Unbelievable (24 page)

Cole

“Booker and I’ve been talking. We’re going to finish the upstairs of my house soon.” I spoke to Seth and Maggie’s reflection in rearview mirror. They piled into the back seat at the airport, and I’d done all the talking ever since. They sat wrapped in each other’s arms, whispering and smiling.

I missed Lilah even more now. I had a message on my cell phone yesterday morning from her. She sounded frantic, saying her father had taken a turn for the worse and she had to fly out to see
him right away. I tried calling back, but she didn’t answer. Either her phone died, or she was busy with her dad. Either way, I didn’t get to talk to her.

“We decided to put in a disco ball and lighted floors for all the wild bachelor parties we’re going to throw
,” I said casually.

“Sounds good,” answered Seth, ogling Mags.

Yeah, he didn’t hear me, not that I blamed him. Wonder if they’d hear if I announced my plan to ask Lilah to marry me? What a fool I’d been, wrapping myself up in my work and forgetting to live my life. Lilah filled my soul. She made me happy, happier than I ever remembered being. I loved her spark, her energy, her crazy spontaneity.

I turned into the driveway, almost running into Booker’s hideous POC Mobile. I chuckled, remembering when Book’s
grandfather Samuel dubbed the car the ‘Piece of Crap,’ POC for short, back in my college days. I’m sure Booker had no idea the name would stick. The thing needed to be replaced big time.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t you have a stakeout tonight?” I got out of my car and popped the trunk to gather Maggie and Seth’s luggage. They remained in the back huddled together like . . . well, newlyweds. Booker came over and grabbed two suitcases.

“Have they come up for air at all?” he said, glancing sideways into the car.

“Not much,” I chuckled. “Is that why you had to
work
tonight and asked me to pick them up? You knew how uncomfortable the car ride from the airport would be.”

“No,” he said soberly. “We need to talk.” I noticed the file tucked under his right arm as we went into the house.

“I’ll get the door,” Seth said, rushing past us. “Sorry.” He unlocked it, and Booker and I followed him and Maggie into the family room.

We set the luggage down and Booker stepped over to the counter. “Hate to rain on the afterglow of your honeymoon, but I’ve some bad news.”

“How bad?” asked Seth, trepidation tightening his face.

“Real bad.” Booker pulled out a photo and slid it onto the table. Seth and Maggie stepped over at the same time. I beat them both to it.

There lay a picture of Lilah, at least I think it was her. I picked it up. She looked drastically different, with way too much makeup on her pretty face and her hair was smoothed out, no curls. She also wore a dark business suit, definitely not Lilah’s typical edgy style. The only thing the same were the eyes, and of course her beautiful smile.

“What’s going on, Book? Why do you have this weird photo of Lilah? Is she hurt?”

He took a deep breath. I’d seen that expression on his face before. Tight eyes, set jaw. Anger, mixed with angst.

“Remember my mentioning that she looked familiar?” I nodded slowly. “That’s because I’d only seen pictures of her with her hair and makeup done up to the nines. I didn’t recognize her without all that garbage on her face. The girl’s almost as good as her dad with disguises.” Booker pointed at the first picture. “The eyes, they’re the same. That’s what I recognized. Then the other day at the hospital she let it slip that she was from Arizona and it clicked. I had to be sure so I took her fingerprints and ran them through the FBI—”

“You took Lilah’s fingerprints?” I bit out. “When? How?” There was no way he asked her, which meant he’d been snooping around.

“Remember when I
gave her the can of Pepsi in the ER? Well, she left it on the desk, and I took it and lifted the prints,” he said, as if it were no big deal he’d investigated my girlfriend.

“So who is she?” Seth demanded.

“Delilah Lopez Dreser.” My chest tightened as Lilah’s name spilled off Booker’s lips, her real name. Maggie gasped, turning pale. Seth wrapped an arm around her protectively as she sat. He, too, looked distraught. I dropped into the chair next to her.

“I didn’t expect to find any information. If you remember, her brother’s prints were erased from the files. But we got lucky. She has a passport. She’s the only one in the family who does actually, well, a legitimate one, which in itself’s a little weird.”

“Are you a hundred percent sure?” My life went from perfect to an utter disaster in a New York minute.

Booker came over to me. “I’m sorry, Cole. I would’ve waited to tell you without everyone else around, but she just got back in town and we need to have a game plan. We can’t wait.”

I sat up. “She’s back in town? When?”

“Her plane landed a couple hours ago. She went straight to her apartment and hasn’t come out.” He squeezed my shoulder. “I’m real sorry.”

“So she doesn’t know we’re onto her? What’s her record look like?” Seth asked, rummaging through the stack of papers in her file. Lilah’s file.

“As far as we know, she doesn’t have a clue we’re onto her. We should have the element of surprise going for us there. Her record’s clean. No arrests, no outstanding warrants, not so much as a speeding ticket. Of course, with the kind of money her dad has, that’s not a surprise. He’s probably paid dearly to have her records cleaned up like he did her brothers.”

“Why’s she here?” Maggie asked, her voice shaky.

“Don’t know yet, but we’re going to find out. I’m
bringing her in for questioning. I wanted to talk to you all first and let you know.” Booker gathered up the photos, returning them to the file.

“On what charges?” Seth asked. “And what about her dad, Harry? Do we know where he is?”

