V
We drove back to the house.
The adrenaline from the meeting with my father’s lawyer had left me drained. Patches of sweat clung beneath my armpits and between my legs—I’d been so much sweatier since becoming pregnant, another not-so-lovely pregnancy symptom no one tells you about—and I was desperate for a change of clothes and a shower. A nap would have been even better, but I had things I needed to do. Frustratingly, I had to go through all the correct channels this time to arrange a visiting order. X had been able to pull some strings to get me in to see my father when he’d been inside, but he couldn’t do anything from behind bars. I needed to see him, felt desperate for it, like a string connected us, and was pulling us together, but the restraints we had held us apart. I still felt the tug, though, like something physical pulling on my heart. I wouldn’t rest until he was walking free and we were together again.
We approached the gates of our father’s house, and I hit the buzzer on the key fob to open them. They slid apart and I drove through the gap, putting the car into park and shutting the gates behind us again.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I told Nicole as we climbed out of the car and headed toward the house.
“Sure. You want me to make us something to eat?”
“That would be great. Something full of carbs.”
She smiled at me. “No need to watch that diet now.”
“Exactly.”
I left her heading into the kitchen, while I went up to my bedroom and adjoining bathroom. I stripped off my clothes and turned on the shower, stepping beneath it to soap my body and hair. I couldn’t stop my mind going to all the times X and I had fucked in the shower. It didn’t matter what I did, my mind was always with him.
When I was clean, I got out and dressed, then went to the few small possessions I had that meant something to me. I took out the scan photographs we’d been given at the hospital. The blobs of black, white, and gray were the shape of our baby, and I put my hand to my stomach, trying to imagine the life growing inside me. He or she would be about the size of an avocado now, according to all the websites and books, and in the next few weeks I would start to feel the first fluttering of movement. It was a thought I should be excited and elated about, not something that sent my heart twisting. I wanted X to be here with me through all of this. Yes, I had Nicole, but it wasn’t the same. And I could do it all by myself, but I didn’t want to, and I knew X wouldn’t want this either. It would kill him if I had to go through this pregnancy and, dare I think it, the birth, too, without him.
“Vee?”
Nicole’s shout came from downstairs. I figured our food was ready, so got to my feet. “I’ll be down in one minute,” I called back.
“Vee,” she shouted with more urgency, “there’s someone at the gates, and he’s got cop written all over him.”
I frowned and slid the scan photos of the baby beneath the mattress of my bed. I didn’t want anyone else other than Nicole and X to know about the pregnancy. It would be used against me if others found out.
Damn it. Who was here already?
I’d known word would get around that we were back at the house. We could have tried to stay hidden, but it wouldn’t have worked. Besides, I needed some of my father’s contacts in order to try to help X. If we hid away as though we’d done something wrong, things would backfire on us. No, we needed to act as though we belonged here.
I left my room and hurried down the stairs. Nicole was standing at the front door, looking at the screen which was attached to the cameras on the front gate. I recognized the man standing there immediately. His dark hair was flecked with gray, and his broad shoulders filled out a suit that was less flashy than most of the men who frequented this property.
“It’s okay. Let him in.”
“Who is he?”
The man on the screen looked directly up into the camera. I had the feeling he knew exactly who was looking back.
“Detective Caraway. The guy who arrested X.”
A coil of anger stirred inside me. I knew he was only doing his job, but if he’d left us alone, we wouldn’t be in this position now. But he’d been good to me when I’d been going through the trial with my father, and had done what he’d been able to in order to keep me informed about Nicole when she’d insisted on staying with Tony the Hound. I hoped he wasn’t about to stir up more trouble for us. I always got the impression he wanted to help me more than he could, that he was more exasperated with me for not being able to stay out of trouble.
I hit the button which opened the gates to the house, and they slid apart. On the camera, Caraway stood, watching them open for a moment, before turning and getting back inside his car. He drove through the gates and into our driveway, and I hit the button to close them again.
I opened the front door before he had time to knock, revealing him approaching the house.
“Hello, Detective. To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“Miss Guerra, I heard you and your sister were staying back here.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. People had already noticed our arrival to the house, and were talking about us.
“Is that all right?” I replied, my tone sharp. The last time I’d seen this man, he’d been arresting X for the murder of Harvey Baglione. “This is our family home, after all.”
“I take it your father is no longer here? Or did the two of you make up?”
My eyes narrowed. “Is that any of your business?”
“When you spoke to me about your father, you believed he would kill you, and yet now here you are, back in his house. I assume he’s not home?”
“No, he isn’t. He’s gone away on business. I don’t know when he’ll be back.”
Detective Caraway focused his gaze on me. His eyes were a deep, chocolate brown, and I didn’t like the way he was looking at me, as though he was playing along with everything I said, and deep down he knew the truth.
“And he said you and Nicole could stay here?”
“Of course. This is our home.”
His lips twisted as he considered my words, and then his gaze flicked down to my injured hand. “What happened?”
I shrugged. “It was nothing. A stupid accident in the kitchen. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Miss Guerra—Verity—I’m thirty-five years old, and I’ve been doing this job for most of my adult life. I know you’ve gotten yourself caught up in some serious shit. You currently appear to be residing in the house belonging to the man you were in Witness Protection to testify against. You’ve clearly been hurt, and a few days ago we arrested the man you were with for murder. I think I have every reason to believe something is going on.”
“He didn’t do it,” I said.
“Who didn’t do what?”
