"Let me guess. Sometimes you thought she took it too far?"
"When we would break up, she would go out with them," he replied defensively, his brow furrowed.
"And she belonged to you, right? She shouldn't be doing that."
A flash of anger crossed Steve's features before he could control it. "I was jealous, man. Really jealous. I loved Kelly."
Revulsion filled Chris's gut but he needed to keep his emotions under control. He was letting his personal feelings show too much.
"When you got jealous, and you argued, is that when you would knock her around? Is that when she would leave for awhile?"
Steve was staring at the floor again, not answering.
"Did you ever get mad enough to kill her, Steve? Did you ever threaten that she would regret leaving you?"
His head shot up and Steve's eyes went round. "Fuck, no. No way. I would never hurt her."
"But you did hurt her," Chris pointed out. "You said you didn't have any control when you were high. So maybe it was all an accident. You were arguing. It got heated. You hit her and maybe she fell. Maybe she hit the back of her head and you panicked. You didn't have any premeditation to kill her. It was just a tragic accident."
The other man was shaking his head, tears spilling down his cheeks now. "No, that's not it at all. I loved Kelly. I wouldn't do that. I would never do that. She was alive the last time I saw her. Things were good then and we weren't fighting or nothing."
"But she was with other guys," Chris pressed. "Whenever she left you she went out with them."
"Arrogant fucks," Steve muttered under his breath. "A bunch of assholes who thought they were so cool. They'd come into the bar at the end of the day and boast about what they'd done. Hell, half of them didn't do all the shit they said they did."
"What did they do? Were they cops?"
"Journalists. Reporters," Steve said. "And the way they bragged, you would think they were a god or something. They talked about getting the dirt on local politicians or sports stars or maybe they saved a little kid that had fallen down a well. I couldn't stand those guys."
"Journalists," Chris repeated, his mind going a mile a minute but he couldn't quite put his finger on what his brain was trying to tell him. "The bar you worked at...that's where the newspaper guys hung out?"
"Yeah, the newspaper offices were only a block or two away."
"And Kelly flirted with them? Right in front of you? That must have made you mad."
"I told you. I didn't kill her." Steve had his head in his hands, wiping his nose on his sleeve. "I didn't do it. I loved her."
Chris looked at Steve, then at Logan, then back at Steve.
"You know what? I believe you."
But if Steve wasn't guilty, then who was?
31
Ella stuck her head into Galen's office. As usual it was a mess - papers, books, and folders piled high on every flat surface. He was currently combing through the files in the cabinet behind his desk.
"Do you have a minute?"
He grunted and then beckoned her to enter. "I can give you three but then I have a meeting. What do you need?"
"I was hoping you could sign off on some of Lujack's time to help me research the case we spoke about."
Her boss was extremely protective of his head researcher’s time, especially if it wasn't a priority story. If Galen said no, then Ella was going to have an issue. She didn't want to have to ask Chris to use his job to help her. She wanted to do this on her own.
Barely registering her request, Galen grunted again which was a good sign. If he was going to say no then he would have said it already.
"That's fine. Are you also working on that profile? I'd like that for the Politics Monday segment."
She and Galen had also discussed her doing a personal profile on one of the candidates for mayor.
"Yes, I have a sit down interview with him scheduled for late this afternoon."
"Good," he replied, his head still buried in the drawer.
With any luck, she could duck out of here and he wouldn't even remember she'd visited.
"Thank you," she said hurriedly, turning to exit, but her heel got caught on one of the chair legs and for a moment she was unsteady on her feet. She caught herself at the last minute but somehow her flailing arm had caught a stack of books and they cascaded to the floor with a loud thud.
Shit. Graceful, I am not.
"Sorry," she said, immediately kneeling down to pick them up. "So sorry. I've got them."
This time instead of a grunt, Galen sighed and scraped his fingers through his hair. "Don't worry about it. I really need to clean this place up one of these days."
He'd said that before the last time someone had knocked over a pile on his desk.
She placed a couple of books back on the desk and reached down for a few more, now eye level with the credenza where Galen kept his souvenirs. She had a close up view of his Mickey Mantle autographed baseball and his trophy from when he was captain of another station's bowling team.
That's when she saw it. Hanging from the golden arm of that bowler.
An earring. A long gold earring that looked a hell of a lot like the one Kelly Perkins was wearing the night she went missing. Ella had seen several of the photos. She'd even seen the ones that Chris had blown up to get a detailed look at the earring.
It might not be the same one. What are the chances?
Okay, then why does Galen have an earring among his souvenirs?
Maybe it belongs to him?
He wrote that article all those years ago.
That doesn't mean anything.
But it might...
Ella pasted a smile on her face and chuckled at nothing in particular. She didn't want her boss to know that she'd seen the earring. She needed to get out of this office and call Chris. This might mean nothing but it might mean something. With any luck, Steve Adams had confessed to the murder and this piece of jewelry in Galen's office was simply a strange coincidence.
Chris didn't like coincidences, though.
