The Investigator (21 page)

A desktop image came into view and Riley’s gut instantly tightened. The wallpaper was a black and white photograph of a smiling Kate in a light-colored bikini, posing at the side of a swimming pool. Other children dressed in bathing costumes could be seen in the background. Kate looked about thirteen or fourteen, but even at that young age, her body revealed a promise of the womanly curves to come.

Kate’s hands stilled. “That was taken during the summer before my fourteenth birthday.” Her voice was soft and detached. “About six months before I left.”

“Your mom took the photo?”

“Yes. She loved taking photos. It was one of the things she could do from her wheelchair.”

Riley thought back to his conversation with Bill Cannington. “Did she get out much?”

Kate shook her head. “Not really. Not as much as she wanted to. Watervale didn’t have a disabled taxi back when I was a kid. She was dependent upon Darryl to take her places and he always seemed too busy.”

“I guess as the LAC, he had his hands full most of the time.”

Anger flashed in Kate’s eyes and Riley could have kicked himself for his lack of sensitivity.

“Yeah, right,” she scoffed. “This is Watervale. The biggest thing to happen when I lived here was when old Mr Warwick wandered out of the nursing home in his pajamas and got struck by a motorbike.”

“Was he hurt?”

“Only a few grazes and a dent to his pride, but it was the talk of the town for weeks.”

Riley tried on a smile. “I can imagine.”

Her face didn’t soften. “Don’t make excuses for Darryl. He’s a selfish son of a bitch. Always was and always will be. And that’s the least of his sins.”

It was a throw-away line, muttered under her breath, but it snagged his attention. Before he had time to ponder what she meant, she turned back to the screen and began typing passwords.

Riley frowned. It seemed odd that Rosemary had protected her computer in that way, given that Darryl apparently didn’t even know how to switch it on. It took Kate three attempts.

“What was it?” he asked, curious.

“My birth date. I tried hers and then Darryl’s. Mine was lucky third.” She tapped away at the keyboard and moved the mouse, opening windows and closing them. He watched as she opened her mother’s email account and then frowned.

“What is it?” he asked.

“There’s nothing here. Not a single message, new or old. Not even the ones I sent her when she stopped contacting me. At the very least, they should be here.” Her lips tightened. She threw him a look. “Unless I was wrong.”

“About what?”

“About Darryl. Perhaps he isn’t as technophobic as he makes out. Maybe he said it to alleviate Mom’s concerns he might access her files. I distinctly remember her saying Darryl couldn’t stand computers.”

She turned to face him, anger suffusing her cheeks. “What if it was just another one of his lies?”

Riley shrugged. “Who knows? Why don’t you check the Deleted box? Some people don’t realize an email deleted from the Inbox isn’t gone forever. Even if Darryl had the capability to access your mother’s emails, he may not have known about the deleted items or if he deleted them, he might not have emptied the Delete box afterwards.”

“You’re right,” Kate murmured.

“If there are emails in the Deleted box dated after July tenth, we’ll know someone else has accessed them,” he added. “Given that the laptop has apparently remained in Darryl’s custody, it won’t be too hard to work out who it was.”

“Why July tenth?”

“That’s the day the cruise your mother had been booked on departed Sydney and, according to Darryl, the day he drove her there.”

Kate’s shoulders slumped. She turned back to the screen. Riley wished he could offer her better news.

“How many emails did you send her?”

“We used to email each other at least once a day. When I hadn’t heard from her for a few days, I started emailing her asking her to contact me. I emailed her every day until the day I flew back from London.”

Kate scrolled down to the Deleted items icon and gasped. There were more than two hundred and sixty-five messages. The most recent one had been sent only yesterday. All of them had been opened.

“Darryl went through them before he deleted them.”

Riley nodded in agreement. “It looks that way.”

Kate went through the emails that had been received after July tenth. Most were spam from various clothing stores, eBay reminders and a couple of online photography courses. But one name kept recurring: Daisyblu.

