The Last Housekeeper

by Kari Shuey

  Abby realized just how little she knew the gruff security guard. Gavin trusted him, should she give him the benefit of the doubt? “I wouldn’t say I know him well, we don’t interact much. He works a lot, sometimes he offers to help me bring in groceries. Kinda rough around the edges… do you really think he could be a killer?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” he muttered. The officer wrote down the things she said. Looking back in her direction, he nodded. “Now you can go see where they are. They shouldn’t be taking this long.”

  The gate buzzer rang before Abby could head out to the guest house. She motioned to the intercom system questioningly. The officers nodded, and she answered the call.

  “Hello?” She asked nervously.

  “I’m here per Mr. Saxe’s request. My name is Mr. Williams. It would be in your best interest to let me in immediately.” The sound of the voice on the other end of the line only added to the anxiety that was building within her.

  “Sir, I can’t let you in without his permission. If you will wait a moment, I will check with him.”

  An exasperated and impatient sigh was heard, but Abby took that as acceptance. She grabbed a sweater out of a coat closet nearby and headed outside. Windsor and Gavin were speaking in an open doorway, the light from the guest house flooding the yard. Gavin was speaking in a desperate, vehement tone, and Windsor looked defeated already. Maybe this was a long time coming. Windsor looked at her as she approached but then focused on what Gavin was saying.

  She let them know Mr. Williams had arrived and the officers were growing edgy. Abby had jumped a little when Gavin reacted to her voice, she hadn’t realized just how distracted Gavin had become. Uncomfortable under his steely gaze, she itched to run back to the house. Tension hung in the air like a thick fog. Gavin was on high alert, and noticeably stressed. Guilt and shame, a frequent visitor today, overwhelmed Abby. Gavin had to deal with not one, but two life-altering problems. She could imagine he was scrambling to bring everything back to the normalcy he craved.

  Gavin told her to let them know they were on their way, so she took the opportunity to escape the almost palpable anxiety they exuded. She notified the officers they were coming and slipped off to her room.

  As she sat in her room, she had a hard time waiting for the officers to leave. She wanted to see if Gavin was okay. He was obviously struggling, and she had this innate desire to comfort him. The voices in the foyer finally stopped and the door closed. Abby stood up and left her room, hoping to catch Gavin before he retreated to a place to be alone.

  Fully anticipating he would be halfway to his office by now, she didn’t expect to find him at the front door, leaning on it like he’d been beaten. “Gavin?”

  “Not right now. You’ve done enough today, Abby.” His head was resting on the door and his eyes remained closed.

  His statement stung, but she persisted. “Will Windsor be okay? He has a good alibi right? And that Mr. Williams is your lawyer? He should be able to help him – he seems like he can handle himself-”

  “No, I think he’s in trouble. I don’t know what I can do to help him, but I will get this figured out, you can count on it. Now if you will leave me be, I need to make some calls.” He didn’t move.

  Abby remained in place, wringing her hands. “Is there something I can do to help?”

  He raised his head to look at her. “You don’t have any reason to be here right now. Windsor is not your friend, I’m not your boyfriend, you are not involved in this. Just… just do what I hired you to do, Miss Russell.” Gavin stalked off to his favorite sanctuary and shut the door harder than he needed to.

  The words sliced through her like a knife. She should have noticed he hadn’t gotten over their ‘break-up’. And even though everything he said held a degree of truth, that didn’t mean it didn’t still sting to hear him say it. The logical part of her fought the hot tears that threatened to escape. The romantic in her wished things were different – that she could go comfort him in the way he needed.

  Overwhelmed by the sheer venom Gavin had spewed in her direction, Abby itched to do something to keep her hands busy. She’d already vacuumed, washed dishes, and put away laundry. As she looked around the foyer, she realized she could dust and wipe down the baseboards. Rolling up her sleeves, busied herself, attempting to work through the tension which she felt was now radiating through the house. She lost track of time and didn’t even hear Gavin exit his study. She stood on her tip-toes to reach some of the higher areas. His angry voice behind her made her flinch. Not fearing for her safety after their discussion, she calmly turned around. If he had wanted to hurt her, he would have by now.

  “What on earth do you think you are doing!?” Gavin stood, legs braced apart and his arms folded. He looked absolutely sleep-deprived.

  “I’m doing what I was hired to do.” Abby couldn’t control the snarky tone that escaped her lips. She’d had enough of his attitude. Sure, he had his reasons, but she was absolutely tired of being the bad guy.

  “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

  Abby turned back to the chore at hand. “No, and I don’t care. I’m not tired… anymore.”

  Gavin came closer and grasped her arm, pulling her away from the shelf she was dusting. “It’s four in the morning! You need to get to bed.”

  Abby looked down where he held her forearm. She jerked away from him. “You are not in charge of me.”

  Giving her a condescending smirk, Gavin contradicted her. “Actually, I am. You are in my home, working for me. What do you think that means?”

  “Well, I’m on my time.” Her flippant response was all she could think of. He had a point, he was her boss. “You once told me the way I spend my evenings would be up to me.”

  He pulled her away from the shelf again. “Not if it is going to affect your ability to work the next day.”

