“You’ve always said one of my greatest skills in my ability to get people to talk to me, so that’s what I’m putting to use.” Mary-Ann smiled. “We both want Alison arrested.”
“Only if she truly is the murderer.”
“She is. I know it wasn’t Jess or Ben, which means she’s the only person who could have done it.”
“It could have been Jessica and Ben.”
“Neither of them are the sort of person who would have been willing to do something like that.” She shook her head. “I’ve got to stop saying stupid things like that. I’ve spoken to both of them about this. I’ve seen how they’ve dealt with the death of Kyle. For both of them it was a shock. They’re just doing their best to keep going, because they don’t have any other option, and I understand that. I’ve been in that position myself.”
“Kevin.”
“Yeah. I can see the pain in their eyes.”
“Could you see the pain in Henry Thompson’s eyes?”
“I could, but I realised it was there for a different reason, and when I realised that it was possible to see how it was different. He was hurting over the loss of his wife more than he was hurting over the loss of his son. Finding her… I think it had more of an effect on him than he thought it was going to.”
“Maybe.” Alex shrugged. “One of the things I’ve learnt is not to believe anyone. It’s far too easy for people to lie.”
“Yes, it is, but that doesn’t mean they are. I wasn’t lying.”
“No, you weren’t, and you’re the reason I’m more willing to go into depth with these investigations. If I wasn’t it would have been easy enough for me to arrest Sally for Kevin’s murder.” Their eyes met. “You’re the reason I’ve become a Green Springs officer again, instead of being a New York officer.”
“I’m glad I’ve done some good.”
“You have. You’ve done far more good than I think you realise, and it isn’t just me who appreciates it.”
“I know Rob does. He’s told me before.”
“He has his brother back. There was a time when he didn’t think that was possible, but now…” Alex shrugged. “When I came back from New York I was a shadow. I left because it was too much for me, and I didn’t think I was good enough, but I was. I just… dealing with so many crimes was too much and I don’t regret the decision I made. I’m happy to be home. I’m happy living with my brother, and spending time with his slightly eccentric girlfriends, and learning how to fit into Green Springs again. I don’t think I’m ever going to be trusted in the way I would have been if I didn’t go to New York, but people will come to trust me more.”
Chapter 8
Knocking on Wendy’s door was easier than Mary-Ann thought it was going to be. New York made her feel anonymous again and it was an interesting sensation. When someone came to the door, treading carefully, she waited to see what was going to happen next. The door opened a little bit and she found she herself staring at someone she was certain was Alison. “Where’s Wendy?”
“She had to go out for a little while.”
“Who are you?”
“Ally.”
“Why are you in Wendy’s place?”
“Wendy took me in when I came back to New York. For some reason the police here think I had something to do with a murder in Green Springs, wherever that is, and Wendy’s been a friend for a while, so I turned to her for help.”
“That sounds like Wendy.” Mary-Ann shook her head. “She owes me money.”
“I can’t do anything about that.”
“No, you can’t, but you can make me a cup of coffee. It was a long walk here and now I’m going to have to come back again later.”
“Okay.” Alison stepped back and took the chair off the door. “How do you know Wendy?”
“The two of us went to college together.”
“Wendy told me she never went to college.”
“She took a couple of classes, but it never was for her. I was the one who convinced her she should get a job instead of trying to force herself to stay.”
“You stayed?”
“I did, but I’d always been more academic than Wendy. I could happily spend an hour sitting in the psychology lecture, while she… well, it wasn’t unusual for her to get kicked out, because she didn’t want to be there.”
Alison led Mary-Ann into the kitchen. “How do you take your coffee?”
“Milky and sweet.”
“I think she has mentioned you before. She’s never talked about college, though.”
“She wouldn’t. It’s not something she like to remember.” Mary-Ann studied Alison. “You mentioned a murder.”
“My ex-boyfriend was murdered.”
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to go to Green Springs and clear your name?”
“There are too many people there who think it’s me and I just… I can’t.”
“Hiding isn’t going to do you any good. The police will keep hunting for you and eventually you’ll become tired, which will make you sloppy. Hand yourself in. Tell them the truth.”
“The truth isn’t going to be good enough.” Alison shook her head. “I don’t need advice from a total stranger.”
“I think you do. I think you need to be more logical about this. Did you murder your ex?”
For a long time Alison was silent. “No, I didn’t.”
Mary-Ann was certain that was a lie, but she wasn’t going to say that. “Who do you think did murder him?”
