She didn’t dare reveal what had just occurred to her. If it were true, her mother’s faith in Stanley might be badly misplaced.
Chet had come clean about his embezzling. How far would Stanley go to cover up his?
THE BACK of Norris’s head thudded into the wall. He collapsed like a beanbag.
Breathing hard, Joseph assessed Rick’s reaction. The detective hadn’t drawn his gun. That was a good sign.
“If you like, I’ll handcuff you and gag you,” Joseph told him. “Otherwise, you’ll have to shoot me, because I’m going after Erin.”
“You’d never make it out.” His friend knelt by the chief. “He’s breathing okay. I’m guessing he’ll have a doozy of a headache. We ought to call the paramedics, just in case.”
“I’ll call them from his car. Toss me the keys.”
“I’ve got a better idea.” Rick took out his cuffs. “Give me your wrists. You’re going to have to trust me on this one.”
“Rick…”
“You want to get out of the station or not?”
The detective had a point. Not only did every officer in Sundown Valley know about Joseph’s arrest, he’d just given them an excuse to shoot him if they caught him escaping.
He held out his wrists. The cuffs snapped over them.
Rick whirled him about and shoved him into the corridor, closing the door after them. “Better hustle,” he said close to Joseph’s ear. “Any minute, the chief’s going to start squawking like a wet hen.”
Heads turned as they navigated toward the parking exit. The patrol captain, Mario Hernandez, regarded them dubiously as he emerged from the break room. “Where’re you taking him?”
“To make an identification,” Rick said.
“Yeah, well, I hope he identifies whoever shot Dever, because we all know it wasn’t him.” Hernandez met Joseph’s eyes. “Your father was a good man. I always believed that.”
“Thank you,” Joseph said.
As soon as they reached the detective’s car, Rick removed the cuffs and they roared out of the parking lot. On the point of ordering the nearest patrol car sent to Erin’s aid, however, they heard the radio crackle with an All Points Bulletin.
It named the two of them.
“Guess the chief came out of it,” Rick said dryly.
“I’ll never forget this.” Joseph knew he’d just wrecked his friend’s career and probably much more unless they could prove that the chief’s wrongdoing had forced them into it. Even then, Rick’s relationship with Tina didn’t stand much of a chance.
“Yeah, we can watch each other’s backs in the pokey when they lock us up.” He tossed over Joseph’s cell phone. “Call Erin and warn her.”
He dialed. Behind them, a siren blasted the morning peace.
To Joseph’s relief, Erin answered with a tentative, “Hello?”
“It’s me,” he said. “Don’t…” Jumbled noises filled the phone, followed by a painful scrape and then nothing. “Erin? Erin?”
“What happened?” Rick veered west onto the highway.
“Somebody got her,” he said grimly.
ERIN STARED at Stanley in disbelief. He’d just yanked the phone from her hand and heaved it out the window.
“I’m sorry.” The executive made a vague gesture. “Cell phones interfere with my pacemaker. I guess I overreacted.”
“We have to go back and get it,” Erin said. “That call was important. I’ll take it outside the car.”
She hadn’t known Stanley had heart problems. Come to think of it, wasn’t that an urban legend about cell phones and pacemakers?
“I remember the spot,” the CFO said. “I’ll bring it to you later. Your mother’s anxious to see you.”
His clipped words and nervous manner alarmed her. She no longer doubted her suspicions about an embezzlement. And perhaps much more.
Two days ago, Erin had gone to his office and requested a full accounting of her trust fund. A few hours later, someone had fired at her and Joseph, possibly with a hunting rifle.
On the phone, Joseph had tried to warn her about something. It had to have been Stanley.
They turned onto Via Puesta del Sol too fast for Erin to risk jumping. Almost immediately, the sports car swerved again onto Rainbow Lane.
This wasn’t the way to her mother’s house. Rainbow Lane led to the old fishing pier.
“I ALWAYS KNEW the chief disliked you, but there’s obviously more than that going on,” Rick said.
