Dangerous Inheritance (16 page)

“I’m not, either,” Macy confessed. “But it was so vivid that I have to believe I’m remembering it exactly the way it was.”

“So, you believe it was a memory. Something you’d seen before and it just came to you.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I think. In fact, I’m sure of it. What else could it be?” Macy didn’t know if Nick believed her, but at least he appeared to be seriously considering what she had said.

Now he looked thoughtful, eyes narrowed, lips pursed. “Why don’t you write down what you remember every time it happens? Write it all, every detail. You never know when some simple thing might turn out to be a good clue. And we need all the help we can get.”

Macy nodded. “All right. I’ll make a record of what I’ve remembered in the few days I’ve been here.”

She wondered how he would take what she planned to ask next. “Who was the chief of police back then?”

Was it just her imagination, or did his expression change? Some subtle shift that seemed to signify tension. She waited for his answer, which seemed slow in coming.

“Clyde Jackson. He’s Garth Nixon’s cousin.”

“His cousin? The chief of police was the cousin of the man who hated my father? Maybe my grandmother Douglas was right. The police might not have looked too hard for a killer when my father made such a convenient scapegoat.”

Nick just looked at her for a minute, and she felt a strangeness come between them, like an invisible barrier. As if he was hiding something. Was Nick holding something back—something she needed to know? Had she been too quick to trust him?

“Maybe so, but I’m not finding any evidence that points to anything like that.”

“I think it’s there. We just haven’t found it yet.” And yes, she was being stubborn, with nothing to back it up. Call it a hunch, or call it just plain bullheadedness, but she couldn’t believe her father had received a fair trial. The more she learned about it, the more she believed that someone had worked hard to see that her father went to prison for a crime he never committed.

* * *

Nick watched her, knowing exactly what she was thinking. He didn’t tell her his father had been a policeman back then because he wasn’t sure how she would react. He didn’t want anything to come between them, but he couldn’t betray his father’s memory, either. The man he knew and loved would never have taken part in a conspiracy to send an innocent man to prison. He’d try to consider both sides, but he hadn’t come up with any information pointing to his father and until he did, he’d keep on believing Angus Baldwin was innocent of all charges of corruption.

How did he get into a situation like this? He was just beginning to understand what a storm this woman could stir up. Enough to turn Walnut Grove on its ear, just as she had threatened to do when they first met.

“Look, Macy. It’s too early to jump to conclusions. We need to go slowly, examine every piece of evidence. Not be too quick to zero in on anyone.” In an investigation like this where there wasn’t any clear indication of what happened or who did what, it would be easy to take off in the wrong direction. They needed to be careful.

From her expression, he had a hunch
careful
wasn’t on her agenda right now. She shot him a look that plainly said she wasn’t in a mood to slow down the investigation. She wanted action and she wanted it this instant. He could understand that, but he also knew if she was too impatient she could destroy what little evidence was out there, and not even know it.

She firmed her lips, then said, “I’m not trying to railroad anyone. I just want the right person caught and made to pay for his crime. But if the police or anyone else took part in a cover-up and my father went to prison because of it, I want them brought to justice, too.”

Nick could understand how she felt, and he was going to do everything in his power to help her, but he was praying his father had nothing to do with whatever had happened with Steve Douglas. If Macy knew his father had been a policeman, she’d probably stop trusting him altogether, and he wanted to avoid that.

So right now he needed to change the subject before she started wondering why he wasn’t jumping in to agree with her about the police. He needed to keep her as far away from that subject as he could while he dug a little deeper. He wanted to talk to someone who might have a fair, unbiased attitude. Hard to find someone like that in this town.

Another thing he wanted to do was take a look at the old crime photos of Megan’s death and see if they matched what Macy claimed to have to seen. He wanted to believe her, but stuff like this was way out of his league.

