Vows of Silence (17 page)

Chapter 16

R
ick watched through the viewing window as Jacob Griggs, assisted by a surgeon, removed the slug from Kira Jackson’s chest cavity. He hated that this procedure was necessary. The family didn’t want an autopsy and, frankly, one wasn’t necessary. A single gunshot had killed her. The necessary blood tests could be conducted without a brutal, full-scope autopsy. But a partial examination was necessary to search the body for prints or any trace evidence left by the killer.

And he had to have the slug, which was still lodged in bone.

Jacobs and the surgeon who’d been on call were taking great care not to do any unnecessary damage in deference to the family’s wishes.

Kira’s parents had called her brother’s military unit in Texas to make him aware of the tragedy, as well as any other relatives who lived outside Alabama. Arrangements had been made with the preferred funeral home to take charge of the body when Rick was finished with the necessary official procedures.

He couldn’t promise that it would be today, but he would do the best he could.

Kira’s nude body had been wrapped in a shower curtain and left in the bathtub of her family’s home.

This killer wanted the world to know that he or she was avenging the death of Charles Ashland, Junior. First Cassidy’s body had been shoved into the trunk of her car and driven to the lake to the exact spot where Charles had been dumped ten years ago. Then Kira was murdered and her nude body wrapped in a shower curtain in a manner similar to the way Charles had been done.

Whatever the secret Lacy and her friends had been hiding, someone else knew about their involvement. If he’d had any doubts whatsoever, he had none now.

He’d relieved Deputy Brewer from duty and sent another of his men to watch Melinda’s house. Brewer was devastated. Larson had been interrogated up one side and down the other and he was certain no one had come into the house on his watch. Since he hadn’t set up watch on the Jackson home until after Kira left Melinda’s, Rick estimated that the killer could have been waiting inside the house for the right opportunity. There wasn’t any way to know yet. Forensics techs were going over the house in an attempt to find anything that might help determine who had committed this heartless crime.

When had living in Ashland become so damned dangerous?

The whole town would be in an uproar as soon as the news was out. The media frenzy would only get worse.

But none of that was at the top of Rick’s worries just now. He had to stop the killer. Two of Lacy’s friends had been murdered. That left only Melinda and Lacy.

Griggs motioned to him that he’d gotten the slug and Rick breathed a sigh of relief. Kilgore would rush the slug to ballistics and they’d do a comparison test ASAP.

Right now he wanted to get over to Melinda’s and break the news to Lacy. He’d asked the Jackson family not to inform anyone local until morning. They had agreed, or maybe they’d simply been too much in shock to argue. Whatever the case, he was grateful for their cooperation.

Last night he’d ordered his men to maintain radio silence so to speak to keep things quiet, but he couldn’t prevent those damned reporters from doing their job. Too many were watching. Two or three had swarmed the street outside the Jackson home, but one of his deputies had kept them at bay. Another handful had picked up on the call to the coroner and followed his van.

The murder would be reported in this morning’s paper as well as on the news. Lacy could already know.

To avoid the reporters when he left the hospital, Rick had parked his truck in the maintenance crew’s parking area. As he took the elevator to the ground level he decided on a course of action. He waited until he’d made his way through the maintenance division and out the rear exit before he made the call.

There were only so many readily identifiable players in the saga that was Charles’s murder investigation. Rick was about to give them all a good shake to see what kind of reaction he got.

When he had Brewer on the line, he asked, “You hanging in there?”

“I’m ready to do anything I can to help, Chief. I’ve been waiting to hear from you. I need to do something.”

That was exactly what Rick wanted to hear. “Okay. I want to shake some trees. Find out if Melinda Ashland’s brother is back in town yet and if he is, haul him in for questioning. Same goes for Nigel Canton. Track down Bent Thompson and bring him in if you can find him. And when you’ve got those three in interview rooms I want you to call Senator Ashland and have him come down to the station.”

A beat of silence throbbed across the line. “Are you sure you want to shake
that
tree?”

