No River Too Wide (46 page)

“How about now? What’s the theory of the day?”

“The minute a body was found, this case ramped up a thousand percent. You do get that, right? Money’s one thing. Since we know she had nothing to do with what happened at her husband’s agency, we also know it’s unlikely anybody can make an embezzling charge stick. There’s not a shred of evidence. But murder? She had a rock-solid, unassailable motive. She had the means to kill him, a cabinet filled with guns—”

“Which she had no access to.”

“Her word only. Harmony wasn’t there the night her father died, hadn’t been there for years, so even if she insists he never let her mother touch the guns, she can’t prove that the day he died Jan didn’t get hold of one anyhow. And she was married to the guy, living in the same house with him, so God knows she had plenty of opportunity to kill him.”

“She didn’t.”

“She set the house on fire, even if she didn’t do it on purpose. For days the authorities thought they were going to find both her body and her husband’s because they both disappeared. A great way to cover an escape, wouldn’t you say?”

“If she’d wanted to cover up a murder, wouldn’t she have left her dead husband inside before she set the house on fire? Instead of burying him down the road?”

“Another reason she’s such a good suspect. That grave right down the road. But in answer? Not if she was smart, and of course, she is. Because had she done it that way, she wouldn’t have been able to count on the propane tank exploding, and she’d have no guarantee what shape his body would be in once the fire was extinguished. A bullet hole—in this case in his skull—would almost surely be detected.”

She faced him, arms folded over her chest. “You think she did it, don’t you?”

He shook his head, his expression inscrutable. “You asked me for the theory of the day. I’m just telling you what the cops will think. Because I’ve watched Jan and waited to see what happens next, I believe she’s innocent. I’m almost certain the theft came from inside the agency, but I’m not convinced Stoddard himself had anything to do with it. And now that he’s dead and forensic accountants can get hold of the agency records and comb through them, I think the money part will get resolved. It’s the murder we need answers to.”

“I don’t know why you’re telling me all this. So you’ve had theories and now you have new ones. You’ve said you intend to help her, and that’s a good thing. If you can prove Jan’s innocent, then more power to you. But how can any of this excuse using all of us the way you did?”

“You most of all?”

He said it so gently tears sprang to her eyes, and that infuriated her. She turned and finished descending the hillside until they were both on the flat area just before the railroad tracks.

He held her back when she started to cross the field. “Taylor, I don’t know if ends ever justify means. I get less and less sure of everything as I get older. But once I began to believe Jan was innocent, I couldn’t quit. I could have turned this over to somebody else, but I knew they wouldn’t be half as convinced as I was that she was a victim. And you can’t look for answers if you don’t know the right questions. I thought I owed it to everybody to stay and see this through, and hopefully fix things. And I hoped...”

“What, Adam?” She shook off his hand. “You hoped maybe we would just overlook the fact that you’d lied about who you were? Or maybe I would overlook the way you insinuated yourself into my life so you could stay close to everybody involved?”

“I never felt good about it. I wanted to tell you, all of you, especially you. But I had a responsibility to the company and all the people they represent. These were serious offenses. I had to stay as impartial as I could, and I had to stay undercover.”

She started toward the river, more for something to do than from any real desire to see how much the water had receded. He caught up and walked beside her until they were close to the bank.

The water level had gone down substantially. She knew that the studios that had been badly damaged were in the midst of removing what couldn’t be saved and beginning repairs. The torrent that had carried Maddie to the fallen tree, visible from this spot, was now simply a river flowing as it should, soon to be joined by other rivers on their way north to Tennessee.

“Did you have sex with me as a way to ingratiate yourself and get more information?” she asked after they had stood silently together for a long moment.

“No. Sex made things harder, exactly the way I knew it would. And now everything I do is filtered through that. I don’t want to hurt you anymore. If anything, that means I’ll err on the side of overlooking anything that could.”

“Then why, Adam? I was just so fatally attractive you couldn’t help yourself?”

