Fatal Chocolate Obsession (Death by Chocolate Book 5) (19 page)

“Is he dead?” Trent pressed me tightly against him. I chose to believe it was because he was worried about me, not because he didn’t want a murder suspect to escape.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I gave him a couple of pills.”

“A couple?”

“A few.” That was all I was going to admit without talking to my lawyer.

Fred pressed his fingers to Brandon’s neck. “He has a pulse. Slow but strong. What kind of pills did you give him?”

“The ones in the bathroom that said they might make him drowsy.”

“How many did you give him?” Trent asked.

I watched the slow rise and fall of Brandon’s chest and touched my swollen eye, wiggled my loose tooth. I thought of Bob lying dead in the alley, of Ginger with blood in her hair, of Tina’s motherless children. “Not enough.”

Fred lifted each of Brandon’s eyelids and studied his pupils then stood and focused on my face. “Did he do that to you?”

I nodded.

“Trent, you should probably call an ambulance for this guy, but I wouldn’t be in any great hurry. I’ll get the prescription bottle from the bathroom.”

He left the room. Trent released me and took out his cell phone.

“Did somebody order a pizza?” From the tentative sound of the boy’s voice, I assumed he didn’t normally deliver pizzas to homes with the front door broken down.

“Yes,” I said. I inhaled the spicy, yeasty smell of the pizza and realized, now that my stomach was no longer clenched into a solid chunk of granite, I was hungry. “Let me get my purse.” I took one step toward the coffee table and stopped. My bloody purse still covered my wallet. “Oh.” I turned back to Trent. “I…uh…could you pay for the pizza?”

“Sure.” He gave me a strange look, took his wallet from his pocket and handed the boy some bills. The boy handed him the pizza and left. “Are you planning to eat this now?”

I stood on one foot then the other. “Yes. No. I was. My purse…Grady Mathis is in the garage. Well, his body is.”

Fred strode back into the room with an empty prescription bottle. “This must be what you gave him. He’ll sleep for a while, but he’s not likely to die.” His gaze dropped to the box Trent held. “Is pizza standard for rescue operations?”

Trent handed me the box. “I think we’ve finally found Grady Mathis.”

I pointed Trent to the garage door. Fred followed. Brandon snored.

I set the pizza in the kitchen, walked to the open door and peered into the garage.

Fred stood a couple of feet away from the body, observing, being a law-abiding citizen and not disturbing the crime scene. That probably irritated him to no end.

Trent stood next to the body with his phone pressed to his ear. “I need two ambulances and the crime scene techs. I’ve got a dead body, an overdose, and a victim who’s been beaten.”

A victim who’s been beaten? A victim?
And just when I was ready to forgive him for being a cop.

“You did not just call for an ambulance for me,” I said.

“Have you looked at yourself in a mirror lately?”

“I’m fine. I’m not a victim and I’m not going to any stinking hospital.”

Fred stepped forward. “In fairness to Lindsay, most hospitals do smell like antiseptic. But you should go anyway. Tina’s been asking for you.”

“
Tina?
Tina’s alive?”

“No thanks to the man asleep in the living room.” Trent jerked his head in Brandon’s direction. “He followed your car to the park—”

I flinched. “Yeah, he put a tracker on it when I took it to his body shop. He was obsessed with me. When he found Tina sitting in my car, holding the butterfly, he thought she’d stolen them both from me. He thought he killed her.”

Trent nodded. “He beat the crap out of her and left her for dead, but she fooled him. Said she’d done it with Ken so many times, she knew how to curl in a ball and protect herself. As soon as he left, she called 911 and when they got there, she demanded to speak to me. She’s the reason we found you.”

“Brandon told her who he was?”

“No. I took a picture of Grady to the hospital and showed it to her. I knew you were in trouble when a man answered your phone and wouldn’t let me speak to you, but I thought it was Grady. That temporary phone didn’t have GPS, so we weren’t sure where you were. Fred was going to try the shop and I was going to come here. Then I got Tina’s call. She recognized Grady’s picture but said he wasn’t her attacker, that she thought it was the man’s son. We came straight here.”

“I’m so glad she’s okay. I thought he killed her. What about the kids? Are they all right?” I felt certain they were. It would take more than a psycho killer to take those kids down. “Does Ken have them?”

Trent shook his head. “She won’t tell us where her boys are. Says they’re safe and Ken’s not going to get them. He’s been at the hospital, making a scene, demanding to see her and demanding to have his kids.”

I had a horrible feeling I knew where those kids were. My house was easy walking distance from that park. Running distance for three hyperactive boys. “I’ve got to get home. By the way, Brandon killed Ginger and Bob and tried to kill Rick.”

I started back into the house but Trent grabbed my shoulder. “You can’t go anywhere. You’re a witness to…” He waved a hand toward my face. “Whatever Brandon did to you. What you did to him. And you can’t drop a bomb like accusing Brandon of killing two people and trying to kill another then just walk out.”

I sighed and gave up. Not because Trent told me I couldn’t leave but because I didn’t have my car. “Can I eat the pizza, or is that evidence too?”

Trent lifted his hands in resignation. “Go ahead and eat the pizza. Just don’t disturb anything.”

I heard sirens in the distance.

“I need to go somewhere.” Fred brushed past me, heading for the front door.

Of course he was leaving. Authorities were on their way. He wouldn’t want to be seen by the cops. They might recognize him from the
Most Wanted
posters. Or his presence might compromise his black ops mission. “Aren’t you going to stop him from leaving?” I demanded.

“No. He doesn’t have to be here.”

“You know, don’t you?” They’d spent the day together, done all that male bonding, and now Trent knew who Fred really was and I didn’t.

Trent frowned. “I know what? You really do need to go to the hospital and let the doctors check you for a concussion. You can come to the station tomorrow and give your statement.”

