Vows of Silence (8 page)

He nodded, smoothed a broad hand over his dingy white T-shirt. “I raised her better than that, but that Pamela, she had high hopes, you know. If she couldn’t find herself a rich man to marry she intended to hook one any way she could. I warned her she’d only find trouble that way.”

“Hook one?” Lacy inquired as if she didn’t understand.

“Well, I can’t be sure,” he said with a negligent wave of his hand. “But her sister, Carmen, the oldest, claims Pamela was pregnant by Ashland.” His gaze turned distant. “Guess we’ll never know.”

Lacy felt the blood drain from her face. “But Carmen couldn’t be sure unless Pamela confirmed her pregnancy with a test…”

“I guess she was far enough along she knew for sure,” he said knowingly. “Had herself a doctor over in Rainsville.”

Lacy’s heart started to pound. “Maybe she was afraid of what Charles Ashland would do and she just ran away.”

Mr. Carter shook his head. “Nope. I don’t think she would’ve done that. She wanted to be one of them.” He shrugged. “You know them high-society folks. I guess she figured getting pregnant was a guaranteed way to make it happen. Must’ve backfired on her since she disappeared so suddenly.”

Lacy didn’t remember saying goodbye, but somehow she managed to make her way back to her Explorer without throwing up or passing out.

She started the engine and turned around in the half-dead grass. She drove as fast as she dared back down the narrow path that served as a driveway.

She shouldn’t have come here. What she’d learned had only made things more confusing. If Melinda ever found out… It was one thing to have affairs, but to get another woman pregnant…

Lacy shuddered and her stomach roiled as she pulled out onto the highway.

Charles was an even bigger bastard than she’d known.

She had to find out who killed him, no matter who it turned out to be.

Who was she kidding? If the police couldn’t figure out what had really happened to Charles, how the hell could she hope to? But she had to try. Didn’t she? Her insides knotted with anxiety. She had to try. She couldn’t keep pretending it didn’t matter.

Just then, in her rearview mirror, blue lights flickered. Not a squad car…a truck. She recognized it from earlier that morning.

Rick Summers.

He’d followed her.

Chapter 7

“Y
ou were speeding.”

Lacy stared at Rick dumbfounded. She’d barely pulled out onto the road when she spotted his blue lights. No way could she have been speeding.

She finally found her voice. “That’s impossible.”

She couldn’t tell what he was thinking with his eyes hidden behind the dark eyewear, but if the muscle throbbing in his jaw was any indication he was madder than hell.

“You were swerving recklessly,” he accused.

“What?” If she’d swerved it was only because seeing those lights in her rearview mirror startled her.

He grabbed the door handle and jerked it open. “Get out of the vehicle, Miss Oliver.”

What the…? “You can’t be serious?” Was he playing some sort of intimidation game here? “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Get out now or I’ll consider your actions failure to consent.”

Confusion clouded her ability to think. “Failure to consent to what?”

“A sobriety test.”

He had lost his mind.

“It’s the middle of the day? You think I’ve been drinking? For God’s sake, Rick—”

“Get out of the vehicle, Miss Oliver.”

Flustered and furious, Lacy unsnapped her seat belt and slid out of the Explorer. She slammed the door. “Now what?”

He pointed to the middle of the road. “See that white line?”

She rolled her eyes.

“I want you to walk it.”

“This is harassment,” she muttered as she stormed to the middle of the road. “You can barely see the damned line it’s so faded.”

“Start walking, Lacy Jane.” He ripped off his concealing eyewear to allow her to see just how serious he was.

Oh, so now it was Lacy Jane.

Rage pulsing in her veins, she started forward, careful to put one foot directly in front of the other as she’d seen it done in the movies.

When she’d taken a dozen or so steps, she stopped and wheeled around. “Satisfied?”

He towered over her. She gasped. She hadn’t realized he’d been right behind her.

“Now close your eyes and hold your arms straight out from your sides.”

“I will not!”

“You will.”

Sucking in a deep breath to slow her building rage, she closed her eyes and stretched out her arms.

“Now touch your nose with your right forefinger.”

Shaking with fury, she barely managed the feat. She did the same with her left finger before he could ask. “See?” she demanded as she dropped her arms and opened her eyes to glare at him once more.

“Keep walking,” he growled. “I’m not convinced.”

This was insane. So mad she could not speak, she faced forward and did as he ordered. She would file a complaint against him, by God. This was harassment pure and simple. He wouldn’t get away with it.

“What were you doing at the Carter place?”

“How dare you!” She spun around to face him, almost bumping into him in the process. “Where I go and who I talk to is none of your—”

“Keep walking.”