He was silent so long she was sure he wasn’t going to answer; then he turned so he was looking at her profile. She didn’t face him. She couldn’t.

“You
are
attractive, very much so. But it wasn’t only that. When I was with you, I felt like I was part of something. For the first time since I came home from that last mission in Afghanistan, I felt like I was connected to the human race again. And I just couldn’t make myself leave that behind.”

For a moment she was touched, deep inside her where anger had kept her from sleeping. Deep inside where she badly needed to be touched and hadn’t allowed it. Not until Adam walked into her life and heart.

Then she remembered everything he had done. The intimacies, the lies, the stories she had believed. She faced him. “You weren’t part of anything. Everything that happened between us was built on deception.”

“I’m sorry.”

As angry as she was, she knew this man didn’t apologize easily. The words meant something, but she still felt too betrayed to accept them.

“I don’t want your money,” she said, turning to the river again so he wouldn’t see the tears clouding her eyes. “Please clear out your things before I get back.”

He didn’t say goodbye. In a moment he was no longer there. She could feel his absence and the hollow place inside her he would never fill again. She stood staring at the water for a long time before she turned and began to trudge back up to the studio.

* * *

Adam had so little to pack for his flight to Kansas City, the closest large airport to Topeka, that he had his carry-on ready in fifteen minutes. He planned to drop off his rental at the Charlotte Airport, but he would come back to Asheville when his investigation was completed, to move out of this apartment and see Jan one more time to tell her everything he’d found. Then he would probably head to Chicago, where he kept a one-room apartment as his base camp, and start a new life.

Somewhere.

Since his encounter with Taylor, he had forced himself to think about Rex Stoddard’s death and nothing else. So when somebody knocked on his door and he opened it to find Jan on the threshold, he wasn’t even surprised.

“I brought you these,” she said, holding out a stack of paper.

“You had time to think this over?” He stepped aside to let her in.

“I spent hours on it.”

Adam had typed up their interview, then made a copy that he’d given her yesterday over coffee and a final round of questions at Waking Life Espresso. He had asked her to carefully go over his notes and make sure she agreed with everything he’d written. He’d hoped that looking at the interview again might trigger additional memories.

He shuffled through the papers. “Did anything new occur to you?”

“I scribbled some comments on the backs of a couple of pages. But I don’t think any of it will be that helpful.”

“You never know. Thanks for bringing this by.”

“You’re flying out this evening?”

“I’m going to leave for the airport in a little while. I just finished packing.”

“Detective Sergeant Rafferty came to see me again around lunchtime.”

He had expected Rafferty to be back in Topeka by now. His continued presence didn’t seem like a good sign. “What did you tell him?”

“I saw Brad Reynolds at his office this morning, and he turned me over to one of his partners who has more experience in criminal law. So I told Detective Rafferty to talk to him.”

“Good. I won’t be surprised if he’s on my plane. Right now there’s not much he can do in Asheville except enjoy the mountain views.”

“Adam, please don’t feel bad about anything that happened. After I found out Rex was dead, I would have alerted the authorities and told them where I was if you hadn’t already done it. They got here a little faster because of your involvement, that’s all, but it doesn’t make a difference. I just want you to know how much I appreciate you helping me now.”

“
You’re
comforting
me?
”

“I just wanted you to know I’m not angry. I understand why you were undercover.”

“You’re facing a lot. You know that, don’t you? But you’re standing here trying to make me feel better. I wish I could do the same.”

She dredged up a smile. “I’ve been thinking this over since I saw my new lawyer. All those years with Rex I managed to keep a part of myself safe. As badly as he wanted to, he never controlled my heart or my mind. No matter what the future holds, that’s going to continue. As terrible as it sounds, even if I go to prison, it won’t be as bad as living with him. And there will always be a chance the real murderer will turn up. In the meantime I’ll have more freedom than I ever had at home.”

She was trying to be brave,
was
incredibly brave to come to him this way, but he could hardly bear listening. “None of that is going to happen.”

