Olivia could tell the idea that someone murdered Justine was almost too much for him to take in. But she knew that, in a strange way, he found it more palatable than the fact that she would have chosen to take her own life.
Wade kept his head down as he worked on the boat inside the boathouse. Olivia stood well away from the edge of the water, watching him. She knew he was thinking. Analyzing her theory about Justine. Every once in a while she’d walk to the door and step outside. She noticed he never looked up when she came back in. “Wade, you really need to be more aware.”
“Of what?”
“Of someone coming up behind you. I’ve left and come back twice and you never even looked up.”
“That’s because I knew it was you.”
“How?”
“By the way you walk. You have a very distinct soft-sounding step.”
“No I don’t,” she scoffed. At his raised brow, she paused, curious. “I do? Really?”
“Really.” He grinned—not a big grin and not one filled with joy, but at least it was better than the grim face he’d been wearing. Though she could hardly blame him for it.
“Will you tell me about your wife?” The grin faded and she almost regretted the question.
He stopped what he was doing and stared at her. “What do you want to know?”
“What was she like?”
He shrugged. “We met in high school. She was popular, always the life of the party.” He looked up and she saw his mind go back in time. “She was pretty.” He glanced at her. “And she knew it.”
“Ah. One of those.”
“Yeah. But I was a jock and arrogant. We were made for each other. Together we were such a cliché.”
“Clichés happen for a reason.”
“True.” He shook his head. “High school was a blast. We did the whole partying, drinking thing. Some recreational drugs and never got caught, never suffered any consequences. No one died, nothing bad happened. Pamela and I got a marriage license the day after graduation and had a local pastor marry us. Pamela’s parents freaked. I thought my dad would write me out of the will, but we both started college in the fall and I think our parents were actually shocked. Then Pamela got pregnant.” He dropped his head and closed his eyes for a brief moment. “She was furious. Wanted to have an abortion. I told her if she did, we were done.” He cleared his throat. “You have to understand, after she got pregnant, she let me know quite plainly that she didn’t marry me because she loved me, she loved my money and my ability to show her a good time and she relished the status of being a Savage.”
“Oh Wade, I’m so sorry.”
“It hurt. I won’t try to shrug it off and say it was okay. It wasn’t. I was . . . crushed. But I wanted our baby. I convinced her that she’d wind up with nothing if she had an abortion.”
“So she had the baby.”
“Yes.” His hands clenched into fists. “And it wasn’t long after that she was back to partying, drinking—gone all the time. She failed her second semester of college. I rarely saw her. But Amy’s birth changed me. She was just . . . perfect in every way. I loved her from the moment I saw her, and I vowed to be the best dad I could be so she would have an amazing life.”
Olivia’s heart flipped, her attraction for the man growing with the visual he created. “How did you manage?”
“Dad helped a lot. He was determined I was going to finish college and he hired a sitter for Amy since Pamela couldn’t be counted on to actually take care of her child. It wasn’t too long after Amy’s first birthday that Pamela disappeared completely. Dad tracked her down and found her living with another guy, hooked on drugs. He got her out and got her in a rehab center.”
“Where were her parents during all of this?”
“They’d written her off and moved to Europe to be near their son who’s in the military.”
“What happened when she got out of rehab?”
“She went to see Joanna. The two got drunk. Pamela stole Joanna’s car and drove it off a cliff.”
Olivia let out a slow breath. She’d read his wife had died in a car wreck that had been ruled an accident while driving under the influence. “How awful.”
“Yes, it was a dark time. If I hadn’t had Amy and my dad, I probably wouldn’t have made it. After that, I turned back to my faith, finished my degree, and went on to medical school.” He sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. “Okay, enough of that. Let’s get this boat on the water.”
Haley was up at the house with Amy, and Olivia knew the girl was eager to get on the boat. However, Olivia couldn’t stop the niggling concern inside her. Wade grabbed a case of bottled waters and one of soda and headed down below deck. When he came back up the stairs, Olivia paced to the windows, looked out to see nothing alarming, then back to Wade. “How often do you take the boat out?”
