Road to Danger

by Olivia Jaymes

  Mallory was going to have to live with Matthew Montgomery’s dying eyes for the rest of her life. She didn’t want to lay that on his grieving parents, too. They had enough on their plates to deal with.

  Smoothing the material of her slacks with her damp palms, she nodded. “I don’t think I’m going to get any more ready, so we might as well go in. I’m still not sure this is a good idea.”

  Slipping his hand into hers, Carter gave it a squeeze. “I’ll be right beside you the entire time, babe. If you don’t want to say much, you don’t have to.”

  Jason walked beside them to the front door. “I agree. Let Carter do the talking. If you really want to get out of there, just say the word and we’ll get you out of there.”

  She tried to cut the tension with a joke. “What word would that be? Help?”

  Jason didn’t have a chance to answer as the door swung open and a nervous-looking man stood on the other side. Tall and gray-haired, he wore a somber expression along with the red plaid flannel shirt he had tucked into his blue jeans. This had to be Don Montgomery, Matt’s father.

  “Mr. Anderson.” The older man nodded curtly at Jason. They’d met before, of course, since Jason’s firm was heading up the investigation. “We’ve been expecting you folks. Please come in. Gina is waiting in the living room. She made coffee.”

  The decor inside the home had been chosen more for comfort than style. Overstuffed chairs and couch, family portraits on the walls, and a calico cat snoozing on the windowsill. Gina Montgomery clearly favored floral patterns and the color yellow.

  The older woman was setting a tray on the coffee table and straightened to greet them, her hand outstretched. It struck Mallory at that moment what courage it took for these two people to meet her and Carter. They were walking, talking reminders that their son had been brutally murdered.

  Jason made the introductions and they all sat down, Carter next to her on the couch and Jason off by himself, leaning against the mantle. There, but only as a facilitator to this meeting. Mallory’s stomach churned with nerves and she silently reminded herself to just sip at the coffee. She didn’t want it to come back up later. Or now. Normally Mallory loved the rich java smell but the mere aroma was making her queasy. She hadn’t been able to eat breakfast this morning so there was nothing in her abdomen but acid.

  Gina’s hands were shaking as she poured the steaming brew and Mallory had to quell her urge to take the pot and help. She wasn’t sure what the reception to that action would be. Instead she smiled at the older woman and murmured thank you. There were cookies on a plate and they looked homemade but no one seemed to have any appetite.

  Don placed his hand on his wife’s and began to speak.

  “Thank you for coming here today. We simply want to thank you for being there for our boy. I wouldn’t want him to die–”

  A sob from Gina interrupted Don and he moved his arm so it was wrapped around her shoulders. Tears were falling down her cheeks and she futilely tried to wipe them away. Mallory had a feeling that there would be many tears yet to come. They’d only really begun to grieve.

  “Want him to die alone,” Don finally finished, his head bent close to his wife’s. “We’re glad that he had someone there. It means a lot to us.”

  Tears pricked the back of Mallory’s eyes and Carter’s hand had a deathtrap on her own. No one could be in this room and stay unaffected by the sheer grief of these two parents.

  “We’re glad that we could be there,” she said softly, her throat closing painfully. “We are so sorry for your loss. I’m sure he was a fine man and a good son.”

  Gina looked up, her blue eyes watery. “He was. Such a good son. He helped around the house and mowed the lawn. Anything we needed, he did for us. He didn’t deserve this.”

  Carter’s gaze was wandering around the room, resting on the family photos on the walls and mantle. “Did your son live with you, Mrs. Montgomery?”

  She nodded and sniffled into a tissue her husband had pulled from his shirt pocket. “He did. After the Army, he moved back here temporarily but it turned into a permanent arrangement.”

  “We’re not as young as we used to be,” Don said. “It was helpful to have someone around to do the maintenance and the lawn work. I guess we may have to move now…”

  His voice trailed off as Gina began to cry in earnest again. Mallory tried not to squirm uncomfortably but this was turning out to be even more horrible than she’d imagined. Carter seemed to sense her unease and took the lead.

