by Diane Bator
Bobby gave a weak smile. “You, Clancy, and I are going to sit at the table and check out the jewelry you found. I saw the photos, but I need to see the real things.”
“Why don’t you just take them straight to the lab if they’re that important?” Lucy met Clancy’s gaze and scowled, unable to comprehend the situation without coffee. Her idyllic plan of a morning of writing and editing quickly vanished as her arrest loomed on the horizon. “Why bother to search the house and tear my life upside down?”
“Because I’d like to talk to you as well.” When Bobby met her gaze, she shifted in her stance. His weak smile made her defiance seem childish. “Can you get the jewelry, please? I have all day, but I’m sure you have better things to do.”
“The case is upstairs in my daughter’s closet.” Lucy cast a wistful glance at the empty coffeemaker then her shoulders sagged. “Should I go alone or do I need a witness?”
Bobby waved her ahead. “I’ll escort you. Sorry, Mrs. Stephen. Your evidence is important or else we wouldn’t need to search the house.”
She led him up the staircase and tripped on the top stair. Her heart pounded as she entered Gina’s bedroom. “You let me come up and change clothes without an officer escorting me, why follow me now? This isn’t about me at all, is it? This is about Roger.”
“Yes.” He waited as Lucy opened the closet door.
“Did he steal the jewelry from clients?” When she didn’t get an immediate answer, she frowned and struggled to not burst into tears while she reached behind the teddy bears for the shaving kit. Her lower lip quivered. “What is it you think he did?”
“We’ll talk downstairs.” Bobby helped her up and took the shaving kit from her shaking hands. “You look like you need to sit down.”
“He’s done something really bad, hasn’t he?” Panic seized her chest and she began to hyperventilate.“Where is he? Are my kids safe? Does he still have them? Will he hurt them?”
Bobby took the shaving kit with gloved hands and tucked it into a paper bag then he gripped her shoulder with one hand. “Breathe, Lucy. You need to focus. I’ll answer your questions downstairs. You need to sit and calm down.”
“How am I supposed to calm down? My whole family could be in danger.” Her mouth couldn’t keep up with her thoughts. “I don’t want you here, I want my kids home safe. I don’t even want to know what Roger’s been doing, just get him out of my life.”
“From what Clancy told me, you already have strong suspicions, but I think you really need to know what’s going on so we can all protect you and your kids.” He kept one hand on her arm as he led her to the stairs. “Let’s sit and have a chat. Clancy’s here to support you. He won’t leave until you want him to so you’re not alone.”
“Why?” She stood at the top of the stairs and rubbed her face with both hands. “I don’t even know Clancy. I just met him a few days ago.”
He nodded. “I know, but I know him. He’s a good guy and he wants to help you. Actually, I think the crazy guy kind of likes you.”
Lucy led the way to the kitchen. She fell onto the chair Bobby pulled out from the table and sighed. “I’m not telling you anything more until I get a cup of coffee a lot of answers.”
“Well, start talking, lady.” Clancy had already started a fresh pot and the stream ran into a mug. Her favorite mug. “Coffee’s coming up.”
Bobby sat across the table. “When’s the last time your kids called home?”
“What?” Her eyes welled with tears. “If they’re in trouble, you have to—”
Clancy set a cup of coffee in front of her. “Have they called you since they left?”
“No.” She held her breath. “They’re at the cottage probably having a so much fun they lost track of time. I need milk.” She stood up.
Clancy placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her back onto the chair. “Sit. I’ll get the milk.”
Bobby set his cup on the table and looked Lucy in the eye. “I’ll need the exact address of Roger’s cottage. I could send an officer to check on them and make sure everything’s okay.”
“Why?” Her eyes widened and she glanced to Clancy who averted his eyes again. “What the hell is going on?”
One of the officers appeared in the doorway. “We found a lap top.”
She jumped from her chair and lunged toward the officer. “Of course you did, it’s mine. Leave it alone. My work is on there.”
He held the computer over her head. “Bobby, you need to see what’s on here. There’s an awful lot of incriminating evidence.”
