“You know, in the hospital after you were injured. I sat next to your bed for days before they allowed you to wake up fully. You were on so many drugs that, even when you were conscious, you were incoherent. For a while, I worried you would die even with the medical care.”
Lilly tried to hold back her revulsion. She couldn’t believe he’d stayed in her hospital room. How had he even known her? She didn’t remember him, but she needed to be careful about what she said. Lilly wouldn’t say anything to inflame his anger and put Savannah at risk. “How did you convince them to let you in my room?”
He shrugged. “I told them I was your cousin. Since your father never came by, they didn’t ask questions. Once they took you off the medicine and you became more aware of your surroundings, of course I couldn’t see you anymore.” He walked over and stroked her hair. “I told them I had to go back to Oklahoma for work but that I’d come back when you were released.”
She didn’t think anyone ever mentioned a cousin, but she didn’t remember very much from her earlier days at the hospital except the pain. Later, once the cops told her about Charles, she had other things to worry about.
“I would’ve never sent that blackmail letter if I’d known that’s what you would do with it,” he said.
“You sent it? I don’t understand.”
“I wanted you to come to the warehouse so I could explain things and take you away with me.” He put both hands against her cheeks and shook his head. “Imagine, giving it to Detective Spalding. That was a bad move, my love.”
“Yes,” she agreed. Lilly stood and edged her way toward the door. She caught his arm and pulled him along with her. Now that she knew Savannah was fine, the time had come to get him the hell out of here and away from that precious little girl. “So you killed Charles?”
“I didn’t want to. Charles and I had been running scams for years. The intention was never to kill him. You were supposed to die, but I couldn’t bring myself to slit your throat.” He allowed Lilly to lead him into the front room. “I’d watched you in the weeks before time to pull off the job. I was jealous of Charles’ good fortune in possessing you.”
Possessing had the right ring to it. “I don’t remember meeting you before I moved here. Charles was your friend?”
Crandall shook his head. “What type of con artists would we be if people knew about our association?” He laughed. “We had to keep everything a secret.”
Which meant Charles probably intended to kill her to get money from the beginning. “So, when you didn’t kill me, Charles refused to pay you and you needed the blackmail money?”
“Oh, no. The note was only a means of getting you to the warehouse so we could talk. You were all I wanted.”
He reached down to fondle the tight lace of her dress across her breasts. She made an involuntary sound of disgust, and struggled to change the sound to a moan as she stroked the inside of his jacket. “So strong.”
He gave one last squeeze before continuing. “I took Charles to the river to set the scene so the police would think he was murdered, but when he found out I didn’t stick around until I was sure you died, he got really angry.”
“I can imagine.” Lilly tried to ignore the feel of Crandall’s hands against her skin, tried not to think about how spending time trapped alone with him would be. She had to earn his trust now and save Savannah.
“I drove him to the airport, but he wanted to go back and make sure you had died. I started to feel a little excited. After all, if you lived, we might have a future together.” Crandall looked into her eyes lovingly and gently kissed her on the mouth.
Lilly endured without a word. If she made a mistake now and Crandall realized she wasn’t really in love with him, it would ruin everything. She kissed him back and pulled away. “So you stopped Charles from coming back to kill me? That was very brave.”
“I knew you’d understand why I had to kill him. He didn’t want to leave you as a loose end, but I knew it was my chance to have true love again. I stayed in an abandoned building while I cut him up and put his body in trash bags. I went around the city, putting it in different garbage bins.” He shrugged. “No one ever found any of him.”
And now his skeleton was scattered in the city dump. Would there be any way to prove what Crandall did? Lilly shuddered but forced a smile. “Thank you for saving my life.”
Crandall squeezed her tightly to him. “Everything worked out, and now we can be together.”
“Well, let’s go then.” Lilly clasped his hand in hers and started toward the door. “I can’t wait to get to the hotel and start my life with you.”
