Flames Of Deceit

by Carol Hutchens

  “A woman couldn’t have carried Leigh Anne’s body up those stairs to the second floor.” Mia reminded.

  Jake slapped the steering wheel. “We need to get our hands on the corner’s report, but that isn’t likely if we can’t go to police.”

  “They’ll think I’m guilty, won’t they?”

  “No.” He frowned. “Maybe. It will look suspicious when they can’t find you. Don’t worry. When this is over, I’ll explain that I took you into protective custody.”

  “If we survive.” Mia looked over her shoulder. “That vehicle could have passed any time in the past fifteen minutes, but it just sits back there, with the headlights glaring in your eyes.”

  “Not everyone drives at top speed.”

  “Take the next exit and see if the car follows us.”

  Jake shook his head. “I thought about that, but I need to wait until we get to an area I’m familiar with. If the car followed, I don’t want to get lost and play into their hands.”

  “Even if Pam did murder Leigh Anne, who murdered Pam? It wasn’t Leigh Anne. And that leaves Phil.”

  “If Pam isn’t the killer, and your brother is innocent, who wants both women dead?” Jake played along with her questions, hoping to ease the tremor in her voice. But the vehicle behind them had him concerned for their safety. He eased off the gas, not enough that Mia would notice, but enough to slow their speed, and still the car behind hadn’t passed them.

  “If we leave Phil out, the only man we’re certain the two women had in common is Pam’s boss. Both women dated Edward Poole. Both knew he cheated on his wife. What other secrets does he have?”

  Jake clenched his hands on the wheel. “What do you know about Edward Poole?”

  Mia glanced over her shoulder. “They aren’t going to pass, are they?”

  If he could reassure her, he would, but they could face disaster any second. Mia deserved the truth. “No, slowed down, but they’re hanging right behind us.”

  “If they had a gun, they would have used it by now, don’t you think? The road’s been empty for miles.”

  Jake glanced at her. “You think the slasher is in that car?”

  “Don’t you?” Mia demanded.

  Seeing a road sign for the next exit, Jake felt a twinge of relief. There were two more exits before their turn off. If he was going to check if the car behind was following them, he had to do it now. When the sign for the exit to Hwy. 87 appeared, he reached put the turn signal on, but jerked back. Why give the car behind notice? “It’s now or never.”

  “Where are we?”

  “How adventurous do you feel?”

  Mia turned wide eyes on him. “Do you know where you’re going?”

  “Hang on.” Jake took the exit faster than the posted speed. For a second, he thought they were safe. Then the car behind turned off, too. Muttering under his breath, he made a sharp right turn into the first gas station still open.

  “Do you think they will stop?”

  “I doubt anyone will try to murder us with witnesses in sight.” Jake nodded to the attendants looking out the station windows. “But we’ll see.”

  Two seconds later, the other car passed by the station. Mia let out a loud sigh.

  “Don’t get your hopes up, yet,” Jake warned. “They can’t be too obvious or they know we’ll call police.”

  “W-what if it is the police?”

  “It wasn’t a patrol car, or a county sheriff’s car.” Jake frowned as he stared after the vehicle.

  “It could be an unmarked car.”

  “Why follow us? Why not stop us and drag us in if they want to question us?” Jake watched the road for long minutes but the car didn’t return. Keeping a careful watch for any sign of the car returning, he took a left to on Hwy. 64 and headed back in the direction they had come.

  After two more fake turns, he eased the Jeep off the right exit and drove toward the cabin. Once they were inside, he checked the house carefully, then dropped to the sofa beside Mia.

  “This is more serious than I thought.”

  ***

  Two hours later, Jake took a slug from his coffee mug and grimaced at the cold bitter taste. Cutting a glance to Mia’s pale face and drooping shoulders, he leaned back against the sofa with a gusty sigh. “You should get some rest.”

  Mia turned eyes burning with intensity on him. “How can I rest? I might have caused two women to die, and my brother might be guilty of all the things Leigh Anne claimed?”

