“I’ll take this evidence to Carew after lunch,” Saul offered.
“She never promised to testify,” Charlotte pointed out, “but I’m sure she will if you ask her, Lucas. At the very least, she’ll need to be deposed.”
Lucas wasn’t about to call Monica and have a heart-to-heart chat. “I’ll text her,” he relented.
He would not, under any circumstances, give her an opportunity to use her charm on him. “Right now, we need to get Charlotte out of here. Grab your bag and put your wig on. We’re leaving. You can tell me in the truck what Dwyer might have overheard before you smashed that bug.”
Chapter 7
Another sleepless night! Again, Charlotte stared up at the ceiling from the bed in Saul’s guest bedroom unable to lose consciousness. As the wind sighed through the screen of her open window, the limbs of the huge oak in the yard stirred, casting mesmerizing shadows above her. She had hoped to fall asleep while watching them, but thoughts zipped through her mind like cars on a busy interstate, keeping her alert.
Kicking off the sheet, she rolled out of bed and headed down the stairs as she had the night before in search of Lucas. He was sitting on the sofa in Saul’s living room, working on his laptop by the light of a dim lamp. The blinds had been lowered, the curtains pulled. At her approach, his gaze jumped up, turning instantly wary.
“Can’t sleep?” he guessed, looking back at his screen.
Charlotte flopped down on the couch next to him. “What do you think?”
“I think you have a right to be worried.” He tapped the down arrow while clearly searching for something on the spreadsheet in front of him. “If Monica bugged my house for Dwyer, who’s to say she didn’t go back for the vase because he asked her to.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “I already told you, Lucas, she had no idea there was a bug in the bottom of the vase, and I believe her.”
“Why did she want it back today?” he retorted, still staring at his laptop.
“Because it was given to her for a job well done. She wanted to be reminded of that.”
He finally looked at her. “You seriously believe that?”
Charlotte queried her intuition. When it came to people and their motives, she was usually right on target.
“Yes,” she insisted. “She’s not the villain you’ve made her out to be. She took LeMere’s journal from Master Chief’s desk because Dwyer told her to. You’d have done the same thing.”
Lucas shook his head while smiling bitterly. “Five minutes in her company and you think you know her,” he commented.
“It was more like twenty minutes,” Charlotte retorted.
Sighing heavily, Lucas finally met her gaze. “Look, I don’t blame you for defending her.” A suggestion of warmth crept back into his voice. “Monica can seem entirely innocent when it suits her. She pulled the wool over my eyes,” he admitted ruefully. “I’m not going to blame you for not seeing what I couldn’t see.”
Charlotte decided she would let it go, but not without one last push. “I just think there’s a misunderstanding between you two. If you want to work things out, all you have to do is respect her career and trust her integrity. She still wears your ring, you know.”
“So I’ve heard,” he clipped.
“She obviously still loves you.”
Lucas’s eyes narrowed until he was looking at her through his lashes. “Thank you for your advice, Charlotte,” he said pointedly, “but it isn’t wanted. I don’t need a wife whose career comes first.”
Stung by his last sentence and chastised by his tone, Charlotte focused on what he was doing. “Looking for the unauthorized emails?” she guessed
He sucked in a breath and looked back at his laptop. “Yes. I finally got access to the server, and I’ve gone through hundreds of emails from the time Lowery was sending them, but there aren’t any here with blind-copied recipients. Someone must have logged in before me and deleted them.”
“Dwyer?” she guessed.
“He would have access,” Lucas agreed.
“So what’s next? What else can we accomplish?”
He sat back and thought. “Well, I’ve hired a forensic expert, and I’ve sent him the pictures from Lowery’s apartment to look at, but those aren’t going to impact Jaguar’s trial, I don’t think. Jaguar’s motion hearing is on Friday. That’s when Captain Englert, whom Holland picked to preside over the hearing, decides what evidence will be admissible. Monica’s letter and her testimony ought to impugn Dwyer, but I wish there was something more we could use that would demonstrate how he’s up to no good. That’s not easy without mentioning The Entity. Lowery would have made a great witness, but he’s dead. Same thing with Lloyd Elwood.”
