[20]
SUNDAY LATE LUNCH
Quinn arrived with brown paper bags filled with tantalizing smells. His partner, Bree, stepped inside with a gallon of tea and a six-pack of Cokes. Olivia gestured to the kitchen. “Thanks for picking it up.”
“Not a problem. Do we eat first or watch the video first?” Quinn asked.
“Eat,” Olivia said.
“Definitely eat,” Wade echoed as he started pulling plates from the cabinet.
Quinn snorted. “I see you share her priorities.”
“My stomach definitely does.”
Katie stepped into the kitchen. “Should I fix a plate for Amy?”
“I’m already on it,” Wade said. He and Quinn opened the boxes. Wade placed a small amount of food in the center of a blue dish. “Is she coming down?”
“I don’t think so. She’s seems to prefer her room.” Katie moved down the line, adding her own food.
Wade sighed and nodded. “Fine. I’ll let her get away with it today.”
Katie took the filled plate from him. “I’ll be back for drinks.”
“I’ll bring them up,” Olivia offered.
Thirty minutes later, with the small talk finished and Olivia’s nerves on edge from waiting, Quinn pulled a laptop from the black bag he’d brought inside. He pushed his plate aside, placed the laptop on the table, and lifted the lid.
Bree rose. “I’m going to do a perimeter search of the house. Any alarms I need to know about?”
Wade told her and she left. He then scooted his chair around beside Quinn. Olivia rose to stand behind the two men so she could see the screen.
Quinn already had the footage pulled up so all he had to do was press play.
The parking lot of the church came up. Quinn pointed. “There’s the vehicle, right?”
“Yes.” Wade leaned in.
“I’ve run it forward to this point. Wait until it gets to 10:41.”
Olivia watched the clock count. When it reached the time Quinn specified, she narrowed her eyes. “There.”
“I see it.”
A figure walked past Wade’s vehicle. Stopped, then walked back. “Of course she has a baseball hat on,” Olivia muttered. Then sucked in a breath. “Wait a minute. That’s a male.”
Quinn shot her a smug look. “Exactly. You people keep saying ‘she.’”
“The person in the parking lot of the radio station was a woman,” Olivia said.
“Without a doubt?”
She paused. Thought back to the night she’d found Wade unconscious. Pictured the person dressed in black hovering over him. “No, not without a doubt. I thought it was, just from the way the person moved, but she—he—whoever, had on a black hoodie, a ski mask, and black sweat pants. Nothing form fitting. So, no, I can’t say for sure. The 911 operator asked me too, and I couldn’t tell her.”
“But the person in the bathroom with Amy was a female. We watched the video footage of that. No male person entered that bathroom,” Wade said.
They watched more of the video. Quinn pointed again. “There. He’s putting the tracking device Katie found on the car. Right under the license plate.”
Olivia watched the man slip the GPS device under the plate, stand, pull his baseball cap lower, then shove his hands into his pockets. He strode toward woods just beyond the parking lot and disappeared into the trees.
Olivia blew out a breath. “What color was his hair? Could you tell?”
“Not with this black-and-white footage. It looked dark, but . . .” Quinn shrugged. “He kept his face from the cameras, did you notice that?”
“Yes, I did,” Olivia said. “So the hit at the church was planned.”
“Looks like it,” Quinn agreed. “And whoever planned it knew the schedule. Knew the play that was going on, knew how to get to the remote and crank up the volume, knew that Amy would head to that particular restroom.”
Olivia shook her head. “I really don’t like this.”
“And I really don’t blame you.” Quinn clicked a few keys on the computer. “But the good news is, we found the woman carrying the bag from the bathroom. She claims she found it in one of the stalls and took it to the lost and found.”
“You believe her?”
“Yes, we checked her out and she’s clean. She keeps the nursery and was in there the whole time except for the bathroom break after the service, according to the other two ladies working with her. We went to get the bag, but it had been claimed.”
“By whom?”
“We don’t know. And yes, we asked about cameras on that hall, but the one covering the lost and found wasn’t working.”
“Wasn’t working or was sabotaged?” Wade muttered.
“Wasn’t working. We asked. Apparently it’s been down for about two weeks and just hasn’t been fixed yet.”
“She knew that too,” Olivia murmured. “She set up her entire plan around that broken lost-and-found camera.”
Quinn nodded. “It’s possible. Take a look at this.” The video played. “There’s Amy running down the hall.”
