SAY YOU LOVE ME (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 4)

by Willow Rose

  “You just don’t believe the rest. That’s great.”

  I walked to the stairs and was almost up the first step when she spoke again:

  “Chad took the kids to the beach, by the way. He said you could join them if you liked.”

  I looked at my watch. It was late, and I didn’t really want to go to the beach. Still, I felt that I had to for my family’s sake, so I did. I found my swimsuit and packed a bag, then drove down there and found them, playing in the sand with their father. I stopped a couple of feet away and stood for a few seconds, staring at them. Alex was being covered up, and both girls helped out by pouring sand on top of him. They were probably getting a kick out of making sure their little brother couldn’t move and annoy them. Even Olivia looked like she was enjoying herself. Alex was shrieking with joy until Christine shoveled a big portion of sand in his face, and he began to cry. Chad told her to stop.

  “Sorry,” Christine said.

  I felt my heart drop. Having Chad in the children’s lives was such a blessing. He knew exactly how to handle them, and not carrying the full responsibility for them was a major relief for me. It was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.

  I wasn’t alone anymore.

  Olivia spotted me as I walked closer to them.

  “Mom!”

  I came up to them and put down my bag. Chad looked up and smiled widely. “Yay, Mommy’s here.”

  “Mommy. Mommy! Look at me,” Alex said.

  “Oh, my Lord,” I said. “You have no body! We must call the police. Someone stole your body.”

  That made him laugh. And me too. Not because it was funny, but because I felt happy. Being with my family again made me feel happy.

  We spent a couple of hours on the beach until the sun went down, then drove back to the house, a newfound feeling of completion settling inside of me, a sense of belonging. It had been years since I had seen my children this happy.

  Once I got back in my room, I put my bag on the floor, then saw my dad sitting on a chair in the darkness, staring at the wall with all my pictures and notes.

  “David?” I nearly gasped. “You scared me. What are you doing in here?”

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  David didn’t move an inch. He didn’t even turn to look at me as I approached him. He sat with his hands put together in front of his face, looking pensive. When I finally caught his gaze, his eyes were ablaze.

  “David? Are you okay?”

  His tightened his lips. “Seeing him like this, Eva Rae. It’s like … It’s torture.”

  I nodded. “When it comes to our children, there …”

  I stopped myself as I teared up, thinking about my own children and if it had been any of them that were lying out there.

  “He was the one I did right, you know? He was my second chance at getting this right. I was the best father; I was everything that I could never be to you or even your sister. With Sydney, it was like … well, I guess I messed both of you up pretty bad, huh? But with Adam, it was different. I had a clean slate with him, and we were doing well. He was doing so well. He was a good student, most of the time, getting mostly As and Bs and an occasional C, but he was doing well for himself. He never got himself in trouble. He had friends. He had a sweet girlfriend that he adored. He was running track and had just been accepted on the varsity team. I just know in my heart that there is no evil in him; I know my kid. And now he’s lying out there, completely lifeless, and even if he wakes up, they’ll take him away. He’ll spend most of his life in prison for something he didn’t do. He didn’t kill Allyson; he didn’t.”

  “Hey, I believe you. You know I do,” I said with a sigh. “But I can’t seem to convince anyone else.”

  “I want to catch him,” he said. “I want to catch whoever did this to my son so badly. I might be able to help you. Fill me in on what you’ve got. I want to help. I can’t stand to sit out there at the hospital and wait for even one more second. I can’t stand it anymore. I want to do something.”

  I looked at David. Did I want his help? Could I put my anger aside enough to act civilly around him? Could I stand being around him?

  I exhaled. I could hardly deny a father’s desire to save his son. If anyone knew what that was like, it was me.

  “All right,” I said and walked to the wall with all my sticky notes plastered all over it. I grabbed one and showed it to him. “I call him the Leech. Because I believe he uses others to take the fall for his murders. Just like a leech, he uses others for personal gain, without giving anything in return, exhausting the other’s resources, finally killing them. He’s a bloodsucking worm.”

