Chapter 37
It was nine in the morning by the time Matt parked the truck at the curb three houses down from his destination. He had borrowed his neighbor’s Chevy Silverado pickup, as he’d done before when he needed to haul some garden supplies from the local nursery. The neighbor was out of town and had given Matt a spare key to the vehicle. Matt chose the nondescript truck because he knew that Melinda would never recognize it. And, luckily, her car was still in the driveway. Matt knew his brother Chris would be tied up all day in a court deposition. That meant Melinda would be free to roam—and Matt would be there to follow her.
In the wee hours of the morning as he’d sat by the pool drinking beer, Matt had come to the conclusion that Melinda was up to no good. She knew that Erin was having an affair with the art dealer. What other secrets was she hiding? Matt was going to find out if it took him the rest of the day, the week, or the rest of his life.
At nine thirty, Melinda didn’t disappoint. She walked out the front door, climbed in her white Mercedes sedan, and pulled out of the drive. The Mercedes had been a gift from Chris for Melinda’s birthday last year. Well, actually, it was a gift she gave herself. She’d bought it with Chris’s money without asking, and shit had hit the fan when he’d found out. He was always complaining that Melinda was spending money faster than he could make it. Matt knew that recently Chris had found that Melinda had been hiding credit card bills and that they were in debt for around $120,000. Clothing, spa trips with her girlfriends, expensive lunches and dinners, designer clothing, purses and shoes. Not to mention all the new home furnishings and decor she had just bought for their condo in Florida. Matt, who felt guilty for having made a few million dollars on his stock and real estate investments, had offered to pay off their debt, but Chris had refused. His brother was stubborn and wanted to do things his own way. Matt wasn’t sure if Chris had actually found a way to settle his wife’s debt or not. As his brother’s business partner, he knew what kind of salary Chris brought home, and it wasn’t enough to keep up with Melinda’s lavish lifestyle.
Since neither Erin nor Matt had any other living family members, they’d named Chris and Melinda their children’s guardians if anything should happen to them and the children were left without parents. Millions of dollars would go into a trust fund for Mary Kate and Patrick, to be overseen by their guardians if, God forbid, anything did happen to Matt or his wife. Was that money enough of a motive for Melinda to want to kill Erin and Matt? He didn’t know if Melinda had the nerve to pull off something like that, but right now it was all Matt had to go on. And tailing Melinda was a good start.
Matt stayed a few car lengths behind the white Mercedes, following at a distance. When Melinda pulled into a Starbucks drive-through, Matt parked in the grocery store lot next door and waited. He watched her talk on her cell phone while she waited for her order at the window. Two minutes later, the barista handed her a brown bakery bag and a large coffee cup. Melinda didn’t eat carbs, so he knew that whatever was in the bag wasn’t for her. So she must be meeting someone, Matt deduced. He checked his watch, pondering if he should call Rachel and let her know what was going on. Get her take on it. He decided to wait and see where this was going to lead first. After getting her coffee fix, Melinda zoomed back onto the highway and within minutes was heading west on Interstate 10. Matt took a peek at the gas gauge. He had a little less than half a tank. Wherever Melinda was going, he hoped it wasn’t too far.