Echoes of Murder (Till Death do us Part Book 2)

by Bradshaw, Cheryl

  “Why?”

  “When I talked to her before, she kept trying to get off the phone. She sounded mad. I thought I’d done something to piss her off. I don’t know. Things weren’t going great between us lately.”

  “Did the two of you live together?”

  “She had her own place, but she didn’t get along with her roommates, so she was with me most of the time.”

  “Did she keep her stuff at your house too?”

  He shrugged.

  “I had an extra dresser I wasn’t using. She kept a lot of her things in there.”

  “Have the police talked to you yet?”

  He shook his head.

  “When they were in here before, asking questions, I didn’t say anything. Didn’t seem like they knew who I was, and I didn’t feel like talking to them. When you came in, I assumed you were some kind of cop too. Figured they’d find me sooner or later, so I spoke up.”

  “I’m related to Isla, but I’m also a medical examiner. Do you know what that is?”

  “You cut up dead people. Check them out.”

  Not the best description she’d ever heard, but he had the general idea.

  “I’m trying to find out what happened to my sister-in-law, and Dakota. You might be able to help.”

  “How?”

  “I was hoping you’d let me take a look at your place. The cops have been all over Dakota’s by now, but I’d be grateful if you’d let me look at yours before they get to it.”

  He breathed out a long, exhausted sigh. “I … I don’t know.”

  “It will only take a few minutes. And you’d be there with me. I wouldn’t do anything without your permission first.”

  Another sigh, and then, “I guess. Don’t know what you expect to find.”

  She didn’t either.

  But without any other solid leads, it was worth a shot.

  CHAPTER 19

  “Reagan?”

  There was no inflection in the caller’s voice, making it easy for Reagan to identify him. “Brand?”

  “Yeah. My brother gave me your number, said I should call you.”

  “Have you seen him?”

  “This morning.”

  “How’s he holding up?” Reagan asked.

  “I dunno. Okay, I guess. He wants to know if you heard anything on Isla’s autopsy.”

  “Your parents will probably hear something before I will. I called this morning. The results haven’t come back yet. In a situation like this, the preliminary report might be finished today, but the final report could take a month or longer.”

  “A month? Why?”

  “Depends on the tests they perform. Since your sister died under mysterious circumstances, a forensic autopsy will be done.”

  “Guess you won’t be able to do a second autopsy right away then, huh?”

  “I will as soon as the first one is finished. I don’t have to wait for the results before I can take a look at her, but I will need someone to sign off, allowing me access to her body. As her husband, Nathan should have the authority to make that happen.”

  There was a pause. A long pause.

  “Brand, you still there?”

  “Uh … yeah. I’m here. It’s just … I don’t know what to do.”

  “About what?”

  “My brother. He didn’t do it. He didn’t kill that girl they found in his room. He doesn’t deserve to go to prison for her.”

  “I’m working on it right now, okay?”

  “Working on what?”

  “Trying to find the connection between Isla and Dakota Jaynes. There has to be one. Once I find that, I’ll find the killer.”

  “Do you think you—”

  Brand continued to speak, but Reagan was no longer listening. She’d arrived at Garrett’s apartment, and he was standing at the front door, waving her over. In this moment, only one thing was on her mind—finding the right clue once she got inside.

  CHAPTER 20

  Garrett’s apartment was tiny, cluttered, and shared with a large, white rat in a cage. Caged or not, Reagan envisioned the rodent breaking free, scrambling in her direction. Just the thought of it gave her a creepy, crawly feeling.

  “Like I said before,” Garrett started. “I don’t know what you think you’ll find, but go ahead and look around.”

  “I’d like to look inside the dresser.”

  Garrett pointed down a short hall. “First door on the left.”

  Reagan slid a hand inside her pocket, pulled out a pair of plastic gloves, smoothed them over her skin. Garrett raised a brow but said nothing.

