Love Inspired Suspense December 2013 Bundle: Christmas Cover-Up\Force of Nature\Yuletide Jeopardy\Wilderness Peril (55 page)

Julie turned and looked at Derek as he zoomed in on her for a close-up. “Grace needs your help. If you have information, get in touch with her. In the meantime, keep watching this station for the latest developments in the investigation. This is Julie Colter for WKIZ news, live at the home of Grace Kincaid.”

Derek signaled that the camera was off, and Julie let out a long breath. Grace smiled and patted her on the back. “Great job, Julie. I think you're right. Your talents are wasted working as a glorified gopher. When I come back to work, I'll talk to the manager about making you my assistant. Would you like that?”

Julie's eyes grew wide. “Oh, Miss Kincaid, it would be like a dream come true.”

“Then that's what I'll do. Now I think I'd better check with Detective Crowne and see if I need to stay here any longer.”

Derek nodded and grasped Julie's arm. “We'll get out of your way, Grace. I hope to see you back at work soon.”

“I'll be back after Christmas.”

Alex straightened from leaning against the wall as Grace walked toward him and smiled. “Good job on the interview. If our guy saw it, he's probably trying to decide what he can do next to make our lives miserable.” He let his gaze drift over her face. “I don't want anything to happen to you.”

“I don't either, but we can't let him control us much longer.” She propped her hands on hips and glanced around the room. “Do you think Clay could have had time to drive from Nashville and do this?”

“I don't know, but I doubt it. He looked more scared than angry, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be involved. He could have made a quick telephone call and set this in motion.” He sighed and rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Every way I turn with this case new questions pop up, and I have this thought niggling in my head that I've forgotten something.”

“But you can't figure out what it is?”

He shook his head. “It's like it's just out of reach of my memory, and I know it's something important. I'm missing something, but I don't know what.”

She yawned. “Don't worry. You'll remember.”

“I hope so.” He sighed and glanced over his shoulder. “There's no need for us to stay here any longer. The officers can take it from here. Let's get you down to the Peabody, and then I'll go home and get some sleep. Maybe tomorrow will bring some new leads in the case.”

“I sure hope so. I'll get my bag and be back in a minute.”

He stood still and watched as she left the room. It had been a long day, and he was ready to get some rest. He hoped he could sleep. If only he could get this thought out of his mind that he knew something that could bring this case to a close right now. It was something someone had said. Not recently, but a long time ago. Something he should have remembered. But what was it?

After a minute, he exhaled and shook his head. There was no use racking his brain tonight. Maybe tomorrow he could remember what he needed to know.

ELEVEN

G
race swallowed the last bite of her omelet and picked up her coffee cup. Breakfast had always been one of her favorite meals, and nothing could be better than being served in the dining room of the Peabody Hotel. Her parents were having a quiet morning with room service, but she'd wanted to mingle with other guests and enjoy the beautiful Christmas decorations that had turned the hotel into a wonderland.

She'd attended many private parties at the Peabody and had dined here several times with friends, but this was the first time she'd ever spent the night in the elegant hotel. The visit would have been very exciting if it weren't for the reason she and her parents had become guests. Her forehead wrinkled as she recalled the events of the night before. When she'd checked on her parents earlier, her father had mentioned they needed to contact their insurance company, and she needed to take care of that right away.

She pulled her cell phone from her purse and was about to dial the number when she looked up and spied Alex walking in the door. Her pulse quickened at the sight of him. She'd always thought him handsome, but somehow this morning his presence set her heart to beating faster.

He stopped at the table and dropped into the chair across from her. “Sorry to be so late. I took advantage of it being Saturday. Since I didn't have to go to work, I slept in longer than usual.”

“Do you want something to eat?”

He shook his head. “I ate before I left home, but I could use some coffee.”

As if she'd heard the request, a waitress stopped beside the table. “Coffee, sir?”

He smiled. “Yes, please.”

Grace waited until the woman had poured the coffee before she leaned closer. “How's the case you're helping Seth with coming along?”

“We're at a standstill, but it's a case that goes back a lot further that Landon's. We may never get the answer to that one.”

Grace closed her eyes and shuddered. “It's horrible for families not to have answers. I hope we can find some about all the deaths of our classmates.”

“Me, too.” He looked down at the cell phone she still held. “Have you checked to see if anyone left you an email or a voice mail?”

“No, I was about to call the insurance company, but I think I'll check voice mail first.”

Grace punched in the number and drummed her fingers on the table as she listened to the messages. From time to time she knit her eyebrows and shook her head. Every crazy in Memphis must have left a message for her, and they all claimed to know the killer's name.