I opened the pizza box and lifted out a piece. The sirens were getting closer. I’d better eat fast. Hospital food is awful, and they frown on pizza deliveries.

***

I did not have a concussion, just two black eyes, a split lip and that loose tooth which the doctor said would probably heal on its own if I quit wiggling it. They wanted to keep me overnight for observation, but after being stalked by Brandon, I’d had enough observation.

When the doctor finished poking and prodding, I escaped and found my way to Tina’s room.

She lay in the stark hospital bed with an IV connected to one arm. Bruises covered everything that wasn’t covered by the sheet. I suspected there were plenty more beneath the sheet.

She smiled when I walked in. “You look almost as bad as I do.”

I sat down in an uncomfortable chair beside her bed. “That getting knocked around isn’t as much fun as it sounds.”

“Definitely not. I’ve had my fill of it. When I get out of here, I’m going to take Ken to court and make sure he never hurts me or my kids again.”

“Where is he? I heard he was harassing you.”

“He was until that neighbor of yours, the one with white hair, took him aside and talked to him. Then he left and hasn’t been back.”

Maybe Fred hadn’t been running from the cops after all. Maybe he’d come to the hospital to do an intervention with Ken. “What did Fred say to him?”

“I have no idea. Ken was sitting in that chair where you’re sitting now. The security guards had already warned him if he didn’t stop yelling and threatening me, he’d have to leave. So he was sitting there quietly, leaning close, muttering threats, when Fred came in. He grabbed Ken by the back of his T-shirt and pulled him up. Ken’s face got red, and he started swinging. Fred grabbed his arms and whispered something in his ear. Ken went white, Fred wrapped his arm around Ken’s shoulders, and they left the room. That’s the last I saw of either of them.”

Another Fred mystery.

The mystery man appeared in the doorway. “I thought you might need a ride home.”

“I do, and I also need to know what you said to Ken.”

He settled his lanky frame into the chair on the opposite side of Tina’s bed. “I told him about the camera I planted in his bedroom. You know how awful it is to feel that somebody’s been watching you.”

“I do, but you said you couldn’t use the video as evidence since it would be invasion of privacy.”

“That’s true. Ken and I had a long chat and I explained some things to him. He won’t be bothering Tina or the kids anymore. He’ll sign the divorce papers, pay a decent amount of child support and give her full custody. Are you ready to go home, Lindsay? Paula and Sophie have been worried about you. Sophie’s got a bottle of wine chilling and Zach saved you one of the brownies Paula brought home.”

“Is my house still standing?”

“One side’s on the ground, but the rest is intact.”

Tina tried to sit up in bed, a panic-stricken look on her face. “The boys—”

“He’s kidding,” I assured her.

“I told them to go to…” She looked at Fred.

“He can read minds. He probably already knows the boys are in my house.”

Fred nodded. “Lindsay needs a new sofa, but the boys are fine. Paula and Sophie are with them, and they have everything under control.”

Oh dear. That meant Zach would get another lesson in being wild and Paula would have to give him a gallon of milk to calm him down. Maybe even some Benadryl syrup.

Tina relaxed onto her pillow. “I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t let Ken get them. Thank you for whatever you did to him.”

“Threatened him, brainwashed him, hypnotized him, did a Vulcan mind meld on him,” I said. “Fred never tortures and tells.”

“Hello, Lindsay.” Rick’s new girlfriend came into the room. This time she wore street clothes—slacks and a silk blouse. Must be off duty.

“Hi, Robin.” I introduced everybody. “Did you hear they have the guy who beat up Rick?”

“I did. I was with him when the police came in to talk to him. I also heard about your ordeal. Are you okay?”

“Oh, sure. My friends are planning a welcome home party. Wine and chocolate. I’ll soon be good as new.”

“Good friends, chocolate and wine. They all have healing properties.”

I turned to Fred. It was time for some answers. “Speaking of my friends, Sophie’s been at your house a lot here lately.”

He nodded. “She has. I guess I might as well tell you.”

“Uh, yeah!” I sat forward, anticipating.

“She didn’t want anyone to know.”

“Why not? You’re both adults.”

“She was afraid you’d think less of her.”

“You cannot be serious.”

“You always seem so fearless. She didn’t want to admit she’s afraid.”

Somehow the conversation had gone completely off the tracks. “Afraid?”

“After Jay Jamison broke into her house. I think it’s perfectly normal for her to be fearful. I’m teaching her Karate.”

“You’re…teaching…her…Karate?”

“Yes. What did you think?”

He knew exactly what I’d thought.

“I thought you were teaching her Karate, of course. And you need to teach me too.”

“Okay.”

“You need to teach me self-defense and Trent needs to get me a gun and teach me to shoot.”

“Trent is not going to get you a gun.” The man himself stepped into the room. Apparently someone had put up a big neon sign in the hospital lobby,
Party in Room 207.

I rose and went to him.

He pulled me gently into his arms. “I’ve still got a lot of paperwork to do. I don’t know when I’ll be finished, so I don’t know when I’ll get to your house. I just wanted to be sure you’re okay. The doctor said you refused to spend the night here.”

“I’ll take her home,” Fred said.

“I’ll go to her house and check on her later,” Robin offered. How on earth did Rick ever catch the interest of this woman?

I tugged on Trent’s hand. “I need to talk to you in the hallway.”

“Okay.” He followed me out.

I waited as a nurse walked past us then I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips to his ear. “You can’t come to my house tonight,” I whispered.

“I can and I will.”

“No, the kids are there!”

“Tina’s kids?”

“Yes. She had to keep them safe from Ken.”

“I figured that was where she sent them. But I’m coming anyway. You shouldn’t be alone tonight.” He held me away from him and looked into my eyes. “I’ll sleep on the sofa.”