You Can't Hide (55 page)

“She has a whole hell of a lot more than that.” Jack stepped back. “Take a look.”

Two large suitcases lay opened on the floor, filled with men’s clothes. “The luggage tag says

‘Jim Swanson,’” Jack said. “His wallet’s there, with his driver’s license, a plane ticket to Chad, and his passport. And this, wrapped in a shirt.” It was a butcher knife, crusted dark brown. Aidan’s blood went cold. “He’s dead then. She killed him.”

“But why?” Murphy asked. “Why would she do that?”

“She was obsessed with Swanson,” Aidan said, his stomach still pitching. “The night before he left he got drunk, remember? He went to Jon Carter’s, spilled his guts.” He glanced over at Vito. “Swanson was in love with Tess, but she’d turned him down. It was why he went to Africa.”

Vito’s eyes widened. “This is that guy? She told me that it had happened. Never told me the guy’s name. She says I’m the only one she told. She felt guilty as hell.”

“So let’s play this out.” Aidan pointed to himself. “I’m Amy. Murphy, you’re Swanson. You’ve come home from Carter’s and you’re drunk and despondent. Not fleet on your feet. Meanwhile, I’m pining for you. Have all these pictures of you. You’re leaving tomorrow and I may never see you again. I go to you and… what? Pledge my love?”

“She might.” Murphy nodded. “But I say ‘No way. I love Tess.’ You get mad. What happened when she got mad, Vito? Really mad?”

206

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

Vito paled. “I only saw her really mad once. She’d been stood up by some date for a school dance. The guy got a better offer from a more popular girl. She completely trashed her room, throwing things…” He swallowed. “She slashed up the dress she was supposed to have worn along with the mattress on her bed. She begged me to help her get the ripped mattress out of her room before Mom and Dad found out. She said she cut the mattress by mistake, but they were gouges, like she’d stabbed it. If my parents had only told us about her mother… I never would have kept that secret.”

“She’d be horrified when she saw what she’d done. She loved him and she killed him,”

Murphy said slowly. “And in her mind, it’s all Tess’s fault.”

“This was the trigger that changed this from a habitual torment to focused vendetta.” Aidan drew a deep breath. “She wanted to strip everything from Tess. Her career, her credibility.”
Her
life
. He couldn’t bring himself to say those words.

“You,” Murphy added. “You were supposed to leave when Rachel was threatened.”

“But you didn’t,” Vito said unsteadily. “Thank you.”

Aidan remembered the look on Tess’s face when she thought he had. He’d thought she’d known what was in his mind. He’d thought she’d figured him out, all nice and tidy because that’s what she did. She analyzed and diagnosed. Helped suicidal people at their most vulnerable. Blocked killers and rapists from using insanity to escape justice. And she was very good at what she did.

He’d thought such skill would be ingrained, reflexive, something she did with everyone. But it seemed the people she cared about were not subject to such scrutiny. Because she cared openly and without reservation, she expected the same. It had left her vulnerable to those whose motives were selfish or brutal. Phillip Parks. Denise Masterson. Amy Miller.

“Jack.” One of the CSU techs came back, a brown envelope in his hand. Jack pul ed out a stack of postcards and a sheet of stamps from Chad. “They’re already written,” Jack said. “She planned to send these out every few months.”

“She must have written the letter to the clinic’s director,” Murphy added. “To cover up what she’d done. Let’s check out the apartments across from Swanson’s old place.”

“And any other real estate held by the Deering corporation.” Aidan was almost out the door when his cel phone rang.

“Reagan, this is Jon Carter. I just got out of surgery and got my messages. One was from you and one was from Amy Miller.”

Aidan stopped short. “What did she say?”

“It was a strange message. She said she needed my help, that it was an emergency. She said she’d been with a client, a young kid who panicked and shot her. She wants to meet me so I can stitch her up because she doesn’t want the GSW reported. Said she didn’t want this kid’s life ruined because he made a mistake.”

“Where is she supposed to meet you?”

“I told her I’d meet her at my house in thirty minutes. I called you because as I was standing in surgery, I kept thinking about last night. Amy held my coat while I gave my condolences to Flo Ernst. I hope I’m wrong, but I won’t take a chance with Tess’s life.”

“We’re on our way, Jon. We’l be at your house in fifteen minutes.”

