No River Too Wide (50 page)

“Seagrave knew about the affair?” That surprised Jan most of all.

“Apparently he thought it was a necessary inconvenience. Then Midwest Modern contacted Rex and told him they would like to send in an investigator. They played it down, but your husband realized immediately that the request was a big deal.”

“So he started looking into things himself,” Jan said, knowing that was what would have happened next. “It would have infuriated him that something might have been going on under his nose. And some of those nights when he didn’t come home until after midnight, he was probably at the office going over files.”

“I haven’t seen the written confession, so I just have the basics. But apparently your husband finally realized he’d been played for a fool. So he arranged to meet Liz one evening after work at a motor inn south of the city. He had a gun, and once they were in the room he began knocking her around and threatening her, insisting that she confess what she’d been doing and return all the money or he’d kill her. She got the gun away from him and they struggled. She says the shot that killed him was accidental, but then, of course she
would
say that. Apparently nobody heard it, because nobody came to check. In a panic she called Seagrave, and he told her to stay put until he got there.”

“Wow.” Harmony turned to her mother. Jan patted her hand, because what could be said? Her daughter’s face was pale. No matter how either of them had felt about Rex, this wasn’t easy to hear.

Adam waited a moment for them to absorb it before he went on. “It’s pretty clear that right after her call Seagrave panicked, took what money they’d already collected and disappeared, because he never showed up at the motor inn. It’s also clear he had a working game plan and just exercised it a little earlier, because he still hasn’t been found.”

“They’re still looking?” Jan asked.

“It’s possible something Liz can tell the authorities will help, and she’ll be happy to share the blame, I’m sure.”

“I’m sorry, go ahead and finish.”

“When she couldn’t get hold of Seagrave again, Liz called her former brother-in-law, a guy named Gary. She says he always had a crush on her and she knew he would help. He arrived sometime after midnight, and they rolled Rex’s body into an old rug Gary had brought with him and got it in the trunk of Liz’s car. Then she drove Rex’s car and followed Gary, who was driving hers. They went to his house first, and they stored Rex’s car in his barn and got shovels. Then they took Rex’s body to a wooded site down the road and buried it. It was close to dawn, and Liz said they didn’t bury him as deep as they should have, but they still had to pick up Gary’s car back at the motor inn and wanted to do that before anybody got suspicious. So they did their best. They thought it was good enough.”

“And the fact that it wasn’t far from our house had nothing to do with anything,” Jan said.

“Except to confuse things and make you look guilty if the body ever turned up.” Adam paused. “Although I’m just guessing about that.”

“Then what? She simply went back to the office the next day and pretended she had no idea what had happened to Rex?”

“The fire bought her time. For a while people thought your husband had died inside your house. That gave Liz a chance to make plans. Gary told her if the cops ever started to suspect her of murder, a forensics team would go over her car, especially the trunk. I guess he watches a lot of cop shows. Anyway, Liz’s car is now underwater in the middle of Gary’s pond, and I guess they were hoping Topeka wouldn’t have another drought anytime soon. In the meantime she was driving an old junker of his that ran about as often as it didn’t. I’m not sure it occurred to either of them that the sheriff would wonder where her car had disappeared to and why she had no record of a sale.”

Harmony asked the question that perplexed Jan, too. “Why didn’t she just disappear like she’d planned?”

“Because Seagrave, who seems to have had all the brains, also had all their money, so she didn’t have the resources to do it right. She was afraid if she tried to leave town she would look so guilty the authorities would find her immediately.”

“But she stayed, even though she knew the fraud had been detected?”

“She certainly knew Rex had discovered problems, but apparently he never told her Midwest Modern had been the one to spot them first.”

“He wouldn’t have,” Jan said. “He would have taken credit for figuring it out on his own. Even in a situation like that.”