“I’ve got something better than a hotel for us, my love. There’s this little cabin in the forest. It’ll be perfect for our first night together.”
She hoped it wouldn’t take Zach too long to come looking for her. When he saw her car, he would stop to check on her. Surely Savannah would be fine on her own until Zach arrived.
The people she loved were all safe. Now, if only she could figure out how to save herself.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Lilly’s car wasn’t in the driveway, but Zach darted through the house looking for her anyway. Her cell phone sat on the bedspread, and her work clothes formed a heap on the floor. All her belongings sat in their accustomed spots along the countertop in the bathroom and her clothing still rested in the drawers. The only thing missing was Lilly.
He leaned his head against the closet door and closed his eyes. Had she gone off to a secret assignation with her lover on the same night his niece went missing?
Angry tears fell down his cheeks, and he struggled against the urge to punch a hole through the mirrored panels on the closet door. It would solve nothing. Lilly would be gone and Savannah still missing.
Lilly’s phone buzzed, and Zach’s heart leapt as he snatched it off the bed.
“Lilly Price’s phone.”
“Mr. Woodbridge? This is Detective Spalding, calling from New York. I know it’s late, but I had a break in the case. I figured out who Lilly’s stalker might be.”
Zach’s legs collapsed beneath him and he slumped to the bed. “I don’t know where Lilly is right now. I’ve recently heard she’s having an affair. That’s not important right now, though. My niece is missing. Officer McMann thinks Lilly’s stalker may be involved somehow.”
“What would you say if I told you Charles had a half-brother we never knew about?”
“I would say, what does that have to do with anything?”
“He’s a friend of yours,” Spalding said, “and recently acquainted with the late Mr. Price as well. When I started looking at the money angle and thinking maybe Charles got away instead of being murdered, I decided to check out who would inherit if Charles and Lilly both died. Turns out, Charles had an heir who would have received all the money.”
Zach only had one ‘friend’ crazy enough to do something like this. “Curtis Crandall?”
“How’d you guess?” Spalding asked.
Zach closed his eyes. Would Lilly have gone with Crandall? Maybe he convinced her somehow to be with him even though he’d beaten her. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to believe he might have talked her into it; after all, she let Charles beat on her for two years. Maybe she thought she deserved it.
Spalding cleared his throat. “Hey, you still there?”
“Yeah. Just trying to figure things out. If Crandall has Lilly, whether she’s gone with him willingly or not, she’s in danger. I think if I find her, I’ll find Savannah.”
***
Crandall careened down the narrow dirt road, barely avoiding trees. The Corvette launched over the rutted trail. Lilly clung to the handle at the top of the doorframe, hoping they made it in one piece to the cabin so she had a chance to use the stun gun on him.
“Why don’t you slow down a little bit, babe? Then we can talk while we drive.” Lilly darted a look behind the car. “No one’s going to find us out here, and I don’t want to die before I experience your first-rate
love making.”
The car took another corner as though on two wheels, but Crandall eased off the accelerator slightly. “You have a point. I don’t want to miss out on that luscious body.”
Lilly kept her eyes glued to the road, praying Crandall would continue to make it around each corner. “So, tell me about Charles. What was the original plan?”
Crandall slowed further and looked at her. “You’re interested?”
“Oh, yes. First of all, I must thank you for not killing me.” She forced herself to laugh and fluttered her eyelashes his direction. “Why did you agree to help him in the first place?”
“He’d stolen all that money from your father and wanted to get out of town, some other country without extradition, before your dad caught on. He asked for my help.”
The car didn’t fishtail at all around the next corner, and Lilly breathed a sigh of relief.
“It was a simple plan,” he continued. “Kill you, stage his death, and then I could step forward to claim my rightful inheritance of your money, being the only beneficiary on Charles’ will.”
And you wouldn’t have seen that money for seven years without a body proving he was actually dead.
Lilly didn’t dare say this aloud. No reason to antagonize the psychopath. “So that changed when you weren’t able to kill me?”
