“I’m an ex-cop. And police are moving too slowly on the case. I’m trying to do what I can to help things along.” At least he spoke the truth. And Nan had to realize he’d go to any extreme to catch his sister’s killer.
She took a few moments to contemplate him, going over her options. She seemed an open book, an honest, good person, someone he could see Rachel chumming up with. Which made Rachel seem more innocent than he was ready to accept. He needed an open mind. If Rachel had been involved in Luella’s murder... He couldn’t be attached to her killer.
“Rachel was home the night of the murder,” Nan finally said. “I spoke with her at about eight. She said she was going to take a bath and go to bed.”
Rachel had no alibi the night of Luella’s murder. Luella had been murdered between eleven and one that night. Jared had been home. Rachel had plenty of time to drive to Jared’s house. Maybe the two of them had worked together.
“Did she ever say anything to you about Luella?”
“Only that she was Jared’s wife and she’d been killed. It was all a big shock to her. She didn’t know Jared was married.”
That would be a shock—if she was innocent.
“Anything else stand out?”
Nan thought a few seconds. “You know, she did mention something. A woman came to see Jared one day and left in tears. Rachel said she heard the woman accuse him of fraud.”
A cold chill channeled its way down Lucas’s body. Rachel hadn’t mentioned anything like that. Her words echoed, raising his ire.
I don’t know anything that will help you or your investigation. If I did, I’d have gone to the police...
Didn’t this qualify as knowing something? She suspected Jared of fraud. Insurance fraud?
“I think Rachel suspected Jared was up to something,” Nan said, making it worse.
Fraud. Still poleaxed by the word, he asked, “What kind of fraud?”
“Can’t say. Rachel didn’t know, either. All she heard was that one small snippet of conversation. It may not mean anything.”
Or it meant everything. Lucas fought to keep his temper under control. “When did she hear the woman accuse him of fraud?”
“Just after Luella’s murder. She’d gone to pick up her personal things from her desk. That same week, in fact.” Nan eyed him again. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you anything. Rachel hasn’t told you any of this?”
“No.”
Nan’s whole demeanor changed. She’d expected Rachel to be forthcoming, but Rachel had not been forthcoming. She’d hidden a big chunk of information that should have been revealed four years ago, immediately after she’d discovered it.
Lucas struggled to hang on to calm. Bullying Nan right now would not help his cause.
Another customer came into the salon. Nan greeted the woman and then took up a broom and began sweeping her station. “You should go and talk to her directly. I’m beginning to feel like you’re trying to get me to say something I’ll regret.”
He was. “My sister’s murder is still unsolved. You may be able to shed light on something no one has seen before.”
“I have a customer. You should get going now.” She kept sweeping.
“How did Rachel feel about Jared’s lie?”
“Humph. How do you think she felt? She was hurt. Up until then, she talked about how wonderful he was, how well he treated her, how intelligent he was, how handsome. He was her prince, her knight in shining armor. Too good to be true.” Her sweeping slowed as she looked up at Lucas. “She said that to me once. He’s almost too good to be true. That was about two weeks before she found out he was a snake in the grass.”
Jared had played the role well. His estranged friend had perfected the art of deception. Lucas had experienced the treachery himself. “Did Rachel isolate herself because she was involved in fraud with Jared?”
Nan stopped sweeping. “Heavens, no. Rachel would never do anything like that. After going through her troubled teen years, she’s been determined to turn her life around. When Jared happened, she had a setback. She was always leery of the law. Jared scared her.”
“What do you mean she’s leery of the law?”
“You should ask her that.” Putting the broom away, Nan went to the front.
Passing Lucas, she greeted her customer and then said, “Come on back.”
Lucas followed them to the station, watching her put an apron over the elderly woman, who looked up at him in silent question. What was he doing hanging around?
Getting answers.
“Why did Jared scare her?” he asked.
Nan asked the customer what she’d like today, and the customer said the same as last time. Nan sprayed the woman’s hair with water, looking at Lucas through the mirror.
“You have to understand how important it is to Rachel that she improve her life,” she said. “She has deep regrets over the things she did in her teen years. She wishes she wouldn’t have disappointed her parents and will do anything not to disappoint them again. That makes her hypersensitive to the law.”
Innocent people wouldn’t feel that way. “Is she afraid of being arrested again?”
Nan began cutting her customer’s gray hair, and the woman stared at Lucas through the mirror, clearly taken in by the titillating topic.
“Of course she is.” Nan snipped away, hair falling down to the apron and floor.
“Why? If she’s done nothing wrong, she has nothing to fear.”
“Rachel is afraid of Jared. That man hid his true nature. He’s dangerous. She feels threatened by him.”
This bit of news changed the course of his investigation. If Rachel had a legitimate reason to be afraid, Lucas might understand her secret. But she still should have come forward.
“What does she think he’ll do?” he asked.
Nan looked up from her hands, busy with the scissors and comb, as though he was daft. “Make her look guilty of fraud.”
