Hour of Need (Scarlet Falls) (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

As soon as the kids and the cop were out of sight, Ellie’s legs collapsed. She couldn’t believe this was happening. She’d overprotected Julia since her birth, and she still hadn’t managed to keep her daughter safe.

Grant eased into the chair next to her. His face looked as tired as she felt. He covered her hand with his. As much as she didn’t want a relationship with him, at this point there was no denying that they were in this together. Although he likely wanted to tell Detective McNamara everything, Grant had kept his promise. He hadn’t told the police about her abduction.

“What are we going to do?” she said, staring down at their joined hands.

“I don’t know.” Grant scratched his jaw. Beard bristle scraped. The blond scruff gave him a new, dangerous edge.

She lowered her voice. “Thank you for sticking with me.” She didn’t know if the police had listening devices in the room, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

“I keep my word.” He squeezed her fingers. “Though we might want to rethink that decision as time goes by.”

She nodded. If they hadn’t found the file in another day or so, she’d have to tell the police everything. She couldn’t risk Hoodie Man showing up and finding her empty-handed. Maybe the kids could be placed in protective custody or something. She almost laughed out loud. As if a town the size of Scarlet Falls would have anything like protective custody, and she doubted Hoodie Man was a mafia kingpin worthy of FBI attention. Though Lindsay’s suicide had made the national evening news, it was a one-day event. The case was forgotten in the wake of other tragedies in the month that had passed since her death. The Hamilton case was a local disaster.

“I think you, Julia, and Nan should temporarily move in with us.” Grant stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. “I had a security system installed, and Hannah and I will be armed. Mac too, if I can talk him into staying for a few days. Plus, the dog barks if anyone even gets close to the house.”

As much as Ellie treasured her privacy, Grant offered her family protection she couldn’t provide alone. “OK.”

“That was fast.” He raised his brows, obviously surprised by her quick agreement.

“Safety in numbers and all that.” She wasn’t going to tell him that she felt more secure simply being with him. “I’m not sure how Julia will react.”

“What about your grandmother?” Grant asked.

“Oh, Nan will be fine with moving in with you.” More than fine, Ellie suspected.

“OK, then. I’ll text Hannah and let her know.” Grant picked up his phone. “There are extra bedrooms, but I’m not sure about sheets and pillows.”

“I have plenty at my house. We’ll work out the details.”

“Either Hannah or I will drive Julia and you to school and work tomorrow.”

“I’m calling in sick.” She had weeks of accumulated personal time. Roger would have to get along without her until this mess was over. “The file isn’t at the office. I looked everywhere. I even went through Frank’s computer files and saw nothing related to the case. I plan to spend tonight and tomorrow searching your brother’s house.”

“Good plan.” He nodded. “And you can tell me what you know about the case.”

“I’ll tell you everything,” she said.

“Everything about what?” Detective McNamara walked in.

Ellie exhaled. Grant made her forget they were sitting in the police station. “My daughter’s father.” The lie slipped out on impulse, and Ellie regretted it the moment the words left her lips. Now Grant was sure to ask her about Julia’s dad, a subject that embarrassed her fifteen years later. Nan was right. She needed to put her old news behind her. She’d already trusted Grant with her family. Her backstory hardly compared.

The cop’s gaze dropped to their hands on the table. Did he believe her? “I’m going to post a patrol car on your street overnight. I’m not sure how long I can do that, but the chief has approved it for tonight. We’ll address it again tomorrow. You had a security system installed?” he asked Grant.

“Yes.” Grant nodded. “It’s basic, but it covers all the doors and windows.”

“Better than nothing.” McNamara paced the tiny room. “We put out a BOLO, that’s a
be on the lookout
bulletin, for this guy. We’re pulling possible suspects from our records. I’ll come by as soon as I can to ask the kids to look at some mug shots.”

“All right.”

McNamara turned to Ellie. “Do
you
have a security system?”

“No,” she said.

Grant stood, pulling her to her feet beside him. “Ellie and her family are going to stay with us. We’ll keep them safe.” His voice held no doubt.

But Ellie was uncertain enough for both of them. She felt safer with Grant, but he was temporary. What would she do if the situation wasn’t resolved when his leave was over?

“What do either of you know about the Hamilton case?” McNamara asked.

Grant shrugged. “Just what I saw in the interview on TV.”

“They said your brother was their lawyer.” McNamara watched Grant’s face.

“I know.” Grant gave nothing away. “But you’d have to ask the law firm to confirm that. There were some files in Lee’s office, but none were labeled Hamilton.”