“His new wife, Jessica.” Alison shook her head. “She seems to think the police are going to believe she didn’t know Kyle was sleeping with other people when he was with her, the same way he did with me, even though I told her. I sent her several emails telling her everything about what was going on.”
“Did you make certain you had the right email address?”
“Yes, but… I’ve been thinking about it and I can’t help wondering if he managed to get to them before she could read them. It wouldn’t surprise me if he did, because he ‘loved’ her, the same way he loved me, when it wasn’t love. If it was love he would have been honest with us about the other girls, but he wasn’t. He lied to me, and he probably lied to her, and I just… I hated him. All I wanted was for him to learn he couldn’t treat people the way he was. Then she went through with the wedding.”
“As you can’t be certain she did get your emails now might be the time to send her another one. See what she has to say for herself. You don’t want to assume anything when it comes to these sorts of things, especially as you are a suspect. Did you want him to end up dead?”
“Sometimes I wanted it. Other times… as stupid as it’s going to sound I still loved him, and I was hoping he’d come back to me. When he didn’t…” She shook her head. “I can never forgive him for that, because he knew how much I loved him.”
***
“How did it go?”
Mary-Ann shook her head. “Alison wouldn’t admit to murdering Kyle, but she did say she’d sent emails to Jess about Kyle’s other girlfriends. I don’t think she did. I think she wanted to, but she didn’t know Jess’ email address, and I know exactly how we’re going to find out.”
“You convinced her to email Jessica.”
“At least then we’ll know if she was telling the truth. I text Jess to let her know, and she’s going to ring me if she hears anything from Alison, which I don’t think is going to happen. I think she had the wrong email address.” Mary-Ann smiled. “I’ve also got Darren watching over Kyle’s secondary email account.”
“Why would someone use their primary email address for the sorts of messages he got from his girlfriends when he had another account?”
“It could well have been an old one. I have a couple of old email addresses that I’ve kept, because I get emails occasionally from friends who don’t have my new address, and it seemed like the most logical thing to do. There’s a chance the address Alison was emailing was an old one. He could have created another one, an alia
s, to receive message Alison sent to Jess. People like Kyle can be very manipulative when they want to be.”
“So all we can do is wait for a phone call?”
“For the moment, yes. Do you know how long they’re going to hold Wendy?”
“I don’t think it will be for much longer.”
“Then getting Alison’s number was the best decision I could have made.”
***
“I have email.” Darren sounded amused. “Kyle was using an email address to pretend to be Jess, because then she wasn’t going to get the emails Alison sent her, which meant he didn’t have to worry Jess might find out the truth about his other girlfriends.”
“Thank you for that. I want you to send one back to Alison, pretending to be Alex, so she knows the truth. Hopefully she’ll text me to ask for help, because I said it was possible that was the case, and I was right.” Mary-Ann smiled. “I’m going to make her confess to murder, Darren.”
“Just remember she’s a young woman who made a mistake.”
“Cold blooded murder isn’t a mistake. Murdering in hot blood can be seen as a mistake, but she planned this. She wanted him to die at his own wedding, in front of Jess, and I can’t forgive Alison for doing that. She made the decision to do that.”
“Mare…”
“What, Darren?”
“With both Tom and Mr. Thompson you were compassionate. I know you’re unhappy with the choices Alison made, but don’t let that change you into someone you’re not. Be just as compassionate. Show her some understand. It might be more likely to make her want to admit to murdering Kyle if you at least try to understand where she’s coming from.”
***
“Hello?”
“This is Ally, from Wendy’s. I need your help, Marie, because I got a reply to the email I sent.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Not when the email was from the D.I. in charge of the case. The address I was emailing belong to Kyle the whole time, which means Jessica didn’t know the truth about who he was, and I… that makes me the main suspect. I don’t know what to do.”
“You need to go to Green Springs and talk to the D.I., because that’s the only way you’re going to clear your name.”
“I can’t.”
“You have to.”
“He’s not going to believe me. He’s going to have all those emails I sent to Kyle, telling him I was going to make his life miserable if he married Jessica, and I meant it at the time. He didn’t deserve to be happy. Not after what he did to me.”
“Okay, how about we meet for coffee and you can talk to me about this? Maybe we can work something out. I don’t know if we can, but two heads are better than one, so there’s a chance we might be able to get somewhere.”
“I’d like that.” Alison sounded relieved. “I just… I loved Kyle. I hated him at the same time, because of what he’d done to me, but I did still love him, and his death came as a shock to me. I can’t believe someone would think it was me. On the night of the wedding I can prove I was in New York.”