  The top drawer of the dresser contained a few bras, various pairs of bikini-style panties, socks. Reagan closed the drawer and opened another. More clothes. T-shirts and jeans on the left, a couple notebooks on the right. Two pens. Reagan removed the notebooks, flipped through them. Aside from one filled with calculus notes, it was nothing but pages and pages of empty, unpenned lines. In the third and last drawer, Reagan found flip-flops. Five pairs in a multitude of colors. Next to them a couple pairs of dress shoes.

  “Like I said, nothing real exciting, right?” Garrett said.

  “Did she keep anything else here?”

  “In the bathroom. Just makeup and other stuff. It’s in a box under the sink.”

  The box under the sink was made of flimsy cardboard. The flaps around all four sides were jagged, having been cut with scissors. Reagan picked out several cans of hair product, two brushes and a comb, and then a large makeup bag. She rummaged through the bag, loose eye shadow dusting pastel powder on her gloves as she dug around.

  At the bottom of the bag, Reagan found one thing that didn’t fit in with the other items. A knob. She pulled it out, pressing it onto the center of her hand. The knob was black, about the size of a Rolo candy, with tiny red numbers ranging from one to ten. She held it up to Garrett. “This is an odd thing to keep inside a makeup bag. You ever seen it before?”

  He leaned over, inspected the item in question. “Looks like it goes to a car stereo.”

  The words “car stereo” seemed to be uttered in slow motion, the gravity of the words piercing Reagan’s skin like a frozen ice pick. Her limbs went numb, and for a moment she felt paralyzed.

  “Hey, you okay?” Garrett asked.

  “I … I need to leave. You mind if I take this?”

  He seemed confused, and she wasn’t about to offer an explanation.

  “I know where this knob came from,” Reagan said. “And it doesn’t belong to Dakota. It belongs to someone else. If you want to know what happened to your girlfriend, you need to trust me.”

  CHAPTER 21

  “I need you to come with me,” Reagan said.

  Dustin looked up from his desk. “Sorry?”

  “I said, I need you to come with me. Now.”

  “I heard you the first time. Where are we going?”

  Reagan looked around, noticed the growing number of eyes fixed on the current events going on inside Dustin’s office.

  Curious.

  Nosy.

  Imposing.

  She felt as though she might vomit, right there on the office floor.

  “I’ll tell you where we’re going when we get there,” she said.

  “You’ll tell me now.”

  “I can’t, Dustin.”

  “What can you tell me? Because lately, it doesn’t seem to be anything.”

  Reagan spread both hands, pressing them on top of the mahogany desk as she leaned closer, trying to keep her knees from buckling beneath her. “I just can’t okay? I need you to get up, I need you to come with me, and I need you not to make a big deal about it when we walk out of here. I know you’re still angry with me over the breakup. But please, just this once, I need you to look past all that now. I’m trying to do the right thing here. This isn’t easy for me.”

  Dustin started to speak then stopped. “You’re trembling.”

  “I’m … I know. I can’t help it.”

  “Reagan, pl
ease. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “I will. I promise. Just not yet.”

  “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  Before she could answer, Chief Hall stepped into the room. “Davenport, what are you doing here? If you’re looking for information, you won’t get it. I don’t care what your previous or current relationship is to Waterhouse.”

  “She didn’t come here for information,” Dustin said.

  “Why’s she here then?”

  “It’s a private matter, sir.”

  The chief squinted, looked at Dustin like he was trying to decide whether to press the issue or not. Dustin didn’t give him the chance.

  “I’m well aware I can’t share any information with her, and I won’t. If I do, you can fire me, but right now we need a moment.”

  The chief took his time exiting Dustin’s office. When he did, he issued a warning. “You can have your moment. Just don’t forget what’ll happen if you squeal.”

  Dustin stood, grabbed his keys, tilted his head toward the parking lot. “Come on. Let’s go before he comes back here.”

