Flames Of Deceit Page 8

  “Don’t take any chances with safety.” Jake ordered.

  Dan’s grin spread wide. “This is like being a kid again and playing cops and robbers. I love it.”

  “Please, don’t take any risks.” Mia touched his sleeve.

  Dan’s grin faded. “Don’t worry. I’ve tried enough cases in court to know I needed to cover my tracks. Take care of yourselves.”

  Two minutes later, Dan drove her Honda up the bumpy drive.

  ***

  “If she was pregnant…the child might have been a member of my family.” Mia paced the great room after Dan left.

  “Your brother denied their relationship before a judge, under oath.”

  “You don’t know Phil.” Chewing on a thumbnail, Mia turned to face him, seeing the honor and justice side of him she feared. “I’m not sure I believed him.” Head down, she stared at her toes. “Phil has always done what he wanted. Winning election to the senate added to his attitude.”

  “Is that why—“

  “Okay,” Mia plopped down on the coffee table, so close in front of him their knees touched, and stared in his eyes. “Mother thinks Phil is perfect. She’s the one I’m trying to protect. If Phil’s career is ruined, it will destroy her.”

  “You think he was involved with the model?”

  Mia shoved off the table and resumed pacing. “Leigh Anne was a secretary for a bigwig at the drug company.”

  “We’re back to the drug company.” Jake put his feet to the coffee table and crossed his hands behind his head. “We need to check out Leigh Anne’s apartment. See what clues we can find.”

  “You can’t enter a possible crime scene.” Mia stopped pacing and stared at him. “You’re an officer of the court.”

  Jake got up and turned to the desk in the corner. “I want to know how a body ended up in my courthouse and find a killer.”

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Phone numbers. Addresses.” Jake looked up from the phonebook in his hands. “Do you have Leigh Anne’s address in your files?”

  Mia opened the computer. “I have a list of employees. Three of them live in the same neighborhood.”

  “Interesting…is the model one of them?”

  “No, she lives…lived in a condo in Durham.” Mia watched him put the book away and reached to shut down the computer. “Are we leaving?”

  Jake stared at her for long seconds. “See if you can find a backpack in the closet.”

  Ten minutes later, two backpacks filled with their new clothing items and her computer, they left the cabin. Mia turned back at the door. “What about the food Dan brought? Should we clear out the fridge?”

  “We’ll be back,” Jake locked the door and hid the key. “If not, Dan will check on the place.”

  ***

  Tension crawled along Mia’s nerves as the Jake eased the Jeep up the crooked drive. Except for the beam of their headlights, everything around them was pitch black. She lived in town. The lack of light and the emptiness of their surroundings added to her discomfort. “I want to catch the person who murdered Leigh Anne.”

  Jake glanced through the dusky interior of the car. “You were after her hide when we met.”

  “I wanted information. I didn’t want to hurt her.” Mia swallowed the jitters clogging her throat and stared out the window. “I could have been an aunt, again.”

  “Do you get along with your brother?”

  “I love his kids.” Mia stared into the darkness and shivered. “No one should get away with taking a life, especially not a pregnant woman and her unborn child.”

  “If her pregnancy didn’t show,” Jake’s tone hitched, his eyes glowing in the half-light from the dash. “We’ve been looking at this all wrong.”

  Tension tightened around Mia’s chest. “Looking at what?”

  “What if Leigh Anne was the intended victim? What if she was murdered because of her pregnancy?”

  “Why leave her body in the courthouse?”

  “To implicate your brother. It’s the perfect crime. That’s it. Leigh Anne filed charges against Phil, dragging him into court and ruining his chances at re-election. Phil is the first person police would suspect of the murder. It is perfect cover for the real killer.”

  “So Phil didn’t kill her?” Mia stared at Jake, her body vibrating with excitement. “Someone wants him to look guilty, but he’s innocent.” She sighed. “But who wanted Leigh Anne dead if it wasn’t Phil?”

