The Deadline Series Boxset

by Wendy Soliman

  Time got away from Tyler. New information came in on his on-going cases, almost as if they knew he was in the office and that he wouldn’t be able to resist following up. He glanced at his watch and saw it was after three. He wondered how Alexi was getting on and thought about checking in with her. He picked up the phone to do so, surprised at how much he looked forward to hearing her voice. Before he could dial her number, he heard the downstairs door open, which meant Cassie was back. He replaced the phone. It could wait. If Alexi had found anything important, she’d have called him.

  Wouldn’t she?

  Yeah, she would. Tyler still didn’t like or trust reporters in general, but he liked and trusted Alexi just fine. There were exceptions to every rule.

  ‘Hey, Cas,’ he said when she walked into their shared office. ‘How’s it going?’

  ‘I’m working a new case,’ she replied, dumping her bag on her desk and fixing him with a considering look.

  ‘Oh yeah. Anything I should know about?’

  ‘No, it’s more my area than yours.’

  ‘Okay. Coffee’s just made.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She went into the alcove that served as a kitchen and poured herself a cup. ‘How about your credit card business?’

  ‘Done and dusted. I’ve even invoiced the client.’

  ‘I’m impressed.’

  ‘Because I solved the case? Thanks a bundle.’

  ‘No, stupid. Because you sent the invoice. You always leave that side of things to me.’

  ‘Just trying to be thoughtful.’

  She perched a buttock on the edge of her desk and sat facing him, sipping at her coffee. In spite of his efforts to remain casual and upbeat, there was an underlying tension between them, as though she knew what he was about to say and was bracing herself to hear it.

  ‘I’m surprised to see you here,’ she said. ‘Surprised, but pleased, of course.’

  ‘I work here.’

  ‘I know that, but I was starting to wonder if you’d forgotten.’

  ‘My sister needed my help. You think I could refuse her?’ He tried to remain calm, but her dubious expression made it difficult. ‘You think I should have?’

  ‘Your sister?’

  ‘Stop it, Cas.’ Tyler stood and leaned forward, fists planted on his desk. ‘I pull my weight around here. What I do in my own time is down to me.’

  ‘It’s not what you do, but who, that bothers me.’

  ‘That’s not your concern. It’s never been that way with us.’

  ‘It could have been. It would be, eventually.’ Her belligerence gave way to pathos. ‘We’re a great team. I understand what makes you tick and I lent a shoulder when you needed one.’

  ‘Christ, Cas, don’t do this!’ Tyler ran a hand through his hair. ‘If I’ve given you the wrong signals then I’m sorry. I’m not in the market for a serious relationship. Not now, perhaps not ever again. Besides, you can do a damned sight better than me.’

  ‘Oh, please!’ She threw her hands in the air. ‘It’s not you, it’s me. Is that the best you can do?’

  ‘I don’t know what—’

  ‘It’s the reporter woman.’

  ‘She’s got a name.’

  Cassie appraised him through narrowed eyes. ‘Yeah, she does, and it’s spelt Trouble.’

  ‘I won’t be dictated to, Cas.’ Tyler held on to his temper by the sheer force of his will. ‘You and I work well together, but my private life’s my own. If you can’t accept that then—’

  ‘I hear you,’ she said sullenly. ‘It’s not that I’m begging, or asking you for anything you’re not prepared to give. I hate to see you making a fool of yourself, but I guess that’s your call.’

  ‘Yeah, it is.’ He treated her to a wary smile. ‘Are we good to keep working together?’

  She returned his smile, but he could see it took her a lot of effort. ‘Sure. I get the message. I got the wrong end of the stick. My mistake. Won’t happen again.’

  Tension still fogged the atmosphere, but at least Tyler had made his position clear. He was dying to get out of there, go back to Lambourn and see what Alexi was up to, but figured that would be a bad move so soon after their frank exchange of views. He’d stay another hour, do some Internet surfing and see what he could find out about Natalie’s mother, Laura Brooks. Cassie immersed herself in her own work and the only sound in the office was the clacking of fingers on keyboards. Until Tyler found something that caused him to elevate from his chair.

