Chapter Thirty-Seven

“T he showdown at the warehouse has become quite the talk of the town.” Billy Carter told Olivia and Brock, who were seated across from him at his desk. The chaotic workspace piled high with paperwork clashed with the quiet of the office, where not even the sounds of the outside traffic could be heard through the wall. “No one heard anything. They were all either sleeping with their AC on full blast or watching action shows on TV. The house nearest to the warehouse was vacant at the time. So that’s why no one came based on the gunshots or the screams. I think the Schmidts were counting on that.”

Olivia threw a glance at Brock sitting beside her. His shirt covered the bandage around his waist, concealing the wound in his side where the bullet had grazed him. He had been released that morning and with nothing else to do, he and Olivia planned to leave tomorrow morning after one more night to rest and wind down from the climactic way the case had turned out. “It would have been nice if someone would have heard something and called 911.” She forced a laugh. Finding Brock’s hand under the desk, she slipped her fingers into his and squeezed his hand, gently. “But it all turned out well.”

“The people of Cape Fremont haven’t seen this type of excitement in years. It’ll surely be something that goes down in history that this small little town had two visitors come down, only to be heroes in stopping a trafficking ring in its tracks.”

“We’re just doing our job,” Brock replied with his usual, easygoing smile. The meds he was on numbed the pain just enough for his humor to return and he hadn’t stopped since they left the hospital. Olivia was glad about that. She had been faced with the horrible fear that she’d never be able to hear his jokes or his humor again, but here he was. She squeezed his hand one more time under the desk, feeling the warmth of his squeeze back.

The ringing of the sheriff’s phone cut into the quiet of the office, so startling that it reminded Olivia of the gunshots in the warehouse. He reached for his phone, holding up a finger. “Sorry, one minute.”

Olivia pressed her lips together and shrugged. “We’re not leaving until tomorrow, anyway.”

Carter held the phone to his ear. “Hello?” He paused, his eyes sweeping over the surface of his desk in deep thought that pressed a frown to his face. “I thought so. Thank you for that. I’ll pass this along to them.”

To them? Olivia got the feeling he was talking about her and Brock. Which she hoped he was. There was still one loose end to tie up. She hated that she hadn’t been able to go after Angela because of the locked doors and not getting to the car in time. They had put out an alert on the red sports car, but as far as Olivia had heard, nothing had been found.

Carter hung the phone up and turned to face them, both. “That was the coroner. He’s a friend of mine, he’s got some information for you. Last night, a tourist passing through the highway called in a rollover on the freeway headed to Charleston along the coast. The rollover was a sports car. It was called in around eight this morning.”

Olivia’s eyes widened, the new information intriguing her. “A sports car?”

“Was it Alasdair’s?” Brock followed up with the question.

Carter volleyed his gaze between them both as he answered. “VIN and registration match. We had to go by the DMV records because, by the time the car was found this morning, there was nothing left. Something happened and the car went off the road and burnt to a crisp with a victim inside.”

Olivia stifled a small gasp. “Was it Angela?”

“I had the coroner run a thorough examination. Called in a favor and told him I needed the results ASAP. The body found in the car was nearly unidentifiable, but he did manage to get some evidence off of it. The victim was female. There was a bullet wound in the victim’s right hand.”

“That’s consistent with Olivia’s shot.” Brock squeezed her hand again, a subtle way to remind her how impressed he was with her taking down the two villains just like that. Olivia hadn’t expected them to find Angela dead, though.

Carter went on. “We also found ID in the car. The ID belonged to Angela Schmidt. The woman found in the burnt sports car is your victim. She’s dead.”

Before Olivia could breathe a sigh of relief, she gave the right of way to her doubts. “He’s absolutely sure?”

“Absolutely. With the gunshot wound in her hand, the woman was the same height and weight and her ID was in her wallet next to the victim. She went off the road and for some reason, we’re still investigating, but the car burst into flames. ”

“So, that’s it then.” Brock stared in wonder at the man. “The trafficking ring is finished. Over, and done.”

“It appears that way, yes.” Carter nodded. “I can’t thank you two enough. We had no idea there were this many people involved. Sure, the townspeople tossed around the word ‘trafficking,’ but they were more inclined to believe it was some kind of teen cult that was causing these kids to go missing. Never in a million years would anyone have suspected a teacher, a waitress and three people who come here on vacation occasionally to be the ones behind such a huge operation. But now that it’s over and done with, the people of Cape Fremont can breathe freely again.”

“Like Brock said,” Olivia let that satisfaction spread through her. They’d done it. They’d cracked this case, taken down two deadly people and a third was in prison. She summed it all up with one phrase: “We’re just doing our job.”

The rain gave way to sunshine, a beautiful day beaming down on Cape Fremont. Olivia and Brock kept their pace casual as they left the sheriff’s office. Olivia tried not to let the victory they had go to her head, but she couldn’t deny the rush of delight it gave her to solve a case and solve it well. “Well. Are you ready to get back to the hotel and pack up?” She paused at the driver’s door.