“Where are those files now?” the cop asked.

“They were returned to the firm,” he said.

“How about you, Ms. Ross? You work for the firm.” The cop shifted his focus to Ellie. She wished she could be half as calm and collected as Grant.

Ellie nodded. “But I’m contractually bound by a confidentiality clause. I can’t discuss client business without permission from my boss or a subpoena. I’m sorry.”

“I understand.” But the tension in the cop’s shoulders suggested he didn’t like it one bit. “I’m hoping to have one of those soon.” He searched her face for a reaction.

But really, she didn’t know much about the case that hadn’t made the news or been school gossip. Lee had just taken them on as clients. She lifted a palm. “Honestly, Lee didn’t share his notes. I doubt I can give you any new information about the case.”

Except that everyone wanted the file, and at least one man was willing to hurt her family to get it.

“Any progress on Lee’s murder?” Grant asked.

McNamara gave him a quick head shake. “I’ll drop by later with those mug shots.”

So that Julia and Carson could help identify a killer.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The wallpaper in the dining room was covered in faded hummingbirds in flight. They hovered on the walls as if they could swoop down and steal a slice of pepperoni. Eating in the big, formal space was like being trapped inside Alfred Hitchcock’s classic horror film,
The Birds
. But the kitchen table wasn’t big enough for the entire group.

Grant closed the pizza box. Carson and Hannah sat across from him. Julia, Ellie, and Nan clustered at the other end of the table. Faith fussed in her car seat in the corner. Mac hadn’t responded. Damn it. When Grant finally got a hold of his youngest brother, he was going to teach him to be responsible. How the hell would Mac be able to take care of these two kids if he couldn’t even remember to keep his cell phone charged and handy? At least he’d dropped the guns off with Hannah this afternoon before going AWOL again. Mac had also left Grant a special present, Dad’s best knife, a KA-BAR he’d carried when he was a young Ranger.

Hannah claimed her favorite weapon, a Glock with the stopping power of an elephant. Grant stuck to the Beretta that matched his service issue. The security system was armed. At the moment, AnnaBelle’s vigilance was focused on the slice of pizza dangling from Carson’s fingers, but later, Grant was sure the dog would be on watch. An SFPD cruiser sat in the driveway. They were as safe as they were going to be for the night, but tomorrow, who knew?

Cleanup consisted of one run to the garbage can by the back door.

“Can you walk Faith for a while?” Grant asked his sister. “Ellie and I are going to search this house from top to bottom.”

“All right.” Hannah sighed and scooped the baby out of her car seat. “You know what? I saw a baby bath tub upstairs. I’m going to make an attempt to get my girlfriend here cleaned up because she’s beginning to smell ripe. Maybe a bath will distract her.”

“Or she’ll scream through it,” Grant said.

Hannah lifted a
whatever
hand. “She’s going to cry anyway, so it’s not like I have anything to lose.”

Carson scooted out of his chair and tugged on Hannah’s T-shirt. “Can I take a bath too?”

“Of course.” Hannah smiled.

“I’ll help.” Julia pushed her chair back. “Come on, Nan. Let’s get you to the sofa.”

“Thanks.” Hannah carried the baby out of the room on her hip. His sister seemed to have softened over the past couple of days, as if she’d lost her icy, tough veneer when she’d shed the suit and put on her jeans.

Julia helped her grandmother hobble out of the room.

Grant watched Carson head off happily with Julia, the dog at their heels. “I’ll admit it’s nice to have some help with the kids.”

“Has it been rough?” Ellie asked.

“Carson’s pretty easy. I just hope I’m not messing him up for life.”

“He seems to have bonded with you,” she said.

“Yeah.” Which was part of the problem. Grant only had three more weeks stateside. Mac was proving to be too unreliable to handle the kids. But Hannah . . . she acted almost domestic tonight. Almost. But with every day that passed, she behaved more like his little sister and less like a hotshot corporate attorney.

“Where do you want to start?” Ellie pushed the chairs under the table.

“I already searched the office.” Grant headed for the stairs. “The master bedroom is the next most likely place to keep important documents.”

He stepped aside and let Ellie go up first, enjoying the view of her hips swaying in front of him.

“Agreed.” Ellie stopped in front of Lee and Kate’s bedroom. Grant had straightened the downstairs, but the master bedroom was still in disarray from the break-in. Clothing was scattered, and articles hung from gaping drawers.

Grant hesitated at the threshold. “Would you mind putting away Kate’s things?” Searching through his sister-in-law’s intimates would feel like an invasion of her privacy.

