“Matt doesn’t know yet,” Erin said.
“Isn’t that something you should discuss with him? I mean, he is your husband,” Melinda said, stressing the word “your.”
“I don’t see where any of this is your business, Melinda,” Erin said brusquely, then changed the subject. “I’m going to take this
downstairs to show the boys. It’s a new piece I’ve been working on to display at Antoine’s.”
I could hear Erin walking downstairs. I was starting to leave the garage when I heard Melinda speak.
“What a bitch.”
“What are you talking about?” Alanna asked, clearly surprised at the exchange between Melinda and Erin.
“Gavin Beckwith. She’s sleeping with him. It’s very obvious. Why she would want to risk throwing all this away is beyond me. Matt deserves so much better.”
“Like you?” Alanna asked.
I had heard enough. I quietly left the garage and spent the rest of the evening in a foul mood. Now I was certain that Gavin was the guy I’d seen at the coffee shop earlier in the week. It was time to take action, no matter what the consequences. I needed to decide whether or not to confront Gavin or my wife first.
Matt opened a third beer and continued staring at the pool, its lights flickering under the water and giving off an eerie glow. Now, with all the pieces of his memory coming back together, he was starting to form a good idea of who could be behind all of this. He drank the rest of the beer while formulating a plan. The tricky part was how to do this without alerting Krapek or Jones that he was regaining his memory. Matt thought it was better for everyone to think he still couldn’t remember what had happened to him. He could clearly see that it could make him look like a suspect in his wife’s death and kids’ disappearance if they knew what he remembered. And having his family and friends thinking his memory was still iffy gave him a huge advantage in tackling what he was about to do. He finished off his beer and stumbled back upstairs to bed. But before sleep overcame him, he set an early alarm. He had plans for the next day. Big plans.
I
t was nine in the morning by the time Matt parked the truck at the curb three houses down from his destination. He had borrowed his neighbor’s Chevy Silverado pickup, as he’d done before when he needed to haul some garden supplies from the local nursery. The neighbor was out of town and had given Matt a spare key to the vehicle. Matt chose the nondescript truck because he knew that Melinda would never recognize it. And, luckily, her car was still in the driveway. Matt knew his brother Chris would be tied up all day in a court deposition. That meant Melinda would be free to roam—and Matt would be there to follow her.
In the wee hours of the morning as he’d sat by the pool drinking beer, Matt had come to the conclusion that Melinda was up to no good. She knew that Erin was having an affair with the art dealer. What other secrets was she hiding? Matt was going to find out if it took him the rest of the day, the week, or the rest of his life.
At nine thirty, Melinda didn’t disappoint. She walked out the front door, climbed in her white Mercedes sedan, and pulled out of the drive. The Mercedes had been a gift from Chris for Melinda’s birthday last year. Well, actually, it was a gift she gave herself. She’d bought it with Chris’s money without asking, and shit had
hit the fan when he’d found out. He was always complaining that Melinda was spending money faster than he could make it. Matt knew that recently Chris had found that Melinda had been hiding credit card bills and that they were in debt for around $120,000. Clothing, spa trips with her girlfriends, expensive lunches and dinners, designer clothing, purses and shoes. Not to mention all the new home furnishings and decor she had just bought for their condo in Florida. Matt, who felt guilty for having made a few million dollars on his stock and real estate investments, had offered to pay off their debt, but Chris had refused. His brother was stubborn and wanted to do things his own way. Matt wasn’t sure if Chris had actually found a way to settle his wife’s debt or not. As his brother’s business partner, he knew what kind of salary Chris brought home, and it wasn’t enough to keep up with Melinda’s lavish lifestyle.
Since neither Erin nor Matt had any other living family members, they’d named Chris and Melinda their children’s guardians if anything should happen to them and the children were left without parents. Millions of dollars would go into a trust fund for Mary Kate and Patrick, to be overseen by their guardians if, God forbid, anything did happen to Matt or his wife. Was that money enough of a motive for Melinda to want to kill Erin and Matt? He didn’t know if Melinda had the nerve to pull off something like that, but right now it was all Matt had to go on. And tailing Melinda was a good start.
