by Ursula Bauer
With that comment he turned his attention to Emma. His clear blue eyes were bright with intelligence and contained not a hint of guile or malice. “Heath in the lake. That’s quite an intuitive leap.”
Emma knew it was a challenge, yet it was issued in such a passive manner. She matched his bland smile and relaxed posture, mirroring him in a subtle attempt to build alliance. She doubted he’d fall for it, since it was a tool he himself probably used daily in his practice when counseling patients. She did it more so he didn’t see her as a threat. Anything to open a door to his particular truth, she thought. “This must be hard on you, after so many years to have to face the uncertainty again.”
“It’s harder on my wife,” he said, joining them on the path. “I wanted her to stay home but she insisted on coming. She had to see for herself. In fact, she was insistent to the point of being frantic.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, and looked down. “Maybe it will help her get closure. Sam, you know how hard it’s been on her since that night.”
Sam nodded, and they started the trek back to the lodge. “I take it things are the same?”
“We’re trying a new medication. Post traumatic stress disorder is a tricky thing. No one really understands how to treat it effectively, so you keep trying until you find the magic combination of therapy and medical intervention. Audrey has that along with several other issues that make treatment a challenge.”
Emma picked up an underlying current of anxiety. She wanted to think this was over his wife’s condition, but she realized it started when the burned out building that was Jen’s grave came into view. It wasn’t damning evidence, but it was a thread. She decided to see what the anxiety related back to: Jen’s death or Audrey’s problems. “You’re worried about her.”
“I guess I’m transparent. Yes. I’m worried.” The forest ended at the foundation of the ruins. Wesley abruptly stopped walking. “I was hoping not to get into this, but under the circumstances, I can’t pretend any longer. Audrey has been acting strange lately, even for her. Ever since Sam moved back here.”
Beside her, Sam tensed. “What are you getting at Wes? Strange how? And how does it tie back to what’s going on now?”
Instead of facing Wesley, Sam flanked him. Avoiding a confrontational pose often allowed people to open up more. She’d used the same technique herself many times in interview. She’d learned it from her father, a master at the art of getting people to spill their guts along with the contents of their wallets, bank accounts and family fortunes.
“Since you purchased the lodge and moved in, Audrey’s been furtive. Paranoid. I thought it was medications, but we changed them a few times, and still she kept it up. I have a practice to maintain. I can’t sit on her night and day, and she won’t have an aide around.” Wes reached into his olive colored barn coat and pulled out a medium sized envelope, which he handed to Sam. “I’m not proud to say it, but I hired a private eye to follow her. At first to make sure she wasn’t doing anything illegal, like buying street drugs or something of that nature. Jen got her hooked on coke and it was hell rehabbing her. It’s the real reason she lost the baby.”
Sam took the envelope and removed its contents. There were grainy pictures of Audrey, taken from a distance. Emma looked on as Sam thumbed through them, and Wesley continued to talk.
“She’s been meeting secretly with Mike Foyle. I believe they’re having an affair. When I asked her, she denied it. I didn’t show her the pictures, of course. Then, the day after Eric Savitch came to meet with you, she went to Albany and paid for a small storage locker. I have no idea what she keeps there.”
Emma searched for anything to hang onto with emotion and energy, but other than the anxiety, Wesley was a cipher. “Do you know where she has the key?”
“No. She must keep it on her at all times, though, because I’ve searched the house for it and can’t find it anywhere.”
Sam handed him the packet. “She and Mike go way back. This doesn’t look good, but it doesn’t prove anything either.”
“There’s more.” Wesley turned his back to them and gazed out at the lake’s murky surface. “In your voice mail message you asked me about the night Jen died. I know you read my statement. There’s something I need to clear up. Five years ago, I misspoke. Audrey and I did not go to bed together that night. I went up before her. She stayed with Mike, Lora and Jen. When I woke, she was in bed with me, and Jake Meyer was raising hell downstairs. But when I went to bed that night, I was alone. I have no idea what my wife was doing when Jen was killed.”
~ * * * ~
Anger boiled up inside Sam. Lies. It always came down to lies.
“You gave each other an alibi.” He grabbed Wes and spun him round. “What happened, Wes. Try the truth this time.”
“I gave the truth in my statement. All except the fact I went to bed before Audrey. I didn’t want it coming out about the recent drug abuse, or the issues we were having in our marriage.”
Sam took a few calming breaths. Processed the information. He wondered why Keith’s kid brother would implicate himself so obviously. He tried to decide if it was worth believing anything Wes said, and decided probably not. He glanced at Emma who watched them both with a guarded expression. “That means one of you could have killed Jen. You get that, don’t you Wes?”
“I didn’t think Audrey was capable of that kind of deception at the time.” He held up the envelope of photos. “I thought I was doing the right thing as her husband. Why would she kill Jen? She had no reason. They were friends.”
“Your brother died trying to figure out who killed his wife. While you were protecting yours.”
“I know,” was all the other man said in his defense. “I was wrong. I see that now. I need to set the record straight.”
