Chapter 41

Lincoln Frazer felt a buzz run through him as he led agents from the local field office up the steps to the front door of Eloisa Fairchild's mansion, Aaron Nash at his side. He rang the bell and could almost write the script of what came next.

Eloisa opened the door and eyed the crowd of feds on her doorstep. "What is the meaning of this?"

Her prim outrage pierced the cold quiet of the morning, but the surprise sounded staged. She knew this was coming. She was expecting them.

One of the local agents moved past him to present the warrant.

"Think she got rid of everything incriminating?" Aaron said out of the side of his mouth.

Frazer grunted.

That was the trouble with waiting on the law, but he didn't have the luxury of any covert BE activity with his two best go-to people busy on other things. He could probably have requested TacOps, but that would have made it official and then he'd have still needed the warrant.

"Let's see what she missed."

Frazer stepped over to where Eloisa stood reading the paperwork. "You might want to call your lawyer, Ms. Fairchild."

She pressed her lips together, and her eyes glittered. "I would if he hadn't been murdered last night."

Interesting.

"You realize Julius Leech is a suspect in Jeff Beasley's murder."

Her eyes flashed. "Julius didn't murder Jeff."

"How do you know? And where were you between 6 and 8 p.m. last night?"

Her smile was mean. "Why don't you ask the FBI agents you had watching the house? Or did they fall asleep on the job?"

Frazer gave the field agents the nod to get started. They knew what they were looking for—any correspondence from Leech, including any cell phones or computers or gaming platforms. But first they had to conduct a thorough search of the premises, including any possible wall or floor cavities big enough to hide a man.

She looked down at the piece of paper. "You can't seriously be taking my cell phone? How am I supposed to contact anyone?"

"You don't have a landline?"

"Who uses landlines anymore?"

"Spammers and con artists?" Aaron offered.

Eloisa's eyes sparkled at that.

The operator looked different this morning somehow. Less tightly wound. Frazer wondered if Hope had anything to do with that. He'd certainly noted the energy between them and encouraged the connection. As long as it didn't compromise Hope's safety, he didn't care—and he didn't see how having an armed man in her bed could make her more vulnerable to Leech or others.

Unless there was an imbalance of power or abuse going on, Frazer wasn't interested in who was sleeping with whom. He didn't exactly play to the letter of the FBI's rulebook—not that people generally appreciated that.

He was more concerned with getting a friend over the worst day of her life. Maybe Aaron Nash was the guy to do it? Or maybe they'd break each other's hearts—what did he know? He could only hope they had the sense to figure it out without destroying each other in the process.

He used his experience and knowledge to help predict or decipher human behavior, but add sex or God help him, love,into the mix?—that twisted logic and defied reason. There was nothing sensible about his feelings for Izzy. Nothing rational about how he'd react if anything bad happened to her.

He started as he realized Eloisa was staring at him pointedly, clearly waiting for an answer while he was busy woolgathering like some first-year theology student.

"If you cooperate, I will see that your cell phone is cloned on site, and you can retain it for use."

She tilted her head to one side, her fine hair dancing with static. "That sounds as if you're doing me a favor and yet, as I've done nothing wrong…"

"You know the deep state, Ms. Fairchild," Aaron said wryly. "Always wanting to control you. If not nano-machines in your veins, it's FBI raids on your cell phones."

"Which, as you monitor them anyway, makes turning up on my doorstep moot."

"And, yet, here we are." Frazer was fast losing his patience. "We have the warrant, Eloisa, don't make us arrest you for defying it."

"Oh, I'm sure you'd enjoy that, however, I'm not defying anything." She turned to calm down another woman who came running toward her. The housekeeper.

"It's okay, Cerise. The FBI are looking for evidence we're sheltering poor innocent Julius." She turned back and sent him a look that was probably supposed to be coquettish but came off as creepy.

Dear God, he missed Izzy and wanted to get home.

The housekeeper nodded and disappeared back into her domain.

"Anyone else in the house?"

She shook her head.

"You're sure?" He narrowed his eyes.

"Yes."

"And what about your dog?"

She frowned in confusion and then pulled her lips to one side. "I was watching him for a friend."

"We might need the name of that friend." Frazer had warned her lying to the FBI was a felony offense.

"Of course." Eloisa's expression was blank.

"Where are your safes located?" he pushed.

She examined her nails which were bitten to the quick.

"Don't pretend you don't have at least two on the premises. We know who installed them. I will find them. I'd hate to have to tear them out to take them into evidence."

Her gaze flew to his, and she held up her pointer finger. "Firstly, I want to call the lawyer's office. As much as I hate disturbing them when they are mourning their colleague, I want legal representation present." Her smile didn't reach her eyes. "To protect my interests."

"Your interests? Or your son's?" Aaron asked out of nowhere.

Frazer blinked.

"How do you—" Eloisa's mouth stalled. "I don't have a son. Cerise has a son. You must mean him?"

"Why was Cerise's son sleeping upstairs last night? Why not in her apartment?"

She gaped at him. "He… I… We have lots of room."

Aaron crossed his arms over his chest. "So why doesn't Cerise sleep upstairs too?"

