The Stolen Bride

by Jacqueline Diamond

  “Let’s not worry about that now.” They both needed to think straight. “Where’s Brandy?”

  “She’s about to head for the supermarket. I don’t think she should leave me alone at a time like this.”

  If she’d trusted the housekeeper, Erin would have agreed. Given Brandy’s old friendship with Todd Wilde, however, she was likely mixed up in wrongdoing up to her eyeballs.

  “Let her go,” she said.

  “It scares me, being alone. Whoever did this to Chet is still out there. Would you come keep me company?”

  “Mom, you have to leave as soon as Brandy’s out of the house. Don’t tell her anything.” She braced for an argument.

  “Maybe you’re right. Honey, I’m really frightened.”

  Finally, Alice was listening! “I think Lance is trying to seize control of the Marshall Company. Brandy might be helping him. I think they may both be involved in Chet’s murder. Let me call a taxi and come get you.”

  “Not a cab! Think of the implications,” her mother said. “Some media outlet will offer that cabbie big bucks to smear everything we say and do across the tabloids. Chet’s death is big news. A congressional candidate murdered, along with two bodies in the lake! You know how the media loves ugly stories about the wealthy.”

  At this point, Erin didn’t care. Arguing with her mother, however, was likely to prove fruitless. “All right, you come pick me up.”

  “Brandy’s car’s in the shop,” Alice said. “She has to take mine to the supermarket. I know—I’ll ask Stanley Rogers to fetch you.”

  Despite the gravity of the situation, Erin smiled. How typical of her mother that, immediately after the death of their CEO, she shifted her sights and began bossing around the chief financial officer. Inappropriate though it might be to treat a top executive as a gofer, at least her mom had hit on someone reliable.

  “Okay.”

  “Tell me where you are.”

  She reached a street sign. “At the corner of Far Oak and Pine. It’s in the canyon near where Joseph lives.”

  “It won’t take long if he’s at the office,” her mother said. “If he can’t come, I’ll call you back.”

  “Fine.” Maybe it was better having Stanley with them, Erin thought. His good sense ought to help persuade her mother to use extreme caution.

  Under other circumstances, it would have been Chet receiving the bossy call from the chairman of the board. Erin supposed she shouldn’t feel so terrible about the death of a man who’d tricked and stolen from her, but she did. Despite his behavior, he deserved better than to be gunned down as part of somebody’s power grab.

  She recalled the photograph he’d produced of himself with her parents. What had been the significance of that? Chet had said it was nothing, but she didn’t believe him.

  Now, she supposed, she’d never find out.

  AT THE STATION, the booking proceeded at its usual slow pace. Although Joseph understood the paperwork involved, he became increasingly restless. After Rick removed the cuffs, he signed the necessary forms so fast only an expert could have read his writing.

  Finally the detective escorted him into an interrogation room and set up a video camera. He didn’t turn it on yet, though. “Listen…”

  “Is the chief watching?” Joseph indicated the two-way mirror on the wall.

  Rick stepped out to check. When he came back, he shook his head. “He got called to a press conference.”

  “To tell the world about my arrest?”

  “I presume so,” Rick said. “Look, if you insist on a lawyer, that’s your right, but it’s going to delay things. You seem to have an idea who’s behind this. I thought you might want to tell me before somebody else gets killed.”

  He had a point. Waiting for an attorney meant it could be hours before he was questioned. In the meantime, Rick would have to withhold any details of the investigation. And, of course, Joseph had no idea where Erin had landed and no way to contact her.

  “I’ll waive my right, but I want you to leave that thing off for a while.” He indicated the video camera. “No audiotape, either. I want us both to be able to speak freely.”

  His friend ducked his head in assent. “Better start talking. The chief won’t stay away any longer than he has to.”

  Joseph went to the point. “When we left Chet Dever’s place last night, he was fine.”

  “The murder weapon has your prints on it.”

  “Someone stole it from Erin’s purse yesterday at her mom’s home. I didn’t report it immediately because I’d put it there knowing she didn’t have a license,” he said. “Don’t tell me the killer conveniently left the murder weapon at the scene.”