He reached out and stroked her leg. Lilly tried to push away the memory of Zach stroking her similarly on the way home from Portland.
“Oh, Lilly. You were so beautiful, lying there underneath me. I wanted you so badly.” His hand strayed nearer her crotch and Lilly struggled against cringing away. “If I’d had a condom with me, I’d have taken you right then. I’m in the system though, and the cops would’ve found me in an instant with that kind of DNA.”
Lilly shifted slightly and grabbed his hand, holding it in hers. “Too bad,” she agreed. “What made you decided to kill my father?” Her voice sounded rock steady. No biggie, you just murdered my dad. A perfectly reasonable thing to do—if you’re bat-shit crazy.
Crandall sighed. “First off, I’d hoped it would scare Zach away so I could get to you and explain things, but you seemed so devoted to him and he never threw you out. The messages trying to scare you obviously had no effect.”
Lilly swallowed hard. “Too bad you didn’t just explain who you were. We could have already been together and not wasted so much time.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have killed Stewart, you know, if he had stopped talking so poorly about you. He said it was a good thing he had all your money, that you were too stupid to manage it on your own.” Crandall’s jaw clenched and the car accelerated once again. “I couldn’t let him talk about you that way. He begged me to stop stabbing him, and I told him you were capable of managing your own money. I told him if he was dead, you’d prove that.”
Lilly put her hand to her mouth, trapping the scream begging for release. What must her father have suffered in his final moments? All because he talked poorly about her to the wrong person.
“I made friends with your father in the beginning,” Crandall continued. “I’d hoped he might lead me to you. I didn’t want to miss our opportunity for true love, but the only thing I ever learned from him was your phone number last month.”
True love, right.
“I sent you a brochure on Serenity when you got out of jail, hoping you’d move here, but you disappeared.” He disentangled his fingers from hers and caressed her hair. “So clever, changing your name to avoid all the scandal. I wouldn’t have found you if you hadn’t come to the party with Zach. Imagine, working in a low-paying job and living in that appalling little house.” He smiled, as though she’d done something exceedingly clever under his tutelage.
“Tommy mentioned his grandmother hired a new girl in town.” He laughed. “I was so busy looking for you that I never even checked it out. He said your name was Lilly, not Katherine, and never mentioned your last name.”
Lilly swallowed hard and tried to smile. “You’ve done so much to make our relationship work. I’m impressed.”
"I'd do anything for you, my love. I'm so happy to finally tell you the truth."
She couldn’t believe the elaborate scheme Crandall had perpetrated. Sanity definitely had no role in his world.
He pulled into the rutted driveway of a small cabin. Bright lights blazed from the outside lamp, but the dirt-covered porch and tipped-over lawn furniture shadowed the house with an air of neglect.
He put the Corvette in park and looked at her. “What do you think, my love? I spent the last two days getting this place ready. There’s a romantic dinner waiting inside for us, and the bedroom is ready for tonight.”
“That’s so sweet, Curtis.” Lilly clutched her purse to her, feeling the slight bulge of the gun.
She didn’t really understand how the stun gun worked and was frightened to use it. What if it only knocked him down, and he got right back up and came after her? She needed to be patient. Pick her moment when she had the best chance of escaping. If she had to, she could run out into the woods, but it would be best if she could somehow get the car keys from him.
However, that might mean allowing him to go further than she actually wanted him to. She had to get away somehow before he consummated their so-called love.
She forced a smile and opened her door. “Shall we go in?”
***
Zach phoned Officer McMann as he hurried toward Lilly’s old house. Zach had no doubt in his mind that if Crandall threatened Savannah, Lilly would do anything to keep her safe. He’d worry about whether or not Lilly wanted to leave him for Crandall once he knew she and Savannah were okay.
“I think I know where they are,” he said as soon as McMann barked a greeting. “I’m heading to Lilly’s old house. Meet me there with the brigade. If I’m right, she and Savannah are in danger.”
