He couldn’t. She’d rather be alone than be in a relationship without real passion, without true mutual love. Been there, done that, and the results had nearly destroyed her.
As he rambled on, Marlena realized it was the first time that he sat in the house with her. Normally Sam made it uncomfortable for the man to be anywhere but on the porch when he came to visit Marlena.
Thomas was a big man, with wide shoulders and thighs the size of tree trunks. Physical labor had given him the muscles of a bodybuilder, but he had always been gentle and soft-spoken when around her.
He had to have known that Sam and Daniella didn’t approve of him. They hadn’t hidden the fact that they thought he was all wrong for her.
Her heart began a slightly faster unsteady beat as she stared at the man on the sofa. Was he so obsessed with her that he had removed the people who disapproved of him? Left her alone in the house and frightened, hoping he could step in and be her support, the man she turned to in her need?
Ridiculous, a tiny voice whispered inside her. You’re looking for a bad guy in a friend who has never shown any violent tendencies, a man who has never pushed you to accept any unwanted advances.
Still, she was grateful an hour later when he finally left with the promise to check in with her soon.
Maybe it was time she moved up her schedule for leaving Bachelor Moon.
And maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to mention Thomas’s name to Gabriel.
Chapter Four
Sheriff Jim Thompson was a font of information about the history of Sam and Daniella’s relationship, which had formed when Sam had come to the bed-and-breakfast for a vacation.
During that two-week stay, it had become apparent that Daniella was in danger—the first indication the murder of Samantha Walker, the daughter of Mayor Brian Walker.
It had later been determined that the bed-and-breakfast gardener, Frank Mathis, had been obsessed with Daniella and little Macy. He’d killed Samantha Walker as a gift to Daniella, because Samantha had planned on opening a bed-and-breakfast that would directly compete with Daniella’s business.
Armed with this little bit of history, the three agents were now on their way to see Brian Walker. “Maybe the old man blamed Daniella for his daughter’s murder and exacted some kind of revenge against the family,” Jackson said as Gabriel drove down the tree-lined street that would take him to the ex-mayor’s house.
“More than two years is a long time to let rage fester,” Gabriel replied. “If he does have something to do with the Connellys’ disappearance, then there had to have been some sort of trigger.”
“A week ago was Samantha Walker’s birthday,” Andrew said from the backseat where he had a laptop open, checking facts.
“That could definitely be a trigger,” Gabriel replied.
“There...on the left,” Jackson said, pointing to the house where Brian Walker had lived for the past two years. Gabriel pulled into the driveway of the small, ill-kept house.
Weeds had long ago choked out any semblance of yard and an air of desolation hung upon the faded forest-green ranch house. Gabriel turned off the car engine and the three agents got out.
The heat was nearly overwhelming, pressing against Gabriel’s chest and making it difficult to draw a deep breath. He unfastened the safety snap over his gun and knew the two agents behind him had done the same thing. They had no idea what they might be walking into. Brian Walker could be a dangerous man.
Gabriel knocked on the door, his emotions cold as he went into the survival mode that had kept him alive through many heinous cases.
It helped that he knew Jackson and Andrew had his back. He’d worked with them long enough to know they could handle almost any situation that might fly their way.
Gabriel knocked again and heard a faint cry from inside. “I’m coming. Hold your damned horses.”
Gabriel drew his gun from his holster, not liking the man’s tone nor his delay in opening the door.
When the door finally opened, a man in a dirty white T-shirt and a baggy pair of black slacks stared at Gabriel and then the gun he held in his hand.
“It would be a great blessing in my life if you’d just shoot me, but I would like to know why you’re doing it before you pull the trigger,” he said.
Gabriel holstered his gun and instead pulled out his identification. “May we come in and have a chat with you, Mr. Walker?”
“Why not? I haven’t broken any laws. Drinking too much, being slovenly and wishing yourself dead isn’t a crime if it’s done in the sanctity of your own home.” He opened the door wider to allow them inside.
The blinds were partially pulled as if to ward off any sunshine and cheerfulness. The living room reeked of alcohol, stale cigarette smoke and old food. Gabriel’s initial assessment was that Brian Walker was a man on a mission: to wish himself dead.
“Mind if my partners take a look around the house?” Gabriel asked as Brian eased into a recliner where he’d created a nest of trash around him.
“Help yourself.” Brian waved airily and picked up a glass with contents that looked like scotch. “I don’t suppose I could interest you in a drink.”
“Thanks, but no.” Gabriel lowered himself to the sofa.
“I bet I know what you’re thinking,” Brian said, and then took a deep swallow of his drink.
“And what’s that?”
“How hard the mighty fall.” Brian took another drink and then set the glass on the nearby end table. “A little over two years ago I was happily married, mayor of this little town and encouraging my beautiful, divorced daughter to follow whatever dream she had in her busy, ditzy head.”
“And then Samantha was murdered,” Gabriel added, his gut already telling him that this sad, broken man had nothing to do with the disappearance of the Connelly family.