  CHAPTER 22

  When Reagan left Garrett’s house a few hours earlier, she had driven around for over an hour, thinking, contemplating her next move. She considered those she loved, those she cared about, and those that deserved the truth. Evan, Nathan, Brand, her mother, Isla’s parents … all of them would be affected by her decision.

  In the end, the truth came down to a silly little piece of black plastic. A plain, unsuspecting knob that could easily be tossed from her car window if she wanted, never to be seen again. Never to be linked to the one person who could explain it all. But then the guilt would come, a life where every day she’d have to live with the knowledge of what she’d done. And that was a cross she wasn’t willing to bear.

  And so she turned to Dustin, knowing even though they weren’t right for each other, if there was one other honest person in this world, it was him.

  …

  “How are you feeling?” Reagan asked.

  “Better,” Nathan replied. “I’m getting out of here tomorrow.”

  “That’s good.”

  “How’s Evan?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t been to see him yet.”

  “If you wait until tomorrow, we can go together. I’ll make a statement, and we can get everything straightened out.”

  Reagan took her time before she spoke again. “Nathan, I have to ask you something. And I need you to tell me the truth, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay. Anything.”

  “How do you know Dakota Jaynes?”

  “What do you mean? I don’t. I told you that yesterday.”

  Reagan felt the tears rushing, flooding her eyes. “Stop lying, Nathan. Please.”

  “I’m not … why are you getting so worked up?”

  “Open your hand,” Reagan said.

  “What?”

  “Do it.”

  Nathan flattened his hand, and she placed the piece of black plastic inside of it. He stared at the object, puzzled for a split second before awareness set in.

  “I found this among some of Dakota Jaynes’ things,” Reagan said. “It’s the broken knob from the stereo in your truck. When I borrowed your truck to pick up the flowers for the wedding the other day, I noticed the knob was missing. You killed her, Nathan, and then you tried to cover it up. I want to know why.”

  CHAPTER 23

  “Reagan, it’s not what you think,” Nathan began.

  “If you’re going to lie to me again, don’t. I’ll walk right out of this room right now.”

  “And do what? Tell whom?”

  She stood.

  “Wait, don’t go.”

  “The truth, Nathan. I can’t take any more of your lies.”

  The seconds ticked by as Reagan waited for Nathan to speak again.

  “I met Dakota in a bar about a month ago.”

  “You don’t go to bars.”

  “I know, but that night I did,” he said. “It was stupid, and I was angry. Isla was having second thoughts about the wedding.”

  “Why?”

  “You know Isla. There’s no telling why. All it takes to get her going is overthinking something too much. She spiraled out of control. I thought she was experiencing a mental breakdown. She took her ring off, gave it back, said she loved me, but she thought I deserved better. She kept going on and on until I couldn’t take it anymore, so I left.”

  “And went to a bar.”

  “I had a few drinks, was feeling pretty good. Dakota came in, sat on the seat next to me. She introduced herself, ordered a drink, ordered one for me, and we started talking. A couple hours later, I knew I’d had too much to drink and was going to call a cab. Dakota said she’d drive me home.”

  “And did she?”

  “When we got outside, my truck was parked next to her car. She said something about it, some random compliment, and when I told her it was mine, she opened the door and hopped inside.”

  “And then?”

  “I got in with her,” he said. “And we … fooled around.”

  “You fooled around, or you had sex?”

  He hung his head. “Both.”

  “I’m guessing that’s how the broken knob happened.”

  “She kicked it and it came loose. When it fell, I assumed it was under the seat somewhere. I had no idea she’d taken it.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Isla texted me, said she was sorry. I felt awful for what I’d done. I just wanted to get out of there, but the girl wouldn’t stop talking about how bonded she felt to me. She was crazy.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I told her I had a nice time, tried to let her down easy. It was a mistake. A one night stand. She looked like the kind of girl who’d had her fair share of them. I assumed she’d understand.”

  “But she didn’t, did she?”

  “I never gave her my name, so after that night, I didn’t expect to see her again. And then there she was the night of my wedding.”

