Tahoe Blues (24 page)

Her bed was made and none of her dad’s belonging
s were anywhere in sight. Her dad had jumped ship. Cara went back to the living room and grabbed her cell phone off the coffee table.

“What’s going on?” Leah asked.

Cara held a finger up to silence her. Her parents’ phone began to ring and her dad picked up. “Hi, sweetie. Before you yell at me, let me explain. I was worried about your mom and with everything going on with you, I couldn’t bring myself to say goodbye.”

Cara
was relieved that her father was back home safe and sound. “It’s okay,” she reassured him. “I was going to send you home today anyway. You need to be with mom. I’ll be okay. Can I talk to Mom?”

“She’s asleep right now, but I’ll have her call you when she wakes up. Cara, I need you to promise me something.
No more secrets between us, okay? I’ll keep you up to date on how we’re doing here and you tell us what’s happening there. Deal?”

Cara smiled. “It’s a deal
. I love you.”

“Same here. Tell Leah I said to take care of you.”

“She’s right here. Do you want to talk to her?”

“No
, I’m in the middle of making myself some lunch. You take care, baby.”

Lunch? Cara l
ooked at the clock and saw it was nearing the noon hour. She must have been exhausted after their emotional day together. As they neared the end of their conversation, Cara suddenly realized why her dad couldn’t say goodbye. Cara was finding it hard to hang up the phone. “I will. You take care of mom and yourself, too.”

“Cara.”

“Yes, Dad?”

“Hang up.”

Cara chuckled. “Fine.” Taking a moment to bask in her father’s love before she turned back to her frantic friend, she kissed the receiver tenderly and hit end.

“Cara, Brett is in some kind of trouble. We have to help him!”

Cara yawned and ran her fingers through her hair. “First of all, Brett specifically told me he’s a grown man and that he’s fully capable of taking care of himself.” She walked around the counter and poured the remaining coffee into one of the mugs. “Second of all, I’m not sure what he said to you... something about watching television.”

Leah rolled her eyes. “He said he e
njoyed watching Jerry Springsteen with you, and that the Brett Boden original would come in handy one day.” She threw her arms up in the air. “What the hell does any of that mean? I know he was talking in riddles and leaving us a clue, but I can’t figure it out.”

Cara was totally confused. Did Leah mean Jerry
Springer, or Bruce Springsteen? Either way it didn’t matter, she and Brett hadn’t watched either of those shows. She didn’t even think Bruce Springsteen had a television show, and if he did, it wouldn’t have been in black and white. “Slow down and tell me what show you’re talking about again.”

“That old black and white traveling adven
ture show with Jerry Springsteen.”

“Jerry Springsteen
?” Cara racked her brain. The only show she could come up with which remotely resembled what Leah was talking about was Jaunting Jamison.

The host of the show, Jamison Spencer would jaunt around the world in search of treasures or valuable missing artifacts. It had become an inside joke
, because none of the treasures or artifacts mentioned on the show were real. There was no historical record of them anywhere. It had been completely fabricated. The show was presented in documentary style, but since it was total fiction, Jamison had an excellent recovery rate. “Are you talking about Jaunting Jamison?”

Leah nodded. “That’s what I said.”

That wasn’t what she said, but Cara let it go. “Tell me again what he said about the statue.” In her mind she could see Brett rolling his eyes and telling her it was a
sculpture
. She knew Leah was getting his message all wrong, and she wished Brett had come by to tell her himself.

“He said if you ever found yourself in trouble that the Brett Boden you have in your front yard w
ould come in handy.”

“
How much more trouble could I possibly be in?”

Leah held her hands up in surrender. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.” Leah grabbed her purse and headed for the door. “I have to get back to the shop, but I’ll be back later. We have to figure this out. I just k
now he’s given us some sort of clue.”

Cara watched her friend go. Lea
h’s instincts were usually spot on, and Cara didn’t want to dismiss them lightly, but it all seemed pretty farfetched.

She looked around her empty
apartment. All alone once more.

Tanner was just a few feet away
, but she couldn’t call him. Mrs. Grimes was even closer, but she wasn’t supposed to contact her either. She knew her dad was just a phone call away if she needed him, but her mom needed him more. Somehow she was just going have to be satisfied with her own company.

Even as that thought passed through her mind
, she dismissed it. Cara picked up her phone and called Jena, her favorite waitress at Rookies Bar and Grill and the newly appointed captain of LOLA.

“Professor Greene!” Jena exclaimed. “How goes it? Are you calling to reclaim your
command?”

It was a big deal for the grad student to be given the huge r
esponsibility of overseeing the summer’s research program. If she had been in Jena’s shoes, she doubted she would have been happy to hear from her old professor and have her brand new title stripped away. Lucky for Jena, it didn’t look as if that was going to happen anytime soon. “Not yet. I’m just checking in. How goes the quest? Anything new I should know about?”

“We haven’t found any new species
, if that’s what you’re asking, but I don’t have your touch. It isn’t nearly as fun without you, and I think my crew might mutiny before the summer is over.”

Cara chuckled. It had taken her years to get her spiel down where she entertained as much as she educated. Being a teacher was not for the
faint of heart. “I think you’ll all survive. I’m glad you’re missing me.”

It was Jena’s turn to chuckle. “Those are you’re words
, not mine. The crew might not be having fun, but I’m having the time of my life. I don’t wish you ill. I know everything they are saying about you is totally bogus, but once you’re cleared, feel free to take your time coming back to work.”

