“I’ve done some things… some things that may have gotten her hurt.”
“How could you have done anything to get her hurt?” He came forward and took her shoulders gently. “You don’t even know her very well.”
“What happened to her is my fault, JD.”
“If you know anything about what happened—”
“Someone tried to kill her. They hurt her badly first though.”
“Do you know who did it?” His heart wanted to stop in his chest at the thought of his sister being involved in a potential attempted murder.
She hated lying to him. Especially to him. “No, I don’t know.”
“Then how can you have done anything that would have gotten her hurt? I don’t understand.” He wanted to shake her now because he knew she was lying to him. She knew something. “Julie, if you know anything about what happened to her you have to come forward. Go to Matt.”
She snorted and turned from him, ripping herself from his grip.
“Julie?”
The breath she took was heavy. “I can’t go to the police, JD.”
He cocked his head.
“Why not?” He wanted to know. He dreaded the answer.
On some level she needed to come clean. Just how much she could tell him was the question. “Katy was blackmailing me.”
He opened his mouth to respond then snapped it shut. “What?”
“Oh, God, this is such a mess.” She turned back to the window, unable to look into his eyes as she said, “I was having an affair and she found out about it. She threatened to tell if I didn’t give her the money.”
“An affair?” His head was spinning.
“You’re not the only one who can have one.”
Her reference wasn’t lost on him. Lizzie. God, this was a mess. “Who, Julie?”
“Oh, no. That I won’t tell you. I’m not letting him get hurt.”
“Is he the one—”
“I’ve said more than I should have anyway. But now you understand why I can’t go to the police.”
“Actually, I don’t. You claim someone tried to kill Katy. You have to tell the police what you know.”
“I paid her off to keep quiet about my affair because she told me how bad it would look, coming out right after my husband’s death. They’ll think I hurt her because of the blackmail. Or worse, they’ll think he did it. My lover.”
“Did he?” JD asked harshly. He waited for an answer and when he didn’t get one from her his heart sank. “Damnit, Julie!”
She turned on him. “I love him, JD.”
“He tried to kill her.”
“For me. He did it for me. He found out what she was doing to me and lost his head.”
“No, Julie, he did it for himself.” God he wanted to shake her again. “Where is the money? I’m assuming that’s why he did it.”
“I… I don’t know where it is.”
His smile was telling. “Yeah. He did it for you but he’s keeping the money. C’mon, Jules.”
Jules. That’s what he called her. “He says he doesn’t have the money either.”
“He could be lying about that. He very probably is.”
“I know you’re right,” she whispered. And she did. In her heart she did.
“You told me about this because you want me to help. I’m trying. Let me.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is. Let me take you to see Matt. He’ll handle this. He’ll take care of it.”
Yes. Matt would take care of it if she let him. “Not now, JD. Not tonight.”
Relief flooded him. “Tomorrow morning then? Will you come with me tomorrow?”
Without hesitating she nodded her head. “Okay, JD. Okay.”
How could this have happened? He just didn’t understand how this could have happened! That conniving little bitch was supposed to be dead and buried in the woods. Yet she had managed to stumble her way home. And alive she posed a serious threat. So far she had not woke. But when she did all hell would break loose.
So he had to get to her before that happened. He had to finish what he’d started. Put an end to her wretched life once and for all. Because as long as she was alive his own life was in jeopardy. Christ what a mess this had turned out to be. What a mess! And all in the name of love. Well… and money. He couldn’t forget about the money. He hadn’t really cared one way or another about it before. Until he’d had a chance at a quarter million dollars. That was a lot of money. More than he’d know what to do with. Well, that wasn’t necessarily true. He’d know what to do with it. He’d leave this place. Hopefully with Julie. If not, if she couldn’t get herself together, then he’d go without her. But go he would. As soon as he found the money…
A buzzing in his pocket broke off his thoughts. It was the cell phone only Julie had the number to. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered right away. Sometimes he would let it go into voice mail. Not now. She was much too fragile to put off right now. Ducking behind a corner he whispered, “Yes?”
She sighed, sniffling. “I can’t take this anymore. I just can’t.”
His blood ran cold. Was she going to crack on him? Would he have to… No. Not her. Please not her. He loved her but he was not going to spend the rest of his life in prison for her. “Jules, please, get a hold of yourself.”
“I can’t. You… you killed Ken, didn’t you?”
She couldn’t handle the truth before, she sure in the hell couldn’t now. “Of course not. It was an accident. I told you.”
“But Katy wasn’t. You beat her. You tried to kill her.”
“I did what I had to do to protect you. To protect us. You need to understand that.”
Her sigh was long. Forlorn. Defeated. “Lies and secrets. They always bring about destruction and pain.”
“Julie…”
“I won’t tell on you. I won’t. I’ll take your secret to the grave with me because I love you. But I can’t go on like this.”
To the grave? What the hell was she talking about? “Julie, please, whatever you’re thinking of doing, don’t.” Now he felt panic flood him.
“It’s too late.”
And he heard it. The slur of her words. The sighs. The yawn. “What have you done?” he nearly bellowed. But God, he thought maybe he knew. Because he knew her.
