‘Poor kid. What’s happening with the search for the girl and the cabin?’
‘Called off for the night. It’s snowing here.’
‘Here, too. I could give you a full weather report, but I don’t think that’s why you called,’ Grayson said dryly.
‘No. Where are you?’
‘Just leaving the hospital. I went to see Stevie.’
Something in his brother’s voice gave him pause. ‘I thought she was improving.’
‘She is. They took out the breathing tube. But she’s not talking. She’s not not talking, but she’s not complaining or giving orders or anything. She seems depressed, which I guess can be normal after an injury like this, but it’s not like her.’
‘Maynard wasn’t there?’
‘No, he’s with Paige at the wake for Zacharias. I’m on my way over there now to pick her up. Why?’ Suspicion had sharpened Grayson’s voice. ‘Why did you ask . . . No way. Maynard and Stevie? No. Way. Really?’
‘He’s got it bad, but it doesn’t sound like she does. I’m sure Paige can fill you in.’
‘Paige is a bit too discreet, I think. Luckily for me, JD’s a gossip.’
Grayson’s words were pointed and Joseph thought of the lipstick on his face before the video call. ‘If you wanted to know, you could have just asked.’
‘Fine. What’s going on between you and Daphne?’
Joseph was suddenly glad this was not a video call because the stupidest grin had just overtaken his face. ‘It’s good. Really good.’
‘Then I’m glad. I’m really glad. I’ve worried about you for too long.’
‘You can stop, because I’ve got more pressing things for you to help me think through.’ He filled Grayson in on Daphne’s story and how Beckett had terrorized her by ‘popping up’ from time to time.
Grayson had grown very quiet, and when he spoke it was with deadly calm. ‘I hope that when you catch him, he tries to resist.’
So that I can kill him. ‘I hear you. The bigger problem at the moment, though, is that there is at least one more victim and probably more in the almost thirty years between. I don’t think their suffering has completely filtered through her mind yet.’ And when it did, it would devastate her beyond what Joseph was able to imagine. ‘For twenty years she’s believed Beckett was dead on the say-so of the FBI.’
‘Obviously somebody erred. But Daphne can’t be held responsible for anything he’s done. She tried to turn him in, and believed he was dead.’
‘She’s more concerned with having to explain why she didn’t say anything before she thought Beckett was dead.’
Grayson’s sigh was weary. ‘I wish I could say she’s worried about nothing. I don’t think anyone rational would blame her for what happened, but just having her name in the headlines could hamper her effectiveness in the courtroom. Instead of being the voice of the victims she represents, she’ll become the story. It’ll die down after a while, but it won’t be easy while she’s going through it.’
‘It gets worse,’ Joseph said, looking at his computer screen. ‘I can’t find any death certificate on file for Wilson Beckett in West Virginia, yet Daphne says she’s got a copy in her safety deposit box.’
‘That’s not good.’
‘I know. That’s why I called you. I need help in thinking this through before I tell Daphne. She’s been through enough. I’m certain she didn’t lie about having the copy of the death cert. We have two options.’
‘Clerical error or somebody’s fucking with her,’ Grayson said harshly.
‘That sums it up pretty well. If it’s a clerical error, it could just not be entered into the online system. Still, there would have had to have been a body or a complicit coroner to provide the certificate. I talked with the woman who works in the police archives tonight and she seems to know her stuff. I’m hoping she’ll know if one might have existed twenty years ago when Daphne requested it.’
‘Do you think it’s a clerical error?’
‘No. I think somebody wanted her to believe Beckett was dead.’
‘Who would want that? Beckett himself?’
‘Maybe. She was getting older. By then she was living with the Elkharts. He didn’t have proximity to “pop up” and scare her. He might have thought she’d get brave and report him. But if he falsified the death certificate, it means he knew she’d requested it.’
‘That holds true for whoever did it. Who else?’
‘He’s the only one whose motive makes any sense. And there’s the question of how she got the document to begin with. She’d contacted the FBI to report Beckett and they told her he was dead. She wanted to be sure, so she mailed in a request to the state records department and ended up with two copies. One the FBI agent got for her and one that she received from the state through the mail about a month later. Now all this assumes that Agent Baker exists.’
