Shadows from the Grave (11 page)

“Yeah, he was looking forward to getting it done,” Annie said. “Walls going up this weekend?”

They headed up the steps of the front porch. “As long as it doesn’t rain,” Chase said. He knocked on the door. Ethan, standing in the living room, waved them in. As soon as Chase opened the door, the smell of burnt garlic hit them, and Chase made a face.

“Beth’s cooking, huh?” he asked. “Hi, Stacy, Gordon.” When Annie lightly smacked his arm, he flinched. “What?”

“Be nice to your sister,” she said. “Ethan probably burns food, too. Don’t you, Ethan?”

“Hey, Annie. This should be good.” Stacy patted the seat next to her on the couch. “Come sit and watch them dig themselves deeper.”

“Always a good, fun time,” Annie agreed as she joined Stacy on the couch. Gordon laughed, quickly turning it into a cough when both Ethan and Chase shot him a look.

“As a matter of fact, I do burn food from time to time,” Ethan agreed. “Just not as frequently as my wife does. And not today. Today, it’s all hers.” There was a loud clatter of metal from the kitchen and Ethan winced. “Excuse me.” He hurried toward the other room. “Beth, you’re going to burn yourself!”

“I’m not completely incompetent in the kitchen, thank you very much, Ethan Moore,” they heard her respond. “And this bread? I set the oven to the right temperature. I did exactly what the box said to do. And it still burned!” There was another loud clang. “Explain that to me, please?”

Ethan’s response was muted. Beth groaned. “Of course, they’re here.” She poked her head around the corner and waved at everyone. “Welcome to Bedlam. Ahh, here comes the last lunatic.” She waved at Jason, who had just come up on the porch.

“Do you need some help, Beth?” Annie asked.

“No. I need an oven that isn’t older than dirt. Where did you get that thing, Ethan?” she asked as he came out of the kitchen wiping his hands on a towel.

“It came with the house,” he responded. “I’ve never had any problem with it.”

Beth rolled her eyes. “Dratted thing must be a female. It’s going away this weekend. I have a reputation to protect, and it’s determined to sabotage me.”

“Hey, what’s going on, everyone?” Jason asked as he came in. “What’s that smell?”

“Beth’s getting a new oven, apparently,” Annie said. “Do we need to order pizza?”

Hands on hips, Beth shook her finger at Annie. “Oh, et tu, Annie? No dessert tonight for you. Come on, everyone. Most of dinner is ready. We’re having spaghetti and salad. Hope that’s okay,” she said. As they filled their plates, they all chatted, catching up.

“Hannah couldn’t make it tonight,” Jason said as they sat down around the table. “She asked me to tell everyone ‘hi,’ though.”

“Hi, back,” Beth said. “Did Joely and the folks get on the road okay this morning, Annie?”

“As far as I know,” she answered. “They left about ten, and things seemed pretty normal to me.”

“Yeah, well, maybe they were normal for Mom, Dad, and the kid, but I got a phone call this afternoon from Ethel,” Chase added.

Beth and Jason both shot him a sympathetic look. “What did she want?” Jason asked.

Chase shrugged. “Not much. Just some attention, some great-grandchildren, the usual. Oh, and Beth, she wanted to know if she could borrow Ethan for the weekend. I think she’s feeling lonely now that J.R.’s gone.”

Ethan, who had just taken a large sip of his tea, choked. He turned away, coughing and sputtering, as the three Hudson children rolled with laughter.

Gordon and Stacy exchanged a confused look, so Annie explained, “Apparently, their grandmother thinks Beth should have married some stuffy accountant or something, and kept Ethan as a lover.”

“The hell she said that,” Ethan said when he was finally able to respond. “Not the part about Beth, but about borrowing me this weekend,” he clarified.

“You know, I thought my family was strange until I started hearing about Ethel,” Gordon said. “She puts my mother to shame.”

“We’ll let you adopt her, if you want. She’d probably think you’d make an ideal lover, too,” Beth said in an offhand manner. When there was utter silence at the table, she looked up to find everyone looking nervously between her and Ethan. “What?”