“What I had to do. I love you. Don’t ever forget that I love you.”
He heard the line between them go dead. “Julie?” But she was gone. With a shaking hand he replaced the phone to his pocket. Christ. She was gone.
He dragged in a breath. Then another. He needed to think. He needed to come up with some sort of plan. Blinking, he stared across the street at the hospital.
Chapter 12
“Your sister needs to come down for dinner.” Arlene crossed her arms under her breasts and stared down her oldest son. “I tolerated her flightiness this morning when she missed breakfast. I won’t tolerate it again tonight.”
JD looked up from the magazine he’d been leafing through while they waited for dinner to be served. He noted the smirk his little brother wore and scowled at him before addressing his mother. “I wouldn’t call her behavior flighty, mother. Her husband died ten days ago. It could be she’s grieving.” This he was explaining to a woman who as far as he knew hadn’t shed one tear when her husband of fifty-four years had dropped dead of a heart attack in the north pasture. He didn’t know why he was bothering.
“There’s more to it than that and I know it. Besides, hiding up there in her room alone isn’t going to solve a damn thing. She needs her family.”
JD sighed and set the magazine aside. Unfolding his long frame from the chair, he said, “Fine. I’ll go see if she’s okay. If she won’t come down maybe she’ll take dinner in her room.”
Arlene tilted her head at him. “She’ll take dinner down here with the rest of the family. I raised all of you children with manners.”
JD nearly snapped at her then stopped himself. Arguing with her ne
ver worked. Not even for a lawyer, he mused. No, arguing didn’t work. He’d have to handle her, if it came to it. And that he’d gotten much better at over the years. It gave him a whole new respect for his father. Growing up he’d never known just what it was the old man had to put up with.
Going up the steps he thought of Julie. Poor Julie. What a mess she was in. And it would all come to light tomorrow. Julie was nothing like their mother. She didn’t have the starch Arlene did. Or the indifference to what other people felt and thought of her. No, Julie would not weather this scandal very well. And a scandal was surely just what this would become. Even with Matt at the helm. Word would leak out. Word always leaked out. Especially in small towns like White Pigeon.
“Julie,” he called through her closed door. “Hey, mom is fit to be tied down there. She wants you to come to the table.” He sighed. “I know this is rough on you, but maybe you should just give her what she wants.”
Nothing. Not a peep.
“Okay. I’ll fight her off for you.” He smiled. How many times had he stepped between mother and daughter? In fact, Julie had even come to live with him the summer after she had graduated high school because of the fights. Once she was in college and living in the dorm she would be free, she’d told him. Which was of course what the fights with Arlene had been about. It had taken every bit of his skill as a lawyer to win that one. “I’ll have Leanna bring up a tray for you since you’re being obstinate.” He turned from the door, already thinking of how he would handle his mother when he heard it. The smallest of moans. The sound sent his heart into overdrive. “Julie?” This time he didn’t let the door stand in his way. He grabbed the knob and twisted as he shoved. When it resisted he put a little shoulder into it, forcing it open. And what he saw nearly stopped his thundering heart.
His sister lay on the floor, her skin as white as the snow, an empty pill bottle clutched in her hand.
Matt had been absolutely right. A nap, a shower and some food had Lizzie feeling human again. She smiled a little to herself. Of course he’d been right. Being a police officer he was sure to know all about exhaustion. Just as she knew all about it. She’d just been too overcome by fear for her sister to see it in herself.
“Oh, Katy, if only you could have seen me. You would have been proud of yourself for making me worry like that.” She squeezed Katy’s hand. “Why won’t you wake up?” she asked, brushing a strand of blonde hair away from her brow. “The doctor says there’s no reason for you to sleep like this.” But Lizzie knew it happened sometimes. Likely Katy’s body was healing itself after the trauma it had suffered. Her gaze went to her neck and lingered there on the bruises. “Who did this to you?” she whispered. “And what did you do to make them so angry?” No matter what Katy had done Lizzie didn’t think she deserved to die because of it. Righteous anger flared in her. So did her protective nature. “Well, they won’t get away with it, that’s for sure.”
“Just like Grady Summers didn’t?”
She whirled at the voice behind her, her hand going to her heart. Fear for her sister’s life was still mingling with the anger over what had happened. “Matt, you scared the devil out of me.”
A crooked grin appeared on his face. “Nah, you’ll always have a little of the devil in you.” He stepped into the room and peered at Katy. “No change?”
She shook her head but could not forget his sly mention of Grady. “He left all on his own, Matt,” she reminded.
“Yeah.” He dragged his hand over his snow dampened hair. “Sorry I brought it up.” Looking into Lizzie’s eyes he said, “It just seems like trouble has a way of following her around.”
“Grady wasn’t her fault.” And that was all she would tell him or anyone else regarding that.
“No?” He lifted a shoulder. “Opinions vary on that one.”
“Mine doesn’t,” she replied stiffly.
“I know that too. You’d protect her to the end, no matter what, wouldn’t you?” He sighed and held up a hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be an asshole. I’m just tired and cranky. The reason I bring up Grady is because it seems he’s gone missing.”