“So she didn’t know Midwest Modern was already suspicious, and I’m guessing she probably believed she could get away with what she had done and maybe more. Since she was in charge of the office while everybody was searching for Rex, she figured she could sell a few policies and keep the premiums for herself, grab that money, then make her escape. Even after the auditors arrived, she figured she had a little time before anybody figured out what she’d been up to. There’s a lot of paperwork, and bureaucrats move slowly. Gary started painting Rex’s car in his free time so she would have wheels. Anything to help Liz.”

“Then they found my father’s body,” Harmony said.

“At that point she realized she had to get out fast. She called off work to make whatever preparations she could, and Gary worked late into the night to finish painting the car. He’d already replaced the VIN on the dashboard with a different one, probably from a similar model at the local junkyard. He was almost there.”

“Then you showed up.”

“I did.” Adam smiled a little.

“If you hadn’t?” Harmony said.

“I hope the sheriff would have followed up once Liz disappeared.”

Jan got up from the sofa and went to Adam’s chair. She didn’t have to bend over to hug him. He understood and was already on his feet. He held her and rested his cheek on her hair.

“Where would I be if...?” She couldn’t finish her sentence.

“We weren’t going to let anything happen to you,” he said.

She began to cry. A stranger had stepped forward and gone the extra mile to help her. Strangers. Because it wasn’t only Adam who had stretched out his hand and led her to safety. The women of Moving On had helped. The goddesses had helped, especially Taylor.

And her beloved daughter who, despite her own difficult past, had put everything behind her to welcome her mother to her new home.

“You’re going to be okay,” Adam said. “Rex can’t hurt you anymore, Jan, and now the law has no reason to try. You’re safe. You’re home. You’re free.”

Chapter 40

If Adam hadn’t wanted to tell Jan and Harmony the results of his trip in person, he could easily have driven straight to Chicago and told his Asheville landlord to toss out whatever he hadn’t taken with him. After all, he had paid a large security deposit, and the old guy was going to make out just fine.

Finishing what he’d started had been important, though. And watching the two women he’d grown so fond of absorb the fact that for the first time in decades they had nothing to fear from Rex Stoddard, or even the law, had been worth the expense, time and trouble.

Now after a final dinner at his favorite West Asheville restaurant, a shower and a catnap, he finished what packing there was, bundling everything else into trash bags to take outside tomorrow on his way to the airport. This time he would fly right to Chicago, where he could figure out the next stage of his life.

His cell phone rang, and he grimaced when he saw the number, but with his future in mind, he answered.

“Yeah, I went out on that limb in Topeka that you told me not to,” he said instead of “hello.” “And I’m not sorry. The right person has been arrested for Rex Stoddard’s murder, and Janine Stoddard is off the hook. But I hope I didn’t cause you any trouble. I’m sure you know I resigned from my job before I went. You can show that to anybody who questions you.”

Philip Salter grunted in response. “Nobody’s questioning anybody. I got a call from the sheriff’s office, not exactly thanking me, but telling me there are no hard feelings.”

“There’s still a mess to straighten out there, but if necessary Jan, as Rex Stoddard’s widow, will do whatever she can to help expedite things.”

“She told you that?”

“Yeah.”

“You think she’s planning to run the agency herself?”

“I think she’s planning to sell it to anybody who wants it.”

“Are you going to do this routinely? Get involved with the people we’re investigating and set yourself up as their savior?”

Adam had to smile. “I’m nobody’s savior. I just knew she was getting a bum deal, and I thought I could fix it.”

“If you work for us again, we’ll be watching you a little closer.”

“Did I say I wanted to work for you?”

“Door’s cracked.” Philip wished him well and hung up.

Adam took the final beer out of his refrigerator and flipped on the television. On the other side of Asheville he was sure Taylor was celebrating with Jan and Harmony. He imagined an impromptu, low-key gathering, because even though Jan was now officially off the hook, a man had died and another woman was in jail. But the women who called themselves the Goddesses Anonymous would probably arrive to tell Jan how glad they were that her nightmare had ended.