  She pulled her arm away from him again. “Let go of me. I know my thresholds. Leave me alone and deal with issues you actually care about.”

  If Abby had to describe Gavin’s expression, she would have said he looked like he’d been slapped across the face. His face drained of color and then almost as quickly became flushed. “You have no idea what you are talking about,” he said through his teeth. “I guarantee you can’t even comprehend the state of my heart after today.”

  The vehement admonition of his feelings for her made her stomach twist in multiple knots. She knew he liked her, the way he treated her and fought for their relationship to begin had already spoken volumes. But for him to lay claims that his feelings were unfathomable? She found that hard to swallow. Abby snorted, unable to come up with any kind of verbal response to his confession. He didn’t actually profess his love or anything, but he led her to believe there was more than simple infatuation.

  She felt uncomfortable under his stare. She didn’t know what to do. And it appeared he didn’t have any plans either. Maybe they were both more tired than they originally thought. His expression sobered. She could tell he wanted to say something to her but didn’t know how to do so.

  “Just say it,” she said quietly. “I know you want to. I won’t be able to work for you anymore. This is just too much…”

  Gavin shook his head fervently. “That’s not what I was thinking at all.” He started pacing, something she noticed he did a lot when he was nervous or stressed. It seemed to be something he needed to do to clear his thoughts and figure out his next move.

  “Then what is it?” She asked.

  Gavin stopped, as if her voice was the thing that helped him stay grounded. “Abby, I…” He placed his fingers on his temples and rubbed them. “I don’t know how to talk to you anymore. I feel like anything I say only pushes you away from me. I’m floundering here. Ever since you came to work for me, I have felt more at peace. Everything seems more calm and I feel like I can handle anything. Even before we started our very short romantic adventure… I just felt like you were meant to be here. I don’t want you to quit. I won’t
be firing you any time soon…” He trailed off. Running a hand through his hair and tugging at it slightly, he continued. “I just don’t know if I will be able to be in the same house as you and not feel like we should be more. I want to respect your wishes, I do… but…”

  She listened to him, guarded. “But what?”

  Gavin looked back at her. His intent was all over his face before he made any move and she should have anticipated it. Only she didn’t think he would be brazen enough to act on his feelings. He slowly closed the distance between them. With an almost wounded smile, he brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. Allowing his thumb to trace her lips, he then moved his hand behind her neck and let his fingers intertwine in her hair as he dipped down to kiss her. She could feel his hopelessness in the kiss, like he was telling her goodbye. He pulled back just far enough to meet her eyes. “But I don’t know if I’m strong enough to stop myself from doing this.”

  Flushed, Abby blinked rapidly. In a battle of heart versus head, she had to remind herself why they wouldn’t work. She needed him to guarantee to be open and honest. He admitted only hours before he couldn’t make that promise. “Gavin… we can’t… I can’t do this.” She backed up further, his hands dropping to his sides. “Sorry,” she whispered.

  Gavin nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I know.” They stood in silence for a few minutes, each a prisoner of their own thoughts. “I’m probably not going to be home for the next couple of days. I have a trip and a lot of stuff to take care of. I’m hoping I can help Windsor before things get out of hand.

  “So you don’t think he did it?” She asked quietly.

  “Of course not!” His tone was sharp and his expression undaunted. “Windsor wouldn’t hurt a fly… well unless they had it coming.” The last part he muttered under his breath.

  “The officers seem to think he’s a good suspect. They said he had priors.”

  Gavin shook his head, disappointed. “Windsor fancies himself a hero. The priors they’re referring to is when Windsor nearly beat a man to death because the guy was abusing his pregnant girlfriend. He shouldn’t even have been charged…”

  Abby’s mouth was gaping open. She couldn’t see Windsor being the kind of guy to butt into someone else’s business.

  Gavin must have noticed her expression. “His mom was beaten by his dad. It’s understandably a sore spot for him.

  As the onion layers started to peel away, Abby realized she didn’t know the men she spent every day with as well as she’d thought.

  Chapter 19

  Gavin had made a lot of calls the night before, and now at six in the morning, his day was completely packed with things he needed to do. He called his best tech guy at work to try to find footage of Windsor at the Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport. Then, if he couldn’t find anything there, he had the footage from the gas stations he needed to go through. His tech guy was working with some facial recognition software and Gavin hoped he’d be able to use it to single out Windsor in any of the film they would be getting in a few hours. Then he needed to track down the flight crew that was on Windsor’s trip. Whoever prepared the plane, stewarded the flight, and piloted the aircraft needed to be pulled in for questioning.

  Williams was one of the best lawyers in the country. That came at a price, but not one that Gavin couldn’t afford. He typically went above and beyond when there were issues Gavin had to deal with. The first thing Williams told Windsor was to not say a thing. They would make a game plan and only reveal information necessary for the case. They needed to play their cards right… especially since the police were able to dig up his past – a past in California that painted Windsor in an ugly light.

  Gavin couldn’t figure out why the police were suddenly so interested in Windsor. He wasn’t one to favor conspiracy theories, but now that the investigation was focused on his friend, Gavin had an undeniable feeling the cops had to have been tipped off.

