Mad Love: Madison (41 page)

Sarah pressed her fingers to his neck. “No, he’s
still breathing. I think he just passed out.” She sat back on her knees. “What
should we do?”

“The police are on their way, so I guess we wait.
Just keep the pressure on his forehead.”

“What’s he doing here?”

“I have no idea. I don’t even know how he knew we
were here.”

There was another soft moan as Derek’s eyes
fluttered. He looked around in a haze. “Where am I?” he asked before awareness
settled in. Fear quickly replaced confusion as he painfully sat up and crawled
over to the door.

“Derek,” Sarah said, crawling over to him and
pressing the towel to his head, “you shouldn’t move.”

Every nerve ending on alert, Madison leaned back
against the wall. “What are you doing here, Derek?”

“Getting shot at!” Wincing, he covered Sarah’s
hand at his head with his own. “There’s some maniac out there with a rifle
shooting at people. He almost killed me. Then when I crawled out of the car, he
started shooting at me again. I thought I was a dead man. I saw the house and
just started running. I thought for sure that at any moment, he was going to
catch up to me and finish the job.”

Madison glanced at the window. “I wonder why he
didn’t.”

“I don’t know.” Derek brought his knees up and
leaned his head back against the door. “I don’t understand how he got here
before I did.”

“Who?” Madison asked.

“Ethan or Alex or whatever his name is.” He
looked at Sarah with a small smile. “I’m so glad to see you.”

“Me too. Hold this,” she said removing her hand
out from underneath his. “I’ll go get the first aid kit.”

Derek turned his attention back to Madison. His
smile turned into a scowl. “I know I got on that road before him. A buddy of
mine works at the police station. They were chasing him on the other side of
town when I set off to warn you two.”

Sarah returned with a first aid kit and kneeled
down next to him. “Are you talking about Ethan?”

“Yeah, he escaped a few hours ago,” he said, tilting
his chin to let Sarah clean his face.

“I know,” Madison said.

Derek pushed Sarah’s hand away as he looked up at
Madison with an outraged look. “What do you mean you know? Are you telling me
that I just risked my life to deliver news you already had?”

Sarah smiled apologetically. “Thanks anyways.”

“Geesh.” Derek winced as Sarah moved the
dishtowel away and pressed a bandage to his forehead. “I feel a bit like an
idiot. Why aren’t you answering your phone? I’ve been calling all night.”

“We had our phones with us,” Sarah said.

 “I don’t suppose you saw the police on your way
here,” Madison said.

“They’re not coming,” he said matter-of-factly.
“At least, not right away.”

“Why not?” Madison asked warily.

“They’re closing down roads left and right. I
passed a couple of accidents on my way here. There’s also a massive tree
blocking the main road leading into here. “

Madison frowned. “Then how did you get past it?”

“Luck. It missed me by only a few inches. You
should see the back end of my car. Of course, that’s nothing compared to how
the front bumper looks. I’m afraid we’re stuck here for the night.”

Sarah bit her lip as she returned to bandaging
Derek’s face. “I think you need stitches.”

Derek narrowed his eyes as Rory let out a pitiful
whine from the bathroom. “Do you hear that?”

“It’s just my dog,” Sarah explained before she
turned back to Madison. “At least we got some good news.”

Madison raised her eyebrows. “What good news?”

“Ethan’s stuck on the other side of the tree. He
won’t be able to get here.”

Madison jerked her chin towards the window.
“There’s still the maniac out there with a rifle.”

Sarah pursed her lips together as she stood up.
She pressed the dishcloth into Madison’s hand before turning around and
reaching for her coat.

“What do you think you are doing?”

“I’m going to talk to Jamie.”

“Uh.” Derek’s face twisted into a grimace as he tried
to think of a diplomatic way of phrasing his words. “Umm, maybe we should think
about that just a little more,” he said gently.

Madison was less kind. “Have you lost your mind?”

