A Page Marked for Murder

by Lauren Elliott

  “Yes, exactly what are you talking about?” Kalea glared at Addie and glanced at Simon. “Is she drunk?”

  That was it. The gloves were off. Addie took a step toward her cousin and wagged a finger in her face. “Ask him about Brett Palmer and how he ended up dead and then this man”—she waved her finger at Jared—“was heard threatening Amber Carr about the money they owed him. Go ahead, ask him!”

  “You think I killed Brett and then threatened Amber with the same if she didn’t pay?” Jared tossed his head back and let out a laugh. “That’s priceless. If someone owed me money, why would I kill them? It kind of makes paying it back rather impossible, don’t you think?”

  “That’s what I thought, too,” Addie snapped. “Then I realized that it might not have been Brett who owed you the money, but Amber. Killing Brett was just a warning to her that you were serious about collecting it.”

  “That’s a very serious allegation on your part,” Jared snapped.

  By the look in his eyes, Addie knew she had overstepped a line, and if she was right, she had just put them all in danger.

  “Let me put it this way, Addie, is it?” Jared placed his arm around Kalea’s shoulders and tugged her close to him. “I wouldn’t be as high profile as I am in the financial investment world if I went around killing and threatening everyone who defaulted on their investments should a loss incur. I prefer to let my team of lawyers fight it out in the courts. They are tigers and have lost very few cases of loan default to date. So, I assure you, Addie, I am not the type of financial investment specialist you appear to think I am.”

  “But you were heard threatening her.”

  “Yes, and I won’t deny that. I’ve known her a long time and wanted her to know I was tired of fooling around. Over the years, Brett had racked up quite the bill from my personal accounts, and since she was benefiting by his recent loans, she should also have to share some of the responsibility of repaying them, don’t you agree?”

  “She told me every time they repaid you, the price went up, and you wanted more. That’s called loan sharking.”

  “Addie, stop it!” Kalea gasped, and glanced to a stone-faced Simon for support but got none. “Apologize to Jared, and that’s enough of these accusations. Come on, Jared, we’re out of here. I told you I thought she has gone over the deep end.”

  Jared released Kalea’s grip on his arm. “No, I think your cousin needs to hear this, so she doesn’t go around spreading malicious rumors about me that could hurt my business dealings. You wouldn’t want the sellers to renege on the sale of the dress shop, would you?” Kalea shook her head. “Good.” His steely eyes fixed on Addie’s. “Now, as far as Brett Palmer is concerned, he was my late father’s business partner’s son. When our respective fathers passed away, Brett fell apart. He had never been any good at managing his personal life or finances, and without his father around to guide him, he was a complete and utter failure. I felt sorry for him, having known him as long as I had, and made some small loans to help him out. But those small loans never stopped. Yes, he’d pay back some of it then, but then he would borrow more. So, you see, whatever it was Miss Carr told you, she was uninformed, or she was purposely lying. You have to ask yourself why.”

  Addie’s mind raced. Is he telling the truth or is he lying? Brett being the son of his late father’s business partner would be easy enough to check. Simon placed his arm on Addie’s elbow, the shaking that threatened to overcome her body reduced to small tremors. None of what Jared had said was anything she had even considered.

  Jared placed his hand on the small of Kalea’s back and ushered her toward the kitchen door. “I think you really need to tell your cousin to be careful and learn her place.”

  Simon sputtered, and Addie placed her hand firmly on his arm. “Since this is my home, I think I am in my place!”

  Jared set a questioning glance on Kalea. “What’s she talking about?”

  “Um, well . . .”

  “I see by my sweet dear cousin’s loss of words that she hasn’t informed you of the truth yet?” Addie pinned Kalea with a glare.

  “Kalea? Care to explain?”

  When Kalea didn’t reply, Jared marched down the hallway and out the front door, slamming it shut behind him.

  “Now you’ve gone and done it. Just because that stupid murder theory you had about him was wrong, you still had to get the final dig in, didn’t you?”

