After finishing a steak so big the sides came on different plates, eating a wedge of chocolate cake, and then relaxing to a hum of conversation, Kane leaned back pleasantly satisfied. He sipped his one glass of wine and waited for Jenna, Jo, and Jaime to head up to Jo’s room at The Cattleman’s Hotel before pulling out his phone to call Stan Williams. He hadn’t planned to give the man a head’s up of his arrival but didn’t want to spook him by turning up with Carter unannounced. “Hi, Stan, it’s Dave Kane, will you be home tonight?”
“Yeah sure, I’m not home just now, so make it after ten-thirty. I have a ton of cold beer to go with the photographs and some videos I’ve taped as well.” Williams sounded enthusiastic.
Kane nodded to Ty Carter. “Great, I’m bringing a friend. We’re out at The Cattleman’s so we’ll keep ourselves entertained.”
“Catch you later.” Williams disconnected.
“You do know this isn’t my department?” Carter took a toothpick from his top pocket and tossed it into his mouth. “We’ll need to be careful or he’ll be shouting entrapment.”
Kane had given it some thought. “Not if we don’t arrest him.” He smiled. “If we find anything suspicious, we’ll turn it over to the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. They have the resources to follow up and make the arrests. I’ve found these crimes can be widespread and they use undercover units to break pedophile rings.”
“Yeah.” Carter leaned back in his chair clearly amused. “You’re preaching to the choir here.” He pointed a finger at Kane. “I can’t quite figure you out. I picked you as military first day we met but my gut feeling is never wrong. Heck, I’ve solved cases on gut feeling alone.” He shook his head in a frustrated manner. “I’ve worked beside you, seen how you move, shoot, and prioritize. You have inside knowledge you shouldn’t have access to and the guys upstairs cleared you and Jenna in minutes. Shane had no hesitation in recommending you for the last case.” He scratched his cheek and looked at him, his green eyes intent. “Look man, I’m not prying and I don’t want to know the details but you know what I figure?”
Kane rolled his eyes in a dramatic gesture to show his amusement, although deep down inside the old warning bells were blasting like air-raid sirens. “What do you figure?”
“I’ll lay my cards on the table but I’ll expect you to say nothing.” Carter leaned forward and dropped his voice to just above a whisper. “You, my friend, are an off the grid black ops operator sent here undercover to unravel some mystery.” He watched his reaction closely. “No? Then the powers that be are hiding you here in plain sight. I also figure Jenna is aware of what you are and Shane is your handler.”
Amazed but not surprised by his insight, Kane barked a laugh. “Okay, well if that were true, you’ve just compromised my mission and I’d have to kill you.” He gave him a look to stop any further conversation. “That’s the way it goes, right?”
“Yeah and you’d do it too but I’m a Seal. Killing me might not be so easy.” Carter observed him solemnly. “I know snipers, and you’re not the first one I’ve worked with. You can flip the switch any time you choose, can’t you? Drop into the zone, make your heart slow and take out a target without a second thought. From what Jo says, Jenna refers to it as your combat face. You disturb her, you know? Sometimes she doesn’t know what side of you to expect.”
Astonished by the revelation that Jenna had spoken to Jo about him, Kane finished his wine and stared at him. “Like you, the military trained me to kill. They gave me the skills and I use them lawfully and I’m always in complete control. To say Jenna is in any way concerned about me is a darn right lie. We spend all our downtime together and she wouldn’t do that if she thought I might hurt her.”
“I saw you man, the night we discussed the car bombing out of DC. I watched her and she was frightened by your reaction.” Carter sipped his beer. “You turned to stone and walked out in the middle of a discu
ssion. What was that all about?”
Kane fell into the lie in his records about a life he’d never lived. “If you know so much about me, you’d know my sister was killed in a car wreck. The images brought back memories is all.” He heaved an exaggerated sigh. “The woman in the photographs looked just like her.” He narrowed his gaze. “End of conversation.” He waved at the waiter. “We have to go. I’ll get this.”
“No, you won’t.” Carter pulled out his credit card. “We’ve both been consulting with you, so the bureau pays. We haven’t made a small dent in our budget this year. The one thing Jo did negotiate for coming here was a massive allowance to cover cases. Let’s face it we have to travel far and wide from Snakeskin Gully—when we get an assignment.”
With the hairs on the back of his neck still prickling from their conversation, Kane smiled to break the tension. “If you insist.”
“Tell me more about this guy.” Ty leaned back in his chair and stared at him. “What waved a red flag when you interviewed him?”
“You mean apart from a shrine to underage cheerleaders?” Kane raised both eyebrows. “You’re not the only person with a gut feeling.”
Behind the general store Kane pulled into the parking space beside Williams’ truck and they made their way up the creaking back stairs. The porch light was on, spilling a weak yellowish glow over the steps. High above, the night’s final fireworks display shot into the sky, sending the darkness into a parade of bright sparkling colors, and filling the pristine air with the stink of gunpowder.
He knocked and heard footsteps as Stan Williams came to the door. It opened and Williams looked past Kane to Carter with a worried expression that eased as Carter moved into the light. “Stan, this is Ty, a friend of mine from Snakeskin Gully here for the festival.”
“Come inside.” Williams held out a hand to Carter. “Nice to meet you. It’s good to find two men in town of like mind. Many don’t understand my passion for cheerleaders.”
“Oh, I like cheerleaders just fine.” Carter moved the toothpick across his mouth and smiled with it clenched between his teeth. “I’ve dated my fair share, well more than my fair share. Being the quarterback in high school helped some.”
“Yeah, the problem is, people find it unusual that I prefer the cheerleaders from high school, they don’t understand that as they get older the allure isn’t there anymore.” Sweat coated Williams’ brow and he carried the odor of bleach. Kane said nothing but walked straight to the wall of images and turned back to Carter. “See, he’s captured them in every pose?”
“Yeah.” Carter moved along the bench. “You collect pompoms too?” He chuckled. “Like trophies? How many pairs do you have?”
“A few.” Williams wiped the sweat from his brow on his sleeve. “You’ve seen my latest shots, is there anything else you want to see?” He shrugged. “I do have to work in the morning.”
Kane smiled, noticing the additional pompoms from the last time he’d been inside Williams’ home. “What about the images of the girls you take here, in the studio. Can you share them with us?”
“There are quite a few but I’ll show you some of my favorites.” Williams went to his computer and scrolled through a page of image files and then opened one and stood back. “This is Shirley, she worked on Saturdays in the store downstairs and she’d drop by to model for me.”
“Did you pay her?” Carter leaned on the desk peering at the screen. “For modeling?”
“Yeah, she needed the cash.” Williams opened a file of a young woman holding the pompoms and wearing just her underwear. “She was real cute.”