by Adrianne Lee
Livia’s own voice.
Shock riveted her feet to the floor as realization burned through her belly. Whoever had broken in last night had recorded her and Mark making love. She wrestled aside the total sense of violation and forced herself to move to the doorway. Two dozen lighted candles had been spread throughout the room, each giving off a blast of vanilla scent.
A tray on the bed held strawberries, a half-empty bottle of cider, and a bowl with only a film of chocolate sauce remaining in it, as though the chocolate had been consumed in lovemaking, as she and Mark had consumed it last night.
She moved into the room, drawn by the grotesqueness of the scene that last night had been beautiful beyond words but was now just plain eerie. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble. Why? Shivers raced across her skin and a crawly sensation swept her stomach.
“Mark, are you here?”
The hourglass felt like a chip of dry ice against her chest.
With shaking fingers, she found the light switch and flipped it on. Her eyes took a second to adjust, but when they did, she froze. A man’s body sprawled facedown on the floor in a pool of dark liquid that seemed to be a gruesome mix of fresh blood and spilled chocolate. A scream ripped up her throat but she clamped her hand over her mouth before it escaped, her gaze locking on the chrome-handled knife with an embossed cupid sticking out of his back. The missing knife.
“Oh, God, Reese.”
Was he dead?
Livia dropped to her knees to check for a pulse. As she felt the veins in his neck, she realized his eyes were open, staring, lifeless. Bile climbed in her throat. As she stumbled up and back, she spied her stolen engagement ring in the palm of his outstretched hand.
She fled to the bathroom and gave her dinner to the toilet. When her stomach was empty, she flung open the bathroom window and sucked in the fresh rain-filled air. In the background the tape of her and Mark making love played on, but in the distance, she caught the wail of an approaching siren.
Chapter Eighteen
ALIBI PIZZA PIE
Plenty of Crust
Sauce and Cheese
Whine for All
Stardust Topping
Mark drove through the dark wet streets like a madman, his heart pounding to the beat of the wind against the pickup, to the damned annoying bump-bump of the rap music issuing from every stupid speaker. Though he knew everyone, including Livia and Josh, would have left the park the moment the storm burst, he went there first.
Illogical as he knew it was, he felt shivers as he stared at the deserted parking lot. He tried to stay calm, to reason out the motive behind the note and how it fit with the facts he’d gleaned in the Rayburn house. Jay-Ray drove the dark sedan. The money trail led straight to him. He’d handled Wendy’s inheritance, was handling what was left of it for Josh. But he, Mark, had followed Jay-Ray home. Had seen the man in the garage and heard him in the house.
There was no way he could have left the note in the pickup.
So, who had left the note? The killer, or someone else? He saw the words again in his head. Whoever had written it knew Livia and he were lovers. That might mean the killer and his intruder were not one and the same. So…either two different factions were at work here, or Jay-Ray had an accomplice.
Did one of them have Livia and Josh?
He chided himself not to jump to that conclusion. Not without more proof than a note he suspected was meant to terrify him. But it did terrify him.
He’d prayed all the way across the plateau, all the way down the hill, all the way to the park that the car would still be there, that Livia and Josh would still be there. Even pictured them sitting inside, talking, laughing. Dry. Safe. Oh, God, he shouldn’t have left them alone. Pain radiated through his chest and he couldn’t suck in a breath.
Take me, God, please, but spare Josh and Livia. I’m not worth much in the scheme of things, but they’re both loving and kindhearted, and the world needs more people like that.
He pulled out of the park and back onto the main road, across the I-90 overpass and toward the main section of town. Why didn’t she call? He dialed her number for the twentieth time. Got her voice mail again and cursed, choking on his frustration.
He’d already left several messages.
He drove to Jane’s Gym, slowly circled the parking area, scanned every slot, every vehicle. Livia’s compact wasn’t among them. He went next to the Bread and Brew and repeated the parking lot examination, hope dying with every passing second.
He dialed her parents. They hadn’t seen her since morning.
He realized with a sinking stomach that he was likely the last one to have seen Josh and her. Why had he left them alone?
