by Brenda Novak
“And the downside is you’re paying by the week?”
“Forget the cottage.”
At the irritation in his voice, she propped her hands on her hips and faced him. “Why’d I have to fall in love with you?”
Caleb had asked himself the same question about her, many times. She’d just been so…lost when he met her. And he’d always been a sucker for a woman down on her luck. He liked feeling needed, liked taking care of others. Unfortunately, she’d exploited that tendency to its fullest. “I wish I knew.”
“I’ll never understand you or what happened between us—”
“That’s the beauty of being divorced,” he interrupted. “We no longer have to analyze what’s wrong with us. No more teary talks that carry on through the night. No more debilitating guilt. Surely you’re as relieved as I am.”
“But we loved each other.”
Caleb scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “We just hated each other more.”
“I never hated you,” she said.
“God, Hol, would you let it go?” He blew out a sigh, hoping some of his frustration would go with it. “We couldn’t be together for more than two days in a row. Now, do you have something on Susan or not?”
It took her a moment to regain control. But she managed to do so, for a change, and Caleb relaxed.
Leaving the remote control on the arm of the couch, he went to the refrigerator to get a beer. “Well?” he said when he’d popped the top and drunk almost half of it.
She finally sat down and stared at the television, probably so she wouldn’t have to look at him. “I’m not sure if it’ll tell us much in the end, but a woman named Jennifer Allred saw Susan the day after she and I had our nails done.”
“Where?” He leaned one hip against the kitchen counter, enjoying the smooth taste of his Michelob Light and letting it siphon off some of the tension he’d been feeling only moments earlier.
“At a vegetarian pizza place not far from the university.”
“She’s sure it was Susan?”
Holly reached into her purse and withdrew a photograph. “She gave me this.”
Surprised, Caleb left his beer on the counter and walked over to get a better look. “How did she give you this?” he asked. “I thought you said she called you.”
“She did. Then she asked me to meet her on campus because she had some proof to give me.”
“And you did it? Don’t tell me you went there alone, Holly.”
“What else was I supposed to do? Drag someone out of bed and coerce him or her into going with me? You weren’t picking up.”
He’d been outside creeping around, trying to figure out what was going on at Madison’s—not the type of errand on which he wanted to carry a cell phone. “Twelve women, if you count Susan, have been snatched from that campus or the surrounding area! What were you thinking, meeting someone so late?”
“Oh, don’t pretend you care about me,” she said, coming right back at him. “If you cared, you never would’ve given up on me.”
“Damn it, Holly, would you quit twisting the knife? I wanted to be there for you. I married you twice, remember? We aren’t a good fit. I don’t know how much more proof you need!” He hadn’t planned on shouting, but she always managed to snap the control that was sufficient for every other situation and relationship.
She stared at him for several seconds, her glare challenging enough to make him believe they were going to end up in another of their famous rows. She was probably going to start in on the miscarriage. She always used that as some sort of trump card, as if he hadn’t felt the loss of their baby just as deeply.
Instead, she covered her eyes and shook her head, obviously backing down. “Look at the picture, okay?”
Caleb felt the anger drain out of him. No one made him as crazy as Holly did. But this wasn’t about their marriages or their divorces. This was about Susan, he reminded himself, gazing down at the picture. “I don’t recognize any of these people,” he said.
“That’s because you’ve probably never seen them before. That’s Jennifer and her two roommates. They’re celebrating because the guy on the left just won an art grant.”
“So what does this have to do with Susan?”
“Look behind them, in the background.”
Caleb held the picture closer to the light, trying to make out the slightly blurred figure beyond the open door of the pizza place. It could have been any woman of Susan’s general size, shape and coloring. But then he saw a slice of leopard print halter beneath a short black jacket and knew it was her.
“She’s wearing just what I thought she was wearing,” he said in amazement.
“Notice anything else?”
Caleb’s blood ran cold. Next to Susan, parked at the curb, was a blue Ford pickup with a white camper shell. He cut his gaze to Holly. “Purcell’s truck?”
“Or one just like it.”
Another connection. At this stage, Caleb saw no benefit in keeping his reason for renting the cottage a secret. With the appearance of Purcell’s truck in this picture with Susan, Holly’s fears were already confirmed. “You wanted to know why I rented this place,” he said.
“You’re finally going to tell me?”
“Madison Lieberman lives next door. She’s my landlady.”
Holly’s brows drew together as if she couldn’t quite identify the name. “Madison Lieberman…”
“Ellis Purcell’s daughter.”
“Of course! I heard about her over and over when you were researching the Sandpoint Strangler. But she’d never talk to you. Has she changed her mind?”
“Not exactly. She doesn’t even know that Caleb Trovato and Thomas L. Wagner are the same man. She was looking for a renter, and I happened to get here first. That’s it.” He tapped the picture against his palm. “Tell me how Jennifer came across one of our flyers.”
“She’s a graduate student at the university and saw it posted at the library.”
