Mad Love: Madison (9 page)

“I worked with Quincy. I liked him but I don’t
know if I would call him a really good friend.”

“You trusted him, didn’t you?”

Madison nodded. “Yeah, of course. He was a good
man.”

“Well, there you go. If he’s the one calling—”

“I said he might be the person calling. I
wouldn’t swear to it.”

“Well, this isn’t a court of law so you don’t
have to. Considering the fact that you barely slept last night—”

“How do you know?”

“I could hear you moving about the apartment all
night last night.”

“You’re imagining things,” Madison said returning
to her email. “I wasn’t moving around all night.”

“Are you saying you slept well?”

“No, I’m not saying that, but I wasn’t up and
down all night.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. The point
is, you’ve obviously put a lot of thought to it and you recognized the voice as
Quincy’s. Since you trust him and he’s a good man, I sincerely doubt he’s
trying to hurt you. Like you said, he’s just playing a joke on you or
something. Nothing to worry about.” She released Madison’s arm and stood up. “Actually,
I feel much better about it now.”

“Well, I’m glad one of us does.” Madison frowned.
“I’m still having the locks changed after Christmas.”

“Fine,” Sarah said smoothing back her hair. “So,
what are you going to get Ethan? You’re running out of time, you know.”

“I really don’t know. We’ve only known each other
for a few months. I don’t want to scare him away by getting him something too
big. Best to keep it casual at this point. After all, we’ve only had a few
dates.”

“What do you mean by a few dates? Your first one
was last night.”

Madison’s lips quirked up. “That depends on which
one of us you ask.”

Sarah tilted her head as she gazed at her sister
with a quizzical expression on her face. “Huh?”

“Never mind. I hate waiting until the last
minute. I wish I had known he’d be celebrating Christmas with us earlier. I’d
already have his gift picked out and wrapped by now.” Crossing her legs, she
leaned back against the bench. “Maybe I’ll get him cuff links.”

Sarah gave Madison an exaggerated eye roll. “That
sounds inspired.”

“What’s wrong with cufflinks?”

“Nothing,” Sarah said rising to her feet. “I’m
sure Grandpa is going to love his, so why wouldn’t Ethan. What would be better
is if you could give them the exact same cufflinks.”

Madison pursed her lips together.

Sarah widened her eyes. “Hey, you know what? Why
stop at cufflinks, how about a tie too? I saw a couple of novelty ones in
Macy’s that just scream romance. There’s one in particular that I noticed with a
big giant heart running across the bottom. It would be perfect for Ethan. It
says I love you, but if you want to go, then feel free. No pressure.”

“Is this your way of telling me I need to be more
romantic?”

“Yes, please, for once in your life, try to turn
off that brain of yours and feel. Stop overthinking this. Be passionate. Be
spontaneous.” She planted her hands on her hips as she examined her sister
closely. “Surely, law school didn’t kill off all of your passion.”

Madison hid a smile as she adopted a serious
tone. “There’s a fine line between passion and crazy.” Planting both of her feet
firmly on the ground and sitting up straighter, she wagged her finger at Sarah.
“There’s been many a sexual harassment suit—”

Sarah tipped her head back and let out a groan
eliciting a few stares from some passersby. When she dropped her head back down,
she sighed mournfully. “I have the feeling I’m going to be the first one of us
to get married.”

Madison held up her hand. “Whoa. Who said
anything about marriage? Mr. Parker and I have only just—”

Sarah looked at her sister as if she was crazy. “Mr.
Parker? Who are you kidding? You’re head over heels for him. You’ve talked
non-stop about him for the last couple of months.” She flipped out one hand and
then another. “Ethan this and Ethan that. I haven’t even met the man yet and I
feel like I know him.”

“Still, marriage is a very serious step,” Madison
said seriously. “Why I don’t even know what his feelings on prenuptial
agreements are yet.”

Sarah buried her head in her hands.

Madison grinned at her younger sister as she
leaned back against the bench. “I’m just playing with you. I have plenty of passion,
I’ll have you know, but that doesn’t mean I should throw all common sense to
the wind.”

Sarah’s brows drew together as she tilted her
head to the side. “Do you not understand what the word passion means?”

“I just don’t want to scare him away.”

“You’re not going to. He obviously likes you.”

“Oh, how do you know?”

“I spoke to Becca the other day. She says that
he’s in love with you.”

Madison sat up straighter. “And how does she know
that exactly? Did she talk to him? Is that what he said?”

Sarah made a face. “What do you want? A signed
affidavit? He likes you. Get him something that tells him that you care about
him.”

Madison bit her lip. “Like what?”

“What does he like to do when he’s not working?”

“He likes movies. What about a gift card to a
theater?”

Sarah hung her head. “No, Madison, just no.”

“Why not? That’s what I got for my birthday. I
was happy with it.”

“Think romantically. What kind of music does he
like?” She held up her index finger. “And don’t even think about a gift card to
iTunes.”

Madison thought back to a night a month ago when
he drove her to meet a witness he had tracked down for one of her cases. “Rock
music.”

“Any particular bands he’s fond of? You could get
him concert tickets. Two in fact. Hopefully, he’d invite you to go along with
him.”

“Bands…” Madison looked up as she tried to
remember if there were any bands in particular that he seemed to like. “Nope,
not that I noticed.”

“Okay, what other hobbies does he have?”

“He likes sailing. I know he has a sailboat. He
loves animals. Horses, especially.”

“Does he own a horse?”

“No.”

