The Fix Is In (Torus Intercession 4)

“That’s true,” I agreed. “But that’s all he’s copping to? Stealing?”

“Apparently so,” Rodriguez affirmed.

I was relieved to hear that he was a thief and nothing more. I didn’t want to think of him and his friend doing anything more sinister to the women.

“You’ll talk to Saffron and Tara and explain everything?”

“I have already, “she apprised me.

“Thank you,”

Quick nod from her.

“As to the question of the camera,” Brasher went on, “Schmidt claims that he found it in the same area where you took the picture, Mr. Grace. It seems Mr. Lindstrom hired ten men to go up and demolish what was left of the place, which, judging from the picture, wasn’t much, and then they were to load it on a truck so it could be hauled away.”

“And the camera was found up there, but nothing else?”

“No,” Brasher said with a frustrated sigh, “but I put in a call to the state police. We’re working with them and officers from Gearhart, Seaside, and Tillamook, to search Mr. Lindstrom’s land to see if we can find any clue as to what happened to Mr. Harrison. They’re also bringing dogs with them.”

“You think whatever happened to him happened there?”

“I don’t know,” Brasher replied, raking his fingers through his thick salt-and-pepper hair. “But that’s all we have to go on at the moment.”

“What about Caleb’s family? Did you reach out to them?”

“I’m not gonna do that until we find out something one way or another. After Gage’s failure to start searching for the man as soon as Mr. Grace alerted him to the problem, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up before I have something concrete to share with them.”

“Makes sense,” I agreed.

“I’m so sorry,” Benji said hoarsely. “Sorry for you and his family.”

Brasher nodded and shifted in his seat before picking up a pair of glasses from his desk and putting them on. “I’m going to record your statement, Mr. Grace, and type my notes at the same time. Is that all right with you?”

“Of course,” Benji answered, still leaning on me.

Brasher put a small recorder down in front of Benji and stated the date and time and who was in attendance, for the record. “And now, Mr. Grace, would you please relate to me everything you can remember about the day you saw Caleb Harrison in the woods.”

I sat and listened to Benji explain that he’d gone for a walk in the woods after visiting his friend Harold. He’d been with David Cotton, the mayor’s son, and Javier Vega, David’s boyfriend, who owned the brewery.

“Did they see Caleb?”

“I don’t think so,” Benji told him.

Brasher had Rodriguez put in a call to both men.

Once Benji was finally done with his exposition, Brasher wanted to talk about the intruder I had seen at Benji’s house the day before.

It was well after two by the time we were done, and then we had to adjourn to a small conference room when David Cotton and Javier Vega showed up.

David looked like I imagined a mayor’s son would. He was average: light brown hair, blue eyes, freckles across the bridge of his nose, and a ready smile for everyone. His boyfriend, on the other hand, was stunning: square-jawed, with dark brown-black eyes and light tan skin. He exuded the same sort of muscular sensuality as Rais.

Before we took our seats, David slipped around the long table to offer me his hand.

“David Cotton,” he informed me, smiling, “and you must be the bodyguard Sian told me all about.”

“Shaw James,” I stated, shaking his hand and then taking Vega’s. “Pleasure.”

“Javier Vega.” He pulled out the chair beside him so Cotton could sit down. “It’s good to know someone is finally looking out for Benji.”

“Agreed,” David added. “God knows Gage wasn’t doing shit about the incidents.”

Benji shook his head. “You’re making it sound so––”

“Because it was a big deal, no matter what you keep telling yourself,” Javier warned him. “After the attack behind the pub, I don’t know how you even go anywhere by yourself now.”

“What happened behind the pub?” Rodriguez asked Javier.

“I told all of this to Gage,” Javier told her. “He at least took my statement.”

“Be that as it may, I’d like you to tell us again so we don’t have to go searching for something that, knowing what we know about Gage, may not exist.” It was an order, not a request, though Rodriguez somehow softened it.

Javier explained that Gage had blamed the incident on a transient moving through town, but the way Benji was attacked and his parka shredded left no doubt in anyone’s mind that someone had been trying to stab him to death.

“I didn’t even know it was Benji until after I reached him.”

“So you saw what you thought was two men fighting behind the pub?” I asked him.

“There’s like an, I don’t know, an alley I guess you could call it, behind the pub, so on the left is the brick building, and on the right is a chain-link fence. I saw two men rolling around on the ground, and I ran toward them. When I was close enough, I finally heard a scream for help, and I yelled. That was when the guy attacking Benji got up and took off.”