She should have done some computer work the day that she and Nick had seen the inside of Clay’s house, when they had first speculated about the source of his money. She cursed the fact that while both of them had marveled at the things he owned, neither of them had thought about checking it out further.
Was this just another wild goose chase? Was she targeting the wrong kid, chasing the wrong motive? It was possible that Clay made enough money ranching to buy his toys. It had been evident that he wasn’t spending much on the maintenance of the exterior of his home.
After several more minutes passed she began to doubt what she was doing here. She wasn’t about to confront Clay Cole all alone. That would be the height of foolishness. She really wasn’t going to learn anything even when the kids came out of his house.
The best thing she could do now was get to her computer and do some digging into Clay Cole’s life. It was time to get out of here.
She moved her hand to her keys but just before she could crank the engine the barrel of a gun pressed hard against the side of her head.
“Well, well, if it ain’t the pretty pink-haired woman sticking her nose in where it don’t belong.” Clay’s deep voice filled her with horror as she shot a glance at her purse with her gun inside.
“Whoa, if I were you I wouldn’t move a muscle that I don’t tell you to move. Now, nice and easy, get out of the car. If you make a wrong move I’ll blow your brains out, and trust me, I’m a man of my word.”
NICK PACED THE FLOOR of his living room waiting for Lexie to call and tell him she was on her way to his place. He fought the desire to jump in his car and head to Clay’s, afraid if he did she’d show up here, afraid that he might miss a call from her. He didn’t think she had the number to his cell. Any time she’d called him it had always been on his landline.
When twenty minutes had passed and she still hadn’t shown up or called him back and he couldn’t stand it any longer, he called her on her cell phone. When the call went directly to her voice mail a sick panic slithered through him.
He had no reason to believe that anything was wrong or that she was in any kind of real trouble, but he couldn’t stop the alarms ringing in his head.
He was afraid to call Gary Wendall for backup. He still wasn’t sure the lawman could be trusted. But as the minutes continued to click off, he recognized he had to do something. By the time forty minutes had passed and she still hadn’t shown up and still wasn’t answering her phone, he’d made a decision.
He grabbed his gun and was headed to the front door when he paused, his mind racing. He felt the same way he had when Danielle had told him she was leaving him…helpless and afraid that somehow he hadn’t done enough.
He never wanted to feel that way again. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and got the number to the FBI field office in Kansas City. When he connected with the office he asked to speak to Director Grimes.
“I think one of your agents is in trouble,” he said when the man got on the phone. He quickly explained the situation and was glad to realize that apparently Lexie had already told her boss much of what had been happening.
“Is there law enforcement there that you can trust?” Grimes asked.
Nick hesitated only a moment. “No.”
“I’ll get agents there as quickly as I can,” Grimes replied.
Nick gave him Clay’s address. “That’s where she was the last time I talked to her, but I don’t intend to wait for the cavalry,” he exclaimed. “I’m headed there now.” He ended the call and headed out the door. He got into his truck and roared out of his driveway, recriminations firing through him.
He shouldn’t have waited so long to call Grimes. He should have left for Clay’s the minute she’d called and told him she was there.
He hadn’t done enough.
The words thundered in his head, a repeat of what he’d heard for months after Danielle had been found dead. He’d somehow let her down, he thought, but it wasn’t Danielle who filled his mind, it was Lexie.
Maybe she was fine and just hadn’t answered his calls. Things had definitely gone awkward between them. Maybe she’d instantly regretted calling him in the first place and had simply left Clay’s and gone back to her motel.
No, she wouldn’t do that. She knew him well enough to know that he’d worry and she would never do that to him. Something was wrong, dammit.
He’d pushed her too hard, wanted her too much. That’s what had run her out of his house and into danger all alone. If something happened to Lexie he didn’t know if he could survive it. She was in his heart so deep that he felt that if something happened to her it would stop beating altogether.
As he got closer to Clay’s place his mind began to work scenarios. He couldn’t go in guns blazing; he had no idea what he might be walking into or who he might be facing.
He looked for Lexie’s car when he got close to Clay’s, but didn’t find it parked anywhere along the road. Had she left the area? Was she maybe on his way back to his place? He frowned and dismissed the idea. She hadn’t been in town long enough to know all the back roads. If she’d been on his way to his house he would have met her.
He parked his car about a mile away from Clay’s house behind a grove of trees on Old Man Johnson’s property. Before he left the car he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tried one last call to Lexie’s cell phone. Once again it went directly to her voice mail.
A tight tension coiled in his belly. He had no plan as he left his car. He had no idea what he intended to do, but rather moved on instinct.
This was the last place she had been and he wouldn’t be satisfied until he’d checked every inch of Clay’s place to assure himself that she wasn’t there.
He approached Clay’s house from the back, using the cover of trees to assess the situation. Unfortunately there was nothing to see. There was no sign of life anywhere.
With a frown he decided to check the outbuildings first and if he didn’t find Lexie somewhere soon he’d take the chance and knock on Clay’s door, insist the man show him every room in the house.
