Shaking her head, Sam reeled in her focus. “It’s just the way things work in the art world. The story of Trina’s disappearance was such big news, and that made people want to own her work. Of course when the demand goes up, the prices skyrocket.”
Her words struck Kate. Jocelyn had said that if it hadn’t been for Trina, Marion would have lost her gallery. Was that what she had meant?
She set that thought aside as another one edged its way in. “Jocelyn at the art gallery told us that Trina’s friends didn’t like Chase. Do you have any idea why?”
Sam rolled her eyes. “Trina’s friends don’t understand Chase. They see a man who’s successful and knows how to take control, and they assume he’s somehow abusing his wife. Chase would never hurt anyone.”
Kate blinked back a surprising rush of emotion that followed on the heels of Sam’s statement. “I…that’s…good to know.”
“You can put your mind at ease.” Sam laid a hand on Kate’s knee and looked her in the eye. “I know there are people who think you’re headed for trouble, but they don’t know Chase the way I do. He’s a good man.” She gave Kate’s knee a firm pat. “You’re lucky to have him.”
Kate felt considerably better, but one question remained unanswered. “So, what do you think happened to Trina?”
Sadness rimmed Sam’s eyes. “The truth is that Trina was fed up with her life.”
“Fed up?”
“That’s right.” She clicked off a list on her fingers. “With Chase working so much. With Stuart and his drinking. With Jessica acting like a spoiled brat. She wanted to make a clean break from all of it.”
“So, you’re saying she just left?”
Sam shrugged. “Trina never wanted to behave like the wife of a successful businessman. She wanted to live like an artist—on the edge. She got involved with a summer resident. A guy who lived on his boat. One day the guy and his boat were gone and so was Trina.”
“But…why disappear when she could have asked for a divorce?”
“This is where things get complicated. Chase and I couldn’t explain this part to the police without stirring up questions we wouldn’t know how to answer.” Sam lowered her voice, as if someone might overhear if she spoke in a normal tone. “Can I trust you?”
Acid burned in Kate’s throat as she nodded.
“Good,” Sam affirmed. “You see, Chase is very gifted when it comes to getting our projects moved to the top of certain people’s priority lists.”
Shifting in her seat, Kate fought back that acid. “You mean, he pays people off?”
“It might look that way to some people.” Sam lifted a palm. “Anyway, Trina never understood our business. She felt that some of the things Chase had done were going to land us in prison, her included. I think she got scared. And that would explain her wanting to just disappear and start fresh.”
“So, the story Chase told the police is true? She really did leave him for another man?”
“It’s one hundred percent true. To Chase, it’s humiliating and heartbreaking. The poor guy has been through so much.” She shook her head. “But of course there are people who just don’t want to drop the investigation. Poor Chase.”
“Yes. Poor Chase.”
“Kate.” That caring, motherly look that had filled Sam’s eyes narrowed into something more pointed. “Chase is my dearest friend, and I need to know something.”
Kate’s heart rate increased at the directness of her gaze. “What?”
Sam tipped her head just a little. “Exactly why are you marrying him?”
“Because I…” Kate swallowed hard against a lump in her throat. “…I love him, of course.”
“But it’s more than just that, isn’t it? Level with me, Kate.” Sam’s eyes zeroed in with laser beam intensity. “You’re not just taking advantage of Chase for his money, are you?”
Kate felt the breath whoosh from her lungs. Taking advantage of Chase…. Was she?
Chapter 20
Josh unlocked the door to his apartment, happy to be home. He’d called Eli from the ferry to give him Kate’s social security number, then had spent the next two and a half hours attempting to appease his guilt for the sneaky way he’d acquired it.
A pressure against his ankles drew his eyes down to a big ball of gray dappled fur. “Hey, Godzilla.” He reached down to pet his beloved cat. “Did you miss me, girl?”
