Colton 911--Unlikely Alibi

by Lisa Childs

  Why?

  To make him the next target?

  Or maybe he’d been the real target all along?

  Or stress, grief and lack of sleep was making him paranoid. He really hoped it was the latter. Because if his dad and uncle had lost their lives because of him, he would never be able to forgive himself.

  Chapter 5

  Kylie swallowed a groan of frustration. This was the problem she’d wanted to address the night before with Heath. After what had happened last night, though, it had seemed inconsequential—until now. Until Tyler Morrison refused to leave Kylie’s office.

  “Tyler,” she said, her voice getting sharp with exasperation. “I don’t have time to discuss this with you now.” Or ever.

  He’d followed her back to her office after the meeting she’d held in the conference room. The meeting where she had been able to provide very few answers to all the employees’ questions. Hopefully she’d at least been able to comfort them that Heath would continue to helm the company, and that it would survive and flourish. Their positions were safe. Their lives were safe.

  Or so she hoped.

  “Then let me help you out, so you’ll have more time,” he offered.

  “You’re a lawyer,” she needlessly reminded him.

  His constant arguing was a dead giveaway to that. He also looked the part, stereotypically, in the expensive, tailored suit with his dark hair slicked back and the ruthlessness in his dark eyes.

  “You help us write up the patents and contracts—”

  “I can do more,” he persisted.

  She suspected that he already had, but she didn’t have the proof she needed. Yet.

  Because of his help with the patents, he was one of the few who was privy to information on the new inventions awaiting patents. New inventions.

  Her heart ached at the thought of how few of those there would be now. That bubble of excitement she’d always felt just working on these floors, with those brilliant inventors, had popped. Instead of excitement, she’d felt dread this morning, but she’d still forced herself to come in. She’d promised Heath she would take care of everything for him.

  But he must not have believed she could handle it because she glanced up to find him standing in the doorway. Tyler whirled toward him. “Hey, Boss, I was just offering my services to Kylie to help out more, especially now, but she’s refusing my offer.”

  “Not refusing,” Kylie corrected him.

  Heath glanced at the dark-haired man and narrowed his eyes, as if searching his memory for who the hell he was. “Excuse us,” he told the lawyer, without adding his name. “But I need Kylie in my office now.”

  Tyler’s slick smile slipped away. “I—”

  “Need to get to your own office,” Kylie finished for him. She stood up and followed Heath out as he took the few short steps down the hall to the office next to hers: his. She didn’t know if Tyler followed her order or not. And she didn’t give a damn at the moment.

  Heath waited until she stepped inside before closing the door. Dark circles rimmed his deep blue eyes, and his golden hair was mussed up, as if he’d been running his fingers through it.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I think I’m getting paranoid.”

  Maybe that was all she was, too, about Tyler, but she needed to be certain. “Why?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “It’s not worth talking about—not with everything going on. Fill me in.”

  She told him about the meeting and how she’d assigned the publicity department to handle the press.

  “They’ve been calling?” he asked. Then his face flushed. “Of course they’ve been calling. It’s been all over the news. Their deaths. Their murders.”

  Since he’d confirmed their identities and all family had been notified, their names had been used in the news coverage.

  “What are the publicists telling the media?” he asked.

  “Same thing I told the staff this morning,” she said. “You’re still CEO. The company is safe. They’re safe.”

  His mouth curved into a slight grin. “So you’re lying?”

  “No,” she said. “I believe that.”

  “I wish I did,” he said, his voice gruff with cynicism.

  “What’s going on, Heath?” she asked.

  Knuckles rapped against the office door behind her back. But she doubted he would have answered her even if they hadn’t been interrupted. They didn’t have a receptionist because they didn’t need one. A company of inventions didn’t have many unsolicited visitors. The staff used special ID badges to access their floors and offices, and if they had visitors, security called for them to go down to the lobby to escort them up. So Kylie opened the door expecting to see Tyler again, pushing his agenda.

  If only she knew for sure what the hell that was.

  Tyler stood there, but he wasn’t alone now. He must have brought up the visitor from the lobby. A tall African American man stood next to him. Like Tyler, he wore a suit, but it wasn’t as expensive or as expertly tailored. His broad shoulders tested the seams of his dark jacket.

  “This is Detective Parker,” Tyler introduced the man.

  Kylie tensed as that image flashed through her mind from so long ago, of those officers dragging her mother through that doorway.

  Heath stood up and greeted the man with a handshake. “Good, someone’s been assigned to investigate the murders of my father and uncle.”

  “Yes, Mr. Colton, I am working the case,” Parker confirmed as he stepped inside the office with them.

  Heath’s office was bigger than hers, but with those two tall, muscular men inside it, Kylie felt dwarfed and claustrophobic. The urge to run, to hide like she had when she was a child, came over her, but she suppressed it. She’d promised to be there for Heath through this nightmare.

  “How can I help you, Detective?” Heath asked.

