The Puppeteer

CHAPTER 8



TY WATCHED DANI JOG down the front stairs of the house. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, her fists jammed into her pockets. Her expression was closed. She looked damn good in her leather jacket, but judging by the way she moved, he would guess she was pissed at something.

Good, he thought, as he smiled to himself. She was too pragmatic to hold a grudge so, when he pushed her, and he intended to push her, if she exploded on him, which he hoped she would, she wouldn't stay mad at him for too long.

It wasn't a very nice plan but he was tired of her ignoring him, ignoring what had happened last night. He wanted more than her professional persona. He wasn't sure how much more. Oh, he wouldn't turn down another night like the one they'd spent together, but he would settle for at least blowing through her professional cool. He didn't think he was asking much, he just wanted her to see him as a person, maybe even a friend—hell, anything other than a cog in her investigation.

“Have you ridden a bike before?” he asked as she came to a stop a few feet away. She fixed him with a look.

“Right, of course you have.” He tossed her a helmet. “There's a voice activated radio system so we can talk during ride,” he explained.

“Great.” She slid the helmet on. Ignoring her mumbled sarcasm, he straddled the bike and she climbed on behind him. He almost laughed when she put her hands behind her rather than wrap her arms around him. Shaking his head, he started the bike up and headed down the drive.

“So what are you so pissed about?” he asked, knowing it would get her back up even more. He shouldn't have fun doing this, but he was. He knew how she reacted physically to him—which was a stark contrast to how she reacted professionally. And the contradiction was intriguing. He wasn't the kind of guy that was interested in being a woman's doormat, but he sensed her quasi-split personality was more a result of the case they were working than a reflection of her. And given how she had responded physically to him, he couldn't help but wonder what might unfold if they actually got to know one another.

“Nothing,” she replied.

“Liar.”

“I wouldn't push if I were you, Detective,” she snapped. “Where are we going?”

Ty weighed whether or not to answer or keep pushing. He opted for playing nice, at least for the moment. “Your team is high tech and good, but there are a few things we locals can contribute,” he started explaining. “Getz's peninsula is located in a bay. It's about a mile and a half from the northern tip to the southern tip, and hard to see, but it is a bay. There are a couple of spots where, with a pair of high powered glasses, you should be able to get a good view of Getz's compound.” He leaned into a curve, her body moving with his.

“So what's the deal with you and Drew?” He knew he'd caught her off guard when he heard her let out a little huff. She didn't answer for a long minute and then her voice came through.

“Nothing is going on with me and Drew. Though he does think you want to kick his ass,” she answered. “So what makes you think we haven't already checked out the spots you're taking me to?”

“Because one is on private property and the other is a spot only the locals know, trust me. So you two aren't sleeping together?” he asked, taking heart from the fact that she answered his first question. He didn't think she was the type of woman who would have done the things they'd done last night if she was seeing someone else, but wanted to hear it from her.

She paused again before answering. “That's rather personal, Detective,” she drawled.

“And yet, I ask.”

“No we are not, have never, and never will sleep together,” she answered. “How do you know we haven't been on the private property?”

He breathed a sigh of relief. Not that he and Dani were going anywhere, but if they did, it was nice to know Drew wouldn't be an obstacle.

“Because in order to go on it, you'd have to ask permission from the owner. You haven't done that. Besides, I was up there today after doing a little rock climbing. I'd have known if you were there. So, if you aren't sleeping together, what's the story? You're obviously close.”

“I've known Drew all my life. How do you know we haven't asked permission?”

“Because it's my land, and what do you mean you've known him all your life?”

“I mean just that. Our parents were best friends. When we were born, Drew and his brother were almost the next people to hold us. I told you, his brother and my sister are married. We couldn't get away from each other if we tried. Are you on the take?”

Ty almost lost his grip on the bike. “Why would you ask that? And who is ‘we’?”

“You have an amazing loft and own a tract of waterfront land. It's not something your average cop could do.”

Her failure to answer his second question didn't go unnoticed, but Ty decided to come back to that. After all, she'd admitted to liking his apartment—it was a start wasn't it?

“So you like my place?” he couldn't help the teasing tone.

She sighed. “Answer the question.”

“No,” he laughed. “I'm not on the take, and I wouldn't tell you even if I was. I own a couple of patents that don't bring a ton of money but did give me enough to buy my place.”

“What kind of patents?” she asked.

“So suspicious, Agent,” he clucked at her tone. “Mostly gun safety advances. Some patents that relate to the way a clip moves inside a handgun and a couple that apply only to rifles. Now tell me who ‘we’ is?”

