Guilty Pleasure (25 page)

“
We will deal with it if it
happens.”

“
I’m so fucking mad.” Adam
went over to the bed and sat down. Nicole went over and sat next to
him. “He looked the same, Nicole. Like none of this had fazed him
at all. The way he was staring at that young woman…he must be
stalking her.”

“
That is not a bad
thing.”

“
What, I don’t see how that
isn’t a bad thing.”

“
If he is stalking her then
he has picked her for his next victim. He has to come back to where
he knows she will be.”

“
He knows we are
here.”

“
He also told you he would
kill us if he saw us again. He won’t be expecting us to be anywhere
near that woman. At the very least we have to make sure that woman
is going to be alright. I can’t let Michael kill another innocent
person.”

“
Alright, Nicole, I will go
back to that park and wait for her to show up.”

“
No, we will go back to
that park.”

Adam turned to her. “Nicole, what if seeing
him again…”

“
I will have to at some
point. We are dragging him back to Chicago to stand
trial.”

Adam looked away from her.

“
That is the plan isn’t
it?”

“
Nicole, I want to kill
him. I don’t want to bring him back for trial. He might find a way
to get out of going to jail, then what? He is a defense
lawyer.”

“
Adam, you can’t kill
him.”

“
Why? He wouldn’t hesitate
to kill us.” Adam turned to her. “I can’t chance he will just walk
away without paying for this.”

“
I can’t chance that you
will be charged with those murders. If you kill him they will know
it was one of us who did it. Why else would we fly over here? And
they will assume it was you. We have to bring him in to clear your
name.”

“
Damn it….”

Nicole gently grabbed Adam’s hand. “You said
you wanted him to suffer. He told me that he couldn’t be in a cage.
He was going to kill me to save himself from going to prison. I
think to him that is a fate worse than death.”

“
I will stick to our
original plan, but if I think he is going to hurt you. I’m going to
kill him.”

Nicole stood and went in front of him. She
cupped his handsome face in her hands. “Promise me, that you mean
what you have said. That you will stick to the plan. I couldn’t
stand the thought of you in prison.”

“
I promise.”

Nicole leaned over and kissed him. He
wrapped his arms around her and stood taking her with him. He
carefully laid her on the bed. He pulled his shirt off then removed
his jeans. She quickly took her clothes and opened her legs
inviting him in. He climbed on the bed and positioned himself
between her legs. He looked down at her. Damn, she was so beautiful
to him. Even with all life has thrown at her, her eyes still
sparkled with so much warmth and light. He eased his cock into her
pussy, then leaned over and kissed her as he slowly began to
thrust.

They lost themselves in their lovemaking and
for a little while everything was alright in their world.

Chapter
Twenty-three

Lexi walked into the police chief’s office.
“Hello Stan,” she said as he gestured for her to sit down. Lexi sat
on the chair in front of his desk. “Have you had a chance to look
over that file I sent you?”

“
Yep.” Stan grabbed the
file.

“
So I’m going to guess we
are on the same page. It’s time to formally press murder charges
against Adam Matthews.”

“
Well, I’m not
sure.”

“
How can you not be with
the mountain of evidence against this guy?”

“
It is quite the collection
of evidence. What puzzles me is why you waited until now to bring
this in. Hell, by the looks of it some of this evidence goes back a
couple years. Why sit on this and just watch the victim count pile
up?”

“
All of this was just
brought to my attention.”

“
And by chance was it
Michael Lyons that brought all of this to your
attention?”

“
What does that have to do
with anything?”

“
Damn woman, stop thinking
with that pretty pussy of yours.”

“
Excuse me.”

“
It is widely known that
you drool over that defense attorney Michael Lyons. Hell, I even
heard you took other prosecutors off of some of the cases that he
was going to defend the accused. You lawyer types are certainly a
talkative bunch.”

“
You are so
crude.”

“
It’s part of my charm.
Seeing how some other evidence has come to light before you brought
me this file, I’m going to have to hold up on charging Adam
Matthews with anything. God knows we certainly don’t want the shit
storm that comes with dragging an innocent man in here and frame
him for something he didn’t do. I think I will air on the side of
caution.”

“
And if another dead body
shows up?”

“
Then I will drag Adam in
here myself.”

Lexi stood. “If someone else dies because
you failed to act I will make sure you lose this job.”

“
You got to do what you got
to do.”

Lexi stomped out of the office.

“
Well, I will be God
damned.” Stan picked up his phone and dialed. “Hey Rodney, that
lawyer bitch showed up here just like you predicted. Michael Lyons
just gave her a folder full of evidence against Adam Matthews. I
stalled her, so don’t worry.”

“
Thank you, Stan. I just
finished talking with Maxwell Stevens. He didn’t really know
Michael Lyons all that much. He just remembered him living in the
same dorm that he did. I looked at some of the evidence presented
at the trial. All of it could have been planted in Maxwell’s dorm
room at any time. The last woman killed conveniently had one of
Maxwell’s gloves left at the scene, which of course gave enough
cause for the cops to search Maxwell’s dorm room that is when they
found the rest of the evidence. It all smells fishy to me, yet it
was enough to convict this guy. I also talked with the family of
Kim Nichols, the woman Michael was seen with who ended up dead.
They remember seeing her with Michael. Kim told her mother that she
was in a relationship with a law student from Yale. Yet, when her
mother asked about him, she simply told her mother that this young
man really liked his privacy and when they got more serious she
would bring him to meet her mother. Of course, a week after that
Kim’s body was found. It was the same M.O. as Jenny Thompson’s
murder.”

