“Oh, no.” Maddie clapped her hand over her mouth. “Granny! What were you thinking?”
Maude was back to being innocent. “What makes you think it was me? I’m old. I was in bed by eight last night.”
Nick’s expression was murderous. “You’d better start running now, Maude. If I catch you, I’m going to arrest you.”
Maude didn’t look worried in the least. “Bring it on. I’m not afraid of you.”
Nick had no doubt that was true.
MADDIE WAS DETERMINED TO GET the store packed up. That meant cracking down and focusing, not giving up or allowing herself to get distracted before the deed was done. Everything had to be packed away before she and Nick could make decisions on furniture ... and he was eager for that to be done before the wedding. That meant she needed to hold up her end of the bargain first.
She wasn’t scheduled to testify until the following day. Smith explained via email that they were trying to get all the forensic testimony in first because that was often boring to jurors. He wanted to keep her testimony until later so it would be more impactful. Maddie considered sitting in court to watch the forensic testimony but figured that was a bad idea given what happened the previous day.
The more distance she could keep between Todd and herself, the better.
Maddie started with her mother’s bookshelf, intent as she scanned titles. Technically the books didn’t have to be packed away, but Maddie was convinced they needed a good pruning. Then she would be able to add some knickknacks and collectibles to the mix when it came time to decorate.
After filling two boxes, Maddie decided to move them to her car. That way she would remember to donate them to the library the next time she was out and about and they wouldn’t take up space in the house.
She left the trunk of her car open after stowing one box and was humming to herself when she returned with the second. Her feeling of accomplishment fled quickly when a shadow suddenly appeared in front of her and she was forced to pull up short.
In truth, she wasn’t surprised to find Harris Bishop standing there. Part of her knew he would return. Nick’s anxiety about the young man was much more profound than her own. Maddie wasn’t certain how she knew it, but she was convinced Harris didn’t want to hurt her. That didn’t mean she wasn’t curious about why he was hanging around the house.
“Do you need help?” Harris asked, holding up his hands when Maddie jolted. “You don’t need to be frightened of me.”
Maddie gave him a long look before handing over the box. “Sure. Put it in the trunk.”
“I figured that’s where you wanted it.”
Maddie trailed behind Harris, giving him a wide enough berth that he couldn’t turn and grab her once the box was in the trunk. Instead of immediately turning on her, he closed the lid and rested his hands on the cool metal before speaking again.
“You probably shouldn’t be running around outside by yourself,” he offered, his tone weary. “You need to be careful until after the trial.”
“Oh, yeah?” Maddie cocked an eyebrow. “What do you think I should be careful about?”
“You know what.”
“Uh-huh.” The sun was so bright she was forced to squint to make out Harris’s features. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
“I don’t know what’s going on.”
“I think you have an idea.”
Harris shifted from one foot to the other, clearly uncomfortable. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he repeated after a beat. “I honestly don’t. I have a bad feeling, though. I had it after Shelby died. It’s even worse now that Chelsea is missing.”
“Did you know her?”
“We worked together.”
“Did she hang at the party spot?”
“Sometimes.” Harris seemed lost in thought. “I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen. I know that probably sounds crazy to you, but it’s there ... right under the surface. It’s a feeling I get in my gut that makes me afraid.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“I’m afraid for you,” Harris countered, his expression sending chills down Maddie’s spine. “I’ve gone over this in my head so many times ... you have no idea. All I can think is that someone is trying to convince people that Winthrop is innocent. To do that, they have to make it appear that the guilty party is still out there, that someone else was responsible all along.”
“Do you know Todd?”
“Yeah.” Harris didn’t look happy at the prospect. “I knew him from when I lived here. He always thought he was a big man in town. I was only a couple of years behind you in school. You probably don’t realize that.”
“I don’t remember you. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t blame you. You had your own stuff going on. You were always with Winters even then.”
“Yes, well, old habits die hard.” A ghost of a smile played around Maddie’s lips. “What do you know about Todd?”
“That once my brother started spending time with him he changed. I’m not making excuses for Dustin. I think he was always going to choose a dark road. Maybe it didn’t have to be this dark, though. I mean ... I don’t even know what to say about the things my brother has done. I don’t recognize the person he’s become.”
“Do you know anyone who would be loyal enough to your brother or Todd to murder women on their behalf?”
“Believe it or not, I’ve asked my brother that very thing. He says he has no idea what’s going on but ... .”
“But what?”
“But I’m not sure I believe him. He seems almost smug.”
“And he won’t talk to you?”
“No.”
“So ... why are you here?” Maddie was honestly curious. “I know you were in the woods yesterday. You stayed hours after I went inside. You’re back today. There has to be a reason for that.”
“I wondered if you saw me yesterday.” Harris was rueful. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I simply thought I might be able to catch whoever it is in the act if he moved on you.”
