Secret Alibi
Page 22
As the woman pushed a stroller in front of her as if she were in some kind of relay race, Lexie made her decision. She was already at the end of the drive the next time the woman emerged. Seeing her, the woman backed toward the house.
Lexie was close enough to see her features, and the realization that she wasn’t a stranger startled her. Reid Nicholson’s wife was the impeccably turned-out Eurasian woman from the support group last Saturday. Not that she appeared all that impeccable this morning. If anything, she looked downright panicked.
Lexie followed her up the walk, and when Mrs. Nicholson tried to shut her out, she managed to get a foot in the opening. Lexie realized too late that flip-flops weren’t much protection against a solid wood door.
They were pretty much nose to nose now, and she recognized desperation in the other woman’s eyes.
“I just need to talk to you,” Lexie pleaded. “About the baby you adopted.”
The shoving match with the front door continued for several seconds more before Lexie managed to force her way inside.
The woman backed away, silent tears streaming down her face, taking with it the carefully applied makeup.
Lexie stayed where she was just inside the door. Maybe, if she didn’t make a move toward her, the woman would calm down some. “I just need to ask you some questions about the adoption. And then I’ll leave.”
The woman glanced over her shoulder as if she had heard something. Suddenly, she just turned and walked away, as if Lexie wasn’t even there. Or as if she were headed to a phone to call the cops. If they came, they’d arrest Lexie. And when they did, the woman would disappear, taking the baby with her.
In her mind, Lexie had already decided the baby was Lindy, but she knew it might not be so. That what she was doing here in this house was wrong. But she couldn’t stop herself. Her daughter had been crying out for her for eleven months. Nothing was going to hold Lexie back.
Or so she thought until the small twenty-five automatic suddenly appeared in the woman’s hand.
Lexie lifted her arms out to her sides. Dan had been shot with a twenty-five. Was this the weapon that had been used? Had this woman killed Dan? Was it possible Dan had known about Lindy?
None of that mattered right now. What did was survival. Hers. The baby’s.
More than five yards separated them. At this range, a well-placed bullet could be deadly, but the way the woman’s hands were shaking and the way she could no longer meet Lexie’s eyes suggested she was likely to miss altogether, or that Lexie would end up with only a flesh wound.
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” She was crying again. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
Lexie was uncertain what it was Mrs. Nicholson was sorry about. Her part in stealing another woman’s baby? Dan’s murder? The fact that she intended to harm Lexie?
At the sudden loud sound of two men’s voices, the gun clattered to the floor. Both women dived for it at the same time. Lexie wasn’t the first to reach it, but she wrestled it from the other woman’s fingers. Still seated on the floor, the woman moved backward, sliding along the floor on her butt as she tried to escape.
“Get up,” Lexie said.
The argument in the other room briefly grew louder, then tapered down to a more normal level of conversation, but not before Lexie realized that one of the voices belonged to Fleming. Lexie motioned the woman toward the voices, stopping her just short of the opening into the kitchen, where the two men were talking. She assumed the second man in the room, the one sitting at the granite bar eating his breakfast, was Reid Nicholson. He was a large man—six-three or six-four—but with his heavy features and craggy skin, he wasn’t an attractive one.
Fleming paced. “I helped those girls. I gave them options when they didn’t have any. Why can’t anyone see that?”
“Are you worried they’ll tie you to the girl they dug up a few weeks ago? She was in the ground too long, Doc, for there to be much left for them to work with.”
“She was my patient. If they search the cabin, they’ll find something of hers. A hair. Some DNA.” Fleming stopped in his tracks. “I tried to save her. There was nothing I could do! Even if she’d been in the hospital, chances are she wouldn’t have made it.”
“I’m sure you’re right. If you’re worried about evidence, burn the place. Take a couple of those five gallon containers of kerosene out in my garage and burn it to the ground. They’ll know it’s arson, but they won’t be able to tie you to the accelerant.” He shoved a triangle of toast into his mouth and talked around it. “Collect from the insurance and build you a new place.”
“But the medical equipment. They’ll see it.”
“You were storing it.”
Fleming crossed to the sink suddenly and doused his face with water, used only his hands to wipe the excess away. Fingers splayed wide, he shoved them through his hair, curling them into his scalp at the back of his head. “I took an oath. To heal. I won’t take the fall for what you two did to Dan.”
Nicholson pushed the plate away. “I told you I would handle it, and I will.”
Fleming slid back onto the stool. “I know you did.” Closing his eyes, he lowered his head. “I’ll be okay. I just never expected things to end up like this.”
He never even knew the gun was pointed at his skull. As the sound of a single gunshot faded in the room, Nicholson laid the twenty-two next to his plate, and using the last triangle of toast, sopped up egg yolk.
“No one ever does.”
LEXIE OR NICHOLSON’S WIFE must have made some sound because in the next instant the gun was pointed at them. Somewhere in the house, a baby wailed, but Lexie could barely hear it because of the roar of blood in her ears.
