Gia chastised herself, not for the first time, but she ignored her own warnings as she hurried up the walkway to Jeremy’s front door.
“You’re sure about this, right?” Savannah kept pace at her side, half jogging to keep up with Gia’s longer stride. “Even after he came into the shop yesterday and acted like a horse’s backside?”
“He said he came in to warn me about something but that now I could fend for myself.” He’d also never gone to the police to file an assault report against Carlos, and since Gia hadn’t pressed charges against either man, there wasn’t anything Hunt or Leo could do, especially considering Jeremy had fled the cafe before Hunt and Leo had shown up. But she didn’t have much of a choice. Being that Carlos had thrown the first punch, he’d have been arrested, and that would have messed up Savannah’s wedding. Though Hunt understood her reluctance, he hadn’t completely agreed with her. He’d wanted to at least have a talk with the other man, but she’d convinced him to let it drop. “I didn’t press charges, but I do want to know what he was talking about when he said he’d come to give me a warning.”
Savannah nodded and looked around the run-down neighborhood. “And what if he won’t tell you?”
“Then I’ll go back to work.” She reached the front stoop and only hesitated for a moment before ringing the bell. His small ranch sat on a postage stamp size property between two others that looked just like it. Paint and pieces of stucco had peeled and cracked in numerous places, and rust stains ran down the wall beneath one window.
Savannah cupped her hands around her eyes and tried to peer through the grime on the window without actually coming in contact with it. “Now what?”
What could they do? It wasn’t like she could track him down if he wasn’t home. She had no clue where else to look. She shrugged and started back down the walkway toward the car, then paused and detoured to the driveway. “Here, let me boost you up so you can peek in the garage windows and see if there’s a car in there.”
Savannah looked around. “Seriously? Are you trying to get me arrested on the day before my wedding?”
“Oh, please, like Leo’s really going to arrest you.” Probably.
She cocked a brow. “It’s not Leo I’m worried about.”
Oh, right. So Hunt could be a problem, but even he wouldn’t arrest her on the day before her wedding. Most likely.
Gia looked up and down the street and scanned the neighboring houses. When she didn’t see anyone, she knelt on one knee and cupped her hands together.
Savannah shook her head but propped a hand on Gia’s shoulder and one on the garage door, then placed her foot in Gia’s cradled hands and boosted herself up to see into the row of windows along the top of the garage door.
“Well?”
She dropped down and brushed her hands off. “Yup, there’s a car in there.”
“Okay, so now what?”
Savannah went back to the front door and rang the bell, then knocked a couple of times. Still nothing.
A cracked concrete walkway led around the side of the garage. Gia peered around the side. A chain link gate hung from rusted hinges, propped open with a crumbling cinder block. She returned to the front stoop, where Savannah stood with her hands on her hips staring at the door as if willing it to open.
Gia tried the knob. It turned easily. She looked at Savannah for her opinion.
She simply shrugged and blew her hair off her forehead.
With a deep breath and warning bells clanging in her head, Gia eased the door open and poked her head inside. “Hello? Jeremy?”
Dust motes drifted lazily in those shafts of morning sunlight that were strong enough to penetrate the build up of grunge on the curtainless front window. A couch that sagged in the middle sat facing a brick fireplace covered in black soot. A big screen TV took up the space above the fireplace from the mantle almost to the ceiling.
“Is anyone home?” Savannah waited with her lower lip caught between her teeth.
“I don’t think so, but the door’s open, so we could just take a quick peek and see if he’s here.”
“We could, except that’s considered breaking and entering.”
“Technically, it’s just entering if the door’s open.”
“Ya think?”
She shrugged. She actually had no idea, but it sounded good, and she really wanted a quick peek at the pile of paperwork sitting on a milk carton in the far corner of the room. “Probably.”
“Sounds good.” Savannah shoved the door open and walked in. “Hey? Anyone home?”
Silence screamed back at her.
