Part 18
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"Pop...Dad," he panted. "Where's Kacie?"
"She is not here."
"Is she all right? Where is she?" Peter raked a shaking hand through his hair, attempting to slow his heart's gallop to a more controllable pace.
"I left her apartment only two hours ago, and she said she was going to rest." Caine regarded his son with an enigmatic stare.
"She's-she's all right then?" Peter's lightheaded relief faded with his father's next words.
"Her physical injuries will heal quickly. The emotional wounds will not."
"Then-then-then you shouldn't have left her alone." Peter started to say more, but the sudden fury in his father's eyes stopped him cold.
"You!" Caine's voice was so laced with anger that both Peter and Kermit jumped. He pointed the trowel in his hand at Peter. "You will not tell me what I should or should not do. Not ever!"
Peter lowered his head, looking properly chastened. Taking a deep breath, he glanced up quickly at Kermit. "Drive me to her place?"
"We'll be there in ten minutes."
Peter pounded on Kacie's door and called out, "Kacie? Kacie? It's Peter. Open up, Kace. I've gotta talk to you!" Hearing no response, he took a step back and was about to kick in the door when Kermit grabbed his arm and jerked him aside.
Kermit smiled grimly. "Allow me." Reaching into his inside jacket pocket, Kermit pulled out a small case and removed a lock pick. After a few seconds of maneuvering, the door swung open.
"Kacie?" Peter called as he moved quickly from room to room. "Kacie?" His voice rose in panic. He rushed out of her bedroom, bumping into Kermit. "She's not here."
"Annie, it's Kacie." The voice wobbled. "Can I come in and talk to you?"
Annie frowned at the obvious distress in her friend's voice. "Of course, Kacie. I'll be right there to let you in." She hurried quickly down the hallway to unlock the door and open it. She shepherded Kacie into the house and closed the door. "Kacie, what's the matter? Nothing's happened to Peter, has it?"
"No. No, nothing like that."
Annie was unable to see the devastation on Kacie's face, but heard it plainly in her voice.
"I-I just needed somebody to talk to."
Annie led her to the couch and held on to Kacie's hand as they sat down together. "What's the matter, Sweetie?" she asked gently.
"I-I saw Peter with someone last night."
"With someone?" Annie was confused.
"I was supposed to meet him at the Agrippa Club last night, and I got there really late."
Annie couldn't see the way Kacie's face flamed with humiliation as she remembered the scene.
"At first I couldn't see Peter at all. And then everyone looked at me so funny." Her voice grew unsteady. "And then I saw him with her. Out dancing. And they were touching and kissing and..."
"And it bothered you to see him with another woman," Annie guessed.
"Yes. No. I don't know. I mean, Peter and I are just friends..." She sighed heavily. "I'm just so confused!" She got up off the couch and went over to the window to stare out at nothing. "I need to get away for a while. To go somewhere and sort things out. I-I stopped here first, but now I don't know what to do."
Annie got up and followed Kacie's voice to stand next to her at the bay window. Sliding an arm around the younger woman's waist, she suggested, "I know the perfect place. Our family has a cabin up at Big Bear Lake, about three hours from here. It's beautiful up there, and you can be just as alone as you want. There's some nice people that live only a few miles away, if you need anything. Come on. I'll give you a key and tell you how to get there. And I'll bet you haven't had anything to eat yet today, have you? Come on, let me whip something up for you." Annie patted Kacie's back as they strolled to the kitchen. "Do you have a cell phone?"
"No."
"The phone at the cabin isn't hooked up right now. You take my cell phone with you, and I expect you to call me at least once a day so I won't worry about you. Now, let's get some breakfast in you before you leave."
"And what circumstances would that be?" asked the captain, resting her elbows on her desk and steepling her fingers.
"Captain, Kacie's gone and no one has any idea of where she could be. She was attacked last night and the perp was arrested, but what if he's got a buddy out there that didn't like the fact his partner was busted? What if somebody came after her? What if..."
"What if she just left town for a few days?" Simms asked reasonably.
"How can you just sit there?" Peter ticked off his points on his fingers. "No one from the hospital has heard from her, this is her week on rotation, she didn't say anything to my father about going anywhere, nobody's seen her, and nobody knows where she is!"
