Remote Consequences (13 page)

I had attended this party a decade ago, and it was a night I'd never forget. Not because the festivities were so unforgettable, but that night with Ty had certainly left a permanent marker in my gray matter.

I swiveled my head around in search of other cars. Other than my huge, red beacon of metal, no one else was in sight. Should I go on foot up to the house and spy on Matson? Should I turn this car around and get to work before I got fired? I knew I was hanging on by a thread with Barry already. Or should I call Ty?

And say what?
Oh, hey, Ty, I was just following Matson Mills, and he's at his father's waterfront house when he should be on his way to work. What's that? He doesn't have a job because he's a rich brat. Well, I think you should come down here and check it out anyway.
Yeah, that didn't sound like a conversation worth starting. In fact, it made me look more than a little insane.

Against better judgment, my body began to move of its own accord. As a medical student, I knew this wasn't possible, but I managed to convince myself of it anyway. My hand opened the door, my feet swung off the floor mat, and my butt scooched off the seat. Soon after, my legs took over and began to propel me up the smooth dirt of the driveway.

About halfway up the drive, I began to wonder if I should ease off the shoulder and sneak up on the house via the cover of trees. Then I reassured myself that since I'd already decided to trespass, I might as well come in on my own terms.

Go all out. Get yourself arrested, why don't you?

Geez. Now I was talking to myself.

As I crested the top of the winding road, the beautiful home known as Mills Landing came into view. I'd always loved this property. It was so much more like home than their stuffy, pristine house over at Sugar Pines.

Matson's car was parked in front of the three-car garage bay. One of the bay doors was open, and a black SUV was inside. I heard the sound of voices. They were speaking loudly enough to travel from somewhere at the back of the property but not clearly enough for me to make out the words.

Now I decided to go into stealth mode. I hugged the edge of the house and slithered down the log-lined exterior. The voices were distinctly male. I assumed one of them was Matson, but I was unsure of the identity of the other voice.

My heartbeat picked up its gallop as I neared the far corner. If I were to just take a quick peek around the edge, would they see me? I should just forget this entire thing and get back to my car. This was ridiculous.

But I just knew they were discussing the body. I could feel it in my bones. I was closer now, but still unable to pick up on the discussion. If I could get a visual on who was speaking and on their location, I could make a move from here. Oh, what the heck. On the count of three.

One…

Two…

Three…

The sound of a car engine behind me froze me in place. I squatted behind the bushes. Perspiration had never been a real issue for me, but it had suddenly decided to present itself in the form of a shirt-wetting phenomenon. I could actually feel my shirt against my back as if it were a second skin.

A car door slammed and the sound of shoes on the front steps was followed by the front door slamming with some amount of force.

It was now or never.

I darted my head out from behind the bushes and around the side of the house.

There, down by the water's edge, stood Matson Mills and Officer Chubby.

What were
they
doing here together?

Before I could begin to consider the possibilities, the back door swung open with such force that it hit the exterior wall. I cringed as a booming voice followed the door crash.

"Are you insane? What the hell have you two done?"

From my vantage point, I could see none other than the mayor himself striding across the corner of the poolside, heading toward the open grass. He was moving at a fast clip, and his son and Mr. Jelly Donut had halted their conversation and watched his progress with open mouths.

"Dad…" Matson sounded childlike and pleading.

"Would either of you geniuses care to tell me what you've gotten us into?"

The geniuses stared at him. Neither offered up an immediate response. I wanted to laugh, but I was holding my breath. Waiting for a full confession.

If this had been a movie, I would have rubbed my hands together in utter glee.

But my elation was short-lived, as a strong hand clamped down on my shoulder.

I muffled a scream and nearly dove over the bushes and into the pool.

A large hand covered my mouth, sending my heart into the stratosphere. Only to be soothed by a deep but recognizable whisper: "You need to get out of here. The cops are on their way here, and something tells me that they'll recognize your big red car parked at the top of the driveway."

Colin.