If he hadn’t looked so fierce she might have been able to ignore his crazy order this time. But he looked ready to rip off her head and spit down her throat, so she did as she was told.

“Why did you visit Pamela Carter’s father?”

For five seconds Lacy refused to answer. Who the hell did he think he was? It was a free country. She could visit anyone she wanted as long as they didn’t have a restraining order against her.

“Because I wanted to know if he’d heard from her.”

“I could have told you the answer to that,” he snapped.

“I didn’t want to hear your version of the story. I wanted to hear it from her father.”

“I don’t know what you’re up to, Lacy, but you’re getting yourself in deeper and deeper. Pretty soon I won’t even be able to bail you out.”

She faced him again. This time she was finished playing his ridiculous game. “You don’t want to bail me out, remember? You want to find out who killed Charles Ashland, end of story. The only reason we’re having this conversation is because you think I know something.”

“And do you?”

She wanted so badly to hit him that it was a literal ache in her limbs. He didn’t care who got hurt. All he cared about was solving his damned case.

“I know Charles Ashland had enough enemies that you could line them up around the courthouse square and have yourself a whole load of suspects. Why single out me and my friends?” Outrage rushed through her all over again. This wasn’t fair. Melinda had suffered enough. They all had.

“Because you’re hiding something from me,” he said, putting his face right next to hers. “I can feel it, Lacy. You know something relevant to this case and you’ve been keeping it a secret for ten years.”

Fear surged through her veins. Too close to home. “You see, that’s exactly the reason I decided to dig around in this case myself. You’ve obviously already decided who killed Charles and don’t intend to look any further.”

The vein that bulged in his forehead gave away his level of fury even before his words did. “I don’t know who killed Ashland, but I do know who wanted him dead more than anyone else.”

“Who? Melinda?”

He moved his head side to side. “You.”

She fell back a step. “This is harassment. You can’t do this, Summers. I could sue.”

“So sue me.” He folded his arms over his chest. “You know we found two slugs with the remains. We’ve already run ballistics. All we need now is to find a match. I’ve already got someone running down the names of anyone in town who had a certain caliber handgun registered ten years ago.”

A fresh flood of fear washed over her. He didn’t have to say what caliber—she knew. “And you would be telling me this because…?”

“Fair warning, Lacy Jane. I will get to the bottom of what happened that day. Cooperation could make things a whole lot easier on anyone who was involved.”

“Did you toss the same warning out to Nigel Canton this morning?” She’d seen him there. He’d seen her drive by. She was pretty sure he hadn’t dropped by Canton’s office to evaluate his strengths as a stockbroker.

“You think I should have?”

She held up her hands for him to just shut up. He had her far too close to the edge now. “I’m going to get back in my car and I’m going home. If you want to press some sort of charge against me, then I suggest you allow me to contact my attorney.”

He stepped aside, giving her the go-ahead to pass. She exhaled a lungful of tension and started back toward her abandoned SUV, the engine still running. She couldn’t believe she’d let him badger her into walking this far. Thank God, no one had come along and witnessed the fiasco. Then again, maybe she would have been better equipped to pursue a lawsuit if someone had.

“Did Mr. Carter tell you that Pamela was pregnant?”

Lacy stopped dead in her tracks.

“She’d been having an on-again off-again affair with Ashland for nearly two years. You suppose she thought she’d finally nailed him when she learned she was pregnant?”

Lacy turned to face him, her heart racing once more. He’d known this and still he pushed her for information about what she knew.

“You think,” he said, as he started slowly toward her, “that Charles withdrew that hundred grand to pay her off, maybe get her out of his life once and for all?”

Lacy couldn’t respond…couldn’t move. She could only watch him come closer, his words filling her with equal measures dread and outrage.

“Do you really believe that a country girl like Pamela could walk away from her family and never once look back?” He stopped right in front of her. “Or do you think maybe Charles killed her and dumped her body somewhere he figured nobody would look?”

A chill went through Lacy, making her shiver.

“That’s what I think,” he said coolly. “I think Pamela and that baby she was carrying are dead, and we just haven’t found the body yet.”

“I didn’t know…” Lacy shook her head. “I swear I didn’t. Melinda doesn’t know about the pregnancy. She would have told me.”

“Like she told you she left the hospital the day her husband disappeared?”

Lacy blinked, stunned by his statement. “That’s a lie.”

“Is it? I have a witness, one of the nurses on duty that day, who says Melinda was missing for a while. Are you telling me that your best friend didn’t share that secret with you?”

“She had a concussion and a fractured rib,” Lacy argued vehemently. “She couldn’t have just walked out.”

“Maybe she had help. Isn’t that what friends are for?”