  “The father of her baby? Who could that be? Her boss? A lover? Someone she was blackmailing? Someone from her modeling life? The list is endless.” Jake glanced at passing road signs. “Help me watch for the exit.”

  Chapter 7

  Leigh Anne’s address led them to a neighborhood near Center Point Mall. By the time they arrived most of the dwellings were dark. BMW’s and Mercedes filled the driveways as Jake eased the Jeep down the street. The unit on the end matched the ex-model’s address.

  “How are we going to do this?” Mia’s heart thumped as she stared at the dark building. Research she could do, but search a dead woman’s apartment? Dread and tension twisted her insides as she stared at the dark condominium. “Do they have security cameras?”

  Jake checked for any sign of security cameras. “They were counting on close neighbors and high rent to keep undesirables out.” He eased the Jeep around the circle drive and kept moving. “We’ll park on another street and walk back.”

  “Won’t that attract attention?” Mia clenched a sweaty palm around the door handle. “We need a dog.”

  “The next best thing is pretending we’re lovers on a midnight stroll.” Jake sent her a glance out of the corner of his eye as he stopped. “Don’t worry. We won’t make a move if we don’t like the way things look.”

  Holding hands, they strolled toward the model’s address. The night air carried distant sounds of traffic from I-40, a block away and chilled her cheeks. A night bird called over faint sounds of barking dogs on another block.

  Jake’s touch warmed her hand and arm all the way to her shoulder. The contrast of tingly warmth and the cold night air made her shiver. Who was this man? Why did Jake make her feel safe? Being with Phil never gave her the sense that nothing could happen to her when she was in his company. How could this stranger make her feel safe?

  Yet, here she was, risking her reputation and her career for Phil. She smothered the urge to giggle as they approached the back of Leigh Anne’s unit. Sliding doors deep in shadow made Mia blink. Had the model felt safe in this place?

  Feeling exposed, and hearing a dog bark from a nearby dwelling, Mia inched so close to Jake they made one shadow as they approached the doors. He gave a flick of his wrist. She heard a metal click and realized he had opened the door. The next instant, he pulled her inside and closed the door.

  “Police must have left the door unlocked.” Jake whispered against her ear. Cautiously, he checked the kitchen and living room. “Stay close. We may not be the only uninvited guests.”

  Heart thudding in her throat, Mia checked each shadow for any sign of movement as Jake led the way to a back room she quickly identified as a home office. “Bedrooms must be upstairs.”

  Mouth against her ear, Jake said, “We’ll check down here first. Look for address books, diaries, anything that might give us a clue.”

  Mia shivered as the warmth of his breath brushed her cheek. Now she knew why Jake had her raid the cabin’s kitchen for rubber gloves. Tiptoeing over to the desk, she started searching.

  She looked in drawers and found nothing. But she spotted a laptop on a lounge chair in the corner.

  Mia glanced over where Jake was searching bookshelves with a pen light and reached for the laptop. In seconds, the screen glowed. She gasped at the amount of light from the screen and jerked around, checking for windows. Nothing.

  Sighing in relief, she turned to the screen in front of her. The list of files on the hard drive was so extensive she didn’t have time to check them. Opening the top
drawer of the desk, she pulled out one of the stick drives she spotted when she searched the drawer, plugged the disc in and hit save.

  “Nothing here, what did you find?” Jake mouthed next to her ear.

  Something deep in her abdomen twisted in response to his warmth and nearness.

  “I copied files.” Mia cocked her head, trying to listen over the thumping of her heart. “Did you hear something?”

  A dull thud, like a car door closing, sounded overhead. Had someone bumped against furniture upstairs? The hair on her neck quivered and chills chased down her spine.

  Jake moved silently toward the door.

  Mia’s muscles jerked with tension as she shut down the computer. She was all thumbs in the rubber gloves and tried twice before she managed to remove the disc drive.

  Carefully placing the computer exactly as she found it, she joined Jake at the door. “The noise I heard was human.”

  Jake nodded and took her hand as he headed back down toward the sliding doors.

