by Karen Harper
“He admitted he killed Francine and Lola,” she whispered.
“But not you! And I saw an alligator go into the river when I did.”
“But I saw the ghosts, Nick. I swear I did. Rosalynn and William together. They helped me before you came, after I kicked him.”
“All right, all right,” he said, holding her even tighter. “My Superwoman in word and deed. I knew you’d turn up the murderer, but don’t ever do it this way again.”
She knew he didn’t believe her about the ghosts. But—screwed-up meds or not—she did now, at least she believed in people from the past and present who made mistakes and paid for it with their lives. Thank God, she did not have to do that. And it wasn’t listening or talking or thinking that had saved her this time, but fighting. Fight over fright.
She sat up straighter. Her voice was rough, but she had to say this, so she took a big breath. “Nick, I think Win hit Heck over the head and dumped him in the stairwell to the attic, before he must have moved him to Neil’s door. He messed up my meds when my purse was in his car and he said something about talking to Jace, so I’ll bet he listened to a phone message of mine. I should have checked my messages when I got my phone back.”
“Let’s save all that. Save it for when we put things together—for the prosecution this time, not the defense. The only thing that bothers me is we’re handing Sheriff Goodrich a lot of publicity to make his future.” He set her aside, got to his feet, then lifted her in his arms again.
“But,” she told him, “you’ve made my day—maybe made my life.”
He bounced her once in his arms and held her tighter. “Yeah, let’s do what we have to do here, get home, and then we can really work on that.”
32
At LAX, Jace popped into the airline scheduler’s office between the flight from Singapore and his cross-country jump to Miami. He’d emailed ahead to request a change in his schedule, and he had to admit he’d probably given them fits lately. In the scheduler’s office, he was surprised to find the doctor who did the annual psychological well-being tests for pilots. Dr. Carson gave him a thin smile and gestured him into the empty office of the scheduler he’d been hoping to see.
“Hey, Jason—oh right, you go by Jace—sit down for a minute,” the young doctor said, indicating a chair across from the scheduler’s desk.
“You know it’s not time for my yearly interview,” Jace said, hoping this wouldn’t take long.
“I know, but I just wondered if there’s something on your personal horizon that’s behind your asking for assignment changes when you were so glad to get the Singapore run not long ago. And you took a sudden leave for a week recently. I hope to be of help to pilots who have gone through separation or divorce. It can wear on anyone. Sit, sit. This won’t take long. So, have you been sleeping well lately?”
This guy should hire Claire, Jace thought. She’d be great at this Q and A stuff. He had to admit he was a bit distracted lately—not that it would reflect on his work at all.
“Well, you know, time zone changes, but that’s about it,” Jace told him, but he realized that was a lie. He’d thought he’d mastered jet lag until lately. He felt kind of woozy right now.
“So, I have here,” Dr. Carson said when he sat down across the desk, “your recent inquiry about getting a Miami-Caribbean assignment or even Miami-Toronto. I know you like foreign places, but can you elaborate on your thinking here? Is it more than wanderlust? You don’t feel like you’re running from the home situation, do you?”
“Just the opposite, if I can get a Miami-based assignment.”
Jace tried to watch his body language. He’d learned that from Claire, too, but he was longing to get out of here. Wanderlust? Claire was the only thing he lusted for right now. He tried to keep his voice level.
“Staying close to my family is a consideration. I’m hoping for reconciliation and that takes proximity.”
“That and family consistency is a tough one for pilots. Have you ever considered private piloting, say for a corporation?”
“Not for a while. I love flying the big boys.”
“And, of course, compensation is better. You haven’t felt depressed over this, have you, not being able to coordinate your professional life and keep the family situation stable? Don’t consider this an official interview, but I just want you to be sure you know what you want to do, career-wise, family-wise.”
“I can assure you of that, Doctor,” he said and went on to explain that he felt steady and sure in his course of life, just like he did in the cockpit of a plane. But, truth was, he was thinking that, finally, family had to come first.
