Not This Time (38 page)

Any second her heart was going to rocket right out of her chest. “Even the bad stuff?”

“Especially the bad stuff.”

She looked out the window, insanely content. A man who knew the bad stuff and loved her anyway.
Amazing
—
and nothing at all like Max
. Spotting the mailbox post, she pointed. “Is that it?”

He checked the GPS coordinates on his phone app. “Looks like.”

The washboard dirt road had dust lifting into a cloud behind them. Joe drove on and the rusty shed came into view, looming like the remains of a life. With all the weeds and twisted trees, knowing what was found in that shed and what had been done there had Beth’s skin crawling.

“You okay?” Joe scanned her face.

“Creeped out, but fine.”

“Considering the history here, being creeped out is sensible.” He parked near the rusty shed beside Bill and Ken’s police cruiser.

“Owning it is worse. We’re ditching it. I might burn this shed down.”

“Couldn’t blame you.” He winked. “Ready?”

She nodded and they got out of the SUV, then greeted Ken Matheson and Bill Conlee. Both were in uniform. Matheson was young and brash, and Bill carried the weariness of a more seasoned cop. She liked him immediately and in their discussion pegged him as a teddy bear of a man: respectful and very careful to be precise and accurate. Matheson called him Deacon, and Joe asked how he’d gotten the moniker.

Ken gave Joe an odd look. “He’s a deacon.”

Beth bit back a smile and listened to all they had to say about the discovery and everything that had happened afterward. When they were done, Beth
still wasn’t convinced. “Bill, how could Robert Tayton, med student or no, lose all that blood and survive?”

Squinting against the late afternoon sun, he seemed lost in thought. “That’s troubled me too. The heat in the shed that day stole my breath away.”

“What the heat didn’t take, the stench did.” Ken scrunched his face. “It would’ve gagged maggots.”

Bill shot him a look to keep his comments to himself. “Yet the blood was cold. I still haven’t figured that out.”

Joe’s eyes narrowed. “Cold? In that heat?”

“In that heat.” Bill nodded. “Figured the blood might be stage props because of it, but forensics don’t lie. It was Mr. Tayton’s blood.”

Joe rubbed at his temple. “I don’t remember cold blood being in your report.”

Bill looked to his partner.

Ken shrugged. “My fault if it’s not. I wrote it up.”

“Better check it again and if it isn’t, file a supplemental correcting that.”

“Will do, Deacon.”

Bill remained thoughtful. “I remember stooping down by the mattress—it was pretty disconcerting to see that much blood, you know—and spotting a glint. Looked like a glass shard until it disappeared right before my eyes.” He shrugged. “I put it down to a trick of the light, but now, I wonder.”

“Mind if I take a look in the shed?” Joe asked.

“No reason not to. Coroner’s released it and Beth owns it.” Bill cocked his head. “The lock’s busted …”

“Thank you, Bill.” Joe extended his hand.

He clasped and shook. “You thinking that blood was on ice?”

Joe nodded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Could be right.” The deputies retreated to their cruiser, then headed to the highway.

“You can wait out here,” Joe said. “I won’t be long.”

Gathering his own impressions. Beth’s instincts hummed. “Thoughtful, but I’m coming. Just stay close.”

“For as long as you like, sha.”

They walked through the dark shed with flashlights. “Ugh. Ken wasn’t joking about the stench.” She gagged.

“Go back outside.” Joe looked closely. “I’ll be just a second.”

Not waiting to be told twice, Beth stepped out the door and gulped in fresh air.
Horrible place. Definitely razing it
.

When Joe came outside, he looked green. “Man, that’s raunchy.” He kept walking toward the Highlander.

Beth stepped lively to catch up, slid into the car, and as soon as Joe started it, she turned up the air full blast to blow off the stink and cool down. “We need to look hard at the forensics report on that mattress.” She reached for the findings file.

“What are you thinking?”

From his expression, he knew exactly what she was thinking. He was testing her, pure and simple. “That I was even more right than I originally thought. The truth really is in Robert’s blood.” She flipped open the file. “Forensics estimated the loss at six pints. That’s more than enough to kill a man and end any further investigation.”