  My dad sent me a faint smile. I wasn’t trying to make him laugh or even cheer him up; I was just explaining how this guy worked … how I believed he managed to stay under the radar and not be discovered.

  “That’s the only pattern for him that I’ve come up with so far,” I said. “The way he arranges his kills, he manages to make it look like others are doing it. And no matter what he does, no one believes it. Nobody would go that far is the reaction I get when trying to point it out. It seems impossible, just my speculations, or crazy even. That’s how clever he is. That’s his talent if you’ll call it that.”

  My dad nodded heavily. “Sounds just about right to me. Now, do you have any suspects so far?”

  “That’s the hard part.” I walked to my desk and picked up a photo I had printed from Facebook. “This is Mr. Jenkins. He’s forty-five, lives here on the island with his wife and child, and works at the Ritz-Carlton as a bartender. He’s my main suspect.”

  David stared at the photo, then up at me. “Why him?”

  “Because he was seeing Allyson behind Adam’s back. Adam found out, and the police believe that’s why he lost it. According to them, that was his motive for killing her and shooting up the school. Jenkins is connected both to Allyson and the deaths at the Ritz-Carlton since he works there.”

  “I see,” David said and stared at the Facebook photo intently. “And so, you believe that what happened at the nursing home was his work too? Why?”

  “First of all, there was the video he sent me. No one in their right mind would record something like that and send it to me if it wasn’t to taunt me, to tell me see what I am doing. No one will ever believe you. He’s getting cocky because he can tell that he’s getting away with it all, and no one even suspects that it’s all connected.”

  “Except for you,” he said.

  “Exactly, but no one will believe me, and he’s getting a kick out of that. Makes him want to do more and to accelerate, to kill more and more people because he feels invincible, untouchable. It’s very dangerous because we don’t know what he might do next. There’s no real MO, so I can’t guess it. But there’s something else that made me certain that he was behind what happened at the nursing home. I went to see the truck when I was at the sheriff’s office,” I said. “To get my phone. That’s where I saw the truck. I got to look inside, and there was no way Jeff Facer could have driven it. Look.”

  I showed him the picture I had taken with my phone when the tech guy didn’t see it.

  “Look at the positioning of the driver’s seat and the mirrors. I’ve been teaching my oldest daughter, Olivia, to drive, and she has way longer legs than me and is taller than I am, so she has to adjust the seat every time or her knees knock into the steering wheel. Jeff Facer was a tall guy with long legs. Look at this photo from the online article about him. He was six-foot-four. There is no way a guy that is six feet four could sit in that seat and drive. No way.”

  “So, you’re thinking that whoever drove that truck — and placed Jeff Facer in it when dumping it for the police to find — had shorter legs?”

  “Yes, like Mr. Jenkins. He’s only five-foot-seven, so he could easily have fit there. Someone his size drove that truck through the nursing home and killed all those people. Not Jeff. But the Leech knew that once they found the truck with the person inside of it, the police would be so
terrified, they’d end up killing him, or at least he hoped they would.”

  “Just like in Adam’s case,” David said, his face lighting up. “This is exactly like his story. The Leech knew that there was an officer at the school because all schools have that now since the Parkland shooting. He knew Adam would be shot, and then he would be to blame for Allyson’s death and for whoever was killed at the school.”

  “But luckily, Adam was smart. He didn’t aim for anyone. He closed his eyes and shot the wall right under the ceiling, hitting no one.”

  “But why?” David said. “That’s what I don’t understand. Why did he do it?”

  I exhaled. “My theory is that the Leech had kidnapped Allyson on the night after the party and that he was threatening Adam, saying if he didn’t, Allyson would be killed. That was why he had her picture clutched in his hand when he walked inside the cafeteria. He didn’t want to do it, but he saw no other way out. He believed it was the only way to save her life. But of course, the Leech would kill her anyway.”