All he could think to do was to go home and wait for her to contact him or to show up.
A block from the house he spied her car careering past in the opposite direction. She drove as if chased by demons. He pulled an illegal U-turn, gunned the pickup and caught up to her. Knowing she wouldn’t recognize the truck, he honked. Her compact increased speed. He flashed his lights, high beam, low beam. She went faster still.
Finally he pulled into the other lane alongside her and lowered the passenger window so she could see him. “Livia!”
She jolted and glanced his way, eyes full of terror. He saw recognition dawn on her face, followed by relief and something he didn’t understand. They both slowed as she lowered her own window and against the driving rain, shouted, “Meet me at the Bread and Brew.”
Raising the window, he fell in behind her, following her, putting on notice whoever might have been after her that she was no longer alone, vulnerable.
She skirted the building and parked in the rear of her sister’s shop, out of sight of anyone traveling the main street. She scrambled into the pickup cab before he could shift into park and leapt into his arms. “Oh, thank God, Mark. I was so afraid you’d go home before I could find you and stop you.”
He held her close, savoring the feel of her, kissing her, never so glad to see someone in his whole life. It took several seconds before he registered that she was shivering hard. He pulled back and peered into her face. “Where is Josh?”
“Home.” Her voice trembled. “Safe. Probably in bed by now.”
“Thank God. I got this note and I’ve spent the last hour or more chasing my tail looking for you.” He handed her the note. “Why aren’t you answering your cell phone?”
“Battery ran down.” She read the missive, then touched his face. Even her hand was tremorous. “I’m sorry you were frightened, but you have more to fear than a liar’s note.”
“What’s happened?”
She swallowed as though a rag had lodged in her throat. “Reese is dead…in your bedroom…with one of your knives in his back…and my engagement ring in his hand.”
“Dear God, no. No! No!” He searched her face. “Why? How?”
“Reese also received one of these nasty notes, only his told him about us. He rushed to your house to confront you…or us. Oh, Mark, it was awful. A tape recorder was playing. It was of us…making love. Candles. Cider and strawberries and chocolate everywhere, all over Reese’s… Reese.”
Mark hugged her close again, held her, tried to reassure her, but how could he when his own insides were slipping and sliding like mud in an earthquake? Someone was framing him…again. He’d rather be shot, rather be dead than arrested again for yet another crime he hadn’t committed. It was his worst nightmare coming true.
But he had the means to stop it…if they acted quickly. “We can’t let the police catch us before we find Wendy’s murderer.”
“I passed police cars heading to your house as I drove away. They’re likely already looking for us or will be soon. How are we going to find Wendy’s killer and prove he or she also murdered Reese? We don’t have time.” She pulled the hourglass from beneath her sweater and showed him that the stardust had fallen to the “1” mark. Tears shone in her aqua eyes. “Not only don’t we have time, we don’t have a clue
where to start looking.”
“Ah, but we do, Livia. The money trail led to Jay-Ray.” He told her about spotting someone spying on Josh and her, about following the dark sedan from the park and discovering Jay Rayburn had been at the wheel. Then he filled her in on the conversation he’d overheard between Reese and his uncle. “Reese intended to look into Josh’s portfolio and to start handling it himself. Jay-Ray was livid.”
“I can’t believe it. Jay gambled away Wendy’s and Josh’s money? Then killed Wendy and Reese to cover it up.” She shuddered. “We have to get into his computer right now, before he has a chance to alter those records.”
Even with the time only granules from being gone, she felt a new hope swelling in her chest as they drove the short distance to Rayburn Grocers. But the second they pulled into the parking area, the hope fell flat. “We’re too late!” she cried. “Look!”
The dark sedan was parked near the front entrance.
“Wait here,” Mark ordered, getting out of the pickup. “I’ll confront him.”
“No.” She hurried to catch up. “We’re in this together…until the end. Remember?”
Oblivious to the pouring rain, he kissed her, holding her face in his hands for a long tender moment, memorizing every precious curve. “I’ll remember you always. Don’t forget that, Livia, no matter what happens in there.”
