17
“Hey, Ally? Don’t hang up. It’s
Jackson.”
Ally stared at the phone and considered
cutting him off but knew it wasn’t going to happen. “What’s
up?”
“Just in case you’re worrying about
talking to me, this is an official call.”
“It’s okay, Jackson. I’m not going to
burst into tears or anything.”
She heard him sigh. “I want to know if
I can bring a K-9 team to your house this afternoon.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Ally
transferred the phone to her other ear and pulled her muffin out of
the toaster. Her appetite had completely gone, but she was
determined to eat something.
“Because we’re looking at several
motives for your house being broken into, and we’d like to search
the place for drugs.”
Even though she’d been clean for
several years, Ally still felt a kick of adrenaline and fear shoot
through her at the thought of her possessions being searched. “Are
you trying to convince me that I was wrong about Rob’s motives for
hanging around with me?”
He paused long enough to make her
clench her teeth. “I’m trying to do my job, Ally, and so is Rob. Is
it okay to bring the dog around?”
“Why not, if it makes you feel
better.”
Jackson didn’t bother to reply, and she
was left listening to empty air. How dare he try and make her feel
bad? She was the one who had been deceived. As usual, Rob had
played her like a violin, used her own sexuality against her until
she’d been his willing slave.
She buttered her muffin and sat down at
the table. When exactly had Rob intended to come clean with her and
suggest that her mom was a murderer? That was one hell of a leap,
even for Rob. But maybe he hadn’t made that leap; maybe he really
did just want to know what had happened to Susan in this house that
made her want to kill herself. . . .
Dammit, it hurt. Ally chewed on her
muffin and tried to swallow. But if her mom wasn’t involved, why
hadn’t she let the police inside to search the house? Ally dropped
the muffin and ran through to the dining room. Her mom’s journals
and other books still littered the carpet. Was the truth about what
had happened to Susan buried somewhere in her mother’s
diaries?
With trembling hands, Ally sat on the
floor and started to sort through the books. There were at least
forty of the black books scattered around and some still in the
open drawers along with loads of other items. Ally started to
assemble them by date ordering them backward in time.
Jackson rang Ally’s doorbell and waited
for her to appear. She opened the door, and he wasn’t surprised to
see that she looked almost as rough as Rob did. When would they
realize that it had never been just about sex or a police case?
Jackson had a strong urge to bang their heads together and lock
them in a room to sort it out once and for all.
“Hey, Ally, this is Javier. He’s going
to bring his dog in, okay?”
Ally stepped out of the way, and Javier
moved forward, his German shepherd, Topher, trotting quietly by his
side. “Afternoon, Ms. Kendal. I’ll try to be as quick as I
can.”
“Sure. Be my guest.”
Jackson wondered if Javier had picked
up on Ally’s distinct lack of welcome, but he didn’t seem bothered.
In his line of work, he was probably used to it. Ally glanced up at
him. “Are you coming in or not?”
Jackson stepped into the welcoming cool
darkness of the hall and took off his hat. “Thanks. I’ll try to
keep out of your way, too, all right?”
She touched his arm. “Are you pissed at
me?”
“I’m on duty.” Jackson stared straight
ahead at Javier, who was kneeling on the floor talking to his dog.
“If you want to talk to me later, give me a call.”
“Fine.”
Inwardly Jackson groaned. Any man knew
that when a woman said “fine,” she meant the complete opposite, but
he couldn’t talk to her now. He didn’t want to. He was tired of
being stuck in the middle of her and Rob, fucking sick of
it.
Ally retreated to the kitchen. Jackson
decided to follow Javier at a discreet distance as he and the dog
moved through the cluttered ranch house. It was also a pleasure to
watch the man and dog work together, their movements so coordinated
you’d think they could mind-speak to each other.
After what seemed like a relatively
quick search, Javier came back to Jackson. “I’m not finding
anything. Do you have any idea what we might be looking for or how
long ago the stuff was planted here?”
Jackson lowered his voice. “The woman
who owned this house previously used to have a lot of drugs here
and a lot of visitors. We were concerned that the recent break-in
might have been orchestrated by someone who didn’t know she was no
longer alive.”
“So it could’ve been a while,
then?”
“Yeah, maybe as long as three to five
years.”
Javier sighed and leaned down to pat
the dog. “Then anything that wasn’t properly protected has probably
gone moldy or turned to dust by now.”