  She looked so fragile in the dim light from the one lamp they had turned on, Jake wanted to wrap her in his arms and tell her everything would be all right. But the load of guilt from his past held him back, that and the fact that he knew those words weren’t true.

  Yet, the urge to comfort her shattered the restraints he usually held on his emotions. He’d made those mistakes once. He didn’t want to repeat them. He wanted to ease her pain.

  Reaching for her hand, he tugged Mia against his chest. Arms wrapped around her, his chin resting on top of her head, he voiced the words they both dreaded. “Do you want to talk about Phil?”

  Mia rubbed her head against his shirtfront, making him feel warmer than he had in a long time. Mia wasn’t like women he dated in the past. In college, he’d picked the cute, helpless, damsel in distress types. He had loved being a hero for his wife…and their son. But his hero days had ended with the accident.

  He wasn’t anyone’s hero.

  He was a judge, sworn to uphold the laws of the land he loved and caught in the middle by his growing feelings for Mia. Should he tell police what he’d learned? Or protect the woman in his arms from harm? He was certain Mia was in the killer’s sights.

  The vehicle following them tonight had sent that point home.

  He couldn’t let Mia end up like the other two victims. That meant keeping his head clear and his emotions under control. He had to stick to the case, gather facts.

  “Tell me about Phil.”

  Mia toyed with the front of his shirt and tried to conceal a sniff. “What’s to tell? He was the much loved, first child. The son my parents dreamed of having.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I’ve always wondered what things would have been like if I had been born first or been a boy.”

  “That bad?”

  “Dad loved me…Mom does too, in her own way, but in their eyes, Phil never made mistakes. Anything he did was right. By the time I reached middle school, it got old and things went downhill from there.”

  “How so?” Jake ran a hand over the tangled hair on her back, and smoothed it out, because he couldn’t resist touching the soft tresses.

  Leaning away from his chest, Mia looked in his eyes. “You were in middle school, right?” When he nodded, she rolled her eyes and eased back against his chest. Her next words were muffled against his shirt. “Then you know there are no secrets in middle school. If Phil got in trouble, I heard all the details from classmates. When he told a totally different story at home, I learned to keep my mouth shut.”

  “You went to a lot of trouble to prove him innocent.”

  “He’s not a bad person, just self-absorbed. He’s family. I had to help. After all, it’s my name he’s dragging through the muck, too, you know.”

  Hearing her sigh, Jake tightened his grip and hugged her closer. The tension building inside him spelled trouble if he kept touching her. God knows, he couldn’t afford more trouble. One broken heart in a lifetime was enough for him.

  Easing Mia upright, he looked into her eyes with all the determination of a good judge pushing him for answers. “Do you think Phil is the killer?”

  Mia’s lips parted, adding heat to his blood. But the expressions dancing across her face as if he had hit the fast forward button had nothing to do with the awareness building inside him. Doubt, rejection, determination and loyalty flickered across her features, along with other emotions too complicated to identify.

  “Never.”

  Her response came on a gush of warm breath that br
ushed his cheeks and added to his struggle to keep focused.

  It was clear Mia didn’t hate or resent her brother. Disapprove of his actions and doubt him, maybe, but condemn him for murder, never. This from a sister who knew Phil’s weaknesses better than anyone did. Jake trusted her opinion of her brother’s involvement.

  “Sorry, I had to ask.” He sighed, hating the doubts chasing across her face. “What do we know about Pam’s boss, Edward Poole?”

  Leaning forward to pull the laptop on her lap, Mia frowned down at her notes. “He’s vice-president of expansion. Married. Dated Pam and Leigh Anne. Probably owns stock in the company. Tax records show he owns a house on Jordan Lake, a condo at Myrtle Beach and a house in north Raleigh.”

  “Dating both victims puts him at the top of our list of suspects. I wish we had his phone records.”

  Mia chewed her lip. “Do we have to play by the rules since you are a judge?”

  Jake frowned, knowing he wouldn’t like what she had to say. “You don’t obey the law?”

