Unnatural Relations (Lust and Lies Series, Book 1) (38 page)

"She called me at twelve thirty-five," Dani said.

This time Butler didn't reprimand her for interrupting. "Harris, what time did you get the radio call to come inside?"

Harris opened his report case and scanned the top sheet. "Twelve-forty."

"Was Mrs. Johnson out of your sight at any time in the three hours since then?"

"No, sir. Oh, except for when she checked on her son and went to the bathroom."

"You see?" Dani said sarcastically. "There was absolutely no way she could have done it."

Butler cocked his head at her. "Unless the time of death was earlier and she was out and back before she called you."

"You're being a dickhead, Butler. Harris will confirm that she never left the house."

"She could have climbed out the back window, the way she said Latham did."

"And then what?
Jogged
to the Sheraton and back? The time of death couldn't have been that much earlier, not by the looks of the body! I specifically requested that you be assigned to this case, because I thought you'd be more understanding. She's my friend—"

"Excuse me!" Barbara exclaimed to stop the debate. "What are you two talking about?"

Butler straightened his tie and his expression. "Sometime between one and two a.m., Russ Latham was killed in his motel room."

Barbara gasped.
"Killed?
You mean he's... he's
dead
? How... who..." Suddenly she understood the purpose of all the questions Butler had asked. "You think
I
could have done it?"

"You have the obvious motive. I had to question you first."

Barbara wrung her hands as her gaze darted between the three police officers. "I hated him for what he's done to us. I'll even admit that I wished him dead more than once. But I could never have killed him. I can't even kill insects. Matt has to do it for me."

Dani moved to sit next to her and covered her clenched hands with one of her own. "Use your gut instinct, Neil. You used to have one before your promotion. Not only is she genuinely shocked to learn of the murder, look at the size of her. Do you really believe she could have beaten a man Latham's size and strength to death and not even get a scratch on her? And before you ask, she does not have a black belt in karate."

Dani turned to Barbara and answered her other question. "After I talked to you, I decided we had more than enough to pick up Latham and hold him for a long while. Before I called the station, though, I wanted to verify that he was where you said, since no one at the Sheraton had reported his check-in."

"Not only had he checked in shortly after last night's shooting, but he had arrived in a truck—possibly the one you saw drive by. No one at the front desk would admit to having overlooked the BOLO on him, but somebody obviously did, because Latham didn't even try to hide his identity. Cocky son-of-a-bitch."

"At any rate, whoever killed him was apparently waiting for him to return. The fact is, it probably happened while I was arguing with the night manager in the lobby."

"Who else..." Barbara's mind called up other possible suspects. "Maybe Decker..."

"He claims he never left his room and physically he couldn't have managed what was done to Latham. But if they had some kind of deal going and Latham double-crossed him, he might have hired a pro to do the deed. He's been warned not to leave town until further notice."

"What about..." She couldn't even say his name.

"I already called the hospital. Besides the fact that he's in no condition to even defend himself let alone commit assault, Kyle was in his assigned bed asleep the entire time in question. Unfortunately, there's one more person in this bad soap opera that has to be considered."

Barbara narrowed her brows in thought. "Edith Hamilton?"

"No. I'm talking about Tammy Garrett. After we talked yesterday, the fingerprint analyses came back. One of the sets found in your bedroom belonged to Tammy Wheatstone. The prints were all over the place, as if she'd gone through every drawer. She was arrested in Boston a little over a year ago for running a scam on elderly men."

"The physical description matches the one you gave me for Garrett. It also matches the woman involved in the domestic disturbance with Latham—the one I thought was a hooker. The two of them were interrupted while he was in the process of whipping her. Maybe it wasn't foreplay like we figured. It could be that she decided to retaliate with a lead pipe. She certainly looked big enough to do a thorough job of it. Better yet, maybe she and Latham's partnership went beyond sex, and he double-crossed her."

It took Barbara a few seconds to correlate this new deceit with all the others. "Dear God in heaven. She was... with Russ... and I left Matt with her...."

"It's only supposition," Butler declared. "But we're looking for her. If she's still in the area, we'll find her."

Dani stood up then the men did as well. "In the meantime, I'd like you and Matt to stay here. I'll have another officer relieve Harris at shift change."

Barbara felt as though her brain was working in slow motion. "You think... whoever killed Russ might come after us?"

"I hope not," Dani said. "But the fact is, you stand between the Hamiltons and something they want very badly. Someone fired shots at you last night and Latham was murdered a few hours ago. The smoke's thinning out, girl, but I'm afraid the explosions have just started."

Before Dani and the detective left, she murmured to Barbara, "Just so you know, the only other prints in your bedroom besides yours, Matt's and Tammy's belonged to Hamilton Kyle Treadwell, and they were only found on the lamp next to your bed."

Barbara wasn't at all hungry, but fixing breakfast for Harris gave her something to do. The routine task seemed to calm her mind enough to sort out everything that had happened. The horror of being questioned in connection with a murder had nearly overshadowed the realization of the crime and what it truly meant to her.

Russ Latham was dead.

Although someone had committed a brutal murder, he or she had given her a gift beyond compare.
Freedom.
She would never have to look over her shoulder again. She could go home to Dayton whenever she wanted without worrying about Russ frightening her parents. Matt could ride his bike down the street without her accompanying him and he could take the bus to school.

