Mad Love: Madison (14 page)

He paused for a second. “Did he have any
enemies?”

Madison threw her hands up. “I have no idea. He
never mentioned any but he was a detective and before that a police officer.
I’m sure he made several people angry during his career.”

“Did he mention anyone in particular before he
disappeared?”

“Disappeared?” She frowned. “He retired. He
didn’t disappear.”

Ethan crossed his arms. “After I spoke to you on
the phone, I did a little digging on your friend Quincy. It appears he cut ties
with everyone he knows on or around August ninth.” He held up a finger. “Not
personally. All of it was done by email, but as near as I could tell, he gave all
his friends a version of the same story with some slight changes.”

“August ninth?” She bit her lip. “I think that’s
when he sent Nicole an email saying he was retiring and moving to Florida.”

His brow furrowed. “And no one seemed to think
that was strange? That he just picked up and left without another word?”

“Not really. His wife died a year before and he
was still having a hard time adjusting to life without her.”

“Did he ever mention anything to you about winning
the lottery?”

She leaned back in surprise. “No, why? Do you
think he won some money?”

“I went to Quincy’s last known address and spoke
to his landlord. According to him, Quincy sent an email on August ninth telling
him that he won two million in a lottery and was moving to Florida. Told the
guy that he could sell his stuff or throw it out, but that he didn’t want it, so
the landlord chucked all of Quincy’s stuff—at least the items he couldn’t sell into
the trash.”

“Why would Quincy be in such a hurry to leave?”

“I don’t know, but just as I was about to leave, I
ran into one of Quincy’s neighbors. Nice guy. He said Quincy was a good friend
of his so he saved some of Quincy’s things just in case Quincy came back to
collect them. He showed me some of the stuff he pulled from the trash. He had Quincy’s
baby pictures, Quincy’s wedding album, his parent’s wedding album, stock
certificates, medals from his stint in the army, medals from his father’s stint
in the army, old family photos dating back to the late eighteen hundreds, love
letters from his wife and his desk calendar.”

“Quincy wouldn’t have abandoned those things, especially
not the love letters. He adored his wife.”

“Yeah, Sam didn’t think so either, but didn’t
know what else to do, so he just boxed it all up and put it away.” He frowned.
“I think something may have happened to Quincy.”

Madison felt a lump form in her throat. “Can you
find out what he was working on last? Maybe that could explain—”

“I already did. I checked his appointment book and
the only thing he had going on that week was an appointment at the Oak Tree
Retirement Village on August eighth, but I don’t think it’s connected to his
disappearance.”

“Well, wait, what was he doing there?”

“He had a client consultation with a Mrs. Rose
Andrews.”

“Have you been able to find out what it was
about?”

“Yeah, it’s a dead end though. She told me that
she wanted Quincy to find out what happened to Arthur Jackson Sloan.”

“Who’s he?”

“Her father. He died in France about 1917 when
Mrs. Andrews was a baby.”

“Making her about…?”

“Ninety-seven years old. She’s partially blind
and in a wheelchair, but her mind is still as sharp as a tack. She’s convinced
the army shipped her mother the wrong body after the war. She went as far as to
have her dad’s body exhumed from the family crypt a few years ago. Got a good
enough DNA sample to prove that she had been right all along. The guy in the
crypt wasn’t her father. She said that she gave Quincy some jewelry and papers
the army had sent to her mother along with the so-called imposter’s body. She
was hoping they might lead Quincy to her real father’s grave. Quincy said sure,
no problem, and that he’d be in touch. He called her son, set up a meeting for
that afternoon, and then promptly disappeared. Neither Rose nor the son ever
heard from him again.”

She furrowed her brow as she crossed her arms. “Do
you think that someone out there doesn’t want her to find her real dad’s body
or something?”

“No,” he said shaking his head, “not at all. I’m
almost a hundred percent sure his disappearance has anything to do with Rose or
her father.”

“Why not? If he disappeared only a few hours
after taking the case, then it seems like there might be a connection.”

“I spoke to two of her sons this morning. They
both told me that it was a well-known family secret that their grandmother had
found comfort with the family doctor while her husband was overseas. They showed
me a picture of the doctor and another one of Rose when she was young. Rose
definitely inherited some of the doctor’s features and her oldest son happens
to be the spitting image of the good ole doctor. One of the guys said he told Quincy
that when he spoke to him on the phone an hour after Quincy met with Mrs.
Andrews. Quincy was supposed to go right over to take a look at the picture he had
of the doctor, but he said Quincy never showed. There’s really no mystery here.
Rose just refuses to believe that the doctor was her real father. She’s
convinced the government sent the wrong body home and that the real A. J. Sloan
is buried in someone else’s grave.”

Madison stepped back and sat down in the chair
next to the couch. She didn’t think Quincy was a thief but she had to ask. “You
said that Quincy came into some money before he took off?”

“That’s what he told his landlord in the email he
sent him.”

“Was the jewelry Rose gave him expensive?”

The corner of his mouth lifted up in amusement.
“That’s what I asked too. Both Mrs. Anderson and her two sons said no. Except
for a cheap silver wedding band, most of the jewelry was badly damaged in the
war.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I, but from what I’ve learned about Quincy,
he doesn’t seem the type to take an old lady’s case and then take off. He also
doesn’t seem to be the type to call you up out of the blue two months later and
try to scare you.”

“No, but…that was his voice over the phone. I’m
almost positive.” She raised her eyebrows. “So, what do we do now?”

“We file a missing person’s report. Get the
police to look for him. In the meantime, I’ll go through his old appointments. Perhaps,
I’ll uncover something there.”