  “Is there anything we can do to help, Mr. Montgomery? I’m sure you’re busy with the final arrangements but if there’s something that needs to be done around the house, I’d be happy to get one of my building crews out here. We’d have it fixed in a jiffy.”

  Gina dabbed at her red nose. “We know who you are. Even here in Lassiter we’ve heard of the Andersons.”

  Once again it was like hanging out with The Godfather family. If she hadn’t spent time with the Andersons and seen just how harmless they were she wouldn’t have believed it.

  The words final arrangements hung heavy over the conversation. Don glanced quickly at Gina before addressing Carter and Mallory.

  “The services are tomorrow morning. We’d be honored if you’d come. There will be a small gathering here at the house afterward. Just some friends and family.”

  Mallory couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do less but she would never be so rude as to say no. She didn’t want to give anyone else a chance to ask her about Matthew’s last moments but she’d go anyway. This wasn’t about her.

  “Matthew’s friends will be there?” Carter asked, his grip tightening again. She’d forgotten about their secondary mission but luckily he’d kept his head together. “That’s wonderful.”

  Gina gave a half-hearted smile. “Matthew wasn’t a huge extravert but he had a few close friends that he met on the job at the bar.”

  Jason, who had been silent this entire time, straightened abruptly. “Job? We weren’t aware that Matthew was working at a bar.”

  Don’s cheeks turned a ruddy shade and he sighed. “We didn’t want to tell you. Matt was doing some bartending but he was being paid under the table in cash. I didn’t want to get the owner in trouble.”

  “No trouble at all,” Jason said, his jaw tight. “We won’t hassle the owner but I would like to speak with his friends and coworkers. What was the name of the place again?”

  Don and Gina had never said but they handed over the information without hesitation now that Jason had assured them that no one would be in trouble. From the look on Jason’s face, that bar just might be their next stop. This could be an actual lead in the case.

  The conversation lagged and mercifully Don brought their meeting to a close.

  “I’m sure you folks have a busy day. We’re grateful that you stopped by and we hope to see you tomorrow.”

  Carter and Mallory stood, shaking hands again.

  “We’ll be there,” Carter said, reaching for the tray of coffee paraphernalia. “Can I carry this into the kitchen for you, Mrs. Montgomery? It looks heavy.”

  The older woman smiled and nodded. “Thank you so much. Such a nice offer.”

  Gina trailed after Carter, leaving Don, Mallory, and Jason in the living room. Mallory cast a wanting glance at the front door but they had to wait for Carter to come back.

  Don stepped forward, looming over her and making her take a step back. She wasn’t expecting this. “I was wondering, Miss Cook, if you could tell me… now that Gina is out of the room… Did Matt say anything before he died? Anything at all? Maybe his mother’s name? It’s just–”

  The older man broke off and Mallory could clearly see the tears he’d been holding in the entire visit streaming down his weathered cheeks. Jason moved from his spot by the fireplace but she gave him a brief shake of her head. She could do this. She had to.

  “He didn’t say much,” she replied quietly. “He asked for help and that’s what Carter and I tri
ed to give him. I’m sorry that it wasn’t enough.”

  A tear escaped from the corner of her eye and her throat closed up, making it hard to speak. She decided that she’d said enough. She’d spoken the truth and that’s all these good people wanted. The truth and the killer found.

  Don scrubbed at his cheeks with his knuckles. “No need to apologize, Miss Cook. As we said before we’re just glad that you were there. Thank you for answering my question. It’s been nagging at me since I got the news but I didn’t want to ask in front of my wife. She’s already so upset. She may never be the same. Matt was her whole world.”

  “It’s fine.” Mallory pushed the words out. Barely. Luckily she didn’t have to say any more as Carter and Gina returned.

  Jason shook Don Montgomery’s hand and said that he’d be in touch if he had any news. They all walked to the door and bid goodbye, the awkwardness still there. Nothing was going to make a meeting like this easy and enjoyable.

