Exit Strategy Read online

  Not yet, anyway.

  After dessert and coffee, he paid, leaving a hefty tip.

  He walked past Theo and Vanessa’s table, resisting the urge to tip over one of their glasses. He imagined, though, the dark read fluid spreading over the blush fabric of Vanessa’s expensive dress. Would she shriek? Be angry?

  Liam didn’t have time to elaborate on his fantasy. He took a cab to an address two blocks from his destination. Then he walked up to the front door and knocked, gun in hand. When she answered, he fired two shots and walked away, to the car that was waiting in a parking lot down the street.

  Execution Phase Two—done.

  * * * *

  Theo and Vanessa had enjoyed sort of a working date night, discussing the progress in Mitchell’s case, when Theo received a call. Allison knew he was with Vanessa tonight, so she wouldn’t try to reach him if it wasn’t important.

  “It’s bad,” she said without preamble. “I know you have the night off, but you should be here.”

  “Where is that?” he asked, sensing that the quiet evening was over.

  “ Remember Nate Gibson? I’m at his place.”

  It took him a few seconds to make the connection. “The driver who found Christina Danvers.” Danvers had escaped from the slasher, almost running into Gibson’s truck. If it hadn’t been for the man’s quick intervention, she might not have survived.

  Gibson was also a former colleague of Joanna’s at the warehouse where she’d worked after her prison sentence.

  “Don’t tell me…”

  “It’s the wife. Two gunshot wounds to the chest. He came back home, found her as soon as he walked in. The door was unlocked.”

  Theo wanted to curse. Smash something. Neither option would be helpful to anyone. Another case, this time a murder carried out, once again connected to Joanna. Somebody didn’t want her to live in peace.

  And Grace Lester had made a chilling prediction.

  “Didn’t they have children?”

  “They were upstairs, didn’t hear anything. How soon can you get here?”

  “I’ll get a cab. See you there.”

  Theo turned to Vanessa, pained that there was nothing he could tell her to alleviate the fear in her eyes. Whoever the person behind these crimes was, they were escalating, and fast.

  “I’ll come with you,” she said, already taking out her cell phone to call a cab.

  Vanessa had changed into a job with the private sector, but she was still consulting with the department at times. More importantly, Theo didn’t want to leave her alone. He didn’t share that reason, but he was sure she was aware.

  * * * *

  Nate Gibson had called his sister who was now with the two terrified children. As soon as they were out of sight, his voice broke.

  “Who the hell would do something like this?”

  Vanessa stayed in the background, let Theo and Allison do their jobs, though she had some answers for him. Someone with no conscience. No soul. Someone who wanted to make Joanna suffer all over again. By proxy, this concerned her too, because she was the one who had thrown the book at Joanna all those years ago.

  It was too late to obsess about what if’s.

  This person had beaten and killed people related to Joanna, and chances were they had other names on their list.

  “Allison, can I talk to you for a second?”

  * * * *

  Joanna and Rue had started their meal with champagne on the house, promising Denise to take her various suggestions into consideration. It wasn’t until they were home that Joanna noticed the missed calls.

  Many of them, all from Vanessa.

  No. No more bad news, not now. Couldn’t they have five minutes to plan the most important day of their lives? She didn’t want to hear that her father had died from complications. No matter how small he’d tried to make her feel, and sometimes succeeded, she’d still grieve him. She didn’t want to, but that wasn’t up to her.

  “Maybe it’s not that bad,” Rue said, laying a hand on her arm. It was only for Joanna’s benefit, and they both knew it. What didn’t kill her hadn’t made her that much stronger, she thought.

  “Well, let’s get it over with.”

  The moment Vanessa picked up, she said, “This is about Lawrence, right? I knew it. I’m sorry you’re the one who had to tell me—”

  “Joanna, no. Your dad is fine.”

  Kira, she thought. Or something happened to Rue’s parents, and she wanted to tell me first?

  “Oh, okay. Be gentle, okay? We’re planning our wedding.”

  “Joanna, that’s wonderful.” The sadness in her tone didn’t bode for anything good.

  “It is, even though you’re about to hit me with something less wonderful. All right. Do it.”

  “Joanna, Nate Gibson’s wife was shot and killed tonight.”

  Joanna sat, frozen, as if Vanessa’s words wouldn’t come true if she remained completely still.

  “How?”

  “We don’t know yet. Apparently someone walked up to the front door, she opened, and they shot her.”

  “Nate and the kids?”

  “He wasn’t home. When he came back from work, the door wasn’t locked. He walked in and found her right there…kids were upstairs. Their aunt is taking care of them now.”

  “Damn.” Joanna needed stronger words, and a strong drink, to start with, though there wasn’t much of anything that could do the situation justice. This time, she didn’t need an extra hint. Nate had been her colleague. He had found and helped the victim of a man she’d killed. Even though Short had let Grace down, she’d probably never stopped blaming Joanna for Edward Short’s death.

  Who else would have an agenda against her?

  “Theo looked into Lester?”

  To her surprise, she heard Theo’s voice. “We don’t want to jump to conclusions here, but yes, we did. If she pulled this off, we have no idea how. The public defender was afraid of her. She doesn’t have visitors.”

