Bridal Reconnaissance (18 page)

“Thank you.”

She kept the cordless in her hand as she walked back across the catwalk, intending to strip off the wedding gown and return it to the garment bag.

Outside the two-story windows the sun rose higher in the sky, reflecting off the lake below it. On the upper level, she could see above the tops of the trees that lined the hillside as it dropped down to the beach.
The water stretched out endlessly, glittering in the early-morning sun.

As she paused to drink in the awesome sight, the phone jangled against her palm. She lifted it to her ear. “That was fast.”

“Not at all, Amanda, in fact it’s taken much too long. But I’m close now, so very, very close.”

The voice jolted through her, filling her with fear and the phone shook in her hand.

“Remember me, Amanda?”

Chapter Ten

Evan nodded at one of Dylan’s deputies and stepped over the police tape at the end of the public dock. “He’s been waiting for you,” Deputy Jones said, gesturing down to where the sheriff stood near a tied-up fishing vessel.

Royce and the coroner stood near the lawman. “He’s only been dead a couple of hours, Sheriff,” the medical examiner estimated.

As Evan approached them, he peered over their hunched shoulders to find a body on the dock. A gray-haired man lay on his side in a puddle of thick blood, empty eye sockets gaping back at those who stared at him.

Horror and rage surged through Evan. “It was Weering. No doubt about it.”

Royce nodded grimly while Dylan jotted down a couple of notes.

“Who was he?” Evan asked.

Royce shrugged while Dylan answered without looking up, “One of old Sheriff Buck’s friends. A retired schoolteacher. Good guy. Probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“He saw Weering.”

“Only person who has so far in Winter Falls.” Dylan sighed and slapped his pad closed. Then he nodded to the coroner, letting the man take the body away.

“Did you find the murder weapon?” Evan asked.

“Fishing fillet knife was the doc’s guess. Gone.”

Knives were easy to find, especially in a fishing town. But still, knowing Weering was armed already…

“I’ve gotta get back to Amanda and Christopher.” Fear for their safety made him want to race back to his car and then race it back to the house.

Dylan caught his arm, his grasp firm. “This guy’s extremely dangerous, Evan.”

Evan shook off his brother-in-law’s grip and his concern. “Tell me something I don’t know. This isn’t his first victim, Dylan.”

And neither, probably, was Amanda. “Royce, have you turned up anything to link him to other crimes? Any evidence?”

Royce sighed and ran a hand over his weary face. “I’ve been working on it, Evan, working with agents I know. We’ll turn it up.”

But he didn’t guarantee that it would be in time. Royce knew better than to make those kinds of promises.

But Evan had promised Amanda that she was safe. Had he lied?

“There’s more,” Dylan said.

“What?”

“The killer took more than the knife. He took the
boat that the victim has had permission to use. It would usually be docked here.”

“The boat’s gone?”

“Yeah, it was Buck’s.” Buck Adams was the retired sheriff of Winter Falls and Dylan’s longtime mentor. “The old friends were meeting here to go fishing.”

“Buck’s all right?”

Dylan’s sigh was full of relief. “Yeah, he’s fine. He was late, but early enough to find the body. He also found some money, a lot of money, lying on the body. It’s already in an evidence bag on its way to the crime lab.”

Evan doubted they’d be able to trace it to Weering. Despite his madness, the killer was too smart to be caught like that. “So he tried to buy the boat. He thinks everything and everyone’s for sale.”

Dylan shook his head. “He’ll find that’s not true in Winter Falls, Evan. This is a good town.”

Evan nodded. “Yeah, but there are always a few who can be bought.” Alone, Weering was
too
dangerous, but with help…

“Buck didn’t have a gun or anything in his boat, did he?” Evan thought to ask.

“Of course not.”

But Weering didn’t use a gun. Shooting a victim wasn’t painful enough, not personal or vicious enough. He enjoyed torture. Half his pleasure coming from the mental death of his victim, the other half the physical death.

“You have to find him. I have to get home now!” Because with the boat, Weering now had water ac
cess. If he could get past the gate and the guard at the beach, he could get to Amanda.

Evan prayed he would get home in time.

