TO DIE FOR (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 8)

by Willow Rose

  “What?”

  I played it. “Here, we see Tommy a few minutes before he’s hit, still walking down the sidewalk. And look at what is right behind him.” I pointed at the screen where the front of a car was poking out in the corner. “Doesn’t that look like the same car?”

  He stared at it, and I started the video again. “Now, Tommy goes into this store here, and a few seconds later, he comes back out, but see what happens in the meantime. The car drives past the store; tell me that isn’t the same car,” I said, and Scott nodded.

  “It sure looks like it.”

  “When Tommy comes back out, look who just happens to drive up across the street from him and stop.”

  Scott stared, eyes wide. “Waiting for him.”

  “Yes, and now that he continues, it follows him, parking behind him every time he stops to look at store windows. And then, when he crosses the street?”

  “It accelerates,” Scott said, “and hits him.”

  “Exactly. Now, the police probably only focused their investigation on the seconds he was hit and the minutes after, trying to recognize the car or the driver when it was barely in the shot. But they didn’t think to look at what happened ahead of the hit.”

  “I’ll be…” Scott said. “So, you’re saying it wasn’t a coincidence?”

  “Nope. It was on purpose. Tommy was intentionally murdered by whoever drove this car.”

  “Huh.”

  “The question is, of course, still, who was behind that wheel? And I think I might have an answer to that as well—or at least a clue we can pursue.”

  Scott smiled. “I hoped you’d say something like that. That’s why I came to you. And I take it you believe that whoever killed Tommy has also taken Sarah? Is that it?”

  I nodded and sipped my coffee, secretly enjoying having impressed him. “It’s my theory that if we find him, we find Sarah, yes.”

  “So, what is it?” he asked, clasping his hands excitedly. “The clue?”

  I smiled secretively, then pointed at the screen where I had stopped the footage at the best picture of the car's right side. The image was grainy and of terrible quality, but I could still see enough.

  “It’s a truck,” I said and pointed. “And not just any ordinary truck. Look at the stripe on the side. What’s written there?”

  Scott looked closer. “Skyranger?”

  “Exactly. It’s a Ford Skyranger. I’ve looked it up, and Ford only made twenty trucks of this type back in the nineties. And there’s only one registered with the DMV in the Orlando area. It’s far-fetched, but at least we have one.”

  Scott smiled his handsome smile once again, and I felt myself getting pulled in by it. He saw me staring, and his eyes grew serious. Then he leaned forward and closed his eyes.

  I gasped.

  “Scott!”

  I pulled back and pushed him. He opened his eyes and looked at me as I jumped down from my stool.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes deep with regret. “I am so sorry. I just…well…I guess I just got pulled back to the old days for a second. Don’t…don’t put anything into it. Please.”

  I scrutinized his face to make sure he wasn’t lying to me, then eased up.

  “I am about to be married, Scott. Don’t you ever try anything like that again. Do you hear me? Never.”

  Chapter 27

  She ordered the fresh-caught tuna and Peter a burger. They were sitting close together on the outside deck at Coconuts on the Beach. Lily had been with him almost constantly since the incident where she was certain the guy from the café was outside her house, looking in. The more she thought about it, though, the more she had come to terms with the fact that she had probably just imagined it because of what had happened earlier at the fitness club. She had thought she saw him there. That had to be why.

  “Can I get you another one of those?” the woman in the tight tank top asked and pointed at Peter’s empty beer glass. He nodded, and she refilled it with a sweet smile. Lily felt a sudden discomfort and leaned into a kiss. Feeling Peter close made Lily feel more at ease, and as their lips parted, Peter caressed her cheek gently, looking into her eyes.

  “I’ve missed this. Us.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ve been busy,” she said, looking down at her drink. “You know with the record deal and all that. I have to finish writing the last songs.”

  “I know. You’re becoming a big star. And I get to say that I’m with you. I knew you before you became a household name. How cool is that?”

  Peter took another bite of his burger, and Lily sat up straight. She had lost her appetite. She had given their relationship a lot of thought lately and wasn’t sure she wanted to be with him, or anyone for that matter, once she started her new career. She couldn’t have anyone holding her back from her big breakthrough, and this could be it. But how do you tell someone that? She hated to have to hurt him. She cared for him. On the other hand, she had worked to get this record deal for most of her life, and she couldn’t have any distractions. This was it. This was her shot.

  She smiled awkwardly at him, then drank from her soda while looking away, avoiding Peter’s eyes. As she shot a look across the wooden porch area, her eyes suddenly locked with those from someone sitting at the tiki bar.

  Lily could barely breathe.

  “What the…”

  Lily reached for Peter and grabbed his arm.

  “What’s wrong? Lily? You look like you’re about to be sick.”

  Lily swallowed, trying to push down the knot in her stomach, then leaned closer to him. “Look over there at the guy sitting at the bar.”

  The guy had stopped looking at her and was paying for his beer, handing the bartender a bill. He then stood to his feet and was about to leave.

  Lily got up. “Hey, mister!”

  “What are you doing?” Peter asked. “Lily?”

