Alana Candler, Marked for Murder (11 page)

Brad walked over to the front desk and watched the attendant finish his phone call. With spiked purple hair, three nose rings, and a lip ring, the kid in his late teens looked like some of their “customers”
in the city jail. When he hung up the receiver, the kid turned to Brad and raised his eyebrows.

“I need to speak to . . .” Brad checked the list of “friends” Martin gave him who were supposed to have attended the pool party the night Alana was attacked. “Scott Tinley.”

“He’s not here, dude. Can I help you?”

“What’s your name,
dude
?”

“Who wants to know?” The cocky headset irritated Brad. He leaned on the counter, stopping right in the kid’s face.

“Brad Candler. Landeville City Police Department.” Without changing his position or shifting his eyes away from the kid’s eyes, he pulled his badge out of his pocket and flipped it on the counter.

All the brashness of the young man disappeared. His body softened like a wet noodle.

“Hey, man. I didn’t do nothing wrong. I’m just minding my own business.”

“What’s your name?” The tone of his voice got louder and more pronounced.

“Jeff Lund.”

His name was at the bottom of the guest list.

“It says here you were at the party Mr. Tinley gave last week at his home on Bickford Road. Is that true?”

Jeff quickly glanced around. Brad could smell the fear in his attitude.

“Yeah, I was there.”

“Do you know a man named Martin Strands?”

Jeff glanced fearfully at the pool room door. Moisture appeared above his lip. “He owns this place.”

“Was he at the party?”

“Why do you need to know? Is he in trouble or something?”

“Answer the question.”

“Yeah, he was there.”

“Did he stay for the whole party, or did he leave early?”

“How am I supposed to know, man? I’m not his keeper.”

“What time did you see him there?”

“I got there right after basketball practice, about seven o’clock. He was there then. Didn’t see him again for an hour or so, then I saw him playing cards with several of the guys. After that, I can’t remember. But I wasn’t paying much attention. He could have been there the whole time, and I just missed him.”

“What kind of car does he drive?”

“Some kind of SUV. Green, maybe.”

Brad stared at him, trying to determine whether he was telling the truth or if he knew more than he was admitting, then leaned back and threw one of his cards on the counter. “If you remember anything else about him being at the party, call me.”

The kid nodded and looked at the card on the counter.

Brad slipped over to the pool room window and watched Martin leaning against the pool table, laughing with one of his friends. The hotel was only twenty minutes from Tinley’s house. Martin could have grabbed Alana, pushed her car in the lake, and returned to the party for an alibi.

Unfortunately, there was no way to prove it.

Breathing out a frustrated sigh, he left the bowling alley and headed back to the station to add Martin’s name to a suspect list. The list of suspects was a short list of one, and the list of clues were even shorter—none.

TWENTY

JAYDN STOOD PATIENTLY BEHIND ALANA
as she rang the doorbell again.

“I can’t believe this. I know they’re supposed to be home,” she said, spreading her arms out helplessly. “Brad told me Lisa would be home all day. I can’t imagine where they are.”

She took a key from her purse and stuck it into the lock.

Jaydn stepped into the small but comfortable living area and glanced around the room. “This is nice.” It smelled clean, cozy, and inviting. He took another deep breath and said with a satisfied nod, “It smells like home.”

Loneliness once again gripped his heart when he remembered the stark desolation of his house in Landeville. Closing his eyes helped him enjoy the pleasing smell of the friendly, inviting atmosphere.

“Thank you again for bringing me here, Mr. Holbrook,” Alana said. “I’m going to call Brad and make sure Lisa’s okay. Would you like a Coke or something before heading out?”

The invitation was given with genuine friendliness, but Jaydn noticed a slight hesitation in the tone of her voice. The fact she refused to look him in the eyes since their eyes linked at the office made him want to explore further.

“Maybe just a quick drink. It’s a ways to the apartment in Ross. And, please . . . call me Jaydn.”

Alana nodded shyly. “Okay, if you’ll call me Alana.”

“That’s a pretty name. I never heard your name that night at the hospital. Otherwise, I might have been able to connect the dots at the office before jumping to the wrong conclusion.”

Alana led the way through the dining room into the spacious kitchen and picked up the phone to dial Brad’s number. “I miss having a cell phone. Water damage ruined my old one.”

After waiting for the call to connect, she hung up the phone with a frown. “It went to voice-mail. I’ll try again later.” She shrugged and put her hand on the back of a dining chair. “Sit here and I’ll get you a drink. Is Coke okay?”

“That’d be great.”

A strong smell of cinnamon and sugar was in the air. Jaydn sat down at the table and picked up a small piece of paper propped against the flowers used as a centerpiece.

“Hey, you have a note here,” he said and handed Alana the white piece of paper with her name scribbled across the top.

Alana read the note and frowned.

“Problems?”

“My sister-in-law’s mother had an asthma attack. She went to Waring and won’t be back until later.”

“Didn’t you need to get back to Ross tonight?”

Alana shrugged. “I suppose I’ll have to wait. My brother’s handling all the paper work for my car, and I haven’t gotten the okay for a rental yet.”

“How about if I take you?”

A whole host of emotions traveled across Alana’s face: surprise, refusal, and . . . was that fear?

“No, I don’t think so,” she said with a quick shake of her head.

“Why not? It’s the perfect solution. I have some business in Ross for a couple of days, anyway. Why not let me drop you off at the same time?”

Alana sat down at the table and seemed to melt into the chair. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean . . . I already owe you so much. I can’t impose again. I wouldn’t feel right.”

