Chapter 22

We were all still smiling so hardit hurt when we climbed back into the SUV. Alexander was leaving in a few minutes to go to Sinful and relay the news to Carter. He’d offered to let me do it, but he was the one who’d played all the right angles to position the evidence for takedown, so I told him to take his glory and let Carter know we’d have a pre-celebration tonight. He looked beyond pleased, and while I knew he was ecstatic that things had swung so hard in our favor, I also figured he was happy about another opportunity to talk to Emmaline. I hadn’t missed the energy between them and if I was being honest, I was pulling a bit of a Gertie, putting them in the same space.

“Where to now?” Ida Belle asked.

“Magnolia Pass. I want to have another chat with Jared.”

“He’s never going to let us in,” Gertie said. “Not when Holly’s been locked up for coming after you with an ice pick.”

I looked back at her. “You know what I noticed when we were on the Beech estate? No cameras. They have guards and poles where cameras used to be but there’s nothing on the mounts anymore. Why do you think that is?”

Ida Belle shook her head. “Because then they don’t have evidence of Holly’s shenanigans lying around. I wonder if they had them before Lindsay was killed.”

“It’s an interesting question, right? They’re not mentioned in the police reports, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything given the farce of an investigation.”

We were just exiting the interstate headed to Magnolia Pass when my phone rang. It was the investor whose account Lindsay had made a mistake on.

“Fortune Redding,” I answered.

“Ms. Redding, I got your message. But I’m confused as to why you’re inquiring about a personal issue that happened over ten years ago.”

“I’m attempting to find enough evidence to reopen Ryan Comeaux’s case. A new witness has come forward that puts him far away from Magnolia Pass the night Lindsay Beech was murdered.”

“Really?” He sounded surprised. “I thought they had an open-and-shut case. The whole thing was very sad.”

“Even though she’d lost a big sum of your money?”

“The amount that I lost was barely a blip on my investment charts.”

“But you still switched firms. To be more specific, you switched to her father’s firm.”

“Yes. That’s true enough, but it wasn’t because of the mistake—it was because Raymond Beech had access to an opportunity that Spalding didn’t. I wanted to make a large investment, and Beech was the only one who could make that investment for me. It was simply a business decision based on an opportunity I wanted to take advantage of. It had nothing to do with Lindsay’s mistake. That’s just how the timing worked out.”

“But you left Beech and are back at Spalding now.”

“Spalding is one of a few firms I use, and yes, I left Beech after Raymond died. His son simply doesn’t have the mind for the business like his father and his sister did.”

“But if Lindsay was so smart, how did she make such a big mistake?”

“To be honest, I’ve never quite believed she did. Lindsay had a mind for numbers that rivaled my own, and I was twenty years her senior and no slouch at what I do.”

“I was told it was her password used to make the ill-fated trade.”

“That’s true. I suppose I should accept that everyone, no matter how extraordinary at something, can still make a bad decision. Maybe I don’t like to consider that because then I’m subject to the same flaws.”

“I can appreciate that. Do you happen to remember when this mistake occurred?”

“Of course. Hard to forget when it was the week before she was killed, but I’m not sure of the specific day. I’m about to go into a meeting. Is there anything else you wanted to ask?”

“Not at this time. I appreciate you returning my call.”

He was silent for a couple seconds, then said, “In addition to respecting her business acumen, I liked Lindsay. Her death was a tragedy both as a professional and a human. She was excellent at both. If her boyfriend didn’t kill her, I hope you find who did. Because the guilty party needs to pay for cutting short what I’m certain would have been a life filled with accomplishment.”

“He doesn’t sound like a good candidate for the perp,” Gertie said when I disconnected.

“No, he doesn’t,” I agreed. “But then, criminals are usually good at playing a role. Still, I did some general poking around and he appears to be as rich as Caesar. Maybe it was just a case of the timing being suspect.”

Ida Belle nodded. “It wouldn’t make much sense for someone with that kind of money to risk the rest of their life in prison for killing someone over what amounts to pocket change to them.”

