Beautiful Triad (20 page)

Shit, this was sucking him in. He could feel it, feel the energy of a growing obsession. It was great for creativity, like high octane fuel for his muse.

He drank the rest of his scotch, set the glass down without a coaster on the expensive mahogany side library table Regina had spent some ridiculous amount on in England when she’d dragged him to Europe two years ago, and opened the deck doors. He winced at the muggy air that closed around him like a clenched fist.

The deck was private enough, surrounded by trees, but he could see the lake.

The water gleamed a deep sapphire, the day a little hazy due to the humidity.

The water.

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He couldn’t help but think about it more and more.

* * * *

Lazy Thursday afternoons were his favorite, Drew decided. Wait, lazy, Thursday summer afternoons on vacation were the best; the ones when there was nothing to do but swim, read or take a nap…

He leaned over and traced a line along the edge of Lauren’s bikini top. The warm curve of her breast under his fingertip was tantalizing, making his cock swell predictably.

“Wanna fool around?”

“You’re so original, Drew.” She reached up and removed his hand by grasping his wrist and setting it on his own lap.

“Hey, that was an honest to God suggestion.”

“With you it always is, but we’re currently in a public place.” She stretched on her towel on the dock, and those tempting breasts gave a small very delicious jiggle. “No fondling outside. New rule.”

Undeterred, he reached back and this time lightly circled her navel. The muscles in her stomach tightened a fraction. “Can I do this? There isn’t anyone around, babe.”

She peered at him from under the fringe of her lashes. “You’re the one who told me you thought Ben Heaton was watching you with a telescope. Let’s not give him a show, please. This morning was bad enough.”

He lifted his hand. Sitting cross-legged next to her, he glanced up at the outline of the roof of the Heaton cabin. “I’m kind of surprised you agreed to talk to him.”

“I am too. Believe me, I’m not—”

She broke off and half sat up, a frown creasing her brow. Drew glanced up to see Rob walk out on the dock to join them, the can of soda he’d gone up to the house to get nowhere in sight, instead his cell in his hand. It was clear from his expression something was up and he actually looked a little pale under his tan.

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Rob held out the phone like exhibit A. “I got a message from one of the partners in Karen’s firm so I called the guy back. Apparently there’s some sort of emergency with that case she thought was wrapped up and they can’t get a hold of her. He managed to get my number because one of her colleagues knows where I work and he convinced my office this was important enough to bother me. She isn’t at home, and she isn’t answering her cell phone, either.”

The warmth of the sun didn’t faze the sudden chill Drew felt and Lauren made a small inarticulate sound of dismay. She murmured,

“She left early…she should have been back in Indy by mid-afternoon yesterday at the latest.”

Rob said grimly, “I know.”

“Look, let’s not jump to any bad conclusions here.” Drew tried to sound reasonable. “She thought she was going on vacation and she was not a happy camper with how it turned out, either. Who’s to say she didn’t decide not to go back home. Maybe she’s in Nashville, staying at a nice hotel, thinking about things. Maybe she decided to go visit a friend instead of running back to work. Her cell might not have a signal. There can be a lot of things to explain why they can’t get a hold of her from work.”

“Her mother can’t, either. After the office called and left dozens of messages, they contacted her. Besides, please tell me you remember how she never turned that damned phone off and seriously lived and breathed her job. We’d go out to dinner and she’d answer it a dozen times.” Rob raked his fingers through his dark hair. “She also has a beeper. She had it clipped to the pocket of her shorts night before last, so I know she brought that, too.”

Lauren scrambled to her feet and wrapped her arms around her chest as if she was cold, which was impossible since it was almost ninety degrees. “How soon before you report a person missing? I mean, if she hasn’t shown up; it’s been a day and a half.”

“I don’t know.” Rob shook his head, looking tense and indecisive.

“It’s possible Drew is right, in which case Karen—who isn’t my Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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biggest fan right now—wouldn’t appreciate me causing a big stir. On the other hand, I do think it is out of character for her to not return phone calls and there is another woman missing from right here.

We’re talking right next door.”

Lauren shivered and her eyes looked dark. “I think we should call the sheriff. If Karen did change her plans and is mad when they track her down, well that would be just too bad. How could she blame you for caring enough to be concerned?”

“She said she was going back to work, now that I think about it,”

Rob said in a taut voice. “Shit. She said she thought she could get in some hours yesterday afternoon once she got back. She just never went in.”

“It’s still possible she changed her mind.”

“Come on…none of us think so.”

Drew had to agree there. “Okay, I concede that one. Look, maybe you should call, Rob.”

“I have that deputy’s card up at the house,” Lauren said.

“Okay.” Rob looked somber. “Jesus, I feel guilty and I have no idea why, other than she drove down here to see me.”

“We don’t know anything bad has happened.” Drew hated the stricken expression on Lauren’s face also, and suspected had some pretty interesting emotions because Rob had essentially severed the relationship because of her. He added, “Look, we’ll go up and report her as a possible missing person and let the police handle this, okay?

No one needs to feel guilty about anything yet. Karen is probably having a massage somewhere and a pedicure scheduled for later.”

“I hope you’re right, Drew.” Rob gave him a somber look.

He sure as hell hoped so too. One thing was for certain, he decided, Lauren wasn’t going to be left alone for a minute. Maybe they should even pack up and go on home. Drew got to his feet and offered Lauren his hand.

They walked up to the house and Lauren went to change out of her suit, the sense of contentment obviously gone from the warm Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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afternoon for all three of them. Drew listened as Rob explained the situation to the deputy’s voice mail and rung off.

