The Reclusive Widow (The Widow Taker Book 3)

by Kennedy Layne

  Deputy Grant Evans had canvassed the neighborhood after he’d introduced himself. As Dean had said over the phone, Evans was dressed in civilian clothing. Considering he knew quite a lot of the residents in that particular suburb, it seemed natural for him to blend in.

  As for the reaction of Ridge’s parents, they’d pretty much wanted to catch the first flight back to the States. He’d had to ask them to stay put, pointing out that having them to worry about on top of Lily would be more than was possible at the moment. He had yet to share that he and Lily had become more intimate than mere friends…one helping the other.

  Being with her day in and day out for the last week had him crossing a line that he hadn’t dared to imagine, but the sexual attraction between them had been too much to resist.

  They were both consenting adults, though. Considering she was the most vulnerable in this particular situation, he was comforted by the fact that she’d made the first move.

  He’d gotten to the point in his life where he could finally concentrate on something other than the next target in his sights. It was time to allow himself the pleasures of what he’d pushed off for far too long.

  Ridge opened the driver’s side door, noting that the earlier drifting flurries were coming down a bit harder than before. He found himself wishing that he’d taken some ibuprofen for his shoulder before leaving the house, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He’d just opened one of the glass doors to the building when he caught sight of Deputy Grant Evans pulling into the station’s parking lot in an unmarked vehicle.

  Ridge would have remained there to ask the deputy if he’d seen or sensed anything unusual back at his parents’ residence, but he’d been away from Lily long enough. She’d sent him a text around fifteen minutes ago, and he got the sense that she still wasn’t too thrilled about not being able to go to the scene of the fire with him.

  “May I help you?”

  The deputy manning the front window had a nametag that read Jordan. Ridge didn’t even have to say a word, because Lily was already waving and calling out his name as she came around the side to open up a steel gray, reinforced door. Deputy Jordan attempted to stop her, but she’d breezed past him as if he hadn’t said a word.

  “Agent Malone said that the fire crew at the scene called the arson investigator to make sure that the fire wasn’t set on purpose,” Lily said cautiously as she looked at him for confirmation. She’d stepped inside so that Ridge could join her in the bullpen once he had a handle on the door. “I still don’t understand why everyone would automatically assume Alan Harrison had anything to do with it.”

  Ridge didn’t care that they were in public. He needed to hold her briefly, so he took a moment and pulled her into his embrace. Her light fragrant scent of lotion took the place of the burnt soot that had settled onto him.

  “No one is ruling anything off the table, but the fire doesn’t look to be connected. My bet is that the fire was nothing more than an electrical wiring issue in the addition my parents had put on the back of the house a couple of years ago,” Ridge conjectured, though he did follow up with his original supposition. “Alan Harrison is backed into a corner, though. No one knows what he might or might not do right now. I didn’t see anyone or anything out of the ordinary while I was over there.”

  Ridge took his time getting the layout of the bullpen. Even though it was a police station, he still made note of all the offices with windows, the security door at the main entrance, and emergency exits alike. He’d been in too many situations where something so simple as taking in one’s surroundings saved countless of lives. Situational awareness was a practice that would follow him for the rest of his life.

  He noted that Agent Malone was with two other men in the far conference room.

  The bullpen itself was somewhat empty, with only one female deputy sitting at her desk talking to a male who seemed very animated as he gave a statement of some sort. Phones were ringing constantly from another conference room with several individuals answering the calls in a mechanical manner. It appeared to be the local sheriff’s version of a hotline, which Ridge could only assume had to do with sightings of Alan Harrison.

  “Agent Malone was able to get composite photo of Alan Harrison, but I don’t think it’s going to do much good,” Lily said with doubt lacing her tone. She fell into step beside him as they made their way to the far conference room to join Dean and the others. “The features on the computer simulation are far too similar to those of Paul Harrison as an adult. Everyone has seen his likeness on television recently, and all they’re going to do is recall Paul’s image.”

  “Not surprising, given how much they resembled each other as boys,” Ridge replied, stopping just shy of the conference room door. He took time to study everything about her, from the way her brows were furrowed to the tight lines around her mouth. “What’s going on, hazelnut?”

  Lily had been scanning the occupants in the conference room even though she’d been synchronized with his movements. When he walked, she walked. When he stopped, she stopped. It wasn’t like her to just blindly fall into step without good reason, and she now appeared taken aback that he’d noticed she was concerned about something.

  “I overreacted today, that’s all.” Lily let her gaze settle on one man who was standing in the conference room with the others. “It’s nothing.”

  “Nothing is never not anything,” Ridge said, believing that everything meant something in the grand scheme of things. He rested his hands on her shoulders so that she would only focus on him. “Tell me what caught your eye.”

  Lily inhaled deeply, as if she was buying time to come up with an excuse not to tell him, but she seemed to change her mind when she gave a slight nod of agreement. He realized there was quite a bit more to her visual unease than he’d first thought.

