Sally shook her head, curls flying everywhere. “Nope.”
Maddie waited, then prompted her. “So, when was it?”
“Every Wednesday afternoon, for at least a couple months.”
“Did you see where she went?”
“Two streets over. Least that’s where I saw her car come from. But did she stop? Noooooo.”
“I’ve got to go.”
Sally grabbed her arm. “You gonna come back and visit once in a while?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Maddie cruised down the street that housed everything from restaurants to cheap apartments. She thought about asking every business employee if they’d seen Julie, but that seemed impractical. Particularly since some of the businesses, and the people hanging around them, were a bit on the seamy side. Her mother would have screaming meemies if she knew Maddie was driving down this street.
She was brave enough to go to Augustine Aerospace and ask to see Patrick, who wasn’t pleased at all to see her. He met her in the lobby and led her outside.
“What do you want?”
“Do you know where Chase is?”
Anger flashed through his green eyes, but he simply said, “No.”
It was worth a shot. “What was Julie doing in South Beach every Wednesday?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Julie went to South Beach every Wednesday before she…died. Do you know what she was doing?”
His puzzlement seemed genuine. “I didn’t know she was going—wait a minute. How do you know about this? What are you up to, anyway?”
“I’m trying to find out what really happened that night.”
He gave her a contemptuous look. “Oh, I get it. You’re trying to smear Julie’s name so Chase won’t look so bad. Well, everyone knows she came from the bad section of town, that she spent a lot of time in bars before working at the marina, and that she was interested in upping her way of life. What, you think I didn’t know she was keen on marrying into my family for the money? Sure, I knew, and as long as she was willing to sign the prenuptial—which she was—I was fine with that. She was exciting, great in bed, and she thought I was the freaking king.”
Freaking. A Chase word, Maddie thought, feeling the sudden sting of his loss. “If she thought you were the king, why would she cheat on you?”
Her words stung Patrick, who turned away for a moment. “I’m sure Chase appealed to her in a different way. Women went for that dangerous aura. They thought sailing was romantic and daring.”
“But Julie didn’t like sailing.”
“How do you know that?”
“I talked to a friend of hers. Why would she be attracted to Chase if she didn’t like sailing?”
“He probably seduced her to prove he could.”
“Was Chase really like that? Would he stab you so soundly in the back?”
Patrick looked away. “Julie wasn’t seeing someone else. I know what people think of her, that she was a fortune hunter. But she wasn’t like that, not with me.” He ran his fingers rapidly through his hair. “She wanted to see me succeed for both of us. She was always telling me to stand up for myself, to ask my father for more power in the company. She encouraged me when it had nothing to do with money.
“When I offered her a choice of honeymoon spots, including The Riviera, Paris, or Greece, you know where she picked? The Bahamas, a place one-fifth the cost. She never picked the most expensive thing on the menu. Far from it. I had to make her order lobster, because I knew she wanted it. She said it was too much to spend on dinner. She didn’t drink anymore. That was the Julie I knew. She made a mistake with Chase, a mistake that cost her her life. But if she was going to South Beach, it wasn’t to do anything illicit.”
Again, he ran his fingers back through his hair, a gesture of his frustration, Maddie guessed. “What I do know is I hate myself for giving into my father’s wishes and letting Chase get away with murder. Julie would have been ashamed of me for backing down…again.” His shame transformed to a hard edge. “If he didn’t leave…or if he comes back to see you, I’m going to turn him in. Let the consequences be damned.”
“Didn’t think you’d still be here,” Lila said when she walked in that evening with a bag of groceries.
“If he hasn’t come back by tomorrow, I guess I won’t have much choice but to leave.”
Lila gave her a pitying look that Maddie hated. “If he hasn’t come back by now…”
“Julie was seeing someone every Wednesday in South Beach. How can I find out who?”
“Beats me.”
Maddie helped her unload the groceries, planning to leave her money for food. “If she was seeing someone else, they might have—”
“You just don’t give up, do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“You’re grasping at straws. It doesn’t change the fact that Julie was found on Chase’s boat and that he was on the boat that night. Unless you can prove that someone else was on the boat, and I don’t know how you could, Chase still looks guilty.”
Maddie leaned against the counter, feeling logic drag her down. “But why was she on the boat? That’s what we need to find out. If she wasn’t seeing him…”
Lila was shaking her head. “Maddie, we both love Chase. We know he didn’t mean to kill Julie. It was an accident. I don’t blame Chase for leaving, and neither should you. I’m sure it was a hard decision. But he’s gone. It’s done. Let’s get something to eat.”
Maddie glanced at the phone.
“He’s not going to call, not after almost two days. Come on, let’s go.”
Maddie woke to another morning without Chase. Get used to it. First one morning, then a week, then a month…
Lila’s long hair swung in a ponytail as she moved around the kitchen. “So, what’s the plan? More snooping around?”
Maddie sighed, slumping against the edge of the counter. “I’ve hit a brick wall. Even if Julie was seeing someone else—and I kind of doubt she was—it doesn’t prove anything. She would have met him in South Beach, not near the sailboat. Patrick said some pretty powerful things about her, how devoted she was to him. I know, blinded by love and all that. But it doesn’t add up.”