“Of course.” She nodded grimly and pulled out the top drawer of Kate’s nightstand.

“We’re looking for places easily overlooked.” Grant pushed aside the clothes in the closet and felt along the walls. Nothing. The shoe boxes on the top shelf held only shoes. Containers stored off-season clothes. Grant left the closet. He walked around the room, lifting prints off the walls and checking behind them. He inspected the floor for any sign a board had been pried loose. “Do you know if they had a safe?”

Ellie shone a flashlight behind the headboard. “No.” Her voice was strained with sadness.

“Why don’t you tell me about the Hamilton case while we search?” He had read articles on the case, but he wanted Ellie’s perspective.

“Lindsay Hamilton was a junior at Scarlet Falls High. She moved here from California and joined the skating team. Within a couple of weeks of starting, she was targeted for torment. This bully faction was allegedly led by two girls, Regan Swann and Autumn Winslow. Both girls are stars of the team, top of the high school class, et cetera. According to Lindsay’s parents, these girls harassed Lindsay until she hanged herself in the woods behind her house.”

“If the girls were guilty, why isn’t there enough evidence to charge them?” he asked. “Are you sure the accusations aren’t groundless?”

“I’ve heard too much bullying in general at the rink to dismiss the allegations. Ice-skating is a cutthroat sport. You wouldn’t believe some of the things that go on.” Ellie climbed to her feet and brushed her hands on her jeans. “I suspect Regan and Autumn were smarter than most and didn’t leave a trail. Regan’s dad is some kind of computer specialist. If anyone would know how to wipe an electronic trail, it would be him. But Lee must have discovered something that convinced him he could win a civil suit. He was a little bit of a sap for a lawyer, but he wouldn’t take a case if he didn’t think he had a chance of winning. His caseload was already large. He didn’t have the time to throw away, and I doubt he’d want to get Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton’s hopes up for no reason either.”

“No, he always sounded stressed when I talked to him.” Which hadn’t been for a long time.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” She straightened. “There’s money missing from the firm. Roger’s dad, the Grand Poobah of the firm, gave him a thorough verbal lashing the other day. A series of fraudulent checks were cashed in the past couple of weeks.”

“How much was missing?” Grant’s gut sank.

“About twenty thousand dollars.”

“Lee had some unusual cash deposits.”

“You don’t think . . . ?” Ellie’s voice broke. “Not Lee. He would never steal anything.”

“I don’t know. I’m beginning to think I didn’t know my brother as well as I thought.” He hesitated before opening Lee’s armoire. He was determined to separate his emotions from his task, but rifling through Lee’s socks gave him an ache in his chest. He pulled a T-shirt from the bottom drawer. His fingers clenched in the fabric as he shook it out to see the word
ARMY
emblazoned in olive-green letters across the chest. Grant had given it to his brother twelve years ago when he left for his first deployment. Under the shirt was a familiar walnut box. He lifted the lid. Inside was the purple heart Grant had been given when he’d been shot in Iraq. He’d asked Lee to hold on to it for him for safekeeping. Underneath were their father’s medals.

No matter how much Grant traveled, he’d always known his brother was here, holding down the fort at home, taking care of Dad, and providing Grant with a sense of home even though he hadn’t lived in Scarlet Falls in more than a decade. He massaged a tight spot in the center of his chest with one hand.
Damn it, Lee. What happened?

He snapped the lid—and his memories of Lee—shut.

“It’s not in here.” He needed to get out of this room. “Let’s go look somewhere else.”

Ellie looked up at him, her expression puzzled. Tears shone in the corners of her eyes as she met his gaze. Without speaking, she crossed the room, took his hand, and tugged him into the hall. The sounds of water splashing, muted conversation, and the baby’s babbling echoed from the bathroom. She led him through the door at the end of the hall and up the stairs to the open attic. Dust motes danced in the light of three bare bulbs suspended from the rafters.

“I doubt Lee would have hidden the file up here,” Grant said.

“Shh.” Ellie wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.

Shocked, he pulled back, but she tightened her hold. Grant, ignoring the warning signals from his conscience, returned the embrace. He rested his forehead on her hair and accepted the comfort she offered. His heart stirred in an uncomfortable and dangerous spiral. He liked this. Too much. This was the sort of thing his married friends missed while they were deployed: human contact, shared emotions. For a second, he thought maybe it was worth missing. But no, that would be selfish. This wasn’t just about him. It wouldn’t be fair to Ellie to start something he couldn’t finish. He moved every year or so, and if he really wanted to be a general, he didn’t need emotional ties tempting him to turn down assignments that could further his career. It was much easier to remain emotionally detached, because until this week, that’s what he’d been. He thought he’d had a relationship with his brother, but it was all an illusion. He’d barely known Lee. Grant had spent most of his adult life alone and aloof, avoiding personal connections and complications.

