by Dana Nussio
“No. There’s one more place. Not far from White Lake, there’s a smaller body of water, Walleye Lake or Steelhead Lake or something like that. The guy who owned much of the area had a bunch of ice-fishing cabins that he moved right out on the water each year when the lake froze solid. We rented those several times, too.”
She blinked away the memories of snow angels and the wiggling fish that they’d reeled in through the openings built into the cabin floor. Again, she couldn’t look at Travis. If she did, he would know she hadn’t told him the truth and was still protecting her father. She couldn’t bear knowing she’d hurt him with her lie.
Travis leaned forward in his seat. “Okay, sis, she gave you what you wanted. Now what are you going to do to protect her? If this guy is telling the truth, we already know he isn’t afraid to murder someone just to impress her. He’ll have no problem killing again to get what he wants.”
“My detectives will move as quickly as they can,” Melissa told him. “And we’ll increase patrols in your neighborhood, but you know we’re not a security service. You two will have to do your parts as well. At work, you should behave as if you know nothing, while making sure that Tatiana isn’t left alone. And at the house, you’ll have to be diligent, locking doors and checking locks.”
Travis folded his hands together. “So, you’re willing to admit that it was a good idea, after all, that Tatiana is staying at my place.”
Melissa shook her head, but one side of her mouth lifted. “I won’t go that far. But it could have been worse if she’d been alone.”
“That’s a start.”
The police chief studied Travis and Tatiana, probably still wondering about the depth of their relationship. Tatiana was less certain of that herself now. They were more than coworkers, friends and prospective coparents but still less than lovers, if that one unwise night could be discounted. Even in all the mess surrounding them, it was becoming harder by the day for her to deny that she wanted more from him.
Melissa stood, signaling the meeting was over. “I’m going to have you two sit down with Officer Grace Colton to complete your official report. We will keep the report quiet for as long as we can.”
“Another Colton? Sibling or cousin?”
“Cousin,” Travis and Melissa chorused.
Tatiana couldn’t help but to laugh at that. “Looks like I’ll meet the whole family before too long.”
“It’ll still take a while,” Travis told her.
As Melissa guided them to the door, Tatiana recalled why she’d sought information from the police department that day in the first place.
“Is there any chance I’ll get my laptop back? The guys keep hounding me about updates.”
The chief shook her head. “’Fraid not. That computer is official evidence now.”
“But what am I supposed to do when—”
“You’re going to have to be evasive,” Melissa told her. “You’ve proven you’re skilled at that.”
Travis crossed his arms. “Why do you keep saying that? She told you what you wanted to know.”
That Melissa glanced down at her notes rather than answer the question suggested Tatiana hadn’t given her all the information she needed.
“Just don’t try to save the day, little brother.” She touched his arm as they exited her office. “You chose not to be in law enforcement, so I want you to leave the heroics to those who get paid to do it legally.”
“I’ll try,” he told her.
“Try hard, or you’ll be spending the night in a jail cell, too.”
* * *
Troy rapped on the door to Melissa’s office a half hour later and waited. The door swung open instead.
“Travis, I don’t want to talk about—”
“Sorry. Wrong relative,” the detective said with a grin. “I thought that was my cousin rushing out of here with Tatiana Davison a few minutes ago.”
Melissa frowned, then pulled him into the room and closed the door. She looked exhausted, and it was barely noon. The spike in violent crime in Grave Gulch was taking a toll on the whole community, but, as chief, his cousin was under the most pressure.
“The two of them were here to fill out a report. Someone’s been stalking Tatiana with emails and flowers, and now there appears to be a connection between that suspect and the copycat murder.”
“Travis really stepped in it this time, didn’t he? What was he thinking, bringing her into his company and his home?”
“I don’t know, but we have to deal with the situation as it is now. We’re going to try to keep it out of the news, but we haven’t had much luck with that lately. We have a leak somewhere in this department.”
“You still haven’t figured it out?”
Her jaw flexed, and she shook her head. “No. But when I do...”
Troy shook his upper body. “Man, I wouldn’t want to be the one with a big mouth.”
Melissa updated him on the recent murder case and gave him an overview of the stalking situation. When she was finished, she handed him the copies of the emails and the card from the flowers.
He focused on the most recent message first. “He said ‘my work at the park,’ which hints at a murder confession, and then he wants her to know that he did it for her dad and her.”
Melissa leaned forward, more alert as she had the chance to discuss case details and relive her former role as detective.
“If he’s really guilty, instead of just taking credit for someone else’s crime, then we already know that he made some mistakes in the murder,” she said. “The first two victims each had a single gunshot wound on the left side of the chest cavity, but the third victim’s injury was on the right side.”
“His other mistake was in the staging of the body,” Troy said. “He had Patrick Kowalski’s hands folded over his chest, not over his abdomen like the two other victims.”
