“They’re great kids.”
She smiled. “And you’re a great friend. Thank you. For everything.”
“Of course.” He hesitated. “Do you want me to tell you anything I find out in here?”
“Only if you think it will help for me to know it.”
“Okay. Sounds fair.”
Once he’d seen Lisa back into her car and on the road toward home, Bryce climbed back into his driver’s seat and buckled up. He dialed Jade’s number and let it ring while he opened the little black journal that held his friend’s last thoughts.
SIXTEEN
Jade had stepped inside Heather’s home and immediately been hit by the fumes—and the color of the room. A deep red covered the walls and Jade closed her eyes for a moment. Lord, please be with Heather. She’s hurting so terribly bad. “Heather? You here?”
Where else would she be? The bathroom? The back bedroom? She knew Heather had used her spare bedroom as a studio when she had been painting before. Maybe she’d started using it again.
The couch had been pushed away from the wall and was covered with a black tarp. The floors that had once been a pretty taupe colored carpet were now just plywood.
What was Heather doing? “Heather!”
Jade’s phone rang and she realized it had been ringing for several seconds. She snatched it. “Bryce.”
“Hey, how are you doing?”
“I’m at Heather’s. Let me call you back in a bit.”
“Okay, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve got the journal. Listen, I’m real concerned about Heather’s mental state. Frank was worried, too. It was one reason he wanted to postpone the wedding.”
Jade shot a glance toward the hallway. Still no sign of her friend. She lowered her voice. “Postpone, not call off?”
“Calling it off apparently came later. But she knew and she was extremely upset.”
“She knew.” And she hadn’t said a thing to Jade—or anyone else.
“Listen, watch your back with her.”
Jade huffed a short laugh. “You’re kidding, right? This is Heather.”
“I know. And she’s been through a lot. She may not be thinking clearly.”
Well, that was true enough. “What exactly does his journal say?”
“I haven’t read it yet. I’m paraphrasing what Lisa told me. I’m heading back to town and should be there in about twenty minutes. I’ll read some more and try to get the full picture.”
“Okay. I’ll call you and let you know how it goes here.”
He hung up, and Jade walked toward the back of the house. “Heather?” Worry churned within her. Heather had known Frank wanted to call off the wedding. Had she kept quiet because she had hopes he would change his mind? Or...what?
Footsteps in the hallway reached her, and Heather rounded the corner to enter the den, paintbrush in hand, towel over her shoulder. “Ah! Jade?” She pressed a hand to her heart then pulled an AirPod from her ear. “You scared me to death. What are you doing here?”
“I came to check on you. I’ve been calling your name for the past few minutes. I guess I know why you didn’t answer.” She let her gaze roam the room. “You’ve been busy.”
“You told me to paint.”
“This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but...”
“It’s a horrible color, isn’t it?” Heather set the paintbrush on the tarp covering the sofa and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know what I was thinking.” She gave a small laugh. “Frank hated the color.”
“So, why?”
“Because it would have made him mad.” She looked away, then back, fury darkening her eyes. “He was going to call off the wedding.”
“I heard.”
Heather blinked. “You did?”
“Lisa found his journal and read a bit of the entry where he said he was calling it off.”
Her face paled. “Lisa had it? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“So, you knew about the journal?”
Her friend hesitated. “Yes, but he never intended anyone to read it. Those were his private thoughts and feelings.” Heather raked a hand over her hair, pushing a few strands behind her ear. “I can’t believe he left it with her.”
“He didn’t intentionally leave it with her.”
“But he did, and she found it and read it, right?” A short scoff. “What else did he say?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think Lisa read the whole thing, just that part. She gave the journal to Bryce this morning.”
“And has he read it?”
“No, he just picked it up. Forget the journal. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it was embarrassing!” Heather paced to the kitchen and back. She stopped at the bookshelf she’d moved away from the wall and picked up a picture of her and Frank. “I’d already been left at the altar once, and now this? I couldn’t believe it. I thought he was finally—”
“Finally what?”
“Nothing! It doesn’t matter now.” She replaced the picture and looked down at her hands. “Excuse me a minute while I go wash this paint off.”
“Heather—”
“Just give me a minute, Jade, okay?”
Jade raked a hand through her ponytail. “Fine. Sure.” Heather disappeared down the hall, and Jade walked to the couch, then back to the front door, her rubber-soled shoes quiet on the plywood. She returned to the couch and dropped her face into her palms.
When she opened her eyes, she spotted something on the plywood that didn’t look like it belonged there. A large brown stain.
Coldness settled in the pit of her stomach, and she didn’t like where her mind went. But she couldn’t help it. She’d seen stains like that before. Jade walked into the hallway and heard the sink in the hall bathroom still running. She hurried to the kitchen and retrieved a plastic baggie and a pointed knife.
Kneeling at the edge of the stain, she stuck the tip of the knife into it, carved out a small sliver of the wood and slid it into the baggie. Then she pinched the edges shut and stuffed the bag into the inside pocket of her jacket.
“What are you doing?”
