Deadly Devotion (20 page)

Tom tried to get ahold of his breath, but the report swiped the air from his chest. Images of the remains of other women who’d been dragged into the woods piled into his mind.

“Oh no!” Julie cried out.

“What?” Tom hammered his escalating urgency into the question, hoping against hope that he was wrong about Edward.

“I just got a text message from Kate. It says, ‘Help. Trapped in ES car near—’ That’s all.” Julie’s voice cracked. “She never finished.”

Tom tamped down the white-hot rage blazing through his veins. “Okay. Stay on the phone. Let me know if there’s any change.”

“ES, that’s got to be Edward. I knew he couldn’t be trusted. The fact she’s still moving is a good sign, though, right? She must’ve typed this earlier, and it only just got through, because she can’t still be trapped in a car if she’s on a trail.”

Tom sped past a slow-moving truck. All they knew for certain was that her
cell phone
was moving off-road. What if Edward intended to toss it—with Kate—over the falls?

The driver of an oncoming pickup laid on his horn and
swerved onto the shoulder as Tom swung back into his own lane.

“Uh, Tom?”

The anxiety in Julie’s voice yanked his taut nerves to the breaking point. “What?” He careened onto Seventeenth Street, fishtailing wildly. Two more minutes and he’d be there.

Julie gulped so loud, Tom could hear the sound over the phone. “She’s stopped.”

“Where?”

“It looks like she’s at the top of the ravine.”

Tom’s heart climbed to his throat. He blew past the main gate and veered to a stop behind Edward’s Porsche. Grabbing his cell, Tom jumped out of his car, gave the Porsche a quick once-over, then booted up the trail toward the falls.
Please, Lord, don’t let me be too late. Not again.

Kate stared at the water roaring over the cliff and dropping to a churning pool eighty feet below. “I really do need to get back to work, Edward. My colleagues will be worried about me.”

He steered her toward a large, flat rock. “Let’s sit over here. What I have to say won’t take long.”

His grim tone made her wonder for the hundredth time what foolish notion had possessed her to walk to the top of a cliff with this imposter instead of screaming for help the second she stepped out of his car. She hadn’t thought she secretly had a death wish, but maybe the voice nudging her to trust Edward wasn’t God’s voice at all.

As if to confirm it, the foliage at her feet rustled, and a snake slithered onto the sun-baked rock.

She bit hard on her lip to hold in a squeal.

Edward broke a branch off a wild plum tree and flicked the snake away. “All clear.”

Her insides squirmed as she backed away from him. “Uh, I’ll stand. Thanks.”

Edward tossed the stick into the river. It careened down the rapids, bouncing from rock to rock until it disappeared over the cliff.

Edward slumped onto the rock. “Daisy showed me this place. Said she liked to come here when she and God had some serious talking to do.”

“That sounds like Daisy. She always felt closer to God when she was out in his creation.” Kate hugged her waist and took another step back.

A hawk screeched overhead, then dove for the earth.

Edward pointed to the raptor swooping away with a mouse in its beak. “That’s how I see God—waiting up there to catch me where I shouldn’t be.”

“No, God’s not like that. The Bible does say God pursues us, but that’s because he longs to love us.”

“I wish I’d asked Daisy more about her faith. She always seemed so . . . content.”

Sensing from Edward’s tormented expression that he battled unwelcome emotions, Kate remained silent, praying for wisdom, praying Edward wasn’t merely lulling her into a false sense of security. Praying she wasn’t an idiot to walk to the top of a cliff with him.

“I have everything I thought I wanted. A home, a great job, a woman who loves me.” He snapped off a violet and plucked its petals one by one. “But I feel so empty.”

A breeze ruffled the grasses, revealing not just violets but orange dogtooth lilies and other wildflowers she hadn’t noticed at first glance. Sensing that God was revealing his presence, his unseen protection, Kate felt her apprehension leach away. “Daisy used to say God put a God-sized hole in each one of us that only he could fill.”

Edward bolted to his feet. “I’m sorry, this was a mistake.”

“Wait.” Water thundered over the cliff, mimicking Kate’s runaway emotions. “You said you wanted to tell me something.” When Edward didn’t respond, she said in a tremulous voice, “Was it about the journal you burned?”

