Warrior, Fatal & Flawed

by Jacqueline M Green

  “Mariah!” Lee’s knees buckled and he began to cry.

  Chapter 18

  The deputies dragged Lee out of the studio and Stormy ran to get the broom and a mop while I stopped Josie.

  “What’s going on? What changed?” My head swung back and forth between Josie and the activity in the lobby.

  “Someone saw Lee drive by the Corner Mercantile the night Serena Jacobus died. They’re sure she was in the car.” Josie stopped and gave me a long look. “That’s something I knew, but you didn’t because you’re not a law enforcement officer. Which is why I didn’t make an unfortunate trip to Sacramento.”

  With that, Josie motioned her officers out of the lobby, taking Lee with them. I picked up my phone from my desk in the office. Two missed calls and a text from Neil: Call me ASAP.

  He picked up on the first ring and skipped the pleasantries. “Is Josie there?”

  “She just left.”

  He cursed under his breath. “I heard on the scanner that Lee bolted from the hotel room when they tried to arrest him. It sounded like he was heading toward the studio. I wanted to give you a heads-up.”

  I smiled in spite of myself. “Thank you.”

  Neil spoke softly into the phone. “I know this is a hard time for us right now. We’ll figure it out when this is all over. You know how much I care about you, right?”

  I gripped the phone in my hand as if he could feel me. My voice almost wouldn’t come out. “Me, too.”

  We sat for a moment in silence, then I roused myself. “I’ll probably see you soon,” I said softly.

  We hung up and I hugged myself. My ex-husband was in jail, but my new boyfriend still cared. It wasn’t perfect, but I could work with that.

  When I got a break in classes, Stormy watched the studio while I trotted down to the Jasper Sheriff’s Post to see Neil, I mean, Lee.

  Neil was not at the front desk, which I took to be a good sign, hopefully that he was back on duty. The deputy buzzed me in to see Lee, this time in the holding cells in the back of the building.

  I had become familiar with that particular dark, dank hallway in the past couple of months, first from my own stay there, and more recently, from friends’ stays. I had hoped the trend would not continue, yet here I was again.

  I tucked my cell phone in my running bra and pulled open the heavy metal door. Lee was lying on the metal bed in the first holding cell, apparently asleep. I stared at him a few moments. I couldn’t believe he had lied to me again. I had spent fifteen years of my life with this man. I had hoped to have children with him, although that never worked out and Lee didn’t care enough for us to see a specialist about it.

  “Lee, wake up.”

  “I’m awake.”

  “Then get up.” I was in no mood to coddle him. “Get up and tell me the truth. The actual truth this time.”

  Lee opened his eyes and rolled over to look at me. “You sure took your time getting here.”

  “I can leave right now.”

  He sat up quickly. ‘No, wait. Sorry.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  Lee shrugged. “I told you I went out for beer. Then I went back to the hotel and drank it. I think I passed out at some point. That’s it. That’s literally all I know.”

  “Then why was your car seen driving to the river?”

  “How should I know? I didn’t even have the keys.”

  “Did you tell the deputies this?”

  “Of course. They insisted I must have had a spare set on me.”

  “Do you?”

  “No.”

  My foot tapped impatiently against the floor. Lee blew out a breath and laid back down on the bed.

  “You always were fiddling with that stupid car.”

  “It’s not a stupid car.” He didn’t even look at me, just stared at the ceiling.

  “It’s sitting dead in a garage in a strange town.”

  “Strange is right.”

  “You’re not helping.”

  “Look, I could go fix it in a heartbeat and get out of this hellhole. I’ve always been able to get it to start again.”

  I froze. He turned his head to look and me and quickly sat up as I put my finger to my lips.

  “What? Why?”

  I lowered my voice. “I don’t know if they’re listening in, but when I’m in the sheriff’s post, I always assume that.”

  “So?” Lee’s attitude was dismissive. Part of me wanted to egg him on. C’mon, Lee, dig in deeper. But I didn’t.

  The ahimsa side of me must have kicked in.