  The same thing had happened to his father eleven years ago.

  Rick made notes on a pad. “We recovered it outside the house, under some bushes.”

  “Who found it?” Joseph asked.

  The other man looked up from his writing. “The chief.”

  “You think that was a coincidence?”

  “Where’s Erin?” Rick asked, changing the subject.

  “I sent her out the back door the minute you guys showed up,” Joseph admitted. “I don’t trust the chief. Somebody’s tried to kill her a couple of times. It could be him.”

  The detective let out a low whistle. “Man, this is thorny.”

  “I’ve answered your questions. Tell me what you know that I don’t.”

  His friend gathered his thoughts. Much depended on whether Rick accepted Joseph’s story and believed him innocent. Confiding in a suspect was highly improper and would almost certainly compromise the investigation.

  Finally, the detective said, “Remember I had an officer going over Bolding’s cell phone records? I found a number of calls to Marie Flanders’s number in L.A., beginning shortly after he married Alice Marshall and ending about six months ago.”

  Joseph supposed he should have expected as much. Lance’s connection to Marie, along with Marie’s connection to Todd Wilde, should make Alice’s husband a suspect in both their slayings.

  “He was one of the people who had access to Erin’s purse when the gun disappeared,” he said.

  Rick made a frustrated noise. “Thanks to your sending her away, I can’t substantiate your story about the gun or your whereabouts last night.”

  “Call her cell number.” He provided it from memory.

  Rick dialed. “Busy.”

  “She’s probably on the line with her mother.” Another possibility occurred to him. “What if Bolding uses his wife as bait to lure Erin?”

  “I don’t see what benefit he’d get from killing her,” Rick said.

  “As far as he knows, her death would leave everything to her mother. If Alice meets with another so-called accident or dies of natural causes, he’d control the Marshall Company lock, stock and barrel.”

  “I’ll keep trying to reach her,” Rick said. “Now I’m going to turn on the camera and you repeat the gist of what you told me. Otherwise our deal ends here.”

  Joseph gave a tight nod. It was a big risk, but he didn’t see what choice he had.

  Chapter Sixteen

  While she waited for Stanley, Erin phoned Suzanne at the law office and explained about the stolen gun and that Joseph had apparently been arrested for murder. “Someone killed Chet Dever last night,” she said.

  “I’d heard he was dead, but I had no idea… I’ll get the best lawyer I can.” Suzanne’s voice shook. “After what happened to my husband, I don’t trust the police.”

  “Neither do I,” Erin admitted.

  “Tina told me about Chet when she called to cancel her tutoring this afternoon,” Joseph’s mother went on. “She’s taking the day off school. Gene’s so upset she’s reluctant to leave him alone. Now I’m upset, too.”

  “I’m sorry,” Erin said. “I didn’t mean to drag him into this.”

  “Don’t blame yourself. You’re the best thing that ever happened to Joseph.” A shuddering breath revealed how hard she
was fighting to stay calm.

  “He’s a wonderful man.” She had no right to say more than that, especially since she and Joseph had never really verbalized their feelings.

  “All these years, I’ve told myself that what happened to Lewis was a fluke, that this town is safe and people are basically decent.” Mrs. Lowery seemed to need a sympathetic ear, and Erin was happy to provide one. “I refused to believe that the person who murdered poor Mr. Nguyen and sent Lewis to his death was still a free man. But in my heart I’ve always wondered about Edgar Norris, and now he’s got my son.”

  “I’m suspicious of my stepfather as well,” Erin said. “I have to focus on trying to get my mother to safety. I know you’ll do what’s necessary for Joseph.”

  “After I arrange for an attorney, I’ll tell Tina what’s happened,” Suzanne responded. “She’s a decent person and if her father won’t listen to her, maybe Rick will. We’ve got to free my son.”

  “Please let Gene know that whoever killed his candidate, it wasn’t Joseph,” Erin added. “I can swear to that. Now I’m going to pick up my mother. Our CFO is giving me a lift.”

