Mad Love: Madison (26 page)

“What did you do then?”

“I gave Yvette my card and then went back to the
car and waited. Sometime around midnight, a man in a black sports car showed
up. Gina got into his car and they drove away. Thinking it was Alex, I followed
them to a hotel about twenty minutes away.”

“Was it Alex?”

“No, it turned out he was a salesman from Louisville.
He had met Gina at a bar earlier that day. He was a bit surprised when she
called him out of the blue and invited him to spend the night with her. While
he and I were getting to know one another in the lobby, she ducked out the
back. By the time I realized I had been had, she was long gone and when I made
it back to Yvette’s…she was dying. She died less than a minute later. I had
barely enough time to get my knife and climb out the window before the police
busted down the door. I figure Alex called them. He was probably hoping I’d be
caught leaning over her body.”

“How did he get your knife?”

“I have no idea. It was in the cabinet behind my
desk underneath a pile of folders the last time I saw it, which was probably
weeks ago.”

“Did Yvette say anything to you before she died?”

He didn’t answer, instead choosing to turn on the
radio. “You must be tired. Why don’t you get some sleep? It’ll be awhile before
we get to Goodwick.”

She laid her hand on his arm. “Was she conscious
when you found her?” At his nod, she asked, “What did she say?”

“She didn’t say anything.”

Her brow furrowed. “She didn’t give you any idea
about where Alex was or who he was, or even if he was the one who killed her?”

“She couldn’t,” he said with tight clipped tones.

“Why?”

“Let’s just say that Alex made sure she couldn’t
talk to anyone ever again and leave it at that.”

10:58
A.M.

They
checked into the first motel they came to when they reached Goodwick. Exhausted,
they dropped their bags by the door, kicked off their shoes, and curled up in
bed. Within moments, they were fast asleep.

Madison was the first to wake. She knew she
should get up, but she couldn’t make herself leave his side. Instead, she laid
as still as possible listening to Ethan’s steady heartbeat under her head. The
few hours of sleep she had gotten lying next to Ethan was the first real
restive sleep she had had in a week, and it felt so good to be so close to him.
She ran her hand over his chest wishing they could remain there at the motel
for the next few days.

Safe away from the world.

Safe away from Alex.

He laid his hand on top of hers. “If you keep
doing that, we’ll never get out of this bed,” he murmured sleepily against her
hair.

“I’m sorry,” she said lifting her head and resting
her chin on his chest. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

He lifted his arm and laid it behind his head. “I
wasn’t sleeping. I was just lying here enjoying the fact that you were lying
next to me.” He dropped a kiss on top of her head and held her close for a
moment before adding, “We have to get up. We have a lot to do today.”

A small groan escaped her lips as she sat up
adjusting her shirt. She glanced at the mirror above the dresser and winced. Running
her hands through her hair, she said, “So, where do we start?”

He ran a hand down his face. “The library.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Todd was a writer. I’m hoping his hometown
library has some information on him.”

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and
walked toward the bathroom. “His bio was full of lies. I don’t think any of
them mentioned Goodwick. They probably don’t even know he was a writer.”

“Still, it’s worth a shot,” he said over a yawn. “If
that doesn’t pan out, we’ll try the local paper. When Yvette mentioned Todd and
Alex to me, she said that they were scarred by something that happened when
they were kids. Hopefully, whatever it was ended up making the news. That would
at least give us Alex’s last name and with any luck a picture.” He started to
get up but instead laid his head back down on the pillow and closed his eyes.

She bit her lip as she stared at him.

He was so beautiful that she ached to reach out
and touch him. She took a hesitant step towards the bed but stopped, as her
cell phone buzzed.

Sighing, she turned to her phone. She frowned
when she read the text message on the screen. “Uh oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Becca sent me a text. All it says is urgent, call
me,” she said as she called Becca back. She waited anxiously until her friend
finally answered the phone.

“About time,” Becca said by way of greeting.
“You’re in trouble.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. What’s going
on?”

“Nicole ended her vacation a little early and
showed up for work this morning. She wants your head on a silver platter.”

“What? Why?”

“She found out that you and Ethan had been
spending a lot of time together off hours.”

Madison gritted her teeth. “So?”

“I warned you. Nicole wants Ethan and she’s not
too happy you’ve moved in on him. She thinks you two have run off together.”

Madison glanced toward Ethan still sprawled out
on the bed and felt her face flush. She turned to face the mirror. “She’s
married.”

“And I keep telling you that she doesn’t seem to
care about that fact. She wants to know why you’re not here.”

“She knows why I’m not there,” she said angrily.
“I sent her an email message telling her I was sick this morning, which happens
to be only the second time this entire year.”

She caught Ethan’s curious look in the mirror.

“She took a whole month off in February and
August,” Madison continued irritably.

“She’s a partner,” Becca replied. “When you make partner,
you can do the same thing, but until then, we have to play by their rules.”

“If she thinks…” Madison bit off her reply. She
had far more pressing problems than Nicole’s jealousy at the moment. She took a
deep breath. “Thanks for letting me know,” she said forcing her voice to sound
calm. “I’ll deal with Nicole next week.”

“Don’t worry about this place. Half the office is
out sick.”

Madison clenched her fist and pursed her lips
together. “And I suppose Nicole is just as worried about them as me.”

Becca chuckled. “They’re not spending the day with
Ethan. I hope I didn’t ruin your fun, but I didn’t want you to get blindsided
if Nicole called you.”