“Well, thanks for checking. It was a
long shot, but it was something we had to eliminate from our lines
of inquiry.”
Javier turned to go, and Jackson saw
him out through the front door. The K-9 units had their own special
vehicles, so Jackson’s patrol car was also parked on the drive. He
shut the door and went back into the kitchen, where Ally was
getting herself a glass of milk. She didn’t offer him anything, and
he could sense hostility coming off her in waves.
“I thought you’d like to know he didn’t
find anything.”
“Thanks.” She continued to sip at her
milk and regard him over the rim of the glass. “So now we’re back
to my mother being a murderer?”
“We have to consider all
scenarios.”
“You mean just that one, don’t
you?”
He struggled to maintain his composure.
“No. We are actively investigating other avenues.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Yeah.” Jackson took a step toward her.
“In case you’ve forgotten, there are a lot of people in this town
who would be pleased to see the back of you.”
“You think someone might be trying to
scare me into leaving?”
“It’s highly possible.”
“I did wonder about that when the diner
window was smashed.” She swallowed hard. “Did you realize that we
were sitting right there earlier that night?”
Jackson regarded her carefully. “That’s
true. Is there anyone you’d like to mention as being particularly
malicious toward you?”
“Like Lauren, you mean? She’s hardly
likely to destroy her own diner just to get back at me. As if Rob
would lift a finger against her.”
Jackson put on his hat. “As I said, Rob
will do his job or he’ll hand the case over to someone who can do
it better.”
“He’ll never confront Lauren.” Hurt
flickered in her gray eyes. “Maybe he has a special category just
for me.” She bit down on her milky lower lip, and Jackson wanted to
pull her into his arms and hold her tight. She walked away from
him, her narrow shoulders hunched. “Look, there is something I want
to share with you and Rob. Can you call him over?”
“He didn’t think you’d want to see
him.”
“He’s right. I don’t want to see him,
but I think he needs to see what I found.”
“Can’t you just show me?”
“And have Rob think I’m trying to get
you on my side? I’m not putting you in the middle again, Jackson.
As far as I’m concerned, you and Rob are both at
fault.”
“What did I do?”
She raised her chin. “Like you didn’t
know what he was up to.”
He wanted to tell her that he’d tried
to make Rob set things straight with her and that he’d told him it
would end badly, but Ally’s hostile stance made him unwilling to
break Rob’s confidence. “Okay, I’ll call him.”
Rob pulled up at Ally’s house, and the
fist knotted in his chest seemed to tighten even more. What the
hell did she want to see him about? When Jackson had called, he’d
almost turned tail and run. But he had to continue the
investigation. His job and his pride were all he had left at this
pathetic moment in his life.
Jackson opened the door and led him
down the hallway to the dining room where Ally was pacing the dusty
carpet. She looked so tired and worn out that he wanted to grab
her, make her look at him and tell her that everything was going to
be all right. But he’d tried the bully tactics once before, and all
he’d done was make her run away.
“Ally.”
Ally barely bothered to acknowledge
him, and it fucking hurt. She went to stand by the table where a
pile of black books had been stacked.
“I went through all my mother’s
journals earlier to see if I could find one relating to the time
period when Susan died.”
A leap of excitement jolted through
Rob. “That was a great idea.”
“Except that the diary for that time
period is missing.”
Rob glanced at Jackson, who’d take up a
position by the open door where he could see out into the hallway.
“Are there a lot of journals missing?”
“No just that one.” Ally looked down at
the floor. “They’d all been tipped out of the drawers and scattered
around. It took me about an hour to go through them and put them in
order.”
“So whoever came into the house was
looking for something very specific.”
Ally raised her eyes to stare at Rob.
“And unless my mother managed to survive death, it can’t have been
her.”
He held her glare and gave it back to
her. “She could’ve had an accomplice, Ally. According to the
original police reports, there were at least three men living in
this house during that year. I’m currently trying to trace
them.”
“You’re so determined to prove that my
mom did it, aren’t you?”
The anger he’d tried so hard to repress
tore through his professional demeanor. “And you’re so keen to
prove she wasn’t involved that you won’t even listen to me. She
might have cleaned up her act in her last years, and I’m glad for
you that she did, but that night? That night when Susan died, your
mom was a drunk and a drug addict, and who the hell knows what she
was thinking or feeling or capable of doing.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No, you just don’t want to hear it.
