She highly doubted that anything in the documents that Agent Malone had brought to them included information regarding Alan Harrison. They’d only just found out about him. It would be pointless to go through the details of the case at this late stage.
“How about a large mug of hot chocolate?” Ridge asked, having said goodbye to Agent Malone. His exit had allowed some of the heat in the room to escape. Ridge needed to get himself a storm door that could help divert the winds when the front door was opened. She rubbed her arms up and down, attempting to give Ridge a smile so that he didn’t think she was disappointed after basically having the one thing she’d asked for delivered to her on a silver platter. “I’m pretty sure that I even have some of those tiny marshmallows in the pantry.”
“That sounds wonderful.”
Lily could feel a tension building inside of her that was hard to decipher. To shake some of it off, she carefully stood from the recliner and walked over to the fire. The warmth helped chase away the unwanted anxiety. She figured the unease that she was experiencing was left over from her attack. Most likely time was the only thing that would help her shake that demon.
Her gaze lifted to a photograph that spoke a thousand words. A picture of Ridge, another man, and an older couple who were maybe in their mid to late sixties had been taken with a bay as the backdrop. The resemblance between all four of them was easily recognizable as family. What stood out the most was how happy they all appeared to be, not that she found that all so unusual in a family photograph.
“The hospital couldn’t seem to find any family on record,” Ridge said softly. She caught him watching her as he leaned against the doorframe that led to the kitchen. He was no doubt heating up milk on the stove. He seemed to like to do things the old-fashioned way. She would have simply heated some water up in the microwave and poured in a pouch of chocolate powder. “I find it hard to believe that you have absolutely no relatives.”
“I have some cousins on my mother’s side of the family, but we’re not close. You know how it is, with an email or two exchanged throughout the year to get caught up on long lost relatives,” Lily replied, shifting to the side so that she could get a better look at another photograph. It was Ridge with another man, both of them in uniform. “Who is this?”
“Spot.” Ridge laughed when she sent him an arched eyebrow of disbelief. “His real name is Evan Scottsdale, but he goes by Spot. He was my spotter on my last two deployments. Best I’d ever worked with in the field. Last I heard from him was a phone call right before he headed back out to the sandbox.”
“Do you miss it?”
Lily wasn’t trying to take the focus off of her. She was genuinely interested in hearing about Ridge, his time in the service, and why he retired at such a young age. He had to be in his late thirties, maybe early forties…but that would be stretching it. He must have entered the service right after his high school graduation.
“Yes.” There was an edge in Ridge’s tone that she’d heard numerous times before when he discussed his retirement. “Everything that I am is due to the Marine Corps. I understood what was expected of me, the regimen, and what our mission was as a unit. Civilian life is…different. The adjustment isn’t an easy one. People out here aren’t the same as the Marines who I spent my entire adult life with.”
“I noticed,” Lily said with a smile, glancing at the holster attached to his waist that could still be seen despite his sweater. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him without it. “You’d be wearing your weapon even if I wasn’t here, wouldn’t you?”
“Okay, Miss Know-It-All,” Ridge said in parting as he pushed off the doorframe. He was returning her smile, though. She really liked that he was at ease with her. “Let me finish up with our beverages, and then we can dive into the case files.”
Lily wasn’t sure she even wanted to browse through the documents quite yet. There was really no point now that Agent Malone had the name of her attacker. It was hard for her reconcile the image of a freckled, innocent boy turning into a giant monster who stabbed women to death based solely on the fact that they were widows.
What could have happened to Alan during his childhood that had stolen his humanity?
“You lost your smile, hazelnut,” Ridge murmured as he joined her in front of the fire. She hadn’t realized how much time had passed while she savored the encompassing heat from the flickering flames. “It’s a good thing that I decided to give you an extra ration of marshmallows.”
“I can’t help but feel sorry for Paul Harrison.” Lily wrapped both hands around the warm stoneware, discerning that her previous anxiety had turned into a sadness that wasn’t likely to go away anytime soon. “His own half-brother stabbed him repeatedly and left him laying out on some floor to bleed to death. It’s a horrible thing to be betrayed by someone you thought loved you, too.”
“Do you know Paul well?” Ridge asked, remaining by her side. Technically, that’s where he’d been since the moment that he’d opened up his back door and brought her into his life. “You two went to school together, so I assume you two kept in touch over the years.”
“Paul moved away while we were still in high school,” Lily replied, pausing to take a tentative sip of the enticing beverage. It was still quite hot, but she managed to get more marshmallows than the chocolate drink in her first sip. “It might have been after that, but I don’t remember. I couldn’t even tell you why, either. I’d heard through Janice that Paul had moved back to town over a year ago, married a girl named Teresa Smith, and the two were expecting their first child together. I can’t imagine the hell Teresa must be going through, what with being due any day now while her husband is in the hospital after being attacked by a serial killer who they found out was family.”
