Almost Forever (21 page)

She raised her face and kissed him. “You've been wonderful. I don't know what I would have done without you.”

His heart ached. He didn't know what he was going to do without her.

Justin was physically exhausted, but his brain wouldn't shut down and let him sleep. It didn't help that Lori was only about twenty feet away. But it might as well have been a mile, because there was no hope. Mackenzie had been curled up in Lori's bed by the time they'd gotten home, so he'd settled for some steamy kisses in the hallway before Lori went to her room and he went to his.

He wrote a complete report of all they had discovered since Sunday and sent it to Franklin with a copy to Tyler. Justin would have loved to see their faces when they read it, but he knew that even though the case was solved, Franklin was going to rain shit down on him for not notifying him ahead of time before meeting with Armando or interviewing Raúl and Raquel. Well, they were just going to have to deal with it, because he'd done what he'd set out to do and Lori would be exonerated of Mark's murder.

But that left him with the rest of the night alone in his bed, breathing in her scent on the pillow and remembering how good she had felt the night before. It had been a bonus that neither of them expected. And probably their last. Now that the case was solved, he would be packing up and moving back home.

First thing the next morning, Raquel brought the wallet to the house while they were eating breakfast.

“I'm so sorry about everything.” Raquel's head was bowed. “I understand if you want us to leave after all of this is over…if we are not in jail.”

“Trust me. I'll do everything I can to make sure you and your brother are okay.” Justin was committed to seeing this through and making sure the outcome was fair for everyone.

“I want you to stay,” Lori hurried to add. “This is your home.”

Raquel's watery smile was grateful.

After she left, taking Mackenzie with her, Justin and Lori stared at the wallet. He took several pictures of it with his cellphone before pushing it toward Lori.

“Go ahead. Check it out.”

The leather was dry and stiff. She opened it cautiously, as if she were afraid something unpleasant would jump out. Mark's smiling face on his driver's license looked out through yellowed plastic. There were bits of paper with phone numbers on them and business cards in every slot, but no credit cards. That wasn't a surprise because she had already told Justin he never carried credit cards. The most glaring absence was that there were no photos of Lori or Mackenzie.

Lori pulled the items out one by one and laid them on the counter. When all the slots were empty, she opened the bill compartment and pulled out eight hundred-dollar bills, four twenties, two tens, and two ones.

“Definitely not a million,” Justin commented. He could tell this was bothering Lori even more than the memorial had. Handling a dead man's personal effects always had a sobering effect on the survivors.

With all the pockets empty, Lori turned the wallet upside down and shook it. A thin silver key that must have been caught in the lining fell out and clattered onto the granite.

Justin took a few more pictures before picking it up. “Looks like a safe deposit box key.” He turned it over in his hand. On one side the numbers 431 were etched into the metal, but there were no other markings on it. “Any idea which bank this would be for?”

Lori shrugged. “No. Mark always banked at Farmers Trust in Fredericksburg, but I wasn't aware he had a safe deposit box there.”

Justin held up the key between his thumb and forefinger. “Want to check it out?”

“You bet. Let me make a quick phone call to Casey. Her focus is more business law than criminal, but I'm hoping she can handle this. If not, I'm sure she can refer someone.”

As Justin loaded the dishwasher, he overheard pieces of the conversation. It took Lori a few minutes to go through all the details of their discoveries.

“Tomorrow morning at ten?” Lori looked over at him for approval. After he nodded, she continued, “That sounds good. Where?” She listened, then repeated, “Your office? I think Raúl and Raquel will feel a lot more comfortable there than in a police station.” She paused again. “I'll tell him. Thanks, Casey. See you tomorrow.”

She got off her barstool and walked around the island to where Justin was washing the frying pan. “Casey said that she'll notify your lieutenant about the meeting. Is that okay?”

“Sure. Better her than me. I already sent them a report, so this shouldn't be a big surprise.” As if on cue, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen, then rejected the call with a wry grin. “Speak of the devil. Doesn't he know I'm on vacation?”

