Amy’s cell phone rang. She put the tablet down and reached for it. Lauren. “Hey.”
“Are you okay? Word around town is your house was attacked by the lakeside burglars and it’s swarming with the police.”
The joys of living in a small town. Amy sighed, then quickly explained what happened.
“At least you’re fine. Listen, Amy,” she whispered. “I’m not supposed to say anything, but I have to tell you. The police were here and I think I did something terrible.”
Amy’s stomach hollowed out. She didn’t think she could handle any more bad news. “What is it?”
“They had a picture of an eye, which they said is the tattoo on the wrist of the guy they’re looking for. I think I rented a house to him.”
Amy jumped to her feet. “What? When?”
“Almost a month ago. He looked normal. I mean he wore a nice suit and drove a nice car, and paid for an entire month in cash. That should have warned me, right?”
You think, Amy wanted to retort. “What did he look like?”
“Black hair, skinny, moustache. I gave the police his description. So if you see a skinny-ish, dark-haired guy with a tattoo of an eye on his wrist, that’s your burglar.”
Amy bit her inner cheek to stop herself from telling Lauren she and Eddie were the ones who’d given the police the information. It was obvious Lauren didn’t know there were two different sets of burglars involved.
“Thanks for the warning, Lauren. Where’s the house they rented?”
“Across the lake from your place. This is my fault,” she wailed.
“No, it’s not,” Amy reassured her. “If you hadn’t rented to him, he would have gone to a different company.” Then something else occurred to Amy. What if Nolan had known about Lauren and their college connection? He was smart enough to have found out and sneaky enough to manipulate Lauren. “Did he ask to see your other listings, Lauren?”
“Yes. He wanted to know if we had other empty vacation rentals for both short and long term, where it’s safe for a child to play because he and his wife had two children. What a bold-faced liar. He just wanted to know which ones were empty, so he and his pal could rob them.”
“Did you show him empty houses?”
“Yes, although I pointed out the ones that were great for children, but were already taken. He must have gone to the other realtors and saw their listings too because how else would they have known about the other empty houses?”
Amy had a bad feeling about this. “Is the Fitzgerald’s home listed on your website?”
“Not under rentals because they own it and it’s not a time-share. It’s listed under homes we manage, but no one can access those without a password. They must have picked your house randomly. Still, I enabled this son of a bitch.”
Nothing that had happened to Amy the last six years had been random. Chances were Nolan must have found Lauren’s connection to Amy, probably hacked into the rental company’s system. Lauren was a meticulous business woman. Chances are she had a list of the people she employed to house sit all the homes she managed. The Fitzgeralds weren’t the only homeowners with a housesitter.
“Thanks for telling me about the tattoo, Lauren. I think you’re beating yourself up too much over this. The first three houses were burglarized over a month ago, way before this guy came to your office.”
“Yeah, that’s because he went to the other companies first.”
Amy had no time to placate Lauren. Eddie had just entered the house and he didn’t look happy. “I’ve got to go, Lauren. Will call you later, okay? Bye.” She studied Eddie’s face. “What happened?”
“They found prints, but their forensic team had trampled all over the damn place, it’s hard to tell which footprints are his. Then Briggs and Sally took off without saying where they were headed. It’s going to take forever for these people to find anything. By then the man will be gone.” He dropped beside her, reached out and rubbed her nape. “How are you holding up?”
Better than he was. “I’m okay. That was Lauren.”
“I know. I heard you.” He leaned forward, pressed a kiss on her forehead and pulled her into his arms.
For a moment, she soaked up his warmth and forgot about their problems, but she couldn’t keep what she knew from him. “Lauren rented a house to man with the eye of Horus tattoo on his wrist.”
Eddie sat up. “What? When?”
By the time Amy finished explaining, Eddie was pulling out his cell phone. “That explains why Briggs and Sally left in a hurry. I hope they catch the bastard.” He brought the phone to his ear. “It’s me, Sally. Okay. Call me back.” He finished the call and glanced at Amy. “She couldn’t talk. Do we have binoculars?”