“Missing?” Now she felt a stab of fear. “What do you mean missing? The last I knew he lived in California somewhere and had to check in with a parole officer.”
“Just so,” Matt agreed. “However, with that being said, he didn’t check in with his PO today like he was supposed to.”
“What… what are you saying?” She looked down at Katy. “Are you saying you think he may have had something to do with this?”
“I don’t know, Lizzie. All I know is he’s missing and Katy is in the hospital.” He walked to her and put a finger under her chin to lift it. Meeting her gaze directly he said, “You need to start talking to me, Lizzie. Now.”
“I don’t—”
“Don’t give me that shit. You came here looking for Katy because you were afraid something had happened to her. Because you knew she might be in danger. Am I warm?”
He was and she didn’t like it. But now, with her sister laying there, with her almost losing her life to someone… “She called me the night before she was supposed to show up. Just like I told you.” Backing out of his grasp, she licked her lips and looked at the floor. She felt like she was betraying Katy. But she had to this time. “She called to ask if she could crash at my place for a couple days. And she indicated to me she’d come into a lot of money. She told me she was going to pay me back everything she’d ever borrowed from me.” She looked back up to Matt with the ghost of a smile on her lips. “Which is not chump change, by the way.”
“So she said she’d come into money. She say where she got it?”
Lizzie shook her head. “No. I asked her if she’d come by it illegally and she started her usual song and dance, acting like I’d hurt her feelings. So I knew she probably had ripped someone off.” Reaching out, she traced the bruise at her sister’s throat. “The wrong someone as it would seem.”
Matt closed his eyes and groaned. “You should have told me this from the git-go.”
“I suppose I should have. But I didn’t think it mattered much. You just needed to look for her. And if I told you she had robbed someone of money I didn’t think you’d look too hard for her. I know what you all think of her.” She frowned. “She made it sound like a lot of money. So I don’t know how Grady could be involved. He never had two cents to rub together.”
“No. But he sure knew how to take it from someone else. Maybe they teamed up together and he decided he didn’t want to do the split with her.”
Her heart tripped in her chest. Could she? Would she? “No. Katy would never hook back up with Grady. Not after what happened before. Not after what he did to her and my mother.” And me, she thought.
“Money makes people do the damnedest things, Lizzie. You’d tell me if you knew who, if anyone, she partnered with, right?”
“Of course I would.”
“And you don’t know who she swindled the money out of?”
“No. I don’t have a clue. We didn’t discuss her dealings. She knows how I feel about it.”
“And yet you stay close to her.”
She wasn’t going down that road again. “I want to know who did this to her Matt. If it was Grady… if it was him, you have to catch him. He’s…” Dangerous, she wanted to say. And not just dangerous to Katy. Dangerous to Lizzie as well. He’d proven that. “He’s the reason she does what she does.”
“She does what she does because she likes it, Lizzie.” He put up a hand to stop her protest. “I’ve put out a watch for Grady and I’ll keep a deputy on Katy’s door. I’m worried about you too though. He threatened you before he went to prison.”
“I’ll be okay.” She lifted a corner of her mouth. “He threatened a lot of people before he went to prison.”
“I don’t want you staying up on the hill alone anymore. Not until this is over.”
She probably shouldn’t. “If it was Grady and he did this to get th
e money then he’ll be long gone with it.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I do. He’s a coward. He won’t risk himself by sticking around here.”
Chapter 13
Conflicted, JD placed his face in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. What, if anything, should he tell Matt about his sister’s attempted suicide? The lawyer, who believed in the law, knew he needed to tell Matt everything he knew. The big brother in him needed to protect his sister. She’d been having an affair. She’d been blackmailed. And now her blackmailer lay somewhere in this same hospital fighting for her own life. It was not a coincidence and he could not let himself believe it was. But how involved was Julie in what had happened to Katy? And would the police jump right to the conclusion that Julie had harmed her? Probably, given the circumstances. Her attempt at suicide was as good as a confession, or would be, to some.
“JD, your mother says you were the last one who talked to Julie this morning.”
He looked back to Matt, who was seated next to him on a loveseat in the hallway waiting room. So far his sister was stable. His mother and Josh were with her now. “Yeah, I talked to her this morning. She’d been looking for me.”
“Did she seem… upset?”
“She seemed off,” JD told him, sealing his fate then and there. For now he would keep what Julie had told him to himself.
“Did you ask her what was up?”
“Of course I did. But you know how she is. She just told me it was because of Ken’s death.”
“And you believed her?”
JD stood suddenly and glared at his friend through narrowed eyes. “Of course I fucking believed her. Ken died ten days ago. She’s not over it yet, Matt.”
Matt didn’t even flinch. “I’m just trying to get a feel for why she might have done this.”
“This is not a police matter, Matthew. This is a private matter.”
Matt looked up to Arlene, who had come out of Julie’s room. “I just have to file a report Mrs. MacGreggor. It’s standard procedure. And it’s personal for me too. I feel like Julie is family. She used to chase after JD and I all the time.”
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