Rise of the Notorious (37 page)

Madison’s eyes tightened as she processed this new information. If Grant was suspicious of Duke, then why hadn’t he told her about it? Why had he kept her in the dark?

“Ms. Vasser, there’s one more thing that Ms. Hale said that I need to ask you about.” Tina shifted her weight, her well-practiced cop’s expression impossible to read. “Ms. Hale gave me the name of the drug dealer who supplied the drugs your father consumed. She also stated that you know this man, that you buy drugs from him yourself.”

Madison’s brows rose in disbelief. “Excuse me?”

Tina gauged Madison’s sincere-looking response, but kept on the offensive just in case. “According to Ms. Hale, this dealer is claiming that
you
were the one who told him to alter the drugs. If that’s the case, then that makes both you and the dealer responsible for your father’s death. You could be looking at manslaughter.”

Fury flashed over Madison’s face, then flickered away as quickly as it came. She replaced it with cool reason, her lips curving as she stared pointedly at the detective. “The woman’s a liar, Detective. Anything she says should be taken with a grain of salt.”

“By my account, Ms. Vasser, you have motive to have wanted your father out of the picture. I’m inclined to believe Ms. Hale in her accusation that you conspired with the dealer to harm your father. Once I track him down, I suspect he will confirm my belief.”

“And until then?” Madison asked coldly, already sensing the detective’s eagerness to arrest her. Tina’s hand had subconsciously already reached for the handcuffs clipped to her belt.

“Until then, it’s best that you come with me down to the station so we can get this all straightened out.”

Madison laughed, bursting with the irony and the ridiculousness of it all. She shook her head, eyeing the detective with pity. “I’ll have your badge, Detective.”

She held out her wrists, side by side, daring the detective to cuff her. She wanted to watch the woman do it, and could already sense her hesitation. She had seemed so sure just a second ago, but now faced with Madison’s easy compliance, she hesitated.

But she began to cuff Madison anyway, only to freeze as a voice called out from down the hallway.

“What is going on?” Charlene huffed, furiously racing toward them with her heels hammering over the linoleum floor. “Why are you arresting my daughter?”

Tina turned to face her smoothly. “I need to bring her in for questioning. I don’t have to cuff her, but she insisted.”

Charlene glared up at her daughter, righteous anger and disbelief blooming red in her ivory cheeks. “What is this about?”

Madison only shook her head with a sarcastic smile. “Apparently I’m addicted to Vicodin, after all. I must have been popping pills in my sleep, none the wiser. How ironic.”

“I don’t understand.” Charlene vibrated with fury as she rounded on the detective. “Explain to me what’s going on at once, or I will contact your superior.”

Tina fought the instinct to snap back and instead remained coolly reserved. “Your daughter has been accused of conspiring with the drug dealer who supplied the drugs to Win Vasser.”

“That’s preposterous,” Charlene barked, blue eyes violent. “Uncuff her at once.”

“It’s okay, mother,” Madison said coldly. “This will all get straightened out. Soon Detective Crawford here will understand that she can’t trust a word out of Jorja Hale’s mouth.”

Tina finished clicking the cuffs closed and pulled on Madison’s shoulder. “Come on.”

“Wait.” Charlene stood in front of Tina, blocking her. “You’re arresting the wrong woman.”

“Am I?” Tina asked curtly, eyes narrowing.

Charlene lifted her chin, avoiding eye contact with her daughter as she eyed the detective. “I was the one who spoke with Eddie about the drugs. I get my pills through him, and knew Win would turn to him while he was in the city for his own vices. I told Eddie that if Win or his girlfriend Jorja came sniffing around for anything, that I would pay him extra to see to it that Win got something special. It was my very intent to see to it that Win fell off the wagon again, and I had hoped he would overdose. Instead he killed himself, which is just as well. I got the outcome I wanted.”

Madison’s heart plummeted into her gut as she heard the icy and unfeeling words. Her brows knit with resentment and anger as she tried to launch herself at her mother. “How
could
you?”

Charlene danced back a step as Tina restrained Madison. “I did it for you, Madison. And for your brothers. Until Win was out of the way, there would be no moving forward. He hurt you, all of you, and for that I had to get rid of him.”

Madison registered her mother’s words, but could do nothing more than stare at her in disgust. “Damn you.”

Tina immediately released the handcuffs from Madison’s wrists and turned to Charlene.

“Mrs. Vasser, you’ll need to come with me. No cuffs, just come quietly and we won’t make a scene.”

Charlene’s lower lip trembled, but she kept her composure as she shot one last look at her daughter. There was a brief hint of pain in her cold blue eyes, and Madison held on to that as she watched her mother be taken away.

She heard her mother snap at the detective, “Now, can you shut Jorja Hale up about my ex-husband and find my missing daughter?”

The detective only sighed.

L
inc stared out of the dark window of Lynette’s apartment later that evening, eyes unseeing. She watched him from her seat on the sofa, brow creased with worry and a sick feeling in her gut.

They had received word from the detective that Jorja Hale had been arrested and was being questioned in connection with the various crimes that had taken place against the family: the slanderous leaks to the press, the kidnapping, the tampered brakes, the assassination attempt…

Also, Madison had just called to let Linc know that their mother had been arrested for conspiring with the dealer to tamper with the drugs. Lynette winced as she remembered Linc’s outburst of fiery anger at the news, his temper in full swing as he nearly threw his cell phone against the wall. He had been fuming with disbelief, anger, and disappointment all at once. It had taken all she had to try and calm him down, to bring him back to reality.

