Murder in D Minor Boxed Set

by Virginia Smith

  The hostages. Chase shut his eyes against the blast of emotion that battered him. That was Caitlin he was talking about. The woman he very well might be falling in love with, as crazy as it was. And he had turned her into a hostage with a single, unwitting act.

  “Let’s take a look at this one online.” Jenkins tapped the photocopy of Alex’s New Mexico license.

  The picture he pulled up on the screen didn’t match the copy in Alex’s personnel file. Alex was dark-haired, with an oval face and a square jaw. The blond man staring at him from the detective’s screen had a long, gaunt face and protruding cheekbones. No similarity at all.

  “That’s not Alex.”

  Jenkins glanced over his shoulder at him. “I have a feeling this is the real Alexander Young.”

  “You mean Alex—the one we’re dealing with—stole this man’s identity?”

  “And his car, and maybe even his life. That’s why the Alex Young who was employed by that convenience store didn’t quit in person.”

  The reason became clear to Chase. “Because he was dead.”

  Jenkins shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “But I still don’t understand where Phoenix fits into the picture. If Alex, or whoever he is, came from Phoenix, what was he doing in New Mexico?”

  Jenkins spoke while his fingers flew over the keyboard. “I don’t want to make any assumptions at this point.” He picked up the phone.

  “Yes, this is Detective Mark Jenkins with the Brown County, Indiana, Sheriff’s Department. We’ve got a kidnapping situation here, and I’m trying to trace the movements of a suspect. I think he might have roots out your way. Could you check your records for any unsolved murders—” he picked up the employment application and glanced at it “—let’s say from January to April last year. The guy uses a knife to slit the vics’ throats. Yes, I’ll hold.” Jenkins covered the receiver with a hand and spoke over his shoulder. “Would you quit hovering?”

  Chase returned to the front of the desk. The man ought to get another chair in here, so his visitors wouldn’t wear out the carpet pacing.

  After an interminably long wait, Jenkins said, “That’s the same MO. You ID any suspects?” He caught Chase’s eye, a grim set to his mouth as he listened. “That might be our man. Think you could send me a picture?” He gave his e-mail address, then propped the phone up with a shoulder as he typed.

  Chase leaned across the desk and watched as Jenkins pulled up his e-mail software. Then he grabbed the mouse and clicked the receive button over and over, the only visible sign that he was as impatient as Chase.

  Finally. New mail. Jenkins double-clicked on it, and a picture opened up on the screen.

  A picture of Alex.

  Jenkins glanced at Chase, who nodded.

  “That’s our man,” he told the person on the phone. “He’s been here a year, and at the moment he’s disappeared, along with a woman and twelve-year-old child. If you have any case notes to share with me, I’d sure appreciate it.” Pause. “All right. Thanks.”

  He slammed the phone down. “His name is Frank Edward Adams, a mechanic at a brake-repair shop in Phoenix. He was identified as a person of interest in the murder of a known drug dealer last February. Guy’s throat was slit. Adams disappeared before the police could bring him in for questioning.”

  Chase closed his eyes. “We’ve got to find them, Detective. Before it’s too late.”

  Jenkins glanced at his watch, then launched himself out of the chair. “Let’s go.”

  Chase straightened. “Where are we going?”

  “The Moonlight Tavern.”

  “You’re taking me with you?”

  Jenkins eyed him as he rounded the desk. “I want you where I can keep an eye on you. Short of locking you up, this is the next best way.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  The Toyota rounded a sharp curve and Caitlin lurched sideways, the seat belt the only thing stopping her from being thrown around the backseat. They’d left the last house behind several miles back on this deserted country road, and her hopes with it. Thick trees crowded the road on both sides. How would anyone ever find them way out here?

  Lord, is somebody looking for us? Send them this way.

  Even as she prayed, despair snatched at any confidence she might have mustered. She’d given up trying to figure out a way to leave a trail. If the windows had been open she could have dropped items from her purse. But apparently Alex had foreseen that possibility. They remained closed.

