She shook her head slowly. “And that’s it? That’s why you’ve suddenly become the only person in the goddamn universe who’s on my side?”
He shrugged. “That’s most of it. It might also be the fact that Dawn’s prints are on that knife, not yours, and that I’m nuts about the kid.” He lifted his head again, met her eyes. “Or maybe it’s something else entirely.”
“Like that you could finally get enough dirt on me to write the exposé of a lifetime?”
His eyes clouded, darkened. “Hell, Jones, if that’s all I wanted, I could quit now and go home. I think I know what Harry had on you.”
Time seemed to stop for an instant. Julie went icy cold. “Wh-what?”
“He was a blackmailer. He was good at it. It’s pretty common knowledge that he slept around, taped his escapades and then took payoffs from the women in the tapes. If he was calling you, harassing you, and you went to meet him, it stands to reason he was blackmailing you, too.”
She sighed, a little bit of relief daring to seep into her mind. “I never slept with Harry Blackwood.”
“I know. What he had on you was considerably more volatile than that. He must have known about Dawn.”
Her voice a mere whisper, she asked, “What about her?”
“She was born at that compound, wasn’t she, Jones?” He said it very softly, carefully, so there was no chance Dawn might overhear.
“You’re insane.” She averted her eyes, pacing away from him as she said it.
“Maybe. Hell, I must be, or I wouldn’t be here. But there was another young woman with you in that snippet of tape. She was carrying a baby. It was Dawn, wasn’t it?”
“No.”
“Then where was she? She’ll turn seventeen this summer, she told me. She was either already born when I got that footage or you would have been obviously pregnant. And you weren’t. You were thin as a rail.”
She shook her head rapidly. “You’re wrong about this, Sean. Just let it go.”
“I can’t let it go. I have a gut feeling this all ties in together somehow. That compound, the raid, the murder of Harry Blackwood and, somehow, you and Dawn. Now you can let me help you, or you can be stubborn and try to go it alone. But I’m gonna get to the truth either way.”
“Why? Why the hell do you even care about any of this?”
“I told you why. Because I was there, goddammmit! I was there, and I knew that raid was coming, and I kept my mouth shut so I could get a story.” He spun away from her, but she saw the anguish cross his face before he closed his eyes as if to blot it out. “I let them all die. I need to know what happened in that house. I need to know how you survived and whether anyone else did.” Swallowing hard, he opened his eyes again, faced her once more. “I may be the only guy in this city who can help you get out of this mess you’ve landed in, and for some reason, that’s what I want to do.”
She stared at him, searching and probing the depths of his eyes until he averted them with a frustrated sigh.
“Sleep on it,” he said. “Let me know what you decide.” Then he turned and walked out.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Julie didn’t go to her own bedroom after Sean left. She went to Dawn’s, slid into bed beside her and wrapped her arms around her.
Dawn was awake, her body rigid, her face wet with tears. “Don’t send me away, Mom. Don’t.”
Julie smoothed the tear-damp hair from Dawn’s forehead. “I love you, honey.”
“You always say we can get through anything as long as we’re together. You know you do.”
“I know, but—”
“There’s nowhere I could go, anyway. No one else would watch out for me the way you do. You know that.”
Pursing her lips, Julie admitted, silently, at least, that her daughter had a point. There was no one. It had been the two of them against the world since Julie was only slightly older than Dawn was now. She’d never depended on anyone else. Julie had no family aside from a father who was, as far as she knew, still in prison. She hadn’t spoken a word to him since the day she’d found her own mother lying in her bed, just as she’d found her on so many other mornings. Her face had been bruised, her body battered and tucked in as if it were just another ordinary morning when she slept late because it hurt too much to wake up. But that last time, she never woke up at all.
“I just need to be sure you’re safe,” Julie told Dawn, holding her close. The thought of being away from her daughter, even for a little while, made her heart bleed.
“I swear, I’ll be more careful, Mom. No more sneaking out, no more walking home from school. I’ll do whatever you want. But I want to stay here with you.”
Julie nodded slowly. “No more trying to protect me. No more keeping secrets, Dawn. It’s important.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Mom. But…”
“But?”
Dawn sat up in the bed, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “You’ve been keeping secrets, too, Mom.”
Julie sat up, too, faced her daughter, held her steady, intelligent gaze. “You’re right. Dawnie, I need you to trust me right now. There are some things I have to tell you, things you need to know. But I don’t want to put you in a position where you feel you have to lie to protect me.” She sighed, knowing she must sound as if she were making excuses, and maybe she was. “I promise, I’m going to tell you everything. Everything, Dawn. Just as soon as we get through this.”
She looked into her daughter’s eyes again. They were full of questions, and Julie knew her daughter deserved the answers. She hadn’t done her any favors, keeping the truth from her all this time.
“I didn’t kill Harry Blackwood. And I don’t know who did. That’s the truth.”
Dawn nodded. “I believe you.”
Relief sagged Julie’s shoulders. “That means everything to me.” She drew a breath. “As for the rest—let me see what I can work out, okay?”
