Lacy pointed her car in the direction of Melinda’s and planted her right foot a little more firmly on the accelerator. Her stalker did the same.
For the first time since she’d spotted him in the library true fear ignited in her veins. What if this was the caller? What if he intended to make her regret her past actions now…this minute?
She turned onto Melinda’s street and tightened her fingers on the steering wheel. If she could just get to her friends…
And what? Lead the bad guy right to them? Upset Melinda more than she already was?
No.
Lacy slammed on her brakes and came to a screeching halt right there in the middle of the street, forcing the guy behind her to do the same. She grabbed her purse and cell phone and shoved the car door open.
She was out of the vehicle and striding toward the Camaro before the driver had fully emerged from his.
“Why are you following me?”
“You don’t know who I am, do you?” he asked as he straightened out of his car.
Maybe it was the smug way he asked the question, or maybe she was just mad, but she did something she had never done before. She reached deep into her purse and curled her fingers around the canister of pepper spray she had yet to use since the day she’d ordered it off the Internet.
“I don’t know who you are and I don’t care. Just stay away from me or you’ll be the one regretting it. And if you call my house again—”
“Call your house?” He laughed. “You just don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself in the middle of, do you, Miss Oliver?”
She snatched out the canister and aimed it at him. “Get away from me!”
Another vehicle skidded to a stop right next to the man whose demeanor had abruptly changed from amused to threatening.
Five full seconds passed before Lacy recognized the vehicle as Rick Summers’s truck. He stormed around the front of his truck and stopped toe to toe with the brute of a man who’d turned to face the newcomer. “Is there a problem here, Thompson?”
Thompson? Where had she heard that name before?
“Oh, no, Chief,” said the man, Thompson, as he offered up his hands in a show of nothing to hide. “I just wanted to let the lady know she had a broken taillight before she got herself a ticket.” He gestured to the rear of Lacy’s vehicle. “I know how you and your deputies despise folks who don’t take proper care of their vehicles, especially when it comes to driving safety.”
Lacy stared at the taillight. How the devil had that happened? She walked over to it and touched the broken red cover.
“I’d suggest,” Rick said, “that you be on your way, and I don’t want to hear of you bothering this lady again.”
Thompson laughed. “Don’t worry, Chief. I’m sure you can take good care of her.”
Lacy stared at the two men as the odd exchange played out. There was no love lost between these two. She shuddered inwardly at the idea that maybe she’d made a serious mistake confronting the man. As she watched him get into his past-its-prime Camaro, back up and then pull around Rick’s truck, her knees went suddenly weak. What had she been thinking? She dropped the can back into her purse and leaned against the rear of her Explorer.
“What the hell was going through your head when you pulled over and got out of your vehicle like that?”
“I…” She blinked and felt as if maybe she’d better sit down. “I don’t know. I just thought that he…” Realization dawned with the weight of a boulder on her chest. She couldn’t tell him why. Then she’d have to explain about the calls, and he would know she had something to hide.
He lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “Seems to me you weren’t thinking.”
She sucked in a much-needed breath. He was right. She hadn’t been thinking, not rationally anyway. “You’re right. It was a stupid idea.”
Rick set his hands on his hips and made a sound of disbelief. “I don’t believe it. You just said I was right.”
Lacy straightened, still felt a little shaky but not as much as before. “Don’t let it go to your head, it was a one-time thing.”
He turned serious so abruptly that she felt herself holding her breath all over again.
“You need to be careful, Lacy,” he warned softly. “I still don’t know what you and your friends are up to, but every instinct tells me that you’re skating on very thin ice. Bent Thompson is not a nice guy. He’s dangerous. He’s already served two sentences for felonious assault. I don’t want you to be the reason he has to serve a third one.”
The fluttering sensation in her chest acted as an alarm. She was letting her guard down, wanting to trust him, but she couldn’t. As much as she wanted to believe he might still have feelings for her, the idea was foolish. Fifteen years was a long time and he was the chief of police. Solving a murder would be far more important to him than that one night they’d shared so long ago.
“Thank you for your assistance.” She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin in defiance of all the softer emotions that seemed determined to make her weak.
When she would have turned to go, he said, “Don’t forget to get that taillight repaired.”
Something about the way he issued that last warning or maybe the epiphany suddenly clicked in her mind, but she wheeled back around to face him. “You were following me.” Saying the words out loud only reinforced the sudden realization that she was absolutely right. He had been following her.