***
Alex was a couple of tables back from Mary-Ann. She stirred her coffee as she waited for Alison to turn up, hoping she hadn’t made a huge mistake, and just as she thought about leaving Alison walked through the doors. Their eyes met for a moment, before Alison made her way over to the table. “Thank you for this, Marie. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“There’s no reason for you to thank me, yet, because I’m still not certain I believe you didn’t kill your ex. Until I believe that how do you possibly think you’re going to make the officer in charge of the case believe it, especially when he’s going to have all sorts of evidence pointing in your direction.”
“He is. I was so angry with Kyle I didn’t stop to think how the emails would look. Of course I had no idea something like this was going to happen. I didn’t think he was going to die on his wedding day.”
“Do you know how he died?”
“Poison. It was in one of the wine bottles.”
Mary-Ann almost laughed. There was no way Alison could have known that unless she was the person who’d poisoned the wine, because it wasn’t one of the details Alex had let slip to the journalists working on the case. All they knew was that it was poison. Not where the poison has been. “How do you know that?”
“Jake told me.”
How would Jake have known? Unless Jessica had told him. Mary-Ann did her best not to seem as confused as she felt. “Jake is?”
“One of Kyle’s closest friends. Jake and I weren’t friends, but he was willing to tell me some of the details he’d learnt from Jessica, because he felt I needed to know people were accusing me of being the murdered. He even admitted to being one of them. Now, though, he isn’t certain who it was, because I managed to convince him I wasn’t involved.”
“Why did you convince him you weren’t involved?”
“I wanted someone to be on my side.” A tear trickled down Alison’s cheek. “They all viewed me as the villain, when Kyle was the one bedding everyone he possibly could. I only found out the truth when I met Wendy. She was the one who told me what he’d done. She was the one who wanted me to know the truth.” She shook her head. “Apparently there was a point when Kyle was engaged to her as well, but then he told her he couldn’t marry her, because his parents wouldn’t agree to it. After that… well, I know how badly she was hurting, because it was after that she told me the truth. When I found out he was sleeping with so many people… I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know how to cope with the knowledge. A couple of days later I lost our baby.”
Chapter 9
“Wendy’s gone.”
“Great.” Mary-Ann sighed. “I didn’t know there was another one.”
Alex shrugged. “Obviously that another of those things Kyle kept from his friends and his family, so there was no chance of us finding out until Alison opened up to you. Alison has turned herself in and a couple of officers are going to escort her to Green Springs in the morning. That gives us tonight to get back, because I have to be there when Alison is.”
“I know. The next train is in about an hour. Neither of us bothered to unpack, which makes things simpler, and then all we have to do is find Wendy.”
“Could Alison have been Wendy in the first place?”
“Maybe.” Mary-Ann shook her head. “All I know right now it that I’ve had enough of people keeping secrets from each other. If Kyle had been honest with people in the first place nothing like this would have happened.”
Her phone rang and she took it out of her pocket. “Jess?”
“I’ve just had an email from Wendy. She wants to meet me in the morning.”
“In Green Springs?”
“Yeah. What do you think I should do?”
“Keep your distance. Wendy, we believe, is the one who poisoned Kyle. I will talk to her on your behalf.”
“Wendy? Kyle’s girlfriend.”
“One of two women he was previously engaged to.”
“Does she want me dead too?”
“I have no idea, which is why I want you to keep your distance. Alison is going to be travelling to Green Springs in the morning, to talk with Alex, and that means I’m going to be the only one who can talk to Wendy safely.”
“I want to be there. I want to know if she was the one who killed Kyle.”
“Jess…”
“She’ll be fine, Mare. I’ll send some officers to watch over you, to make certain she is fine, because if Wendy admits to murdering Kyle then I want someone who can arrest her there.”
“Wendy’s not going to admit it. She’s not going to want to talk to me.”
“Maybe not, but you’re right when you say Jessica can’t go alone. Wendy might be the woman who was willing to poison a bottle of wine to kill her ex, so there’s no way we can know what she might be willing to do, and I want you to be there in case Wendy does say something useful.”
“Okay.” Ma
ry-Ann nibbled her lip. “I should be back by midnight. I’ll meet you at the coffee shop an hour before you’re meant to meet Wendy. I want everything to be ready.”
“Fine.” Jessica sounded like she was smiling. “At least this will all be over soon and I’ll know who murdered my husband.”
“Yes, you will. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Yawning, Mary-Ann hung up. “That’s going to be fun.” Her eyes met with Alex’s. “I think I’m going to sleep on the train.”
***
“Don’t be so loud. You’re going to wake her up.”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 74