Sam forced himself to get a grip. Wesley was an idiot, at best obstructing justice, and at worst, a potential killer. Before he could say anything else, Emma spoke up.
“You were having problems in your marriage?” she asked softly.
Wesley appeared to jump at the opportunity to talk. “I couldn’t get her pregnant. Many of the Vaughn men are sterile. We were in counseling, but it wasn’t helping. She started using coke with Jen, then had an affair. It wasn’t her first, another reason we were in counseling. I don’t know who with the man was, but she turned up pregnant. Then she lost the baby because of her drug use. We were trying to work things out. That night was supposed to be a new beginning.”
The information blew Sam away. This was not the picture he remembered from the past. But he’d fallen out of touch with the group. Maybe he’d let his perceptions cloud this investigation. Emma, with a fresh set of eyes, could see things he took for granted, or missed because of false assumptions.
He refocused his approach. “Do me a favor, take me through that night. What really happened. Step by step, as best you can recall.”
Wind chased around them. Even after all these years the ruins smelled smoky and disturbing. It wasn’t the perfect place for an interrogation, but it would do.
The younger Vaughn brother took him through the facts as he remembered, matching the statement with the only noted exception of the time Audrey came to bed. He could only confirm it was after he’d fallen asleep.
“Or passed out,” Wes added at the end.
“Passed out? What do you mean?”
“I felt weird. It’s why I went up early. I thought I caught a bug, but it came fast. I don’t remember falling asleep. Things are sketchy after I washed my face. It goes blank after that.”
Not too different from what happened to Mike. Details, then a black out, then waking with no memory. “Do you remember how many bottles of brandy were consumed?”
“That I know. Two. We drank both. I remember thinking I’d need to call the store to have more delivered as it was a staple of the bar.”
“And Jen?”
“She had mineral water, as always. Pellegrino.”
“The last place you saw her?”
“You never indicated the black out in your statement.”
“No one asked me. The deputy who took my statement seemed interested only in the bald facts, not how I felt about anything. It was all so chaotic that night.”
“It’s about to get more chaotic.” Sam saw Wes in a new light. And the case. There were more holes than he thought, and more chances that it a web of lies hid the truth of who killed Jen and why. More chances, too, that it was one of the five people present on the grounds the night she died. “Anything else you want to come clean with, Wes?”
“It was wrong, I know. I’m not asking forgiveness. Put yourself in my place. What would you do to protect the woman you loved?”
Without thinking, Sam looked at Emma. The reaction shocked him to his core. What would he do? Whatever necessary. Including breaking the law. He swallowed hard. “We should get back to the house. See if they found anything yet.”
“You seem to think they will,” Wesley said soberly.
“I do.”
The other man tucked his hands back in his pockets and rounded his shoulders against the elements. “Keith was right all these years, wasn’t he? To keep searching.”
“He was.” Sam’s Blackberry rang. He answered before it could ring again. Jake was on the other end.
“You need to get back here pronto, Tyler. Divers found something.”
“Any idea what?”
“Heath’s jeep, with remains of two bodies. Emma was dead right in her instructions. Get ready, you’ll both need to give statements.”
“I take it the case is no longer cold?”
“If those bones turn out to belong to Heath, the case gets reopened. If not, a new one starts because there’s way more going on here than a single missing handyman turning up dead in the water. No matter what it ends up being, your lake is now a crime scene.”
“We’re on our way.” Sam disconnected the line. Emma and Wes looked at him with morbid curiosity. Sam related the information from the call.
“This is starting all over again, isn’t it? Audrey won’t handle it well,” Wesley replied, visibly shaken. “I’ll need to break the news to her.”
It was strange to Sam, how a man could show such devotion to a woman who betrayed him. With all this new information, and finding the missing handyman’s body, he was seeing the case, and all the players from a new angle. As fantastic as Emma’s discovery, unless a killer confessed, they’d still need hard evidence and real facts for an arrest and conviction.
Knowing what he did now, Audrey’s role and her actions in the photos with Mike took on an ominous cast. Maybe this was the break he needed to finally get some real evidence, develop a real case, instead of all this skulking about and fooling with things that went bump in the night. “Do what you think you need to do. It’s going to be a long day for all of us.”
The Blackberry rang again. Sam glanced at the screen. Caller ID showed it was Jake. “What’s up?”
“Get Wes down here right now. We found Audrey unconscious on the great room floor. Had an empty pill bottle in her hand. I think she tried to overdose. Ambulance is on the way.”
Chapter Eight
Emma, Sam and Wes reached the house quickly. Audrey had roused by the time they’d arrived, but was groggy and barely coherent. The ambulance arrived about ten minutes later.
Wes fussed over the whole proceeding while the EMTs checked on Audrey and got her onto the gurney. She was conscious and more alert, and Wes determined she’d had a panic attack followed by a fainting spell. According to him, Audrey had them with increasing frequency lately due to some of her medications. He verified the pill bottle was at the end of its run, and at best, she had only one anti-anxiety pill available to use. She’d checked out okay with no injuries, but the EMTS were going to run her into the hospital for tests since she was growing agitated.