  But she was gone and already standing right in front of the guy as he turned to walk away. Startled, he looked down at her.

  “Are you following me? Huh?” she asked, heart pounding. “I keep seeing you everywhere. At the café, at the fitness club, outside my house? Are you some kind of creepy stalker, huh?”

  Peter came up behind her. This guy was double his age, but probably only half as fast. Plus, Peter was big. Seeing this, the guy lifted his hands in the air.

  “Listen, lady. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve just been sitting here enjoying my beer.”

  She was in his face. “I don’t believe you. I see you everywhere. I think I saw you outside of my house one morning when going to work too. I don’t like you.”

  The guy stared at her, his eyes piercing into hers like he couldn’t take them away from her. They stood like that for a few seconds longer than felt comfortable before the guy finally looked away.

  “I was just leaving,” he said.

  Lily felt so angry she could scream. Sensing this, Peter placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just go. He’s a nobody.”

  She scoffed while the guy left.

  “Yeah. You’re right. He’s no one.”

  Chapter 28

  A cold hand reached out and touched Sarah’s cheek, caressing it gently. A set of compassionate eyes looked into hers.

  “You are so beautiful.”

  “I feel awful.”

  “Are you not feeling any better? Yesterday, you were coughing, and I was worried.”

  Sarah stared at her jailer, blinking. The hand still touched her skin gently, rubbing up and down against it as you’d do to a child or a loved one. The feeling made Sarah tremble.

  Her jailer narrowed their eyes. “You’re fine, aren’t you?”

  Sarah lowered her head. She felt the nail inside of her fist, the pointy end poking her thumb.

  “I think you are.”

  “Why do you care?” Sarah asked, looking up again.

  Her jailer looked surprised at the question.

 
“I care for you.”

  “You have a strange way of showing that. If you cared for me, you’d let me go home.”

  Her jailer tilted their head and placed both hands on Sarah’s shoulders. “But you are home. This is where you belong. With me.”

  The raving insanity in the words leaving the jailer’s mouth caused Sarah to despair. It made no sense why she was being kept here. Sarah felt tears sting her eyes. A couple escaped and rolled down her cheeks.

  “Please,” she said. “Just let me go.”

  “Ah-ah, no can do,” the jailer said, wagging a finger in front of Sarah’s face. The jailer leaned forward and placed a set of wet lips first on Sarah’s forehead, then on her mouth. Sarah shivered again.

  “It’s okay,” the jailer said, caressing her cheek, leaning their forehead against hers. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  Sarah couldn’t stop crying. She was so tired, exhausted, and had no idea how to deal with this strange person. All she knew was that she needed to get out of there.

  Now.

  Sarah lifted her hand with the nail in it, slid it to her fingertips, then jammed it into her jailer’s chest. The sound it made as it pierced through the flesh was nauseating, but much to Sarah’s surprise, she seemed to be so fueled by anger, she barely noticed. Her jailer let out a roar, and blood spurted out from the wound. Her jailer fell to the tiles, gasping and panting. Sarah acted quickly. She crawled on top of the person and slammed her fists into her jailer’s head until her jailer stopped moving. Then she stuck her hands into all the pockets and pulled out a set of keys. She then unlocked her chains with the keys, fumbling nervously with them as her jailer moaned in pain. Sarah almost dropped the keys before she finally succeeded in getting loose and could move her hands freely. She didn’t think twice but ran out of the small room, not looking back at her jailer on the floor. She ran down a hallway and spotted a set of stairs at the end of it. She almost gasped as she saw the sunlight coming down from above—almost like heaven was calling out for her, showing her the way.

  Freedom, at last. At last.

  Chapter 29

  THEN:

  “Oh-oh, I do not like the look on that face. What’s up?”

  Lynn sat up straight in her chair as Jeff stormed in and sat down across from her. His eyes were red, and he hadn’t shaved in what looked like days. As usual, he was wearing a suit, but something about the way he wore it told her he hadn’t cared much for dressing himself this morning before going to work. He usually came to her in the late afternoons, after he finished at the office.

  He looked like a mess.

  Jeff exhaled, then sniffled.

  “Take your time,” she said, trying to create a calm atmosphere, one where he felt safe. She couldn’t let him know how much it upset her, seeing him like this, how it made her stomach turn into a knot and her heart race. “There’s no rush.”

  Jeff nodded, then scratched his neck and took a couple of deep breaths, very obviously calming himself. Then he leaned forward and threw out his arms.

  “She left me.”

  Lynn exhaled. “The new girl you were dating? Alice?”

  He scoffed. “Can you believe it?”

  No, she couldn’t, but she couldn’t say that. To her, Jeff was such a wonderful and perfect guy. She couldn’t understand why anyone would ever leave him or even want to hurt him. He was so handsome and charming, and to her, he had it all. But she couldn’t say that.

  “Tell me what happened,” she said instead.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know why I even bother. These women they’re…they’re…” he slapped his hand onto his thigh, startling Lynn. He then clenched his fist and said, “I hate her.”

  “Tell me what happened. When did she break up with you?” she repeated.