What worried him was that if she wasn’t here, then he was wasting precious time. But the truth of the matter was if she wasn’t here he wouldn’t know where else to look.
Thankfully Clay’s property was overgrown and unkempt, allowing Nick to use the cover of brush and trees to make his way to the detached garage.
His heart thundered with anxiety as he approached the building. Lexie, where are you? He felt the same sickening sense of danger that he’d felt when Danielle had first disappeared, the horrifying sense that something was desperately wrong.
Peering into one of the filthy garage windows, Nick’s pounding heart seemed to crash to a halt. Inside, nestled next to Clay’s big pickup, was Lexie’s car.
Along with a renewed, nearly crippling guilt that gripped him came a rage he’d never known before, a rage directed at Clay and whoever else was a participant in this.
Nick’s fingers tightened on the butt of his gun. If he found out that Clay had hurt Lexie, Nick had no doubt that he could kill the man.
From his vantage point it looked as if Lexie’s car was empty, but he needed to get inside the garage to know for sure. He crept around to the opposite side of the building and found a side door unlocked.
He slid inside, his heart once again crashing in his chest as he approached her car. The interior was empty but her keys hung from the ignition.
He stared at the trunk, afraid to open it, afraid not to. He leaned into the driver side and popped the trunk latch and then, with feet that felt like lead, he approached the trunk.
It was ajar only an inch, not enough for him to see if she was inside. Tears burned in his eyes and a lump in his throat made it almost impossible to breathe as he pulled up the trunk lid.
A gasp of relief exploded out of him. She wasn’t there, but her purse was. The sight of her purse sent him into a new panic.
She was here.
And she w
as in desperate trouble.
Now all he had to do was find her and pray that he wasn’t already too late.
Chapter Twelve
Lexie twisted and turned her wrists, attempting to break free of the rope that held her captive. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her ankles were trussed together as well, making it impossible for her to escape from the shed where Clay had stuck her.
As if the ropes that bound her weren’t enough, he’d duct-taped her mouth closed as well. She was trapped, unable to scream for help and unable to help herself.
Leaning her head back against the metal structure, she fought against the tears that begged to be released, knowing that crying would solve nothing.
She’d been stupid. She should have never followed Jimmy Morano on her own. She should have never trusted that just because she was an FBI agent and carried a gun she wasn’t making a huge mistake.
She’d gone off half-cocked like the Lone Ranger, her only thought trying to find somebody to blame for her sister’s death. Now she had the face of at least one of the bad guys emblazoned in her brain. Clay Cole. But in identifying Cole, she’d also put herself in imminent danger.
What she hoped for was that Nick would worry when she hadn’t called him again and would come looking for her. What she really hoped was that he wouldn’t show up here without a plan and find himself in trouble as well.
But what frightened her more than anything was that she knew that if she didn’t survive this, Nick would find a way to blame himself and she knew he’d never recover. It didn’t matter that he didn’t love her, she would still be, in his mind, another woman he’d somehow let down.
She squeezed her eyes closed and thought about Danielle. She had no idea exactly what had transpired between Nick and Danielle when they’d lost their baby, but there was no doubt in her mind that Nick had done everything humanly possible to support the woman he loved.
Whatever forces had driven Danielle to commit suicide, Lexie couldn’t imagine that Nick had been one of them. All thoughts of Nick and Danielle jumped from her mind as she heard approaching footsteps.
The shed door creaked open and Clay walked in. He leaned against the opened door and grinned at her. “I’d ask you if you were uncomfortable, but I can tell by looking at you that you are,” he said. “Unfortunately it’s going to be a little while before something happens. I’ve got to wait for the boss man to show up and tell me exactly what he wants to do with you.”
Lexie stared at him through narrowed eyes.
He laughed. “Now I understand that expression ‘if looks could kill.’” He sobered. “It’s a damn shame, really. A pretty girl like you finding yourself in this mess. You should have buried your sister and hightailed it back to Kansas City. You should have never started sticking your nose in things that don’t concern you.”
He shoved himself off the door. “Your sister, she was going to be trouble, that’s for sure. We had to arrange that little accident for her before she started training dogs that would screw up everything we’re doing.”
They’d killed her. Just as Lexie had suspected, they’d killed Lauren. As grief and rage exploded through her, she fought her ropes, struggling to get free so she could kill him. Sobs welled up in her throat, strangled from release by the duct tape across her mouth as the ropes held tight.
“It was the same thing with Nick’s wife,” he continued. Lexie froze and once again stared at him. “She had a habit of sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong. She was way too curious about things for her own good.”
He offered her a self-satisfied smile. “That was a piece of work if I do say so myself,” he said. “The way I staged that scene so that everybody would believe she’d blown her own brains out. It was genius and it didn’t hurt that she had a history of depression.”
Nick. Oh, Nick, Lexie’s heart cried. He’d carried the burden so long of Danielle’s death and the truth was she hadn’t committed suicide, but had been brutally murdered.
