Death's Door

by Meryl Sawyer

  “You’re saying we’ve got a serial killer?” asked Link.

  “I’m not sure what we have,” Callahan responded. “What does Boston PD say?”

  “Boston didn’t know about the birth angle. They’d closed the cases already,” Paul told the group. “They’re taking another look, but this guy is clever. They may not be able to prove the two were murdered.”

  “How did you find out about them?” the captain asked.

  “I didn’t. My father did. He does Holbrook’s security.”

  There was a moment of heavy, awkward silence. Mike Tanner’s abilities were legendary. If he hadn’t taken early retirement, he would have been a serious contender for police chief.

  “Tell us what else you know,” Captain Callahan said.

  Paul filled them in on Holbrook’s search for his donor-conceived children. He ended by telling them about the bogus Chagas finding and saying he believed the killer seemed to be after Madison Connelly now.

  “Okay, it may look like the kids are clean but—” he nodded at Link “—check their charge records. See if either of them went to Boston.”

  “Women don’t commit—”

  “Check anyway,” Callahan interrupted Link.

  “You might want to look at Nathan Cassidy, Savannah’s boyfriend,” Paul added.

  “Do you have a theory?” Callahan asked Paul.

  “Revenge for something. It’s probably business-related. I’m meeting with Holbrook tonight with my father. I’m going to find out about any enemies.”

  “Why didn’t the killer just take out Holbrook?” Trey asked.

  “He wants to watch him suffer,” Paul theorized. “He gets off on it.”

  “See that you get both Burgess and Williams a copy of your report on any enemies Holbrook may have. It’s been my experience that guys that rich make enemies—sometimes unintentionally, but it happens.

  “I want you three to e-copy each other about any developments in these cases even if they don’t look important or related. Anyone got anything else?”

  Link opened his mouth, then shut it, then opened it again. “I don’t think it’s related, but Erin Wycoff’s former boyfriend, the vet, lied. He said he broke off with the victim because of her work with covert animal rights groups. His partner, Dr. Wallace, says he left her because Madison Connelly was getting a divorce and Matthews was interested in her.”

  Paul’s mouth went dry; he tried to keep his face expressionless. Callahan didn’t need to know about his involvement with Madison. He’d never met the veterinarian, but Madison had spoken as if he were a friend, not a romantic interest.

  “I’d made this for a love triangle gone bad,” Link concluded. “The Connelly woman was the killer.”

  Paul couldn’t help jumping to Madison’s defense. “Why would she kill Erin if she’d already stolen her boyfriend?”

  “That happened months ago,” Link whined. “Could be the situation had changed or something. Plus Connelly stood to gain by the will.”

  “Why would Erin Wycoff leave money to the Connelly woman if they were fighting?” Trey asked.

  “Probably hadn’t gotten around to changing her will,” Link suggested.

  “Did you find any evidence that Madison was dating the vet?” Paul demanded.

  “We’re still checking.”

  “Wouldn’t the friend who worked with him know?” Paul asked.

  “Dr. Wallace said Matthews only discussed it the one time when he’d inquired about Erin. She was around a lot, then she wasn’t. He was curious but didn’t keep asking because he felt Matthews didn’t want to talk about it.”

  Paul wondered why the vet had lied. It was a simple thing, but it was often those little slips that broke open a case.

  “IT’S TOO BAD you can’t help my father.” Savannah swished into the dining room where Madison was sitting with Tobias Pennington. As usual Nathan Cassidy was a half step behind the gorgeous redhead. It didn’t sound as if Savannah was all that upset, but maybe Madison was imagining it.

  Paul and his father had escorted Madison from work to have dinner with Wyatt. Tobias had been completing a project with Wyatt in his home office and had been asked to join them.

  “You didn’t hear?” Tobias said before she could speak. “The lab made a mistake. Madison doesn’t have Chagas.”

  “I was wondering why you were still here. That explains it.” She bestowed a smile on Madison. “I’m thrilled your tests were okay. Let’s hope you can help my father.”

