Eleven
“What happens now?” Maddie asked after the news set in. “Will you arrest Alicia?”
“I don’t know,” Nick replied, rubbing his hand over Maddie’s back to soothe her. He could tell she’d convinced herself that Trevor would pull through and the reality was something she didn’t want to deal with. “Our evidence is ... lacking.”
“We have a few problems,” Kreskin agreed. “Logic would suggest that Alicia is our culprit. She was the only one home at the time because Aaron was picking up Catelynn from her dance class.”
“It’s possible someone else was in the house, though,” Maddie persisted. “I mean ... Alicia simply doesn’t strike me as the sort to shoot her husband. She’s far more likely to turn herself inside out to pretend that nothing is going on rather than confront him.”
“We saw that firsthand this morning,” Kreskin agreed. “We told her point blank that we knew about Trevor’s affair with Marla, but she played dumb.”
“Maybe she didn’t know about Marla.” Maddie knew she was grasping at straws, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “Perhaps she suspected he was sleeping with someone despite his promises regarding their reconciliation but didn’t know who.”
“I guess that’s possible, but she barely blinked when we brought up Marla’s name. To me, that seems to suggest that the news wasn’t a surprise.”
“Yeah, well ... .” Maddie trailed off and looked to the spot where Trevor’s ghost had been floating moments before. “He’s gone. He was here but ... if he only died an hour ago, I guess it makes sense that he wouldn’t be hanging around for long periods of time.”
“Are you going to talk to him if you see him again?” Nick asked, already knowing the answer.
“Of course.” Maddie nodded her head perfunctorily. “If he remained behind, it’s because he has unfinished business. I think, in this particular case, we all know what that business is.”
“Do you think he’ll remember what happened?” Kreskin asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. In truth, Maddie’s abilities made him nervous. Not because he worried she was some sort of evil entity or anything, but more because the mere thought of dealing with ghosts seemed frightening to him. “I know in the past that you’ve come across ghosts who don’t remember.”
“It depends on how traumatic the death was for him,” Maddie replied. “If it was Alicia ... .” She trailed off, uncertain. Then she changed course. “Nicky, you said you used to purposely ghost women in an attempt to make them break up with you, right?”
“I didn’t say I purposely ghosted them,” he countered. “I don’t like the way that sounds.”
Kreskin’s eyebrows hopped as amusement washed over him. “I seem to remember a time or two where you simply stopped calling women.”
“Yes, well ... .”
Maddie patted his leg under the table. “You’re a different man now. I get it. I’m not worried you’re going to ghost me.”
“I know that. It’s just ... I feel sort of bad for being such a tool. I understand now why I did what I did, but at the time I merely thought I was living the life I wanted to live. Everyone knew I had a limited shelf life for relationships.”
“That’s because you were waiting for Maddie to come home,” Kreskin noted. “You always wanted her. You might have thought you lost her, but in the back of your mind, it was always her. You were simply waiting for things to work out.
“I happen to believe that there would’ve come a point where you came to that realization yourself and headed down to Detroit to reclaim her,” he continued. “I know that sounds a bit Neanderthal, but I always knew that you were waiting for something. It wasn’t until Maddie showed up that I realized exactly what you were waiting for.”
“I didn’t ask the question to be mean,” Maddie stressed. “We also don’t need to talk about it. I’m well aware of why you did the things you did ... and I find it cute.”
Nick was understandably dubious. “Cute? You and your wedding dress is cute. What I did was something else.”
“Yeah, but ... it was the process you had to go through,” Maddie said. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, though, and it’s been bothering me. You talked to Trevor’s brother, right? He said that Trevor stopped the divorce proceedings because of money. He thought Alicia would simply roll over and allow him to walk away with his freedom and all the money they’d accrued since the start of their marriage.”
“He didn’t say all the money,” Kreskin corrected. “However, he was pretty open about the fact that Trevor thought he would end up in a better financial place than Alicia was willing to allow.”
