Alice bent down to lay a bouquet of red roses on the grave. A tear trickled down her cheek and she quickly wiped it clean with her hand. Tyler took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “You did a good job,” he murmured.
“I wonder if she is happy now,” she sniffled.
“She is in a better place. And I am sure she is looking down on you and feeling proud of your achievements.”
She smiled at him. They gave the graveside one last look then turned and began walking out of the cemetery.
Something that Riley said had been bothering her. He kept telling her that her mother did not care for her. Looking back there were times that she felt neglected and she started wondering whether there was any truth to what he had said. She started going through old home videos.
Rita often had Alice in her arms, cuddling and kissing her. It warmed her heart to see her younger self laughing and smiling as her mother chased her around the house. Still, she could not get rid of the nagging feeling that maybe it was all for show. Maybe her mother only behaved like a doting and loving parent when the camera was on and she was being filmed.
Soon she was filled with an inexplicable urge to learn more about Rita. Who was she? What were her likes and dislikes? What kind of person she was to hang out with?
She started looking for contacts of people who may have interacted with her when she was alive. She hoped to talk to them and learn more about her mother.
Finally, it struck her that she had missed a very important person in her mother’s life. The one person who was bound to know more about her than anybody else. A thrill of excitement ran through her as she picked up the phone and dialed Marcus Lee’s number. The phone rang for a long while without anyone picking up. At last she hung up, frustrated and annoyed that she could not get through to him.
Her efforts to get in touch with Marcus ended up in vain. He was taking a few weeks off from work due to health concerns and was staying at his home. Fed up with not being able to get in touch with him, she decided to pay him a visit at his house.
Tyler looked at her askance when she told him about her intentions, asking him to accompany her on the trip. “I’m not sure if he would appreciate that,” he said.
“Come on, we are only going to stay there for a short while. We should check up on how he is doing, don't you think so?”
“Yeah, and after you’ve asked him about his health, you are going to badger him with questions about his past lover in front of his wife which I really don’t think either of them will appreciate.”
“I’ll be subtle,” she insisted. She could not get rid of the feeling that she really had to go and see him to learn the truth about Rita.
Tyler let out an exasperated breath as he brushed his hands through his hair. “Fine,” he said. “It’s not like I can change your mind. The least I can do is make sure you don’t cause too much trouble for the Assistant Director of CIRG and get fired.”
She gave him an impish grin, pleased that he had agreed to come along with her.
The two packed their bags and booked a flight to Washington, D.C. Tyler tried to get in touch with the Assistant Director when he and Alice alighted the aircraft to warn him about their arrival beforehand but he couldn’t get through to him. He was afraid the surprise visit would make him go ballistic.
Tyler knew that Marcus hated being bothered by employees while he was taking time off from work and he was genuinely worried that Alice’s insistence to meet him while he was on holiday might cost Alice her job.
They waved a taxi to stop as soon as they walked out of the airport. Tyler could feel his anxiety mounting as he sat next to Alice on the ride toward Marcus’s house. The taxi wound its way through an elegant neighborhood with expansive mansions. It snaked its way uphill through green fields, finally coming to a stop outside a massive iron gate.
Tyler stopped the car and stepped out. He walked to the gate to inspect it and found that it was open. It let out a loud creak as he pushed it wide open so that they could drive through, then climbed back into the driver’s seat and gunned the engine.
The car drove past the gate toward a long winding driveway with lush greenery on both sides. A massive Victorian mansion loomed into view with large mullioned windows, a massive balcony, and a massive oak door marking the entrance. Tyler killed the engine and looked over the impressive house.
“I didn’t realize Marcus lived in a castle,” he said.
“He sure is earning well,” Alice concurred.
Tyler turned toward her before he stepped out of the vehicle. “This is your last chance to rethink your decision,” he said.
“I know what I am doing,” she said as she opened the door and jumped out.
Tyler let out a sigh and shook his head in resignation. He stepped out of the car and followed her to the door. Alice pressed the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. Tyler stepped forward and banged his fist on the door. Several moments passed but no one came to answer.
“I knew we should have called before coming here,” said Tyler. “He’s not home. He must have gone out somewhere.”
Alice stood beside him looking perturbed.
“Let’s head back. We could come back and check on him after a few hours; maybe he’ll be home by then.” He turned to leave.
Alice stayed glued in one spot. She stared at the door looking puzzled. Something did not feel right but she couldn’t put her finger over it.
“Alice! Come on! We can’t stay here all day.” He glanced at the wrought iron gate they had just passed and felt pretty sure that they were already trespassing.
