by Brenda Novak
Turning the bill of his ball cap to the back, he glanced around the empty room before propping himself against the coroner’s desk. “Tell me you’ve found something,” he said.
Gibbons sighed. “Autopsies take time—you know that. And they haven’t even started yet. But judging by the injuries to her forearms, this young lady put up a good fight.”
Susan would, Caleb thought; she had Holly’s spirit. “Which means we have a chance of finding biological evidence under her nails, right?”
“Or on the sheet in which her body was wrapped. The forensics team has found a drop of blood that definitely doesn’t belong to Susan.”
“What can I do to help?” Caleb asked.
Reaching into his breast pocket, Gibbons pulled out a copy of the picture that had been taken at the pizza parlor, and handed it to him. “Take this and go back to the pizza place tonight,” he said. “Show it around and see if you can find out who was driving that truck. And who was arguing with Susan.”
“So you’re officially on the case?” Caleb asked.
“Because Susan was killed in the same way as the victims of the Sandpoint Strangler, I’m not only on the case, I’m lead detective. The department doesn’t want to waste resources by rebuilding everything I’ve already put together.”
“No one knows more about the Sandpoint Strangler than you do.”
Gibbons raised his brows. “Except maybe you. You’re the one practically living with Madison Lieberman. Think you can get hold of Purcell’s truck?”
Caleb let his breath seep slowly between his teeth as he considered the question. He hated the thought of embroiling Madison and Brianna in another painful investigation, this one centering on Johnny. She’d already been through more than enough. But he couldn’t let whoever killed Susan get away with it. Especially when chances were likely that the sick bastard would strike again. “I’ll figure something out,” he said.
Gibbons clapped him on the back. “Good man.”
MADISON LEANED CLOSE to the window to peer out at the dark drive as she finished drying the pans she’d used to make dinner. She knew Caleb was still gone. She’d been listening for his car for several hours and hadn’t heard anything beyond the wash cycle of her dishwasher.
Where was he? It was getting late. He’d indicated that his work schedule wasn’t especially grueling, yet he’d been gone from dawn until ten or eleven at night four days in a row. He hadn’t even wanted dinner. He’d left a brief message on her answering machine Monday through Wednesday saying that he had to work late and not to expect him.
It wasn’t until this morning, when she’d bumped into him as she was leaving to take Brianna to school, that she’d actually spoken to him. He’d been dressed in a dark suit, seemed far more somber than the man she’d thought she was getting to know, and had very little to say, except that he didn’t want dinner again tonight.
Maybe he was avoiding her. Maybe that kiss had bothered him even more than she’d assumed. That you, of all people, could do this to me. What had he meant by that? Was he as afraid of intimacy as she was? Was he worried she might fall at his feet and try to extract some kind of commitment—over one silly kiss?
She shook her head. If so, he didn’t understand that she wasn’t open to the possibility of falling in love. She couldn’t deal with the hope, the effort, the risk. Too much was riding on the next few years, for her business and her daughter.
“Mommy, look what I found!” Brianna said, charging into the kitchen.
Madison glanced through the window once more to find the drive still empty, then turned to see her daughter carrying a large photo album. There was anticipation on Brianna’s little face. But Madison had to bite back a groan when she saw that it wasn’t just any album. It was the album she’d hidden under her bed.
“See? It’s my baby book!” she announced proudly. “Come on, Mommy, let’s look at it.”
The album contained pictures of Brianna’s birth and infancy, and a few photos of when she was a toddler. Madison and Brianna used to spend a lot of time poring over this particular book. Like most children, Brianna was fascinated by pictures of herself and the concept that she hadn’t always been as she was now. But there were also photos of Madison’s father in there that Madison didn’t want to see. Not now. She’d just taken down every picture of him.
“It’s getting late, punkin,” she said. “Why don’t we look at that tomorrow?”
“No,” Brianna said. “You promised you’d read me a bedtime story. I want to look at my pictures instead.”
“But—”
“Please, Mommy?” Brianna wore such a beseeching expression that Madison couldn’t refuse.
“For a little while,” she said.
Brianna rewarded her with a beaming smile and started pulling her into the living room. “Come on, let’s sit down.”
Madison took a deep breath, steeling herself for the moments to follow, but it didn’t help. Once they were seated on the couch and going through the album page by page, Brianna not only insisted on pointing at every person in every picture, she demanded Madison tell her all the old stories. How the doctor had missed the delivery when she was born and the nurse had to step in. How Daddy had fallen asleep in the chair by the bed and nearly slept through what had almost turned into an emergency. How Grandpa used to stand her up in the palm of his hand before she could even walk. How Grandma had once dressed her up in a snowsuit and taken her to Utah to visit Madison’s Aunt Belinda, or Aunt Bee, as Brianna knew her.
By the time they’d gone through several pages, the memories crashed over Madison like waves, hard and fast, threatening to drag her out to sea. Through it all, she couldn’t help wondering—what had gone wrong? If her father had killed those women, what had been so incredibly different about him that he could harm others, seemingly without remorse? Surely there must’ve been some clue that she’d missed. But she couldn’t figure out what it would be. Her father had been quiet and difficult to know because of that, but not every strong, silent male becomes a mass murderer.
