Raw Desire (19 page)

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Authors: Kate Pearce

BOOK: Raw Desire
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“It might not be directed at you, Ally. It's far more likely to have something to do with your mom.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” Ally knew her voice was rising, but she couldn't seem to help herself. “You told me she was a different person, so why are you still treating her like a suspect?”
“Because . . .” Rob took her hand. “Look, this may be about drugs, but there's also the matter of what happened to Susan Evans on the night you left town.”
“She killed herself.” Ally felt bad as Jackson winced. “Everyone knows that, apart from Jane, who thinks Jackson murdered her.”
“Ally, the last time anyone saw Susan alive, she came into this house and was seen leaving with another person.” Silence fell over the table, and Ally couldn't seem to break it. “Afterward, your mother wouldn't allow the sheriff's department to search the place without them getting a warrant. Then the coroner decided Susan's death was a suicide, and the police had to move on.”
Sick realization dawned in Ally's head. “But you didn't move on, did you, Rob? You'd never allow any department you worked for to have an unsolved case.”
“It wasn't unsolved, Ally. The verdict was suicide,” Rob said.
“But that wasn't good enough for you, was it?” She slowly stood up and gazed at his hard face. “I know why you're so interested in what's in this house. You're hoping to find some evidence that my mother went out with Susan and pushed her off the bridge, aren't you?”
Rob didn't say anything, but she saw the truth in his eyes.
“My God, you really are a piece of work. Was this all about your case? Fucking me? Convincing me that you really were a nice guy after all? Was the ‘stuff' you wanted to discuss with me all connected to convicting my mother of murder?”
“Ally . . .” Jackson's low voice intruded on her rage.
She waved it aside. “That's it, isn't it, Rob? Revenge and sex. You even told me that!”
Rob shook his head. “You've got this all wrong. I—”
Ally pushed in her chair. “I get it. Now get out of my house.”
She turned on her heel and walked out, shut her bedroom door, and locked it firmly behind her. Nausea churned in her gut, and she wanted a drink so badly she knew she had to call Jill right now. Instead she curled up into a ball and let herself cry.
 
Jackson stared across at Rob, who remained sitting at the table, his hands clenched in front of him. “Do you want to go talk to her?”
“You think she'd be interested in anything I had to say?”
“At this moment, probably not.” Jackson stood up. “Let's take this back to the station and work out what we need to do to fix it.”
“The case or Ally?”
Jackson opened the back door. “Both.” He glanced back at Rob, who had the look of a man who'd just been punched in the gut. “Rob, come on. There's nothing else you can do here.”
Rob slowly rose and used his hand to push himself away from the table. “I get that.”
There was nothing else to say. Jackson knew it wasn't the time for recriminations. Rob knew he'd fucked up, and Jackson had no intention of reminding him.
 