Brian nodded. “And within that moment of insanity in Frank Mathis’s violence, he ripped apart my entire world. A month later my wife had left me, I had resigned my position as mayor and had crawled into the bottom of a bottle and a hole that I have no desire to ever crawl out of.”
“You’ve heard that the Connelly family is missing?” Gabriel asked.
“I heard, but if you’re here because you think I had something to do with it, then you’re wasting your time. I never held Daniella responsible for what happened to Samantha. Daniella was just another victim of Frank Mathis’s craziness. The only difference between her and Samantha is that Daniella was lucky enough to survive his insanity.”
By that time Andrew and Jackson had returned to the living room, indicating with shakes of their heads that they’d found nothing to link Brian to the Connelly family disappearance.
Minutes later the three agents were back in their car and headed out to check on another man, who Sheriff Thompson had mentioned might have reason to harm Sam Connelly.
“You can’t help but feel bad for Brian Walker,” Andrew said from the backseat. “Poor guy lost everything he loved—his job, his wife and his daughter.”
That’s why it is easier not to love, Gabriel thought. Better to keep people at bay, better to not expect kindness or love from anyone else, because when it went bad, it went so terribly bad. Certainly Gabriel had learned, at the absence of his mother’s knee and at the end of his father’s fist, that some people weren’t meant to be loved.
“I think we can pretty much rule Brian out as a suspect,” Jackson said. “I’m not sure his alcohol-addled brain could summon the cunning and savvy that our attacker had to possess in order to control the kidnapping of three people all at the same time.”
“I definitely agree,” Gabriel replied. “Let’s see if Ryan Sherman shows a little more potential.”
“Ryan Sherman, thirty-four years old,” Andrew said from the backseat, once again on the laptop utilizing FBI access to
the most information possible about a person.
“He spent two years in prison on an assault-and-battery charge. He’s been out of the joint for the past three years and works as a mechanic at Glen’s Garage,” Andrew continued.
“From what Thompson told us, he and Sam have had several run-ins. Seems Ryan has a real bad attitude when it comes to the law and took a special dislike to former agent Connelly,” Jackson said.
As the two of them talked about Ryan Sherman and the case, Gabriel’s mind drifted to Marlena and the night before. Would she have managed to make it to shore had he not heard her scream? Somehow he doubted it. Had she been shoved off the path, or merely stumbled and imagined being pushed?
They certainly did not need another element to the mystery they’d already been handed. And the very last thing he needed was to think about how soft and vulnerable Marlena had looked in her robe with her damp curls framing her lovely face.
He didn’t want to think about how her body had looked with her wet clothes plastered against her. In truth, he didn’t want to think about her at all.
Thankfully, they arrived at Glen’s Garage. As Gabriel parked on the side of the building, they were met by a man in coveralls who introduced himself as the owner, Glen Grable. “What can I do for you folks this afternoon?” he asked with an affable smile.
Gabriel flashed his identification. “We’d like to speak to Ryan Sherman.”
Glen’s smile transformed into a frown. “He in trouble again? Damn him. I told him, the next time I had to bail him out of jail, he was finished working here.”
“We’re not here to arrest him, but we do need to talk to him,” Jackson said.
“Is this about the Connellys?” Glen’s eyes darkened.
Gabriel took a step toward the older man. “Why would you ask? Do you know something about the Connellys?”
Glen shook his head. “Just heard that they were missing. That’s all everyone in town has been talking about.”
“Do you know where Ryan was on Thursday night?” Gabriel asked.
“He worked here until seven. After that I have no idea. I don’t keep track of my mechanics when they’re off duty. I’ll go get him for you. I’d rather you talk to him out here than inside my shop where I got customers.”
As they waited in the midafternoon heat, Jackson pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and mopped his forehead. “Jeez, it’s hot. It would be nice to wrap this up quickly and get back home.”
Gabriel frowned. “The only way we’re going to wrap this up quickly is if the family suddenly reappears alive and well, and at this point, I don’t see that happening.”
“I have a bad feeling about this whole thing,” Andrew said softly. “I think the next time we see that family, it’s going to be in a shallow grave someplace.”
Andrew’s words sent a somber pall over the three of them. But Gabriel knew the stats. He also knew how difficult it would be to hide three people and keep them silent and alive for any length of time.
He tensed as he watched a big, bald, tattooed man approach them. It was obvious by the sneer on his face that he wasn’t happy to meet them. He was dressed in grimy coveralls and held a red grease-stained rag in his hands.
“Glen told me there were a couple of Feds out here. Just what this town needs, more Feds.”
“We’ve heard through the grapevine that you and Sam Connelly didn’t play nice together,” Gabriel said.
“That sanctimonious bastard thought he was better than everyone else in town,” Ryan said, and it didn’t miss Gabriel’s attention that he’d spoken of Sam in the past tense. “He had plans to run for sheriff after Thompson retires. I didn’t want him as the new sheriff, and I let him know how I felt about it every time we ran into each other.”
Ryan’s brown eyes narrowed, and the snarl returned to his upper lip. “I heard he and his family are missing, and I’m sure you’re here talking to me because I’m an ex-con and must be guilty of something, right? Ex-cons are always guilty of something.”