  Mia lifted a shoulder. “Of course I do. I would lose my job if I didn’t—“

  “What do you have up your sleeve?” Jake’s gut told him he would regret those words, but right now, catching a killer was the top item on his list.

  “If you aren’t playing judge, I might know a source that could get phone records.” Mia shrugged, pretending not to hold her breath while she waited for him to answer.

  His lips clenched for about two seconds. “See what you can find out. Get copies from the other VPs while you’re at it.”

  Blinking, Mia waited a couple seconds before grabbing the phone. “You know, for a judge, you aren’t half bad, Jake Stone.”

  “Remember those words when you read the head line, Judge Jake Stone, Deposed.”

  Shaking her head, Mia turned away and punched a number in the phone.

  Jake went to the kitchen to get another cup of coffee, relieved he couldn’t hear Mia’s words. But that reaction didn’t last long enough to fill his cup. His gaze riveted on a flicker of light from the darkness outside the window.

  Watching the light and holding his breath to see if it came nearer, Jake willed Mia to hurry up with her arrangements and get off the phone.

  By the time she shut off the phone, the light disappeared, but he stayed at the window, watching. A car passing on the highway? A neighbor? Someone turning around? He considered all the options, but no answers came.

  He couldn’t shrug it off, after that vehicle followed them from Durham, this was too much of a coincidence. Dumping his coffee down the drain, he turned off the coffeemaker and backed out of the kitchen. “I’m going outside to check around the house—“

  “Not without me, you aren’t. Give me second to get my shoes.”

  Hating to utter the words and add to her worries, Jake met her searching gaze. “Better take your backpack, too.”

  ***

  Minutes later, Jake led the way as they eased through the heavy undergrowth surrounding the cabin. He couldn’t risk turning on a flashlight, and unlike the night he’d run through the dense growth to get to the front of the cabin to stop the intruder, he couldn’t risk making noise this time.

  The other invader had been in a vehicle and couldn’t hear if Jake stumbled in the trees. This time he wasn’t sure if he had seen headlights or a flashlight, but he sensed danger and making things even worse, he’d agreed for Mia to come with him.

  He’d left her unprotected in the cabin once. He would not leave her again. That meant double the chances of stepping on a twig or stumbling and alerting the intruder. But he needed her near so he could watch over her.

  Mia tugged on his sleeve. When he turned, she put her cheek against his and whispered in his ear. “I don’t see anything.”

  Jake lifted a finger to his lips. He couldn’t have said a word if he’d tried. The soft warmth of her cheek against his and the clean scent of her hair invaded his senses and sent out all sorts of longings that could get them killed. His concentration needed to focus on the danger waiting in the darkness, not an awareness of Mia that almost crippled him with need.

  Moving forward, hoping to shut out the growing warmth in his gut, he aimed for a roundabout route toward the area where he spotted the light. Under the cover of darkness, they searched each shadow, stopping for long moments to listen, and then moving on.

  Deciding he had overreacted, that he’s blinked or imagined the light, he stopped to assess their location. Leaning close to Mia, steeling his body against the warmth as he brushed her cheek, he whispered. “I don’t se e anything. It must have been a passing car. We’ll go back—“

  “Wait,” Mia grabbed his arm and muttered against his ear. “I need a light.”

  “What is it?” Rigid to prevent to her nearness, Jake noticed her tension and the fear crackling in her words. “Did you hear something?”

  Shaking her head so hard her ponytail brushed his face, Mia breathed. “I smell smoke.”

  “What—I don’t see a fire. It’s your imagination…and the dark. We’re okay.”

  Mia tugged his wrist and pulled the flashlight out of his pocket. Kneeling, keeping the light close to the ground and her hand cupped around the lens, she flipped it on. The tiny beam of light landed on three cigarette butts. Mia gasped and almost toppled over in her effort to flee and turn the light off at the same time.

  A curse escaped Jake’s lips. Muscles alert, ready to attack, he scanned the deep shadows around them, but Mia’s soft gasping breath was all the sound he heard. After long seconds of searching, waiting, he relaxed enough to pull her into a clumsy embrace. They huddled, crouched on the cold ground, as close to each other as possible.