Simms remained maddeningly calm. "There are no signs of forced entry or any kind of struggle at her apartment, and her car is gone. She may simply have gone on a short trip."
"So you won't authorize a missing persons?" he asked angrily.
"You know the drill, Detective. They have to be missing for at least 24 hours if there are no signs of foul play."
"Thanks for nothing!" he snapped and slammed out of the room. Sitting down at his desk, he rubbed his eyes with his hands. His vivid imagination kept recalling past crime scenes of car accidents, rapes, and murders. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Steady there, Kid," Kermit cautioned.
"Kermit!" Peter stared up hopefully. "Anything?"
"Afraid not, Peter. Nobody knows anything; nobody's seen anything."
Peter bolted out of his chair and grabbed his jacket. "I can't just sit here." He headed for the staircase in long, purposeful strides.
"What are you going to do?" Kermit called after him.
"I don't know! Look. Something." He disappeared down the steps.
The next day still showed no leads, so an APB was released with Kacie identified as an official missing person. Kermit exhausted all Internet connections, and Skalany, Jody, and Peter called on every street contact they could think of. They checked out hospitals, other precincts, and even the morgues, all with no success.
Peter was past panic and well on the way to frantic by late afternoon. He had been to his father's three times, hoping for something; anything. He dialed Kacie's phone number for the fiftieth time, hoping against hope that she would pick up. That evening he went to her apartment, letting himself in with the lock pick Kermit had loaned him.
He roamed disconsolately from room to room, pausing in front of the photo of Kacie with her father and brother. He slowly traced the outline of her chin with the tip of his finger. "Where are you?" he whispered, leaning his forehead against the picture. "Where...are...you?"
Peter trudged up the precinct stairs with leaden feet. He had showered only out of force of habit, but hadn't bothered to shave. He sat down heavily at his desk and rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. He was still sitting that way when Skalany and Kermit came in.
"How ya doing, Partner?" Skalany laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
"I don't know what else to do, Mary Margaret." He looked at her with eyes red-rimmed with fatigue.
"Peter, I hate to bring this up," she said gently. "But is there anyone else we should contact about this?"
He drew in a sharp breath and let it out slowly. "There's a family friend back in Colorado, but I don't even know his name. Other than that..." He shrugged and then blanched. "Oh, my God!"
"What is it, Peter?" Kermit asked, taken aback by the shocked look on the younger man's face.
"I haven't told Annie or Carolyn or Kelly. They'll want to know. God!" He laughed bitterly. "What do I tell them? 'I made an ass out of myself the other night, Kacie went out and nearly got herself killed, and now she's missing. She's gonna end up dead, and you have me to thank for it'?"
"Take it easy, Peter." Skalany patted his shoulder. "She'll turn up."
"Yeah, where? At the morgue? We got no more leads now than we did two days ago. She could be lying in an alley somewhere right now." He abruptly stood up and put on his coat, eyes burning and throat muscles working.
"Where you going?" Kermit asked him.
"I've gotta talk to Mom and tell her what's going down. I'll-I'll talk to you guys later."
Peter stood outside the door of his foster mother's home. He had rehearsed his speech to Annie on the way over, but still didn't know how he was going to tell her about Kacie's disappearance. Ringing the doorbell first, he knocked his special knock and punched in the security code before using his key and letting himself in. Walking through the door he called out, "Mom? Mom? Are you home?"
"In the kitchen, Peter."
He headed slowly toward the sound of Annie's voice. When he entered the kitchen, he found her sitting with a book in braille, drinking a cup of coffee. She took a sip and swallowed it before saying, "What's bothering you, Sweetie?"
Startled at her intuitiveness, he asked, "How did you know something was bothering me?"
"Oh, Peter, I've listened to you walk through this house for over fifteen years. I can tell when you're happy or sad or scared just by your walk."
He pulled up a chair and sat next to her. "Mom." His voice shook and he cleared his throat. "Mom, we-we can't find Kacie anywhere. She...something's happened to her. Nobody's seen or heard from her in over two days. We've looked everywhere. There's just no trace of her."
"I know where she is."
Peter kept on talking, her words failing to register in his overly-tired brain. "We've called everyone and looked every place we could think of. It's-it's like she's fallen off the face of the earth."