Holly had insisted on putting her phone number on the flyer, which made sense because hers was local and not long distance. Also, Caleb knew a woman’s name and number would seem less threatening. But Holly and this Jennifer woman had both been stupid to meet on campus so late at night—not that there was any point in arguing about it now. “What I don’t understand is why she noticed something so obscure in one of her pictures,” he said.
“Susan was involved in an argument that drew everyone’s attention. When Jennifer saw the flyer, she looked through the pictures she’d taken that night and, voil, there was Susan.”
With a truck like Ellis Purcell’s in the same vicinity. Was it another strange coincidence? Or did the police have a copycat killer on their hands?
“Did Jennifer say what the argument was about?” he asked.
“She wasn’t sure. She thinks Susan bumped someone’s fender while trying to park or something like that. Jennifer and her friends weren’t really aware of anyone else until Susan screamed a curse. Then they all craned their heads to see what was going on. A male voice answered by calling her a stupid bitch. Then Susan got in her car and peeled off.”
“What did the guy who called her a bitch look like?”
“He was beyond their view. After Susan left, Jennifer and her friends went back to their fun. She said if she hadn’t seen the flyer, she probably wouldn’t have thought about the incident again.”
Caleb returned his attention to the picture, trying to figure out what it meant.
Holly watched him closely, fiddling with the cuff of her long-sleeved, black cotton blouse. “This might or might not have any relevance to my sister’s disappearance, though, right?” she said. “I mean, for all we know that truck’s a coincidence and Susan was arguing with Lance, the guy she was dating.”
“At least this picture narrows down the time she could have disappeared,” Caleb said. “Jennifer said this was taken on Tuesday?”
Holly nodded.
“She was reported missing when she didn’t sho
w up for work on Wednesday, which means she disappeared sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.”
“Do you think it was Lance she was arguing with at the pizza place?” Holly persisted.
“We’ve talked to Lance. The last time he saw Susan was when they spent the night together on Saturday, remember?”
“That’s what he says. Maybe he’s afraid to tell us about the argument for fear it’ll make him a suspect in the case.”
“He’s already a suspect,” Caleb said. “In any homicide, the police look at the husband or boyfriend first, then extended family members and friends. But Gibbons doesn’t believe Lance is our guy.”
Her eyes narrowed. “When did you talk to Gibbons?”
“Last night.”
“You didn’t mention it to me.”
“I haven’t had a chance.”
“We were passing out flyers together all day!”
“It’s a moot point,” he said. “Lance has a good alibi.”
“For when?”
“For Monday and Tuesday nights.” And for Wednesday and Thursday, as well, but Caleb didn’t want to go into that.
“Where was he?” she asked.
Caleb raked his fingers through his hair, wondering how to frame his answer.
“What is it?” she pressed when he didn’t respond right away. “You know something you’re not telling me.”
What the hell, he decided. The truth was the truth. “Lance is engaged to be married,” he said. “He’s been living with his fiancée and seeing Susan on the side.”
“What?” Holly scrambled to her feet. “Susan told me he was living with his sister.”
“If it makes you feel any better, his fiancée didn’t know about Susan, either. She kicked him out as soon as she learned. But she maintains that he was home by six o’clock both Monday and Tuesday nights. She works evenings and needed him to sit with her mother, who just had surgery to replace a knee. The mother confirmed that she and Lance watched television together for several hours both nights.”
“I can’t believe it,” Holly cried. “What scum! Men are all alike!”
“Hey, I never cheated on you,” he said.
“You quit loving me. That’s even worse.” Burying her face in her hands, she dissolved into tears.
Her crying tugged at Caleb’s heart, but he told himself not to feel any sympathy. He couldn’t afford sympathy. Where Holly was concerned, the softer emotions always got him into trouble. But he couldn’t stand to see her, or any woman, cry.
Leaving his beer on the counter, he went to see if he could get her to settle down. “Holly, you’ll meet someone else,” he told her.
She slipped her arms around his neck. His immediate impulse was to pull away, but she looked so crestfallen he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “Someone who’s more compatible with you than I am,” he added, patting her awkwardly. “And we’ll find Susan, okay? Don’t give up hope. Not yet. She needs us to believe.”
Holly clung to him, nestling her face into his neck. “What if we don’t find her? I’ll live my whole life never knowing what happened to my own sister. I’ve lost you already, Caleb. I can’t bear to lose her, too. She’s all I’ve got left.”
Caleb thought of the other families suffering through the same kind of loss. He didn’t relish the idea of lying to Madison Lieberman, but it seemed a small price to pay to resolve the mystery that had affected so many lives.
“I’m going to help you find Susan,” he said. “Have some faith.”
Holly shifted slightly in his arms, fitting her body more snugly to his. “If we don’t find her, you’ll eventually have to give up.”
“We’ll find her.” He got the impression she was making her body accessible on purpose, and decided he’d given her all the comfort he could.
But when he tried to release her, she held on tight.
“Caleb?”
“What?”
“Is it really over between us? Because sometimes it doesn’t feel like it is.”
