by Adams, Anna
“We have to assume so,” he said. “We were all out yesterday.”
With a shiver, she tucked the attorney’s letter in her pocket. “Maybe you could call Weldon, and then I think we should talk to Simon, whether he’ll give us any information or not.”
“I’m right behind you.” He meant it more than he’d meant even their wedding vows. No one would get at her or in her house again as long as he was around. And he was here to stay.
Opening the door, she looked at him over her shoulder, with startling seriousness. “I’m counting on you.” She paused for a moment. “And we’re bringing Maggie with us. Eleanor will offer to look after her, but I’ll feel a lot safer if she’s with us.”
“Yeah,” he said grimly, aware that Eleanor and Joe seemed to want more from their relationship with Maggie than they were telling Tessa. “She’ll have to understand after we explain we may have had an intruder.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
NOAH OFFERED to help Tessa tell Eleanor and Joe about their talk with Weldon, but she thought it was best to do it on her own. She wanted to save them from any more pain than they had to endure and they might prefer a smaller audience as they tried to get used to the idea of having Joanna talked about.
Facing them on her own was easier said than done, though. She stood at the kitchen door, her heart pounding in the top of her throat. She didn’t want to tell them.
When she finally opened the door, Maggie’s grandparents were sharing a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. Eleanor seemed to see bad news on Tessa’s face.
“What’s happened? Is it Maggie?”
“No.” Her heart went out to them. How long before a bereaved parent stopped anticipating the worst? “I had to talk to Sheriff Weldon today, about some information David asked me to keep quiet.”
She waited, giving them a chance to leap to the right conclusion, as if that would be less painful. Joe seemed to get it first.
“It’s about Joanna?”
Tessa nodded. “I don’t know how to tell you.”
“Quick and merciless works best,” Joe said, clenching his hands on the sides of his chair.
Eleanor sat still, looking stunned. Then she stood so abruptly her chair turned over behind her. “What about Joanna?”
“Just after her funeral I walked in on David flushing some drugs down the toilet. At first I thought they were his, that her death made him want to forget, so he’d started taking them.” She’d understood such a depth of despair.
“Don’t tell me he blamed them on my daughter,” Eleanor said.
Tessa bit her bottom lip, unable to go on.
“Whose were they, Tessa?” Joe was relentless.
Tessa lifted Eleanor’s chair and laid her hand on the other woman’s shoulder. “I knew, really. David had never touched drugs. He was so horrified at what they’d done to Joanna, I don’t think he’d have been capable, but he didn’t want Maggie to know about her mom.”
“Joanna learned her lesson,” Eleanor said. “She didn’t take drugs after she left the rehabilitation center. She had too much to live for—her daughter, parents who adored her.”
“And her husband,” Tessa said, meeting Eleanor’s bitter gaze. “David loved her, too.”
“David let her believe he couldn’t choose between you and her.” Eleanor pulled away, and Tessa rubbed her palms together, feeling a sting where she’d touched Joanna’s mother.
“He didn’t, Eleanor. David loved only Joanna. I don’t know why she would have believed anything else, and I know David pulled away from me before she died and after. He didn’t want her to be confused about which of us he loved as his wife.”
Joe came around the table. “Try to understand, Tessa. We lost our daughter and David, and we’re angry. When your daughter died, didn’t you want to blame someone?”
“I blamed myself.”
He nodded. “Because you should have seen the problem. We feel the same. We’re searching for answers, just the way you have. And we’re doing our best to live.”
“But you don’t think David would lie about Joanna?”
“No,” he said, his tone firm. “But why don’t the police know for sure what happened? Why does Weldon insist Joanna was under the influence?”
Tessa glanced at Eleanor, reluctant to hurt her further. “David bribed the former police chief to cover it up. That’s why he left office. He’s not working in Presque Isle. He’s hiding out, probably praying Weldon won’t be able to gather enough evidence to prosecute him.”
“Why didn’t this come out in the newspapers?” Joe demanded.
