”

Ellie swallowed hard. “Most of her clothing. The tent is gone too. Backpacks.”

“S**t. This is my fault.”

Ellie wrung her hands together. “No. It’s mine, James.”

He dropped his hand and sat back in his chair. His face a mask of agony. Eyes a well of pain. He shook his head. “No, Ellie it isn’t. I never should have let her see how I felt about her, not when I knew for a fact she didn’t feel the same. She ran because she was afraid. My fault.”

“James, she wasn’t alone.”

His eyes snapped up to meet hers. “What?”

Ellie swallowed hard. “He was there James. Trevor Madison. Chloe was hiding him at the cabin.”

He jumped up so quickly that this chair slammed over backward. “WHAT?”

She backed up until her back came up against the door. “I’m sorry James, I should have told you! But, he was … he seemed so nice and good God, Slate friggin’ loved him! That damn dog rolled over on his back and lay in his lap! I swear to you James I’ve never seen that damn dog do that for anyone, except Chloe!”

James very deliberately turned and righted his chair and then sat back down. “So let me get this straight now, because that goddamned dog took a liking to the man you let it slip your mind that Chloe was hiding him?”

“Well and Chloe sort of ask me not to tell you.”

James held on to his temper by a thread. “She did not.”

“She did. I’m sorry, but she did,” Ellie told him nervously.

He pressed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. “I do not need this, Ellie. I do not. That FBI agent is gonna crucify me for this s**t. He was certain Madison was in Chloe’s cabin and when she insisted he wasn’t I took her word for it. Now you’re telling me he was there all along. Why would she lie for the guy?”

Ellie gave him a soft smile. “Why does any woman lie for a guy, James?”

“D****t she doesn’t even know him! I don’t like this, Ellie, I don’t. Brooks says the guy is some charming womanizer. Chloe doesn’t have any experience with men; she isn’t going to be able to see through this guy’s lies! We need to find her and bring her home!”

Ellie shook her head at him. “You aren’t her knight in shining armor, James. You can’t rush in on a white horse and rescue her; she doesn’t want or need rescuing. From what I saw, she’s quite happy where she is. If she ends up with a wounded heart from this little adventure then she’ll move on and look back on it as a learning experience, and she’ll have built a memory. You can’t force her home.”

“Why? Why can’t I, this is where she belongs. Here.” He stabbed a finger down on his desk.

“With you? Is that what you mean?”

He opened his mouth, but said nothing before snapping it shut again. In silence, he stared down at his desktop.

Behind Ellie the door opened and Agent Brooks came strolling in. So much for his ‘bite to eat’. “Well, I do hope you straightened your little problem out with your friend. Now, we need to get back to the case at hand. I want to find Madison. We need to do it soon. Collin, can you force your lady friend to let us search her cabin? I’m positive Madison is up there. His last known heading was in that direction. Up that mountain.”

James rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh. “We’ll head back up there now. Chloe will have to see reason; if she won’t let us in, I’ll tell her she’s obstructing justice or some such thing. Impeding a case, whatever.” He waved a hand in the air and stood.

“Ah, yes, good.” Agent Brooks followed him out the door, sending Ellie a jaunty little wave as he left.

She didn’t return the wave.

 

James mounted the front steps of the cabin; he could feel Agent Brooks hovering behind him like a vulture. The man was much too eager to find Trevor Madison. This case seemed personal to him. James raised a fist and pounded on the door.

“You sure there’s no other way out of this cabin, Captain?”

“Certain, I helped build it,” he replied tightly. No barking from inside. Ellie was right. Chloe was long gone. He pounded again. “Chloe, it’s James,” he called out loudly. No answer, not that he was expecting one. He reached out and shoved open the door, stepping inside.

“You sure that’s a good idea Captain? You don’t want that big dog flying at us.”

James ignored Agent Brooks and moved further into the cabin. He knew Chloe wasn’t here and if she wasn’t here, Slate wouldn’t be, either. That damn beast wouldn’t remain behind if Chloe had left. “Chloe?” he called out once more. “She’s not here.” He moved swiftly through the small cabin, checking to make certain, but he knew she was gone.

“Well Captain?” Agent Brooks’ voice was stiff, cold. Not that that was any different from his normal tone.

Captain Collin came out from behind the curtain where Chloe’s bedroom was. “Clothing is missing. Dog’s gone. I looked in the closet, the tent she uses when she goes on her hunting trips is missing too, it’s possible she’s gone hunting.” He walked past the Agent and went outside, rounding the cabin and standing near the little stable. He gave a piercing whistle. Waited and whistled again.

Agent Brooks arched a brow. “Waiting for something in particular to happen, Captain?

“I’m waiting for Poco, her horse, to appear. Since he hasn’t emerged from the stable, I’m assuming he isn’t here. That means, either Chloe took him with or he’s down in Ellie’s stable.” He spun around and headed back into the cabin, his eyes narrowed as he searched once again. He went and dropped into a crouch before the fire, picked up the poker and dug about in the ashes. “Damn her!” He pulled the remnants of Trevor’s blood covered clothing from the ashes.

