Czytaj książkę: «Secret Baby, Second Chance»

Chapter 1

“We’ve found Beth Wade.”

Vincente Delaney had been waiting to hear those words for the last twelve months. Waiting and dreading. Now they had finally been spoken, it was as if his mind wasn’t sure how to process them and his emotions didn’t know how to react. He’d imagined that, as soon as he was told, he would be torn apart by anger and pain. Instead, all he felt was a curious detachment, as though he was viewing the scene as an outsider.

“Why wasn’t her body with those of the other women Grant Becker murdered?”

He was pleased to find his voice sounded normal. That he could ask the question without crumbling. He supposed it was because there had been plenty of time to prepare for this moment. Twelve months ago, the police had told him that Beth fitted the profile of those killed by the murderer known as the Red Rose Killer and she was likely to have been one of his victims. Ever since then, this situation had been at the back of his mind. He hadn’t thought about it every minute of every day. Not quite that often.

Of course, it had been made worse because the man responsible for the deaths of all those women had been someone Vincente had known most of his life. Grant Becker had been his brother Cameron’s best friend. Vincente and Grant had gone hunting and drinking together. To learn that Grant, the sheriff of West County, was not only a serial killer, but that he could have been responsible for killing Beth... Vincente shook his head. He still struggled to come to grips with the reality of what had happened in his hometown. Grant was dead now, but the legacy of his crimes had rocked the city of Stillwater, Wyoming, to its core.

“Oh, dear Lord, Vincente. I’m so sorry. That came out all wrong.” Laurie, Cameron’s wife, was a detective in the Stillwater police. She moved swiftly across the room to place her hand on his arm. “Beth isn’t dead. What I came here to tell you was that we’ve finally found out where she’s been living since she left Stillwater.”

The emotion did kick in then, so hard and fast he felt light-headed with it. Relief hit him first. She’s not dead! The long, anguished months of picturing her murder, of wondering if there was anything he could have done to save her, of thinking about all the might-have-beens... And all that time Beth had been alive.

“Where is she?” His initial relief was followed by something colder and harder. Beth was alive. Questions began to form. Dozens of them. Why had she left? And why so suddenly? What was her life like now? Was she single? Married? In a relationship? Why did those things matter? She had walked out on him without an explanation. If not in the middle of the night, near enough. It wasn’t the action of someone who wanted to be with him. Nevertheless, she owed him some explanations.

Laurie shook her head regretfully. “I can’t tell you that. If someone disappears the way Beth did, they do it for a reason. They don’t do it because they want to be found. We have to respect her privacy.” She gathered up her jacket and keys. “I wanted to come and tell you as soon as I found out because I knew what it would mean to you to know that she’s alive. I’ll be going to see her to question her about the Grant Becker case in the next few days. I’ll let you know how she is, but that’s all I can do.”

Vincente didn’t reply. Instead, he watched Laurie go, his body tense and his emotions raging. Beth didn’t want to be found. He’d got that message loud and clear sixteen months ago when he tried searching for her. At that time, it looked like Beth had walked out of Stillwater without a backward glance. The clients in the legal practice where she worked as a lawyer had been less than happy at her departure. Her boss didn’t have a clue where she’d gone. The landlord of the neat little house she’d rented out on the lake road had been bemused. She’d left most of her belongings and had paid her rent for the next quarter. When Vincente spoke to her friends they appeared genuinely bewildered...either that, or they were putting on a good performance for his benefit.

Then, four months after he had last seen her, the devastating news had emerged that Beth could have been one of Grant Becker’s victims. She had the same physical characteristics as the other women Grant had murdered. Beth had dark, wavy hair, blue eyes and the sort of smile that could knock a man sideways. Her looks made her the ideal candidate to attract attention from Grant, to get his token gift of red roses...and then be brutally murdered by him.