  “The lab made a mistake?” Nathan asked. “With computers, isn’t an error nearly impossible?”

  “Nearly but not absolutely,” responded Madison. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to raise the question of tampering. They didn’t want the killer to realize they were onto him. Or her. Paul truly believed a woman could be behind this.

  “Where’s my father?” Savannah asked.

  “In a meeting,” Tobias said, and Madison had the feeling he deliberately kept the answer short to force Savannah to ask for more information. A power play, or maybe he didn’t like the glamorous redhead.

  “A meeting at this hour?”

  Tobias merely nodded with a smug smile.

  “Oh, well. We’ll just have to go to the bar for another drink.” She motioned toward Tobias and Madison. “Come on. Father can join us there.” She didn’t wait for a response, sauntering out of the room, Nathan once more at her heels.

  Tobias arched one fine eyebrow. “We might as well. I’m sure the staff is waiting to clean up this room.”

  “Right,” she said, and pushed her chair away from the table. She had been enjoying an after-dinner cappuccino made with a Cuban flair while Mike Tanner and Paul interviewed Wyatt. Since it was “official police business,” they’d asked Tobias and Madison to wait for them. Tobias was a more interesting man than she’d originally thought. He had a degree in business and a master’s in economics from Harvard.

  Tobias led the way to the pub-style bar that had six huge flat-screen televisions. “Wyatt is a die-hard Dolphins football fan and a Gators booster. He has a skybox but is often too busy to attend games. He had this room converted to a sports bar.”

  “Interesting,” Madison commented. “Is Garrison a fan, too?”

  “No. My brother has never been interested in any sport except scuba diving,” Samantha answered for Tobias from her perch on a bar stool. “He learned to dive at nine while we were at our place in the Bahamas.”

  “It’s not legal to certify someone so young here, but outside the U.S.—” Nathan shrugged “—they look the other way for enough money.”

  “In other words, my brother nagged my parents to let him take lessons. He’d been snorkeling since he was five but he was determined to go deeper,” Savannah told them. “He’s always been obsessed by the sea. Always.”

  It was a long bar with at least a dozen brass and leather bar stools. Madison wasn’t sure where to sit, considering the men should be joining them soon. Tobias settled the question by leaving an empty stool and pulling out the next chair down from Savannah.

  “How did you get into skin-care products?” Madison felt she should ask something to keep Savannah talking. Madison certainly didn’t want to discuss anything personal with these two.

  Nathan handed Savannah what appeared to be a green-apple martini. The woman accepted the drink, took a sip, then said, “My mother was a fantastic woman, a real lady. She took great care to preserve her skin, and it was flawless—hardly a line right up until the day she died. Most people thought she had cosmetic surgery but she didn’t. The secret was in hideously expensive Swiss skin care products. I was a whiz at science.” Savannah paused to give Madison a smirk of a smile. “The apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.”

  Madison got the message. She wasn’t even a twig on this magnificent tree. Savannah might want someone to save her father’s life, but that didn’t mean she had to like the person.

  “I started analyzing Mother’s favorite
product. It took some doing and a little help from my father’s lab, and it was almost a year before I could duplicate the product, but I finally did. I was a junior in high school.”

  Pretty impressive, Madison had to admit. She’d excelled in all her classes and had earned the prestigious National Science Foundation Scholarship, but she hadn’t attempted anything quite as ambitious.

  “What would you like to drink?” Nathan asked them. He seemed so comfortable behind the bar that Madison guessed he often did this.

  “Just sparkling water for me,” Madison replied.

  “Same here,” Tobias added. “We had wine with dinner and I have an early meeting tomorrow.”

  “Soon I was making stuff for all my friends,” Savannah continued as if everyone was dying to hear this when both men must know her story by heart. “I went to college, of course. Georgetown. Then an advanced degree in biology at Emory. You see, by then I was interested in nature’s remedies.”