‘You should request her personnel record.’
‘I did. After I heard Daphne’s story, I requested her report on the investigation and for Baker to call me. Just now I sent a note to Bo, asking for her personnel record. Hopefully we’ll know something by morning.’
‘How did she contact the FBI? Did she go to the office or call them on the phone?’
‘Neither. She wrote them a letter.’
‘Why didn’t she call?’
‘I don’t know. I’ll ask her when she wakes up. I get the impression that she was watched pretty closely by her mother-in-law, Nadine. Maybe she was worried her calls would be screened. If so, maybe her outgoing mail was, too. Anyone who knew she’d contacted the FBI is suspect. The only people she had contact with in those days were the Elkharts – Travis and his mother. The staff. Her own mother to a smaller extent. And Maggie, also to a smaller extent. I don’t think Daphne got to see them often.’
‘I can’t imagine the Elkharts would have appreciated Daphne’s coming forward at that point. Huge scandal. I’m actually surprised the Elkharts allowed the marriage to happen at all. They had to have known what happened to her as a child. They would have done an extensive background check. I would have thought Travis would want a wife with no skeletons in her closet.’
‘The skeletons wouldn’t have been easy to find. Daphne was only eight at the time and they’d moved to a different town. Her mother changed her name, too. She’d been Sinclair, but she went back to her maiden name when her husband left.’
‘Elkhart had the money to buy a damn good PI, Joseph. They would have left no stone unturned.’
‘The only people who knew the whole story before tonight were Maggie and the FBI agent, Claudia Baker. Even Maggie didn’t know Beckett’s name.’ He blew out a breath. ‘But Daphne did call the state death records office to ask about Beckett’s death. If someone was monitoring her calls . . . Shit.’
‘They didn’t even have to be monitoring her calls. They could have been inspecting her mail and seen the request for the death certificate. All they’d have to do is whip up a fake, make it look official. Daphne was only— How old was she?’
‘Fifteen.’
‘Oh, Joseph, she was just a child herself. She wouldn’t have known what to look for on a fake document.’
Joseph didn’t think that Daphne had ever been just a child. ‘You could be right. But that would mean Agent Baker was involved. Again, assuming Agent Baker exists.’ Joseph checked his email. He’d only asked Bo’s help in speeding things up a short time ago, but miracles did happen, even in the world of FBI.
‘Who else knew about Beckett, Joseph? You said Maggie knew. How?’
‘Maggie knew about Beckett, but not his name. Maggie did therapy with Daphne, letting her take care of the horses.’ Then Joseph went still as he heard Daphne’s voice in his head.
I’d whisper my secrets in her ear. Daphne had told Lulu the horse all about her agony. And then Maggie’s voice. She did what she always does when she’s upset. She went to the barn. Had a fifteen-year-old Daphne whispered her troubles to one of the Elkharts’ ho
rses? And who had overheard?
‘Shit,’ he muttered. ‘Daphne still takes care of the horses when she’s upset. She said she whispered her troubles in their ears. The Elkharts have a stable on the grounds.’ He knew this because Maggie had told him that Scott Cooper had been the Elkhart’s groom before he’d started his own business coaching kids to jump.
‘If Travis had a PI following her, he could have overheard Maggie tell her story, maybe even say Beckett’s name.’
‘Or Scott Cooper could have overheard. He lost his business because Travis accused Daphne of having an affair with him.’ He told Grayson the story Maggie had told him that morning. ‘His wife left him and he had nothing. Had to depend on Daphne until he got his business back up and running.’
‘Could make a guy resentful,’ Grayson said. ‘You want me to check him out?’
‘If you would. Also check out Elkhart’s ex-head of security, Hal Lynch. He was there from the beginning, from the night she met the prick. If someone hired a PI for a background check, it probably went through him.’
‘You met him, too?’
‘Yes,’ Joseph said. ‘But neither of those guys are Doug. Doug’s twenty-nine. Cooper’s a good fifty and Hal’s pushing sixty.’