Olivia heard Wade’s indrawn breath and felt the renewed tension in his body. She knew he was feeling the anguish of his inability to help his daughter. Behind the others’ backs, she gave his shoulder a slight squeeze, then let go, immediately appalled at her less than professional behavior. Yet, curious too. She wanted to comfort him.
“There.” Quinn pointed. “That’s the woman following behind Amy.”
“I guess it’s a woman,” Wade said. “Medium height; short, shaggy hair; hoodie. She . . . he . . . is thin and wearing loose clothing.” He let out a disgusted grunt. “I can’t tell.”
Olivia leaned closer. “Whoever it is, the person dressed to be on camera.”
“Amy thought it was a woman because everything happened in the women’s bathroom,” Wade said. “But what if it was a man?”
“Compare the time stamp of the person in the bathroom to the person putting the GPS tracker on Wade’s vehicle,” Olivia said.
Quinn did. “Well, look at that. Everything’s going down at the same time.”
“You know what this means, don’t you?” Olivia said.
“No. What?” Wade asked, turning to look at her.
“It’s possible you don’t have a stalker.”
“I don’t?” Wade frowned, confused.
“No. You might have a team.”
Wade flinched. “What are you talking about?”
“I think the woman in the video—and I think it is a woman in spite of her efforts to disguise herself—is the one who’s stalking you.” Olivia rushed to say, “But it looks like she’s enlisted help. I don’t see how it could be just a simple coincidence that someone goes after Amy in the bathroom while someone else goes after Wade’s vehicle in the parking lot. They’ve got to be working together.”
“I definitely don’t think it’s a coincidence, therefore I have to wonder,” Quinn said.
“Wonder what?” Wade sighed.
Quinn’s eyes met Olivia’s before he answered Wade. “That maybe this is more than just a simple stalker situation. Isn’t that what you’re thinking, Liv?”
“Yes.” She looked at Wade. “Any ideas?”
Wade pinched the bridge of his nose. “No. I mean, what more could it be?” He sighed. “I don’t know anything anymore. I just want it to stop.”
Olivia pursed her lips. “I know.”
Quinn took a call and exited as Bree slipped into the room and took her seat at the table. “All looks quiet out there. The officer on duty said he hasn’t seen anyone or anything to set off his alarm bells.”
“Good,” Wade said. He tapped his fingers together and sighed. “Should I cancel my appointments for tomorrow?”
Olivia glanced at Bree, who nodded.
Wade pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ll call Linda.”
“Your administrative assistant,” Olivia said. “Maddy mentioned her too.”
“She’s great. The office would fall apart without her.” He dialed the number he kept on speed dial.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Linda.” Linda Birch had worked with him since he and his partner had opened the practice.
“Wade, how are you? I talked to Cameron and he told me what happened. I wanted to call, but didn’t want to interrupt anything.”
“Everything is pretty calm for now.” He paused. “You know all of my clients.”
“Yes.”
“Can you think of any one that stands out as particularly . . . um . . . stalker-ish?”
“Stalker-ish?”
He could feel Bree and Olivia’s attention centered on him. “Yes.”
Linda hesitated. “No, not offhand. I mean, you’ve worked with some pretty intense people, but I can’t think of anyone that’s shown undue interest in you. Not like you would think a stalker would.” She cleared her throat. “Except for those gifts that were left here. And then it was only the two.”
“Right. Well, if you think of anyone, will you let me know?”
“Of course.”
“And cancel my appointments tomorrow. I think my first one was at nine.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks.” He hung up and found Bree and Olivia watching him. He shrugged. “Linda couldn’t think of anyone.” He stood. “I’m going to check on Amy.” He wasn’t worried about her physical state, but he was very concerned about her emotional one.
A knock on the front door startled him. He moved to answer it, only to find Olivia had moved faster. She pushed aside the sheer curtain, her hand on her weapon. Then he saw her relax. “It’s your father.”
She opened the door and his dad stepped inside. “Just thought I’d stop by and see what kind of progress is being made.”
Bruce didn’t know about the incident at the church yet and Wade wasn’t in the mood to rehash it. “I was just going upstairs to check on Amy. You want to go with me?”
“Sure.” He frowned. “Is she all right?”
