The Betrayal of Lies

by Debra Burroughs

  “Well, I’m not a psychologist or anything, but isn’t it possible that her disappearance made him realize that he really did love her, that he didn’t want to live without her? What do they call that—a watershed moment?”

  Emily crossed her arms over her chest, thinking about her secretive late husband. “Or he’s a very good actor.”

  “Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, Elise was lying to Maggie and Camille, trying to make a case for having an affair and leaving her husband to be with the other man?”

  A slight crease formed between her brows as her mouth turned down. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “We’re going on what your friends said that Elise told them, Babe. Has anyone actually witnessed Murphy physically abusing his wife?” Colin asked. “Or seen any evidence of it? Bruises, scars?”

  “Like who?”

  Colin raised an eyebrow. “Maybe Elise’s daughter.”

  When Kaitlyn returned from her supposed camping trip, Emily would have to ask her about it. What a terrible shock was in store for the girl, to find out her mother was murdered.

  Emily thought back to the day she’d found Evan dead in his office. All air had rushed out of her and she’d been unable to catch her breath. Her heart had beat so hard against her ribs that she had been sure it was going to explode in her chest. She’d screamed, she’d cried, she’d wretched. Her head and knees had gone weak at the same time and she’d fallen into a sobbing heap on the floor for a few moments before she’d come to her senses and called the police.

  At least Kaitlyn was spared the horror of finding her mother so brutally murdered.

  “Emily?” Colin called her name softly. “Where did you go?”

  Her gaze flew up to meet his. “What do you mean?” She gave a little laugh and unfolded her arms. “I’m right here.”

  “Your body maybe.”

  “Sorry,” she said, snuggling against him again. “I was thinking about how Kaitlyn’s going to take the bad news.”

  He draped his arm around her and pulled her close. “Poor kid. Hopefully, she’ll be notified in time to be here for the funeral.”

  ~*~

  Colin and Emily made a big bowl of popcorn and cuddled on the sofa after sticking a James Bond DVD into the player, hoping the fast-paced action would give them a mental break from the case.

  “Don’t those Bond girls know that once he has sex with them, he’s moving on to the next case, the next country, the next woman?” Emily asked before popping a few kernels in her mouth.

  “Aside from the fact that they’re not real, I think these girls believe it will be different for them, that they’re the one that will win his heart and get him to settle down.”

  “Like the girl in Casino Royale. James Bond was willing to give up everything for her—until she was killed.” Emily thought about Evan. He had been a spy, travelled to many exotic, foreign countries. He never spoke about it, but he probably had women throwing themselves at him all around the world—until he met her. He gave up the spy business for Emily, only she didn’t know it at the time. It wasn’t until years later that she found out who he really was and what he had done.

  Colin paused the movie. “If I had to, I would give up everything to be with you, Emily.” His voice turned serious, almost anguished. “I love you.”

  She wondered if he had been thinking of Miranda. Both Emily and Colin had suffered unspeakable loss, once willing to commit to someone for the rest of their lives, but neither of them got the chance to see it through.

  Emily looked up into his smoky eyes and they drew her in. Her hand slid over his well-muscled chest and behind his neck, and she pulled his face down close to hers. She brushed her lips against his, then kissed him full on. His arms were instantly around her, returning her affection with even more passion.

  Colin leaned her down on the sofa and nibbled her neck. “I want to marry you, sooner rather than later,” he whispered.

  The heat that swirled in her at his touch was making it hard for her to think, but she managed a reply. “But there’s still so much to do before the wedding,” she sighed, “so many plans—”

  “Let’s elope.”

  She pushed him back and sat up. “But I want a wedding, with all our friends and family. We couldn’t do that to them. What about your mom and dad? They’d be heartbroken.”

  “Isabel and Alex did it.”

  Emily shot up off the sofa and spun back to face Colin. “We’re not Isabel and Alex. Besides, they eloped before we all became such close friends, and they don’t have the family members that would never forgive us.”