Brock winced a bit as he opened the door, but replaced it with a smile as soon as he could. “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” He slid into the front seat of the car, taking his own sweet time. Pain medicine could only do so much against a gunshot nick that was traumatic enough as it was.

They didn’t say much on the ride back to the hotel. Case or not, Olivia admitted that she was going to miss this little town. Even the packed two-lane road that slithered through historic downtown. The buildings reminded her of early colonial architecture, the people seemed to be a blast from the past, living in a mindset of about fifty years ago: running on the beach, surfing, and generally happy in their lives. Out of everything, Olivia would miss the beach the most. The ocean wasn’t something she got to see every day and the little community she had come to know during her stay here, between meals at Breakers or hotel staff right on the coastal front, she would find herself missing it. Returning to Belle Grove sounded appealing to her, with the word “home” ringing true and delightful to her, but there was always that dejection of leaving a town like this behind at first.

“I love how the town is called Cape Fre mont.” She emphasized the “free” in the name.

Brock turned to face her, ripping his gaze from the window where he, too, was probably reminiscing on how it would be difficult to leave this quaint town behind. “Why’s that?”

“Well, I know that we can’t take down every trafficking ring in the world.” Olivia gritted her teeth. “I wish we could. But we successfully took down one. And that means, no more missing kids.”

“Yeah, we know that there were probably more from some other towns, somewhere. There’s no way Cape Fremont was the only one.” Brock sighed. “I only wish we could find every last one of them.”

“Me too.” It was the one thing about taking down a trafficking ring. What about the teens who didn’t make it? Olivia gripped the steering wheel, forcing herself to only look at the positive. “But now the teens of this town are officially free. ”

“Cape Free- mont.” Brock chuckled. “I get it now. Very cheesy, Olivia.”

“Hey.” She shrugged, slowly, working out the tension in her muscles. “It works, though. You have to admit.”

“It does.” He was silent for a long time until Olivia turned up the street where the ocean came into view. “I wish every case was like this. ”

“So do I.”

“Maybe without the gunshot wound, though.”

“I was about to say…”

They pulled into the quaint little hotel for the last time and went directly to their room. Once their bags were packed and everything was set in order except for what they needed for their last night here, Brock turned to Olivia, that familiar sparkle to his eye. He threw a quick glance down to his watch, then back up to her with boyish playfulness. “You know, we’re heading out in the morning.”

“Right?” Olivia returned his grin.

“And we have been doing nothing but working this case since we arrived here.”

Olivia laughed. “Again, what we were assigned to do.”

Brock approached her. “Well, now the case is over. And we have some time to spend. What do you say to one more ride out onto the ocean? On a boat, just you and me? This time, for real and not undercover.”

“Hmm.” Olivia tilted her head, pretending to give it some thought. After a few beats, she smiled up at him. “I say yes.”

The sun was just going down on the small little town of Cape Fremont. Olivia stood with Brock at the back of a small boat, driven by an older man who seemed to enjoy being out on the ocean more than his business. The peace in his eyes as he spun the boat out onto the ocean waves equaled more happiness than the tour charge that kept his lights on. He kept his gaze out on the ocean, leaving Olivia and Brock to themselves at the back of the small boat. As it coasted along the shoreline, drifting up and down with the waves, Olivia let the sea breeze play with her hair, running fingers of cool saltwater breezes through each strand. There was nothing like the ocean wind on her face and the man she loved beside her.

The sun hid behind the hills, catching the cirrus clouds that painted the entire sky on fire with a hue of magenta pink that couldn’t be duplicated. The pink turned everything around them into a hue that matched the clouds, absorbing them into the fading light.

Brock slipped an arm around her and she nestled into his side, overlooking the waves and leaning her head into his shoulder. There was nowhere in the world that she’d rather be than right there in his embrace. “You know, I never got a chance to properly thank you.”

“For what?” Brock nestled his face closer to hers, still watching the ocean and the sunset.

Olivia looked up to search his eyes. “For saving my life. Again.”

“Pfft.” He blew it off as if it were nothing. “After everything we’ve been through, you don’t need to thank me for it. The possibility of saving your life is a daily occurrence in our job. You do it for me. I do it for you. It’s only fair.”

“It’s not just that.” Olivia turned to face him and he did the same, standing nose to nose at the railing with the backdrop of a magnificent sunset behind them. With all of the genuine love and honesty in the world, she looked up into his eyes and let her smile take over her face. She reached up, stroking his jawline with affectionate fingers. He gave in to the moment, leaning forward and gently kissing her. The boat rocked underneath them, bringing another calm to the moment, and Olivia kissed him back, relishing in the joy that it gave her. When she broke away, she gazed into his eyes once more. “I’m so glad to have you with me, Brock. You’ve made my life so much better by being in it.”

He smiled again and turned her around to finish off watching the sunset. He came up behind her and slipped his arms around her stomach, drawing her close against him, and murmured in her ear, “So have you.”