A
MANDA KNEW HIS VOICE
and not just from his television interview or from when she had visited him in prison that once or even from the courtroom. She remembered it reaching out to her from the darkness, wrapping around her, as she lay trapped. Scared. Alone. Praying for Evan to save her.

Then the sunshine blinded her, pain lancing through her head, and the memory was blessedly gone.

But still the voice purred in her ear. “Amanda, are you there?”

Silence was her only response.

He chuckled. “Of course, you are. I can see you. You look gorgeous in that wedding gown. Are you wearing that for me? Will you be my bride, Amanda?”

He could see her. Taunting her. Playing with her.

Where the hell was he?

In the house with her? With Christopher?

She whirled around, checking every doorway for someone watching her with one eye, the other scarred and blind.

No, Evan had assured her that she would be safe here. She had seen the guard at the gate. He couldn’t be inside.

He couldn’t.

Weering chuckled again, obviously delighted at scaring her.

She couldn’t let him win. She couldn’t be his vic
tim again. “I’m already someone’s wife,” she managed to say.

His laughter evaporated. “But that doesn’t count, Amanda. You don’t remember him. I took your memory away. You only know what I’ve let you know.”

Control. He wanted it over every aspect of her life. And she had let him think he had it. She had given it to him. But no more.

She gazed over the railing, down the tree-lined hill to the water. Out on the cresting waves a boat bobbed. Was he there? Far enough away to not touch her physically, just mentally?

He had stolen her memory once. She wouldn’t let him do it again. “I’m remembering now. I’m remembering everything.”

“You lying bitch!”

“No, it’s true.” She continued, her voice growing stronger. “Yesterday, after seeing you in the woods, I saw another shrink, a good one. He thinks it’s just a mental block that I put there. So I can take it away…when I want to, when I’m ready, when I’m strong enough—”

“Shut up!”

“And I’m strong enough now—”

“You’re going to be dead soon, Amanda. The dying are never strong. They’re weak and helpless. They beg for their lives. You’ll beg, Amanda. You’ll beg to be my bride, so that I’ll let you live just a little longer. Just long enough to consummate our vows, my darling. You’ll beg…”

From somewhere she summoned the courage to laugh at him. “I’d rather die.”

Then she clicked the phone off, breaking her con
nection to him. But she still felt his rage at her impudence.

What had she done? Had she enraged him so that he would act too quickly, before she could get away and get Christopher and Evan out of danger?

Her trembling legs carried her to the doorway of the room where Christopher slept soundly, completely oblivious to the danger his mother had just put him in. “I’m sorry, baby. So sorry.”

For the danger. And for having to leave him. But William Weering had given her no choice. He wouldn’t give up and she couldn’t risk her loved ones.

She backed from her son’s room, closing the door behind herself. At the sound of a footstep on the stairwell, she whirled around, still clad in the bulky wedding gown.

What if he hadn’t been on the boat?

How close had he been? Inside?

Desperate for a weapon she glanced around, grabbing up a heavy steel sculpture from the hall table. With it raised above her head, she approached the stairwell.

But instead of pale blond hair, the person climbing the steps had black. Not short like Evan’s and Christopher’s, but just as shiny. The woman, catching sight of Amanda’s attack posture, staggered back against the railing. “Hey, take it easy!”

Dark eyes widened in an alabaster complexion as the woman drank in Amanda’s whole bizarre appearance. Simultaneously, Amanda realized who the stranger was.

The wedding gown and the weapon were not the attire Amanda would have chosen for her first meet
ing with her sister-in-law. Because of her resemblance to Evan, Amanda had no doubt that this was Evan’s sister, but a memory teased her subconscious. She had assumed Evan was an only child. But yesterday this woman’s husband and Evan had talked about her, Lindsey.

Amanda lowered the sculpture, her arms trembling with leftover adrenaline from her verbal run-in with Weering. “I’m sorry. I thought you were…someone else.”

“Evan?” The woman’s tone was sharp, her dark eyes full of suspicion.

Amanda gasped. “Oh, no. I wouldn’t hurt him.”

Liar.

She cursed herself for hurting him just that morning with her resentful words and her absurd accusations. “You must be Lindsey, his sister, right? And I’m his wife.”
His wife.
She was surprised by how naturally the words rolled off her lips.

