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Thirty-Eight

Madison made a call to Steven Malone to let him know that she and Terry wanted to talk to him about some developments in the case. She’d also asked if he could have Kimberly, Craig, and Kurt present for their conversation. Sergeant Winston’s call came in five minutes later, when she pulled into the parking lot of the Marriott.

“I was just about to call you,” Madison said, though not buying her claim herself.

“What is hard to understand about calling me first? Just stay away from the Malones until I arrive,” Winston barked through her hands-free and hung up.

The man is always such a treat.

She and Terry went into the hotel and met a different front-desk clerk than was there yesterday.

A couple he’d just checked out stepped around Madison and Terry, each of them pulling a rolling suitcase behind them.

The clerk smiled at Madison. “Good day, can I help you?”

Terry pulled back on her arm. “We’re supposed to wait.”

The clerk shared his gaze between Madison and Terry, his eyes darting back and forth.

“Fine,” she said to Terry and gave a pressed-lip smile to the clerk. “We’ll just be over there for a few minutes.”

The clerk nodded.

“Thanks,” Terry said to her.

Madison’s eyes went to the couple who was leaving, and it made her think of Tammy and her husband. She was in a holding pattern, so she might as well use the time God gave her. She jutted her chin toward Terry. “Why don’t you call Stephanie, Lynch’s assistant at the PI firm, see if she can help us with Lynch’s notes?”

“Okay.”

“And while you’re doing that, there’s something I need to take care of.” She headed to the front desk.

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

She held her hand up at him and kept moving.

“Madison,” he called out after her.

She reached the desk. “Could you connect me with the room for Tammy and Ken…” Oh, God, her mind went blank. Had Cynthia even told her Tammy’s last name? She had to think back to the first time they were introduced, but it was years ago. Was it a color? White? Black? Oh, those were shades.

“Last name, ma’am?” the clerk asked.

“Ah, Greene,” she blurted out as the recollection hit. “Tammy and Ken Greene.”

“One minute.” The clerk clicked away and, a few seconds later, looked up at her. “I’m sorry to inform you, but they checked out this morning.”

“They what?” When Cynthia had said she thought her sister went home, Madison didn’t want to believe that Tammy would leave her sister in a lurch like that. It didn’t matter how hurtful Cynthia might have been; family makes amends. Madison leaned across the counter. “You’re sure? You’re reading it right?”

“Madison?” Terry came up behind her.

She looked over a shoulder at Terry.

“As I said, they checked out this morning,” the clerk repeated.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Madison clenched her hands into fists and spun and paced. She had to get Tammy back here. If only she’d made it here before going to work, she might have gotten to Tammy in time. She’d failed as a friend. She’d failed as a maid of honor.

“What’s going on?” Terry asked.

She stomped over to the lobby area. “I’ve got to get her back. Cynthia’s going to kill me. I’m the maid of honor. I’m supposed make sure everything goes smoothly and—”

“Slow down.” He touched her shoulder. “Start from the beginning. I heard you asking about Tammy and Ken Greene? Who are they?”

“Tammy is Cynthia’s sister and her only bridesmaid, and she—” Madison pointed to the clerk “—has gone home.”

“What am I missing?”

“She and Cynthia got into a huge fight last night, but I figured, heck, it’s sisters. Sisters get into fights. They smooth things over. Life goes on. It doesn’t go back to Alabama!” She took a few steps. “What am I going to do?”

“Okay, just breathe.”

“Just breathe?” she scoffed loudly enough that people walking through the lobby looked at her. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t go down there and drag her ass back. Well, I could, I suppose, but I need to work this case and—”

“Cynthia wouldn’t expect you to.”

“Cyn’s counting on me. I told her I’d fix this.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh. I thought it might take a little talking, convincing on my part to aid the reconciliation. I never thought her sister would fly home!”

“All right, so before we go off the deep end—”

She glared at him.

“Never mind,” he said. “We’ve already jumped.”

“Ha ha.”

“Just call Tammy.”

“I don’t have her number.”

“Call Lou. See if he knows how to reach her, or look her up in the system. You’re not without ways of tracking people down.”

“Gah.” She put her fingertips to her forehead. “I just didn’t think it would come down to this.”

“But it has. Pull yourself together, woman.”

Just the way he said it and looked at her caused Madison to start laughing. He was right. The situation wasn’t entirely lost. She’d get Tammy’s number from Cynthia’s fiancé. Cynthia never had to know. She would talk to Tammy and work everything out. The wedding would go ahead as originally planned: one bridesmaid, one maid of honor.

Air was starting to fill her lungs again—satisfying, life-giving breath—until the tickle in her throat had its way.