“Then I was right.” He sounded weary.

“Yeah.” Aidan drew a breath. “You were right.”

Friday, March 17, 7:30 P.M.

“Tess?” It was a weak moan, barely audible.

Tess lifted her head and squinted in the darkness, so relieved. Her father was conscious. Alive. Cautiously she rol ed to her side and met his eyes. His hands and feet were also tied, but for some reason Amy hadn’t gagged him.

207

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

Amy.
It was so unbelievable. Until she started stringing things together.
The crawl space.
She’d been so shell-shocked at the time and Amy had been so solicitous. Just as she’d been after the con with the chain. She brought me soup. Nasty soup. Tess had always thought Amy was just a terrible cook. Now the six weeks she spent weak and vomiting began to make more sense.
She
poisoned me
. What a bitch. But why?

Because she’s insane, Tess
. And Tess had learned that sometimes that was the only reason anybody needed. But Amy’s anger had changed. Before Cynthia Adams, her anger had never been lethal. Just… mean. What changed?

Tentatively she nudged her father’s knee with her own.

“Tess,” he whispered. “You’re alive.”

For how long?
She nudged him again, giving comfort, seeking it at the same time.

“I have a knife in my pocket,” he murmured. “My whittling knife. Can you get it?”

His whittling knife
. He’d always been ready to carve her a knickknack of some kind when she was small, keeping the knife in the holster pocket of his carpenter pants. She could see it in her mind’s eye. Now if only she could reach it with her bound hands.
Friday, March 17, 7:30 P.M.

Joanna headed for her apartment building with a spring in her step. Her visit to Lexington had been eye-opening, Dr. Chin’s information a springboard for what had become a piece of serious journalism. She hadn’t gotten Ciccotelli’s exclusive, but what she had gotten on the doctor’s best friend might be better. She couldn’t wait to tell Keith. She’d done it. She’d finally done it. A byline of her own. And nothing like the frothy piece she’d written on Jon Carter’s alternate lifestyle that would appear in the society gossip page. This was hard-hitting journalism. It was page one. Above the fold.
Finally.
And Cyrus Bremin wouldn’t scoop her on this one. She had the editor’s promise. But the man had promised before and given her story away, so she’d have to wait and see. Still, she rounded the corner with a grin on her face.

The grin faded and her step faltered as her building came into view. For the second time in a week an ambulance was on her curb. She sprinted the last block. Where before she’d been excited at the prospect of reporting Cynthia Adams’s suicide, now she felt dread. She caught up with a cop. “I live in this building. What’s happened?”

He looked at her face, his eyes narrowed. “What’s your name?”

“Joanna Carmichael.”

His eyes went flat. “We’ve been looking for you. Come with me.”

No.
Dread mounted as he led her to the elevator and up to her floor.
No.
The door to her apartment was open. People were inside. Not people. More cops.
Keith.
She was stopped a few feet from the door by a tall dark man and a smaller blonde woman. The man put a hand on her shoulder. “Miss Carmichael?” Numbly she nodded.

“I’m Detective Mitchell and this is my partner Detective Reagan,” the woman said. “Can you tell us where you were an hour ago?”

Her heart slowed to next to nothing. The tall dark one was the brother of Ciccotelli’s cop boyfriend. “With my editor at the
Bulletin
. Why?”

The woman looked her straight in the eye. “We have bad news for you.”

The woman’s words were drowned out by the squeak of gurney wheels. It bore a body bag.

“Keith?” She started after the gurney, panic sending everything else to the back of her mind. The voice she heard screaming was her own.
“Keith.”

Chapter 23

208

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

Friday, March 17, 7:30 P.M.

The bleeding had nearly stopped on its own and it didn’t throb as badly as it had when the wound was fresh. Still, it needed to be stitched or it would rip open again. Jon would be here soon. He’d stitch her up and Ciccotelli’s torture could commence. Jon’s empty driveway was visible through binoculars from a block away. As was the lowslung Camaro creeping down the road, a block in the other direction.
Aidan Reagan’s car
. It took a ful moment for the shock to sink in. Jon Carter had reported her.
They suspect
. Impossible. The shoes had been such a clever ploy. They were supposed to suspect Robin Archer, but he remained at home even after a morning visit by police.
Now they
suspect me.
But how?