  When they stepped out into the cold air, Mallory took a deep breath. It was over and she’d survived it. The visions of Matthew Montgomery weren’t any worse than before. They weren’t any better but this wasn’t her closure. This was theirs and she was glad she could do her small part.

  They had to find the killer. Not just because he was after her but because these people needed justice. It wouldn’t bring their son back, but it was all they could give them now.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  ‡

  The nightclub wasn’t open during the day but the manager, a young man who barely looked old enough to drink, was there and able to answer questions. Carter and Jason went inside but Mallory stayed in the car watched over by Zach. The manager named Ray confirmed that Matt had worked there “under the table” a few nights a week.

  “Matt was a good guy,” Ray said, unpacking liquor bottles behind the bar. “Customers liked him and he was good with the ones that had had a few too many if you know what I mean. He could get them into a cab before they made trouble and a bouncer had to step in.”

  “Just a few nights a week?” Jason asked. “From what his parents said, it sounded like he was here more than that.”

  Ray straightened and wiped his hands on a white bar towel tucked into the waistband of his jeans. “He’d come in on his nights off after he was done with his day job. I kind of got the impression that hanging around his parents’ house watching Everybody Loves Raymond reruns wasn’t his idea of fun.”

  Carter loved his parents but he wouldn’t want to live with them full time either. They’d make each other crazy and he’d gain twenty pounds from his mother’s cooking.

  “Was he here the night he died?” Jason asked.

  Ray’s smile fell and he nodded. “He was and I wish he hadn’t come in that night. Then he wouldn’t have been on the road and stopped at that rest area.”

  “Did he talk to anyone that night? Did he argue with anyone?” Carter asked. “Anything unusual happen?”

  Ray thought about it and then shook his head. “Not really. He sat at the bar and chatted like he always does. He was supposed to meet someone but then he left. As far as I know, they didn’t show up. His friend left too, right after him.”

  Friend? Matt was here with someone?

  Jason jumped on the bait. “A friend? Who is this friend?”

  “I only know his name is Peter. Don’t know his last name but he and Matt are tight. Peter’s pretty much here every night that Matt is.”

  If Peter followed Matt out of the bar, he might have witnessed something that could help then track down the killer. Their theory was that the killer had climbed into Matt’s trunk before the rest stop. It could have happened right out in the parking lot.

  “We’d like to talk to Peter,” Jason said. “Do you think he’ll be in tonight?”

  “He hasn’t been in since that night. I think he only came in because of Matt so I doubt I’ll see him again.”

  Shit. How did they track down a guy named Peter? There were way too many in the area. Another dead end.

  They needed to go back to Matt and his whereabouts before the rest stop. Carter exchanged a glance with Jason. They were both thinking the same thing.

  “Ray, do you have cameras out in your parking lot?”

  * * *

  The footage from the parking lot was everything and more than they’d ever dreamed. It moved them one step closer to finding the killer. However, Wyatt had been out talking to the florists and he said he had news they weren’t going to like. He didn’t want to discuss it on the telephone so they gathered in Jason’s conference room at the end of the day to hash it all out. They needed to figure out what their next move would be in light of all they’d learned today. Noah and West had joined Jason, Carter, Mallory, Zach, and Wyatt.

  Jason stood at the head of the table and pointed to new photos on the white board.

  “Let’s review quickly so everyone is up to speed with everything we know and the shitload that we don’t. We received the parking lot footage from the bar and it did indeed show a man sneaking into Matt Montgomery’s trunk. The vehicle was unlocked and so he was able to pop it open with the lever on the driver’s side. He climbed in and waited for Matt to drive off. The open question is whether he knew that Matt was going to go to the rest stop before he went home.”

  Carter wasn’t sure why it mattered but then he wasn’t a cop. He simply wanted to know who the man was and then get him behind bars so Mallory could live her life without fear again.

  “We took a still photo from the footage back to the bar and the manager was able to confirm that the man hiding in the trunk was Matt’s friend Peter. We also gave some still photos to Wyatt to show the florists so we could confirm that Peter is the stalker.”