They talked a little longer, then Nick left, planning to drop by the police station and see what new information he could learn. Sam was out, so Nick sat down at his own desk and pulled up the crime scene photos. The photos were old, but good. He clicked through them, then jerked to a stop. Wait a minute. What was that last one? He backed up, staring in disbelief at the body of a woman lying in front of a fireplace, the same fireplace where Macy claimed to have seen her mother’s body. The woman wore a blue robe, one shoe was off, and a chair was overturned, exactly the way Macy had described.

The hair on his arms furred. This was scary. He had assumed Macy might be getting her memory back, but he hadn’t expected this exact copy of the scene. Nick stared at the picture, feeling helpless. He just might be in over his head on this one.

* * *

Macy wandered back to the table, deep in thought. Nick seemed reluctant to discuss any questions about the police and how they had conducted their investigation back then, which bothered her. Not that she was fully convinced they had done something wrong, but she wanted to know for sure.

She closed the photo album and started to gather up the pictures she’d left on the table when something struck her. She shuffled through them again. One was missing. Macy spread them out on the table, looking closely at each one. The picture with the arrogant blonde woman was gone.

She paused, thinking back to when she’d last seen it. Had it been here when Neva left? She couldn’t remember if Neva came to the kitchen before leaving. Had Nick taken it? Why would he do that? Surely she would have seen him carry it out with him. Or had someone come in while she was at the grocery store?

She had the new locks, the alarm...no one could get in. Right? A shiver of fear rippled up her spine. Had someone managed to get a key, after all?

Would she ever be safe in this town?

A folded piece of paper fell out of the handful of pictures she had scooped up. She didn’t remember seeing it earlier. Macy dropped the pictures and reached for the piece of paper, wondering where it had come from. She was sure she hadn’t overlooked it.

She unfolded the paper, staring in shock at the words written there.

This is your last warning. Get out while you still can.

THIRTEEN

T
he next day, Nick drove by the Douglas house hoping to find Macy at home. On opening the door she greeted him with a smile that warmed his heart. It seemed as though she got more beautiful every day. They went to the kitchen as usual, settling at the table with cups of freshly brewed coffee. Today she wore a blue T-shirt and jeans, her hair hanging loose around her face. She smiled at Nick and he grinned, relaxing and enjoying the moment. Life didn’t get much better than this. What a shame it couldn’t be this way all the time.

He pulled himself together and handed her the sheaf of papers. She accepted it and raised her eyebrows at him. “What’s this?”

“A transcript of the trial. I want you to go over it, looking for anything that doesn’t sound right. Just glance through it a couple of times, taking notes if you think something seems a little off, or if you have a question.”

Macy took the papers and thumbed through them, her expression intent. Nick leaned back in his chair, watching. She glanced up at him, smiling her thanks. “I’m glad to have this. I’ve wondered about the trial. But I warn you, I’m coming to this with my mind already made up. I believe he was innocent. I’ll try to be fair, but I can’t turn off the way I feel.”

“I understand that, and I don’t want you to. Read through it, mark the places where you have a question, take notes. I’ll do the same, and so will Sam. Then we can put the three together and see what we come up with. You might catch something I won’t, and I might see something that wouldn’t mean much to you. Have you had any luck looking for the diary?”

Macy shook her head. “No, I’ve searched, but a house like this has a lot of hiding places. Neva’s looking, too, but so far we haven’t found anything. I’m reasonably sure if it’s here I’ll find it, because I won’t stop looking until I do.”

Nick nodded. That was no more than he would expect from her. She never gave up. But he had a feeling she might be taking on more than she could handle. “Did I tell you that I was talking to Sam and he got up to get the file on your dad’s case and it was missing?”

“Missing? You mean it was misplaced or what?”

“I mean it was gone. We haven’t found it yet, so I’m assuming it’s not at the police station. No one seems to have seen it, which isn’t surprising since it’s an old file and there’s no reason for anyone to have it out looking at it.”

“But you have no idea when it disappeared? So it could have been gone for a long time. Wonder what happened to it.”