He wanted to understand Rachel’s reason for not going to the police; fear of the law didn’t cut it. He thanked Nan and left.
On his way to Tieber Transport, Lucas wavered between anger over her secretiveness and a nagging suspicion that something more than the law scared her. The woman he’d met at that pub wouldn’t keep vital information on another human being’s murder from police out of selfish fear. So what had turned her into a woman who would?
* * *
Awkward. Rachel shifted on the chair. She’d left the door open after Joseph had taken her here. He’d offered her a seat at her former desk but she’d declined. Now she sat in the conference room next to his office with nothing to do. She’d have walked away if not for the stalker lurking in the shadows.
But she could not take sitting here like a wallflower any longer. She felt like a stubborn teenager again, dropped off by a foster parent and left to wait. Don’t go anywhere until I get back.
The demands had driven her to rebellion. Not because of unfairness. Those good people had nothing but her welfare in mind. She’d just lost her way, that was all. A young, impressionable girl who’d become a victim of tragedy, and then a victim of the state.
Rachel tried to forgive herself for succumbing to negativity and dysfunction. She’d let it drag her down. Blamed others for the awfulness that life had splattered all over her existence. She’d seen no way out. Given up. Then she’d realized only she could change her circumstances. Only she could care enough about herself and her future to do something about it. No one else would. No one else would be there to catch her at her lowest. She’d thought she’d found her way when she’d met Jared, when he’d given her a chance and hired her to do a real job. For the first time since her parents died, she’d seen a way forward without them. She’d felt strong. Empowered. And then he’d turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of her
life, possibly the biggest.
With Lucas, it had begun to feel the same way, before the discovery of lies. She could have almost believed they had a chance—that she had a chance—for real happiness. Love.
This job. This family. It felt different. Yes, the job had been offered in falseness, but she sensed a genuine offer still stood.
That compelled her to stand and go to the conference room door, peer out into the executive office space and beyond to the lower-level workers, tapping on keyboards, talking on phones and to each other, walking this way and that.
She stepped out of the conference room and took in the expensive art on the walls, interspersed with required corporate informational posters. Don’t get hurt on the job. Personal problems? Call this number. Mission statements. All Hands meetings. Company events.
Rachel had loved them all when she’d worked for Jared. While the novelty had worn off quickly enough after she’d discovered his infidelity, the security of belonging to something so much greater than her had soaked into her being. She began to have the same sense now. It was what brought her out into the hall.
“Oh, hey, Rachel.”
Rachel turned to see Marcy approach, holding her cell phone and a notepad cradled on her forearm.
Keeping her opinion of the woman to herself, Rachel smiled. “Hello.”
“Are you back to work?”
Unable to confirm or deny that, Rachel said, “Lucas said he saw you at HealthFirst.”
Marcy’s too-sugary demeanor faltered a bit. “Yes, he did.”
“He also said you left with Jared.” Rachel didn’t feel she had much to lose. And she rather enjoyed Marcy’s mellowing. For a moment she saw through to the real woman, one who could be broken just like everyone else.
“Is he up to his old ways again?” Rachel asked during Marcy’s stunned silence.
That snapped Marcy out of her stupor, and the regal corporate cat reemerged. “Are you seeing Jared again?”
Of course she’d focus on that instead of why Lucas had waited until she left, spying on her. “No.” She didn’t add she’d be fifty shades of stupid if she did.
Marcy’s cell phone buzzed. She looked down and came to attention.
“Marcy. There you are.” Joseph rushed forward with a printout in his hand. “I need you to make me twenty copies of these and bring them to the boardroom.” He handed her the pages. “And the receptionist didn’t make coffee. Could you take care of the catering? I’ve got that potential client in today, you remember? The Alaskan touring company.”
Marcy looked down at her phone and then back at Joseph. “I’m sorry, Mr. Johnson just called me, I have to...”
Joseph harrumphed a sigh. “Then go find that receptionist. What’s her name?”
Rachel snatched the pages from Marcy. “I’ll take care of your client, Mr. Tieber.” Seeing his softening regard, she walked away.
She started the copies in the machine and made coffee at the same time. While those processed, she called the bakery just down the street from the office and asked them to rush over fruit and pastries.
Joseph’s meeting had already started by the time she herded the receptionist to help her set up coffee while she passed out the copies. A projector screen displayed another presentation, the copies a supplement to that.
The pastries arrived by the time she finished passing out printouts. On her way out the door, she caught Joseph’s smile and nod of appreciation.
Not ready to forgive just yet, Rachel left the room and went to her desk, sitting down and livening up her computer to see what needed catching up.
An hour into going through emails, she caught sight of Lucas. He strode toward her with a storm of tension. Wherever he’d gone, he must have talked to someone close to her. She’d suspected as much when he wouldn’t let her go with him. She prepared herself for the worst. She had gotten good at that, preparing herself for the worst, expecting the worst. Disappointment didn’t take her down. She’d been disappointed so many times, it was a familiar feeling; so familiar that she had desensitized herself to it long ago. But somehow, Lucas’s anger affected her differently. She cared too much what he thought.
