Love Inspired Suspense December 2015, Box Set 2 of 2

by Margaret Daley

  Donnie frowned and shook his head. “No. Ms. Williams has already asked me about that, and I told her I never saw a shipment like that.”

  “Did you ever hear Mr. Lockhart mention any pieces from that era? Could they possibly have been delivered directly to him?”

  Donnie shook his head. “He never said anything to me, and he wasn’t in the habit of accepting deliveries.” His eyebrows pulled into a frown. “What’s this all about? Why such an interest in some jewelry all of a sudden?”

  Lucas shrugged. “Just trying to make sense out of Kyle Lockhart’s murder.” He pulled another card from his pocket and handed it to Donnie. “If you think of anything that might help us get to the bottom of why he was killed, get in touch with me.”

  Donnie looked down at the card and slipped it in his pocket before he nodded. “Okay, but I’ve told you and the police I don’t know anything that might help. The night Mr. Lockhart was killed, I had left work early because I had tickets to a Predators game in Nashville. I ended up spending the night there and driving back home early the next morning.”

  “I see,” Lucas said. “Like I said, if you think of anything else. Thanks for talking to us.” He turned to leave but stopped and faced Donnie. “One more thing, did you ever meet a man named Tony Chapman?”

  Donnie frowned. “That’s the name of the man the police arrested for Mr. Lockhart’s murder, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. Chapman’s DNA was on file because he’d been in prison, and they found it in the skin particles under Lockhart’s fingernails.”

  Donnie nodded. “I read that in the paper, but I’d never heard of him then.”

  “What about Clyde Harper?”

  Donnie shook his head again. “Never heard of him either.”

  “Okay, thanks for talking to us today,” Lucas said as he grabbed Mia’s arm and steered her toward the door. As they walked back through the showroom, she pulled free of his grasp, and Lucas let his hand drift down to his side. Once outside, she stopped and stared across the street where he’d parked the car.

  Lucas inched closer to her. “Are you okay, Mia?”

  She bit down on her lip and nodded. “Yeah. Hearing Janet talk made me realize how little I knew about Kyle.” She turned to him and gave a wobbly smile. “But don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right.”

  Before he could respond, she turned and strode toward his car. He followed a few feet behind her. When she was about halfway to the vehicle, Lucas looked around in surprise at the roar of an SUV that had just rounded the corner and was headed straight toward Mia.

  “Mia!” he yelled at the top of his voice, and she stopped to look back at him.

  His heart pounded like a jackhammer as he sprinted toward her. A look of fear crossed her face just as he reached out and grabbed her around the waist. Their bodies sailed through the air and skidded to a stop on the ground next to the car, his body covering hers. He heard a gunshot and felt the shattered glass from the car window rain down on him before he blacked out.

  *

  One minute Mia was standing in the middle of the street. The next, Lucas plowed into her like a defensive lineman, and she hit the pavement with Lucas’s weight on top of her. Now shards of glass were scattered near her, and she lay still for a moment trying to remember what had happened. Then it came back to her. The roar of a car, Lucas tackling her and the pavement coming up to meet her.

  She tried to push up, but she couldn’t budge Lucas. “Lucas,” she moaned. “Are you okay?”

  When he didn’t answer, she worked her arm free from underneath her body and reached up to touch his head. Her hand came away sticky and red with his blood. A scream tore from her throat, and then she felt his body being moved off her.

  “Are you all right?” a voice shrieked. Mia turned her head slightly to see Janet Williams leaning over her.

  “Lucas,” she gasped. “Is he all right?”

  At that moment his body twitched, and he jerked his eyes open. “Mia?” his groggy voice rasped. “Are you hurt?”

  “We’ve called 911. They’ll be here in a few minutes. Can you get up?” Mia recognized the frightened voice of Donnie Miller.

  Lucas pushed into a sitting position, and Mia sat up beside him. Her eyes grew wide at the blood that oozed from the cut above his eyebrow. “Lucas, you’re injured,” she cried.

  He shook his head. “No, I blacked out for a minute, but I’m fine.” He touched the cut above his eye and winced. “I must have gotten hit by a flying piece of glass.”