“You should still know that what I just said is true.”

“Here’s what I know. You’re innocent, and I’m not going to quit looking for your husband’s murderer until he or she is behind bars. Believe me, okay?”

Before he could consider, he put his arms around her for a long hug. Almost more miraculous than the things she’d said was the fact that she hugged him back and did not pull away.

Chapter 37

The last thing Harmony felt like doing tonight was chatting with strangers at a party, even if she
had
found the perfect black dress for practically nothing at a local thrift shop. She knew she could beg off, that Taylor would understand why she needed space and quiet. But her mother would be there, and Harmony couldn’t imagine leaving Jan alone to face the first party in decades where she could mix and chat like a normal woman. Jan had promised she would be fine, but Harmony planned to be there anyway to lend moral support.

Rilla and Brad were going, too, and they had hired a teenager to babysit their sons. While they’d offered to add Lottie to the deal, Harmony had declined. Cooper and Landon were a handful on their own, so she had asked Davis, fully expecting him to say he was too busy. Instead, he had quickly agreed. In fact, he had offered to pick her up on the way to Fiona’s condo, where they planned to watch Lottie together.

“You’ll have a good time with your daddy,” she promised Lottie, who was dressed in another of Davis’s fabulous finds. Settling the baby on one hip and the diaper bag on the opposite shoulder, she carefully made her way down the steps. Tonight she didn’t even have to provide a car seat. Davis had bought a brand-new one for his car and installed it. In fact, he had asked Harmony if she wanted one just like it for her own car. Harmony’s car seat, while perfectly adequate, had belonged to Landon and showed it.

Mesmerized, she’d agreed, and Davis had dropped it off a few days ago, chatting happily as he did about crash tests and safety ratings. She was still fantasizing about brain transplants, transformative psychiatric drugs, even plain old mind-control techniques, as possible reasons for the changes in her former boyfriend.

Dusk had descended, and the lights around the farmyard were already glowing softly, even though it was only six. She had invited Nate to meet her at Evolution, but not until six-thirty, so she still had time. She set Lottie on her feet and took her hand. With help her daughter was beginning to walk now. The little girl toddled slowly through the grass, giggling as she went and stooping from time to time to examine clods of dirt or feathery weeds at her feet.

Harmony had been enchanted with her daughter from the moment of Lottie’s birth. Sadly now she wondered if Lottie would be the only child she ever had. So far her own choices in the man department hadn’t panned out. She had been wildly attracted to Davis, at least partly because he had been so sure of what he wanted. Luckily for her that romance hadn’t lasted, but she had learned she wanted a man who loved her the way she was, one who was capable of putting her needs first when it really mattered.

Then, of course, there was Nate. He was the adorable boy-next-door, but not the one to steal her heart the way he might in a classic movie. Now she knew she would never fall in love with Nate. She hoped they would meet for coffee now and then to catch up on their lives, but he wasn’t going to be the one she wanted to
make
coffee for every morning of her life.

Or, in Nate’s case, enjoy the coffee he made for her.

She really didn’t have a lot of hope that with everything she had seen and lived through, she would ever find a man she could marry.

Headlights lit the farmyard. She scooped Lottie into her arms and went to meet Davis. The baby was so interested in the approaching car she forgot to protest.

When he got out he came over to take Lottie and dance her around as she laughed with delight. Then, holding her against his chest, he grinned as Lottie played with the buttons on his collar.

“She’s wearing the dress I gave her.”

“One of the million, you mean?” Harmony felt compelled to say something nice because, after all, Davis was doing her a favor. “You have good taste. I’ll give you that.”

“Grudging much? I’ll take it, anyway.”

“No, it’s actually very nice of you to pick out things for her.”

“She’s my daughter.” He smiled down at the baby. “I love her.”

Harmony went completely still. Davis loved Lottie. She half expected to see the heavens open and a kindly bearded man on a throne smiling down at them. Because she knew a miracle when she saw one.