“Of course there is, I’m a mystery writer.” She spun around to Bobby who stood, tensed to lunge at her if she made a move to hurt his officer. “You can’t take my computer, everything is on there. My articles, my research, my books, everything. Tell him to give it back.”
Bobby waved the officer away. “Go through the computer and let me know what you find.”
Clancy steered her back toward the table. “Lucy, relax, it’s his job to search your computer. Don’t make things harder. He’ll check it now before we leave.”
“I’m warning you, you won’t like what you find.” Lucy sat and clutched her coffee cup. “I don’t just write murder mysteries, I research murder, drugs, police procedure, that sort of thing. I’ve been working on a new novel so there’s a lots of weird notes.”
“How many books have you had published?” Bobby returned to his seat across the table.
Lucy bowed her head. “None. I’m still looking for a publisher.”
“Then I imagine being embroiled in a real life murder mystery might be good for sales.” He narrowed his eyes.
“Real life murder mystery?” She gasped, suddenly lightheaded as all her worst suspicions came true. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Clancy laid his hand on hers. “Lucy, I know you’ve researched the jewelry. You’re smart enough to put things together. You already know about the women Roger dated, don’t you? You need to tell Bobby everything you know for your own protection.”
Lucy’s mouth opened, but no sound came out at first. Then reality set in. She hadn’t made a wild story up about Roger from her own imagination. Her suspicions were based on horrific truth. “You’re a detective and you’ve been spying on me. Do you really think I killed all those women just to get Roger back? All I did was look for a suitcase for the kids to go away with him and found...”
“Jewelry owned by a handful of murdered women,” Clancy said softly.
Her vision swam and she swallowed hard. “Oh, wow. I thought...I’d hoped he’d just stolen the jewelry while they were sleeping, not...”
Bobby frowned. “How long have you known about Roger’s recent activities?”
“For certain? About five seconds now.” Her face burned. She sat back, thoughts of the churned dirt in both her yard and Mitch’s burrowed into her thoughts. “There’s a spot in the backyard that looks like someone buried something in my yard and my neighbor’s yard.”
“Did you dig it up?” Bobby waved to one of his officers. He put the jewelry back into the shaving kit and placed it into an evidence bag he set in a box full of other bags.
“No.” She glanced to Clancy. “I was going to, but I’ve avoided it. When Clancy came to help me move some things around in my yard yesterday, I didn’t want to think about it.”
Bobby sent the officer for a shovel. “Where do we need to look?”
Lucy led them to the backyard and pointed to the loose patch of earth.
Someone took several photos before the young officer dug.
Clancy reached for her hand. “I’m sorry, Lucy. Roger became the prime suspect in several murders the second you found that bag. I hope you understand I had to call Bobby.”
“I know.” Nausea swept over her and she fanned her face. “I hate that Roger’s done all this and now he has the kids. What if he takes them out of the country or does something awful to them?”
“Bobby.” The officer stopped digging a
nd glanced up. “I found something.”
As Bobby got to his hands and knees and brushed the dirt away, Clancy pulled Lucy back from the hole. Bobby pulled out a plastic bag full of banded bundles of cash and whistled. “Have you ever seen these before?”
Lucy sat on the grass, her eyes wide. “If I had, my mortgage would be paid off and would already be back in Seattle with the kids.”
Bobby exchanged glances with Clancy then sent the other officer next door to talk to Mitch and search his yard. “You know we have to start a nation-wide manhunt for your husband. Do you have someone you can call to stay with you for a few days?”
“No. I need to call my kids.” Her vision swam and she grew lightheaded. Over the years, she had several clues Roger was a jerk, but none had led to him being a murderer until now. How many times had he wanted to strangle her and resisted? She probably couldn’t even count that high. Either he’d spared her for the sake of the kids, or there was another, more sinister, reason.
“Breathe, Lucy.” Clancy had his hands on her shoulders. “In your nose and out your mouth.”