“Regina Heaton’s purse was found in Georgia,” he remarked, thinking out loud. Heaton had told them the latest on the case, which wasn’t much, but her purse had apparently been found sans cash but with credit cards in some state park.

“Quite a commute if some local wacko is responsible.” Rob paced across the room, went to the refrigerator and opened it, staring inside as if he had no idea why he’d done it, and then shut it without taking out a thing. “Abduct someone here and take her to Georgia? Besides, they haven’t found her or anything.”

“And would the guy come back to get someone else? You’re right, nope. It doesn’t fit. Karen is probably fine, Rob.”

“I sure as hell hope so.”

Rob’s cell rang and he flipped it open, looked at the number, and put it to his ear. “Deputy Kendall?”

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The delayed flight from D.C. to Tennessee and then fooling around with a rental car had been all irritating, but this made it worth while. Very.

Ken Marzetti actually been there, getting what little details the county sheriff’s office had over Regina Heaton’s disappearance, when the call had come in. Not reported to the office, but straight to one of the deputies’ cell phones.

Like hitting a vein of gold.

Well, not quite. Maybe more like knowing the gold is there, if you just dug around in the right place to find it.

“Fletcher and Hanson said they thought they heard a scream the night Mrs. Heaton allegedly disappeared and now they’ve reported someone else missing. Should we check them out? Kendall says they seem like just a couple of young yuppies from Indiana and one of them has a girlfriend there, too. She didn’t claim to hear the supposed scream but she’s the one who saw the guy take out the boat. I’m going to guess she can alibi them.”

Ken took a sip of tepid coffee, ignored the bitter taste, and then set the cup aside. “I think we should check everyone out, but I doubt they’re involved. So all we have in the Regina Heaton case is her car—no obvious signs of a struggle there, luggage intact—her purse in Georgia somewhere, and Dr. Heaton’s word for it he didn’t arrive until two days later?”

The sheriff, who looked exactly like a caricature of a country law enforcement officer in Ken’s mind, stroked the patch of gray hair on his chin. “Miss Hanes says she saw someone take out the boat. No Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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evidence it even happened, but I can’t think of a reason she’d make it up, and she gave us a pretty good description. Whoever he was, it wasn’t Heaton, that’s for sure, and the person Lauren Hanes saw could have had permission to use it from Mrs. Heaton for all we know. He had to have had access to the house somehow to get the opener for the boathouse.”

Ken wrote down in his notebook:
Boat. Blond man, big nose.

Purse taken and left in Georgia. Suitcase in car. House locked when
he got there according to Heaton. No signs of a struggle
.

Underneath he added:
possible missing second woman
. “Did you check out Heaton’s story for the night his wife left Louisville and the day that followed?”

The other man nodded. “The day they found her purse I made a few calls and his claim he went to dinner with a friend is easy enough to substantiate. It’s there in the report, some graduate student at the university. Says he then went home, and the next day worked on his new book in the morning, and then had a meeting with a contractor for some work he wants done on the house in the afternoon. I called the contractor and the student and they both say it’s true.”

“But there
is
an unaccounted for block of time in the morning.”

“Says he was at home, writing.”

“Kind of hard to back up unless someone saw him take in the newspaper or something.” Ken rubbed his chin and stared at a set of very dusty Venetian blinds, closed to block the late afternoon sun from making the room a sauna. It wasn’t working all that well. The air conditioning seemed to be out of order and he was sweating under his suit jacket.

Barker looked oblivious or maybe he was just so used to the heat he didn’t care anymore. “I suppose so, but by all claims, including her mother’s, Regina Heaton left for their summer place down here late Friday afternoon. She called a friend from her cell when she was on the road, so we know she did. It’s a four hour drive from Louisville.

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for dinner. That’s eight to nine hours round trip. If he’d come later or the next morning, why didn’t she take in her suitcase? Besides, she’d already stopped answering her phone. Seems to me the most likely scenario—unless the lady is AWOL on purpose—is that whoever abducted her was either waited and nabbed her the minute she stepped out of the car, or followed her right up the driveway.”

Both were plausible, but Ken could feel the conviction he had over Heaton being involved like it was a physical touch. Maybe Gonzales had a point, he had it in for the professor in some ways. He didn’t like Heaton. He despised and distrusted the facile alibis for the first two murders…if they were even his first two. The guy was in his fifties. Serial killers usually started younger and tapered off later in life if they didn’t get caught, but anything was possible when dealing with a wacko who decided killing for sport to be an engaging hobby.

He always puts them in the water
.

All right. Well, that was an assumption, but it was also a common denominator to the case of the senator’s daughter and poor sleepless Virginia Marcum. They both talked to Heaton for research for his books. They both ended up dead. In the water.

But, still, no physical evidence at all.

“I realize your jurisdiction usurps mine, and that’s fine.” Barker gave him a keen look from beneath bushy brows. “I’ve never worked with the FBI, and I admit all the protocol is going to be your domain, Agent Marzetti. If we can help, let us know. However, we’re short-staffed because this is a rural area and there still is no evidence of a clear crime. Dr. Heaton is apparently a suspect in your mind, but you aren’t exactly being forthcoming about why either.”

“It involves two other cases,” Ken admitted in a bland tone.

“Obviously, we couldn’t nail him on those or he wouldn’t still be walking around. Let’s see if we can get him on this one. I’ll go have a conversation with the eyewitness and then I’m off to talk to the sister, the one that apparently is more than willing to tell why she thinks he’s an asshole capable of making his wife drop off the face of the earth.

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