Authors: Kimberley Reeves
“As my lawyer, I trust you’ll get the charges dropped,” he’d told Nick as he slipped inside the cabin.
As the dark of night settled over the mountain, she began to doubt whether the killer would even attempt to come after her when he knew Prince was there to protect her.
Unless he intends to eliminate the double threat we pose and kill us both.
Abby shivered as that uninvited and terrifying thought rattled through her mind. There was nothing to be afraid of, she told herself. With Nick and Gage outside watching every entrance to the cabin, there was no way anyone could attempt to get inside without being spotted.
The best thing to do was occupy herself by going over the information she’d gathered so far. Settling the laptop on her knees, she pulled up the file containing the newspaper archives. Then she took out the napkin with the names Sherri had given her and placed it beside her on the sofa.
According to Sherri, there were four men whose affairs with Marietta drew more attention and gossip than usual during the eighteen months prior to her disappearance; not because she had jilted them one by one – any male who got involved with her expected it to end when the thrill of having a new lover wore off. What set these men apart was that they seemed to have become embroiled in a higher stakes game than any of Marietta’s previous lovers.
“Why any of those fools didn’t see it coming is beyond me,” Sherri had snorted. “Apparently, it wasn’t enough to carry on with one until her royal highness allowed someone else to lure her away. She upped the ante and bamboozled Ronnie Phillips into believing she might accept one of his many marriage proposals if he did something to prove how much he loved her. Conned the idiot into buying her a fancy little sports car that probably cost him a second mortgage on his business. When all the fuss about the lavish gift fizzled out, she zeroed in on Walt Grant’s youngest boy, Jake. Poor Ronnie walked in on them doing the big nasty in the storage shed right out back of his store.”
“You think she planned that?”
“Can’t prove it, of course,” Sherri shrugged. “She was always careful to let go of one before latching onto another. I think she believed that sleeping around was only immoral if you were being nailed by more than one man at a time. That’s why I think it was planned. Who knows, maybe she liked the idea of Ronnie seeing her having sex with another man, or maybe she thought someone who loved her enough to want to marry her would put up more of a fight to hang onto her.”
Abby nodded thoughtfully. “You think it’s possible that’s what she really wanted all along, to be loved?”
“That’s a very kind-hearted sentiment, but completely wasted on the likes of her. Some people are just plain rotten, right down to the core. They can’t help it; they were born that way. But there are some, like Marietta Howard, who take pleasure in poisoning other people’s lives with that rottenness. To her, sex was a tool she employed to hook a man; love was merely the means by which she enslaved them.”
“So what happened with Jake Grant?”
“It took her longer to rope him into admitting he was in love with her. Her relationships rarely lasted more than a few months so Jake must have taken it as a sign she was truly in love with him too when they were still going hot and heavy after five months. Three weeks after Jake popped the question, she made a production of breaking it off with him right over there,” Sherri nodded to a spot near the end of the bar. “Jake knew it was over when she beat him up about buying her a ring that cost less than the car Ronnie had gotten her. After he stormed out, Marietta really turned on the water works. Worked up a flood of crocodile tears and begged Josh Thackery to drive her home.”
“Let me guess,” Abby said dryly, “fiancé number three?”
“Not quite. We all expected it, of course. And then, out of the blue, she waltzes into Lou Lou’s with Everett Mizzerach, grinning like a Cheshire cat and sporting a diamond four times the size Jake had given her. A lot of people thought she would really go through with a wedding that time because it was formally announced in the papers, but most of us knew the snake for what she was and figured it was only a matter of time before she hopped into someone else’s bed. I suppose it was fortunate for Jack that he’d kept his distance from that woman, otherwise, I’m sure Everett wouldn’t have been so vocal about Jack’s innocence when he was arrested. He used his influence through the media to help exonerate Jack, although it turned out unnecessary since Jack had an airtight alibi.”
