Chapter Twenty-Eight
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Zach pulled his vehicle into a parking space near the front of the rundown motel located about thirty miles outside of Tremont in a little town called Elmville. He could see why Darrell chose this place. It wasn’t too far to drive but it was enough out of the way that the residents of Tremont wouldn’t know what was going on. Zach gathered up the folder of reunion photos to show the desk clerk.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Logan asked before Zach could open the car door. The former lawman had a shrewd expression that saw far more than Zach wanted him to.
“Talk about what?”
Shit, he sounded like Leann this morning. Now he knew how he had made her feel.
Put on the spot.
“You haven’t said a goddamn word for thirty miles,” Logan shot back. “But you gripped the steering wheel until your knuckles turned white. Maybe you should talk about it.”
“I don’t want to talk about my feelings.”
Zach practically spat out that last word.
“Frankly, we’re both men here and it’s the last fucking thing I want to do either, but as my wife Ava tells me every now and then keeping it all pent-up will make your pecker limp. I know you don’t want that to happen, so for fuck’s sake spit it out. Is it Leann?”
Zach had met Ava many times and the image of the little firebrand shaking her finger under Logan’s nose and telling him his dick wouldn’t get hard if he didn’t speak up struck him as hilarious.
“I don’t even want to know how that subject came up,” Zach laughed, his shoulders shaking. “But yes, it is about Leann. She hasn’t told her family yet that she’s moving back.”
“So?”
Dropping the file folder on top of the dash, Zach spread his arms out in frustration. “Why won’t she tell them? What’s holding her back? She says she’s coming home but she won’t actually say it.”
“And you think she’s lying?”
“Yes. No. Hell, maybe. I don’t know. It just seems weird, that’s all. And she doesn’t have any plans made. She doesn’t know if she’s going to sell her house or rent it out. She hasn’t made any progress in her plans.”
When Zach said it aloud, his complaints sounded stupid and petty. The logistics of a move like that weren’t something Leann was going to nail down in a week while attending her reunion and being stalked by a killer. He was now more than a little ashamed of how he’d acted this morning. She hadn’t deserved his temper tantrum. But he’d felt…vulnerable. For the first time in a very long time he had serious feelings about a woman and he wanted her to feel the same.
“You could offer to help her with that,” Logan suggested. “I would imagine the cost-benefit analysis on selling versus renting alone would be complicated. But that’s not what this is all about, is it?”
“What if she doesn’t move back?”
Logan pursed his lips in thought. “You travel constantly so you could visit her. Ava and I keep in touch on Skype when we can’t be together. Modern technology makes it easier. I can read a bedtime story to the kids whether I’m physically with them or not but I’ll say it again. That’s not what this is about. Is it?”
“What if she doesn’t feel the same?”
“Then you move on. Throw yourself into your work, get a puppy, take up a hobby. It’ll hurt like a bitch but you’ll survive.”
Zach would survive but the process of getting over a woman like Leann wasn’t going to be easy. Add in the fact that he’d have to see her every time she visited.
“Can we stop talking about our feelings now?”
Logan chuckled and swung out of the passenger seat. “Technically we were only talking about your feelings but let’s definitely stop. If we continue we might end up hugging or some shit like that. In fact, after we finish here at the motel let’s go get a beer and watch sports.”
“It’s nine in the morning.”
“Then let’s make it a whisky.”
* * *
In Jason’s office, Leann sat across from her brother and spoke those three words.
“I’m moving home.”
His eyes widened and his jaw went slack. After a few moments though, a grin spread across his face and he jumped up, rounding the desk to pull her into his arms for a big hug.
“Damn, Sis, that’s great news! What changed your mind? Jesus, was it Zach? Are you two getting married?”
After what happened this morning the answer to Jason’s last question was a resounding no.
Patting her brother’s back, she tried to answer without revealing too much. “I am not getting married. I have been thinking about moving back for quite awhile now. I was planning on announcing it during this trip so the answer to your next question is I haven’t told Mom and Dad yet. You’re the first one. Well, except for Dizzy. And Zach.”
Although he didn’t believe her anymore.
“Dizzy and Zach knew?” Jason’s brows pinched together. “Wait…I thought you said that Zach was going to move to Florida with you. Now you’re moving here?”
“Zach was never moving to Florida.”
No point in beating around the bush.
“But you said…? I’m not following you.”
Leaning against Jason’s desk, Leann crossed her arms over her chest and gave her older brother the meanest look she could muster. “Before I answer that, is there anything you want to tell me? Maybe about how you and West colluded to bring me and Zach together so I would move back to Tremont?”
Jason’s face turned red and he suddenly found the carpet fascinating. “Well…shit. How long have you known?”
“Good on you that you didn’t deny it. Zach and I have known for quite awhile, which is why I decided to mess with you and West a little bit. You deserved it. It’s behavior like this that kept me in Florida all these years. What in the hell were you thinking?”
Jerking his head up, Jason scraped his fingers through his hair. “Christ, Zach knows? Is he mad? Shit, I don’t need to lose my best employee over this.”
