Page 32 of Bait and Switch
“Deputy Eagan seems okay—for a cop,” Gabe said thoughtfully, bringing Casey back to the present. “But once Deputy Spurring showed up, he pretty much shut her out. I was lucky enough to get him to myself today. Not.”
That wasn’t a shock. Spurring probably wanted to be the one to solve Vale’s murder. It would be a feather in his cap, and maybe he’d get a pat on the head from Rizzi.
“Back to this. Peter Vale is—was—John Stevens’s son? Huh. I’m still having some issues wrapping my head around that, tobe honest.” Casey thought back to the day Vale had stopped by and asked about Karne. There’d been no spark of recognition for Casey; as far as he knew, they’d never crossed paths in the past.
“Elton told me a little more about John Stevens prosecuting your brother.”
Oh, Elton. Casey sort of wanted to strangle his old friend. Mickie being still behind bars was an open wound. Greta would say it had festered.
“Half brother, but yeah, he did. Based on evidence provided by the Sheriff’s Office, of course. Which I didn’t believe then and I don’t believe now.”
“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”
He did mind him asking, but Charming Fucker could just as easily find out what happened from the internet. Or from a longer conversation with Elton.
“It was August and there was a heat wave going on. Mickie and his girlfriend, Maya Crane, were drinking at the Pizza Joint, they argued, and Maya left. Mickie stayed behind, drinking more before he decided to walk home to his new place. No one ever saw Maya alive again. Her body was discovered at the point by some kayakers. She’d been strangled and raped.”
Maya’s murder had punctuated the end of the terrible summer before Casey started high school. In many ways, Maya’s murder marked the end of Casey’s childhood.
“Witnesses saw them arguing at the Pizza Joint, and Mickie didn’t make it home that night after all. He passed out on a friend’s patio, so no alibi. Only came to our place because he didn’t have food at his apartment yet. The crazy thing is, I thought I saw Maya. Maybe I was the last one, but, well?—”
Even with all the time that had passed, it was hard for him to talk about Maya’s murder and the fallout from it. His family, already crumbling that summer, had been obliterated, their lives forever changed with Mickie’s arrest and the subsequent trial.There was life before Mickie’s arrest—not perfect, but good enough. Then whatever the fuck afterward.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive their parents for imagining Mickie could have done something as evil as raping and murdering his girlfriend. Worse, because he’d been barely fourteen, no one believed Casey had seen Maya later in the evening, still alive. And Mickie never would say what his and Maya’s argument had been about. Just that it was personal.
“Mickie wasn’t lying. I snuck out of the house and saw Maya on my way to the summer’s end bonfire.” He’d been too excited to stop and say hi, exhilarated by the thought of hanging out with the cool kids and, maybe, sneaking a beer. “Most of the island kids used to show up at the Senior Sneak at least once before becoming true seniors. I even saw Gordon MacDonald there that night, and he’s a good four years younger than me.”
The clink-clink of Gabe scraping his spoon against the side of the ceramic mug in a fruitless search for more ice cream distracted him. Casey watched him for a second, then shook his head and blinked, realizing he’d lost his train of thought.
“My mom and dad—well, that was a shitstorm and still is.” Casey pursed his lips, fighting off the distraction that arose from having Gabriel’s undivided attention, “Having Mickie accused and convicted of murder tore them apart. Within a couple years of the trial, as soon as I was eighteen, they sold their property and moved as far away as they could afford. And then they split up. I can’t relate to either of them, their utter lack of loyalty. They abandoned both of us and then each other.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Gabe said, bringing him back to the present—again.
“Yeah, me too.” Mostly, Casey was sorry that Mickie only had him fighting for him. Mickie deserved more. Casey could only do so much with how the cards were currently stacked.
The cat chose that moment to come out of hiding—Casey’d forgotten it was there—and rub up against Gabe’s legs. Moving away again, the beast stared up at Casey and meowed.
“I have some cat food on my boat.” Because he was a sucker and had planned on luring the cat inside with it before the weather got too horrible.
“Oh, good, you can take the cat with you when you leave.”
Casey laughed. “Yeah, no. It picked you. Damn thing has terrible taste, but here we are. I’ll take Bowie and go grab the food for you. My friend who’s a vet lives near Greta and Abby, he might be willing to do an exam for you.”
The expression on Gabe’s face was comical, and Casey couldn’t help but laugh again. “I’ll be right back.”
While Gabe was sputtering about “cats” and “what did he know?” Casey climbed off theTicketand jogged over toThe Barbarafor the spare food. Privately, he thought it was hilarious that the cat had chosen Gabe and was looking forward to seeing how it all played out. Regardless of his tough talk, Gabriel Karne was a soft touch.
THIRTEEN
Gabriel
Tuesday, Night of the Ever-Loving Cat
“How the fuckdid I end up with you?” Gabe asked the scrawny cat after Casey had returned with a can of wet food and a plastic container of dry and then departed again. He’d wanted to protest that he was not a pet person. But maybe he’d never been a pet person because he’d never been allowed one. Moving in the dead of night did not lend itself to pets of any kind. Not even goldfish or lizards.
But something told him that this was sort of a test, that he needed to pass if?—
If what, Chance?