“The ones we use to watch eagles are on the boat.” She caught his hand before he could take off again. “Why don’t you show me the surveillance videos of Nolan that the private investigator guy sent?”
“Why?”
Knowing Nolan had manipulated her for so long made her feel like she’d been a puppet and he the master. It plain pissed her off. “Seeing where he went, who he saw might trigger something.”
Frowning, Eddie tapped a key on his laptop then logged in at LASEC, Ken Lambert’s company, and found video links. “These four were for the last several days while this one,” he pointed at one that said Live Feed, “is what Rod and Hailey are taping right now.”
“Hailey?”
“Another one of Ken’s people. She’s good with security systems. Breaking into them.”
Amy clicked on the live feed, then shrunk the screen and moved it to a corner, where she can keep an eye on it. It showed the front entrance to Nolan’s house. She opened the first stored recording and studied footage after footage. Eddie left her side and disappeared outside, but she didn’t look up. Finally, she found what she was looking for—Nolan driving up to an old mansion with cedar shutters—her parents’ home.
Memories from the past returned, some good, others bad. Amy leaned forward as the door opened and her father appeared. Freezing the frame, she zoomed in. Her dad had aged, his hair more gray than black. She touched the cold screen.
“Is that your father?”
Startled, she glanced over her shoulder. She hadn’t heard Eddie come back inside. “Yeah, I wish I could just talk to them and make them listen. You know, really listen to me. Nolan is dangerous and I hate what he might do when cornered.”
Eddie walked around the couch and joined her. “We could fly to Charlottesville for a couple of days, so you can talk to them.”
The way he said it set off warning bells in her head. “You’ve been thinking about this, haven’t you?”
“It’s just a thought. If Nolan won’t come to us, we should go to him and draw him out.”
The thought of going back home sent a chill through Amy, yet she saw his point. This mess with Nolan needed to end so she could start rebuilding her life. She no longer had a car. Her insurance didn’t cover malicious damages, so she had nothing to claim. Still, taking Raelynn with them anywhere near Nolan scared her and leaving her with Lauren wasn’t an option either. Her parents were out of the question. She wouldn’t put it past them to start some legal crap to keep Raelynn away from her. Until they could prove Nolan was guilty, Raelynn was staying with her.
“Amy?”
She focused on Eddie.
“If by Wednesday the captain has nothing and Nolan is still in Charlottesville, we should seriously think of flying out there and drawing him out.”
“How?”
“We’ll think of something.”
Amy sighed. “I can’t take Raelynn into a situation like that, Eddie.”
“I have a suggestion.” He gripped her hands and stared at her with an earnest expression. “Let’s swing by L.A. and leave her with my family. My sister Lori is home for a short break before she starts work next month. Knowing her, she is either helping Faith in her showroom or partying and sleeping late. She’s amazing with kids.”
Amy shook her
head. “I don’t know. You know Raelynn. She’s not good with strangers.”
“She’s changing, and we’ll only be gone for a few days. If she doesn’t like Lori, Kara can keep an eye on her or Aunt Estelle.”
Amy smiled. “You can’t just ask someone to watch over a total stranger’s child.”
His gripped tightened. “You and Raelynn are not strangers. Kara, Baron, all the in-laws know you. Besides, my family does things like that all the time. When there’s an emergency, we rally around each other. When my mother left, all my aunts wanted to raise Lori and me. My father is a proud man and private. I think he hoped our mother would come back, so he turned them down. Did it stop them? No. They pushed, bullied, interfered whether we wanted them or not, until my father gave in.”
“Your family sounds wonderful.”
He chuckled. “No, they’re not. They are loud and nosey and will drive any sane person crazy. What they are is Irish—loyal and bullheaded.”
Amy still hesitated.
