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“You cuff him,” he told Bryce. After they’d exchanged roles, Caleb returned to the car.
His mother was clutching the steering wheel when he opened her door. “Is that—I didn’t know you did that sort of thing. It was …”
“It was necessary. And that’s about one-hundredth of what I do. You’d know that if you paid any attention, if you even asked me what I did all day long. I don’t think you want to know. I think you want me to fail.”
“That’s not true. I …” She sniffed and raised her face to his, and he saw her eyes were full of tears. He’d made his mother cry. Fucking fantastic.
Caleb forced himself to take a deep breath and exhale. His mom smelled like baby powder and incense from the church. She was difficult, but he loved her. “Thanks for lunch, Ma. I’m sorry I’m being an asshole. I’m not having a very good day. I love you, but I need you to go home now so I can stop worrying about you and get back to work.”
She nodded. Stiff. “I love you, too,” she said, so quietly it sounded like a secret she was telling him.
The worst part was, it didn’t even move him. Didn’t do a thing to loosen the tight knot of frustration in his stomach. Her love had never been in question. It was her respect he needed. Her faith.
As she drove off, he stopped by the SUV to talk to Cassie. “What time did you log Richard Morrow out?”
She looked down at the clipboard, unwilling to meet his eyes. He wasn’t sure he’d want to meet his own eyes right now, but Cassie seemed excessively nervous considering he’d known her since she and Katie were both giggling schoolgirls. “Quarter to three.”
“He was here for an hour?”
“Yes.” She was blushing.
“What am I missing, Cass?”
She gripped the steering wheel with both hands and didn’t answer him.
Eric piped up. “He was with Mrs. Callahan for ten minutes, sir. The rest of the time he spent out here.”
The man didn’t say, The rest of the time he spent out here flirting with Cassie, but he didn’t have to. Message received.
“Thanks, Eric.”
As soon as Caleb didn’t desperately need every breathing body he could get, he was going to have to fire Cassie. Which meant Katie would be pissed at him. Man, this day just kept getting better.
His phone buzzed. Another text from the guys at the roadblock wanting his opinion on something ASAP.
As he was forcing his way past the barricades and through the crush of bodies, his phone rang. This time, it was Sean. Caleb had assigned him to run the show over at Maureen Morrow’s house.
“What’s up?”
“Weird situation over here,” Sean said. “There’s a photographer trying to take the Callahan kid’s picture.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Why are you calling to tell me this? Walk him off the property.”
“Yeah, sure. But the thing is, I’ve seen this guy before, and—”
Caleb stopped in his tracks. “Is it Plimpton?” Realizing Sean wouldn’t know who he was talking about, he added, “Does he look like a rat? Little guy, slicked-back hair?”
“Yeah.”
Fuck. “And he’s actually on the property?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Keep him there, and watch your back. He might be dangerous. I’m going to send a cruiser to pick him up.”
“Sure. I can do that. But here’s the—”
“Is Henry in the house yet?” Caleb raked his hand through his hair. This was bad. This sucked.
