Rush to the Altar (23 page)

Jake got out and opened the back to pull out Maddie’s luggage. He wanted to take her home now, go in there and scoop up Max and take them both home, but she was right. They could announce their engagement and then plan a small wedding for immediate family, slipping in moments to be together as often as possible. He told himself it was the right thing to do, but it wasn’t easy. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Maddie nodded, both excitement and apprehension in her eyes. “My parents are going to be shocked.”

“But happy, I hope?”

“I think so.”

Jake helped Maddie to the door with her luggage, letting Maddie go inside alone.

Driving home, he thought about the plans they’d made on the plane. His schedule was incredibly busy for the next weeks, so they had decided to wait until February, when there was a break in the schedule, right around Valentine’s Day, for their second wedding. Jake wanted his parents and sister there. He wondered what their reaction to all this was going to be. His father would say it was too early, that they didn’t know each other well enough, and his mother would likely be upset about the quick and simple nature of it. Her only son getting married had always been something she had looked forward to, talking about it when he had dated Jessica for two years in college. His sister, Valerie, would be great—thrilled with the romance of it. Jake grinned, thinking of her face when he told her. She would love Maddie.

He thought he would invite some of his teammates, but the likelihood of very many of them making it was slim. Most had families of their own and plans for those small breaks in the schedule, but there was Marcus, he would probably come.

Maddie was inviting her parents, her sister from college and Sasha, who already thought they were engaged.

He walked into his condo and stood in his living room, looking at it with new eyes, the eyes of a husband and father. God help him, he was suddenly, literally overnight, a father. Would he be any good at it?

As his gaze roamed over the bachelor pad, the art deco style so different from Maddie’s office—the glass, the art, the breakables—he came to a quick realization. “This will never work.” They were going to have to move. He was faintly surprised that he didn’t mind. He imagined the three of them in a nice house up in Carmel, where many of his teammates lived with their families.

He would call his realtor first thing in the morning.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

T
he weather was dark, foreboding for a December morning. The wind gushed against Maddie’s small car on the highway, making her grip the wheel with white knuckles. She passed semi trucks, feeling their pull and the wind try to drag her into the sides of their vehicles. Maddie slowed down and switched the radio channel to the morning news. The weather was just wrapping up, saying that a snowstorm was brewing.

“And now, for a story from Muncie, Indiana. First Old Bank of Indiana has just announced a criminal suit against bank vice-president Sabrina Bridgestone for the embezzlement of $655,000. The bank explained in a statement that the prime perpetrator, Brandon Goode, allegedly committed suicide six months ago after learning that he couldn’t keep the crime going. They wouldn’t comment on the man’s wife, Madeline Goode of Indianapolis, but said that they were still investigating. The bank is determined to make an example of those left behind, issuing a statement of retribution to the full letter of the law.”

Maddie jerked the steering wheel back to the left, realizing that she had almost run into the side of a mini-van. “What?” She inhaled the cold air of the car, trying to focus on the road. A criminal investigation? Sabrina arrested?

She switched lanes, trying to get off the highway, finally able to pull onto a side street. She stopped the car and leaned over the steering wheel, her stomach rolling. It hadn’t ended. It wasn’t going to end. She was going to have to get an attorney.