Dani didn't speak for a while and he sensed she was letting this new information sink in. A lot of people were surprised to hear he owned a few patents, not that he talked about it a lot. But during his time in the Navy, he developed a lot of opinions on what would make a gun better, safer. When he got out, he played around with a couple of ideas, patented them, and then, before he knew it, a couple of gun companies bought licenses. It wasn't big money by any stretch, but having enough to outright buy a place to live was nothing to scoff at, and it made living on a cop's salary a little easier.

“Okay,” she said, almost to herself.

“So who is ‘we’?” he prompted again.

“We?”

“You said ‘when we were born.’ I assume you mean your sister?”

“I do mean my sister, but I'm not going to say anything else about her,” Dani replied.

Her answer was final but it seemed more protective of her sister than dismissive of him. He could live with that, god knows he knew what it was like to feel protective of family.

“We're here,” he said, pulling onto a gravel drive and maneuvering around the side of a closed and locked gate that was meant to keep cars—not motorcycles—out. He shifted down as they headed up a hill. The driveway was lined with trees and other brush. It was getting cool and the air was crisp.

“It's beautiful,” Dani sighed. Ty had the distinct impression she'd forgotten he could hear her so he didn't respond.

They pulled to a stop and both climbed off the bike. Dani looked around, curious, but Ty knew she would never ask. So he offered.

“I bought it about ten years ago. I was in the military and was deployed so often that I could never spend the money and combat pay I made, so I bought this, thinking I might settle down here. Turns out that didn't work out. If you go another little bit up the road, you'll see a small house. My folks stay there when they're in town.”

Dani glanced up the road and stared for a while before turning back to study him. “So why did you decide not to settle here?”

The question was expected, but still he was surprised Dani ventured into the personal. “Long story,” he replied with what he hoped was a careless shrug.

“Let me guess,” she half smiled at him. “Some girl broke your heart? Shattered your dreams of settling down?” she teased. As cliché as it was, it was also the truth.

“More or less,” he responded.

Her eyes studied his face. Then her eyebrows raised in curiosity, prompting him.

“I was engaged to a woman I grew up with,” he complied. “We planned to marry when I discharged. A couple of months after I got out, she died.”

Dani's head drew back in surprise and, for the first time, he saw her expression soften.

“I'm sorry…I didn't,” she paused, shook her head and gave a small, self-deprecating smile. “I was going to say I didn't know, but that's a pretty dumb thing to say. Of course I didn't know,” she paused again and Ty sensed that her statement meant more than what she was saying. “I am sorry though, Ty. It must have been difficult.”

Ty hadn't come here to rehash the events of five years ago, but he found himself wanting to talk about it. He wasn't sure if it was because it had been a while since he had done that or because he and Dani were actually talking. Her dark eyes fixed on him and he held her gaze as he continued.

“It was. It's not uncommon for military spouses and significant others to need a stress outlet. The leaves are so long, the tension is always high. Many turn to people outside of the relationship to make things better.

“She sought out distractions and entertainment from her friends. She looked to them to help her deal with the stress. I didn't even know the crowd she was spending time with,” he turned away from Dani and stared out toward the trees, which were starting to bud in the mid-May weather.

“I don't know that it would have made much of a difference even if I did know them. I think, by that point, she probably wouldn't have listened to me anyway.” He glanced back at Dani who was standing with her hands resting in the pockets of her jacket, her expression thoughtful, not pitying.

“Anyway,” he sighed, turned, and continued. “One night she got in a car with a couple of friends who were both drunk and high. I don't know if Carrie ever partook of the drugs, but I do know that the night she died, she didn't have a thing in her system that would have impaired her. A couple minutes after leaving a bar, the driver wrapped the car around a tree. No one survived.”

“Jesus, Ty. I'm sorry,” Dani said. They were quiet for a few minutes and then Dani asked, “Is that why you went into vice?”

He shook his head. “No, I'd planned that long before coming here. I'd seen enough dead bodies during my tours that I knew I didn't want to go into homicide. I figured vice was the best way to try and help save people.” He knew his grin was an uncomfortable one, but he'd never admitted this to anyone before. Not even his parents. “I figured if I could help keep the drugs off the street, then maybe that would mean one less OD, one less body, one less family with one less member.”

“I like that reason,” she replied. Her voice was soft and personal.

