Leave Me Love (10 page)

"JON!" ASH CALLED
for his bother and I tugged his hand, willing him to relax a little, though my nerves were on end too.

Jon
pulled the ear buds out and stuck his iPhone in his bag. "Ash, Catelyn, good to see you."

"I like your
suit," I said. "Is it new?"

He frowned, sensing the undercurrent of unease in the air. "Yeah, it is."

"Funny, that," said Ash. "Bridgette signed Catelyn's name to release her car at the impound. We don't know why, but we do know that a guy matching your description was with her, wearing that very same suit."
Not exactly true, but maybe it would get him to talk.

Ash poked him in the chest
, and I could see Jon puffing up, ready to start something with his older brother. I reached for Ash's hand and implored Jon with my eyes. "Please, Jon, she's missing and we need to know what happened. What was going on?"

He looked down at his feet then sighed and looked up. "Look, it's not what you think. Well, hell, I don't even know
what
you think, but the thing is, Bridgette and I were dating."

That shocked me. "What? That's impossible. She would have told me."

"She knew Ash and I had issues, and she didn't want to cause more problems with everyone, so we decided to keep it under wraps until we knew if it was serious or not."

I sat on a bench under a tree,
and Ash sat next to me.

Jon fidgeted on his feet, then s
at on the grass in front of us. "We were going to tell you soon, but then… she disappeared and I didn't know what to do."

I realized then how hard this must be for him. His girlfriend was missing and because they'd agreed to keep their relat
ionship private, no one even knew he was mourning. I reached out to him, put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry. If I'd known… "

"When did you see her last?" Ash asked.

Jon wiped a tear that had escaped and looked up. "The day before she disappeared. I went to the impound lot with her. She said she had to do something to help you, Catelyn. So I went with her but hung back to take a call while she signed some papers. Then we left."

I could tell he was leaving something out, something critical. His face hid something.
"What else, Jon? We need to know everything."

He hesitated.

“
What else, Jon?
”

"She asked for my help," he said. "To buy a gun."

"A gun? What for?" I asked.

"She was really freaked out after all the stuff with the Midnight Murderer. When you were kidnapped and then in a coma, she was a wreck. That's when we started seeing each other. She was scared and needed someone to talk to."

I knew he was telling the truth, but it made my heart hurt that she was so scared and didn't tell me. I thought about what Gray had said about her journal entries. It all made sense, expect it didn't. Why was she hiding all this? Why was she hiding from me? I pinched the bridge of my nose as pain pushed into my eyes.

When I looked up, Ash was holding me on the ground and Jon looked concerned. They were both staring at me. "What happened? What's wrong?
”

Ash frowned. "You don't remember? You blacked out."

I stood with Ash's help and took a deep breath. "I feel fine now. It was just a headache. I should get my medication. I left it in the car."

We said goodbye to Jon who apologized again and promised he'd tell us if he remembered anything else. Ash drove me home, to our home, a place that was in fact starting to feel more like ours and less like his. We'd even gone shopping for some new paintings and decorations to add some splashes of color and make it feel more like something we'd both contributed to.

I took my medication and logged what happened in my journal as per instructions from my doctor and therapist, then went up to our bedroom and undressed to take a bath.

Ash beat me to it, running the hot water for me and filling the bath with salts and oils. "Do you want to be alone, or could I join you?" he asked.

"Please join me. I've had enough of alone to last a lifetime."

I watched as he stripped to nothing
. I took his hand as he helped me into the bath then got in behind me, wrapping his legs around mine.

I rested my head against his chest and closed my eyes, letting my mind drift as his hands rubbed a sponge over my body
and between my legs. Letting go of the sponge, he moved his hands up, cupping my breasts and teasing my nipples. When he dropped one hand and slipped a finger between my legs, I rubbed my back against his hard cock, pushing my hips into his hand as I fought for the release I was so desperate for.

When I came, he massaged me, demanding nothing more despite his hard-on. He kissed my neck and we fell into silence, holding each other, enjoying the heat of the water.

"I'm scared, Ash," I confessed.

"I know, sweetheart, but I promise I will do everything in my considerable power to protect you."

"Someone's setting me up, aren't they?" I needed to hear him say it. Needed to know I wasn't imagining this.

"Yes, it looks like it. But we'll find out who and why."

"And Brig, in her diary, all her fear, and the gun. Why? It couldn't be her, could it? Why would she try to hurt me that way? I just can't imagine it."

"There's got to be an explanation that makes sense," he promised. When his cell phone rang on the shelf by the bath, he checked the number then answered it. After another mono-syllabic conversation, he hung up.

"That was Jim."

I turned around in the bath to face him. "What did he say? Did he find something?"

"Yes," he frowned. "A place was rented recently."