He slumped back onto the rock. “I was wondering when you’d get around to asking me about that.” He rubbed his palm over his forehead. “The truth is, I’m a fraud. I’m not Daisy’s nephew.”

Although the announcement wasn’t news to her, she couldn’t stop the way her body trembled and her feet edged farther away.

Edward lunged forward and gripped her forearms. “You have to believe me. I would never hurt Daisy.”

“Why . . . why are you telling me this?”

“Because if the police reopen her case, they’re bound to find out about my past, who I am. They won’t care that Daisy loved me anyway.”

“Past? You’ve done this before?” The pieces clicked together in Kate’s mind—the article about the con artist, the fact that Daisy’s real nephew was long gone. “You make a living out of conning little old ladies out of their estates?”

“It was never like that. I was more like the son they never had. But yes, Daisy knew. Only I didn’t know she knew. Not until I read her journal. She wrote about how she hoped that by adopting me into her family I’d finally understand God’s love.” Edward’s grip on Kate’s arms tightened. He shook her. “Don’t you see? I had to burn the journal. If you’d read that, you would’ve gone to the police. They never would have believed I didn’t kill her.”

Kate struggled against his hold. “Did you?”

“No!” His shout echoed off the rocks of the cliff face. “I could never have hurt Daisy. I’ve never hurt anyone.”

“You’re hurting me.”

His grip instantly relaxed, but he didn’t let go. “Promise me you won’t tell the police. Next to Molly, you’re the closest thing I have to a friend. And if the truth about me comes out, the police will lock me up and throw away the key. I’ll lose her for good.”

The anguish in his voice cracked the revulsion that had balled in Kate’s chest. She shook off his hold and put more ground between her and the cliff edge. “Does Molly know what you are?”

“What I
was
. Yes.” Edward pushed his fingers through his hair. “I never came to Port Aster intending to swindle Daisy or anyone. I swear it was just dumb luck that my newest alias matched Daisy’s nephew.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“I know it looks bad, but I swear that I came here to start a new life.”

“Then why didn’t you tell Daisy she was mistaken?”

Edward shifted awkwardly. “I tried, but she wanted to believe I was her nephew, have a chance to make amends for forcing her sister to give up her child for adoption.” Edward shook his head. “She pursued me, and I played along. Habit, I suppose. I don’t know.”

“How gullible do you think I am? Not only do you show up in Port Aster to start this new life bearing the name of Daisy’s nephew, but you land a job at the very place she works.”

“It was Molly’s dad’s idea. He saw the ad for the public relations job. A job in a town hundreds of miles away from
his daughter. He said that given my gift for exaggeration, PR was the perfect job for me.”

“Molly’s dad?”

“Molly’s parents refused to consent to our marriage and sent me packing.”

“Because you’re a criminal.”

“No, because they’re Gilmores and I’m a nobody.”

The image of Molly in her black sheath flashed through Kate’s mind. The expensive-smelling fragrance. The glittering . . . “Gilmore, as in the Gilmore Diamonds Gilmores?”

“Among a gazillion other enterprises, yeah.”

“If Molly’s rich, why’s she working at A Cup or Two and living above the bakery in a rinky-dink apartment?”

Edward’s eyes brightened and his lips spread into a cheek-splitting grin. The kind of grin she’d only seen three or four times in her life, always on the face of a groom as he watched his bride glide down the aisle toward him. The kind of grin that said, “I am the luckiest man alive.”

“She says she’s proving to me that she doesn’t care about her parents’ wealth. All she wants is me.”

“You drive a Porsche. You can’t be that bad off.”

“It was a gift . . . of sorts.”

“Oh?” This sounded worse than Kate had feared. Had Edward helped himself to the “gift”? Or blackmailed someone?

“Molly’s dad bribed me to disappear.”

Kate’s breath escaped in a rush. “Does Molly know?”

“I’m sure her dad threw my shallowness in her face the second I drove away. He was always telling her that she had to marry someone with money, otherwise she’d never know whether the guy was marrying her for her, or for her money.”

“Are you marrying her for her money?”

Edward ducked his head. “At first. But not anymore.” He pressed his hand to his chest. “Molly loves me. Me. She loves me enough to defy her parents and fight for my love. Her parents never spent any time with her. They gave her everything she could possibly want except themselves. She doesn’t want to be tied to a rich guy who will always be off working his next deal. So she broke all ties with her parents and set out to find me.”