  Wyatt cleared his throat. “And that’s where this goes south. I visited every florist that had been identified as being used prior to Matt’s murder. Not one of them said that this Peter was the man that ordered the flowers.”

  “So he had a friend do it for him,” Carter said, shrugging. “He didn’t want to be seen. It makes sense.”

  Nodding, Wyatt pulled out his phone and scrolled through it. “I thought the same thing too, so I showed them this photo. They all agreed that this was the man that ordered the flowers. All of them except the florist where Mallory’s flowers came from, of course.”

  It was a photo of Matt Montgomery. Their victim. But he was a victim.

  “Are you trying to say that Matt Montgomery might have been part of all of this?” Carter asked. “Because he ended up dead, too.”

  “There’s no honor among thieves,” Wyatt replied. “If a friend of mine was sending flowers to women that ended up dead and he didn’t want to show his face in the florist shop so he asked me to do it, I’d either be suspicious or part of it.”

  Jason taped up the photo of Peter to the board. “Since Montgomery ended up dead, I think the strongest theory is that he was killed to keep him quiet. He may have figured out what his friend was doing and was going to tell someone, or maybe even call the police.”

  That made sense and it explained so much. Matt was going to turn his friend in and that made him a target. He might have been heading to tell the cops that very night. Carter turned his attention to the map where Jason had marked the homes of each victim in blue, their body dumpsites in red, the bar in green, and the rest stop in orange.

  The rest stop wasn’t anywhere close to a path to the cops, assuming that Matt would go to his local police. So if he wasn’t going to turn Peter in, where was he going? He wasn’t headed home. In fact, he was headed in the opposite direction.

  “What are you looking at?” Mallory leaned over and whispered. “You’re staring at the board so hard it might burst into flames.”

  His family and friends had overheard and West, sitting across the table, nodded in agreement. “I have the same question. What do you see?”

  He struggled to explain it but he wasn’t sure it would make any sense to them.

 
“Peter hides in Matt’s trunk and then kills him at his first opportunity. That speaks of desperation to me. So it’s logical to believe that Matt was going to turn Peter in and he had to be stopped. But that’s not the direction Matt was going. He wasn’t headed to the police station. So where was the threat to Peter that made him do something impulsive and out of character?”

  There was quiet as they all studied the map with its little dots that weren’t speaking up or even helping all that much. Mallory tilted her head and squinted at the board. She didn’t have her glasses.

  “The rest stop is on the way to the third victim’s house,” she said, her chin resting on her hands. “The victim that was found in the park behind my home. Do you think that means anything?”

  “It might,” West replied slowly. “But we have to open ourselves to other theories about this case.”

  The oldest brother Noah had been quiet up until this point. “You mean be open to the idea that Matt was a part of this, not an innocent bystander?”

  Jason shook his head. “We have no evidence to suggest that.”

  “Don’t we?” Wyatt asked. “Matt bought the flowers for Peter. There are two interpretations of those actions and one of them isn’t so innocent.”

  Carter wasn’t following their train of thought. “Help a non-cop out here. You’re being vague.”

  Zach sat up in his chair. “What they’re saying and yet trying not to say all at the same time is that if Matt was an innocent pawn, he was killed because he knew too much or was going to turn Peter in. However, you’re right about him not heading to the police station. There didn’t appear to be imminent danger to Peter, although he might not have known that. Mallory noticed that the rest stop is almost halfway in between the bar and the third victim’s home. That’s important because Matt could have been on his way there.”

  “To warn her,” Mallory said. “So Peter killed him before he could get there.”

  “It’s possible but it would have been smarter to call the cops. We have no record of Matt phoning the police. Also, and I think this is important, we don’t think that Peter knew that Matt would go stop at the rest area first,” Zach pointed out. “That leaves the very unappetizing theory that perhaps Matt was heading to the victim’s house to kill her himself. For all we know, they were working together and taking turns. Hell, that may be why Peter killed him. He wanted to do the victim himself and Matt was in the way.”