Page 21 of Evening Shadows

With that information—as vague as it was—Jesse slipped from the room, pulling his phone from his pocket. God, she hoped Devon could make something of the crap information they had so far about Alejandro Ramirez. That’d obviously be a challenge since she imagined there were tons of men with that name. She didn’t care how Devon narrowed it down for them—and he would—they’d pay the man a visit. She reminded herself that everyone was a suspect until proven otherwise.

The desire to close her eyes to it all—Cody’s abduction and the changes in Bev—held strong, but her need for them to succeed held stronger. “Why did you break up?” If Bev didn’t answer because the men were in the room, friendship be damned, they’d have to pull her off the woman.

“I don’t know,” Bev whined, but with her fidgeting, there was no question that she knew the answer. Yet, her holding it back, and Sam’s pulling teeth to get all the information, made Sam wonder what the hell kind of relationship she had with this man.

She took a deep breath to calm herself. Either Ken noticed or he’d had enough too because he forced the question. “Why did you break up?”

The waterworks started again, and Sam wanted to roll her eyes at the melodrama that she realized she’d fallen for in the beginning. Sam couldn’t believe Bev’s apparent lack of urgency to find her son. Unsettled, Sam struggled to contain her growing anger or unease. There was something off with Bev… with Cody.

“Beverly,” Ken barked, “answer the damn question. A little boy’s life is at stake and I’ll do anything—anything,” he stressed, “to find him. We don’t deal with bullshit in a case like this. Instead, we carry shovels with us in case they’re ever needed to bury the bodies of obstacles.”

If that didn’t break the tension amongst the team, nothing else would. While all held back their grins at Ken’s bluff since the situation didn’t warrant them, his statement had the desired effect on Bev.

Openmouthed and bug-eyed, she looked at Ken with fear. He did appear ferocious. A sexy ferocious, but one had to be on this side of the table to see that. “He said—” She wailed and for the first time, Sam became sick to her stomach at her growing doubt of Bev’s care for her son and his safe return home. She’d called Sam for help, but she wasn’t helping. Sam didn’t think it had anything to do with HIS. Bev had to be hiding something.

While they had to consider everyone a suspect—especially the parents—Sam couldn’t believe Bev had her hand in Cody’s disappearance. She knew Bev loved her son, no matter how poorly she showed it, and it took more smarts than Bev demonstrated on any given day to pull this off. But something didn’t sit right, and she couldn’t put her finger on it. Maybe this person—this Alejandro—had been the secret and hopefully the key to unlocking Cody’s location.

Ken took one step closer to the table and thumbed his hands on it, leaning forward. Bev jumped and Sam no longer cared if the team put fear into her friend. “He said—” Her next words were almost lost in her next fit of wailing. “—I was an unfit mother.”

Holy shit.If they’d had this at the beginning, they’d probably have Cody home by now because this man could be Cody’s kidnapper. Her head hurt, but that might’ve been from her mentally beating it against an imaginary wall. After all the runaround from Bev, they finally had a suspect. Alejandro Ramirez.

Ken straightened and stiffened as Stone carried a box into the home. Sam hadn’t seen Stone and Doc when they’d returned, although she’d heard it in her earbud. They’d remained outside to keep from crowding Bev and to watch for anything suspicious.

As Ken took fast strides to the door, Sam stood. “I’ll be right back. You stay here and think if there’s anything else that’ll help.”

Bev nodded, playing with that nasty tissue. Thankfully, she didn’t turn to see what drew Ken and Sam away.

“The postman showed me the routing information on his little handheld tracker. It went through the post from Mexico, mailed five days ago. The return address says it’s from Alejandro Ramirez,” Stone informed them.

Without knowing for sure if that was correct, Sam imagined there’d been a collective holding of breath at that news. Two things came to mind—Bev was lying about when she’d last seen Alejandro, and because of the time the package was shipped, Alejandro might not be their man.

With a sinking stomach, Sam hoped that somehow—even remotely—this provided a lead to Cody. Then again, the questions of what this could mean to their investigation flared to life. It’d mean most of what they’d learned so far had been a lie, but if it led them to the boy, they’d deal with that later.

Ken pulled a knife from a sheath on his belt. “Let’s open it. It may be nothing.” Sam could tell from his intense focus he didn’t believe that. “He could be sending something of hers back, like some couples do when they split.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Franks asked a question she knew Ken had already considered. They all contemplated that question before they did anything similar. It’d been ingrained in them.

Shaking his head, Ken motioned for Stone to place the box on the closest coffee table with care.

“I’m curious,” Ken said, “why he’d send something to someone he split with—someone who never stayed at his home in Mexico. If he wanted to reunite, there are easier ways.” He held back for a second and looked around the box. He started to speak into his comm system, when he obviously thought better of it, and she knew why. They had to make sure they weren’t dealing with a bomb. “Go get Cowboy,” he told Franks.

Stone and Old Man looked expectantly at the door while she observed Ken. He slowly circled the table with his eyes riveted on the package.

When Cowboy entered, with Franks on his heels, their munitions expert ignored everyone and went straight for the package. Due to the height of the table, he knelt and began to circle like Ken had. After a lot more observing and even eyeballing it at close range, Cowboy stood. “There’s nothing tied to opening it, but cut easy and cut shallow. I’m not psychic enough to know what’s inside and without my equipment….” He shrugged.

Ken nodded. “I want all of you to get back.”

No one moved.

He looked at Jesse. “See, I can’t even get my team to follow my instruction.”

Jesse shook his head. “We’re keeping you, so stop it.”

Sam’s head snapped to Ken. What the hell was that about? She wanted to ask, but other things took precedence at the moment. Later she’d ask. All she felt right now was that she didn’t want Ken to die. Irony described her life.

“Don’t worry,” Franks said with a quirk to his lips, “if we all get blown up, Doc’s outside. Who better to have tend to you than a medic?”

While a bad joke, it helped ease the tension that flowed through the group.

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