  “Guards? Blackmail?”

  “Joanna, we haven’t found anything yet.”

  “Keep looking. There’s got to be a connection. I’m going to give you a few names now. Make sure these people are safe. I don’t care about the budget.”

  “I’ll be sure to let the lieutenant know,” he said dryly. “Besides, we have thought of them already. I promise you we’re not taking any chances.”

  It was cold comfort. Her eyes were stinging. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could handle the emotional roller coaster.

  But nothing could compare to the pain Nate had to feel. Joanna knew, because she’d almost been there.

  “Okay. Thank you for letting me know.”

  “I wish we didn’t have to,” he said. “I want you two to be careful. It’s all a little too much to be coincidence.”

  “I agree. One more thing. Could you send me the facial composite of the guy who beat up Lawrence?”

  “I really shouldn’t.”

  “Please. I’m not sure it will help, but if I can’t think of anything, I’ll just delete it.”

  He sighed. “I’ll send it over when I get the chance.”

  “You have no doubt, right? That the two incidents are related?”

  Joanna wished she didn’t already know the answer.

  “No. I’m sorry.”

  “Me too. Let me know when you catch that son of a bitch.”

  “I will,” he promised. “And congratulations. I know this is a setback, but I’m happy for you. You deserve something good.”

  “Don’t we all?” she wondered out loud, clicking end call. Rue wordlessly embraced her.

  * * * *

  She’d allowed herself a weak moment. It couldn’t last too long, or Joanna feared she’d never come back from it. She had washed her face and made the rounds of the house, making sure it was secure for the night. That helped some.

  “I’m really sorry,” Rue said when she came to bed.

  “I’m sorry about earlier.” J
oanna felt fairly embarrassed about losing it the way she had. “I never even met her.”

  “You liked him.”

  “Yeah. Nate’s a good guy. He doesn’t deserve any of this shit.” She drew a shuddering breath. “Well, neither do we, but here we are.”

  “Perhaps we could postpone the wedding plans for a bit,” Rue suggested. “Who knows, they might solve the case quicker than we think. Maybe Theo and Vanessa would even like to come?”

  “Let’s not jinx it.” Joanna laughed wryly. “Every time Vanessa calls it’s something worse. I don’t want to know what would have to happen to bring them here. But maybe we shouldn’t wait.” What she didn’t say was—anything could happen. She didn’t want to take any chances.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A couple of days passed by, then four, five, a week. No news, good or bad, from Vanessa and Theo. Given the past couple of times they’d spoken, Joanna considered it good news. Regardless, she couldn’t get Nate and his family out of her mind. She’d thought about telling Theo to give Nate her condolences, but decided against it. Chances were he didn’t want to be reminded of her, now, or ever, because she was connected to Danvers. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the murder of his wife was related to the Short case, Danvers being the victim that got away, Joanna being the one who ended the killer.

  She and Rue were going about their work at the inn, trying to keep the world outside of the island at bay best they could. They even succeeded for moments at a time—until Theo’s message arrived.

  Sorry for the delay, but we were really busy here. This is the description your father gave.

  Joanna opened the file and nearly dropped her phone. She sat down in the chair in the waiting area for Denise’s visitors, and stared at the picture. This wasn’t good.

  The description Lawrence had given of his attacker fit a man she’d seen only recently, to a “t”, the strange guest named Liam Preston. She tried to think of everything he’d said to her, everything that other guests had said about him. He’d hooked up with various people during his stay, according to Oliver.

  Joanna got to her feet and knocked on the door of Denise’s office, somewhat relieved to find Rue with her.

  “We need to talk,” she said.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Denise remarked. “I am right to assume it’s not about wedding preparations?”

  Joanna held the phone out to her.

  “That looks suspiciously like…”

  “Liam Preston. The asshole came here on vacation.”

  Rue looked shocked, but didn’t say anything.

  “You’re thinking this is more than a strange coincidence?”

  “I’m afraid it is. The wife of a former colleague was murdered in her home. I think it’s him. He came here because of me…and he has to know things.”

  Rue still hadn’t said anything, listening to the conversation quiet and pale.

  “Damn,” Denise said. “This isn’t good. We’ll have to think of alternatives.”

  “What does that mean?” Rue wanted to know. “You’re not going to kick us out?”

  “Of course not, but we’ll have to consider if it’s still safe for you here. If he knew about Joanna, her father, that colleague…We don’t know who else is in danger.”

  “I agree,” Joanna said. “I came here first, but I need to talk to Theo. He’ll look into it.”

  “You do that, and lay low for the rest of the day. I can give Rue the time off. Talk to him and get back to me later?”

  “Sure, thank you. Could you please check if the women who arrived on the same day are still here?”

  “I’ll do that, but remember: Lay low.”

  Joanna nodded and turned to leave. Rue followed her silently.

  “It will never end, right?” she asked, when she and Joanna were alone. “There is nowhere safe.”

  “There will be. I promise. Let’s just get in the car, and I’ll make the call.”

  * * * *

  “White male, mid-thirties maybe. He spent nine days here, hooked up with various people most of which are gone by now. He was coming on to me on his first day, but given his later activities I just figured he got over it.”