  “Don’t you see, Lee?” I spoke quietly. “If you can start that car any time you want to, then maybe it was you they saw taking Serena to the river.”

  Horror crossed Lee’s face. “But it wasn’t.”

  “They don’t know that. You’re not doing yourself any favors.”

  “Crap.”

  I cocked my head to look at him. “If you can fix it any time you want, why did you take it to the garage?”

  Lee suddenly became mesmerized by a speck of dirt on the floor.

  “Lee?”

  Finally, he looked up. “First, your boyfriend the deputy told me to. Secondly, I figured if I was stuck here, we would have more time to spend together.”

  “So I would see how wonderful you are?”

  Lee nodded vigorously.

  “You and your girlfriend?”

  “I hadn’t thought it through completely.” He threw up his hands. “I figured I would see how it went, then go get the car, get it started and go home.”

  I stared at him for a long moment. Knowing Lee, what he said rang true.

  “Okay, I’m not sure what I can do to help at this point, but maybe I’ll go talk to the woman at the Corner Mercantile who saw you.”

  “It was dark, so maybe she couldn’t see inside the car very well?”

  I shook my head, remembering how she had waved when I had passed by the other night. “Do you need anything from the hotel?”

  Lee stood up and walked closer to the bars. “Not the hotel. Can you get me a couple things from my car, though?”

  I agreed to get a sweatshirt and a few other items from his car, if the Sheriff’s staff would let me, then I made the walk back down the dark, narrow hallway. As I started to swing open the front door, a hand reached over mine and a voice was at my ear. “Got a minute?”

  I smiled and leaned into the person behind me.

  “How’d you get off desk duty, detective?”

  Neil shrugged as he looked at me, then walked with me out the door. “They arrested your ex-husband. That’s why you’re here, right?”

  “Yes, but I’m glad you’re off the hook. I was really working for both of you.”

  “I know. I heard you went to Bev for me. That’s one of the reasons they released me. That, and,” Neil leaned in closer. “security footage that shows Serena and I went off in opposite directions. But it also shows your ex hovering outside the diner watching her through the window.”

  My body stiffened. “Did he have beer in his hand?”

  The answer would tell me if Lee had lied to me after all.

  “I think he did have a bag in his hand. Might have been beer. Is that important?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” I wriggled my body around to face Neil. “I’m just so glad you’re free and cleared. I was so worried you would be a suspect and then we wouldn’t get to ... get to...” with that, I pressed my hand to Neil’s face and gave him a gentle kiss.

  Neil kissed me back, then looked into my eyes. “We will have lots of time for that, I promise.”

  I sighed happily as I fell into his arms. We stood for a few moments before pulling away.

  “I have to get back to work.” Neil brushed the hair out of my eyes.

  That reminded me.

  “Say, could you help me get a few things out of Lee’s car? It’s still impounded, and he wants his sweatshirt and stuff.”

  Neil agreed and took me back inside to get
the authorization. We walked side by side to Garry’s garage. Really, I just wanted to hold my boyfriend’s hand and giggle together as we walked. I refrained. We were mostly professional as we turned off Main Street.

  We didn’t talk much. I didn’t want to talk about the case and neither did Neil, so we just kept bumping shoulders and throwing each happy glances like we were 13-year-olds.

  Garry was at the front desk when we got there. He handed over Lee’s car key, and we walked through the garage to the back, where Lee’s car still sat.

  I waved to Adam across the garage studying something on a car up on a lift. He wiped his hands as he walked toward us. “Hey, Mariah, how are you feeling?”

  I waved my hand in a seesaw motion. “Depends on the moment. Thanks for your help last night.” I turned to Neil. “He was a rock star bodyguard.”

  Neil reached over and shook Adam’s hand. “Thanks for looking after Mariah.”

  Adam ducked his head to his chest. “Of course. That’s what neighbors are for, right? Sheriff Stevens said you wouldn’t need me anymore.”

  I told him about Lee’s arrest and our mission to the car.