  “When you asked that I stay behind with Jonah because you weren’t sure if it was safe for me to go with you, I found out that his mother was a widow at a young age,” Lily said, lowering her voice to just above a whisper. Regret clouded her features, and he could only guess as to what happened after that particular conversation. What he wanted to know was if there was any validity to where her thoughts had taken her. “My imagination ran away with me, and one thing led to another until I ended up having to cut my run short out of panic. Not that I was getting any enjoyment out of it, anyway. I was too worried about you and what might be going on at your parents’ house. Ridge, I’m so sorry. Have you called them yet?”

  “There wasn’t much damage. The water from the hoses caused more destruction than the fire did,” Ridge assured her while compartmentalizing all the small events that led up to this moment. He needed a bit of time to sort things through, but he also needed to speak with Dean. “I did reach out to Mom and Dad, who had to be convinced to stay in Europe. I don’t want them home right now. I’ve been wavering on whether or not the fire was set on purpose, and now I believe it was simply a test run of sorts.”

  “Test run?”

  Lily seemed caught off guard by what Ridge was trying to get across, but he’d have to explain a little later. The raised voices coming from the lobby had garnered everyone’s attention. Even Dean and those in the conference room began to make their way into the bullpen.

  “…to see Agent Malone. Right now!”

  “Sir, if you’ll just tell me your na—”

  “Deputy Jordan, let them through,” Dean authorized quietly, stepping around Ridge and Lily. Dean wasn’t allowing the emotions that were clearly running high out in the lobby to shake his authority. “Deputy Chen, please go ahead and take Lily into the conference room.”

  Ridge nodded his agreement, though it was obvious that Lily wanted to argue the directive. She clearly wanted to see what all the commotion was about. He held out a hand to the deputy when the man went to put his hand on her arm. For whatever reason, Lily had briefly thought that Deputy Chen could be the one who attacked her. Granted, he didn’t fit the profile to Ridge’
s knowledge. Either way, he didn’t want the man touching Lily.

  “I’ll take her.”

  Deputy Chen seemed surprised by the edge in Ridge’s tone, but he wisely didn’t say a word as he stepped back to allow the two of them to cross the threshold into the conference room. He followed suit, though he didn’t close the door.

  “…heard that the composite sketch came in this morning,” Paul Harrison said, his pallor evident as his pregnant wife accompanied him closer to where Dean was standing in the middle of the bullpen. Ridge had seen the piece of paper in his hands as they passed one another, and he understood what Lily had meant about the similarity between the Harrison boys. “May I see it?”

  A single state police protective detail member had trailed by their side the entire time, only nodding toward Agent Malone once to acknowledge him. Other than that, the officer remained silent as the two men began to talk.

  “Mr. Harrison, I think you should have a seat,” Dean suggested as one of the men with him pulled a chair out from a desk. “You’re looking a bit pale, and I’d rather not have to call an ambulance here. Can we get you something to drink?”

  Paul was shaking his head no while the same plainclothes deputy pulled another chair around for Teresa to sit down in as she caressed her stomach. She was due in a couple of weeks, but Ridge wasn’t so sure that she’d make it that long with all the undue stress she’d been under recently.

  “Mr. Killian, I’m Sheriff Hopkins.” The tall man who clearly commanded a room with his presence held out his hand in greeting. “You can call me Chaz, though. I’ve heard some fairly interesting things about you. I’m sorry that we have to meet under these circumstances.”

  “I went to school with the sheriff’s wife,” Lily explained with a smile, and one that was genuine. Ridge could see that Chaz had made her feel welcome and not in the least discredited by her husband’s past. “I honestly hadn’t even known they’d moved back to town. I’m looking forward to getting caught up with her.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, too,” Ridge replied, allowing his arm to drop back down to his side while ensuring that he had a clear view of the bullpen. Dean had handed over the sketch while Ridge wondered how word had leaked out to Paul and Teresa that the aged composite had come through from Quantico. “The arson investigator is heading over to my parents’ house. I trust you’ll let me know if they report any preliminary findings?”

  “Of course.” Chaz motioned for them to have a seat, and Lily took him up on the offer. Deputy Chen stationed himself in the corner near to her position, doing the job that he was tasked to do for the day. The state police detail had plans to relieve him of his post at fifteen hundred hours. “We’ll know within the hour. Bud Makenhoff is a good friend of mine. He’ll be thorough with his walkthrough and call me with his preliminary findings.”

  “…longer hair,” Paul said, his voice carrying into the conference room. “I guess I didn’t realize how much he looked like me until now. “He’s a bit broader than I am in the shoulders, though. I remember thinking that when…”

  “We’ll take that into account,” Dean said, taking back the sketch in order to allow Paul time to collect himself. “Now that you’ve had time to…”

  “This is the composite that was sent to us this morning.” Chaz leaned down and slid a piece of paper on the table toward Ridge. “You can see why there’s all the confusion.”

  Ridge studied the picture in front of him, his gut tightening as he basically saw Paul Harrison’s picture in front of him. Lily wrapped her hands around a cup of coffee that she must have gotten before he arrived. It reminded Ridge that they hadn’t had time to eat anything today.

  “This,” Chaz said, sliding another older-looking photograph next to the aged composite of their suspect, “is Frank Harrison. The boys’ father.”

