Hear My Heart

by Maryann Jordan

He sighed, adding, “I hate to leave, but I should be gone by the time Emily comes home. I can take a shower in my own apartment.”

  She sucked in her lips and he watched as thoughts moved behind her eyes. Not wanting her to worry, he leaned over and kissed her lightly before climbing out of bed.

  “Wait,” she called out. “There’s no reason for you to leave. That is, unless you want to. Which if you want that’s fine too. I just don’t want you to think that you have to.”

  He leaned over the bed and stared deeply into her beautiful eyes. “What are you really saying, sweetheart?”

  “I’m saying that I don’t want you to go.”

  “And Emily?”

  “It’s not like she’s going to see us here in bed together. I don’t think she’ll think anything untoward if she sees you here when she gets here. I don’t know what you have going on this morning, so I know you might have to leave—”

  “Got nothing I’d rather do and nowhere I’d rather be,” he interrupted, kissing her lightly again.

  Her smile widened until it was beaming. Pulling her gently out of bed, they moved into the shower.

  Later, finding themselves downstairs in the kitchen, she plated an easy breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and hot coffee.

  Hearing a noise at the front door, she bolted forward and he grinned, knowing she missed Emily. He followed behind and watched as she threw open the door and greeted her daughter with a hug. Emily was chattering away as Lia stood and waved toward the driveway as the other mother backed her van out.

  His eyes snagged on a piece of paper taped to her front door and, reaching over Emily’s head, he grabbed it. Before he had a chance to look at it, Emily immediately began talking to him as well, telling all about her sleepover.

  “It sounds like you had such fun,” Lia said excitedly. “Have you had breakfast?”

  She nodded, but said, “We just had doughnuts and juice. I smell eggs. Did you make eggs?”

  Laughing, Lia smiled, and said, “Yes. Mr. Aiden was just having some as well. Come on back and we’ll have breakfast together.”

  His heart warmed as Emily grinned up at him, took his hand, and the three of them walked into the kitchen. “You had a note stuck to your front door this morning,” he said, handing the envelope to her.

  She glanced down at it, and said, “Hmm, probably some kind of request for a donation or a sales advertisement. You can just lay it on the counter and I’ll look at it in just a bit.”

  He tossed it down and turned around to face Emily as she continued to tell them about her sleepover. He knew that Lia had been excited for her to spend time with a friend, but also had been a bit concerned. From Emily’s excited expression, it appeared that she had had no problem communicating with the other family.

  Soon, the three of them were at the table, eating breakfast. If Emily wondered why he was there so early in the morning, she did not question or let on that it seemed odd at all. For him, he cast his eye toward the beautiful woman sitting before him and her daughter, marveling that the only feeling he had was one of a full heart.

  Occasionally, Lia would glance his way and offer a shy smile. As they finished breakfast, she sent Emily off to her room to unpack her overnight bag. As he rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher she looked down at the envelope on the counter. Picking it up, she pulled out the piece of paper, her eyes glancing over the words.

  A sharp gasp from her drew his attention and he watched as she dropped the paper onto the counter, turning wide eyes to him. Unsure of the reason for her reaction, he glanced down at the paper as well.

  Searching will yield only trouble. For you and your daughter.

  “Fuck!” he growled, his eyes shooting to her pale face. Moving swiftly toward her, he wrapped one arm around her, pulling her tightly to his side as he jerked his phone from his pocket.

  He skipped the police phone line, instead calling Mitch directly. “Got a problem. A threatening note was taped to Lia’s door this morning.”

  After another few words, he disconnected and, with his lips pressed to the top of her head, he said, “The police are coming, babe. Don’t touch the note again cause they’re going to want to take it.” He felt her body shaking and held her close, wanting to ease her fear while at the same time feeling rage coursing through his blood.

  She leaned her head back sharply and asked, “What about Emily? You said the police are coming. I don’t want her to get scared.”

  His mind raced and then he quickly pulled his phone out again. “Mom? Please don’t ask any questions right now, but Lia and I could really use you. Can you come to her house and watch Emily for a little bit and keep her upstairs while the police are here talking with us?”

  Disconnecting, he looked back down at her and said, “Mom will come. She’s great with kids and will keep Emily occupied upstairs while we’re down here.”

  Slumping against him in relief, his arms tightened as he took her weight. “Oh Jesus, Aiden. I don’t even know what to think.”

  “Don’t worry about anything right now. Let’s deal with Mitch and see what we need to do.” He loosened his hold on her just enough to bend slightly so that his face was directly in front of hers. Holding her gaze, he said, “You’re not alone. Not anymore. Whatever we face, we face together.”

  Lia quickly learned that the McFarlanes stick together, each jumping in to offer whatever support was needed. Corrine came over and was now ensconced up in Emily’s room playing with her dolls. She had called Katelyn as well, who showed up along with Gareth while Eric stayed at their house to watch little Finn. Ginny had told Brogan when the call came in to Mitch, so the two of them were over also.

  To her surprise, when Mitch walked in he was accompanied by Colt. They immediately asked for the note and she showed them where she had left it on the counter.