  “She never gave up compounding creams and lotions even when she was in school,” Nathan said with an unmistakable note of pride.

  “She’s into powerful antioxidants derived from grapes processed for wine,” Tobias added, although his tone seemed bored.

  “When you slice open an apple, brown forms within minutes. That’s oxidation,” Savannah informed Madison as if she were a child. “Our skin oxidizes, too, but not as quickly. Antioxidants slow down the process, which ages our complexions.”

  From the looks of Savannah’s flawless complexion, she’d been using something for years. Not a wrinkle showed, even around her eyes.

  “For years cosmetic makers have been adding antis to their products,” Savannah went on even though the men didn’t seem to be listening.

  “You mean resveratrol,” Madison said, not liking being talked down to; Savannah had already told her about the cures in the bottom of a wine press.

  Savannah studied Madison for a moment. “Right. Grape-based products.”

  Savannah made it sound as if she’d cornered the market. But after their first discussion, Madison had gone online. Dior and L’Occitane had grape-based products, as did several other lesser-known firms.

  The prices of their products were stratospheric. When Madison got her hands on some money, she planned to invest a little in grapes. Between wine and beauty products, grapes were bound to go up.

  “That’s my story,” Savannah concluded.

  “What about your brother?” Madison asked. She would rather learn more about Garrison than hear Savannah brag. “Was he always into science?”

  “Not exactly.” Savannah wrinkled her nose as if she smelled one of Aspen’s deposits. “He got great grades, but all he wanted to do was study things in the sea. He spent three summers at Woods Hole. We all assumed he’d become a marine biologist.”

  “He’s responsible for the collection of invaluable coral prints and the rare blue coral in the living room,” Tobias added.

  Savannah gave him a look for cutting her off. She seemed to be getting a little tipsy, yet she motioned to Nathan for another martini. “That’s right. When my brother was fifteen, he used money he’d saved for years to purchase the prints at Sotheby’s auction in New York.”

  Madison asked, “They let someone so young—”

  “My mother went with him.” Savannah said this in a tone that implied Madison was down to her last marble.

  “Not your father?” Madison wondered out loud.

  “Are you kidding? We rarely saw my father. He was as obsessive as Garrison about his work. Mother busied herself with charity work and me.”

  There was a pause, then Tobias asked the question for Madison. “Did she have a problem with Garrison?”

  Savannah took another sip of her drink, then tossed her head in that provocative way of hers so that her abundant red hair swished across her bare shoulders. Tonight she was wearing an emerald-green dress with a thin strap that held up the gown on one shoulder while leaving the other bare. It skimmed her body until it reached the lowest part of her hips, then the dress descended to midcalf in a series of waves of gold and green fabric that swayed with the slightest move. Obviously it was an outrageously expensive designer gown that made the pale pink halter dress Madison was wearing look like a housecoat.

  “A problem with Garrison?” Savannah repeated, as if this were a very amusing question. “No, not a problem exactly. He kept to himself. I guess you would say he was a loner.”

  “Still is,” Nathan added while he helped himself to more Glenfiddich.

  “All he wanted to do was go to the Bahamas so he could dive. Then when he was old enough to dive here, all he wanted to do was go to John Pennekamp and dive.”

  Madison knew the state underwater park well. Her father had taken her there to snorkel. It was an amazing place with an abundance of sea life.

  “My mother hated the sun. She never wanted to broil on a boat so Garrison could dive. She was a good mother, though. She had the help take him until he got his license and could drive himself.”

  “He has a place in the Keys,” Tobias added. “That’s where he is now.”

  “Bought it himself and had a lab constructed so he can dive and work there.” Nathan shrugged as if to say, Go figure.

  “Claims to be onto a top-secret cure for a type of lung cancer,” Savannah said as if she didn’t quite believe it.

  “That must be exciting for your father.”

