Free Cold Case Recruit by Jennifer Morey Page B

Ever since then he’s been plagued with the anxiety that you’d return. He never wants to see you again, Brycen. None of us do. I’m glad I’m the one who ran into you first.” She had a haughty air about her, both in the tone of her high, smooth voice, and the way she used her jewel-adorned hands as she talked.
    What had Brycen done to upset her and her father so much? And to harbor the feeling for so long...
    With a somber, taxed face, Brycen didn’t respond at first. Then he said, “I don’t know how many different ways I can apologize, Avery. My apology is all I can give you. It’s all I’ve ever had. I never meant anyone any harm.”
    Someone was harmed? Who? Drury stepped forward again, not wanting to eavesdrop without them knowing she was there.
    “You’re not sorry.” Avery sneered. “You left us in ruins and went off to become a celebrity. It’s bad enough we have you in our past, but to have to see you on television?” She made a sound of disgust. “It took Dad a month to recover from that news.”
    “You and your father are still blaming everyone else for your unhappiness, I see.”
    “You’re the heartless one, Brycen Cage.”
    Brycen noticed Drury and pushed the door open, forcing Avery to drop her hand and step back.
    Drury followed him, giving the woman an admonishing but incredulous look as she passed. Regardless of what Brycen had done all those years ago, her personal attack had seemed unjustified, more like a retaliation, and exactly what Brycen had said. Blame.
    “I’d watch out for him if I were you,” Avery said to her back.
    Drury ignored her and hurried after Brycen. When she caught up to him, she had to walk fast and jog intermittently to keep up.
    “I don’t suppose you want to tell me what that was all about?” she asked.
    “No.”
    “Who is Avery?”
    “Nobody.” His hard, long strides put an exclamation point on the end of that.
    “I believe that you meant no harm. Whatever it is you did.”
    “Just drop it, Drury. This qualifies as something personal. I don’t want to talk about it.”
    Off-limits. He’d conveniently laid down the law. They didn’t talk about anything personal. He wouldn’t talk. She’d have to respect that for now. What had he done to turn a family against him? It must be something serious, despite Avery’s air of superiority.
     

Chapter 4
    C arter had a helicopter waiting for them the next day. Brycen said very little to Drury on the way to Mica Island. He wished she hadn’t witnessed his encounter with Avery. He’d hoped things had changed in the decade or so he’d been gone. Absolutely nothing had changed. The same stench and rot he’d left remained. The disappointment after learning that stayed with him, dragging him down and thrusting him back in time, back into memories he wished he could forget forever.
    “That must be it.” Drury’s voice came through the headphones. She pointed through the side window in the back.
    Evette and Melvin Cummings lived near Tate, Alaska, a tiny village southeast of Anchorage. No airstrips had been built in the mountainous terrain. The only way in was by boat, helicopter or air with water landing. The helicopter pilot began to descend. A ramshackle cabin came into view, completely isolated and about twenty miles from the village, which had a population of less than two hundred and had recently lost their sheriff, who’d moved to the Lower 48 last year.
    The landing chopper got the attention of the inhabitants, who appeared on their front porch. As the helicopter touched down, Brycen studied Evette. Wearing a long dress and a shawl, she stood away from her husband, on one side of the porch, with a downturned mouth. Melvin, on the other hand, stood tall and imposing in front of the door with an assault rifle in his hands, also with a downturned mouth, but in a menacing way, whereas his wife seemed to live in constant fear and unhappiness.
    Brycen took out his pistol and readied it to fire.
    Drury