Ted retrieved the bag from the trash and said, "Yes, dear." Then left the room to find the dumpster.
Boomer crawled under the covers in a huff, and I went into the bathroom to wash my hands. The crazy-haired, red-eyed chick staring back at me from the mirror scared me. Playing spy was exciting but it did nothing for my looks. I washed my face and patted down my tangled wet curls. "Oh no!"
Ted stuck his head in the door. "What happened?"
I pulled at my hair, checked my pockets, looked down the front of my tee shirt but couldn't find it. "Where is it?" Ted quizzed me with a look. I pushed past him into the bedroom. "I'm missing an earring!"
He followed me. "What does it look like?"
I pulled back my hair and showed him the earring dangling from my right ear. "Exactly like this one."
We searched the room from top to bottom. Then the SUV. Then our bags. Then the parking lot. The earring was gone. Feeling a little less proud of his recruit Ted said, "It's done. We move on."
Exhausted, I sunk onto the bed. "Maybe it fell off in the street, or behind the apartment building?"
Ted sat next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. "Maybe." He blew out a sigh. "But…"
I put my head on his chest. "But probably it's in Lily's apartment, right?" I fisted my forehead like that would pound some sense into me. "Rookie mistake."
"Yup." Ted gave me a sympathy hug. "Everybody screws up."
I looked up at him. "So you forgive me?"
He looped a hank of damp hair behind my ear. "You were a real trooper tonight. You done good."
I sprung from the bed. "I'm glad you feel that way." I grabbed my bag and pulled out the stack of Lily's letters and waved them at him. "Because I'm hoping that means you won't be mad I took these."
Chapter Fifty-Three
I opened my eyes and squinted in the gloom. The heater hissed warm air into the room and I was tempted to go right back to sleep. Between the break-in and the argument over the letters, it was late when we finally went to bed. Sighing, I forced myself up and
threw back the covers. Boomer lunged and covered me with doggie kisses.
Fighting off Boomer I said, "Rise and shine, big guy." I squinted at the other bed. "Come on, we've had our four hours sleep, no more gold bricking." Boomer jumped off the bed, ran to the door and barked. I swung my feet to the floor and looked more closely at the bed — just a pile of rumpled blankets. "Ted?" I went into the bathroom, but it was empty too. "What the hell?"
Boomer barked and clawed at the door. "Where's Ted?" Boomer barked again, stood on his hind legs and did a twirly dance. "Yes, I know you like Ted. But where did he go?" Boomer dropped to all fours and wagged his stub. I went to the window and looked out to the lot. The Escalade was gone. Doing a scan of the room, I saw that Ted's bag was gone too. My stomach did a nosedive and I was nauseous. "He ditched me?"
As if to confirm, Boomer barked and did his dance again.
I crawled back into bed and pulled the covers over my head. Fighting the urge to surrender to my abandonment issues, I reasoned with myself. Ted wouldn't ditch me because he wasn’t an asshole like every other guy I dated. He told me so himself. Resolved to find a logical reason for his absence, I got out of bed and searched the room for a note. Nothing. I checked my phone for a text. Nothing. I went out to the lot and checked my windshield for a note. Nothing. Then I cried because he had ditched me just like the rest of them.
When I came back to the room, Boomer barked and wagged his stub. "He's gone." Boomer raised an ear. "Yeah, I thought he was a keeper too." I swiped angrily at my tears. "Big army warrior, huh?" I pulled clean clothes out of my duffel and tossed them on the bed. "Men!" Then I stomped into the bathroom and turned on the shower. "They're all cowards!"
As the hot water pounded my aching muscles, I tried to force Ted out of my mind by focusing on Lily. The letters, the apartment, and what she was doing with Jake? Somehow they connected and it was up to me to figure it out. I was on my own again. So what? I could handle it. The fun was over, and it was time to pack, pay the motel tab and make a new plan. "I was just fine before you came along Ted Jordan. I don't need you."
I savaged my hair with shampoo. "Okay Scotti, get a grip. You had a little fun with a cute guy. That's all it was. A diversion. Right? Right." I rinsed out the shampoo and took the tiny hotel soap to my skin. "So he dumped you. They all do. Who cares, right?"
I rubbed the washcloth so hard against my skin that it burned. Then I threw my head back and screamed. I pounded the tile wall with my fists. "Fuck you Ted! I don't need you!" I blasted my body with more hot water. And I kept cursing him, because I knew as long as I stayed mad, I wouldn’t fall apart. When the hot water ran out, I turned off the shower and tore back the shower curtain. My skin was so flushed that it looked sunburned. I dried off with two tiny motel towels and blotted my hair with the soppy mess. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" I brushed my teeth so hard my gums bled. Staring at myself in the mirror I said, "I'm done with this shit. If anybody gets in my way again, they'll be sorry!"
I spun on my heel and stomped out to the bedroom, naked. Ted sat at the table, with breakfast and cups of hot coffee laid out before him. "Good morning, gorgeous."
