Julian agreed.
“Does Kathy Smart ring any bells for you?” he asked Madi. Maybe she had been a former guest?
The beautiful blonde shook her head. Her hair was already in two braids over her shoulders.
“I know it would be presumptuous of me to think that I know everyone in Overlook but, honestly, I know most,” Desmond said. “I’ve never heard of a Kathy Smart, either.”
“So what was she doing at a bed-and-breakfast all the way in Tennessee?” Julian supplied.
Madi readjusted herself in her chair, fingers splayed across her belly.
“I’ll raise you one better,” she said. “If the body I found is Kathy Smart, then where is Loraine?”
A moment of silence settled in the kitchen. There were so many questions going around that Julian hadn’t yet gotten to that one.
“I’m assuming Nathan Wilson is being brought back in for questioning?” he asked. “Don’t they usually look at the spouse first when a disappearance or homicide happens?”
Madi nodded.
“Unless there’s someone else who jumps out at them first,” she said dryly. “Wait, were they able to tell time of death?”
Another question Julian hadn’t thought to ask yet.
“The coroner originally guessed two to three hours. I don’t think that’s changed, either.”
“So whoever Kathy was, she was most likely killed in Overlook,” Julian postulated.
Desmond nodded.
“With Dad’s shotgun no less.”
Madi’s body tensed. Julian opened his mouth to ask what was wrong when Desmond’s phone started to ring in his pocket. He pulled it out and frowned at the caller ID.
“This is work. I took the week off but apparently Jared doesn’t understand what that means.”
He excused himself and went outside to talk—a habit that all the Nash family seemed to share. They liked being out in the air, day or night.
“What is it?” Julian asked once the back door was closed. Madi’s brow was still crinkled. She was staring at the tabletop but Julian could see the gears moving as she thought through what was bothering her.
“Dad’s gun.” Madi groaned. “Oh crap.”
“What about it?”
She hung her head and sighed.
“You know how I said pregnancy brain was real and sometimes it makes my memory into scrambled eggs?”
Julian snorted at that. “I recall.”
Madi pushed her chair back and struggled to stand. She moved closer to him until her round belly touched him.
“After I found the shotgun all I could think about was the last time we argued about it.”
“We?”
She lowered her voice.
“Us Nash siblings are pretty close. Like, that’s our thing. But there are a few fights we’ve never resolved. One of them was Dad’s gun. See, it’s kind of a family heirloom, passed down to my father from his, who also got it from his father. Originally it was supposed to go to Declan, but after Dad died, he decided he didn’t want it for whatever reason. So it was supposed to go to the next eldest Nash kid.” She pressed her thumb to her chest. “Which is me, but Caleb and Desmond freaked out. Said I was a girl and I couldn’t have it—you know, typical sibling rivalry stuff—and that just made me so grumpy! Ma said until we could stop fighting about it she would keep it in her attic. After it was found at my place I told them that’s where it was supposed to be and they came and looked around.” She covered her mouth. Her eyes widened. She spoke around her hand. “But that’s not the last place it was.”
Julian felt his eyebrow rise.
“You moved it,” he guessed.
Madi nodded, guilt written all over her face.
“I moved it last year and totally spaced about it.” She groaned again. “Oh God, how do I keep looking more and more guilty? If I was me I would arrest me, too!”
Julian grabbed her shoulders and chuckled.
“You just had a lot more than most thrown at you in a very short amount of time. Pregnancy brain or not, I don’t think anyone would blame you for forgetting a few things.”
“Miller would blame me. He’d do it in a second. It proves I was the only person who knew where it was. But also, what if there’s evidence there that could answer something?”
Julian sobered. She was right.
“Then let’s go check it out and see,” he said, rubbing her arms to try to calm her. “There’s probably nothing, but at least we can put it out of our minds. Okay?”
Madi took a deep breath.
“Okay.”
“Good. Now, where exactly did you hide it?”
Julian watched with equal parts amusement and concern as Madi’s face turned a lovely shade of red.
“It’s on the ranch but in a very, very petty place. Let’s just say I’m not proud.”
* * *
THEY DROVE TO the opposite side of the ranch, following a dirt road that was well-worn but still gave them a bumpy ride until it dead-ended next to a sign that read Juniper Shoulder.
“This starts a stretch of woods that has two trails you can follow to the mountain or to the creek. We had to mark it before the retreat opened.” Madi placed her hand on the top of the sign after they got out of the SUV. “But before the retreat and even before what happened when we were eight, Juniper Shoulder was one of our favorite spots to play.” She waved him to follow. Julian met her pace and then slowed to keep it.
“We promised no trails,” he reminded her, eyes already roaming their surroundings. The gun the Nash brothers had given him was back in his waistband but he still wasn’t enthused about not having a complete sight line around them.
“We’re not going that far in. We might have been adventurous when we were kids but we never went too far in.”
True to her word, less than five minutes passed and they veered off the trail’s path. A hundred or so feet later and Julian was looking at a wooden sign nailed to a tree. There was unintelligible writing across it. Madi translated.