Now, as she considered everything Sherri had told her, it seemed rather odd that Everett would leap to Jack’s defense. Unlike Marietta’s previous engagements, she hadn’t broken it off. In fact, she’d gone so far as to set a date and began planning an elaborate wedding. Everett succeeded where all the others had failed; why then, hadn’t he jumped at the chance to condemn the prime suspect in his fiancé’s disappearance?
Abby was jolted out of her disturbing musings by the sharp buzzing of her cell phone. Irritation swiftly overrode rattle nerves when she checked the caller ID. “Damn it, Gage, you scared the living daylights out of me!”
“You
should
be scared,” he growled, clearly still angry with her.
Abby sighed. “Why are you calling?”
“Just checking to make sure you’re all right. And to tell you to put your phone on speaker and leave the line open so we can hear each other without having to redial.”
“Okay, anything else?”
“Yeah, when this is over, I’m telling Dad.”
“Aren’t you a little old to be ratting me out to Dad?”
“It seems to work for you.”
“That’s because I’m his little girl.”
Gage groaned. “God, you’re such a brat.”
Abby smiled. “Hey, Gage?”
“What?” he snapped.
“I love you.”
Abby grinned with satisfaction when she heard him mutter a few oaths. He hated it when she diffused his anger by saying she loved him, which was why she did it, of course.
“I love you, too,” he finally said.
Switching the phone to speaker mode, she couldn’t resist the urge to goad him one more time. “Gage? Are you holding the phone with your right hand or your left?” She heard the exasperated sigh and stifled a giggle.
“Neither, I’ve got an earpiece in, why?”
“Well…I just wanted to make sure you remembered to keep your right hand free to shoot with.”
Another exasperated sigh. “Do you sit around just thinking of ways to annoy me?”
“Sometimes,” she admitted.
“Well, find something else to do right now, I’m trying to watch for a killer, remember?”
“Just be careful out there and don’t forget to duck this time, okay? I don’t have any more blood to spare.”
Gage didn’t bother to answer but she was satisfied with the disgruntled mumbling that continued for several minutes before going silent. Abby looked at the list of names again. Now what was she thinking about before Gage interrupted?
***
“I don’t like being threatened,” Sheriff Crane told Jack as he opened the cell door.
“I know, Sheriff, and I apologize, but it was the only thing I could think of to get you here.”
Sheriff Crane chuckled. “You sure you want to marry into that family, Jack? Your woman’s father must have some mighty influential contacts. He managed to get an unlisted cell phone number for a county judge.”
Jack followed the Sheriff down the hall. “How is your wife, Sheriff?” Judge Georgia Crane was not only Sherri’s sister, but the Sheriff’s wife.
“The truth? She was damn happy to find a way to get you out of here. You know Georgia has always been sweet on you, what with you taking such good care of Sherri after Willa went missing.”
The Sheriff led him to a secured area and ordered the young officer behind a screened cage to issue a handgun to Jack. “Georgia says I can swear you in as a deputy, says there’s some old law on the books that has never been changed.”
Jack grinned. “You think she’s on the up and up?”
“Hell, she’s the Judge
and
my wife, that’s two strikes against me already if I go for an argument.”
The clerk came back with the handgun and had the Sheriff sign off on it. Jack checked the weapon to make sure it was loaded and then strapped on the shoulder holster and secured the gun inside the leather casing.
“So, how did Sam Travis manage to persuade the Judge to let me out?”
The Sheriff led him back upstairs. “He gave her some song and dance about it being legal to hold an emergency court proceeding. He said whatever court costs were incurred, he would pay them.”
“And she went for it?”
The Sheriff grinned. “Sure. Right after she told Mr. Travis she was going to fine him for using illegal means to procure her phone number.”
Jack groaned. He couldn’t imagine Abby’s father being too happy about that. “Where are we going?”
“To grab a few of my officers. Then I’ll swear you in and we’ll head up the mountain.”
Jack nodded grimly. He didn’t want to wait for the officers or to get sworn in, but his options were slim. All he could do was pray Gage and Nick kept Abby safe until they got there.