“I know how to breathe.” Her voice grew raspy from hysteria. She hadn’t seen him kneel in front of her and jerked away from him to lean forward on her knees for support.
“Then do it before you pass out.” He helped her to her feet, put an arm around her, and lead her inside to the couch. “Sit. I’ll get you some water.”
“I need to phone my kids.” She reached for the phone to call the cottage. No answer. Roger’s cell phone. No answer. His parents’ house. A cheery message on the answering machine to say they’d return her call when they could. “I don’t know where they are.”
Bobby took a photo of her phone list. “They’re probably out at the lake having fun and not paying attention to the phone.”
She closed her eyes and fought back the tears, wanting with all her heart to believe him. “They never called me when they got there and no one’s answered any of my calls. What’s going on, Clancy? What had he done with them?”
The officer with the shovel returned and handed Bobby a second bag full of cash. “There has to be at least fifty grand between the two bags.”
If only. Lucy buried her face in her hands. Her life could be so different in a good way rather than crashing to the ground around her. Instead, Roger had her kids and, the way it looked at first glance, had tried to frame her.
Clancy sat close to wrap his arms around her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m struggling to make ends meet, my husband is a serial killer, and fifty grand plus a bag full of jewelry is about to walk out my door as evidence. I’m sure I’ll be just fine.” She shook, cold despite the heat of the day. Shock. A tear rolled down her cheek.
He rested his chin on her head. “You don’t deserve this.”
Two hours later, Bobby set his cup in her shiny sink and left, taking his minions and boxes full of evidence with him.“Thank you, Lucy. I’ll keep in touch. Please, let me know if you hear anything from Roger or the kids. I’ll do the same for you.”
She followed him to the door, glad to see everyone go, then motioned to Clancy. “You should probably leave too.”
“Lucy, it’s not good for you to be here alone.” He took a step forward with his arms extended.
“I’m okay.” She moved out of his reach. The house was far too quiet without the coming and going of kids and police officers. Even quieter with the thought her children could be in danger. “I’ll keep calling my kids. They have to be there. I don’t know where else they’d be. He never wanted them set foot in his condo.” She hesitated. “Did they search his condo?”
“Of course.” He snatched her manuscript off the top of the fridge. “I’ll wait.”
She flared her nostrils at his audacity then called the cottage. Still no answer. Tears welled in her eyes. “They should be there. They should be eating the pancakes Roger’s mom makes every morning. I don’t know what to think anymore. I’d feel better if you left so I could think. I need time to process all this.” She closed her eyes. “None of it seems real.”
Clancy held her against his chest. “Okay. I need to talk to Danny and Leo and let them know what we found. Go take a shower or something, you’re in shock. I’ll come back in a little while to make sure you’re okay.”
“Those are the guys who were at your house this morning? The guy with the ponytail and the guy in the Honda. I write next to the window, I couldn’t miss them.” Lucy caught his wince as she collected her emotions. “Can they help get my kids back?”
“They...we’re all here to help you.” Clancy kissed her forehead and gazed into her eyes for a heartbeat. “Lock your doors and sit tight. If you hear anything from the kids or Roger, call me right away. Don’t open the door unless it’s me or Bobby. I mean that. I’ll be back in a little while.”
She locked the door, careful to latch the chain, then refilled her coffee mug and parked her butt in the chair upstairs at her computer. While she wasn’t a real detective, she could do a few things to help. The first was to clean the fingerprint dust off her laptop. At least they’d downloaded everything and left her computer behind.
Once things settled, maybe she’d need to write something other than murder mysteries for a while. A nice kids’ book about a fluffy rabbit or a unicorn ought to help. She should work on her novel, yet her mind churned. Roger, the man she’d loved and slept next to for years, could be a serial killer. Despite her attempts to remain positive, her hands shook as she brought the cup to her lips. Maybe after this she’d have enough material for a whole new book.
Roger wasn’t from an abusive home and his parents had given their son every advantage possible. He got whatever he wanted, including a huge wedding at the country club and a month-long honeymoon in Europe. For as long as she’d known him, he seemed to feel entitled to do what he wanted. Spoiled. She’d been too dazzled to see the downside.