  He blew out a breath. “Wow, that’s, just … wow.” He waved us on. “Good luck. Hope everything works out.”

  Neil peeked into the back seat and pulled out a wad of clothing. He started holding up shirts to show me to see if that was the one Lee wanted. He held up a small pink sweatshirt that read “Walnut Grove Gym,” then smiled.

  “I guess this isn’t his, right?”

  Neil’s phone rang as he handed me the shirt. He put it to his ear as he walked away to hear better.

  I stared at the sweatshirt in my hands. Walnut Grove Gym?

  Lifting my head, I turned my head, my eyes locking with Adam’s as my mouth fell open.

  Adam bolted out the side door. I threw the shirt back on the pile. “I’ll be right back,” I called as I ran out.

  As I cleared the double doors, I called for him. “Adam! Wait! We can work this out.”

  The deserted back lot responded in silence. My chest heaved and my shoulders drooped. A hand grabbed my arm and something pressed into my back.

  “Come on, Mariah. Get into the car.” I tried to pull away, but he wrapped a hand around my mouth, then banged my head against the car. I felt myself sliding to the ground as blackness engulfed me.

  Chapter 19

  “Mariah, Mariah, wake up.”

  A quiet voice tugged at my consciousness. I started to move my head, but blinding pain stopped me cold.

  “Mariah.”

  “Neil?”

  A heavy sigh greeted me. “No, it’s Adam.”

  My eyelids fluttered and anxiety washed over me. My heart started to pound.

  “Adam?” I jolted away.

  “It’s okay, Mariah. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “You already did. My head is killing me.”

  He softly chuckled as I opened my eyes. “Sorry about that. I just didn’t know what to do.”

  “How about not banging my head against the car?”

  “You must be feeling better if you’re making jokes.”

  “Not a joke, dude.” I closed my eyes again and laid back. I was on some kind of concrete floor. Cold and rough. My hands were bound together with rope in front of me. “By the way, you owe me for getting my back window fixed. That’s not cheap.”

  Adam scoffed. “What, you don’t have homeowner’s insurance?”

  “I’m not going to have my rates go up because you were a jerk.”

  He stopped and stared, his expression hurt. “I’m not a jerk. I volunteered to guard your house.”

  “From you, you jerk.”

  He thought for a moment. “Yeah, okay, that’s fair. But I really don’t mean to be a jerk. Things just got out of hand.”

  “You killed someone.”

  Adam rocked back from his knees to his heels, studying me. “I have to leave now, but I wanted to make sure you were all right before I bailed.”

  I sat quickly upright, then immediately regretted it. “Ouch!”

  “Shhh, lie back and relax. As soon as I get out of the state, I’ll call and tell the sheriff where you are.”

  I stared at him. “Well, make it Nevada, okay? That’s only an hour and a half away. Oregon is like, what, six hours?”

  He looked down at me. “Mariah, I’m really sorry about this. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I sure didn’t mean for you to get hurt. I wish you hadn’t seen that sweatshirt. You were really kind to me.”

  “Fat lot of good it did me. You gave me a concussion, you know.” I was not going to let him off easy. I was cold and in pain and a little nauseous.

  He stooped to pick up his backpack from the floor, pausing to hook the top so his things wouldn’t fall out. My head felt woozy, but I still considered trying to kick his legs out from under him. My legs were strong, but I didn’t think they were young gym rat strong. I decided to keep him talking.

  “It was you all the time?”

  Adam nodded.

  “Why did you volunteer to be my bodyguard, which, by the way, is really creeping me out right now.”

  “Sorry about that. I just wanted to throw suspicion off me and also I wanted to keep an eye on who you were talking to and what you were doing.”

  Now I was puzzled. “Adam, no one suspected you. I think you brought more attention to yourself doing that than if you had just kept quiet.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. Seemed like the smart thing to do at the time.”

  “Did you follow us to Sacramento?”

  “Yeah, I wanted to see what you were up to. Then I thought that if you suspected that gym guy tried to kill you, you’d back off.”