Joseph managed to tear his thoughts away from Erin’s imminent danger. “You’ve heard about my father’s case. Norris must have been involved in the robbery, although he had an alibi for that night.”
“The chief may not be my favorite person, but I never figured he’d do anything like that,” Rick said. “Why plan a jewelry store robbery when he had everything to lose?”
“Two and a half million dollars can buy a lot of status. Maybe he figured his kids deserved the best.”
The scream of their siren, which Rick had activated along with his emergency flashers, didn’t quite drown out the shrieks of their pursuers. More than one car had joined the chase, judging from the sound of it. “They’d have been lucky to get ten percent from a fence. So, say, a quarter of a million. Split three ways, that’s what? Math was never my subject.”
“Roughly eighty thousand.” A substantial sum but hardly vast wealth. Joseph had to admit, it seemed unlikely Norris would have risked his freedom and his position for that amount, let alone trusted to the discretion of a petty crook like Todd.
Ahead, a black-and-white pulled out from a side street, light bar blazing, and halted partially blocking the four-lane highway. Beyond it, traffic halted.
“Hang on,” Rick said.
“Go for it.”
The detective yanked the wheel. As they spun into an opposing lane, Joseph caught a grab bar to keep from sliding.
“You must’ve aced LED.” That stood for Law Enforcement Driving.
“My favorite part of the police academy.” They careened past the patrolman.
Under other circumstances, Joseph might have enjoyed the thrill. But the way someone—perhaps Stanley Rogers—had ripped the phone out of Erin’s hand frightened him beyond measure.
He couldn’t bear to lose her.
OVERGROWN TREES cast shadows on the windshield. Vague memories flickered through Erin’s mind as she stared at the man’s reflection.
Swinging to miss a pothole, Stanley scraped a flowering bush on the shoulder. The cloyingly sweet scent swept away the remaining confusion and Erin saw the past with painful clarity.
The van. The glare on the windshield. The glass clearing to show Stanley’s face, revealing to her that people connected with the Marshall Company wanted her dead. That meant they most likely wanted her mother dead, too.
There was no time to figure out how Lance had become involved with Stanley or what role Chet had played. Ahead lay the dank, merciless lake. Whatever Erin did now, it was up to her to save her own life and Alice’s as well.
Unsnapping her seat belt, she shoved open the door. Startled, Stanley grasped the thin fabric of her blouse, throwing her off balance. When Erin wrenched loose, she nearly tumbled headfirst onto the pavement rushing beneath them.
“What are you doing?” he demanded. “Stop that!”
She clutched the door handle and kicked with all her strength. Although her rubber sole barely grazed Stanley’s shoulder, his arm jerked in response and the car skewed wildly.
Centrifugal force nearly flung Erin out the side. She was hanging on for dear life when, with a sickening crunch, they clipped a tree.
The impact hurled her shoulder-first into the driver. His head flew back and banged the side window as they jolted to a halt.
The sound of Erin’s harsh breathing filled her ears. Stanley lay motionless. Reluctant to touch him, she turned off the engine and dragged herself away.
Trying to ignore shaky knees and an aching shoulder, she climbed out the pas
senger side and surveyed the damage. Although scrapes, large dents and a crumpled bumper marred the sports car, it looked driveable.
She had to get to Alice’s house. Never mind that she wasn’t supposed to drive. If the police stopped her, she would enlist their aid.
Rounding the car, she opened Stanley’s door. He flopped partway out. Despite some blood on his temple, he seemed to be breathing normally.
According to a CPR class Erin had taken, she shouldn’t move him. But she couldn’t summon paramedics, she realized after a quick check of his coat pockets revealed no cell phone. Maybe he actually believed that business about the pacemaker, or maybe it was in his pants. She tried to force herself to search there and felt bile rise in her throat.
Giving up the attempt, she grasped him under the arms and hauled him backward until his legs cleared the vehicle. Moaning, he stirred. Shivers threatened Erin’s composure. She had to get away before he regained consciousness. Even injured, he was larger and stronger than her.
