“What in the world?”
“What?” Jenna asked, voice still low.
Madi pulled the drain plug up and placed it on the counter. She shook her hand off and looked at the door separating her from the small living area. A weird knot started to tighten in Madi’s stomach. She slipped into her robe.
“What’s going on, Madi?”
“I think Loraine might really be in my living room,” she whispered. “A phone is going off.”
Jenna said something, but for the life of her, Madi couldn’t pay attention to what it was. Her focus narrowed to pinpoint precision. She opened the door, ready to confront the woman who was still managing to ruin her day, but found it empty. Or, at least, no one was around.
A cell phone continued to play music from the coffee table. It wasn’t the only thing out of place. A shotgun sat next to it. Madi’s blood ran cold.
“That’s Dad’s.”
“What’s going on, Madi?”
Madi felt like she was falling down some wild rabbit hole. She knew that shotgun. Her father’s initials were carved into the grip. Right next to her grandfather’s. It was supposed to be at the ranch.
Not on her coffee table with a phone that wasn’t hers.
The phone finally stopped ringing. Madi touched the gun, running her finger over her dad’s initials to make sure it was real.
“I’m coming up,” Jenna said, no longer trying to be discreet.
Madi heard the concern, knew she should say something, but another detail caught her attention.
Her bedroom door was closed.
With steps that felt like wading through water, Madi went to the door and swung it wide.
“Oh my God.”
She saw the pearls around the woman’s neck first. The dark red, tight-fitted dress second. The Louboutin pumps third.
Finally, as though her eyes had been reluctant, Madi saw the woman’s red hair. It flowed around a disfigured face covered in blood.
She was dead.
And if Madi were a betting woman, she’d wager that the gun lying on her coffee table had been used to murder Loraine Wilson.
Chapter Three
“And you think this is a good idea?”
Chance Montgomery gave him a look filled with skepticism.
“I never said it was a good idea,” Julian admitted. “I just said it was an idea.”
They were standing on the side of the road, their cars parked in front of the town of Overlook welcome sign. It was as quaint as Julian remembered. Worn but filled with charm. Two small spotlights lit up the hand-painted letters. It sent a warm glow bouncing off the hood of his truck.
It probably would have been better to come back during the day but the pull of seeing the Overlook innkeeper had tugged Julian right off the road to his new life.
Chance took his cowboy hat off. He’d been finishing up a personal matter in North Tennessee and had met up with Julian to caravan on the way back to Alabama. He sucked on the toothpick between his lips. He’d gotten it from the diner where they’d eaten an hour ago. In another hour they were supposed to be stopping at a hotel. The next day, Tuesday, they’d be in Alabama at the security firm. Next Monday would be Julian’s first official day as a private bodyguard.
His first official day in his new life.
Yet there they were.
“Well, I can’t really tell you not to do it,” Chance said. “Just that you might want to think it over a little. I can’t say my track record with women has been outstanding but even I’d be a bit worried about rolling into town unannounced. You haven’t talked since you left. That’s a lot of time between then and now. A lot could have changed.”
Julian knew better than anyone how different life could be from one moment to the next. He knew how just one second could irrevocably change everything. He also knew that dropping in after all this time could be construed as too much.
“Listen, I’m not going to go there and stand outside in the rain with a stereo over my head and hearts in my eyes,” Julian deadpanned. “I’m just going to see if there’s an opening at the inn for the night and, if there is, see if she wants to grab a quick meal to catch up. Last we talked she was worried about the inn doing well and I was on the way to a job interview.” He shrugged. “Nothing more or less than a conversation or two. Then I’m back on the road tomorrow. No harm, no foul.”
“And if she doesn’t want you there?”
Julian shrugged again, though he had to admit he didn’t like the thought.
“Then I’m back on the road tonight.”
Chance nodded, conceding to the logic. Plus, he was right, there wasn’t much he could do to stop Julian from taking the detour.
“Well, here’s to hoping she’s not married and keeping your time together a secret from her husband,” Chance teased. He clapped Julian on the shoulder and went back to his truck. Before he got in he paused and grinned. “And if she’s happy to see you, well, then I guess I’ll see you Monday morning.”
Julian watched his friend take off down the road before he got back into his own truck. There he sat and stared at the sign for a moment. It had been over half a year since Julian had seen Madi Nash. For all he knew she could absolutely be married. She could have sold the inn. She could have moved.
She could be happy to see him.
She could wish he hadn’t shown up at all.
Julian scrubbed a hand down his face and exhaled. He’d been deployed six times in his career, three of those in combat zones. He’d set boots down in the dusty heat of Iraq. He’d navigated the islands of Japan with little more than a partially busted radio. He’d even, to the chagrin of their spec-ops commander, fought his way through a bar brawl in Germany. And yet here he was, in small-town Tennessee, actually nervous that a golden-haired, freckled-skinned bed-and-breakfast owner was going to put him in his place.
How the mighty had fallen.