She looked as if all the energy had been drained out of her, but she wasn't done trying to lie. "How do you know she doesn't?"

Aaron gave her a humorless smile. "Call it a hunch."

Eloisa clasped her hands together and sucked in her lips. "Let's discuss this inside."

They followed her into the parlor again, but Frazer was seeing the situation through a new lens now. He'd known Aaron was smart, but he hadn't appreciated how perceptive he really was.

She closed the door firmly as if that would help keep her secrets.

A child made all the oddities fit together a little more cohesively.

"Why did you want to keep your son a secret?" Frazer asked softly.

She spun to face him. "Samuel is Cerise's son. We're very close, and I often let him sleep upstairs." Her forced laugh was supposed to be bright and cheerful. It reeked of desperation.

"How does he feel when you pretend he's not yours?" Aaron watched her with pitiless eyes.

Her fingers clenched into useless fists.

"Does Leech know?" Frazer leaned casually against the mantel.

She lost every ounce of color then. Her bottom lip vibrated visibly before she lowered herself carefully to the ugly green velvet chair. Rather than denying it this time, she went with the other option rich people used when their backs were against the wall. Litigation.

"If word of this gets out, I will sue the FBI for every penny they have, and I will make it my personal mission in life to make sure you are both demoted?—"

"That's not really how it works," Frazer cut in. "Letters of censure can be added to our personnel files, and we can obviously be fired." He held her haughty gaze. "But not for doing our jobs. Not when a suspect is lying to us. And"—he ran his fingers across the cool marble—"I think you'll find my friends are more powerful than your friends."

She looked furious, and he suddenly understood why.

He sat across from her, braced his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. "We have no reason to release any information about your son, Eloisa, I promise you that. As long as he's safe. As long as you haven't handed him over to Julius Leech?—"

"No! No. I would never do that."

"For all your protestations of Julius's innocence, you don't trust him with his son?" Aaron prompted.

"I don't believe he's a killer." Her chest heaved as if she was running. "But I don't want Samuel to have to carry the weight of Julius's wrongful conviction. It's not fair on a little boy."

"Is that why you didn't tell Julius he fathered a child? Because you didn't want him telling the world? The boy stands to inherit a fortune."

"Money isn't always a positive thing." She wrung her hands together. "Julius and I had a bumbling drunken one-night stand not long before he was arrested. It didn't mean anything. It just happened. I was four months along before I even realized I was pregnant. I'd been so upset about Julius's arrest I wasn't really paying attention to anything else. And I had sex with another man I was seeing around the same time, but I took precautions with him." She squeezed her hands tight between her knees. "I knew it was Julius's baby." She blinked away what looked like tears. "I contemplated having an abortion, but I was shocked to discover I actually wanted the baby. Wanted the chance to be a mother. I decided to wait until after the trial was over to tell him, sure that he'd be found innocent. And I was delighted when he was released." She put a hand to her head as if she was in pain.

Hiding a secret this big would give anyone a headache.

"I spoke to him on the phone after his release, and we arranged to meet for lunch the next day. He was beside himself with relief."

"In the meantime, he went to Hope Harper's house and killed her family."

She shook her head. "I don't believe that."

Frazer could understand now why she so vehemently rejected the idea that Leech was a sadistic murderer. It had nothing to do with the facts and everything with not wanting her son to have a serial killer for a daddy.

"Where is your son now?"

"I sent him to stay with friends who are heading to the Hamptons for a short vacation. They have a boy around the same age. Cerise dropped him off this morning."

"You trust them?"

She nodded, stiffly, then bit her lip.

"You didn't want to risk Julius arriving on your doorstep and seeing the child, knowing you'd lied to him all these years."

Her eyes flared wide in fear.

That was it.

"Have you spoken to him since he escaped?"

She looked away and finally nodded. Then she covered her face and released a sob. "I offered to drop some money for him, and, and"—she hiccupped—"I left it in a car in the woods near Harrisville. Cerise picked me up in a rental—she didn't know why I was leaving the car there."

The housekeeper must be an idiot if she didn't suspect—or keen to keep her job.

"I didn't want him coming here and seeing Sammy."

She started sobbing uncontrollably, but Frazer wasn't feeling particularly sympathetic.

"Please don't arrest me. If you do, the press will figure out about Sammy, and Julius will find out I lied to him."

"You're scared of him."

"Yes," she snapped, eyes suddenly earnest. "Yes, I am. It's the one thing he said he hated beyond all reason. People who lie."

Frazer raised an unimpressed brow. If Eloisa hadn't helped Julius Leech, Sylvie and her husband, not to mention Jeff Beasley, might still be alive.

"I want to know exactly where you left that car. I want to know what the model and registration is, and I want access to every letter he ever sent you. And then, if you fully cooperate, I'll talk to the DA's office about trying to keep your son out of the spotlight after his mother confessed to aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive, not to mention lying to the FBI about it."

Eloisa drew in a shocked breath and covered her mouth as if she only then realized the seriousness of what she'd done.

Aaron straightened from his position near the window. "I'm sure the DA will understand. After all, if anyone comprehends your fears regarding your child's safety, it will be ADA Hope Harper."