Ty felt a wave of tension leave his body and his breath fall back into rhythm. After such a short time, not even twenty-four hours, her acceptance, her approval shouldn't mean much. But it did.

They were quiet for a few more minutes and then Dani asked, “You don't blame yourself do you?”

Surprised at the question, Ty turned and searched her eyes. There was an odd expression on her face, maybe a little sympathetic, maybe a little worried, and maybe a little something like curiosity. Ty frowned and shook his head.

“I did, but I got over it.”

Dani muttered something that sounded like “good for you,” but she wasn't looking at him so it was hard to tell.

“Strange enough,” he continued, his brow furrowed in thought. “It was her parents who absolved me. For a long time I wondered if there was something I could have done to change things, or if there was something I should be doing to fix things. What I could ‘fix,’ wasn't ever really clear even in my own mind. But it seemed like I should have been doing something to make things right.” His voice trailed off remembering the pain of doubt in those first few years after Carrie's death. He looked down at his feet as the sounds of the ocean nearby filtered through the trees.

“But,” he continued. “Carrie's parents helped me remember that she was an adult and she made an adult decision. Granted, we all wished like hell it hadn't happened, it was such a waste of life, but the truth is, Carrie could have made a different decision that night. She could have made a whole lot of different choices. She didn't and she paid the ultimate price. It wasn't my decision or her parents' or her friends' to make for her, but hers alone.”

Ty looked up at Dani again, standing there, in her jeans and black leather jacket. The end of her ponytail was lifting with the breeze and she looked nothing like the woman he'd seen all day. Gone was the trained agent, gone was the intense passion and focus. Standing there, with her hands hanging loose in her pockets, her head cocked to the side, she looked almost like a lost child, confused and scared.

Ty didn't take his eyes off of her. Whether she sensed his thoughts or not, she turned and made a pretense of looking up the road, toward where the house lay, unseen from where they stood.

“Want to go see the site?” he asked. His heart was pounding and, even though he had bared his soul, he felt an inexplicable urge to reach out and comfort her. To run his fingers down her cheek and pull her close. But whatever it was that was going through her mind, he sensed she needed to let it settle before she would let him near her personal side again. He was beginning to realize that Dani was not a woman comfortable with emotions. And he'd just laid a lot on her.

When she nodded, he grabbed a bag from his bike and motioned toward a small path in the woods. They walked in silence for about ten minutes and then, as they neared the edge of the woods, he held an arm out to stop her.

“The view is from the cliff. If we walk out there, we might as well have a flare and a homing beacon. We can either crawl on our bellies to the edge or climb the tree and get a little higher. Both work.”

Dani scanned the landscape then nodded toward the tree. Then she surprised him with a little smile. “I haven't climbed a tree since I was twelve.” And she was off.

Before he could offer to help, she'd swung up, hooked her legs, and pulled herself into a sitting position. Her butt planted on a lower branch while her arms hooked over a branch above her.

Ty chuckled and, not quite as gracefully, clamored up a branch on the other side. Once they were both seated, he pulled out two pairs of high powered glasses and handed one to her. She took them without a word. For a few minutes they absorbed the view.

Dani let out a low whistle. “It's gorgeous, Ty.” And they both knew she wasn't talking about the house. The view from the tree was a clutch recon position. From their perch they could see the entire south side of the house and all the south-facing windows. The windows were mirrored which made things a little more difficult, but they had a clear view of the pool, the terraced yard, and most of this side of the peninsula.

“With the equipment you guys brought, we should be able to get some prime photos. Confirm who's in the compound with him, and how many guards.”

“You do know how to make a girl's heart go aflutter,” Dani murmured from behind her glasses.

Ty chuckled, if she thought this was good, he couldn't wait to show her the next site. And then he laughed out loud. It was a sad day when he was wooing a woman by showing her surveillance locations.

“You can't see the boathouse from here,” Dani commented, ignoring his laughter.

“No, it's on the north side of the peninsula. But, we've got it covered,” he answered. Dani lowered her glasses and looked at him from around the tree's trunk.

“You have a location where we can watch the boathouse?” she asked, her voice as close to incredulous as it probably ever got.

Ty grinned. “Stick with me kid, I'll show you places.”

“I will truly love you forever if you can get us good surveillance of the boathouse. It's our weakest point.”

“Then I hope you're ready to commit,” he teased. “I think you're going to like what you see.”

Dani swung down from the tree and surveyed the surrounding area. “We'll have better visibility of the water from here, too,” she noted.

Ty nodded. “It should be pretty good, and could be very good, depending on the equipment Cotter has.”