  ‘Shit!’ he yelled, picking up the phone and dialling Alexi’s number.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Cassie asked.

  ‘I know what happened to Natalie,’ he said tersely. ‘And Alexi’s just put herself directly in the firing line.’

  ***

  ‘Tyler needs to know about this.’

  Alexi spoke aloud, the sound of her voice barely audible above the sound of her disjointed breathing. Drawn by a stronger force than the need to communicate with Tyler, she didn’t reach for her phone. Instead her attention remained focused on the damning letter from Natalie’s mother that made such chilling sense of everything Natalie had done since reading it herself. A simple document that had dramatically changed the course of Laura’s child’s life in ways she couldn’t possibly have anticipated or intended. Unwittingly, Laura had provided Natalie with an outlet for all that pent up anger and resentment, with catastrophic consequences.

  Alexi read the letter again, more slowly, allowing sufficient time for her addled brain to absorb the implications. She wanted to be sure she hadn’t misunderstood anything the first time because a compelling need to know had made her read the next paragraph before she’d properly digested the contents of its predecessor.

  She came to the end and lowered the letter onto her lap, tears stinging her eyes at this poignant message from beyond the grave. Alexi wasn’t directly affected by events that had occurred over four decades previously. Even so, the icy chill freezing her bloodstream gave her some idea of just how profoundly affected Natalie must have been by the brutal reality of a past she wasn’t supposed to know anything about.

  The way she had so patiently and meticulously planned her revenge made perfect sense to Alexi who, now that she knew Natalie’s secret, herself felt exposed and vulnerable. She was surrounded by Natalie’s papers and money, there was a killer on the loose, and she was very much alone. Her head ached, making it hard to ponder her options.

  She had none. Self-preservation kicked in. She’d give Tyler a quick call, tell him what she’d discovered, then pack all this stuff into her car and hotfoot it back to Hopgood House. There was safety in numbers. She’d share it all with Tyler and between them they would decide what to do about it. Not that there was any real question about their next move. Natalie was dead. Any lingering hopes to the contrary dissipated the moment she started reading that letter. A letter that would give the police more reason than enough to launch a murder enquiry—even without a body—and arrest the man who must be the murderer.

  She pulled the phone from her pocket and nearly jumped out of her skin when it rang in her hand. She saw Tyler’s name on the screen and almost laughed with relief. Talk about telepathy. Before she could take the call though, the phone was wrenched from her fingers and thrown across the room. She looked up, her heart pounding, directly into the cold eyes of a killer.

  She screamed but there was no one to hear her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  ‘A reporter?’ Graham Fuller growled accusingly. ‘I should have made the connection.’

  Alexi hadn’t had a chance to move from her cross-legged position on the floor, which left her feeling even more disadvantaged than she actually was. Fuller towered over her, his features twisted into an impenetrable mask of resentment. Anger radiated from him, competing with the smell of alcohol on his breath—a smell that was considerably stronger than it had been just a few hours previously.

  She sent him defiant look but refrained from comment.

  ‘You looke
d familiar.’ Fuller’s aggrieved voice filled the silence. ‘But all those questions about Natalie distracted me, just like they were supposed to.’

  ‘But then you remembered.’ Alexi’s own voice sounded commendably calm. ‘I had no idea I had such a diverse readership.’

  ‘I saw Tod wave to you. When he told me who you were, I knew you’d do my work for me. People like you never can mind their own bloody business but, for once, that’s worked in my favour.’ His gaze briefly encompassed the mess surrounding Alexi on the bed and floor. Before she could take advantage of his momentary distraction, he fixed her with an icy glare, his lips stretching into what could either have been a smile or a grimace—it was hard to decide which. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ he said, speaking softly but sounding infinitely more threatening than if he’d been ranting.

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  This time he definitely smiled, but the gesture owed nothing to humour and wasn’t a pretty sight. ‘What do you think?’

  Alexi didn’t see much point in beating around the bush. ‘You want your daughter’s papers.’

  ‘That interfering bitch wasn’t my daughter.’

  ‘Er, actually she was.’