Gia made a beeline for the paperwork. If she was only going to have a few minutes, that was one thing she was determined to look at. She shuffled through a stack of bills—mostly a month or two behind, a smattering of Christmas cards—mostly from women, and a couple of receipts—one with a note jotted on the back that read tomorrow am. The receipt was dated the week before but she had no way of knowing if he’d written the note then or more recently. Either way, it was something he was supposed to do within the past week. She picked up a piece of printer paper and turned it over. The page was covered with Robyn’s first and last name—written over and over again in cursive. She had no idea what to make of that.
Disappointed, Gia moved onto the kitchen.
Savannah’s footsteps moved down the hallway toward the bedrooms.
Several manilla envelopes stood in a napkin holder in the center of the table. Gia lifted one up and turned it over in her hands. Not sealed. She slitted the top open enough to see inside. Last Will and Testament stared back at her. Okay, there’s no way she should look at that. She should absolutely put it back just as she’d found it and move on. Or even better, get out of there.
“Do you notice something, Gia?” Savannah stood in the doorway, her tour of the house apparently complete.
Gia gripped the envelope tighter. “What do you mean?”
“Look around.” She gestured all around her.
Gia did as she instructed, figuring Savannah wanted her to notice something on her own, probably to see if she’d come to the same conclusion Savannah had about something. The white sink held no dirty dishes, but rust stains marred the surface beneath the faucet and around the drain. The counters were bare but for a coffee pot and a toaster. The faux terra cotta linoleum floor was peeling up in the corner beside a sliding door that led to a weed choked yard.
“It’s not upkept very well, dusty but not particularly dirty. More aged.”
Savannah shook her head. “I know I’m a woman, so it’s probably different, but just think about all of the wedding preparation stuff that’s spread all over Trevor’s mansion right now.”
Savannah wasn’t kidding, you couldn’t even move around without tripping over something wedding related, from Savannah’s gown hanging in a spare room to keep it safe from Klondike and Pepper, to lists of last minute things to do, travel brochures for their honeymoon, and a make-up case Gia had to move every time she went to sit at the table.
“Now look around here, even in the bedrooms, there’s nothing. No mention or sign or anything that someone was supposed to be getting married any time soon.”
“Hmm…that is weird.” Even Hunt and Leo’s suite at Trevor’s had signs of the impending nuptials. She’d had to duck both tuxes on her way in to say goodnight just the other day.
“What’s that?” Savannah gestured at the envelope still clutched in Gia’s hand.
“Something I should put back where I found it and get out of here.”
Savannah took it from her. “In other words, something you really want a peek at.”
“Exactly, but let me do it.” She took the envelope back. “If either of us gets in trouble for this, better it’s me.”
Savannah shrugged but let Gia keep the envelope. With a quick prayer they wouldn’t get caught, she slid the will out and skimmed over the pages. “Uh oh.”
“What?” Savannah looked over Gia’s shoulder.
“This looks like Robyn’s will. It’s dated a couple of weeks ago. Hunt said Robyn left everything to Isaac, but according to this, she left everything to Jeremy.” Gia pointed to the only line that mattered.
“Do you think it’ll stand up in court?” Savannah asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure what’s required.” She flipped to the back page. Robyn’s signature was scrawled along a line at the bottom of the page, a signature that looked almost exactly like the one she’d found written over and over again on the printer paper on Jeremy’s desk. Had he been practicing forging it? She ran and grabbed the paper, then compared the two. “Look at this. Do you think Jeremy forged the signature?”
Savannah lifted her hands to the side then let them drop. “I have no idea, but I don’t see any other signatures on the document, witnesses or anything, nor is it notarized, so I don’t know if it’s legal.”
“I’d think if it was, he’d have come forward with it by now.”
“Question is, did he make it up after Robyn was killed and backdate it, or did he write it up a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of her demise?”
Though it was also possible Robyn had done it herself before her death, it didn’t seem likely. Gia stuffed the pages back into the envelope. “Let’s get out of here.”
“How are we going to tell Hunt and Leo about this?”
“Are you crazy? We can’t tell them.”
“We have to, Gia. We have no choice.”
Ugh…why did she have to be right? She stuck the envelope back with the others, exactly as she’d found it. Her hand hovered above the napkin holder for another moment before she snatched another envelope and riffled through the contents. “This just gets stranger and stranger?”