  David nodded. “It makes sense. That would be the only reason why my boy would do such an atrocity. For love.”

  I sat down with an exhale. “That also explains why Allyson was found in the dumpster. She wasn’t useful anymore. She had served her purpose, and he just tossed her. If only I could get to talk to the deputies who tried to arrest Jeff Facer and ended up shooting him. But the sheriff’s office isn’t exactly cooperative. They really hate me out there by now.”

  David lifted his head, a surprised look on his face. “Actually, I might be able to help with that.”

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  The Palace Saloon was located in downtown Fernandina Beach. It boasted of being the oldest bar in Florida, and it was said that ghosts from ten decades would join in drinking to your health.

  I didn’t know about ghosts, but there sure were people being haunted in there by their pasts. Like Deputy Griffins. We found him sitting alone at the counter. In front of him stood a tall glass of half-finished beer. He stared at the TV screen at the end of the bar that showed some game being played, but he didn’t seem to be following it closely.

  David was the one who approached him, putting a hand on his shoulder. David had told me he had known Deputy Griffins for years, that their kids had grown up together and were the same age.

  “Mark?”

  The deputy smiled. He seemed like he’d had more than enough to drink. His eyes were swimming.

  “David, my man.”

  They shook hands, and David introduced me. “This is my daughter.”

  It was strange being introduced like that, and it was going to take some time getting used to. I reached out my hand, and he shook it.

  “Nice to meet you.”

  “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked, his speech slurred.

  My dad ordered beers for us all. I would usually prefer a glass of wine, but I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t there to drink.

  “So, how are you holding up?” David asked. “After what happened?”

  David made sure I sat in between them, so I could hear everything.

  Deputy Griffins shook his head and sipped his beer. “They gave me a week of paid leave.”

  “Well, maybe that wasn’t the worst,” David said. “To take some time off, after seeing those things.”

  “You were the one who got Jeff Facer, right?” I asked. “I read about it.”

  He nodded, looking proud, yet heavyhearted.

  “He pulled a gun on you?” I asked.

  Griffins looked away. He downed the rest of his beer, then ordered a new one. I could tell he was getting pretty hammered by now, as he could barely sit still on the stool. He kept sliding to the side. A long pause followed where he watched the television before he finally whispered.

  “There was no gun.”

  “There wasn’t?” I said, feeling my heart rate going up.

  “We just thought there was. But don’t tell anyone,” he said and put a finger to his lips, barely reaching them. “They told us to keep it to ourselves.”

  “She’s a cop too,” David said. “You can trust her.”

  He looked at me, then smiled. “You’re a colleague, huh? Who would have known? A small thing like you?”

  “Small but lethal,” David said.

  “Can I ask you something?” I said.

  His beer arrived, and he took a deep sip, then nodded. “S-sure.”

  “Did you notice his nails?”

  “His nails?”

  “Yes, Jeff Facer’s nails.”

  Griffins drank again. “What about ‘em?”

  I leaned closer, so no one would hear what I asked. “Were they pulled out?”

  Griffins went quiet again. He drank, then put the beer down. He almost fell off the stool, then nodded.

  “There was … blood. Running down his arms. They said he did it to himself before … you know, getting into the truck and driving through … Maybe he just lost it, huh? I just still … well, I kept thinking, who does that? Who pulls out his own nails? It must have hurt like hell, you know?”

  “Well, maybe he didn’t exactly do it himself,” I mumbled, trying to hide my enthusiasm. I had finally found an MO. Pulling out their nails was the Leech’s trademark. He knew it was dangerous, yet he still did it because he needed to put his mark on them; he needed them to carry his brand.

  It was the first time the Leech had shown weakness.

  I stared at Griffins, who finally lost his grip on the counter and fell backward. David grabbed him before he could fall and tipped him back into place.

  “I think we should get him home,” I said. “You know where he lives, right?”