I cut my eyes over at him, and he released his clamp on my mouth.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"You're asking
me
that?"

"Yes…" I tried to calm my panic and plan my next move. The mayor and the other two were still chatting at the riverside, but they were too far away to overhear.

"I was following the mayor this morning, and he had an unpleasant discovery waiting for him in his office chair when he got to work," Colin explained.

Did I dare ask? "What was it?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Colin?" I studied Colin's eyes. It was obvious that he was suppressing emotions, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out exactly what those emotions were. "Are you okay?" It was the first thing that popped into my mind.

"Don't worry about me. Worry about getting out of here and moving that car before your boyfriend shows up."

"He's not my boyfriend."

He raised his eyebrows at my response but didn't argue the point further.

"Let's go." He scuttled backward and motioned for me to do the same.

I dropped down onto all fours and followed him out of the bushes.

"What…you have an issue with chatting in the bushes on a hot summer's day?"

He didn't respond to my humorous ramblings. Instead he somehow had the ability to crab-walk out of there and still look both cool and
hot
at the same time. The man had training.

Just as we'd escaped the cover of the foliage, the sound of tires crunching down the gravel driveway caught my attention.

"Uh-oh—ahh." My words were cut off by the yank of Colin on my right arm. With one swift motion, he'd moved us into the wooded area just north of the drive and out of sight.

As the car rolled up to the circular drive to park behind the mayor's, we made our way out deeper into the woods. I tried to keep up the pace with Colin while watching the sleek black Mercedes wind its way down toward the house. The windows were tinted, and I was dying to know who was behind the wheel.

"
Where are we going
?" I whispered to my tour guide.

He didn't answer—just kept moving at a steady pace. Tree limbs swiped across my bare arms and leaves brushed against my face.

The sound of raised voices behind me tempted me to look back over my shoulder, but I couldn't manage that without losing my balance. One of the voices was female. I wondered if it was Mrs. Mills, or maybe Amika. Colin wove us to and fro, and I was sure that any moment we'd be lost in the forest with no breadcrumbs to lead us out.

"Why are we going this way? My car is over there—"

A beat later, we were standing at the passenger side of my car.

"Should I drive?" he asked, a grin on his face.

"No one drives Stella but me."

"Stella?"

"It's a long story."

"Sounds like we both have a story, but let's get a move on. I have a feeling that things are about to get a little hectic back there, and you need to be somewhere else."

For once, I didn't argue. I slipped into the driver's seat and leaned across to unlock his door. He slid in, and we were off, hightailing it back into town and away from the mayor's home on the Alabama River.

"What was Officer Chubby doing there, and who was in that Mercedes?" I asked.

"Officer Chubby?" He seemed to consider my words. "You mean Trask?"

"Yeah…I guess. What was he doing there chatting it up with Brat Boy?"

"He works for the mayor," Colin responded as he white-knuckled the door handle.

"I hate to state the obvious, but don't all cops work for the mayor?" I said.

"He's private security detail for the mayor during his off-duty hours."

"Ahh. So, what…they are gathering the troops to protect Mayor Mills now that his life is getting just a little more complicated this morning?"

He stretched back in a slightly more relaxed posture, his arm along the seatback. His eyes were studying me. I could feel it. "Don't freak out."

"I never freak out. Well, most of the time. I'm just not sure how you found me, and what is going on here. Can you bring me up to speed, please?"

"I mean, don't freak out, but you have something in your hair."

"What?" The car swerved as I turned the rearview mirror toward myself.

"Whoa…easy there." He reached over and guided the wheel back on track.

"I don't see anything. What are you—" But I was interrupted by a huge spider making his presence known by crawling over the top of my ear and sitting there with what can only be described as an evil grin.

"Ahhhhhhhh…what the—"

I hit the brakes and we both smashed forward. Colin caught himself with one hand and me with the other.

"It's not poisonous, Mandy. No reason to kill us both."

"Get it out. Get it out."