“But it doesn’t let Brett off the hook,” Gertie said. “That million in fees probably wasn’t pocket change to him. And even though he got the business back, he didn’t know for sure he would. And there’s still the part where he was harassing Lindsay. I know you couldn’t ask him about it today because of Ben’s situation, but I still wonder.”

I nodded. “Me too. And I’m not letting him off, but for the moment, my chief suspect is Holly.”

“Mine too,” Ida Belle agreed.

Gertie sighed. “I just don’t want it to be her. That poor girl—if she’d just gotten the help she needed a long time ago, maybe Lindsay would still be alive.”

“It’s quite possible,” I said. “I doubt her environment did anything but make her worse. All that covering for her instead of addressing the problems just seems to have given her permission to escalate. But if she keeps stalking men and going after their significant others, she’s going to wind up in a grave next to her sister.”

“I wonder how many other men she’s done this to,” Ida Belle said. “How many the Beeches have paid for their silence.”

“Good questions and ones I’ll be putting to Jared Beech. I get the impression he’s not as keen to spend the rest of his life cleaning up after Holly as his father was.”

“I can’t blame him,” Gertie said. “If people find out the extent of the things she’s done that they’ve hidden, they could be held responsible for anything she did after. Well, Jared could anyway, as he’s the only one left.”

My original plan was to have Ida Belle drive by the gates to the Beech estate and let me out as the road curved behind a group of trees. I planned on making my way across the estate and cornering Jared Beech. But as we rounded a bend and the guard shack came into view, I saw someone jump out of a car and hurry through the open gates as the car sped off. They were wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, but I knew that gait. I’d seen it from the same angle just the day before.

“That’s Holly Beech,” I said. “Pull up to the gate.”

Ida Belle and Gertie, who’d locked their gazes on the fleeing figure at the same time I had, both stared.

“Holy crap!” Gertie said. “Why the hell did that guard let her in? She’s supposed to be on a psych hold.”

“I plan on asking him exactly that,” I said and climbed out of the SUV.

The same surly guard that had been there before cut his eyes toward Holly, then back at me. “You’re not welcome here,” he said. “I suggest you turn around and leave or I’ll call the sheriff.”

“Please do. I’ll be glad to explain to them that you just opened the gate for someone who is currently being detained by the Sinful police on a psych hold. Did you even call Jared to warn him? Is he at home?”

His expression flickered with just a tiny bit of fear, so I pressed on.

“If she tries to burn the house down again, I’m going to be absolutely certain that I tell the state police that you not only let her in but didn’t report her turning up here to the authorities. Anything that happens to Jared Beech will be your fault for letting a known disturbed person have access when they should be locked away for everyone’s safety.”

Now he looked downright panicked, which meant Jared was home and the guard knew exactly what Holly was capable of.

“Call Jared and warn him and let us in.”

“No way,” he said. “I’ll be fired.”

“We’re trained in hand-to-hand combat. We can apprehend her without killing her. Can you say the same for Jared? Is he capable of handling a psychotic break? Is the rest of the staff?”

The guard paled. “It’s their day off,” he said, and ran into the guard shack. I saw him grab his phone with one hand and slam his hand down on the gate control with the other. I jumped back into the SUV, and Ida Belle floored it.

I scanned the grounds as we went, but there was no sign of the elusive Holly. I knew from chasing her before that she was a fast runner, and our delay convincing the guard to let us in had given her enough time to get to the house. I prayed she wasn’t still in the red zone about the psych hold and coming home to punish Jared for it. The fact that he hadn’t had an option probably wouldn’t matter with her.

Ida Belle slammed on the brakes, and we all jumped out and ran for the front door. It was locked, of course, and since it was the staff’s day off, no snooty butler to look inconvenienced. I’d hoped the guard would get hold of Jared and he would unlock the door himself to let in the cavalry when we arrived. The fact that nothing stirred inside made me extremely anxious.

“You want me to break a window?” Ida Belle asked. “Because you’re not picking the lock on that door.”

“No. There’s no way to hide the sound of breaking glass. If she’s got Jared cornered somewhere inside, we’ll need the element of surprise.”