She stood.
“Come with me.” He took her arm a little too firmly and guided her to the conference room she’d vacated. Inside, he shut the door with a bang.
“Fraud?” he shot at her.
Hiding a flinch, she stepped back and put her hand on the back of a chair. Wherever he’d gone, he’d learned a lot.
“I couldn’t prove anything.”
“And that’s your reason for not going to the police with case-altering information?” he roared.
Taking in his furious face and pained by it, she moved away, going to the window with a view of cloud-shrouded mountains. Apprehension kept her tongue still, kept words from tumbling out. The same had overcome her years ago, her life threatened if she said anything to anyone.
“Where did you go? Who told you? Nan?” It had to be. Nan was the only other person she’d told about Jared and her suspicion.
“I went to see her.”
While Rachel felt betrayed by her closest friend, Nan hadn’t meant to cause her trouble. Lucas was a smooth talker when he wanted information.
Turning from the window, she asked, “Are you going to run down all of my friends and interrogate them? I’ll save you some time. Nan is the only person I talked to about Jared. How did you find her?”
“Kadin.”
“Ah, yes. The ever-resourceful Mr. Tandy of the great and mighty Dark Alley Investigations. You’re not even a real homicide detective. How are you qualified to work for an agency like that?”
“I’m determined. And I know how to hunt criminals.”
Narcotics were a lot different than murder investigations, but he hadn’t shown any signs of that hindering him in any way. In fact, he struck her as an expert in the field.
“Why did you keep something like that to yourself for so long?” he asked.
Unable to meet his imploring eyes, she faced the window again, rubbing her arms. “I tried to get back into HealthFirst after I quit, after I got my things that first week, but couldn’t.” The security had been too tight, and she was no Lucas Curran. “I wanted to see if I could find something to prove what I heard was true.” That had earned her an attack that still haunted her, it had terrified her so much.
“Four years, Rachel.”
She heard him come up behind her. She didn’t fault him for his anger. She didn’t respect herself, either, for not being braver.
“Four years have gone by that my sister’s killer has gone free. You could have changed that by going to the police.”
Rachel closed her eyes to the hurtful truth. “I didn’t want to go to jail.” As an adult, she’d do serious time, and with her juvenile record, the judge may not be lenient.
“Why would you go to jail?”
Four years ago, she’d faced the same decision. Risk her life by telling all? Or keep quiet?
“Rachel. Why?”
The anguish in his voice did her in. She turned and started for the door. “You don’t understand.” She left the conference room, grabbed her purse from under her desk and then jogged to the elevator.
She pressed the button, fidgeting as she waited for the doors to open. Lucas strode toward her, low-browed and unrelenting.
The doors opened and she got inside, pressing the lobby button and then the one that would close the doors. This time Lucas caught them, sticking his foot between the doors and pushing them back open with his hand.
Inside the elevator, he moved toward her.
Rachel backed up against the wall.
He put his hand above and beside her head. “Make me understand how you could let a killer go free.”
S
he hadn’t let a killer go free. That dug deep. “I didn’t know enough.” That was what she’d kept telling herself back then, when one shock after another hit her. Luella’s murder. The discovery that she was Jared’s wife. Realizing all of his lies and his utter disregard for her as a person, his lack of respect and integrity. She’d had real feelings for him. To be shown his gutter-rat nature so abruptly and horribly... She’d spun in a fog of uncertainty. Add to that the fraud and threats, and no wonder she’d run into isolation.
“My word is all I had to offer,” she said to Lucas. “It wasn’t enough. No one would have believed me. I may not be a hotshot detective like you, but I know that much.”
“It’s enough now. You’re not alone anymore. You don’t have to be afraid. You have me.”
Warmth fell through her until she realized she couldn’t trust him. He blamed her for withholding information—possibly rightfully so. But now he was back to manipulating her to get that information. The closer she looked into his eyes, the more she saw his simmering anger.
“Tell me everything,” Lucas said.
He’d not settle until she did.
The elevator doors opened and she walked out, numb, scanning the lobby. He walked beside her. His long, graceful strides made her too aware of his attractiveness. His intelligent mind, although cornering her now, only stimulated the sensation. Like the temptation of dark chocolate. Sugar. Mmm.
Outside, she saw a black sedan waiting. They’d be driven wherever Lucas wanted to go. She’d either go with him or face her stalker.
Lucas shoved her the same time glass shattered behind her. Rachel landed on the concrete front entry of Tieber Transport. Tempered glass from the window beside the door scattered.
To her left, the driver of the sedan dived into the front of the car. Bullets sprayed.
The windshield broke. The back passenger seat window next.
Lucas had his pistol out, and was crouched between her and the car. He grabbed her forearm and hauled her to the sedan for shelter from a continual pelting of bullets.
Leaning against the rear tire, Rachel covered her head. She peeked to see Lucas rising up enough to clear the hood and fire at the shooter.
Justice Hunter Page 11
