Terra kept to herself that she’d considered moving back in with Gramps too. She watched her brother walk back to the house. She was so proud of him. So grateful that he’d returned and seemed to be thriving and was throwing his heart into helping disabled veterans thrive as well.
Thank you, God.
Terra steered from the drive as she contacted Jack. “You called?”
“Where are you?”
She didn’t like the tone in his voice. “What is it?”
“It’s Pauline Raymond. She’s had a medical incident.”
“What do you mean?”
“A heart attack, maybe.”
Terra squeezed the steering wheel. “Oh no.” Oh no, Lord. Please let her be okay. “I’m heading to the hospital now.”
“As of now, Terra, she’s unresponsive.”
“I can’t believe this.” Terra’s heart seized. Poor Pauline. “Do you think Jim’s death was just too much for her?”
“Maybe.”
“She’s just too fragile for all of this to be coming down on her.” This was the part she hated about her job. She thought of Joey DeMarco’s mom’s reaction when she’d learned about her son’s activities. Terra often thought one reason she and Owen never strayed from the straight and narrow path was because neither of them could bear to hurt Gramps and Nanna—or Mom, before she died. Forget Dad. And Pauline didn’t know about her husband’s collection yet.
“I’ll see you at the hospital. Oh, and Terra, be careful.” Jack ended the call.
When Terra arrived at the hospital, she made her way to Pauline’s room. Family stood outside the door, and all eyes were on Terra as she approached.
Pauline’s daughter, Abbie, swiped at tears. “When she woke up, she asked for you. Better get in there.”
TWENTY-ONE
Jack stood next to the hospital bed while Pauline’s family waited in the hallway. He glanced at his watch, hoping Terra would arrive soon. Pauline had woken up and asked to speak to Terra. Apparently, she trusted her more than Jack. Finally, Terra eased through the door. Compassion flooded her wide eyes as she took in Pauline’s form.
Slowly she approached the bed, and her lips parted as if she would say something, but no words escaped. At the moment, Pauline had her eyes closed. Jack believed she was conscious but simply resting.
Even though Pauline had asked Terra to come, Jack hoped that his and Terra’s presence wouldn’t upset her. That could result in medical staff sending them away. Pauline squeezed his hand, confirming his assumptions. “Mrs. Raymond, Terra is here to speak with you.”
Pauline opened her eyes. Terra stood over her with a tenuous smile. “Pauline. I’m here.” She leaned in. “You asked to see me?”
Pauline nodded. Terra’s smile lifted. Jack suspected her brightened demeanor was merely for Pauline’s sake. Seeing the woman looking this fragile—near death’s door—when only two days before she’d been strong even in her grief had to be ripping Terra up inside. He knew, because his insides were in turmoil too.
Terra pulled up a chair to sit closer so she wasn’t looking down on Pauline. The bed rails and tubes and machines prevented Terra from getting as close as she probably wanted. Jack had asked the woman’s family to wait outside of the room while he questioned her. They had to be growing impatient.
“Pauline.” Terra kept her voice low and gentle. “Please tell me why you wanted to see me. Is there something I should know?”
Jim’s widow nodded as tears leaked from her eyes. “I’m one of those wives who ignored the truth.”
“What do you mean?” Terra asked. Her tone was gentler than he could have spoken on his best day, and for that, he was glad she was involved.
“My husband was cheating on me.” Pauline choked out the words. Terra’s gaze flicked to Jack, then back to Pauline.
“Do you know the name of the woman he was cheating on you with?”
She shook her head, her eyes tearing up again. He wasn’t sure if she knew the name and simply didn’t want to speak it, or if she truly didn’t know.
“Do you believe this has to do with his death?” Jack asked.
“That key.” Pauline’s voice hardened. She had gained control. “That key he kept in his wallet. The cabin. I followed him once and found the cabin. I knew he was meeting his lover there. I didn’t wait around. I wasn’t brave enough to see who she was. She could be anyone. Find her. If he was found dead in those woods, she had to have killed him.”
Jack’s heart sank. Pauline could be onto something, but Terra and Jack had theorized that Jim’s death involved the artifacts they’d discovered. Surely it couldn’t be as simple as an affair taking a turn for the worse.
He pursed his lips and held Terra’s gaze. She’d wanted them to hold close the information about the items discovered in the cabin until she could question Pauline.
If Jim was having an affair, then perhaps the items in the cabin belonged to his mistress instead. Jack wanted to ask Pauline if she knew about the items or if she had ever seen them before, but he would hold off for now.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find your husband’s killer,” Terra said. “I have a few questions for you, though. Are you feeling up to answering them?”
Pauline closed her eyes for a few moments. Jack released her hand and almost backed away, giving up, but then Pauline’s eyes popped open. “Okay.”
“Was Jim interested in collecting Native American artifacts?”
Pauline frowned. “Not until he met her.”
Interesting. Pauline knew something about the pieces, after all. Good. “We need a name. Anything you can tell us.”
“Don’t know her name. I took her picture. It’s in my . . .” Pauline’s eyes fluttered. She convulsed.
Jack’s heart seized. Terra pressed the emergency button. “Help. Someone help!”