Lori chuckled. “Maybe they have this place bugged.”

Justin cupped her face and kissed her. “Then they got an earful, didn't they? You're quite a screamer.”

“Hmm…I remember being drowned out by some male shouts. Think they'll recognize your voice?” she teased.

Her mood had been considerably lighter since yesterday. Justin loved seeing Lori's face relaxed into a smile and hearing her uninhibited laugh. He hadn't seen either of those very often outside the bedroom since the first day, when she had dazzled him with her beauty and her total lack of conceitedness. But even the worried, life-on-the-line Lori had been more interesting and fun to be with than any other woman he'd ever met. God help him! He'd fallen in love!

Lori picked up her purse and slipped her feet into a pair of sandals that she'd left beside the front door. She thought about going upstairs and changing clothes, since this was sort of a business trip, but then decided against it. The people at the bank knew her well, since she'd spent a lot of time in there, begging for loans so she could survive between harvests the first couple of years.

“Be sure and take a copy of Mark's death certificate,” Jason reminded her.

“Good idea.” She picked up the folder that held all the legal documents she had received last week before the memorial. “I need to get gas, so let's take my truck.”

He didn't argue, but when they went outside, he climbed into the passenger seat. “I'm beginning to enjoy being chauffeured around.”

“You'll be back on the road in your Explorer soon, so enjoy the ride.” She fastened her seatbelt and backed around so she could go straight out onto the winery's circular driveway. They reached the end, and since no one was coming in either direction, she didn't make a complete stop but rolled out onto the main road.

They headed toward Fredericksburg and were about two miles out of town before there was any traffic. As the pickup truck rolled down a hill toward a slow-moving car, Lori eased down on the brake pedal. It went all the way to the floor, with the truck not slowing at all. She pumped the brake, and the pedal slammed down uselessly.

“Shit…no brakes!” she yelled.

Justin saw the traffic ahead and calmly instructed, “Head for the ditch. Now!”

Lori turned the steering wheel to the right, trying not to jerk it to avoid a rollover. Gravel from the shoulder kicked up against the bottom of the truck before they careened through a patch of wildflowers and into a shallow ditch. She tried to steer them away from the embankment, but the mud grabbed the wheels and took control, propelling them straight toward the mound. The speed caused them to climb up the other side and ram into a stone wall.

The air bags immediately deployed and shoved them back against their seats as the cab filled with dust.

“Are you okay?” Justin asked as he pushed aside the rapidly deflating fabric of the bag.

“No, we almost got killed,” she answered, a little dazed.

Justin unbuckled his belt, then reached over and unbuckled hers. “We need to get out.” He waited until she opened her door before he opened his and climbed out.

Lori automatically grabbed her purse and the folder before stepping out of the cab, then promptly sank to her knees. Her wobbly legs had given out beneath her. She pulled herself up, using the door of the truck to brace herself. Justin came around the back and looped his arm around her waist. He helped her walk several feet away and then let her collapse on the grass next to the wall.

“Got a flashlight?”

“In the glove box,” she said, pulling her knees up and hugging them as if holding herself together.

Justin retrieved the flashlight and knelt down next to the muddy tire tracks so he could inspect the underside of her truck. She could see the light shining on several different areas before he stood, brushed off the mud and dirt, and joined her.

Justin showed her his thumb and index finger, which were shiny and wet from a brownish-colored liquid. “Brake fluid. The line was cut clean.”

“No way!”

“You did great, Lori. If you hadn't reacted as quickly as you did, you would have slammed into the car and probably started a chain reaction. You saved lives…including ours.”

“Shit! Damn!” Her teeth were chattering together. “They're not trying to frighten me. They want me dead!” Justin didn't deny it or find an excuse for the obvious sabotage. His expression was as confused as her own. “I'll call a tow truck.” He pulled his cellphone out and hit one of the speed-dial numbers. “Bruno…Justin. I know, I only call when I have a problem. And yes, I have a problem. I'm in a ditch on Highway 290, about two miles east of Fredericksburg. No, it's not the Explorer. It's a forest green crew-cab Ford pickup truck. See you soon.”