I opened my mouth, almost calling him X, and then remembering the alias he’d been using. “Lee Mason didn’t kill Harvey Baglione.”
“Mr. Baglione hasn’t been seen alive since he picked up Lee Mason at the hospital. We have Harvey’s blood on the car Lee was driving, together with a sizable dent in the fender. Due to his complete lack of background, with him apparently only existing when he was found with gunshot wounds and no memory, Mr. Mason hasn’t been granted bail—if that’s even his real name. If you have information that can help us with this case, you know you can always speak to me.”
Dammit. X wouldn’t be getting bail.
“I don’t know any more than you do,” I said, trying not to show my disappointment at the news, “but I do know he didn’t kill Harvey.”
“How? How do you know that, exactly? Where you there?”
I had been there, but I couldn’t tell him anything without opening a huge can of worms. The truth was that X was a killer. He might not be responsible for killing Harvey, but he had plenty of bodies piled up. I didn’t want to say anything that might end up getting him sent down for multiple murders. I needed to think things through before saying or doing anything rash.
“I just know he wouldn’t have killed Harvey.”
The detective gave me a tight smile. “I’m sure you realize that isn’t going to be enough to get him off.”
“Do you even have enough to convict him? It’s not as though you’ve even found Harvey’s body, is it? Surely, without a body, you can’t confirm the man is even dead.”
“If there is enough forensic and circumstantial evidence to believe Lee Mason is responsible for Harvey Baglione’s death, then yes, we can prosecute him for murder without a body. Baglione claimed he and Mason worked together, but no one else seems to know who Lee Mason is. Then Harvey goes missing, and the same person he helped from the hospital is found driving a vehicle covered in Harvey’s blood. You don’t think that looks like he did it?”
“I think it would make him look like an idiot to be driving a car around which he used as a murder weapon without even cleaning off the guy’s blood. Does Lee Mason come across as an idiot to you, Detective? Because he sure doesn’t seem that way to me. You got an anonymous tipoff, right? Seems more like a setup to me, just like I told you before. My father is responsible for this. It’s his way of getting revenge against me.”
“Well, until we can prove as much, your guy is staying behind bars, and it’s not as though your father is around to give his side of the story.”
“I’ll be able to visit him, though, won’t I?”
He nodded. “Yes, if you fill out the correct paperwork and apply for a visit. Assuming he wants to see you, of course.”
“He’ll want to see me.”
He paused for a moment, and then said, “Verity, why don’t you get you and your sister out of here? Go somewhere else. Start fresh. Leave all these people behind you. You seem like a smart woman who just seems to get herself caught up with the wrong men.”
My shoulders tensed. “I didn’t get ‘caught up’ with my father. I didn’t have much choice having him as my dad.”
“Yes, I realize that, but he’s clearly not around now, or you wouldn’t be here. Where is he really, Verity?”
“I told you, away on business.”
“With no chance of coming back any time soon.”
I shrugged. “Not that I’m aware of.”
He leaned to one side, looking past me, toward Nicole. “Is everything okay with you, Nicole?”
“She’s fine,” I snapped. “She’s with me now.”
“I just wanted to make sure she was safe.”
“You weren’t that interested when I came to you, worried about her because she was staying with Tony Mancini.”
“I did everything I could, but then things didn’t end up so well for Tony either, did they? I assume you heard he was killed at his home.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Yeah, I heard. The guy probably tried to rip off the wrong people. I can’t say I’m sorry he’s dead.”
“Neither can I, but I can’t help noticing how many of these deaths you seem to have links to.”
“This is my life. These are the people I grew up with. I’m sure you know that. Most of us don’t go on to live long, happy lives.”
His expression softened. “It concerns me to think you might go the same way.”
“Don’t worry about me, Detective.”
He pressed his lips together. “You make that very hard to do.”
I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that.
“Well, if there’s nothing else,” I said, “I’ve got things to do.”
“Sure.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card and handed it to me. “I’m not the enemy, Verity, even if you think I am. You can call me, about anything, okay?”
I gave a single nod. The only time I was going to call him was if I discovered something that would free X. The news of him not getting bail was like a fist to my gut. They’d been right not to give it to him, though. If they’d released him, we’d have taken off, for sure. Nothing was more important than X’s freedom, and all of us being together, especially for when the baby was born.
I stood in the doorway as Detective Caraway turned and walked back to his car. I remained there until the vehicle had started up and pulled out of the driveway. It wasn’t until the electronic gates slid shut that I allowed myself to breathe again.
Nicole’s voice came from directly behind me, making me jump. “Do you think he knows?”
I twisted to face her. “Knows what?”
“What I did to Dad?”
I shook my head. “No. How could he know? The only other living person who was there that night was X, and I’d trust him with my life. He wouldn’t say anything. Detective Caraway knows something is off, but he has no way of ever finding out.”
“What if someone finds the body?”
“That’s unlikely. We were in the middle of nowhere.”
“I know, but even so ...” She lifted her hand to her mouth and chewed on the nail of her forefinger.
I reached out and pulled her hand from her mouth. “I know this is hard, Nickie, but we have to hold it together. Okay? Tell yourself nothing happened back at the cabin, if that makes it easier for you. Tell yourself he left on a business trip and we don’t know the truth.”
“I don’t know if I can do that.”
“You have to,” I told her, taking her hand and squeezing her fingers to try to offer her some reassurance. “Lie to yourself until that lie becomes the truth.”