"Here you go," she said in a sing-song voice. She placed the final two books back on the desk and stood, backing toward the door. Her heart was beating so loudly she was shocked he couldn't heart it. "I better get to work. Thanks again."
Ella exited the office and walked swiftly down the hall, not wanting to run because that would look strange but definitely wanting to put some distance between herself and Galen. Sinking gratefully down into her chair, she breathed a sigh of relief and then reached for her phone to call Chris. She needed to speak with him right away.
Before her fingers closed around it another, larger hand wrapped firmly around her wrist.
"I can't let you do that."
Galen.
Now what?
"I don't know why my story doesn't sound like everyone else's, but I'm telling the truth."
Sheri Martindale's cheeks were a bright pink and her brown eyes sparkled with anger. She was defending her version of Kelly's story and was not happy about being questioned about it.
"You're saying that you didn't know about Kelly's substance abuse issues?"
"She dabbled when we'd go out and party. I'd hardly call it abuse."
There were no signs of subterfuge on Sheri. She appeared to truly believe what she was saying. Adams may have hit the nail on the head - Kelly had played a role for her friend.
Chris wasn't thrilled about having to tear down Sheri's memories but he needed to make sure she was telling everything she knew. All of it. Not just the whitewashed parts.
"Did you know that Kelly was arrested for prostitution?"
Clearly no. Sheri's eyes were wide and her mouth hung open in shock before shaking her head vehemently. "No. That's not true. Kelly wouldn't do something like that."
"Are you sure? Because she has an arrest record, Sheri."
"Then it was a mistake," the older woman said, her lips a mutinous line. "Some sort of misunderstanding. Kelly simply wasn't the type."
"Who would be the type?"
"I know what you're trying to do," Sheri said, her finger wagging in front of Chris's nose. "You're trying to trip me up but I'm not going to fall for it. I knew Kelly. She had issues but nothing like that. It was all just a misunderstanding, I'm sure."
"How might that have been a...misunderstanding?"
Sheri shrugged. "She had a lot of boyfriends. Some of them had money. Maybe he thought she was asking him for money but she was asking him to buy her dinner or something."
That was an alternate explanation. Not a good one, but Sheri seemed pleased with it if her expression was anything to go by. She was smiling now, a look of triumph in her eyes.
"That's a possibility, of course. You're not the first that said Kelly had a lot of men in her life."
Sheri snorted. "There were a bunch of men that wanted to be in her life but she wouldn't give them the time of day. She was picky about who she went out with. She turned down plenty of guys, especially at that bar she worked at."
Now they were on to something...
"Did she turn down her boss Allan Maxwell? Did he ask her out?"
"Kelly said that he'd get grabby but he wasn't any sort of threat. She thought he was funny but I don't remember her ever saying that he'd asked her out. It was the customers that were the problem."
"Anyone in particular?"
Once again Sheri shrugged. "I'm not sure. If she mentioned a name I don't remember it. I just remember her saying that she was always turning down the customers that asked her out."
With a nudge from Logan, Chris wrapped up his questions, thanking Sheri Martindale for meeting with them again. When they climbed into their vehicle and drove away, Logan finally spoke.
"There was no point in continuing that. We weren't getting anywhere. If she's lying she sure as hell believes what she's saying."
"I agree but it's damn frustrating. Do you think we should ask Maxwell about any customer that Kelly might have been having trouble with?"
"We could but if we haven't talked to them already then they wouldn't trying to scare you and Ella off of the case."
True. Shit.
Just a minute. Just one damn minute.
His heart pumping faster, Chris slammed on the brakes and pulled into a fast food parking lot. He pulled out his phone to call Ella.
"That's not exactly true. Everyone at the station knows that she's working with me on this case. And they're all journalists. Maybe one of them worked at the newspaper thirty years ago. She could be working with a killer."
"She's got two bodyguards on her, Chris. Relax. She's going to be fine," Logan assured him, his voice encouraging. "We're not going to let anybody hurt her."
Throwing down his phone, Chris put the car in drive and roared out of the parking lot. If he put his foot to the floor and hit all the lights green, he could be at the station in thirty minutes, forty-five if there was traffic.
"She didn't answer," Chris said. "And she always answers. This isn't good."
"Knox is there. I'll call him and Ryan. Tell them to get inside the station right now."
Yes, Knox was there. And Chris was going to have to trust that his former friend had his - and Ella's - back.
32
Her entire life Ella had never been good in a crisis situation. She was, however, in the crisis of her life and she'd better improve fast.
When Galen's hand had wrapped around her wrist her heart had jumped into her throat, making it almost impossible to breathe. Somehow she'd managed to squeak out that she had no idea what he was talking about but clearly he didn't believe her. That's why he was dragging her down the hall back to his office with a gun discreetly pressed into her ribcage, urging her forward.
He'd said they were going to talk, but he didn't need a gun to do that.