She locked the doors, strapped herself into the car and turned the key in the ignition. It froze.
On the pavement, Stanley’s eyelids fluttered open. He regarded her dully and then with growing alarm.
Erin wrenched at the key. It refused to turn. On the street, the man braced his arms, levered himself into a sitting position and, from his pants, took out a phone.
He had to be calling his accomplice. Telling him what—to kill Alice?
Erin looked down at the key, the ignition, the gearshift. It had slipped into neutral. Some cars didn’t start unless they were in park, she remembered, and moved the lever.
The key turned. The engine purred to life.
She shot forward. It was too late to stop Stanley from making his call, and she quailed at the prospect of deliberately running over him. Better to get to Alice’s house and grab her fast.
It was less than a mile away. Maybe she still had time.
Chapter Seventeen
To Joseph, the entire world seemed alive with sirens. The cruisers remained mercifully unseen, however, as Rick took a series of shortcuts.
“They must have figured out where we’re going by now,” Joseph said. “We might find Aurora Avenue blocked.”
“If it comes to that, be prepared to bail. I’ll do my best to hold them off,” his friend said.
“Don’t get yourself killed.”
“I’ll try not to.”
Ahead, a car pulled out of a minimart, oblivious to their siren. Joseph hit the horn and the idiot halted, leaving them room to circumnavigate and pick up speed again. Fortunately, this part of town had light traffic on a weekday.
“While you were talking to your mother, you mentioned Tina,” Rick said. “What was that about?”
The remark had been eclipsed by the news of Alice’s visit to her lawyer, Joseph realized. “Apparently Tina’s worried about Erin, so she and her brother are heading to the Boldings’ house, too.”
“What can she be thinking, putting herself in the middle of this situation?” Rick’s jaw worked. “It would kill me if anything happened to her, even though she’ll probably never talk to me again after she finds out we decked her father.”
“I’m the one who decked her father.”
“I let you,” he said.
“I thought my lightning-fast reflexes caught you off guard.”
“In your dreams.”
Tina wasn’t going to the Boldings’ house alone, Joseph recalled. “You don’t suppose Gene is mixed up in this, do you? He was working closely with Chet.”
“At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole town was involved except for you, me and Erin,” Rick said. “And maybe Tina.”
“Maybe?”
“The woman dotes on her family,” he said. “I don’t know what she’d do to protect them.”
Joseph knew how far Erin would go to protect her mother. As far as necessary, even if it cost her own life.
The problem was, the woman waiting for her might not be her mother.
AS THE SPORTS CAR flew toward the Boldings’ house, Erin registered the distant shrill of sirens, probably heading to a wreck on the highway. She hoped no one had been seriously injured.
Even beneath the midday sun, the house looked dark. She saw no cars in the turnaround. Maybe her luck had held.
Getting out, she ran up the front steps and was thankful to find the door unlocked. A breeze accompanied her inside, stirring the curtains and making shadows pulse in the living room.
“Mom! I’m….” Erin spotted someone sprawled on the couch. She stopped, tensing. It couldn’t be her mother. Please, no.
Moving closer, she recognized Lance’s chunky form. His jowly face had gone slack, and although he had to have heard her call his name, he barely rolled his head in response. In a weird way, he reminded her of Stanley lying on the road, except that her stepfather appeared to be conscious.
“What happened to you?” Erin asked.
“D-d-drug….” As if the effort exhausted him, his eyes shuttered.
“Oh, there you are.” Her mother emerged from the bedroom wing. “I was so worried when Stanley called.”
“Stanley called you?” She’d expected him to telephone his conspirator. “You mean he tried to phone Lance.”
“I’m afraid my husband isn’t taking calls right now.” Alice didn’t sound like herself. She had the same raspy tone, but the inflection had become flatter and colder. “He’s a little under the weather.”
“Do you feel okay?” Erin didn’t know how to react. Something was terribly wrong.