I climbed on top of the SUV and took a running leap for the balcony above the entry. I just managed to grab the rails, then pulled myself up and over the rails and onto the tiny ledge. I pulled out my pocketknife and made quick work of the simple lock on the door, then cracked it open and peered inside.

It looked to be an office and it was empty. The door to it was closed. Fortunately, it had thick carpet to mask my passage, so I hurried to cross the room, but as I passed the desk, I brushed against a set of papers and the top one flew onto the floor. I saw the word Trust at the top of the document and a section underlined. I knew I needed to hurry, but Holly’s name caught my attention and I quickly read a handful of sentences. Suddenly everything Jared had done made sense.

When I reached the office door, I attempted to open it but realized it was locked, which fit given what I’d just read. I twisted the lock and eased the door open and peered down a long hallway. No one was in sight, and I couldn’t make out any noise except for a grandfather clock ticking downstairs. I exited into the hallway, and when I reached the end of the wall in front of the giant staircase, I paused again.

This time I heard voices drifting up from downstairs. I couldn’t make out the words, but it was definitely a woman’s voice, and she sounded angry. I hurried silently down the stairs, grateful it had a thick runner, and stepped into the downstairs entry. For a split second, I thought about unlocking the front door to let Ida Belle and Gertie in, but I remembered the noise it had made when we’d first visited and knew I couldn’t risk it.

The voice was louder now and seemed to be coming from the drawing room we’d been placed in when we’d visited before. The main doors were paned glass, so that way wasn’t an option, but I remembered Holly had entered through a solid rear door. I edged along the far wall, praying that no one was close enough to the entry doors to spot me, then hurried down the hallway, scanning for that way in. There were two sets of doors along the long hallway, but I knew it couldn’t be either of them. One was a large double door, and both faced the wrong direction.

At the end of the hallway, I found myself in the kitchen and immediately turned right. I found the butler’s pantry and moved through it, exiting in a large dining room. There was a door on the other end, and it all clicked—this was the staff’s passage to take care of guests. That door on the other side of the dining room was the one that opened into the drawing room, and I was certain that was where Holly and Jared were.

I crept over to the door and pressed my ear against it. Holly’s voice was louder now, and I could hear Jared pleading with her not to ‘do it.’ I had no idea what ‘it’ was, but I knew it wasn’t pleasant. I prayed she didn’t have a gun because I really didn’t want to have to shoot her. The door hadn’t made any noise when Holly had entered and exited through it the other day, so I eased it open a crack to get the lay of the land.

I spotted Jared sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, his knuckles white from clenching the wooden arms. His face matched his knuckles. When I looked toward the window, I saw why. Holly stood there with a can of lighter fluid in one hand and a burning candle in the other. I could see squiggly lines on the dark curtains and knew they’d already gotten a dose of the fluid.

Not another candle. I was so over fire.

“You said you’d never put me back in that place,” Holly ranted.

“I didn’t,” Jared said, clearly pleading. “It was either the hospital or jail.”

“I would rather go to jail. At least they wouldn’t try to pump me full of drugs and make me a zombie. I want to live. Not be in some walking coma. Why won’t anyone listen to me?”

“You can live, Holly, but you can’t continue to do some of the things you’re doing. They’re illegal. Don’t you get that?”

“It’s not illegal to like a boy.”

“It’s illegal to stalk men and to trespass into their girlfriends’ homes to attack them.”

“It’s not wrong to claim what’s yours. I don’t care what the law says. Father always said you had to take what was due to you. The means don’t matter.”

I shook my head. That was the overwhelming crux of the problem. Holly couldn’t comprehend that her behavior was wrong. In her screwed-up mind, she was completely justified to take what she wanted through whatever means necessary. And the constant yo-yoing of overindulging then completely denying by her father had made her worse.

When I looked back at Jared, I saw a drop of water fall from the seat of his chair and hit the carpet, where a small round stain was forming. At first I thought he’d peed himself, but then I saw a second can of lighter fluid discarded on the floor behind the chair, and my heart sank. One flick of that lighter from Holly and she would send Jared up in flames.