* * *
The moment she saw Lexi run out of Darcy’s house to greet her, Claire ignored the fact that her left arm was hurting again. She picked the squealing child up and spun her around.
“Mommy, Mommy, I’m glad you’re here before preschool started!” Lexi screeched so loud that her ears rang.
“Me, too! No more traveling, at least not for a long time.”
“Maybe to Disney! Daddy said on the phone maybe to Disney!”
“Well, maybe.”
Claire kept kissing Lexi’s face and felt tears of gratitude on her own. Nick was still watching, leaning on the car door he’d opened for her.
“Oh,” Lexi said. “It’s Mr. Nick. Do you have some kids, too, Mr. Nick?”
“Not yet,” he said, “but I’m starting to wish I did.”
“Better get them a mom first,” the child said as Claire put her down but kept a good hold on her hand.
“Right. I’ll need to work on that. Claire, since you want to see your family here, I’ll drop your suitcase off on your screened lanai, then see you tomorrow, okay? I’m going to head to the office, take care of things there. I hope our statements to the sheriff were enough to keep us ahead of the hounds for now. At least it won’t be Jasmine on trial, so I can concentrate on things here—and that’s what I plan to do,” he added with an intense look that rattled her poise.
“Yes. All right. Call tomorrow before you come over.”
“Will do. And don’t be accepting other clients, all right? The law firm and South Shores still need you. And I promise it will be closer to home.”
She wanted to kiss him goodbye, but Lexi was all eyes, and Darcy had appeared in the front window. He’d talked to her about a possible assignment only twenty miles from here. It was something about a Southwest Florida cosmetics corporation that was claiming eternal youth products and had experienced corporate theft and fraud, but beyond that she’d hardly been listening.
Home. She was home with Lexi and her family and Nick said he’d call her and come over tomorrow.
She and Lexi waved as he backed out and disappeared down Lakewood Boulevard. But despite the late-afternoon September sun and the fact she was safely home, Claire had a strange premonition she tried to shake off. Sometimes she felt the river was still pulling at her, trying to drown her, suck her in, yank her away into nightmare oblivion.
Nonsense, she told herself. She was home where she had fresh meds, she had her normal life back, her daughter, so she was in control now. And Nick—boss or not, it was clear he wanted to keep seeing her, and that excited her totally.
“Let’s give Aunt Darcy’s family a big hug and bigger thanks and then we’ll walk home together,” she told Lexi, and the child skipped along at her side.
* * *
Everything, Claire thought the next afternoon, was looking bright. Nick had phoned at noon to tell her that Win would be indicted today. Of course, she’d have to testify, but that could be months away. Win had admitted to everything except running them off the road, knocking Jace out and spying on them on the grounds of Shadowlawn. Since Win had confessed to murder, claiming he was trying to protect Florida’s historic heritage, Nick was certain
he would have admitted to the lesser charges. Therefore, they feared, Nick’s nemesis, Clayton Ames, had been behind those acts. Nick was hoping the man would crawl back into the international woodwork for now since Jasmine was determined to both keep Shadowlawn but share it with others.
On the home front, things looked promising, too. Claire had several potential jobs waiting for her that had come through her website, ones that could be done locally. She’d slept well with fresh meds and no bad dreams. Lexi and Jilly were excited about preschool at the start of the new year, so Darcy and Claire were, too. And with Nick, her future seemed good and new.
After Nick’s call, the early afternoon at home blurred by in a rush—doctor’s visit for her arm, grocery store, all with Lexi in tow. Nick called again between meetings and asked if he could stop by mid-afternoon. He said Bronco had been released and was back at Shadowlawn. Nick had arranged another pro bono lawyer for Cecilia to try to get her charges reduced, though they could hardly be dropped. Jasmine had already hired another photographer to take pictures of the mansion for a book and a brochure for future visitors, and, starting with her mother’s elderly lawyer, she was looking for investors to help her keep the place private.