For nearly one-third of her life, Barbara had lived in fear, every hour of every day. She wondered how long it would take before she got used to the idea of being free again.

By the time the sun was rising, she felt sufficiently comfortable with Harris to get cleaned up while he was in the living room. She would have to tell Matt what happened when he woke up, but she felt it would go better if her appearance looked less frazzled.

She was looking for the pink rosebud earrings he'd gotten her for Christmas when she saw the white envelope. She knew Russ had left it there, but that knowledge had been overwhelmed by everything else. What had he said about it? Something about keeping her and Matt safe from the Hamiltons?

She was tempted to burn the whole thing without looking inside, but what if it really did contain something important? If not to her personally, perhaps there was a clue to his murder. With that possibility in mind, she opened the envelope and emptied it.

On top was a letter to her from Russ. Beneath that was a photo of three smiling young men with their arms around each other, plus several letters in different handwriting. She guessed the names of the threesome, but still turned the photo over and read the dated inscription:
Russ, Howard & Ham—The Three Musketeers.
Russ had obviously expected to earn a few points with her by revealing Kyle's true identity.

The first paragraph of his letter confirmed that much. He had written it all out in case she continued to refuse to listen to his story. One sentence made her inhale sharply and she reread it—
He threatened to kill me if I went near you or Matt ever again, hut I would risk facing the devil himself for the two of you.

Russ had definitely faced the devil, but according to Dani, Kyle was in the hospital when the murder took place. Then again, perhaps it wasn't Decker who hired an assassin, but Hamilton Treadwell. She would have to turn this letter over to Dani as soon as possible. But she decided she needed to finish reading it first.

The second paragraph switched to another story, one that had her flipping back and forth to the other letters.

I know this is going to come as a big surprise, but I've enclosed the letters so you'll know I'm not making any of it up. When you read them and understand how important they are to me, you'll understand how hard it is for me to let the originals out of my hands, but it is the best way I can think to show how much I love you.

The first one is to me, from my mother. A friend of hers gave it to me along with the other letters after she died twelve years ago. I know once you read them all, you'll see why you should marry me. We can use them to blackmail the old man into leaving you and Matt alone. He'd never want any of it to go public. Poor Edith would die of humiliation. (Once, I almost turned them over to a society reporter just to see that happen.) Then together we can claim the whole damn Hamilton estate and they won't be able to do a fucking thing about it.

Hoping his mother's letter would make more sense, Barbara picked it up and read the slightly shaky writing:

My darling son,

Now that I am gone, I have a secret to share. I beg you to hold your temper until you have read the entire story I have to tell. I suppose there is no good way to say this except in a straightforward manner. Pop is not your real father. Howard Hamilton III is.

Before you condemn any of us for lying to you, please keep in mind the age in which this all happened. Young people today are not as confined by class as we were then. Howard and I met in the drugstore where I worked. At that time, he was engaged to Edith Greene, the daughter of his father's business partner. We both knew it was wrong, but we couldn't stay away from each other. When I told him I was pregnant, he was so very happy. He intended to break his engagement so we could be married immediately.

How foolish we were to think we could change the world because we were in love.

To make a very long story somewhat shorter, I will simply say that his father convinced him to go through with the wedding to Edith as planned and Pop was convinced to marry me. In exchange for accepting a pregnant bride and pretending to be the father, he was assured of a lifetime job and home on the grounds. I was promised a lifetime of security for myself and my child—as long as I kept the name of the real father a secret. Edith never knew how close she came to public embarrassment or that her husband's mistress and bastard child lived on her property. If Pop ever guessed the truth, he never said it aloud.

I can see you raging, Russ dear. Please don't. I know you well and will assume you are already considering how to avenge me, but let me say this first. It was very pretentious of me to reach beyond my station and I was much luckier than other young girls who found themselves in a similar situation. I had a good life with Pop and I satisfied my need for revenge by resisting every advance Howard made to resume our intimate relationship after he was married.

As to your own need for revenge, I ask only that you consider Pop's feelings. He has always treated you as his own and I know you love him as I do. You will do what you must to claim the heritage that was stolen from you, but I beg you not to do anything that would hurt or embarrass Pop while he is still alive. On my deathbed, I am holding you to that, my last request.

Barbara had to work a little harder to read the writing in the other letters, but she didn't need to read every word to comprehend that they were love letters from Howard Hamilton to Russ's mother. His desire to make her his wife was repeated several times and in one, he clearly stated how ecstatic he was that she was expecting their child and that if it was a boy, he would be named Howard Hamilton IV.

Her Howard's father had once been a young man, very much in love, but when history repeated itself with his son and Barbara, that man took the same intolerant path his father had. Was it bitterness that had driven Howard III to destroy his son's happiness or had he really believed he was doing the proper thing?

Barbara spread all the letters and the photo out on her dresser and stared at them. Russ thought they would prove his love for her, but what she saw was the explanation that had eluded her all these years. Yes, Russ had wanted her because Howard had, but it had gone far beyond simple envy on Russ's part. Howard's entire life should have been Russ's.

But now they were both dead. And she had possession of the letters.

Chapter 19