"Peter!" Annie raised her voice. "I said that I know where she is!"
He grabbed her shoulders. "What did you say?"
"Peter, she came to see me two days ago and told me she needed to get away for a while. I sent her up to our cabin at the lake."
"She's at our cabin? That's where she's been this whole time? Oh, Jesus, Mom!" He buried his head against her shoulder.
"Oh, Sweetie." Annie put her arms around his broad shoulders. "If I had known you were looking for her, I would have called you a long time ago."
"It doesn't matter now, Mom." Peter hugged his mother gratefully. "Are you sure she's all right?"
"I just talked to her about an hour ago. Before she left I made her promise to call me every day, and she's been really faithful about it."
Peter rose to his feet, pulling Annie along with him, and raised her up from the floor, arms crushing her in a bear hug. "I love you, Mom." He kissed her soundly on the cheek before setting her back down. "Mom, can you call the precinct for me and tell 'em what's going on?"
"What do I say is going on?"
"Just tell 'em that Kacie's found and that I'm going after her and that I won't be in any more today thanks Mom." His words ran together as he dashed down the hallway.
The front door slammed so hard the pictures on the wall rattled. Annie smiled to herself as she started to punch in the familiar number of the precinct. "Just friends, hmm?" She laughed to herself.
Kacie had found a secluded spot on the lakeshore about a mile's hike from the cabin. The little cove was well protected from the wind and the lake surface was as smooth as a mirror. She sat wearily, with knees tucked under her chin and hands clasped around her legs, examining her actions and reactions that evening at the Agrippa.
{Why did seeing Peter in the arms of a beautiful woman hit me the way it did? There's nothing more between us than a friendship, is there? But then, neither one of us has dated anybody since we met those few months ago. We're always joking about how I'll never get involved with a cop, and Peter says he's staying as far away from anyone associated with a hospital as he can.}
She sighed and shifted position. {There's never really been a physical side to our relationship, just a few hugs and kisses on the cheek. We're so comfortable in each other's company. Maybe I've just taken Peter for granted. He's very attractive. I love the way his eyes dance when he's excited.} A sad smile crossed her face. {The way he runs his hand through his hair is kinda cute.}
She frowned and idly watched a hawk dive after a fish in the water. {Peter, the little boy, makes me want to take him in my arms and make everything all better. Peter, the man...} She froze as it hit her. {Peter, the man, makes me want to take him in my arms and do exactly the same things that woman was doing, and more.}
Jumping to her feet, she brushed off her jeans and started walking aimlessly along the shore. {I can't compete with someone like that. She's gorgeous, sophisticated, and, from the look on Peter's face, she sure knew what to do to please him.} Fingering the charms on her necklace, the tears that were never far from the surface the past few days started to well up again. Her throat ached as she looked at the letters TLW on the golden heart. "What if I've waited too long?" she whispered out loud. A slow tear rolled from the corner of each eye as she kept walking.
Peter made the three-hour drive in record time. Twice state patrolmen stopped him for speeding, and only his badge and some fast talking kept him from some hefty fines.
When he saw the familiar red Saturn in front of the family cabin, his heart flew into his throat and the leaden weight in his chest lifted and floated away. Dust flew in the air as he braked the Stealth to a skidding halt. He was out of the car and up to the cabin door in seconds.
He knocked quickly, and when there was no answer, let himself in with his key. Making a quick check of the house, he found ample evidence that the cabin was being occupied. Thrusting both hands into the air, he threw back his head and whooped triumphantly.
He grabbed a pair of binoculars from the cabin and slung them around his neck before setting out for the lake at a fast walk. He broke into a trot, his anxiousness to see Kacie again making him impatient to find her. {She's got to be coming back to shelter soon. It gets cold early in the afternoon this time of year.}
Pausing on top of a rise that looked down over the lake, he scanned the area with the binoculars. He quickly picked up a walking figure and focused in the image. He caught his breath as the magnified lenses allowed him to see the bruises about Kacie's face, and the still-swollen eye. He let the glasses fall and hang by the strap around his neck and started down to intercept her, forcing himself to walk even though everything in him screamed for him to run.