  “How’d she find you?”

  “She said she saw the announcement in the paper,” he said.

  “When did you talk to her?”

  “After you and I danced, I found her in my room. Guess she’d been hiding out, lurking around, waiting to get a minute to be alone with me.”

  “She was there long before that, Nathan. She attended your wedding.”

  “The only person I was focused on during the ceremony was Isla. I never saw Dakota. When she confronted me, she said she didn’t care if I was married. She wanted to be together. I told her I thought we had an understanding, that what happened was a one-time thing.”

  “So she confessed her feelings for you and what—threatened to tell Isla the truth? So you wrapped a cord around her neck and strangled her?”

  “You don’t understand. She wouldn’t leave. Isla would have never recovered from that information. I never intended to kill her. I was just—”

  “Whatever yours reasons, she didn’t deserve to die, Nathan.”

  “Isn’t the fact that I’ll suffer the rest of my life knowing what happened to Isla enough? Please, Reagan. I’m begging you. We’ll find a way to get Evan off, but you can’t tell anyone.”

  From the hallway, Dustin entered the room, his face a mixture of shock and sadness. “I’m sorry, Nathan. But she already did.”

  CHAPTER 24

  In the presence of Dustin and Chief Hall, an unfortunate story unfolded. No more lies. No more hiding behind the truth. A dead, lifeless feeling coursed through Nathan’s veins, seizing every cell, every fiber. It didn’t matter now. He was already living his own personal hell.

  Dakota Jaynes had come to the wedding to confront him, and he’d killed her, planning to get rid of the body so no one ever knew. In the process, he’d forgotten one important thing. Isla had a key. He hadn’t expected she’d walk through the door, that she’d see him dragging Dakota’s body across the room as he de
sperately searched for a place to stash it. But she did. And the worst part of it all, in his startled state of mind, he’d uttered the wrong thing. “It was an accident.”

  Isla had looked at Dakota, seen the gashes on her neck, the rage in Nathan’s eyes, and she knew he was lying. She turned and ran, and Nathan went after her. He searched for several minutes, but it was too dark. He couldn’t see where she’d gone. Thinking she’d returned to the reception hall to confess what she saw, he entered the hall, accepted his fate.

  Only, she wasn’t there.

  No one had seen her.

  No one knew a thing.

  He should have felt relieved, but he didn’t. He needed to find her. He had to find her. Even if it meant asking for help and facing the consequences once he did.

  When the late-night search yielded nothing, he returned to his room, his stomach sickened to find the dead corpse still rotting beside him. He wanted to get rid of her. But he’d have to wait. As the hours passed, so did the consistent knocks on his door, anxious friends and family desperate to hear if there had been any news.

  During the commotion, Nathan had stashed Dakota in the bathroom, but come morning, it wouldn’t be easy. He had to get rid of her, and dawn’s first light provided a golden opportunity. A door several away from his was ajar. He wasn’t aware whose room it was, and he didn’t care.

  So what if the body was found?

  Why should it matter?

  As long as it was somewhere else, it couldn’t be tied to him. Whoever the poor bastard was who found the unwanted surprise, surely he could convince the cops of his innocence. It was only after he secured Dakota inside the closet that Nathan detected the familiar scent of Evan’s aftershave. A kind of woody musk. More feelings of guilt set in. He couldn’t do this. It wasn’t right. But he had to. He was meeting Evan and Reagan in less than five minutes to search for Isla. There wasn’t time to come up with anything else.

  Nathan swapped out the lamp on the nightstand, closed the closet door, and left, making a pit stop in his own room to replace the now broken lamp with his. During this time, a new plan formed. A way to get Evan off the hook without implicating himself in the process. When Dakota was discovered, Nathan would say he saw someone enter Evan’s room the night before. A man. Someone that didn’t look like either of them. The plan was perfect. Now he just needed to find Isla, find some way to convince her too.