Jaydn rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “Look, if the roles were reversed that night at the lake, wouldn’t you have done the same for me?”

When she smiled, he realized his words evoked a mental picture of her pulling his tall frame out the door of a small car in the lake and hauling him to safety.

“I guess that would have been impossible, wouldn’t it?”

She nodded.

“Seriously, I mean it though. Let me take you home. I have access to a small apartment in Ross where I’ll be staying for a couple of nights until I finish the business for my company. Then when I’m ready to leave, if you need a ride back here to see about your car, I’ll bring you back.”

Jaydn could tell she was torn—she needed to get to Ross to see about her apartment, but for some reason she held back. Finally, she relented. “Well . . . I guess so. I really need to get home as soon as I can, and my brother must still be at work. I’m not sure when he’d be able to take me.”

“Great! Let me run home and grab some clothes. I’ll be back here to pick you up in about an hour. That sound okay?”

She searched his expression—trying to see deep into his intentions. “Okay. I’ll try to get in touch with Brad and let him know where I am.”

TWENTY-ONE

EXACTLY AN HOUR AFTER JAYDN
left Alana at Brad’s house, he picked her up and carried her bag to the back of the car to stow it in the trunk.

Alana leaned back on the tan leather seat and tried to relax. Spending four hours in a tight space with a handsome hero whose eyes were a beautiful shade of cobalt blue was not something she looked forward to.

“Did you get Brad on the phone?” he asked as he got back into the car.

“No.” She chewed her bottom lip. “It went straight to voice-mail again. Maybe he went with Lisa to take care of the kids and had to turn his phone off in the hospital. I left him a message telling him that I caught a ride to Ross and I’d talk to him tomorrow.”

She leaned back in the plush leather seats and glanced at the luxury features.

“Nice car.”

“Thanks. It belongs to my company, but it’s available to any employee making trips for company business.”

“I see.” The silence grew until Alana felt uncomfortable. A long sigh told her Jaydn must have felt the tension as well, and finally he started the conversation. “So, how long have you been a secretary?”

“Well, actually, I’m not. I worked as a secretary for three years but hated it.”

“Because of what happened today?”

She cast a sidelong glance at him. His face wore an innocent expression. His eyes were on the road. Alana surmised there was no hidden meaning in his words. She was glad to know he wasn’t trying to make her feel inadequate as a secretary—just trying to make conversation.

“No. Not really. I got tired of taking orders from wealthy stuffed shirts who had nothing better to do than bark orders at a poor secretary all day and expect everyone who didn’t have as much money as they did to indulge their every whim.”

He had the audacity to laugh. She glared at him in surprise but then blushed as she realized how pointed her tirade sounded. At least he didn’t seem to have taken it personally. “Sorry. I guess old bones resurface sometimes. It’s just that in my experience, I’ve found most rich men are arrogant and demanding—nothing but tyrants in suits.”

Jaydn was quiet for a while after her statement. Alana wondered why he seemed disappointed. Maybe he was thinking the same thing about his boss. When he put his thoughts aside and turned to her with a smile, the tone of his voice emphasized the words he spoke.

“You really are a good secretary, you know. The mistakes you made today were because you’re not familiar with the way I do things—not because you were incompetent. Your skills as a secretary were remarkable.”

She glanced at him to make sure he wasn’t pulling her leg, and when she was convinced he was sincere, she smiled.

“High praise, indeed!” she said with feeling.

Relaxing a little more, she sat back in the seat and took a deep breath.

“So what do you do now?” he asked to keep the conversation going.

She laughed. “Well, after I left the secretarial field, I worked for a while as a crime scene photographer for the Bishop City Police Department.”

“Crime scenes, huh? Did you enjoy it, or was it just a job?”

“It was a little boring, but I enjoyed it most of the time. It was mainly taking pictures of minor crimes . . . burglary . . . vandalism. Not many murders in the small town of Bishop. I think they only had one in ten years, and that was before my time.”

“It does sound a little mundane.”

She shrugged. “It was a job. And, I was able to do what I loved—taking pictures. I’ve taken several courses in advanced photography and used to develop all my own film . . . until everything went digital.”

“That’s interesting. So, why’d you leave that job?”

“It was time to leave.” The inflections in her voice did not change, but something in her voice must have given away her reasons for quitting because his next question was right on the money.

“I bet you gave it up because of another ‘wealthy, stuffed shirt,’ didn’t you?”

“How’d you guess?”

He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Something in your voice.”

His uncanny ability to read her mind and emotions was jolting. She was always able to keep her thoughts private and not share them with a soul unless she felt it necessary. This man sitting beside her could read her thoughts through the inflections of her voice, and it unnerved her.

She sat back in the seat, determined to give nothing else away. She wasn’t ready to share with him the violent way her courtship with one of the officers at Bishop had ended. Neither was she ready to explain her other broken relationship—especially when it revealed her weakness for making poor choices. The words that came out of her controlled lips were light and unfeeling.

“Yeah, I decided I didn’t like dating someone in the law enforcement field in the first place—too stressful.”

The silence that filled the car told her he surmised more than she wanted him to about the situation, but he let the matter drop.

“A photographer, huh? Are you any good?”

“I won second place in the National Geographic Contest last year.”

He whistled. “Wow! That’s impressive!”

“Thanks. Only now, I’ve lost the only camera I had that was worth anything. It was ruined in the car when it sank in the lake. I kept it with me all the time. Taking pictures is calming and somehow keeps me from being lonely.”