She knew he’d had a difficult childhood, that he was brought up in a strict household where corporal punishment was sometimes taken to the extreme. But other than maintaining a rigid belief in the father as patriarch of the home, he didn’t seem too affected by the past. He went to bed early, got up before dawn, worked hard and took care of everything in the house with a fastidiousness seldom seen in the American world of “easy come, easy go.” He’d been a simple man. Or so she’d thought.
“What’s wrong, Mommy?” Brianna asked, frowning when Madison didn’t turn the page.
Madison closed her eyes, remembering. Her father had never been demonstrative, but he’d always had a roll of Lifesavers in his pocket for Brianna. Whenever they visited Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Grandpa had let Brianna help him husk corn or snap peas or tinker in the garage.
That she’d trusted her father enough to let him get so close to Brianna terrified Madison now, just in case he’d been what everyone said he was.
“Mommy?” Brianna asked, sounding worried.
Madison pulled herself out of the sea of memories long enough to force a smile for her daughter. “What, honey?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking.”
Uncertainty flickered in Brianna’s eyes, but Madison easily distracted her with the next picture. “This is when Grandma baked you a Barbie cake for your second birthday, and Grandpa made you that playhouse in the backyard. Do you remember?”
Brianna’s forehead wrinkled. “Daddy said he built the playhouse.”
“No, it was Grandpa.” Her father had come over to build the playhouse because the guy Danny hired didn’t show. Madison remembered being upset because it was Sunday, a day Danny didn’t have to work, yet he’d been gone anyway. Madison knew her father found it strange that Danny wasn’t more of a support to her. She’d thought Ellis was going to say something about it as he left that day. Instead, he’
d squeezed her shoulder—for him, the equivalent of a long conversation.
With her father, so much went unsaid. And yet she’d always known he loved her….
“Mommy, why are you crying?” Brianna asked.
Madison hadn’t realized she was crying. Dashing a hand across her cheeks, she searched for words that might make things clear for her daughter. But she knew Brianna wouldn’t understand even if she tried to explain. Madison herself didn’t understand, at least not fully. The fact that someone she loved and trusted so deeply could ruin the whole essence of who he was for reasons she couldn’t begin to fathom was simply confusing and painful. And that was before she considered the victims and their families and friends….
“That’s enough for tonight,” she said, closing the book. “It’s time for bed.”
A knock at the door stole Brianna’s attention. She hopped off the couch to answer, but Madison caught her by the arm. “You know it’s not safe to go to the door alone, especially after dark. I’ll see who it is. You get your pajamas on.”
“Mo-om,” Brianna complained.
“You have school in the morning.”
Her daughter’s scowl deepened.
“Even princesses need their sleep,” Madison said.
“But it might be Caleb.”
Madison arched an eyebrow at her. “I thought you didn’t like Caleb. I thought you didn’t want me to let him move in.”
“I don’t like him,” she said quickly, “but Elizabeth does.”
If not for the spell cast by that darn photo album, Madison might have laughed. “Elizabeth isn’t even here,” she pointed out.
“She’s in the bedroom. I’ll get her.”
Brianna scampered off and Madison set the photo album aside, trying to convince herself that she wasn’t excited by the prospect of seeing Caleb.
She should’ve known Caleb was much too handsome and charismatic to fit smoothly into her life.
She tried telling herself their kiss was nothing as she headed down the hall, but it didn’t feel like nothing when she opened the door. Caleb stood there, still wearing the same suit he’d been wearing this morning, with his tie loosened and his hair slightly tousled as though it had been a long, hard day.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
His gaze briefly lowered to her lips before he met her eyes, and Madison had the strangest impulse to slip into his arms and let him kiss her again.
That’s crazy. I’m crazy.
“Yes,” he said. “Everything okay here?”
“Fine.”
“Good.” He hesitated for a moment, nodded and started walking away. But then Brianna came running. “Caleb! Caleb, where are you going? I’m right here!”
He turned and gave her a half smile. “I thought you’d be asleep, half-pint.”
“We were just looking at pictures,” she announced.
He reached into his pocket. “Well, I’m glad you’re up because I brought you something.”
“A surprise?”
“Sort of.”
“Did you hear that, Elizabeth? He brought us a surprise!” Hugging her stuffed rabbit, she twirled around.
“Just a small one,” he said and, her curiosity piqued, Madison leaned forward to see him drop a large nugget of pyrite in her child’s hand.
Brianna’s eyes went round. “Is it gold?”
“Oh, no. Gold is nothing compared to this,” he said. “Haven’t you ever heard the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk?’”
“I’ve heard it,” she said. “Mommy reads it to me all the time.”
“Then you know about his magic beans.”
She nodded enthusiastically.
“This rock is like those beans. It’s—” he looked around as though he was afraid he might be overheard and dropped his voice “—magic.”
“It is?” she asked, completely taken in. “What can it do?”
