by Adrianne Lee
“Yes, it is. This is my home, too, Val. I don’t want Beth upset unnecessarily. And strangers in the house digging through drawers and cupboards will make her more anxious than she already is tonight”
Valerie shrugged, lifting her ginger-colored brows in concession. “She’s right, Detective. Beth is fragile and she’s terribly anxious today. She’s about to go to bed. Perhaps you could come tomorrow? That would give us time to prepare the poor dear.”
Kollecki glanced at Eden, one brow arched as he awaited her answer to this suggestion. She sighed. “All right. Tomorrow morning. But not before ten.”
“Have it your way.” A muscle twitched in his jaw, and the look in his eyes sent a dagger of fear through Eden’s heart. Once again she saw that he thought she had killed Peter and Shannon Smalley.
The second Kollecki left, Eden fled to her bedroom. But a hot bath did nothing to ease her distress. With pressure tightening her chest, she donned jeans, a lightweight sweater and loafers, grabbed her keys, and—vaguely noting Valerie’s Mercedes was gone from the garage—got behind the wheel of her minivan.
THE WOMAN PARKED her car one house away from David’s. Excitement and anticipation heated her blood and filled her senses, almost blocking out the aroma wafting from the sacks of Chinese takeout on the passenger seat. If the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach, David’s heart was all but hers. She’d bought his favorites. Including the cabernet he loved.
And one single red rose. Red was for love. And she did love David.
Poor man. He’d been terribly upset today. Not that she’d have expected otherwise. A smile parted her lips. She’d caused his distress; it was only fair she ease it. Of course, he’d be glad to see her. He needed her comfort. And with Shannon out of the way, he’d start seeing how much he needed her love. How much they belonged together.
For they did belong together.
They shared the same taste for many things. Like combs. She reached into the glove box and lifted one free; it still contained strands of his chocolate brown hair. Precious strands. She kissed the comb, then set it back in the glove box beside the others she’d taken out of his bathroom over the past two months. Had he missed them? Just in case, she’d take something different tonight.
She reached for the sacks of food. There remained a few minor obstacles to overcome, but soon she’d have won David’s love and secured their future. A happy sigh escaped her. They were going to have the most beautiful children together. Lots of children.
She gripped the door handle, glanced toward his house and froze. Eden was knocking on David’s door. With shock and disbelief, the woman watched David open the door, watched him pull Eden into his arms.
Stunned, the woman flopped back against the seat. What was going on? When had she started making moves on David? She’d only lost her husband last night. Anger, red and hot as lava, spurted through the woman’s veins.
Has this been going on for a while now? Right under my nose? She could think of no other explanation. Her sob of outrage and pain resounded inside the car. Another adversary. She dropped the sacks of food to the seat beside the bottle of wine, smashing the rose as flat as her hopes.
But her depression was short-lived. She spotted Eden’s minivan across the street, and an idea struck her. An idea with great potential. Her confidence surged with new energy. She was getting quite expert at annihilating her competition for David’s affection. The woman got out of the car and went around to her trunk. Eden was all but gone.
Chapter Four
David ushered Eden into his kitchen. It was a square-shaped room with a center island that held the stove and sink on one side and an eating counter opposite. Black and white tiles checkered the floor and countertops, softened by the white appliances and warmed by the chili-pepper red bar stools, miniblinds and hanging light fixtures.
Eden scrambled onto one of the stools. “Something smells wonderful.”
“Heating cinnamon rolls and fresh Starbucks coffee.” David could feel the tension issuing from her, and before he brought up the murders, he wanted to put her at ease. “The rolls will be ready soon. Coffee?”
Eden nodded. He poured them each a cup and slid onto the bar stool beside hers, leaning his elbow on the counter.
She reached for the mug. “Do you serve hot cinnamon rolls to all your guests?”