Ella desperately hoped that talking was all he was planning to do. She hadn't had a chance to call Chris and although Knox and Ryan were outside, their main goal was to make sure no one dangerous got into the building. She'd assured them this morning that the station was secure. No one could get in without an electronic badge. They had, of course, let her know that those little card readers weren't exactly a perfect security system. At no time had she thought that she'd need to be worried about the people inside the station.
"Don't make a scene," he hissed into her ear, his hand like steel around her arm. She was going to have a nasty bruise from pulling against his grip. "If we see someone, just act natural."
The great thing about a news station was that there was always someone around twenty-four hours a day. The terrible thing was that most of those people were distracted with their own work and barely paying any attention.
Where is everyone anyway? Did they all go get coffee at the same time?
"If I see someone, I'm going to scream so loudly they'll hear me in Boca Raton."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Or what? What will you do?
She didn't ask the question out loud, however, because she wasn't sure she truly wanted the answer. Her brain had already made up several scenarios and none of them were all that great. She tried to remember what she'd been taught back in college when she and a few friends had taken a self-defense course. Something about kneeing him in the groin... First chance, she was going to try that.
If her brain cooperated. Like when that car was barreling toward them, her mind was saying one thing but her limbs weren't listening. If he dropped her arm now she wasn't even sure she could run for safety.
"I don't want to have to hurt you."
"You don't have to do this," Ella said, sweat beginning to roll down her back, her blouse sticking to her skin. "I don't know anything. Not really."
If she was falling apart, Galen didn't look much better. Beads of moisture had popped out on his forehead and his skin looked ashen and pale. His breathing was fast and his pupils were dilated, maybe from excitement or fear.
"You know enough," he growled. He started to turn left toward his office but he heard voices and quickly pushed her to the right, his head swiveling back and forth trying to see a safe exit. Except that the front and back exits to the building weren't anywhere near here.
Ella opened her mouth to scream but his hand clamped over her face before pushing her through a doorway and into the stairwell.
"Shut the fuck up," he growled, his fingers still covering her mouth. His right hand pushed the gun painfully into her ribs, reminding her that she was a split second from death. Technically, she was free but running was a terrible idea. He'd shoot her in the back while trying to get away. "Don't say a word."
More voices this time from a few flights below them had Galen propelling her up the stairs. Stumbling on her high heels, she swiftly and silently ran through possible escape routes but none seemed like a decent option. If she ran, he'd shoot. If she tried to wrestle the gun away, he'd win as he was much stronger. The third one had the least amount of downside.
Talking to him.
Galen might still kill her but at least she'd go down trying to save her own life. A few tears escaped and ran down her sweaty cheeks as she thought of her parents' grief if she died. She'd never made complete peace with them since finding out they'd lied. Frankly, at this moment what they'd done barely mattered. In the big scheme of life. It was a blip on the screen and it didn't affect her love for them one iota.
And Chris.
If she were honest with herself - and she had no reason to lie when facing death - she'd fallen in love with his old-fashioned manners and laidback attitude. He could be intense when he needed to be but for the most part he was like night and day compared to the other men she'd dated in the past. He was kind, caring, and passionate as hell. He was a good father and a strong man who didn't have to act like a macho jerk to gain respect. Funny how life had brought him to her exactly when she'd needed him.
Wait...I don't want to die.
Galen had dragged her all the way to the roof, pushing the door open wit
h his shoulder so hard the door flew back and slammed into the wall with a loud bang that rang in her ears. Daylight flooded her field of vision and she had to squint as he shoved her forward. She fell to her knees on the hard concrete, the sting of the scrapes on her flesh a sharp reminder that she was still alive. She still had a chance.
Talk to him.
"You don't want to do this, Galen. It's not going to make anything better."
The gusty wind swirled around her, whipping her hair against her skin and carrying her words far away.
"I can't go to jail. It was an accident."
Ella froze, his statement burrowing a hole into her brain. Galen had done it. He'd just admitted it out loud as she lay on the ground, his gun trained on her face. He was an admitted murderer and she was directly in his path to freedom.
This is so very bad. What do I do?
Talk. Delay. Give someone a chance to find out that all is not well.
"Of course, it was an accident. You didn't mean to do it."
"I loved Kelly. She was everything to me."
Galen had loved Kelly? How had he even known her?
"Of course, you loved her," Ella said, her gaze darting to the open door to the stairwell and measuring if she could make it before he caught or shot her. It looked a mile away but was probably less than ten feet. "You wouldn't hurt her on purpose."
"I would never hurt her," Galen replied, his voice thin and weak. His hand shook where he was pointing the gun at her and Ella shrank back slightly, not wanting to be the victim of an accidental discharge. That run for freedom was looking pretty good. She couldn't allow herself to be gunned down like a rabbit in the crosshairs. "We fought and it was an accident."
Keep him talking.
"How did you meet Kelly?"
He frowned as if he didn't understand the question. Finally he shook his head, wiping his sweaty brow with his free hand. "She was a waitress at the bar we all frequented after work."
"And you fell in love?"
"We loved each other. We argued that day. We were both angry and she hit me. I shoved her away from me and she fell and hit her head. I just panicked. I didn't know what to do."
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