  “How was I supposed to know you hadn’t told him the truth yet? Don’t blame me. It was your lie that started all this.”

  “You, you,” Kalea gasped, and fled down the hallway and out the door after Jared.

  “Thank you,” Addie whispered.

  “For what? Letting you drive a deeper wedge between you and your cousin or accusing an innocent man of possible murder? I hardly think I did anything worth thanking me for.”

  “You’re wrong. You let me get it all off my chest without shushing me or stepping in to rescue me, and that’s something.”

  “I learned a long time ago with you that you don’t need rescuing, except perhaps from yourself at times. What do you plan to do about your cousin? I think a lot of damage has been done to that relationship.”

  “We’ll get over it.” Addie shrugged. “Maybe it will take another ten years, but we managed after the falling-out we had in college. We’ll pull through this one, too. I guess that’s what family does, isn’t it?”

  He placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled her to him, his lips nuzzling her still, hot, anger-flushed cheek. “Now, let’s clean up this mess, and see if they left any food in the fridge for us to eat.”

  A text alert pinged from Addie’s jacket. She groaned and read the message. “It’s from Paige. She just saw Bill heading into the alley beside the Ship ’n Anchor Tavern.”

  “What’s that face you’re making?”

  “I just had an idea.”

  “I’ m not sure I like idea-face tonight.”

  “You will.”

  “Does it have something to do with eating and lighting a fire and curling up in front of it with a glass of wine?”

  “You’re so predictable.”

  “Why don’t we call Marc, and he can send a patrol car down there to pick him up.”

  “No, Bill won’t talk to the police. He started to tell me the other day, so I’m hoping I can make him feel comfortable enough to finish his statement. He won’t open up to me if the police are involved. It has to be this way. You can come with me or wait here. The choice is yours.” She grabbed two flashlights from the top drawer beside the sink.

  “Fine. Lead on, Idea Girl. You know what? That’s going to be my superhero name for you from now on. . . .” Simon rambled on with his nonsensical mutterings all the way down the hall and out the front door as he followed along behind her.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “He couldn’t have just vanished,” Addie said.

  Simon clicked off his flashlight. “Are you sure Paige said the alley beside the tavern?”

  “I assume it also includes the one running behind it as it’s on a corner. To go anywhere from here, you’d have to go down to the far end of it and up another block to the next alley.”

  Simon bounced on the toes of his boots rubbing his hands up and down his arms. “He has had at least a thirty-minute head start, and I don’t plan on searching all the back lanes down here on the waterfront tonight. It’s just too darn damp and cold being right off the water.”

  “I have to find him. He’s the only person who can identify the other man on the beach that night, and that man is probably the killer.” Addie yanked her phone out of her jacket pocket. “But let me text Paige and ask her if there’s any chance he went inside, or if she was mistaken about who she saw. He can’t have just disappeared. I mean, look at these dumpsters. They’re overflowing, and he would never pass up a windfall like this.”

  “Unless . . .”

  “Unless what?” She glanced up from her phone.

 
“Unless, whoever he’s been hiding from—”

  “Found him and . . . oh no.” Her hand shook as she fired off a text to Paige.

  Paige bolted out of the tavern door and crushed her in a hug. “Addie, I didn’t think you would come. I only told you I saw him so you’d know he was still around and not dead somewhere.”

  “Hey, everything all right out here?” A tall, well-built, sandy-blond young man, who towered over her, slid up to Paige’s side and placed an arm protectively around her shoulder.

  “Yeah, it’s fine. Logan Ashmore, this is Addie Greyborne and Dr. Simon Emerson. They’re good friends of mine.”

  “And your boss, too, if I’m not mistaken.” Logan grinned and held out his hand to Addie and then shook Simon’s. “Nice to meet both of you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “That’s interesting,” Addie said, “because we haven’t heard a word about you.”