The whole damned town was afraid of the Ashlands. But Rick wasn’t. “Damn straight. I want to talk to all four of them. This morning. I’ll be there shortly.”

First, he had to talk to Lacy, had to see with his own eyes that she was all right. He should just lock her up and keep her safe until this was over. But she’d never go for it. He’d just have to keep a deputy close to her and even that might not be enough.

Lacy waved the blow dryer back and forth over her hair, causing the long strands to whip around her face. She watched the strands fly around, her mind on last night and the way she’d tossed and turned. She hadn’t been able to get back in touch with Kira. Melinda had stayed in her room.

What the hell was happening to them?

Had a lifetime of friendship come down to this so easily?

Apparently so.

As much as she wanted to pretend everything would turn out okay when this was over, she knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Cassidy was dead. Nothing would bring her back.

Lacy had made the mistake of getting involved with Rick again. There was no way anything good could come from that.

She closed her eyes, not caring which way the dryer blew her hair. As much as she wanted to, she simply could not consider what she and Rick had shared a mistake. It was true that nothing could come of it. They lived in two different worlds, and always had. Though society no longer separated them, geography did. Her life was in Atlanta, his was here.

If she survived this ordeal and left Ashland again, she wasn’t entirely sure she would ever return.

The memories would be too painful. Her parents could always visit her in Atlanta.

Forcing her eyes open, she focused her attention back on drying her hair. She’d showered and dressed. Melinda would be up soon and she needed to find a way to make amends with her dearest friend. And maybe Kira would show up at six with a whole new attitude and the two of them could mend fences as well.

Lacy frowned and listened over the roar of the dryer. Had that other sound been her imagination? Maybe. She was tired, the only decent sleep she’d had was the night spent with Rick. She shivered and tried not to replay the scenes from that night but her mind had a will of its own.

She ran her fingers through her hair, let the hot air sift between them. The feel of her hair slipping through her fingers reminded her of how it had felt to have Rick’s fingers there. He’d touched her in ways she couldn’t hope to ever forget. Just the memory made her ache for his touch now. Made her want to hunt him down and—

Pounding on the bathroom door yanked her from the fantasy.

“Lacy!”

Melinda.

Lacy clicked off the dryer and tossed it aside. She jerked the door open.

“Are you all right?”

She first took in Melinda’s terrified expression, then, slightly beyond her friend’s trembling frame, the man behind her.

Rick.

“What’s happened?”

“It’s Kira,” Melinda blurted, her voice quavering. “She’s been murdered.”

So much happened in the next few moments Lacy wasn’t sure she absorbed it all. Rick was talking to her, but Melinda had fainted and she couldn’t focus on his words.

He carried Melinda to her room, placed her carefully on the bed. Melinda roused and burst into sobs. Lacy held her, rocked her like a baby until she cried herself to sleep. Her thoughts whirled frantically. Kira couldn’t be dead. But she was. And it all boiled down to the same single, excruciating idea. Somehow, this was all Lacy’s fault.

The pain she expected to feel didn’t come. Instead she felt completely numb…empty.

She’d had to call Melinda’s doctor for a sedative. Thank God the pharmacy was willing to deliver. After she’d tucked the covers around Melinda, she got up to leave the room. Rick waited just outside the door. She didn’t know how long he’d been there or even how long she’d held Melinda to console her. Lacy felt nothing at all, not even a sense of the passage of time.

She closed the bedroom door and somehow found the strength to ask, “What happened?”

“Let’s go downstairs and we’ll talk.”

Lacy knew that was the right thing to do. She didn’t want to disturb Melinda. But her brain wouldn’t function properly; otherwise, the idea would have been hers. It took all her attention to make her feet work right as they descended the stairs. Strange. Now she understood why Melinda’s behavior had seemed so odd last night. Shock.

When she would have guided Rick to the living room, he took her arm and tugged her in the direction of the kitchen. “You need some coffee.”

She hadn’t had coffee this morning, had she? She didn’t think so. But she really didn’t want any now.

