by Boone, Lisa
He spared a second to glance over his shoulder before turning back to the sink. “Yvette’s dead.”
Madison sucked in her breath. Her gaze fell to his hands and the dagger he had under the running water. “How?”
“Someone stabbed her.”
“With that?” At his nod, she grabbed his wrist. “Why are you washing it? There could be fingerprints.”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Why?”
He slapped the handle of the faucet down with the heel of his hand and grabbed the nearest hand towel. “It’s my hunting knife. My grandfather gave it to me when I was seventeen.” He wrapped the towel around the knife. “Madison, it even has my damn name etched into the blade. I didn’t even know it was missing.”
Feeling suddenly chilled in the small bathroom, she wrapped her arms around herself. “What happened?”
“I told you.”
“From the beginning, Ethan. It sounds like he’s trying to set you up. If he succeeds, you’re going to need my help, so I need to know everything that happened tonight.”
“Sweetheart, that’s the least of our concerns right now. We just lost the best chance of finding this psycho.” He stepped past her, strode into the bedroom, and flung open the closet door. Grabbing a satchel, he threw it on to the bed.
“What are you doing?”
He held up a pair of pants and a shirt, which he tossed into his satchel. “Packing. He tried to frame me for Yvette’s murder. I think I got everything of mine that he planted but I can’t be certain. The cops could be on their way here as we speak.”
“So, you’re running?” she asked in shocked disbelief as she watched him pack.
He looked up at her in surprise. “I prefer to think of it as a strategic retreat. We need to find Alex, which is not going to be easy, because as of right now, we don’t even know his last name.”
“So, how do we find him?”
“I’m hoping the answer lies in Todd Abbott’s past. Yvette said something tonight, which makes me think he and Alex grew up in some little town near the Tennessee border called Goodwick. That’s where we’re going.”
“Right now?”
“We don’t have time to waste and I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He zipped up his bag. “Can you call in sick?”
“I’ll call my secretary in a couple of hours and have her cancel all my appointments.”
“Good. Get your stuff together.”
She pulled her suitcase out of the corner. “What about Sarah? We can’t leave her unprotected. If he went after her once, he may do it again, especially if he can’t find me.”
“Casey said he can watch over her. Do you know where she is?”
“I have no idea. She just said she was taking care of a friend.”
“Can you call her?”
She gestured to the clock. “It’s three in the morning. Even if she had her phone on, I doubt she’d hear it. She can sleep through anything.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “She’s probably okay for tonight. Alex’s probably been too busy to keep up with her. Does she work tomorrow?”
“She’s goes in at noon,” she said reaching for the pair of pajamas she wore the night before.
“Okay, I’ll let Casey know to meet her there.”
“Casey seems a bit young. How old is he?”
“Twenty…twenty-one. I’m not really sure, but don’t worry, he’s a good guy. He’ll take good care of Sarah, at least until Saturday.”
“What happens Saturday?” she asked as she walked into the bathroom.
“He’s got a championship fight in D.C. on New Year’s, but we’ll be back before he leaves.”
She tried not to look at the bloody shirt in the corner as she gathered her things together. “What if we’re not?” She asked as she hurriedly threw everything into her makeup bag and returned to the bedroom.
Ethan was standing by the closet pulling on a tee shirt. “What did you say?”
“What if we’re not back by the time Casey leaves?” she asked again as she packed her makeup bag into her suitcase.
“Then he’ll take her with him.”
She straightened up. “Does Sarah know this?”
“Not yet,” he said disappearing into the bathroom with his satchel. “We’ll call her in the morning and let her know what’s going on.”
Finished packing, Madison slipped her feet into her shoes and wheeled her suitcase into the hallway. She glanced back down at the floor, not very surprised to see the shirt was gone. Her gaze fell to the satchel.
“Do you think it will be a problem?” Ethan asked sliding past her and walking into the living room.
“A huge problem. Sarah’s best friend growing up is getting married next week. Sarah’s the Maid of Honor and the bachelorette party’s on New Year’s Eve. There’s no way she’d miss that and run off to D.C. She’s planning on spending the weekend with her friends.”
“That’s a problem,” he said. “Is the party here in town?”
“No, Hannah lives near our grandpa’s place. I’m kind of glad Sarah’s leaving. Hannah’s father is in the security business. He has this giant house in a gated community and three big sons who all play football. They’ll all be there this weekend. I figure Sarah will be safer with them than with me.”
“When was she planning on leaving?”
“Saturday night.”
“Okay, then we’ll just have to be back before Casey leaves that evening. We’ll take Sarah to her friend’s place.” He paused. “Actually, maybe we should stay with Hannah and her family too.”
“I have my own New Year’s Eve party to attend to. Nicole wants me to give a speech.”
Ethan rolled his eyes as he wrapped a scarf around his neck. “That’s what I love about attorneys. You all know how to throw a great party.”