Vincente thought back to the last time he had seen her, seeking new clues to her disappearance in light of Laurie’s visit today. Beth had turned up at his apartment after more or less ignoring him for a month. The silent treatment had followed one of their fiery clashes. Theirs had always been a stormy relationship, filled with wild fights, frequent breakups and passionate makeups. Even though sex with Beth had always been explosive, that night had been one to remember. She had barely crossed the doorstep before they were tearing off each other’s clothing, dropping T-shirts and jeans on the floor and kicking off boots as they kissed their way to the bedroom.

As he’d tugged her underwear down, his hands had lifted her and her knees gripped his hips. “Why are you here, Beth?” He had managed to gasp the words out as he walked her backward to the bed.

“Because I can’t stay away.” Her voice had been anguished as she pulled his head down to meet her lips. “No matter how hard I try. That’s where the danger lies.”

Those strange words were the last thing he remembered her saying to him. They had fallen asleep in each other’s arms and when Vincente woke, Beth was gone. Although he had searched for her, it was only when he thought she had been killed that he realized how much the loss of her had torn him apart.

The police investigation had been one of the largest West County had ever seen. The search for women, including Beth, who had gone missing within the timeframe of the murders was wide-ranging and ongoing, but Vincente hadn’t been able to leave it at that.

Guilt gnawed at him over those missing four months before the police had begun their inquiries. Sure, he had tried to discover where Beth was before Laurie had told him she could be one of Grant’s victims, but had he done enough? If he hadn’t simply assumed she’d walked out on him, could he have saved her?

Twelve months ago, as Stillwater was being rocked by the news that one of its sons was a serial killer, Vincente had been trying all over again to discover Beth’s whereabouts. He had gone over every conversation, every confidence, every contact they’d ever had, searching for a clue. He’d even driven around the highways of West County late at night, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

Even though his head had told him repeatedly to prepare for the worst, his heart had insisted on keeping a tiny flare of hope alight.

Now he knew she was alive and he was supposed to leave it at that? His lips tightened and his jaw clenched.

I don’t think so.

* * *

Beth Wade stared at the stack of papers in front of her with a mingled feeling of tiredness and despair. The deadline to have this paperwork completed was looming, but she’d hardly slept and her brain was refusing to cooperate. She thought briefly of her old job at E. Powell Law in Stillwater. Back then she’d have flown through a routine task like this...

Those days were gone. This was Casper, not Stillwater. She was no longer a rising star in a prestigious law firm, dealing with clients and grappling with difficult cases. She worked from home for an hourly rate and, if she didn’t get started, she wouldn’t get paid.

The knock on the door shook her out of her weariness. Twisting her hands together in her lap, she turned her head toward the sound. No one ever knocked on her door...

Cautiously, she rose from the kitchen table and walked silently down the hall. Maybe she could ignore it? Whoever it was would assume she was out and go away.

“Ms. Wade? My name is Laurie Delaney.” The voice was pleasant and confident and... Delaney? “I’m an officer with the Stillwater Police.”

With her mind spinning, Beth opened the door.

Her visitor smiled. “I’m also Vincente Delaney’s sister-in-law.” She said it as if it wasn’t an earth-shattering statement. As if, even though Vincente was always at the back of Beth’s mind, hearing his name spoken out loud wouldn’t make her go weak at the knees.

Beth waved aside the badge Detective Laurie Delaney held out. “I’m not questioning that you are who you say you are. I’m just...”

“Bemused?” Laurie supplied helpfully.

Bemused was an understatement. Stunned would be a more accurate summary of how Beth was feeling. The woman standing on her doorstep was a police officer, and she was Vincente’s sister-in-law. That was a hell of a chunk of information to assimilate on any day. Midmorning on a Monday, after a sleepless night? It was taking a while to process the information. Realizing they were still standing by the open door, she gestured for Laurie to come into the house.

She had known when she left Stillwater that she would miss Vincente, but she had never anticipated the depth of her longing for him. The feeling of loss was like a shard of glass lodged permanently in her heart. Even so, she couldn’t succumb to her desire to ask Laurie questions about him. Just hearing his name had intensified her craving for him, ratcheting the ever-present pain up to a level where it was almost unbearable.