“Not without a body.” Joe glanced her way. “They had to prepare to go before a judge and declare no doubt that the man was dead.”

Hope sparked. “So they ran other tests immediately, while the blood was fresh and accurate results could be obtained?”

“A variety of them.” Joe glanced at Beth. “What are you looking for?”

Another test. Hand to her face, she admitted, “I don’t know.” Obviously Robert hadn’t lost all that blood at one time or he’d be dead. “Did you personally review the report?”

“He was dead—case closed.” Joe shrugged. “Come drive and I’ll look at it now.”

They switched seats and he dove into the report. Several page flips, then suddenly he stopped. “Whoa.”

“What?”

“The samples tested from different areas of the mattress have different glucose results.”

“Sugar levels change, depending what you eat or drink, whether or not you’re exercising—all kinds of things affect that.”

“Yeah, but not this substantially, this short-term,” Joe said.

“Which proves …”

Joe’s expression flattened. “The blood came out of Robert but over time. Not in a single, violent bleed-out incident.”

The little hairs on her neck lifted. “I hoped you’d say that.” Beth signaled a left turn back onto Highway 331. “A med student could draw blood. If he did it over time, then he had to preserve it.” She glanced at Joe. “Freeze it?”

“Thaw it at one time, it decomposes at one time.” Joe nodded. “Forensics was first interested in quantity to see if they were looking for a wounded or dead man. Once they determined he was dead, they’d run the battery of tests, but why bother with more than a cursory review of the results? The guy had to be dead.”

“Bill Conlee said the blood was cold—and that disappearing glint he thought was glass could have been ice.” She reached for her phone. “I’m calling Jeff to search Sara’s freezer.”

“He’s already checked hers and Darla Green’s and Nora’s.”

“You’ve already thought of all this.”

He smiled.

“Why are you testing me?”

“You’re smart, Beth. It’s helpful to know how smart.”

“So how am I doing?”

“Great.” He gave her a dreamy smile. “I’m enchanted.”

She snorted and smacked his thigh. “Focus, Joseph.”

“I am, sha.”

“Not on me. On where else Robert would hide frozen blood and the stuff he needed to draw it.” Beth tapped the steering wheel. “He’s taken extreme measures to point blame elsewhere. If he’s alive, he had to know someone would look into how he dropped six pints of blood and lived. He’d be prepared.”

“What aren’t you saying?”

He read her like a book. “It’s a game to Robert and he means to win. He’d blame me.”

“For control of SaBe, he might.”

“Then NINA gets what it wants—whether he’s with them or their victim—and he gets what he wants. Me out of his way.” Beth continued thinking aloud. “Sara pulled the financial plug on him. He’d kill her for that. Doing what he did to his parents, do you doubt he’d do it to Sara?”

“No.” Joe grunted his disgust. “He couldn’t get to her money through her anymore, so it’s logical he’d steal Sara’s power to access it. But then you still stood in his way.”

Beth nodded. “But if he got me out of the way and drove Sara into an attack that killed her, then he’d have free reign with her money and at SaBe.”

“Not if she died. If she died, he didn’t get a dime.”

“He doesn’t know that.”

“Maybe he does.” Joe frowned. “What if he did know and he wanted her alive? He forces her to bend to his will, you’re out of the way, and he has free reign personally and at SaBe.” Joe stilled. “Robert didn’t set you up for his kidnapping, sha. He set up Sara. If she’s alive and in jail for kidnapping him, he gets access to her money and SaBe, including whatever NINA wants to know—unless Sara countered that move and he knows that too.”

“Okay, it could turn out to be any or all of those things. Regardless, Robert covers his bases. If he didn’t know he’d been disinherited, it makes sense. If he did, it still makes sense. Either way, he neutralizes Sara and me and he’s running everything unfettered except my personal funds.”

Joe chewed a stick of gum.

“Craving a cigarette?”

“For the first time in months.” His frown deepened.

“It’ll pass.”

He wadded up the wrapper. “Yeah.”

“So weighing it all, which of us do you think he set up, Joe?” Beth felt torn. “I can see it either way.”