Matt stayed a few car lengths behind the white Mercedes, following at a distance. When Melinda pulled into a Starbucks drive-through, Matt parked in the grocery store lot next door and waited. He watched her talk on her cell phone while she waited for her order at the window. Two minutes later, the barista handed her a brown bakery bag and a large coffee cup. Melinda didn’t eat carbs, so he knew that whatever was in the bag wasn’t for her. So she must be meeting someone, Matt deduced. He checked his watch, pondering if he should call Rachel and let her know what
was going on. Get her take on it. He decided to wait and see where this was going to lead first. After getting her coffee fix, Melinda zoomed back onto the highway and within minutes was heading west on Interstate 10. Matt took a peek at the gas gauge. He had a little less than half a tank. Wherever Melinda was going, he hoped it wasn’t too far.
T
hree hours later, with an almost-empty gas tank, Matt saw a sign flash by that welcomed him to Lake Charles. A minute after that, he followed the Mercedes off the interstate and into the first gas station. While Melinda went inside, Matt took the opportunity to fill up. He left his sunglasses on and grabbed a battered fishing cap from the passenger seat that probably belonged to his neighbor. He pulled it low over his eyes and got out to start the pump. Watching the numbers roll by on the tank, he wondered what Melinda was doing in Lake Charles. She didn’t have any family that lived nearby anymore. When her parents died, she and her younger brother, Adam, went to live with their grandmother in Metairie. Now Melinda’s grandmother lived in an assisted living facility in Chalmette. He didn’t know of any other living relatives or friends that Melinda had in Lake Charles. But then again, he was learning new things about Melinda every minute.
Keeping one eye on the door and the other on the tank, he managed to fill the tank all the way up. Ten minutes had passed, and Melinda still hadn’t come out. He wondered what the hell she was doing. He craned his neck to see inside the store and caught a
glimpse of her holding her phone to her ear. It was just like her to talk on the phone in a public place and not care who she bothered. Just then, she quickly turned, came outside, and got back in her car. She reversed into the stall next to him to get gas. Taking that as his cue to leave, Matt slowly pulled the truck around to the side of the store, where he could still see the exit out of the gas station.
Matt turned down the radio and called his brother’s cell phone. It went straight to voice mail.
“Hey, it’s Matt. Just calling to see how the depo went. Also, I wanted to let you know that I decided to go to Baton Rouge for the night. Going to hang out with a few buddies. Check in with ya later.” He thought better of telling his brother what he was up to. If Melinda turned out to be innocent and Matt had revealed his terrible suspicions to his brother, Chris might not ever forgive him. Best to wait and see how it panned out. Within a couple of minutes, he saw the Mercedes pull out of the gas station parking lot.
He followed Melinda a couple of miles down the two-lane highway. She pulled off the highway onto a road that had a sign that indicated a dead end. Matt decided to play it safe and keep going and then double back. He went down another mile and then turned around. Making a left onto Terre Belle, the dead-end street where Melinda had turned, he looked for her car. Eventually he found it. There were only four houses on the street. All of them looked like they had been built in the late seventies, and only one looked currently occupied. Her car was parked in the driveway on the right side of the street. She had already gone inside. Matt drove down to the end of the street, which faced a lake. He got out his iPad and visited a website that he used a lot at the office. He plugged in the address of the lake house and waited for the search results. If he knew the owner, maybe he could find out why Melinda was here in Lake Charles, so far from home. Less than thirty seconds later, the information was uploaded onto his screen.
He was blown away.
T
he house was registered to Adam Donnelly. How was Melinda’s brother involved in all this? Matt struggled to remember if Chris had mentioned that Melinda’s brother or grandmother had property in Lake Charles. When they vacationed together, they always went to the beach in Florida or skiing in Colorado. Matt’s mind raced with all kinds of questions.