Maddie reached for her cell phone, wanting to call Jake, wanting to lean on him, but she stared at the phone instead, thinking what if he wouldn’t want her now? She hadn’t even had a chance to talk to him more about Brandon yet. She hadn’t told him she had been questioned or that they might still call her into question. Dear God! What if she went to prison for this? She would lose everything. She could lose Max!

~~~~~~

Gloria clutched Max to her on the couch, not wanting to believe what she had just seen on the news. She had asked Maddie if she could keep Max with her today, knowing how much she and Simon were going to miss having their daughter and grandson living with them after Maddie married Jake, and wanting to spend the full day playing with him. Max had crawled up into her lap after breakfast and was sucking on his thumb, snuggled against her chest, his favorite blanket pulled up over him. She’d just felt his forehead, wondering if he was feeling well, when the perky news reporter, standing in front of the bank her son-in-law had worked for, began speaking.

Her heart lurched as they flashed a giant-sized photo of Brandon and then switched to footage of the woman Jake had been having the affair with. Outrage grew inside her seeing the tall redhead for the first time. She was glad to see the police handcuff her and haul her away in the squad car. When she heard the reporter say that the case had become a criminal case and that the wife, Madeline Goode, was also under investigation, she gently slid Max off her lap. “Grammy is going to make a phone call, Max. I’ll be right back.” She handed him a book and one of his favorite stuffed animals before hurrying for the phone.

Just as she reached for it the doorbell rang. Putting the phone back down, her heart hammering inside her chest, she wrapped her robe more securely across her chest and opened the door. Three men in black suits stood staring at her.

“Yes?” she asked through the crack in the storm door.

The man in front flashed his badge. “FBI, ma’am. Is this the house where Madeline Goode resides?”

“Yes. She’s my daughter. But she isn’t here. She is at work.”

“We have a search warrant, ma’am. We need to come in and search the house.”

“I would like to see that warrant.” Gloria opened the door a little wider. “And your badge. I’m not letting strangers into my house without being sure you are who you say you are.”

The man pulled out his badge and let her study it. He unfolded a piece of paper and handed it over through the crack. Gloria stood there trying to decipher the legalese, making the men stand out in the cold as long as possible. Max climbed down from the couch and hugged Gloria’s leg, staring wide-eyed at the agents.

Finally, Gloria stepped back. “I’ll show you to Maddie’s room.” Gloria opened the door to her daughter’s room, the room she’d grown up in as a little girl and felt tears threaten her eyes. “I don’t know what you expect to find among her things,” Gloria commented, shaking her head. “Aside from her work clothes, she doesn’t have much.”

One of the agents nodded his head once. “Does she store other things elsewhere? A storage unit, perhaps?”

Gloria wanted to curse at herself for opening her mouth. “Yes. She has a storage unit. Mostly furniture, I think.”

“We’ll need the location and key.”

“I don’t have a key and, like I said, Maddie is at work.”

“You might want to give her a call and ask her to come home immediately. The more she cooperates in this investigation, the better things will go for her.”

“She didn’t do anything wrong. Except marry a fraud.”

The man stared at her while another, younger-looking man stepped forward. “That call? This shouldn’t take long.”

“Well, don’t make a mess of it. There’s no reason to trash the room you know. Just take your time.” She lectured them like they were little boys.

“Come along, Max. Grammy will get you a snack while she talks on the phone.”

“Cookies!” Max exclaimed. It was a distraction that usually worked.

In the kitchen, Gloria got Max settled and picked back up the phone, her hand shaking. How was she going to tell her daughter that the FBI was in her bedroom?

~~~~~~

Jake was sitting in his living room, killing time before he was due for practice, his feet propped up on the coffee table, swaying back and forth, excited to begin the day and hear back from his realtor. He picked up the remote, took a big spoonful of cereal and crunched down on it as he clicked through the channels. The news was recapping when he heard the name “Brandon Goode.” Everything in him stopped as he sat up and turned up the sound. “Yes, Steve, reports are that the man responsible for the embezzlement is dead—committed suicide, some suspect, because he knew he couldn’t keep the scam going.”

“Who, then, is the criminal case against, Angie?”

Angie, the cute reporter, standing outside of a courthouse, replied in clipped tones. “Well Steve, apparently there is a mistress and a wife involved. Sabrina Bridgestone, the girlfriend of the deceased and fellow bank employee has been arrested and is now out on bail waiting a court date. The wife, Madeline Goode, is still under investigation. No word yet as to an arrest.”

“Sounds like a movie I saw once. And right here in Indiana.”

“Yes, Steve. We’ll be watching this case very closely for further developments.”

“Thank you, Angie.”

