She knew what he was thinking, and under different circumstances, she’d be thinking it too. Right now, however, she couldn’t get Valerie’s phone call out of her head. “They found Emma’s body this morning,” she said, bringing the disposable cup to her lips. They made their way into the living room, and she settled on the sofa.
Vaughn sat beside her, shaking his head. “I was afraid she was dead. Was she dropped on the country club grounds also?”
“No. Valerie said a jogger found her on Lakeshore, face-down at the edge of the lake.”
“That’s a hell of a way for some poor soul to start their day.” Pausing to sip his coffee, he added, “Amazing how Valerie’s already on top of it.”
“Nan says she’s nosy.”
“She is nosy.” He grunted, grimacing as he spoke. “She outranks even Eleanor for the number of people’s business she cares to comment on.”
“You dated her,” Bexley said. Valerie’s phone call had alleviated any need for caffeine, and she tried pushing away the suspicions that kept creeping in. “What did you think of her?”
Vaughn fidgeted with the cup in his hands, waiting a second before making eye contact. “She’s very focused on her quest to find a second husband.”
Bexley laughed. Just the way he said it, so serious and everything, lightened her mood. She set her cup down on the elephant coffee table, and Vaughn followed suit. She turned to face him. “Did you feel like a worm on a hook when you went out with her?”
That made him laugh. “After the first date, yes.”
It felt good to laugh, but then she remembered what Valerie had said. That last thing she’d said, right before Bexley ended the call. That thing about Vaughn dating Emma. And her stomach soured. “And what did you think of Emma?” she asked.
“She wasn’t really my type.” Vaughn spoke like he’d given the matter zero thought. “And I wasn’t really hers.”
“You weren’t?”
“No. I think she was looking for someone more into the party and social scene than I was.”
“Someone like her boyfriend in Birmingham?”
“I guess.” He paused. “But I didn’t come here to talk about my exes.” He reached for her, pulling her onto his lap, covering her lips with his, tightening his grip on her backside.
Bexley wanted him at once, more than she wanted to acknowledge the red flags waving in her brain. Opening her mouth, she allowed him to taste her, fantasizing now of all the ways she wanted him to savor her body. Their chemistry over-powered everything else – all the doubt and suspicion – all the fear and insecurity. Vaughn deepened the kiss, allowing his lips to linger, allowing her to feel the hard desire he had for her as their bodies pressed together. With them both breathing hard, she shifted on his lap, straddling his hips, the front of her robe pulling open. She watched him swallow as her body was exposed, excited by what she did to him, the power she had to bring him to life.
“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone,” he said.
She felt that from him, and something more…that frightening desire sparking between them like heated friction. The passion that tempted her to throw caution to the wind and forget another young woman had just been murdered. “Tell me how much you want me,” she whispered.
He dug his fingers into her hips, holding her so close she felt they might melt together.
“I want you so much I can barely control myself,” he said. “No woman has ever made me feel this way before.”
“It’s the same for me.” She undid the buttons of his white dress shirt and leaned against him, her bare breasts crushing into his chest. Flesh pressed into flesh, as the heat and sweat of his body scrambled her thoughts even more. She should ask more questions, she thought, but then his mouth found hers again, and she slipped into the passion that made her dizzy.
Another long kiss, and she pressed her face against his chest, breathing in the scent of him. Asking about Emma wasn’t going to tell her what she needed to know, so she let it go, pretending that she had nothing more to worry about than those same things all girlfriends worried about, and she said, “So your mother’s going to be home in two weeks, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Do you think we should take her out to dinner, or should I cook for her at your place?”
Vaughn let go of her. Desire dimmed from his eyes, and Bexley had that terrible premonition, the kind that comes right before heartbreak…before someone says the words that end a relationship and tear your world apart. And she tried so very hard to will him not to say them.
He cleared his throat, no longer looking at her, but then looking at her like he was sorry for whatever was about to come next. “I don’t think you’ll be meeting Mother.”
“What? Why not?” Her heart started spinning, and she pulled her face away from his chest. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry, Bexley. There are just some things about me…about my life…that you can never understand.”
“Why don’t you try explaining them to me?” It made no sense. How could he just shut her out like this…without even trying?
He swallowed hard. “It’s no good trying to explain. These things go back a long time. Things from my past, from when I was young.”
She remembered what Nan had told her about Vaughn’s father, the things he hadn’t told her, and she said, “If you’re talking about the car accident, Nan already told me what happened. Maybe we could talk about it.”
The look on his face was strong and immediate. A mixture of shock, pain, and remorse. He looked away from her. “I’ve tried hard not to lead you on,” he said, not addressing what she’d said. “Not to let you think this was headed for a happily-ever-after and a white picket fence.”
Her breath suddenly gone, her heart pounded wildly out of control. She tried hard to think, to understand what had just happened, but nothing in her head seemed to make sense. And suddenly she was angry, just hog-spitting, flat-out irate. She climbed off him and stepped back from the sofa. “You contemptible pig!” she yelled at him. “You’ve done nothing but lead me to believe that. At no point in time did you say all you wanted was an affair.”