  As far as she could see, the only chance she and Nicky had to survive this ordeal rested in trying to convince Alex to let them go.

  Or at least let Nicky go.

  “Alex, why don’t you stop the car and let Nicky out.”

  The girl jerked her head around, eyes wide. Caitlin poured as much confidence into her words as she could manage.

  Alex gave a single laugh. “Now why would I do that?”

  “Because she’s just a child. And because you don’t need her. You’d still have me.”

  He didn’t look at her. “I don’t need you, either.”

  The implication that hung in the air left her light-headed. He was going to get rid of them.

  “But wouldn’t it look better for you if you let her go? I mean, crimes against children carry more severe penalties, don’t they?”

  “That would be a good point, if I planned to get caught.” He looked at her in the mirror. “I don’t.”

  A narrow dirt drive lay up ahead through the trees on the right. The car slowed, and Caitlin bounced as the tires left the pavement and pulled onto the path.

  “That’s a nice gesture, though. See, kid, she’s looking out for you.” He patted Nicky’s knee, and the girl shrank against the door, putting as much distance as possible between her and Alex.

  He laughed, unperturbed. “That’s another reason Chase likes you, Caitlin. You don’t mind if I call you Caitlin, do you?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “You both buy in to that church baloney. ‘Do. unto others’ and ‘Love your neighbor’ and all that. Personally, I think it’s a load of garbage.”

  Caitlin didn’t respond. He was goading her, bringing up Chase’s name and making fun of her beliefs. Well, it wouldn’t work. She refused to fall into his cruel trap.

  She closed her eyes and conjured up a memory. Chase, seated close to her in the church pew, the warmth of his leg pressing against hers. Their voices blending as they sang along with the gospel band.

  “I mean, come on. What do you really get out of all that church stuff?” He kept both hands on the wheel as the car bumped over the rough trail. Tree branches mingled overhead to form a rapidly darkening canopy. “It’s nothing but a bunch of nonsense rules without any payoff. You don’t get anything out of doing unto others.”

  “Of course you do.” The words left Caitlin’s mouth before she could stop them.

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  She watched his profile as she spoke. “Satisfaction in another person’s happiness, for one. And if you’ve been kind to someone, they’re eager to help you in return.”

  His lips tightened into a hard line. “Not always, they’re not.”

  He’s been hurt. The realization shocked Caitlin, not because she had any trouble believing Alex had lived a painful past, but because a whisper of compassion accompanied the thought.

  I don’t care what he’s been through. Lots of people suffer terrible ordeals and they don’t become murderers. They don’t abduct children.

  Something her pastor said once came back to her. “If the only person living in the world had been the vilest of sinners, Jesus would have still died to save him.”

  Lord, can You save Alex?

  And was it completely selfish to pray for that to happen, because that might be the only way to save Nicky and herself?

  She leaned forward and rested her forearms on her legs. “Christians don’t treat others kindly because it’s a rule, you know.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Sarcasm dripped from his tone. “Then wh
y?”

  “We’re kind because God is kind. The love we have for others is an overflow of the love He has for us.”

  A heavy silence filled the car. The drone of the engine and a faint rattle from the air conditioner fan pressed on Caitlin’s ears.

  Then Alex spoke, his voice low and full of menace. “Lady, I have killed five people without blinking an eye, two of them within the past three days. If you want to live another sixty seconds, you’ll shut your mouth and keep it shut.”

  Caitlin gulped down the fear that rose like acid in her throat. She sat up slowly and pressed herself into the seat back while Nicky huddled against the door.

  Five people? He’d already admitted to murdering Willie, and no doubt Lancaster, the man Chase had found in the park. That meant he’d probably killed Kevin last year, too, and two more, besides. If only she could tell Chase. It might help him to know for sure who was responsible for his friend’s death.

  And if she couldn’t get away soon, for hers, as well.

  The bumpy dirt trail ended in a clearing. Alex stopped the car in front of a run-down cabin. The lone window on this side of the building had eight panes, the glass missing in two of them. Moss grew in patches on the dilapidated roof.

