Quinn (The Waite Family) (21 page)

Alyssa, the baby of the family and the sole heir for the Howard estate, had done well for herself since she’d returned to the business. Cait had heard most of the story from the girl herself, but she was sure there was more than she’d been told.
It wasn’t until she’d met Cain Waite, Alyssa’s new husband, that she’d been running the companies.
Nickolas, Cait’s brother-in-law, said that the girl was very smart about money and seemed to have a good head on her shoulders.
That was saying a lot since Nickolas thought everyone was stupid with their money.
Plus, Cain and Alyssa were good friends of theirs and had been over to their houses quite a bit lately.

Cait went to the doorway just as one of her officers was pulling out his weapon. Putting two fingers in her mouth and blowing, all movement stopped when she whistled.

“Now that I have your attention,” Cait said with a grin.
“Mrs. Waite, Doctor Waite, I’m really sorry about having to call you down her
e
this late.
Would you please wait for me in that room just over there?”
Cait pointed to what looked like a dining room.

“Captain, this man here is armed,” Carroll, one of her men, said with ill-disguised humor.
“He said he was with the lady there.”
The large man in question winked at Cait.
She knew he was the hired bodyguard for Alyssa.
“He said that the only place she goes that he don’t is the bedroom and the bathroom.
Why do you suppose that is?
He’s kinda scary, isn’t he?”

Cait had to fight a smile. Alyssa looked like she wanted to crawl in a hole and Cain looked like he was ready to explode with laughter.
Cait nearly lost it when the guard, Ormond Carter, pulled out his knife and started to clean his nails.

“That’s enough there, big guy,” Cait said to Carter then she turned to Carroll. “Let the man go ahead with Mrs. Waite. She’s been having some difficulties lately and he’s to protect her.”

Cait turned to Robert and Samuel Howard.
Samuel looked too cool to have walked in on the gruesome scene she’d just witnessed and Robert much too polished.
She’d bet her last dollar one or both of them had something to do with this.

“Gentlemen, why don’t the two of you come with me? I’d like you to tell me what you—”

Robert cut her off. “Oh, for Christ’s sake.
Can’t you get it from one of the other idiots we told this so?”
Robert looked at his watch as he continued.
“We’ve been standing here for nearly two hours waiting on Miss Money Bags to come here and now you want us to tell you what we saw again. I’m reasonably sure, Officer Grant, that we pretty much saw what you just did. My mother beaten to death and the room ransacked and things broken.”

Cait didn’t say anything as she processed what she’d just seen. Blood. There had been blood on the watch.
Not a great deal, but enough that she could see it easily enough. Now she had to move with caution and care.

“Did you touch anything?
Your mother or any of the things lying around the room?” She looked at both men as she asked.
“Or maybe just the phone to call nine-one-one.”

“Uncle Samuel felt her pulse. Said there wasn’t any.
Me?
I just stayed the fuck out of the room once I saw the mess.”
Robert looked over at his uncle as he spoke. “Then I used my cell phone to call you, numbnuts.”

Samuel took over from there.
“We didn’t touch anything else.
I did check Shannon’s pulse, as Robert said, but only to lay my two fingers on her throat. I couldn’t find one and that’s when I had him call.”

They had rehearsed this. Tag team stories were a dead giveaway. They didn’t overlap their telling and there was no pause from one narration to the next.
Cait needed to separate these two quickly and get their statements.
She’d bet any amount of money that their tale would be the same.

“Officer Carroll, could you take Samuel Howard down to the station and get his statement please?” Carroll moved forward. “Oh and get his finger prints for—”

“Finger prints?
Wh
at
the hell do you need our prints for?
You can’t think we had anything to do with this.”
Robert gave a panicky laugh.
“Maybe we should call our lawyer.
Uncle Samuel, what do you think?”

Cait waited for him to think things through.
She had been dealing with bottom feeders like these two for a very long time. And she knew when someone just realized their partner in crime was too stupid to have around.
She knew that Samuel would, if not today then very soon
,
throw his nephew under the bus to save his own hide.

“Maybe it would be best if we cooperate with the captain.
I’m sure she had a good reason for wanting our prints.” He looked at her.
“Don’t you, ma’am?”

“Of course. We’ll need to separate yours from the assailant’s. It will help us take all the innocents out of the equation.” Cait smiled.
“You wouldn’t want us to arrest the wrong person, would you?”

She could see when he got it. When he knew she wasn’t nearly as stupid or as naive as he’d first hoped she’d be.
When Samuel turned and looked at Robert he simply nodded and then looked back at her. “I’m ready to go downtown now, officer.
I’ll be glad to give you any information you want.”