It took all Rob's concentration to drive the short distance from Ally's house to his office at the old courthouse. Jackson had offered to drive, but Rob had curtly refused. What did Jackson think he was going to do? Cry like a baby? Rob swallowed hard. There was nothing to cry about. Ally had a right to be pissed, but he had just been doing his job.
Jackson followed him into his office and left the door open. Jeff appeared with a sheaf of papers relating to the break-in, which he passed over to Rob to fill out. It always amused Rob that he could reach anywhere in Spring Falls and deal with a crime quicker than he could fill in the resulting paperwork. He concentrated on the mundane, let Jackson bring him some coffee, and waited for the sick feeling in his stomach to settle down.
“So what do you think is going on, Rob?” Jackson asked.
“With Ally?” He shrugged. “I think she's right. Something sure stirred up the waters around here, and she walked right into it.”
“But what?”
“I'm hoping it's drug-related.”
“But I thought you were intent on solving the mystery of Susan's ‘murder'?”
Rob glared at Jackson. “What is it with everyone? What I feel for Ally and what might have happened with Susan are two completely separate matters.”
“You can't fool another cop, Rob. There is no way in hell that you didn't even consider that Ally or I might have killed Susan.”
“Of course I fucking considered it! But I knew from the timing that neither of you could've done it. The only other possibility is Ally's mom.”
Jackson looked unconvinced. “You're shouting at the wrong person. Ally's the one you need to convince, not me.”
“Ally's the one I'm trying to protect, although no one seems to give me any credit for that at all.”
“Why the hell should they? You're like a man obsessed, and I just don't get it.”
Rob set his jaw. “Look, that night, I was the one who found Susan's body.”
Jackson blinked. “
You
did?”
“I was heading for Ally's house.” Rob shrugged. “I just wanted to see her and make sure she was okay. But I didn't get that far. I found Susan first, draped over the rocks in the creek. The water was really low, so I was able to work out that she was dead before I ran like hell to call the police.”
Jackson nodded. “No cell phones for teens then, right?”
“Right. I tried to tell the cops and the medics that it looked like she had bruises on her upper arms, but as far as they were concerned, I was just a kid who didn't know shit about anything. They reckoned all the bruising was the result of her fall from the bridge. I could tell from their conversation they'd already decided it was suicide.”
“Well, shit. Why didn't you mention this before?”
“Because I didn't want to stir up even more crap for you and Ally.”
Jackson shook his head. “So this is something of a personal quest for you too.”
“If you want to put it like that, then yeah.”
Jackson sat forward in his seat, his expression all business. “Then listen to this. The way I see it, there are three reasons for anyone to target Ally's home. One, it's related to her mother, and maybe there's a drug connection. Two, someone just wants to drive Ally out of town. And three, someone wants to cover up something about Susan's death. Do you agree with me?”
Rob let out a slow, steadying breath. “Yeah, I do.”
Jackson rose and headed for the whiteboard on Rob's wall. He wrote
Ruth, Ally,
and
Susan
and looked expectantly at Rob. “So whose names need to go down in each column?”
17
“H
ey, Ally? Don't hang up. It's Jackson.”
Ally stared at the phone and considered cutting him off but knew it wasn't going to happen. “What's up?”
“Just in case you're worrying about talking to me, this is an official call.”
“It's okay, Jackson. I'm not going to burst into tears or anything.”
She heard him sigh. “I want to know if I can bring a K-9 team to your house this afternoon.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Ally transferred the phone to her other ear and pulled her muffin out of the toaster. Her appetite had completely gone, but she was determined to eat something.
“Because we're looking at several motives for your house being broken into, and we'd like to search the place for drugs.”
Even though she'd been clean for several years, Ally still felt a kick of adrenaline and fear shoot through her at the thought of her possessions being searched. “Are you trying to convince me that I was wrong about Rob's motives for hanging around with me?”
He paused long enough to make her clench her teeth. “I'm trying to do my job, Ally, and so is Rob. Is it okay to bring the dog around?”
“Why not, if it makes you feel better.”
Jackson didn't bother to reply, and she was left listening to empty air. How dare he try and make her feel bad? She was the one who had been deceived. As usual, Rob had played her like a violin, used her own sexuality against her until she'd been his willing slave.
She buttered her muffin and sat down at the table. When exactly had Rob intended to come clean with her and suggest that her mom was a murderer? That was one hell of a leap, even for Rob. But maybe he hadn't made that leap; maybe he really did just want to know what had happened to Susan in this house that made her want to kill herself. . . .
Dammit, it hurt. Ally chewed on her muffin and tried to swallow. But if her mom wasn't involved, why hadn't she let the police inside to search the house? Ally dropped the muffin and ran through to the dining room. Her mom's journals and other books still littered the carpet. Was the truth about what had happened to Susan buried somewhere in her mother's diaries?
With trembling hands, Ally sat on the floor and started to sort through the books. There were at least forty of the black books scattered around and some still in the open drawers along with loads of other items. Ally started to assemble them by date ordering them backward in time.
 