“
Alright, come back to
Chicago and we will put all of this together and get Michael Lyons
formally charged with murder. I will contact the London police and
see if we can get him into custody while we sort this out. The only
trouble is how we are going to find Michael in a city that large.
I’m sure he has covered his tracks well.”

“
Don’t worry I have two
people over there searching for him now. I took some
initiative.”

“
Two people? You know what
I don’t even want to know. Just get back here and let’s get this
son of a bitch.”

***

Adam and Nicole went to the park over the
last couple of days and watched the young woman who had caught
Michael’s eye.

“
He didn’t show up again,”
Adam said as they followed the young woman back to her
car.

“
He will. I just know
it.”

Adam answered his cellphone when it started
ringing. Nicole watched Adam’s face light up and then a big smile
come across his face.

“
What is it?” Nicole
said.

Adam hung up his cellphone and put it back
in his pocket. “That was Rodney. They are going to formally charge
Michael with those murders in Chicago. They are having the London
police arrest him when they find out where he is.”

Adam hugged Nicole really tightly, lifting
her off the ground.

“
It’s almost over,” Nicole
said, hugging Adam as tightly as he was hugging her.

Adam slowly set her down. “Rodney is going
to text me a number. If we find Michael we call that number.”

“
I think we should call
that number now and tell them our theory,” Nicole said.

“
Michael might get spook if
he feels something is going on.”

“
I’m sure the London police
know how to stake out someone.”

“
You’re right.”

Adam called the detective whose number
Rodney gave to him. Then both Adam and Nicole went to the police
station to talk with him in person. They explained everything and
the detective assured them that they would have someone in the park
waiting.

They headed back to their hotel room. Adam
got on his laptop trying to find where Michael would be staying.
Nicole made dinner.

“
You know he must be using
an alias. I was thinking over all the conversations that Michael
and I had trying to find some clue to what name he might be using.
I can’t think of anything.”

“
Can you register under any
kind of alias at a hotel?”

“
Yeah, I guess, I’m sure
you can tip the person at the desk to put in any name you
want.”

“
I was thinking that famous
people sometimes use silly names when they travel.”

Nicole handed Adam the plate with the
sandwiches she made for him.

“
Thank you,” he said as he
took a big bite.

“
Are you sure that program
your band member sent you is working?”

“
Oh yeah, Denny is the
biggest computer geek in Chicago. If he said this program will
search the registered guests of every hotel in London it
will.”

“
Tears and Beers. Try a
variation of that name.”

“
The bar…” Adam type in the
name. “Nothing.”

“
Linda Bennett.”

“
There are a couple but I
don’t think Michael would stay in hostiles.”

“
Monica
Jenkins.”

“
Nope.”

“
Johnny Turner.”

“
Nope.”

“
Damn it.” Nicole paced
back and forth while she nibbled on her sandwich. She stopped.
“Nathan Porter.”

Adam typed in the name. “Yeah there is a
Nathan Porter registered at the Hotel forty one. That hotel is
quite pricey.”

“
If it is him why would he
use Nathan’s name?”

“
It tells me he is still
thinking about you.”

“
Should we tell the
detective that might be Michael?”

“
No, what if there really
is some guy named Nathan Porter staying there. If Michael isn’t in
the park tomorrow we will go see if that is him staying at the
hotel, then we call the cops.” Adam stood and went over to her. He
gently took her into his arms. “Are you going to be able to watch
them put Michael in handcuffs?”

“
Of course why wouldn’t I
after everything he has done. He would have killed me if you hadn’t
saved me.”

“
You know, I remember
Michael asking me if a part of me wasn’t glad that Mindy suffered
the way she did before she died. He couldn’t believe that even a
small part of me wasn’t secretly happy about that. I’m not happy at
all that she died like that. She really hurt me, but I would have
never wanted that for her. So, what I am saying is that you gave
your heart to Michael. You said yourself that his greatest fear was
to be put in a cage, when he is handcuffed that fear will be
realized. True, the guy tried to kill you and that bastard killed
Monica and is basically a fucking monster. But you saw a part of
him I think very few people saw.”

“
I get what you are
saying.” Nicole looked up at him. “A part of me will feel bad for
him. I hate that part, how could I possibly have any sympathy for a
monster. Yet, when he said he loved me I think he really meant
it.”

“
Whatever you feel is okay,
Nicole. If you can’t do this I will understand and I will handle
this for us.”

“
No, I want to be there
when they catch him. I have to be there. I have to know we saved
that woman.” Nicole began to tear up. “Monica would want me to be
there. She would tell me it was the closure that I need to move
forward.”

“
Yeah, she would have said
something like that.” Adam hugged her tightly and kissed the top of
her head. “I need closure too. I was the idiot that didn’t see
through Michael’s generosity and friendship.”

Neither said another word. They just stood
there holding each other, both lost in their thoughts.

***

“
Who are you?” Johnny asked
as they brought him into the interview room of the prison. The
guard chained him to the table.

“
I’m Detective
Lewis.”

“
What more could you people
possibly want from me? Let me rot in here, but leave me the fuck
alone.”

“
Do you remember a woman
named Nicole Fisher?”

“
Nicole…”

“
She was the assistant to
the defense lawyer Michael Lyons.”

“
Yeah, I remember her now.
Don’t tell me the woman is dead.”