‘And Doug would have only been a kid himself when Daphne requested that death certificate. Nine years old.’
Joseph thought hard, abruptly ceasing his pacing. ‘Cooper has a son. He said the son could help him move Daphne’s horses to a barn on his property.’
‘Cooper’s got property up by Daphne’s farm? That is pricey real estate. Starts in the six figures and goes up fast. I thought you said he had nothing.’
‘That’s what Maggie said.’ A dark suspicion crossed Joseph’s mind and he shook it away. ‘I don’t want to believe Maggie would be involved in anything to hurt Daphne, but almost everything I know came from her.’
‘I can check her out, too, if you want. But we know she’s not Doug.’
‘True. And she could have harmed Daphne long ago if she’d really wanted to. Damn. I’m so twisted up in my mind that I’m suspecting sweet old ladies. It’s making me crazy, knowing Doug’s out there, gunning for Daphne, and I don’t even have his face. And not even his whole name.’
‘He’s careful. He hasn’t left a print anywhere so far.’
‘He leaves prints,’ Joseph grumbled. ‘Just not where we know to look for them.’
Grayson yawned. ‘Go get some sleep, Joseph. You’ll be able to think better when you’re rested. I’m at Zacharias’s house and it looks like this wake is breaking up. I’m going in to get Paige and go home and practice what I preach.’
‘I can’t sleep yet. I’ve got to let the locals know what I found on Beckett. Thanks, Gray. I appreciate it.’
‘You know you can call me at any time. I’m always there for you. And Daphne. She’s a good woman, Joseph. Makes damn good muffins.’
Joseph thought about her muffins. ‘Yeah, I know.’
‘And, ah, we’re probably not talking the same kind of muffins.’
Joseph laughed. ‘We’d better not be. I wouldn’t need to kick your ass. Paige would have it all pre-kicked for me.’
He hung up and crept into Daphne’s room to get his briefcase. Once there, he couldn’t resist the urge to stand at her bedside and watch her, just for a moment. Or two. She slept deeply, her brow uncreased. She wasn’t dreaming, for now.
He made sure she was covered up and crept back into his own room, closing the adjoining door behind him, even though he really wanted to climb under the blanket with her. To hold her and . . . be happy.
He would. Once he made sure she was safe. He rummaged through his papers and found contact information for McManus and Kerr.
He got McManus’s voicemail, but Kerr answered. Turned out the Pittsburgh Fed had come to the same conclusions that Joseph had. Kerr had also put in a request for information on Agent Claudia Baker. Whoever got the info first would call the others.
With no more that could be done till morning, Joseph was ready to crawl back into bed with Daphne when he saw the big black dog still stretched across her door.
He grabbed her leash. ‘Tasha, let’s go outside.’ He hoped the dog remembered him – specifically he hoped the dog remembered that she liked him. When she didn’t take a bite out his hand, Joseph figured he was safe.
Out in the hall he tapped on Hector’s door. And blinked when Kate Coppola answered. ‘Don’t even think it,’ she warned. ‘We’re sharing out of necessity.’
Joseph looked over her shoulder to see Hector sprawled on the sofa, a can of cola in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other.
‘What necessity?’ Joseph asked.
‘Simone and Maggie had a fight. Simone wanted to get her own room, but the only vacancies were on other floors. I told Simone to take my room. Therefore, necessity.’
‘Why did they fight?’
‘I only caught the tail end of it, after Simone broke a music box.’
‘Why did she have one of those?’
‘I’m not sure, but I know I heard the melody last night when Simone had nightmares and Maggie tried to get her to go back to sleep. I’m guessing it’s a sleep aid.’
‘How did she break it? Tell me she didn’t throw it.’
‘No. She threw a pillow that knocked it off the dresser. I came in to find Simone snarling at Maggie who was trying to help her pick up the pieces. She said she’d had enough of Maggie’s help for a lifetime. I gathered that up to that point the fight was about Daphne. Simone said “betrayal”. A lot. That’s all I know.’
‘I can guess. Maggie’s known about Beckett, almost since the beginning.’