Beth hadn’t left Stillwater to get away from Vincente. She had left because her life was in danger, and, if she’d stayed, she’d risk exposing him to the same harm. The anonymous person who was threatening her had made that clear.

No police. Whoever had sent the photographs and newspaper reports had included that chilling warning in the accompanying letter. But Laurie wasn’t here because Beth had contacted her. And no matter how scared she might be of that letter writer, Beth could hardly slam the door in a police officer’s face.

Once they were inside the narrow hall, a furry black-and-white shape trundled up to them, almost knocking Laurie off her feet. Beth hauled the wriggling, tail-wagging figure away from her visitor. “Sorry. He still hasn’t got the message that he’s meant to be a guard dog.”

Laurie, who was clearly used to dogs, squatted and clicked her fingers. “He’s beautiful. What’s his name?”

Beth rolled her eyes. “Melon. He’s a border collie. His previous owner named him. He thought it was funny.”

“Sorry. I don’t get it.” Laurie looked confused.

“Melon-collie. Melancholy. They sound alike. It’s meant to be a joke.” Beth rolled her eyes. “I always have to explain it.”

Laurie laughed. “I get it now. Melancholy? He doesn’t suit his name.”

Since Melon was lying on his back, with his tongue lolling as he waved his paws in the air, he seemed to be doing all he could to prove her statement correct.

“Despite appearances, he actually has a very good sense of who he should let into the house and who he should be wary of. He was trained as a search and rescue dog, but he injured his paw and needed some time out of action. When he was well again, his owner had a new K-9 partner. Luckily, it was around the time I was looking for a guard dog,” Beth said. “I decided I needed one, since I’m living on my own with—” she bit her lip, annoyed at the near slipup “—no one else around.”

“You can never be too careful,” Laurie agreed.

Leading Laurie through to the kitchen at the rear of the house, Beth let Melon out into the yard before holding up the coffeepot. “I was just about to take a break from work.”

It wasn’t true, of course. Although the kitchen table was littered with papers and her laptop was still open, to say that she had been working would be stretching a point. She had been trying to get her brain in gear before she began to review the client evidence she had been sent.

If she was honest, she might have also been indulging in her regular pastime of daydreaming about Vincente. About what life might have been like if only she hadn’t had to leave. About how she was ever going to get rid of the gnawing, yearning ache that came with the knowledge that she would never see or hear from him again.

Laurie didn’t need to know the details of her daily struggle. And caffeine might be what Beth needed to help wake her sluggish brain cells.

“Coffee would be good.” Laurie took a seat at the table.

“Did Vincente send you?” Even as she asked the question, Beth realized how foolish it was. If Vincente knew where she was, he would never send someone else in his place. He would be here himself, filling this room with his presence. With his dangerous masculinity. The thought sent a thrill of remembered longing down her spine.

“Vincente has no idea I’m here. And I won’t tell him where you live.” Laurie’s tone was reassuring, the words confirming what Beth had just been thinking. “This is actually an official visit, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

Beth carried the coffee over to the table and took a seat opposite Laurie. “Now I’m intrigued.”

“It’s an intriguing story, and not a pleasant one. You may have heard about it if you’ve been following the news from Stillwater. Have you heard of the Red Rose Killer?”

“Goodness, yes.” Beth had hardly been able to believe what she had been hearing when she had visited the grocery store and overheard a conversation about what had been happening in her hometown. Although Stillwater was a three-hour drive from Casper, the story of the murders had been gruesome and newsworthy. “I don’t know all the details, but I knew Grant Becker. Was it true? I couldn’t believe it when I heard someone saying he was responsible for killing all those women.”

Laurie’s expression was grave as she nodded. “I was a newcomer in Stillwater at the time, but I know how it rocked the whole community. I was working undercover on another job when I found out that Carla Bryan, who everyone thought had died in an accident, had actually been murdered. Carla was my cousin. Once I started investigating, it turned out that Grant had killed at least six other women who had the same physical characteristics as Carla. We’re saying at least six because the investigation is still ongoing.” She took a sip of her coffee. “It’s the reason I’m here.”