“I find an occasional shot of sugar is good for the soul.” Grinning wryly, he gazed into her eyes, and the memory of their lovemaking swept through his head, a whispery shadow on the edges of his mind, teasing him, haunting him, stirring renewed need. “I’m glad you changed your mind about coming over.”
Eden took a gulp of coffee and set the mug down shakily. “Kollecki changed my mind.”
David straightened in his seat but checked the alarm he felt before it could reveal itself in his expression. “How did he do that?”
“He showed up shortly after we spoke.”
“Why?” David sipped his coffee. “What did he want?”
“To search the house.” She gazed up at him. “He thinks I killed Shannon Smalley and Peter.”
“No.” Hearing his greatest fear put into words sent a bolt of panic through David. “I hoped after I took him the rose, he’d—”
“The rose?”
“Let’s take our coffee into the living room and get comfortable.” He stood. “We have some information to share.”
Eden lurched off the stool. Her heel caught in the rung, and she pitched against David, her nose coming to rest inches from his solid chest. She drew a quavery breath, pulling in the clean smell of him. His heart was thudding against her palms.
Slowly she lifted her gaze and found herself staring into his moss green eyes. Blood burned through her veins, speeding heat to every pore, to every sensitive nerve ending.
Levering the heels of her hands against his flat, muscled midriff, she attempted to right herself, but she couldn’t pull loose from the smoldering look in David’s eyes. He grasped her elbows and drew her up and against him, his head lowering until his mouth hovered a breath away from hers.
“Oh, David, I’m so scared.”
“I know, my love.” He claimed her mouth in a kiss that was fierce and feverish and feral, the kiss of a man who had finally found the woman he’d longed for, a kiss that curled tendrils of pleasure through Eden and stole the fear from her thoughts.
The smoke alarm bleated. They jerked apart. Smoke stole from the closed oven door.
David shouted, “The rolls!”
Eden tossed him an oven mitt and stood back as he threw open the oven door. Smoke billowed out and into the room, racing toward the ceiling. David extracted the cookie sheet and deposited it in the sink. The thick, gooey rolls he had put in the oven were now small, blackened pinwheels.
Laughing for the first time in days, Eden yelled above the alarm, “I think you’d better stick to psychiatry.”
Also laughing, David turned off the oven and opened the window. “As opposed to being an arsonist?”
“Being a chef.” She ran cold water over the cookie sheet, sending a curtain of steam to join the smoke near the ceiling.
David deactivated the annoying alarm, then stepped behind her and kissed the nape of her neck. “How about if I stick to being your lover?”
Eden spun slowly in his arms. “Now, there’s a plan.”
She pulled his head to hers, and their lips met, tentatively, then with confidence and need. David lifted her and carried her to his bed. The room was like David, soft greens and browns, with a rumpled kind of warmth and an innate cleanliness.
His pillows smelled of his spicy after-shave, and the moment he joined her on the bed, Eden was lost in the joy of his touch, in the joy of touching. This time there was no hurry to their lovemaking, but a languid exploring, a sweet acquainting of bodies, a honeyed pleasuring, a release of feelings long denied.
Afterward David rolled to his side and pulled Eden against him. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”
“I do, too.” Eden’s body felt aglow, the sensation new and prized. She propped herself on one elbow and gazed into David’s eyes. “But I think Kollecki has a different agenda in mind for me.”
A slight trembling stole over her, and she couldn’t hide the apprehension from him. David scooted up against the headboard and dragged the sheet over them. “Kollecki is one of the things I wanted to discuss.”
Eden sat up and hugged her knees, glancing sideways at him. “Do you know a good lawyer? Jacoby and Otterman, Peter’s lawyers, are corporate attorneys. I need a criminal lawyer.”
David wanted to protest, to declare she needed no such thing, but he knew better. Kollecki could be ruthless in the pursuit of justice and if he decided she was the murderer, she’d better have the best legal counsel she could hire. “I don’t know any personally, but tomorrow I’ll make some discreet inquiries. Eden, tell me everything you know about Peter and Shannon’s murders.”