“That means Alicia found her backbone at some point,” Maddie said. “She found her breaking point.”
“Or she figured that Trevor was such a cheapskate that he couldn’t possibly walk away from all that money,” Nick interjected. “Trevor didn’t value his marriage, but his ego was tied up with the money he’d been bringing in. Alicia was about to change his comfort level ... and by a great deal.
“Vincent said that Trevor hid money in accounts that didn’t have Alicia’s name on them,” he continued. “He might’ve thought that meant she had no claim to the money, but that’s not how things work. Bank accounts are tied to Social Security numbers. That means he couldn’t hide the money.”
“And my understanding is that each state has worksheets when it comes time for divorce,” Maddie supplied. “It’s pretty basic. Alicia would’ve only gotten money for Aaron for another year, but Catelynn is a minor — and a special-needs minor at that — so she might’ve gotten money from him for a long time to come.”
“I’m not sure how comfortable I am knowing that you’ve researched divorce worksheets, Mad.” Nick’s eyes twinkled. “You’re not already thinking about throwing me over, are you?”
Maddie shook her head. “Dad told me. When he and Mom divorced, he used one of the worksheets and then was going to add money to the final tally for me. She didn’t want anything to do with it, though.”
“She cut him out of your life instead,” Nick said. “She knew if she went after child support that he would be entitled to visitation. She didn’t want that.”
“Right. The worksheets are pretty straightforward, though. I looked them up on the internet after Dad and I talked about it. I don’t remember exactly what was in them, but I’m guessing that Trevor thought he could bulldoze Alicia into agreeing to a smaller number and she refused.”
“If she was a walking doormat for their entire marriage, why would she refuse?” Kreskin asked.
“Because she was willing to be a doormat to get what she wanted,” Maddie answered without hesitation, her mind working fast. “She was willing to take all the crap Trevor dished out as long as she got the outcome she wanted.
“It was a tradeoff,” she continued. “She gave up her self-esteem to keep the marriage intact. That was more important to her, although I’m not sure why. I get that she made vows, and I like the idea of pledging myself to Nicky for the rest of my life, but our relationship is different. He doesn’t purposely hurt me.”
“So, you think that Trevor and Alicia had some sort of unspoken deal,” Kreskin mused. “He cheated and got away with it and she kept the marriage intact. He broke the rules when he asked for the divorce.”
“And that’s when she started fighting,” Maddie agreed. “Fighting was her only option because he was taking away the one thing she truly wanted.”
“That sounds a little pathetic,” Nick admitted. “I don’t understand wanting someone when they don’t want you back.”
“It’s the delusion,” Maddie said. “Alicia convinced herself that their marriage was sustainable. I’m going to guess that she really loved him. The fact that he didn’t really love her was a tear, but it was one she probably convinced herself they could get over.”
“Like that he would eventually grow to love her?” Kreskin queried.
Maddie bobbed her head. “Or that he did love her and s
imply didn’t realize it. People can convince themselves of the strangest things if they put their minds to it. That’s how I ended up in Detroit for so long. I told myself that coming home would ruin Nick’s life.”
Nick growled as he shifted closer to her. “That was an absolutely moronic thing to believe. You made my life better by coming back. I didn’t know things could be this good.”
“And we’re back to the schmaltz,” Kreskin complained, shaking his head. “You two are nothing if not predictable.”
“We’re fine with that.” Nick grinned before kissing Maddie’s cheek. “Love, I know you’re going to be working here all afternoon — and that’s going to entail looking for Trevor’s ghost, too — but I want you to promise me that you’ll be careful. No wandering off into dark and abandoned places on your own.”
“I have no interest in finding trouble before the wedding,” Maddie said truthfully. “I just want to hear what he has to say about what happened ... and about why he was such a jerk.”