  Mia started to respond, but the sound of sirens split the air. She glanced over her shoulder to see a police car followed by an ambulance speeding toward them. They came to an abrupt stop beside them, and Janet and Donnie stepped out of the way as two EMTs ran toward them. Within seconds Lucas and Mia were both being examined.

  Mia tried to concentrate on the questions an EMT named Eli was asking her, but she was too concerned about Lucas. She heard the attendant examining him say that he could find no broken bones, and she sighed in relief. Minutes later Lucas, a bandage covering the cut above his eye, pushed to his feet and turned to one of the police officers. As he began to relate what had happened, she directed her attention back to Eli, who now was applying a fresh dressing to the cut on her head where Clyde had hit her.

  “How did you get this injury?” Eli asked.

  “Uh, a guy tried to kidnap me yesterday and hit me in the head with a gun,” she mumbled.

  His eyes grew wide. “Kidnap you? And today a car almost kills you. Sounds like you have somebody after you.”

  She gave a weak smile. “I guess you could say that.”

  She stared down at the ground and took hold of Eli’s hand as he pulled her to her feet. “Steady now,” he said. “Hold on to me until you feel like you can stand alone.”

  She released his hand and nodded. “Thank you, but I’m okay.”

  “Are you sure?” Lucas appeared at her side, concern lining his face.

  “I’m okay, Lucas. How about you?”

  He pointed to the bandage above his eye. “Just a scratch. No stitches required.”

  Eli chuckled and put his hands on his hips as he took in the bandages Lucas and Mia wore. “From the looks of things, I don’t think you two can stay out of trouble.”

  Mia glanced at Lucas and burst into laughter. “I think Mr. Knight is wishing about now that he’d never agreed to take me as a client,” she said.

  Lucas’s face turned red as he tried to control the embarrassed grin pulling at his mouth, but it was the look in his eyes that caused her pulse to race. “You’re wrong, Mia. I’d hate to think of you facing all of this alone. I’m glad you showed up on my doorstep.”

  “I am, too.” Mia smiled and nodded.

  Thirty minutes later, with the police report finished and Mia and Lucas having assured the EMTs that they didn’t need to go to the hospital, they drove away from the scene of the shooting. The wind blew through the shattered window, and Lucas turned the heater up higher. Even with the increased heat, Mia still shivered. Lucas glanced at Mia and caught sight of her hunched shoulders inside her coat. “I know you’re cold. Mom should be home soon. Do you want to go back and stay with her this afternoon?”

  Mia’s eyebrows arched. “Why? What are you planning on doing?”

  “I thought I’d go see Christine Abbott. I can understand why that might be uncomfortable for you. So I’ll drop you off at my parents’ house if you’d rather stay there.”

  She shook her head. “No way. I want to meet this woman who seemed to know my husband so well. But I would like to ride in comfort. Why don’t we take your car to your house and get mine? At least it has windows.”

  He laughed and nodded. “That sounds good. Then I’ll take you for lunch. I think after your two close calls, you deserve something special. How about stopping at that rib place that we liked so much when we were in college?”

  Tears pooled in her eyes, and she turned her head to stare out the window to keep h
im from seeing them. Her throat constricted, almost making it impossible to respond. Finally she swallowed and swiveled to face him as she forced herself to speak. “Thank you, Lucas,” she whispered.

  His eyebrows arched, and he darted a glance at her. “For what?”

  “For being so kind to me. I’ve thought of that restaurant so many times over the years and wished I could go there again. But of course that wasn’t possible. Now you offer to take me.” His hand rested on the gear shift, and she covered it with hers. “I’ve never brought you anything but problems, but you still find ways to make me feel special. You are the best person I’ve ever known.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed as he glanced down at her hand, then he slid his from the gear shift and wrapped it around hers. She closed her eyes at the way her heart pounded at the feel of her fingers in his warm palm.

  “No, I’m not, but I’m glad you think so.”

  She lay back against the headrest and closed her eyes as they drove through the Memphis streets, their fingers laced together. It had been a long time since she’d felt so peaceful, and she wanted to savor every minute of it.