“I’ll say she did.” Eli, entered from the hallway, his hair askew. “I’m glad you made it back before I took off for the night shift.” He headed for the kitchen. “Coffee. Then we can talk.”
Eli disappeared into the small kitchen, and Josh heard the familiar clanking of the coffee pot against the side of the sink, then water running. He headed to the dining room, where Eli had set up his laptop next to a stack of papers on the table. It felt a little like any ordinary Sunday during the school year, when Josh would have been sitting there at the table studying, after having spent a good part of the day at his church a few blocks away.
“You know,” Eli called out from the kitchen, “talking to the guys at work about this Chase Cole situation has made me really glad I’m not in homicide.”
“Yeah.” Josh flicked on the computer. “I hear it’s a real killer.”
Eli sputtered out a fake laugh. “Funny, Josh. You really should consider writing sitcoms instead of documentaries.”
Crossing around to the far end of the table, Josh took a look out the window down at the University Way, or ‘The Ave’, as the locals called it. He’d been very aware that the press could take an interest in him and wanted to be sure he hadn’t been followed. He could handle it if his name got dragged into the rumor mill, but for Kate’s sake, he wanted to be careful.
Satisfied that there was nothing unusual—just the typical students carrying backpacks or Starbucks cups—he leaned on the window frame and thought about his neighborhood. While the countercultural lifestyle of the area held little appeal to him, and the transient teens and young adults known as ‘Ave Rats’ could make him uneasy, he’d enjoyed the proximity to campus. Sharing this apartment with Eli had been a good experience, but he wouldn’t mind relocating when the time came.
He glanced at the papers on the table. “So did you find out anything about Chase Cole?”
Eli appeared in the doorway with a carton of milk in his hand. “I managed to track down a retired officer who worked on the Emily Cole case back in 1990.”
“No kidding?” Josh moved closer to the table. “And he was willing to talk to you?”
“Hey, for a cup of Starbucks it’s amazing what you can get out of people. He was real open about it, but I’m not sure I found out anything you haven’t already read in the paper.” He crossed to the table and pulled what looked like a police report from his stack of papers. “Emily Cole drowned all right. Right there in the pool behind the house in Magnolia she owned with Chase Cole.”
Leaning over, Josh studied the report. “Did the guy say anything about the domestic disturbance calls?”
“He said he never went on any of those calls, but he remembered hearing a couple of officers talking about it. They said Emily was the one with the temper and that she’d get mad at her husband and accuse him of being abusive with her.”
“Do you buy that?”
Shrugging, Eli turned his head at the sound of the coffee gurgling into the pot. “There’s really no proof that Chase ever hit her.”
“So, there was nothing to suggest he might have done something to cause her death?”
“Nothing.” Eli moved back to the kitchen, raising his voice to be heard. “And Chase Cole had a solid alibi. He left the house that night to do a live radio interview, so people saw and heard him.”
“That seems solid, all right.” Josh felt his hope melting away. Not that he wanted Mr. Cole to turn out to be guilty. He just wanted something definitive so he could walk away knowing Kate would be happy and safe.
He played his last card. “What about Trina?”
“Everything I find points to no evidence of foul play.” Eli spoke past the sound of coffee meeting ceramic. “And again, Chase had an alibi. He was out of town on the last day people saw Trina Cole. And with no body…” He poked his head through the doorway. “…it’s pretty hard to prove a murder.” He disappeared back into the kitchen. “Everyone’s holding their breath waiting for the second Mrs. Cole to surface.”
Josh shuddered at the choice of wording. “You think that’s likely to happen?”
“The more time passes, the less likely it gets. I don’t know. I wish I could have dug up something more solid to give you.”
Eli entered with a couple of mismatched thrift store mugs that Josh had picked up strictly because they reminded him of some his grandma had owned since the 1970s. He set one down on the table for Josh, taking a sip from the other as he took a seat. “I found out some things about your friend Kate that you might want to sit down for.”
Sufficiently alarmed, Josh lowered himself into one of their old wooden chairs. “What?”