Sarah slipped her arm through the pink sleeves. “He
obviously thought Derek was Ethan.”

“I’m so glad it was obvious to you,” Madison said
sternly. “It’s not so obvious to me.”

Sarah flung out her hand toward Derek. “Jamie
didn’t kill him, did he?”

“Not for lack of trying,” Derek grumbled.

“Sarah, Jamie’s the one with a rifle. He’s safe.
We don’t need to check up on him.”

Derek reached up and took Sarah’s hand. “Please
don’t leave me. My head is killing me.”

Sarah sank down to her knees next to him and
gently ran her hand through his hair.

“How did you know we were here, Derek?” Madison
asked.

“Keith told me.”

Madison’s eyes widened. “How did he know?”

“He overheard you and Becca talking by the
elevators.” He took a shaky breath. “Becca tried to act like you were somewhere
else, but Keith didn’t believe her. It’s no big deal,” he said gingerly
pressing the large white bandage at his head. “Keith wouldn’t say anything to
Ethan. He hates the guy. I know you’re not going to believe this, but Keith’s crazy
for you. He talks about you all the time.” He hissed lightly in pain as he tried
to make himself comfortable on the cold floor. “Whenever he hears you get up to
leave your office, he jumps up and dashes into the hallway to ‘accidently’ bump
into you.”

“Keith didn’t like Quincy either,” Madison said absentmindedly.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at an old mariner’s clock on the wall next to a
cabinet filled with her grandfather’s books and knickknacks. Her gaze shifted
to a picture of her grandfather in his naval uniform.

“Madison?”’ Sarah asked.

Madison kept her eyes fixed on the clock. “Hmm?”

“I think we need to get Derek to a hospital. He’s
bleeding pretty badly.”

Derek waved his hand. “Eh, head wounds always
look worse than they are.”

“Becca…” Madison narrowed her eyes as she
continued to stare at her grandfather’s picture. “Becca gave me a picture of
Ethan in his uniform for my birthday. She got it from her husband, who got it
from a friend in the Navy.” Smiling, she closed her eyes with a smile. “I can’t
believe I fell for Gina’s lie. Why didn’t I think of that before? Ethan’s not
Alex. He can’t be.”

“Why not?” Derek asked.

“If Alex had just assumed Ethan Parker’s life
like we thought, then Becca would have received a picture of a man she wouldn’t
have recognized, but she didn’t. She received Ethan’s picture, which means
Ethan is exactly who he says he is.”

“But the cabinet,” Sarah said. “You saw—”

“I saw exactly what Alex wanted me to see. He
moved all of Ethan’s things from the cabinet to the table in the corner of his
office and then filled the cabinet up with all those…things.”

Sarah frowned. “What about the picture of him and
Todd that you found?”

“Pictures can be faked.”

“If that’s so, why would you assume the picture
you got from Becca is real,” Derek said. “Perhaps, that one’s fake.”

“It could be, but I doubt Alex’s smart enough to
remove Ethan’s official photo from military records. Then there’s the fact that
he and my grandpa spent an hour talking about the service during Christmas. I’m
pretty sure Grandpa would have been able to tell if Ethan had been lying about
his Navy career. They were tossing back all sorts of acronyms that I had never
heard of. Besides, the cabinet…” Madison froze as another thought came to mind.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.

“Ethan’s cabinet contained things that had
belonged to his victims.”

Derek made a disgusted face. “That’s horrible.
Don’t think about it.”

Her eyes lost focus as she struggled to remember.
“Didn’t you tell me that you had seen the inside of that cabinet before?”

Derek started to shake his head but then groaned
in pain.

“No,” Madison said, “I distinctly remember you
saying it was full of medals when you saw it.”

“Uh uh,” Derek said, “I said the medals were in
the display case on the other side of the wall.”

“Oh,” she said softly. “Hmm. Guess what I found
in the cabinet.”

“What?” Derek asked.