  “I have some questions for you,” Parker said with a glance at her and at Tyler.

  “Tyler, you can go,” she directed him. She had no intention of leaving, though.

  “As legal counsel, I should stay,” he insisted.

  She shook her head. “You’re a contracts lawyer, not a criminal lawyer.” Not that Heath would need a criminal lawyer. Even the detective couldn’t suspect that Heath Colton had anything to do with the murders of his own father and uncle.

  But then she noticed the intensity in the man’s eyes as he studied Heath. He definitely was looking at him like he was considering him a suspect.

  “I don’t need any kind of lawyer,” Heath said. “Leave and close the door.”

  Tyler obeyed the CEO’s command. Maybe it was only her authority he dared to test. That was why it was good she hadn’t brought her concerns to Heath yet; it was better that she dealt with him.

  Parker glanced at her. “And you are?”

  “Kylie Givens,” she said, but she didn’t extend her hand to shake his, not with the disturbing image of those cuffs snapped tight around her mother’s thin wrists still playing through her mind.

  “The vice president,” he said with a nod. Then he turned back to Heath. “And you’re the CEO.”

  Heath nodded now. “Yes, I am. Between the two of us, Kylie and I should be able to answer any questions you might have about Colton Connections.”

  “So you’ll continue to run the company?” Parker asked.

  Heath nodded again. “Of course.”

  “Will you inherit it?”

  Heath shrugged. “I have no idea. I don’t know anything about my dad’s or uncle’s wills or if they even had them.” His throat rippled as he swallowed hard, as if choking on emotion. “You’ll have to ask my mother and aunt about that.”

  Parker nodded. “I have.”

  “Then you know.”

 
“They will let me know when the will is read,” he said.

  “So they don’t know?” Heath asked.

  Or they’d been concerned with the direction the detective was leading his questions.

  Like Kylie was concerned.

  Straight to Heath.

  “We were able to confirm your mother and aunt’s whereabouts last night at the time of the murders,” Parker said. “Now I need to confirm yours. Were you at the office?”

  “No,” Heath said, his broad shoulders drooping as if he carried a load of guilt over that.

  “If you’d been here, if you’d walked out with them...” Kylie had to swallow hard now as emotion choked her. “You might have been killed, too.” Her heart ached at the thought, at even more senseless loss, a loss which inexplicably felt even worse to her than theirs. But maybe that was only because she’d always worked more closely with Heath than she had the twins.

  “You could have been here, as well,” Heath pointed out. “Pop and Uncle Alfie walked you to your car so many times.”

  Tears stung her eyes. Yes, they had, out of concern over her leaving so late. Usually Alfie had offered some insightful observation about something while Ernie had been cracking lame jokes. They’d been such wonderful men.

  She shook her head, trying to shake off her grief, and blinked back the tears.

  “Where were you?” Parker asked Heath.

  She knew he’d been home alone, but if he told the detective that, he wouldn’t have an alibi that could be verified. And she was afraid that the detective would do the same thing to Heath that had been done to her mother, settle on him as a suspect and look no further.

  “He was with me,” she said. “We were at his penthouse.”

  Heath’s brow furrowed with confusion. Fortunately the detective had turned his attention to her now.

  “Really?” he skeptically asked. “If you were working late, why weren’t you both here as I’ve been told you usually are.”

  She forced a smile. “Because we weren’t working, Detective.”

  “Oh...” He glanced from one to the other of them, looking as dumbfounded as Heath looked.

  “We’re always together,” she said with an even bigger smile. “Whether we’re working or not.”

  “So you’re a couple?” Parker asked.

  “Because we work together, not many people know about our relationship,” she said. “But, yes.”

  Heath’s mouth opened, and she waited for him to call her on the lie. As she waited, she stared at him, silently pleading that he play along—for his sake. And for his dad’s and uncle’s sakes.

  Not hers...

  * * *

  The detective stared at him in speculation. Kylie stared at him in entreaty. What the hell was he supposed to do? Lie to the police or reveal that she had lied instead?

  That image, of her hair across his pillow, flitted through his mind. She’d been there for him last night. He couldn’t give her up to the police. But why the hell had she lied?

  Did she actually think that he might need an alibi? That he had something to hide?

  Fighting back the fury bubbling inside him, Heath nodded. “Yes, we were together.” They had been...just not until after the murders.

  “So you are a couple then?” the detective asked.

  Heath swallowed hard, choking down the truth so that he could utter the lie, “Yes. Yes, we are.” A couple of damn liars.

  “And you were together last night?” the detective persisted. “The entire night?”

  “Uh, we left the office separately,” he said.

  He’d had a meeting on the other side of the city, but by the time he’d found a parking space, the person—his contact in the patents department—had called to cancel. He’d given him some encouraging news, though, just hadn’t wanted to chance meeting him in public because he wasn’t supposed to divulge any information on pending patents. And if Heath had used him as an alibi, the guy probably would have lied and said they’d never had a meeting planned at all. When he’d left, Kylie had been heading out with a briefcase full of work she intended to do at home. Alone.