“Why are you so convinced I’m in danger?”
“Because it makes the most sense. You’re the one who will be testifying against Todd. Your testimony will hold the most weight. If you can’t give that testimony and get killed by a copycat, most jurors will have enough reasonable doubt to free Todd. At least that’s what I’ve been thinking.”
“I’ve been thinking the same,” Maddie admitted, exhaling heavily. “Well, come on.” She gestured toward the house. “You and I should talk. Maybe if we put our heads together we’ll be able to figure out what’s going on.”
“Do you think?” Harris almost looked hopeful.
“No, but you’ll like my grandmother. She’s always good for a laugh.”
“I’ve heard about your grandmother. People say she’s terrifying.”
“You have no idea.”
Seventeen
“This is a nice place.”
Harris wasn’t exactly the chatty sort, but he looked over Maddie’s messy former store with an appreciative eye. “Are you renovating?”
Maddie shrugged. “This was my mother’s magic shop. I kept it open after she died, but I’m letting it go.”
“Why?” Harris was legitimately curious.
“Because it’s not my dream,” Maddie replied, smiling when she thought about the way her mother let her off the hook with the same words. “I don’t mind the store, but I never really fancied a career in retail. I’m going to keep doing readings at festivals, but with the wedding coming up and everything, I simply don’t see how having a store in the house is a benefit.”
“Right.” Harris trailed his finger along the shelf. “You and Nick were a couple in school, right? Then you broke up when it came time to go to college.”
“No. Nick and I were friends in high school. We weren’t a couple.”
“I remember you guys. You were older, but people talked about you all the time.”
“All the girls thought Nick was dreamy. All the boys thought you were hot. People thought you were the perfect couple.”
“Except we weren’t a couple. Have a seat.” Maddie gestured toward the dining room table. “I hope iced tea is okay. It’s really all we have.”
“That’s fine.” Harris leaned back in his chair, stretching his long legs out in front of him as he regarded Maddie with a pointed stare. “You don’t seem afraid.”
“Should I be afraid?”
“In your position, I would be terrified,” Harris replied. “You’re clearly the center of all this.”
Maddie was quickly coming to that realization herself but she didn’t like it being pointed out to her. “What do you think is going on?” She honestly wanted his opinion and kept her expression neutral as she carried the iced tea to the table. “What do you think is happening here?”
“I don’t know. I’ve given it a lot of thought.”
“And?”
“I don’t think Dustin is telling me everything.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know.” Harris held his hands palms out. “We were never very close. I know it sounds rotten to say, but I didn’t like him. Maybe it’s because we were so far apart in age. I was five when he was born. I remember being annoyed when we had to do ‘baby’ stuff for him when I was a kid. I guess that means I could’ve been the obnoxious one, but I really did hate being around him.”
“I can see that.” Maddie nodded encouragingly. “Did your mother force you to babysit him?”
“Yeah. She had to work to support us. She always brought that up whenever I complained about watching Dustin. She would say, ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees. Do you want to eat?’ I had nothing to say back so I sucked it up and babysat the little brat. I guess it wore on me after a time, though.”
“I was an only child, but I can understand what you’re talking about. It must have been hard. You wanted to hang out with your friends but were forced to take care of Dustin. You would’ve been twelve when he was seven... and that’s a significant age difference.”
“Yeah. I hated being a big brother.”
“I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing,” Maddie offered.
“No?” Harris arched a dubious eyebrow. “Haven’t you ever wondered if Dustin latched onto Todd Winthrop because he was looking for an older brother? I was long gone by the time Dustin hit his senior year in high school. I was happy to be away from him ... and that house.
“I love my mother – don’t get me wrong – but she was a lot of work,” he continued. “She couldn’t help herself really. She felt slighted in life and there were certain things she couldn’t let go.”
Maddie thought about what Olivia said about Sheryl.
“Some people have an easier time overcoming things than others,” she said pragmatically. “Maybe your mother simply wasn’t equipped to overcome the things that went wrong with her life.”
“See, to me, that sounds like an excuse for her behavior.”
“It wasn’t meant as an excuse.”
“No?”
Maddie shook her head. “Before I was even born, my father went through a bad spell and decided he was too young to be a parent. He divorced my mother and took off. I never saw him.”
“I thought your father was in town. Someone at the greenhouse said he owned the house near where Shelby’s body was found.”
“That’s true, but the road he took back to my life was a long and winding one. I never knew enough to miss him when I was a kid, although sometimes I would think about him. I had my mother and grandmother – and that’s all I needed – but there was occasionally a hole.
“Come to find out, he came back several times when I was a kid,” she continued. “He wanted to get to know me and begged my mother for a chance to visit. She wouldn’t allow it, essentially cutting him out of my life.”
“Did that make you angry?”
“A little. I understood it, though. She was hurt and lashed out. Maybe your mother was hurt at one point and she’s still lashing out. She might not even realize she’s doing it.”