The next thing that chilled her blood was the knowledge that Clay had already killed two women. There was absolutely no reason to believe that she was going to suffer any different fate. Clay wasn’t going to let her just walk out of this shed with the promise that she’d hightail it out of town.
A deep, shuddering chill worked through her as she realized Widow Creek wasn’t just going to claim her sister’s life, but her own as well.
NICK SAGGED TO THE GROUND behind the shed, overwhelmed with a myriad of emotions as he heard Clay’s words. She hadn’t killed herself! Danielle hadn’t taken her own life. That meant she hadn’t given up on them; she hadn’t given up on Nick. She’d planned on getting back with him, expected to continue to build a life together.
He’d been about to check out the barn in the distance when he’d seen Clay leave the house and enter the small shed. He’d made his way to the back of it in time to hear everything that the man had said to Lexie.
Tears once again burned in his eyes, this time for the woman he’d loved, for the woman he’d believed he’d somehow let down. The tears were quickly followed by a rage like he’d never known before. They’d already stolen from him one woman he loved. He would not let them take another.
What worried him was that the whole time Clay had been talking, Lexie hadn’t made a sound. Was she hurt? Was she unable to make a sound because she was injured? Weak?
There was only one person in there with Lexie and Clay wouldn’t be expecting Nick, especially Nick with a gun. He pulled himself up and was about to round the side of the shed when he heard a car door slam shut.
He pressed against the back of the shed so that he wouldn’t be in sight of whoever was coming. The boss, that’s what Clay had said. He’d been waiting for the boss to arrive.
Footsteps approached, heavy and crunching dead leaves. Gary Wendall? Was it possible the chief of police was the Mr. Big behind everything?
Nick’s heart beat so furiously he found it difficult to draw a full breath. He was afraid to ease around the corner and see who was coming, afraid that he might be seen and the last hope to save Lexie would be gone.
Instead he placed his ear against the side of the shed, knowing he’d be able to hear whatever was going on inside. “Clay, take that duct tape off her mouth so we can have a civilized conversation here.”
Stunned surprise filled Nick as he recognized the voice. Mayor Vincent Caldwell. So, the rot in Widow Creek had gone all the way to the top.
“You bastard, you killed my sister. You killed Nick’s wife.” Lexie’s voice was strong and filled with emotion and the sound of it shot a rivulet of relief through Nick.
“You have become quite a nuisance, Ms. Forbes,” Vincent said. “I’m trying to keep a town alive here and sometimes the individual has to be sacrificed for the good of the people.”
“You’re nothing more than a drug dealer,” Lexie exclaimed.
“I’m doing what I have to do in order to keep this town functioning. Do you have any idea what it costs for snow removal each year? For trash pickup? Do you know what it takes to keep a town functioning? This isn’t just about selling drugs, it’s about our very survival here in Widow Creek.”
“Is Gary Wendall one of your henchmen? Does he sell meth in his spare time?” Lexie asked.
Vincent laughed. “Gary Wendall is a lazy buffoon. Unfortunately he’s a straight arrow so we’ve had to work around him. Fortunately for us it’s been pretty easy to get around him.”
Nick found some comfort in the fact that Gary hadn’t been a part of Danielle’s death, that he wasn’t a part of the madness that had gripped this town. Still it was small comfort because Nick now had two men to get through in order to save Lexie.
“You’re insane,” Lexie exclaimed. “You think snow removal is worth two women’s lives? You really want me to believe that you’re so noble and just doing this to save the town and not lining your own pockets in the process?”
“Of course I’m lining my own pockets,” Vin
cent said, speaking as if talking to a mentally challenged person. “But, I’m also taking care of my people…the good people of Widow Creek.”
Nick wanted to burst inside. His natural instinct to protect Lexie surged up inside him. The element of surprise would be on his side, but a voice of reason reminded him that he didn’t know if Clay and Vincent were armed.
Lexie could be shot in the blink of an eye and then nothing else would matter in the world. Patience, he told himself. He had to be patient and wait for the perfect opportunity to act. He just prayed that opportunity would come before all was lost.
LEXIE FINALLY HAD her answers. Lauren had been murdered along with Nick’s wife over a year ago to protect a drug operation. The rage that filled her as she looked at Clay and Vincent nearly blinded her. Beneath the rage was a pounding terror as she recognized she was going to die here in this shed.
She had no idea where Nick was, or if he were even looking for her. Maybe he was still at his place, waiting for her to call, wondering if she would really call him.
“What about Jimmy Morano? Is he in on this?” she asked.
“He’s just a stupid kid who takes care of selling to the teenagers around town. Unfortunately, he likes to use more than he likes to sell,” Clay replied.
“So, it was you who shot at us at Lauren’s place?” she asked Clay.
“Yeah, it was me.” Clay clapped his hand on Vincent’s shoulder. “The boss here, he doesn’t get his hands dirty. He leaves that kind of work to me.”
Vincent moved away from him, as if disliking Clay’s touch. “You should have taken the warning, Ms. Forbes, and left town. Now we not only have you as a problem, but we also have Nick.”
Scene of the Crime: Widow Creek Page 15