“Because of Joanna.” She shrugged in frustration because she couldn’t do anything to help Maggie’s trembling grandmother. “According to David, the editor figured he and Maggie had already suffered enough, and Joanna was his friend, too. He dropped the story.”
“It’s not true.” Eleanor pushed away from Joe to stand on her own two feet.
“I’m sorry, Eleanor. I’d give anything to avoid telling you all this, but I’m afraid Joanna might have made someone angry.” Tessa softened her tone. “We have to think of Maggie and of you and Joe. I don’t want someone to hurt you. That’s why I asked if anyone talked to you about Joanna’s bills. I was trying to find out if the dealer she used threatened you.”
“No—because you’re wrong, and the police are wrong. You just believed David, when he should have been the one you doubted. He was using those drugs—not Joanna—and he must have felt guilty, maybe even afraid, because he had Maggie on his own, so he was throwing the drugs away.”
Tessa had no hope Eleanor would believe anything she could say. The other woman couldn’t face the truth, and Tessa empathized with her. Nevertheless, she had to warn them about the possible intruder, too.
“I have to tell you one other thing. Noah found something on the computer—a file that doesn’t belong to me—and we think someone must have broken in. He’s calling Weldon right now.”
“Great,” Joe muttered.
“But you should stay alert if you’re here by yourselves.” She caught a quick, remorseful breath as Eleanor glared at her with soulless eyes. “Noah and I have to take Maggie out for a little while, but I’m going to call a locksmith before I leave, and arrange to have the locks changed again.”
“As if I’d care if someone broke in now,” Eleanor said through tears. “I’d welcome anyone who could put an end to this evil.”
Her plaintive need stopped Tessa in her tracks. Impelled to offer comfort, she gently rubbed the other woman’s back.
“I loved Joanna, too, Eleanor. David made me promise never to tell anyone, but I had to because of you all and Maggie.”
Eleanor turned her face into Joe’s chest, and Tessa’s hand fell to her side. His mouth drawn with sadness, Joe simply nodded toward the kitchen door. Tessa took his hint.
The pain in the kitchen practically pushed her out of the room, but she found Noah at the computer. He turned and his reassuring smile helped.
“You couldn’t do anything else.” He looked back at the screen. “Come look at this file,” he said, low voiced, “just to make sure you haven’t seen it before. I told Weldon we’d drop a copy by his office.”
She peered over his shoulder, her mind with the couple in the other room. “I don’t think they believed me.”
“I’ve seen it before. They need time to absorb the truth.” He eyed the text on the monitor. “I don’t understand this file, though. Leaving it for us to find is such an obvious mistake.”
“What do you mean?” She didn’t even recognize the names that didn’t have to do with Sloma.
“If David were in with these guys, he wouldn’t leave evidence like this lying around, and if someone broke in here and put this on your computer, it’s too obvious to believe.”
Behind her, Eleanor’s voice rose every so often, not loudly enough for Tessa to understand what she said, but enough to intimate angry grief.
Tessa pressed her hand to Noah’s
shoulder, taking comfort from her right to touch him. He covered her hand with his and stood. His glance, slipping from her face to the closed kitchen door, looked uneasy, too.
“The worst part is not knowing what to do,” he said.
“Joe waved at me to leave them alone.”
“Have you talked to David’s executor yet?”
“I left him a message he hasn’t returned.”
“Why don’t I dress Maggie, and you call this Simon.” He snatched a piece of paper from the printer and took a floppy disk from the computer. “Let’s give them some privacy.”
“You’ve had to tell people stuff like this before, haven’t you?” She’d never realized how much it hurt to shatter another human being’s illusions.
He nodded. “Not my favorite part of the job, though I always come away determined to find the scum who caused it.”
“Maybe we’re getting close to this guy.” She touched the paper in his hand. “If this is a mistake, someone’s getting desperate.”
“You told them to be careful while we’re gone?”
“Mmm-hmm, but that reminds me. I need to call a locksmith.”