ABOUT TWENTY MINUTES AFTER ARRIVING at the hotel, Winston strode through the front doors, Blake Golden at his side. They joined Madison and Terry, and the group of them went up to Malone’s suite.

Kimberly answered the door without a word, but Madison felt the woman’s eyes on her back as she walked through the suite to the sitting area, where they found Steven, Craig, and Kurt. Steven and Craig were sitting much alike with crossed legs, their backs straight. Kurt was leaning forward, elbows on his knees, but hopped up when he saw Madison.

“Do you know who killed my mother?” Kurt asked.

“Unfortunately, not yet,” she replied.

Grief deepened in his eyes, and Madison wished she had a better answer for him.

Kurt took his seat again on the couch next to his father.

Blake and Winston took seats, too, as did Terry. Kimberly and Madison remained standing.

“There have been some developments in the case,” Madison started.

“Did you come here to tell me that my boy’s a killer?” Steven rushed out.

She glanced at Craig and smiled. “Not at all. In fact, your gun has been cleared as the murder weapon.”

Kimberly jutted out her chin and crossed her arms. “I told you that none of us would have done this to Mom.”

Steven looked at his daughter, his eyes full of fire.

What is that about?

Madison dismissed it. She showed the Malones a photo on her phone of Ed Adach but withheld his name. “Do any of you recognize or know this man?”

One by one, the Malones shook their heads.

“I’ve never seen him. Is he the man who was with my wife? He looks different than the sketch you showed me before.”

None of the Malones had met Adach before, so it was possible that Lorene hadn’t, either. His being fired from Meals for You really might not have been personal at all. Adach could have been telling the truth about not knowing Lorene, just as Madison had suspected.

“He’s a person of interest in the case,” Madison told them.

“A person of interest,” Kimberly pondered that. “What does that really mean?”

Madison started, “It means we have reason to suspect he might somehow be involved.”

Steven shimmied to the end of the chair’s cushion. “He killed my wife.”

“It’s too soon to know,” Terry said, beating Madison to a reply.

“But you think he might have?” Steven clenched his teeth.

“It’s possible. That’s all we can say. We’re trying to figure out if he had any connection to your wife,” Madison elaborated. She didn’t want to risk giving Adach’s name or that he had been in possession of Lynch’s car with a gun in the trunk. Even if Adach were cleared, she wouldn’t put it past Steven to get revenge.

“Well, he would have if he killed her,” Steven spat, latching on stubbornly.

“We’re just collecting our facts and building a case, wherever that takes us,” Madison stated calmly. “Now, we’ve found out the identity of the man your wife was with, Mr. Malone.” Madison pulled up the DMV photo of Lynch on her phone and made the rounds, starting with Steven, ending with Kimberly.

“Does he look familiar to any of you?” Terry asked. “He could be easier to identify that way than from a sketch.”

“No, I’ve never seen him.”

Kurt looked at his father, then his brother and sister.

Kimberly shook her head.

Steven answered for his family. “None of us know him.”

“Well, his name is Saul Lynch, and he was a private investigator,” Madison said, sitting down.

“A private investigator?” Kimberly spat. “Why would Mom be with—”

“Kimberly,” Steven said in a warning voice.

Kimberly snapped her jaw and flushed red like a little girl who’d been scolded. Madison kept watching father and daughter. Kimberly had admitted to a disagreement with her mother, but there was definitely something simmering beneath the surface with her father as well.

“Do any of you know why she’d have hired a PI?” Terry inquired.

Kurt shrugged. Craig splayed his hands. Kimberly pursed her lips and shook her head. Steven hardened his expression.

“No idea, Detective,” Steven deadpanned.

“Do the names Julia and Gene Boyd ring any bells for any of you?” Madison asked.

The Malone children each said they hadn’t heard of them before.

“The same goes for me,” Steven said. “Who are those people?”

“It seems Lorene may have hired Mr. Lynch to investigate them,” Madison said.

“Ah, I see, so this is one of those circles. You ask us if we know what Lorene would be investigating just to see what we know, then you tell us what it was?” Steven stood behind his chair and gripped its back.

“The truth is we don’t know all the details,” Madison said. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Well, I can’t help you.” Steven met her eyes. “Every time I talk to you about my wife, I feel like I knew her less and less,” he delivered with heat.

“We can appreciate her hiring an investigator must come as a shock to you,” Terry said.

“It sure as hell does.” Steven fired a glare at Terry. “My wife and I have—” he cleared his voice “—had a close relationship. Or at least I thought we had.”

“It could be a matter of her not wanting to talk to you about the investigation.” Terry stated this in a delicate and respectful manner, but it still had Steven clenching his jaw.

There was an inflection in Terry’s voice that made Madison question if he was going to discuss the cancer, but he didn’t add anything.

“I can’t imagine why she’d want to keep this a secret,” Steven countered.