“And if she was after money, Chase wasn’t going to get her anywhere,” Lila said. “He supported himself with his sailing, but he wasn’t rolling in the dough. Especially since he’d broken financial ties with Augustine Aero. His apartment is nothing fancy—of course, he was rarely there—and he lived pretty much hand-to-mouth. He liked it that way. What mattered most was Chase the Wind. That boat was his passion.”
Something nagged at Maddie about that statement, but defeat pressed down on her. “It doesn’t add up. If Julie was about to marry into money, why would she risk that by messing with Chase?” She scrubbed her hand through her hair, then realized she’d picked up Patrick’s annoying habit. “Even if Chase might possibly have been interested in a brunette, Julie still wasn’t his type.”
“Maybe they were planning something for Patrick. For his birthday or the wedding.”
Maddie started to grab onto that theory but shook her head. “Why would she go to Chase? They weren’t even close, he and Patrick. From what I can tell, Chase and Julie didn’t like each other much. Every time I think I’m getting somewhere, I’m not. Yet, giving up on him…well, it’s impossible.”
Maddie watched Lila’s long, tanned legs encased in a body-hugging pair of jean shorts, taut waist, and shimmering blonde hair, and thought: That’s Chase’s type. Not little ole’ me. She’s the type of woman who turns him on, and if she couldn’t get him to settle down, how can I do it?
“What’s wrong?” Lila asked at the door.
“I think it’s time to go home.”
She tilted her head. “He’ll be back someday. When you least expect it, he’ll slide back smooth as Cuervo Gold. Come by Salty’s before you take off. I’ll buy you a soda.”
Lila left, and Maddie turned on the television. Someon
e else’s problems always distracted her from her grim thoughts for a while. She stopped at Maury Povich. A mother who changed her sex and then stole her son’s girlfriend…that ought to do it. She threw her things into her bag, then got into the shower. As the hot water pounded her back, she kept trying to figure out what more she could do to clear Chase.
She thought she heard a noise in the living room. Maybe Lila had forgotten something. She tried to refocus her thoughts, but she’d seen Psycho too many times to ignore it.
She quickly dried off, wrapped the towel around her and walked out of the bathroom. And saw someone duck behind the bar counter in the kitchen.
CHAPTER 21
Maddie clutched her towel tighter, but she couldn’t move. This wasn’t Sugar Bay, it was Miami. A haven of crime, her mother had said. And there she was without any clothes on. She could hear someone rattling pans under the cabinet. A thief then. Maybe he wouldn’t notice her standing there, frozen, wearing nothing but a towel. She glanced around for a weapon. The brass lamp could cause some damage, especially if she surprised him.
She backed toward the end table and put her hands around the base of the lamp. When she pulled it up, it snagged. The electric cord, of course. It was plugged in on the far side of the couch. With lamp in hand, she climbed across the couch and jerked the plug free. Unfortunately, she lost her balance and tumbled backward over the side of the couch and into a large basket of dried flowers. Her gaze went to the kitchen, and she settled on the backup plan: scream.
Luckily the scream stopped in her throat when the thief stood up. “Chase!”
He took in her sprawled position, concern, amusement and annoyance on his features. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m happy to see you, too.” She tried to sound sarcastic, but it hadn’t come out that way.
He helped her to her feet and took the lamp from her with a raised eyebrow. “And you were going to do what with this?”
“Hit you over the head. Which I may well do anyway depending on your story.”
“I thought you went home.”
“That’s why you came back? Because you thought I was gone?”
He looked away for a moment but faced her again. “Yes. Well, sort of.”
That did it. She started beating on him, not that she could do much damage with her fists. “You just left without saying goodbye again, left me wondering what had happened to you! You sent me right back to a ten on the sad meter! I deserve better than that!”
He tried to still her, grabbing her hands, then her shoulders, and then he was kissing her. It was a hungry kiss that fused her anger into passion. He held her face in his hands, tilting her head, moving closer until their bodies touched. How could he do this to her and strip away her anger? She deserved to be angry, she thought, as he devoured her mouth.
No, she deserved to be kissed like this.
Her towel slipped away, and his hands slid down her collarbone to caress her breasts. Everything was all right again, he was there with her, and it was going to be okay. He whispered her name as he kissed down her neck.
He stopped at the crook of her shoulder, pulled her close and squeezed her tight. His cheek rested against the top of her head, and she could feel his breath ruffle her hair.
“We can’t…” he said, his chest moving against her with his deep breaths.
“No, we can’t,” she said but kept kissing him because it was so damn addicting. Her senses returned and she said, “Because we’re only friends. And friends don’t kiss like this.”
“We are just friends, right? You still don’t think you love me, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” she said, fighting the urge to rub her nose.
He was convinced he’d done this terrible thing; she could see it in his eyes, the end.
She gripped his upper arms. “We can find the truth. You’re innocent, Chase, I know you are. Just like I knew you wouldn’t turn and walk away from me.”