Jake sat frozen as the news moved on to more mundane stories, his body locked in shock, his cereal growing soggy. He looked at the phone, wanting to call her, but changed his mind. She would freak out when she heard about this and he wanted to be there in person for her. She was going to need him.

~~~~~~

When Maddie arrived at the Founders Level, it was to find the police already there waiting for her. Two uniformed officers stood with her boss, Jordan, as she walked out of the elevator. Her face felt like chalk, ready to break off into white chunks of humiliation, and her steps faltered as she imagined them cuffing her right here in front of everyone.

“Maddie, the police have some questions about your husband,” Jordan said softly. “Let’s go into your office.”

Maddie nodded, leading the way, her knees knocking together, her jaw hurting from holding her mouth so tightly closed. Her cell phone started ringing from her purse. “Excuse me,” she said, answering it. She walked to the far corner of her office, Jordan talking to the police in loud tones to give her a little privacy.

“Hi, Mom. Is Max okay?”

“Yes. He’s fine. That’s not why I’m calling. Maddie, something terrible has happened.”

“I know.” Maddie said low into the phone.

Her mother didn’t appear to be listening. “The FBI is here. They’re searching your room.”

“What?”

“I just watched the morning news and heard they arrested Brandon’s mistress. They said the case had been turned over to the authorities, then the doorbell rang and there they were with a search warrant wanting to look through your things. They’re in your room right now. Maddie, are you listening? They are investigating you! They want the keys to the storage unit!”

“Okay, Mom. I gave dad a key, see if you can find it. The police are here now. I need to go.”

“Need to go? I’m coming down there.”

“No.” The last thing she needed was her hysterical mother in the middle of this mess. “I need you to keep Max safe and calm. I don’t know when I’ll be home, but I will call you as soon as I know something. It’ll be okay, Mom. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know you didn’t, honey. But I’m afraid they won’t believe it. They want someone to blame. Maddie, how can you be so calm? You could be going to jail like that Sabrina woman!”

“No. That’s not going to happen.” She didn’t tell Gloria that she wasn’t calm on the inside, that she was afraid she just might be going to jail today. “I need to go. I’ll call you soon.”

She hung up and walked back toward the men, offering coffee from her freshly brewed pot that she had programmed to have ready when she walked through the door. The men declined.

They sat down, which Maddie thought must be a good sign. If they were going to arrest her, they would have done so already, in front of everyone, wouldn’t they?

“I heard about the investigation. On the news on the way over,” she blurted out. “That was my mother on the phone. She saw the morning news and called to tell me. I think I need to call an attorney before I answer any questions, gentlemen.”

One of the officers nodded. “We’re not here to arrest you, Mrs. Goode, but that might be wise.”

“If you’re not here to arrest me then what do you want?”

“We’d like you to come down to the police station. Just answer some questions, make a formal statement, perhaps take the polygraph test that you agreed to. We are prosecuting Sabrina Bridgestone and need your side of the story.”

“So I’m not under investigation? I’m not a suspect?”

“We’re not at liberty to comment on that, ma’am. But we’re not here to arrest you, only request your presence for some questioning.”

“Do I have to leave now?”

The other policemen nodded. “That would be best, ma’am.”

“But I need some time. I need to find an attorney.”

Jordan spoke up. “I know of someone, Maddie. First-rate in criminal law. A friend of mine.” He turned to the policemen. “This woman couldn’t possibly be guilty of any crime. In the time I’ve known her, she is the most honest, dependable person I know. She has a sterling character. She is one of the best people I have ever had the privilege of working with. I would be happy to be a character witness in her defense if it comes to that.”

“That will be something to discuss with her attorney, Mr. Tyler.” The policemen stood. “We really need you to come with us now, ma’am. But we’ll give you a few minutes to call someone.”

Jake burst into the room.

“What’s going on? Maddie, are you okay?”

“Who are you?” asked one of the officers.

“I’m her husband. Anything that has to do with her has to do with me.”

Jordan turned to Maddie. “You’re married?” The shock on his face took her aback. Nodding her head, Maddie gave him a pleading look. “Just recently. We haven’t told anyone yet.”

Jake looked ready to throttle someone.