Eddie sighed. “Okay, how about we go to L.A. and ask Lori to come with us. She can keep an eye on Raelynn at whatever hotel we’re staying at.”
She liked the sound of that. “How old is she?”
“Twenty-three.”
He made everything sound easy. On the other hand, she’d seen how supportive the Fitzgeralds could be. Baron and Kara had allowed her to stay as their housekeeper even after hearing her story. She’d refused to lie to them about her situation. “Let me think about it.”
***
It took nearly two hours before the police left. Eddie called his insurance company, e-mailed them the police report and pictures, then called a tow company to pick up the cars. The last call he made was to Baron.
His cousin reassured him that his insurance would replace the tires of the SUV, then insisted on talking to Amy. Eddie had no idea what they discussed, but she seemed less tense when she handed the phone back to him.
“How is she holding up?” Baron asked.
“She’s strong, but I don’t know how much more she can take. Her car is unsalvageable and her insurance doesn’t cover malicious damage. Nolan is acting like your average cop and his asshole henchman has disappeared. If they catch him, I can make him confirm everything Amy said.”
“Do you doubt her story?”
“Nah,” Eddie said. He’d had his moments, but not anymore. “Nolan did worse things to her, man. Stuff I can’t go into right now.”
“We’re here if you guys need us. Kara just spoke to her too and told her the same thing. Once the insurance replaces the tires on our car, which I’ll make sure they do first thing tomorrow morning, Amy can used it until she gets situated.”
Eddie grinned. “I’ll let her know.”
“She already does. Keep us updated and be careful.”
Eddie was sweeping the shards of glass from the driveway when Sally pulled up in her squad car. She rolled down the window. “Hop in, Detective. The Capt’n wants to see you.”
“Give me a second.” He gathered the yellow crime scene tape and chucked it in the garbage bag with the broken glass, then went inside the house in search of Amy. She wasn’t in the living room or with Raelynn, who was napping. He found her folding clothes in the laundry room. Her head was bent and her shoulders shook
She’d been so strong, but what she was going through could break anyone. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. “It’s okay. Let it out. I know it’s too much.”
She chuckled and turned in his arm. Her eyes gleamed.
“You’re brilliant.” She went on her toes and kissed him.
He grinned. “What did I do?”
“Everything. You’re right. Let’s take this battle to Nolan. I want to screw with his mind the way he did with mine. From the surveillance video, he still frequents the same restaurants and bars, goes to the same gym. We even know where his girlfriend lives. I want payback and I want it mean and calculated.”
Eddie laughed. She never did things like a normal woman. No wonder he was crazy about her. He lifted her up and set her on the counter then nudged her knees apart and settled between them.
Cupping her face, he ducked his head and spoke against her lips, “You have a diabolical mind.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet. About Raelynn, I’m more comfortable having her with us. If your sister is as amazing as you claim—”
He captured her mouth in a kiss meant to silence her, tongue slipping inside her slick, silky interior to find hers. A car horn blared somewhere and sanity returned. He lifted his head, stared into her heavy-lidded eyes begging him to finish what he’d started. Her lips, swollen from their kisses, parted in invitation. His entire body throbbed with regret.
“Sally is waiting for me outside. The captain wants to see me and I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”
“I’ll be right here, waiting for you.” She planted a quick kiss on his lips. “Go.”
He staggered away from her, paused by the door and looked back. His hunger for this woman bordered on lunacy and he loved it. Maybe he’d have one more kiss to keep him going until later.
“No, you have to go—”
He cut off her protest with his lips. The taste of her in his mouth, her scent in his nose and the feel of her imprinted on his senses, he turned and left the room. If Sally noticed his drugged eyes, mussed hair or obvious arousal, she didn’t say anything. She just reversed the car and took off.
Eddie finger-combed his hair and focused on their surroundings. They were headed west over a bridge. “Where are we going?”