  “While your office is in Baytown, and therefore in my jurisdiction, your house is in North Heron County, and therefore under the Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdiction,” Mitch explained. “But don’t worry, Colt and I are used to working together.”

  Colt handled the note with gloved fingers before slipping it into the evidence bag.

  “We looked into Tad Marvel,” Mitch continued. “He’s out of prison, but he’s been in constant contact with his probation officer. In talking with the PO, he reported that Tad’s behavior has been model, both in and out of prison.”

  Nodding, she directed everyone into the living room to discuss the situation. Sure that Emily was unable to hear what was going on downstairs, she and Aiden sat on the sofa while everyone else found seats where they could. She smiled slightly as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders as though it was the most natural thing in the world, taking comfort from the action. Katelyn sat on the other side of her, facing Mitch and Colt sitting in the two chairs in the room. Gareth and Brogan brought in kitchen chairs for the two of them as well as Ginny.

  The small room was full, but as she looked around, it did not feel crowded, but instead felt comforting, filled with people that she knew cared.

  Leaning forward, Mitch informed her, “The PO also told me that if Tad was involved, he would be very surprised. Now, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t our suspect, but the note does say Searching, which indicates something happening now. I don’t want to focus too much on just him.”

  She nodded again, wordlessly, listening carefully to what he was saying. He glanced to the side toward Gareth, who held her phone out to her.

  “I checked out everything I could and discovered that the calls that came to you were made from a burner phone, which means I can’t trace it. Mitch and I agree, it’s not typical teenage behavior, and that was before the note was found on your door. Whoever’s doing this is someone who wants to unnerve you and not leave a trace.”

  Her front door opened and Hunter stepped through, his eyes moving first to her before sliding to Colt. It was the first time she had seen him in his deputy’s uniform and she blinked in surpris
e.

  “I’ve checked with all the neighbors and no one heard a car or saw anyone approaching Lia’s house,” he reported.

  “Probably came during the middle of the night when most people were asleep,” Colt said. He turned his attention back to her. “What can you tell us about your work right now?”

  Still numb from the fact she had actually received a threatening note on her door, she cleared her throat, and said, “At the last audit for Baytown, the state accountants found a deficit of over fifty thousand dollars. The Mayor and the Town Council accepted my proposal for a forensic accounting investigation. All of this is public record but, so far, I have seen nothing in the Baytown Gazette about it, which I’m sure they’re pleased about. With Mayor Banks running for re-election, he is keen for me to finish my work and find the discrepancy. He’s hoping that it can to be dealt with quickly. Silas is being quite pushy about wanting me to not talk to anyone and to rush the investigation. It’s my understanding that he owes much of his position to the fact that Corwin is the Mayor and the two of them get along very well. I haven’t been here long enough to become immersed in small-town politics and since I don’t live inside the town limits, I won’t vote in the next mayoral election anyway. I’ve read in the paper that there is a new resident, moved in from a larger city, who’s also running for mayor. I think Silas is afraid that if news of the investigation gets out, it will look bad for Mayor Banks.”

  “I can’t imagine this staying silent very long,” Mitch said. “The Mayor ordered all of the town’s departments to not speak about it to the press but, as you say, it’s public record.”

  Colt asked, “Is there anyone that you’re investigating that you would suspect would want you to not do a complete job?”

  She snorted, then looked around in embarrassment. “Sorry,” she said as she shook her head. “You learn to have thick skin when you’re a forensic accounting investigator. You’re not exactly welcome when you come into an area to investigate. I have to ask bookkeepers and others for all their records which immediately makes people intimidated. I then have to start questioning them about some of their practices, sloppy work, things that don’t add up, and things that are just, quite frankly, wrong. That also makes people intimidated and then angry. No one likes to have someone check behind their every step, and certainly not question what they’ve done.”

  She shrugged, and continued, “So I’m treated with a great amount of suspicion, sometimes overt rudeness, and most people are glad to see the back of me.”

  Colt’s eyes showed sympathy as he nodded. “Sounds like police work. They’re happy when we do our job and it helps them, but otherwise they wish we wouldn’t look into their business.”

  “Exactly!” she said. “I sometimes wonder if I wouldn’t be better off just doing what Scott Redding does, which is focus on taxes and business accounting. But,” she threw her hands out to the side, “I find investigating to be fascinating.”

  She heard Aiden sigh next to her and twisted her head around. Staring at his face, so full of concern, she whispered, “Are you okay?”

  “Right now, I wish you were just a tax accountant,” he confessed.

  Her shoulders slumped as the full weight of everyone’s concern settled on her. The idea that someone might try to harm Emily just to get to her, caused her to drag a ragged breath deep into her lungs at the very thought of it.

  Mitch interrupted her panic, asking, “Tell us about the people you are investigating and how your investigation is going so far.”

  She leaned back against the cushions of the sofa and felt Aiden’s arm around her shoulder. Resting her hand on his hard thigh, she drew strength from him.