“Alan Harrison’s face will most likely be splashed across the news, both local and national,” Ridge said in an attempt to reassure her. Lily found that she did feel somewhat better knowing that Agent Malone and his team now had a name, but an arrest would go a long way in regaining that sense of security that she had before the attack. “It’s only a matter of time before he is apprehended. In the meantime, we can sip hot chocolate and—”
“Play Monopoly,” Lily offered up, deciding that she no longer needed to peruse the case files. She never should have put Ridge in such a compromising position, anyway. “I’m sorry that I bothered you and your friend with all this, Ridge.”
Lily finally looked up from the mug in her hand to find that he was staring back at her. Her breath caught in her throat when he lifted a hand to brush aside a strand of hair that had fallen forward. He gently tucked it behind her ear before brushing his thumb across her cheek. Every nerve in her body began to awaken with an energy in a way that hadn’t been experienced in a very long time, but she chalked it up to the adrenaline that had been flowing nonstop through her system since the night of her attack.
“You didn’t bother me with anything, hazelnut.”
Ridge slowly lowered his hand, though he didn’t relinquish his touch. Instead, he let his fingertips trace her arm until he was able to take ahold of her hand. He quietly led the way to the kitchen. For the first time, he truly made her feel at ease in his home.
His overwhelming need to finish what he’d started was beginning to eat him from the inside out. She’d been promised peace, and he’d failed to give that to her the first time around. The palm of his right hand itched to hold a knife with a blade long enough to end her suffering here on earth.
There was no way to reach her at the moment. She was being too closely guarded, and law enforcement now had a name. It wouldn’t be long before they figured out the truth and unraveled his life story.
The media would portray him as a troubled young boy who had suffered abuse at the hands of a brutal society all because his mother hadn’t been able to release her grief. Those who couldn’t understand would paint him as a sadistic serial killer and his mother as the instrument who had turned him toward a path of destruction.
Why was it so hard for the residents of Winter Heights to see that he was helping these women? That he was the only one who really cared about how they suffered at the hands of society?
He pressed the button on the remote to shut out the relentless noise that was being spewed from the commentator’s mouth. There had to be a way for everyone to see that he was giving back to the community, and Lily Hudson was the answer. He would find a way to reach her, and then he would make an example of her. He would show the world by finishing what he started…
“I will make it all better, Mother.”
Chapter Thirteen
Ridge woke up early to the sound of a plow scraping what snow had fallen during the night from his driveway. The man had to work around the trailer as best he could. The driver who he’d hired on the recommendation of his dad had probably been caught unaware by the state police cruiser parked in front of the trailer that they had placed near the garage door.
Granted, Ridge’s name had been spread across the news for the last few days, so maybe the plow driver wasn’t too surprised to find a state police detail assigned to protect the cabin. They couldn’t move the trailer, but Ridge hoped the cruiser had made way for the plow to get the job done right. The locals referred to the Connecticut State Police as Staties, but these men and women weren’t the usual group from the local post. They were permanently assigned to protective details, which only worked high-risk witnesses and high-profile at-risk state officials.
Due to the recent media coverage, Ridge had made sure to call his parents the other morning, being mindful of the time change. They had wanted to fly back to the States, but he’d assured them that it wasn’t necessary. He did advise them that by coming back they might be putting themselves at risk, so staying where they were was the best idea. He’d been straightforward concerning Lily staying with him until a suspect had been apprehended, and he conveyed that having other people around at the moment might be a little bit too overwhelming for her.
He’d thrown on a long-sleeved t-shirt over his sleeveless undershirt with a pair of button-fly denim jeans, ensuring that his waist holster was securely in place on a heavy leather belt. It didn’t take him long to lace up his brown combat boots. Once he’d brushed his teeth and quickly ran a brush through his hair, he made his way into the kitchen to find the carafe full of coffee on the burner. Lily would be able to enjoy a cup of her usual morning routine without the five-minute wait.
As for Ridge, his regular habits from his days in the service had carried over into his retirement. He preferred tea. It didn’t take him long to get the kettle filled and placed over a gas burner on the stove. Another of his renovations included a top of the line water softener, an ionizer to prefilter the well water, and a reverse osmosis system to feed a separate tap at the sink and the ice cube maker in the refrigerator.
He didn’t turn the burner on underneath the kettle right away, though. Instead, he filled two fresh cups of coffee in two of the disposable twelve-ounce cups that he’d bought at the grocery store the morning that he brought Lily home to the house. He secured the white plastic lids in place on both and began to get ready to deliver the morning gifts to their security detail.
He wasn’t even halfway through the living room when he noticed that the stack of case files had been sifted through sometime during the night. It wasn’t surprising, really. He’d heard Lily around zero three hundred. She’d gotten herself a glass of water, most likely to take some over-the-counter pain medication. She’d been steadfast in her attempt to wean herself off the narcotics from the hospital, and he didn’t blame her.
Ridge had seen more than a few special operators get caught up in the whole opioid circle of addiction. It was difficult not to become addicted in the military when they handed out Tramadol and Vicodin like candy with one hundred pills in each bottle.
Reading and sifting through graphic crime scene photographs wouldn’t have helped her insomnia any. He grimaced in displeasure, wishing that he’d thought to secure the documents in his office. She might not have been tempted to go through them at such a vulnerable moment if he had.