  “Damn, but that’s uncanny,” Ridge uttered in disbelief, staring at the two images and then setting his gaze on Paul. “There’s certainly a strong family resemblance.”

  “Dominant genes,” Chaz muttered in basic agreement as he crossed his arms and stared out at Paul Harrison. “It happens more often than you might think. My wife is the spitting image of her mother when she was that age. You wouldn’t even be able to tell them apart.”

  “So, where does that leave us?” Lily asked, leaning forward and setting her elbows on the table to get a better look at the pictures.

  “Unfortunately, in the same position we were before the composite sketch came through this morning,” Chaz answered truthfully, pulling out a chair at the table and taking a seat himself. “We’ll wait for Frank’s call regarding his opinion on the fire and go from there. I figure we’ll hear something in the next hour, so it’s up to you whether you’d like to wait here or head on home.”

  “We’ll wait here,” Lily replied for the both of them, looking up at Ridge to see if he agreed. He’d do whatever it was that made her comfortable. “If that’s okay with you, Sheriff?”

  Ridge removed his jacket and took a seat as Chaz talked to Lily in a way that had the built-up tension leaving her shoulders, letting him know that they weren’t going anywhere without answers. He only hoped that the expected phone call held the answers they wanted to hear.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Jonah, I need to apologize,” Lily said quietly, having sought a moment alone with the deputy. Ridge and the sheriff were talking about possible natural causes of the fire inside a home that had basically been empty for a week. She’d taken advantage of their discussion to have a private one of her own with Jonah. “I know I acted rather odd back at the gym, and I—”

  “You got scared that I might have been the one to attack you,” Jonah said with a frown of disappointment, but it seemed to be mostly at himself. “I realized that you became a bit uncomfortable the moment that I said that my dad had died when I was younger. I don’t fit the profile, if that helps. My mother eventually remarried, and my DNA doesn’t match what was left behind at the crime scenes. If you’d like, I can get the sheriff to assign—”

  “No, please don’t do that,” Lily said, quickly stopping him from suggesting that someone else take over the protective detail until the state positioned their men back in place. “It was just irrational fear. My only excuse is that I’ve been on edge, and Ridge thinking that the fire might have been set in order to draw him away from us only made it worse in my mind for some reason. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, Jonah.”

  The deputy seemed to take her apology at face value, and he even smiled when she offered to get him a cup of coffee. It seemed like a silly offer when he would no doubt walk with her to the kitchen.

  “Sure, let’s go get a cup of coffee.”

  Lily turned around and waited for a break in Ridge’s conversation before telling him that she was going to the kitchen for a refill on her coffee. She promised him a cup of tea, having seen a woman who worked at the station come out of the kitchen with one earlier.

  “…remember anything else that your brother might have said?” Agent Malone asked Paul as they both sat at one of the desks in the bullpen. Teresa lifted a hand and gave a small wave to Lily, giving a smile at seeing a familiar face. She returned the gesture, feeling sorry for the woman. “Can you think of any place that he might be hiding out? We already checked his old residence here in town where a Mr. and Mrs. Gasterson live now. They haven’t seen anyone suspicious, but we do have someone stationed outside their residence in case Alan decides to visit the home where he lost his father.”

  Lily hadn’t realized that she’d slowed her steps to listen as Agent Malone posed some more follow-up questions to Paul. She never would have thought to check Alan Harrison’s childhood home. The more she was around to hear Agent Malone and the sheriff handle the case, the more comfortable she began to feel that her life wouldn’t be in upheaval for too much longer.

  “It looks like the hotline is still receiving high level of calls,” Lily said to Jonah as they walked past the second conferen
ce room on the opposite side of the building. The kitchen was located off a hallway past the sheriff’s private office, but the short walk gave her time to observe the operation. Two women and a man were fielding calls, while more were incoming based on the nonstop buzzing coming from the automated switchboard. “Does it go on like this all day?”

  “The sheriff has the hotline manned twenty-four-seven,” Jonah replied, shifting the weight of his utility belt. He waved to the employees as he walked past the glass window. “The traction of the calls depends on the day. When there’s something new that the media covers, such as the fact that we’ve basically got a manhunt going on for Alan Harrison, then the tips are nonstop. It doesn’t help that Paul and Alan look so much alike.”

  “I could have sworn that I heard Oscar’s name,” Lily said in confusion, turning down the small hallway where the delicious aroma of coffee instantly became stronger. “Does he still live out on that gravel road near the Johnson farm?”

  “Oscar likes to let us know that he believes The Widow Taker is actually a UFO that is abducting widows to take them to their planet to mate with their kind,” Jonah said with a laugh, causing Lily to let go of her final remorse over hurting his feelings earlier.

  “That sounds like Oscar,” Lily replied with a chuckle, remembering the older gentleman from when he’d come into the hospital for his annual check-ups. He was always going on and on about the stethoscopes, because he swore that the aliens could hear their conversations through the Y-shaped listening devices. The doctors and nurses had tried to seek help for him through the mental health department at the hospital, but Oscar inevitably would stop taking any medication supplied by one of the psychiatrists. “I haven’t seen him in over a year.”