“Good thing for us Davison made a few mistakes of his own.” She glanced down at her notebook. “But I have to wonder if he wanted to get caught. I can’t believe he left DNA at both crime scenes. It seems he would have improved his skills the second time. If it was only the second.”
Troy had wondered that himself. “We’ll need to look at other communities where the Davison family lived. Apparently, they relocated frequently. But back to differences, the copycat killing didn’t follow the pattern there, either. Not a spot of human DNA evidence at the crime scene. Just some blond dog fur, which is hardly conclusive, since everyone walks their dogs in the park. At least they did before all this.”
“We have to stop them both.” She pressed her lips into a line. “We have to take our town back.”
Troy pointed to the second email. “Then if we are to believe that the stalker is also the copycat murderer, we know he’s smart and methodical in some ways and impulsive in others. He couldn’t wait to tell her that he’d killed for her.”
“Tatiana is part of his obsession.” She stared at the pages on her desk and then looked up again. “So, what do you think he’ll do if he discovers there’s something going on between the Colton Plastics co-CEOs?”
“You think they’re a thing, too?”
“I don’t know if there’s something between them yet, but from the way my brother was looking at her just now, I know he wants there to be.”
“Bryce and I wondered the same thing when we interviewed her with Travis in the room. He was so protective over her that we could barely ask our questions, and then he wigged out at us after she got upset and ran out of the room.”
“Travis sure knows how to pick them.”
“You’re not going to bring up Aubrey now, are you? Their engagement was like seven years ago. Still a mother hen, protecting your brothers?”
Melissa harrumphed, but eventually she smiled. “Never cross a guy’s sister.”
“I’ll try to remember that,�
� he said with a grin. “But we’re talking about Tatiana Davison here, not Aubrey. If there is or might be something between her and my cousin, Tatiana’s worst crimes appear to be having a dad who’s an accused serial killer and, possibly, being too loyal to him.”
“The second part is what I’m worried about. Tatiana finally told me some places where her father might have gone in Michigan. I’ve been in contact with the Muskegon Police Department and the Muskegon County Sheriff’s Department, and they’re sending out patrol cars to check out those areas. But I still get the feeling she knows more.”
“You’ll know the answer to that soon enough.”
Melissa crossed her arms as if suddenly cold. “On the other case, I told Travis we will increase patrols around his condo. But we don’t know what this guy will do if she doesn’t return his affections or isn’t impressed with the crime that he committed for her. Or if the woman he believes should be his wants someone else.”
That was the crux of the situation. She was too close to these cases, particularly the one involving the stalker. She couldn’t protect her brother.
“He’s a smart guy, Melissa. He’ll be okay.”
She waved away his comment. “Of course, he will. I just hope he doesn’t get so focused on shielding Davison’s daughter that he ends up becoming a target himself.”
Chapter 17
Travis stood at the top of his stairs, looking down to the level below, where Tatiana had disappeared the moment that they’d arrived home two hours before. As angry as she’d been during the ride back home, he didn’t want to go down there and talk to her, but he couldn’t wait any longer. She had to understand that he’d determined that they would both work remotely for her safety, even if he’d had to overrule her to do it.
“There’s food up here if you’re hungry,” he called down and waited for a response.
Just when he was convinced none would be coming, she rounded the corner and stood at the bottom of the steps. “Did you think you could draw me out with food?”
“I figured it was worth a try.” He didn’t dare mention that it had worked.
She started up the stairs. “I might as well have dinner. Looks like I’m going to be stuck here, anyway.”
“You need to eat something for the baby.”
He didn’t miss her glare. “This might not be the best time for you to tell me what to do with my body. Or the baby. You already pulled rank at the office when we were supposed to be equals, and so you’d better not try it at home.”
“Okay. I’ll keep quiet about that.” At least he’d convinced her to come upstairs. He hadn’t been sure that would ever happen tonight.
“Dinner had better be something good.”
“Wow. Demanding.”
She’d started toward the kitchen, but at his comment, she glanced back. “You’re calling me the pushy one?”
The words demanding and pushy didn’t mean the same things, but this wasn’t the time to point that out.
She entered the kitchen and took her seat at the table he’d already set. Then she lifted her chin, closed her eyes, and sniffed. “Wait. What is that wonderful smell?”
“Hamburgers grilled on my stove and French fries.” He carried a tray of burgers and grilled buns and a basket of fries to the table, where he’d placed a vegetable salad.
“You must really be trying to make this up to me.”
“Well, I did make the fries in the air fryer, but I wouldn’t mind if dinner earned me a few steps out of the doghouse.”
“It’s going to take more than food to dig you out of that shack.”
But even as she said it, she reached for a bun and a burger. She took her time stacking on a tomato, some lettuce and a squirt of ketchup before taking a big bite. He had to hide his grin. It wouldn’t help his case. He fixed his own sandwich and waited a few minutes before bringing up the subject he dreaded.