It had been more than two years since he’d made love to Holly. After his second divorce, he’d gone on a brief womanizing rampage, trying to repair what his failed marriage had done to his ego, he supposed. But he’d soon found the lifestyle too empty to bother with and had thrown himself back into his work. Now it had been ten months since he’d made love to any woman.
He had to admit he was beginning to feel his body’s long neglect, but Caleb wasn’t about to make another mistake with Holly. After their first divorce, a moment’s weakness had left her pregnant and, for the baby’s sake, he’d married her again. He certainly didn’t want a repeat performance.
“It’s really over,” he said, putting her firmly away from him.
“Is there someone else?” she asked.
After tolerating Holly for so many years, Caleb suspected he wasn’t naive enough to ever fall in love again. “No.”
“You came back here to help me, even though we’re through?”
He nodded. He had come to help her, and Susan. And because of Madison, he just might get lucky enough to solve the murders that had obsessed him for years.
CHAPTER SIX
MADISON WAS ON THE PHONE with Tye when Caleb knocked at her door for breakfast the following morning. Propping the receiver against her shoulder, she yelled for Brianna to let him in while she flipped the pancakes on the griddle.
“I can’t believe Johnny’s out,” Tye said. “When did they release him?”
“He couldn’t really tell me. I think he was on something.”
Tye sighed. “That comes as no surprise.”
Caleb knocked again. Evidently Brianna wasn’t getting the door as she’d asked. Covering the phone a second time, Madison prompted her daughter to hurry.
Once she heard the patter of Brianna’s feet finally heading down the hallway, she returned to their conversation. “I’m sorry. I thought you’d want to know,” she said. “He tried stopping by your place before coming here. I guess you weren’t home, but I’m sure he’ll try again.”
“Did he hit you up for money?”
Madison didn’t want to admit that Johnny had asked for money, because she probably shouldn’t have given him any. But letting him have what he wanted was the easiest way to deal with her conscience over everything that had happened—or not happened—in his life.
“He asked for a few bucks,” she said.
“Did you give it to him?”
“What do you think?”
“Madison, we’ve talked about this before.”
“I know.” The emotions that made her give Johnny the money were so complex she couldn’t have explained them if she’d tried. Especially because she felt some of the same guilt about Tye. He’d certainly turned out a lot better than Johnny, but he’d endured the same kind of childhood, and it had taken her years to get to know him well enough to feel comfortable calling him occasionally. “I won’t give him any more,” she said.
She could hear Brianna at the door, greeting Caleb with a chilly, “Oh, it’s you.” Momentarily distracted, Madison covered the phone to tell Brianna to mind her manners. But she was trying to get the pancakes off the griddle at the same time Tye was asking where she’d moved their father’s coffin. She decided to have a talk with Brianna later. “He’s at the Green Hill Cemetery in Renton,” she told Tye.
Caleb’s footsteps came down the hall and into the kitchen. She turned to wave a welcome, and ended up letting her gaze slide quickly over him instead. Not many men looked so good in a simple rugby shirt and a pair of faded jeans.
No wonder he had beautiful blond women visiting him in the middle of the night. The only mystery was that the woman hadn’t stayed until morning and made him breakfast herself.
He gave her a devastating smile. “Smells great.”
Madison told herself not to burn the food. “I hope you like pancakes.”
“I like everything.”
Suddenly remembering that she had Tye on the phone,
she cleared her throat and told Caleb to have a seat. “I’ll be with you in a second,” she said. “I’m talking to my brother. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No problem.” He removed the newspaper he’d been carrying under one arm and spread it out on the table.
Brianna sat directly across from him, twirling the fork at her place setting and glaring at him.
Madison threw her daughter a warning glance. Then she turned her attention back to Tye, because there was something she still wanted to ask him. Johnny had told her that Tye and Sharon were having problems, but Tye acted as though nothing had changed.
“Would you and Sharon like to drive over and have breakfast with us today?” she asked, trying to introduce the subject of Sharon as naturally as possible. Madison hoped, if he needed to talk, he might feel safe opening up to her. “It’s nearly ready, but you don’t live far. We could wait.”
“Not today,” he said. “The kids have soccer games.”
“Oh.” Madison poured more batter on the griddle, wondering what to say next. She wanted him to know he could trust her, but she didn’t want him to think she was prying into his personal business. “Maybe Brianna and I could come and see them play.”
“Next week would be better,” he said.
“Next week” would probably never come. Madison wanted to see more of her nieces and nephews, but Tye was always so aloof. “Well, you know I’m here if you need anything, right? You’d call me if…if you ever felt like you wanted to talk, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course,” he said. But she knew he never would. Madison was fairly certain he still harbored some of the resentment he’d felt toward her when they were young. She had no idea what she could do to overcome it. She’d never mistreated Johnny or Tye. Some of the anger they felt toward Ellis for not being there when they needed him, and her mother for being such an unresponsive stepmother, had slopped over onto her.
“I’d better go,” he said. “I don’t want to make the kids late for their games. Thanks for telling me about Johnny.”
“Sure.” She hung up, feeling slightly hurt that Tye never wanted to include her in his life.