Grave Paths (A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 11)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “He loves himself,” Nick said. “I think he probably loves his baby, too, but he never loved you. He didn’t love Jennifer. He most certainly didn’t love Laura. He just cared what you three could give him because he wanted you to make him feel better about himself. He wanted you to stroke his ego.”

  “No.” Angie was adamant. “We’re going to be happy together. We’re going to take our baby and start over in Florida. That’s the plan. We have to stick to the plan. Now … where is my baby?” Angie’s eyes were glassy as she scanned the room.

  “He’s at the police station with his father.” Nick knew she was a murderer and yet pity stirred inside him all the same. She was a sad woman with sad ideals who never really had a chance to be anything other than sad. “It’s over, Angie.”

  “It’s not over.” Angie’s eyes flared to life again. “It’s not even remotely over. You’ll see. This is going to work out because … we have a plan. Once I explain things to whoever I need to explain them to, things are going to turn out the way they should have from the beginning.”

  “Okay, well, I hope that works out for you.” Nick slowly drew his cuffs from his belt. “I need to cuff you.”

  Angie balked. “I’m not guilty.”

  “It’s procedure,” Maddie interjected smoothly. “It’s part of his plan. He can’t break from it.”

  Angie was mollified. “Oh, well, that makes sense.” She held out her arms. “It’s only until I explain things anyway.”

  “Right.” Nick sent a sidelong look to Maddie as he affixed the cuffs to Angie’s wrists. “I understand what you did here – and I’m glad you had your father with you – but you’re in big trouble for getting in another mess. You know that, right?”

  Maddie shrugged. “It’s supposed to be gorgeous tomorrow. How about you punish me with a picnic?”

  Nick smirked. He couldn’t help himself. “I’m going to punish you with more than that, but it’s a good start. Now … come on, Angie. I need to get you to the station.”

  “Is Peter there? Is he waiting to see me?”

  “He’s there but … I don’t know how excited he’s going to be to see you.”

  21

  Twenty-One

  “How did I know what you had planned when I found your rather cryptic note on the counter?” Nick asked the next day, walking into the meadow to find Maddie with a blanket spread out and a picnic basket handy.

  “Maybe you’re psychic,” Maddie teased, grinning.

  The way the sun glinted off her hair made Nick practically go weak in the knees. She looked so happy his chest filled with absolute love. “I think I’ll leave the psychic stuff to you. How did you know when I would be done, by the way? It doesn’t look like you’ve been out here very long.”

  Nick kicked off his shoes and settled on the middle of the blanket, watching as Maddie dug in the basket and returned with a soda, which she promptly pressed into his hand.

  “I called Dale this morning and asked him to text me when you were ready to head out,” Maddie replied. “He complained about being complicit in our ‘sugar love games’ – that was the way he phrased it, mind you, not me – but he texted like a good boy.”

  “Ah.” Nick popped the top on the soda. “I thought you would’ve tried to bribe me with wine instead of Coke.”

  “I have different plans that involve wine for tonight,” Maddie supplied. “That’s for the celebration when my punishment is over.” She crawled around Nick, positioning herself so she was behind him, and promptly dug her fingers into his neck as she began his massage.

  “Oh, geez.” Nick moaned with delight. “Keep that up for at least an hour and I’ll forget what I was punishing you for in the first place.”

  “I believe it was breaking into a car and stealing a baby.”

  “You’re not supposed to remind me, Mad.”

  “You’re not going to stay angry anyway so I’m not worried.” Maddie kissed his cheek. “Besides, I’m not sorry for what I did.”

  “I guess you shouldn’t be since it all worked out in the end,” Nick said. “Of course, it could’ve worked out much worse than it did.”

  “I’m not sure how well it really worked out. P.J. doesn’t have a mother and his father is a total tool.”

  “You’re not wrong.” Nick heaved out a sigh as he lifted his face to the sun and let Maddie’s magical hands do their work. “I don’t know if this will make you feel better, but Cook actually seemed shaken when he heard what happened. He admitted that his actions led to all of this.”

  “I doubt he’ll change.”

  “I doubt it, too,” Nick conceded. “He was already laying the groundwork for finding P.J. a new mother before he left the station. He wanted to know if I had any ideas on where he should start looking.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “To stop being a jerk and realize that women are more than sexual playthings and child caregivers.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That it was easy for me to say things like that because I have a freakishly hot girlfriend.”

  “Ha, ha.” Maddie poked his side. “How is Laura?”

  “She’s out. Cook agreed to drop the breaking and entering charges if she agreed to stay away from him. She wasn’t happy at first – and I’m not sure she’ll stick to it – but she agreed for now and left town.”

  “Has she really left town?”

  “As far as I can tell.”

  “Well, that’s something at least.” Maddie moved her hands to Nick’s lower back, eliciting a grunt that was something akin to a growl. “You’re tense.”

  “It’s been a long couple of days, Mad.”

  “It has. How is Angie doing? Is she … more rational … than she was yesterday?”

  “She seems to be in her own little world,” Nick said. “We’re getting her a psychic evaluation. I’m not sure what they’ll find.”

  Maddie stilled. “She won’t get away with it, will she?”

  “I guess that depends on what you mean by ‘get away with it.’ My guess is that she’s going to be locked in a mental hospital rather than a prison. Given the severity of her crimes, it’s unlikely that she’ll ever get out.”

