by SUE FINEMAN
She’d called two real estate agents and asked for a market analysis and a sales plan for the lake house. Maybe they wouldn’t want to list it subject to probate, but it seemed like such a waste to let a nice house like that sit empty. That house could take a long time to sell. There weren’t many people who could afford a house in that price range.
Her phone rang. When she answered, Olivia said, “I got a new phone today, and I thought I’d give you the number.”
Baylee fished in her purse for her little notebook and a pen. “Okay, give it to me.”
Olivia rattled off the number and Baylee wrote it down.
“I ran into some old friends at the Galleria this morning and we had lunch together. It’s so much nicer here than at the lake house.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Can I go out to the lake house and get the rest of my things now?”
“I packed them this morning, and the next time Joe goes out, I’ll have him bring them into town. You have enough clothes to get by for a few days, don’t you?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then you’ll have to wait. You don’t want to end up like Mary, do you?”
“No, but I need my things.”
“You’ll have them in a few days.”
“Well, okay then. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.” Baylee closed her phone. This Olivia was a different woman from the one who’d made a spectacle of herself at Bay’s funeral. Maybe there was hope for her after all.
Minutes later, Bret pulled up in front of Bay’s house. “Are you expecting someone?”
“That’s Chance’s car. What’s he doing here?”
She rushed inside, where Chance scooped her up in a big hug and lifted her off the floor. “It’s about time you got home.”
She smacked his arm. “Put me down. What are you doing here? I told you not to come.”
He backed up a step. “Do you want me to go, or do you want to hear my news?”
“About the baseball game?”
“No, about what happened after. First, we picked up Alistair Walden.”
“The same Alistair who—”
“That’s the one. We thought he was Jack Blackburn, but their prints don’t match, so Greg had to let him go. Then I spotted Walden’s car on the highway and called Greg.” He grinned. “It was Jack Blackburn, and he’s now in the custody of law enforcement officials.”
Baylee gasped. “You caught him?”
“I spotted him, and the authorities arrested him about…” He glanced at his watch. “About an hour ago.”
Stunned, she just stood there, staring at him, while the news sank in. “Oh, my God! You really caught him?”
“Just call me Superman,” he said with a wicked grin. “I thought we could celebrate tonight, maybe—”
She put her finger against his lips. “Don’t say it. I’ll release the guards and—”
“Not yet, honey. We still don’t know what Alistair’s part has been in all this, and he’s still out there somewhere. Let’s give it a few days before you turn the guards loose.”
“Yes, all right. I can’t believe it’s over.” She giggled, giddy with relief.
“Almost over,” he said softly. “Black Jack Blackburn can’t hurt you again, honey.”
She clutched him tightly, holding the man she loved, the man who’d helped capture a killer. Thank God Chance called the police to stop Black Jack instead of trying to play hero. He could have been hurt. Or killed. She die if she lost him now.
Baylee pulled away and glanced at her watch. Detective Miller should be here any minute, and what would she fix for dinner for all these people? She’d stayed out at the lake house too long to cook what she’d intended.
She excused herself and went in search of Edwin. She found him in the kitchen. “Edwin, about dinner. It’s too late to cook the roast.”
“I can order something if you like, Miss Patterson. Italian okay?”
“As in pizza?”
“Or lasagna.”
“That sounds good. What would I do without you?” She hoped she didn’t have to find out anytime soon.
Detective Miller arrived a few minutes later, and Chance filled her in on the capture of Jack Blackburn and the appearance of his twin brother. “Alistair Walden dated my ex-wife, and they had a fight the evening before she was killed. The killer left a card—a black jack—stuck to her body.”
“So you think Blackburn did it?”
“He’s the one out for revenge, so yes, I think he did it. He killed his ex-wife three months later. That’s why Baylee and I left Tacoma. We were next on his list.”
Baylee didn’t know about the card with the body, but then the police usually held something back from public knowledge. “He left a playing card on my pillow. It had a knife stuck through it and into the pillow. Creeped me out. It was a threat, and the attack out at the lake house a few days ago was more than a threat. If I had been asleep when he broke in, I wouldn’t be here. He would have beaten me to death like the others, and he probably would have killed Olivia, too.”
They talked a few minutes longer and the detective left. She didn’t give anything away, so Baylee didn’t know any more about Mary’s murder than she’d learned from the television news.
<>
As one of the guards scooped up the last piece of lasagna, Chance sat gazing at Baylee’s pretty bruised face. He’d been trying to keep his love life separate from his family life, but it wasn’t working at all. She loved him and he loved her. He had to find a way to bring it all together. Could he ease her into his children’s lives? Would she want to be a mother to his kids? They were a handful right now, but with Blackburn behind bars, things should settle down at home.
If he had a home.
He wondered if Baylee would consider living in Caledonia, near his family. The kids wouldn’t want to leave there now. They felt safe with Grandma and Uncle Bo and Uncle Greg and the rest of the family. They’d all settled in school, and Steven wouldn’t want to leave his team. For the first time in his young life, he’d tasted victory, and nobody wanted to take that away from him. Steven needed something to smile about.