“It can remind you of important things.”
“Like what?” Her voice was filled with the awe and reverence he’d inspired.
“When you’re scared or worried about something, anything at all, and there’s nothing you can do to make it better, you hold this rock tightly in one hand, like this.” He took the rock from her and made a fist around it. “And if you close your eyes and listen, it’ll whisper to you.”
“What will it say?”
“It will remind you of all the people who love you and it will tell you that everything is going to be okay.”
“Really?” she breathed.
“You have to listen hard,” he said.
“Oh, I will.”
Madison put a hand to her mouth to cover a smile. “It’s time for you to take your magic rock to bed,” she said when she’d composed herself.
“But Caleb just got here,” Brianna complained.
“Maybe you can see him tomorrow.”
Brianna was too busy examining her rock to move, so Madison gave her a gentle nudge.
“Thanks,” Brianna told Caleb. “I won’t lose it.”
He winked at her, and she skipped down the hall, talking to Elizabeth the whole way. “Look, Elizabeth. It’s magic….”
Madison leaned against the doorjamb, thinking Caleb looked so handsome with his loosened tie and unbuttoned collar that he could start a new fashion trend—rumpled chic. “You got a rock for me?” she asked.
His lips curved into a sexy smile. “You want one, too?”
“Only if it’s magic.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fifty-cent piece. “Looks like a magic coin is the best I can offer.”
“Will it whisper to me when I’m worried or afraid?”
“You bet,” he said.
“What will it say?”
He took her hand and put the coin in the center of her palm. “To call me.”
She curled her fingers around the metal, which was warm from his touch, and let that warmth travel through her. “You might be a little tough to get hold of,” she said. “You’ve been gone a lot lately.”
With a sigh, he loosened his tie even more. “This has been a tough week.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
She waited, hoping he’d change his mind, but he changed the subject instead. “What’s been happening around here?”
“Same old stuff.” She grinned. “None of it magic.”
“Has Johnny been around?”
“No. For all I know he’s back in jail. It generally doesn’t take him long.” She tucked her hair behind one ear. “What you did for Brianna was really nice. What made you think of her?”
“Thinking of you and Brianna isn’t the problem.”
“I didn’t know there was a problem, at least where we’re concerned.”
He glanced over his shoulder at his dark cottage. “There isn’t. I’m just tired.”
She could see that from the small lines of fatigue around his eyes and bracketing his mouth, but she was hesitant to let him leave while he seemed so…somber and unsettled. “Would you like a glass of wine before you go? It might help you relax.”
“I don’t know.” His eyes grew thoughtful. “You’d probably be better off to send me straight home to bed. You know that, don’t you?”
Madison imagined Caleb lying in bed, the sheet pulled only to his waist, his chest and arms bare, and felt a flutter of excitement that told her he was definitely right. Yet she opened the door wider. “But my magic coin is telling me you could use a drink.”
CHAPTER TEN
WHILE MADISON WENT to tuck Brianna in for the night, Caleb sipped the wine she’d given him and circled her living room. He knew he should head directly to the cottage, get a good night’s sleep, gain some perspective on everything that had happened—including Susan’s funeral earlier today, which had been almost surreal—and call Madison in the morning to see if he could somehow borrow her father’s truck. If he was going to help Gibbons and still maintain his integrity, he needed to be ca
reful not to get too close.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Caleb had blown his plan to keep a safe distance the minute he’d pulled into the drive—by going to Madison’s house instead of his own. He’d just needed to assure himself that she, at least, was all right. But he hadn’t been able to walk away. The moment he saw her, he’d remembered the taste of her kiss and wanted to bury his face in her neck, let her surround him with her scent, the softness of her skin, the warmth of her heart….
“Almost done,” she called.
He could hear the water running in the bathroom, where she was helping Brianna brush her teeth. He finished his wine, considered leaving, ignored what was best—again—and turned on the television.
The news came blaring into the room. Irritated by the noise, he turned it off and sat down to look through the photo album he found on the table. The words Our Little Princess were affixed to the cover, along with a 5x7 photo of Brianna as a baby, and he couldn’t help thinking that Susan’s parents probably had a similar album about her somewhere.
Pulling the book into his lap, Caleb opened it to pictures of Madison in a hospital bed, smiling proudly as she cradled a red-faced newborn. Standing next to her was a man who had to be her ex-husband, Danny.
Caleb stripped off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, then scrutinized the man she’d been speaking to on the phone a few days ago. Danny wasn’t anything like he’d expected. Short and balding, he looked too old for Madison. And even though he was in the picture, his body language suggested he didn’t necessarily want to be. While Caleb read joy on Madison’s face at the birth of her first child, Danny seemed far less interested.
“What a guy,” he muttered, and turned the page to find more hospital photos, these featuring Madison’s parents. Danny’s backside or leg appeared here and there, so Caleb knew he wasn’t the person behind the lens. But neither was he posing with the others. From the relative positioning of everyone in the room, Caleb got the impression that there’d been no love lost between Madison’s parents and her husband, even while she was married.