I screamed then scrambled to cover myself with my arms. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop sneaking up on me?" Ted smiled as he took in every naked inch of me. "Stop staring at me. Turn around." Ted shrugged then faced the window. Trying not to wonder what Ted thought of me naked, I hopped into my socks and underwear. Fighting the urge to pull my hair out and dive under the bed, I wriggled into my bra. "Breakfast, huh?"
Ted kept his eyes on the ugly curtains. "Just curious but who were you arguing with in there?"
I pulled on the tee over damp skin and tugged it down. "I wasn't arguing with anybody. Must've have been the people in the next room."
"Ah."
I ran my hands through my wet hair and shook off the water. Then I yanked on my jeans and zipped them up. "Okay, I'm decent now."
Ted turned back to me. "I've got no complaints, either way." He curled a finger in his direction. "Come eat."
Staring at the carpet, I shuffled to the table and took a seat. "You got breakfast?"
"Yep."
I emptied a couple of cream containers into my coffee. "I woke up and didn't know where you were."
Quietly he said, "I didn't want to wake you."
I covered my face with my hand. "That was considerate."
He reached across the table and pulled my hand away from my face. "Look at me." I looked up without raising my head — eyes brimming with tears. Gently, he tipped up my chin and looked into my eyes. "I'm not all the other guys who've let you down. I never say things I don't mean. I don't bail when things get tough. I won't disappear." He stroked my cheek softly. "I'm not going anywhere, baby. You can count on me."
I whimpered. "Okay."
"Do you believe me?" I nodded. Then he grinned. "Good. Blow your nose and quit being such a whiney baby." He bit into his breakfast sandwich and chewed happily. "Good grub."
I wiped face and blew my nose with a napkin. "Where's your bag?"
He finished the sandwich and unwrapped a bear claw. "In the car."
I unwrapped my breakfast sandwich and nibbled. "Why?"
He polished off his pastry and tore off half my sandwich, then popped it into his mouth. "Because it's time to go home."
I surrendered the rest of my sandwich to him and grabbed a bear claw. "Since Lily is probably on to us, I think you're right. No point in sticking around now." I gobbled the bear claw and pawed through the wrappers for another but there wasn't anything left. "Did you read the letters?"
He stopped chewing and sighed. "Negative."
I looked up from my coffee. "Still pissed at me, huh?"
He gathered the wrappers and tossed them in the bag. "It was stupid move, recruit." He leaned back and sipped his coffee. "Damn stupid."
I waved my arms. "But we didn't have time to read t
hem while we were there. Besides, if we told the cops the about the letters, we'd have to explain how we knew. And then they couldn't use them as evidence. And we'd probably get arrested for the breaking and
entering part. So isn't it better that we know what's in them? They could help us figure out her next move."
Ted put down the coffee and leaned his arms on the table. "It's not about evidence, it's about the right way to conduct a mission."
I guffawed. "Oh yeah, the mission. We weren't on a mission — it was more like a sneak and peek."
His face was dead serious. "Yeah, we were." I smirked. "Just because it didn't involve national security, doesn't mean it wasn't a mission. We went in to gather intelligence. The goal is to get in, find what you want and get out without leaving any trace that you were there. By taking something that would be missed we were compromised." He put out his hands in a ta-da gesture. "Now, we're blown." He smirked. "We should've just knocked on the door and asked her to let us in."
I rolled my eyes. "Okay Captain America, what should we have done?"
"Taken pictures of the letters and then put them back."
I nodded. "That would've been a good idea. Except you had my phone because yours was in the car. And you wasted precious time texting. Then it was too late. So it was either take the letters or leave with nothing, right? Right." I sat back and made my own ta-da gesture. "And who cares if we're blown? Lily would've figured it out anyway."
Pouting, Ted got up and grabbed my bag off the dresser. He pulled out the stack of letters, brought them back to the table, and dropped them in front of me with a thud.
"Who said you could go in my purse?"
He sat and untied the stack of letters. "Community property."
"Interesting. Does that go both ways?"
"Affirmative, what's mine is yours." He divided the letters into two stacks and gave one to me. "Read. We've got two hours before check out time."
<<>>
The letters opened a window into George's heart and soul. I didn't expect to be so touched by the words of two teenagers. It broke my heart that they'd been torn apart by circumstances out of their control. If George's father hadn't died, he would've never left Michigan. He'd have married Laura and become a lawyer more interested in justice than money. Broke and happy instead of rich and miserable.
The letters spanned almost four years. They wrote letters daily, though they saw each other every day. A private ritual meant for only them. They discussed everything from the state of the high school football team to the emergency room scare George had when he ate a cookie made with almonds and almost died.
The letters ended abruptly six months after George moved to Virginia. Laura's final letter to George was postmarked June 1989 and was stamped "Return to Sender" across the front — so George never received it.
I glanced at the clock. We needed to check out unless we wanted to pay for another night's stay. Still, we lingered over the letters, rereading certain sections and discussing them.
Finally, Ted put the letters aside and said, "So?"