Neen said the abandoned farm next door would be put up for public auction this summer. If he had his insurance settlement from the house in Tacoma, he could bid on it and eventually build a new house there. Would Baylee live there with him and the kids?
“What are you thinking about, Chance?” Baylee asked.
“You and the kids.”
Three of the guards went downstairs to play pool, and Bret helped Edwin collect the dirty dishes from the table.
Chance sat at the table with Baylee and played with his empty wine glass. She offered him more wine, and he shook his head. He’d had enough. What was he thinking, coming here to tell her he loved her, when his life was so unsettled?
He pushed his chair back and walked to the window to look out at the flower garden. He didn’t belong here, and Baylee didn’t feel comfortable with his family. Maybe they could make plans after he got back to work, after he found a home. After he had something to offer her besides himself and three kids who desperately missed their mother.
Baylee loved him and he loved her, and he was a little old-fashioned when it came to love. To him, love meant a lifetime commitment.
She walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. “Chance, we need to talk about what I said on the phone.“
He turned to face her. “You said you loved me.”
“Yes, I did, and I do, but that doesn’t mean you have to love me back.”
He ran his finger down her jaw and tugged on a lock of hair. “But I do love you, Lois.”
His arms closed around her and he felt her tears dampen his shirt.
“My Superman,” she whispered, and his arms tightened around her.
They stood alone in the window overlooking the flower garden and fountain. One guard patrolled the grounds, and Bret wasn’t far away. Baylee hadn’t
been left alone since the attack at the lake house. Jack Blackburn had frightened her that night, and he’d caused her a lot of pain, but he couldn’t hurt anyone now.
“Thank you, Chance.”
He pulled back and gazed into her eyes. “For what?” he said, but he knew what she meant. She didn’t have to fear being beaten again.
“For catching the man who attacked me.”
“My pleasure. I kept hoping he’d try to resist arrest and they’d have to shoot him.” He toggled his head side to side. “Well, actually, I hoped I’d have to shoot him myself.”
Chance’s phone rang, and Baylee stepped back while he answered it.
Greg said, “We have a situation here you should be aware of.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Alistair tried to lure Susie into the barn next door. He told her Mommy was there, in the barn, waiting for them.”
Chance stopped breathing. “Aw, shit! She didn’t go, did she?”
“No, Mom called her back. By the time I got there, he was gone. Apparently this isn’t the first time he’s tried to coax her over there.”
Chance’s teeth clenched so tightly they hurt. Susie was only four, and she believed anything anyone told her. Taking advantage of her innocence and vulnerability was beyond cruel. If he got his hands on that son-of-a-bitch right now, Alistair Walden would be hanging from the rafters in that barn.
“I sent the kids back to the ranch. I don’t want them around the abandoned farm, and we can’t keep them inside forever.”
“I’m on my way back.”
“That’s not necessary,” said Greg. “Mia is staying with them and I have a deputy stationed there, too. They’ll be okay. Having you rush back here will only scare them more.”
Yes, they’d be okay, but that didn’t stop him from worrying about them. He couldn’t be in two places at once, and Baylee needed him, too.
“Stay with Baylee until we pick up Alistair Walden. He’s around here somewhere. I can almost smell him.”
“Yeah, okay.” Greg had the best instincts of any law enforcement officer Chance had ever known. He trusted his family with the kids. For now.
After he ended the call, Baylee asked, “Everything okay at home?”
“It is now. Alistair tried to lure Susie into the barn next to Greg’s house. He told her Mommy was waiting there for her.”
Baylee shivered and rubbed her arms. “What a creep!”
“Now Greg has a reason to arrest him. All he has to do is find the son-of-a-bitch.”
“He’s probably on his way here. I wonder if he knows his brother was arrested.”
“If he doesn’t know now, he will soon enough.”
<>
Something about her first interview with Melissa Blackburn nagged at the back of Baylee’s mind, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. While Chance helped Edwin clean up the kitchen, she went into the study and turned on her laptop. As she scanned her interview notes, she found what she’d been looking for. Melissa said Jack seemed like two different people. The man she fell in love with was well spoken and slightly aloof, but there were times when he acted just the opposite, especially near the end of their marriage. That was why she asked for a divorce. She never knew which Jack would come home from work.
She jumped to her feet. “Oh, my God!”
What if Melissa’s husband wasn’t like two different people? What if he was two different people? What if Jack and Alistair took turns living with her?
“Which one beat her, and which one killed her?”
“What are you talking about?” Chance asked from the doorway.
“Listen to this.” With shaky hands, she sat down and read the interview notes to Chance. “Back then, nobody knew there were two of them, yet she could tell the difference. ”
Chance sank into the chair on the other side of the desk. “This might explain why one left his fingerprints and the other didn’t. Jack isn’t as smart as his brother, probably because of the way he was treated as a child. The psychiatrist at his trial said he was beaten by his mother and it caused brain damage. But Alistair—”
“He’s the smarter of the two. He obviously had a better childhood and a better education.”