“It sounds like you end up in a lot of ditches.”

“There are certain occupational hazards to my job.”

“Obviously, if you have a tow truck on speed dial.”

“He does great body work, in case your truck can be saved.”

Lori nodded.

“Wait a minute.” Justin walked around the sides and back of the vehicle, inspecting under the bumper and in the wheel wells. When he reached the front, which had clearly lost the battle with the stone wall, he had to squat down and reach under as far as he could. After several attempts, he finally yelled, “Found it!”

He untwisted his body from the awkward position he'd been in and stood.

“What'd you find?” she asked.

Justin held out a small black box about the size of a deck of playing cards with two wires sticking out of it. “GPS tracker. This was probably on your truck when we went to meet the Grand brothers.”

“Someone went to a lot of trouble and expense, didn't they?”

“Maybe fifty bucks. They hooked it up to the battery so it kept a charge. Then they tracked you on their cellphone twenty-four seven.”

“But why? This has nothing to do with Mark's death. Raúl and Raquel couldn't be involved in this. Who could it be, and what do they want?” Lori had never been so terrified in her life. She hadn't truly believed anyone would want to hurt her. Even when someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at her truck, it had obviously been mainly for show, or they would have tossed it in the cab. And the night someone broke in, they hadn't confronted her or tried to frighten her. It was as if they had known that a threat to Kenzie would frighten her more than if they had broken into her bedroom.

Justin studied the piece of equipment in his hand. She could tell he wanted to smash it, but that might destroy valuable evidence. This took all the incidents that had happened to her out of the realm of coincidence. Apparently, she and Justin had stirred up some sort of hornets' nest. Could it be an old girlfriend with revenge on her mind? Or an old business partner with a grudge? Or someone else from Mark's past?

“I don't know,” he answered honestly, but she could see that he was worried. “Either way, we can use a little help, and I know just who to call.”

Justin took his phone out of his pocket, hit another speed-dial button, and put it on speaker so she could enjoy his humiliation. Franklin answered on the first ring.

“You'd better fucking be in the Bahamas getting a tan,” his boss answered.

“Nope. Stuck in a ditch just outside of Fredericksburg,” Justin replied. “It's pretty hot out here, so I
am
working on getting that tan.”

“I read your report. Are you positive of the facts?”

“Absolutely, sir. What I didn't include in the report was that Raquel brought me the missing wallet this morning, and it was definitely Mark's. But the interesting thing is that we found a safe deposit box key.”

“And the missing million?”

“We were on our way to find out. We got sidetracked by a cut brake line.”

“Raúl?” Franklin asked.

“Not likely. He and his sister seem to be devoted to Lori. But I haven't taken him off the list.”

“I suppose you want Tyler to come out and rescue your ass.”

“That'd be nice. And while you're at it, could you run a search to see which bank this safe deposit box might be in?”

“
All
the banks?”

“Let's start with Fredericksburg and Austin.”

“Lucky for you, Tyler is already on his way over to the winery. I'll tell him to go find you.”

“Thanks.” He turned to Lori, who had been openly listening to the conversation. “The cavalry is on the way.”

Tyler beat the tow truck by about five minutes. Justin filled him in on the plan as Bruno hooked the truck up to a cable and turned on the winch. The vehicle screeched and groaned as it separated itself from the rock wall, then slowly made its way backward across the ditch. Once it was on the shoulder, Bruno was able to pull it up on the flatbed.

Lori watched with concern. When he had her truck loaded, Bruno approached her.

“Justin said you wanted an estimate for repairs. You need to report this to your insurance company as soon as possible. I work with most of them, so it shouldn't be a problem.”

She gave him her contact information and thanked him. Bruno waved to Justin and waited for a break in traffic so he could pull out and head back to Austin.

Tyler, neatly dressed in his crisply ironed uniform, looked them up and down. But he was gentleman enough not to point out the obvious.