“No, but maybe we’ll get lucky and Delilah will let something slip during the interrogation,” Booker said confidently.

“But on
what charges
?” Maggie asked. “You said so yourself, she’s done nothing illegal.” She stood, taking the file from Booker, thumbing through the pictures once more.

“No. I said she doesn’t have a record, but she soon will. Fraud.” Booker pointed to the man in a photo Booker hadn’t shown us. “This is. . . ah…her ex-husband, David Hudson. The divorce agreement stipulated that she go back to her maiden name. Obviously she hasn’t, and that constitutes fraud.”

“She told me about the marriage the day we were shopping for my wedding dress.” Booker and Seth both jerked around to Maggie. She came over and rubbed my shoulders, ignoring them. “Lilah explained how she’d met the guy while living in a commune and that she’d only known him for two days before deciding to get married. She also said it was a disaster.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I pressed.

“Sorry, Cole. I figured it was her story to tell. Anyway, she wasn’t secretive about it. I’d say more embarrassed than anything. I figured she mentioned it to you.”

I propped my elbows on my knees and buried my face in my hands. This was going from bad to worse.

“Would you two mind if I speak to Cole in private for a minute?” Booker asked.

“No problem.” Seth picked up three suitcases, Maggie grabbed the rest, and they disappeared upstairs.

“Cole, there’s something else you should know. Delilah was pregnant at the time of her divorce. The divorce agreement also stated that the baby was not to be given his last name, and he gave up all rights to the child.” Booker sat down next to me. “David disappeared and hasn’t been heard from since.”

“What about the baby?”

“We don’t know what happened to the baby. There’s not a birth certificate on file for it.”

“Maybe David didn’t want the baby around her family and took it
before going into hiding,” I offered, still reeling from information overload.

“The circumstances around David’s disappearance are suspicious. His car was found abandoned along the roadside, and there were trace amounts of blood,
his blood,
found in the car.”

“Do they suspect Lilah was involved?” I asked, not wanting to know.

“Not sure. She would’ve been very pregnant at the time, but she’s a Dreser. They seem to be capable of a lot of things. She could have easily hired it out. She disappeared around the same time. No one’s seen or heard from her until she showed up here.”

Booker patted me on the back.
“It’s hard to believe,” I said, confused. “It doesn’t make sense. Why’s she here? What’s her plan?”

“I’ve no clue.”

“I’ll find out.” I stood and started for the door. Booker followed.

“Wait. I’ll bring her in for questioning and you can talk to her there. It’s not safe to go over.”

“No, I’ll go to her apartment and talk to her alone. Besides, I’m sure you have someone watching her, right?”

“Yes, but this is ridiculous. Have you forgotten what they did to Maggie? You’re letting your hormones talk here, Doc.”

I turned, sucking in a lungful of air to calm myself. “Give me some credit, Booker. I’d never put Maggie or Seth’s lives in danger over my hormones, thank you very much.”

I ripped the door open and hurried to my car, arriving at her apartment in seven minutes. It was the first time I’d ever driven over the speed limit in my life.

“I’m such an Opie. She probably didn’t have to work very hard to dupe me,” I mumbled to myself as I stepped out of my car, slamming the door shut. “I still can’t believe that it was all a lie.” I scrubbed a hand over my face, frustrated.

If Lilah wanted to hurt anyone, why hadn’t she? She’d been alone with Maggie on several occasions. She could have rigged up something to look like an accident.

I looked around for Booker’s men, but didn’t see anyone. I started for her apartment, stopping several times. Was Booker right? Did Lilah want to hurt my friends? I almost turned around and left.
What am I thinking?
I’m a doctor, not a cop
. “This is way out of my league.”

But I knew Lilah, or at least I thought I did. The whole concept that she was evil didn’t sit well with me. I’d spent every day and most evenings with her. Surely I would’ve seen something to make me question her actions. But there was nothing.

Maybe somehow there was an error with the fingerprints. Then again, the photo Booker had
was
of her. No mistaking it.

I stood in front of her apartment, with my head resting on the door, driving myself insane. I could hear her crying.

I took a deep breath and tapped lightly on the hollow door. The crying stopped, but the door remand shut. I knocked again, this time a little harder, but still no answer.

“Lilah, I know you’re in there. Please open the door.” I waited a few moments, almost giving up when I heard the locks rattle. Slowly the door swung open and there she stood, a complete wreck with her sloppy bun, red face, and heartbreakingly sad eyes.

“Promise you won’t hate me?” she said, looking vulnerable as she stood there biting her lip
.
I wanted to wrap my arms around her. But I didn’t.

Chapter
21

Lilah

“What’s going on?” Cole asked, worry creasing his brow.

“Come in. We need to talk.” I tried tucking the fly-way strands of my hair back into a bun, but gave up. I looked horrible. I came straight home and began sketching a few disguises I’d remembered seeing my dad in before I ran off to Florida
all those years ago. I scurried over and picked up the scattered tissues and shoved them into the overflowing garbage can next to the table where I’d been working

“What’s going on, Lilah?” He didn’t come near me, but stayed next to the door, which was weird.

“I have to tell you something, well, a few things really, but I want you to make me a promise first.” I wiped at my nose with a fresh tissue.

“What’s the promise?” he said calmly.

“I need you to listen to everything I have to say before you leave and never speak to me again.” The words hurt to say, and judging from his tight eyes, he didn’t like hearing them either.