The sun started to sink behind a bank of clouds in the west and a sharp breeze sprang up. Kacie hunched deeper into her coat collar and shivered. It was time to head for the cabin. She stopped for an instant and looked out over the lake once more. {It's so quiet here. It reminds me of the ranch in the mountains back in Colorado.} She swallowed around the ache in her throat. {Maybe that's what I should do. I should just go back there. What is there here for me?}
A movement off to her left caught her eye, and she did a double take as she saw a man's figure heading her way. {Oh, God, I'm out here all by myself!} She knew an instant of panic until she recognized the familiar long-legged stride. Somehow she wasn't surprised to see him coming toward her. She stood still and waited.
Peter could tell Kacie had seen him, and she stood quietly waiting as he came near. Her hands were shoved deep into her coat pockets, the nervous gesture he had come to know so well.
He halted in front of her, and they stood wordlessly for several seconds. He raised a hand and tenderly touched the bruising on her cheek and around the battered eye. She submitted to his touch, but winced when he stroked a particularly sore spot. She backed away from him, dropping her eyes and kicking at a rock with her foot.
The silence stretched on between them. He let Kacie speak first.
"What are you doing here?" She glanced up at him briefly, then looked away. The voice was weary and the eyes were sad.
Peter half-laughed. "What am I doing here? Looking for you is what I'm doing here. I've nearly been out of my mind with worry. Every cop in the city has been trying to find you for two days!" His tone sharpened without him realizing it.
She moved back another step and asked simply, "Why?"
"Why? Because I couldn't find you! Because I heard about the attack and I went to talk to you and you had disappeared!" He scratched the back of his neck in frustration. "Because when I heard what happened to you, it scared the hell out of me." He reached out to her, but she twisted away to avoid the contact.
"I'm all right. You don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself." She refused to meet his gaze.
"Kacie, talk to me."
"I thought that's what I was doing."
"This isn't talking. This is just...words." Peter was mystified by her behavior.
"Do we really have anything to talk about?" she asked, finally locking gazes with him, her eyes dark and miserable.
{It's the eyes}, he thought to himself. {There's something missing in her eyes.} "I want to explain about the other night."
Her face reddened and her eyes dropped to the toe that was still kicking the rock. "You don't owe me any explanations, Peter. You have your own private life and..." She breathed in raggedly. "I have mine. Why don't we just leave it at that?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if you choose to be with a woman, it's none of my business. You don't owe me any explanations. We've never been more than friends, right? That's all you want, isn't it?" She stared at him, her throat working, and chewed on her trembling lower lip before looking away again.
"Isn't that all you want?"
"No-o. No, it's not," she said slowly. "I don't want to be your friend anymore, Peter." She looked at him again, grief showing in her eyes and a single tear tracing a path down her black-and-blue cheek.
He started to speak, but nothing came out. Clearing his throat, he tried again. "I hurt you that much?" he choked in a voice thick with emotion.
She shook her head and reached up to tuck a wind-blown strand of her hair behind her ear. She sniffled and spoke softly. "You just opened my eyes, Peter, that's all. And after thinking about it -- a lot -- I've realized that I can't be just your friend." Her tears fell faster than she could wipe them away.
Peter stood frozen in shock and disbelief. His face paled under the two-days growth of stubble on his face, and he looked down at the ground and then up at the sky before returning a dazed visage to her. Chin trembling, he wordlessly started to turn away.
"Peter, I don't want to be just friends with you anymore. I...I..."
He whirled around and stared at her as the emphasis on the words "just friends" hit him.
She stood a few feet behind him, hands still in her pockets and face muscles working.
Understanding dawned on him, and he reached out his arms to her in silent supplication.
Without hesitation, she took her hands out of her pockets and tumbled into his embrace.
As he held her, a feeling of coming home swept over him. "You know what?" he choked into her ear. "I don't think we've been just friends for a long time." He backed off briefly, bringing his hands up to the sides of her face and thumbing away the tears. Their lips melted together in a soft, gentle kiss rich with promise.
Peter wrapped his arms more tightly about Kacie and the kiss deepened, stirring feelings he had never experienced before. He pulled back momentarily and smiled into her adoring eyes before she tugged at the collar of his coat to bring his lips back to hers.