  Heart thundering, Mia stared around the apartment as she followed him. Leigh Anne’s taste in furnishings was modern and expensive considering the glass lampshade and large animal print throw on the sofa in the living room.

  At the door leading to the kitchen, Jake held a finger up to his lips and checked the hall. Mia turned to look behind them. Had that shadow been there when they went into the office? Had it moved? Did she hear a snapping sound like someone’s knees popping?

  Jake grabbed her arm, pulled her through the tiny kitchen and out the sliding door. Once they were outside, he pushed her against the building to the deep shadows while he latched the door. Lips against her cheek, he mouthed, “Get rid of the gloves.”

  Sucking in a breath, she shoved the rubber gloves deep in her pocket and clamped her teeth on her bottom lip. If he pulled her against his chest one more time, she wasn’t going to be responsible for her reaction. Even scared half to death, heat pooled low in her abdomen and shivers skated along her backbone. Desire and fear mingled in a potent mix inside her.

  Jake pulled her from shrub to shrub until they were next to the street. Glancing around to make sure they hadn’t been followed, he pulled her into a speed-walking gait that took them back at the Jeep in seconds.

  Unlocking the doors, they climbed in and Jake started the engine. “Sorry about the speed walking. One of neighbors might suffer from insomnia and look out the window.”

  Hot, from the exertion of the past few minutes and her reaction to Jake’s touch, Mia filled her lungs with cool night air. What was it about Jake Stone that stimulated her to this level? She had dated hunks, worked with desirable men and reported on some real dreamboats. But her response to Jake was very different.

  What if…

  ***

  Jake glanced in the rearview mirror for the fifth time in the past minute and drove down HWY 751 twenty miles over the speed limit. Twin beams of light followed. Coincidence? Had they picked up a tail? Who?

  “What’s wrong? You keep looking in the rearview mirror.”

  Lifting one shoulder, Jake glanced up again. The vehicle behind them wasn’t close enough to light up the interior of the Jeep. “We’ve had a vehicle behind us since we pulled out from Leigh Anne’s development.”

  “This is a well traveled road.” Mia glanced at the numerous houses along their route. “Could be someone coming home from work or a movie.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You don’t think so?” Mia twisted around to look over her shoulder, but all lights looked the same at this distance. “Pull into Dunkin’ Doughnuts.”

  “You want coffee?” Jake tried to keep the incredulous note out of his voice as he wheeled the Jeep into the parking lot at the doughnut shop. Mia had guts. He had to hand her that. None of the women he knew would have followed him into a stranger’s apartment and risk being caught by police.

  But he had made the biggest blunder of all.

  He should have been more alert before slipping into the model’s condo. Five minutes after they entered the condominium, he sensed another presence. He’d been listening movement overhead, when Mia heard the thump. He hadn’t wanted to frighten her, but they’d had a narrow escape.

  Parked at the doughnut shop, he kept his eyes focused on the highway, waiting for the vehicle to pass. He absorbed Mia’s presence and tried to relax. How could he ignore her? The scent of her shampoo filled his senses when he got close to her.

  But Mia affected him on another level.

  Her keen intelligence and courage impressed him. He gripped the steering wheel, still staring at the highway. It had been six years since he had noticed a woman on this level. Six years. That’s how long…and there it went, a sleek black SUV.

  “Is that it?”

  Jake turned to look at her. In the dim light from the doughnut shop, her eyes were large and shadowed. She had tied her long hair back, low on her neck.

  “It’s the same shape, and the first vehicle to pass. Considering the time of night, I’d say it was.” He watched her nod. “You want coffee and a doughnut? We’ve got a lot of research to do when we get back.”

  Mia grinned and reached for the door. “I’ll go in. No one knows me.”

  “Hang on a second.” Jake put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her. Leaning close, he reached back and pulled the band out of her hair. Her breath caught in a tiny gasp that almost made him forget they were in danger. Almost.

  “Let’s change your appearance, just in case.”