“How about I bring three McDonald’s Happy Meals?” Nick had asked. “I remember you mentioned Lexi liked those.”
“Sure. Great,” she’d said, though it was way off the time they should eat. And those Happy Meals were something Jace and Lexi had often shared.
At three thirty, she’d prepped Lexi not to say that food now would spoil their dinner, or that her daddy had always bought her Happy Meals, in front of Nick.
“I wouldn’t say that, Mommy. I can always eat fries and a shake. I know you like him, so I do, too. He’s pretty cute.”
Claire’s eyes widened. What to say? Well, he was pretty cute. His car, not the rental car, but one that looked to be a shiny new one with a temporary license plate, pulled into the driveway. Smiling like someone in those You-Just-Won-A-Million-Dollars ads, Nick came up the walk with two big sacks of food.
Lexi led them in as Claire’s cell phone on the kitchen counter rang. “I’d better get this,” she told Nick and darted out into the kitchen.
“Claire, it’s Jace. I’m about a half hour away. I’ll just pop by briefly, then see both of you longer tomorrow. I’m bushed and I want to make a good impression—a new, good, first impression.”
“Could we make it tomorrow? Things are crazy here.”
“Yeah, well, I’m crazy to see both of you. Tell Lexi. Traffic’s bad, see you soon,” he said and hung up.
“Everything okay?” Nick asked as she went back out to the screened lanai where she’d set up place mats on the table. Lexi had taken over, unpacking the food and laying it out.
“Yes. Just that Jace is going to stop by to see Lexi in a little while.”
“So we should make this quick?”
“No, we should sit right here and enjoy ourselves. After we eat, Lexi can watch for him. He said he wouldn’t stay long. I’ve asked him not to just pop in, but Jace is Jace.”
“He flies planes,” Lexi told Nick, zooming a French fry toward her mouth.
“That’s an important job,” he told the child.
As they ate, Claire silently blessed Lexi that she didn’t carry on about her father. Why did things have to be so complicated?
“Mommy, can I go look for him out the window now?” she asked, after gulping down her milk shake and about half of her fries.
“Sure. All right,” Claire told her. When the child scampered off, she told Nick, “Sorry about the timing for all this.”
“How about I leave, and we can do something else later? I’ve been gone so long, I need to meet with the office staff. I actually had to send Heck to lease that car for me. I don’t mean to mess things up for you, but I wanted to see you and get to know Lexi, too. Can you and I go out some evening soon? I got the idea your sister’s a second mom to her, and I’d like to meet her, too—Darcy.”
They held hands over the corner of the glass table, interweaving their fingers. “We’ve been through so much in such a short time,” Claire told him, her voice soft and shaky. “It’s hard to believe it’s all been so fast, just a bit over two weeks.”
“I know.” His silver eyes focused on hers like a laser. “Intense, all the way.”
He leaned forward. She did, too. He tipped his head and took her lips. As ever with him, she felt that down to the pit of her belly and up to the stars.
“Mommy, he’s here! He’s here!”
Reality. They broke the kiss, the touch. Claire heard Lexi’s feet on the tile in the entryway. She was opening the door to fly to Jace’s arms as usual. Claire and Nick stood slowly. Lexi opened, then slammed the front door.
“I’d better go,” Nick said, “but I’ll call. I’ll be back. I understand all this,” he said with a sweep of his hand toward the front of the house. “It’s okay.”
“Let’s hope this goes better than last time in the hotel room,” she said as they walked toward the front door. “He’s been hinting he wants to turn over a new leaf, but I don’t know.”
“With you?”
“I just think you can’t put broken eggs back together—too scrambled.”
Claire opened the front door, expecting to have to face Jace with Lexi in his arms. But there was no Jace. No car. No Lexi!