Riley moved closer, pointing to the most recent email. “Any idea who Daisyblu is?”

Kate shook her head and opened the email. Riley read silently over her shoulder. His gut clenched.

Rosie, where are you? We were supposed to meet nearly six weeks ago. I understand that you’ve changed your mind. That’s okay. But please don’t shut me out. Not after everything we’ve been through. I’m your friend. Let me help. Please.

Riley read it again. The timing fit pretty closely with what he already knew.

Closing the email, Kate scrolled through some of the other entries. There were nearly twenty-five others from Daisyblu that had been sent after July tenth. Most of them had been sent within a day or so of each other. The last two were a week apart. All of them enquired about Rosemary’s change of plans.

The tone of the earlier emails suggested mild bafflement, but gradually changed to increasing concern. Daisyblu’s final email was full of hurt and bewilderment.

“Let’s see if there are any earlier than the tenth. It sounds like Daisyblu had an idea about what was going on,” Riley said.

Kate scrolled down the list of old emails. Nearly two months earlier, in May, there was another email from Daisyblu.

Thank you for opening up to me today. I’m so glad you did. Have you thought about leaving him? I’m here for you, if you need help. Let me help you. Please.

Kate looked up at him, her face grim. “My mother was planning to disappear—or at the very least, considering it.”

Riley pursed his lips and nodded his agreement. “More than a month before she disappeared. Maybe it took her awhile to come around to it? And then, she would have needed to put a plan together. For some reason, she changed it.”

Kate eyed him steadily. “Or someone changed it for her.”

He grimaced. He may not have been willing to argue in Darryl’s defence after discovering the man’s penchant for dishonesty, but that didn’t mean he was ready to concede the former commander was capable of murder.

“One thing we do know is that she didn’t tell Daisyblu about any change in plans.”

Kate sighed. Turning back to the computer screen, she scrolled through the messages again. Her mouse stopped on an email dated July ninth, a day before her mother had been scheduled to leave. It was another email from Daisyblu.

All good here. Are you ready?

Kate rolled the wheel on her mouse, cursing when her fingers couldn’t make it move fast enough. With another click, she opened the Sent items and scrolled through them. She stopped when she reached an email dated the same date. She bit her lip and clicked on it.

I’m good to go. I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t be late.

Kate turned to Riley, a haunted expression on her face. “I guess we now know she was alive until then.”

Riley nodded. “It appears so.”

“You’re right. Now that we know Darryl is computer literate, we can’t assume it was Mom who wrote it.”

Riley compressed his lips and didn’t answer. Kate turned back to the computer. With her jaw set at a determined angle, she returned to the Deleted box and once again, scrolled through the list of emails. She came to a halt on a message that had been received
nearly two weeks earlier.

Riley’s heart skipped a beat. The email was from Kate.

Kate opened the message and tensed, even though she must have known what it contained. Riley read it over her shoulder.

Mom, you still haven’t responded to my emails. I’ve tried calling your cell, but you don’t answer. Is everything all right? I’m worried about you. I’m coming over to visit—I’ll
book the next flight to Sydney and call you when I arrive.

Riley waited for her to lift her gaze to his. When she did, he almost winced at the bleakness in them.

“I’m not sure what was going on.” Her voice was toneless. “Her emails had become very brief, her phone calls a lot less chatty. She always used to tell me about what she’d been doing—functions she’d attended, things like that. Darryl had retired, but there was still the odd invitation to a charity dinner or other similar events. He’s a man much admired.”

Her caustic tone as she spoke about Darryl was not lost on Riley and after meeting the arrogant son of a bitch, he could understand it.

“But something was different those last few weeks, before she stopped emailing altogether. I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but looking back, and now knowing what we do about her connection to Daisyblu, I have to say, her emails started to sound like good-byes.” Her voice cracked on the last word.

As her words sank in, Riley stared at her. Anger started a slow burn in his gut.