Startled, Beth raised her brows. “It is?”

“You left Stillwater very abruptly, and you have the same physical features as the women Grant Becker killed,” Laurie said. “Dark hair, blue eyes, clear skin, slim figure, nice smile.” She ticked the characteristics off on her fingers. “This was a huge investigation involving the FBI and the Stillwater Police Department. We couldn’t rule out the possibility that you might have been one of Grant Becker’s victims.”

Beth took a moment to let that information sink in. “So you’ve been looking for me all this time?”

Laurie nodded. “Almost twelve months. When we didn’t find your body with the others, we put out an alert asking you to come forward.”

“I didn’t see anything.” Beth bit her lip. “I don’t have much time for TV or newspapers.” In a way, it was better that she hadn’t known the police were looking for her. Knowing would have been a dilemma of epic proportions. How could she have ignored that? Yet, at the same time, how could she have responded to it? “How did you find me?”

“Even though you’ve been using an alias, your boss saw your picture in our newspaper advertisement and phoned in.”

And there you have it. It was that easy. If the police could find her that way, anyone else could. Vincente could. Worst of all, he could find her. She always thought of the person who sent the letter and photographs as a “he”, but it could just as easily be a woman.

Her thoughts must have shown on her face because she became aware of Laurie watching her with concern. Leaning across the table, the other woman clasped Beth’s hand. “This is really not a big deal. Now that we know you are alive, I can cross you off our list of possible victims. I just came out here today to ask you a few questions. I hope that’s okay. I certainly didn’t want to worry you.”

Beth forced her features into a smile. It would be very easy to confide in this woman. To go upstairs and get that envelope, lay everything on the table and tell her the whole story. That way she could hand over her cares to someone else. But she didn’t have that luxury.

It’s not just my own safety that’s at stake here.

“Ask away.”

The searching look in Laurie’s eyes was still there as she flipped open her notepad. “I need to know whether you left Stillwater to get away from Grant Becker.”

Beth shook her head. “Apart from the fact that Grant was friends with Vincente, he and I barely knew each other.”

“So why did you leave Stillwater so suddenly?” Laurie asked.

At that moment—and with monumentally bad timing—a soft, demanding cry crackled over the baby monitor.

* * *

Vincente parked his car in a side street at right angles to the little house. From this vantage point, he could watch the front door without being too obvious.

Following Laurie around for the last three days had not been easy. Pursuing a seasoned detective in the small town where everyone knew them both? He had set himself an almost impossible task. But Laurie had said she would be questioning Beth about the Grant Becker case in the next few days. She had specifically said she would be “going to see” Beth. Vincente figured that, sooner or later, Laurie would lead him to Beth.

He decided the only way to check on his sister-in-law’s whereabouts was to make it look like, by some fluke, they kept bumping into each other. At the end of the second day, Laurie was joking that she’d seen more of her brother-in-law lately than she had of her husband.

Chasing around town, getting in Laurie’s way had played hell with Vincente’s work schedule. His younger brother, Bryce, who ran Delaney Transportation with him, had sent him an increasingly frantic series of messages demanding to know why he had abandoned his office. Unable to explain that he was stalking Laurie, Vincente had feigned illness.

“You’re never ill.” Bryce managed to make the statement sound like an accusation.

“First time for everything.” Vincente had done his best to sound feeble.

“Steffi was hoping you’d come over for dinner tonight. Cameron and Laurie will be there.” Knowing how much Vincente enjoyed evenings spent around the table in his brother’s rambling, comfortable home, Bryce had clearly decided to try another approach. Since his recent and blissfully happy marriage, Bryce enjoyed gathering the family together while his wife, Steffi, regaled them with stories of the animal sanctuary she was establishing. They had come a long way from the days when Bryce had been the local stud, and Steffi was a famous Hollywood actress.

“Maybe next week when I’ve shaken off this flu.” Vincente had turned down the invitation with real regret.