Charlotte thought for a second. “Why don’t we go to Sabena, then,” she suggested, “and try to figure out what Lloyd was doing there? He must have found something Dwyer didn’t want him to see, or he wouldn’t have been killed.”
“You said it was a hit-and-run?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, right outside of town.”
“Was the other driver ever identified?”
“I don’t know. I was about to look into it when I was kidnapped.”
Lucas logged out of the email server and did a Google search.
Sliding closer to him, Charlotte enjoyed the scent of sportsman’s soap and dryer sheets clinging to him. It was all she could do not to put her nose to his shoulder and inhale deeply.
“Here we go. This was written over a week ago but there’s nothing newer.” He clicked an article, and they both scanned it in silence.
Police Chief James Blanchard reports no additional leads regarding the identity of the hit-and-run driver who killed Illinois native Lloyd Elwood, a guest staying at Magnolia Manor. Elwood was driving on Highway 227 when he was apparently driven off the road and struck a tree. Police are looking for a white car. Faulty air bags are believed to have contributed to Elwood’s death.
“Faulty air bags,” Charlotte scoffed, sitting back. “Lloyd drove a two-year-old Taurus in mint condition. I want to know more about this James Blanchard. Did he even look to see if someone tampered with the air bags?”
Researching James Blanchard, Lucas came up with a dozen results, including a picture of the police chief, who was middle aged with a dark mop of hair and a big bushy mustache.
“That mustache looks like Dwyer’s,” Charlotte commented.
Lucas looked sharply over at her. “You’ve met Dwyer in person?”
“Yep. Lloyd took me with him when we interviewed Dwyer about Lieutenant Mills’s disappearance.”
Lucas made a thoughtful sound in his throat and started a new search.
She watched him type “Daniel Dwyer” and “James Blanchard” into the same search bar and hit the ENTER key.
To Charlotte’s surprise, a result came up. “What’s that?” She leaned on Lucas’s arm to peer at the screen.
“It’s a wedding announcement from the same newspaper.” Opening the link, Lucas read out loud. “Police Chief James Blanchard marries Anna Dwyer. Whoa. This was dated two years ago. Is the bride related to the CO? Oh, yes, she is.” He read a line farther down the article. “The bride is the daughter of the late Marshall and Dotty Dwyer. Her older brother, Commander Daniel Dwyer, United States Navy, gave the bride away. Gotcha, you sneaky crook!”
Charlotte tore her gaze off the article. “Not exactly,” she corrected Lucas. “All we have is information linking Dwyer to Sabena, not to mention to the police there. Oh, no!” She clapped a hand to her forehead picturing what might have happened to Lloyd.
“All Dwyer had to do to get rid of Lloyd was to tell his brother-in-law to get rid of him while he was up there. The police chief could have gone after him in his police car. Lloyd would have seen the lights and started to pull over—” Her throat closed as she envisioned the police car ramming into Lloyd’s Taurus and sending it off the road into the trees. Grief had her covering her eyes, chagrined to cry in front of Lucas yet again
.
He set aside his laptop and promptly put an arm around her.
Leaning into the wall of his body, Charlotte marveled at how right it felt, and how comforting. Maybe because he’d rescued her, she associated him with safety. All she knew was listening to the thud of his heart, inhaling his clean scent, absorbing his heat—he felt like home. Only her father’s hugs had ever felt so perfect, but in an entirely different way.
But then she pictured Monica, who’d just been doing her job when Lucas condemned her. With a sharp sniff, Charlotte straightened and scooted away.
At the same moment, Lucas’s cell phone vibrated on the end of the couch, and he released her to pick it up.
“It’s Fitz,” he relayed, shooting her a glance before answering. “Yes, sir?”
Charlotte could just make out the tinny voice on the other end. “Sorry to bother you so late, Lieutenant, but I’m a night owl when I’m working on a case. I’ve been trying to reach Charlotte all day but her phone doesn’t even go to voicemail.”