“You won’t send me away?”
“Let me see what I can work out,” she repeated, making no promises.
Dawn closed her eyes. “Sean will help. I think he wants to, if you’ll let him.”
“I’m not sure I trust him.”
“You do, you just don’t want to.”
Julie sighed. “You’re too smart for me.” She rolled to her feet, taking a pillow with her, then tossed it at Dawn’s head. “Shower up. I’ll make us some dinner.”
Dawn got up, but it pained Julie to see the red tear streaks marking her perfect, pale cheeks.
“Let’s bunk together tonight,” Julie said. “We’ll make popcorn, watch some movies.”
Dawn paused to stare at her mother, and Julie sensed she knew the truth. A couple of times in the past few months, Dawn had hinted that she thought she might be adopted. She hadn’t come right out and asked, but she’d left huge openings for Julie to tell her. Julie had chosen not to. She just hadn’t been ready then, but she knew that was wrong of her. Her own readiness had nothing to do with it. If Dawn was ready to ask the questions, then she was ready to hear the answers. Julie had been selfish and afraid.
She was going to have to tell her everything soon.
But not until she made sure Dawn was safe. The fact was, Julie was still afraid, afraid the boogeyman in the dark car would come back here tonight—would come after her kid.
Dawn painted a brave expression over the frightened one on her face and forced a smile. “We’ll make it a slumber party, just like we used to when I was little,” she said. “It’ll be fun.”
* * *
When it got light outside, Sean released the parking brake and let the car roll quietly down the slightly sloped driveway into the road. It coasted backward several yards. Then he started the Porsche and drove back toward the city, figuring he would just about have time to take a shower and head in to work.
He asked himself all morning long what the hell he was doing, why he’d felt compelled to sit in Julie Jones’s driveway all night long, watching over her house as if he were some ki
nd of goddamn superhero protecting an innocent, and he came up with plenty of answers. He felt responsible for the missing blade—as well he should. And he was still shouldering a lot of guilt over his inaction the day of the raid on the Young Believers’ compound. He felt compelled to help Julie and Dawn because they had survived. It was like a second chance, an opportunity to do penance for that old mistake. To make it right.
But all of that was just a bunch of psychoanalytical bullshit and rationalization. There was more. A lot more. There was something happening between him and Julie Jones. He didn’t think she would admit it—maybe she hadn’t even figured it out yet, but he had. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t ignore it, either.
When he arrived at the station and went inside, Lieutenant Jackson was waiting for him in his office. He hadn’t noticed her car outside but supposed she would have parked in the back, anyway. She got to her feet, her smile bright, her handshake warm and firm. “The receptionist said I could wait in here. Hope you don’t mind.”
He glanced at his desk, doing a mental rundown and vowing to give that receptionist hell before he left this building again. Had he left any notes that might be incriminating to Julie? Any evidence of his contraband tapes and photos lying around?
“I wouldn’t go through your things without a warrant, MacKenzie.”
He shrugged. “You’d be bored to tears if you did, Jax.”
“I’ll bet.”
He walked past her. She returned to her former position, sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk. He went behind the desk and sat down. “You want anything? Coffee, tea?”
“Answers, MacKenzie. I want answers.”
He held up his hands. “I’m an open book. What do you want to know?”
“I caught your broadcast last night,” she said.
“Yeah? How’d I do?”
“Great. I thought Julie was a little off, though.”
He shrugged. “Really?”
“Didn’t you?”
“I thought she was perfect.”
Her smile was slow, knowing. She was a beautiful woman, in a clean, crisp, efficient way. Strawberry-blond, shoulder-length hair, parted to one side and smooth as satin. Big blue eyes that were deceptively innocent. “You two have great chemistry. Are you close?”
He knew what she was asking. “Not the way you mean.”
“You, uh—you said you were with her that night at the hotel, the night of the murder. ‘Never out of her sight, ’wasn’t that how you put it on the air last night?”
“That’s close enough.”
“But you didn’t arrive together?”
“She had her car, I had mine.”
“How was it you heard about the body being found in the hotel?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you didn’t just happen by there. It wasn’t an accident.”
He took a slow breath, chose his words with care. “I heard it on my scanner.”
“I see. So, uh, Julie heard about it the same way? Or did you call her and tip her off?”
“She heard about it the same way.” He knew where she was going now. He would give her the same story Julie had given him, even though he knew it was a lie. “Julie has a scanner in her car. Normally I’d have beaten her to the scene, being that I live closer, but she was already on her way into the city when the call went out. So we arrived at the same time.”
Jax nodded slowly, but he could see the intelligence behind her eyes and thought she was up to something. “Where was she going at that time of night?”
He shrugged. “That you’d have to ask her.”
“Uh-huh. So you met…where? In the lobby?”
He narrowed his eyes. She was trying to trip him up; he just wasn’t certain how. “I’m not sure I remember. Why?”