“He has the best,” Dani said.

“The recon team will have to watch each other's sixes, but other than that, it should be a good spot,” he commented. It was true, whoever took recon on the south end of the bay would have to watch the back of the man, or woman, on the north side, and vice versa. But it wasn't anything anyone hadn't done before, so it would be duly noted, but not a concern.

“This is great, Ty,” Dani smiled as she took her GPS unit out of her pocket and noted the location. “When we get back, I'll give this info to Cotter and walk through the locale with him. So, I take it you're granting us permission to use your land?”

He made a grand gesture with his arms that encompassed the woods and water. “It's all yours, but try to be kind to the trees. My mom likes to gather the sap from the maples in early spring.” Dani smiled at the comment and glanced around. “The picture is more charming than the reality,” Ty continued, “though I can't complain with the results; there's nothing quite like the taste of homemade maple syrup. Come on, we've got one more place to go and it's getting late.”

They'd just turned onto the road when Dani surprised Ty once again. “Do you have any siblings?” she asked through the radio headset.

Ty paused, wondering if he'd heard right—if he'd really just heard her ask another personal question. “Yes. I have a brother who is three years older than me and a sister who is a year older.”

“So you're the baby.”

“Yes, but I'm the biggest.” He could almost feel her smile.

“Do you see them often?” she asked.

“As much as I can. My brother lives in Seattle. He's a tech guy but he runs his own security company.”

“As in personal security?”

“No, as in testing the reliability of security systems, which may or may not include people, machines, robots, computers, phones, and a whole host of things I can't even begin to imagine.”

“Hunley,” Dani said, making the connection.

Ty nodded as they passed through the quiet neighborhoods heading from the south point of the bay to the north.

“And your sister?” she asked.

He took a tricky curve before answering. “She's a social worker. She lives in Taos, New Mexico, where my parents are.”

“I thought you were from here?”

“We moved here when I was twelve. My dad got a job, and my mom thought we'd get a better education here. We loved it, but after I moved out and my dad retired they decided they missed New Mexico, so they moved back.” They were clipping along the coastal road, the ocean to their side, the breeze against their bodies. Almost like a real date with real conversation.

“Do you see them often?”

“They come in the spring and then again for a couple months in the fall, and I make it out as often as I can. It usually ends up being a couple of times a year,” he answered.

“Sounds nice.”

“It is. What about you? Do you see your sister often?”

“Like you, as much as I can, which isn't as often as I would like. We're close though, we talk at least once a day when I'm not on assignment.”

“Once a day?” Ty asked with mild incredulity. In his mind the phone was pretty much good for making business calls or ordering food for dinner, beyond that, it was a nuisance.

Dani laughed. “We're identical twins, we've got that twin connection thing. I talked to her yesterday when I landed in Portland and I'll probably call her tonight, even though I'm working and she knows it. With my work schedule and her travel and family schedule, we can't always talk, but we try.”

This little insight hit Ty from way out of left field. “Wow,” he managed. “You have a twin.” He couldn't imagine another woman looking like Dani and had an image of them wreaking havoc on teenage boys everywhere in their younger years. But what was just as interesting was how much Dani's voice changed when she talked about her sister.

“Other than looks, are you two alike?” he asked.

Dani laughed again. “Don't worry she isn't a thing like me. She's sweet and naïve and almost always content with life. I think I've heard her complain about twice in the last year and one of those was when she was dilated ten centimeters with her third baby and the doctor refused to give her an epidural. He claimed it was too late. I think he wanted to hear my sweet baby sister cuss a blue streak.”

He knew she wasn't as cool as she seemed at the briefing, and Ty liked these revelations and glimpses into Dani's life. They made her seem more real, more her. “So you are an aunt? Three times over?”

“Two girls and a boy. Sammy and Jason, Drew's brother, decided at the ripe old age of six and eight that they would get married. It stuck. They are about as in love with each other now as they were then. The kids are adorable but a handful. My sister has the patience of a saint.”

“She sounds great,” Ty commented.

“She is,” Dani responded. “She's nothing like me.”

Ty thought about asking Dani what she meant about that ambiguous statement. Did she think she wasn't a good person? Or did she think her sister was great and recognized the differences for what they were, just differences? He was pretty sure Dani wouldn't be interested in hearing his opinion of her, interested in hearing that he thought she was pretty great too. Not to mention that he'd come off sounding like a seventh grader. She was smart and capable and confident and sexier than a woman had a right to be. But she wouldn't want to hear that from him, so he decided to change the subject.