His stalking tactics had proved frustratingly unsuccessful. Until today. Today, his patience, or thinly disguised impatience, had finally paid off. Laurie had left home at her usual time this morning, but instead of going into town and making her way to the police headquarters, she had headed south.

After an hour of following her at a discreet distance, Vincente had gained an inkling about her destination. Beth’s parents were dead, and she’d lost touch with most family members over the years. But he remembered that she spoke about friends of her parents who lived nearby in Casper whom she had visited now and then as a child. Although they weren’t relatives, she had called them her aunt and uncle and always regretted losing touch with them. Vincente had forgotten all about them back when he had been searching for her, but he supposed it was possible that, when she left Stillwater, she’d gone to a town she knew. He became increasingly convinced he was right. The police wouldn’t have known about the connection because the people he was thinking of weren’t Beth’s family.

Knowing Laurie would recognize his car, Vincente had rented a nondescript black sedan. Subterfuge really wasn’t his style, but he was determined to find Beth and ask her the questions that refused to go away. Even in his rental car, he had stayed well behind Laurie. He had a healthy respect for his sister-in-law’s powers of observation. The woman who had tracked down the Red Rose Killer was more than capable of recognizing that she was being followed.

Once he was convinced he knew where she was going, Vincente had overtaken her on the freeway. Pulling in at a gas station on the outskirts of Casper, he had waited, hoping his hunch was correct. When Laurie’s car came into view, he had released a long sigh of relief. If he’d been wrong, he wasn’t sure what his next move would have been. All he knew for sure was that giving up wasn’t an option.

Keeping his distance once more, he had followed Laurie to this quiet neighborhood in Casper. She had pulled up outside a house that was set back slightly from the street. Although he hadn’t been able to see too much, he had watched as the door was opened and Laurie went inside. That had been almost an hour ago, and he was going half-crazy with tension, waiting for the opportunity to do something. He had been told more than once, by both of his brothers, that patience was not his best quality.

Finally, he saw a movement over at the house. Tilting the old cowboy hat he’d worn as an additional disguise low over his brow, but peering out from under the brim, he slunk down in his seat. Laurie came out of the house alone. No one accompanied her to the door. There could be any number of reasons why the occupant of the house had chosen not to escort her out. From Vincente’s point of view, it was frustrating. Once again, he was denied the opportunity to get a glimpse of who lived there.

As Laurie made her way to her car, Vincente considered his options. Follow her back to Stillwater? Or stay here and find out if this really was Beth’s hiding place? He almost laughed aloud that he was even asking himself the question.

Once Laurie had driven away, he waited a few minutes to be sure she really had gone before leaving his car and going across to the house she had left. As he approached, he sized up the building. Nothing about it made him think of Beth. It had a slightly neglected air, as if the owner didn’t have the time, energy or money to spend on it. He contrasted that with the Stillwater house she had lived in. That had been as neat as wax. Being organized seemed to come effortlessly to Beth, spilling over into how she dressed, her surroundings and how she dealt with other people. Vincente wondered, not for the first time, if the reason she had struggled with their relationship was because she couldn’t neatly package up her feelings for him. When they were together there was no controlling what they felt. It had always been raw, primal...and incredible.

The thought spurred his feet up the front step. His heart was pounding so loud it almost drowned out the sound of his knock on the door. Prepared for disappointment, his nerves—already under intense pressure—were ratcheted up to crisis level when he heard a voice calling out.

“Did you forget something, Detective?” It wasn’t just any voice. It was Beth’s voice.

He wondered how she would react if she checked who it was through the peephole in the door. Her words indicated she thought Laurie had come back again, and he heard a key turn in the lock immediately after she spoke.

The door swung open and the smile on her lips faded. As she gazed at him in shock, Vincente took a moment to drink in her appearance. Her hair was shorter, just reaching her shoulders now instead of the waist-length mass in which he had loved to bury his hands. It was scraped back into an unflattering ponytail. She looked thinner. And tired, definitely tired. Almost to the point of exhaustion. But maybe the reason for that was sitting on her hip.