  ‘I knew you’d come around here snooping once you left the yard. Snooping is what you lot do the best. I think this proves my point.’ He encompassed Alexi’s find with a wide sweep of one hand. ‘I’d been wondering where her stuff was. I can be very persuasive, but when she refused to tell me and I couldn’t find anything here myself, I thought she might have invented it all.’

  Alexi stared up into the dead eyes of the man who had undoubtedly killed his own daughter. Now she knew the true nature of Fuller’s relationship to Natalie, it was definitely a case of filicide. The pedantic side of her character ought to feel appeased. She hadn’t known Natalie personally, but had lived her life vicariously for the past few days, which made her loss personal.

  Just her luck that her phone rang at the exact time Fuller came up the stairs. The noise of the ringtone, and the hammering of Alexi’s heart when she discovered the horrifying truth, her distracted mind set as she tried to decide what to do next, had masked the sound of his footsteps. Otherwise, she was sure she would have heard him, even if he’d moved stealthily.

  But now, here he was, looming over her like an angry kid who hadn’t been invited to a party. And Alexi knew with absolute clarity that he couldn’t afford to let her live. Presumably, having committed murder once, he wouldn’t hesitate to strike a second time in order to cover his tracks. Where was Cosmo when she needed him? Presumably still on mouse patrol—about the only activity that would distract him from protection duties.

  So much for her cat’s intuition.

  Fuller would have come in through the open back door. How stupid of her not to have locked herself in. Not that that would have kept Fuller out for long, but at least his breaking in would have given her advance warning. She could only hope he’d left the door open behind him and that Cosmo would come back sooner rather than later. Right now, the gift of a mauled rodent would be as timely as it would be welcome.

  ‘Natalie was your daughter, but you didn’t know she existed,’ Alexi replied, swallowing down her fear and meeting Fuller’s gaze head on, determined to make him admit it. ‘Your father ordered her mother to abort, and gave her the money to pay for the procedure. He told you to walk away from her, which is what you did. If you thought about Laura at all after that, you simply assumed she’d done as your father wanted. You expected her to follow orders, just like everyone in your dysfunctional family always has. But she wasn’t a member of your family and couldn’t bring herself to kill her baby. So she had the child and put her up for adoption.’

  ‘Evidently,’ he said, sounding bored and disinterested. His gaze focused upon the bundles of money spilling across the carpet. ‘Glad to see she didn’t get to spend my money.’

  ‘You’re a callous bastard!’ Alexi knew it was a mistake to let her emotions show but couldn’t seem to help herself. ‘You impregnated a fifteen-year-old girl who would do absolutely anything for you because she was horse mad, and a promising rider, hoping to become a three-day eventer. You were the son of an influential trainer and promised to help her kick-start her career, if she was nice to you. She was flattered, but too young to understand that all you really wanted to do was get into her knickers…’

  Alexi was too choked up to continue. Talk about history repeating itself. Okay, so Natalie’s mother hadn’t actually been raped, but that’s probably how it had felt when Fuller walked away from her in her hour of need. She must have been scared and confused, and needed him more than ever at that difficult time. Laura was only fifteen when Fuller impregnated her, just as Natalie had only been fourteen when her adoptive father raped her. No wonder Natalie acted in the way that she had when she discovered the truth. Her mental health was fragile, she still hadn’t got past what Seaton had done to her, and then she found out her birth mother’s tragic story. It would be enough to tip anyone over the edge.

  That would be why she gave up on being an escort, moved here and methodically put her plan into action. Seaton first, then her father. Her shrink had probably encouraged her to exorcise her past by embracing it. He wouldn’t have had blackmail in mind, but Alexi couldn’t help feeling he was partially to blame for the way things had panned out.

  ‘You own Super Nova.’ It wasn’t a question and Fuller simply nodded. ‘You noticed the chance to own a really good horse but by then your daughter was blackmailing you to the extent that you needed a partner to take some of the strain. Natalie pretended that was why she kept coming to your yard. You know it wasn’t true, but couldn’t stop her and hated not being able to control her. She wanted to flaunt her hold over you, rub your nose in it and watch you squirm. That must have hurt.’

  ‘She was a vindictive little vixen.’ His upper lip curled back into a disdainful sneer. ‘She had no idea what she was getting herself into. She should have stuck to whoring.’

