The Heart of Lies

chapter 24



On the drive home, Evan’s words continued to replay in Emily’s mind—trust no one.

Trust no one?

What about the girls? Especially Isabel. Was he saying they shouldn’t be trusted? Had Isabel only been pretending to be Emily’s friend all these years to gain her confidence, or to gather information? Was she working with Jethro to try to get Emily to give up the gun? Isabel’s family was back east—or so she said. Emily had never met any of them. Did Isabel marry Alex when she moved here to maintain her cover?

Emily shook her head. “Now I’m just sounding paranoid.”

But she couldn’t stop. Emily was on a roll.

Had Colin’s new job as Paradise Valley’s police detective been arranged? Normally a police department would promote from within, but in Colin’s case they put him at the head of the line and hired an outsider. Did he come to Paradise Valley to insinuate himself into her life—with Isabel’s help—as part of the plan? After all, Isabel was the one who introduced them. Was he just trying to get close to her to get information on her late husband? Or did he truly care for her?

How much did she really know about Colin, anyway? She’d never met his parents. Had he actually gone back to San Francisco to help his mother care for his ailing father? Or was that all a lie? Was he ever even from San Francisco? He could be from Timbuktu for all she knew.

Emily was relatively certain she could trust Camille and Maggie. Camille had grown up in the area, as did her husband, and their now-teenage children were born in Paradise Valley. Maggie had brought Josh to Paradise Valley when he was four because her brother, Sully, and his family already lived here.

Camille and Maggie were long-time residents with deep roots in this community, but how would she know for sure if she could trust Isabel or Colin, after what Evan said in his letter. Trust no one.

A sick feeling curled in her stomach as she drove, and she suspected she might have to pull over and give up her breakfast.

~*~

“So what is your timeline, Ernie?” Colin asked, sitting on the edge of the detective’s desk, his eyes fixed on the enormous whiteboard that took up most of one wall of Ernie’s office. “Walk me through it.”

Colin had gone to see Ernie to find out if he’d turned up anything of significance when he and his officers conducted their search of Sully’s and Fiona’s homes. They hadn’t found anything worth mentioning, Ernie told him. The mayor was livid that they had upset his sick wife, not giving him notice so he could be there to prepare her.

“I got an earful about that,” Ernie said.

“What about Fiona’s apartment?”

“We didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. She walked in on us during the search, and she was pretty steamed, too. She said she’s been at the hospital with Mrs. Wakefield for most of the last few days.”

“Yeah, Emily and I ran into her there. Seemed a little odd to us.”

“The old woman doesn’t have anyone else, Fiona said. I think it’s kinda nice of her.”

“Back to the timeline.” Colin gestured toward the whiteboard.

Ernie rose from his squeaky, leather desk chair and sauntered to the board. “Tuesday night was the Whitetail Resort presentation where Lucas asked Maggie to marry him.” He pointed to the notation of the event with his large hand. “Then Friday was the engagement party, here,” tapping the board with his index finger. “Now it gets interesting.”

“Give it to me,” Colin encouraged.

“The security tape shows Mayor Sullivan entering the building at six fifteen, then Josh Sullivan entering at six twenty-eight. After that, Josh is seen leaving at six thirty-seven.”

“When did the mayor leave?” Colin asked.

“I don’t really know. He doesn’t show up on the tape leaving. He claims he left through the back door and he never saw Josh. So, if he’s telling the truth, I figure it had to be before six twenty-eight.”

“Or he could have hidden out somewhere in the building and come back to Lucas’s office after Josh left. He could have gone out the back any time,” Colin proposed.

“You’re right,” Ernie had to agree.

“What about Fiona?” Colin questioned.

“I don’t really know about her either.” Ernie turned to face Colin. “She never shows up on the video tape. That darn cheapskate Pete Peterson! If he wasn’t such a penny pincher we would have a camera outside the back door and one covering the parking lot, as well.”

“What does she say? I mean, you did interview her, right?”

“Of course I interviewed her. I didn’t just fall off a turnip truck.” Ernie scowled.

“Well?”

