Chapter Twenty-Seven
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“Can I get you some coffee, Zach?”
Zach had stopped by the house this morning and Dizzy wondered just how much he knew about her argument with Easton. He didn’t act or say anything outwardly but it was the way he was skirting the subject that made her suspicious. Also, he was here discussing how they planned to keep her safe. If he thought that Easton was still spending nights here, he wouldn’t have bothered.
“Thank you, that’s very kind.” Zach’s gaze lingered on the stairway. “Are your parents here?”
Yep, he knew. That meant Leann knew too. Dizzy needed to fire up her phone. She probably had a dozen or so messages from her best friend.
“They were but they’re out taking a walk trying to fend off the desire to sleep. Jet lag,” she explained. “They took a short nap but they’re still exhausted so they thought a walk might help. They’ll probably be gone for awhile, especially if they see anyone they know. They’ll want to catch up on all the town gossip.”
Dizzy carried the steaming cup of java out to her visitor. “Here you go–”
At some point this morning, Dizzy had turned on the television as background noise. Now her attention was captured by a commercial and she set the mug down on the coffee table and then moved closer to the television to watch it more closely. A woman in a blue blazer and skirt stood in front of a newer home probably from one of the Anderson’s developments. Blonde and smiling, she appeared to be in her early to mid-thirties and advertising a local real estate business just one town over. There were two other people in the closing shot, a man and a woman in blazers matching the first woman’s. They were realtors who wanted Dizzy to list her house with them or allow them to find her dream home.
“Dizzy,” Zach said softly, finally dragging her gaze back to him now that the commercial was over. “Are you okay? You’re white as a sheet. Are you ill?”
Still dazed and unsure of what she’d seen, she sat down on the floor, her legs too shaky to hold her up. Sweat had popped out on her forehead and her breath was coming in ragged gasps.
I couldn’t have just seen that.
But I did.
“I’m not sick.” She looked up at Zach, who was of course puzzled by her behavior. She could see his concern growing when she didn’t elaborate.
“Okay…you seem upset, though. Do you want to talk about it?”
Dizzy most certainly did want to discuss it but she wasn’t sure how to begin. It was like seeing a ghost.
“The woman in the commercial. The pretty blonde one. She was the woman I saw in Trip’s house that night. She was the one murdered.”
* * *
Zach had called his boss Jason after Dizzy’s revelation about the identity of the woman in the window. He’d hurried over along with Leann and Easton so now there was a great deal of talking – mostly over each other – and not much listening. Easton and Jason were speaking loudly, going back and forth, debating what to do next while Zach was outside, checking on the perimeter of the house and trying to get a good look at Trip’s home.
Dizzy and Leann took refuge in the kitchen making more hot chocolates. Double marshmallows. This was probably going to get worse before it got better. Tami and Louis would be home soon and they’d add to the mayhem. It was bad enough that Easton had shown up. The tension in the room was sky high. They’d barely looked at each other.
Leann sighed and stirred her cocoa as they rejoined the men in the living room. “They might go on like this all day. Maybe we should order pizza. I’m getting hungry.”
The mention of food had the two men quiet for the first time in almost half an hour.
“I don’t need pizza,” Jason replied. “Brinley’s cooking dinner. I just need Easton to listen to me.”
“I am listening,” the other man growled. “But you aren’t making any sense. We have to call the police.”
“And tell them what? That you’ve identified the victim of the murder that they don’t even believe happened?”
“If the woman is missing that lends credence to my claim,” Dizzy pointed out. “They’d have to do something then.”
The back door opened and Zach entered, wiping his feet on the mat and holding up his phone. “I think Jared found some information that might help our case with the police. Turns out Trip has a record with the university cops where he went to school. Assault and battery and stalking. Our Trip has a dark side.”
Dizzy had never been so relieved to find out that someone was dangerous but it confirmed everything that she’d been feeling and seeing. “He beat someone up?”