Jade spun. Heather stood at the entrance to the den, drying her hands on a towel.
“Nothing.” She stepped forward trying to hide the knife on the floor. “Just trying to figure out your vision for this room.”
Her friend’s gaze dropped to the floor, and her jaw tightened. She tossed the towel onto the covered sofa and shoved her hands into the pockets of her painting smock.
“Why did Frank want to call the wedding off, Heather?” Jade asked. “I thought things were great with you guys.”
Heather narrowed her eyes and barked a bitter laugh. “You really don’t know.”
“I really don’t know, so why don’t you quit being so vague and fill me in?”
“He wanted to call off the wedding because he was in love with you!”
Jade froze. Her heart pounded. Disbelief coursed through her veins. With eyes locked on Heather’s, she shook her head. “No. That’s not true. We were just friends.”
“You’re so naive.”
“Heather,” Jade said softly, “did you kill Frank?” Heather’s left hand rose fast, and Jade found herself staring at the weapon in it. “How could you?” she whispered.
“I didn’t want to,” Heather said, “but he gave me no choice. He didn’t even have the decency to tell me himself. I had to read it in his journal.”
“What?”
“He left it sitting on his kitchen table. I thought I’d sneak a peek and see what I might get him for a wedding gift. Only you can imagine how surprised I was to find out he didn’t want to get married after all because he was in love with you.”
Jade shook her head. It couldn’t be true. “He never gave the first clue that he felt anything m
ore than friendship for me.”
“And get this,” Heather said as though Jade hadn’t spoken. “He only asked me to marry him because he felt sorry for me for getting jilted. I almost took that book and threw it at him, but decided not to let him know right off that I knew. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I wasn’t going to just sit by and let him humiliate me.” She swiped a tear, but her eyes remained hard, and Jade was starting to believe her friend, her partner, the woman she’d entrusted her life to numerous times, might actually kill her.
“Frank cared about you. He always did.”
“Cared about me? He was supposed to love me!” A sob slipped from her and she drew in a slow breath. “He came back the next day after asking me to marry him and said he’d made a mistake. He actually apologized and said he shouldn’t have done that. While he felt sorry for me, he couldn’t marry me. The problem is, I’d already told my mother and grandmother. I begged him to let it play out for a few months, then if he wanted to call it off, I’d agree. I thought surely I could make him fall in love with me by then. When he kept up the charade, I thought I’d succeeded—except when you were around. You want to know something else he said in his journal? Just before he walked in the room, I read that the more he thought about the engagement, the more he thought it might bring you to your senses, that you’d see what you were losing and ask him to reconsider.”
“What?” Jade couldn’t help the sharp cry.
“As we got closer and closer to the wedding, Frank’s cold feet turned into frozen blocks of ice—and so did his heart.”
Jade wasn’t sure what to say, how to react—or even what to think. Most of her attention was on the gun in Heather’s steady grip. “I’m so sorry,” Jade said. “I really am, but please put the gun down and we’ll work something out.”
A sigh slipped from Heather. “If it was anyone but you saying those words, I might go for it. But I know you, partner, and I know ‘working something out’ means me going down for Frank’s murder. And that’s not going to happen.”
* * *
Bryce’s heart pounded. He’d pulled into the parking lot of the office he’d rented but hadn’t set foot in since returning to Cedar Canyon, to sit in the car and read through just a bit of Frank’s journal.
When he read, “I have regrets. A lot of them,” his blood pounded and his lungs tightened. Sasha moved closer and nudged him. “It’s all right, girl. Give me a minute.”
“The biggest being I kept a secret from a friend,” Frank had written. “Jade asked me to have Bryce contact her, but I knew why she wanted to talk to him so bad. He’s Mia’s father. If he comes back, I’ll lose Mia and Jade forever. It’s wrong of me, I know that. I should tell him, but it’s been five years. Almost six. How do I tell him after all this time?” Another entry. “He’s coming home. It won’t be long before he’ll run into Jade and learn about Mia. Once Jade sees him, she’ll tell him. And they’ll figure out that I’ve lied to both of them. I’m a horrible friend. I’ve got to come clean and pray everyone can forgive me, but how can they?” One more. “I know that if I have more time, I’ll be able to win Jade’s heart. I want to love Heather, but I don’t. It’s Jade. It’s always been Jade, but how do I break that to Heather? I’ve really messed up and don’t see a way out that won’t hurt a lot of people.” Last one. “Heather’s changed. I’m not sure what’s going on with her, but there’s no way we’re getting married. I just need to man up and tell her. Soon. Because Jade isn’t showing any inclination that my getting married is bothering her in the least. I think she may be a lost cause. Regardless, I still can’t marry Heather. I’m telling her tonight. She’s not going to take it well, and frankly, she’s been so unstable lately, I’m worried about what she might do.”
He’d read enough to know that Jade could very possibly be in danger. He dialed her number and set the phone in the mount on his dash while the Bluetooth kicked in.