“We won’t wait for that. We’ll stop at a hardware store on our way home, and I’ll change the locks again. Tessa?”
She looked at him.
“Did you happen to ask Eleanor and Joe if they left off the alarm when they went out yesterday morning?”
“No, but I’m thinking I should have it replaced. It’s obviously easy to defeat.” She went to the keypad. “It looks fine, and I know I set it last night.”
“Let’s change the code again.” Noah circled her, folding the sheet of paper. “I’ll get Maggie.”
Tessa persuaded Simon Gould’s assistant to make an appointment for them on short notice after his regular office hours. She wanted to look in on Joe and Eleanor again, but they were quiet in the kitchen. And they probably would have come out if they’d wanted company.
Tessa wished again that she could have made any other decision. Maybe Joe could be a little stiff now and then. And too often Eleanor tended to remind Tessa that they were Maggie’s blood relatives. But Tessa already accepted those small hiccups in their changing relationship as the price they had to pay to build a new family for Maggie.
Upstairs, her door opened and Maggie let out a cheerful whoop as Noah carried her, bundled again for outdoor weather, to the stairs. “We’ll take my car,” he said. “I left her seat in it.”
They wrestled a wriggling Maggie into the seat, having both grown unfamiliar with babies and confusing straps. Maggie seemed to want to play. She arched her back and giggled at their efforts until Tessa began to sweat, even in the cold.
“Was Keely this difficult?” she asked.
“I don’t—” His silence startled her and she looked at him.
“What?” she asked.
“That’s the first time we’ve talked about her in a normal way.” He shook his head, and his hair brushed the car’s gray roof. “I feel sad, as if we’re putting her behind us. And I don’t remember if she fought being put in her car seat.”
“She’ll always be part of us.” Their serious voices had distracted Maggie, and she unbowed. Tessa snapped the restraining belts into place without a second to lose. “But I think we’re doing Keely’s memory a disservice, still fighting the fact that she’s gone. She was a happy girl, and she made us happy. We’ve been sad and angry for longer than we had her.”
Dismaying her, Noah’s eyes seemed to fill with moisture. His mouth worked, but he didn’t speak. Instead, he leaned across Maggie’s kicking feet to cup the nape of Tessa’s neck.
His kiss was the absolution she’d offered him earlier, and a wish for the future. Hope she wanted to share with him.
“I’d like us to make the most of our good memories,” he said.
Maggie stuck her snowsuit-covered foot between them, and uttered a question in her own language. Laughing as her heart raced at the promise of a future with Noah, Tessa leaned down and kissed the bridge of Maggie’s nose.
Then she straightened and kissed Noah again. He opened her mouth with his, brief but possessively thorough. Tessa pulled away, her head swimming.
“We should go.” She caught Maggie’s waving foot. “I don’t want to leave the Worths alone too long, and they might feel better if they spend some time with this crazy girl.”
Noah grinned, a guy in charge of his family again. He liked being in charge, and she saw no reason to burst his bubble.
The temperature must have risen during the day. The tree-lined streets were wet but bare of snow. They went to Weldon’s office first, where they all studied the file while Maggie played with the deputy’s handcuffs. Weldon had arranged for an expert from Augusta to come take a look at Tessa’s computer, but due to fresh snowfall in the capital, he wouldn’t be getting out of town until tomorrow.
Shadows began to gather as they drove to Simon Gould’s office on the outskirts of town. The Maine forest edged closer out here. Tessa shivered.
“I must be getting paranoid. It seems as if we understand less, and I’m getting more scared as time goes on.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you or Maggie.”
She turned, smiling gently. “That’s a heroic promise, but we both know even you can’t stop someone who’s serious about killing.”
He stared out the windshield. “My talents lie in catching them afterward,” he said. “But this is different. I won’t lose you now.”
Unspoken between them lay the future, but Tessa was too aware of mistakes she’d made in the past. Noah had talked about being certain before he’d asked her about reconciling, and she needed time to be sure she wasn’t going to let him down before she made promises. Deep in thought, she almost missed their last turn, into a small office park.