  “The system in Baytown is relatively simple. All of the departments send their invoices, purchase orders, and requests to the town treasurer, Sandra Toski. She’s the one who makes the decisions, verifies everything, and has the checks printed. She has the Mayor sign the checks before they are sent out. Mark Weber is her accounting clerk. He is mostly involved in looking over things before Sandra gets them and the input of all the information into the town’s financial computer system. If Corwin is unavailable, then the checks are locked in Celia Ring’s desk until the Mayor is available. So far, I have not found any discrepancies with the Police, Recreation, Building and Code, or Planning and Zoning departments.”

  Mitch grinned, and replied, “Well, thank God, the Police Department is clear.”

  She met his smile with one of her own, appreciating the moment of levity. Continuing, she said, “I have found small discrepancies with the Library, Harbor, and the Public Works and Utilities. I’m in the process of checking each of those to see if there is an overall problem that appears to be the same, or just some individual mistakes.”

  “Are you finding things that are small or are you getting the feeling that there is one large discrepancy that could be attributed to one person?”

  “From what I can tell from the Library, it appears to be small. What I’m finding is that in the ordering of books and computers, what is approved sometimes gets changed before the order actually goes through. This causes a slight discrepancy between the order and the check that was written. They are very small discrepancies and not what I’m focusing on at all.”

  “Who has the most to lose from your investigation?”

  “My investigation only points to where the discrepancies are, if illegal activities took place or if they were common errors, and who made them. When my findings are turned over to the Town Council, it is up to them to decide if they want to turn them over to the District Attorney for prosecution. He would do so only if an actual crime had been committed and would meet with me to discuss my findings.”

  “So,” Hunter interjected, “it appears that someone thinks you may find evidence of a crime that they committed. If someone’s just made some goofs, I can’t see that they would threaten you.”

  She nodded slowly, realizing that he was right. Her investigation was pointing toward someone stealing the town’s money, and the threatening note on her door supported that real possibility. Thinking about the previous night, she gasped, drawing everyone’s attention to her.

  “Last night! I forgot to tell you about last night!”

  22

  All eyes were on Lia once again, as she said, “I can’t believe I forgot about this. Last night, I saw Sandra and Celia at the bar together. I didn’t think anything about it at the time, because they work together. For all I knew, they were just two women sharing a drink at the end of the workweek.” She twisted around and looked at Aiden, adding, “This was before you came in.”

  His fingers twitched on her shoulder and she held tightly to his leg. Shifting her gaze back to Mitch and Colt, she continued. “Sandra wanted to speak to me and when I walked over to her, I just happened to notice that Celia had left the bar. Sandra said she wanted to give me a warning.”

  She felt Aiden’s fingers gripping tighter on her shoulder and heard him mutter, “What the hell?”

  “What exactly did she say?” Mitch asked.

  She scrunched her forehead as she thought, wanting to remember the exact words. “She seemed very hesitant but told me to be careful. I didn’t know what she meant so I asked her. She then said she didn’t know anything for sure and I asked her if Celia had said something to her. She shook her head and said not really. I still didn’t know what she meant, but she said there was an inference. I was getting frustrated because I felt like she was doing nothing but hinting and not really giving me any information. Sandra’s eyes sort of darted around, and then she just said that she had the feeling there are some who would rather me not find out anything.”

  “And that’s all she said?” Colt asked.

  Nodding, she confirmed, “Yes. Of course, she didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know. As I told you, any investigation will make people nervous and, of course, if someone has perpetrated a crime, then they don’t want anyone to know.”

  Mitch stood
. “I’ll talk to her and see what I can get out of her. If she now knows that someone has actually made a threat to you, I will encourage her to come clean about who she was talking to.”

  She stood as well and walked over to take his hand. “Mitch, I can’t thank you enough.”

  He held her gaze and smiled. “You know it’s my job, but I want you safe.” He looked behind her to Aiden and lifted his brows in silent question.

  She twisted her head around just in time to see Aiden nod. Unsure what that meant, her attention was snagged as Colt and Hunter also said their goodbyes. Colt promised that her street would be added to their rotation and that someone would be keeping an eye on her place. Thanking them all, she walked them to the door, shutting it behind them.

  Turning back around, she stared at Aiden’s family. Katelyn offered, “I’m going to run upstairs and check on Mom and Emily. If they want to come down now, is that okay?”

  Nodding, she said, “Yes, thank you.”

  Ginny stepped over and took her hands. “You know I don’t have any jurisdiction in the county, but I’m here for you as a friend for anything that you need.” She hugged her and thanked her.

  At the same time, Brogan moved to Aiden and clapped him on the shoulder. “We’re here for you. You, and Lia, and Emily. Anything you need, anytime.”

  Aiden pulled his brother in for a hug and acknowledged, “I know that and thanks, bro. That means more than you can imagine.”

  Just then, she heard Emily bounding down the stairs. Looking in that direction, she spotted her just as she was jumping down the final step, her smile wide. “Mama, Miss Corrine showed me how to cut out paper dolls. She said that’s what they used to play with when she was a little girl.”

  Corrine’s eyes darted between the occupants of the room, but finally landed on her. “How can we help, sweetheart?”

  Suddenly exhausted, she shook her head and whispered, “I appreciate that so much, but I have no idea. I can’t think straight right now.”