“I think both, but I’m still working through it.” He chewed slowly. “So say Robert knew Sara had cut him out of her will. If he got her arrested for his abduction, then she’s on ice in prison and he can spend at will.”

“Just her personal funds. Not SaBe’s.” Beth nodded. “But that only works if Sara’s alive. He had to figure all this stress would cause an attack with high odds of killing her. He’s too sharp not to realize that.”

“Yes. Which makes setting you up the better choice because SaBe is where the real money is.” Joe stuffed the gum into the wadded paper. “Robert might not have known what Sara had done, but he had to suspect she might. If he’s alive, he’d keep as many options as possible open to blame her or you. Give himself maximum flexibility.”

“If he’s alive.”

“Or if NINA brought him into Dead Game, got rid of him, and stepped into his place.”

Robert might have started all this on his own and then NINA forced its way in. He could join them or die. “That’s possible too.” Beth looked over. “Did you find out anything on Clement?” He supposedly had proof Robert was alive.

“He’s disappeared.”

“NINA?”

“Maybe.” Joe didn’t spare her a glance. “My sources don’t expect him to surface.”

Someone had gotten to the man. Beth’s stomach soured. “So where did
Robert freeze and store the blood?” Beth searched her mind, blinked and then blinked again. The answer was so obvious she’d looked right past it. “At the one place Sara and I frequently accessed and he rarely showed up. SaBe.”

“That could implicate anyone who works there.” Joe blew out a breath. “Maximum flexibility. But wouldn’t someone notice blood in the freezer?”

“Doubtful,” Beth said. “No one uses the freezer. I’ve never opened it. The fridge has a door dispenser for water and ice—and I’ll bet no one else has opened the freezer part either.”

Joe shot her a questioning look. “Robert has a key to SaBe offices?”

“Sara’s.” Beth shrugged. “He snitches it, copies it, returns the original, and he’s in. No one is around on the weekends except one security guard. He could go in and pull the blood. He’d have all the privacy in the world.”

“That’s motive, means, and opportunity. But if he was setting up Sara, what would her motive be for kidnapping him?”

“Other than him blowing through her money, bouncing checks, and causing her a lot of grief? Her housekeeper said Sara’s been really unhappy. Robert could use that against her.”

“He could definitely make that work.” Joe glanced over. “We’re on target, sha. Let’s force his hand.”

“How?”

“We’ll run this by Jeff. If it holds up, then we leak to the press that you and Sara have been cleared in Robert’s case, we have two persons of interest, and, if things go as we expect, we’ll be making an arrest shortly.”

“If he is alive, that’ll freak him out.” A little bolt of pleasure rippled through her.

“It’ll have him ready to commit murder. Yours and Sara’s.” Joe looked at Beth, a frown settling deep on his face. “It’ll freak out NINA too. I’m not so comfortable with that.”

“Neither am I. But it could be the only way we’ll ever know if he’s acting with NINA or in spite of them.” Beth mulled it over and then made the call, grateful Joe would be there, watching her back. And—no small thing—she
wouldn’t have to be strong alone. If she needed to, she could lean on him, and he’d be there for her. A little shiver raced through her.
Definitely a sign
. It warmed her inside, down deep.

“Talk to Jeff. Let’s flush Robert out and find out how he and NINA connect.” She shoved her hair back from her face. “But first let’s go to SaBe and check the freezer.”

Joe’s phone rang. “Jeff,” he told Beth, then put him on speaker.

“When will you guys be back?”

“Fifteen minutes,” Beth estimated.

“Go straight to Sara’s and park around back so your car can’t be seen from the street.”

“Why? What’s happened now?” Her heart skipped a full beat. “Oh no. Is it Nora?”

“No word on Nora,” Jeff said. “Darla Green’s called an emergency meeting and those were her instructions.”

“What for?” Joe asked.

“I don’t know, but she wants Mark and Roxy and Peggy here too, and she said it was a matter of life and death.”

“Whose?” Beth cast a worried look that Joe returned.

“At this point,” Jeff said, “who knows?”

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