“Why?” She looked affronted, as if he were questioning her innocence.
Deep down, David knew he was. He’d misjudged people before, trusted when he shouldn’t have. As much as he wanted to believe Eden, the only way to silence the niggling doubts was to hear the truth. He reached up and gently grazed his knuckles along her jawline. “Because if this lawyer is going to get you off, he needs all the information related to the case, not just Kollecki’s version.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything that happened the day of the murders. Anything else that seems pertinent. I have a few things to tell you, too.”
He could see her trust in him return. He wished his own trust was as solid. She told him every detail she could recall leading up to Peter’s storming out of the house, the few things she’d gleaned from the detectives and finally what she’d overheard about Shannon and him.
In turn David related the facts of Marianne DePaul’s case as he knew them, as much as he could recall about Rose Hatcher—including a physical description—and finally about the rose left for him that morning.
Her eyes rounded at this last, and she stiffened. “But if you’re right, you could be in danger.”
Realization slammed into David. “Dear God, if I’m right, you’re the one in danger.”
The color left Eden’s face, and she clenched her hands together as if to keep them from trembling. “The police or a killer ... How did my life come to this awful place?”
David reached for the bedside phone and began dialing. “I’m telling Kollecki about us. He can have you guarded around the clock.”
“No!” Eden lunged across David and aborted the call. “‘Us’ only makes me look more guilty. Kollecki won’t believe anyone is after me. Even if he did, he doesn’t have the manpower to offer me protection.”
He lurched off the bed and began dressing. “Then I’ll hire you a bodyguard.”
“And how would that look to Kollecki?” Eden donned her underwear and tugged on her jeans. “I can hire my own bodyguard.”
David stood. “I’ll get the phone book. You can call now.”
“David, I appreciate your desire to protect me, but nothing is going to happen to me between here and Issaquah. I’ll call from home.” She pulled her sweater over her head and glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. “Speaking of which, I’d better get back before Valerie realizes I’m gone and does something dumb.”
At the foyer, she stopped David from going outside with her. “Except where Beth is concerned, we can’t be seen together until this case is solved.”
David knew she was right. “But I’m going to walk you to your van”
“No. Even that could be dangerous. I didn’t catch anyone following me from home, but I wouldn’t put it past Kollecki to have a tail on me.”
David shuddered inwardly. If the rose had any significance, they had more to worry about than Kollecki. The fear of losing Eden overwhelmed him. “I don’t want to let you go.”
“I don’t want to go, but I must.”
She kissed him goodbye before he opened the door, and insisted he turn off the foyer light and leave the porch light off. She stepped gingerly outside, reassured that David watched from the open doorway.
As she hurried across the street to the van, she scanned the road for any vehicle that seemed occupied or out of place. Nothing untoward caught her eye. It seemed like any other peaceful Northwest neighborhood on a cool July night.
Breathing easier, she slid the key into the lock. Alarm chilled her. The door was not locked. Her heart picked up speed. She yanked open the door. The interior light blinked on, glaringly bright in her fear. Hating its prolonged exposure of her, she checked behind the back seat and into the rear recesses of the van. No one lurked inside. Nothing seemed amiss. Her breath sputtered out.
She plopped into the driver’s seat and hit her door latch. Hadn’t she locked the van when she’d arrived? It was something she did automatically. Had she been that upset by Kollecki that she’d forgotten? That anxious to see David again?
Recalling that he was watching from his doorway and probably wondering what was causing the delay in her departure, she willed herself to be calm. She shoved the key in the ignition. Would loving David cost her her life? It was a gruesome thought. She turned the key. The engine revved.
Eden spent anxious minutes reaching the Issaquah Plateau, constantly searching the rearview mirror for signs that someone was following. The tension gripping her eased as she pulled into her housing development. Then she spotted her house. She’d expected everyone would be in bed, the house dark. Instead, every light in the place burned brightly.
