“It’s not that bad. You only appear somewhat tired.”
“Yeah, the body is feeling it too.”
Duncan took hold of her hand. “Honey, Wilson was able to get some records and files from Dr. Marrow’s office.”
“Is this about Harris again?”
“No. Please listen. We think that you should be included in this, since it involves Allison.”
Melanie’s face turned ashen. Oh no, was her sister into something because of Riley?
“There’s nothing bad about Allison. Just read the reports.”
Melanie took the folder that Hargrove offered.
“It’s something we didn’t know about, either,” Duncan said. “I wanted Riley Brewton and Griffin Dunbar both investigated.”
Melanie read the report slowly. Dr. Marrow had kept precise appointments for the past thirteen years in which Griffin Dunbar had been one of his patients. He’d been treating the man for depression. Grif wasn’t bipolar, but his depression had worsened since the birth of his children. He didn’t feel right, living the life he lived, but after all those years, he had to admit he didn’t want to be with a woman. He confessed that, at a very young age, three men had molested him. It was an attack that did something to him, something he couldn’t get out of his mind.
The report went on to say that Griffon had tried having sessions with other psychiatrists, but to no avail. He still had issues about being with a woman. He’d tried to make a go of things with Allison and their marriage, but after the last child was born, a boy, he’d had to get out of the marriage. He was afraid of being around any children. Not only that, but he could no longer be a man to Allison in the way a woman needed a man. He’d tried to tell her many times, but the words always failed him. He’d never meant her or the children any harm, so he’d decided the best thing for him to do would be to leave for good.
“I can’t believe this,” Melanie said shaking her head.
“It’s a bit hard to swallow,” Duncan said.
“But why couldn’t he at least ‘fess up to Allison? Or even pay child support?”
“He didn’t want anything to do with the children,” Hargrove answered, showing her another document. “On this page, it states that he told the doctor it would be best if he didn’t ever make contact with the children. His conscience got the better of him, though. He didn’t want his children, especially his only son, to know what kind of life he lived.”
“So, Allison never knew?”
“We don’t know if she was aware or not. Seems that, on the last piece of documentation, he was going to tell her, but Brewton stopped him. Brewton didn’t want it revealed for any reason.”
Melanie fanned her hand in the air. “Wait a minute. Riley? Why would he know anything about this? I mean, if Allison didn’t even know.”
Duncan laid the other folder in front of her. “Dunbar was seeing Brewton.”
Shock covered Melanie’s face. “What?”
“Yes. It appears that he and Brewton were seeing each other when Allison was dating Brewton.”
“So Riley was—”
“Not sure,” Hargrove said. “From all that Duncan and I can gather from these files, the men met two years ago.”
“They say some men go through this stage in life, but I never imagined Griffin or Riley going through it,” Melanie said solemnly. “I’ve had some sessions with people that couldn’t decide what they wanted, or I should say, who they wanted. This is hard to comprehend. Is that why Riley killed Allison? Because she found out about them? Was she going to expose them in some way? That has to be in the report.”
“Afraid not,” Duncan told her. “We still have no idea why Riley killed Allison. We may never know.”
Melanie flew out of the chair. “What do you mean you may never know?”
“Honey, now calm down. Maybe when we find Riley we’ll have our answers.”
She crossed her arms and walked about the room. “You sure don’t sound too sure of yourself for a special agent.”
“Melanie, even special agents don’t always uncover the truth. We aren’t perfect. We never confess to being perfect. Can you heal every patient that comes to you for help? Can you be there for each and every one of them and offer them solutions?”
Melanie bit on her bottom lip. He had her on that one. “No. There were times I had to tell people that I couldn’t help them at all. One girl continued to call and come to my office, but I told her to see someone else. I couldn’t help her. I even tried referring her to someone else, but she refused. Of course, she got sort of brisk with me, even threatened to close me down, but I couldn’t do what she wanted. She wanted to be a transvestite, and she wanted me to tell her mother and her girlfriend what she was. I couldn’t do it.”