“Baby, it doesn’t work that way in real life. We don’t always find out what happened, and the good guy isn’t always innocent. I’m the bad guy in my own story. You’re naïve, and I love…that about you. Stay with me, and you’ll lose that. I won’t take you down with me.”
“You called me Baby.”
He stroked her cheek. “You are still Baby, in some ways.”
As good as he felt holding her and touching her, she pushed him away. “You call me Baby when it’s convenient to consider me a child. But I’m a woman, a fact you know well, because you helped me grow into that woman.” She tried to ignore the fact that she was naked; grabbing up the towel would signify vulnerability. “Tell me what’s going on. You owe me that.”
He glanced down at her body, then ran his hand back through his mussed hair. He was stalling, considering what to tell her. When he sighed and met her gaze, she knew she was getting the truth. “I was kidnapped.”
“What?”
“By my father.”
“Is he crazy?”
“Maybe.” He shook his head. “He thought he could keep me hidden away until the paperwork was done…for my new identity.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “You didn’t leave me.”
“I told him not to give you a message. I knew what he was going to tell you when you came to the house. I wanted you to leave, just like he did. But for different reasons.”
“To protect me,” she said, not smiling now. “So, when you came here…”
“I thought it was Lila in the shower. I was looking for the key to her dad’s boat. She keeps her extra keys in an old pot under the cabinet. I figured I’d hide out there—from my father—until…”
“You ran.”
“Yeah, until I run.” But he made the mistake of rubbing his nose.
“And you’re a freakin’ liar,” she said. “Look, I’ve been doing some investigating. Julie was up to something. Maybe it had to do with that night.”
He shook his head. “And that’s going to prove what?”
“I don’t know,” she had to admit. “But the truth is here somewhere. If we keep looking—”
He picked up the towel and handed it to her. “Why don’t you get us breakfast? I’ll keep looking for the keys to the boat, we’ll go there, and figure things out.”
“Oh, no, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“I won’t go anywhere. I promise.”
He didn’t rub his nose. “If you do, I’ll hunt you down like the dog you are.”
“Agreed.”
She didn’t want to leave, but she did. She knew a place right around the corner, and it wouldn’t take her but a few minutes to grab something and return.
Chase waited for Maddie to leave, then picked up the phone. After getting the number from information, her mother answered on the third ring.
“Hi, Mrs. Danbury. This is Chase, the guy—”
“Who has brainwashed our girl! She’s acting nutty, won’t tell us where she is—”
“She’s in Miami, and I want you to come get her. Get on a plane and get here as soon as you can.”
A moment of silence followed, and then, “Why?”
“Because I’m in some trouble here. She’s determined to stay with me out of some misguided sense of…I don’t even know what. I don’t want her dragged down with me.”
“What’d you do, kill someone?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Tell us where you are.”
After he hung up, he slumped over the counter. If he were selfish, he’d beg her to stay with him. For her friendship, of course, nothing else. But the only right way to keep her with him was in his dreams.
Maddie burst into the apartment like a mini-commando team. Her gaze went right to him, and relief flooded her face.
He tried to hold back a smile. “Told you I’d stay put.”
“Yeah, and you lie.” She set the bag on the counter. “And you never did tell me: if your father kidnapped you, how’d you escape?”
“W
indow. I realized he had to have some kind of escape latch in case of fire, some way to open the bars on the windows. When I got them open, one of dad’s Power Rangers was in the backyard. Then Patrick stormed over, and he and Dad had it out—about me—and then every time I started to climb out of the second-story window, a boat would go by. I fell asleep waiting until this morning when everything was clear.”
She hugged him hard, and it was all he could do not to crush her against him.
“Maddie, I didn’t come back for you.”
Then why had his heart rebounded like a rubber band when he saw her standing there wrapped in a towel? He’d convinced himself it was for the best that she was gone, then had been relieved to see her there. Yep, he was a liar.
She stepped away, smoothing down her…black shirt?
“You never wear black.”
“Saw it in the window yesterday, and I felt black, so I bought it.”
The shadows in her big hazel eyes made him want to ask if she still thought she loved him. He had to admit he wanted a different answer this time.
“Did you find the key?” she asked.
He lifted the key he’d found the first time. “Let’s go.”
“She’s beautiful,” Chase said an hour later when they found Shades of Heaven.
“Just don’t call it sexy,” Maddie muttered. He shot her a look. “Don’t ask,” she said.
He climbed aboard, then helped her. She bumped against him and grabbed at his waist for balance but quickly let go of her.
“Wow,” Maddie said when they climbed down the steps into the cabin. “Much nicer than the one we built.”
Really nice, with polished teak everywhere and all the touches of home. Plenty of headroom and seating space, and even a nice-sized dining table. The boat creaked as they ate breakfast. She relished just the simple brush of their knees beneath the table. She wanted to drink him in, the arch of his eyebrows and the lines of his face.
Instead, she pushed out the question that had been haunting her since his arrival. “If you didn’t come back for me, why are you back?”
Heavenly Stranger Page 26