A patrol car and an unmarked car she recognized as Kollecld’s were parked out front. Fear dampened her palms and prickled her scalp. She parked in the garage and locked the van, double-checking to be certain be fore heading into the house.
In the kitchen, Valerie, Beth and Ariel were seated at the table. All were white-faced and anxious. Valerie explained, “They came back... with a warrant.”
“Pulled Beth right out of a sound sleep. Not so much as an ‘I’m sorry,’ either,” Ariel complained. “I’m not used to working under these conditions. It’s not good for my patient.”
“It’s not good for any of us, Ariel,” Eden assured the nurse. “Are you okay, Beth?”
Beth nodded but she looked more pale than usual. Kollecki had some explaining to do. Dropping her keys into her purse, Eden searched for and found him in her bedroom. Dresser drawers hung open, clothing, intimate apparel and all, trailing over the edges like loose stuffing pulled from a chair, her worst nightmare come true. She tamped down her anger, but her words came out clipped. “You promised you’d wait until tomorrow.”
“I promised no such thing.”
She started to protest and realized the futility of it. He hadn’t said he’d wait; he’d said, “Have it your way,” which apparently meant that he’d objected to her resistance and decided to have it his way. But what did they expect to find?
She returned to the kitchen, poured herself some coffee, then strode to the table. As she was about to sit, Ariel reached out and grabbed at something that had apparently stuck to the seat of her jeans. “What’s this?”
Eden frowned at the small white object Ariel held, half expecting it to be a feather from David’s down comforter, but the shape and texture were wrong.
Valerie said, “Looks like part of a flower.”
Ariel brought it to her nose. “Rose petal.”
A chill shot through Eden. She dropped into the chair, sloshing coffee onto the tabletop.
“What’s wrong, Eden?” Beth’s eyes rounded in alarm.
Eden realized she was scaring her sister even more than the police were. She forced a placid expression onto her face. “Nothing, hon. Don’t worry. This is just routine in a murder investigation. They’ll be gone soon, and everything will be back to normal.”
Beth seemed to take some comfort in the explanation. Eden wished she could, but her min
d was racing. How had a white rose petal gotten stuck to her jeans? Had she picked it up from David’s house? Or from her van?
“Just where have you been the past few hours, Eden?” Valerie inquired.
Eden flushed, remembering. “I was driving.”
Kollecki strolled into the kitchen. “Seems you have a propensity for driving. Haven’t you heard about conserving gas?”
Before Eden could respond to that, a uniformed policeman rushed in from the garage. He was young and excited and clutched a long, slender tool that looked like something used to open locked cars. Eden’s skin prickled.
The young man addressed Kollecki. “I was just coming to get you, sir. You’ll want to see this.”
As they headed back into the garage, Eden noticed her van door was open and that another uniformed policeman was standing near it. Her heart jumped to an explosive beat. She lurched to her feet and hurried into the garage behind Kollecki.
He bent down, craned his neck sideways, tugged a pencil from his pocket, poked it beneath the driver’s seat and lifted something out.
“What is it?” Her voice was a breathless rasp.
Kollecki stretched to his full height and held out the object so she could see it. A gun. “I’m betting we just found the murder weapon.”
Chapter Five
Six weeks later
In the privacy of her bedroom, the woman laid the Seattle Times on her dresser drawer and read the front-page article with relish. Six wonderful weeks ago, Eden Prescott had been arrested. The paper crinkled as the woman folded it to an inside page. It did her heart good to picture Eden sitting in a dingy jail cell. No bail for her.
She’d been charged and arraigned for first-degree murder. Satisfaction wound through the woman. If all went as it should, prosecutors would seek the death penalty.
Talk about fifteen minutes of fame. Eden had gotten more than her due so far. The media had fed on the story like a frenzy of bloodthirsty sharks. It was all anyone talked about lately, and everyone had the same opinion: Eden Prescott was guilty as sin.