  David nodded, then put Griffins’ arm around his neck and supported him while they walked. I had seen my share of law enforcement losing the battle with alcohol when the job got to them. It was a terrible thing, and it haunted me. Often, I wondered if it could ever happen to me. With the things I had seen, it was a wonder it hadn’t happened already.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  After dropping off the deputy, we drove home where Chad and the kids had prepared a wonderful steak dinner with mashed potatoes and Caesar salad for us all. We ate together in Eileen’s dining room, and I realized I was actually able to finally let go of some of the anger I had felt toward David and just enjoy all of us being together. It felt so incredible, like a dream come true, and I could tell the kids enjoyed it just as much as I did.

  I couldn’t help thinking about my mom, though. She had tried to stop me from going to see my father and told me nothing good would come of it, that I would only end up getting hurt.

  “It’s what he does,” she said. “He hurts the people he loves.”

  It had almost made me stay home, but now I was glad I had decided to go anyway.

  After having cleaned up after dinner and put Alex to bed, I walked out on the porch and sat down on the swing with a glass of wine. I enjoyed the sound of the ocean roaring far away, mixed with the noise from the cicadas in the trees next to me. The warm moist air felt wonderful on my face. It was hard to believe that somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean roared a tropical storm, ready to cause havoc and damage should it decide to make landfall. They had been talking about it all afternoon on TV. Damian was its name. So far, the computer models all said it would stay out to sea, but it was coming awfully close to the coast as it became a hurricane. It happened every year at this time when living in Florida. It wasn’t a part that I had missed while living in Washington. You never really knew what would happen, if you had to pack your bags with nothing but a few hours to get out of there, or if it would — like it did for the most part — just pass by without even causing rain. You had to remain prepared for both scenarios, yet you still had to continue your life as usual until you knew for certain what it was going to do. It was maddening at times.

  I sipped my wine, then Chad came out to me and sat down, also holding a glass in his hand.

  “This is nic
e,” he said. “Out here.”

  I smiled. “It sure is.”

  He drank, then exhaled. He turned to look at me. “So, the kids and I will be going back tomorrow. You think you can get by without us?”

  I chuckled. “I think I can, but it has been so great to have you all here. Thank you for surprising me like this. It was very sweet of you.”

  “It was nothing, really.”

  “No, it was, Chad. It was extremely thoughtful of you. The children have really enjoyed having all of us together. And, frankly, so have I.”

  “Well, maybe we should do more of that,” he said, sounding suddenly very serious. “Being together.”

  “Yeah, we can totally do that. Once I get back.”

  “No, I mean for real, Eva Rae,” he said and looked into my eyes. His expression was different, and he touched my hand. “I’m serious.”

  “Chad, I …”

  He kissed the top of my hand. “I miss you, Eva Rae.”

  I was about to speak when he leaned over and kissed me. At first, I was so surprised, I didn’t know what to do, but then I found out that I actually enjoyed it and let him. His lips felt soft against mine, and he smelled and tasted like beach and saltwater. I closed my eyes and kissed him back.

  As our lips finally parted, he took my face between his hands and looked deep into my eyes.

  “I mean it, Eva Rae. I want you back. I want us to be a family again. I realized I can’t live without you and the kids in my life. What I did was stupid. It was ridiculous. It was my mid-life crisis, and I have to say, I regret it desperately. It was the stupidest thing ever, and I want to tell you how sorry I am.”

  I stared at my ex-husband, wondering what he had eaten. Why was he suddenly saying all the right things, saying everything I had wanted him to tell me a year ago?

  I exhaled.

  “I don’t know what to say, Chad.”

  “Say you want it too because I know you do. I can see it in your eyes. We were good together. We were a good family. Yes, we drifted apart over the past several years because you worked so much, and maybe I didn’t do anything to make things better either, especially not when I decided to punish you by having an affair. But we can get past all that. I know we can. We’re better than this, Eva Rae. We are so much more.”