What was Melinda doing at this lake house? Matt knew that Adam lived and worked in New Orleans. There wasn’t another vehicle in the driveway. Was this a house Melinda kept a secret from Chris? If so, why, and what was she using it for? He wondered if Melinda was planning on staying the night. He looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was getting close to two o’clock, and it would be suspicious if he parked here all day long. Besides, he was starving. After thinking about it for a few minutes, Matt decided to go get something to eat and then check into the Holiday Inn—he’d noticed one less than a mile down the main road. There he could investigate Gavin Beckwith on his computer. Also pull up a background check on Adam. He knew from Chris that Adam had been in trouble with the law before, but he thought it was just petty stuff. There had to be something useful he could find. Then,
later on, when it was dark, he would head back and snoop around the house, whether Melinda was there or not.
Matt was thankful he’d grabbed his backpack that had his laptop and gym clothes in it before heading out to follow Melinda. As soon as he secured a room at the hotel, he pulled out his computer and went to work investigating Adam Donnelly as well as the art dealer his wife was involved with.
As a bail bondsman, Matt had plenty of access to websites that helped produce background searches, employment histories, and credit reports. He decided to do a full report on Gavin as well as Melinda’s brother. After typing in the pertinent details and starting the process, which usually took about an hour, Matt took a quick nap. If he was going to snoop around the property tonight, he needed to rest. His doctor had warned him that his head was still healing and that rest was essential. The headache that was starting to creep up on him now confirmed that.
After a two-hour nap, Matt checked his computer to see if the reports had come in. He took a look at Gavin Beckwith first, and woke up quickly. There was some interesting stuff. Gavin had filed for bankruptcy earlier in the year. His art gallery hadn’t been doing all that well. Was that why he’d wanted Erin to partner up with him in selling her paintings? Thinking she could help him get out of a hole? Or was it merely a ploy to get in her pants? Beckwith didn’t have a criminal history other than a DUI charge from twenty-one years ago. Probably from his college days, Matt guessed. He sighed. Nothing in the report gave him reason to believe that the man was involved in his family’s disappearance. Other than the fact that the guy was a douche bag and had been sleeping with his wife.
Adam Donnelly was next. Like Matt had thought, the background check had reported mostly misdemeanors, petty criminal stuff. It didn’t prove a lot. Adam ran with a sketchy crowd, according to Chris. Chris and Melinda were always bailing him out of trouble. Matt scrolled through the report on his computer until
the last page, which included a black-and-white photo of Adam. Matt hadn’t seen him in almost two years. The kid never came to any family functions. However, looking at the photo now, Matt realized he had seen him recently. Closing his eyes, Matt realized a crucial piece of the puzzle fell into place.
Adam had been the one holding a tire iron over Matt’s head that night.
T
he lake house was dark except for a couple of lamps illuminating the second level of the house. Matt’s thoughts ran over the details turned up when he’d searched the property records earlier. The original owner, Melinda and Adam’s grandmother, had the house built in the midseventies. When Melinda’s parents died in the automobile accident, the grandmother deeded the house as a trust for Adam. Looking at the terrible shape the house was in now—shutters barely clinging to the frame, tall weeds taking up residence around the lawn, thick coatings of dirt on the windows—Matt didn’t think anyone had occupied the residence in a very long time. As he sat in his truck watching the decrepit house across the street, he wondered what the hell his sister-in-law was up to. The ringing of his cell startled him. The name flashed up on the screen—it was Chris.
“Thought you’d be back by now, brother. Where are you?”
“Hey,” Matt said, trying to sound casual. “I decided to stay in Baton Rouge for a couple days. See the guys, hang out a bit.” Chris was silent for so long that Matt thought he’d lost the cell connection. Finally Chris said, “What’s really going on with you?”
Matt knew that Chris would see through the lie, but he didn’t want to let him in on his suspicions just yet. Chris would’ve been knocking down the door to the lake house by now, wondering what exactly his wife was doing up here in the middle of nowhere. He didn’t have Matt’s patience.
“Okay, you got me. It’s not just guy time. I just wanted to come back to the area where they found me. See if that would help with getting my memory back. I feel so hopeless just sitting around.”