  Colin stood and ran his hand gently down Emily’s left arm. He lifted her left hand, sparkling with the diamond engagement ring, and kissed the back of her hand. “I love you, Emily. I want to wake up each morning and see your pretty face, hear your sweet voice, and especially feel your warm body lying next to mine.”

  Her hand tenderly cupped his strong jaw and a little smile curled on her lips. “Be patient, my love, and you’ll get everything you want—and more.”

  ~*~

  Late the next morning, Colin received a phone call from Dr. Barbour. Jake was awake, but still very weak. She would allow Colin and Emily to come in and ask a few questions, but they were not to upset him or the interview would be over.

  They raced to the hospital. The doctor was waiting for them outside of Jake’s room, along with an officer who was seated by the door.

  Colin looked through the large wall of windows, seeing Jake still hooked up to various machines. Hopefully, they would be able to get enough information out of him before the doctor cut them off.

  Dr. Barbour escorted them in. She checked the machines, made sure his vitals were within safe levels before she told them they could proceed.

  “Jake,” the doctor began, standing on the right side of his bed, “Detective Andrews wants to ask you a few questions. I’ll be right here. If it gets to be too much for you, you let me know and I’ll stop him.”

  Colin didn’t appreciate the doctor setting his suspect up to avoid answering his questions, saying he was too tired or didn’t feel well. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be good for anyone if the questioning drove the man into cardiac arrest or respiratory failure.

  Emily and Colin moved to the left side of the bed.

  “Do you remember us, Jake?” Emily asked with a friendly voice.

  “Yes,” he responded weakly, his deep brown eyes half shut.

  Colin laid a small cassette recorder on the edge of the bed. “First, I want you to know you are not under arrest at this point. However, that could change, so I need to read you your rights.”

  Jake’s eyes widened.

  Colin proceeded to Mirandize him. “Do you understand your rights as I’ve described them?”

  The man nodded in silence.

  “Did you kidnap Elise Murphy?” Colin asked.

  “No, she went willingly.” His voice was weak and gravelly.

  “Were you two having an affair?” Colin asked.

  Jake looked up at the ceiling, tears filling his eyes. “Yes,” he ground out.

  “Whose idea was it to fake her kidnapping?”

  “I was approached by—”Jake suddenly stopped talking and his eyes got big as he looked toward the door. The monitor showed his heart rate rapidly climbing, the beeping sound quickening.

  Emily’s and Colin’s attention switched to the doorway and they saw the officer blocking Patrick Murphy from entering, with his attorney not far behind him.

  “I’m sorry,” Dr. Barbour said, “but this interview is over.” She handed Colin his recorder, then looked toward the doorway. “Everybody out!”

  Patrick stalked off down the hall.

  Colin and Emily did as they were ordered and hurried out of the intensive care area as well. They stood at the wall of windows and watched as the doctor drew a privacy curtain around her patient.

  “What brought that on?” Emily asked. “Seeing Patrick Murphy
?”

  Colin looked down the hallway, watching Patrick and his attorney head toward the elevators. “That’s what it looked like. Why would Murphy come to see his wife’s killer?”

  The hairs stood up on the back of his neck and a tingle raked down his spine. Something wasn’t right. Would Murphy kill Jake to exact revenge for Elise’s murder? Or to shut him up?

  In either case, Colin wouldn’t put it past the man. When his own fiancée Miranda was brutally murdered, in the hours and days that followed, he was out of his mind with grief. He certainly could have killed the man who took her life if he’d had the chance. The anger, the hate, the desperation and heartbreak overtook any shred of common sense. Fortunately for Colin, the killer wasn’t caught until months later, which gave him time to get his head on straight.

  “Dahlgren,” Colin called to the officer posted by Jake’s door. “Do you have any idea what could have happened if that man had gotten in here? Neither Patrick Murphy nor his lawyer are allowed anywhere near Mitchell! Is that clear?”

  “Crystal. Sorry, sir.”