“Please, it’s a five minute welcoming speech. Besides, it’s for a charity she and I both support. With the amount of money we’ve put into this thing, I think everyone should be happy. I just hope Alex doesn’t try to disrupt it.” She tilted her head. “No, actually, I hope he does. Nicole would probably rip him apart with her bare hands. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore.”
“With any luck, we’ll know who Alex is and be able to hand him over to the police by then.” He picked up her coat and helped her into it. “Come on, let’s go.”
She ran her hand along the back of her neck and pulled out her hair from underneath her coat. “If he does succeed in framing you, running off to Goodwick isn’t going to help your case, Ethan. It’ll just make it harder to prove your innocence.”
“I told you I’m not running. I’m working. Besides, I can’t protect you from a jail cell.” He turned her around and gently cupped her face with his hands. “And I have to protect you.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “If I don’t, who’s going to defend me if the police mistakenly arrest me for Yvette’s murder?”
She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “Me.”
Leaning his head forward, he kissed her lightly before resting his forehead against hers and holding her close.
The sound of sirens in the distance caught his attention and he reluctantly pulled away. “Time to go,” he said taking her hand and leading her out the door.
They took the stairs down to the main floor and then hurried to Ethan’s rental car, only relaxing when they noticed the patrol car cross the street and then turn down another before completely disappearing from view.
Her gaze fell to the clock on the dashboard as Ethan started the engine. “He didn’t call,” she said only then realizing she hadn’t gotten the daily phone call he’d been subjecting her to for the past five days.
“He didn’t have to,” Ethan said softly.
“What do you mean?”
“He carved the number five into Yvette’s forehead.”
Madison closed her eyes as a wave of nausea came o
ver her. “Why would he do that? She was his accomplice. She was helping him avenge Todd.”
“If this psychopath has any virtues, it’s obvious that loyalty ranks pretty low on the list, if at all.”
“What happened to her?” She watched as his jaw tightened. “You need to tell me. I’d rather know than not know, and imagine the worse.”
“I don’t think your imagination is quite as sick as his.” Blowing out a breath, he ran a hand through his hair. “After I left you, I went back to Yvette’s place. She was a bit more talkative the second time around.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing helpful, at least not then. It was mostly trash talk at first, playing around with me. She dropped the attitude when I told her that I knew she was the one who made that birthday corsage for you and that she and Alex had been terrorizing you for the past week. It wasn’t until I told her that we could prove that it was her car that Alex had used to kill Paul Harris and that she could be charged as an accomplice that she suddenly got very quiet.” He slapped his hand against the steering wheel. “I had her. I saw it in her eyes. She turned white as a ghost and started shaking all over.”
“Did she say anything to you?”
“Yeah, the usual lies you get when you confront someone with a crime. She had no idea Alex was doing these things and that if she had known, she would have stopped him. I did get a few helpful things out of her. One, Todd and Alex were extremely close and two, they grew up together in Goodwick. Unfortunately, that’s as far as we got. A woman came out of the back room and interrupted us just as Yvette started spilling her guts. As soon as Yvette saw her, she clammed up.”
“Do you know who the woman was?”
“Well, from your description of Gina Gallagher, I guessed that it was her. She denied it, but I know it was her.”
“What did you do then?”
“I gave Yvette my card and then went back to the car and waited. Sometime around midnight, a man in a black sports car showed up. Gina got into his car and they drove away. Thinking it was Alex, I followed them to a hotel about twenty minutes away.”
“Was it Alex?”
“No, it turned out he was a salesman from Louisville. He had met Gina at a bar earlier that day. He was a bit surprised when she called him out of the blue and invited him to spend the night with her. While he and I were getting to know one another in the lobby, she ducked out the back. By the time I realized I had been had, she was long gone and when I made it back to Yvette’s…she was dying. She died less than a minute later. I had barely enough time to get my knife and climb out the window before the police busted down the door. I figure Alex called them. He was probably hoping I’d be caught leaning over her body.”
“How did he get your knife?”
“I have no idea. It was in the cabinet behind my desk underneath a pile of folders the last time I saw it, which was probably weeks ago.”
“Did Yvette say anything to you before she died?”
He didn’t answer, instead choosing to turn on the radio. “You must be tired. Why don’t you get some sleep? It’ll be awhile before we get to Goodwick.”
She laid her hand on his arm. “Was she conscious when you found her?” At his nod, she asked, “What did she say?”
“She didn’t say anything.”
Her brow furrowed. “She didn’t give you any idea about where Alex was or who he was, or even if he was the one who killed her?”
“She couldn’t,” he said with tight clipped tones.
“Why?”
“Let’s just say that Alex made sure she couldn’t talk to anyone ever again and leave it at that.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
10:58 A.M.
They checked into the first motel they came to when they reached Goodwick. Exhausted, they dropped their bags by the door, kicked off their shoes, and curled up in bed. Within moments, they were fast asleep.
Madison was the first to wake. She knew she should get up, but she couldn’t make herself leave his side. Instead, she laid as still as possible listening to Ethan’s steady heartbeat under her head. The few hours of sleep she had gotten lying next to Ethan was the first real restive sleep she had had in a week, and it felt so good to be so close to him. She ran her hand over his chest wishing they could remain there at the motel for the next few days.