“Quincy’s pocket watches. You remember the pocket
watch, don’t you?” She tilted her head to the side. “What exactly did Quincy
tell you about it?”

A small smile played along Derek’s lips as he
watched Madison. “Only that it had belonged to his father.”

Madison, hands still behind her back, flexed her
fingers on the gun. “Oh, that’s right. Quincy told you that he inherited it
from his dad.”

“Sure did,” Derek said with a curious expression
on his face. “It even had his old man’s initials on it and the scar from a
bullet where someone took a pot shot at him.”

“Oh, I didn’t see his dad’s initials on there,”
Madison said, furrowing her brow. “What were his initials?”

“A.J.S.,” Derek said in amusement.

“Right,” Madison walked over to the kitchen
island, making sure to keep it between herself and Derek. She looked at her
sister and jerked her head to the side. “Why don’t you get Derek a drink? It
will help with the pain.”

Derek wrapped his fingers around Sarah’s wrist.
“It’s all right. I’m not much of a drinker.”

Sarah’s expressive face tightened. “Derek, let
go. You’re hurting me.”

12:22
A.M.

Derek
grabbed Sarah’s arm and jerked her close to him, causing her to squeal in
surprise. He dug a gun into her side as Madison pointed her own weapon at him.

“Don’t even think about it, Madison,” he said
digging a gun deeper into Sarah’s ribs.

Sarah cried out in pain.

“Shut up!” he snarled. He turned back to Madison.
“I was there the day that Ethan took you to the shooting range. There’s no way
you’d hit me.” He looked over Sarah’s shoulder with an annoyed expression on
his face. “I take it that Quincy lied to me about that pocket watch belonging
to his father. Who did it belong to? His grandfather? His uncle? He picked it
up at a flea market somewhere? What?”

“It didn’t belong to him at all. He got it from a
client a few hours before he disappeared. You couldn’t have seen that pocket
watch unless you were the one who kidnapped him.”

She could have kicked herself. All along, she had
assumed the watch the old lady had given Quincy was a wristwatch. If she had
known it was a pocket watch, she might have realized Derek was the killer as
soon as he admitted seeing Quincy with the thing. In any event, she should have
realized the truth last night. The answer was right in front of her when she
opened the cabinet, but she let her emotions run away with her.

“Drop the gun, Madison. I’ll shoot her if you
don’t,” he said digging the gun into Sarah’s side.

Sarah yelped in response. “Don’t do it, Madison.
He’s going to kill me anyway.”

“She makes a good point, Derek,” Madison said, cocking
the gun. “If you kill her, there is nothing to stop me from emptying this gun
into your gut. You’re only a few feet away. I’m pretty sure I can hit you.”

Derek smiled in amusement as he held up his gun. “I
hate these things. I just can’t stand them. Never could. They’re so cold.” He
made a face. “Plus, I just hate the way they sound. Have you ever killed
someone with a gun? Probably not,” he said with a causal shrug. “It’s just so
impersonal.”

He set the gun on the floor and then pushed it
towards the cabinet. When Sarah began to struggle, he wrapped his arm around
her neck. “I can kill you in seconds,” he whispered into her ear as he pressed
a hunting knife to her throat. “Ethan has a great collection of knives. I
borrowed this little beauty from his office a couple of days ago.”

“Derek, it’s over,” Madison said.

“Alex. My name is Alex.” He pushed against
Sarah’s back. “Come on beautiful, help me up.”

“Help yourself,” Sarah snapped.

He pressed the tip of the knife closer to her
throat. “Don’t get nasty.”

“Just do as he says, Sarah.”

Sarah looked ready to argue but in the end
wrapped her arm around Alex’s waist and helped him to his feet.

Alex’s eyes started to roll back in his head,
giving Madison and Sarah a small bit of hope for a moment, as he lost his
footing for a moment. Grimacing, he held onto Sarah, making her take most of
his weight. “That moron out there really did a job on me.”