Eli consulted a piece of paper torn from a yellow legal pad. “Well, the social you gave me belongs to Katherine Jennings, and she seems to have gone by Kathy up until recently.”
Josh shrugged his brows. That on its own wasn’t too strange, but he knew there was probably a reason. Still, it felt weird to think of Kate as a ‘Kathy’.
Eli went on. “So this girl, Kathy Jennings, was reported missing back in 2008.”
“Missing? As in, she ran away?” Not surprising, considering what she’d told him of her family life.
“Apparently. She was seventeen, and never reported as found.” Eli handed him a copy of the report, which had a picture of a teenage girl clipped to it.
With her wavy, shoulder length brown hair, she resembled a young Elizabeth Taylor. Her blue and green flowery dress looked like something out of a 1950s Technicolor movie. Josh couldn’t help but stare for a moment. She was mesmerizing.
“That’s Kate all right.” He took a long swig of coffee and a moment to process. “She told me her stepdad was abusive. Do you think he’s the one she’s afraid of?”
“Maybe, but he’s not the only one.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, Kathy Jennings is wanted for questioning in a homicide case in San Diego.”
“What?” Josh nearly dropped his coffee. “You mean she’s a suspect?”
Shaking his head, Eli handed him another police report. “It says ‘possible accessory to criminally negligent homicide’.”
“Whoa.” Josh shook his head, not able to even get a grasp on the right questions to ask. This would explain so much about her odd behavior. “What on earth happened?”
“I talked to the detective on the case down there. He’s a real charmer. One of those guys who thinks intimidation is the key to getting people to cooperate. Apparently, Kathy…Kate had a job in a clinic that’s under investigation for perpetrating a scam called ‘psychic surgery’.”
“What’s that?”
“You remember that movie Man on the Moon? You know, where Jim Carrey plays Andy Kaufman?”
“Oh, right. I remember that scene. Kaufman had cancer and he went to a clinic in the Philippines or somewhere to have that New Age ‘cure’.”
“Right. It’s a really popular hoax. According to this detective…” He slid a finger down his handwritten notes. “Detective Johnson, it’s hard to build a case because people are either convinced it actually works, or embarrassed when they realize they’ve been taken.”
Josh shook his head. Fake surgery. Healing with the mind. It was a shame more people didn’t put their faith in the Almighty as the real healer.
Eli continued. “Johnson needed some inside help, and he said he picked the office manager, Kathy, because he knew she probably wasn’t aware that it was a scam. Also because she seemed easily intimidated.”
Josh’s back went up at the thought of that guy targeting Kate.
By the look on Eli’s face, he fully agreed. “Anyway, Johnson told Kathy that he was going to arrest her unless she helped him gather evidence to prove her boss—a guy named Joe Malone—was swindling people.”
“So, what happened? Someone died?”
“A gentleman named Carl Hingston. He had lung cancer and went to the clinic against the advice of his family. Apparently, he was convinced that the ‘surgery’ worked and refused to seek conventional treatment. He died, and a few days later this guy Joe went on the lam.”
“And let me guess. Kathy went missing too.” Josh ran a hand through his hair. Was this what she’d wanted to tell him about the note? That it might have been written by someone who knew about this situation? And what had made her change her mind?
Eli read from the yellow paper. “Johnson tracked her to a place called the Club After Five. It’s some kind of gentleman’s club in San Francisco. Apparently, he talked to someone who tipped her off that he was on her trail, because she disappeared from there too.”
“So, that’s the so-called ‘tough bind’ she was in when she met Mr. Cole.” Josh frowned. “But that’s been weeks, and she’s been in the news. Why hasn’t this detective come up here to get her?”
“He says he really doesn’t care about getting her. It’s Joe Malone he wants. He thinks he fled to Mexico, but extradition from that country can be tough.”