  “I guess we’re each doing our best to protect our loved one,” Suzanne said.

  They’re both my loved ones. Erin restricted herself to saying, “We can do this.”

  “Yes, we can.”

  She’d scarcely clicked off when a sports car swooped into view. Although she hadn’t expected the sixtyish executive to drive such a racy vehicle, her eye flew to the star-shaped Marshall Company parking decal, right next to a VIP sticker from Las Vegas.

  Stanley poked his graying head out the window and greeted her warmly. Grateful to have an ally, she slid inside and fastened her seat belt.

  WHEN JOSEPH HEARD his phone’s distinctive ring in Rick’s pocket, he hoped at first that Erin had disobeyed his orders and called him. He realized it wasn’t her, however, when Rick identified himself to the caller and asked, “Have you spoken with Erin Marshall lately?”

  Apparently her answer satisfied him. After switching off the videotape, he said, “It’s your mother,” and gave Joseph the phone.

  A frazzled Suzanne detailed her arrangements for a lawyer, who’d be arriving in a couple of hours, and related her conversation with Erin. “Maybe I shouldn’t have, but after she hung up, I called and told Tina everything. She’s worried about what’s going on and so am I. She and her brother plan to drive over to the Boldings’ house right now. I suppose they’ll run into Erin.”

  “Why are Tina and Gene getting involved?” Joseph didn’t want any member of the Norris family butting in. “Mom, they might tell the chief where they’re going. I want him as far from Erin as possible.”

  “I’m sorry. I thought maybe she could help,” his mother said. “There’s more. I didn’t think about it when I was talking to Erin but something’s been bothering me about Alice Marshall—I mean, Bolding. The problem is, it’s confidential. Attorney-client privilege.”

  “People’s lives are at stake,” Joseph said. “If you have information, you can’t withhold it.” He didn’t normally believe in taking the law into one’s own hands, but he refused to risk sacrificing Erin over a technicality.

  “Give me the phone,” Rick interjected. “If she has information, I want to hear it.”

  Although it violated his instincts, Joseph asked his mother to cooperate with the detective. Reluctantly, she agreed.

  “What do you know?” Rick paid close attention to the answer, interrupting with a few terse questions. He listened solemnly for a while, then thanked Suzanne and ended the call.

  “What is it?”

  “Not long after Erin’s accident, Mrs. Bolding went to the attorney’s office and asked to be made her daughter’s trustee,” he said. “She sought to have Erin declared incompetent. The lawyer told her it wasn’t appropriate for a short-term disability.”

  “She wanted to disenfranchise her daughter? That doesn’t sound like her,” Joseph said. “Was Lance involved?”

  Rick frowned. “According to your mother, Mrs. Bolding insisted that he not be informed. Of course, he wouldn’t have been anyway, but she didn’t seem to realize that.”

  “I don’t get it.” These weren’t the actions of a loving mother or a brainwashed wife, either. “I can’t picture Mrs. Bolding pulling a power play behind her husband’s back. She’s got her hands full fighting cancer.”

  “Mrs. Bolding has cancer?” Rick asked.

  “That’s what she and Chet told Erin.”

  “I’m getting a strange feeling.” The detective flipped through his notes.

  “Talk to me!” Suzanne had said the financial officer from Marshall was driving Erin to Alice’s house right now. It wouldn’t take them long to get there.

  “After we tracked Bolding’s phone calls, I spoke with Marie’s ex-roommate in L.A.,” Rick said. “She told me Marie’s suffered for years from hepatitis C, possibly due to drug use. You know it can lead to liver cancer? She said Marie lost a lot of weight but refused to go to a doctor. She insisted she was on the verge of making her dreams come true and nothing was going to stop her.”

  “So she might have planned some scam with Todd Wilde? Blackmail or threats, maybe?” That would certainly have given Lance a motive to kill them, but Joseph didn’t see what it had to do with Alice trying to take her daughter’s money.

  “There’s more. Your mother just told me something else,” Rick went on. “When they were in high school, she said Alice and Marie looked so much alike people used to joke about them being twins. Finally, Marie dyed her hair black to put a stop to it.”