Hargrove raked a hand through his short hair. “You say she threatened to close you down?”
“Yes. She was very irate with me. She even insisted that I help her find a doctor that could perform surgery on her to make her a woman.”
“Wait a minute. You said a girl came to your office?”
“Sorry, Dan, I should have been clearer. It was actually a man dressed in a woman’s clothing who came to my office. It was a man, but since he wore woman’s clothing, I always referred to him as a she.”
“How long did these visits last?”
Melanie eyed Dan, then Duncan. Just what was on Dan’s mind? “I’m not sure. I’d say she kept coming maybe for the last year. I even threatened to call security once, because she wouldn’t go away. In fact, once I thought that she, or rather he, was stalking me. Then after Harris joined the firm as my assistant, the person stopped coming around.”
“This person, can you describe he or she? You said he was always in women’s clothing.” Dan pressed.
“I would say he was maybe as tall as Duncan. Lean, very clean shaven. He always wore a long wig when he came in to see me. He said he preferred to wear blond wigs. Loved my shade of blond, with its shine and softness. In fact, for a while there, he’d get sort of personal with me. I called it off. That’s when I insisted I’d get security to make sure he never entered my office again. I was thankful when Harris came along.”
Duncan sent Hargrove a look.
“Wait a minute. You two aren’t saying. No, the guy was not Harris dressed as a woman. I could tell the difference.”
“But he stopped coming around after you hired Harris?”
“Dan, I would have recognized the difference. It wasn’t Harris Galloway dressing like the woman. Is he in the report, too? If he is, then I might believe it.”
“No, seems he was a patient of the good doctor. All we know is that he was a loner, and there were no more reports on him.”
“Duncan, the reports.” Hargrove cleared his throat.
Melanie leaned back against the chair. “Yes. Let me guess. You’d rather Matt and Tiffany never knew the truth about their dad.”
“Please.”
“The secret is safe with me.”
Melanie stood, then walked about the room, rubbing her hand over her forehead. What if they never found out the truth about Allison? She needed closure. “I wish I knew why. Even if Allison knew about their secret she wouldn’t have exposed it. She wouldn’t want the children to know. If I only knew why he killed her.”
“One thing is certain,” Hargrove said. “When Dunbar dies, he has a million-dollar insurance policy that goes to his children in the event of his death.”
“A million dollars?” Melanie’s eyes widened.
“Yes. Don’t ask me how, but the company he works with let him insure himself for one million dollars. Allison didn’t even know about it. I read it in the file. He told the doctor everything.”
Melanie shook her head. “And now that the good doctor is dead, we’re even more in the dark. Duncan, we need to find Griffin.”
“I’ve searched for him. Even his work place doesn’t know his whereabouts. He took a month off after Allison married Brewton.”
“
How convenient,” Melanie said.
The bedroom door flew open and Wilson walked out with the camcorder.
“Wilson, what the devil are you doing?” Hargrove asked.
“Wait until you get a load of this.”
“We don’t have time to view Disneyworld,” Duncan told him.
“You just might want to view this part.” Wilson flashed the camcorder at his face. Hargrove moved in closer, while Melanie stepped away from them still taken aback by the entire new discovery.
“How can that be?” Hargrove inquired.
“My sentiments exactly,” Wilson added. “Seems he’s in almost all of the shots Matt showed me. This one is just a wee bit clearer, but that’s Spencer all right. Right back in the middle of that crowd of people.”
Melanie’s heart plummeted to the floor. Spencer? Wasn’t he dead? Didn’t they say he was dead? And his body buried? She went cold all over. “I-I thought you said he’d been killed.”
“That was our report,” Duncan answered. “Seems we need to get someone to dig up that body and see just who is buried in that grave in Florida.”
“This would explain who’s been listening in on your phone waves, Duncan.” Wilson shut off the camcorder.