Ernie walked to his desk and grabbed a file folder from a short stack. He flipped open to Fiona’s interview report and began reading what he’d written. “She said she’d been at work all day. Late in the afternoon she went upstairs to the shared copy room, making copies of marketing materials for an upcoming presentation. She didn’t know how long she was up there, but it must have been a few hours because she had quite a bit of contracts and brochures to print and collate. When she returned, she said, her outer office was dark and a light was on in Lucas’s office, but the door was almost closed. So, she grabbed her purse and called out that she was leaving, assuming he heard her. She said she figured he was working on something and didn’t want to be disturbed, having his door nearly shut. She said she went out the back door because her car was parked closest to that entrance.”

“So there actually was no way to know what time any of this took place or if she’s telling the truth, is there?” Colin asked.

“Not really, except that Josh says he heard her coming down and he hid under the stairs. He said he waited for her to pass by and go into her office before he came out the front door, and we know he left at six thirty-seven, so that would have been about the time she came down from the copy room. But that doesn’t prove when she left.”

“And it doesn’t confirm she didn’t talk to Lucas or prove she didn’t see him lying on the floor,” Colin pointed out.

“No, you’re right,” Ernie said, nodding his agreement.

“Lucas actually could have come to, then they argued about something, and she could have killed him,” Colin supposed. “She could have smashed him on the head with the paperweight and took it with her, disposing of it somewhere we’ll probably never find.”

“Anything’s possible, but why would she stick around? You’d think if she murdered the guy she would have packed up and left town by now.”

“Hmmm.” Colin scratched his head. “You have a point. Maybe there’s something she’s waiting for. Maybe she can’t get at the money yet or something like that.”

“Back to the timeline,” Ernie said, moving again to the board. “Gloria Wakefield is shown entering at six forty-six, then Emily and Maggie at six fifty-five,” he muttered, following the notations with his thick pointer finger.

“What time did the nine-one-one call come in?”

Ernie searched through the file and pressed a sturdy finger on the page. “Six fifty-five.”

“Exactly when Emily and Maggie entered?” Colin asked.

“Looks that way, which makes sense because Emily said Mrs. Wakefield was on the phone calling the police when they walked in.”

“I wonder what she was doing there for nine minutes.” Colin pushed off the corner of the desk and stepped up to the whiteboard.

“I tried to question her that night, but she’d had a heart attack, probably from the strain of finding her son murdered. You should have seen her, she was pasty white and sweaty with blood on the front of her clothes. Emily said Mrs. Wakefield told her she’d tried to revive her son, but when she realized he was gone, she just held him for a while. She was sitting in a chair calling the police when Emily and Maggie walked in. It’s a good thing the ambulance was already there when she went into cardiac arrest.”

“Did you ever question her?” Colin asked.

“Yeah, I went to the hospital the next day, but the doctor wouldn’t let me talk to her for long. She told me pretty much what Emily told me.”

“Hmmm.” Colin pressed his lips together as he rubbed his chin, his eyes studying the whiteboard. “That back door is killing us, Ernie.”

“Anyone could have come in and out of it unseen. It could be someone who isn’t even on this timeline,” Ernie commented. “Maybe someone who invested in the resort found out they’d been duped out of a ton of money.”

“My guess is this wasn’t Lucas’s first rodeo. It might even have been some mark from a previous scheme that found out where he was and came to make him pay.”

“You really think so?” Ernie asked, arching his eyebrows.

“Anything’s possible, Ern,” Colin surmised, clapping his friend on the back. “Anything’s possible.” Colin collected his jacket off one of the chairs and headed to the door. “I promised Emily I’d fill her in, so I better get going.”

“Thanks for helping me talk this thing through,” Ernie said, turning away from the whiteboard.

“You’re welcome.” Colin paused in the doorway and turned back to face his friend. “I only wish it got us somewhere. Seems like it only brought up more questions.”

“I don’t know that I’m up to this job, Andrews. It should be you in this office, solving this case. This is your area of expertise, not mine. When are you coming back?”

“Soon, I hope. I hate being away from Emily and this place.”

“Have you told her yet?” Ernie shot his friend a mischievous grin.

“Told her what?” Colin asked, as if he didn’t know what Ernie was talking about.