My heart skipped a beat in excited nerves. "By Bridgette?"

He shook his head. "No. By you."

WE TOOK ASH'S
motorcycle at my insistence. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and feel the power of his bike thrumming underneath me. He fought me on it, worried about my head, but I assured him I'd be fine. I needed the adrenaline rush and didn't want to sit in a car.

My fingers dug into his flexed chest muscles as he drove to the edge of town
. Finally, we arrived at a dilapidated motel by the side of the road, a rundown affair patiently waiting for weary travelers who were too tired or too desperate to find a place more suitable for safety and sleep. We walked into the main lobby.

An old man sat behind the check-
in counter watching M*A*S*H reruns on a small black and white television. He vehemently sucked on a peppermint candy, a bowl of which lay by his hand. The whole room smelled like peppermint, a creepy smell in this dingy room with its peeling paint. The waiting room had one lonely chair with a small but growing hole in the center of its orange seat. I could imagine a rat gnawing through it, slowly growing the hole until the seat no longer remained.

"Excuse me," I said.

The man turned, his eyes bloodshot and coated with a milky, creamy film. He smiled a half-toothless smile. "You need a room?" he said through the peppermint on his tongue.

"No. I need to know about a room you rented." I took out my phone and showed him a picture of Bridgette. "This girl rented a room under the name of Catelyn Travis."

He peered closely at the picture, squinting and pulling my hand so that the phone was an inch from his eyes. "Ah, yuh. Didn't recognize her ‘til that P.I. came by. Sure, she got a room. Paid for a month in cash. Can't turn down that, now can I? Don't get much business ‘round here since that fancy Hilton popped up."

I had no doubt that was not the major detractor to his business, but I held my tongue. "Can we see the room, please?" I showed him my ID. "I'm actually Catelyn."

He scratched his chin, considering. "Well, seeing’s how the room's in your name. Figure I gotta let ya, don't I? Room's locked up tight. Ain't seen no one there. After that P.I. told me about the girl I had to call the cops, you know. Since everyone is looking for her. But seeing’s how the room's in your name, like I said, then figure I can give you a peeksee ‘til they get here. Can't harm me for that, right? With your name and all."

"No, they can't harm you for that," I assured him.

Knowing the police had been called made me nervous. I had no doubt Detective Gray would be showing up on his proverbial white horse to slay the dragon and save the girl. With me, unfortunately, in the role of the dragon.

When he opened the room for us, the first thing I noticed was the smell.
An old, wet, moldy smell that I was sure predated Bridgette's rental of this place. The second thing I noticed were the pictures.

Hundreds of them
, everywhere. All of Bridgette and Ash in innocuous poses.

Ash sucked in his breath and the old man chuckled. "That man be you, sir. Looks like you got caught between two beautiful women. Worse places to be, I figure. Worse places
, indeed."

I turned to the man. "Can you give us a moment?"

"Sure thing. I'll be in the office if you need me. This one’s a good one. That guy Hawkeye is just too much," he said, referring to his M*A*S*H episode.

Ash closed the door behind him and we stared at the pictures, not wanting to touch anything and contaminate it with our prints. "What is this?" I asked.
“I don't understand.”

"I don't either." Ash circled the room, stepping over trash on the floor to examine the different photos. "Bridgette and I didn't spend that much time together. Whoever took these worked hard to catch every moment I was ever around her."

I looked at the clothes and bags on the bed. "Ash, some of this is my stuff, things Bridgette bought me when she dragged me shopping. The rest looks new, but it's all in my size and style."

Before we could ponder what that might mean, Detective Gray walked in, weapon drawn. I backed into Ash, who caught me around the waist and held me.
Other officers crowded into the room, making me feel claustrophobic and anxious.

"
Watch them. Don't let them leave." Gray pointed at us, and an officer nodded.

Ash
stepped in front of me. "This isn't Catelyn's room, Detective. I hired a private investigator to help find Bridgette. He discovered she rented this room out under Catelyn's name. The owner confirmed it. Then the owner called
you
."

Gray chewed on his lip. "Wait
in the hallway."

Ash escorted me outside
and we sat on the porch near the door, a burly officer standing beside us with his hand on his holster.

I put my head between my legs, breathing slowly as Ash rubbed my back. I pulled an anti-anxiety pill out of my purse and popped it without water.

I
lost track of time. When Gray finally came out, he had a self-satisfied expression on his face. "Catelyn Travis, you're under arrest for the kidnapping and disappearance of Bridgette Beaumont. You have the right to remain silent…"

The handcuffs gripped my wrists and Ash stood, looking helpless, jaw set in an angry line. "Don't say anything. Maxwell will meet you at the police station. Don't say a word until he gets there. I love you." He kissed me on the lips. "I love you and I will protect you."