“Just that we’ve been going over those elevator surveillance tapes, trying to get a second glimpse of that mystery woman—the one in the photo we distributed to the press. I found the section of tape where you went up to the twelfth floor. No one was in the elevator with you, though. So I guess Julie actually was out of your sight at some point that night.”
He forced a charming smile while he groped around in his mind for a plausible answer and came up with one. Jax was good, he thought. But he was better. “Yeah, Jones would have taken the stairs. She generally takes the stairs.”
Her brows went up. “Claustrophobic?”
He shrugged. “We’ve never discussed it. But if I had to guess, I’d say it was for the extra steps.”
“Extra steps?”
“Yeah. Haven’t you heard? The camera adds ten pounds.”
She lowered her head, poking her cheek with her tongue from the inside. She knew he had her. “I have heard that. But twelve floors is a little excessive isn’t it?”
“Not as excessive as what other women in the public eye do. Bulimia, anyone?” He shrugged. “Anything else?”
She hesitated, and he thought she was thinking about her words, planning them in advance. “So you both arrived at the dead man’s room around the same time.”
“I beat her. The elevator is faster.”
“I understand from the station manager that you weren’t even hired here until the next day. How is it you and Julie were working together on this?”
“We weren’t exactly working together. More like trying to scoop each other. We’re longtime rivals, you know. Or were, until now. I wasn’t going to let her out of my sight, in case she snagged some clue I might have missed. And the feeling was mutual.”
She nodded slowly, made a note on a pad he hadn’t even noticed in her hand.
“My turn,” he said. She looked up, brows raised. “Hey, I’m in the news biz. You had to know I’d want to ask a few questions of my own.”
“I probably won’t be able to answer them.”
He shrugged. “Ah, come on. At least hear them first.”
“Shoot.”
“Why are you so interested in Julie Jones on this?”
She pursed her lips. “We’re just checking out everyone who was there that night. That’s all.”
“I heard you were looking at blackmail as a motive.”
She frowned at him. “Where did you hear that?”
“You know I can’t reveal a source.”
She pursed her lips. “Well, I won’t confirm or deny it. And you can’t report it.”
“I didn’t plan to.”
“That would be a switch.”
He pressed a hand to his chest. “I’m wounded. I’ve been completely cooperative with your department since coming to work here at WSNY.”
“And with Julie Jones, too.”
“She’s my partner.”
Jax looked angry for a moment, but she covered it quickly. “I’m done.” She got to her feet, headed for the door. “If you’re lying to provide her with an alibi, MacKenzie, I will find out. And I will charge you with obstruction.”
“I wouldn’t lie to the police, Jax.”
She sent him a look from the doorway, half in and half out of his office. “Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. MacKenzie.”
“Anytime, Lieutenant.”
* * *
“I’ve already spoken to the principal, as well as to Kayla’s parents. Her father’s a policeman, you know,” Julie said into her cell phone as she pulled into her parking space at WSNY, twenty minutes late. “But I wanted to talk to you personally about this, Ms. Marcum. I know how highly Dawn thinks of you.”
“I think pretty highly of her, too. She’s a special girl.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more.”
“Do you know…anything about this man the girls saw following them?”
Julie hesitated, licking her lips as thoughts swam through her mind. She did. She knew a lot about him—if he was who that anonymous caller had suggested he was. But he couldn’t be. That was impossible. She’d seen Mordecai Young die in that fire, seen him buried under a mountain of flaming debris. No one could h
ave survived that.
“No. I don’t. He was driving a dark sedan with tinted windows. Dawn said it was a Jaguar.” Julie got out of her car and hit the lock button on the key ring, hiking her leather shoulder bag higher on her shoulder.
“Dawn really knows her cars,” Ms. Marcum said, sounding amused. “If she says it was a Jaguar, it probably was. I’ll be extremely vigilant, Ms. Jones. I promise you that. Dawn is very special to me.”
“I know that, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am. You’re special to her, too. Her favorite teacher. She says so on almost a daily basis.”
“That’s so sweet.” The woman sounded a little choked up, the words emerging tightly in a voice gone hoarse.
“I really have been wanting to get together with you,” Julie went on. “It’s not a lack of interest on my part, just that my life has been so busy lately.”
“Please don’t apologize. I’m the one who had to miss last month’s parent-teacher day, after all.”
“You couldn’t be expected to show up with the flu.”
“Still…”
Julie had paused near the entry doors but got moving again now. “I’ll be dropping Dawn off in the morning and picking her up after school from now on. She’s under strict orders not to leave the building until I arrive.”
“Good. And if there are days when you’re running late to pick her up, feel free to call me. Dawn can keep me company in my classroom until you arrive. Let me give you the number of my cell, so you can call me directly without having to go through the office.”
She rattled off the number as Julie dug into her shoulder bag for a pen while walking along the hallway toward her office. She scribbled the number on the back of a gas receipt, then paused outside Sean MacKenzie’s office door, because it was standing open and Lieutenant Cassie Jackson was standing in the doorway.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. MacKenzie,” she said. The emphasis she put on the word made Julie wonder just how cooperative MacKenzie had been.
Thicker Than Water Page 17