  He turned the ignition off. “We’re here.”

  The chill in his words snatched the breath from Caitlin’s lungs.

  It can’t end like this. Not here, not now. There’s too much to live for. Jazzy. Liz. My music. My faith. My … Chase.

  No. It can’t end like this.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Gray ribbons of smoke rose from a dozen ashtrays inside the Moonlight Tavern. Chase’s lungs revolted when he stepped through the door, and he exploded in a coughing fit. He stopped just over the threshold to catch his breath. When he had control of himself, he looked up to find every face in the room turned his way. Most did not look friendly.

  Jenkins turned to face him, eyes rolling in disgust.

  “What?” Chase asked, his voice low. “Cigarette smoke makes me cough.”

  “Then maybe you’d better wait in the car.”

  He drew in a shuddering breath and held back another cough. “I can handle it.”

  Jenkins held his gaze for a long moment, then shook his head. “Just keep quiet. I’ll do the talking.” He made his way to the bar, a giant half-circle slab of varnished dark wood that dominated half of the tavern. A flat-screen television showed a baseball game at one end of the bar. To the right, three men stood around a pool table with cue sticks while a fourth leaned over the table to take a difficult shot.

  Chase followed the detective and slid onto a bar stool next to him. Across the way a man lifted a mug of beer with unsteady hands and sloshed it down his shirt when he tried to gulp from it. Six-thirty on a Thursday night, and he was already drunk. A woman two stools to the man’s right sat with her elbows on the bar and watched Chase over the rim of a glass with a lemon floating in it. He looked away from her loaded gaze. The man on the other side of Jenkins sucked hard on a cigarette and eyed Chase as he blew a cloud of smoke in his direction.

  Nice.

  The bartender, a burly man with a head the shape of a basketball, took his own sweet time sauntering over to their end of the bar. “What can I get for you gentlemen?”

  “Just some information, if you don’t mind.” Jenkins produced a copy of Alex’s Indiana driver’s license photo. “I understand this man comes in here fairly often.”

  The bartender picked up the paper, studied it, then dropped it back on the bar and slid it toward the detective with a finger. “Don’t know his last name. First name’s Alex.”

  “That’s him. What can you tell me about him?”

  The bartender shook his head. “Not much. Comes in here two, three times a week. Keeps pretty much to himself. Has a couple of drinks. Leaves. Usually alone.”

  Jenkins’s eyebrows arched. “Usually?”

  The man jerked his head once toward the woman across the bar. “You might ask Pat what she knows about him.” He smirked. “They’ve talked a few times.” He lifted his head in the direction of the woman. “Hey, Pat, these gentlemen would like to have a word with you.”

  Her lips curved into a slow smile as she slid off the stool, picked up her drink, and came around the bar toward them. As she came fully into view, Chase saw that she wasn’t shy about showing off her assets, so to speak. She selected the empty stool next to him, and he made a point of not looking at the expanse of thigh showing beneath a skirt half the size it should have been.

  “How can I help you?” Her gaze slid sideways toward Chase, a half smile playing around her lips.

  Chase cleared his throat and looked at Jenkins. He was supposed to be driving this interrogation, wasn’t he?

  Jenkins slid the picture across the bar. “I understand you know this man.”

  She picked it up. The flirty smile faded. “Yeah, I do. Alex Young. We’ve gone out a few times.” She held on to the picture, staring into Alex’s face with an unreadable expression. “What’s he done?”

  “Maybe nothing.” Jenkins pulled the paper gently from her fingers. “Maybe something really bad. What can you tell us about him?”

  “Not much. He’s a pretty closed guy, you know?” She sipped from her glass. Ice tinkled as she set it on the bar.

  “What do you mean, closed?”

  Her finger trailed the rim of the glass. “He’s great looking, and fun on a date, but you can’t get anything out of him. Nothing personal.” She wet her lips and flashed a quick glance at Chase. “Whenever I tried to talk to him, ask him about his family or something, he clammed up.”