I jumped out of the car and ran around the back, shaking my head and flopping my hair forward and back in a wild, headbanger-like motion. I jumped on one foot and shook my head in a maneuver not unlike someone who was trying to remove water from their ear.

I caught sight of the evildoer as it hit the ground and scuttled away. Only then could I breathe. Colin stood outside the car, soaking in the scene, and a smile on his face the size of which I'd never seen before. A smile that both infuriated me and did something weird to my heart at the same time.

"I'm not sure what you're smiling at, but this was not funny."

He chuckled under his breath, and my heart did that weird thing again. Then Colin's smile faded, and he ducked down behind the car.

"What are you doing, exactly?"

A car swerved around the bend, wheels squealing as they slowed to survey the scene. As it drove past, behind the driver's window, I made full eyeball-on-eyeball contact with Ty Dempsey. He saw me, and he didn't look happy, but he didn't stop.

*  *  *

Twenty minutes later, Colin and I were parked outside the cable office. We sat in silence. I checked the time on my phone.

"I need to go clock in now. Are you gonna fill me in on the situation?"

Colin had been calm and quiet after the spider incident. His disappearing act as Ty had driven by intrigued me. What was the big secret, anyway? Surely it wasn't a crime for him to be with me on a public road. Well, a public road that just so happened to be only a few hundred feet from the mayor's property…but still.

"You don't have time. I'll be by later tonight."

He pulled the door latch, and I reached over and grabbed his left forearm. It was corded with muscles. He looked down at my hand as if it were a foreign object, and then met my eyes.

"Colin. What happened this morning? What was waiting on the mayor when he got to work?"

He looked down at my hand again, as if he'd forgotten how it had gotten there. I withdrew it. Maybe I shouldn't be so eager to accept his help. He was hiding from the cops, sneaking around outside of people's houses, and who knew what else?

Well, I was also sneaking around outside people's houses, but I glossed over that fact.

He stepped out of the car and swung the door closed. He took a step away from the car and then paused and looked back at me.

"It was him. My father. Someone killed him. Froze his body for years and then put the body in the mayor's office chair as some kind of statement or joke. He may not have been a perfect man, but he was my father, and I won't leave until I find out who was responsible for this."

"Oh, Colin…I'm…" The words caught in my throat, but he didn't wait for me to force them out. With three quick steps he was behind the building and out of sight.

He'd just disappeared. Again.

The doorstep of a great house is slippery. –Irish Proverb

Coosada Road was one of my favorite places in Millbrook. The tree-lined street was shaded by overhanging limbs. The homes were preserved by the Historical Society, and their white columns stood steadfast and at attention as I drove past.

So many questions and so few answers.

If someone had removed Caden Brooks' body from the mayor's attic and then planted it in the mayor's office, it didn't make sense that the mayor himself was involved in the murder. Why would he set himself up to take the fall?

It had to be someone who had a beef with the mayor and yet still had access to his home and attic. Or maybe that was what the mayor wanted you to think. No, he wouldn't take that kind of risk—would he?

And what was going on at the mayor's waterfront home with Matson? Before I'd been scared out of my mind by Colin in the bushes, I'd heard Mayor Mills yelling at Trask and Matson. What had he said? Something about what they'd done? And who was the Mercedes-driving woman who'd joined in the fray when Colin and I were making our escape?

I just didn't have enough to go on. Trying to piece this together was making my head hurt. And speaking of headaches…

I turned down the moss-shaded lane, interestingly named Harm's Way. While it sounded ominous, it was actually named after Harmony Dempsey—Ty's late mother. When Barry had told me that I had a service call at the Dempsey compound, I'd felt both nostalgic and somewhat ill.

Now that I was here, the ill feeling took control, and all fond memories of childhood days spent on the farm dissipated. By the time I'd exited the vehicle, the cloud of dust I'd stirred up in the old van filled my lungs. Coughing and fanning my air space with my clipboard, I headed up the porch stairs. A screen door flew open in my face, and I jerked to a halt.