Emma couldn’t help but feel pity for Audrey, regardless of her role in what happened to Jen. Audrey had once been a beautiful woman blessed with the aristocratic features common to the old Saratoga families. She still had signs of the beauty but drugs and mania had wasted it. Her fearful black eyes darted back and forth in panic, like a trapped animal seeking escape.
When the EMTs prepared to move her, she tried to sit up, pulling wildly against the gurney straps. “He’s here. He was right behind you. He came to me. So angry! Tell them, please. Tell them I’m not crazy.”
“Easy dear,” Wesley said. He had a medical bag with him now, and from it, he produced a bottle and syringe. He began drawing up fluid from the bottle. “She’s cycling up for another panic attack. She sometimes acts out physically. I’m going to administer a small dose of valium to calm her down.”
The EMTs didn’t want to argue with the doctor. As if to reinforce what he said, Audrey became violent, thrashing in her hold. “He’s here,” she cried, tears flowing across her pale skin. “We can’t stop him. We can’t we can’t we can’t we can’t we can’t.”
The run of words reminded Emma of Jen.
“Who is he?” she said, stepping closer to the agitated woman. “Tell me his name.”
A strange energy came over the room. The air grew cold and still.
Audrey looked up at her with different eyes. “Where’s my necklace? Keith is angry. Need to find the diamonds. Need to find the truth.” She appeared to calm for a moment, catching her breath. Wes took the opportunity to grab the IV line and push the needle into a port. Audrey laughed eerily as the medicine raced into her veins. Then her face went slack, her eyes vacant.
“Run, Emma. Run.” Her voice was calm and clearly not her own. “He’ll get you. Like he got me. Run. Or die.”
Emma’s heart froze in her chest. The urge to flee was almost irresistible, but she forced herself to stay rooted to the spot. The rest of the crowd was too shocked to react. Emma recognized a channel when she saw it, and leapt at her one chance to speak with Jen face to face.
“Who is he, Jen? Name your killer.”
“Name him name him name him. You’re not safe. Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun.”
Audrey’s eyelids fluttered and she groaned. “Wesley, take me home. I need my medicine. I need...” the rest of her words faded as the valium took effect and she drifted into a drug induced slumber.
Wesley looked at Emma, sizing her up. “You called her Jen.”
“She was channeling Jen’s spirit.”
“I can’t accept that,” he said. “She’s a delusional, sick woman. You can’t take what she said seriously.”
Emma knew this game intimately. If Wesley weren’t a person of interest in Sam’s investigation, she’d lay into him. Instead, she gave the appearance of acquiescence. For the moment. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have played into her delusion.”
“People don’t know how unstable she is.” Wesley appeared placated by her response. He didn’t seem to notice she was lying through her teeth. She’d found the chink in the cool exterior armor. Vanity driven by ego. He played at easygoing, but the need to save face, to appear in control in the crowd, revealed another side of him. Emma filed it away for future use. Wesley was either genuinely guileless or a consummate liar, and Emma believed no one was completely without guile.
“I’m going with her to the hospital. The police can take my statement later,” he said to Jake Meyer, and then to Sam, “We can finish our talk at another time. I need to get her settled, make sure she’s okay.”
Sam nodded, and the small piece of theater ended. Emma knew that the ‘straights’, as the normal people were called by many in the psychic community, would jump at any rational explanation rather than face the fact that there was more to the world than you could see or explain away rationally. The front parlor emptied, and soon she and Sam were alone. The furor died down, and fear set in.
“That was one hell of a warning from the other side.” Sam took her hands in his. The contact sent waves of heat surging through her. “Anytime you w
ant out, say the word. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
Emma wanted badly to shrug the whole incident off, but the truth was, she was scared. She wanted to turn her back, but she couldn’t. Not this deep into things. “I’m in for the long haul. You know that.”
Sam’s arms came around her, sealing her in the safety of his embrace. She leaned into his warmth and strength, not caring that each time she gave in a little made it that much harder to walk away in the end.
Emma rested her head on his shoulder. “What comes next?”
“They’ll pull what they found out of the lake, send it to the crime lab. Have it processed. It will take time. The new evidence may be the break we need.”
Jake Meyer leaned into the room. “Got two deputies ready for statements.”
Emma pulled away from Sam, strangely guilty for the moment of stolen pleasure amidst the stark horror of the day. “Guess it’s a good thing I have an alibi for when Jen was killed and Brad Heath went missing.”
The Mayor’s stern expression remained unchanged. “It looks mighty suspicious, you knowing right where he was.”
“I’m here because I’m a psychic. I had a vision, same as in any other cold case I’ve worked.” Well, not quite the same, but he didn’t need the details.
“I agree completely, but you know the deal: cops are cops. Everyone’s a suspect. Everyone’s capable of committing the worst crimes. We like our evidence, chain of custody, and cold hard facts. The woo-woo stuff’s too hard to quantify, and there are too many quacks out there plying the trade. It’s just a statement of the facts, so don’t worry too much.”