  That sounded like Alex. Though he’d joined the company a year ago, Chase knew almost nothing about his personal life. He never spoke of his family. Chase had assumed it was because his mother’s death was still too fresh, too raw.

  “Where did he spend his time?”

  “He worked at that candle factory out on Old Soldier’s Lane. You know the one?” Her gaze took in Chase and Jenkins both. Chase nodded. “Didn’t seem to like the job much. Said one of his bosses didn’t do anything, left all the work to him. The other was a do-gooder. Alex didn’t have much use for him.”

  Chase clenched his teeth. The jerk.

  “What about outside of work? Did he talk about his hobbies, where he liked to hang out?” Jenkins’s head swiveled as he looked around the bar. “Other than here.”

  The woman’s gaze became distant as she picked up her glass. Then her face cleared. “Yeah, he liked to hunt. Last November he told me he saw a bunch of deer in the woods near some cabin. He was thinking about getting a deer tag.”

  A cabin. Chase exchanged a look with Jenkins.

  “Did he say where the cabin was?” How the detective kept so calm was beyond Chase. The woman started to shake her head, but he went on. “Think hard. It’s important.”

  Jenkins raised his eyes to the television screen at the end of the bar. The woman twisted around on the bar stool and followed his gaze. So did Chase. The local news station had broken into the ballgame with an AMBER Alert announcement. The volume was too low to hear, but a description of the alert scrolled across the bottom of the screen. Then the picture changed to a close-up of Nicky’s face. A moment later, the picture changed again, and Caitlin’s clear gaze, taken from the Kentucky drivers’ license online database, stared into Chase’s.

  Pain punched him in the gut.

  Oh, Caitlin. I’m so sorry I got you into this mess. If anything happens to you …

  The picture on the screen changed once again. Alex. Or rather, Frank Edward Adams.

  The woman jerked back toward them, her face ashen.

  Jenkins spoke in that same calm tone. “Now you see why we need to find him quickly.”

  She gulped. “He didn’t say where that cabin was, only that it was in the woods. And he only mentioned it that one time. Never again.” She turned a beseeching gaze on Chase. “Honest. If I knew anything, I’d tell you.”


  “I’m sure you would.” Jenkins slid off his stool, and placed a card on the bar in front of her. “In case you remember anything that might be helpful.”

  Her fingers trembled as she picked it up. She was still staring at it when they left the bar.

  The clean air tasted sweet in the back of Chase’s throat. “At least we got a lead.” He went to the passenger side of Jenkins’s cruiser.

  “A cabin in the woods.” The detective unlocked the driver’s door. “Do you know how many miles of woods surround this area? We could search all day, every day, for a solid month and still not cover it all.”

  “We could call in the public.” Nashville was a caring community. They’d come out by the hundreds to comb through every acre of woods until they found Caitlin and Nicky.

  Jenkins opened his door, then stood with his arm across the frame. “We will. But it will take several hours to assemble that kind of search party. And it’ll be dark soon. It’s too dangerous to have civilians wandering the woods at night.” He ducked into the car.

  Chase’s shoulders slumped. Jenkins was right. A full-scale search like that couldn’t get into swing until first light. And that may be too late.

  The phone in his pocket rang. He ignored it and slid into the passenger seat.

  “You going to get that?”

  Chase shook his head. It was probably his mom or Korey calling to get an update. He was too glum to talk to anybody right now.

  “It might be important.”

  Fine. Chase heaved a sigh as he slipped his cell out. “Hello?”

  “Chase Hollister, what did you do to that girl?”

  A familiar voice. It took a moment to register. “Maude?”

  “I saw that pretty girl, Caitlin, out my way a while back when I was checking the mail. Something wasn’t right. Did you upset her?”

  Chase jerked upright. “You saw Caitlin?”

  Jenkins turned to look at him.

  “I’m sure it was her. Now, I know the Lord doesn’t like a busybody, but I just couldn’t get her out of my mind. So I looked up your number in the church directory. Now listen, I know your mama would like to see you fixed up with a nice Christian girl like—”