“I blame her for a lot of it,” Harris admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I keep thinking that she should’ve known things were going bad with Dustin. She had to know and did nothing. She was the sort of mother who blamed everyone else when we did something wrong.
“If a teacher contacted her because I was acting out ... or Dustin was falling behind in school ... she would always blame the teacher for not doing her job,” he continued. “We were never to blame for fighting or refusing to do our homework. When I was a kid, I thought that was cool. As an adult, I realize she didn’t do us any favors.”
“At least you realize it.”
“Yeah, but Dustin never did.” Harris offered a faint smile. “I keep going over things in my head and wondering if there was a way I could’ve stopped Todd from twisting Dustin into the monster he became.”
“You can’t blame yourself. You didn’t do this.”
“I don’t know who else to blame. I keep looking over my shoulder because I feel that something bad is going to happen. Do you ever feel like that?”
Maddie nodded. She often felt like that. However, she was psychic. She couldn’t help but wonder if Harris had a touch of the sight, too. Now certainly wasn’t the time to ask him, though. He would think she was a freak.
“Maybe we should break it down,” Maddie suggested, switching gears.
“What do you mean?”
“I want you to tell me everything you know about Dustin’s relationship with Todd and I’ll see if I can tie together any loose threads. We might be able to trade information and come up with a better picture of what’s happening.”
“Do you really think that?”
“I don’t see why not.”
ACROSS TOWN, NICK WAS coming to the same conclusion.
“I think we need to break this down.” He stood in the middle of his office and pointed at the board he’d pulled out of storage. He wanted to put the information together in one spot so they could start working toward potential answers. “I think the answer is here if we look at it from another angle.”
John sat in one of the guest chairs, kicked back, and rested his hands on his stomach. “This seems a little grade school to me. You actually have a chalkboard, man. Where did you dig that up?”
Nick ignored the comment. “We need to look at all the players.” He was firm. “Let’s start with Henry.” Nick wrote his name on the blackboard, toward the top and center. “He owns the greenhouse. He employed the victims. He’s Todd’s uncle. He also employs some of the current suspects, and also Dustin back in the day. He has a rap sheet of his own that includes sexual misconduct.”
“On paper he looks like a good suspect,” Kreskin agreed. “The problem is that he’s older. I don’t know that I can see him somehow managing to drag Shelby Capshaw’s body behind George’s house without some help.”
“Maybe he had help.”
“Maybe but ... who?”
“Harris Bishop.” Nick wrote another name on the board and made a small line to Henry. “He’s Dustin’s brother. He’s said the right things so far, but we don’t know that he’s not playing a game. He could simply be smarter than his brother ... which wouldn’t be difficult.”
“He wasn’t around for the first crimes, though,” John pointed out. “Why get involved now?”
“His brother is facing time in prison.”
“Yeah, but not as much time as he could be facing,” John argued. “Didn’t the prosecutor tell you they made a deal with Dustin? If he testifies against Todd, he gets a lighter sentence.”
Nick’s lips curved down. “Yes ... and I’m not happy about that. I don’t understand why he simply can’t try the case on its merits. He acts as if the case against Todd is weak, but it�
�s not. Maddie was there ... she was chased through the woods. I was there. Kreskin showed up after the fact.”
“They’re going to use your relationship with Maddie against you, though,” Kreskin noted. “You make an easy target because of what was going on at the time. It appeared to a lot of people that you and Maddie were fighting when she first came back.”
“I don’t think that’s the right word,” Nick hedged. “We were simply ... feeling each other out.”
“I know that and you know that. Other people, though? They have more questions. You seem to forget, your relationship with Maddie was gossip fodder for years. The people in this town thought you would end up together. When Maddie left and you turned into the dating machine who never wanted to bond with anyone, that got people’s tongues wagging.”
“Oh, geez.” Nick rolled his neck. “Why are we talking about this? What does it have to do with anything?”
“It has to do with motive,” Kreskin replied without hesitation. “In a lot of people’s minds, you had motive at the time to hurt Maddie. People thought you were pining for her. I heard from absolute strangers when I took you on as a partner that you were pining for her ... that you loved her to excess and lost her. That you would never get over it.”
“This sounds like a soap opera,” Nick complained.
“That’s because it was. When Maddie came back, you lost your head a little bit. I immediately knew things were going to change ... but I also recognized how they were going to change because I knew you better than most. Those looking in from the outside didn’t understand.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that we have a murderer running around,” Nick argued. “Someone is trying to cast doubt on Dustin and Todd’s guilt. I don’t think any other motive makes sense.”
“And I agree.” Kreskin held up his hands in capitulation. “You’re still coming at this from the wrong direction. You shouldn’t be looking outward and moving inward. You should be looking inward and moving outward.”
Grave Destiny Page 36