Person of Interest (15 page)

She shrugged. “Stands to reason. You’re involved with military law enforcement. Mason is, as well. I doubt you’d travel so far for information unless he was suspected of some wrongdoing.”

“What kind of husband was Mason?” Everett glanced at Neal. “I understand that might be a difficult question.”

“I was young when we met. Mason was older. I haven’t seen him in years, but in his youth he was an attractive man. Tall and muscular. I attended two years of college and wanted to get on with my life. Mason swept me off my feet, as the saying goes. He was attentive and persuasive.”

“Persuasive?” Everett asked.

“Perhaps I should say possessive. Looking back, I realize he isolated me from my family. My brother and I had been close. I’m ashamed to say that Mason convinced me to stop seeing Danny, claiming my brother didn’t want me to be happy.”

“Your brother was against the relationship?”

She nodded. “He thought Mason was domineering and manipulative.”

“Was he?”

“Yes. Of course, it took me a while to realize the truth. We had one car that he took to work. If I wanted to go anyplace, even the grocery store, he made it sound like an inconvenience and unnecessary. He always drove me, which at the time I didn’t realize was a way to control me. Mason can be engaging if it suits his needs. Before long I had no one else in my life. We had moved to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, so I was far from family. We lived off post in a small house away from any neighbors.”

She glanced at Everett, her eyes heavy with remorse. “By the end of our first year, I was well aware of the mistake I had made. Getting away from him was another matter.”

“Was he abusive?”

“Not physically.”

“Verbally?”

“A bit. Conversation was limited to topics he wanted to talk about. Anything that would bring joy to our life together wasn’t of interest to him. I began to think something was wrong with me, that I was to blame for the unhappy marriage.”

“He was controlling,” Neal inserted, his face drawn with the reality of what Janet’s life had been.

“You eventually divorced,” Everett stated.

“Thankfully.” She nodded. “Mason went TDY to Fort Lewis, Washington, for six weeks.”

“He left you the car.”

“No. He drove the car to the airport and left it there. He said I had enough food in the house to survive until he returned.”

Everett glanced at Natalie. She was taking in everything Janet said.

“Did you contact family?” Everett asked.

“A woman who lived a few miles away helped me. She took me to her church and put me in contact with a lawyer. They called my parents, and my father wired money so I could fly home.”

“What happened when Mason returned?”

“He came to my parents’ house and insisted he needed to see me. My father had a shotgun. He told Mason he’d use it if he ever appeared in the area again.”

“And did he stay away?”

She nodded. “Mason did, although his sister came to visit me. She tried to get me to go back to Mason. She said he was hurting and sorry for not being the husband I wanted. She said he promised to change.”

“Did you have a good relationship with Annabelle previously?”

“I never thought she approved of me. Before we married, he and I joked about our siblings who were trying to stop the wedding. Later I realized Danny was looking out for my well-being.”

“What about his parents?”

“Mason’s mother died the year before we married. She had abandoned her children when Mason was a child. The father took care of them as best he could, but I think a lot of the household responsibilities fell to Annabelle.”

“Did Mason talk about his mother?”

“Only that she had left him. He didn’t show emotion the few times he mentioned her. I thought he should go to counseling, but he said he didn’t need a shrink.”

“Yet you saw the need for psychiatric help?”

“Only because he had been abandoned. I felt that played into his lack of trust. If he worked through the pain of having his mother leave him, I was convinced he would learn to accept other things, as well.”

“Growing up, did Mason ever try to contact his mother?” Everett asked.

“Not that I know of. Evidently she hadn’t moved that far away. When he was young, he kept imagining she’d come back.”

“Have you seen Mason or his sister in the last few years?”

“Not since we divorced.”

Everett pulled a business card from his coat pocket and handed it to Janet. “Call me if you think of anything else that might have bearing.”

“You never told us why you wanted information about my marriage to Mason.”

“I’m not sure if you’re aware that Mason remarried. His second wife died recently. I’m investigating her death.”