  Alexi flexed a brow. ‘Was? Where is she now?’

  ‘Somewhere you’ll never find her.’

  ‘I found you and put two and two together. It’s taken me two days.’

  ‘Congratulations.’

  ‘That must be why she spread the word about buying a share of a racehorse on Facebook. A public declaration only she could enjoy that told the world she fully intended to screw her miserable father for every penny she could get.’

  He made a scoffing sound at the back of his throat. ‘Don’t worry about Natalie. She’s beyond help. It’s your own skin you should be worrying about.’ He snorted. ‘I’ve had just about all I can take from interfering females.’

  A chill crept down Alexi’s spine. There was still no sign of Cosmo, and she had nothing to fight back against Fuller with. He was older than her, but taller and considerably stronger, and the alcohol didn’t seem to have dulled his reactions. She wouldn’t get to stand up before he overpowered her. She had that mini-sized can of hairspray in her pocket still, but she probably wouldn’t be able to get to it because he was watching her intently. She’d left her precious spanner on a shelf in the dressing room. She could see it—so near yet so far. It was her only hope. She had to get to it.

  Somehow.

  ‘You couldn’t let Natalie live,’ Alexi said, playing for time. ‘Having an illegitimate child was no big deal, not even back in the seventies, but Laura was underage when you seduced her. If that could be proved, and I’m betting Natalie managed to get a sample of your DNA to match to her own, then not only would your precious reputation be in tatters but you could also do jail time.’ She sent him a snide smile. ‘Do you know what happens to paedophiles in prison? Probably,’ Alexi added, not giving him time to respond. ‘Which is partly why you had to silence her for good.’

  ‘What’s the game?’ he replied, sneering. ‘Keep him talking until reinforcements arrive? That old ploy?’ Well yes, actually. Alexi had hoped that by not answering Tyler
’s call, it would bring him running. Or else Cosmo would come back. ‘Sorry, darlin’, but it won’t wash.’

  ‘You have a wife and family, don’t you? Grown kids and, didn’t I hear somewhere that you married into money? A Yank?’ Alexi expelled a hollow laugh. ‘Bet she doesn’t realise she’s married to a paedophile.’

  ‘Shut the fuck up!’

  Alexi locked gazes with him, refusing to back down. ‘Truth hurts, does it? She probably doesn’t know that you pass inside information to racing scouts, either.’

  He glared at her, his mouth literally falling open. ‘How the fuck—’

  ‘You should choose your meeting places more carefully.’

  ‘And you should worry about yourself, while you still can. Collect all this stuff up and put it in the bag with the money. Quickly now.’

  Alexi moved with faux reluctance; slowly, taking every opportunity to glower at him. In actual fact it was the moment she’d been waiting for. She didn’t think he’d seen the spanner. His attention was all for the money. Greed would hopefully be his downfall.

  ‘You won’t get away with this. Killing Natalie is one thing. She had a chequered past and no one to miss her.’ Alexi moved closer than necessary to the dressing room as she scooped up the piles of cash. ‘I, on the other hand, have a whole newsroom of people waiting to hear from me, to say nothing of my friends here. And an editor who already knows I suspect you.’

  ‘Bullshit! You only just found all this stuff. If you’d known before now you would have turned it over to the police.’

  ‘Journalists guard their stories more closely than you look after your pampered horses. And when I’m missed, this place will be swarming with police.’

  ‘Who said anything about killing you? If I can destroy what Natalie had on me, no one will believe your wild story, nor will they care, and I’ll sue your paper for a large fortune if it prints one unsubstantiated word that impinges upon my reputation.’

  He was trying to reassure her, Alexi supposed, just to get her co-operation but she knew very well that he couldn’t risk allowing her to live. The moment she was free of him, she would get a copy of Natalie’s birth certificate and go to the authorities with what she knew. The certificate didn’t actually name Fuller as Natalie’s father but if Alexi was convincing enough they could force Fuller to take a DNA test. If he knew anything about her reputation as a journalist then he would be aware that once she got her teeth into a juicy story she never let it go. Alexi cocked her head to one side, hope igniting. She’d just heard something. It sounded like a battering ram hitting a solid wooden door.