“It certainly does. Hargrove, get the Bureau to exhume the body. What would Brewton and Spencer have in common? There’s still a part of the puzzle missing.”
“A very huge part,” Hargrove stated.
Melanie eased back over to the chair and studied the reports once more. She was a doctor trying to help people with their problems. Why couldn’t she find the answers now? It had to be staring in her face, but what?
Duncan caught a glimpse of her concentration. “What?”
“I was curious. You keep saying that you don’t want to lose your family. The family you have now. Was Spencer around when you lost Jean and Johnny? I mean, did all of you work together?”
“What are you implying, Melanie?”
“Perhaps there are two vendetta’s going on here. One against you, the other against me. Was the case completely closed with Jean?”
“I don’t want to talk about Jean and my son,” Duncan pronounced boldly.
“Wait a minute,” Hargrove stepped in front of him. “Maybe Melanie has a point. We never located two of the men, Duncan.”
“We don’t know if there were any other men involved.”
“We suspected. What if there were? What if Spencer was in on it?”
“We’re talking about Spencer. The man we worked side by side with. He tried to stop me that day. He went to the house with me and tried to keep me from…” Duncan stopped in his tracks, thinking about that fateful day. Spencer had been there, all right. He’d tried to keep Duncan from going to the house. He’d waited to delay him.
“Duncan, what?” Melanie asked, gently touching his arm.
“He tried to delay me. Jean and I’d had a fight that morning. I’d heard a rumor I didn’t want to believe. I don’t wish to discuss what the rumor was, so don’t any of you ask. If memory serves me correctly, I recall Spencer telling her not to get in that car, but she wouldn’t listen. It’s like he knew.” He gave a heavy sigh. “The car with the bomb was meant for me. I see it all now. It was meant for me. He wanted me to get in the Camry.”
Duncan felt his legs turn to jelly. He slumped into the chair, thinking of that day. The rumor he’d spoken to Jean about that morning. A good friend had said that Spencer and Jean had been having an affair, and the child he and Jean were expecting was Spencer’s.
“I wouldn’t allow myself to believe the rumor. Hargrove, you tried to tell me. I wanted the child to be mine. I was spending too much time on cases and not enough time at home. I didn’t want to believe that my wife was in the arms of another man. Spencer was into selling drugs. An FBI agent, dishonest enough to deal in drugs with the Colombian drug lords. He wanted more money. Of course, he denied it all in court. Denied everything. And all this time he’s been working with us.”
Tears clouded Melanie’s eyes. She wanted to hug him, but with Wilson and Hargrove there, she kept her distance.
“He’s back with a vengeance, I’m afraid,” Hargrove replied. “This time, whoever he’s working with wants Melanie and the children.”
“He’s working with Brewton. I wouldn’t put it past him to have been working with the man five years ago.” Duncan’s gaze danced toward Melanie. “Don’t feel sympathy for me, doc.”
“I wasn’t—”
Duncan jumped to his feet, “The hell you say!”
“Duncan, don’t.” Hargrove spoke.
“Stay out of this! We need to get to Nashville. I want to finish this up with Galloway tomorrow. I never wanted to remember what happened five years ago.” He turned to Melanie. “And don’t tell me about closure! I’m going to tell the kids to get ready.”
Hargrove and Wilson gathered the folders and started toward the door. Wilson took hold of Melanie’s arm. “Just give him time. He’ll come around. He’s hurting real bad now. Spencer was a friend. A real good friend. Duncan even defended him during the investigation. Duncan’s a good man, but the hurt goes straight to his heart. We don’t think he’s ever let go.”
Melanie nodded as they both left. Her eyes turned toward the children’s room. Why was he so upset with her? She had nothing to do with the death of Jean or the baby. Perhaps the thoughts of Jean’s possible infidelity bothered him. Who knew? Things had just changed for the worse.
[Back to Table of Contents]
Chapter 15
Melanie paced the office. Andrea had been in Nashville when they’d arrived and Duncan thought it best that she watch the children.