  “Let me know if that guy comes back.” Colin’s attention returned to Emily.

  “You think he was trying to stop Jake from talking?” Emily asked.

  “Maybe.” Colin’s eyebrows furrowed as he cocked his head. “You think maybe they were in cahoots too?”

  Emily shrugged. “Until we can finish the interview with Mr. Mitchell, we won’t know whether it’s Jake or Patrick to blame—or both.”

  Colin’s gaze returned to the glass that kept him out of the Intensive Care Unit. Frustrated, he ran his fingers through his hair, imagining Jake lying in the bed in critical condition behind the drawn curtain. “I hope we get the chance.”

  Chapter 19

  Less than an hour after Colin and Emily left the hospital, they received word that Jake Mitchell had slipped into a coma. How were they going to learn the truth now? Certainly not from Patrick Murphy.

  They stopped for a quick lunch at the Bodacious Pig BBQ, discussing the case and contemplating where to go from here. Jake was unconscious and Patrick wasn’t talking. Maggie had given them little in the way of useful information, except confirming that the kidnapping was staged.

  Dr. Walters had finished the autopsy and Nelly had given them all the information she and the CSI team had uncovered, none of which gave them a clear killer. They were missing something.

  “If only Jake would wake up,” Emily said, popping a seasoned french fry in her mouth.

  Colin was about to polish off the last of his pulled pork sandwich when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He grabbed a napkin and wiped is hands before digging it out. “It’s a text from Ernie.”

  “I didn’t know Ernie knew how to text.” Emily grinned, munching on another fry.

  “He says the police in Colorado have been in contact with Kaitlyn.”

  “She finally got back?”

  “He says she’s flying here in the morning for the funeral tomorrow.”

  “I didn’t know the funeral was tomorrow,” Emily said. “Did you?”

  “No. Patrick probably wants it kept low key, with the way she died and all the suspicion swirling around him.”

  “We should go,” Emily said.

  Colin shook his head, picking up the remains of his sandwich. “We weren’t invited.”

  “You don’t get invited to a funeral, sweetheart. You just show up.”

  “I’m sure it’s just for family and close friends.”

  “Elise and I were friends, sort of,” Emily said. They might have become good friends if they had been given the time. “And I’m sure Camille and Maggie will want to be there.”

  “Perhaps they know when and where it’ll be.”

  “Maybe we’ll catch a break and I’ll get an opportunity to talk to Kaitlyn.” Emily wiped her fingers on her napkin, eager to find out what the daughter knew.

  “At the funeral?”

  “Sure,” Emily replied. “Sometimes when people are upset they blurt things out they wouldn’t normally say.”

  “Oh, Babe, not at the funeral.”

  “It’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m going to push her to talk, but as I’m telling her how sorry I am for her loss—which I am—perhaps there’s something she’d like to get off her chest, something about her stepfather.”

  “Are you that convinced Jake is not our man?” he pressed.

  “He might be our killer, but there’s just something about the husband. I want to find out more.”

  “But you’re going on a gut feeling, nothing more.”

  “If only Isabel could find something in Patrick’s financials,” Emily said, “we could break this case wide open.”

  Colin’s eyebrows wrinkled. “Did you get a warrant for that?”

  Emily leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I asked her to check into them on the QT.”

  “You could get Isabel in a lot of hot water, Babe.”

  “She offered.”

  Emily’s phone began to ring. “Speak of the devil,” she said with a smug grin. “Hello, Isabel.”

  “Hey, Em, you won’t believe what I found.”

  Emily looked over at Colin. “What?”

  “You know how everyone thinks Patrick Murphy is worth something like fifty million dollars?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Well, it’s a lot less than that,” Isabel said.

  Colin leaned close. “What’s she saying?” he whispered.

  Emily considered putting her phone on speaker, so Colin could hear the conversation, but she thought it might be better if he had plausible deniability. So instead, she waved him away.

  Isabel continued. “Either someone is siphoning off his money, or he’s been systematically transferring it out of the country—to the Cayman Islands is my guess. Maybe in anticipation of Elise filing for divorce.