  “It’s only because we haven’t been . . . um, well . . .” Paige glanced up at Logan, her eyes screaming save me.

  “Seeing each other that long,” Logan added quickly, “and with all the commotion lately with Paige’s family, it kind of . . .” Logan’s voice trailed off as he flashed a panicked glance at Paige.

  Addie’s gaze flicked from one flushed face to the other, and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. They looked like two little kids who’d been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. “Don’t worry. I know Paige is a very private person when it comes to her personal life. I knew when the time was right she’d tell me about you and not leave it up to her mother to fill me in.” She gave Paige a playful shoulder bump.

  “Well, Paige talks about you all the time to me, more than her own sisters. I guess she hasn’t mentioned me to you because she’s so shy, and you’re her boss and all that.”

  “That must be it.” Addie studied the young man’s face and smiled. “You seem to know her pretty well.”

  “I’d like to know her a lot better.” His face lit up with a grin as he gazed down at Paige and drew her like a petite china doll into his burly side.

  Simon’s flashlight lit up the alleyway.

  “Did you find something?” Addie called.

  “No.” He peered behind a dumpster. “I thought I heard something, but it must have been the wind.” He turned off the flashlight. “If he was here, he’s long gone now.”

  Addie turned to Paige. “Are you sure it was Bill you saw and not someone from the bar coming out for a smoke or something?”

  “These garbage bins look untouched.” Simon joined them. “That’s not a windfall Bill would pass up voluntarily.” He shot Addie a side glance.

  “I’m positive it was him. We had to park down the street, and he was shuffling along here on Marine Drive in front of us and turned right into this alley.”

  “There’s no doubt about it,” Logan said. “I’ve seen him around a lot, and the chief’s always telling us to be on the lookout for him because a lot of the camps he builds are firetraps.”

  “Really? Where else has he set up camp?”

  “Any place he can find, I guess. There’ve been a few abandoned buildings, vacant lots, a quiet back alley or two. The problem is he builds his shelter out of old cardboard and scraps of wood he finds lying around. One of these days, it’s all going to go poof and start afire. Some of these buildings date back a couple of hundred years.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Addie’s gaze dropped. “That’s why it’s too bad the murder scene appears to have been so close to the rocky crag where he was camping. It was probably the safest place he could have set up a camp.”

  “I doubt he’ll be returning there any time soon, though,” Simon said. “Especially given the police presence and—”

  “The fact that the person who he saw on the beach Saturday night might be keeping an eye on that spot since the police brought it to everyone’s attention. Hey, Logan”—she looked up at him—“were you part of the fire department squad that was working on Saturday night when the volunteers were setting up for the Sunday bonfire?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you remember seeing Bill?”

  “Can’t say for sure that I did, but he could have been there. When my crew took the engine back to the station, the police were still chasing off a few late night partiers, so the chief stuck around to make sure there were no cigarette butts tossed into the trees. He still had the safety inspection to do on the light and speaker system. You could ask him if he saw Bill or anyone else hanging around after we left.”

  “What time did you leave?”

  “It was probably around eleven-thirty.”

  “That means that Keith Hubert, the chief, must have at least seen Brett because that’s close to the time he was arguing with Amber on the phone. Did you see a man around the fire pit area before you left?”

  “I could have. I can’t really say. The police were rounding up stragglers and sending them on their way. He could have been. Look, that’s all I can help you with. Paige is shivering. Do you mind if we go back inside?”

  “No . . . sure . . . sorry to keep you. I’ll see you tomorrow, Paige. Have fun tonight, but not too much. You still have to work in the morning.” Addie flashed her assistant a teasing grin as the two headed back inside.

  “We need to find Bill. I really think he’s in danger.” She glanced up the darkened alley. “Do you know of any vacant buildings backing onto this lane?”

  “Not that I can think of. Marine Drive is pretty popular. Any commercial vacancies that happen to come along are snatched up pretty quickly. The same with this street behind it, why?”