“So she’s going nuts trying to keep her face out of the newspaper because she’s afraid this detective will see it and find her. Meanwhile, he already knows where she is and doesn’t really care.” Josh ran his hands across his eyes. “And she’s marrying Chase Cole because she thinks he has the financial resources to keep her hidden.” He shook his head. “What would happen if she just turned herself in?”
“She’d tell them everything she knew about Joe Malone’s shady operation and that would be it. Johnson admitted he wouldn’t pursue prosecuting her as an accessory.”
Josh let out a long breath and picked up the picture of innocent teenage Kate. He had to explain all this to her, and pray that she wouldn’t be too angry at him for prying into her personal life.
He had about a hundred more questions flying around in his head, but before he could flag one down, his cell phone rang. Seeing a number that didn’t look familiar, he sent Eli a do-you-mind look, and clicked ‘accept’.
“Josh Collins? This is Mark Hughes from Homegrown Productions.”
All Josh’s nerves were instantly on alert. Homegrown was one of the hottest documentary production companies in the country. Was this call for real?
He tried not to let his voice shake. “What can I do for you?
“I’m looking to hire an assistant director for a doc we’re filming this summer. It’s about an artist who does all his paintings on the walls of caves. Then he photographs them and sells the prints. You heard of the guy?”
Josh’s head was still spinning. Had he? “Uh…no, I don’t think so…”
“He’s one of those crazy people who live on the fringes. Perfect subject for a doc. Anyway, I got your name from one of your profs at the U who thought you’d be a great addition to our team. We’re in production for six weeks and post-prod for another six after that. I’d need you up in Vancouver in a couple of days. Are you interested?”
Was he interested? Was he dreaming? This was the kind of call he hoped he’d get after logging a few more years of school, but who was he to question the judgment of one of his profs?
He started to say an enthusiastic but composed “yes”, as if he got this kind of offer all the time, then stopped himself.
Kate. He couldn’t take this job because it would mean abandoning her. What was he supposed to do?
He rubbed his temple, and Eli sent him a questioning look.
Josh cleared his throat. “I’m really interested, but can I take a little time to see if I can rearrange my schedule?”
“I know it’s short notice.” The man sounded understanding, but businesslike. “Go ahead and think it over
, but I’d like an answer by the end of the day tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. Monday. That shortened his timeframe for proving to Kate that she shouldn’t walk down the aisle on Saturday.
Mark went on. “Why don’t you take the details and get back to me as soon as you know.”
Josh reached for the yellow paper that held Eli’s notes and flipped it over. He wrote quickly as Mark elaborated. After ending the call, he gave Eli the news.
“Great.” Eli looked pleased. “So, you’re taking it, right?”
Was he? Josh tapped his phone on the table and looked at the photo of young Kate. No way could he just bail on her.
This would require not only serious thought, but serious prayer. One way or the other, he had to return to Shaw Island for the things he’d left there, but it would be good to talk to her about it now.
Not to mention that he wouldn’t mind saying goodnight to her.
He scrolled for her number and prayed for the right words.
Chapter 21
Kate paused, allowing Sam’s unanswered question to hover in the air between them. She wasn’t marrying Chase just for his money. The fact that he was a hard worker with a soft heart only added to her reasons for loving him.
As she opened her mouth to speak, the muffled sound of her eerie sci-fi ringtone stopped her, and she glanced around for her purse.
“It’s here.” Extending her arm, Sam retrieved the bag from the end of the sofa.
“Thanks.” Kate fished for her phone, reminding herself that if everything went as planned, she’d have to change that ring to something more befitting the wife of a successful businessman. Something by Bach or Beethoven, maybe.
Expecting to see Chase’s name on the screen, she frowned. The call she’d just missed had been from Josh.
“Was that Chase?” Sam swirled what was left of her coffee, apparently deciding whether to finish it.
“No.” Kate slipped the phone back into her purse, which she then tossed onto the floor, making a mental note to check for a message later on. “Just Josh.”
Tide Will Tell (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans) Page 15