  Williams had also said the police would ask for an alibi and look into it. Seeing as Windsor had priors, they would try to hold him until things checked out. Gavin would have about 48 hours before they would be able to obtain an arrest warrant. Gavin was under a time crunch if he wanted to keep his friend out of jail. It wasn’t that Windsor couldn’t handle himself, it was more that they were made from the same cloth. They understood each other and he would move heaven and earth to take care of those he loved.

  With his tech guys on the look-out for footage of Windsor in Texas, he set to work on finding that crew. He’d checked in with the scheduling department and the staffing department, and they couldn’t find the flight that Windsor had taken nearly a month ago. They gave Gavin a list of the people who’d clocked in and did any work in his hangar. They hoped he’d be able to narrow down his search that way.

  There were close to a dozen pilots who took off from his hangar on the day in question. Gavin called each and every one of them. There was one pilot who wasn’t sure, but he said that trip sounded familiar. He didn’t actually meet or see the passenger and apologized. Instead, he gave Gavin a list of the attendants he had worked with in the past month which narrowed it down to three individuals. Two were female and one was male. Pulling out his phone, Gavin called his lawyer, asking if he was still with Windsor or if he would be visiting him soon. As luck would have it, his lawyer was on the way to the station as a new detective was requesting to interview Windsor. Gavin asked his lawyer to question Windsor about his flight. Did he remember his flight attendant? Or did he remember anyone who prepped the plane? Any information would be helpful in getting a reliable alibi.

  Williams told him they’d be in touch as soon as he could get the answers to his questions. Gavin went back to the staffing department and asked to see the photo IDs for the three names he had. They fought him on it, claiming the employees had a right to their privacy.

  “Ma’am. I understand you don’t want to give me their information, but you realize I pay to use your services and your staff. I don’t think your boss would be very happy if I chose to use a different company.”

  The woman in front of him reacted to that threat, but still wouldn’t give him the information he needed.

  “Ms. Clark… is it? This is for a very serious matter. A good man could very well be arrested for something he didn’t do. Finding the person who worked his flight is his only chance at a legitimate alibi and in turn keeping his freedom.”

  He saw her wavering. His reasoning had hit a chord with her.

  He continued. “Do you want to be the responsible party that prevented me from helping an innocent man? Or do you want to be the person who saved a man’s life?”

  Triumph filled him as he witnessed her giving in. She pulled up the employees’ names and their information. Selecting just the pictures and the names, she printed them off and handed them over. “This is only to be used to help you find who you’re looking for. Please dispose of it when you are done.”

  Gavin nodded and took the papers from her hand. “I appreciate this more than you know.”

  Leaving the office, he checked his phone for what felt like the hundredth time. Windsor had probably been in custody for around 20 hours. He’d told them he had taken a private flight but they couldn’t find a record of manifest or people on the plane. The only way to prove that flight would be talking to someone on the plane. Hence the reason Gavin was running all over the city to find someone who could vouch for him. The pilot was out as he never saw Windsor. Williams hadn’t gotten back to him about what the flight attendant looked like, so Gavin’s manhunt was on hold.

  As for the tech guy, he hadn’t found anything at the gas stations. They deleted their videos at the end of the week to record over the data. The airport was a bigger issue, because even though Windsor walked through the main part of the building, he didn’t have to get channeled through the security checkpoints. And he couldn’t remember what gate he went into. It was simply too much footage to dig through.

  Feeling like he was losing preci
ous time, Gavin attempted to come up with another solution to help Windsor. He couldn’t be a reliable alibi because he wasn’t there with Windsor. He may have told him to take the flight but there wasn’t a receipt for the trip specifically. He felt this was all his fault. And to top it off, he didn’t even know that Windsor was romantically involved with Amara. He was feeling lost without Abby, and she was still very much alive and living under his roof. What must Windsor be going through?

  Gavin didn’t know what to do for his friend. He felt helpless. No amount of money could fix this, and he couldn’t turn back time. He waited in his car, hoping he’d get an update from someone with good news.

  Williams called him around six letting him know that Windsor only remembered that the attendant was female and had brown hair. He didn’t recall anyone preparing the plane. He couldn’t remember the attendant’s name. Gavin thanked him and looked at the three pictures he had in his file. There was only one brunette attendant who worked with the pilot he’d spoken with.

  Gavin pulled out his phone and made another call. He had someone who could find anyone if given an hour. His contact took down the information and said it would be easy. They’d be in touch within 30 minutes.

  Waiting was the hardest part. Yes, he had all the connections he needed to get things moving… but humans were flawed. No one had the capability to fix things without some kind of due process.

  When the phone rang, Gavin picked up immediately. Once he jotted down the woman’s number and address, he put it into his GPS and headed to her residence. He hoped she would be home. Then maybe she would hear him out and they could call the police station. All of this could be handled before bedtime.

  Arriving at a small home about 30 min from the airport, Gavin got out of his car and hurried up the steps to the front door. Quickly rapping on the door, he shifted from one foot to the other. A few minutes later a woman matching the picture, opened her door and peered out anxiously.

  “Yes? Can I help you?” She asked cautiously