She looked up. “You might check the news station
for any information. They flashed his picture up on the screen the other
night.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. By the time the bartender turned
up the volume, the news anchor was focused on some old abandoned building on
the outskirts of town.”

“Okay, I’ll look into it.”

She closed her eyes and tried to take a calming
breath. “Ethan, I’m starting to get scared,” she said, her voice choking up at
the end. “I didn’t want to say anything today. I thought it could wait until tomorrow,
but I think I may be in trouble. I think someone’s been in my apartment. When I
came home last night, I found the window wide open. I didn’t open it and
neither did Sarah.”

Ethan took her hand in his. “Did you call the
police?”

“Yeah, they came out and took a report. You
should have seen their faces when I told them that nothing was missing. I felt
like a fool.”

“Don’t think that way. Did you tell them about
Paul?”

“Yes, but I had no proof it was Paul that had
broken in. I couldn’t even prove that someone had broken in. They didn’t even
find any damage to the locks.” She stood up and walked toward the fireplace.
“Yesterday, someone was following me in the mall.”

His brow furrowed. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” she said with a small laugh. “I
accidently knocked into this guy in a Santa suit and he stared at me.” Her
laugh grew strained as she ran her hand down her face. “I told that to the
police too. They think I’m nuts. All the guy did was stare at me. He didn’t
hurt me, but I was convinced he wanted to. He was just acting so strange.”

“Madison, come here,” he said sliding off the arm
of the couch and sitting down. He held out his hand, pulling her toward him as
she came closer.

“Ethan, I’m jumping at shadows,” she said falling
into his embrace. “I can’t seem to shake this feeling that I’m in danger.
Little things keep happening. By themselves, they don’t mean anything, but when
you add them up…” She leaned back, curling up next to him. “Sometimes at night,
I would hear someone moving around in the apartment and the next morning, I
would get up and things would be moved. Nothing big. A vase would be missing
and I’d find it in the kitchen cabinet. The plant on the windowsill next to the
bookshelves would be moved to the other window. Just little things. I just
assumed it was Sarah, but when I asked her, she denied it. I didn’t…” She
pursed her lips together. “I didn’t believe her.” She made a fist. “But now, these
things are happening more and more and now I’m getting weird phone calls from someone
I thought was a friend. Between Paul and these creepy calls, I don’t know what
to do.”

“When did you first notice something strange
happening?”

“I don’t know. Six months ago, I guess. Shortly
after Sarah came to live with me. That’s why I thought it was her.” Feeling
ashamed at having suspected her own sister, her eyes began to water. “I know
Sarah would never do anything intentionally to annoy or bother me,” she said
rushing to explain why she suspected her sister. “It’s just that she went
through something traumatic when she was living in New York and I thought that
perhaps she just wasn’t aware of what she was doing, but now I’m starting to
wonder if it was someone else.”

When tears began to roll down her cheeks, he
wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, laying her head on his chest. He
ran his hand down her hair, lightly stroking it. “Other than your sister coming
to live with you, what else was going on around that time?”

“Nothing really.” She paused as she thought back
to the summer. “Someone broke into my home, but it happened a couple of weeks
before Sarah moved in.” She laid her hand against his chest and pushed herself
up so she could look him in the eye. “In fact, someone broke into Quincy’s
place a week later.”

“Did they catch the guy?”

She shook her head before cuddling up against him
again.

“Any suspects?”

“No, but Vanessa Harris had just came to see me
about divorcing her husband.”

His hand stilled against her hair. “That’s
interesting. What connection does Quincy have with Paul?”

She raised her head again. “Eight months ago,
Vanessa Harris got the idea that her husband was cheating on her, so she hired
Quincy to find out if she was right. He discovered that Paul was sleeping with
a nineteen year old college student who babysat their kids once in a while and
that jewelry that she thought she had lost—jewelry that she inherited from her
mother, mind you—he had given to the nineteen year old. Vanessa tossed him out
on his rear and came to see me to begin divorce proceedings.”

“Did you suspect him at the time?”

She shook her head. “No, not at all. I had barely
started the divorce proceedings when Vanessa changed her mind and decided to
give counseling a try. I didn’t reopen the file until a couple of months ago
when Vanessa found Paul in bed with her best friend.”

“So, Paul has a reason to hate you and Quincy.”

“What if he has Quincy hidden away somewhere? What
if he’s forcing him make these phone calls? You should hear his voice. It
sounds like he’s in pain.”

Ethan looked thoughtful. “Quincy’s been missing
for five months now. I can’t believe Paul’s hiding him somewhere for that long
of a time. He’s definitely not hiding him in the Waverly Hotel. I know that.”

Madison clenched her fist. “I can’t believe that all
this time I’ve been blaming Sarah. I should have known she wasn’t doing any of
this. It has to be Paul.” She paled. “He’s been walking in and out of my
apartment for months now and I had no idea. I was crazy for suspecting Sarah,”
she said laying her head back down. She closed her eyes, willing herself to
relax as she listened to his strong heartbeat.

“Why did you suspect your sister?”

“I thought she might have been doing the things
subconsciously as a result of post traumatic shock or something.”

“Why? What happened to her?”

“She used to be a ballerina, and one afternoon after
practice, someone in a mask attacked her and her friend.”

“What did he do to them?” he asked gently.

“He hit Sarah’s friend, broke her nose and
knocked her unconscious. Then he turned on Sarah.” She wiped away another tear.
“He took out a knife and slashed her face. Then when she fell down, he took out
a metal pipe and he broke her leg in three places. He would’ve done more, but thankfully,
a couple of people heard her screams and came running. The creep took off in
the opposite direction. They never found him.”