“Where were you on Thursday night?” Gabriel asked, refusing to let the man’s attitude get under his skin.
“I was here working.”
“According to Glen, you got off work at seven.”
Ryan’s scowl deepened as a sheen of sweat glistened on his bald head. “I left here and went to my girlfriend’s place. I spent the night there. And now if you’re finished harassing me, I’ve got work to do.”
“Your girlfriend? What’s her name?” Gabriel asked.
Ryan released an irritated snort through flared nostrils. “Tammy Payne. She lives in the Bachelor Moon apartment complex. I got my own place there, too, but most nights we’re together. She’ll tell you I was with her all night and had nothing to do with whatever happened to the Connellys.” Without waiting for a reply, Ryan stalked off back to the garage.
“What do you want to bet that Tammy tells us whatever Ryan tells her to?” Jackson asked as they headed back to their car.
“No question. But I would bet that Tammy Payne is either a prostitute or a stripper, because I get the feeling that’s the kind of woman who’d take on a loser like Ryan. At least that’s been my experience with hot-headed ex-cons, although I know there are exceptions.”
Within minutes they were back in the car, the air conditioner blowing welcomed cool air as they headed to the Bachelor Moon Apartments.
“It’s frustrating that Ryan Sherman is our first real person of interest in this case,” Andrew said.
“Unless you count the lovely Marlena,” Jackson added.
“I don’t think she had anything to do with this,” Gabriel said.
“Is that your professional opinion or a personal one?” Jackson asked with a raise of a dark eyebrow.
Gabriel hesitated before replying, wanting to make sure his crazy physical attraction to her had no part in his reply. “It’s both,” he finally said.
He hadn’t mentioned Marlena’s dip in the pond the night before, but he did so now, explaining to the two men how he had dragged her out of the pond.
“Do you really think somebody pushed her?” Jackson asked.
“I don’t know what to believe, but she certainly believes it. What I can’t figure out is if the incident is somehow tied to the disappearance of the Connellys or not. I have to ask myself if somebody wants the people associated with the bed-and-breakfast out of the way,” Gabriel said.
“Out of the way of what?” Andrew asked.
Gabriel flashed him a tight smile in the rearview mirror. “I have questions, but nobody said I have any answers.”
“Who is the beneficiary of the place if anything happens to Sam and Daniella?” Jackson asked.
“We need to check that out. I would assume that initially it would have gone to Macy, with an executor or representative in place until she reaches of age. But with her missing as well, I’m not sure what would happen. I don’t even know if they have a will in place.” Gabriel made a mental note to check for that particular information.
By that time they had arrived at the Bachelor Moon Apartments, and they all exited the car to check out Ryan Sherman’s alibi with his girlfriend.
Tammy Payne looked like she’d been ridden hard and put away wet. Lanky blond hair fell into her face as she opened the door to allow them inside. She gestured them toward the threadbare sofa and then curled her painfully thin frame into a chair facing them, but that didn’t mean she sat still.
“Ryan called a little while ago to tell me to expect you,” she said, first pulling on the ends of her hair and then picking at a scab on her chin. She dropped her hand to her lap but continued to fidget in junkie fashion.
“I can tell you that Ryan was here with me all night on Thursday. In fact, he’s here most nights, although he has an apartment of his own.”
&n
bsp; “Is it possible he was here for a while and then maybe left while you were sleeping?” Jackson asked.
She flashed a quick smile, displaying a missing front tooth. “I don’t do a lot of sleeping. So, no, that wouldn’t be possible. I’ll be perfectly honest. I’ve got a little problem with meth and Ryan is trying to help me stay on the straight and narrow.” She giggled like a young girl, although she had to be in her mid-thirties. “He tells me I’m a full-time job for him.”
“Have you thought about rehab?” Andrew asked.
“Been three times, and it didn’t take. Ryan is the best rehab I’ve ever had.”
The men questioned her for several minutes longer but got no more information out of her that would absolutely confirm Ryan’s alibi.
“I don’t think Ryan is fixing her problem, either,” Jackson muttered as they left Tammy’s apartment.
“No, she was definitely tweaking, but aside from that, she’s crazy and dependent enough on him to provide him with an alibi for any day or time he’d need one,” Gabriel said as he tightened his hands on the steering wheel.
It was dinnertime, and he headed back toward the bed-and-breakfast feeling as if their entire day had been wasted.
“I say we put Ryan Sherman on a persons of interest list,” Jackson said.
“And tomorrow you can check around town and see if anyone can specify the last interaction Ryan might have had with Sam.” Gabriel turned down the lane that led to the bed-and-breakfast.
“I’m just hoping Marlena has something great for dinner. I’m starving,” Andrew exclaimed.
Both Jackson and Gabriel laughed. “What else is new?” Jackson replied.
As Gabriel walked up the stairs to the porch, a fist of tension knotted in his stomach as he thought of seeing Marlena.
“Hmm, something smells good,” Andrew said as they entered the house.
Scene of the Crime: Return to Bachelor Moon Page 5