“I won’t. Don’t you forget, either, that I love you.”
He kissed her again.
She said, “We’d better hurry. The hourglass is getting warm. Time is fleeing.”
The front door was unlocked and they proceeded cautiously inside. The outer office was quiet, dark, except for the night-light Ali usually left on. They crept toward the hallway, Mark going first as though to protect her, as though he were a shield, a bulletproof vest.
She loved him for it, but feared his foolishness might cost him his life and she wasn’t about to let him die, not if she could keep them both alive.
A light shone from Jay-Ray’s office. They heard the clack of computer keys. “He’s there,” she whispered. “Already changing the files.”
A woman’s voice startled them. “What do you mean, what am I doing? Saving your ass…again.”
“I’m perfectly capable of handling my own business,” Jay-Ray replied, his voice laced with ire.
They heard a sarcastic feminine huff. “Like hell. You promised you were going to stop this.”
“And I meant to. I want to. But something comes over me and I just know I’m going to win. I can’t help myself. It’s a sickness.”
“It’s a crime.”
“I’m only borrowing the money.” Jay-Ray sounded indignant now. “I always replace it.”
“No, you don’t. You’ve been losing heavily for months. You can’t replace what you don’t have. And now Livia has started asking—”
“Reese is the only one we need to worry about. Livia is all but out of his life. She won’t be a problem. Apparently she’s set her sights elsewhere. As long as you doctor those files before Reese sees them…”
“Reese won’t be seeing Josh’s portfolio, Jay.” Mark stepped into the office. “He’s lying dead on my bedroom floor.”
Jay-Ray sat on one corner of his desk and Ali was seated at the computer, hands on the keyboard. Both startled up, gaping at him. Jay said, “Who the hell—”
“Ah, Jay,” Ali said. “Let me introduce you to your nephew’s fiancée’s lover, the wedding caterer, Mark Everett. Or I should say, Ethan Marshall.”
“Are you daft?” Jay scowled at Ali. “Ethan Marshall is in prison.”
“No,” she corrected. “The state found a discrepancy in his case. Some fourth amendment violation and set him free.”
Jay-Ray went pure white, then red. He began sputtering, “What…? How…? Why didn’t I know about this?”
“We were in Chicago at the playoffs. The story got lost in the coverage of the governor’s sexual misconduct case. Ethan Marshall was small potatoes by comparison.”
“You knew about it. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She seems to protect you from a lot of things, don’t you, Ali.” Livia moved into the room, glaring down at the buxom brunette.
Jay-Ray was still trying to connect his mental picture of Ethan to Mark. “But you look so different…”
“Prison is hell, Jay-Ray.” Mark smirked at him. “But then, you’ll be finding that out for yourself soon enough.”
Jay’s slow gaze crept to Livia. “Is Reese really dead?”
Before she could answer, Ali said, “If he is, it’s this man’s fault. He’s been sleeping with her…and Reese found out and went to confront him and now he’s dead…just like Wendy, with Ethan’s knife in his back.”
Livia caught hold of the hourglass, pulling its heat away from her skin. “How did you know about the knife, Ali?”
Ali chewed her pinkie finger, giving them her most innocent gaze. “The caterer said so.”
“No.” Mark shook his head. “I didn’t.”
“I guess then…I just assumed…since that was the way you killed Wendy.”
Mark kept shaking his head at her. “We all know I didn’t kill Wendy. I didn’t have any reason to kill her. I wasn’t ripping off her inheritance. She was investing it in our restaurant. What I can’t figure out is why you’d put yourself at such risk for Jay-Ray.”
“Someone has to protect him from himself.” Ali’s chin lifted with pride. “I love him. And he loves me. He’s going to marry me.”
“If he was going to marry you,” Livia said, “why hasn’t he in the three years since you murdered Wendy for him?”
“You murdered Wendy?” Jay-Ray looked stunned.
“Of course not,” Ali protested. She pointed an accusing finger at Mark. “He did!”