“Bill Burgess’ rental home. That’s the name he used to rent the house. Tomorrow, we’ll send the gloves to Salt Lake City for DNA testing to see if it matches the saliva on the cigarette filters we collected the other day.”
“What about the partial print on the crowbar?”
“We fed it through AFIS and got nowhere.”
Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS as it was often abbreviated, was a database of fingerprints of known criminals or anyone who’d ever been fingerprinted.
“We also found a print on the side of a laptop inside the rental house. The keyboard, the screen, the top and bottom were all wiped clean. People tend to forget the sides.”
“What else did you find at his rental home?”
“The usual—clothes, shoes, toiletry bag. The clothes and shoes are all new and never worn. Even his car is still parked outside and wiped clean.”
In other words, he was playing the local PD. Chances were he wasn’t even staying in that house. From what Amy had told him, Burgess had asked about other empty houses. But why leave the laptop behind?
“Any other fingerprints in the house?” Eddie asked.
“Plenty, but they’ve given us nothing. People move in and out of these houses like roaches. Not just the renters who come and go every week, but the housecleaning crew and the employees of the company managing them. It is impossible to know whose prints we are dealing with.”
“Did you check them against the Academy database to see if they match Reither’s?”
“We are, but so far no matches. You were right about the tire treads outside your lake house. Treadmate database matched them to a Dunlop K81 with a width of 4.25. Unfortunately, there’s no motorcycle at his place and neighbors hasn’t seen him ride one.”
Which meant that the bike was his prefer mode of transportation and hidden in his real rental home.
Sally pulled up outside a white house with blue shutters. The place swarmed with cops, which defeated the purpose. Burgess would know the police were at his place from a mile away. Then there were the gawking neighbors. He could never understood people’s morbid fascination with crime.
“You guys didn’t hear a motorcycle start last night, did you?” Sally asked as they walked to the house.
“No. From the change in the depth of tire marks, he pushed it to the highway before taking off.” Deeper tire marks meant there wa
s weight on the bike.
Inside the house, the crime scene team was still dusting for fingerprints. Two officers and Briggs sat around a table and stared at a laptop as though it was alien technology.
Briggs waved. “Over here, City Slicker.”
Eddie smiled, the nickname growing on him. He joined them and frowned at the blue screen. “Let me guess. It’s password protected.”
“We’ve tried everything to crack it. Think you can take care of it?” Briggs indicated to one of the tech to give Eddie a chair.
“Not so fast,” Eddie said. “I’m not good with computers. However, I know people who are.”
“Call them.”
Eddie pulled out his cell phone and dialed Sly’s number. “Hey, I need you to hack into a password protected computer.”
Sly chuckled. “You’ve definitely crossed over to our side, detective.”
Eddie ignored the dig and explained the situation.
“We’ll need a video conference, so I can see everything you type,” Sly said.
Eddie glanced at Briggs. “I need to have a video conference.”
“Head back to the office and use the one in the briefing room.” Briggs heaved to his feet and everyone stood. “Sally, when they’re done here, choose two officers to stay behind in case Burgess shows up.”
Eddie waited until the tech guys left before speaking. “I don’t think he’s coming back here, captain. He’s probably watching us from another rental property nearby.”
The older guy studied Eddie then nodded. “I’m not going to ask how you reached that conclusion, Detective Fitzgerald, but if you happen to know where those empty houses are, we’d like the addresses.”
***
Amy finished with her laundry and walked to the front of the house, expecting to see crime scene tape. It was gone along with the cars. She found the bags with shards of glass and the crime scene tape. Eddie. Was there anything the man didn’t think about? She hauled the bags to a bin marked for glass disposal.
Back inside the house, she went to her computer and tried to work. She’d planned to print out her story for Eddie, but that seemed like a lifetime ago. Still, she turned on the printer, printed a copy and placed it in a yellow folder then she got online and checked her e-mail.
Forever Hers Page 22