  “We could have died in that accident.” I wrapped my arms tightly around myself, trying to keep my breathing steady.

  Adam was quiet for a few moments.

  “What happened to Serena?”

  Adam turned to look at me. He took a deep breath and briefly closed his eyes. “Serena and I dated for almost a year in Walnut Grove. We met at the gym.” He smiled sadly and shook his head. “I couldn’t believe my luck that someone as pretty as Serena would even give someone like me the time of day. I was going to ask her to marry me.”

  “What happened?”

  “She met some guy, I don’t know, a sugar daddy, I guess. One day she just came home and got all her stuff, said she was leaving.”

  “Is that when you moved here?”

  Adam nodded.

  “Was it Lee that she met?” I was pretty sure it was, but I asked anyway. Adam nodded again.

  “Didn’t she say anything when she saw you at the garage?”

  “She didn’t see me. As soon as I saw the guy and heard her voice, I ducked out of sight. Garry handled all of the paperwork.”

  Adam paused in his story, pulling a couple of plastic water bottles out of his bag. He unscrewed one and handed it to me before taking a drink from the other. I had to grasp it with both hands, since they were tied together. I drank deeply, hoping the water would help my head feel better.

  “That night, I got his car started. It was just glitchy, and I thought I’d take it for a spin. If I couldn’t have the girl, I figured, I’d at least have his car. Then I saw her on the sidewalk outside the bar. She walked like she was drunk. I pulled over. She thought it was that guy, so she hopped in.”

  I blew out a breath. “Wow, what’d she do when she saw it was you instead of Lee?”

  “She was a little confused at first, then she was really happy to see me, said that guy wasn’t very nice to her and that maybe she had made a mistake.”

  “Then you drove her out to the river?” I didn’t know how much longer I could keep him talking, but I was starting to feel stronger even if my head still pounded.

  “It was a nice quiet place to talk. I thought maybe she would want to come back to me.”

  “But she didn’t.”

  He shook his head. “Nah. By
the time we got to the river and outside, her head was clearing up, I guess. She made fun of my coveralls. Wanted me to give her the car so she could drive back to Sacramento. When I wouldn’t, she threatened to tell Garry I stole it.”

  He looked at me with big eyes and waved his hand at me. “I didn’t steal it. I was going to take it back. I did take it back.”

  “You hit her?” That didn’t sound like Adam, but I realized that clearly I didn’t know him very well.

  He shook his head again. “She got mad and started hitting me around my chest and head, so I grabbed her arms and threw her backwards.”

  His head dropped to his chest and he turned away from me. “Her head hit a rock. It made this awful sound, like an egg cracking. She didn’t get up. She just lay there. I fell to my knees and started to cry, and then I crawled over to her. She wasn’t breathing anymore.”

  Silence engulfed the room. My bound hands were at my lips, covering the horror I felt for the way Serena’s life had so suddenly ended and also for the pain I heard in Adam’s voice.

  Finally, I spoke. “Adam, it sounds like an accident or maybe self-defense. Please, just untie me and I’ll go with you to see the sheriff. You know she’s my sister, right?”

  Adam’s whole body jerked as he yelled, “No! I just want to move on with my life and forget this ever happened.”

  I grew desperate and tried to hit a nerve. “What is your aunt going to say about all this?”

  To my surprise, Adam laughed and looked up at the ceiling, a fond look on his face. “I think she knew. She came over this morning and gave me some cash, told me it was probably time for me to leave town. She didn’t say why and I didn’t ask.”

  Adam leaned over and tightened my bonds.

  “Now, I’m sorry, Mariah, but I have to go. I promise to call and tell them where you are.”

  With that, he turned and opened the door. As the door closed behind him, shouts broke out.

  “Put your hands up!” Josie’s voice rang strong. “Do it, Adam.”

  A scuffle of activity outside, then the door jerked open.

  “Mariah?” Cindy hurried into the room, running to me as soon as she saw me, grabbing me up into a hug. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”