“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Stay away from them.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Since when do you tell me what to do?”
Richard stood up and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair.
“Don’t go, Richard. I’m sorry.”
“You call me when you need me, Emily.” He left and closed the door. That was the last time she had laid eyes on Richard, until the night William died.
Chapter Twelve
The librarian appeared surprised as Steven entered the building and walked up to her for the second time that morning.
“Hello, again.”
“Hi. Did you talk with Edna?”
“Yes, thank you. She was helpful. Now I need to look up some local newspaper articles. Can I do that here?”
“Yes, they are right over there.” She pointed to the reference section of the library. “All of the newspapers are chronologically filed. Any newspapers that are older than two years are archived in PDF form on that computer.”
“Wonderful. Are the archives searchable?”
“Yes. The program is pretty self-explanatory. Come get me if you can’t find what you are looking for.”
“Thank you, I will.” Steven walked across the library, sat down at the computer, and clicked on the newspaper icon. He typed in ‘Emily Grant’ and hit the search button. Two articles appeared. The first article was announcing her engagement to William. He clicked on the second one.
On the front page, in large letters it said, ‘William Grant Brutally Murdered, Emily Grant Wanted for Questioning’. Skimming the article, he realized it would be helpful to print a copy to keep. He walked over to the front desk, feeling bad for bothering the librarian yet again.
“Yes?”
“Can I print an article?”
“Sure, just click on the printer icon at the top. Each printout costs twenty five cents.”
After he had printed the article, he folded it and put it in his back pocket. He went back to the search results to read the other article. The engagement announcement had quite a lengthy story about William. The article didn’t mention much about Emily, but he printed it out also, as it had a good photograph of her, and it mentioned her parents’ names.
Steven finished at the computer and paid for his printouts. The librarian flashed a smile at him, and he waved to her as he left. An idea hit him as he slid into the leather seat of his rental car. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed his personal assistant’s number.
“Elena, I need you to do something for me. I need the phone number of a good private investigator.”
“Sure, Mr. Ashton. I’ll get right on it.”
“Thanks. Call me on my cell when you have it.”
After obtaining the name and number, Steven placed the call.
“This is Gerald.” The voice was deep and melodic. From the way he answered the phone Steven could tell he was a ‘get to the point’ kind of guy.
Steven explained his situation, and asked him if it was possible to find someone who was most likely on the run and didn’t want to be found. Gerald asked him a few questions, and by the time they were done talking Steven had convinced him to fly out to Huntington to start on Emily’s trail. The phrase ‘money is no object’ seemed to work wonders.
He pulled out the articles he had printed, scanning them over. Something gnawed at him. Emily told him her parents died in Stapleton. There should have been a news article about it.
Mildly embarrassed, he entered the library once more, and sat down at the computer. He scanned the wedding announcement and copied Emily’s parent’s names into the computer.
One article came up. It read, ‘Margaret and Joseph Carrington Die in Botched Burglary’. He read the whole thing, but it didn’t mention Emily once.
Frustrated, he typed in ‘Richard Hamilton’ and clicked the search button. If he couldn’t find out anything else through her parents, maybe searching her old boyfriend would help. At least he didn’t want to leave empty handed. One article came up, but it looked irrelevant. Steven clicked on it anyway.
‘Thousands Stolen from Mona Hamilton’ was the headline. Steven skimmed the article, ignoring the large photograph. ‘Mona Hamilton, a long time resident of Stapleton, reported fifty thousand dollars cash stolen from the safe in her home on East London Drive.’ “I was on vacation when the house was robbed,” Mona stated.
Steven went to close the article, when he glanced at the photo of the elderly woman and her grandson. A chill ran up his spine. The man with long hair hanging in his eyes stared at him from the computer screen. He had seen this man before, he knew it. ‘Mona and her grandson, Richard’ read the caption under the photo.
Panic clenched his stomach tight. He had seen this man hanging around the Downtown Café. This was the creep that stood outside the Laundromat the day he had asked Emily to lunch. Emily was being stalked by her high school boyfriend, Richard Hamilton.
******
Richard sat in his black sedan, waiting for the sun to set and watching Steven Ashton’s apartment. The car he stole yesterday filled with smoke as he lit a cigarette and took a drag. His fingers were frozen but he didn’t care. The fire that burned inside of him kept him warm.
Dark shadows crept over the apartment building. Steven’s truck was still gone. It was time.
Grabbing a crowbar and a flashlight, he walked around to the back of Steven’s building. He located the back window, removed the screen, and pushed on the glass. It opened inward a few inches, and then stopped against the metal hinge. One tap with his crowbar and the hinge broke, allowing the window to open all the way. He climbed in without a sound.
Rifling through Steven’s things, he picked up several papers to examine them. They weren’t important. The laptop caught his eye, and he opened it and pushed the power button. His foot made a tapping noise on the linoleum as he waited for the computer. A few clicks of the mouse revealed Steven’s searches for Stapleton in the Internet history. He knew it. Steven was going to lead him right to Emily.