As Lucas looked over at her, Charlotte indicated with very clear gestures that she didn’t want to talk to the special agent.
“I’m sorry, sir. She’s sleeping,” Lucas said, frowning at her for forcing him to lie, “and I’d hate to wake her up.”
“Of course. Tell her that her new ID is due to arrive at Chief Wade’s address tomorrow morning. FedEx is overnighting it. I need to know if someone will be there.”
“Yes, sir. Saul will get it,” Lucas stated, forbearing to add that they were all staying at Saul’s for the time being.
“Excellent. Make sure she carries the ID at all times. I saw the picture and I’m impressed,” he added. “Looks nothing like her.”
“I’ll tell her, sir.”
“Everything going okay?” queried Fitz. “Has the motion hearing been set yet?”
“Yes, sir. Friday morning.”
“Good. Good. You’ll keep from mentioning The Entity,” he reminded Lucas.
“There won’t be any need, sir,” Lucas assured him.
“I’m glad to hear that. I’m close to making arrests, and I don’t need my target forewarned in any way. Do you understand?”
“Loud and clear, sir.”
“Good night, then. Thanks again for your help with the girl,” he added, hanging up.
“The girl? I’m a girl to him? Ugh!” Charlotte threw herself against the back of the couch.
“Why haven’t you charged that cell phone he gave you?” Lucas asked, ignoring her fit.
Charlotte folded her arms across her chest and scowled. “I don’t trust him.”
Lucas cocked his head at her. “Why not?”
“I feel like he knows way more than he’s telling us. He acts like he’s doing us a favor when all he’s done is tie our hands. Sometimes I wonder if he didn’t take Lloyd’s iPad from me himself.”
Lucas looked at her like she was crazy. “Are you suggesting he arranged for your disappearance? Why would he do that?”
“To keep me from getting the iPad to my godfather. He didn’t want the DIA involved in his investigation.”
“He could have just requisitioned the iPad from you,” Lucas pointed out. “He didn’t need to make you disappear.”
“True,” she acknowledged. “But then there’s the phone he gave me. I feel like he’s using it to track my location. If he wanted to talk to me, he could always call you, like he just did.” She gestured at Lucas’s cell phone.
Her suspicions appeared to amuse Lucas, who was trying not to smile.
“You think I’m delusional,” she realized. Dropping her arms, she pushed to her feet and stood a moment, stretching out her back. “Maybe I’m so tired I don’t know what to think.”
Lucas tore his gaze off her bare thighs. “Try to sleep,” he urged, setting his laptop back on his knees.
She heaved a hopeless sigh. “Fine,” she agreed, turning away.
Climbing the stairs quietly so as not to awaken Saul, she used the restroom first, then returned to the guestroom. She was heading for the bed when a shadow shifted in the tree outside her window. Freezing to a halt, Charlotte stared into the tree’s dark branches. It had to be her tired brain imagining someone out there looking in at her.
The headlights of a passing car strafed the yard and briefly lit up the tree. What Charlotte saw—a man balanced on one of the oak’s sturdy branches and regarding her through a pair of night-vision goggles—brought a shriek to her throat. With a loud thud, she dropped to the floor out of his line of sight.
A flurry of footfalls heralded the arrival of a wild-eyed Saul at her door, pistol in hand.
“What happened?” he demanded.
“There was someone in the tree outside,” she squeaked.
Saul slid toward her window and used the tip of his pistol to lift one end of the gauzy curtain.
Charlotte remained on the floor, her heart thumping at the realization that Dwyer must have heard her conversation with Monica and wanted to see for himself who she was.
“I see him,” Saul said with a growl. “Stay here,” he added. “Stay low.”
In a flash, he was gone, leaving his dog sitting in Charlotte’s doorway regarding her sleepily. Charlotte scooted toward the dog and grabbed his collar.
Straining her ears, she overheard Saul’s terse exchange with Lucas. Lucas suggested Saul go out the front while he went out the back. She heard the rear door thud shut, then all was quiet. They’d left her alone in the house, unarmed.