Safe away from the world.
Safe away from Alex.
He laid his hand on top of hers. “If you keep doing that, we’ll never get out of this bed,” he murmured sleepily against her hair.
“I’m sorry,” she said lifting her head and resting her chin on his chest. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
He lifted his arm and laid it behind his head. “I wasn’t sleeping. I was just lying here enjoying the fact that you were lying next to me.” He dropped a kiss on top of her head and held her close for a moment before adding, “We have to get up. We have a lot to do today.”
A small groan escaped her lips as she sat up adjusting her shirt. She glanced at the mirror above the dresser and winced. Running her hands through her hair, she said, “So, where do we start?”
He ran a hand down his face. “The library.”
She raised her eyebrows.
“Todd was a writer. I’m hoping his hometown library has some information on him.”
She swung her legs over the side of the bed and walked toward the bathroom. “His bio was full of lies. I don’t think any of them mentioned Goodwick. They probably don’t even know he was a writer.”
“Still, it’s worth a shot,” he said over a yawn. “If that doesn’t pan out, we’ll try the local paper. When Yvette mentioned Todd and Alex to me, she said that they were scarred by something that happened when they were kids. Hopefully, whatever it was ended up making the news. That would at least give us Alex’s last name and with any luck a picture.” He started to get up but instead laid his head back down on the pillow and closed his eyes.
She bit her lip as she stared at him.
He was so beautiful that she ached to reach out and touch him. She took a hesitant step towards the bed but stopped, as her cell phone buzzed.
Sighing, she turned to her phone. She frowned when she read the text message on the screen. “Uh oh.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Becca sent me a text. All it says is urgent, call me,” she said as she called Becca back. She waited anxiously until her friend finally answered the phone.
“About time,” Becca said by way of greeting. “You’re in trouble.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. What’s going on?”
“Nicole ended her vacation a little early and showed up for work this morning. She wants your head on a silver platter.”
“What? Why?”
“She found out that you and Ethan had been spending a lot of time together off hours.”
Madison gritted her teeth. “So?”
“I warned you. Nicole wants Ethan and she’s not too happy you’ve moved in on him. She thinks you two have run off together.”
Madison glanced toward Ethan still sprawled out on the bed and felt her face flush. She turned to face the mirror. “She’s married.”
“And I keep telling you that she doesn’t seem to care about that fact. She wants to know why you’re not here.”
“She knows why I’m not there,” she said angrily. “I sent her an email message telling her I was sick this morning, which happens to be only the second time this entire year.”
She caught Ethan’s curious look in the mirror.
“She took a whole month off in February and August,” Madison continued irritably.
“She’s a partner,” Becca replied. “When you make partner, you can do the same thing, but until then, we have to play by their rules.”
“If she thinks…” Madison bit off her reply. She had far more pressing problems than Nicole’s jealousy at the moment. She took a deep breath. “Thanks for letting me know,” she said forcing her voice to sound ca
lm. “I’ll deal with Nicole next week.”
“Don’t worry about this place. Half the office is out sick.”
Madison clenched her fist and pursed her lips together. “And I suppose Nicole is just as worried about them as me.”
Becca chuckled. “They’re not spending the day with Ethan. I hope I didn’t ruin your fun, but I didn’t want you to get blindsided if Nicole called you.”
“Thanks,” she said her voice softening. “Oh, and Becca?”
“Hmm?”
“Who told Nicole about me and…” She glanced toward Ethan and turned back around. “Who ratted us out?”
“Keith. We were in the conference room talking about the New Year’s Eve party when he casually mentioned that you were probably going to take Ethan. I kicked him underneath the table but he ignored me, as he continued to dig the knife into your back. He told Nicole that you’ve been sleeping over at Ethan’s the last few nights and how he didn’t think that was appropriate since we basically pay Ethan to work for us. He was worried that it might be considered unethical and didn’t want you to get into trouble. Which is funny, considering I caught him flirting with his own secretary a month ago and had to tell him to knock it off.”
Madison’s mouth fell open. “Why would he say something like that to Nicole?”
“Because he’s jealous and he’s a jerk. A dangerous combination if you ask me. He knew exactly how she’d react but he didn’t care. Look, I have to go. Try not to worry. I’ll see you at the party, right?”
“I hope so. Bye, Becca,” she said before hanging up.
Ethan propped his head up. “Problem.”
“No,” she lied. “No problem. No problem at all.” She jerked her head towards the bathroom. “I’m just going to get ready.” She turned back to him when she reached the bathroom door. “How long do you think we’ll be here?”
“I’m not sure. It depends on how much we find out today. Probably a day or two at the very least. Why?”
“No reason. Just curious,” she said slipping into the bathroom. A day or two sounded just fine to her. In fact, next to Alex, the last people she wanted to see at the moment, were Keith and Nicole.