“‘No Girls Allowed.’”
Julian cracked a smile.
Madi crossed her arms over her chest.
“We might be a set of triplets but Des and Caleb still teamed up on me sometimes like jerks.” He followed her around the tree and a few more feet. Madi stopped and pointed. Julian couldn’t help but laugh.
“A tree house. You hid the gun from them in your childhood tree house.”
She moved her index finger side to side.
“I hid the gun in the tree house I wasn’t allowed in,” she corrected. “In my mind, at the time, it was the equivalent of giving them the middle finger for bucking tradition just because I was a girl.” She let out a long breath. It deflated her. “They would have told me if they’d found it and moved it.”
“Which begs the question, how did the killer know where it was?”
The tree house was impressive. Held up and built around three trees close together, it had obviously been made by someone who knew what they were doing. Julian didn’t ask but he assumed that Madi’s father had been the one behind it. Even after all these years the stairs that led up to the small structure were still solid. Julian led the way up with Madi close behind.
“After the attack we stopped coming out here. It just wasn’t fun anymore,” she explained. “The last time we were out here all together was right after Dad passed. There’s a trunk inside where we used to keep our toys. I added a combo lock when I put the shotgun there. One with an important but totally unguessable combo.” Julian wasn’t going to ask but Madi shared the information anyways. “It’s Kurt Russell’s birthday.”
Julian laughed as he pushed open the door, still wildly impressed by the craftsmanship of the house. It wasn’t huge but it was big enough that playing inside must have been fun.
Madi st
arted to tell him about how the roof was put on but Julian had stopped in his tracks just inside the door.
“Don’t touch anything,” he ordered. It was a little too harsh but it did the trick. He felt Madi tense behind him. “Go back down and, Madi, don’t touch anything. Not even the trees.”
Madi didn’t question him. A part of Julian felt guilty at his commanding tone but he was doing it for her own good. Once she was back on solid ground, he stepped deeper into the room.
It was the size of a shed, smaller than the Jansens’ but still wide and tall enough that Julian and Madi could have walked around without bumping into each other or the ceiling. Like she said, there was a trunk against the opposite wall. A broken combo lock was on the floor next to it.
Between it and him was what made him order Madi back.
Across the floor and sprayed across the wall was dried blood...and other bits.
Julian cursed low and long.
He pulled his phone out and took several pictures before carefully backing out of the small house. He ran a hand across his jaw, then cursed again as he stopped in front of Madi. Her face had gone pale. She clutched at her stomach.
“We’re going to have to call Detective Miller, aren’t we?” she said, close to a whisper. Dread underlined each word. Julian felt it in his chest, too.
He nodded and showed her the pictures.
“I think it’s a safe bet that Kathy Smart was killed in there.”
Madi crumpled against him. Julian kept her up with his arms, pulling her into an embrace he knew would do little to help the situation.
“Julian, I’m the only one who knew the gun was here,” she cried. Her body stiffened. She raised her head. “I know everything keeps pointing to me but I swear I didn’t kill her. I swear it!”
Julian leaned forward and pressed a kiss into her forehead.
“I know you didn’t do it,” he assured her. “But you weren’t the only one who knew where the gun was. Someone else had to have known. And if you didn’t tell anyone where you put it, then—”
“Then someone must have followed me.”
Julian tried not to let his body tense. He nodded, gaze sweeping the trees around them.
“But why?” she asked into his chest.
More than anything, Julian wished he could give her an answer. He wished he could make it all better. Assuage her worries and take her to bed and give her some pleasure in place of the pain that seemed to keep finding its way to her.
But instead, he was about to invite more worry and pain.
“We have to call Miller. The longer we don’t, the worse it’s going to look.”
Madi nodded against him.
“I know,” she whispered, her voice so small. “I’ll do it.”
Yet she didn’t pull away.
And he didn’t let her go.
As far as Julian was concerned, for a few minutes they were the only two people in the world.
Chapter Seventeen
Madi flipped through the photo album with every intention of ignoring the lump of guilt growing in her stomach. She should have remembered the tree house.
“So you’ve always been a braid kind of girl,” Julian commented from the driver’s seat. To his credit, whether or not he was pretending that everything was okay until Detective Miller arrived, he was paying rapt attention to every photo she flipped through.
The one beneath her fingers now had Declan, Caleb and Madi on horseback. Desmond was a speck in the distance on his own horse. They had no idea that a few weeks later all of their smiles would be strained or lost. Most of the pictures were like that. Which was why they’d found themselves in a box in the loft.
“I definitely get it from my mama,” Madi said, mindful to keep her voice light. There was already a long list of things to be depressed about. “I can count on my hands how many times I’ve seen her hair down.”
Julian smiled.