Wade gave a quiet sigh. So, rehashing it was on the agenda. “Not really. Come on, I’ll give you the abridged version.” They climbed the stairs together. He felt Olivia’s eyes on his back. If they were lasers, he’d be see-through. He knew she was concerned, but he needed a break. From everything. And everyone except his family.
She didn’t stop his ascent and he figured she might understand a bit of what he was going through.
The rage at the person terrorizing his family hadn’t diminished one bit. And while he kept it under control, he could feel it simmering, boiling, growing.
Ready to be unleashed as soon as he had a target.
Olivia watched the two men disappear around the corner at the top of the stairs. She could hear Wade telling his father about the incident at the church. She had to admit she and her agency were looking incompetent. If she were Bruce, she’d fire them all and hire someone else.
The whole situation made her frown.
“What is it?” Katie asked from the top of the stairs.
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“About the fact that if I were Bruce Savage, I’d fire us.”
Katie lifted a brow. “Yeah.” She started down the stairs. Voices from the kitchen floated to Olivia even as her brain struggled to figure out this complex problem of keeping the Savage family safe from an invisible enemy.
“Wade has a charity event Thursday night,” Olivia said.
“Another dinner.” Katie reached the bottom and stopped in front of Olivia.
“Yes. Just the very idea of it makes me want to break out in hives.”
“There’s no way he’ll give up going,” Katie said.
“I know.” She pursed her lips. “I’m missing something,” she said softly.
“What?”
“I don’t know. If I knew, I wouldn’t be missing it.”
Katie rolled her eyes. “So what’s the plan for now?”
“We’ve already established that this person—or persons—who are after Wade know him well.”
“Yes. She . . . he . . . whoever . . . knew he’d most likely be at church this morning.”
“And planned ahead of time. She moved easily within the church. No one thought it strange that she—or the guy helping her—was in the youth room. They didn’t stand out and that worries me.” She rubbed her nose. “I want background checks done again on all of his family. The people at the radio station. Even the church members.”
Katie bit her lip. “Do you know how long that will take?”
“Yes. But I’m willing to bet that whoever is stalking him is a member of that church. She knew the camera on the lost-and-found hallway wasn’t working. She also knew if she left a bag in the bathroom, someone would turn it in. She was probably hanging out watching the whole time. As soon as the bag was turned in, she simply picked it up and slipped out.”
Katie nodded. “That makes sense. But even if we come up with someone who might be after Wade, it’ll take effort to prove it.”
“I know. Start with the staff and volunteers first.” Olivia narrowed her eyes. “Have Angela talk to some of the people in the youth room. See if she can get a list of names of all the people around the video equipment. We’ll check them all out and see if we pull out any skeletons.”
“Okay.”
“Also, there was a woman this morning who was very flirtatious with Wade. Erin Abbott. I’d be interested to know more about her.”
“I’ll put her on the list. What about the sister-in-law, Martha?” Katie asked with a lowered voice and a glance toward the empty doorway.
Olivia nodded. “I’ve wondered about her, but her background is clean, and this morning she was in the service when the craziness went down.”
“Plus, she’s lived with him all this time, why start stalking him now?”
Olivia shrugged. “You never know about someone. We’ll keep an eye on her and keep looking.”
“Although if the stalker isn’t Martha, why doesn’t his stalker consider her a threat? Seems to me she’d be the first one to get rid of.”
“That’s a good point,” Olivia said, “but there have been no threats against her.”
“Then the stalker knows she’s not a threat and isn’t worried about her being one?”
“Could be.”
“And the friend? Joanna?”
“Same story.”
“So it’s someone who knows Wade well enough to also know that she doesn’t have to worry about Martha and Joanna being competition for his affection.”
“That’s the way it appears.”
Katie snorted. “We all know appearances can be deceiving.” She pulled in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Anything on the caller Quinn and Bree were trying to track down?”
“No. Nothing yet.”
“So, who are we looking at as a primary suspect?”
Olivia almost smiled. You could take the girl out of the job, but once a cop, always a cop. “We aren’t looking at anyone. Quinn and Bree are going to go after the caller who calls two or three times during Wade’s show.”
“When are they going to talk to her?”
“As soon as she gets back into town.”
“And until then?”
“We keep our eyes and ears open and Wade and his family safe.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Wade asked from the doorway.
“A number of different ways. But first I need knowledge. Knowledge is power and I think some things have been left . . . unsaid.”
He shot her a wary glance. “What things?”
“The elephant in the room.”
“Which is?”
“Justine.”