They both wanted answers, but he didn’t want to disappoint his brother’s girl by acting before thinking, which he’d always done before.
“I will say that I agree with you about Quinten, but have to disagree about Alex,” Saige said slowly, and he could hear a tinge of anger in her voice. “Right now though, we’re trying to find something that will clear Quinten or, at least, something that will cause more doubt on his guilt so that a stay can be requested.” Saige paused and looked to Alex.
He moved beside her, holding his tongue on his thoughts about Agnes, and instead pleaded, “I know you couldn’t care less about me, but what you said about Quinten is true. He isn’t guilty and we really need answers to try and get him a retrial, at the very least, before it’s too late. Please help us.” You old bat. He grinned.
Agnes flushed and gazed around the pharmacy. No one else was present, but he did catch her son lurking in the drug dispensing area. Alex had a vague recollection of Paul and remembered him being away at school around the same time that Saige had been. Paul always used to be in the pharmacy whenever he would go in, messing with one thing or another. As a boy, Paul could never be still, but that seemed to have changed as he watched Alex and Saige with his mother.
“I’m not sure how you think I can help. I told the sheriff back then that I hadn’t seen anyone with Saige, or Quinten lurking around. I mean, of course I’d see Quinten in town.” She waved her hands around and became flustered. “I’d see him grocery shopping or, on occasion, going inside the bar. I didn’t see him all that often with Jocelyn. She tended to go off on her own, if you know what I mean.”
Alex glanced at Saige and knew that she held the answers they sought, but, for now, her memories were locked away. He could see that Saige was trying to remember. Her hand went to her forehead and rubbed.
“What about strangers? Did you see any around town before I disappeared?” Saige asked Agnes.
He didn’t think it was a stranger. It was someone who knew her, and he had a feeling that it was someone who knew Quinten as well. But the big question was who?
“You know we get a lot of tourists through here, so yes, there would have been a lot of strangers. Perhaps”—she looked at Alex and then quickly back to Saige—“the, um, person who took you hadn’t even been into town.” Agnes shrugged. “I honestly didn’t see anyone looking suspicious. I liked Quinten. He was a good man who was trying to build something for himself. If I’d known something, I’d have told the sheriff or that handsome detective, but I didn’t know anything.”
Agnes caught sight of her son in the background and appeared as startled as he did. Paul tried to disappear and in the process of trying to escape their attention, he knocked a tub of pills to the floor. They fell and scattered like Skittles.
Both Alex and Saige jumped slightly at the noise and watched as Paul quickly tried to get them back inside the tub while his mother fussed around him. “We’ll need to order more. We can’t use them now.” Paul gathered them all up and dropped them into the tub he righted. “What a waste. Be more careful,” Agnes berated, and if Alex had blinked, he would have missed the look of hate that crossed Paul’s features.
Paul had always been a bit strange but they always considered him harmless. Now, though, Alex wondered about him and his interest in their discussion and wondered about the look he’d thrown toward his mother.
Alex caught the tail end of the conversation as Saige wrapped up with Agnes, which wasn’t much.
“I promise,” Agnes smiled, disappearing into the back of the store.
Saige slid her arm into his and tugged him outside where she let out a deep sigh. “God, I get the creeps just being in the same room with him.”
“I’m presuming you mean Paul?”
“Yeah.” She shook her head, and said, “Forget that for now. What do you think? Does she really not know anything?”
“I missed the last bit, but she was always the best liar in town.” He wiped the sweat from his brow and frowned. “He looks familiar.” Alex pointed toward a man who was just climbing out of a black Lincoln Navigator.
“Detective Coulter Robinson,” Saige supplied. “He said he might show up around here.”
News to him.
Alex followed Saige as she moved toward the rumpled looking detective.
It had been years since he’d seen the man but now that he drew closer, Alex would recognize him anywhere. Whenever they used to talk, the detective would have a pissed off expression, which he more or less had when he climbed out of the Navigator, until he caught sight of Saige that was.
* * *
3:00pm
* * *
“Detective,” Saige greeted.
Coulter Robinson smiled and took her offered hand, but found he couldn’t hold back the frown when he saw Alex Peterson over her shoulder.
He never truly had a problem with the man, and knew that Alex’s anger had stemmed from all the evidence piling up against Quinten. Alex had never once doubted his brother’s innocence, and now, Coulter started to realize that perhaps he should have listened. Coulter still felt annoyed that no one had bothered to tell him about Saige’s relationship with Quinten. Whether or not it would have made any difference, he didn’t know. He’d been kicking himself in the ass since Saige had told him.
While he was in town, he planned on talking to the sheriff about Quinten. He couldn’t help wonder if Sheriff Hodges knew and had decided to keep it quiet as well. After all, it had been Hodges who had taken Saige’s statement while she’d been in the hospital.
“Is everything okay here?” he asked.
Saige had discovered something, he was sure of it. He watched as she chewed on her bottom lip, and raised a brow in question.
She huffed out a breath, and tucked her hair behind her ear. “My dad has only ever seen the video of me selecting the image of Quinten. Apparently, he received a call just as you finished setting up.” She frowned. “Do you remember Christina’s response? Was she excited that I chose that image?”