  “She would have gotten half,” Emily mumbled.

  Emily tapped her fingers on the table as she continued to ponder. Murphy must not have known his wife didn’t care about the money. Did he even know that she was afraid of him? How could he know when he was gone most of the time? They were like strangers sharing the same address. Elise had said she thought he’d find her and drag her back. Had Murphy told her he would? If so, then why hide the money?

  “He was lucky to have put together the two million dollars for the ransom drop.” Isabel brought Emily’s attention back to the conversation.

  “Assuming that’s what he did,” Emily said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Did anyone actually count the money in the duffle bag?” Emily glanced over at Colin. “Or did everyone assume he had put two million in cash in there simply because he said he did?”

  “Good point. I tracked the withdrawals from his different accounts, but all I could find came to just over one million,” Isabel said. “Now, I have to admit, some of the accounts I really had to dig deep to uncover, so I might have missed some. He could have more I haven’t found yet.”

  “The ransom drop might have been part of the ruse anyway,” Emily said.

  “The ruse?”

  Colin tapped Emily on the arm. “What’s she saying?”

  “Hey, can I call you back later?” Emily asked, peeking over at Colin.

  “You’re not alone, are you?”

  “Not at the moment.”

  “Tell you what, why don’t you and Colin come over for dinner tonight? Alex is barbecuing. With Jonathan headed out of town again, I’ve already invited Camille—Maggie too. I’m sure Alex would love to have some male company. See you at six?”

  “We’d love to.” Emily smiled at Colin, who looked perplexed. “I’ll catch you up then.”

  ~*~

  By the time Emily and Colin arrived, Maggie was already there, sitting with Isabel in the family room, telling her side of the story to Isabel. Alex had answered the door and taken their dinner contribution, a fresh peach pie they had picked up at Marie Callender’s.

 
“Please don’t say anythin’ to Camille about Jake,” Emily overheard Maggie say to Isabel as they walked in.

  Alex laid the pie down on the counter and Colin followed him out to the grill on the patio.

  “Emily!” Isabel exclaimed with a big smile. She stood and spread her arms open as she rushed to give her a hug. “We need to talk,” she whispered in Emily’s ear.

  Maggie stood too. “Hello, Em.” Her voice and her actions were cool and aloof.

  “Hi, Maggs.” Emily went to her and threw an arm around her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  Maggie did not reply. Rather, she crossed her arms and dropped back down onto the sofa.

  Emily decided to let her be, for now. “Camille’s not here yet?”

  “Not yet,” Isabel replied, heading toward the open kitchen that overlooked the family room and the casual dining area. She had laid out all of the accompanying dishes on the large granite-topped center island, making room for something delicious she knew chef Camille would bring. “I made some sweet tea. Anyone care for some?”

  Just then the doorbell rang. Isabel started toward the door, but it opened before she got there. It was Camille.

  “Surprise!” Camille shouted. Her brother Peter stepped in behind her. He was tall and handsome with thick auburn hair and deep blue eyes.

  Maggie shot out of her seat and hurried to see what the surprise was. Peter met her in the hallway and scooped her up in his arms.

  “I didn’t know you were comin’,” Maggie said, beaming.

  He gave her a quick kiss. “It wouldn’t have been a surprise if you had,” he said, smiling broadly.

  “Peter’s here to do a story on Elise’s murder,” Camille said, holding a big bowl of pepperoni and artichoke pasta salad. “I was able to pick him up at the airport when I dropped Jonathan off.”

  Camille’s brother worked for a major television station in Seattle. Besides visiting Boise to see Maggie, Peter had come on several occasions to cover various stories, at times helping Colin and Emily to solve their cases. On one case in particular, he was mic’d and wired with a tiny video camera, posing as a potential client to help uncover a local sex slave ring.

  “Why would people in Seattle be interested in a murder in our little ol’ Idaho town?” Maggie asked.