  As Mia leaned into Jake’s warmth, the odor of smoke almost made her gag. Three cigarette butts stirred memories of being in that burning building. But this time, her sensitivity to smoke might save them from a killer. “We need to take these butts as evidence.”

  Jake kept his eyes on the woods around them, searching for any sign of movement. “I don’t have gloves or a plastic bag.”

  “I do,” Mia pulled a kitchen glove out of her pocket. “It’s not perfect, but it works.”

  “Hurry. We need to move. We can’t go back to the cabin.” Jake mouthed close to her ear. As soon as she tied the butts into the fingers of the glove, he urged her into motion.

  Moving one-step at a time, checking the shadows the best he could in the pitch-blackness of the tall pines, Jake worked his way toward the lake and Dan’s boathouse. Hampered by darkness and the need to stay quiet, he pushed and tugged until he finally managed to free Dan’s canoe from storage.

  With Mia helping, he eased the small craft into the water without a splash. Securing the oars, he grabbed life jackets from the chest Dan used for storage, and helped Mia into the canoe. With one last glance over his shoulder, and cursing silently at the brightness now that they were out of the shelter of the trees, he settled on the seat in behind her.

  Leaning over Mia’s shoulder, he whispered. “We can’t go out on the lake. Our silhouettes will be visible in the moonlight. We’ll stay in the shadows close to shore until we get away.”

  Mia nodded and tightened her grip on the sides of the canoe. She wasn’t fond of water. Swimming was okay, but she avoided riding in boats. But staying in the woods with a killer wasn’t an option.

  Jake had maneuvered the craft a few feet from the boathouse when a long dark shadow loomed over them. Mia gasped. Jake swore under his breath and rowed with all his strength. But the shadow kept coming, looking ten feet tall from where she sat in the canoe. Horror stole all the air from her lungs as the shadow reached the end of the dock and lunged through the air toward them.

  Heart thumping against her ribs, Mia watched as the floundering shadow fell in the water, and then reached to grab the side of their boat. But Jake’s strength and skill with the oars sent the lightweight canoe gliding out of the reach of the desperate swimmer.

  Many yards later, after
she’d filled her lungs with air, Mia forced words from her stiff lips. “Should we go back to make sure he didn’t drown?”

  “Give him another chance to drown us?” Jake grunted as he pulled against the oars.

  “You think it was a man?”

  Jake leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs and murmured, “Don’t talk. Sound carries on water.”

  ***

  Two hours later, with dawn breaking along the eastern skyline, a friendly angler in a powerful motorboat gave them a tow to the opposite shore. Jake waved to the boatman and rowed the canoe toward the dock.

  Mia glanced over her shoulder. “Are we safe?”

  “I think so.” Jake paused to row another stroke. “Even if there was a second person on land watching us, he doesn’t know where we’d end up on this side of the lake.”

  “Do you?”

  Jake eased the canoe next to the wooden dock.

  Mia held tight to the boards, while he climbed out, and turned to offer her a hand. Tossing him her backpack, hoping her laptop was cushioned; Mia accepted his hand and climbed out. Her legs trembled. The dock swayed. Conceding defeat, she plopped down on the heavy wood boards and drew in a shaky breath.

  Jake dropped to the boards beside her. “You okay?”

  “Water legs,” Mia muttered. He barely seemed winded after all that rowing. “What now?”

  “We look for signs, then Google map to find our location.”

  “That’s your plan?” Mia demanded incredulously. “What if the killer finds us first?”

  “Not likely. There are miles of lakefront, besides he’d have to drive to get here.” Jake fiddled with his phone and sighed. “I don’t know much about this side of the lake, but I think we’re close to Dan’s parents’ house.”

  Fifteen minutes later, with the help of Google Maps and a brisk walk, they found the right house and used the key Dan had given them.

  ***

  Inside, they found a note from Dan, and more supplies in the kitchen. Hunger satisfied, they took showers, changed clothing and settled in to watch the early morning news.