“Your stepmother”—he cleared his throat—“insisted that you could remember and wanted you to go ahead with identification. She’s on my list to speak with while I’m in town.” Coulter shoved his hands on his hips and focused on Alex, who had yet to say anything or even acknowledge him.
“We need to have words about withholding evidence, Mr. Peterson.”
“What?” The man had the gall to act surprised and confused.
“You lied in your statement about Saige and Quinten,” Coulter accused.
At least Alex had the decency to not deny the fact.
Coulter glanced around and realized that standing in the middle of town with eyes and ears everywhere wasn’t the best idea. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”
“In this place, if you want privacy, then you walk.” Saige stepped around his car. “C’mon.”
Five minutes later, they followed Saige onto a footpath that led into the forest and came to a stop.
“We’re hidden from the road here,” Saige said.
He glanced around and turned to Alex. “The statement can wait...Tell me, how close were you to Jocelyn?”
Again, he caught the man off guard from the look of shock on his face. “I wasn’t close to her at all. She made my brother’s life hell. I was glad to see the back of her.”
“What about you, Saige? Did you have any run-ins with her over Quinten?”
Her brows drew together, but she shook her head. “I don’t think so. My memory is still elusive, so who knows?” She held her hands out and then let them drop to her sides.
“Jocelyn saw them the day before Saige went back to school. She found out about Quinten seeking a divorce and came by Saige’s house steaming. Saige and Quinten had their arms around each other.” Alex sighed. “Jocelyn called them a few choice words before she took off, telling them that they’d be sorry...Why the questions?”
Coulter looked between them both. “Jocelyn has been dead for around seve
n years.”
Saige didn’t move or really react. Obviously, she had no memory of the woman to put a face to the news. Alex, on the other hand, lost all color and stared at him in obvious shock before he tried to blink it away, but it didn’t quite work.
The man moved to a tree stump and dropped his ass on it, his head went into his hands.
“Alex?” Saige queried, dropping to her knees in front of him. “I’m sorry.”
Alex shook his head. “It’s just a shock that’s all. All these years…I thought she left my brother for a more exciting life when in fact she hadn’t gotten much of one.” He squeezed Saige’s hand and turned to face Coulter. “Do you know how she died?”
Coulter contemplated what to say without saying too much. “Without getting into specifics, let’s just say the ME thinks it is a homicide. She was dumped…or rather buried…close to the river off Morris Bridge Road in Tampa. Some campers found her five days ago.”
Amber believed it was attempted strangulation. Jocelyn’s head had been nearly severed—just like the young woman they found yesterday. It intrigued him that bones held so much information after being buried for years.
“How do you know its Jocelyn?” Saige asked.
“The ME matched the partial serial number in the breast implants to Jocelyn, and then the dentist records. Her medical records also indicated pins in her left arm and leg. They all matched.”
“She was in a car accident as a teenager,” Alex confirmed what Coulter already knew.
“You’re thinking that her death is connected to Quinten,” Saige observed. “Why?”
Alex’s head snapped around to Coulter. “Connected? How? Quinten was locked away then.”
“I know it wasn’t Quinten, and I’ve never been completely sold on the idea that Quinten was guilty of the murders and your kidnapping.” He nodded toward Saige. “There’s always been something that niggled at me about the case. But everyone else got hung up on his DNA. Getting back to Jocelyn and how she was found, I think whoever put her there went back and uncovered enough so that she’d be found. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Saige looked surprised, but Alex became angry. He stood with his fists flexed at his sides before he turned and started pacing.
As Coulter watched Alex walk out his aggression, he debated showing them a picture of the girl they found to see if she was familiar. So far, they had no leads on her identification and his gut churned with the knowledge that she was connected somehow to all this.
He was going completely out on a limb with Saige and Alex by discussing his doubts and the case, but he was willing to trust them because they all wanted the same thing—the truth.
Pulling out his cell, he unlocked the screen and before he could change his mind, opened up the image of the young woman’s face. Amber had cleaned her up the best she could and the sheet had been pulled up to her chin. His stomach rolled when he thought of the ruin below that sheet…the bastard had been angry and violent. If he did nothing else, he needed to get justice for her—the victim.
“I want to ask you to take a look at this picture.” He kept his cell to his chest while he spoke. “And tell me if you recognize her.”
Saige eyed him warily while Alex just stared at him.
“She’s dead?” Alex asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay,” Saige agreed, and stepped closer to him. “Let me see.”
He slowly turned his cell, second-guessing his instinct as he did. Her eyes widened, her face paled and a gasp hissed from her lips as she covered her mouth. “Alex?” She could barely get any sound out. “It’s Fern.”
Until Saige had identified the victim, Alex hadn’t looked all that interested, but he did now as he took two long strides and took Coulter’s cell from his fingers.
“What the fuck?” Alex met Coulter’s gaze, shock clear in his eyes. “When?”
“She was found yesterday morning. The ME still doesn’t have an exact time of death. But from what she saw from the insects around the body, she’d say the victim had been dead for about four days…Who is she?”