“So you’ve remembered?” The suspicion didn’t leave the dark eyes that burned with resentment, also.

Amanda sighed. “Not really, but I believe him. He showed me things.”

Under the other woman’s intense scrutiny, Amanda’s face flamed and she rushed to clarify, “Our marriage license. Our wedding albums.”

“So that explains the dress. Thought you’d try it on to jog your memory.”

“No, I made this…for someone else.”

“I’ve seen those albums, too. It looks like the one you wore.” Lindsey noticed.

“That’s what I thought, too. That’s why I put it on. But I really need to take it off now and pack it
away. I didn’t intend to keep it on, but the phone rang…”

Lindsey stepped closer.

She shuddered. “
He
called.”

“He? Him? That guy who attacked you and that the stupid politicians released?” Rage replaced the suspicion. “But how? Evan’s number is unlisted.”

“Unlisted?”

“Yeah, you see how he values his privacy, how he wants to keep people out. This house is a fortress. So since his number is unlisted, how the hell—”

“Money. Power.” Dread rolled through Amanda’s stomach. “He can find a way. He’ll always find a way to get to me.”

That was why she had to leave. To protect those she loved and that Evan loved. Their safety was much more important than hers.

“He can’t get to you now. Not with Evan standing in the way,” Lindsey said. Then fear flashed in those dark eyes. Evan’s sister had come to the same conclusion that Amanda had. If she stayed, he would get hurt.

“I—I need to change—” Amanda started.

“And I need to call my husband.”

“The sheriff. I met him. I truly appreciate all he and your friends, Royce and Sarah and Jeremy, have done for my son and me.”

Lindsey reached out, her hand squeezing Amanda’s fingers before she took the sculpture from her. “I’ve just learned what’s going on, Amanda, but I want to do what I can to help, too.”

As Amanda had feared, everybody Evan cared
about was willing to put himself or herself in danger for her. She had to leave as soon as possible.

“After I call him I’ll put some coffee on. I could use some and you probably could, too.” As Lindsey descended the stairs, she grumbled about people trying to keep her in the dark.

After stripping off the dress and finding some clean jeans and a bulky sweater to throw on, Amanda hurried downstairs, following the scent of coffee and the low hum of hushed voices. In the kitchen she found Lindsey filling cups and holding court over the men present. Unobserved, she blatantly eavesdropped on their conversation.

Evan, standing taller and darker than the sheriff and the ex-FBI agent, dragged a hand through his hair. “She didn’t faint? She must have been so scared.”

She could hear him mentally cursing himself for leaving. And since he had returned with law enforcement, she doubted that his reason for doing so had had anything to do with his “business.” He had been doing something for her, to help her, as he had since she had first opened the door to him a few short days ago.

Lindsey laughed. “You act like she’s fragile or something. She was brandishing that ugly steel sculpture thing when I walked in—could have scrambled my brains with it.”

Evan’s mouth quirked into a brief grin. “If a bomb didn’t do it, I doubt that would have. And you wouldn’t know good art even if it did hit you over the head.”

His sister jabbed an elbow in his ribs. “I know what I like.”

Ashamed of herself for listening, Amanda cleared her throat. “Hello.”

Evan separated from his friends at the counter to drag Amanda into his arms. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. “Fine. It was only a call.”

“On an unlisted line,” Lindsey reminded her.

“There are ways to get unlisted numbers,” Royce admitted, sipping from his coffee mug. “Get me a couple more cups, Lindsey. I’ll bring ’em out to the Murphys and get details on what they saw.”

“They saw him?” Amanda’s heart lurched at the thought of his being so close.

Evan leaned back, staring into her eyes with calm assurance. Why did she feel it was only a front to protect her? She pulled from his arms.

“He was on a boat some distance from the beach,” Evan assured her.

“He must have had binoculars, though. He knew what I was wearing.” She shuddered again, remembering the fear his words had sent coursing through her. And he’d still been too damn close to those she loved.

“By the time security called it in, he’d fired up the motor and taken off. We’ve alerted the coast guard to watch for him. We’ll find him, Amanda.”

She nodded although she didn’t believe they would, at least not in time. “What else did you find this morning?”