Kate lifted an eyebrow.

“Believe me, if her father knew she was in Port Aster, I’d be working in Moose Jaw and wearing a Rolex.” He shook his head. “No. That’s not true. I don’t care if Gilmore is the richest man in the country. I won’t be bought off again like some corporate merger. I won’t lose Molly again. No one has ever loved me like she does.” He lifted his gaze to Kate’s. “No one except Daisy.”

Kate nodded. Maybe she was as naïve as Julie kept telling her, but Kate believed him. “I need to know one more thing. Did you frame me for Daisy’s murder? To get me to stop looking?”

“No. Don’t you see? I don’t want the police to take more interest in this case. The more they dig, the more likely they’ll pin the murder on me. They closed the case. Why can’t you just leave it alone?”

“Because someone killed her. No one would go to the trouble of framing me if it wasn’t true.”

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll wind up the same way if you push this?”

Her pulse jumped. “Is that a threat?”

“No.” He grabbed her arms, digging in his fingers. “Stop twisting my words.”

Kate cried out.

“I’m sorry.” His grip eased. “I’m sorry.” His eyes pleaded for absolution. “Please, you’ve got to believe me. I just want to start over with a clean slate. You’re my only hope.”

Tom drew his gun and sprinted full-out the last five hundred yards to the top of the falls. The sight of Kate teetering at the edge, face white, Edward’s fingers clamped around her arms, ripped Tom to shreds. He leveled his gun at the man’s chest. “Let her go. Now.”

Edward’s gaze snapped to his, a crazed glint in his eye. Tom’s throat turned to sandpaper. He tried to swallow, but the torrent of water plummeting over the cliff couldn’t have touched the dryness.

Kate flung her arms and broke Edward’s hold, but instead of running for safety, she stepped in front of him and deliberately obstructed Tom’s line of sight.

Stunned that Crump didn’t immediately clamp his arm around her to protect himself, Tom spoke low and insistent. “Kate, step away from him. Now.”

“Not until you put that gun away.” She lifted her chin, but he didn’t miss how it trembled.

“This man is not who he seems.”

Her eyes narrowed. “There’s a lot of that going around.”

Tom clenched his jaw as her words found their mark. “He’s not your aunt’s nephew. His name is Jim Crump. He’s a con artist who preys on rich old ladies.”

Edward sucked in a breath and took a step backward, dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.

Kate glanced over her shoulder at his stricken face, then
turned on Tom with fight in her eyes. “Edward didn’t kill Daisy. He didn’t even con her. Daisy knew who he was.”

“Is that what he told you?”

“Yes.”

“And you believe him?”

“Yes.” She spat the word. “It’s a bad habit, I know, believing in people.”

Ouch. She sure knew how to deliver the blindside punch. So much for thinking storming to her rescue would make her forget how he’d let her down this afternoon. “It doesn’t matter whether or not he conned Daisy. I’m sure I can dig up a trail of arrest warrants on him,” Tom said, even though he’d spent hours tracking Edward’s history, trying, without success, to find an excuse to arrest him. But he had him now.

Edward held up his hands and stepped around Kate. “There are no outstanding arrest warrants on me. And for the record, I brought Kate here to talk. Nothing more.”

“That’s not what her text message implied.” Tom motioned toward the dirt with the muzzle of his gun. “Down on the ground. You’re under arrest for kidnapping.”

Without a word, Edward dropped to his knees and then laid facedown on the ground.

Not trusting his quick compliance, Tom kept his gun trained on him. “Move away, Kate.”

“You can’t do this. I was upset. I didn’t know what I was saying when I texted Julie.”

“The man had you by the arms at the edge of a cliff when I showed up. Wait for me in the parking lot. We’ll talk about what happened back at the station.”

“No, I won’t go back there. If you expect me to set foot in that police station again, you’ll have to arrest me too.”

The tortured dread rippling beneath her words undermined his resolve. Tom motioned toward the trail, darkened by lengthening shadows as the sun slid toward evening. “Start walking.”

Her watery eyes held his for a moment longer, then she dropped her gaze and shuffled down the trail. No matter what she claimed happened here, the wobble in her legs proved she’d been frightened.