The woman beside her sank to the ground in a sobbing mess.
It took Lexie several seconds to realize that she still held the twenty-five in her left hand. And that the man holding the gun on her couldn’t see it. But the safety, which was now on, was a right-hander, made to be easily taken off with a slight downward motion of the thumb. It wasn’t so easy left-handed. But even if she could get it off, she didn’t think she could use a gun on another human being.
In her peripheral vision, she could see Fleming slumped at the bar, his head resting on the granite surface. As if he was tired. There wasn’t much blood. There probably wasn’t even an exit wound, the round having ricocheted around inside the skull, destroying brain tissue as it went. Bringing death.
As she was watching, Fleming slid onto the floor, taking the stool down with him. The sudden movement freaked Lexie and her body jerked.
Nicholson chuckled slightly and winked. “Fast and clean. It’s not a bad way to go.”
He glanced down at his wife. He was smiling when his gaze connected with Lexie’s. “Can you believe anyone would think she could kill a man? Look at her. The sweetest lady on this earth.” He motioned with the gun. “Help her up.”
Lexie pulled the woman to her feet using only her right hand, but Nicholson didn’t seem to notice. “Pauli, listen to me,” he said. “You go on and get the baby and take it on out to the car.”
After she left the room, he came toward Lexie. “I wish I could make this so you wouldn’t see it coming, but we both know that’s not possible.”
Lexie wobbled slightly on her feet, almost as if she was somewhat drunk. There was nothing for her to reach for, no one there to steady her. Nicholson’s words echoed in her head. No one ever sees it coming.
But it wasn’t until now, when she knew her fate would be the same as Dan’s and as Fleming’s, that she realized how many things she hadn’t done in her life. Like really lived.
She hadn’t even seen her daughter. She’d come so far, paid a really big price, but she would have to wait to see Lindy in heaven, hopefully many years in the future.
As the nausea brought on by her fear crawled through her, she doubled forward, her right hand coming up to cover her abdomen. As it did, she thought not of her life, not of Lindy, bu
t of the life she carried. The life that grew inside her.
Lexie worked the small automatic’s safety off. She had no idea what type of round was in the gun, but even if it was hollow points, chances were it wouldn’t be enough to take down a man the size of Reid Nicholson.
But she was going to damn sure try.
As she brought the muzzle of the gun up, she saw Jack standing next to refrigerator, the 9 mm pointed at Nicholson’s head.
She’d been wrong. There was something…someone to reach out to. Someone there to steady her.
Her last thought as she pulled the trigger was not of hate, but of love.
Chapter Sixteen
The house was silent and dark. Peaceful.
Leaning over the crib, Lexie watched her daughter sleep. DNA testing would be done to verify to the world what Lexie already knew—that this child, this beautiful little girl with the smooth, plump cheeks and the soft, curly blond hair, was hers.
Sensing Jack in the doorway, she looked up and offered a smile that she knew he wouldn’t be able to see. He was back in uniform. She realized just how much she liked seeing him in it. Not because it made him look handsome, but because it made him happy to be doing what he did best.
Glancing down again, she smoothed a hand over the back of Lindy’s head. “So many times before tonight I found myself standing where I am now, feeling such sadness. Such anger. My chest still aches. But it’s with joy.”
Jack moved away from the door, stopping only when he stood opposite her, the crib with the sleeping baby between them. But it wasn’t the only baby between them.
The moonlight slipping in through the large window behind her highlighted the strong, graceful lines of Jack’s face. “It wouldn’t have happened without you. This crib would still be empty. I would still be empty, Jack.”
Lexie reached down and touched her daughter again. “You know what I think?”
Even when he didn’t say anything, she went on. “I think Amanda’s baby was a little angel. I think our paths crossed because she knew that without you I would never find Lindy.”
Reaching out, Jack captured her chin and lifted it. “As much as I want the child you’re carrying, I want you more, Lexie. Marry me.”
She had intended to answer him as she had the other night, but as their gazes met, she heard herself telling him not what was in her head, but what was in her heart.
“I love you, Jack Blade. So very, very much.”
Leaning across the crib between them, he took her mouth in a kiss that seemed to empty the air from her lungs and to fill her heart to brimming. And perhaps even made her a bit dizzy, too. But as her fingers closed around his forearm, seeking the support of his strong body, she thought of this morning. About how, when she’d been certain that she wouldn’t survive, it had been Jack she thought of. And he had seemed to appear almost magically.
Entwining his fingers with hers, he walked around the crib until he reached her. His other hand slid beneath her hair to the back of her head. Pulling her to him, he kissed her again.
“I’ll take that to be a yes.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2534-3
SECRET ALIBI
Copyright © 2006 by Lori L. Harris
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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*The Blade Brothers of Cougar County
Table of Contents
Dedication
About the Author
Books by Lori L. Harris
Cast of Characters
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Copyright