  “Mr. Colton?” Detective Parker prodded him.

  He cleared his throat and forced out the lie. “But yes, we were together the entire night.”

  “The police officers who picked you up to identify the body didn’t see anyone else in your apartment,” Parker said.

  Damn. It was getting worse and worse...and if they checked phone records...

  “I was in the bedroom,” Kylie said, and her face flushed bright red. “We were being silly. He was mixing drinks for us in the living room, and we were actually on our phones at the time.”

  “And you didn’t come out when the police officers arrived?” Parker asked.

  Kylie’s face flushed a deeper shade of red. “I—I wasn’t dressed. And he left so quickly.”

  He had left quickly. That much was true. But not much else that came out of her mouth. How was it that she lied so damn easily?

  He’d thought he’d known her so well, but now he couldn’t help but wonder. And how little she must know him to think that he actually needed an alibi.

  Detective Parker nodded, as if he believed them, but Heath wasn’t certain that the lawman really believed anything he heard from suspects. And somehow, Heath was a suspect.

  He shuddered at the thought, that anyone could think him capable of such a horrendous crime.

  And for what?

  Greed?

  Power?

  He had enough money, enough power. He wanted his dad and his uncle back. Hell, he wanted his life back because he knew it was never going to be the same. Not with them gone.

  “Do you have any other questions?” Heath asked. “Is there any way that I can help the investigation?”

  The detective studied his face for a long moment, his dark eyes speculative. “Just being truthful, that’s the most important thing.”

  And yet, Heath had done the exact damn opposite because of Kylie. He’d lied during a police investigation. That was a crime; he knew enough from prior court battles over patents to know that much. But Kylie had lied first and he hadn’t been willing to expose her.

  He escorted the detective back down the hall with Kylie trailing behind as if she was worried that Heath would confess the truth to the man. He pushed a button to open the doors that led to the elevator. Leaning against those doors to hold them open, he said, “Goodbye, Detective Parker.”

  “I’m sure I’ll be talking to you again,” the lawman replied ominously.

  Or at least it sounded ominous to Heath.

  The minute the elevator doors closed on the detective, Heath turned on Kylie. After ushering her back down the hall and into his office, he slammed the door behind them. Then he asked, “Why the hell did you lie like that? Why the hell did you make me lie like that?”

  But he wasn’t sure he wanted her to answer, wasn’t sure he wanted her to admit that she might have some doubts about his innocence. Enough doubts that she’d supplied him with a false alibi.

  Could she actually think that he had something to hide? Or was she the one who’d needed the alibi? The one who had something to hide.

  * * *

  “They’re lying,” Joe Parker murmured to himself as he stepped back into his PD vehicle. He had been a detective long enough to know when someone was lying to him. He was also a father, and his son Isaac, as young as he was, was a more convincing liar than they were.

  No, Daddy, I didn’t color on the wall.

  No, Daddy, I didn’t put the TV remote in the potty.

  A smile curved his lips as he thought of his little boy. Heath Colton had once been Ernest Colton’s little boy. Could that kind of love turn to such hatred and violence?

  Unfortunately it could. That was why, for potential suspects,
Joe always looked at the family first. So often the victims knew their killers and were even related to them by blood or marriage. The wives had alibis. That didn’t mean they couldn’t have hired someone to kill their husbands. But they’d been so devastated.

  Like he would be if something ever happened to Kinsey.

  God, he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it...or their beautiful little boy. He’d been with them last night. Where had Heath Colton and Kylie Givens really been?

  Because he sure as hell wasn’t buying that fabricated alibi. They had both been lying.

  Why?

  Were they in on it together?

  Had they planned to take over the company Heath’s father and uncle had built?

  Murder was one hell of a hostile takeover.

  Chapter 6

  Kylie flinched as Heath grasped the elbow that had been bruised that morning when Gina had jerked her out of his bed. She tugged free and turned toward where he leaned against the office door he’d slammed closed. She didn’t know if she’d ever seen him look so furious—not even last night.

  He hadn’t been angry about the murders of his dad and uncle then; he’d just been devastated.

  He was angry now. “What the hell was that about? Why did you do that? Why did you make me do that?”

  “I didn’t make you,” she said defensively. He’d gone along with her lying about the alibi albeit apparently not willingly.

  “If I hadn’t backed up your lie, you might have been arrested,” he said.

  She flinched again as she considered getting dragged out of his office like her mother had been dragged out of their apartment. “I thought he was going to arrest you,” she said. “That’s why I told him that.”

  “Why would you think he would arrest me?” Heath asked. “Do you think I could have anything to do with the murder of my own father? Of Uncle Alfie? I love—loved...” His voice trailed off, thick with emotion.

  “I know, Heath,” she assured him. “I know how much you loved them and that you would never, ever hurt them.”

  “Then why did you feel the need to lie to the detective?” he asked. “I don’t understand.”