“So what about your parents? Do you see them often?” He felt Dani stiffen on the seat behind him and, though his rational mind knew it wasn't possible, he had a very tactile sense of her pulling away from him.

“They're both dead,” she said. Her voice was rote and flat. “They died about twenty years ago.”

And just like that, the conversation died, too.

In silence, they pulled up to an empty parking lot that hosted a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean. A short distance from the lot was a fence that protected the tourists and sightseers from the sheer cliff that plunged into the sea below. Other than that, it was about as exposed as it could get.

“Maybe if we dressed in bright orange or sent up a flare, they could see us better,” Dani commented the minute their helmets were off. Her jaw was tight and her arms crossed rigid over her middle.

Ty held her gaze for a brief second before turning to the saddlebags on his bike. He pulled out two pairs of fingerless gloves, a blanket, and the glasses. No way would he push her further. The mention of her parents had not only brought back her professional wall, but also seemed to make her edgier and more aggressive. It was there—in the way she moved, in the tone of her voice. He'd go back to the professional playing field, but he wasn't about to cater to anything else.

“Have you rock climbed before?” he asked tossing her a pair of gloves as he moved toward the fence. She managed to peel her arms off her middle in time to catch them.

When she didn't answer, he turned back. Her eyes were going from him to the ocean behind his back. She met his gaze. “Of course I've rocked climbed, but I'm not climbing over a hundred foot cliff without gear. And no, these gloves,” she said holding them up to make her point, “do not constitute gear.”

Ty smiled. He had to admit he loved that she didn't bat an eye at scaling a cliff. It was only at the lack of equipment that she protested. He winked once and then swung himself over the fence.

“Ty,” her voice raised in reluctant concern as he approached the ledge. He turned back again and damn, if she didn't look a little pale. He walked back to the fence but stayed on the other side as he motioned her forward. She paused for a second then moved closer. He studied her face as she watched him.

“Heights?” he asked.

“Not my favorite, but I'll get over it,” she replied taking a few deep breaths.

Ty slipped a hand behind her neck, tugged her toward him, and leaned forward. Her mouth opened in surprise and he moved in, covering it with his. And she kissed him back. It was a brief, sweet moment and just long enough that, when he pulled away, her face was full of color again.

“What the hell was that for?” she demanded, sounding more astonished than mad.

Ty shrugged and turned back to the cliff. “I figured it would give you something to occupy your mind rather than thinking about the height. And it's only about fifteen feet,” he added with a nod down the cliff side.

“Come, take a look,” he said, holding out his hand to her. She searched his face for a minute and then put her hand in his and climbed over the fence. The only sign of her discomfort was her hold on his hand. Her color was good; her breathing was fine. Her grip was strong, but not terrified.

“Holy shit,” she said looking over the edge. “There's some kind of shelf there. And is that a cave I see?” she asked, her voice taking on an excited pitch.

Just what Ty had hoped.

“It's a tunnel, and you're going to love the view from the other side,” he said, tugging on his gloves. “I'll go down first. I was here earlier today and found some good footholds on my climb. Once I'm down, you come over and I'll direct you.”

Before Dani could answer, he'd lowered himself over the edge and was down, back on solid footing in less than three minutes. He called out for her to come down. She took one more look down the cliff side and then lowered her body over the edge. He guided her down and, in no time, they were standing on a ledge, about five feet deep, staring out at the ocean again.

“Here,” Ty directed as they made their way toward the tunnel. It was an odd piece of land he and his buddies had found in high school one crazy night. He wasn't sure how it happened, but once they found it, it had become the place where they ‘got away from it all’ in their years of teenage angst. He hadn't been back in years, but when he and Cotter had gone over the maps of the location, his brain had stirred with the memory of the place.

Years had reduced the fallen stones to gravel and what was left was a wall that ascended from the floor of the shelf to the top of the cave entrance. From the ocean, it looked like just another jag in the ragged coast of southern Maine.

“Cozy,” Dani spoke.

“Wait until you get into the tunnel,” he said, handing her a pair of binoculars. “Not that you're squeamish, but I did clean it out a little bit when I was here earlier.”

That earned him a smile. “I'm never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when it involves cleaning.”

“Go on through,” he nodded to the tunnel. He was looking forward to hearing her reaction. She took one last look at him before getting down on her belly and crawling into the tunnel. It was big enough to move in but not big enough to stand in, but Ty was pretty sure the view would far outweigh the discomfort.