“Jack didn’t finish high school, and he left home when he was fifteen. His mother didn’t come to the trial.”
“Why? Why didn’t his mother come to the trial, Chance? Did he kill her, too?”
“I have a better question. Which one killed Emma and Melissa and Mary?”
She looked Chance in the eye. “Jack wouldn’t have worried about fingerprints. He didn’t care if he got caught. But Alistair did.” Baylee stood and paced while she talked. “The newspaper report on Mary’s murder said she had blood and skin and a small piece of latex under her nail.”
“Alistair Walden had a cut or scratch on the middle finger of his left hand. That’s how I knew the man in his car was Jack Blackburn. No scratch on his finger.”
Baylee pulled a card from her pocket. “I’ll call Detective Miller. She needs to know about this.” Black Jack didn’t murder Emma and Melissa and Mary.
Alistair Walden killed them.
<>
Baylee and Chance went to bed in Bay’s suite that night. She felt like the luckiest woman on earth. She had all the money she could ever spend, a beautiful home to live in, and Chance’s love.
He held her with a tenderness that brought tears to her eyes. He loved her. He wasn’t the first man to say those words to her, but he was the first man she wanted to love her, the only man she’d ever felt this deeply about.
He threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her, not a kiss of passion, but a kiss of love. He didn’t say the words again, but he didn’t have to say them. The gentleness of his touch and the warmth of his embrace told her how he felt.
This man meant everything to her. That night in the bar, she’d wanted him with a passion that set caution aside. She’d known then she could fall in love with him, but he didn’t want her then. Now he loved her. She’d been waiting for so long to find a man she could give herself to completely, one she could love forever, and she’d finally found him.
“Honey, I have things to take care of, and the kids—”
“The kids need time. I know.” She knew he wanted to get his life in order before they talked about the future, and she was willing to give him all the time he needed. “I’ll wait for you, Chance.”
She’d wait forever for him.
They made slow, sweet love and she fell asleep in his arms.
Lying beside her, Chance thought about the future. If he had his insurance settlement by the time the county put the abandoned farm next to Greg and Neen’s house up for auction, he’d put a bid on the place himself. It was a beautiful piece of property. The barn was in fairly good shape, but the house was a dump. Neen said the old man who’d once lived there had never thrown anything away, so it was packed to the rafters with junk and garbage. If Chance bought the property, he’d have the house torn down and build a new house, a home for himself, the kids, and Baylee. If she’d agree to marry him. It would take time to get it all done, but she said she’d wait.
Funny how close he felt to Greg since this trouble started. When they were growing up, he resented Greg because he was the cute one, the one who demanded the most attention, like the cute kids in the orphanage. Bo was the responsible brother, the one all of them grew to depend on after Dad was killed. Now Bo had his hands full with his own family and a thriving horse ranch, and Greg was the one the family turned to when they needed help.
He smiled to himself. His family loved Baylee, especially the kids. What’s not to love? Even though she’d never been around kids that much, she knew how to save Steven’s pride the night he was too scared to sleep alone.
Emma had never liked his family. He used to take the kids to visit Mom every now and then, but Emma didn’t want to go. She said it was too noisy, or there were too many kids around, or she had a headache. If he
pushed her to come with him, it nearly always escalated into a fight. Finally, he accepted that Emma would never be comfortable in Mom’s house or with all the kids Mom took in, and he stopped asking her to come along. Not that he went that often. Over the years, he’d distanced himself from everyone in his family. Now he wanted to live near them, see them often, and let them know how much he loved them.
Sometimes he thought Emma had married him because of his intelligence, his profession, and his looks. She saw someone who could provide good genes for her children and a profession that would support the family, so she could be a full-time mother. He gave her everything she ever wanted except more kids.
What would Baylee want?
<>
The next morning at ten, Detective Miller met Baylee and Chance at Bay’s house. They’d decided to have a press conference there instead of at the station. Reporters were already beginning to arrive, one from each television station in the city, along with two newspaper reporters and a man from a local radio station.
Baylee’s stomach fluttered with nerves. She’d never been on this side of an interview, but it had to be done. It was all part of the scheme they’d devised to entice a killer into a trap.
Detective Miller gave her little spiel about Chance’s part in catching the man who killed Mary Michaels, and then Chance spoke. “My children are safer now that the man who killed their mother is behind bars. Jack Blackburn had a list of people he’d intended to kill. There were eight people on his hit list. Two of them, my ex-wife, Emma Gregory, and Blackburn’s ex-wife, Melissa Blackburn, were murdered in Tacoma. Baylee Patterson and I were next on his list, so we left Tacoma, hoping to give the police there time to catch him before he discovered we were gone. But he followed us here, to Houston.”