“The Boyds are from Colton,” Madison interjected. “They might have tied in to her past somehow.”

“Grams and Gramps are from there.” Kurt glanced at his father. “They might know.”

“Where they’re from makes no difference to me, Detective,” Steven said, more likely referring to the Boyds than the Griffins. “I still don’t know who those people are or why Lorene would be looking into them.”

Madison glanced at Blake just to see if he was still awake. He hadn’t said a word.

She showed the Malones old DMV photos of the Boyds. Still, no luck.

“They were murdered in their home,” Madison said, feeling it was time to put that out to gauge reactions.

Kimberly crossed and rubbed her arms.

“Like Mom,” Kurt said.

Craig remained quiet, as did Steven. Father and son might have butted heads, but they were more alike than they perhaps realized.

Madison put her phone away and passed a sideways glance to Winston and Blake. “There’s another matter we need to ask you about, Mr. Malone.” She let her gaze drift to his children.

“Whatever it is, you can speak to me in front of them,” Steven replied.

“As you wish.” Madison took a deep breath. What she had to say next wouldn’t be popular with either the sergeant or the lawyer. “We’ve discovered a significant amount going out of your business account on a monthly basis, fifty thousand to a Blissful Enterprises.”

Steven sat back down and crossed his legs. His gaze ever so briefly went to Kimberly.

“Why are you looking at your daughter, Mr. Malone?” Madison was tired of holding back and tiptoeing. If Winston didn’t like her calling out Steven, too bad.

“What I would like to know is why you’re digging into my financials when I specifically declined this when we spoke on Tuesday,” Steven served back and glared at Winston.

“I tried to tell you that it was a necessary step,” Winston said.

“Money has been a powerful motive for murder for a long time,” Madison added, though not sure why she was coming to Winston’s defense. “We need to explore every angle we possibly can to find your wife’s killer. You could have owed the wrong person, screwed the wrong person in business. It could be any number of things related to your finances,” she said, reiterating yesterday’s conversation.

Steven’s cheeks were a deep crimson, and he glared at Blake.

Blake stood. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

“We’re just trying to find out who killed your wife,” Madison said. “Surely, you want to do all you can to help.”

Blake came over and touched her elbow to guide her to the door. She recoiled from his touch, surprised she’d ever found arousal or comfort from it.

She held up her hands, not feeling like it was the appropriate time to come clean about the cancer now. “We’ll see ourselves out.”

Madison hurried down the hall toward the elevators, Terry in tow.

“What do you think you’re doing, Knight?” Winston called out.

She should have known that he’d follow. She pressed the down button between the elevator doors and spun to look at Winston. “I’m doing my job, Sergeant, and if you can’t see that—”

“You come down here, then I’m the one to call you? I’ve made it clear I want you to run your next steps by me before acting with this case.” A vein was throbbing in his forehead, like a fat, wriggling worm.

“And we did,” Madison said. “We stayed in the lobby until you got here.”

“I had to hear that you were going to speak to Steven Malone from Steven Malone.”

“Speaking of him, you were in that room,” she stamped out. “You heard his reaction to the fifty thousand? Saw it?”

“What I saw was you harassing a man who just lost his wife.” Winston paused, took some deep breaths, his nostrils flaring.

“There’s something he doesn’t want us to know,” she said.

“It’s his own damn money,” Winston spat.

The elevator dinged its arrival, and she and Terry loaded onto the car. Unfortunately, Winston did, too.

“You’ve always had a problem respecting authority, but this? This is too big to ignore. I’ve specifically told you—” Winston’s cheeks were as red as Steven’s had been, and he was shaking his head. “I’m putting this down in your record.”

“Do what you have to do,” she mumbled.

“Excuse me?” Winston leaned his head forward, lowering his face to the level of hers. “What did you say?”

Terry jabbed the toe of his boot into the side of her shoe, no doubt a plea for her to keep quiet, but she was done playing the sergeant’s games and dancing around the Malones as if they were fragile glass. She met her sergeant’s gaze. “I said, ‘Do what you have to do.’”—and I will, too.

Winston straightened up, tugged down on his suit jacket.

Nothing more was spoken for the entire ride down to the lobby, and even when Winston stepped off, he didn’t say a thing.

“I’ve never seen him quite like that,” Terry said.

Winston might have been pissed beyond words, but so was she. Just the way the man spewed off threats was infuriating.

“What are you going to do?” Terry asked after a few seconds of her not saying anything.

“I’m going to keep doing my job, and if he tries to stop me one more time, I’m going to the chief.” Enough playing nice. Her focus had been on corrupt cops taking a payday, but abuse of power also counted as corrupt. It was more clear than ever that while she and Sergeant Winston both wore the badge, they were not on the same team.