Deep Down (Sam Stone Book 1) (18 page)

“Hey, Gabe, you look terrible!”

Gabe stretched in his chair, trying to work the kink out of his back.  The tight knot of muscles along his spine felt as if it might be permanently wedged there between his shoulder blades. 

“Thanks, Jamie.  You look terrific, as usual.”

He leaned back in his over-sized office chair and stretched his arms over his head, only managing to loosen the kink slightly, then smiled at the ultra-slim brunette leaning casually against the door jamb of his office door. 

Jamie was an odd one.  She only helped him part time – when she felt like coming in to the office.  When she did come into the office, she was part receptionist, part secretary, and part tech genius.

Gabe didn’t mind her sporadic work appearances.  He wasn’t able to pay her much, and he appreciated the fact that she liked helping out more than she liked the paycheck.   She’d told him once she’d work for free if he’d let her.  He smiled at the recollection.   Yes, Jamie was an odd one, but he was lucky to have her around to help.

She grinned back at him.  “Thanks.  Did you pull an all-nighter?  I told Stan that you wouldn’t be able to resist a damsel in distress after he confessed to telling you about Kami Walker’s stalker. You could have called me for backup, though, you know?  You need to get used to the idea that you’re not in this alone anymore.”

Gabe nodded, “I know.”

“Or Stan.  You could have called Stan.  He’d have watched for the stalker and let you catch some shut-eye.”

She straightened from her slouched position against the door jam and came around to the side of his desk to take a look at his computer screen.

“But Stan’s got a wife and two kids, with a baby on the way. What would his wife think if I called him in the middle of the night to help with surveillance?  He’s not the private investigator.  I am.”

Jamie laughed, “He’d probably have been glad for some excitement if you’d called him.”

It was Gabe’s turn to laugh, “Surveillance is anything but exciting!”

Jamie shrugged, “You never know.  He might find it exciting just because it is something new.  I’m just suggesting that you didn’t need to stay up all night, and that you need to remember that you are not all alone in the world anymore.  You’ve got your church family to help you out when you need it now.”

Jamie was right, he did need to remember that he wasn’t alone anymore.  He still had trouble asking people for help though, so it was going to be a while before he got used to it.

After Kami had left her living room and gone off to her bedroom somewhere in the house last night, he’d found that he’d been unable to leave her so unprotected.   He’d spent the rest of the night alternately staring at her house and staring into the darkness to find her stalker.  He could have called for someone to help him, someone to relive him for a while so he could catch a nap, but the thought of asking for help was still so foreign to him that he hadn’t even considered it.   Being a loner was a hard habit to beat.

He shrugged his shoulders, both in response to Jamie’s comment and in an effort to ease the responsibilities that sat so heavily upon his shoulders.

“You know, we’ve talked about these loner tendencies you have and the sudden attachments that you form for the victims.  Cramming your six-foot-four bod into an unnatural position and going without sleep all night isn’t gonna help her.   You are not responsible for the problems of the world, Gabe.  One of us could have helped you with the surveillance.  And today you wouldn’t be sleep deprived.”

“You’re right,” Gabe admitted.  “We’ve talked about it before, and I confess, it is hard for me to remember sometimes that I’ve got a family at church now. ”

She gave him another playful grin and bumped his chair with her hip.  “That’s right, so move over and let me help.”

“Ok.  I admit it. I need your help.  It’s all yours,” Gabe gestured to his computer and rolled the chair slightly away from the desk to give Jamie room as she bent over his keyboard.  “Do your tech magic.”

She threw him a wide grin over her shoulder, “You know I will.  Already have, actually.  I just want to share screens with your computer so that I can show you what I’ve come up with for starters.”

Jamie tapped a few more keys on the keyboard, then stood.  “There.  You’re hooked in to my computer now.   I just wanted to show you the latest.   Stan didn’t happen to mention that Miss Kami had a past when he talked to you after the service on Sunday, did he?”

Gabe shook his head and leaned forward to take a look at the screen.  Jamie had pulled up some headlines on CNN online. 

Kami had a past?

He leaned closer and started reading at the same time that Jamie decided to fill him in, as if he wasn’t getting to the pertinent stuff fast enough.  Jamie was all about taking the shortest, most direct path.

“Seems her grandfather was a bit of a tycoon.  He made his money in stocks.   Smart, tough old guy if the papers have the right story.  Anyway, he chose to make Kami his heiress instead of his own kids.”

Gabe listened while perusing the pictures on the screen.  The pictures must have been taken right after Kami’s grandfather had died.  She looked sad, and frightened by the crush of reporters standing around her in the photos.  And she looked more than a little lost.

Jamie continued with her monologue, “Kami’s parents and her aunt and uncle were estranged from their father, her grandfather.   I haven’t discovered why yet.  It just says in the media coverage that none of his children had spoken to him in years.  And there’s more.   Miss Kami has had a hard time of it.”

Jamie leaned in to switch to a different online news source. 

“Her parents were killed in a car accident before they could mend the rift.  Kami grew up not knowing her grandfather, but after their death she decided to make peace with him.   She made his last years better, or so the news reports.   And for that, he threw her to the wolves.  I’m sure the guy thought he was helping her when he left her his entire fortune, but her aunt and uncle thought differently.  So does the world, apparently.  She’s been dragged through the mud, Gabe.”

Jamie switched webpages again and Gabe felt his jaw tighten.

On the screen, the headlines screamed that Kami was nothing but a money-grubber - out to take money from a senile old man. 

Gabe didn’t really know her, but from what he’d seen of her so far, he couldn’t believe it was true.  Could the slightly distant woman who kept to herself, but still attended church, be the money hungry leech that the media accused her of being?  He didn’t think so.

“There’s more, but you look like you have enough to chew on for now.  More later.”

Gabe nodded, still staring at the screen.  A large photo of Kami’s face stared back at him.  Her eyes were huge.  They looked haunted and bereft, not greedy and self-serving.

“Got a few errands to run, I’ll be back sometime.  Call if you need me before then,” Jamie announced as she sailed out of his office.

He nodded, still staring at Kami’s frightened eyes on his computer monitor.

GUARDING KAMI is available now in ebook format on Amazon and in paperback wherever fine books are sold.