“What about sports? Most men love sports.” Sarah
suddenly lifted her hands to her head. “A hat!”

“I don’t think he wears hats.”

“No, I just thought of what I could get Hannah
for Christmas. She’s going to Cancun on her honeymoon and just the other day
she said she wanted to get one of those straw hats before she left. I saw the
perfect one…” She glanced around with a frown, “somewhere.”

Madison’s phone vibrated in her hand. “Oh, it’s
Ethan,” she said excitedly. Funny, how just seeing his name appear on her phone
returned that happy giddy feeling she had the night before.

Sarah picked up her bags and pointed toward
herself and towards a boutique a few stores away.

Clearing her throat, Madison nodded as she
answered the phone. “Hello.” She winced at the oddly breathless tone that
popped out of her mouth. She cleared her throat again, as Ethan’s deep voice
came over the phone.

“Hello to you too,” he said. “Did you get home
okay?”

“Of course.”

“No problems with Paul Harris?”

“None whatsoever. Did you expect me too?”

“Not at all.”

Madison groaned. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” he said a touch too innocently. “I
just kept an eye on him for a while. Were you aware that he lives a block from
where you live?”

Madison’s eyes went wide. “No. Where?”

“He checked into the Waverly hotel three nights
ago. The night clerk says he takes a lot of walks and he saw Harris sitting on
a bench in that park outside your apartment when he drove into work the other
night and then again last night.”

Madison sighed. “It sounds like he’s planning on
being a problem.”

“I think so. He tested the security of your
office, he followed you to the restaurant, and now we find out he’s moved a
block away and hangs out in the park outside your apartment building. I think
it’s safe to say he’s planning on doing something.”

Madison felt a chill go up her back. “I finally
got hold of his attorney last night. She wasn’t much help. She is so fed up
with him she’s about ready to tell him to find another lawyer.” She closed her
eyes coming to a sudden decision. “I’ll talk to the police the day after
Christmas. I doubt they will be able to do anything until he commits a crime, but
I might as well start building a record now.”

“Good.” His voice softened. “It’s possible we can
scare the guy into backing off. I’ll have a little chat with him in a few days.”

“Yeah, I heard that you and he already had a
little chat.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Paul called Cheryl this morning to complain
about some guy harassing him. From the description, it sounded just like you.”

“That was merely an introduction,” he said with a
snarl. “This time, he and I are going to have a nice long conversation about
his penchant for following you around.

With
any luck, we’ll nip this in the bud. In the meantime, I’d be happy to keep a
close eye on you.”

“That sounds like fun.” She bit her lip. “Where’s
Paul now?”

“At his mom’s house eighty miles away.”

“How do you know that?”

“I overheard him arguing with her over the phone
a few hours ago while he was putting his luggage in his car. Apparently, he was
late and Mom wasn’t too happy about it. I did a little checking on him and
found out where his mom lived. It looked like he was heading that way. I stuck
with him for about twenty miles and then returned to town. I think you’re safe
for now. You’re heading to your granddad’s tonight, right?”

“Right after church. You’re still coming tomorrow,
aren’t you?”

“I’ll be there. I’m looking forward to it.”

“So am I,” she said with a soft smile. “I almost
hate to tell you this, but I’ve got another problem I need you to look into.”

“Is this about the email you just sent me?”

“Yeah, I need you to find Quincy Sullivan. He was
the PI we used before you came to town. I need to find him immediately.”

“Sounds serious.”

“It might be. I’ve suddenly been getting weird
phone calls.”

“How weird?”

“So far, they’ve been pretty tame. For the last
two nights, some guy has called me up out of the blue, said just one word and
then hung up. First time, he called my home number. Second time, he called
Sarah’s pub.”

“Do you think it might be Paul?”

“No, Paul has a thin, reedy voice. This guy was
more of a baritone.”

“What does he say when he calls?”

“The first time, it was the word ten. Last night,
it was nine. I expect to hear eight sometime today.”

“He’s counting down.”

“Yeah, but to what?”

“It’s eight days until New Year’s. What’s this
got to do with Quincy Sullivan?”

“I
think
he’s the one calling me. It
sounds a bit like his voice. Hard to tell with just one word.”

“Nicole mentioned him to me once. She said he
skipped town all of a sudden.”

“Supposedly, he went to Florida but I think he’s
back. Look, I don’t think this is related to any cases I’m working on so don’t
send your bill to the office. I’ll take care of it myself.”

“I’m not taking your money. What did your caller ID
say when the guy called you at home?”

“Unlisted.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know what I find soon. Where
are you now?”

“The mall with Sarah.”

He chuckled at her tone of voice. “I hope you’re
having fun. Look, I don’t think Paul’s going to try anything tonight, so try
not to worry about him. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Thanks, Ethan.” She ended the call and placed
her phone into her purse, wondering if Paul was the only one that she should be
worried about.

§

5:50
P.M.

Madison
stood on her tiptoes, trying to spot her sister in the throngs of shoppers
rushing in and out the shops. After hanging up with Ethan, Madison went in
search of her sister only to find that Sarah had seemingly disappeared into
thin air.

Texts and phone calls were going unanswered, which
wasn’t so surprising. Sarah, after all, was in her element. Once she was on the
hunt for something, nothing was able to distract her. She probably wouldn’t
even look at her phone until she found what she was looking for.

Madison scowled at Santa’s village as she passed
by it once again.
Santa’s Coming to Town
was cute the first time she
heard it while searching for her sister. After the fifth time, it was beginning
to lose some of its luster.