“Bethany, my little sister, asked me to learn how to do a French braid so I could do her hair when we were teens.” Madi gave him a questioning look. He chuckled. “I’m the more coordinated of the two of us. She’s book smart like no one’s business, but when she has to use her hands for something she’s just about the clumsiest person I’ve ever seen.” He held up his index finger and lifted his shirt. He pointed to a small scar on his side. It was thin and faded. Madi had already noticed it, along with several others. She’d never prodded for explanations, just like he’d never asked about the one across her cheek.
“When we were in high school there was this huge party going on at Stacy DeLuca’s house,” he continued. “I wanted to go because of Stacy’s friend Krista, and then Bethany told me it would be social suicide if she didn’t go. Problem was, our parents had already said no. But, like in all teen movies—”
“You sneaked out,” Madi guessed with a laugh.
“We tried to sneak out.” He rolled his eyes. Madi could almost picture teen rebel Julian. “Our bedrooms were on the second floor and the stairs and front door were impossible to get past without waking our parents. So we opted for the bedroom window. There was a big oak tree near it and, honestly, I can still remember how easy it was to jump on it and climb down. But not Bethany. She decides that she’s going to freak out halfway down. I mean screeching like you couldn’t believe.” Julian laughed. “Now, I’m a big guy. Even as a teen I seemed like I was a foot taller than everyone, but Bethany is this little doll-looking human and weirdly fast. It was like trying to get a cat out of a tree.” He ran his fingernail along the scar. “And this is what it looks like when a teenage cat decides to not take your hand and falls halfway down the tree but not before scrambling to grab on to something.” He shook his head. “She even ripped my shirt.”
“I’m assuming she was okay?”
He rolled his eyes again.
“Yeah, yeah. She was fine,” he answered. “We were as good as busted, though. Didn’t make the party and became prisoners in our home for two months.”
Madi laughed.
“I would have liked to see young rebel Julian Mercer.”
He chuckled and lowered his shirt. His bandages from their attacker’s knife looked out of place against the toned skin of his stomach. It made Madi’s mood plummet.
“You know, I don’t know much about your life but I feel like you’ve been forced into a crash course about mine.”
Julian’s expression softened.
“You know plenty. You know me. There’s always time to learn the rest.” He placed his hand over hers. Madi felt a part of her melting at the contact. “Now, show me another picture of Madi before she dyed her hair.”
That surprised a laugh out of her.
“Hey, being a triplet can make it hard to feel like an individual. I did what needed to be done.” She winked. “And don’t act like you aren’t a fan of my magical golden hair.”
Julian laughed and then was back to focusing on the photo album. They went past more pictures of family before they got into the ones that Madi hadn’t seen in a long time.
She said as much as they stopped on a picture that had a group of kids in it.
“This was actually toward the end of my anger issues.” She ran her finger across the plastic sleeve over the six kids. They were standing around a long-burned-out fire pit. Madi stood in the middle with her arms crossed. Despite her defensive stance, she was smiling. “It was like a support group for kids who had been through trauma. Once a week for, I think, two months? I can’t remember exactly. Caleb and Des didn’t go because I think they wanted to see how I would do without them.” She hoped she looked apologetic. “I was not the nicest kid in the beginning but I turned it around toward the end.” She pointed to the girl at her elbow. “I still talk to Gina occasionally, but that’s it.”
Madi was about to point out the two kids in the group who had absolutely hated h
er when a truck appeared on the road behind them. She put the photo album down and tried to steady her nerves. Speaking of people who hated her...
Detective Miller hopped out of his truck with a scowl. He adjusted his belt and turned that scowl toward the trees. His badge shone in the daylight. The butt of his gun from its holster did, too.
“Detective Devereux isn’t with him,” she said. “He definitely won’t be impartial without someone to balance him out.”
“Oh, don’t you worry,” Julian said, opening his door. “I’ll balance him out if I have to.”
Miller’s mood soured the closer they got to him. Madi hadn’t seen him since the hospital. He hadn’t talked to her then. That had been Devereux. Madi’s stomach knotted again. Miller wasn’t going to give her any benefit of the doubt.
“This better be good,” he greeted. “While y’all have been relaxing out here we’ve been trying to do work.”
Julian played it cool. Cooler than Madi. His body language was relaxed, no aggressive tension. No combative stance. Madi, on the other hand, balled her hands at her sides and clenched her teeth.
“This is something you need to see,” Julian explained. “Which is why we immediately called you.”
Miller snorted.
“I’m sure only after you called everyone on the ranch.”
“You can check our phones,” Madi butted in. “You were the only person we called.”
That seemed to get a bit more of his attention. Still, he continued to wear the scowl like it was a summer hat. He moved his hand back so it was near his gun and nodded toward the woods.
“Then lead the way.”
Julian waited for Madi to strike out first before putting himself between her and Miller. The detective seemed so small compared to him. It made Madi feel better. Yet that momentary relief ended before they ever made it to the tree house, especially since she’d finished recounting the triplet feud about the shotgun.
And that she had hidden it.
And forgotten to tell anyone.
Miller had stopped walking when she was through. He looked like a dog with a bone. His eyes brightened and then immediately narrowed.
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