***
Abby stared at the names of Marietta’s lovers.
Mister Jack
, the Sawyer girl had said. Maybe she wasn’t saying Jack at all, maybe it only
sounded
like Jack because she was so distraught. She crossed off Ronnie Phillips and Everett Mizzerach. That left Jake Grant and Josh Thackery. Coming from a distraught young woman who had just narrowly escaped being murdered, either name could have come out sounding like Jack. Abby frowned. It was here, she knew it.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up when Prince lifted his head and peered out the window. Geezus, she was getting jumpy. It was probably an owl or some other woodland creature; being a city dog, Prince wasn’t used to the night sounds of the forest.
Abby turned her attention back to the list. For the same reason she thought it unlikely Anya would have referred to Jack as Mister Jack, she didn’t believe the woman would have called Walt’s son Mister Jake. She crossed off Jake Grant and circled Josh Thackery’s name. Was it possible Anya was trying to say Mr. Thackery but only managed to get out Mr. Thack? If she wasn’t completely coherent, the Sheriff could easily have been mistaken about what he heard.
Cross referencing the name Josh Thackery with the newspaper archives produced two hits. A shiver ran up Abby’s spine when she accessed the first one and discovered Josh had died in a drowning accident three months after Marietta Howard disappeared. They found his overturned boat on the fishing pond where he lived and ruled his death as an accidental drowning. The second article was an obituary.
Abby marked his name off the list with a shaky hand. She knew for a fact that Everett was still alive, but what about the others? Curious, she keyed in Ronnie Phillip’s name. His death occurred about six months after the disappearance of the Howard woman. According to the article, he was home alone when he fell down a flight of steps and broke his neck. An icy chill slithered through her veins. Accidents happened, of course, but somehow she couldn’t believe it was mere coincidence that two of the four men had died under mysterious circumstances so soon after Marietta’s disappearance. If Jake Grant had also died in what appeared to be an accident, there was a very high probability they had been murdered by the only man left standing; Everett Mizzerach.
Her fingers felt hollow as she typed in Jake Grant’s name, a feeling that migrated to the pit of her stomach as Abby read the article. Only three weeks after Marietta Howard’s abduction, Jake Grant was discovered hanging from the rafters of his bedroom. His death was ruled a suicide. Why hadn’t anyone figured it out? And why hadn’t Sherri disclosed the fact that three of the four men were dead? To be fair, Abby hadn’t explained
why
she was so interested in hearing about Marietta Howard and the men she had dated.
Whether it was Everett that killed Marietta or one of her other lovers, she didn’t know. But there was one thing Abby was certain of; Everett killed those three men and then continued his murderous rampage by preying on the trusting, vulnerable women in the area. The pieces fit too neatly to draw any other conclusion, although it didn’t explain why Anya had said Jack’s name.
Abby’s head snapped up when a low growl rumbled deep in Prince’s throat. The German Shepherd rose slowly to his feet, his eyes peering into the darkness, the hackles on his neck standing on end. Abby’s heart was racing at such a furious pace, she wondered inanely if it really was possible to die of fear. Dragging in a shaky breath, she managed to squeak out her brother’s name.
“Gage?”
“What is it, what’s wrong?” he replied, instantly picking up on her strained tone.
“Prince is growling. He…he’s looking out the sliding glass windows. Gage, I’m scared.”
“Hang tight, honey, I’ll check it…”
Gage’s reassuring voice was abruptly cut off, replaced by a loud thump and what sounded like a groan of pain.
“Gage? Gage?”
Fear clawed at her chest as she grabbed the phone and begged him to answer her. In a panic, she depressed the disconnect button so she could call Nick, but with Gage’s phone still connected to hers, she couldn’t hang up. Prince was growling now, the sound vibrating in his throat menacingly, his eyes trained on the forest. Suddenly realizing how visible she was with the lights blazing, Abby made a mad dash for the light switch and flipped it off, plunging the cabin into darkness.