“We can’t use what he says as a basis for conclusion in our investigation, but at least it will tell us if we’re on the right path,” Kreskin said. “As of right now, we can’t arrest Alicia. Our evidence is all circumstantial and flimsy. The judge could toss it, and depending on how things go, we might not be able to arrest her a second time. We have to be patient.”
“The good news is, if Alicia did kill Trevor, it was because she completely lost it in the face of yet another disappointment,” Maddie offered. “I doubt she’s a danger to anyone else. Trevor broke her so she paid him back. She won’t feel that way about others.”
“Let’s hope,” Nick agreed. “If she decides to point herself toward a second target, something tells me it will be Marla.”
Maddie hadn’t even considered that. “Should we warn her?”
“Not yet. If Alicia is innocent, Marla will ruin her reputation in less than two hours flat. We’ll assign a uniform to watch Marla without being obvious. I think it’s our best shot.”
“I’ll look for Trevor this afternoon and see if I can get answers out of him,” Maddie promised. “I’m guessing you guys will be following up on various threads of your investigation.”
“You guess right.” Nick gripped her hand. “You should eat the rest of your lunch. You have a long day ahead of you.”
“I kind of lost my appetite. If you come back for dinner, though, I promise to try again.”
“Deal.”
NICK AND KRESKIN SPLIT up so they could canvass the fairgrounds. They weren’t exactly expecting to find answers at a festival, but since they were already there, they wanted to scan faces in case they were struck by inspiration.
Nick paused long enough to grab a soda from one of the vendor booths and was debating which direction he wanted to turn when he almost smacked into a face from his past.
Cassidy Dunham, her strawberry blond hair falling in waves around her shoulders, feigned surprise to see him. Nick knew better, though. She’d been nothing but a pain since he broke up with her after Maddie’s return to Blackstone Bay.
“Cassidy,” Nick greeted her, his voice neutral. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.” Cassidy flashed a smile that didn’t make it all the way to her eyes. “How are you?”
“I’m ... great.”
“I’m sure you are.” Something Nick couldn’t identify flashed through Cassidy’s eyes before she regrouped. “How are the wedding plans? You’re getting close to the big day, right?”
“We are. Less than a week. The wedding is going to be great.” At one time, Nick probably would’ve gone out of his way to refrain from talking about the wedding because he knew it would hurt Cassidy’s feelings. That time was in the rearview mirror. Cassidy continuously tried to throw wrenches into the mechanics of his relationship with Maddie. He hoped the wedding would finally be the end of that.
“I didn’t realize it was so soon. I mean ... I didn’t get an invitation or anything.”
“It’s just friends and family.”
“And I guess I’m not a friend, huh?”
“No, you’re not.” Nick was firm. “We want those we love to be there. We didn’t want an extravagant party, though. It’s going to be those closest to us and that’s it.”
“Well ... congratulations.”
“Thank you.” Nick assumed that was the end of the conversation, but Cassidy’s hand on his forearm told him otherwise. He barely managed to hold back a sigh. “What, Cassidy? What is it you want to say this time?”
“I don’t want to ruin things for you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she started. “It’s just ... I think we should clear the air.”
“What air is there to clear?” Nick challenged. “We’ve been over things so many times I’ve lost count. I’m sorry you got hurt when I broke up with you. Things didn’t work out how you thought they would and that’s difficult. I get that. I’m not sorry Maddie is back, though, and I’m most definitely not sorry that we’re getting married.”
“I don’t expect you to apologize again.” Cassidy was rueful. “Honestly, I wasn’t trying to make you feel guilty. It’s just ... I’m sad. I thought we would be the ones getting married — you and me — but that’s not what happened.”
“If you believed that despite what everyone told you about my dating schedule, then I don’t know what to tell you.” Nick worked overtime to keep the cruel thoughts he’d been holding back for months from escaping. “Even if Maddie had never come home, things wouldn’t have worked out between us. We’re not well suited.”