“Just about every weekend when it’s warm enough. Why?”
“You sure like that boat, don’t you?” she asked him.
“Of course. Why the questions?”
“And the water.”
“Yep,” he said, sounding a bit exasperated. He stepped onto the dock and studied her. “Why?”
“Would you change your plans if I asked you to?” she asked.
He paused and planted his hands on his hips. “Maybe. Change them in what way?”
“I want you to do something different. You did the radio show and almost got blown up. You went to church this morning and look what happened.”
He rubbed his chin. “You think something will happen if I take the boat out this afternoon?”
“I have no way of knowing. I know you promised Amy you’d go and she’s expecting it, but what if you told her she could skip school tomorrow and you would take her out on the lake instead? Do you think the change would cause a panic attack?”
“If it’s a change she likes, then no, it wouldn’t cause an attack.” He let out a low laugh. “Yeah, she’d probably go for that. Missing school is pretty high on her list of favorite things to do.” He shrugged. “All right. Missing one day won’t hurt her. Sure, I’ll tell her.” She blinked at his easy acceptance of the idea and he laughed, then sobered. “I haven’t made being my bodyguard an easy task, have I?”
“I’m sorry.”
She gave a faint smile. “It’s all part of the job.”
He wiped his hands on a towel hanging from a nail in the wall. “All right, let’s go tell my daughter I’m allowing her to play hooky.”
Amy took the news well. In fact, she went straight to her phone to text Stacy and let her know she wouldn’t be in school on Monday. Wade motioned for Olivia to join him in the den. When they were both seated, he leaned forward. “Tell me more about yourself.”
She lifted a brow. “I’ve already told you I grew up in foster homes. What more do you want to know?”
“Where did you grow up?”
“Here in Greenville.”
“Did you always want to be a bodyguard?”
“No.” She stood. “Look, this is pointless. You’re a client. I’ll lay down my life to keep you safe, but my personal life is off-limits.”
Wade stiffened. “I see. Very well.” He stood. “I guess I’ll just go get some work done. Let me know if there’s any sign of trouble.”
Immediate remorse filled Olivia. “Wade, I’m—”
He held up a hand. “I get it, Olivia. I’m a client.” He turned on his heel and left the room.
Frustration pinched her hard and she was appalled at herself. He’d just spilled his guts to her about his wife and she’d just snipped the bond that had been growing between them. All because he’d gotten too close before she’d realized it. But he hadn’t wanted to hear her apology and she didn’t really blame him. Her phone buzzed, interrupting her self-chastisement. It was a text from Katie:
Checking in.
Olivia
All is quiet for now. See you at midnight.
Her phone rang. Haley. “Hey.”
“Can you talk?”
“Sure.” Going after Wade to apologize probably wasn’t a good idea. “What do you have?”
“Erin Abbott. I gave her name to Angela, who worked her magic. Mrs. Abbott is clean as far as any criminal past. She works as a nurse at the hospital, single mom of three whose husband ran out on her a couple years ago. Kids are four, nine, and twelve. Dates occasionally, but nothing serious according to a co-worker. She’s good at her job, but has seemed kind of out of it lately.”
“Out of it?”
“Tired, forgetful, scattered. She hasn’t messed up at work, but the co-worker described her as stressed.”
“Okay, well, she’s a full-time single mom with three young kids, full-time demanding job, no support from her ex . . . yeah, I can see how trying to juggle it all would be stressful. I sure couldn’t do it. I’d be forgetful and scattered, not to mention probably ready for a straitjacket.”
“For sure. But here’s another thing. She wasn’t at any conference this weekend.”
Olivia stopped mid-pace. “She wasn’t? Where was she?”
“Her credit card said she was staying at the Marriott downtown.”
“Well, now,” Olivia said softly. “That puts a different spin on things, doesn’t it?”