“That you love her, knucklehead.”

“I’m working on it.”

“Work a little faster. You can’t expect a great girl like Emily to wait around forever.”

“I don’t.”

“You’re not the only buck in town sniffing around that doe.”

“What does that mean?”

“Just means there are other eligible bachelors in town that would love a chance with Emily.”

“Like who?”

“No names,” he replied with raised hands and a cock of his head, “I’m just sayin’.”

~*~

Emily returned home and cautiously entered her house, the uneasy feeling of knowing a stranger had been there that morning settled on her again. She didn’t want to feel this way every time she came into her house. She had to find out who the person was and put an end to this madness.

She kicked off her flats and pulled her gun from her purse, slinging her handbag over one shoulder. Moving slowly through the house, she listened carefully for any sound of movement, a creak of the old floor or a bump against a wall. She ended up in the kitchen, confident she was alone and set her gun and purse down on the breakfast bar.

Emily stood before her open refrigerator, and considered making something for lunch. As she pondered her choices, her phone shrilled in her pocket. She jumped. Her nerves were frazzled and raw. Not only was she trying to find Lucas’s killer, and dealing with someone stalking her—but now she wondered if she could trust her boyfriend and her best friend.

Trust no one.

“Hello,” Emily answered.

“Hey, Em. This is Isabel. Everything okay, you don’t sound like yourself.”

“Sorry, just distracted. What’s up?”

“I got the results back on Lucas’s fingerprints. Turns out his name wasn’t Lucas Wakefield after all. It was James Belden.”

“James Belden.” Emily pulled a carton of yogurt out of the refrigerator and shut the door. “What else?” She grabbed a spoon from the drawer and nudged it closed with her hip.

“I thought I’d get more reaction out of you than that. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Someone broke into my house again this morning, so I’m a bit spooked by it,” Emily shared. She considered filling Isabel in on the note she’d found at the bank, but thought she’d better keep things to herself for now. Trust no one.

“Did they take anything?” Isabel asked.

Emily thought she heard sincere concern in Isabel’s voice, but what if it was just part of the act? She couldn’t be sure. Should she tell her about seeing the black sedan speeding off down the alley? She hesitated to divulge too much until she was certain that Isabel could be trusted.

“No, not that I can tell,” Emily replied. “Enough about me, what else did you learn about Lucas, besides his real name?” Cradling the phone between her shoulder and her jaw, she ripped off the cover to the yogurt and pushed the spoon down into it.

“He has a record, spent some time in prison for petty theft. He was arrested for fraud a few years back, but he disappeared while out on bail and he never went to trial.”

“Fraud, huh? That’s no big surprise. Seems like a lot of people are not who they say they are.” She sank down onto a chair at the kitchen table.

“Are you sure you okay?” Isabel asked. “Like I said before, you don’t sound like yourself.”

“You know…if he isn’t actually Lucas Wakefield, then his mother couldn’t really be Gloria Wakefield, could she?”

“I had that same thought. She’s probably still his mother, but if she knew he was going by a different name and she went along with the name change, then she’s probably part of the scheme. Or at least she agreed to go along with it so he could pull it off. Imagine using your mother like that.”

“We’ll need to find out for sure, won’t we?” Emily said. “I think I’ll drop by the hospital and pay that woman a visit.”

“I’d come with you, but I’m stuck at work.”

Another call was beeping through Emily’s phone and she saw it was Maggie. “Sorry, Maggie’s calling. I need to take this call. We’ll talk later?”

“Sure.”

“Hello, Maggie?” Emily answered, feeling confident this was one person she could trust.

“Emily, I’m so glad I caught you. I wondered if you’d go to the hospital with me. Carolyn is runnin’ a fever and had a major episode. Sully rushed her to emergency.”

“Absolutely—but where’s Josh?”

“Colin came by and took him to lunch. He said he wanted to talk to him, maybe about the case or somethin’. I tried callin’ him, but he must have his phone off in the restaurant.”

“I’m at home right now, so I can be there in just a few minutes. Don’t worry, Maggs, I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Emily knew Maggie had had enough stress in her life—she didn’t need to add more.