“I’m a little thirsty,” her mother said. “Let me fix you a glass of something.”
“We can get a drink on the road.”
“I made fresh lemonade, the way you like.” Her mother gave her a stiff smile.
Brandy must have drugged her and Lance both, Erin thought. “No, Mom, we’re leaving. Right now. Is Brandy still here?”
“She went to the store.” Alice maintained that unnatural smile. “Honey, you shouldn’t have pushed Stanley out of the car. He says he might have a concussion. We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t sue.”
“Stanley tried to kill me,” Erin said.
“Just now? I can’t believe it!” The look of amazement didn’t ring true. It reminded Erin of a B-grade actress feigning an emotion.
Everything looked different, even her mother. Had the scent of flowers not only restored her memories but also sharpened her perceptions?
Maybe her mother had been this way all along. When Erin arrived at the Boldings’ house after being hospitalized, a lot of things had struck her as unreal, but she’d attributed the effect to her head injury. Now she felt as if something essential was missing from her mother’s personality.
Around her, the house seemed airless and close. “Let’s go outside.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re leaving. And because this place gives me the creeps.”
“What’s the matter?” demanded the woman in front of her. “Why won’t you have a glass of lemonade with me? Aren’t I good enough for you?”
The ugliness of Alice’s expression took Erin aback. Her mother loved her, and there was no love in that face.
A BLACK-AND-WHITE cut them off on Shore Drive near the intersection with Aurora. When it lurched into their path, Rick had no choice but to hit the brakes.
Behind the wheel of the cruiser, Joseph recognized Bob Wheeler, a patrolman who’d been on the force less than two years. Shortly before making detective, Joseph had helped to field-train him.
“He’s alone,” Rick said. “I’ll try to stall. Move!”
Keeping low, Joseph bolted for the trees. Rick got out on the other side, hands held high.
“Halt!” He ignored Bob’s command and kept going, expecting the whine of a bullet at any second.
“Wait!” came Rick’s voice. “Listen to me.”
From behind drifted a few phrases—“the chief” and “Erin Marshall.” The det
ective was obviously trying friendly persuasion.
At any rate, Bob must have realized he couldn’t be in two places at once. Better to secure the prisoner at hand than risk losing both of them.
Funky cottages dotted the sloping terrain and a couple of children riding tricycles stopped to watch as Joseph dodged past. At least he no longer feared getting shot. No officer would fire with bystanders at risk.
Still, he expected the black-and-white to pick up the pur suit any second. How long could it take to handcuff Rick and stick him in the rear seat?
Unless, of course, the officer believed his story.
Less than a quarter of a mile left. Joseph’s legs, muscular from workouts, chopped easily across the ground. He might just make it unhindered.
From the rear came the rumble of a car. Apparently Bob hadn’t lingered, after all.
Joseph ducked behind a screen of branches. With a sinking sensation, he noted that it wasn’t nearly thick enough to cover him.
Apparently his luck had run out.
“AUNT MARIE.” Erin didn’t know she’d spoken until she heard the name.
The woman’s eyes narrowed menacingly. “Hello, Erin.”
The boating accident. No wonder Joseph had suspected something was wrong even before they found the woman’s body in the lake.
Her mother had to have drowned five and a half months ago. All this time, Alice Marshall Bolding had been gone, killed and replaced by her own sister.
Tears stung Erin’s eyes. Alice had loved her daughter dearly, while Marie had twisted everything, manufacturing an estrangement to keep Erin at bay and making Alice appear temperamental and uncaring. Not only had she murdered her sister, she’d dishonored her memory.
Marie and Lance must have cooked up the whole scheme in L.A., how he would charm the rich widow and then help kill her. Judging by his present condition, however, he’d bitten off more than he could chew.
“How could you?” Erin asked. “How could you do this?”
“It wasn’t easy, even for an actress.” Her aunt acted as if the reproach were a compliment. “Too bad they don’t give Oscars for real-life performances.”
The Stolen Bride Page 21