Forever Hers (29 page)

Instead of going back inside the house, they waited by the cars and watched the recording again.

“Freeze that frame,” Amy said. “Zoom in on his right wrist.” It showed a partial tattoo of the Eye of Horus. “That’s the same tattoo the men who killed Charles had on their wrists.”

“The right wrists?”

“Yes, just like this.” She pointed at the image on the tablet.

“Do you remember what you said during the trial?”

She tried not to remember that day or the months preceding it. “The entire trial is a blur. I was eight months pregnant, tired and they showed me pictures of me all purple and blue, my face unrecognizable.
 
I just wanted the whole thing to be over with, so I could go home.”

He frowned. “Come. I want to show you something. Court records are now accessible to the public online if you know where to look.” Inside the house, he disappeared into his bedroom and came back with his laptop, fingers typing furiously. He moved closer to her, so she could see the screen. “These are the court transcripts from the trial against Dan Talbert and Kendal Youngblood.”

On the screen was the name of the court and the defendants, the district attorney and the defendants’ lawyers. Then a list of items, which were introduced into evidence, which she didn’t bother to read as Eddie scrawled down to Day 2 of the trial. Her name was listed as a witness.

Reading the questions the prosecutor had asked and her responses seemed so surreal, like the entire event had happened to someone else. “What am I supposed to read?”

“You said the defendants had tattoos of the Eye of Horus on their right wrists just like the man on the screen.”

“Yes. See?” She pointed at the screen. “The prosecutor even had them lift up their sleeves to show them to the jury.”

“Read the description of your injuries.”

Lacerations on her face, a broken crown on her right lower molar, and a broken rib on her right side. She could see what he was getting at. “I see what you are saying. Most of my bruises were on my right, meaning my attacker was left-handed. My right ear was so messed up, I heard ringing for weeks. By the time of the trial, it was gone.”

“That’s right. People tend to curl away from the hand attacking them and cover their faces, so there’s no way you curled and faced the fist, especially when you were covering your stomach and protecting your baby. The man on the video and the two serving time are all right-handed.”

Wooziness washed over Amy. Nolan was left-handed. How could she have missed that during the trial? No, not her. How could the defense have missed noticing that her bruises her mainly on the right side of her body? When she looked up, Eddie was watching her expectantly.

“Is Nolan left-handed?”

Amy nodded, her eyes smarting. “We have to go to Charlottesville, tell the DA’s office what we know. My attacker is also the one who pulled the trigger. I remember because he called his friend chicken
sh
…” Her voice broke and tears filled her eyes.

Eddie pulled her into his arms. “We will talk to the DA but first, we need to track this other man down. I can offer him a deal, make him turn against Nolan. Right now it would only be your word against his, and Nolan made sure no one would ever believe anything you said.”

Sirens filled the air as the police cars approached. Eddie pressed his lips on her temple and started for the front door. “Stay here. I’ll deal with them.”

Amy rocked in place as he walked away. Everything Nolan had done to her during their marriage and afterwards now made sense. He’d been afraid she might remember that night. Their marriage protected him because spouses couldn’t testify against each other. But after the divorce, spousal privileges became null and void. Who would believe anything a crazy ex-wife said?

Should she call her parents and warn them about Nolan?

No, that would be pointless. They never believed anything she ever told them anyway, so why would they start now. Taking off to Virginia to talk to the DA would be fruitless too if all they had were her memories and evidence from a closed case. She was the crazy woman who kept calling Charlottesville Police Department with ‘bogus’ claims of harassment and break-ins. Nolan had done a bang up job of covering his ass. No one would believe anything she said. No one, except Eddie.

Too agitated to sit, she jumped up and went to the bathroom to splash water on her face. She pinched her cheeks to put color back on her face then checked in on Raelynn. Her daughter was mesmerized by whatever she was watching. Amy closed the door and her heart leaped when something yanked at her hand.

“Jimmy, you gave me such a fright. What are you doing here?”

“Can Raelynn come outside and play?”

“Not right now, Jimmy. Maybe after lunch.” She nudged the boy toward the back door. “Yeah, definitely after lunch.”

“Why are the police at your house? What happened to your cars? Is Raelynn still scared of the police? Is that why she can’t come outside and play? She said she was, but I told her they’re the good guys. She said they’re mean.”

Amy looked over her shoulder as she practically pushed the child out the door and closed it behind them. “Raelynn didn’t mean it like that, Jimmy.”

“But she said—”

“Go home, Jimmy,” she said firmly. “Raelynn is not feeling well.”

He stuck out his lower lip, the gesture so much like Raelynn’s, Amy heart squeezed. She waited until he crossed the lawn and entered his grandmother’s house before she stepped back inside, locked the door and went toward the front door.

The door opened before she reached it and Eddie and a heavy-set older man with a crutch walked in. White hair and a beard gave the man an absentminded professor look.

“Ms. Kincaid,” he said, extending his hand toward her. “Captain Briggs. We’re here to catch this man that’s been botherin’ yah. May I see the footage of the vandalism?”

“I should be helping process the scene,” Eddie said, pacing. He’d been doing that ever since Captain Briggs left after viewing the surveillance recording.

“It wouldn’t be admissible in court.”

Eddie glowered, scrubbed his face and cursed.

“No.” He yanked the door and went outside. Within minutes he was back. “They finally found the crowbar and are dusting it for fingerprints. Talk about doing things at a snail’s pace.”

The morning crawled past too slowly for Amy. Eddie’s back and forth pacing and constant trips in and out weren’t helping either. It was obvious he wasn’t used to depending on others.