And importantly, what next? The wound needed to be attended to. Ciccotelli would have to do it. I hope her father is still alive, because only a gun to his head will force her to do the job properly. Once the stitches were in place, Ciccotelli and her father would have to die. Quickly and far less painful y than planned.
I have to get away.
Far away.
Friday, March 17, 8:15 P.M.

“She must have seen us.” Aidan threw his coat on his desk in disgust.

“We waited for forty-five minutes,” Murphy told Spinnelli. “She never showed up.”

Spinnelli sighed. “We know how Miller got shot. We got a call right after you left for her apartment. Joanna Carmichael’s boyfriend was found dead in his apartment. The boyfriend was lying on his own gun, which had been fired once. And we found photos on their PC. Apparently Carmichael had been taking pictures of Tess all over town.”

Another dead person.
Damn.
“Tess said Carmichael had been fol owing her.”

“Well, she’d done a damn fine job of stalking. We found pictures of Marge Hooper and Sylvia Arness and half a dozen other people that Tess met that day. Carmichael told Abe and Mia that she’d suspected someone may have been in her files, but she’d gotten ‘distracted’ by a story. So it looks like Miller’s walking around with a bul et hole.”

“Carmichael got too close to Mil er,” Murphy murmured. “What was the story?”

“She hasn’t said. Mia says Carmichael kept muttering ‘above the fold.’”

“So her boyfriend pays for her obsession with Tess and an exclusive with his life.” Aidan sighed. “Did you find anything at Swanson’s old apartment?”

“It was rented two months ago by a young couple,” Spinnel i said. “So Miller’s not there now. But before that, it was rented by Deering, Inc.”

So close.
But still, no help. “Have we run a search on Deering’s holdings?”

“Lori’s doing it now. We should have something in an hour or so. I had Denise Masterson picked up again. She asked to call her lawyer and guess who he was?”

“Destin Lawe,” Murphy said and Spinnelli nodded.

“She was very unhappy to learn that he’s dead. He’d told her he was a lawyer.”

“Which was why she called him as soon as we let her go yesterday,” Murphy said.

“We also got three more calls reporting sightings of Danny Morris’s father. All fake.”

“She knows we’l fol ow every lead. Damn the bitch,” Murphy hissed. Aidan was ready to scream. “None of this helps us find Tess.”

“We’ve got an APB out for Miller,” Spinnelli said patiently. “Aidan, we’re dead in the water until Lori’s done with that records search. Use this time to recharge.” He narrowed his eyes.

“That’s an order. Once you get that printout of real-estate holdings, you’l be off like a rocket. I want you focused when you do.”

Aidan made himself leave the bul pen, running into Rick on his way to the elevator.

“I’ve been looking for you,” Rick said. “I have something.” When Aidan looked blank, Rick frowned. “The CD that the Poston kid smashed. I have something.”

New energy surged to give him the lift he’d been needing. “Let’s go look.”

209

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

Friday, March 17, 8:15 P.M.

Tess nearly laughed. It was a damn ludicrous request. “You want me to do
what
?”

Amy didn’t smile. “Here’s a sterilized needle and some thread.” She bared her forearm, revealing ripped skin. “Stitch it up.” She held her gun in her left hand, the barrel pressed to Michael’s temple. “Don’t make me flinch. My left hand’s not so steady.”

Tess sobered instantly. “All right. Just don’t hurt him.”

“She’l kill me anyway. Don’t help her.” He grunted when Amy kicked his stomach.

“Shut up, old man.”

“It’s all right, Dad,” Tess murmured, then met Amy’s eyes. “I can’t help you with my hands tied.” After an hour of contortion, she’d managed to retrieve her father’s whittling knife from his holster pocket. With her hands tied behind her back, the only place she could reach to hide the knife was inside the back waistband of her jeans. At the moment it was sheathed and totally useless. But when Amy freed her hands…

Amy took her own knife, a large butcher variety, and cut the ropes that bound her hands.

“One false move and your father won’t need to worry about his heart anymore.”

“This will hurt,” Tess warned. “I don’t have anything to deaden the pain.”

Amy smirked, her eyes sweeping the shelves of the little room in which they were being held. “I do, but there’s no way in hell I’m letting you use it on me.”