Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: To Honor and To Protect\Cornered\Untraceable (55 page)

But if not them? Then she had a thought that sent her heart hammering. What if it had been Tristan? What if he was out there, hiding, and needed something from the laptop.

“Stop it!” she cried. “You can't go there every time something odd happens or you hear a strange sound. He's dead and nothing is going to bring him back to life!” Blinking, she forced away all her silly romantic thoughts of Tristan out there somewhere, alive and hurt.

Forget all the evidence about how he had died. Forget everything except one fact. He'd gone overboard into the dark, dangerous water and had never come out. That, if nothing else, told her he was really dead. If he were still alive, he would move heaven and earth to get to her. Tristan would die before he'd allow her to believe he was dead.

With a quick shake of her head, she forced away thoughts of Tristan and concentrated on the missing laptop.

Before she jumped to any conclusions, she should check with Maddy and Zach. They may have had to confiscate it so the hard drive and memory cards could be reviewed.

Maybe Homeland Security or the NSA had needed it for evidence. That made sense, except for the fact that there was nothing on her laptop that could possibly be interesting to anyone other than herself.

She checked her watch. It was just after ten. That was eleven Eastern time. She hesitated for a second, then pulled out her phone. Maddy had told her to call anytime if she needed anything.

When her friend answered, she blurted out, “Maddy, did you or Zach take my laptop?”

“What? Sandy? Are you all right?”

“I'm fine. Did either of you take my computer, or see someone else take it?”

“It's not there?”

“No. It always sits on my desk in the nursery. Always. And it's not there.”

“No, we didn't. We searched it. Remember, you gave us the password. We went through all the saved files, looking for anything that might have been related to Tristan's death or the smuggling, but it was there when I left.” Maddy paused for a beat. “Have you seen any other signs that someone has been in your house?”

Sandy's tummy did a flip, which woke up the baby. He wriggled and kicked. “I don't think so. The nursery is the only room I hadn't been in. You're sure it was here when you guys left?”

“I am,” Maddy said. “Did you check with the crime scene unit or the sheriff?”

“No,” Sandy said. “I called you first.”

“Well, you need to call them. If they took it you should have gotten a receipt, but people forget things.”

“So it disappeared after you left.” She paused, thinking. “Wait. Come to think of it, the alarm wasn't set when I came in yesterday. It didn't beep.”

“So whoever took the laptop disarmed the alarm. Do a lot of people know the code?”

Sandy shook her head. “Just me and Tristan.”

“Maybe the crime scene team didn't know how to arm it and didn't realize you weren't there.”

“So someone's been in the house,” Sandy murmured.

“Listen to me, Sandy. It could be nothing, but just to be on the safe side, maybe you should go into town and stay at the hotel, or go back to Baton Rouge.”

“No,” Sandy said. “This was probably some kid.”

“Hold on a minute.”

She heard Maddy talking to Zach, then suddenly the phone went silent. Maddy must have put it on mute. It didn't matter, because Sandy knew what they were saying. They were discussing whether there was still any danger to Sandy or anyone else in Bonne Chance.

“Maddy—” Sandy muttered. “Come on. Hurry up.”

Finally Maddy unmuted her phone. “Sandy, if anything happens, call us, okay? We're not on the case anymore, but it hasn't been closed. So either Homeland Security or the NSA might reactivate it.”

That quickly, the confidence that Sandy had in knowing that Homeland Security and the NSA had finished with Bonne Chance, the smugglers and Tristan's death drained away. “Why would they do that?”

Maddy hesitated—not for long, but it was long enough for Sandy to notice. “Maddy? You told me all the smugglers were arrested and the captain was killed by Boudreau. I thought that was the end of it.”

“There are some things that we're not allowed to talk about. There are some things we're not even allowed to know.”

“But you do know, don't you? I
knew
you and Zach weren't telling me everything. There's more to Tristan's death than you told me, isn't there?”

“Sandy, don't.”

“Maddy, I swear I will come over there and wring your neck if you don't tell me what you know.”

“Hang on a minute.”

“No! Wait—” But Maddy was gone. Sandy waited impatiently. After about twenty seconds, she came back on the line.

“Sandy, listen carefully, because I can only say this once. It's possible—just possible—that your husband's death was not an accident.”

Sandy sat down. It was a good thing there was a chair right there. “What? So Zach was right? What happened? Is there some new evidence?”

“Listen to me. We spent a week in your house while we searched for answers to what happened to Tristan and all we could come up with was that his death was suspicious.” Maddy took a breath. “So now Homeland Security is ramping up listening devices as well as working with the Coast Guard to do more spot inspections of the oil rigs. They're obviously worried that there may be another group out there that's planning something. Bonne Chance is probably one of the least populated and least noticed places on the Gulf Coast. It doesn't even have streetlights except on Main Street.”

“I know. Out here, we can barely see lights from the town on clear nights, or if there's a fire we can see flames and smoke.”

“Well, the darkness and isolation makes it desirable for smugglers.”

“Maddy, you have to tell me why Zach—”

“Sandy!” Maddy snapped. “What did I just tell you?”

“A lot of vague stuff that you won't explain. Fine. I'll let you know if anything happens. That is if I'm able to.” Sandy was being sarcastic, but Maddy had just laid a new and awful truth on her and refused to explain it.

Her husband may have been murdered.

“Sandy, call the sheriff and get him to take fingerprints off the desk. That's the easiest way to figure out who did it.”

“If their prints are on file. But they probably aren't.”

“Call the sheriff, Sandy,” Maddy said.

“Maddy, this might not make any sense to you, but I don't want anyone in my house. I just got home. All I want to do is be here with the baby. We have a lot of things to sort out, him and me. There's no real reason to get fingerprints, is there?”

“Sandy, I mean it. I'm supposed to be in training this whole week, but I'll take a break and call you if I have to.”

“All right. I'll call. Now can we talk about something else?”

“Sure. How are you feeling? Is the baby doing well?”

“Yes. We're both doing fine.”

“Did that little thing ever fall off?”

“Little thing?” Sandy said. “Oh, right. That's what the doctor said about the sonogram. Not that I know of. It's still there.”

“So did he actually say it's a boy?”

“No. Apparently physicians don't like to actually commit, but he sounded pretty sure. You know,” she said with a sad smile, “Tristan said we were having a boy. He really believed it.”

“Aw, honey.”

“I know. Don't worry. I'm fine.” Sandy forced a laugh.

“Have you thought of a name yet?”

“No. Not yet.”

“So you're back there in Bonne Chance. Are you and the baby going to stay there?”

“I plan to,” she said. “But I might go back over to Baton Rouge when I'm closer to the delivery date. It might be easier, having Tristan's mother to help me.”

She barely listened as Maddy went on and on about what a great idea it was to go back to Baton Rouge. When she had a chance, she broke in and said goodbye, that she was going to sleep. Maddy warned her again what would happen if she didn't call the sheriff, then they hung up.

“Okay, bean. How about you? Do you think I should call the sheriff about the computer? Yeah. Me neither. Although I think I'll go see Boudreau tomorrow. Let him know I'm back. He might have seen someone sneaking around the house.”

She smiled as she rubbed the side of her tummy. “Although, if Boudreau saw somebody he didn't know going into Tristan's house when I wasn't there, he'd probably shoot them.”

Copyright © 2015 by Rickey R. Mallory

ISBN-13: 9781460383032

Untraceable

Copyright © 2015 by Janie Crouch

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