  “I just thought maybe Bill came into the alley because that’s how he gets into his new campsite, but you’re right. There are no abandoned buildings on this end of the drive.”

  “And you heard what Logan said about the fire department. If they’ve been harassing him over his camps, he’s not going to be easy to find.”

  “I know, and tonight he has proven that he’s a master at disappearing.”

  “I guess when you’ve lived on the streets as long as he has, it becomes a necessary survival skill. But it’s too cold to be walking around out here anymore tonight. Why don’t we take a drive through a few of the alleys before I drop you off at home?”

  “You’re right. Maybe with fresh eyes on this tomorrow, we’ll think of something or a way to flush him out.”

  * * *

  Addie pointed the beam of her flashlight out of her passenger-side window, scanned the area around a dumpster, and clicked it off. “Let’s go. I think we’ve been down every back lane around the waterfront. We might as well call it a night. If I can sneak out of the bookstore for a while tomorrow, I might come back and take a look in the daylight.”

  “There’s something you have to seriously consider.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That it was Bill who killed Brett.”

  “What? No, I can’t believe that. I refuse to.”

  “Think about it. The weapon wasn’t premeditated. It was something on hand in the spur of the moment. Maybe Bill broke off the icicle to defend himself?”

  “What,” Addie said, “then he tried to run away, and Brett chased after him?”

  “It’s a possibility since the blood was found on the rocks close to the campsite where it appears Bill was staying. Maybe that’s where he was running to, but Brett caught up with him first.”

  “Then Bill, trying to protect himself, lashed out and killed Brett in self-defense. He did tell me Brett was arguing with someone on the phone, and maybe Brett saw Bill and took his anger out on him. It wouldn’t be the first time a homeless person was attacked because . . . well. He makes an easy target.”

  “It could be that Bill isn’t telling you who the other man on the beach was because there wasn’t anyone else.”

  Addie’s stomach pitched. She really liked Bill and had always thought of him as harmless, but perhaps Simon was right. If so, then hopefully the
theory about self-defense was, too. That’s the only thing that made sense. Then again, Gloria had told her about Bill doing anything for Martha out of his love for her. Brett was causing trouble in Martha’s family. Did Bill see it as his duty to stop it? Fingers crossed she could find Bill before the police did and figure out what exactly happened. Justified self-defense would be an easier charge to fight in court than—she swallowed hard—murder.

  * * *

  Addie stepped inside the foyer, securing the lock as Simon had instructed her to do when they spotted a group of older teens down the hill who appeared to be on the hunt for a party. She flipped on the hall light and pressed her back against the door, basking in the glow of Simon’s tender lips on hers when they’d shared a lingering kiss at her door. However, the afterglow flush quickly slipped away. There was an eerie emptiness about her home tonight. She hadn’t prepared for this. She recalled Gloria’s words from earlier this evening when Pippi had leapt into her arms on their reunion: “A house without a dog isn’t a home. It’s just a house.”

  It was the emptiness that overwhelmed her now. A vacancy in the house she had never felt before, one that had unbelievably been filled by a wiggling little ball of fur of all things. She brushed away wayward tears, kicked off her boots, hung up her jacket, and slid into her slippers. It was really too bad Serena and Zach were out tonight, discussing wedding plans with Serena’s parents. She wanted to call her friend and ask her to pop over. The house echoed with emptiness and the slapping sound of her slippers flopping under her feet as she headed to clean up the mess in the kitchen.

  The pong of stale scotch nagged at her nose as she poured the dregs of Jared’s and Kalea’s drinks into the sink and loaded crusty plates into the dishwasher. Counter and table wiped down, there was only one thing left to do before she could immerse herself in a nice warm bath and drink a hot cup of tea. She glanced down at the overflowing trash bag, tied it up, grabbed a sweater from the hook beside the back door, and started down the porch steps to the garbage can. With her foot hovering over the bottom step, she paused. The light wind off the harbor shifted, and with it, the air became heavy with the scent of burning wood.