  Looking at him with wide eyes, Mia licked her lips and gave a slight nod. Then she ran her fingers through the dark strands, and gave him a fake smile. “What do you want?”

  What do you want?

  Jake’s gut twisted and he clenched his hands in fists to keep from reaching for her. This wasn’t the time or the place. Even if he wanted to take things to a different level, it wasn’t fair to Mia.

  He hadn’t looked at another woman since his wife and son died. His friends claimed he was still grieving. People thought he was still in love with his wife.

  Not one person in his life had guessed that guilt held him prisoner.

  He hadn’t been able to protect his wife and child when they needed him most. He had no right to put Mia in danger if he couldn’t save her. So why had he brought her along tonight? Taken her into an abandoned condominium? A crime scene no less.

  “Tall, brewed, cream, no sugar.” He forced the words past numb lips as if he were speaking to a stranger.

  Mia stared at him for a moment longer and got out of the Jeep.

  Jake searched the parking area for any sign of danger. He glanced toward the direction the black SUV had traveled, then back at Mia as she entered the shop.

  No sign of the vehicle returning or hint of danger from the inside or out of the shop, but the danger was inside him. How long could he deny his attraction to Mia?

  ***

  “So, we have files on the company executives and their secretaries. What else do we need?” Mia stretched her arms over her head and yawned.

  “How are they connected? Why did Leigh Anne keep these files? What are we missing?” Jake looked up for the legal tablet he was making notes on. Feet propped on the coffee table and leaning back in the stuffed chair, he felt as sleepy as Mia looked. Her cheeks were flushed. Her dark hair flared over her shoulders like a curtain of silk.

  He stood up. He would go crazy if he continued this line of thought. Tossing the paper down on the low table, he turned to check locks on the doors. “Get some sleep. We’ll get more done after we’ve had some rest.”

  “Are we safe here?”

  Jake glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t see why not. No one knows we’re here.”

  “That car—“

  “We don’t know if it was following us. Stop worrying. Get some sleep.” He turned off the light over the kitchen range. The only light left on was the lamp on the table beside Mia. The glow made her hair shine like a halo, but he couldn’t think about that.
/>
  “Tomorrow you need to convince me that your brother is innocent.”

  Her lips clamped making her chin wrinkle like a prune. The glare she sent him reminded him of his third grade teacher, and he hadn’t forgotten what that meant. Pain. Punishment. Regret.

  ***

  “Come listen to this,” Jake called over his shoulder the next morning when he heard Mia’s steps in the hall. He hadn’t slept a wink. She appeared looking flushed and fresh from her bed.

  “What—“

  “Listen.” Jake pointed to the screen and turned the volume up.

  “Officers arrested Pam Foley this morning around three A.M. and charged her with breaking and entering the apartment of Leigh Anne Saddler. Sources say the suspect is a co-worker of the woman found dead two days ago in the burned out Courtney County Courthouse in Pittsboro. Authorities suspect Ms. Foley might have been looking for something that connected her to her co-worker’s death.”

  Mouth open, Mia stared at the images on TV, then turned wide eyes on Jake. “They think a woman murdered Leigh Anne?”

  Fingers gripping the legal tablet, Jake studied Mia’s shocked expression. “You don’t?”

  “No, I don’t.” Frowning, she dropped to the sofa and raked her hair back with both hands. “You said a woman couldn’t carry the body up the stairs in the courthouse.”

  “Unless Leigh Anne was alive and walked up the stairs.”

  “Okay, but we were across the hall. Wouldn’t we have heard the attack?”

  “Ummm, unless she was already dead when we arrived.”

  “What was the time of death? Did the coroner say?” Mia looked across the coffee table with a hopeful expression in her eyes.

  “Nothing on the news about time, and we can’t risk a call. They could track our phone.”

  Mia’s eyes widened. “Dan could ask—“

  “They wouldn’t release that information. He doesn’t have connections to the case.” Jake held up a finger. “If they searched his interest, it would lead them to us.”