He sauntered up to her, the white shirt looking crisp and professional with the nice, blue tie. Even the well-worn jeans didn’t detract from the polished look. It would have helped tremendously if he hadn’t aged so damned well. Even more handsome than she remembered, the hot teenager she’d been unable to resist had grown into an equally hot man. The few lines he’d earned around his eyes and mouth merely added to his sex appeal.
Lacy felt her resistance melting just like all those years ago, but she couldn’t let him close this time. Too much was at stake.
“I won’t bother denying the charge. I’m watching you and your friends. It’s my job. A man is dead and I want to know how that came to be. My instincts are still telling me that you know something, Lacy. I need to know what it is.”
Fury and maybe a little disappointment swiftly overrode the softer emotions. “You were wrong, Summers,” she shot back. “It’s not Thompson I need to be worried about, it’s you.”
She turned her back on him and got into her vehicle. There was nothing else to say. He’d made up his mind about her and she wasn’t about to get caught up in the temptation he offered.
As much as she wanted to trust someone, to lean on someone strong, she couldn’t trust anyone…not even her friends.
Chapter 9
K
ira brought Melinda. Cassidy selected the place. The Goose Pond Your Time Spa was the only one of its kind in the whole county. It offered the same luxurious options as full-service spas found in much larger cities. The latest in a relaxing sauna, with a number of smaller private rooms rather than one large one, was a favorite of clients, according to the counselor who’d waited on them.
Wrapped in towels and the door closed tightly on their private, steamy sanctuary, there was no way anyone could overhear their conversation and, considering the time of day, they weren’t likely to be interrupted by someone mistakenly entering their reserved space.
For the first few minutes after they arrived, they simply relaxed on the ergonomically designed redwood benches and enjoyed the sweltering heat. Lacy wondered if the others were afraid of what she might have to tell them now. She definitely didn’t look forward to it. Especially the part about Rick still following her.
Maybe she would keep that part to herself, but the call she couldn’t stay quiet about that. It was a definite threat against all of them.
Lacy leaned her head against the damp redwood and drew in a bracing breath. Might as well get this over with. “I received another call last night.”
Melinda’s abrupt inhalation of balmy air underscored the blunt, however reluctant, statement.
“When?” Kira demanded, her eyes round with worry.
Lacy had expected that question from Cassidy. That their usual leader lay back and listened without saying anything at all set Lacy on edge.
“Last night. Around nine or so.”
Confusion lined Kira’s brow, but something else, suspicion perhaps, narrowed her gaze. “You didn’t mention it this morning when I got to Melinda’s.”
“Was it the same caller?”
Lacy’s gaze connected with Cassidy’s. This line of questioning was what Lacy had expected. That Cassidy kept her thoughts on the announcement so completely unreadable, Lacy had not anticipated fully. This troubled her. She just couldn’t understand how this wall had formed between them, but there it was, as plain as day.
She nodded. “The same voice.” She thought about the voice for a moment. “The sound is distorted, so I still can’t tell if it’s a woman or a man.”
“What did this person have to say?”
Lacy would have given anything not to be the cause of the distress evident on Melinda’s face as she asked that question. Lacy took a deep breath and gave her the answer that none of them would want to hear. “He or she said, ‘I know your secret, Lacy, and you’re all going to regret what you did.’”
“I don’t understand,” Kira challenged, her expression waffling between confused and accusatory. “Why is Lacy the only one receiving these calls?”
Now there was something Lacy definitely hadn’t expected. Was this a contest? Before she could say as much, Cassidy took the offense a step farther, “That’s an excellent question.”
Tension traveled outward along Lacy’s limbs, making the act of remaining seated almost impossible. What the hell were they trying to say? “I don’t understand this.” She stood, unable to help herself, arms crossed over her chest, and glared at first one supposed friend and then the other. “What are you two insinuating? It’s not my fault some freak is calling me with these crazy warnings. I didn’t ask for this.” She tried her level best to calm down, but she wasn’t doing a very good job at all.
“Wait.” Melinda pushed up to a standing position, to align herself with Lacy. “She’s right. This isn’t her fault.” She pointed a scolding look at first Cassidy and then Kira. “What happened to being united? To protecting each other? When did Lacy become the enemy?”
“She’s not the enemy,” Cassidy clarified with blatant impatience, as if they should understand perfectly how she intended her every word and gesture. She motioned for Melinda and Lacy to sit. “We’re all overreacting just a little.” She said the last with a tad of remorse in her tone. “You’re right, Lacy, this isn’t your fault.”
Feeling vindicated to some degree, Lacy resumed her seat. Melinda did the same.