  Savannah threw her head back and laughed louder than necessary. “Garrison’s not sharing this one with my father. You see, Garrison went to Cal Tech. That’s when he became interested in science. He became especially interested in the bacteria that sticks to river rocks and is ten times more powerful than man-made glue.”

  “Caulobacter crescentus,” Madison automatically said.

  “Of course you’d know. Your life is trivia.” Savannah turned to Nathan. “Garrison decided it could be developed into a surgical glue that could replace staples. He told my father, and for the first time, Garrison had his attention.”

  How sad, Madison thought, fondly recalling her own father. She couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t have his attention. She’d grown up feeling loved, cherished by both parents, but she’d had a stronger bond with her father.

  “It was a very promising idea,” Tobias added. “Several other scientists were also experimenting with the bacteria.”

  “My father found a scientist who was further along. He was in trials already. He backed Swen Torkelsen and brought the surgical glue to market. My brother was pissed off big-time.” Savannah laughed again, even louder this time.

  Tobias said, “Wyatt felt thousands of lives could be saved if the product came to market as quickly as possible.”

  “I see.” Madison imagined how hurt Garrison must have been, but obviously their relationship had been repaired. “If I understand it correctly, it’s not unusual to have several scientists working on the same thing.”

  “Right,” Tobias said. “Happens a lot.”

  “This time Garrison claims to be onto something unique,” Savannah said, accepting another martini from Nathan. “From the sea, of course.”

  “Wyatt and Garrison have worked on many things over the years,” Tobias said. “He understands why his father didn’t wait the two to three years it would have taken for Garrison to get his version to trials. From there it would be at least two more years.”

  “Don’t forget to mention Holbrook Pharmaceuticals made a bundle off the discovery.” Savannah had clearly had too much to drink; she couldn’t keep sarcasm out of her voice.

  “What kind of law do you practice, Nathan?” Madison asked to change the subject. Despite her own accomplishments, Madison would bet Savannah was jealous of Garrison and Wyatt’s relationship.

  Voices from the hall caused all of them to turn toward the door. Savannah slipped off her bar stool and swayed a bit as she headed toward the door.

  “I’m in corporate law,” Nathan said, his voice low enough so
Savannah couldn’t hear him. “But if you need me, call. For anything.”

  Madison was more than a little surprised by Nathan’s offer. Wasn’t he the man who had accused her of being after Wyatt’s money? He’d wanted to get rid of her. So why was he being friendly now? Maybe he was deliberately trying to throw her off-track when he was actually sabotaging her. Could he have the computer skills to rig her blood test and subject her to identity theft? It was possible, she decided. If he didn’t do it himself, perhaps he had a resource at his firm or somewhere.

  “Father,” Savannah greeted Wyatt. If she was surprised to see Mike and Paul with Wyatt, she didn’t show it. Nathan did, his eyes narrowing when he saw Paul.

  “Father, we have the best news.” Savannah grabbed her father’s arm, pulled him away from the Tanners and guided him toward the bar. “Nathan and I are getting married. We’re going to have a baby right away. We know how much you want a grandchild.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Wyatt responded, but he didn’t sound all that enthusiastic. “But if you’re going to have a baby, I suggest you stop drinking.”

  Madison couldn’t help feeling sorry for Savannah. The woman managed a slight nod, but her father had already turned away to talk to Paul.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  What is the only United States monument that moves?

  “DID YOU FIND anything out?” Madison asked Paul when they were on their way back to the guesthouse. They’d excused themselves immediately after Wyatt had embarrassed Savannah. The woman had looked so stricken—almost as if she’d received a physical blow—that Madison’s heart went out to her.

  Mike Tanner had left with them but he’d headed off to his car to go home. Tobias had remained behind. Evidently, he’d been with the family for so long that he was accustomed to their bickering.

  Paul slipped his arm around Madison’s waist and pulled her close. A shiver of desire rushed through her, but she resisted it. She needed to know what he’d found out. Who was behind all this?

  “Look, I wish I could tell you about our interview with Wyatt, but it’s an official investigation. I can’t.”