“Fern Jordan,” Saige offered. “She worked for Daniel Sterling, Quinten’s defense attorney.” She swallowed and Coulter wasn’t sure if she was fighting down bile or tears. “I can’t believe she’s dead.” Her voice wavered. “We only spoke briefly when we went and met with Daniel.”
Coulter’s eyes snapped to Saige. “She was part of Quinten’s defense team? I don’t recognize her.”
“No,” Alex added. “She started at Daniel’s firm about twelve months ago...How did she die?” Alex gulped, which told Coulter more than he thought Alex wanted him to know.
“The same way as Jocelyn.”
“What?” Alex whispered. “Why? I don’t believe Jocelyn and Fern knew each other.”
“How well did you know her?”
Alex hesitated. “Not well.”
“But you knew her.” He held Alex’s gaze, making no mistake as to what he meant.
Alex stepped away and tugged at his hair. “We fucked around a few times. Nothing more.”
Just as Coulter thought.
Saige stayed quiet, seemingly lost in thoughts of her own, so he carried on questioning Alex.
Coulter didn’t believe Alex had anything to do with Fern’s death, but he’d been wrong before.
“When was the last time you ‘fucked around’ with Fern?”
Alex looked tormented but then answered, “Three weeks ago.”
And now Alex had lied to him. Why?
“Fern’s connected as well. First Quinten’s ex-wife, and now a woman from his defense attorney’s office is dead. What if there are other women who have died that have some sort of connection, but you never got their cases?” Saige asked, interrupting Coulter’s interrogation.
“I already have someone working on that back in Tampa,” Coulter answered.
“I’ve also been thinking, and I was wondering if you can arrange for me to visit Quinten.” Saige worried at her lip.
“Are you sure?” Alex crouched beside Saige, he was the one who seemed unsure. “Once you’ve seen him in that place, you won’t ever get it out of your head.”
“I’m sure, Alex. I want my memory back and I’m hoping that seeing him will help them return. I need to see him.” She bit her lip. “But what if he doesn’t want to see me? I named him as my abductor.”
Coulter held Saige’s begging gaze. “I’ve spoken with Quinten, and I know he wants to see you. The warden already has paperwork from Quinten requesting you have visitation rights.”
“Really?” Saige smiled.
“Yes, really. It will be a few days before it’s authorized though, so hang in there.”
Saige nodded, and that’s when he felt the first drop of rain on his head.
“I still have questions about Fern.” Coulter glared at Alex so the man knew he wasn’t off the hook yet. “But I think we need to get out of the rain.”
The storm hit before they reached their vehicles.
* * *
11:30pm
* * *
Saige moved fluidly toward the bed where he sat, allowing him time to savor the sight of her nude body. She was exquisite and made his blood thrum through his system and pool in one place, and one place only.
Quinten’s shaft was hard and pulsed with a life of its own at just the sight of the beautiful woman he’d fallen in love with. She was everything to him and, if he had his way, she’d be his everything for the rest of his life. Only when he was with her did his heart feel full and his soul at ease.
They’d met secretly at the boathouse on her father’s property for a month and the thought of her going back to school, and them being separated, had caused him to break the one rule he told himself not to break—he made love to her.
He hadn’t been able to think straight when he pulled her into his arms and sealed his lips over hers. Pure desperation had run through him, and he’d needed to love her. He’d needed her to kno
w just how much he loved her and had decided to show her.
Saige had been just as desperate and Quinten had been humbled to realize that he was her first. She had no idea, but he planned on being her only.
Reaching for him, her palms went to the sides of his face as she straddled his thighs. His hands caressed her hips and slipped around to her soft-as-silk bottom. He gently tugged her closer and lowered his head to kiss each hipbone.
They’d already made love three times, and he knew that by morning, they’d make love numerous more times.
Sliding his hands up her torso he cupped each round breast in his hand and gently rubbed the hard buds of her nipples. He smiled when he heard her breath catch.
He’d discovered how sensitive her breasts were the first time he’d been inside her. She released the second his mouth had closed around the hard nub and he suckled against it.
And, just as expected, when he brought a breast to his mouth and rubbed her nipple between his tongue and the roof of his mouth, her legs quivered and she dropped to his lap.
“Mmm,” Saige moaned. “I love the feel of your hardness against my softness.” She wiggled closer and he arched his hips when she settled against his balls and ground down.
“Saige,” he hissed. “Rise up a bit. I need to be inside of you.”
“Yes.”
When the welcoming lips of her sex started to enclose him inside her snug channel, he didn’t think he’d last another minute.
He was fully seated inside her as Saige wound her arms around his neck, her breasts pressed against his chest, and she kissed him. “I love you, Quinten, and before you know it, I’m going to be home and in your arms again.”
“Damn straight, baby.” His arms went around her waist, holding her tightly. He flipped them over on the bed and with a desperation he hadn’t felt before, his hips rhythmically moved against her until he felt the woman he loved quiver in his arms and then fall apart on a loud, long moan.
28 Days: a romantic suspense Page 11