Ethan’s eyebrows had drawn together in a frown. “You might want to expand on that remark a little.”

“Um, okay… Which remark? Adopting Ethel?” They all watched as what she had said dawned on her, and her eyes grew huge. “Oh, my God. I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Then how did you mean it, exactly?” Ethan asked, his arms crossed. Chase couldn’t tell if he was truly angry or just pulling Beth’s leg. He looked across the table at Gordon, who looked like he would rather be anywhere but where he was.

“I meant… he’s just…” she sputtered. “He’s dark and tall, and a little exotic-looking. You’re both alpha males. Apparently, that’s her type. No offense, Gordon.” She kept her eyes on Ethan, who was tapping his fingers against his arm.

Gordon waved a hand. “None taken. But if I’m going to get the crap beaten out of me, can I finish dinner first? It was a long day.”

Ethan sighed, and Chase saw his brother-in-law’s lips twitch briefly before he controlled them again. “Even guys like you and me deserve a last meal, I suppose,” he said. He picked up his fork and pointed it at Beth. “You, I’ll deal with later.”

“Yes, dear,” Beth responded meekly, a smile of her own playing around her lips. The tension at the table evaporated, and everyone resumed their meals.

“So, not to be nosy, which this is, but what’s the deal with your grandmother?” Stacy asked. “Why doesn’t she like Ethan?”

“It’s not just Ethan,” Jason said. “She’s never approved of Mom, either. Thinks the Olman blood is beneath the Hudson’s.”

“Yeah, when Mom and Dad got married, and Dad decided to stay in medical school instead of going to law school, Ethel and J.R. basically cut him off,” Chase said. “If it hadn’t been for Grandpa and Grandma, he probably wouldn’t have been able to finish school.”

“I’ve never understood that,” Ethan said. “Why she thinks Jackie’s so far beneath her. Even after seeing the family dynamics from the inside, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Chase watched out of the corner of his eye as Annie seemed to draw into herself, and he sighed. He knew her being illegitimate bothered her, even if most of the rest of the world didn’t care. More than once over the past few months, she’d made disparaging comments here and there that convinced him the confident face she presented to the world was just a façade. He caught Beth’s eye and realized his sister had seen what he had.

“Ethel’s biggest problem is that she buys into the whole ‘aristocratic lineage’ crap that her mother always spouted off, apparently,” Beth explained. “But you know what Chase has dug up?”

“You had a pirate in the family tree?” Gordon asked, smiling.

“Even better.” Chase laughed. “We had two horse thieves, one of whom was hanged for such, a great-grandmother of ill-repute who married one of the horse thieves and ran off with the other after the first one’s death, and we come from the worst of the worst clans that were run out of Ireland on a rail. And that’s just the Chase side. Ethel swears I made it all up, but it’s true. We’re no more blue bloods than any mongrel pup.”

“Oh, and Ethel’s named after the fallen woman,” Jason chimed in. “How’s that for irony?”

Gordon raised his glass. “I knew there was a reason I liked you people,” he said. “You make me feel like I fit right in the mix.” Glasses were raised all around the table in a toast.

“I don’t know how ironic it is, really—that Ethel’s named after the harlot,” Ethan said. “Considering she advised her grandchildren to marry and take lovers afterward. Sounds rather fitting to me, actually.”

“Did you just call our grandmother a harlot, Ethan?” Chase asked, surprised.

Ethan thought about it. “Yes, I suppose I did. I guess I should apologize for that.”

“Well, I wouldn’t advise saying it outside this room or this group of people,” Jason said, “but considering what she said about you the other day, I think we can let it slide for now.” He changed the subject. “What’s going on with this letter I’ve heard about?”

Stretching, Chase sat back in his chair. “That’s a good question. Gordon? Any word yet?”

“Nothing good,” Gordon responded. “There weren’t any fingerprints on it that didn’t fit. As a matter of fact, the technician who examined the card and letter said that the paper had been rubbed down, as best she could tell. There wasn’t any DNA on the glued parts of the envelope, and they’re waiting to test under the stamp. There was no trace evidence. Unless some of the contents of the letter give us a clue, the only thing we can do is send it to Quantico for profiling.”