He was fishing again. Like Cassidy said. He didn’t have anything. That’s why he kept following Lacy around.

“I’ve told you all I can.” Lacy turned her back on him and took the final few steps to her vehicle. She had to get out of here…away from him.

He put his hand against the door when she would have opened it. “I will find out what you’re hiding, Lacy. Mark my words. One way or another, I will find out.”

She’d had enough. She turned on him and didn’t even flinch when she realized just how close he was. “What’s the deal, Chief? Is your ego still bruised because I never called you after that night? Are you still mad that I wasn’t impressed enough to want more?”

Strong fingers wrapped around her right arm and jerked her nearer when she’d felt certain they couldn’t be any closer.

“This isn’t about that night.”

The utter calm of his tone made her more uneasy than if he’d shouted the words.

“This is about you and what you know.”

She lifted her chin and glared directly into determined eyes. “I don’t know anything that will help you catch his killer.”

“But you know something.”

The way his eyes searched hers…the feel of his hand against her skin. Her pulse faltered, made her shake in spite of her determination not to. “I know a lot of things, Chief Summers.” She found herself holding her breath.

“Keep in mind.” He was closer…somehow. She could feel his breath against her lips and a new kind of ache went through her, one of desire…of desperate need. “That whoever killed Charles Ashland doesn’t want me to find out who he or she is. If you know anything at all, that puts you directly in the line of fire. Think about it, Lace—any odd happenings in your life since you got back to town?”

I know your secret.

“I have to go.” She pulled her arm free of his hold. “Melinda’s waiting for me.”

He backed off a couple of steps, let her climb into her SUV, before he warned, “All you have to do is tell me the truth, Lacy. I’ll take care of everything else. You need to trust me.”

When she would have closed the door, he held it open a couple seconds longer and said, “You trusted me once.”

Their gazes held for one long beat more before he closed the door and she drove away.

He was right. She had trusted him that one time. She’d wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life. It was the summer before her senior year and she was the only one in her group of friends who was still a virgin. Until that night, when she’d decided she wasn’t going to be one come daylight. And if she was going to give that precious gift away so freely, it had to be with someone who made her quiver with want. Rick Summers. Tall, dark and handsome. He was a walking, talking romance-novel cliché. The good guy from the poor side of town, all full of pride and honor and big dreams for the future.

He’d done it right, she had to give him that. No matter what she’d said back there in the heat of anger. Rick Summers had made love to her as no one else ever had. Maybe that’s why she’d never been able to stick with any of her adult relationships. By age twelve her entire future had been mapped out. Graduate high school with honors. Go off to the best university. Get a high-powered position in her chosen field. Nowhere in that plan was hanging around her rinky-dink hometown with a guy from the wrong side of Houston Street. But that hadn’t stopped her heart. She’d fallen in love with the wrong guy fifteen years ago.

Now he wanted her again…for totally different reasons.

Lacy walked the floors of her childhood home until it was time to go to Melinda’s. She’d toyed with the idea of disposing of her father’s gun, but that wouldn’t change the fact that the weapon had been registered to him for at least twenty years. And it might very well make her look more guilty. She couldn’t be sure the gun had even been used. Rick’s people would find the registration listing and then he would know what she had to hide. Or, at least, part of it. Better to appear as if she had no reason to be worried than to look guilty.

As she parked in front of Melinda’s house she considered whether to tell Cassidy what she’d learned about Pamela, but decided against it. Her unofficial investigation would only draw more suspicion her way. Cassidy would only tell her that she was screwing up, drawing the chief’s attention. She would tell her again that all they had to do was lay low and this would all blow over.

But not for Lacy. It would never be over until she learned what had really happened.

Which of her friends killed Charles?

She felt sick to her stomach when she thought of what Rick had told her about Melinda having left the hospital. Why would Melinda keep that from her? Was he simply fishing? Had he made the whole thing up in an attempt to make her talk?

She didn’t know, but one thing was certain—she couldn’t risk that he was using that line of bull to get her to trust him. No way would she ask Melinda.

The moment she entered Melinda’s front door she knew something was wrong. Kira was there, too. She wasn’t supposed to take over until the next morning.

“Where have you been, Lacy?”

Lacy closed the door behind her and looked from Cassidy, who’d spoken, to Kira and back, her feelings of defensiveness automatically falling into place. “What’s going on?”

“I tried to call you to meet me for lunch,” Kira said. “Your cell wasn’t on.”

Lacy frowned, tried to think if she’d had her phone off at all today. “I must have been in a dead zone,” she said more to herself than the others. Along some of the county’s back roads cell service was sorely limited.

“I saw you driving back into town,” Kira went on. “Chief Summers was right behind you.”