Alice turned to face him. “I just need to check one more time,” she said.
“Check what?” he asked, confused.
She turned and ran off the porch, turning a corner around the house.
Shocked, Tyler ran after her. He cursed himself for agreeing to the trip and playing along with her ridiculous plans. Once again, he wondered why he kept giving in to her ideas.
As he turned a corner he found her climbing over a trellis.
“What are you doing?” he hissed. “I’m pretty sure this is going to count as breaking and entering!”
“Just let me check,” she said, looking down at him as she continued to climb the wall.
“Check what?” he snapped. “You’re out of your mind. The chances of you holding onto that FBI badge of yours after this are zero to none!”
She ignored his warning and continued to climb. Once she was on the first floor, she swung her leg off the trellis, balancing it on a narrow ledge that ran across the width of the building. Slowly and steadily she placed her other foot over it as well and began moving sideways toward the balcony. Her face, hands, and belly brushed against the wall as she inched toward the balcony.
Tyler watched her from underneath filled with horror. One misstep and she would fall to her death. His heart jumped into his throat when he saw her stumble for a second. Luckily, she steadied herself and, after taking a few minutes to calm her nerves, continued moving.
Tyler let out a loud sigh of relief as he saw her swing her legs over the balustrade. She placed a hand over her chest, closed her eyes, and took deep breaths to calm herself. Her heart had been pounding wildly inside her chest the whole time she had been walking over the narrow ledge.
Finally, she opened her eyes and stepped close to the glass doors. She pressed her nose against the glass and peered inside. It was dark, making it hard for her to see anything, but she could make out the silhouette of tall bookshelves lining the walls which made her guess that she was looking into the library.
A feeling of dread gripped her, twisting her insides as she thought she saw a body lying on the floor. Alice spun around and rushed over to the balustrade to tell Tyler what she saw. Tyler stared at her in shock. He asked her to do a double check and she confirmed that she saw a person lying motionless on the floor.
“Wait, I’m going to be right there with you,” he said. He walked over to the trellis and took a deep breat
h as he gripped the wooden meshwork and lifted himself up. He scaled the wall and stepped on the ledge like Alice had done before him, then carefully sidled to the balcony.
Alice felt relieved as he jumped onto the balcony. He looked through the glass to confirm one more time what Alice saw, knowing that they needed a good enough reason to break into the Assistant Director’s house. Finally he took out his gun and told Alice to step back while he aimed at the lock on the glass door.
The glass shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, landing on the floor like fine powder as soon as he fired. They stepped into the dark library and made their way to the body lying on the carpet.
Marcus Lee lay on the floor with his eyes closed as if lost in a deep and peaceful slumber. Alice checked his vital signs and looked up at Tyler, horror struck as she realized that he was dead.
There were no signs of bleeding and from the looks of it he had not been injured or harmed physically. Tyler checked the rest of the house but could not find any signs of anyone breaking and entering. Alice checked the other rooms and found Marcus’s wife Frances lying in her bed, asleep.
Slowly she stepped inside the bedroom calling out her name but she remained motionless. Alice placed a hand over wrist and let out a loud gasp when she realized that her heart was not beating. Later on, she stood in the front yard looking over the mansion as ambulances and police vehicles arrived at the scene.
“What are the odds of both spouses suffering from a heart attack at the same time?” Tyler asked.
She took a deep breath as she saw Marcus’s body being strapped to a stretcher and wheeled into an ambulance. Sadness surged inside her as she saw the ambulance doors close and the vehicle thrum to a start. The ambulance sped away from her, filling her with immense loneliness, as if she had lost the last of her family.
* * *
[KW1]Query: Throughout the next page or so, Tyler is struggling with wanting to tell Alice that her stepfather was his attacker. However, in the final few pages of the previous book, he told her before he got the call from his sister to check out his grandfather’s grave so Alice should already know.
[KW2]Note: While dramatic, this also doesn’t fit in with the fact that Tyler told Alice in the last book that her stepfather and the man who left him in the well were the same man. Had she not already known that, this would be a revelation, but otherwise, she should have realized all along that he would eventually learn it was the same man as her stepfather. The part that does make sense however (based on the fact that this book doesn’t take into account the revelation in the last book) is that she had already put together who “Chris” was and Tyler had not seen her evidence and would have learned it upon seeing the older picture.
[KW3]Personally, if the third book can still be edited, I would edit out the few lines where Tyler tells Alice the truth because this book plays it out much better.
[KW4]Or Chris/Riley, but right now it would be switching back and forth to say Chris here and Riley on the next page. Also, Alice would think of him as Riley, the man who killed her mother.
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