Chloe must have attempted to burn them before they had left. The flames must not have been hot enough or she had put them out prematurely. He bagged the clothing, stood and looked about the room once more, there was nothing more that he could find in the tiny cabin to prove that the man Agent Brooks was looking for had been here.

“How dangerous is this man, Brooks?” he asked coldly.

Brooks knew he had to tread carefully with the captain; the man had feelings where the woman who lived in this cabin was concerned. “It depends on what you mean by dangerous,” he hedged.

“Don’t play word games with me Brooks!”

“He’s cleverer with electronics than anything. I doubt the kid knows how to use a weapon,” Brooks said on a sigh, hating to admit that Madison was more of a technological threat than anything else.

“So this kid is a hacker threat? That’s why he’s dangerous? What the hell did he do?”

“I’m not at liberty to reveal that,” Brooks answered stiffly.

“Fine, keep your damned secrets Brooks, but know this … if any harm comes to Chloe I’ll take it out of your hide.” He stormed out of the cabin.

Brooks stared around the interior of the cabin for a few moments before following the captain out. He didn’t buy the captain’s story that the woman had perhaps gone hunting, he doubted the captain believed that either. Especially after finding, Madison’s burned clothing. No, the girl had run off with Madison, the problem was, where had they run off to and why didn’t the woman own a car?

He hurried after Captain Collin and slipped into the police vehicle beside him. “Why does the woman live up here by herself?”

“Chloe prefers it. She likes privacy,” the captain answered shortly.

“Seems damned odd,” he mumbled. Waiting a minute before he said anything further. “What’s her name, I need to check her out. Maybe she’s involved in something. Might explain why Madison came here,” Brooks mused.

“Chloe is the innocent one here! I’ve known her a long time; she’s not involved in anything! Leave her out of it!” He started the car with a violent twist of the key and executed a quick turn, before he slapped the gearshift into drive once more and headed back down the mountain.

Brooks remained quiet for several moments. “I’m simply doing my job, Captain. You can be as protective of the girl as you’d like, but I still need to check the woman out. You, as a law officer, know this.” He gave the other man several moments to digest what he’d said.

Collin finally swore softly. “I don’t know. The only name she’d ever give anyone is Chloe. She appeared up on the mountain when she was twelve. Alone. With a few belongings and a tent. Right where we built her that cabin.”

“And no one thought to try and find her parents, her family?” Brooks asked in astonishment.

“Of course they did! The people in town made an attempt. She refused to tell them anything about herself! The police captain at the time ran her fingerprints and nothing came up. She wasn’t even reported missing.”

“What kind of parents never reports their child missing?”

Collin shook his head; his hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. “I can’t answer that, but I’d like to get my hands on them and give them a good shake. She was already fifteen when I arrived on the scene, the old Captain was retiring, and I took over. I was a little flabbergasted when he took me up there and introduced me to her. I was expecting some sort of wild child, you know. Illiterate, unwashed, like she’d been living in the woods all her life or something. But she was polite, smiled, and shook my hand when he introduced her.”

“And you were instantly charmed.” Brooks had a cynical little smile on his face.

“Shove it dickhead. She was a kid. I’ve looked out for her.”

“She’s not a kid anymore though, is she?” he asked slyly.

Collin wisely kept his mouth shut as they pulled up in front of the police substation. He exited the vehicle, turned and glared at the FBI agent. He didn’t like the man, not one wit. Brooks was one of those average looking guys, one who could blend easily into the background. A man you could easily underestimate as not being at all dangerous. Collin had a feeling underestimating Brooks could get a man killed.

“Stay away from Chloe.” He spun away and stalked into the station without another word.

Brooks watched him go, grinning, something he didn’t do often. This was going to be interesting indeed. He pulled out his cell phone and depressed the speed dial for the General. It was answered on the first ring.

“Enlighten me Brooks.”

“There is a girl who lives up on the mountain I only have a first name, Chloe. I’m going to need to find out more about her. It looks like our Mr. Madison has run off with her.”

“Interesting. What can you tell me about her?” Maitland asked.

“Not much. Collin has a serious hard-on for her. He got a little defensive when I asked questions about her. It would appear the girl is quite private. She appeared as if out of nowhere at the age of twelve. No one knows her last name and no one seems all that interested in asking it.”

“Find her Brooks. We need Madison.” The phone disconnected.

Brooks returned the phone to the inner pocket of his jacket. He had his orders. Madison was the priority. The girl was incidental. If she led to Madison, then his orders were to bring the kid in, the girl was collateral damage.

If however, she could be used to control Madison … then it was all the better for him. He smiled grimly and headed into the police substation. He hated working with local law enforcement.