As morbid as it seemed, Lucy made one file folder for each of the women Roger had killed. Her own dossiers complete with descriptions, photos, how they knew Roger, the few crime scene photos she’d found online, and pictures of the jewelry they were missing. If nothing else, she could write a great piece of fiction from all her speculations. After all, who’d suspect a mild-mannered real estate agent of anything so heinous?
Roger’s public persona was far different than he was in private. At fundraisers and galas, he was polite and gracious. He schmoozed the men and wooed the women. She snorted. He’d wooed them all right, straight into bed right beneath their husbands’—and Lucy’s—noses. She’d missed all the signs of his affair. Correction, several affairs.
At home kids, he’d gone from superhero status when the kids were first born, to sullen and withdrawn, spending spent more and more time on his phone and computer. He’d changed the passwords on his cell phone and laptop. Eventually, he’d stopped helping around the house and refused to let her touch his laundry. The drycleaners, he said, did a superior job cleaning and pressing than she could with three kids underfoot.
Lucy wandered to the kitchen for a glass of water. She had seen something coming, but had shut her eyes to all the signs. The jewelry should have clued her in. At least her wedding rings and the necklace he gave her in Italy weren’t on the list of missing pieces. Still...
There were cookies left in a bag in the freezer. She took two then put them back and shut the door then glanced at the coffee pot and sighed. “Nope. Need the sugar.”
Three cookies and a fresh cup of coffee did nothing to settle her mind. How would she explain to her kids their daddy was a murderer?
Three large cups of coffee later, she’d gone over all the same information she’d read before. Nothing new. Nothing that made her more positive about the outcome to the whole situation. As she let out a sob, the cursor continued to taunt her. The little flickering blip on her screen hadn’t been aptly named; the blip should be called the curse and she the cursor. She toyed with the mouse and moved it around aimlessly.
What was she supposed to do next?
Chapter 21 ~ Lucy
The telephone rang startling Lucy out of a dead sleep. No one had called her in days, not even her mother. Of course, she hadn’t made a lot of calls home either. She didn’t need to hear “I told you so” again while she tried to muddle through each day alone. Technically, she wasn’t alone. Clancy had turned her life upside down before the dust from Roger leaving had even settled.
When she picked up the receiver, bells dinged before a steady buzz filled her ears. Whoever called had hung up. One of her kids? The bells could be the new wind chimes at the cottage they’d given her in-laws for Christmas.
Glowing green numbers on the clock read four-thirty-two in the morning and semi-darkness cloaked the room. She hung up. No way a telemarketer would call at that hour. Her kids normally wouldn’t be awake so early, they were creatures of habit. No matter how much they loved the cottage, they were used to home. Of course, habits could change in unfamiliar surroundings and strange situations.
She picked up the receiver to call Bobby or Clancy then paused. And tell them what exactly? She had no idea who’d called.
Groggy, Lucy lay back, dozing off and on for another hour before she rolled over and sighed. She missed her kids and, in a weird way, Clancy. Her not-so-sound mind and body still disagreed on what to do about him yet. Not that there was, nor would be, anything romantic between them aside from maybe a pinch of lust. They were neighbors, which was where things needed to end for everyone’s sakes. Her longing to nestle in a pair of warm arms against a firm body had to come second to her kids right now.
The morning air raised goose bumps on her skin as she dragged her body from the cocoon of covers into the bathroom. As she stared at her reflection in the mirror, her heart sank. Her husband was a serial killer who had her kids and may have. She curled into a ball and broke down on the floor, crying until she had nothing left inside.
The phone call. Lucy slapped her forehead then rushed to her computer. Bobby could call the phone company and find out who'd called. She called the number he gave . As she hung up and reached down to turn the computer on, she then yanked her hand away. On the street below sat the Honda. Her stalker, Danny, was back. Since she couldn’t focus long enough to write and had no inspiration left, she’d turn her wrath on him. Danny probably had it coming anyway.