"WE KNOW YOU
forced her to buy you expensive gifts, clothes, purses. Give you cash. You made her check out the room for you." Detective Gray sat across from me. My chair was uncomfortable. The room was empty except for a large mirror on the wall.

I said nothing, clenching my fists.

Gray continued, "We found your fingerprints all over the place."

"Impossible." I clasped a hand to my mouth.
Shit. Don't say anything. Don’t say anything.

He grinned. "Look, I get it. Your best friend was seeing your boyfriend behind your back.
You had to follow them, take a few photos to make sure. Cheating is a hard thing to deal with—trust me, I know. I mean, what a bitch. She was screwing your guy one minute, visiting you in the hospital the next. Playing BFF the whole time. I mean, the fucking bitch needed to be taught a lesson, right?"

I didn't respond.
They couldn't have any fingerprints. They wouldn't have had enough time to test for any, right?

Someone knocked on the door. Gray stood up, talked to an officer outside, stepped back in. "You're free to go."

As I passed him, he whispered in my ear. "We have her diary, Miss Travis. Confess now. Make it easier on all of us."

I didn't face him as the
uniformed officer escorted me out. Ash waited for me in the lobby and held me against his chest when he saw me. "I got you out as fast as I could. It was easier with your medical condition."

T
he police had given me my medication, but lying on a cot in a cold cell followed by an interrogation wasn't exactly the ideal place for my body to heal. Maxwell stood behind Ash, and I thanked him once Ash let me go. "I couldn't stand another minute in there," I said.

Maxwell squeezed my hand. "You didn't say anything, did you?"

"No, nothing. I did as you said.”

He nodded. "Good. I'll come by later so we can strategize but
, first, you've got an appointment with your therapist. She helped us get you out faster, contingent on you meeting with her as soon as bail was posted."

I just wanted to go home, take a long bath and curl up on the couch with Ash while we listened to music and read books, but I guess this was better than staying in jail.

Lauren looked composed and beautiful as always in an expensive suit skirt and blouse in neutral tones. Ash waited outside for me, kissing my forehead before Lauren closed her door and I sat in my customary chair.

She sat across from me, a notebook posed on her knee
, the scent of her unique perfume filling the room. "How are you?"

I was going to say "fine
," but instead I burst into tears that turned to body heaving sobs that left my ribs sore and my eyes swollen. Lauren handed me a box of Kleenex and waited until my breathing slowed and I could talk again.

"I'm scared," I said.

"That's understandable." She handed me a glass of water and I drank deeply. "What scares you most?" she asked.

"That I'm being framed for Bridgette's kidnapping. That they will convict me of murder and I'll spend my life behind bars. That I'm going crazy and imagining things, even though I know I'm not. Honestly, I'm terrified of everything right now. The whole world seems out to get me and I know that makes me sound paranoid but what other explanation is there?" I dabbed at my eyes. "Maybe not the whole world, but certainly someone. I'm sure it's my parents' killer. He wants me to suffer, though I can't imagine why. And that means he has Bridgette and who knows what he's doing to her and setting me up for." My whole body shook as I talked and I had to forcibly calm myself to maintain composure.

"Everything you're feeling is completely normal, Catelyn. I know it doesn't feel like it, but it's true. You have a lot of people around you who love you and want to help, and you have one of the best attorneys in Massachusetts. It's not hopeless."

I sat back, pulling my legs up and hugging them like a child. "How was my mom before she was killed? Did she behave any differently?" I'd been thinking more about my mom lately, how she might have been, what she was like as an adult. Until recently I'd always seen her through the eyes of a child, or young teen, but now I was starting to look at her through the eyes of an adult and it made me curious about what she was going through. Did she suspect something bad was going to happen?

Lauren paused for a long moment before speaking. "I suppose it can't hurt to share with you about her. She's dead and you are her next of kin." Lauren's eyes unfocused to something in the past and I waited for her to compose her thoughts. "Alice was scared in the last few weeks of her life."

My heart pounded in my chest and I dropped my feet to the ground, sitting forward, attentive, soaking up each word in hopes it would loosen some secret that would help me figure out the truth.

Lauren took a bottle of perfume out of her desk and dabbed her wrist with it. The sweet scent filled the room again. She was lucky I wasn't sensitive to smells, but some of her patients would have been. I wondered if they ever said anything about it.

She settled back into her chair and frowned.
"She started having doubts about some of the people closest to her."

When she didn't continue I prompted her. "Did she ever say who?"

Lauren shook her head. "No, she just said she worried that a close friend had betrayed her, but she wouldn't give me any details, though I pressed. I think she was worried that if anyone else knew, their life would be in danger."

She didn’t say any more, and our session ended.
I left Lauren's office with a prescription for antidepressants and more questions than I'd had going in.

Which of my mom's friends killed her?