“Let’s analyze this mystery and see what we can come up with,” their fearless leader offered.
“Sounds reasonable,” Kira added, with a hopeful look in Lacy’s direction. “I’m sorry if I jumped down your throat with everybody else. I guess I’m just a little edgy.”
Lacy relaxed considerably. She should have known her friends wouldn’t turn on her. They were just worried, that’s all. So was she. They were all under a tremendous amount of stress here. Stress did things to people, made them act out in ways they generally wouldn’t dream of doing. Christmas Eve ten years ago was indisputable proof of that.
“In my estimation,” Cassidy continued, “the most likely candidate is Summers.” Before Lacy could argue that assessment, Cassidy raised a hand to stall her. “I know we all think he’s a nice guy, but he has the most to gain by intimidating one of us into talking.”
“But,” Melinda cut in, “didn’t you say that’s illegal? I just don’t believe Rick would go that far. He’s much too honorable.”
It made Lacy feel better somehow to hear that Melinda considered Rick an honorable man. Not that Lacy had doubted it, but she liked hearing it. God, she was so totally screwed up right now. Rick, no matter how honorable, was the enemy. She had to remember that.
“Maybe so,” Cassidy allowed, “but, for now, he’s the only suspect we’ve got.”
Suspect? Jesus. Lacy couldn’t go there where Rick was concerned. He was too proud to lower himself to that level. He might be the enemy in a manner of speaking, she admitted once more, but she didn’t believe he would cross the kind of line Cassidy was suggesting. The man, Thompson, who’d followed her that morning—now there was a different story.
“There may be someone else.” The others leaned forward in anticipation of Lacy’s words. “This morning I went to the library just to review the articles from around the time Charles…died and then again around the time of the memorial service.” She didn’t miss the subtle change in Cassidy’s expression. She didn’t like what Lacy had done. “I wanted to see if we were mentioned in any of the articles,” she ad-libbed, in hopes of smoothing over her actions. “I considered that maybe that’s how this caller connected us to…to the case.” She managed a wan smile for Melinda. “Other than the obvious one, of course.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. She had toyed with the idea that perhaps their closeness to Melinda was the reason for the calls. A con artist would know who to glom onto in a situation like this.
“Did you find anything?” The anticipation in Kira’s voice indicated just how hopeful she was that the answer would be that simple.
Lacy shook her head. “No. Sorry. But I did notice this man watching me.” Another subtle shift in Cassidy’s demeanor accompanied that announcement. “I got nervous considering why we’re here.” She managed a dry laugh. “I even thought maybe I was just being paranoid. With you guys on my case, I’m feeling a little oversensitive.”
“I’m sorry, Lace.” Kira offered again as she draped her arm around Lacy’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “You know we love you.”
Lacy pushed a smile into place with a little more ease this time. “Thanks. I love you guys, too.” She took a deep breath and went on. “Anyway, I took a long, winding route to Melinda’s street, thinking I would see if he was actually following me or if it was my imagination.”
“And?” Cassidy prompted.
“He was definitely following me. The idea kind of made me angry so I stopped in the middle of the street, leaving him no choice but to stop, as well.”
The girls started to talk at once then.
“Have you lost your mind?” This from Cassidy.
“My God, Lacy, he could have hurt you!” Melinda chimed in as Kira huffed, “We’re going to have to start babysitting you, too.” This garnered Kira an annoyed look from Melinda, to whom she apologized profusely.
“I know it was foolish, but I was mad as hell at the idea that he could be the one trying to scare me.”
“Obviously you survived the encounter.” Cassidy tugged at her towel. “What did your mystery man have to say for himself.”
Part of her wanted to tell them the truth, but she was certain it wouldn’t bode well and she didn’t have it in her to cause more of those accusing looks. “He claimed he was following me to tell me I had a broken taillight.”
“You have a broken taillight?” Melinda looked surprised. Maybe because Lacy’s car was so new.
“As a matter of fact, I do. Or did. I had it repaired this afternoon. I don’t know how it happened, but I do know when. Sometime this morning, while I was in the library.”
“That’s pretty specific,” Cassidy countered. “How can you be so sure that’s when it happened? Most of us don’t notice things like that.”
Any other time that assessment from Cassidy would be right. But Lacy had an explanation. “Because I put my overnight bag in the back when I left Melinda’s this morning and I took it out at my parents’ house. The taillight wasn’t broken then. I went straight from there to the library.”
“But that doesn’t mean he did it…does it?” Kira looked from Lacy to Cassidy and back.
“You saw him watching you inside the library, right?”