Jackson rang Ally's doorbell and waited for her to appear. She opened the door, and he wasn't surprised to see that she looked almost as rough as Rob did. When would they realize that it had never been just about sex or a police case? Jackson had a strong urge to bang their heads together and lock them in a room to sort it out once and for all.
“Hey, Ally, this is Javier. He's going to bring his dog in, okay?”
Ally stepped out of the way, and Javier moved forward, his German shepherd, Topher, trotting quietly by his side. “Afternoon, Ms. Kendal. I'll try to be as quick as I can.”
“Sure. Be my guest.”
Jackson wondered if Javier had picked up on Ally's distinct lack of welcome, but he didn't seem bothered. In his line of work, he was probably used to it. Ally glanced up at him. “Are you coming in or not?”
Jackson stepped into the welcoming cool darkness of the hall and took off his hat. “Thanks. I'll try to keep out of your way, too, all right?”
She touched his arm. “Are you pissed at me?”
“I'm on duty.” Jackson stared straight ahead at Javier, who was kneeling on the floor talking to his dog. “If you want to talk to me later, give me a call.”
“Fine.”
Inwardly Jackson groaned. Any man knew that when a woman said “fine,” she meant the complete opposite, but he couldn't talk to her now. He didn't want to. He was tired of being stuck in the middle of her and Rob, fucking sick of it.
Ally retreated to the kitchen. Jackson decided to follow Javier at a discreet distance as he and the dog moved through the cluttered ranch house. It was also a pleasure to watch the man and dog work together, their movements so coordinated you'd think they could mind-speak to each other.
After what seemed like a relatively quick search, Javier came back to Jackson. “I'm not finding anything. Do you have any idea what we might be looking for or how long ago the stuff was planted here?”
Jackson lowered his voice. “The woman who owned this house previously used to have a lot of drugs here and a lot of visitors. We were concerned that the recent break-in might have been orchestrated by someone who didn't know she was no longer alive.”
“So it could've been a while, then?”
“Yeah, maybe as long as three to five years.”
Javier sighed and leaned down to pat the dog. “Then anything that wasn't properly protected has probably gone moldy or turned to dust by now.”
“Well, thanks for checking. It was a long shot, but it was something we had to eliminate from our lines of inquiry.”
Javier turned to go, and Jackson saw him out through the front door. The K-9 units had their own special vehicles, so Jackson's patrol car was also parked on the drive. He shut the door and went back into the kitchen, where Ally was getting herself a glass of milk. She didn't offer him anything, and he could sense hostility coming off her in waves.
“I thought you'd like to know he didn't find anything.”
“Thanks.” She continued to sip at her milk and regard him over the rim of the glass. “So now we're back to my mother being a murderer?”
“We have to consider all scenarios.”
“You mean just that one, don't you?”
He struggled to maintain his composure. “No. We are actively investigating other avenues.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Yeah.” Jackson took a step toward her. “In case you've forgotten, there are a lot of people in this town who would be pleased to see the back of you.”
“You think someone might be trying to scare me into leaving?”
“It's highly possible.”
“I did wonder about that when the diner window was smashed.” She swallowed hard. “Did you realize that we were sitting right there earlier that night?”
Jackson regarded her carefully. “That's true. Is there anyone you'd like to mention as being particularly malicious toward you?”
“Like Lauren, you mean? She's hardly likely to destroy her own diner just to get back at me. As if Rob would lift a finger against her.”
Jackson put on his hat. “As I said, Rob will do his job or he'll hand the case over to someone who can do it better.”
“He'll never confront Lauren.” Hurt flickered in her gray eyes. “Maybe he has a special category just for me.” She bit down on her milky lower lip, and Jackson wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her tight. She walked away from him, her narrow shoulders hunched. “Look, there is something I want to share with you and Rob. Can you call him over?”
“He didn't think you'd want to see him.”
“He's right. I don't want to see him, but I think he needs to see what I found.”
“Can't you just show me?”
“And have Rob think I'm trying to get you on my side? I'm not putting you in the middle again, Jackson. As far as I'm concerned, you and Rob are both at fault.”
“What did I do?”
She raised her chin. “Like you didn't know what he was up to.”
He wanted to tell her that he'd tried to make Rob set things straight with her and that he'd told him it would end badly, but Ally's hostile stance made him unwilling to break Rob's confidence. “Okay, I'll call him.”
 