“You have to know that I made the right decision.”
The fury in her eyes told him he could have found a better way to broach the topic.
Instead of answering right away, Tatiana used the tongs to put salad on her plate and dragged several fries through her puddle of ketchup before downing them in quick succession.
“That’s just it,” she said. “You made the decision. What happened to co-CEOs? Was that only for the company letterhead?”
“What was I supposed to do? When we got back to the office, I don’t know about you, but there was no way I could have gotten any work done.”
Just the thought of it brought back that moment of panic when he’d realized he couldn’t protect her or their child from an enemy he couldn’t identify. If only he hadn’t at the same time made that discovery and had the sudden conviction that his feelings for Tatiana had long since bypassed platonic. Had he overreacted? Possibly. But he wouldn’t admit that to her.
“I don’t know. You never asked me if I was okay to work. Your sister told us to act like everything was fine while they were conducting the investigation.”
He blinked and then shook his head. “I’m sorry. You just looked so freaked out that I—”
“Did I really look that bad?”
“No. Not bad.” He considered her words for a few seconds and then sighed. “Fine. It was me. I was the one who was freaking out. Each time one of the guys passed me, all I could see was him dragging you from the building and holding a gun to your head. The gun he used to blow a gaping hole in the chest of a stranger, just to impress you.”
She paused with a fry midway to her mouth and then lowered it to the plate instead. “That was...graphic.”
“For about a minute, I considered temporarily shutting down the whole company, but—”
“It would have been a little obvious?” she finished for him.
“Well, that, too, but mostly, I couldn’t do that to the employees without any warning. They count on their paychecks.”
Tatiana pushed her plate aside, though she hadn’t touched the salad. “You’re sure it didn’t have anything to do with attracting more press attention and causing speculation that Colton Plastics might collapse? There’s no such thing as bad publicity, you know.”
He rolled his eyes. “We both know there is.”
Her lips half lifted but then straightened again, as if she remembered she was mad at him.
“Having both co-CEOs take leave at the same time will cause speculation, too. We’ve been lucky not to have the press in your front yard so far, but they’ll be here now.”
He shook his head, though he knew she was right. “It’ll be fine. We’re not taking leave, anyway. We’re working remotely. It’s the in thing now.”
“But you didn’t even take the time to discuss it with me. You had me find out by email, no less.”
“There just wasn’t time,” he insisted, his argument dripping through its many holes now. “We had to get you out of there, and Stanton said my condo would be the easiest place for him to guard.”
“I don’t care what you were cooking up with your brother. I should have had a vote.”
“You would have voted no.”
His anguished tone surprised him, and her dazed expression told him she hadn’t missed it, either. For a long time, neither spoke, and Tatiana dragged a fry in her ketchup without looking up from her plate.
“I had to keep you safe,” he admitted in a voice that probably lacked the strength to show that he could.
Finally, she nodded. At least she didn’t look up at him right away. He needed time to regroup. When she did speak again, he braced himself for more questions he couldn’t answer.
“Are you going to eat that?” She pointed to the tray where one lone burger sat next to a bun.
“Well, I was pretty hungry.” He grinned, relieved that she’d let him off the hook, at least for now.
“Hungrier than a pregnan
t woman?”
“Hmm. That’s one thing I never will be able to judge, but you’re welcome to it.” He passed the tray over, and she loaded up the burger.
She glanced up from the bun. “You don’t happen to have any horseradish sauce or spicy pepper rings, do you?”
“You really are pregnant.”
He stepped over to the refrigerator and pulled out a jar of horseradish, checking the date before carrying it back to the table. She put a large dollop of it on her burger and dug in.
As Tatiana finished eating, Travis stepped out onto the deck into the day’s last light with darkness creeping in from the edges to enclose them. A shiver scaled his neck, and gooseflesh peppered his forearms beneath his rolled sleeves. Anyone could have been right outside. Watching them. Waiting.
“We’d better get dinner cleaned up,” Tatiana said as she stood up from the table and carried her dishes to the dishwasher.
“What’s the rush?” Since he hadn’t told her that Stanton would be popping by at any time to introduce himself, he could only guess that she was off to brood in her room again.
“We have some online Colton Plastics shopping to do.”
He stacked dishes and followed her to the counter. “What for?”
“If we’re going to be working from home, we’ll need a second desk.”
Travis finished loading the last of the dishes. “I’m sure you’ll find something nice that can be delivered tomorrow. I already have mine in the office.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” She waited for him to glance back at her and grinned. “That desk is in my part of the house. We’ll need to order another one for you.”
* * *
Tatiana startled when the doorbell rang an hour later, but she’d been jumping at every sound all day. She hadn’t been able to complete a single task at work earlier. How could she when she was certain that someone was watching her and listening to her every breath? Maybe Travis had been right to have them take a break from the office, though there was no way she would admit that to him.