  “But she might.”

  “She might and we’ll have to watch for that if it happens,” Nick confirmed. “Hey, Mad, your hands aren’t moving.”

  “Oh, sorry.” Maddie chuckled. “I didn’t mean to lay off on my punishment.”

  “This is only the beginning of your punishment,” Nick said. “You’re going to be severely punished when I take you out for a nice dinner tonight.”

  “Oh, that sounds horrible.”

  “And then you’re going to be punished some more when we break out that wine you mentioned and take a bath.”

  “My life is terrible.”

  Nick smirked. “Somehow I think you’ll survive.”

  They lapsed into amiable silence as Maddie worked on his back and Nick worked on relaxing. He broke into their quiet interlude first. “What happened to Jennifer?”

  “I spent the morning with her,” Maddie replied. “I helped her move on. She didn’t want to at first – she didn’t want to leave the baby – but I made her realize that she would be tortured here and it was better to go to the other side and wait for him.”

  “Was she okay with that?”

  “No, but she knew I was telling the truth. Plus, well, once she remembered that it was her sister who did this, I think she was dealing with a lot of guilt and didn’t want to dwell on it.”

  “Yeah. I can see that. It’s rare that I have a case where no one was innocent.”

  “That’s true. That didn’t even occur to me.” Maddie stretched out her legs as she positioned her hips so she cradled Nick’s back close to her chest. He absently ran his hands over her muscled calves as he enjoyed the afternoon. “None of the people we were dealing with were innocent and yet none of them were completely guilty either.”

  “I think Angie was
guilty.”

  “Yeah, but she lost her mind at some point,” Maddie pointed out. “She wasn’t all there. I saw it when she came into the hotel. She wanted to convince herself that certain things were true and when things didn’t immediately fall into place she fell apart.”

  “She still doesn’t believe she’s culpable in Jennifer’s death. She thinks it was Jennifer’s fault that everything happened. When she saw Peter … it was terrible. She cried and tried to throw herself on him and he pretended she had leprosy and actually wiped his arms where she touched him.”

  “Did she realize he wasn’t a prize when that happened?”

  Nick shook his head. “She claimed that Jennifer poisoned his mind and he needed to be deprogrammed.”

  “Oh, well, that fits. What about Boone? Did she take responsibility for killing him?”

  “She claims it was an accident and only happened because she was fighting him off,” Nick said. “She says he attacked her and she had no choice.”

  “Do you believe that?”

  “No.”

  “She also said that Jennifer attacked her, but we know that wasn’t true,” Maddie pointed out. “I think she decided the only way to get through this was by painting herself as a victim.”

  “That’s definitely what she did.”

  “So … what happens now?”

  Nick glanced over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

  “With the baby. He’ll be taken care of, right?”

  “Whatever Peter Cook’s faults, I think he genuinely cares for his kid,” Nick said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen there. We’ll have to watch him and see what he does.”

  “I feel bad for that baby. I can’t help but worry that he’s going to have a terrible life.”

  “You can’t fix everything, love,” Nick said. “You saved him. You made sure he didn’t disappear with a madwoman. What more could you have done?”

  “I don’t know.” Maddie sighed as she rested her chin on Nick’s shoulder. “It’s beautiful day, though, isn’t it?”

  “It’s the first real day of spring. Summer is right around the corner. Before you know it, we’ll be hunting for turtles and Petoskey stones and we’ll be skinny-dipping in the lake after dark.”

  Maddie sorted. “Of course you would focus on that.”

  “That’s one of my favorite memories ever. That was the first time I saw you naked.”

  “Ugh. Are you going to start telling that story all the time like you do the one about the time we were in the carnival funhouse and you realized I had boobs for the first time?”

  Nick barked out a laugh, delighted. “I just might, Mad. That’s still a bit off, though. It’s definitely too cold for skinny-dipping.”

  “It is.”

  “Do you know what it’s not too early for?”

  “What?”

  Nick’s eyes sparkled. “Marco,” he called out in a loud voice.

  It took Maddie a moment to realize what he was referring to. “Really?”

  “We’re adults, Mad, but that doesn’t mean we have to let go of everything from our childhood. Besides, when I catch you, I have plans to punish you.”

  “With kisses?”

  “Amongst other things.”

  Maddie smacked a quick kiss against his lips before getting to her feet. “You’re on.”

  “Get moving.” Nick watched her hurry toward the tree line. “Marco!”

  Maddie didn’t turn around. She didn’t need to. She knew he was following and always would be. “Polo.”

  “Here I come.”

  “Catch me if you can.”

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  Acknowledgments

  I’m a romantic at heart. A true romantic. I love the idea of a happy ending, so much so I have trouble writing a sad one. The world is sad enough. I like escaping in fiction. That’s just me. I like sarcasm and snark – but I’m not sure a sad ending is in me. If you’re looking for an edge like that, you’re probably looking in the wrong place. Just FYI.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Books by Lily Harper Hart

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  Deadly Ever After

  Deadly Honeymoon

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  Deadly Addition

  Deadly Vacation

  Deadly Secrets

  Deadly Storm

  Deadly Dealings

  Deadly Christmas

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  Deadly Arrival

  Deadly Rivalry

  Deadly Memories

  Deadly Adventure

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  Deadly Forever

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  Murky Seas

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