“They did a profile on the suspected killer earlier this year, didn’t they?” Annie asked. “I think I remember hearing that.”

Gordon nodded. “They did. They’ll take that letter and compare it to their profile. It won’t prove it’s the same guy, but it could give us an idea if it’s someone else. Which we all are pretty sure it isn’t.”

“So where does this leave the investigation?” Ethan asked.

“Basically at the same place it was, until something else happens.” Gordon shrugged. “Except that now we know this guy is aware of Chase, and that some of you may be in danger.”

As they all absorbed the seriousness of the situation, Chase sighed. “So what do you propose we do about that threat?”

Gordon looked at Beth and Annie. “The killer seems to think the two of you are Chase’s Achilles’ heels. That doesn’t mean he won’t target someone else close to you, so everyone should be careful, but the two of you especially need to be alert. Beth, you have Ethan.” he looked at Ethan. “And I’m sure you’ll be sticking pretty close to her until we get a break?” Ethan nodded.

“I’ll be staying at the guest house with Annie until we can get a security system installed there,” Chase said. It was testament to the seriousness of the situation that no one teased them about the arrangement.

“And after that?” Jason asked. “No offense, Annie, I know you can take care of yourself, but a security system is only good if you’re in the house, it’s armed, and no one tries to break in. What if the guy waits for you outside some evening?” Chase shot him a grateful look and kept his silence while he waited for Annie’s response.

“I don’t know, Jason,” she confessed. “What should I do? Carry a gun? Pepper spray? Stay in the house day and night? Those aren’t options.”

“The department’s going to increase patrols out here—already have, as a matter of fact,” Stacy chimed in. “That will help some, but I agree; it isn’t enough. Do you have any pepper spray, Annie?”

“As it happens, I do,” Annie said. “And as far as a gun goes, Beth, please don’t take this the wrong way, but last year, a gun didn’t do you any good. You carry,” she told her friend, “and look what still happened.”

Beth sighed. “I know, but I still feel safer with a gun than without. I have another question, though. What happens if you can’t catch this guy?” she asked Gordon. “How long do we put our lives on hold for this man?”

Gordon shook his head. “You don’t,” he answered. “Don’t do anything stupid, and don’t stop living your lives. That’s giving him a power he doesn’t deserve.”

“Why haven’t the feds taken over Kiely’s case?” Ethan asked. “No offense to the cops in Lexington, but wouldn’t you do a better job?”

“I was wondering that myself,” Chase added.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple,” Gordon said. “I can investigate the letter Chase received. It crossed state lines, which makes it federal jurisdiction. However, as much as we all know that letter is from the killer, there’s no absolute proof. Until and unless we have that proof, we can’t just jump in and take the case away from Lexington. Right now, it’s just circumstantial evidence and a big hunch that Kiely’s murder is connected to those other eight. The profile fits, but again, that’s just someone’s opinion. And there’s another complication.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear this,” Chase said. “It just gets better and better.”

Gordon sent him a look that was full of sympathy. “Sorry, Chase. I did a little digging around, and it looks like Neal Bledsoe has a friend or two in the Lexington police department.”

“What kind of friends?” Annie asked.

“The kind with power,” Gordon said. “The kind you can’t ignore. I still have a friend or two down there myself in the Commonwealth Attorney’s office, and they tell me that there’s speculation about the new detective they have on the case—Greg Hart. He may or may not be in Bledsoe’s pocket. I’ve talked to him a time or two. He seemed to know what he was doing, acted interested in solving the case, but you can never tell.”

“So we have a killer who’s sending letters after ten years of silence, a detective who may or may not be crooked, a politician who has a personal vendetta against Chase, and who has the money and influence to wield a heavy sword, if need be. And it’s an election year in Kentucky,” Beth said. “Does that about sum it up?”

“Pretty much,” Gordon replied. “You left out the part about little to no evidence connecting Kiely’s murder to the others, though.”

Ethan stood and went into the kitchen for dessert. As he came back in with a cake and plates, he frowned. “Gordon, do you have anything up your sleeve? Anything at all?”