  At first, Joseph didn’t see the relevance. Then his stomach lurched. “Did you ever make a definitive ID on the woman’s body?”

  “Not yet,” Rick said.

  Abruptly he understood what he’d missed about the near drowning. Although he realized he couldn’t have guessed before now, that proved small comfort.

  If he was right, it might be too late. “We have to reach Erin.”

  “I’ll put out a bulletin and send a car to the Boldings’ house.” As Rick turned to go, the door behind him smashed open.

  “What the hell is going on?” the chief of police snarled. “I look in here through the mirror to find the two of you jabbering away like best buddies.” He indicated the camera. “Why isn’t that activated? Sergeant Valdez, you’re relieved of duty pending an Internal Affairs investigation.”

  “I have reason to believe Erin Marshall is in immediate danger,” Rick said. “Joseph and Suzanne Lowery have given me valuable information—”

  “Do you want to be arrested too?” Norris snapped.

  Rick hesitated. “I have to issue a bulletin.”

  “You don’t have to do anything unless I tell you to.” The chief kept his gaze fixed on Joseph. “Get out of here and keep your mouth shut, Valdez, or I’ll have your badge. I’ll see that you’re charged with obstruction of justice, too.”

  “It isn’t only Erin who’s in danger,” Joseph said. “Your kids…”

  “You leave my family out of this!” The chief reached for his holster.

  Rick was moving slowly backward. Maybe he would make the right decision and get help, Joseph thought, but he couldn’t afford to wait and find out. Not with Erin’s life and possibly his own hanging in the balance.

  He pivoted and with one swift motion slammed his fist into Chief Norris’s jaw.

  “ISN’T IT A SHOCK?” Stanley asked as they zipped along Old Lake Highway. “I can’t believe Chet’s gone. I always figured you two would get back together.”

  Erin didn’t bother to correct his misguided notion. “I’m sorry about what happened, too.”

  “The whole office is in mourning. I gave them the day off, but I went in,” he said. “Your mother asked me to hold down the fort until the board can consider new applicants for his position.”

  “Thank you.” The business had to keep going, of course.

  “His parents want to schedul
e a funeral as soon as the coroner releases the body,” Stanley added. “I’m sure they’d like you to attend.”

  Erin hadn’t considered anything so practical. “Of course, the Marshall Company will pay for everything.” She knew practically nothing about organizing funerals. “Do they need help choosing a mortuary?”

  “I’ll take care of it.” After giving her a brief smile, Stanley lapsed into silence.

  Erin felt a little guilty that she hadn’t considered the impact of Chet’s death on his parents or on the firm’s employees. It had to be hard on Stanley, losing his closest colleague.

  Concerns about Joseph and her mother came first, however. As they neared the lake, she replayed scenes from the previous evening: Lance storming into the house accusing Alice of playing games. Brandy retrieving Erin’s purse. Chet admitting he’d embezzled her money.

  So much had happened that she hadn’t been able to consider many of the implications. Now an unnerving thought came to Erin.

  Her father had once said that not a penny moved in or out of the Marshall Company without Stanley keeping track of it. Chet had had no direct access to her trust fund. He couldn’t have stolen from it without Stanley’s cooperation.

  She stole a quick look at the man sitting next to her, sturdy and familiar as the town’s main street. He’d worked for the Marshalls all of Erin’s life. He and her father had become friends, although she doubted Andrew had been truly close to anyone outside his family.

  Her dad had found the financial officer amusing. After one hunting trip, he’d told her, laughing, that it was a good thing their campfire card games were played for pennies. Stanley had a talent for losing every hand while remaining certain each time that his luck was about to change.

  Good-natured Stanley hadn’t minded the ribbing. Someday, he’d insisted, he would hit the jackpot in Las Vegas.

  Erin caught her breath, remembering the VIP parking sticker on the windshield. The casinos reserved those for big gamblers, didn’t they?

  Her father had dismissed the signs and maybe, back then, Stanley had had the sense to hold himself in check. But there’d been no one looking over his shoulder these past two years.