“Her house? Who has them?”
“Charles Danner has a half-brother. Our good buddy, Curtis Crandall.”
He heard McMann’s sharp intake of breath. “Son of a bitch. It really has all been connected.”
“Tell your men not to turn on their lights or sirens. I don’t want to tip him off.”
Zach snapped the phone closed, tossing it on the passenger seat as he pulled up in front of Lilly’s house. Her silver Escort sat in the driveway, but there was no sign of Crandall’s vehicle.
Zach hopped out of his car, making his way to the front door. Uncertainty tore at him. If he entered without the cops, he might cause more trouble. On the other hand, what if Lilly and Savannah needed him right now and he sat out here dithering about it?
The thin wail of terror coming from the back of the house decided him. He tried the door very quietly, hoping Crandall was too arrogant, or to stupid, to think about locking it. He was in luck and the handle twisted in his grasp.
Zach crept into the darkened house. A quick glance around the living room revealed no one lurked in the shadows, and Zach moved as stealthy as he could down the hallway.
“Someone help me!” Savannah’s cry ripped at his heart, and Zach ran the last few steps, bursting into the room with his fists ready.
The room was empty, except for one very unhappy little girl, sitting on the bed with tears streaming down her face.
Zach rushed to Savannah and gathered her in his arms. “Hush, Princess. Everything’s okay now. I’ve got you.” Zach looked around the room as he held his niece, waiting for Crandall to pop out of the closet. “Where’s Aunt Lilly, Princess? Did he take her?”
Savannah looked at him and her chin quivered. A few fat drops fell off her cheeks and plopped on her dress. “I didn’t see Aunt Lilly. I saw no one. I woke up and didn’t know where I was.” She pouted at him. “My eyes were all fuzzy and no one came when I cried.”
He squeezed her, relief flooding through him. If Savannah’s biggest worries were feeling a little fuzzy and being alone, perhaps she would be fine. If only he could find Lilly in time as well. She’d left Savannah alone. Zac
h knew she wouldn’t have done that unless forced to. He couldn’t believe he actually thought Lilly might have gone with Crandall willingly. She must have done everything to protect his niece.
He scooped Savannah into his arms and headed for the front door, eager to get out of the space. Crandall obviously took Lilly elsewhere, but Zach’s imagination expected monsters to jump out and steal Savannah away at any moment.
They stepped outside just as the Dodge Chargers sporting the Serenity Police Department logo pulled up. Sarah’s red Mustang followed close behind, and she and Steven piled out as soon as it rolled to a halt. They raced across the lawn and snatched Savannah from his arms.
“Thank God,” Sarah cried, her tears starting a fresh wave. “I thought we lost you, sweetheart.”
“I was lost,” Savannah agreed in a grumpy voice. “And no one came when I called.”
Zach patted Sarah’s shoulder and walked toward McMann. “I don’t know where Lilly is. Crandall must’ve taken her.”
“Is Savannah okay?” he asked.
Zach nodded. “She said her eyes were all fuzzy when she woke up, but she never saw anyone. She could probably use some medical attention.”
“Ambulance is on the way,” McMann promised. He looked around, shuffling his feet. “Any ideas where he might’ve taken Lilly?”
Fear tightened Zach’s insides, making it hard to think. What would he do if Crandall hurt her? “I stopped paying attention to what he did when I found out about him and Victoria.” He pulled on his hair, trying to force an idea forward. “Where could they be?”
“This all leads back to the money, right?” McMann asked. “Maybe they’re on their way to a bank somewhere so she can hand it all out to him.”
It was more than that, wasn’t it? Crandall came on to Lilly the night of the boat party. If Zach was right, something also happened between them the night she claimed to fall down the stairs. Tamra Sands saw Lilly kissing a man in the parking lot, but Lilly had sworn she still loved him. What if the man had been Crandall and he forced Lilly to kiss him by threatening to hurt her again?
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