“What’s that?” Savannah stared out the back window, sulking.
“Another will, this time Jeremy’s.”
That caught her interest, and she started to turn toward Gia, then stopped when something outside caught her attention.
“What?” Gia shoved the will back into the envelope without checking the signatures, though she did skim enough to know he’d left everything to Ethan, and dropped it into the napkin holder. “Is someone out there?”
Savannah unlocked the sliding door and pushed it open, cringing when it screeched in protest. She stepped outside.
Gia followed.
Weeds covered most of the yard, but Savannah’s attention was on a potted plant in the corner of the weathered deck. “Do you know what I think that is?”
“What?” It looked like it could be a holiday plant of some sort, green leaves, red berries. The only thing out of place about it was that it was the only thing in the yard that appeared to be cared for. The dark soil in the pot looked freshly turned, as if it had just recently been planted. Gia reached toward it.
“No, don’t.” Savannah slapped her hand away. “I’m no expert, but that looks an awful lot like the pictures of belladonna I saw in the article I read to you.”
Gia jerked back, as far from the plant as she could get, and leaned against the deck railing. She glanced down into the knee-high weeds and caught sight of something nestled among them. She looked closer. Jeremy Nolan lay amid the weeds, his eyes open and staring straight up. He didn’t blink. “Uh, Savannah?”
“Yeah?” she answered, distracted by the pictures of plants she was scrolling through on her phone. “Put that away and call Hunt. Now.”
“What?” She whirled toward Gia.
Gia started down the two steps from the deck to the yard. Though she was pretty sure, she had to make sure he had no pulse and there was no way to save him. “Get out of here, now, and call Hunt.”
She started to bend over Jeremy.
A figure darted from the side of the deck and barreled into her, knocking her to the ground.
Shock held her immobile. Fear of whatever critters might be stalking her amid the high grass propelled her into motion. She scrambled to her feet and went after the fleeing figure. “You may as well stop running, Ethan. I already saw you.”
All right, that was stupid. The man had just bowled her over fleeing the scene of a murder. And yet…something about his expression seemed off. Instead of the guilt Gia would expect to see, stark terror was etched into his features.
He stopped and held up his hands. “Please, it’s not what you think. I didn’t mean to knock you over; I just wanted to get out of here before you saw me.”
Savannah was already on the phone, presumably with the police, standing right next to the sliding door where she could flee at a moment’s notice.
“What are you doing here?” Gia demanded, as if she had every right to be there.
His hands shook wildly, and sweat soaked his light blue t-shirt. His gaze darted around the yard like a cornered animal.
Speaking of animals…Gia scanned the ground as she hopped up onto the bottom step. Facing a potential killer was one thing, venomous snakes something else entirely.
“I just stopped by to talk to Jeremy. I heard about the ruckus in your shop, and I wanted to see if he was all right.”
“Just being a good friend?”
“Yeah, like that, exactly.” He nodded frantically, like a bobble head. “So, you understand?”
“I understand I found you standing over your so-called friend’s body.”
He squeezed his eyes closed tight. “I didn’t kill him. Or anyone.”
Though she couldn’t explain why, maybe it was just seeing how terrified he was, she believed him. She had a feeling he was just checking in on his friend, as he’d said, and happened across his body. Of course, it could be he was terrified of going to prison. “If that’s the case, why run? Why not call the police and report the crime?”
“I would have, but then I heard you and your friend out front yelling for him, and I got scared. I didn’t want to get caught here and have the police think it was me who killed him.”
For the first time, what he was saying didn’t ring true. He might or might not have killed Jeremy, but he’d had no intention of calling the police.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
“Well, they’re on their way now, so you’ll get your chance to tell your side of the story. Besides, the police will be able to determine the time of death, so they’ll know if he died recently or hours ago or last night.”
Ethan grabbed a rusted shovel from where it was propped against the deck railing—whether it was put there recently or had been rusting there for decades, Gia couldn’t tell. He flung the shovel at her.
She ducked aside and covered her head, as it hit the stair railing and bounced off.
Ethan turned and fled.