Clicking on Steven’s favorites, he scrolled down to his web mail account. Signing in was easy. In the box labeled “Account” he typed the letter S. ‘Steven576’ appeared under the box, the auto-fill feature helping him sign in. The password must have been automatically stored on the computer, for the box below filled in with seven dots.
After scrolling through Steven’s email and not seeing anything helpful, he clicked on ‘Account Details’. If he could get the password, he could check Steven’s emails from any computer. He clicked on ‘change the password’ to see if that worked, but it wouldn’t let him in without entering the current one. He signed out and clicked “I forgot my password.” The words ‘Your password has been emailed to your other account’ appeared on the screen. After a few minutes of searching, he opened Outlook Express, which automatically signed him in. The email with Steven’s password waited in the inbox.
******
Steven couldn’t think as he pulled his rental car onto the highway. Emily was in terrible trouble. Richard could have kidnapped her. Horrible images flashed through his mind as he drove. He pulled over to the shoulder, and picked up his phone.
“Gerald, it’s me, Steven. Look, I need you to get some information on a Richard Hamilton. He’s from Stapleton, Minnesota, and I think he’s connected to all of this somehow.”
“Sure, let me do some digging and I’ll phone you back as soon as I find out something about him.” Gerald’s deep voice was reassuring.
“Thank you.” Steven snapped his phone shut. His pulse quickened as he thought of Emily and Connor in possible danger. Helplessness was not a feeling he was well acquainted with. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel.
The image of Richard standing on the street corner smoking his cigarette flashed into his mind. There was something about that image that was bothering him, but he couldn’t quite place it. He sighed and stepped on the gas, anxious to get back to the
airport.
It was only a thirty minute drive to Minneapolis, but the road seemed to stretch out forever. The sound of his cell phone brought him out of his thoughts.
“Steven, it’s Gerald. This Richard Hamilton is quite the character. He’s wanted for theft, grand larceny, and fraud in four different states. His grandmother was robbed several years ago and I strongly suspect he had something to do with it. And here’s the clincher. Over the past several years he’s been seen traveling with a blonde and a child matching the description of Emily and her son.” Steven felt sick.
“Thank you, Gerald. I’ll call you if I need anything else.” He hung up the phone and tried to swallow but his throat was too tight. The cigarettes in Emily’s car, the feeling of someone in her apartment, it all started to make sense. Richard wasn’t stalking Emily. Richard and Emily were together.
******
Steven sat back in his chair as his private jet took off. He told his pilot to change the flight plans; he wanted to go back to New York. It didn’t matter that he had left his things at his apartment in Huntington. He didn’t want to go back there where everything would remind him of Emily.
He ran his fingers through his hair. The details kept running through his head. Emily was with Richard. Then why was Richard following her? And if she were with Richard, why had she agreed to go out with him? Things were not adding up. He put his head in his hands and rested his elbows on his knees.
Emily and Richard were thieves. The thought occurred to him that perhaps they had planned the murder of William Grant. William was wealthy after all. Then it dawned on him why she had gone out with him. Emily knew who he was. She had recognized him in the hotel, and they followed him from Nevada. This was all about his money, he thought bitterly. The realization slapped him hard, and he clenched his jaw.
He almost laughed when he thought of how stupid he had been. She’d lied to him about everything. Pain seared through him. Questions kept floating through his mind. How could she have done that? How could he have been so naive, to fall for another conniving woman? Didn’t he learn anything from going out with Bailee?
He buried all thoughts of Emily as his jet landed in New York. He didn’t call Rose, knowing that he was too upset to talk about it. Utterly exhausted, he had his driver take him to his penthouse condo where he went straight to bed.
Chapter Thirteen
Steven woke up with a knot in his stomach and a dull headache. He took a hot shower, hoping it would clear his head. It didn’t. He cut his face while shaving, because he wasn’t concentrating. Eating breakfast was out of the question. He could barely stand the sight of food.
He left for his office. There was always plenty of work to do, and Steven knew he could forget almost anything if he buried himself in his business.
Not too long after he got to his office, Alex, his longtime friend and business partner, popped his head in. He wore his red hair short and spiked, like he used to when he was a kid, and he still had boyish freckles on his face.
“You’re back,” he said, stating the obvious. “How was your trip?”
“Fine.” Steven held his breath, hoping that would be enough.
“Your father mentioned something about a girl you’ve been seeing. Is there something you want to tell me?” Grinning, he raised one of his eyebrows. Steven sighed, and rubbed his temples. His headache was getting worse.
“I’m not seeing her anymore.”
“Oh, sorry.” Alex looked as if he had just swallowed a live frog.
“No problem,” Steven mumbled, hoping he would leave him alone now.
“Well, I’ve got to get back to work. I just wanted to say welcome back.” He tossed Steven a half-hearted wave, and disappeared around the corner.