But damn. He couldn’t seem to let go of the soft woman in his arms.

She sighed, and her body relaxed. She shifted, leaning back. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Her warm brown eyes filled with empathy. “That this all happened to you. You haven’t had time to grieve.”

A small shudder passed through him, followed by a wave of need he couldn’t explain or deny, except that his soul was an empty shell. He pressed his lips to hers and let the taste of her fill the void inside him. Instead of resisting, she clutched his shirt and let him in. What started out tender and innocent shifted. Desire warmed him and pooled low in his groin. A hungry groan eased out of her throat.

He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, tilting her head and angling her mouth for a deeper invasion. She wound her arms around his neck. His free hand slid around her body and splayed at the base of her spine. He urged her hips closer. There. Right there.

“Grant.” She moved her mouth an inch away from his.

“Mm.” There was nothing more he’d like to do than strip Ellie naked and make love to her. And even though he knew there was no way that was going to happen at this moment—he didn’t have a condom, there were too many children and other family members in the house, and they were in the middle of searching for a key piece of evidence—he wasn’t ready to let her go yet. Holding her, kissing her, thinking about making love to her, eased his loneliness. She gave him hope.

She squirmed. “We can’t . . .”

“I know,” he whispered against her cheek. “Just give me another minute. Please.”

He wanted an hour or ten. Hell, since he was fantasizing, he might as well wish for a whole day of Ellie without distractions.

But that was not to be.

Reluctantly, he pressed a kiss to her temple and eased away from her body. “Thank you.”

Her mouth tilted in a sad smile.

“Were you close to Lee and Kate?” he asked, getting back to business.

“I worked with Lee for years, but since I moved next door, Kate became a good friend. We had a lot in common. They were new to the neighborhood, too. They’d just moved into this house a few months before me.”

“I don’t know much about Kate.” Grant sighed. “I spent two weeks of my leave with them each year, but I feel like I didn’t know her as well as I should have.”

“You can hardly help being sent to Afghanistan.”

But he could have visited more when he was stateside. He’d been so focused on his career that he’d neglected his family.

“Kate was quiet.” Ellie turned away from him and walked to a small octagonal window. “She and Lee were proud of you.”

He shoved his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans. “I still wish I’d been here more.”

She nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry you can’t change that, but being here for Carson and Faith is what’s important now.”

And that was only temporary.

“I guess. I really don’t know where else to look.” He scanned the attic. A row of storage containers was lined up under the eave. “We’ll check these boxes, then start on the guest rooms.”

The boxes were full of clothes Carson had outgrown. Had they been saving them for a future little boy? Grant closed the lid before the sadness enveloped him. There was no point speculating. He moved containers and lifted insulation but found no secret hiding places.

They moved downstairs to the guest rooms and did the same checking of floorboards and spaces behind and under heavy furniture. They had no more luck on the first floor.

Two hours later, Ellie emerged from the laundry room. “Did you find anything?”

“Nothing.” Grant righted the sofa. They’d torn apart every cabinet and closet in the house. All that was left was the detached garage, and he doubted the file was under the lawn mower or in Lee’s workbench.

She brushed a cobweb from her hair. “What next?”

“I don’t know. I’m out of ideas.”

Her eyes went round. “What am I going to do if I can’t find the file?”

Grant stood and crossed the room. He took her by the arms. “You’re not alone.”

“He’s going to hurt my family.” Her horrified whisper rent his soul in two.

“I won’t let him.” But what would happen if he had to leave and the threat hadn’t been eliminated? “We have to figure out what Lee discovered the hard way. Lindsay Hamilton skated at the same rink as Julia. Do you know her parents?”

Ellie dropped onto the sofa. “No. I’ve never met them. Lindsay was older. Plus, Julia isn’t a serious skater. She only goes to her lesson and one team practice a week. Once in a while, Kate would talk her into practicing in a free skate, but Julia hated it. The advanced skaters are aggressive on the ice.”

“Aggressive?” Sitting next to her, he thought of the combative hockey players.

“They act like they own the rink. They’d skate in her path or spin close enough to make her uncomfortable.” Ellie rubbed her hands together, pushing at the skin until it reddened. “Julia likes skating, but it’s a hobby, not a passion. She certainly doesn’t love it enough to put up with the hassle.”