Always Watching (12 page)

Wade glanced back at Amy. Olivia followed his gaze. Amy had her attention glued to the television screen. Closed captions ran across the bottom. Olivia didn't know if she was listening to the sermon or not, but at least she'd calmed down. “And by those precautions you mean a sweep of my vehicle for . . . ?”

“A bomb, Wade. I'm looking for a bomb.”

He swallowed hard and blinked. Then his jaw tightened and he gave a short nod. “Right. A bomb. Because the first time didn't get the job done.” He blew out a slow breath. “I'm going to talk to Amy and see if she can tell me anything more about the woman in the bathroom.”

Olivia's earpiece buzzed. “Go.”

“I'm heading your way,” Haley said. “The service is winding down and the closing music's going to start any second.”

“Katie should be here any minute.”

“Sweeping the car?”

“Yes.”

Martha entered the lobby, followed by Haley.

Martha rushed over to Wade, Haley right on her heels. “What's going on? What happened? We heard loud noises, but didn't think much of it since they kept going with the service, but Haley said it set off some panic.”

Joanna appeared from the door she'd vanished behind earlier and bolted over to Martha and Wade. “What is it? I got your text. What's going on?”

Wade stepped forward, a ferocious frown on his face directed toward Joanna. “Why didn't you tell me Amy was going to the youth room?”

“What?” Joanna stepped back. “She said she was going and I told her she needed to tell you.”

“She said you told her you would tell me.”

“No. I specifically said, ‘You need to tell your father where you are.'”

“I thought you said you would tell him,” Amy said softly. “I thought you said, ‘I'll tell your father where you are.'”

“No, I'm so sorry.” Joanna held out a beseeching hand. “You must have misunderstood—”

Wade placed a hand on Amy's shoulder. “It doesn't matter now. Misunderstandings happen. Amy's fine and that's all that matters.”

Joanna clamped her lips together and nodded. She held her arms out to Amy, who slid into them. The two hugged.

Olivia's phone rang and she snatched it to her ear while Wade went into soothing mode with his sister-in-law.

“Katie?”

“Yeah, I'm here,” Katie said. “Going over the vehicle now. Stay on the line with me.”

Olivia did. She could sense Wade listening in on her side of the conversation while Martha turned to Joanna and began discussing the incident in soft tones.

Haley walked up to Olivia. “Bathroom had three females in it,” she said in a low voice. “No way to know if one of them was in there when Amy was. I asked and they all claimed to have come from the auditorium. Could be true, could be not.”

“Any cameras in the hallway?”

“Yes. The whole building has security cameras.”

“Check and see if Quinn can take a look and determine who went into the bathroom and scared Amy.”

“Okay, the car is now clean,” Katie said in her ear.

“
Now
clean?”

“No bomb, but it had a GPS tracker on it.”

Olivia sucked in a breath. “All right. You removed it of course.”

“And bagged it. We'll see if one of our contacts at the lab will do us a favor and see if it can be traced.”

“Good deal. From now on, we do a complete sweep of the vehicle before Wade or anyone in his family gets near it.” She hung up and motioned to Haley and Wade. “We're good to go.”

Wade gripped Amy's hand.

“Well, what about us?” Martha asked. “Do you think we're in any danger if Joanna and I continue with our plans for the day?”

Olivia considered the question. “The stalker doesn't appear to be after you or consider you to be a threat. So far her targets have been Wade and Amy.” She glanced at Haley, then back to the two women. “In other words, I can't make that call. That's up to you. If you're with us, you'll be under our protection. If you go off on your own, you won't be.”

Joanna shook her head. “We'll be fine, Martha. The psycho is after Wade. In fact, if you think about it, we'll probably be safer away from him.”

Martha frowned and Olivia could see her trying to decide. Olivia glanced at Wade and wondered if he'd taken that last comment personally. His expression didn't give her a clue.

“Frankly,” Olivia said, “I would prefer you stay with us until we know for sure the person isn't going to go after anyone else.”

“No,” Martha said. “Joanna and I will go on with our plans for the day. It's ridiculous to let one individual have that much power over us.” She lifted her chin. “Let's go, Joanna.”

Joanna nodded. “Fine.”

The two ladies left and Olivia nodded to Wade. He took Amy's hand and Olivia led the way to the parking lot. Haley brought up the rear, keeping an eye on their flank, her hand never far from her weapon. At the vehicle, Wade helped Amy into the back, then climbed into the passenger seat. Haley slid into the seat next to Amy. Olivia walked over to Katie, who now sat in the driver's seat of her own vehicle. “Will you follow us back to Wade's house? I want you to hear whatever Amy has to say.”

“Of course. I'll clear the house before you go in.”

“Thanks.”