“Then it wasn’t by natural causes?”

“That’s what I’m trying to determine.” He stood and shook her hand and then her husband’s. “I’m sorry to disturb you this late at night. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Janet said as they neared the door. “How did she die?”

Everett glanced at the stairway leading upstairs where the young daughter stood staring down at them. “She fell.”

He opened the front door and then turned for a moment to stare again at the steep stairway.

“Tammy Yates fell down the stairs to her death.”

Janet gasped, her hand clutched her husband’s.

“Thank you for seeing us.” Everett nodded in farewell. “Be sure to call if anything else comes to mind.”

He and Natalie stepped onto the porch. Before he could close the door behind them, Janet grabbed his arm. Turning, he saw fear in her eyes.

“I told you Mason’s mother died a year before we were married.”

Everett nodded. Noting Janet’s concern, his gut tightened. “How’d she die?”

“She fell down the stairs to her death.”

Everett and Natalie hurried to his car. Had Mason killed his mother? If he was as manipulative as Janet claimed, his dysfunction had surely escalated with time.

Luckily Janet had freed herself from his hold.

He glanced at Natalie. Hopefully, she would be able to do the same.

* * *

Leaving Dahlonega along the winding, narrow road, Natalie couldn’t talk. She kept thinking of Janet and what she had experienced with Mason.

Everett skirted the main highway and took another back road and then another so that she had no idea if they were headed north or south. Just so they weren’t headed to Fort Rickman.

Everett seemed equally lost in thought.

A full twenty minutes after leaving Janet’s house, he turned to her. “I believe you, Natalie.”

She nodded. That statement had been long in coming, but Everett needed facts and evidence before he would buy into something, even something that might seem perfectly clear to others.

“He’s dangerous.” Everett sighed.

“Tell that to Tammy Yates and Paula Conway in Germany.”

“Tammy was involved with Vernon Ingalls. If Mason found out about him or if Tammy was forthright with the information, he could have exploded.”

Natalie nodded. “I told you they argued.”

“You said the voice was deep and insistent, but you weren’t sure it was male.”

“I was sure it was antagonistic. Whether I recognized the voice or not, it was Mason railing at Tammy.”

“I need to tell Frank.”

“Will he believe you?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“You’ve told him other things about Mason, and he hasn’t reacted.”

“Janet corroborated information about Mason being suspect.”

He picked up his phone, checked the coverage and then shook his head. “Looks like we’re too far from a cell tower.”

Natalie looked at her phone. No coverage, either. “Seems strange to find areas where cells don’t work. We’ve become so used to them.”

“The mountains and the weather cause reception to be spotty. We’ll be at my uncle’s house before long. If the cell connection isn’t strong enough there, I’ll use his landline.”

What would happen when Everett passed on the information to Frank Gallagher? Would he be able to convince the other CID agent about Mason being a person of interest?

Everyone had been so quick to point a finger at Natalie. Now, they needed to turn that finger to Mason. He was the suspect in his wife’s murder and in the woman’s death in Germany. Denise’s murderer was still at large.

Could Mason have killed three women and his mother? She shivered, realizing he had tried to kill her, too. Until he was behind bars, she’d have to live looking over her shoulder. That’s not what she wanted.

She wanted a home filled with love and joy. She wanted a man to stand by her side and help her through the ups and downs of life. She wanted to put her faith in a guy she could trust.

What about her faith in God?

She needed that, as well.

Staring into the darkness, she lifted her gaze to the starry sky.
Wherever You are, Lord, I hope You can hear me. I’ve tried to find my way in life without turning to You, which hasn’t worked out for the best. I need someone on my side. I’m beginning to realize I need You, Lord
.

FIFTEEN

E
verett left the main highway and turned onto a narrow two-lane road that led up the mountain. Natalie glanced out the side window. The moon poked through the cloud cover and showered light into the valley below.