“Sorry,” Cara joked, “but the moment I’m reinstated
, I’m giving you the boot.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line
, and for a moment Cara thought she had hurt Jena’s feelings. Just as she was about to apologize, Jena popped back on the line. “I have to get back to work, Professor. I have a rowdy table that’s waiting for another round. I’d blow them off, but they tip really well.”

“I’m sorry
, Jena,” Cara replied remorsefully. “I didn’t realize you were at work. I just wanted to let you know that you can call me if you need any advice.”

“Thanks.
I gotta go.”

“Bye
, Jena,” she said, but the line was already dead, and Cara was left with absolutely nothing to do―again.

She twiddled the phone in her hand. Tanner’s number was right at the top of her favorites list. He
r fingers longed to tap his picture and hear his voice. She hadn’t seen him around much. He had only crossed by her window a couple of times since their breakup, and she had begun to wonder if he was the love ‘em, plant evidence, and leave ‘em kind of guy.

Every endearing word he ever spoke to her
was now a suspected lie, and with the forced distance between them, she had begun to believe he might have had something to do with her arrest. She mulled over the encounter between him and Duncan and wondered if it had been staged. Duncan had gone down without a fight. Cara knew her ex-husband was no light weight. He and Mark trained together frequently. She had never seen Duncan dirty his hands in a physical manner, but she knew he had a ruthless streak. No matter how Duncan’s attorney advised him, Cara found it hard to believe that Duncan would drop the charges against Tanner so easily. Either he had another plan in order to exact his revenge or the whole thing had been a sham.

With nothing better to do, Cara
picked up a cookbook and began flipping through the pages. Cooking was the only thing that brought her comfort, and in just a few hours she would be able to escape her four constraining walls for an entire two hours of freedom, as long as she didn’t venture out further than two miles.

Every
thing chocolate appealed to her, and she had cooked so many delicious meals lately her pants were fitting a bit snugger than usual. If her case wasn’t resolved soon, she was going to end up looking like a whale. Cara found it difficult to care. She had no man to sooth her womanly needs and since she had not asked Martin to revise her monitor agreement, as Officer Waters had suggested, she wasn’t allowed to drink. The one thing she could do was eat, and Cara planned on savoring every single decadent morsel of whatever divine bliss she conjured up.

Her grocery list was going to be
ginormous!

Wallowing in self-pity seemed like as good
a way as any to pass the time. Cara was pretty certain if she were examined by a shrink he would say she was depressed. She rolled that thought over in her head and wondered if having an appointment with a psychologist would be good for a few more hours outside the apartment, and if she played her cards right, she might even be able to plea temporary insanity.

She wandered into the bedroom and opened the closet door.
The top of the box of playthings hadn’t been replaced properly and a running shoe with a hole in the sole, which Cara had forgotten to throw away, rested on the floor beside it. Cara picked up the shoe and lobbed it into the trash several feet away. Cara hit nothing but net and made the two pointer.

“And she scores!”
Cara called out congratulating herself.

She turned back to the box
and pulled out the green leaf vibrator, the one Tanner teased her with the night before she was arrested. Turning it over in her hand a couple of times, Cara blew out a frustrated breath and tossed it back in the box. She simply wasn’t in the mood.

Just as she shoved the box to the back of the closet
, the doorbell rang. Cara looked down at her ragged appearance, but found she didn’t care about that either. She got up and went to answer the door.

David Crandall stood outside Cara Lee Greene’s
infamous eyeball door. It was just as horrendous as everyone said.

He pushed the bell again
, but he was happy to wait. He was more nervous about meeting his client than he had been back when he was on his first case. Being dumb and stupid, he was sure he had come off as a know-it-all ass. He had come a long way since then, and the incident which changed every aspect of his and his family’s life, had brought home every single hard-learned lesson.

He
had come prepared this time. It was uncomfortable as hell, but in the small of his back rested his 9mm mag. No one would get the drop on him ever again. It had been challenging, but he added the precaution of doubling back a few times in order to make sure he hadn’t been followed. Not being all that familiar with the area, he ended up becoming so turned around he had to turn on the GPS just to get himself straightened out. David was absolutely certain no one had followed this inept whacky detective’s path to Cara’s front door.

The door opened and David smiled. Quickly the curved edges of his mouth dropped. He had a hard time believing the vision whic
h stood before him was the well-kept stunning woman in the video. “Ms. Greene?” he asked, needing confirmation he was speaking to the correct person.

“Yes, I’m Cara Greene.” Sh
e cocked her head and raised a questioning brow. “And you are?”

David shuffled the laptop he held in his arms to one side and extended a hand. “I’m David Crandall. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

When Cara smiled, David knew he had the right woman, and he realized how difficult the last couple of weeks must have been on her.

“Mr. Crandall,” she gushed. “
Please come in. Is there any news?”

David walked in
and headed directly to the sofa. He placed the laptop on the coffee table and opened it. “A little. I need to see if you can recognize a person on this tape.”

Cara sat down beside him and rubbed her hands
excitedly. “Someone broke in. I knew it.”

“Calm down,” David warned as the laptop
began to load. “It’s far from cut and dry. We can’t make out the intruder’s face. We have ascertained that the break-in occurred one night when you were not at home. We saw you leave earlier in the evening, but you didn’t return until morning.”

“I have slept here every night except
the few times I stayed with Tanner Reed.” She blew out a sigh of relief. “That means he’s innocent, and I can see him again.” She scooted a few inches closer to David and glanced at the loading screen. “Was the intruder about five and half feet tall and bent over with a hunched back?”