“By the time I found out, you were already an adult and living on your own. I was afraid that if I told you—”
“That I might need something from you? That I might want to know the man who abandoned me?”
“I didn’t know, Norah. I never would have left, I swear. I never even talked to your mother again after the weekend we spent together.”
“Did you know she was a druggie and a drunk? That both her and her husband left me alone for days, sometimes weeks at a time? That one day they stopped coming back? I was homeless and on my own at the age of fourteen.”
“Norah, I—”
“No.” She put her hand up. “I get it, ‘you didn’t know,’ but the second you found out you should have told me. If not then, maybe you should have said something when Harley and I showed up on your doorstep.”
“Let her go, Gerry,” Marissa said softly when Norah stormed out of the room. “She will come around.”
“How can you be so sure? You certainly haven’t forgiven me.” He turned and left, leaving Marissa staring after him and Harley staring after Norah.
“Well, that went swimmingly,” Marissa said, and turned around to face Harley.
“You should forgive him, ya know.”
“I know. I think I already have, it’s just hard to swallow when someone you love hides things from you.”
“Love?”
Marissa laughed. “A story for another day, Harley.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“When this is all over and we are vacationing somewhere beautiful, we will tell the two of you all about it. I promise.” She smiled. “I guess I should go after him.”
“Yeah, I need to check on Norah.”
“She is going to need time to process it all. Just try to not let her take too much time.”
“I won’t. I’m not convinced we have a ton to spare.”
* * *
“HEY CAP, WHAT’S up?” Zach looked up from his computer to the portly man standing in the doorway.
“What are you working on, Murphy?”
“Just doing some research into a case that just came across my desk.” He handed him a file. “Woman found tortured and killed in the laundry room of Norah McNamara’s apartment.”
“Found by who?”
“Two uniforms who I sent over to do a welfare check.”
“You thought she would go back to her apartment?”
Zach lowered his voice. “After those two meat heads who abducted her were found dead, I figured it wouldn’t be too far of a long shot.”
“Did you find her?”
Zach eyed him warily. Something was off. Captain Wickham rarely left his office, and certainly didn’t ask so many direct questions about a case they were supposed to be under the table about. Zach had a hunch, and it wasn’t a good one, so he lied.
“No. Just the woman’s body.”
“No recent activity?” Wickham pressed. Something was definitely off.
“No sir. Something going on?”
Captain Wickham came inside and shut the door gently behind him.
“There are some things that we may have misinterpreted.”
Zach straightened in his chair. “What’s that?”
“It’s possible Harley isn’t the man we thought he was and that Tom Hewitt really has nothing to do with any of this.”
“Excuse me?”
“Listen, I’m telling you to devote all resources to tracking Harley and Norah down. Find them, they are at the bottom of this.”
“And Clayton Matthews?” Zach tried to hide the anger in his tone, but knew he was doing a shitty job. Had the captain flipped sides?
“There is no solid evidence supporting any of the claims that have been made against him. We need to start looking into Harley Andrews closer, and that’s an order, Murphy.”
Zach ground his teeth together. What the hell was he supposed to do now? His fucking hands were already tied with all the other dirty cops. With the captain on his side, he at least had some form of support. But now? It was as if someone had taken his damn hands all together. Fuck!
“This is bullshit.”
“Watch your tone, Murphy. I’m telling you that there is nothing there, do you understand me?”
“But we—”
“What we know is that an attempt was made on Clayton Matthews’s life. He was nearly killed, as was his fiancée, and now the fiancée is secretly missing, as is the man who is suspected of trying to kill him. What we know is that we need to find Norah McNamara before she is harmed in any way. Do I make myself clear?”
“You know this is wrong.” Zach ground his teeth together.
“You drop this, Murphy, or I will see to it that you never work for the police force again, do I make myself clear?”
Zach gritted his teeth. “Yes. Sir.”
“Good, good.” Wickham turned to leave. “You do good work, and you’re good at following orders, Murphy. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?” Without waiting for a response, he shut the door behind him.
Zach stood and gathered what information he had on Matthews and Hewitt. He needed to get it out of his office and fast. It wasn’t far off to think someone may want the information gone, and he’d be damned if his hard work went down the drain and these fuckers got off.
16
“So when is he supposed to be here?” Norah asked as she and Harley sat in the corner of an old diner on the outskirts of Seattle. She had put her hair up and worn no makeup, since the picture the press had was of her glammed up.
“Any minute,” Harley said, and took a drink from his coffee. He nodded at a man who had just walked into the diner and was headed for them.
His once dark hair was graying at the temples, and the blue eyes he trained on them looked kind, but sharp. This was not a man who missed anything, Norah thought to herself.
“Sorry I’m late. Had a few things to handle on my end before I could get away. My name’s Zach, it’s nice to meet you, Miss McNamara.” He held his hand out and Norah took it.
“Just Norah, please.”
He slid into the booth across from them. “All right, Norah. So, what do you have for me?” Zach said as he turned his attention to Harley.
“A bracelet.”
“The diamond bracelet Matthews
wanted Norah to bring him?”
“Yeah. We found a chip inside, problem is we can’t read it because it can only be accessed by a particular device. One that the bastard must have in his possession.”
“That will be a good thing to have if we can ever get into his damn house. He is making some big fuss with the press about how the attempt on his life had him fake his own death and go into hiding. That he and his fiancée are just fine and will be making an appearance back into the public eye shortly.”
“Surely he’s not talking about Norah,” Harley scoffed.
“Seems he is.” He looked to Norah. “Has he had any more contact with you?”
She shook her head. “Not since the day of the accident.”
“Interesting. Well, seems he has some plans for you.”
“So you guys have nothing on him?”
“No, and I’m afraid the news gets worse.”
“How much worse?”
“The captain is backtracking now. My guess is Matthews reached out to him recently. He and Hewitt are working together to try and track the man who tried to kill him. Which, by the way, is you.”