“I’m not getting in the middle of this. I warned Ev—I mean—”
Emily’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “What do you mean you warned him? You knew he was alive?”
“Well, I…that is, uh…” Isabel was lost for a response. How could she tell her best friend that she had known all along that her dead husband wasn’t dead, that she had helped him stage everything so he could go into hiding? How could she make Emily understand it was for her own good?
Emily tried one more time to get the men to stop fighting. But all of her hollering did no good. “You handle it, Isabel. I’ve got to get out of here!” She grabbed her jacket and ran out of the room.
“Emily, wait!” she called after her, but she was gone.
Isabel spun back around and grabbed the ice bucket off the dresser. It sloshed around, full of cold water and partially melted ice. With one quick toss, she poured it over the men.
That got their attention. They froze in a jumble of arms and legs.
“What the hell, Isabel?” Evan gasped, his back on the floor.
“Emily’s gone,” she said. “She couldn’t stand you two fighting like playground bullies.”
“I’ll go after her,” Colin groaned, seeming to use all his might to hold Evan pinned down. He released Evan and jumped to his feet.
“No. I’ve got to go after her,” Evan said, getting up as well.
They both started for the door, but Isabel stepped in front of them and blocked the doorway.
“Get out of my way,” Colin ordered.
“No. Stop! She needs some time to cool down and think through this whole mess. This is a lot for anyone to take in. She’ll come back when she’s ready.” Whether Emily would ever speak to her again was another story.
~*~
Emily dashed out of the inn, tugging her jacket on. The wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping as the sun had already gone down. Shivering in the damp sea air, gold and orange leaves rustled past her feet as she marched down the long driveway toward Main Street.
When she reached the street, she glanced around, not sure where to go, but anywhere other than that hotel room would do. She needed to clear her head before going back.
Still, she had a hard time wrapping her mind around the idea that Evan was really alive. She should be thrilled, jumping into his arms, showering him with kisses. But he had deceived her yet again, expected her to overlook the enormity of it, and run away with him like all was forgiven and forgotten.
And then there was Colin, the wonderful man whom she loved unreservedly and had promised to marry the very next day. What must he be thinking?
The sight of these two men punching each other, over her, was too much—she had to get out of there, but now what? She would have to face them eventually, but for now she simply needed time to think.
Her phone rang in her pocket. She saw it was Isabel calling and sent it directly to voicemail. She wasn’t ready to talk to anyone yet. She silenced her phone and stuck it back in her pocket so there would be no more distractions.
Perhaps getting her mind on something else for a while might help. She glanced down toward the boats that bobbed along the dock, thinking about the stunt Maggie had pulled off earlier that day, hoping it wasn’t for nothing.
Had Colin remembered to call the chief about following the GPS transponder? After all, this was the night Whitley had said Caleb and the others were leaving to take the boat down to Boston to pick up guests in the morning, among other things. Maybe she should call the chief herself and make sure. She’d do just about anything to get her mind off the mess she left back at the inn.
She whipped out her phone and punched in the numbers.
“This is Chief Taylor. How can I help you?”
“Hello, Chief, this is Emily Parker.”
“Well, hello. What can I do for you?”
“Did Colin already ask you to monitor that GPS transponder tonight—you know, the one you gave me?”
He cleared his throat. “You must be mistaken, you didn’t get it from me.”
That’s right, no one was supposed to know that. “You’re right, no, not from you,” she said, playing along. “Are you tracking it?”
“No, sorry, I hadn’t gotten the go-ahead from Detective Andrews yet.”
“I have reason to believe the boat is headed out tonight, so if you could…”
She didn’t want to bring Whitley’s name into the investigation any more than necessary, and she had promised her she would do what she could to keep her brother’s name out of it too, if that were possible.
“Sure, I’m on it,” he replied. “Hey, isn’t this the night of Colin’s bachelor party?”
There was no reason to alert the police chief of the change of events in their personal life, but if Chief Taylor discovered anything from tracking that boat, she wanted him to know Colin would be interested in hearing about it. “Yes, that’s tonight. But, please, he would still want you to call him if anything turns up.”
“Sure will.”
Emily hung up, standing under the glow from a streetlamp on Main Street. She glanced to the left, at the shops and restaurants all brightly lit, beckoning the tourists to come in and sample their wares. Looking to the right, toward the wharf, there were a few boats with lights shining from the cabins.
Would anyone be on the Hoosier Daddy? If they were planning to cast off tonight, likely one of those lighted boats was it. Maybe if she strolled by it, she could pick up some important tidbit of conversation.
She zipped her jacket and pulled the collar up around her neck before heading toward the bay. Passing several boats tied to the dock, she could see lights glowing down below on the Hoosier Daddy. She tiptoed toward it, hoping to hear something.
Chapter 21
As Emily approached Eric Malone’s trawler, muffled voices emanated from the cabin, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. She inched closer and, as she leaned toward the boat, something hard poked her in the back. She pulled up straight as her heart leapt into her throat. Now what?
She instinctively reached into her waistband, but her gun was not there. She hadn’t brought it with her in the rush to get out of her room.