She was about to give up when she clasped the phone tighter and sat up in her chair. “Hello, Grace, this is Sharon Warren,” a woman's voice said. “I was Sharon Ashley when we attended school together, and I married Billy Warren. I'm in Memphis visiting my family for Christmas, and I saw your interview on television last night. I think we need to get together. I know some things that might help you with your case. You can reach me at 555-2721.”

Alex set his cup down and frowned. “What is it?”

“I had a message from Billy Warren's widow. She wants to meet with me. She says she knows something that may help the case.”

An excited look flashed on Alex's face. “When?”

“I have to call her.” Grace punched in the number and waited for someone to answer.

A woman's voice answered. “Hello.”

“This is Grace Kincaid calling for Sharon Warren.”

“Grace, this is Sharon. Thank you for returning my call.”

“No, it's I who need to thank you. I'm very much interested in talking with you. When can we meet?”

Sharon hesitated a moment. “I'm at my parents' home, and we're leaving to take my daughter to Disneyworld this afternoon. It's her Christmas present. Would it be possible for us to meet now?”

“Yes, I can do that. Tell me where.”

“Why don't you come here? My parents have taken my daughter to the mall to get some last-minute items for the trip and won't be back for a while.”

“We can do that.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and whispered to Alex. “Do you have time to meet with Sharon?” He nodded, and she spoke into the phone. “Alex Crowne with the Memphis Police will be with me. It's been a long time since I was at your parents' home. What's the address?”

Alex pulled a pen and a small notepad from his shirt pocket and slid them across the table to her. Grace mouthed a thank-you and wrote down the address as Sharon recited it to her. “And one more thing, Grace,” Sharon said, “don't tell anyone else I'm in town. I still don't feel safe when I come back to Memphis.”

“Okay. We'll keep this to ourselves, and we'll leave right now. We should be there in about thirty minutes.”

“I'll see you then.”

Grace ended the call and placed the phone in her purse. “Sharon doesn't want anyone to know she's in town. She sounded scared. Maybe this is the tip we've been looking for.”

“I hope so.”

Thirty minutes later they pulled to a stop in front of the address Sharon had given her. Grace stared at the rambling house with the circle driveway and remembered high school parties she'd attended here. “I haven't been to this house since we graduated.”

Alex turned off the ignition and opened the car door. “I didn't know you and Sharon were friends.”

Grace climbed out and looked over the car's roof at him. “We weren't close friends. Our families were members at the same country club, and I was always invited to Sharon's parties. It's strange, though, I hadn't even thought of her since I heard Billy was dead. I don't know why I didn't.”

Alex rubbed his neck and frowned. “I know what you mean. I've still got this feeling that I've forgotten something.”

Grace walked around the car, and they climbed the steps to the front porch. “I'm sure it will come to you.”

Before they could ring the bell, Sharon opened the door. Even though Grace hadn't seen her in years, she still recognized the girl she'd known growing up. She had matured, and her once-blond hair was darker than Grace remembered. But the blue eyes still crinkled at the corners when she smiled.

She reached out and grabbed Grace's hand in both of hers. “Grace, it's so good to see you.”

Then she turned to Alex and shook his hand. “And Alex Crowne. You're still as good-looking as ever. Come in.”

Alex's face flushed, and he grinned. “Thanks, Sharon. I didn't know if you'd remember me or not.”

“Of course I remember you. Who could forget the guy who helped us win the state football championship?”

Alex's smile grew larger. “That was a long time ago.”

Sharon rolled her eyes. “Don't remind me.” She held the door for them to enter the house and led them to a study in the rear of the residence. When they entered the room, she closed the door. “I thought we'd talk in here since this is more private. Some of the household staff might pop into an open room while we're talking, but they won't open a closed door.”

Grace sat down on a sofa and waited for Alex and Sharon to take their seats before she shifted to the edge of the cushions. “I was excited to hear from you. What is it you think might help us?”

Sharon took a deep breath. “As you know, Billy and I dated through high school. Everything went well until about midway through our junior year. Something happened to change Billy. He became surly, his grades dropped and he cut school all the time. I was so concerned I went to his parents.”

“Had they noticed the change in him?” Alex asked.

“Yes, but they had no idea what was going on. Then when Landon died, it got worse. Billy became paranoid and said he was going to be the next to die. His parents were afraid he'd commit suicide, too, so they placed him in an institution.”

A gasp escaped Grace's throat. “I'd forgotten Billy wasn't there to walk through graduation with us.”

“No, he was off in another state undergoing treatment for a mental collapse. In the fall I started college at Rhodes here in Memphis, but I loved Billy, and I went with his parents to see him often. It was two years before he was able to leave the facility, but he said he couldn't live in Memphis anymore. His father had a business out in Colorado, so he gave Billy a job there. By the time I finished college, he seemed like the old Billy, and we were married.”