It’s easier to carry on blaming me than to deal with the fact that
your mother hung out with some very unsavory people and that she
might have been an accessory to murder.”
Ally’s face paled and she steadied
herself on the edge of the table, her fingers white.
Rob struggled to lower his voice. “I
just want the truth, Ally. That’s all.”
“And you don’t care who gets hurt in
the process, do you?”
“I’m doing my job.”
“And so you’ll agree that my mom might
not be the only suspect.”
“I never said she was. You just jumped
down my throat the moment I mentioned her.”
She couldn’t even look at
him.
“I know she was your mom, but let’s not
forget she was one of the reasons you left Spring Falls in the
first place.” He sighed. “Look, I’ll do my best to find out who is
doing this.”
“And you won’t just focus on my
mother?”
“Ally, the person who is after you now
is very much alive and has a key to your house. That fucking
terrifies me.”
“I’ll get the locks
changed.”
Jackson stirred. “I’ll get that started
first thing tomorrow, Ally, okay?”
“You do that,” Rob said. “I reckon she
should spend the night with us, don’t you?” He almost wanted to
laugh at Ally’s outraged expression.
“At our place?” Jackson didn’t look
quite so convinced.
Ally squared up to them both. “I am not
staying anywhere near you.”
“In a town as small as this, where else
can we guarantee your safety?”
“The hotel?”
Rob shrugged. “Only if one of us stays
in the room with you. You’d be much safer at our house,
though.”
She glared at them for a long, tense
moment. “Fine, I’ll pack my things.”
Rob exhaled as she pushed past him and
Jackson and headed for her bedroom. He lowered his voice. “I didn’t
think she’d go for it.”
“I’m not sure it’s a good
idea.”
Rob slammed his hand down on the table.
“What else am I supposed to do? She’s not staying here, and I’m not
leaving her alone in some fucking hotel.”
Jackson shook his head. “Rob . . . you
are being way too pushy.”
“You haven’t seen the half of it,
buddy.” Rob nodded at the kitchen. “Go check that everything’s
locked up and I’ll meet you out front.”
Rob settled into his truck and waited
for Ally and Jackson to emerge. The light was fading, and the sky
was an uncertain mix of red and purple, like a gigantic bruise. Was
Jackson right? Was he in danger of pushing Ally over the edge
again? For someone who was supposed to have all the answers, he
felt so fucking powerless right now. He beckoned to Jackson, who
had followed Ally out of the house. “I want you both in here with
me, okay?”
“You want me to leave my patrol car on
the drive?”
“It can’t hurt. It might put our perp
off for another night if he thinks there’s a cop staying
here.”
“Okay, but Ally’s not going to like
sharing the ride with you.”
Jackson turned back to Ally and ushered
her toward Rob’s truck. Rob saw her instant refusal and his gut
tightened. Jackson kept talking and persuaded her to get in the
back. She kept hold of her backpack and set it on her knee. Rob
started the engine and glanced at her in his rearview mirror, but
she wasn’t looking at him, her gaze fixed out the
window.
Rob drove the short distance to his
street and stopped at the corner. “Hold on a minute,
guys.”
He walked up to a darkened house and
knocked on the door until a familiar face appeared. After a few
seconds of conversation, he came back. “Ally? You can stay with
Jeff. He and his wife would be happy to have you.”
Ally’s startled face looked up at him
as she hurried to get out of the car. He didn’t dare touch her or
he’d never be able to let go.
“Why did you change your mind?” Ally
said softly.
“Because I don’t want you to run.” Rob
sighed. “Ally, I know I’ve fucked up, but please, honey, don’t
leave town, okay? And give me a call in the morning before you
return to your house so someone can accompany you.”
She stopped on the porch and studied
him. “Okay.” She stood on tiptoe and cupped his cheek.
“Thanks.”
He watched her walk into the welcoming
warmth of Jeff’s family home and turned away. Hell, it was hard to
stop himself from overprotecting someone he cared about. Hadn’t
that always been his problem? And hadn’t he learned that it was the
surest way to force the people he loved to leave him?
Jackson had gotten out of the car and
stood on the sidewalk, staring at him. “You did the right thing,
Rob.”
“Maybe.” Rob looked across at Jackson.
“I’m in love with her, Jackson.”
“So am I.” Jackson slid into the
passenger’s seat. “So we’d better get this shit sorted out, hadn’t
we?”