Not that he’d counted himself as mighty.
Julian finally turned the engine over and got back onto the road. He marveled at the fact that he remembered the town as well as he did. The streetlamps across the main strip cast light on the same businesses he remembered, just as the moonlight shone across the houses and landscapes he’d passed before. Not much had changed. He knew plenty of people, including those he’d served with, who would have been bored by the lack of change. Julian welcomed the familiarity. It was everything he was hoping to have for himself when he finally got settled in his new job. Roots. Ones that grounded him. Ones that centered him.
A life that would start after the detour.
The GPS on his phone remained off as the houses turned to fields, the fields turned to trees, and the trees started to open up to the inn’s property, which he’d recalled countless times in the last half year. Despite all of his resolve, he was starting to feel something like nerves when the drive curved, indicating the inn was almost in sight. In his mind Julian had already pulled into one of the spots, gotten out of the car with calmness and determination and bounded up the stairs with a smile on his face.
However, what really happened when the road straightened and the inn came into view was drastically different.
Blue and red lights were strobing from the tops of two parked deputy cruisers. One had two uniforms standing next to it. They were talking to a man Julian recognized from pictures in Madi’s room as one of her triplet brothers. A truck was pulled up on the grass next to him, and in the far corner of the lot was something that made Julian even more uneasy.
It was a coroner’s van.
Julian coasted to a stop far enough away from the closest cruiser so everyone could still drive around him. By the time he cut his engine, one of the deputies was on his way over. The other seemed to be in deep conversation with Desmond Nash. Neither of them looked his way.
“Howdy there,” the deputy gree
ted. His voice was tight. As was his body language. “How can I help you?”
Julian wished he were a people person, but he knew better. Sure, he prided himself on being a good friend, but putting strangers at ease had never been in his wheelhouse. He didn’t have the patience, especially now.
“I’m here about a room,” he stated without any preamble. “What’s going on?”
The deputy looked like a man who very much did not like what was going on. His jaw hardened.
“There’s been an incident that we’re investigating.” He cast a look back at the inn. Jenna, Madi’s friend and employee, shut the front door behind her with enough vigor to draw the attention of everyone outside. She didn’t look sorry for the force. Though when she swept her gaze across her onlookers as she stepped off the porch, she stopped with obvious surprise at Julian.
Neither had a chance to explain.
The door behind Jenna opened. A dark-skinned woman with a badge swinging against her chest came out. Her face was impassive, frown set so deep that Julian tensed even more than he thought was possible.
That was when he saw Madi.
In the distance between them the glow of moonlight mixed with the whirls of blue and red. It was unsettling.
But what put fire in Julian’s gut the most?
Madi’s hands were handcuffed in front of her.
A uniform led her out, hand against her back. Her eyes stayed on the porch as she walked to the steps.
“What’s going on?” Julian asked, his voice becoming an octave too low. The deputy tensed in return. His hand moved near the butt of his service weapon. Julian made sure not to move another inch, but couldn’t stop himself from yelling when she was waiting for her escort to open the back of the closest cruiser. “Madi?”
For a moment Julian was worried she hadn’t heard him. But then she turned, first her face and then her entire body. From the side Julian noticed something he hadn’t seen when she’d first walked through the front door.
Her stomach.
Her pregnant stomach.
Part of Julian’s mind went into overdrive; the other, cool-under-pressure part gave him the patience to stay still.
Madi’s eyes widened in surprise, just as Jenna’s had.
“I didn’t do it,” she yelled. “I swear!”
Then, in a movement that was neither harsh nor easy to watch, Madi was ushered into the back seat. When the door closed behind her, all Julian could do was stare.
* * *
GRANDMA MADELINE NASH had always said a person was never given more than they could handle in life. She’d said it when their house was destroyed in a flood, when the ranch fell on hard times, after her husband passed away, when the triplets were abducted and right through the aftermath of the attack, leading up to her only son’s death.
Madi put her head in her hands. She had a hard time believing she could handle everything like her namesake had. She’d been at the Wildman County Sheriff’s Department for almost five hours. In that time she’d been handcuffed to a metal table in the interrogation room before being uncuffed and brought a rolling office chair because it had more padding. During those five hours she’d only spoken to three people.
The first had been Detective Santiago, her brother’s partner. Jazz was a family friend but treated Madi with short, clipped questions. Where had Madi been in the hours leading up to dinner? Why had she called Loraine? If she hadn’t done it, then why did the call log on her phone say she had? Where did she get the shotgun?
How badly had she hated the woman?
Madi had gone over her afternoon and night several times before Jazz excused herself. Her brother Caleb never came in.
Declan, the sheriff and Madi’s eldest brother, eventually did and explained why.
“Caleb can’t work this case because he can’t get his emotions in check,” Declan had said. He hadn’t sat down across from her. His body was riddled with tension, his face pulled down in a frown. Madi didn’t need any triplet connection to know he was trying his best to keep his own emotions in check. “Him working this case is a big-time conflict of interest. Jazz will take over as well as a detective from the local PD in Kilwin down the road.”