Lacy nodded an affirmative to Cassidy’s question.
“I’d say you’re right. He probably broke it so if you noticed him and maybe called the police he’d have an excuse. This is a small enough town that giving a description of his car could have gotten him questioned at the very least.”
“You have no idea who he was?”
Lacy shifted her attention to Melinda who appeared absolutely horrified with the whole account. “Bent Thompson.” She couldn’t tell the rest, that according to Rick Summers he was a dangerous man.
“Bent Thompson…” Cassidy echoed thoughtfully.
Melinda pressed a hand to her chest and made a sound of distress deep in her throat, dragging everyone’s attention to her. “You’re absolutely certain it was Bent Thompson?”
Lacy nodded. “Positive. Do you know him?”
Melinda shook her head. “But his name came up in the investigation when Charles was first listed as…missing. I’ll never forget it.”
“Came up how?” Cassidy wanted to know.
“Chief Taylor asked me several times if I knew the name. He even showed me a picture of him, but I’d didn’t recognize him. He was older than us. We wouldn’t have gone to school with him.”
Bent Thompson was at least ten years older than they were and definitely not from the same neighborhood or church. There was no reason any of them would have known him.
“Did Chief Taylor ever indicate to you that he considered Thompson a suspect?” Cassidy was sitting up straighter now.
“I think he was maybe one of many on the chief’s list,” Melinda granted, “but I found out later that he was only considered a suspect because he disappeared about the same time Charles did.”
Again Lacy kept the details about Bent Thompson to herself. He’d disappeared all right. To jail, at least shortly after that time. But she couldn’t mention that fact without bringing up Rick.
“And now he’s back,” Kira suggested. “Ironic, don’t you think?”
Cassidy studied each of them in turn. “But we all know what happened to Charles. The question is, what does this guy know and what does he want?”
Lacy chewed her lower lip a second. “He didn’t mention wanting anything.”
You just don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself in the middle of, do you, Miss Oliver?
“He did say something about me not knowing what I’d gotten myself in the middle of.”
The silence that followed combined with the humid air made breathing nearly impossible.
“He can’t know anything,” Cassidy argued, her tone not nearly so certain as usual.
“That night,” Lacy began with a covert glance in Melinda’s direction, “when I went back up to check the room…after…after Charles was already in the car, I got this feeling like someone was watching me. Could this Thompson guy have been hiding in the house? Could he have killed Charles?” The impact of that possibility hit her full force, the complete ramifications penetrating just then.
Cassidy and Kira exchanged a secretive look. “We all know who killed Charles,” Cassidy said calmly. “We did. End of story. We killed him, and we disposed of the body. Trying to pin it on someone else isn’t going to make this investigation go away.”
The fury Lacy had hoped she wouldn’t have to feel again came rushing back. “Haven’t you even once considered another possibility? What if someone else killed him? Who says one of us did it? Just because we talked about it the night before when we’d had too much to drink? Be reasonable. Someone else could have done it! Right?” She looked to Melinda for confirmation. Lacy felt taken aback by the noncommittal mask her best friend wore.
“We agreed not to go there, Lace. We’re all equally guilty.” The stern lines of Cassidy’s face spoke volumes regarding her staunch stand on the matter.
This was insane. Lacy threw her hands up. “Whatever. I’m tired of fighting you guys on this.” She leaned back against the sweaty wood wall and ordered her raging temper to slow its rush toward outright, white-hot fury.
“I guess it’s possible this man could have been doing some sort of business with Charles,” Kira offered, guilt probably prompting her. “Maybe he found him dead, heard us come in and hid somewhere in the house. Maybe that’s what happened to the missing money and why you felt like someone was watching you. Maybe Bent Thompson was.”
“And maybe the tooth fairy dropped in that afternoon as well,” Cassidy challenged impatiently. “We’re going down a no return street here, ladies. The next thing you know we’ll start arguing and be at each other’s throats worse than we already are. We need to let this thing die a natural death. There is no evidence. Whoever this Thompson creep is, he’s probably attempting to set us up for some sort of blackmail scam. He likely knows we’re friends of Melinda’s and he’s guessing the rest.” She leveled her gaze on Lacy. “If he’s even your caller. We don’t know that for sure. We’re only going to dig ourselves a hole if we keep stirring the stink. We need to back off…let it play out.”
“She’s right.”
Startled to hear those words from Melinda, Lacy’s attention swung to her. Melinda cautiously kept hidden whatever she felt, didn’t let a thing show on her face or in her eyes. It didn’t make sense. But, none of this did.