Leann wagged a finger in Jason’s face. “You should be more worried about losing a friend. You should have thought about that before you tried to manipulate the two of us. Zach hasn’t said he’s angry but honestly, I wouldn’t blame him. If nothing else, he’s our brother-in-law and it was a crappy thing to do. To both of us.”
“I’ll apologize to him. I will.”
Raising her brows, she waited for him to go on but when he didn’t she let out a heavy sigh.
“What about my apology?”
“I’m not sure you deserve one after the mean trick you played on me. I truly thought we’d failed and that you and Zach were going to Florida.”
“I only did that because you were trying to control me. You have to stop doing that. I thought you were on my side, Jason.”
His expression softened. “I am on your side, and I do want you home. Are those two ideas mutually exclusive? We miss you around here, little sis. It’s not the same with you gone. We feel…incomplete. I want my kids to grow up with their Auntie Leann around.”
A lump lodged in her throat as she thought about missing out on the new generation of Andersons growing up. “I want that, too. It’s one of the big reasons I made the decision to move back.”
“Was Zach part of that decision?”
Leann shook her head. “I’d pretty much already made the decision before I even came to the reunion.”
It wasn’t the entire truth but it was close enough. Jason didn’t need to hear about the hours of soul-searching she’d spent going back and forth. Looking back, she was embarrassed it had been so difficult when the answer was so clear. She’d made it much harder and more painful than it needed to be.
Story of her life.
“So my plan didn’t work? You and Zach…?”
Tears pricked at the back of her eyes and a sob broke from her lips. Her emotions were still too raw from this morning.
“I screwed up.”
Holding out his arms, Jason beckoned to Leann. “Aww, honey. Come tell me all about it. Do I need to kick Zach’s ass?”
She flew into them, unstoppable tears running down her cheeks. “No, you need to kick mine. I messed everything up and I don’t know how to fix it.”
“We’ll fix it together,” he said in his most soothing tone. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I think I might love him,” she hiccupped, blindly searching for a tissue on his desk. “But he hates me now.”
“I doubt that, princess. Zach isn’t the kind that hates easily. Now why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me what happened?”
* * *
The manager of the motel shook his head. “None of these women look familiar. I really didn’t see her. Just the back of her head. I only know that she’s blonde. That’s it. I’m sorry I can’t help you more.”
Logan slid a business card across the counter. “Thanks for talking to us today, and if you think of anything else, please call us.”
“Will do,” the man nodded. “Have a nice day.”
Zach exited the motel office along with Logan as his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was Jason, hopefully, with the ballistics report from Darrell’s shooting.
He didn’t bother with greetings. “Please tell me you have some good news.”
“Hello to you, too. Have you talked to the motel manager yet?”
Zach leaned against the side of the vehicle and held out the phone so Logan could listen in to the conversation. “We just finished and the only detail the guy knew was that she was a blonde. He never saw the front of her, only the back. We’re hoping you have better news.”
“Maybe. The firearm found under Madison’s body was registered to him and it had been fired recently. He might have got off a shot before he died.”
Logan shrugged. “Our guy might have been injured. We can check the nearby doctors and hospitals. I don’t hold out much hope, though.”
“If he or she was hurt badly enough that might explain why there haven’t been any more murders,” reasoned Jason.
“Except for the break-in at Dizzy’s,” Logan reminded them. “I doubt the incident wasn’t connected to the murders. You know how I feel about the word coincidence.”
“So we’re going on the theory that the killer wasn’t injured or at least wasn’t injured seriously,” Zach said. “She or he checked out Dizzy’s house but then has stayed quiet.”
Too quiet. It was unnerving waiting for the murderer to make his move. Trying to anticipate what he might do or not do.
“Probably planning their next move,” Logan replied. “When someone goes on a spree killing like this they aren’t going to stop and go back to their regular life. They probably have a taste for–.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Jason swore, interrupting Logan. “Sorry about that but my assistant just handed me a message. Jenna Marshall was attacked in the parking garage at the mall this morning. She wasn’t hurt badly, just some bruises and scrapes. She didn’t get a good look at her attacker but she swears it was a woman. She could tell by the hands.”
“Is our killer getting desperate?” Logan questioned, his brows pulled down. “This is the first time an attempt has failed.”
“In broad daylight,” Zach said in agreement. “It does have a whiff of desperation. Has she given a statement to the cops yet?”
“She was taken to the local emergency room where one of the patrolmen got her statement,” Jason answered. “She was treated and then released. Leann and Dizzy want to go to Jenna’s and visit, make sure she’s okay, so I’m going to take them when I hang up with you. I’ll email Jenna’s statement to you. How about heading to the parking garage and checking it out? Maybe there are some security cameras this time. Then we can all meet at Jenna’s. I know you’ll want to talk to her personally but it might be a good idea to give her a little time to calm down. This had to be a nightmare for her. Thank god she fought her off.”
Zach absolutely wanted to talk to Jenna. She probably remembered more than she gave herself credit for. In the meantime, he and Logan would visit the crime scene. If the killer was getting desperate, they might just be getting sloppy as well.
“We’ll head there now,” Zach replied, getting a nod in agreement from Logan. “I’ll call you from the scene and let you know what we find.”
All they needed was one good clue. Just one.