“They found motorcycle tire treads,” he said, coming back inside for the umpteenth time. “One of their forensic guys is taking pictures and measurements, so they can use the Treadmate database later and find a match. I know bikes and treads. I told the guy it’s a Dunlop K81 with a width of 4.25 but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Have they checked the glove for fingerprints?”

“No, they plan to send it to a crime lab.” He ran his fingers through his hair.

Just as she’d suspected, he was getting in the way of the local cops and interfering with their job. She just didn’t know what to do to keep him busy and away from the crime scene. She was sure the local cops were just as good as the ones in L.A. Hadn’t he even said Captain Briggs was a legend? “Where is Captain Briggs?”

“Out there barking orders at his deputies over the phone. He e-mailed them a picture of the Eye of Horus and wants them to show it to every hotel and rental companies from here to Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort. Nolan’s man has to be staying somewhere close by. When does the sprinkler system turn on?”

“Every Saturday.”

“That’s yesterday. The ground might still be soft and wet enough for him to have left footprints too. And the neighbor’s?”

According to the video footage they’d watched, the guy had walked toward the road and might have crossed over to the Mulligan’s lawn.

“I don’t know,” Amy said. “We may have to check with them.”

Eddie disappeared outside again. He was beginning to drive her crazy. She checked on Raelynn, got her some cookies and milk then went back to watching the cops work through the surveillance tablet. She was just as anxious as Eddie but for a different reason—she wanted the cops to be done so they could remove their yellow crime scene tape, which had replaced the make-shift, toilet paper one. Raelynn would soon get bored of watching TV and want to play outside. Seeing the tape would bring back memories she didn’t want her daughter to deal with. Then there were gawkers. They had trickled in from the neighboring homes, until there was now a crowd.

Amy’s cell phone rang. She put the tablet down and reached for it. Lauren. “Hey.”

“Are you okay? Word around town is your house was attacked by the lakeside burglars and it’s swarming with the police.”

The joys of living in a small town. Amy sighed, then quickly explained what happened.

“At least you’re fine. Listen, Amy,” she whispered. “I’m not supposed to say anything, but I have to tell you. The police were here and I think I did something terrible.”

Amy’s stomach hollowed out. She didn’t think she could handle any more bad news. “What is it?”

“They had a picture of an eye, which they said is the tattoo on the wrist of the guy they’re looking for. I think I rented a house to him.”

Amy jumped to her feet. “What? When?”

“Almost a month ago. He looked normal. I mean he wore a nice suit and drove a nice car, and paid for an entire month in cash. That should have warned me, right?”

You think,
Amy wanted to retort. “What did he look like?”

“Black hair, skinny, moustache. I gave the police his description. So if you see a skinny-ish, dark-haired guy with a tattoo of an eye on his wrist, that’s your burglar.”

Amy bit her inner cheek to stop herself from telling Lauren she and Eddie were the ones who’d given the police the information. It was obvious Lauren didn’t know there were two different sets of burglars involved.

“Thanks for the warning, Lauren. Where’s the house they rented?”

“Across the lake from your place. This is my fault,” she wailed.

“No, it’s not,” Amy reassured her. “If you hadn’t rented to him, he would have gone to a different company.” Then something else occurred to Amy. What if Nolan had known about Lauren and their college connection? He was smart enough to have found out and sneaky enough to manipulate Lauren. “Did he ask to see your other listings, Lauren?”

“Yes. He wanted to know if we had other empty vacation rentals for both short and long term, where it’s safe for a child to play because he and his wife had two children. What a bold-faced liar. He just wanted to know which ones were empty, so he and his pal could rob them.”

“Did you show him empty houses?”

“Yes, although I pointed out the ones that were great for children, but were already taken. He must have gone to the other realtors and saw their listings too because how else would they have known about the other empty houses?”

Amy had a bad feeling about this. “Is the Fitzgerald’s home listed on your website?”

“Not under rentals because they own it and it’s not a time-share. It’s listed under homes we manage, but no one can access those without a password. They must have picked your house randomly. Still, I enabled this son of a bitch.”

Nothing that had happened to Amy the last six years had been random. Chances were Nolan must have found Lauren’s connection to Amy, probably hacked into the rental company’s system. Lauren was a meticulous business woman. Chances are she had a list of the people she employed to house sit all the homes she managed. The Fitzgeralds weren’t the only homeowners with a housesitter.

“Thanks for telling me about the tattoo, Lauren. I think you’re beating yourself up too much over this. The first three houses were burglarized over a month ago, way before this guy came to your office.”

“Yeah, that’s because he went to the other companies first.”

Amy had no time to placate Lauren. Eddie had just entered the house and he didn’t look happy. “I’ve got to go, Lauren. Will call you later, okay? Bye.” She studied Eddie’s face. “What happened?”

“They found prints, but their forensic team had trampled all over the damn place, it’s hard to tell which footprints are his. Then Briggs and Sally took off without saying where they were headed. It’s going to take forever for these people to find anything. By then the man will be gone.” He dropped beside her, reached out and rubbed her nape. “How are you holding up?”

Better than he was. “I’m okay. That was Lauren.”

“I know. I heard you.” He leaned forward, pressed a kiss on her forehead and pulled her into his arms.

For a moment, she soaked up his warmth and forgot about their problems, but she couldn’t keep what she knew from him. “Lauren rented a house to man with the eye of Horus tattoo on his wrist.”

Eddie sat up. “What? When?”

By the time Amy finished explaining, Eddie was pulling out his cell phone. “That explains why Briggs and Sally left in a hurry. I hope they catch the bastard.” He brought the phone to his ear. “It’s me, Sally. Okay. Call me back.” He finished the call and glanced at Amy. “She couldn’t talk. Do we have binoculars?”