“I don’t happen to agree, but it doesn’t matter.” Cassidy held up her hands in mock surrender. “You made your choice. You’re happy with your choice. I can’t change it so ... I have to move on.”
“I thought you had moved on,” Nick pointed out, referring to her boyfriend David Bennet. He and Cassidy had been involved for months.
“We’re trying and it’s going well.” Cassidy forced a tight-lipped smile that seemed more deranged than happy. “I didn’t stop you because I wanted to talk about this, though. I know you’ve moved on and see me as nothing more than a pest.”
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong,” Nick intoned. “I see you as a danger to Maddie, not just a pest. You’ve stood by while she’s been in trouble more than once. I don’t think you’re harmless by any stretch of the imagination.”
Cassidy pressed the tip of her tongue to the back of her teeth as she shifted from one foot to the other, discomfort rolling off her. “I won’t ever hurt Maddie. I’m not an idiot ... and I’m not the sort of person who would hurt someone else to get what she wants.”
“I certainly hope not.”
“I’m here to discuss something else with you.”
“Oh, really?” Nick was understandably dubious “What would that be?”
“Trevor and Marla.”
Nick stilled, surprised. Cassidy was tight with Marla — although their relationship had suffered growing pains of sorts over the past few weeks because Cassidy blamed Marla for some of her actions — and that meant she had inside information. “You know about Marla’s affair with Trevor?”
“She hasn’t exactly been keeping it quiet, and she’s downright furious that Maddie is telling people about it now that Trevor is in the hospital,” Cassidy replied.
“Trevor died about two hours ago,” Nick countered.
“Oh, really?” Cassidy’s expression shifted. “That changes things.”
“I still want to know what you were going to tell me.”
“It’s just ... I feel guilty telling you now. It kind of makes Marla look like she had motive for this.”
Intrigued, Nick tilted his head. “Marla has motive for killing Trevor?”
“I guess that depends on how you look at it.” Cassidy was suddenly nervous. “Maybe I should get going. Good luck with your wedding. I hope the day is everything you want it to be.”
Nick snagged Cassidy by the arm before she could hurry off. �
��Tell me,” he prodded. “If you don’t, I’ll lock you up for lying to an investigator.”
Cassidy sighed, resigned. “I guess I can use that as an excuse when Marla tries to claw my eyes out, huh?”
“I think that’s a fine idea.” Nick folded his arms over his chest and waited.
“Marla is pregnant,” Cassidy blurted out.
Whatever he was expecting, that wasn’t it. “With Trevor’s baby?” He was flabbergasted. “Oh, geez. That can’t be good.”
“She did it on purpose, too,” Cassidy added. “She told me before she stopped taking her birth control. She wanted to trap Trevor because she thought that was the added push he needed to finally file for divorce from Alicia.”
“Did Trevor know?”
“She told him as soon as she found out.”
“What did he say?”
“He wasn’t happy,” Cassidy replied. “He accused her of trying to trap him. She denied it, of course, but she was giddy because she thought her plan was working. She expected Trevor to tell Alicia what was going on any day now. Then they were going to move in together and start planning a life.”
“Did you ever consider that Trevor did tell Alicia?” Nick challenged. “Perhaps he told her right before his gun started going off.”
Cassidy’s mouth dropped open, horrified. “I ... did not think about that. Do you think Alicia killed Trevor because she found out he was having a kid with Marla?”
“I don’t know.” Nick felt sick to his stomach. “This changes things, though. I mean ... big time. Thanks for the information, Cassidy. I’ve got to go.”
“Wait,” Cassidy called after him before he’d taken more than a few steps away. “How about we catch up over coffee before the wedding? I can make time.”
Nick shook his head. “No. I appreciate the information, but we’re so done they should think up a new word. Have a good life, Cassidy. I hope things work out for you. I really do. Stay away from Maddie, though. I’m not messing around on that front.”
Twelve
Grave Wedding (A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 15) Page 11