Nurses rushed into the room, and Jack pulled Terra out of the way and down the hallway. At his back, he felt the killing stares of Pauline’s family.
TWENTY-TWO
At the window overlooking the parking lot, Terra held a cup of scalding coffee that Jack had purchased from a vending machine.
“I can’t believe she’s gone,” she said. “I can’t believe any of it.”
Pauline’s family could very well blame Terra and Jack for upsetting her. If Pauline had been allowed to rest, she possibly could have improved enough to survive. Still, Jim’s wife had asked for Terra. Perhaps she suspected she might die and take the secret she held to the grave with her if she didn’t speak up.
Jack tossed his cup into the garbage can. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Terra allowed Jack to lead her to an elevator. Her defense mechanism had kicked in, leaving her feeling numb. At the moment, she didn’t want to think or feel. The next thing Terra knew, she was sitting in his vehicle instead of hers and staring at her now-tepid cup of bad coffee.
“Try to pull yourself together,” he said.
“I am. I need to grieve. To process.” All this death. And for what?
Jack started his vehicle. “Pauline gave us something. We need to act on it.”
Terra rubbed her temples. “She believed Jim was cheating on her. The thing is, I’m not so sure he was cheating in the way she thought. I hate that she died thinking he was having an affair. I should have said so. Maybe she wouldn’t have gotten so upset that she—”
“You don’t know that he wasn’t. Maybe the woman Pauline saw him with is the person who got him involved in trafficking artifacts. Pauline hinted at that.”
“We need to find the picture Pauline mentioned. Maybe it will turn up while we’re searching Jim and Pauline’s home for additional artifacts.”
Jack nodded. “Or we could simply ask a family member about the picture, but I don’t think they’re too happy with us at the moment. Considering the circumstances, I got a warrant earlier to search the home. We need more than Pauline’s permission now.”
“Then let’s head to the house and see what
turns up.”
He steered from the hospital parking lot and seemed to be caught up in his own thoughts. Just as well, since Terra needed to process all that had happened in the space of a few days. A half an hour later, Terra and Jack entered Pauline’s home to join the evidence techs who were already there. Any discoveries could help lead them to his killer.
Terra stood in the master bedroom and took in the photographs on the wall.
Abbie entered the bedroom, startling Terra. “The detective told me I could find you in here.” She let her bag slide from her shoulder onto the bed. Releasing a grief-filled sigh, she eased onto the edge and hung her head.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.” Though inadequate, the words came from her heart.
“You’re looking for a picture,” Abbie said.
Terra assumed Jack had told her. “Yes.”
“Mom kept important stuff in her jewelry box.” Abbie lifted her red-rimmed eyes to the mahogany box on the dresser.
Terra wanted to somehow reach out and comfort the woman, because she understood how it felt to lose both parents within a short time. But she said nothing. Abbie needed comfort from someone else. “Thank you for your help. We’ll do everything we can to find your father’s killer.”
“I know you will. I’ll help you. Anything you need. In a way, I think whoever killed my father also killed my mother.”
Abbie rose and moved to the box. She pressed her hands around the lid and hesitated. “Mom has a tall jewelry box in the closet where she keeps her long necklaces. This one contains social security cards and a few special things she held dear. I don’t know why she didn’t keep stuff like this in a safe or filing cabinet.”
She opened the lid and revealed a felted drawer containing rings, bracelets, earrings, and a few collectible coins. Abbie lifted the top drawer completely out. Beneath it rested the social security cards and a few envelopes. Abbie seemed familiar with the items in the box. She searched until she pulled out a small manila envelope and eyed it.
“Everything else I know about. But I haven’t seen this before. It must be new. Maybe this holds what you’re looking for.”
She offered it to Terra.
“Why don’t you open it?” Terra asked.
“Mom is gone. She isn’t going to care anymore. You go ahead.”
“What about you? Are you sure you want to see this?”
Abbie shrugged. “I might as well know what got her so upset, but I’d prefer for you to open it.”
She handed it over, and this time Terra took it. Abbie stepped back as if holding out hope that nothing incriminating was inside.
Terra opened the envelope and pulled out two photographs.
Abbie gasped.
Jim stood with a blonde-haired woman in her forties. Terra wasn’t sure the photograph revealed the two were together romantically. “Have you seen this woman before?”
Abbie stared intently at the image as if trying to comprehend that her father would actually have an affair. “Not only do I not know who she is, I don’t think Mom took these pictures.”
“Why do you say that?”
“They’re too good, for one thing.”
Terra eyed Abbie. “And she never said anything to you about this?”
“Before you arrived at the hospital, she’d been in and out of consciousness and mumbled that he’d been cheating on her. I don’t think anyone else heard her. I can’t fathom that my father would cheat on Mom. He loved her too much. Maybe she misunderstood what these pictures meant.”
Exactly what Terra was thinking. “Can I hold on to the photos for now?”
“Sure.”
“What about your father? What were his hobbies?”
Abbie moved to sit on the edge of her parents’ bed again. “He worked in insurance. Was gone a lot. Mom was a secretary at the school. Occasionally they’d go out for dinner. It’s not like he painted or crafted fishing flies or built model trains.”