Now he was quiet, too quiet, as she assumed he tried to figure all the angles in his head.

So she waited with bated breath, unsure what to do with herself, with him. Unsure just what was going to happen next.

“I just don’t know,” Linc mumbled suddenly to himself, his head shaking jadedly. “She’s not smart enough…”

Feeling sorry for him, Lynette got to her feet and went to his side, wrapping her arm around his waist. She rested her head on his shoulder with a quiet sigh. “If Jorja is responsible, Linc, then at least she’s with the police. She can’t hurt us anymore.”

He only continued to shake his head. “No, it just doesn’t add up to me. She’s vindictive and greedy, but I don’t see her resorting to kidnapping and murder to get what she wants. She just doesn’t think that way.”

Lynette bristled, as she often did when remembering that he and Jorja had once been lovers. As close as two people can be…

“You know her best,” she said quietly, pulling away from him to wander into her kitchen to make some tea.

He stared after her, a scowl darkening his features. “You’re right, I do know her. And while I can see her going to the press and playing games with us, I don’t see her committing multiple felonies.”

“It was a woman who shot Wyatt,” Lynette asserted smoothly, unearthing a tea bag and a mug from a cabinet. She poured water from the sink into the mug. “Jorja is very likely that woman.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets restlessly as he turned back to the window. “I just don’t believe it.”

Lynette rolled her eyes but kept her comments to herself, knowing she wouldn’t convince him. If he didn’t want to see what was so plainly in front of their eyes, then she couldn’t help that. But as far as she was concerned, if the police believed Jorja to be a suspect then she likely had some damning evidence against her.

Besides, the idea that Jorja really
was
responsible for everything lifted a weight from her shoulders. The weight of fearing that Linc may be the next target, that the assassin was still out there somewhere, primed for another shot at the Vasser family…

She heard Linc switch on the television and turn on the evening news. As she finished making her tea, she caught the name Vasser and immediately whirled around.

Linc was sitting on the sofa, eyes glued to the man on the screen.

“Who is that?” Lynette asked, moving over to sit beside him curiously.

“That’s Jack Morgan.” Linc’s hands tightened over his knees, as tense as a predator cat primed to pounce.

Her eyes widened as she stared at the man, taking in his neatly trimmed hair and attractive smile. A politician’s smile, one that she knew very well. One she knew could never be trusted.

“
The Vassers are wonderful people, down-to-earth, charitable. They do not deserve the havoc that has been wreaked upon them in recent weeks,
” Morgan was saying to the reporter, the nighttime view of the South Carolina capital city behind him. “
So much tragedy has befallen this great American family, and for anyone to make use of their heartache for personal gains…why, that’s just barbaric.
”

Linc scoffed, shaking his head. “What the hell is going on?”

The reporter spoke then, a generously built blonde with sparkling blue eyes. “
Mr. Morgan, can you comment on the assassination attempt on Madison Vasser? The police have apprehended a suspect, but they won’t release the information on who this person is.
”

“
And rightfully so. The investigation, as I understand it, is still being conducted,
” Morgan said with both sympathy and concern. “
All I can say is that hopefully the police have the correct individual, and the violence can stop. Hopefully, this arrest will lead them to the missing girl, as well. We all pray for her safe return.
”

“What a load of—” Linc began, only to pause as Lynette grabbed his arm hurriedly.

“Look! See his face?” she asked, pointing at the television.

They both watched the reporter say goodnight to Morgan, and they watched his face as the slightest of smiles curled over his lips and the subtlest flash of glee passed over his face. When he was gone and the reporter moved on to other topics, Lynette turned to Linc worriedly.

“He just lied.” She frowned, worry creasing her brow. “This is all a show to him, he didn’t mean any of it.”

Linc shrugged. “Newsflash. Politicians, lawyers, men, women, whatever. They all lie. Why would you assume he gave a damn in the first place?”

“We know what he’s hiding. Why would he want to associate himself with your family in any way? It just leads to more questions.”

“Maybe that’s the point. Maybe he knows that your dad’s going to eventually break the news to the public about his father, so he wants to get on our good side so we can back him up. He wants to make us look better rather than worse, that way when the news hits, it’s not that big of a deal.”

Lynette chewed on her lower lip, processing his words. “That would make sense. But still, there’s something fishy going on here. It doesn’t sit right with me.”

A grin flashed over Linc’s face as he leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Talk some more of that good ol’ southern talk, Lynette. It cheers me up.”

A giggle escaped her throat as she pushed him away. “You put me back in the South, Yankee, and you’ll see just how southern I can get.”

“Mmm…maybe I should,” he ventured, leaning in to kiss her then, his hands sliding over her hips as he pushed her back against the sofa. “You haven’t been to my castle in New Orleans yet.”

“You don’t own a castle.”

“A man’s home is his castle, whether it be a cardboard box or a sprawling estate in Tuscany.” He nipped at her ear, pleased when she shivered against him. “When all this is over, I’m going to take you down there and make love to you in every single goddamn room.”