“She’s teaming up with the police department?” Madi had been stunned at the news. The two only ever worked together on emergencies like high-speed chases that crossed the town limits or manhunts that spanned the county. Now they were doing the same with her?
It made her already-knotted stomach quake.
Declan had sighed.
“It was at Mayor Harding’s suggestion, and honestly, it took all I had to convince him to keep us on the case. You have two brothers on the force. Our family history doesn’t help. This is only going to rock the boat on public perception of us.”
“Family history? Do you mean the abduction?” she had nearly shrieked. “We were eight! How is that our fault?”
“I’m not blaming any of you for that, and you know that. I meant what happened with Caleb last year. I think the mayor would like the Nashes out of the spotlight for a while. Even though you know as well as I do that the town has never really let go of what happened when you were kids.”
Madi did know that Overlook was incapable of forgetting one of its biggest unsolved mysteries. It wasn’t every day that three children were attacked, abducted and held for three days before escaping on their own...and that, to this day, no one had ever been able to ID the man responsible. Never mind understanding his motive.
As far as what had happened with Caleb, talk had gotten out of hand quickly but had died down.
Or so Madi had thought.
“The mayor thinks it’s best for you, the department and the town if we’re extra careful with how we move forward,” he continued, as if his words were scripted.
“And that means what exactly?”
Declan let out another long sigh. This time Madi saw the defeat in it.
“That means that my chief deputy will run point on this case while I handle the rest of the department and try to keep this in-house as much as I can. Past that, Caleb and I will have nothing to do with this case. We can’t afford anyone blaming us for favoritism or being impartial.”
Madi felt the tears spring to her eyes before they ever fell down her cheeks. She was angry. She was scared. Caleb being taken off the case made sense. Declan stepping away hadn’t crossed her mind as a possibility.
Pain twisted his expression. His face softened.
“I know you didn’t do it, Madi,” he said, voice low. “But the evidence against you is pretty damning. I can’t dismiss it, even though I know you’re innocent. Hell, I think everyone in this department knows it, too. We just have to do our jobs and do them carefully, or we could end up hurting your cause instead of helping it.” He reached out and touched her hand. “Jazz is great at her job. So are the rest of my people.”
Madi wiped at her cheeks. She nodded.
“I understand.”
He smiled but then let go of her hand. Then his face went stony.
“Are you sure there’s no one who could corroborate your side of the story, though?”
Madi shook her head. She brought her hand down to her stomach.
“It was only the two of us.”
Declan left soon after. Another hour went by. Madi’s thoughts went between everything that had happened and the other surprise she’d gotten that night.
Julian Mercer.
In the flesh.
This might be too much for me to handle, Grandma, she thought ruefully.
The third person to visit her finally was Caleb. He moved into the room like they were teens again and sneaking out of the house to go to the barn loft to meet their friends. He hurried to her side and crouched down next to her. There was an undeniable excitement in his movements that she didn’t understand.
“Why did you lie to us, Madi?” he asked in a rush. “Pride be damned, you’re looking at murder charges!”
Madi felt her eyes widen. Did Caleb really think she killed Loraine?
“What are you—”
“You should have told us about your alibi the moment we showed up on scene!” Madi didn’t know what he was talking about. She said as much. Caleb looked exasperated. “I know you didn’t want to get him in trouble with his boss, but my God, Madi, this is serious.”
“His boss?”
“Julian Mercer. Your alibi.” He thumbed back to the door. “He just wrote his official statement about you two being together. I mean, yeah, I have some personal questions I’d like to ask—for instance, who the heck is this guy—but right now he could be that creep you dated in college and I’d be happy as punch.”
Madi didn’t have time to correct her brother before the door opened and in walked Declan and a man who must have been the lawyer.
They expressed the same sentiment.
Madi should have come clean about being with Julian during the afternoon and leading up to the discovery of Loraine’s body, instead of trying to cover for him so he didn’t get into any trouble with his boss. No one’s job was worth the risk of her being suspected of murder.
Now they couldn’t charge her. Which meant they couldn’t hold her there any longer.
The air in the interrogation room became lighter. Her brothers’ shoulders were no longer sagging. There was new life behind every word and movement. The entire mood had changed.
It made Madi realize how dire her situation had been before Julian’s lie.
And that was what it was—a lie.
Yet with one hand resting on her pregnant belly, Madi realized it was a lie she wouldn’t correct.
Not until Loraine’s real murderer was caught.
Chapter Four
“So I’ve been downgraded to lead suspect instead of a shoo-in for murder.”
Madi was as beautiful as Julian remembered but undoubtedly tired. Her eyes were red and swollen. She rubbed her hands together, fretting with nervous energy. They stood outside the Wildman County Sheriff’s Department. A hint of the sunrise colored the distance. The air was cool and seemed to add to her discomfort.
Credible Alibi Page 3