Nick heard the skepticism in her voice, as if she didn’t believe him. Like she thought someone, maybe Nick, had hidden the file so it couldn’t reveal information about her father’s arrest. So she still didn’t trust him. He was surprised at how much that hurt. What would it take for her to realize he was on her side?

“No, it hasn’t been gone very long. I’d been looking at it recently, but I put it back where it belonged. I’ll keep searching for it, but it might have gotten tossed out by mistake.”

She just looked at him, not even bothering to answer, which upset him even more. She might as well call him a liar and be done with it. “Look, Macy. No one in the police department took that file, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“And I’m supposed to believe someone from outside walked into the police department and took that certain file and walked out with it, and no one saw them? That doesn’t speak very highly of our police force, does it? And how would that person know where to find the file in the first place?”

“I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I just mentioned it, and I wish I’d kept quiet. You’ve already convinced yourself the police are guilty, but in an investigation, it’s a good idea to keep an open mind. You can overlook important clues otherwise.”

She stared at him for a minute, and he could see she was trying to get herself under control. He needed to do the same. Sounding off at each other would get them nowhere.

After heaving a sigh, she started talking. “Look, Nick. I’m sorry if it sounded as if I was blaming the police. It’s just that I don’t know what to think and it all seems to be closing in on me. Very few people want to help and some of them, like Anita and Garth Nixon, are verbally attacking me whenever I see them. It’s wearing me down.”

He could see that, and maybe he needed to calm down a little. “I can understand. It’s getting to me, too. But don’t give up, Macy. Keep trusting God, and have faith He’ll help us learn the truth about it all.”

Macy changed the subject. “The other day when we were looking at the photo album, did you happen to see a few photographs spread out on the kitchen table?”

Nick stopped to think. “I may have, why?”

“Oh, nothing probably.”

“No, that doesn’t work. You brought it up. So start talking.”

She shrugged. “I had some pictures I’d found in the corner cabinet and I meant to look at them later, so I left them on the table. One picture showed a group of people. My mother and father, and me, and I didn’t recognize the rest. There was a blonde woman who seemed to think she was something special. Something about her looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember who she was. When I was getting ready to shut up the house for the night I put the pictures away, and noticed the group picture was missing.”

“Missing? So you think someone took it?”

“I don’t know. You evidently didn’t take it, Neva says she didn’t, I was upstairs part of the time when she was here and then I went to the grocery store. Maybe someone came in and took it. But there was a threatening note in it.” She got up and walked to the cabinet and brought it to him.

He read through the note and looked up at her. “This was in with the pictures?”

She nodded. “It wasn’t there earlier, but when I started to put them away I found it.”

“Are you sure Neva didn’t take the picture?”

“Why would she want it, and if she did, why would she lie about it?”

He didn’t have an answer for that, but he’d rather believe Neva took the picture than to think someone walked in and left that note, or even worse, entered the house after it was locked.

“Could I look at the rest of pictures? Maybe I’d know some of the people.”

She got up and walked to the corner cabinet, returning with an envelope of photos. Nick spread them out on the table. Pointing to the people he recognized and calling them by name. Macy leaned over his shoulder and he could smell her perfume, something light and spicy, making his senses reel.

Nick forced his attention back to the pictures. “I can’t see anything here that would be important enough for anyone to take. Wonder why someone would want that one and why leave a threatening note?”

Macy slumped down in a chair across from him. “I don’t know. But I really think someone took it. I just don’t have any idea who it could have been.”

And that worried him. She didn’t have any business staying here by herself. Didn’t she have any idea what it would to do him if something happened to her? No, probably not. After all, he’d never given her any reason to know.

“Look, Macy, you have to keep that door locked at all times. You’re keeping things stirred up, I’m running around asking questions and someone could be getting very nervous. You’re the key to this thing, and whoever it is, he has a strong reason to silence you.”