He ushered her onto a stool at the island and set about making a pot of coffee. Her eyes followed his movements, but she couldn’t anticipate what came next, as if she’d never watched coffee being made before. Her mind wouldn’t move forward on its own, wouldn’t wrap around a concept.

The carafe had already been filled and the filters and can of coffee placed on the counter when Rick started. Had Melinda been about to make a pot when he arrived? What difference did it make? That simple question felt so daunting. Lacy couldn’t catch up.

The scent of coffee drifted up from the machine before Rick approached the island where she sat.

“Are you sure you’re ready to hear this?”

She’d asked him what happened. Somehow she’d forgotten doing so. What was wrong with her? She couldn’t hold a thought.

“I want to understand what happened.” The words came out of her mouth, but she felt as if she were listening to someone else speak.

Rick braced his hands on the counter. “Kira was shot. Once in the chest. The bullet tore through her heart, glanced off a rib and lodged in her spine.”

His words evoked the corresponding images in her head. Her entire body convulsed at the horrifying pictures.

She’d been wrong. She hadn’t been ready for all that information.

“Excuse me,” she mumbled as she slid off the stool and hurried to the guest bathroom tucked beneath the stairs. She’d scarcely landed on her knees on the floor when her stomach heaved with such force that had she eaten that morning, all would have resurfaced.

She heaved for several more minutes before the overwhelming, repetitious urge passed. As horrifying as looking at Cassidy the other morning had been, she hadn’t thrown up. Now, just hearing about Kira sent her in search of the nearest toilet. Maybe it was a cumulative reaction.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed to her feet, washed her face and rinsed her mouth. She stared at her pale reflection.

Now there were only two.

Melinda and her.

Whoever the killer was, one of them would be his next target.

If Rick couldn’t stop him. And she knew he couldn’t. It had to be her…somehow she understood that.

He waited for her in the hall. “Sorry,” she said in the strongest voice she could muster. “I guess I wasn’t as prepared as I thought.”

“It’s understandable.” He looked anywhere but at her for a moment, but when his gaze landed on hers once more, the intensity there made her reach for the wall behind her for support. “We need to talk about this, Lacy. I don’t know if I can protect you and Melinda if you don’t tell me what it is you’ve been hiding all these years.”

And there it was…the ugly truth. The cause of death for two of her closest friends. The damned cross she’d had to bear for ten long years.

Suddenly, as if a light had gone on in some deep, dark recess of her brain, she knew exactly what she had to do. So simple, she should have thought of it before.

She would send Melinda to the Ashlands, where their security would protect her and then she’d wait right here in this house—the scene of the crime ten years ago—for whoever thought he or she had a score to settle to come for her.

And then she was going to kill the son of a bitch with her bare hands.

“You’re wasting your time, Rick,” she said, her voice lacking any sort of inflection. “I can’t tell you anything and neither can Melinda. Your efforts would be better spent trying to solve the murders of my friends.”

He moved in closer, pinning her against the wall with his nearness. “I know you’re lying, Lacy, but I’ll cut you some slack right now considering all you’ve been through. But I’ll be back later to talk to you again.”

It would be so easy to get lost in his eyes, to trust that he could fix this. But he couldn’t. It was too late. Only she could stop it now.

“I won’t change my mind. You’ll only waste more precious time coming back.”

A muscle ticked in his lean jaw. “Don’t leave this house, Lacy. My men will be watching.”

“Like they were watching Kira last night?”

He flinched. For the first time since she’d heard the news, she felt pain…pain for all that had happened…pain for all that would never be.

He left.

She didn’t move. Couldn’t.

She’d just stay right here until she pulled herself back together, then she’d set her plan into motion.

Tonight it would end one way or another.

Brewer was waiting for Rick in his office when he returned to City Hall. He looked like hell, but the man refused to go home. He wanted to find Kira’s killer.

“Canton and the senator are fit to be tied,” he said. “Melinda’s brother isn’t taking it so well, either.”

Kyle Tidwell, Melinda’s only sibling, had just gotten back in town from a funeral. His wife’s aunt or something like that.