  *

  Two hours later Mia almost wished she’d asked Lucas to take her to his parents’ house. Toasty warm from the heat pouring through the vents of her car and feeling stuffed from the half rack of ribs she’d eaten, all Mia wanted was to lie down and take a long nap.

  Instead here she and Lucas were pulling to a stop in the circle driveway of Christine Abbott’s house. Mia’s breath hitched in her throat at the thought that the house of horrors she had shared with Kyle lay just on the other side of the wooded area next to the Abbott property. The memory of the boat Clyde Harper had tried to abduct her in flashed in her mind. The dock behind Christine’s house wasn’t visible from the front, but Mia’s stomach still roiled at the thought that Clyde’s boat had come from here. But had it been stolen or borrowed? That was the question. And Christine Abbott had the answers to that as well as other things Mia would like to know about.

  She shook her head to rid it of the thought of Kyle being involved with Christine. But why should it surprise her? He’d only married her because he wanted the prestige and contacts that came with her father’s wealth. Kyle and her father had been two of a kind, both self-centered and oblivious to the needs of anyone else. Neither one had ever loved her, and she’d accepted that years ago.

  Next to her Lucas turned off the engine, and she studied his profile. A soft stubble covered his jawline, and she longed to run her fingers over it like she’d done years ago. But that was then, before she had made her biggest mistake and cut him out of her life. If only she could go back and redo the past. But that was impossible.

  Lucas glanced around at her. “Are you ready?”

  She took a deep breath and nodded. “As I’ll ever be.”

  They climbed out of the car and walked together toward the rambling two-story white colonial house with its six columns across the front. This house was much bigger than the one she’d lived in, but just being in this neighborhood made her stomach churn.

  Lucas placed his hand on her elbow as they walked up the wide brick steps and headed toward the double doors decorated with large Christmas wreaths of holly and red berries. When they stopped at the doorway, Mia reached out to ring the bell, but Lucas grabbed her hand.

  “Wait!”

  She flinched at the urgency in his voice and whirled to face him. “What’s wrong?”

  He pointed to the door. “It’s open.”

  Mia looked where he indicated and sucked in her breath at the sight of the door ajar. But that wasn’t the only thing that made her heart beat like a bass drum. Dried brownish-red droplets were spattered up and down the side of the door.

  Mia gasped and pointed a shaking finger at the spots. “I-is that bl-blood?”

  Lucas’s mouth settled into a grim line, and he nodded as he pulled his gun from his holster. Then he grasped Mia’s arm and pulled her behind him. “Stay back,” he whispered.

  He placed the toe of his boot against the bottom of the door and nudged it forward. A soft creaking sound drifted up as the door swung inward and then thumped against the wall. Lucas gasped, and Mia peeped around his side to get a glimpse of what he’d seen.

  Her eyes grew wide, and she jammed her fist against her lips to keep from screaming. A woman, her blond hair soaked with blood, lay in the entry of the mansion.

  “It looks like someone didn’t want us to talk to Christine Abbott,” Lucas said.

  Mia looked once more at the still body and then ran to the edge of the porch, leaned over and proceeded to lose all the ribs she’d eaten earlier.

  CHAPTER TEN

  As soon as he’d viewed the body, Lucas had recognized Christine Abbott from the pictures of her with Kyle Lockhart. He’d seen enough death when he was a navy SEAL to know that she’d been dead for some time.

  “I-is that Christine Abbott?” Mia whispered when she returned to his side.

  He settled his mouth in a grim line and nodded. “Yeah.”

  “What do we do?”

  Lucas pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “We call this in to the police, then we go to the car to wait for them to arrive.”

  “But don’t we need to see if she needs help?”

  He glanced over his shoulder at Mia. Her eyes held a glazed aspect, and it was if she couldn’t look away from the scene in front of her. He took her by the hand, led her down the steps and opened the car door.

  “Stay in here where it’s warm until the police get here.”

  Mia’s chest heaved with short gasps as she stared past him to the front door of the house. “But what if she’s still alive? Maybe we can do something.”