  “I came home from work two days ago, and she had her bags packed. We’ve only been dating for five months, but she had basically moved into my apartment and slept there every night. I thought she was the one; I really thought she was.”

  “Did she say anything? Did she give you an explanation?” Lynn asked, not allowing herself to get as riled up on the outside as she felt on the inside. Who did this girl think she was?

  “She’d been with someone else, she told me. Someone from her workplace and she was going to be with him instead. Just like that.”

  “She cheated on you?” Lynn spat, sounding angrier than she intended.

  “Yes, can you believe it?” Jeff said. “She cheated on me.”

  Lynn shook her head and wrote on her notepad. It was odd that a guy like Jeff couldn’t find himself a nice girl to settle down with. Why were these women so stupid?

  His wet eyes locked with hers as she lifted her gaze. “How am I supposed to live without her? Do you think I’ll ever find a girlfriend again? Someone who’ll want to stay with me?”

  That broke her heart. This was the second breakup she had gone through with him. She nodded, leaned over, and placed a hand on his knee.

  “Of course, you will.”

  The hand lingered on his knee while he stared into her eyes. She felt a pinch in her stomach, and her entire body warmed up. Then she removed the hand, pulling it back quickly, blushing.

  “I’m ugly,” he said. “No one will have me.”

  That made Lynn chuckle. He gave her a puzzled look.

  “You find it amusing?”

  “No, it’s just that…well, you’re really handsome,” Lynn said. “I hope you realize that. You’re to die for.”

  That made him smile, almost smirking. “Really? You think so?”

  “Sure.”

  “You’d actually die for me?”

  She paused and felt a furrow grow between her eyes. “Well…figuratively speaking, of course. It’s a saying.”

  He leaned back on the couch. “Huh.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Not for anything. I just…well…you want to sleep with me, don’t you? I can see it in your eyes, the way you look at me.”

  Lynn took another deep breath. “We’ve been through this, Jeff. You can’t say stuff like that.”

  “But you do, don’t you?”

  “It’s of no importance whether or not I want to sleep with you, Jeff. You’re my client. It will never happen.”

  He smiled and nodded. “But you want to. It’s okay, Doc. I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me.”

  Chapter 30

  The air between us was thick and the atmosphere awkward in the minivan as we drove toward Orlando and, more precisely, Winter Park. I kept thinking about the way Scott had leaned in toward me and tried to kiss me the day before, and every time I looked at him, I felt awful. I couldn’t believe him. I thought he loved Sarah. The air between us was so strange, so tense, I felt like screaming. We both reached for our coffee at the same time, and our hands brushed up against each other.

  “I’m sorry,” I said and pulled mine away.

  “No. No, you go,” he said.

  “It’s okay.”

  Then silence followed. Neither of us grabbed our coffees. I cleared my throat and passed a truck. We had barely spoken all morning. He came to my house so we could drive there in my car, and I could hardly look him in the eyes. I was frustrated with him yet had to admit, I was also secretly flattered. But it was wrong on so many levels, and now I feared it had ruined everything between us.

  “I feel bad,” he suddenly said as we left Cocoa Beach and took the beachline. I accelerated the car, then sipped my latte that we had bought at a drive-thru Starbucks on the way.

  “You do?” I asked, startled at this sudden honesty from him.

  He nodded. I spotted a dead raccoon on the side of the road and felt sick at the sight of the blood.

  “I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you.” He hid his face in his hands. “I can’t believe myself. Here I am, worried sick about Sarah, and then I go and pull something like that.”

  I felt relieved. With him saying this, we could hopefully put
it behind us. I was going to try to, at least.

  “Your secret is safe with me,” I said, wanting to change the subject. It felt uncomfortable talking about this. “Don’t worry. You had a weak moment. We all have them from time to time. The important thing is to find Sarah. That’s all we need to focus on right now. She knew someone from her past might catch up to her one day, or she wouldn’t have said what she did to you. That’s our focus. If this same guy killed her boyfriend back then, then we might find him through that truck.”

  He turned and looked at me. “You’re amazing; have I told you that?”

  That made me smile. “Really? No. But you don’t have to, Scott. I’m not doing this for you, but for her.” It wasn’t a total lie. But it was a lie. I was doing it for him, mostly. But he didn’t need to know that.

  “No, I’m serious. You’re the only one who has believed me. Everyone else thought I hurt her, even my own family. I don’t know what I would have done if you had refused to help me.”

  That made me blush. I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “I mean, you have enough on your plate as it is with two infants and all those other kids. I don’t know how you do it.”

  I thought about Owen and Angel back at the house. I had persuaded my mom to take them both today, even though it meant having her inside my messy house and facing weeks of criticism for it afterward. I felt bad for asking her to do this. It was a long time since she last had an infant, and she wasn’t exactly used to the chaos that came with it. At first, she had looked at me like I was nuts for even asking, but somehow—Lord only knows how—I had managed to talk her into it. I might have accidentally promised to go to a vegan health conference of some sort with her in a few weeks in Orlando. I was probably going to regret saying yes to it, but how horrible could it be?