Olivia returned to Wade's SUV. She settled herself behind the wheel and cranked the engine while Wade buckled up. He blew out a slow breath. “I have a charity dinner Thursday night.”

“I know.”

“Should we call it off?”

“You're willing to do that?”

“I'm not worried about myself so much as I'm worried about”—he glanced in the rearview mirror—“others worrying about me.”

She nodded, understanding his convoluted sentence. “That's four days away. Do you need to know right now?”

“Pretty soon.”

“Give me all the information and I'll check on the security that'll be present. Depending on that, we can make the decision by tomorrow evening.”

“That'll work.”

She wove through the maze of the parking lot and finally made it to the street that would take her to the interstate.

“Where are we going?” Amy asked.

Olivia glanced at Wade, who also looked interested in the answer to the question. “I'm going to take you home and then I'm going to see about watching the security footage from the church.” And calling in reinforcements. Amy needed someone with her 24/7. Whoever was after Wade had just proven she'd use Amy to get to him.

And that simply wasn't going to happen.

SUNDAY
LUNCHTIME

The drive to the house was uneventful, but frankly Olivia didn't anticipate any problems while she—or another bodyguard—was around. At least not yet. Not in an in-your-face kind of way. A sneak attack was going to be more her style.

Wade's stalker had already proven she was clever—and not afraid to kill. But she had only attacked individuals. She hadn't gone after Wade—or Amy—when they'd been with a group of people. Even at the church, with the big crowd, she'd still managed to get Amy alone.

And that was the key.

She pulled into the drive and put the car in park. Haley got out. “I'll do a perimeter search as well. I'll let Katie know.” She was already on her phone as she slipped out of the vehicle.

Olivia turned to Wade. “She went after you when you were alone.” She tapped the wheel as she thought. “And she went after Amy when
she
was alone. Granted, she orchestrated that, but she still wanted her—and you—alone.”

“So as long as we travel in a group, we should be fine?”

“No, no, I'm not saying that, I'm saying
it appears like
she's not confident enough to take on more than one person at a time.”

He snorted. “Well, that's a comfort.”

“Sarcasm?”

“Sorry,” he muttered. “But yeah.”

“She's a behind-the-scenes kind of girl. A wallflower, but not necessarily physically unattractive.”

“Always the bridesmaid, never the bride?” Wade murmured.

“Hmm. Yes. Something like that. Maybe by choice, maybe not. You probably intimidate her. Beneath it all, she doesn't think you would find her appealing, but she's decided not to let that stop her from having you. One way or another. She's slowly gaining confidence to make that happen. Or maybe that's been her goal for a while and she's just now figured out a way to get you to notice her.”

“And she's progressed to the point that she's willing to use the dark of night to . . . uh . . . take out one of your employees.” He was mindful of his daughter still in the backseat. “You're trying to analyze her.”

She shrugged. “Profile her.”

He nodded and went silent.

“What does ‘profile her' mean?” Amy asked.

Olivia glanced in the rearview mirror. The girl hadn't said a word from the time they'd left the church to now. Her question had been subdued, but at least she was talking. “It means to try and understand how someone thinks or figure out why they behave the way they behave.” There was more to it than that, but she figured a simple explanation would be best here.

Olivia's phone pinged and she looked at the text. Katie had already cleared the house. No decapitated gifts this time. No
bombs adhered to the doors. That was a step in the right direction.

“Oh. Because once you understand how someone thinks, you can help that person, right?” Amy said.

Olivia smiled. Helping wasn't really on her priority list. Taking that person down and putting her behind bars was more in line with what she had in mind. “Yes. Something like that.”

Amy nodded. “That's what my dad does. He figures out how people think, then helps them.”

“I know. Your dad's a smart man.”

“Not as smart as Pops.” Amy opened her door and got out of the car.

Wade cleared his throat. “We'll debate that another time,” he said to Amy's back. His daughter slipped inside the house.

“She seems okay,” Olivia said in a low voice, “but I don't really know her well enough to tell.”

“She's not okay. I can see the tremor in her hands and she hasn't looked me in the eye since we got in the car.” Wade led the way into the house via the kitchen door. Katie had already entered the front. Amy grabbed a box of raisins from the counter, but didn't stop to speak or acknowledge Katie's presence. She darted past her and disappeared up the stairs.

Katie lifted a brow. Olivia looked at Wade. He sighed and ducked his head for a second, then looked up. “Okay, let's go.”

“She went to her room, I assume?” Olivia asked.

He nodded. “It's her safe place.”

“Is it all right if we invade it?”

“I think we need to. We need to get her to talk while her memory is fresh.” His jaw tightened. “I want to know who was in the bathroom and get the full story. Come on.”

“You go first and clear the way a bit. I want to talk to Katie for just a few minutes.”