“There,” she said. “He’s at the far end, in the back.”
“How do you know this guy?”
“I asked him to look over the papers we drew up for Maggie’s guardianship.”
Only three cars remained in the parking lot this late. Noah nosed his car between two of them, and then Tessa took Maggie from her seat. Simon met them in his reception area.
“Hello, Tessa,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to call you. This must be Maggie.” He chucked the baby under her chin and didn’t bother to wipe off her drool. “She’s grown since I last saw her.”
Tessa jumped in with both feet. “David didn’t bring her when he consulted you last?”
Simon’s expression flattened.
“Maybe we should talk in your office,” Noah said.
“Good idea.” Simon led the way past his assistant, who nodded at them all as she put on her coat.
In his office, he offered them a large, leather sofa, where Tessa loosened Maggie’s snowsuit and peeled off her cap. Noah sat beside her and the baby while Simon took the leather armchair.
He crossed his legs. “You know I can’t tell you much.”
“I hoped you could give us a lead.” She turned to Noah. “This is my—my—this is Noah Gabriel. We were married before I came to live here.”
“Yes, I think David mentioned Noah, and, of course, the town’s awash in gossip. You’re a cop, aren’t you?”
“I have no jurisdiction here,” Noah said, “but David was our friend, and I want to know who killed him. Tessa found your bill in his mail.” He fished the envelope from his inside pocket and held it out. “Naturally, we’d like to know if you can tell us anything that might lead to David’s killer.”
Simon widened his gaze, looking mystified. “That, I know nothing about.”
Tessa glanced at Noah impatiently. He was usually much more subtle. “Maybe you could put me at ease about something else. Did David come to see you about Maggie?”
Simon uncrossed his legs and crossed them the other way. “I can’t answer that.”
Fear took Tessa’s throat in its clammy hand. “Should I expect another will to show up? Did David
change the provisions he made for Maggie?”
Simon hesitated, his gaze moving between her and Noah, finally resting on the baby. “I can tell you I produced no paperwork for David, but I can’t say anything else, Tessa.”
“Simon.” She knew it was unethical, but she couldn’t help herself. Resorting to flat-out interrogation, she leaned forward.
“Wait.” Noah rested his hand on her arm, holding her back. “You can’t force the man to break privilege, but look, Simon, if David knew that Tessa was taking care of Maggie, would he be pleased?”
Tessa eased into the back of the sofa as Simon’s mouth curved in a big grin. “Good question,” she said, eyeing Noah with gratitude.
“Perfect question,” Simon said. He caught Tessa’s gaze, with meaning in his own eyes. “And David would be delighted.”
“Thank God.” She cupped her hand over the familiar shape of Maggie’s head, and her heart melted. She’d have forced herself to turn Maggie over to Joe and Eleanor if David had wanted her to, but she wouldn’t give Maggie up to anyone with a whole heart now. She was learning to be a mother again, at this baby’s small hands.
“I’m glad I could help.” Simon stood. “But now I need to go home. My son has a hockey game tonight, and I have to admit, David’s death has made me more cognizant of my own family’s needs. I’d hate it if I was gone, and they hardly noticed. Funny how you let yourself get so busy, when you’re practicing law to keep families together.” He held out his hand to Tessa. “But you know all about that.”
She shook his hand. “I do,” she said, not looking at Noah. They’d both been distracted before. How would that be different now? After they found out who’d killed David, they’d go back to their regular lives. Would they forget their good intentions in the first week of rushing from appointment to crime scene to day-care center? “Thank you, Simon. I can’t tell you how you eased my mind.”
He caught Maggie’s hand between his index finger and thumb. She cooed at him, and he fell under her spell, too. “I can guess,” he said. “Take good care. Call on me if I can do anything else.”
“I’d like to know exactly what you discussed with David,” Noah said, but Simon snapped his mouth shut, and Noah lifted his hands in acquiescence. He shook with the attorney, as well. “Thanks for seeing us.”