Terra blew out a breath. “I’d wanted to talk to your mother about what we discovered at the cabin, but that can’t happen now.”
Abbie rubbed her arms. “I’m here to help. I want whoever killed my father—if it’s this woman in the picture—I want this person found and to get what they deserve.”
Terra grabbed her cell and swiped over the screen a few times. She turned her phone so Abbie could see the images. “Ever seen any of this before?”
Abbie’s pupils dilated, and she pulled the cell closer. She shook her head. “It just looks like pottery to me. Where did you find it? What does it have to do with what’s happened?”
“The pots are artifacts.”
Abbie shrugged. “So? What are you saying?”
“It looks like your father might have been trafficking these pieces.”
“And you think this might have something to do with his murder?”
“It’s too soon to know for sure, but I’m looking for his connections regarding the pottery he kept at the cabin.”
Terra showed her the picture of the headdress. Abbie shook her head, clearly stunned.
“I can’t believe this.” Abbie pressed her face into her hands. “I didn’t even know about that cabin. I didn’t know he was keeping artifacts. It’s like I didn’t even know my father. Maybe he was having an affair too.”
Anguish pinged Terra’s heart. She hated being the one to deliver the painful news. She hoped she would learn that Jim wasn’t having an affair. Terra left the room to give Abbie time alone and found Jack standing in the center of the living room on his phone.
He shook his head, staring at the floor as he listened. While she waited, Terra mentally listed everything she would need, including Jim’s phone records. Maybe obtaining Pauline’s phone records would be necessary too.
Terra moved to look out the window at the backyard.
Jack joined her at the window. “You look like you’re a thousand miles from here.”
She’d been about a thousand miles away in her mind, for sure, remembering something she’d learned in the sting operation with the NPS. “Did your guys bring shovels?”
Jack turned to her, a question in his eyes. She held his gaze.
She couldn’t hold back her grin. “That’s right, we might need to dig.”
“Why would someone bury artifacts?”
“I knew someone who reburied items on his own property. Then over time, he could dig them up again and claim he’d found them on his private land.”
“And you think that’s a priority right now?”
“It won’t take long. The yard is small. I’ll give it a once-over, and if I see anything suspicious, then we can dig. If not, we’ll revisit later—if necessary.” Terra left Jack standing at the window and headed into the backyard. She lifted her face to soak up the sun, then gazed at patches of grass. She crouched to get a different perspective.
Footfalls behind her signaled Jack’s approach. “Well, am I going to need a shovel?”
“I don’t think we’re going to find anything here.”
He crouched next to her. “How can you say that? This yard’s a mess. I think we should dig.”
“If Jim had buried anything back here, he would have gone out of his way to make the yard look like someone cared.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not coming to the same conclusion.” Jack stood. “My yard would look like this if I were the type to hide something.”
Terra stood as well. “You’re welcome to dig then. But I have a lead I want to follow, and then I’d like to visit the museum.”
“Did you find the picture?”
“Yes.” She removed the manila envelope from her jacket pocket and pulled out the photographs. “I don’t know who the woman in the picture is, but I think a PI took these photographs.”
TWENTY-THREE
Jack sat at his desk with Terra and copied the museum interview reports to give to her. Terra, meanwhile, looked up all the private investigators in the area. How many could there be? Pauline could have h
ired someone from another county for more privacy, especially since the general consensus was that everyone knew her husband. How could they not since his face was plastered on billboards around town and the county?
Nathan swiveled in his chair at his desk. “Hey, Terra. It’s good to see you.”
“You too.” Terra didn’t look up from her laptop.
Jack couldn’t tell whether she was that absorbed in what she was reading or she held a grudge against Nathan because of his falling out with her best friend, Erin.
“What are you guys doing?” Nathan rolled his chair over to Jack’s desk.
“We believe Pauline Raymond hired a PI to take these pictures.” Jack laid out the two of Jim and the blonde. “We’re trying to figure out who she hired. I’m working on getting Pauline’s phone records.”
Nathan scrunched up his face as he rolled back to his desk. “Ah, man. A PI reported a break-in at her office yesterday. She called the police, but her business is just outside the city limits. Deputy Pendergrass—Linda—took the information.”
Jack angled his face to Nathan. “And you’re bringing this up because . . .”
“I should have told you sooner. The PI mentioned she had worked with Mrs. Raymond. Linda thought that could be important. She passed it on to me to pass on to you.”
Nathan lifted a paper from his desk. “See? Now I’m passing it on.” Then he handed it over to Jack, making that painful scrunched face again. “I’m sorry?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. The timing works out.”
“The PI’s name is Dallas Simpson.” He briefly read the report as he stood and pulled on his jacket.
Terra stood as well. “Let’s go.”
Fifteen minutes later, they found the address—an old dilapidated building just outside of town. He parked at the curb and met Terra on the sidewalk. She glanced up at the three-story building with old fire escape stairs. She was probably thinking like he was that Dallas Simpson’s private investigation business wasn’t paying her enough.
Present Danger Page 11