Wade nodded and headed up the stairs.

“What is it?” Katie asked from behind her.

“I just spoke with Haley. I told her we had this covered so she's heading home.”

“That's fine.”

“And Quinn's pulling security footage from the church. He said he'd come by and show it to Amy and Wade if there was anything worth looking at.”

“Great.”

Olivia drew in a deep breath. “Now, let's go see if Amy will fill us in on what happened at the church.”

Wade sat beside Amy and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She pulled away from him. “Go away.”

Stunned, he simply stared at her for a brief moment. “What?”

“Go. Away.”

“Amy—”

“I don't want to talk to you right now.”

Disbelief and anger fired to life. “Now look here, young lady—” She crossed her arms and turned her head, refusing to look at him. He stopped. She didn't need a reprimand. She'd been terrified. “Amy,” he whispered. Her jaw tightened. He touched her shoulder. “Honey, talk to me.”

“Why should I?”

Wade was floored. His mind froze. With all of his expertise in counseling others in their relationships with family members, he couldn't figure out how to talk to his own daughter.

“Why are you mad at your dad?”

Wade turned to find Olivia in the doorway with Katie behind her.

Amy flinched and looked away.

Wade didn't know whether to be mad or glad at the interruption. He stayed silent since he wanted to know the answer himself. Olivia kept her gaze on Amy. Amy stared back for a few seconds, then dropped her eyes to the stuffed animal she held in her lap. “He didn't come get me,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “He didn't come save me. No one did.”

Wade's heart shattered. He'd failed his child. She'd expected him to come rescue her and he hadn't. He'd let her down. He fought the lump in his throat. “I didn't know where you were, sweetheart,” he finally said.

“I know that now, but—”

“But what?”

“I still thought you'd come.”

“I know. And I was looking for you.” He lifted her chin and looked her in the eye. “You saved yourself, Amy. I know your panic attacks overwhelm you at times, but you proved something to yourself.”

“What?” she whispered.

“That you're clever and smart and strong and that the panic attacks don't define you. You're an overcomer and you're going to be just fine.”

She gave him a faint smile. “Like Mandisa's song?”

“Yeah, just like it.”

She threw herself into his arms and clung. Wade hugged her and fought the tears that wanted to fall. “Joanna didn't tell me you were going to the youth room because of the misunderstanding, so I had no idea where you were. Which is why I was searching for you.” She nodded against his chest. He pushed her back. “Can you tell us what happened in the bathroom?”

Olivia and Katie, who'd been standing quietly just inside the room, moved closer to the bed.

Amy shoved her hair back and looked at them. “I went to the youth room and they were doing the play. Everything was fine until the loud gunshots.” She shrugged, but he saw the fine tremor that shook her. “I don't like loud noises.”

Wade listened as his daughter recounted the incident, his muscles tightening with each word that rolled from her tongue.

“I prayed, but nothing happened. You didn't come and the lady didn't go away. So I crawled under the last stall and ran for the door. She grabbed my shoulder, but I turned and kicked her. She let go and I got through the door and then went to find you.”

Wade hugged her again. “Good job, sweetie. You did great.”

“I was really,
really
scared.” She sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“I know you were.” His arms tightened. He couldn't believe she'd managed to control her panic and get away. “God was with you in that situation.”

She stuck her lower lip out and shuddered. “Well, I sure didn't feel him.”

“But he allowed you to think clearly and do what you had to do to get away, right? Just like what we talked about a minute ago.”

She paused, then nodded. “Yes.” Another pause. “But I was still scared.” She pushed her hair back and shuddered, then froze. “I forgot,” she whispered.

“Forgot what?”

“She said I was supposed to give you a message.”

Wade stilled. “What message?”

“She said to tell you that Justine was waiting for you,” she whispered.

Goosebumps pebbled on his skin. The room stayed silent.

“And then I ran,” Amy said. “I thought she was going to kill me.” Her voice wobbled.

Wade hugged her close and fought his roiling emotions. Rage at the unknown person had him trembling.

“We're going to make sure you don't have to feel that way again,” Olivia said softly. “You're going to have your very own bodyguard. Actually, you'll have two who will take turns watching you.”

Amy pulled away from him and looked at Olivia. “Who?”

“Me,” Katie said.

“Cool. Who else?”

“A woman named Lizzie. She had to finish up a case she was working on before joining us, but she'll be here tomorrow.”

“Is she nice?”

“Very nice. She's got a daughter about your age.”

Amy thought about that, then rubbed her nose and looked at Katie. “Just one more question.”

“What's that?” Katie moved closer.

“Do
you
like kids?”

“Love them. Especially twelve-year-old girls with beautiful dark hair and eyes.”

That got a shaky smile. Amy nodded. “I think we'll get along just fine then.”