Kate winced. ‘And she didn’t tell Simone?’
‘Maggie was acting in a therapist role. Daphne made her promise not to tell. Daphne was afraid that if her mother knew, she’d go after Beckett.’
‘And then Beckett would kill her.’ Kate’s mouth bent sympathetically. ‘Finding out after all this time that Maggie knew would cause a rift. I’m staying out of that one.’
‘Wise. I actually knocked to see if Hector would keep an eye on Daphne while I walk the dog, but now that I’m standing here that pizza smells really good.’
‘You might as well come on in and join us,’ Hector called from the sofa. ‘We’re expensing it to your budget.’
Let’s see . . . eating a relaxed meal or crawling back under the covers with Daphne?
‘I’m beat. I think I’ll take a slice to eat while I walk the dog, then call it a night.’
Hector came to the door, a slice in his hand and a look of knowing amusement on his face. ‘I kind of thought you’d say that. Eat up, boss. You never know when you’ll need that sudden burst of energy.’
Kate bit back a smile and Joseph knew his jig was up.
‘Thanks,’ Joseph said, taking the slice with as much dignity as he could muster. ‘Status meeting in my room tomorrow morning at seven. Don’t be late. Goodnight.’
But when he got to the elevator, Joseph let himself grin.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Wheeling, West Virginia, Thursday, December 5, 1.45 A.M.
The screaming woke her up. On a sharp indrawn breath Daphne’s eyes flew open, her body going rigid in the bed. And she listened. To nothing.
Slowly she exhaled. Just the nightmare. She’d expected it. After everything that had happened yesterday, how could she not?
A strong arm curved around her waist, pulling her against a warm, hard body. Joseph. His hand slipped up under her nightshirt, cupping her breast gently but possessively.
‘I’m here,’ he murmured. ‘You’re safe.’
‘I know.’ Now. ‘It was just a dream.’
‘Same one you had last night?’
‘Yeah.’
He pressed his lips to the side of her neck, not kissing, just firm contact. ‘Tell me.’
‘It’s just screaming.’
‘Kelly?’
‘Sometimes. Sometime
s it’s me. I run and I run and I can’t breathe. And there’s a hole . . . in the floor. I always stop in time. But the hole is dark. I know something evil is there. And I back away from the hole. But he comes and pushes me in.’
His arm tightened around her. ‘And then?’
‘I wake up. I guess it’s not exactly subtle on the symbolism. I never scream out loud, at least not that I know of. I kept thinking I’d grow out of it, that I’d move past it, but I never have. I mean, it wasn’t like I even saw anything. I just heard it. But I can’t forget the screams. And the nightmare never goes away.’
He was quiet for a long time. Only the fine tension in his body told her he wasn’t asleep. ‘I know.’
His voice had gone hollow. Haunted.
Daphne turned in his arms, looked up into his face. His jaw was taut, his eyes open but unblinking. Staring straight ahead. At nothing at all.
‘Tell me,’ she murmured, laying her hand against his jaw. ‘What do you know?’
He blinked then, looking down at her, pain in his dark eyes. ‘I know what it’s like to hear the screams and not be able to make them stop.’
‘You heard Jo scream?’ she asked, very quietly.
He nodded. ‘They wanted a ransom. Thought my family needed incentive.’
Oh no, she thought, fearing what had made his wife scream. ‘What happened?’
He said nothing, rolling to his back and tucking her up against him. His fingers were in her hair, his palm cradling her head. She spread her hand over his heart and let him hold her, cocooned against him. And she waited.
‘She wanted a big wedding,’ he finally said. ‘I just wanted my ring on her finger. We were both still deployed, but her unit had been assigned to another ship. I guess I felt making it official would make it more real. So we compromised. We’d have a civil ceremony with a military chaplain, take leave for a short honeymoon, then do the big church wedding when we both got home.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘Paris. In the end it wouldn’t have mattered where we went. She’d been a target for a long time.’
‘Because she was a pilot?’
His chest moved in a single bitter huff. ‘Because she was mine. And I was rich. And so damn naïve I thought nobody knew it.’