Whatever sexual tension had been lingering between them fizzled to nothing. He didn’t need to say anything. The look on his face said it all.
Vaughn stood up, the heat gone from his eyes. “I never meant to lead you astray. It’s just that marriage is a very serious topic, and the truth is, Mother is never going to give her blessing to a union between us.”
“Why?” she lashed out at him, unable to stop herself. “Because she won’t think I’m good enough for you? Because I’m not a Dodson?”
“Bexley, I….”
She didn’t want to hear his sorry-ass excuses, and she went right on yelling. “Is that what happened with Sophie and Emma and any other woman you dated that wasn’t Eleanor? Did your Mama make you break-up with them too?”
“I didn’t really mind ending things with them.” He buttoned back up his shirt while he spoke, stepping around the elephant coffee table, positioning himself closer to the door. “Mother was right about them not being the right women for me.”
“And you’ve already decided that’s what she’ll think about me too?” She didn’t really want to know the answer, but she asked anyway. “And you won’t really mind, because why? You’ve already had your fun with me?”
“Bexley, it’s not like that.”
“It’s exactly like that!” She yelled even louder, consumed by her hurt and her anger.
“I liked Emma and Sophie, but I never had the feelings for them that I have for you. Hell!” He threw his hands in the air. “I might even be in love with you, and I’m going to have to find some way to live with that.”
“Oh please!” She didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want to hear anything more from him at all, and she especially didn’t want to hear that.
“It’s true,” he said. “You have no idea how much I’ve agonized ove
r this.”
“Don’t you dare try and make yourself out to be the victim here,” she said. Her temper had flared out, and she was left feeling a dreaded despair anchored in her heart.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You have no idea how much I care for you.”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t care what your mother thought. You’d be a man about things, and pick out your own damned wife.”
“Look, I’ll talk to you later,” he said. He was already heading for the door.
She didn’t try to stop him. She didn’t say a word…just watched him walk out the door. After he left, she shut the door, and leaned against the wall, forcing her tears to stay put, cursing every single thing, real or imagined, that had pushed its way between them. And when she was finished doing that, she thought about his mother making him, a grown man, break-up with women she disapproved of. It was hard to say what a thing like that might drive a man to, but it wasn’t hard to imagine one of those things might be murder.
Slumping down onto her couch, she felt sick inside. And she cried so hard, and for so long, she wasn’t sure she’d ever have another tear left to shed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It had been a long day. Much too long. Max had interviewed Todd Steinberg, Emma’s boyfriend for the last year, Carolyn Dodson Pringle, Sally Hamilton, Rick Hamilton, and Vaughn Humphries. He had pages and pages of notes, and he had grown beyond frustrated. His gut told him the answer lay somewhere in the copious amounts of gossip and scandal filling his notebook, if only he could sift through all the weeds.
Initially, he’d thought Emma’s body being dumped along Lakeshore would narrow his list of suspects. But almost everyone he’d interviewed was a member of the country club. It would be naïve to think they didn’t all know about the cameras placed at the entrance and along Kercheval.
And a surveillance camera on the front of a home overlooking Lakeshore showed no vehicles stopping along that part of the road. Not at any time. He’d even checked footage for twenty-four hours prior. Whoever dumped her body most likely did it from a boat. Naturally, almost everyone he’d interviewed also owned a boat. Either that or they had a home on the lake. Sometimes both.
Popping open a can of Vernors, he opened his notebook and started making new lists. These ones focused on the relationships of every person he’d interviewed, all of the victims, and all of the suspects. When he was done, he spent twenty minutes staring at what he’d written.
* * *
Vaughn Humphries: (no solid alibi for any killings)
Hannah Ransom (dated in high school)(now dead)
Eleanor Dodson (long stretch of dating, nothing now)
Sophie Durning (brief relationship)(now dead)
Eleanor Dodson (again)
Valerie Jameson (couple of dates)
Eleanor Dodson (third time still not a charm)
Emma Elkins (brief relationship)(now dead)
Eleanor Dodson (final straw)
Bexley Hart
* * *
Looking at the list, he could almost believe Eleanor Dodson might be the killer. She certainly was connected to every single victim. He’d been so sure, right from the start, that the killer had been a man. But what if he was wrong?
Max rubbed his eyes, looking at the next name on his list.
* * *
Linwood Jameson: (solid alibi for Katherine’s murder)
Peggy LeRoux (first marriage)
Sophie Durning (affair during first marriage)(now dead)
Valerie Jameson (second marriage)
Hannah Ransom (affair during second marriage)(now dead)
Annie Dodson (affair during second marriage)(now dead)
Eleanor Dodson (quick fling)
Katherine Buckingham (boyfriend at time of her death)(now dead)
* * *
Vaughn Humphries and Linwood Jameson, Max thought. Between the two men, they were connected to every single victim. So what connected them?
Max continued with the next name on his list.