  Rue gave her a sharp look. They hadn’t talked about Preston in detail. Joanna didn’t think it was important at the time, now she wished she’d paid more attention. On the other hand, her, paying attention, might have been what got her on this man’s radar. She thought of the guests watching from behind windows when the police picked up Harry Farrell. The sharply increased number of bookings after the murder.

  “I’ll check for any connections to Grace,” Theo said. “Thank you. I would have gotten back to you earlier, but what are the odds?” He sounded resigned, as if he should have known the answer. Even in paradise, Joanna attracted trouble. She couldn’t run from it, could she?

  “Do it fast. There’s no saying what he’s going to do next.” She sensed his hesitation, alarm bells going off in her mind. “Has there been another incident?” What a lousy understated way to say a woman was dead.

  “No, but thanks for the reminder,” he said dryly.

  “Your sarcasm is misplaced. The guy was right here, and apparently he has information about me. That thing he said to my father? He’s trying to get me implicated.”

  “Come on. You weren’t anywhere near Nate Gibson’s residence.”

  “No, but…It’s not random. I can feel it.”

  “We’re doing everything we can,” he promised.

  “What about Allison? Does she still think I went off the deep end?”

  “I’m gently steering her away from that theory.”

  “Good, and thank you for that. I wish I could help more.”

  “Yeah. It is what it is,” he said cryptically.

  “Anyone else still looking for me? Because of Short?”

  “Are you kidding? We are busy looking for murderers.”

  After they ended the call, Joanna couldn’t help the feeling that he’d sounded uneasy.

  * * * *

  Marian Rickers composed herself quickly. Theo had seen the conflicting emotions in her expression, surprise, fear, curiosity. He hadn’t seen her since the day he’d come to ask her if she’d, by any chance, heard from his partner Joanna Mitchell. That was before Joanna was arrested and convicted for the execution of a murderer. One of the man’s victim’s had been Faith Rickers, Marian’s niece.

  “Detective. I haven’t seen you in a long time. Come on in.” In fact, he was fairly surprised she still recognized him. Then again, he and Joanna had visited her a few times under the most horrific circumstances.

  “How have you been?” he asked, never a light question in his line of work.

  She shrugged. “You can see. Still here.”

  Marian and Faith had been close. Before anything, Theo needed to test the waters as to how she felt about Joanna’s actions. He hoped that they could go from there.

  “I’m really sorry, about everything.”

  “I can imagine. It became quite the spectacle. Somewhere in there, I think too many people forgot about what happened to these young women.”

  He suppressed a wince. This wasn’t going great.

  “Would you like something to drink?” she asked. “I just made coffee.”

  “A coffee would be great, thank you.”

  She guided him to the living room and left for the adjacent kitchen, returning with two mugs a moment later.

  “The other detective, Mitchell…? I thought about visiting her in prison,” she said. “Then I didn’t, because I didn’t want to run into any reporters. I guess she didn’t expect things to turn out this way.”

  “No. She just wanted to make it stop.”

  “And she did, just not soon enough. For Faith, I mean. Then again, it was what any family member wished they could have done. I don’t know if I’m grateful, but I’m not sorry. I can’t imagine she is.”

  That was territory Theo didn’t want to venture into, but p
erhaps he wasn’t in a position as bad as he’d worried.

  “Ms. Rickers, I came here, because…I was hoping you could put me in touch with a friend of yours. In fact, that could help Joanna a great deal.”

  He hadn’t lied to Joanna when he said they were busy, still, this bore a risk. He was putting her future into a grieving woman’s hands.

  It might work out.

  It had to.

  Marian Rickers gave him a wry smile. “I see. You didn’t come here after all these years to check up on me.”

  “I wanted to do that too. But yes, to be honest, I’m trying to help someone who has a lot on the line.”

  “Is she in trouble?”

  “I think someone is trying to set her up, and it would be helpful if she could defend herself.”

  “I see. You want to wait and see if they put me through to the governor right away?”

  “That would be great, thank you.”

  * * * *

  “I haven’t seen you around much. What time are you off work?”

  “…cocktail for you.”

  “That sounds great.”

  “I hope you enjoyed your stay.”

  “Like you wouldn’t imagine.”

  Allison Kato listened to the recording once more, Joanna Mitchell talking to a man about cocktails and his stay at wherever she was. Part of Joanna’s first sentence was cut off by white noise, but the rest of the conversation came across quite clearly. It sounded polite, friendly even, to her.

  She cast a look at where Theo was sitting at his desk, on the phone. He had completely rejected her theory about Joanna being so angry at her father that she felt like she needed to send him a message. Now this recording. What was the truth? And why had her partner spent all morning on mysterious errands?

  “Hey, Theo,” she called when she saw he was off the phone, and waved him over. “Come listen to this.”

  He was remarkably unimpressed regarding the obvious connection.

  “Let’s see if we can trace it? And get that recording out in case anyone recognizes the voice.”

  “Joanna’s voice is in it too.”

  “Yeah, so? That guy was a guest at the hotel. They were bound to have some interactions.”