“Nice and cozy,” Duncan said, looking out the window. “And on the seventh floor. You can practically see all of Nashville.”
“Not quite.”
This was the first time he’d actually spoken to her since their arrival. Even Matt and Tiffany had noticed he was quieter on the drive home. Melanie had explained that it was only the burden of the case. The children had been polite, not making any extra racket. Even after arriving at Melanie’s townhouse and settling in, Duncan hadn’t shared a bed with her. Instead, he’d taken some paperwork to the den and fallen asleep in the huge black vinyl chair behind the desk.
Now, Melanie didn’t know which was worse, learning about Griffin and Riley’s lifestyle, or having the man she’d given her heart to turn his back on her. It was all too much too handle. In a short two-week span, she’d buried her sister, visited Disneyworld, had a whirlwind romance with a tall, dark and handsome man, and had her life turned as upside down as a pineapple upside-down cake.
“I can see why Matt calls the telephone building the bat tower. The design does look like something Batman could fly out of.”
“Yeah, that’s what most everyone says when they come to see it.” Melanie noticed the circles under Duncan’s eyes. “Did you sleep any last night? You didn’t—”
“What, come to bed? Missed me that much?”
Was that meant to be sarcastic? It certainly sounded that way. He hadn’t even bothered to shave this morning. He had stubble on his face. It didn’t look bad at all, but it was the first time him she’d seen him when he wasn’t really groomed. It more or less matched his mood swing this morning. Moody and feeling lousy—that’s exactly what his attitude said.
“Tell me, Melanie. What would you say to a man whose wife is unfaithful to him? Would you tell him to lie on the sofa so you could drill his mind? Would you blame him for her unfaithfulness?” he said coming right up to her face. “Guess this agent was just too gullible after all.”
“Actually, I’d wonder what was wrong with the woman who’d want to put her husband through so much hurt.”
Duncan moved about the room. All during the night, before he’d fallen asleep at the desk, his mind drifted back to Jean and Spencer. He’d often heard the rumors, but he’d never wanted to believe them. He loved Jean. Sure, they’d discussed a divorce, because his
work always took him away, but he’d never suspected his being away would have led to that.
His thoughts turned to Johnny, and he recalled the day before the accident when he straightly told her that, if there were a divorce, he’d fight for his son. That no one would get custody of his son but him.
“Duncan, I am a good listener.”
His gaze focused sharply.
“What I mean is, as a friend and as your wife.”
“Oh that,” he said, with a casual nod of his head.
A muscle tightened in Melanie’s jaw. So that was it. “Hey, like I told you before we left Florida, you have no strings on us. Matt and Tiffany are mine. What you said in that room—”
“What I said, I meant, Melanie, and I don’t want to discuss it now. I have other matters on my mind.”
“Perhaps that was what happened in your first marriage. You had other matters on your mind when Jean wanted to speak to you, or make time for you.”
“You’d better be glad you’re not a man.”
Melanie saw his fist tighten beside his hip.
“Or you would belt me for saying such? Haven’t your words, your actions, been as swift as a hard punch to my face, Agent McGregor?”
Duncan turned his back to her. Why did she always have to be right about everything? Why? He noticed another door to the side near the window. “What’s in here? A bathroom?”
“A storage room. You’re welcome to go inside and look about. Harris uses it to store some of his supplies.”
“I think I might.” Duncan tried the door but found it locked. “Do you have a key?”
Melanie handed him the key chain. “Here you go.”
He tried them all but none fitted the lock. “Nope, got another one.”
Melanie took the keys. “No, that’s the master key. It opens all my doors. I made sure to have a master.”
Duncan tried again, but still no luck. He pulled out his key chain, opening his little pocket device. “Guess I’ll have to try getting in this way.”
“That doesn’t make sense. That key opens everything, Duncan. Why wouldn’t it work on this door?”
“Exactly, Melanie. Why?”
Running On Fear Page 19