Charlotte regarded the dog she was hugging. “You’ll defend me, right?”
Duke’s only answer was to yawn.
The open window filled Charlotte with a sense of terrible vulnerability. I need a weapon.
Releasing the useless canine, she scooted out of the room and down the stairs on her bottom, paced by Duke, who decided to accompany her.
In Saul’s big kitchen, all but one of the blinds were pulled. Keeping her head low, Charlotte crawled on hands and knees toward the butcher block with Duke snuffling her ear inquisitively. She had to stand up to reach the biggest blade.
She had just grabbed hold of it when the back door flew open. Charlotte straightened and whirled as a giant ducked inside. Widening her stance, she envisioned Jason Dunn and drew her hand back, preparing to launch herself at him.
The light flicked on and Lucas reared back, uttering a rare swear word.
Charlotte lowered her weapon and sagged against the counter as the strength drained out of her. “What did you find?” she demanded.
Instead of answering, Lucas approached her with caution and gently pried the knife from her grasp, then slid it back into the butcher block. “You’re okay,” he said.
She didn’t realize she was trembling until he put both arms around her and pulled her tightly to him.
“Whoever it was, he disappeared,” he told her. “We saw a car pull away, and Saul ran after it hoping to get the make and model, if not the plates.”
“I think it was Jason Dunn,” Charlotte said with certainty. “I saw him fairly clearly when a car went by.”
Lucas stiffened. “You think Dwyer sent him here because he overheard your conversation with Monica?”
“I think so. We need to leave the area,” she added, trying not to panic. “Before Dwyer tells the rest of The Entity where to find me.”
Just then Saul appeared from the front of the house, still breathing hard, and Lucas relaxed his embrace.
“I couldn’t catch up. It was a black SUV, Escalade probably. That’s all I could tell.”
“That’s what Jason Dunn drives,” Charlotte told them. “I’m telling you, that was him. We need to leave the area.”
Lucas dropped his arms completely, causing her to feel suddenly bereft.
“I need to think this through.” He raked a hand through his short brown hair.
Charlotte waited, confident that he would see things her way.
Saul cast her a look while pulling the refrigerator open. “
You okay, ma’am?”
“Please don’t call me ma’am,” she retorted. “I’m younger than you are.”
He sent her an evil grin as he extracted a bottle of juice. “You okay, babe?”
She pointed a warning finger at him. “Not that, either.”
Lucas cut in, “We’ll leave tomorrow as soon as your ID arrives, and we’ll go to Sabena. Maybe we’ll find out what your supervisor was up to and why he was killed.”
“Magnolia Manor,” Charlotte recalled from the news article they’d read earlier. “That’s where he was staying.”
“I’ll check into it,” he promised. “You go on back to bed,” he added, nudging her toward the stairs.
Charlotte dragged her feet. With adrenaline still cycling through her bloodstream, she knew she wouldn’t sleep a wink. “Can’t I stay here with you?”
He glanced at the clock on the stove. “My watch is almost up. I’m going to crash on the couch.”
Saul drained the bottle in his hand and set it on the counter. “I got it from here, sir.”
Charlotte stood at the bottom of the stairs, waffling.
Lucas pointed at the ceiling. “Go to bed.”
“I won’t sleep,” she told him. “Couldn’t you…?” She had to swallow her chagrin to get the rest of the words out. “Couldn’t you lie down next to me? Please?” she added when he just stared at her.
Saul snickered as he pulled a chair out.
Lucas shot him a glare and looked back at Charlotte. “Will it help you sleep?”
His dubious tone brought Charlotte’s hands to her hips. “Yes.”
His broad shoulders rose and fell. “All right, then,” he agreed, and gestured for her to precede him.
Seconds later, the sturdy bedframe creaked as Lucas shucked his shoes and joined her on the double bed. Charlotte wriggled closer to the wall to give him space. Still, their shoulders touched. Avoiding looking at the window, she heaved a huge sigh of relief and closed her eyes.
“Do you have enough room?” he asked. His voice was like the rumbling of a lion.
Every Secret Thing Page 9