* * *
Cameron Pringle: (solid alibi for Sophie’s murder)
Carolyn Dodson (wife)
Hannah Ransom (affair)(now dead)
Sophie Durning (affair)(now dead)
Katherine Buckingham (affair)(now dead)
Annie Dodson (father of Annie’s unborn child)(now dead)
* * *
Like Vaughn and Linwood, Cameron’s list contained most of the victims, but not all. Max made a new list of suspects: Vaughn, Linwood, Cameron…and to that list, he added the women they’d been involved with that were still alive: Eleanor, Carolyn, Peggy LeRoux, Valerie Jameson and Bexley Hart. He then went on reviewing his list.
* * *
Rick Hamilton:
Sally Hamilton (wife)
Lisa Washington (affair)
Nancy Elizondo (affair)
Eleanor Dodson (affair)
Hannah Ransom (affair)(now dead)
Katherine Buckingham (affair)(now dead)
* * *
Gabe Ashcroft:
Annie Dodson (affair)(now dead)
Hannah Ransom (affair)(now dead)
Eleanor Dodson (affair)
Sophie Durning (boyfriend at time of her death)(now dead)
* * *
Max crossed Rick Hamilton’s name off the suspect list. He might be a dick, but he clearly wasn’t the killer. Max crossed Gabe and Bexley Hart of the suspect list too. Neither of them seemed likely.
Next Max went through the list of women.
* * *
Eleanor Dodson: (no solid alibi for any of the killings)
Vaughn Humphries (on and off ad nauseam)
Gabe Ashcroft (affair)
Vaughn Humphries (again)
Rick Hamilton (affair)
Vaughn Humphries (again)
Linwood Jameson (affair)
* * *
Annie Dodson (deceased):
Gabe Ashcroft (affair)
Linwood Jameson (affair broke up second marriage)
Rick Hamilton (affair)
Cameron Pringle (father of her unborn child)
* * *
Hannah Ransom (deceased):
Vaughn Humphries (dated in high school)
Gabe Ashcroft (affair)
Cameron Pringle (affair)
Linwood Jameson (affair)
Rick Hamilton (affair)
* * *
Sophie Durning (deceased):
Linwood Jameson (affair)
Cameron Pringle (affair)
Vaughn Humphries (brief relationship)
Gabe Ashcroft (boyfriend at time of her death)
* * *
Katherine Buckingham (deceased):
Cameron Pringle (affair)
Rick Hamilton (affair)
Linwood Jameson (boyfriend at time of her death)
* * *
Emma Elkins (deceased):
Vaughn Humphries (dated a year ago)
Todd in Birmingham (boyfriend until right before her death)
* * *
Looking at Emma’s name, one thing stood out clearly: Vaughn Humphries was the only man in Grosse Pointe she’d been involved with. Interesting.
* * *
Valerie Jameson:
Linwood Jameson (ex-husband)
Vaughn Humphries (only man she’s dated since)
* * *
Emma Elkins and Valerie Jameson had only two names on their list, and the only suspect Emma had been involved with was Vaughn. On paper, it all made sense. Vaughn should be suspect number one. But Max felt like he was missing something. Rubbing his temples, he tried finding a new way of processing the information. He grouped the lists by men, women, victims and suspects, and still nothing stood out. He leaned back in his chair, drinking his Vernors, letting the bubbles tickle his nose. The names on the list seemed to taunt him. What did they all have in common?
Setting down the pop can, Max had that tremor of a Eureka moment. Perhaps he was finally asking the right
question. He’d been so busy looking for one man who’d been romantically linked to all of the women he’d neglected to consider any other way all of the victims might be connected. Looking at the name Valerie Jameson, he considered the two names on her list; Linwood Jameson and Vaughn Humphries. His gut told him to look harder, and he made a new list. This one of people who were connected in any way with either Linwood Jameson or Vaughn Humphries. Then he looked at his list.
* * *
Annie Dodson – Linwood
Hannah Ransom – Vaughn, Linwood
Sophie Durning – Linwood, Vaughn
Katherine Buckingham – Linwood
Emma Elkins – Vaughn
Bexley Hart – Vaughn
Valerie Jameson – Linwood, Vaughn
* * *
Max’s gut tightened. He swallowed hard. Fuck. How the hell had he missed it?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Saturday arrived with all the anticipation of a gynecological exam. Greeted like a dreaded, but necessary event, one that was about to be drawn out even more. Bexley looked down at the text message she’d received at 6:10.
Hey, Bex, it’s Val. I’m running late and still doing my make-up. Let’s push our meet-up back to 7 p.m. Sorry. Hope that’s not too late.
“No, Val,” she said to herself. “It’s no problem at all. It’s not like I’m eager to get this evening over with.” Nan was right. She should have just told Valerie no…not because Valerie was clingy, but because going out was about the last thing she felt like doing. She’d spent most of the night and half the morning in tears and cursing the name Vaughn Humphries. Knowing how awful she was going to feel tonight when Val asked her last week, however, would’ve required some sort of psychic skills.
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