Just as she had told Everett, she didn’t like heights, and she didn’t like driving up the side of the mountain that had a huge drop-off. She struggled to avert her gaze and quell her upset stomach.

“I thought you said your uncle lived on a gently sloping hill?”

“He does, but we need to climb to a higher elevation before the incline tapers off.”

“You’re trying to scare me.”

Smiling, he reached for her hand. His touch warmed a place deep inside her that had been cold for too long.

She didn’t know if Everett was telling her the truth or playing her for a fool, but the small gesture that seemed so inconsequential did something to her internal compass. Right now it was swirling around without knowing where to stop.

Being with Everett was unsettling. His understanding and warm gaze had her confused and not knowing where she was headed.

He’d said to trust him, which she wanted to do, but after everything that had happened, she couldn’t trust anyone.

Even a CID agent who told her she was pretty and brought a moment of light into the darkness of her life.

Would he turn on her and take everything she had said and twist it into evidence that would send her life spiraling out of control? Everything inside her shouted a resolute no, yet she needed to be careful.

Again she stole a glance out the window and cringed at the steep drop-off. Tammy Yates and the woman in Germany had both fallen to their deaths. Just so Natalie didn’t lose her life falling down the side of a mountain.

She closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the passenger seat, unwilling to glance at the deep gorge that even in the moonlight looked threatening.

“We’re almost there,” Everett eventually announced.

She opened one eye and nodded, seeing the house perched on a knoll in the distance. “I thought you said his home was in a clearing.”

“It is, just don’t look over the edge.”

“I’m trying not to.” Every time she glanced right, her stomach rolled. What would happen when she saw the drop-off in the light of day?

She turned to him, and he reached for her hand as if to give comfort.

“You said your uncle was eighty years old. How does he get up and down the steep incline at his age?”

“He’s like a mountain goat.” Everett chuckled. “It doesn’t seem to bother him, and he keeps a heavy foot on the gas pedal.”

“Remind me not to accept a ride with Uncle Harry.”

She glanced again at the mountain home. Lights glowed from the downstairs windows and brought warmth to the chill of the night.

For so long, she’d yearned for a place to call home. Her father had died when she was in Germany. No telling what had happened to her mother.

She had a need to share with Everett what she was thinking. “When I came back from Germany, I called home.”

He nodded, although he kept his eyes on the road, which she appreciated. She didn’t want his focus to be pulled away from the narrow path that edged the steep cliffs.

“The phone had been disconnected.”

“Maybe your mom changed to a cell instead of a landline,” Everett offered.

“Perhaps she didn’t want me to find her.”

“Is there anyone you can contact? Like an old neighbor who might have information about your mom?”

“I... I didn’t try.” She tugged at her hair. “I’m not sure I wanted to know what had happened to her. If she was in need, I would have to help.”

“The Good Book tells us to honor our mother and father.”

“I know. That could be why I didn’t try to track her down. You’re a good man to help your uncle.”

Everett laughed. The sound filled the car and made her smile. “He’s a great guy. I’m lucky to have him in my life.”

“Your dad’s brother, right?”

“Older brother. Dad’s a young sixty-five. There were three boys. The oldest brother died in Vietnam.”

“I’m sorry.”

“War happens.”

She nodded. “Were you in Afghanistan?”

“And Iraq. How ’bout you?”

“One thirteen-month deployment, but I was lucky.”

“God took care of you.”

She stared at the strength of his jaw and his steady gaze. “Like He took care of you?”

Everett nodded. “Exactly. My parents are my biggest prayer warriors. At times, when things were tense, I could feel their prayers.”

“In what way?”

He hesitated. “A sense of not being alone, as if I was surrounded by a shield of their love.”

“That’s hard for me to understand. I seem to always be looking over my shoulder, trying to push ahead, yet worried about what I’ve left behind.”

“Unresolved issues, maybe?”

She thought back to the life she’d left. “I left Detroit without looking back. That was a good thing.”

“Did you say goodbye to your mother?”

She shook her hand. “She was glad to get rid of me.”