Rob pulled up at Ally's house, and the fist knotted in his chest seemed to tighten even more. What the hell did she want to see him about? When Jackson had called, he'd almost turned tail and run. But he had to continue the investigation. His job and his pride were all he had left at this pathetic moment in his life.
Jackson opened the door and led him down the hallway to the dining room where Ally was pacing the dusty carpet. She looked so tired and worn out that he wanted to grab her, make her look at him and tell her that everything was going to be all right. But he'd tried the bully tactics once before, and all he'd done was make her run away.
“Ally.”
Ally barely bothered to acknowledge him, and it fucking hurt. She went to stand by the table where a pile of black books had been stacked.
“I went through all my mother's journals earlier to see if I could find one relating to the time period when Susan died.”
A leap of excitement jolted through Rob. “That was a great idea.”
“Except that the diary for that time period is missing.”
Rob glanced at Jackson, who'd take up a position by the open door where he could see out into the hallway. “Are there a lot of journals missing?”
“No just that one.” Ally looked down at the floor. “They'd all been tipped out of the drawers and scattered around. It took me about an hour to go through them and put them in order.”
“So whoever came into the house was looking for something very specific.”
Ally raised her eyes to stare at Rob. “And unless my mother managed to survive death, it can't have been her.”
He held her glare and gave it back to her. “She could've had an accomplice, Ally. According to the original police reports, there were at least three men living in this house during that year. I'm currently trying to trace them.”
“You're so determined to prove that my mom did it, aren't you?”
The anger he'd tried so hard to repress tore through his professional demeanor. “And you're so keen to prove she wasn't involved that you won't even listen to me. She might have cleaned up her act in her last years, and I'm glad for you that she did, but that night? That night when Susan died, your mom was a drunk and a drug addict, and who the hell knows what she was thinking or feeling or capable of doing.”
“That's not fair.”
“No, you just don't want to hear it. It's easier to carry on blaming me than to deal with the fact that your mother hung out with some very unsavory people and that she might have been an accessory to murder.”
Ally's face paled and she steadied herself on the edge of the table, her fingers white.
Rob struggled to lower his voice. “I just want the truth, Ally. That's all.”
“And you don't care who gets hurt in the process, do you?”
“I'm doing my job.”
“And so you'll agree that my mom might not be the only suspect.”
“I never said she was. You just jumped down my throat the moment I mentioned her.”
She couldn't even look at him.
“I know she was your mom, but let's not forget she was one of the reasons you left Spring Falls in the first place.” He sighed. “Look, I'll do my best to find out who is doing this.”
“And you won't just focus on my mother?”
“Ally, the person who is after you now is very much alive and has a key to your house. That fucking terrifies me.”
“I'll get the locks changed.”
Jackson stirred. “I'll get that started first thing tomorrow, Ally, okay?”
“You do that,” Rob said. “I reckon she should spend the night with us, don't you?” He almost wanted to laugh at Ally's outraged expression.
“At our place?” Jackson didn't look quite so convinced.
Ally squared up to them both. “I am not staying anywhere near you.”
“In a town as small as this, where else can we guarantee your safety?”
“The hotel?”
Rob shrugged. “Only if one of us stays in the room with you. You'd be much safer at our house, though.”
She glared at them for a long, tense moment. “Fine, I'll pack my things.”
Rob exhaled as she pushed past him and Jackson and headed for her bedroom. He lowered his voice. “I didn't think she'd go for it.”
“I'm not sure it's a good idea.”
Rob slammed his hand down on the table. “What else am I supposed to do? She's not staying here, and I'm not leaving her alone in some fucking hotel.”
Jackson shook his head. “Rob . . . you are being way too pushy.”
“You haven't seen the half of it, buddy.” Rob nodded at the kitchen. “Go check that everything's locked up and I'll meet you out front.”

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