  “Look at me, Mia,” he ordered. She might have been deaf for the reaction his words had on her as she breathed heavily and gazed at the front door without blinking. Afraid that she was about to hyperventilate, Lucas grasped her chin with his fingers and directed her eyes to him. “Mia, I said look at me.”

  Her chin trembled, and he relaxed his hold a bit. She blinked and glanced up at him as if seeing him for the first time. “Lucas,” she murmured.

  “Listen to me,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do for Christine now, and we need to stay away from her body. If we go in, we may contaminate the crime scene, and that will only cause problems for the police. Now, please, get in the car and let me call this in.”

  She didn’t move for a moment but then nodded. “Okay.”

  Without looking at the house again, she climbed in the car and closed the door. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him through the window as he punched 911 in his cell phone.

  A dispatcher answered right away. “911. What is your emergency?”

  “This is Lucas Knight. I’m at 567 Lakeshore Drive. I found the owner of the home dead in her entry. We need police and an ambulance.”

  “They’re on their way, sir.”

  “Thank you.”

  He hung up and waited for the police. It was less than five minutes before he heard the sirens in the distance. Two police cars and an ambulance skidded to a stop in the driveway. One of the policemen ran toward him.

  “Did you make the 911 call?”

  Lucas nodded. “Yes. I’m Lucas Knight. When Ms. Lockhart and I arrived, I noticed the front door was ajar. After pushing it open, I saw Christine Abbot lying in the entry. I could tell she was dead, so I backed away and made the call. Didn’t want to contaminate the crime scene.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “We’ll see what we can find.” He glanced at the EMTs who were getting out of the ambulance and called out to them. “Let us check the house, guys, and I’ll let you know when you can come in.”

  Lucas watched as the officers fanned out around the building and began their search of the premises. Two of them entered the front door, and he could hear them discussing the condition of the house. From what he could tell, it had been ransacked just like Mia’s.

  Anothe
r car pulled into the driveway, and Lucas watched as Ryan and his partner, Mac Barnes, climbed from the car and stopped next to him. “Hey, Ryan. Jessica said you were working today. Did you guys get this case?” Lucas asked.

  Ryan nodded. “Yeah. And I hear you made the 911 call. That right?”

  Lucas tilted his head to one side and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. The front door was ajar, and we spotted her in the entry.”

  Ryan’s eyebrows arched. “We?”

  The car door opened at that moment, and Mia stepped out. “Hi, Ryan.”

  Ryan’s mouth gaped, and he turned to stare at Lucas. “You brought your client along on the hunt for Chapman?”

  Lucas chuckled and shook his head. “I didn’t have much choice—she needs protection around the clock. Chapman is determined to kill Mia. She’s had several close calls, and then we get here and find the woman we want to question dead. Chapman would be at the top of my suspect list to be the murderer.”

  Mac frowned and glanced at Lucas. “I don’t think I’ve met your client, Lucas. Why don’t you introduce us?”

  Mia turned to Lucas, and he nodded toward Mac. “Mia, this is Mac Barnes. He’s Ryan’s partner and worked with my sister, Jessica, too, when she was on the police force. Mac, this is Mia Lockhart, Kyle Lockhart’s widow.”

  The lines in Mac’s face deepened as he took Mia’s hand in his. “I’m sorry about your husband, Mrs. Lockhart. We’re doing everything we can to bring Tony Chapman to justice.” He glanced at Lucas. “And if you have the Knight Agency helping you, I’m sure he’ll be back behind bars in no time.”

  Mia smiled at Mac and squeezed his hand. “I’m looking forward to that.”

  He released Mia and turned to Lucas. “Want to give us your story before we go in and check the crime scene?”

  Ryan and Mac both opened notebooks and began to write as Lucas recited the events that had taken place since he and Mia had driven up to the Abbott house. When he had finished, Mac looked back over his notes and pursed his lips. “And you didn’t see anybody near the house when you arrived?”

  Lucas shook his head. “No, and it appeared Ms. Abbott had been dead for some time.”