He was glad there was something to celebrate, but he shut off those mental pictures and found ESPN. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

* * *

Taylor sat outside in her car looking up at Adam’s apartment. The irony wasn’t lost on her. Adam had sat just this way on her street, watching the lights go on and off in her house, making note of cars that stopped, people who came in and out. His surveillance had been an invasion of her privacy. And in the end, in the strangest of ways, everything he had learned from watching her house had helped him track down a murderer and save a friend.

She’d done nothing but think in the days since the party and her conversations with Analiese and her father. Finally setting aside her own hurt, she’d found she could believe what Adam had told her, that their relationship and lovemaking hadn’t been a way to get closer just so he could learn more. That his kindness to Harmony and Jan, his patience at the studio, his rescue of Maddie...

She was tired of thinking. She got out of the car and slammed the door. Last night she had dreamed about her mother. Charlotte had been standing by a window gazing outside. The room itself was unfamiliar, dark, almost dreary, but the view was extraordinary, a colorful flash of Munchkinland from
The Wizard of Oz.
Sunshine poured over the landscape, spreading caramel warmth everywhere it touched. Lollipop flowers bloomed under willows and oaks, and the songs of birds flooded the room, even with the window closed. Taylor crossed to stand beside her mother and gaze outside, too. Charlotte had taken her hand and asked gently if watching was going to be enough.

Then the dream had ended.

Life wasn’t a trip to Oz. Too much of the time it wasn’t caramel sunshine and rainbow-hued flowers. Days passed without birdsong symphonies, even weeks. Yet when she woke up this morning, Taylor had known that venturing outside for those moments of joy was the way she needed to live. Even before she had learned that Jan was finally free, she had been sure that finding Adam again and telling him she was sorry for the things she had said would be a step into the sunshine.

She took a deep breath and walked across the lawn to the door that led up to Adam’s apartment. She tried the knob, although she expected to have to wait until a resident came or went. The door wasn’t locked, which surprised her, since Adam was such a stickler for security. She climbed to the third floor and raised her hand to knock, then thought better of it. On a whim she turned that knob, too, and his door opened.

He was sitting on his bed watching the ancient television that had come with the apartment. He turned his head, but he didn’t greet her.

“You’re really something,” she said. “You
knew
I was going to show up, didn’t you?”

“I thought there was one chance in ten million.”

“But you left the door unlocked, anyway?”

“You were worth the risk.”

She moved to the bed and sat down on the edge, swiveling to face him. “I’m sorry, Adam. I really am. I...I don’t get over things easily. It’s my fatal flaw. But you hurt me.”

He rested his palm against hers, not quite holding her hand, not quite ignoring it. “Do you want me to apologize again?”

“No.”

“Just tell me I haven’t lost you.”

Tears blurred her vision, and she cleared her throat. “You never told me you’d found me.”

“I could apologize for
that.
”

She scooted over so that they were sitting side by side. He draped his arm over her shoulder and nudged her closer.

She rested her head against him. “Are you going to leave town?”

“I planned to.”

“I would really rather you didn’t.”

“Did you give my class away?”

“I... Well, I didn’t, for some reason. I told your students you’d been called away and I would get back in touch when I knew more.”

“Creative.”

“We could throw in an extra class for their inconvenience.”

“You have good managerial instincts.”

“I know teaching one class for me isn’t really enough income to keep you here.”

“Asheville’s growing. I’ve been toying with the idea of opening my own business. Security consultant, or maybe a martial arts studio. I might like to work for myself for a change.”

She examined his profile. He looked tired, exhausted even, and possibly just a tiny bit apprehensive. That gave her courage. “Will you stay?”

He shifted so he could look at her. “Neither of us is simple, Taylor, so this won’t be easy. We’re complicated and cautious and quick to judge. Both of us. You’ve noticed?”

“Isn’t it good we understand each other so well?”

His gaze softened. For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her. But he didn’t. “One day at a time,” he said. “Let’s see where they take us, okay?”

He was right, but she had a feeling she knew their eventual destination. All they had to do was step outside together.