Grace counted up the years in her head. “So you must have been married about four years before he died.”

Sharon nodded. “I found out after we were married he wasn't the old Billy. He hardly slept at night. When he did, he'd wake up shouting all kinds of things.”

Alex frowned. “What would he say?”

“He'd say things like ‘I'm next' or ‘Don't kill me.'”

Alex leaned forward. “Did you ask him about this?”

“I did over and over. Finally, one night he broke down and told me that during our junior year in high school, he and Landon, Clay, Jeremy, Sam and Dustin had gotten some fake IDs and gone to a club in one of the seamier sides of the city. They were looking for some excitement in their lives, and they found it. Billy said the guys who hung out there were like characters you'd see in a gangster movie, but they were real. Billy and his friends wanted to be a part of that macho lifestyle, and before long they were pedaling drugs for their new friends. They made a lot of money selling to kids at school, and then they branched out with college kids.”

Grace's mouth gaped open, and she turned to stare at Alex. “They were drug dealers. That explains the money Mr. Mitchell found in Landon's room.”

Sharon nodded. “Things were going great for them. They were making money, hanging out with drug lords and thinking of themselves as smarter than the cops who were trying to get drugs off the streets. Then they began to get email messages from someone who warned them not to sell drugs to this one guy. Of course they ignored them. They thought they were untouchable. One day Landon emailed the others to tell them he'd found out who was sending the messages. He said he'd let them know that night. Instead, his car was found on the bridge.”

“So he never told them who it was?”

“No, but the messages continued. The person who sent the messages said he had killed Landon, and each one of them would meet the same fate if they sold this man's son any more drugs. They wanted to go to the police, but they were scared. The last thing they wanted was for their parents to find out what they'd done. So they told their suppliers they were through selling, which didn't sit well with them. For weeks they were afraid they were going to die in a drive-by shooting, but the emails stopped.”

“What happened next?” Alex asked.

“Billy had his breakdown and entered the hospital, and the others got their parents to send them somewhere for the summer before college in the fall. Dustin went to the Gulf Coast where he disappeared. By the time school started, the police had busted the drug ring, and their suppliers were in jail. They thought they were safe...that is until the letters began to arrive a year or so later.”

Grace leaned forward. “What did they say this time?”

“They said the boy they'd been warned about selling drugs to had died of an overdose, and it was their fault because they'd gotten him hooked. They were warned to watch their backs because the Wolf Pack was about to pay for what they did.”

“Wolf Pack?” Grace and Alex spoke at the same time.

“That's what the boys called themselves. They had a wolf's head tattooed on their shoulders.”

Alex stared at Sharon. “Why didn't you go to the police with this?”

“Because Billy made me promise not to. He said if anything happened to him, I was to keep quiet. He didn't want me or our daughter harmed. A week later he died when his Jeep crashed through a guardrail and ended up at the bottom of a Colorado ravine. The police suspected his brakes might have been tampered with, but they couldn't prove it. I was scared, and I kept quiet.” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “But when I saw Grace on television last night, I knew I had to come forward. This killer has to pay for what he's done.”

Grace reached over and grasped Sharon's hand. “I'm glad you called. What you've told us lets us know that Landon was indeed murdered, and it looks like the others were, too. Did Billy tell you the name of the boy who died?”

She shook her head and wiped at her eye. “No.”

“Did he mention anything that might give us a lead about where to start looking for someone who'd want to avenge his death?”

“No, he didn't...” She paused, and her eyes grew large. “He did say the guy was a college student, but they weren't the ones who sold him his first drugs. He'd started using when he was in high school. He mentioned that the first time they sold this guy drugs he was stoned out of his head and sitting on a motorcycle in a parking lot. Sam had been trying to get his dad to buy him one like it, and he kept asking questions about the bike. The guy mumbled something about it not being his but his father's.”

“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Alex asked.

She shook her head. “I can't think of anything else.”

Alex let out a big breath and rose. “You've been very helpful, Sharon. I hope you and your family have a great time at Disneyworld. Maybe by the time you get back, we'll have all this sorted out.”

She stood and looked from one to the other. “I know Billy did some bad things, but he was really sorry about it later. It robbed him of his life, and our daughter will never know her father.”

Grace hugged her and smiled. “Thank you, Sharon. If we catch this guy, it will be because of your help.”

She gave a small shake of her head and led them back through the house. “If I had done it earlier, Sam might still be alive.”

When they were back in the car, Grace swiveled in her seat and faced Alex. “Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Mr. Donner rides a motorcycle.”