I put my stack aside, leaned back in my chair and stretched. "Sad but sentimentality aside, a couple of things bug me." Ted encouraged me with a nod. "Why didn't Laura tell George she was pregnant? She must've known shortly after he left town. Why didn't she tell him?"
"She was afraid?"
I threw up my hands. "Of what? They shared everything — every thought and every experience, but she kept the pregnancy a secret?" I shook my head. "That doesn't make sense. She wouldn't keep that from him. He was already living out of state, so it's not like he'd dump her."
Ted finished the last of his coffee. "Maybe she was afraid he'd come back to Michigan and ruin his life?"
I smirked. "Teenagers don't think like that. They don't think about the future, otherwise they wouldn't do half the stupid shit they do. No, I don't buy it."
Ted leaned back and stretched out his long legs. "That she wouldn't have told him or that she was pregnant?"
"Neither." I grabbed my bag and fished out the photo of little girl Lily and held it out to him. "Then there's this."
Ted looked like he wanted to spank me. "More contraband? You've been a bad little recruit — we'll discuss discipline later." He took the photo out of my hand with a snap, looked at it front and back then slid it across the table to me. "So?"
I turned the photo face down and the laid last letter next to it. "This." I pointed to the date Laura had written on the picture and then postmark of the last letter. "What's wrong with this picture?"
It took a few seconds for Ted to do the math. "I'll be damned." He grinned at me. "Lily was born three years too late to be George's daughter."
I scooped up the letters and photos and crammed them back into my bag. "And now it's time to go home to rally the troops."
Chapter Fifty-Four
Ted, Zelda, Eric and I sat in Joe’s office staring at a whiteboard that hadn’t been there the last time I was at Joe’s. On the board were notes scrawled in blue marker, arrows and circles connecting different data sets, and copies of the photos taken by members of the surveillance team.
Everyone talked at once —Joe stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a whistle that silenced everyone. "All righty then. I got everybody's attention now?" He looked from face to face. "Good enough." He went to the white board and on a blank section of the board wrote the names of our suspects: Lily, Jake, VW Guy and Maggie.
"Here's what we know," Joe said. "First off Lily ain't George's daughter — chronology is all kinds of wrong. If George found out, she'd lose a passel of money. And probably go to jail for fraud. So losing a lot of money or being found out, don't matter which — either way, it's motive." He noted that on the board under Lily’s name.
"Jake stood to gain the settlement from the partner's insurance. Also motive." Ted said.
"Yeah, two million isn't pocket change," Zelda said. "Probably more than Lily got."
I jumped in. "And if George knew about Lily and Jake, that could be a motive for Jake too."
Joe nodded and noted each point under the appropriate suspect’s name. "Could be Jake and Lily started pussy-footing around and formed an alliance. So, they might be in it together. One might be protecting the other. Or blackmailing the other. We’re just laying out facts — not analyzing what they mean." He paused for effect. "Next, we know that VW guy is shacking up with Lily."
I shook my head. "We don't know if they were shacking up. Just that he was moving into the same building." I frowned. "Or appeared to be."
Zelda rolled her eyes. "Oh they were shacking up all right. Get real. And he busted Joe's head and my window." She squinted at me. "Why would he do that if not for Lily?"
I paused, not because I agreed with Zelda, but there was something about VW guy that bugged me —I just couldn't spot it yet.
Joe cautioned Zelda to zip it and continued. "And, just before Lily headed out to the golden state, her mama died suddenly — under questionable circumstances."
The background check turned up Lily's real birth certificate. And a P.I. friend of Joe's discovered Laura Carson, Lily's mother, had terminal cancer. Along with a part-time hospice nurse, Lily had provided home care. Despite Laura's prognosis, her doctors were surprised by her sudden death. I shrugged. "How can you be surprised when a terminal patient dies?"
"Because her condition had improved some on account of a new treatment. Then the next thing they know she's dead." Joe shrugged. "I ain't saying Lily did it, but since she took care of her mama, she probably knows how to use needles and administer injections and such."
"And emptying the injectors would've been a piece of cake for her."
"Right you are, Miss Zelda."
I frowned and let out a sigh. "That’s a lot of trouble to go to for money. Kill her mother, then traipse across the country to scam George? Why? Because she found some old love letters of Laura's?"
Zelda scowled. "She's an evil bitch."
I rolled my ey
es and sighed. "That's not a motive, Zee. Why didn't she just take out life insurance on her mom? Or find some local rich guy to scam? Why George?" I turned to Joe. "Did your contact turn up a criminal record on Lily?"
Joe pursed his lips. "Nothing so far."
"And as far as motives go, Maggie Manston stood to gain more than any of them. All that money. Plenty of motive." I blew out a sigh. "Not to mention revenge for George’s affair with Tina Seratta."
"Right, if George rewrote his will, maybe Maggie stood to lose a lot," Zelda agreed.
Joe held up a hand. "Hold on now, we ain't got any evidence of that. The will I saw didn’t cut Maggie out in any way, shape or form. So let’s stick with what we know." He looked around the room to each of us and no one protested. With a sharp nod he said,
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