“A bit.”
“Not anyone that’s listed as being in the room with her.”
“But anyone could have come and stayed and no one at the hotel would know anything about it.”
“Of course. But she was a busy little thing. She had a massage, ate at the hotel restaurant on Friday night, ordered room service for Saturday breakfast and dinner, used the manicure services, and had the Do Not Disturb sign on her door the entire time.”
“Did she eat with anyone at the hotel?”
“No one seems to remember. I did check her phone records. She had no phone calls going out from her cell phone the entire weekend.”
Olivia thought about everything Haley had just told her. “She took the weekend off.”
“What?”
“She checked out of her life and into the hotel. She had her phone off and spent the entire weekend pampering herself.”
“So you don’t think she was with anyone?”
Did she? “I don’t know. It sounds to me that she needed a break and arranged one.”
“Possibly. Or she was setting everything up to give herself an alibi when she went after Wade.”
“True. And she could have used a throwaway cell phone for the weekend. A burner phone or something.”
“Possibly. I also checked the station’s calls received against her numbers since we had permission to get the phone logs. For the past couple months, Erin’s landline number showed up every weekend with three or four calls each night Wade was doing the show. Her cell phone number just a few times. But not this past weekend.”
“My, my, now that is interesting. Okay. She was at church this morning. Why don’t we pass this information on to Quinn and see what he can come up with.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Thanks for the update.”
“Of course. Talk soon.”
Olivia disconnected the call and let her mind sort through the information. So Erin Abbott had lied about attending a conference. Why? So she could stay home and stalk Wade? A sense of satisfaction filled Olivia. Finally, they might be on to something. Wade deserved to be free of this nightmare.
She thought about all he’d been through, his love for his daughter, his generosity with his sister-in-law, and his respect for his father. Most of all she thought about the way his eyes gentled when they landed on her or the spark that flared between them whenever they came in contact.
Lashing out had been mean, but it had also been an act of self-preservation. Getting involved with a client had never been an issue with her, so her attraction to Wade had completely thrown her. She wasn’t used to that and didn’t know how to handle it. Obviously.
With Wade, she knew it was going to be hard to resist temptation if he was interested in starting . . . something. And from the looks he was sending her, he was interested.
In the kitchen, Olivia checked the door once again.
“Everything all right in here?” Martha asked from the doorway.
Olivia nodded. “Just fine.”
“I’m going to say good night to Wade, then head up to my apartment. You need anything?”
“No. Thanks.”
Martha nodded.
“Before you leave, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“You’ve known Wade a long time.”
“I have.” She looked wary. “Why?”
“Can you think of anyone who might be causing him all of these problems? Anyone from his past? A girl he dumped, someone at church? Anyone at all?”
Martha tucked a strand of stray hair behind her ear and the wariness morphed into thoughtfulness. “I truly can’t,” she said softly. “Wade is like his dad in a lot of ways. He’s kind, will talk to anyone, generous to a fault.” She shook her head. “You know Cameron Short?”
“Yes. The director of the charity.”
Martha nodded. “His wife was sick a few years ago with cancer. Brain cancer.” She clucked her tongue. “Nasty stuff. It was hard on Cameron. He loved her so much. You can imagine, the bills were astronomical. Wade and his father paid them off. Every last one of them.”
“You’re right,” Olivia murmured. “That’s incredibly generous.”
“That’s just one example of the good this family does. So, yes, I think women would be drawn to that. Could be obsessed with it, even. But I can’t for the life of me think of someone who would do this.” She shook her head.
Olivia smiled. “Thank you for telling me.”
Martha shrugged. “It’s not like it’s a secret.”
A noise caught Olivia’s attention. She walked over to the window, stood to the side, and flipped the plantation shutter blinds open a fraction. When her gaze met equally surprised dark eyes, she bit back a yelp.
She heard Martha’s startled exclamation as Olivia bolted for the door.