“Thanks,” she said her voice softening. “Oh, and Becca?”

“Hmm?”

“Who told Nicole about me and…” She glanced
toward Ethan and turned back around. “Who ratted us out?”

“Keith. We were in the conference room talking
about the New Year’s Eve party when he casually mentioned that you were
probably going to take Ethan. I kicked him underneath the table but he ignored
me, as he continued to dig the knife into your back. He told Nicole that you’ve
been sleeping over at Ethan’s the last few nights and how he didn’t think that
was appropriate since we basically pay Ethan to work for us. He was worried
that it might be considered unethical and didn’t want you to get into trouble.
Which is funny, considering I caught him flirting with his own secretary a
month ago and had to tell him to knock it off.”

Madison’s mouth fell open. “Why would he say something
like that to Nicole?”

“Because he’s jealous and he’s a jerk. A
dangerous combination if you ask me. He knew exactly how she’d react but he
didn’t care. Look, I have to go. Try not to worry. I’ll see you at the party,
right?”

“I hope so. Bye, Becca,” she said before hanging
up.

Ethan propped his head up. “Problem.”

“No,” she lied. “No problem. No problem at all.” She
jerked her head towards the bathroom. “I’m just going to get ready.” She turned
back to him when she reached the bathroom door. “How long do you think we’ll be
here?”

“I’m not sure. It depends on how much we find out
today. Probably a day or two at the very least. Why?”

“No reason. Just curious,” she said slipping into
the bathroom. A day or two sounded just fine to her. In fact, next to Alex, the
last people she wanted to see at the moment, were Keith and Nicole.

§

8:40
P.M.

Madison
sat down at a table located in the sunroom of Pearl Oliver’s Bed &
Breakfast, a quaint little Victorian B & B located in the heart of downtown
Goodwick. Its restaurant was widely known to be the best eatery in fifty miles.
Or so the retired constable they had last talked to claimed. “Not only could a
person get a reasonably priced meal,” he said with a knowing nod of his gray
head, “but you might find what you’re looking for there.”

According to him, Pearl Oliver had been the
principal of the town’s elementary school for over forty years until she
retired a few years back. “If Todd Abbott and this Alex person were old enough
to attend school, she would know them and remember them,” the constable assured
them. “And,” he added somberly, “if Pearl didn’t know them, then they simply
didn’t exist.”

So, hungry and running out of people to interview,
they continued to Pearl’s, hoping they would have better luck with her than
they did at the library, the local paper, the sheriff’s office, or any of the
other places they had been to that day. It seemed to Madison that they had
talked to almost everyone in town, including every person with the last name
Abbott who happened to live in Goodwick, and each person they spoke to said
basically the same thing.

They had never heard of Todd Abbott.

So, it seemed Pearl was their last hope.

They took a table in the sunroom overlooking the
lake and ordered Pearl’s best, and after eating, waited for Pearl who insisted
on cooking every meal herself, to come out of the kitchen and join them.

She was in her eighties, with white hair and the
palest blue eyes Madison had ever seen. She listened politely as they explained
what they wanted and promised to help if she could, assuring them that her
memory and mind was as sharp as ever. If the men they were looking for passed
through her school, she would know.

Madison, for a moment, felt a surge of hope,
which was quickly dashed when Pearl shook her head.

“There was a Hollis Abbott, a David Abbott, two
in fact, a Michael and a Frank, but no Todd. At least not in the time period
you are talking about.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“I could be mistaken but…” She shook her head.
“No, I’m sorry; there was no Todd Abbott that went to my school.”

Defeated, Madison sat back against her chair.

“It looks like Yvette fed us some false
information,” Ethan said, clearly disappointed by the exchange. He pushed back
his chair and stood. “We’re sorry we wasted your time.”

“Ah, no waste,” Pearl said, “I hope you enjoyed
the food, at least.”

“It was excellent,” Madison said, remembering her
manners.

“I hope you find the man whose threatening you,”
Pearl said. “If I think of anything that might help, I’ll give you a call.”

Ethan reached into his pocket and pulled out a
business card, which he laid on the table in front of Pearl. “Thank you, we
would really appreciate it,” he said pulling back Madison’s chair and helping
her to her feet.

They were almost out the door when Pearl suddenly
called out to them. “Do you have a picture of the boys you’re looking for?”

“Not any of them as children,” Madison said.

“Well, if you have picture of them as adults, I
might be able to recognize them. Children change growing up, but usually not so
much that you can’t recognize them when they get older. Unless of course they had
some work done on themselves.”

Ethan pulled out his phone and navigated to a
picture of Todd he had found on the Internet that morning. He had showed it
almost to everyone he had come into contact with, but had stopped as the day
wore on and more and more people insisted that they didn’t know anyone by the
name of Todd Abbott.

Madison looked over his shoulder and felt sick as
she gazed down at a picture of Todd seated at a low table stacked with books.
He was smiling up at a pretty young woman as he handed her a book. “He was in
his late twenties, we assume, when this was taken,” Ethan said as he walked
back to the table and handed the older woman his phone.

Pearl took out her glasses and peered down at the
screen. A frown crossed her face as she tilted the phone this way and that. “Is
this the only picture you have of him?” she asked handing him back the phone.

Ethan pulled up another picture, this one from an
interview he had given for one of his books.

“It’s a bit grainy,’ she complained. She started
to hand the phone back to him when she paused and brought it closer to her
face. “And his friend’s name you say was Alex?”