“Get on the boat,” a harsh male voice demanded, his face so near the back of her head she could feel his hot breath through her hair.
“I’m not going—”
“It wasn’t a request.” He pushed, what felt like, the business end of a gun harder into her back. “Now, keep your mouth shut and get moving.”
Her room at the inn didn’t seem so bad at this point—two men, both who loved her, fighting over which one would keep her. Would those two men, or anyone else, come looking for her? Probably not, at least for a while.
With the man sticking close behind her, Emily stepped over the gangway, as she was told.
“Down below,” the man ordered.
She glanced over her shoulder. It was Caleb.
“I said move it.”
An icy chill snaked up her spine. Of all the murder suspects, he hadn’t been her first pick, hadn’t seemed the most dangerous. What was he going to do with her?
Her gaze bounced around the stern, looking for something to grab to defend herself. There wasn’t time to focus in the low light before he pushed her toward the door leading down to the cabin.
Thankful Maggie had planted the tracker earlier in the day, Emily trusted that Chief Taylor was keeping an eye on it. However, he couldn’t possibly know she was on board.
Emily eased the small double doors open and descended the steps into the cabin. As she reached the bottom stair, Caleb forced her to the floor.
“Look who I found on the dock,” he declared.
“What’s going on?” Rosco growled. He and Eric had been the ones Emily had overheard on the boat.
Emily drew her knees up and hugged her legs, glaring up at her captor. What were they going to do with her?
Caleb pointed the handle of a screwdriver at her head, rather
than a gun. “I caught this one snooping around.”
“You couldn’t have just scared her off?” Rosco barked. “Now what are we going to do with her?”
“I don’t know,” Caleb shrugged. “I didn’t think that far ahead.”
Rosco grunted. “The least you could have done was use a real gun.”
~*~
Colin peered over at Evan, who was standing in the doorway to the bathroom, rubbing a towel over his hair and blotting his shirt. That man couldn’t have chosen a worse time to show up. One more day and Emily would have been Colin’s bride—but now? Colin’s hands balled into fists at the thought. He wanted to deck that guy again.
Evan’s intense gaze focused on Colin. Even from across the room, Colin could see a dark bruise growing under Evan’s left eye and he wanted to knock that smug look off his face. Evan was probably thinking the same thing about Colin, but what right did that pompous Brit have to Emily now?
When Emily had discovered Evan’s real name, she had wondered if they were even legally married. His death certificate would now be invalid, and Evan likely had no legal claim to Emily because he had used a false identity on the marriage license. That gave Colin little comfort after seeing Emily’s reaction. The decision was clearly in Emily’s hands and, before she ran off, she didn’t seem too certain about which man she would choose.
“You two,” Isabel said, pointing at each of the men, “try to get along until she comes back. Don’t make this any harder on her than it already is.”
Evan crossed his arms defiantly. “I won’t make any promises.”
Colin said nothing, but propped himself on the edge of the bed. He ran his fingers through his wet hair, pushing it off his forehead, then he wiped a bit of blood from his lip.
The room was silent for the better part of a difficult ten minutes. But Colin couldn’t stand it any longer. “How much longer do we wait?”
Isabel checked her wristwatch. “Let’s give her twenty minutes. If she’s not back by then, I’ll call her and make sure she’s okay.”
“I’ll call her now,” Colin said, pulling out his phone.
“Wait, Colin. Give her some time to think things through,” Isabel advised. “I think she just needs to be alone for a bit.”
“It won’t hurt to phone her. You could call and just say you were worried and wanted to make sure she was fine,” Colin said.
“All right,” Isabel replied. She dialed Emily’s number and waited while it rang. “It’s just going to voicemail. I told you, she wants to be alone. Give her that.”
Colin nodded.
Evan huffed.
A few more minutes ticked by. “I’m going to call her myself,” Colin declared. “This waiting is ridiculous.” He dialed her number and it went to voicemail for him too.
“I say we go now,” Evan asserted.
“As much as I hate to say it, I’m with Evan. I don’t think we should wait any longer either.” Colin rose to his feet and went to the window and peered out, toward the pool. “The temperature is dropping out there and the rain is starting to come down.” He turned back to Isabel. “The weather is only going to get worse.” Besides, he wanted to be the one to find her before Evan had a chance to swoop in like James Bond and be the hero.
Isabel glared from one man to the other and quirked one side of her lips. “All right,” she conceded, as if they needed her permission. “Let’s get the whole group together and make a plan. But, Evan, you can’t be seen by them—you’re dead, remember? Why don’t you stay here and we’ll check in with you?”
“Not a chance.”
“She’s right,” Colin said. “If that gang knows you’re alive, all of Paradise Valley will know soon too.” Could Colin convince Evan to stay back so he wouldn’t get anywhere near Emily? It was doubtful.
“We can find her faster if more of us are searching,” Evan said.
Isabel moved close to Evan. “Colin’s right, if people find out you’re alive, then you disappearing for all this time will have been for nothing.”
Evan’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Colin, appearing to consider Isabel’s advice. “Ten minutes.”
“What do you mean?” Isabel asked.
“You search for ten minutes,” Evan replied, “and if you don’t call me and tell me you’ve found her, I’m out of here.”