“Think about it, Jay,” Mark argued. “Why was Wendy killed in your office? She’d been to see you about her money, hadn’t she?”
“Yes. She wanted everything converted to cash on her birthday. Everything. She was going to start handling her own money. She wouldn’t listen to reason, wouldn’t reconsider. But I couldn’t let her discover there were funds missing.”
“So, you killed her,” Livia said.
“God, no. I set up a meeting with the banker, to mortgage the warehouse. But they wouldn’t lend me the money without Phillip’s signature.”
“And Phillip wasn’t so sick that he didn’t know you were trying to mortgage the business to pay off gambling debts.” Mark was getting in Jay-Ray’s face, making Jay uncomfortable, giving him a taste of what to expect in prison. “So, you went crying to Ali.”
“She said she could fix it for me. I promised to marry her if she did. But, Ethan, er, you murdered Wendy and my problems went away.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that.”
Livia snapped her fingers, too. “And just like that you didn’t have to marry Ali, did you?”
“No.” He grinned.
Ali’s face went beet-red.
“And Ali was stuck in a Catch-22.” Livia realized, pieces of the puzzle falling together with ease now. “If she told you what she’d done for you to get you off the hook, you’d have had her arrested.”
Mark took over, pointing at Jay, backing him into a corner of the room. “But that would have made you an accessory. So, you told yourself she couldn’t have done what you feared she had—because you couldn’t stop gambling.”
“I have a problem, man,” Jay-Ray whined. “I can’t help it. It’s worse than any drug. But I’ve bet on a sure thing tonight that will pay off big tomorrow. More than enough to repay the funds I borrowed from Josh’s accounts.”
“You’ve known all along that he was ripping off my children and didn’t tell me?” Sookie stood in the doorway, glaring at Ali. She’d entered so quietly her presence was startling. Her face was as pale as death. She looked like a candle whose flame had been doused, and Livia knew in her heart that she had learned of Reese’s murder. But how long had she been there; what had she
heard?
Sookie continued to glare at Ali. “He depleted Wendy’s inheritance and you helped him cover it up?”
“Jay-Ray is a star. A celebrity.” Ali gave a toss of her dark hair. “He’s worth ten of the rest of you. What do you care where he got the money as long as it wasn’t from you?”
“Oh, I do care about someone stealing money from my daughter and my grandson.”
“Your stepdaughter, the wicked witch of the north, south, east and west.” Ali let loose a sarcastic laugh. “Don’t go all maternal on us, Sookie.”
“You’re right. There was no love lost between Wendy and me.” Sookie moved closer to Ali. “But I admired the way she stood up to her father, proving to him that women were more than arm candy and brood-mares. Did she find out you’d robbed her, Jay? Is that why she died in your office?”
“She was going to call the police,” Ali said, easing open the top desk drawer and reaching inside.
Alarm shot through Livia and she looked for something to toss at Ali.
Ali was looking at Sookie. “She threatened to have Jay arrested.”
Sookie glanced at her brother-in-law. “You murdered Wendy and—” she choked “—my Reese?”
“Of course not.” Jay-Ray was as pale as Sookie.
“He hasn’t the guts, Sookie,” Mark put in, moving back across the office to stand between Livia and the redhead. “It’s why he was drummed off the Sonics’ roster. He’s a wuss.”
Livia snatched a thick food catalog from atop a file cabinet. When Ali pulled the gun from the drawer, Livia would fling the catalog like a Frisbee and knock the revolver from her grip. Fear and hope filled Livia as she clutched the catalog to her thundering heart and scooted nearer Ali. She wasn’t going to lose Mark and she wasn’t going to die. Not at Ali’s hand.
“You saw the way her father treated her.” Hatred the only thing alive in her eyes, Sookie stalked toward Jay, who still hunched against the window. “How could you steal from her the one thing she needed, rob her of her one triumph?”
Jay had no answer. He cringed back from the insult, would have run for the door, Livia suspected, had the way not been barred by all of them. Ali pulled her hand smoothly from the drawer. Livia spied something silver in her grip and inched closer.