Oh, a car that looked like his was just disappearing around the curve in the street. But—but he wouldn’t take her for a ride without clearing it with Claire first. Would he? He’d never done that before!
33
“I—I don’t think he’d just take her somewhere,” she repeated, running out to the street and looking down it with Nick right behind. “He usually comes in.”
“She was only out here a minute or two. Do you know that neighbor down there? The silver-haired older lady,” he said, pointing. “I can go ask her.”
“Oh, Margaret. I’ll ask her.”
Claire ran across the driveway and two doors down. “Margaret, did you see Lexi in our front yard a minute ago?”
“Oh, yes. How are you, Claire? I believe you two have been on vacation after that terrible accident where you got shot.”
“But did she get in a car?”
“Yes. She was shouting ‘Daddy, Daddy,’ and he pulled her into his arms and right into the car. So, did you two go very far and have a good time?”
“I can’t talk now,” she cried and tore back toward Nick.
“She got in a car with him! But Jace wouldn’t take her. That couldn’t be what he meant about things changing! Oh, thank heavens! Here he comes right now. I recognize the car. He must have just taken her for a little ride, but he scared me to death! That’s his car he keeps in town, but he uses rental ones from the airport sometimes.”
Nick started back toward his car as Claire went to meet Jace. She wouldn’t scold him in front of Lexi, but he was going to hear about this. Was he trying to teach her a lesson not to go off on distant assignments?
“Hey, I like the personal welcome!” Jace called out the open driver’s-side window. “And the fact he’s leaving but not that he’s been here.”
Claire could see Lexi wasn’t in the front seat with him. “Where is she, Jace? This isn’t funny! Is she hiding in the backseat?” she demanded, covering her eyes from the sun’s glare and squinting in his back window, which reflected her silhouette like a dark mirror.
“What are you talking about? Where’s Lexi?”
“You tell me. I hear she just got in your car for a little ride.”
He got out and slammed the car door. “Says who?”
“A neighbor who saw it.”
Jace’s eyes widened, and his lower lip set. “No, I swear it.”
Claire hit his shoulder with her fi
st before he grabbed her wrist. “It has to be! Where is she?” she screamed.
Nick got back out of his car and strode toward them. “What is it?” he asked. “Where is she?”
“You two cozy here in the middle of the day, so maybe she ran away!” Jace roared. “Is that it?”
“Didn’t you listen to me?” Claire cried. “She got in a car that must have looked like yours with a man who—who maybe looked like you!”
Jace would not have done this as a sick joke, not with Lexi at stake. Lexi...
“I’m calling the police,” Claire said and started toward the house but stopped when she saw the drone. It hovered about twelve feet in the air, then set down perfectly on the lawn just ahead of her. She hurried to it. “There’s an envelope here!” she called out. Her stomach cramped so badly she almost doubled over, but she snatched the note off the thing and ran into the house with Nick and Jace close behind.
Her hands shaking so hard the paper rattled, she pulled a note from the envelope and read aloud, “Lexi’s going on a nice vacation to Grand Cayman Island. Nick and Claire must come get her. She will be safe if you obey. No police. No one else! You will be contacted there.”
To Claire’s horror, Nick turned and ran out the front door. “I’ve got to follow that drone!” he yelled back.
“You SOB!” Jace roared and ran out, too. “I swear, if you set this up to get them off alone...”
Claire collapsed onto the floor. She wanted to tear the note, scream, beat the tile. But this note was evidence—of—of her daughter’s kidnapping. No police. No one else.
This could not be happening. It was worse than any nightmare she’d ever had.
Nick ran back in with Jace close behind him. Nick reached down to Claire’s shoulders and pulled her to her feet, then sat her on a tall counter chair. He got right in her face. “The drone is gone, but we know who sent it. We’ve been watched, set up. I’m so sorry. I—I should have known not to get close to someone that way to give that bastard leverage. It’s why I’ve changed—changed close friends so much.”