Zach nodded. “He has multiple complaints from females. They didn’t show up in a regular background check because the two systems weren’t linked. But Jared found something else that might interest the cops. I sent him the picture of our victim once Dizzy identified her and he did a reverse search. It didn’t take long to find her. She’s a member of the same online dating service that Stanford is. Some coincidence. Her name is Janine Erskine. She’s twenty-nine and lives in Rowland, about twenty miles from here. Never married and no kids, although according to her profile she’s thinking about getting a cat. She likes camping, hiking, and watching old movies.”
“That could be how they met,” Dizzy said, but she wasn’t happy or excited. Now that the face had a name and a personality she could only be sad. Janine had been a real person with goals and dreams. Trip had taken that away from her.
“Good work,” Jason said. “That should be enough to convince the cops to talk to Trip.”
“And if they don’t,” Easton growled, his brows pinched together. “We’ll get West to tell them to. Technically he’s their boss.”
“I don’t think we want to get in the habit of having West intervene,” cautioned Jason. “If we can’t get the police to listen to us then we need to up our game and get the evidence they need. Personally, I think we have enough for them to question Trip, maybe even get a search warrant, although I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves. This is far from over. I doubt Trip is going to fall apart and confess if the cops bring him in. That doesn’t happen near as much in reality as it does on television.”
Jason pulled out his phone and dialed the chief of police, leaving Dizzy with Zach, Leann, and Easton. Just two cozy couples. No, make that one couple and two people who weren’t speaking to one another.
She had told him to go fuck himself. That might have been a bit of an over-reaction but she wasn’t backing down from what she’d said. This was Easton caring too much about what other people thought. They were happy together but he had to go and find the fly in the ointment. She could have talked to her parents and told them to back off but he’d blown it all out of proportion. She still felt it was much more than just her mom and dad. Easton was afraid of what it would be like if she was truly his girlfriend. Apparently, he thought she was going to strip down and dance naked under a full moon while at some snotty dinner party.
Idiot. Everyone knew that silver robes were the garment of choice for a ceremony under the full moon. It was a new moon that liked nudity.
“So…” Easton rocked on his heels, his hands stuffed deeply into his pockets. “I guess I should be going. Are you and Zach staying here tonight, Leann?”
The prick still hadn’t looked at her. If he wanted to be that way, then fine. She could ignore the hell out of him too.
Her gaze darting back and forth between Dizzy and Easton, Leann cleared her throat.
“We are. We’re taking Dizzy’s room and she’s going to sleep on the couch, although we keep telling her that we could sleep down here on an air mattress. She won’t listen.”
The third bedroom didn’t have a bed and was used for storage, but considering all the people that seemed to want to spend the night in her house she might have to get a bed for that room.
“That’s right. I won’t. You’re guests here.”
Plus Tami and Louis. They were a whole other issue.
“If that’s settled, I think I’ll go.” Easton practically ran to the door, anxious to escape. He muttered some goodbyes and then he was gone, gunning the engine of his SUV as he drove away.
“I’m sorry you had to witness that,” Dizzy said, closing the front door. She’d let the cold air into the house again. “As you know we had a disagreement this morning. I said some things. He said some things. Now we can’t take them back. Maybe we don’t want to, either. Suffice it to say, it’s awkward as hell between us.”
Leann picked put the two mugs of hot chocolate. “I hope you told Easton he’s a dumbass.”
Dizzy felt the heat rise in her cheeks. “I told him to go fuck himself. Not my finest moment.”
Zach winced and shuddered. “Ouch. I can’t imagine that he took it well. He was still upset when we talked to him in his office.”
“He deserved it,” Leann said smugly. “Long past due, if you ask me.”
Dizzy threw up her hands in frustration. “But now what? He wouldn’t even look at me, let alone talk this through.”
“He will.” Leann seemed confident in that statement. “Just give him time. He’ll realize he’s being stupid and come running to apologize.”
Her parents were going to do the same, they just didn’t know it yet. Since retiring five years ago, they’d become far more judgmental than they’d ever been. It was getting out of hand and they were going to lose friends if they weren’t careful.
Eventually she was going to have to have it out with them.