The intercom beeped, and his secretary’s voice came through. “Sorry to bother you, sir, but Ronald Cohan is on hold for you on line three. He’s insisting to speak with you.”
“Who?”
“Ronald Cohan, the news reporter.”
“Take a message.”
“I already tried, but he won’t take no for an answer.”
“All right, I’ll handle it. Thank you, Annette.” He picked up the phone and jabbed his finger on the button by the blinking light. “Listen, I know you are just trying to do your job, and I applaud you for your persistence, but I have no comment for you.”
“Mr. Ashton–”
“I will only say this one more time, Mr. Cohan. I have nothing to say to you.”
“I just called because you have been voted number one in the top ten most eligible bachelors in New York. There’s a ceremony and photo shoot on December fifteenth. I’ve been leaving messages but haven’t heard back from you and we need to know if you’ll be there.”
Steven felt heat rush to his face. He mumbled an apology and promised Ronald that he would be there. After he hung up the phone he paced in front of his large office window overlooking Central Park. He wondered what the odds were of a meteorite falling on top of him before the fifteenth.
******
Emily tried unsuccessfully to calm Connor down as he ran through the small home.
“I’ll need a five hundred dollar deposit and a month’s rent up front.” The frumpish landlady folded her arms across her large chest and made a huffing noise.
“Will you take a starter check?” Emily chewed on her thumbnail.
“Well…” She frowned, and rubbed the hair growing on her upper lip. Just when Emily thought she was going to refuse, she said, “All right.”
Emily sighed and pulled out her checkbook. She stuck out her bottom lip and blew the hair out of her eyes while she made out the check.
“Mom, there’s a dinosaur on the wall in the closet!” Connor ran around Emily and then disappeared around the corner again.
“Well, I guess he found his room.” Emily laughed, but stopped when she saw the look on the landlady’s face. She handed her the check.
“You can move in whenever you like. There’s a thirty dollar late fee if you pay after the fifth of the month. Water is included in the rent. You pay utilities and trash pickup. You can mail next month’s check to this address.” She handed Emily a business card. “Call me if you have any trouble.”
Emily looked at the faded wallpaper and the green shag carpet, and nodded. The landlady turned on her heel and left. Emily ran her fingers through her hair, and was reminded of Steven. He always ran his fingers through his hair like that. Her conscience tugged at her, and she swallowed hard. He’ll get over this, she told herself. There was no other way.
******
The weekend passed without any word from Gerald. Steven was relieved when the call finally came on Monday. He combed his hand through his hair and picked up line two.
“Gerald, it’s Steven. What have you got for me?”
“I’ve got some news about Emily.” Steven flinched when he heard Emily’s name, but braced himself for the rest. “I went and spoke with everyone in the area, and a waitress from a nearby truck stop remembers serving her and her son. They were alone, and she thinks they were headed east.”
“Wait, Richard wasn’t with her?”
“No, it looks like they parted ways. The people that I spoke with are positive that Emily was alone with her son.”
“Where is Richard?” Even as the words left his lips, he knew Gerald wouldn’t be able to answer.
“I don’t know, but I have a few good leads on where Emily was headed, so I’ll call you when I know more.”
“Sure, okay. Thank you.” Steven sat and stared out of his large office window. He tapped his pen on his desk, and listened to the sound it made.
Alex came into his office and leaned on the mahogany executive desk. He looked like a kid who had just found his parents’ hiding place for his Christmas presents. “Accelerated Communications is ready to sell.”
Steven’s pulse quickened. “How do you know?”
“Douglas just called. He all but asked us if we were still interested
in buying.”
“So their financial trouble is worse than they let on.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we couldn’t pick it up for pennies on the dollar.”
Steven sat back in his leather office chair and put the tips of his fingers together. “Don’t call him back.”
“What?”
“Just wait.”
“I don’t know why you want to play cat and mouse with them. Last year you were chomping at the bit to buy them out.”
“This is the part I love the most. Just wait. You’ll see. Have I ever been wrong before?”
Alex rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled. “No. Somehow you are always right, at least in the business world. Now, your instincts with women…”
Steven’s smile vanished, and he tightened his jaw muscles. Alex didn’t finish his sentence, but flashed a lopsided grin and left.
******
Emily’s eyes snapped open. Her heart raced, and she was trying not to hyperventilate. She’d had the dream again, the one with all the blood. Her slippers padded across the wooden floor as she went to the bathroom. She turned on the hot water and waited a few seconds for it to heat up before plunging her shaking hands under the faucet. The water was still icy cold, and it pierced her skin like needles.
The bed creaked as she slid back under the thin blanket. Her heart felt hollow. She had never been able to forgive herself for leaving William lying there like that. She should have called 911, but she didn’t think he was seriously hurt.
William had started drinking early that Saturday morning, after Samantha came to the house yelling obscenities at him.
******
Not What She Seems Page 8