Ridge set the coffee down before reaching for his coat. Once on, he turned off the alarm sensor for the front door only and then went about putting on his gloves. The morning temperature of a late January morning in Connecticut could be downright brutal. Even though he’d braced himself, the bitter cold still brought tears to his eyes.
“Everything okay, sir?”
Ridge had known immediately that the regular state detectives who’d been alternating for their shifts had broken routine. In their place was one of the deputies, and one in particular who gave Lily a sense of ease.
“Deputy Chen, how are you this morning?” Ridge asked, having already scanned the front perimeter. “Are you all alone out here?”
The cabin had a single attached garage, which was better suited for a small workshop. Ridge did have plans to build a larger outbuilding this summer with room for several vehicles and a fishing boat. In the meantime, the vehicle that he’d borrowed from his parents was now parked on the other side next to the protective detail’s trailer. A few inches of snow coated the body.
“I’m good, sir. And yes, it’s just me until later today.” Deputy Chen grinned when he saw a cup of coffee being handed his way. “Arnold was here this morning, plowing what he could get to on your driveway. It’s nice that you gave him some extra work to do, with Nancy being sick and all. They could use all the help they can get. Anyway, the guys from state should be back later this afternoon.”
“My father was the one who recommended him.” Ridge observed the clean driveway and small path that he’d just walked on. “I’d planned to take over at some point, but I’d heard about Arnold’s wife. Glad I could help. Besides, my shoulder still acts up from time to time after years of being in the service. I don’t need to be overdoing it.”
“Tell me about it,” Deputy Chen replied as he took the lid off the coffee cup to help the beverage cool down. “I was playing in an indoor soccer game and twisted my ankle but good. Took me twice as long to heal compared to when I was a kid. How is Ms. Hudson holding up in there? Is she feeling the need to get out and about yet?”
The way that Deputy Chen asked about Lily had Ridge figuring that her former in-laws were already making their rounds on the news outlets. There was no way to keep her from watching television. The only good that would come from today was if Dean called with news of an arrest.
“Any word on Alan Harrison?” Ridge asked, grateful that he’d put on gloves. Not even the heat coming from the deputy’s vehicle was reaching him. It hit the air and was completely blown away by the gusting winds coming off of the cliffs overhanging the approach to the lighthouse. “Agent Malone stopped by last night and broke the news.”
“He’s gone into hiding.” Deputy Chen finally braved a drink of the coffee. “Agent Roche and two of the deputies assigned to help with the investigation have been up all night chasing leads and searching for where Harrison might be holed up. I was never a big believer in the whole profile thing, but Agent Roche is an artist at his craft.”
“Well, let me know if you need anything.” Ridge tapped the hood of the cruiser, no longer willing to stay out in the freezing cold to have a casual conversation. “Or if you hear of any updates on the search.”
“Thanks for the coffee,” Deputy Chen called out before he began to power up the window.
Ridge mindfully made his way back the way he came with one less cup of coffee, seeing that Arnold had also salted the pathway after running a quick shovel down it. He’d gone above and beyond what their verbal agreement had included, and Ridge would remember that come the end of the month when it came time to pay the invoice.
“Any news?” Lily asked the second that Ridge opened the front door. She was wearing a loose pair of knit pajama pants with a white long-sleeved shirt. Her hair was piled up high in a bun that didn’t seem to want to contain the abundance of strands. As
a matter of fact, a couple locks of hair framed her heart-shaped face quite nicely. “Is that Deputy Chen out there?”
“The police are still searching for Harrison,” Ridge replied, removing his gloves and jacket. He wiped his boots off on the rough mat as best he could before resetting the alarm to all perimeter alarms active. “And yes, Deputy Chen is filling in for the state detectives until later this afternoon. I’m assuming it’s to free up some manpower to cover a wider search area.”
Ridge could see that Lily had helped herself to some coffee. She was holding a mug with both hands, still appearing a bit tired. As a matter of fact, there was even a mark on her right cheek where she’d been resting on her pillow. The endearing indention had him recalling last night, when he’d come close to crossing a line that he’d been doing his best to steer clear of since bringing her into his home.
“Deputy Chen is around your age,” Ridge said, figuring it was best to concentrate on something else beside his physical attraction to her. “Didn’t you go to school with him?”
“He was actually a few years younger than me,” Lily replied with a slight frown. “For as small of a school as we attended, we honestly didn’t see each other all that much. Hey, I put the kettle on for you. It should be ready—”
The high-pitched sound of the teakettle began its ascent to a piercing whistle. Lily smiled and turned on her multi-colored fuzzy socks that she wore instead of slippers.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” Lily said, already at the stove when Ridge crossed the threshold into the kitchen. She reached over and turned off the dial. “So, I looked through a file that was marked as the suspect’s profile. It’s an interesting read, and Alan Harrison fits almost every single criterion. I can’t help but feel bad for Paul and the rest of his family.”
“At least he has his wife by his side.” Ridge chose a new flavor of tea, this time one with a touch of cinnamon according to the label. Lily had already grabbed a cup from the cupboard and had set it on the counter. It just so happened to be the one that he used every morning. “I wonder if his mother is still alive.”
The Reclusive Widow (The Widow Taker Book 3) Page 12