“I don’t get it,” he said, shaking his head. “Why the hell would you automatically think Darryl had done away with her? The very night you waltzed into town, you as much as demanded I arrest him for murder, yet before you’d even boarded the plane, you had suspicions that she was planning to leave him.”

A dark-red stain spread across her cheeks. Her eyes shot daggers.

“It’s not what you’re thinking. There’s
no
way she would have disappeared without telling me or contacting me right away. She, of all people, knew what it was like to be the one left behind. All the questions, the silent recriminations. Searching the eyes of every stranger she met. She told me about the agony she went through when I disappeared. She’d
never
have done that to me.”

“Maybe she thought it was what you deserved?”

Kate stumbled away from the counter and paced the small confines of the room. Fury emanated from every pore. She rounded on him, her eyes flashing blue fire.

“My mother would
not
have done that. She didn’t have a vindictive bone in her body. She loved me too much to put me through the hell she’d suffered.”

“That didn’t stop
you
.” Riley braced himself as she came at him.

“You bastard,” she spat. She raised her right hand and struck him hard across the face. His cheek stung. He seized her wrist before she could attempt a second blow.

“I was
fourteen
,” she panted. “Little more than a child. I hated the thought of leaving my mother, but I hated the thought of staying even more. I gave no thought to the effect my leaving would have on her.” She struggled to free herself from his hold, tears spilling down her cheeks. “All I wanted was to escape.”

The helplessness in her eyes tore at his heart as fiercely as the sobs that shook her small frame.

“She wouldn’t have left me like that. I just know it. I
know
it. I-I miss her. I miss her so
much
.” Her voice hitched.

He pulled her against his chest and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her head. She cried and cried, tucked within the safe cocoon of his arms.

Gradually, she quieted and relaxed against him. He tried not to breathe in too deeply of the clean, sweet scent of her hair, or think too much about her soft curves that melted against him.

“We need to stop doing this,” he murmured. “It could become habit forming.”

She pulled away slightly and lifted her face. Her eyes were wide with sadness and vulnerability. She stared at him. Her lips parted on an intake of breath and his gut clenched in response.

He took her chin and tilted her face toward him. The tight rein he’d kept on his self-control snapped and he brought his lips down to hers. The touch of their mouths, whisper soft, left him yearning for more. Taking her silence for acquiescence, he did what he’d been longing to do from the moment she’d walked through the doorway of the police station.

Crushing her against him, his mouth claimed hers in a kiss fueled by long pent-up passion. Blood thundered in his ears, rushing through his arteries to center in his groin. His erection pushed against the softness of her belly and he struggled to contain himself when she stood on tiptoes, wrapped tentative arms around his neck and pressed even closer.

A groan rumbled deep in his throat and still he kissed her. The lips that had driven him to distraction were even softer than he’d imagined and enveloped him in sweetness and warmth. For all her outward sophistication, there was a shy innocence about her and he drank it in like a man dying of thirst.

With his heart hammering against his chest, he broke contact and lifted his head, breathing hard.

Kate looked equally affected. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. Her eyes had darkened to indigo and were filled with equal parts astonishment and fear.

Fear
? That couldn’t be right. What the hell was she fearful about?

But she’d already stepped away from him, hugging herself, her arms wrapped defensively around her slender waist.

He took a step toward her and she reared back. “Please, don’t.”

He frowned. “Kate—?”

“Riley, just go.”

“I’m sorry. I thought—”

“I know. I know what you thought and I’m sorry. Please. I want you to leave.”

He stood with his hands clenched at his sides—confused, bewildered.

Her breathing had slowed and she seemed to have recovered from their kiss. It was more than he could say for himself. Somehow, the fact that she seemed to have brushed off their shared passion with barely a second thought irritated the hell out of him.

His jaw tightened. “I guess I misread the signals. I apologize. It won’t happen again.”

He turned away and unlatched the door. Stepping through the opening, he walked out into the icy night and tried to ignore the cold despair that weighed down his soul.