When it rang four times before going to voice mail, he put the SUV in Reverse and backed out of the parking spot, worry for Jade making his palms sweat. Heather’s house was only about five minutes from him.
Unfortunately, a lot could happen in five minutes.
SEVENTEEN
“If you shoot me,” Jade said, keeping her voice even, “Tom will hear. He’s sitting outside.” Her phone had been vibrating in her pocket, but Heather didn’t seem to hear it. All she could do was pray it was Bryce, and when she didn’t answer, he would come to investigate.
“Tom?” Heather asked.
“Tom Williams. With the wife and two kids. He brought me here because the captain assigned someone to be with me at all times, thanks to you trying to kill me. If you pull the trigger and he comes running in, you’ll have to kill him, too. Do you really want more deaths on your conscience?” Because it was obvious killing Frank was eating away at her. “The ME said Frank never saw it coming, but he was shot by someone he was facing,” Jade said softly. “How did it happen, Heather? Did he just stand there and let you put two bullets in him?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Well, I do! It’s my life we’re talking about here. And Frank’s! And the kids’! What if Mia had been home when you set my house on fire?”
“I figured she’d stay with your parents. She always does these days.”
“But what if she hadn’t? You could have killed her.”
“Well, she’s not dead, so drop it!” Heather’s eyes flashed desperation, and that scared Jade almost as much as having the gun aimed at her. “Wait a minute. How did you get the bombs in there and then disappear so quickly? There was no car, nothing, but I know I saw you out near the barn.”
Heather shuddered. “That was a close one.”
“So, I did see you!”
“I thought for sure you’d find me.”
“But where—” She broke off. “Our secret place in the loft,” she whispered. “That’s how you were coming and going without anyone noticing you.”
“It was a simple thing to grab a horse from the pasture and bareback it up to the barn. No car necessary. No sounds to alert anyone.”
“And you know my family’s schedule so you could plan around it.” So stupid. She and Bryce had talked about the secret place and she hadn’t even looked. Because no one had known about it and it was almost impossible to find unless one knew it was there. Like Heather did.
“Check on Tom,” Heather said. “Is he sitting in the car or outside of it?”
Jade went to the window and peered out, wishing there was some way she could signal the man she needed help. But he wasn’t watching the house. He was sitting in his car, talking on his phone. “Inside.”
“Call him in here.”
“What? Why?”
“He brought you here. I can’t exactly explain why he’s not taking you anywhere.”
She planned to kill him and Jade—and probably anybody who tried to stop her. “Is that what you did to Frank? Call him over here and when he walked in, shot him?”
“Yes! I mean, no! Argh!” Heather drew in a deep breath. “Yes, I asked him to come over. We talked and he wouldn’t listen to reason. He said he was calling off the wedding and that was that. I couldn’t let him do that. Don’t you understand? I couldn’t let him!”
“So you shot him.” Jade could picture it playing out. “And then...what? How’d you get him into your car?”
“He was still alive,” she whispered. “I was going to take him to the hospital. He got up on his feet and I got him in the car and he died.”
“And you had to hide the evidence.” And no one would have searched Heather’s car.
“I drove his car home, got a shirt to put on him because there was so much blood. I couldn’t drive him around like that. Then I walked back here, changed his shirt and drove him to the mill. I buried him right where they found him, but I still had to do something w
ith his bloody jersey.”
“And you were burying it when I showed up.”
“Yeah,” she said softly.
“Why didn’t you just bury it with him?”
“Because I just...didn’t. I’d left it in the car and only found it when I went to leave. I was almost finished when you showed up.” Her eyes clouded. “To ruin things once again.”
“Heather, I—”
“Enough. Get Tom in here.”
Jade’s mind spun and she tried to think and plan. “No. I won’t put him in danger.”
“It’s too late, Jade.” She blinked away tears. “If only you hadn’t come back. You should have stayed away. Get him in here!”
Arguing with her wouldn’t do any good. Jade took note of the layout of the kitchen and den area once again. Jade still had her weapon in her holster and her phone in her pocket. A testament to Heather’s state of mind that she hadn’t had Jade toss them out to her.
“Instead of getting him in here, if I can convince him to leave, will you let him go?”
Heather bit her lip, then sighed. “Yes.” She tightened her grip on the gun. “But no funny stuff, Jade. I know you’re scrambling for a way out of this. Trust me, there isn’t one.”
Chills danced up Jade’s spine, and dread curled in the pit of her stomach. “You’d do this to Mia? My parents? You’d take me away from them?”
“I’m sorry, I really am, but I’m not going to prison. Now, either get Tom in here or convince him to leave. You have five minutes. Use the phone in your pocket that keeps buzzing and put it on Speaker.”
Jade removed the device and dialed Tom’s number. “Everything okay?” he asked, his low voice rumbling into the room.
“Everything’s fine,” she said with a glance at Heather’s unrelenting eyes. “Like we discussed in the car, Heather’s going to take over protective duty and drive me home. You can leave.”
“Now, Jade, you know I can’t do that. The captain would have my head.”
Holiday Homecoming Secrets Page 17