Both Robert and Cait watched as Samuel was led out of the house.
As they cleared the door two more people walked in—Andrew Miller and Quinn Waite.
Cait nodded to the room where she’d sent Cain and Alyssa. Then she turned back to Robert.

“Who the fuck was that?”
Robert snarled at her.
“I’m not sure you should be letting all these people in my house. Maybe I should call someone. What’s your badge number, by the way?”

“It isn’t your house and my badge number is eight Charlie six.”
She pointed to the room at the other side of the door. “Why don’t you have a seat in that room and I’ll be right with you?” Nodding to the other officer, she had him stand with Robert.
Robert was much too sure of himself now.
Cocky almost. Cait went to the dining room to see the Waites.

Drew hurt.
And he knew that the pain was only going to get worse the longer he waited to rest his arm.
He was beyond hiding the truth from Quinn. She seemed to have known that he was in too much pain to drive when they’d left the office earlier.
She had simply taken the keys from him when they’d gotten to the parking lot and helped him into the passenger seat.
They were just leaving the parking space when Cain had called to tell them what had happened.

“Shannon Howard was murdered at her home not long ago.
Alyssa and I are on our way there now. Cait wants her to do a quick inventory to see if it might have been a case of interrupted robbery.”
He had lowered his voice.
“She said it was bad.”

Drew closed his eyes and reached for Quinn’s hand as he put the phone on speaker and laid it on his leg.
She took it immediately and held him.
He knew that Alyssa hated her mother, but she was her mother nonetheless.

“How’s Alyssa taking it?
And we’re on our way.”
Drew turned to Quinn. “Alyssa needs me to come to her mother’s house, she was just murdered. Do you know the way?”

She nodded and turned left out of the lot.
“Is there anything I can bring her, Cain? Do you have your bag?”

“Yes, I do. Nothing, she said, but thanks,” Cain said to his sister.
“Drew, if you hurt too much, I’m sure—”

“No. We’re coming.
Don’t say anything until I get there. We should be there in…” Drew looked at Quinn.

“Ten minutes.
Be safe.” The call ended and Quinn glanced over at him.
“I’m not sure if you know or not, but Alyssa’s pregnant too. Three months.”

He hadn’t known.
“No.
I have to call my mom. I’m sorry about this, baby. I know we need to talk.
I can’t leave them to face this alone.”

“Good heavens, Drew, I know that. I wouldn’t want you to.
Call your mother and I’ll get us there.”
She brushed at a tear.
“Poor Alyssa. He mother was a real piece of work, but to be murdered like—the police don’t think she had anything to do with it, do they?”

Drew laughed at the venom in her voice.
“No, they just want her to rule out robbery. It’s Alyssa’s house and for the most part, so is everything in it. You’re very protective of her, aren’t you?”

“She saved my life. And I love her.”

Drew thought about what Quinn had said…shouted really, when she’d climaxed.
She loved him.
She’d said she loved him. He picked up his phone and dialed his grandda’s house.
Drew’s dad answered on the first ring.
He told his dad what had happened.

“That poor girl.
Give her my…hang on, your mother is asking me something.”
Drew could hear the mumble of someone’s voice, but not who it was or what was being said.
“Give us the address.
Your mother has it in her head that your girl hasn’t eaten since she got sick.
She wants to bring her something.”

Drew was about to tell him no, he’d take care of her when he saw Quinn put her hand over her belly.
“All right.
But bring me something too.
And one of those pain pills.
I’ll take half of one and that should work.”

Five minutes later, they were in the driveway with perhaps ten other vehicles, mostly police and ambulances.
There was also a coroner van.
Quinn got out of the car and stood nearby while his father continued talking.

“You both need to get some rest. After this is over, your mom and I want you to come stay with us a few days.
Work things out before you sit down with Quinn.”

“We’ve been talking…well, sort of.
She has a list. She called it the ‘For the Prick’ list.” His dad laughed.
“I asked her to come to the house with me. That’s where we were headed when this came up.”

His dad laughed again.
“Sex is good.
It usually solves a lot of problems with your mom and me.
I used to get her mad just to—”

“Dad!
Too much.
Please.”
He laughed when his dad did.

“So, son, have you figured it out yet?”

Drew glanced at Quinn. He wanted to pretend he didn’t know what he was talking about, but that would just be stupid when they both knew he would be lying. “You mean that I love her?” His dad laughed harder.
“Yes.
She loves me too, by the way.”

“Sure she does. You’re a Miller, aren’t you?” His dad lowered his voice as he continued.
“The whole reverse psychology thing was your grandda’s idea. Said you’d bite hook, line, and sinker. Guess he was right, huh?”

Drew looked at Quinn as he answered his dad.
“Yeah, I guess he was.
But let’s not tell him that.”
His dad agreed.