~*~
Isabel and Colin left Evan in Emily’s room, with a promise to call. Even though it was better no one else knew he was alive, could he be trusted to stay there?
They called all their friends to gather in the lobby for an emergency meeting. Emily was missing, they were told, and they needed to find her.
Within minutes, everyone congregated around the fireplace and Isabel explained the situation—Emily and Colin had gotten into an argument and she took off to get some air. With the storm getting worse, they thought it was best to go find her and bring her back to the inn.
“That must have been some argument,” Camille said glibly, staring at Colin’s split lip.
He touched a finger to his lip, but did not reply. What could he say?
“Alex and I will scour the shops and restaurants up and down Main Street,” Isabel stated.
Camille would go with her husband and daughter to search the streets, shooting off to the west from Main Street, which also housed a few shops and eateries.
Colin and Peter would search the shoreline and the wharf area, after Colin checked in with the police chief and asked him to have his patrolmen keep an eye out for Emily.
Maggie agreed to stay at the inn, in case Emily came back.
“I don’t want to alarm you all,” Isabel said, “but we have a wedding tomorrow and we can’t have the bride catching her death of cold.” Her gaze shifted to Colin and she gave him a little encouraging grin.
Colin breathed a laugh. He appreciated her trying to lighten the serious situation, but it did nothing to calm his nerves. Trying to get Emily to the altar felt like playing that silly Whack-A-Mole game. No sooner did he overcome one hurdle than another would pop up.
The small crowd began to disperse into their respective groups and Isabel moved next to Colin. She whispered to him that she was going to take Evan with them as soon as the others left, including him and Peter. “I’ll explain what’s happening to my husband first, then go and get him.”
“You might as well,” he muttered. He knew Evan was probably climbing the walls being stuck in the room, because that’s exactly what Colin himself would be doing in the same situation—that is if Evan had stayed there, as he was asked.
“Let’s go, Peter,” he hollered across the lobby.
Peter and Colin stepped outside and headed down the driveway to the street. The wind was blowing and the rain had lightened to a sprinkle. Now, if it would only hold.
“Where to, boss?” Peter asked.
~*~
“You should have known better than to be poking your nose where it don’t belong,” Rosco barked at Emily, a scowl twisting on his face as he waved his gun at her. Apparently he preferred the real thing. “There’s a lot of ocean between here and Boston. They’ll never find your body.”
Emily drew in a shuddering breath and her chest tightened. He was right. She’d be making her way to the bottom of the cold Atlantic Ocean before anyone even knew she was gone from Rock Harbor.
Eric stepped closer to Rosco. “Let’s think about this, man. We may be a lot of things, but we’re not killers.”
“That’s not true, is it, Caleb?” Rosco arched a questioning brow at the young man.
Caleb’s green eyes rounded. He tugged his ball cap off and raked his fingers through his shaggy brown hair. “Well, I…I had no choice. He would have ruined everything.”
Just like I’m doing?
She scooted backward a few inches and rested against the side of the banquette, wishing she could crawl under the table and disappear.
“Who are you talking about?” Eric demanded.
The hairs on the back o
f Emily’s neck stood up and an army of chills marched down her back. If Caleb had killed before, he easily could kill again. She could be next.
“Ben Kinney,” Caleb mumbled.
Chapter 22
“Caleb, are you admitting you killed Ben Kinney?” Eric glared at him and the blood seemed to drain from his face.
“Hey, keep it down,” Caleb warned in a low voice, leaning closer to the other men. “Not in front of the hostage.”
Even as fearful as Emily was, folded almost into a fetal position on the floor, her attention was riveted to the conversation.
Eric and Rosco both turned their gaze on her. “She’s not telling anyone,” Rosco ground out.
“Tell me it wasn’t you,” Eric groaned.
“Well, what did you want me to do?” Caleb shot back. “He found out what we were doing.”
Eric grabbed Caleb by the arm. “But how could he have?”
“I don’t know how, but he did.”
If these guys knew it was Whitley who told Ben, would Caleb step in and protect his sister?
“He came to me at the inn one day,” Caleb explained, “while I was working. He said I had to cut him in on our business, or else.”
“The night he died?” Eric asked, jerking Caleb’s arm.
Caleb yanked free. “No, the day before. I tried to act like I didn’t know what he was talking about, but he wouldn’t let up. He came back again the next night.”
“What did you do?” Eric growled, worry lines forming around his eyes. He stepped closer to Caleb, speaking low, between clenched teeth. “Transporting drugs is bad enough, I didn’t sign up for murder.”
Emily listened intently to Caleb’s confession, her heart pounding so hard she was afraid she would faint. Would she ever be able to tell anyone what she had heard? Not according to Rosco. And the fact that they were talking so freely in front of her confirmed they didn’t plan to let her make it to shore.
“Hell, I didn’t mean to do it, he just wouldn’t leave me alone.” Caleb scrubbed his fingers through his hair again and pulled his cap back on as his eyes nervously darted around. “Like I said, he kept pressing me about cutting him in on our business. I knew you guys wouldn’t go for it.”
Debra Burroughs - Paradise Valley 06 - The Harbor of Lies Page 18