Chapter 45

Chapter Forty-Five

Montgomery County, Maryland

Present

“ I n the recording, Kendall said Brent never quit his job at Talon & Drake,” Leah said, “but why didn’t JT fire him?”

“He was in a stalemate with HR. They could justify the lack of promotions, but unless JT had cause, he couldn’t fire him. Brent made sure to color within the lines. He wasn’t a great employee—no incentive to be that—but he did his job and no client or coworker ever filed a complaint.”

“It makes sense he wouldn’t quit,” Leah said, “if money was being slid his way and all he had to do was the minimum to get by. I wonder where he’s hiding his money. I wouldn’t mind taking a crack at that if Lee fails.”

Tricia snorted.

Leah laughed. “I know, I know. Lee is the greatest hacker of all time. But I’m pretty damn great too. I once saved Christmas, after all.”

“I’m going to want to hear that story sometime,” Alexandra said. She always liked women who weren’t afraid to state their own worth and brains. Women in STEM weren’t always vocal about their success. Academia often had a way of putting the best and brightest in their place.

“Nate and I will have you and JT over for dinner sometime, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“It’s a date.”

“So tell us more about Kendall,” Tricia said. “As a potential victim and likely collaborator, she’s the one we need to figure out.”

Tricia was right. They needed to focus on the crime. Whatever, exactly, the crime was.

“Why did she stay with Brent?” Leah asked.

It was a painful question. “Same reason as any victim of emotional abuse. There was so much gaslighting. And she did love Brent. I do believe that. She believed that. Every time I tried to tell her he was trouble, she was ready with ten reasons why JT had poisoned me against him. She truly believed JT had the cop plant the vial of drugs on him. The fact that the evidence went missing was just more proof it had been a setup.”

“But now we know she turned the corner,” Leah said. “In the recording, she’d switched sides to team Alexandra.”

“She must’ve known she was in danger, or why would she have put the recording on my old computer? But I don’t understand why she didn’t just call me and tell me what she’d learned.”

“She was trying to get evidence,” Tricia said. “She couldn’t find the money, and everything she had only implicated her.”

“She was afraid enough to hide what she had—and made plans to give you the computer—but also, from what she said, there’s more. Something you missed,” Leah said. “She was very specific in mentioning Lee. She knew Lee could find it and was drawing him a map. She planned to give you something that you’d share with JT and Lee.”

“She might have intended to give me more than the computer. I was supposed to see her, but had to cancel when Gemma got sick.”

“One question: why was the hard drive not in the case?”

“She said the motherboard was fried. She intended to pull the drive and copy the files for me, but now that I was back and had my own place, she wanted to pass that task on to me. She was tired of storing it. I pulled the drive from the case before leaving her house that night. I figured it was better to leave the dead components with all the other parts that would be donated or recycled. There was a lot to sort through.”

“Was the motherboard really fried?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t check.”

“Clearly, she’d plugged the hard drive into a working motherboard in the days before her death. Was there anything else inside the case?”

“I was in such a hurry, I didn’t look.”

“If I wanted you to find something that needed to be kept hidden from everyone else, I would plant it in an old computer case and give the person—and only the one person I wanted to have it—a reason to open said case.”

“Do Brent or Russ know about the internal hardware of computers?” Tricia asked.

“I don’t know about Russ—I’ve worked hard to avoid him for sixteen years—but Brent knows how to use programs, not how to fix them. Kendall was his tech support.”

“Do you mind if I skip the dress search in the attic and search through Kendall’s old computer components?”

“I think that’s a splendid idea.”

“As long as Nate’s with you,” Tricia said. “We aren’t going to Scooby-Doo this and have you go off alone in a house where a woman was likely murdered. And I need to stay close to my primary.”

“Yes, Velma,” Leah said.

“As long as I’m not Shaggy,” Alexandra said.

Tricia laughed.

“Maybe whatever Kendall wanted me to have is with the—” She stopped abruptly as she realized how close they were to Kendall’s house. “Slow down.”

“Is that the spot?” Tricia asked.

Her throat was too dry to speak, so she just nodded, knowing Tricia couldn’t see her response from the driver’s seat.

“Want me to stop?”

“Yes.” She had to force the word out as she wondered if she really wanted to do this.

They were the lead car. The other two pulled up behind them on the shoulder. They were about fifty feet from the driveway with the camera that made it possible for her to be here with these women today.

She looked at the lonely mailbox across the road. The reason for the camera.

“I should buy the homeowners a present,” she said softly. “But I have no idea what.”

“The night you went on the run, JT anonymously put out a reward for information,” Tricia said. “It was paid through Raptor. If they haven’t received it already, they will tomorrow when the deposit goes through.”

Alexandra opened the door. She was practically in a daze as she approached the spot on the road where Officer Williams had been shot.

Tricia didn’t say a word as she walked beside her. Alexandra understood that Tricia didn’t want her walking in the open like this, and she was thankful that she didn’t try to stop her.

The other women climbed from the other vehicles, but only Erica approached.

Dear Erica, who’d been the friend she needed during the rough times.

She stared at the pavement. Rain had washed away the blood, but red bits of taillight remained.

Erica wrapped an arm around her as she studied the ground where Williams smashed her cell phone. She spotted tiny flecks of glass embedded in the pavement.

She leaned against Erica. “I’ve never been so terrified in my life.”

“I know.”

“It helped, knowing Gemma was with you. I knew she was safe.”

“I’m glad I could do that for you.”

“Promise me, if anything happens to me, or JT?—”

“Of course. And I ask the same of you.”

Alexandra nodded. “Thank you for agreeing to be my matron of honor. With everything—with Kendall… It’s important to me to not be alone for the ceremony.”

“I’m honored to be asked.” She squeezed Alexandra’s shoulder. “Remember the night we met?”

“Of course. I lied to you about Lee and later lectured you on how you were a fool not to forgive him, when I had no idea what he and JT had put you through. I was a smug brat.”

“In your defense, I would have been a fool not to give him another chance. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Lee has always been one of my very favorite people. The brother I wish I’d had.”

“He and JT came to blows, you know, after what JT did. They fought in the dojo one night—but they definitely weren’t sparring. I only know about it because I saw Lee’s bruises. He wouldn’t talk about it, but I suspect it was one of those things where JT wanted someone to kick his ass, and Lee was happy to oblige.”

“I’m so sorry I came between them like that.”

“ Someone had to knock sense into JT. It was then that he realized he could lose Lee too. He finally started seeing a therapist.”

“So that’s what did it.”

“I’m pretty sure Lee wishes he’d kicked his ass two, maybe three years earlier.” She paused. “But that’s not why I brought up the night we met. I wanted to share something. When we were in the limo, there was a moment when JT looked at you and…I realized how deeply in love with you he was. It was the first time I could relate to him. He was so intimidating—intentionally so, when it came to me—but when he was with you, he was different.

“The man I glimpsed that night disappeared when Joe was arrested. Over the last nine years—well, six, really—he came back, piece by piece. But Christmas dinner…that was a revelation. The way he looked at you and Gemma. I’m so glad you’ve found your way back to each other.”

The words were a reason to smile as they stood on a roadside that would forever be inhabited by nightmarish memories.

“I’m finally getting my happily ever after. But it won’t be complete until we know what happened here. I won’t be free from worry or fear until the person who murdered Williams—and probably Kendall—is caught.” She kicked at the flecks of destroyed cell phone. “Williams was awful and terrifying. But no one deserves to be executed like that. Even he deserves justice.”

“Well, let’s hope we find something at Kendall’s. We were talking in Mara’s car…”

“Oh no,” Tricia said. “You are not Scooby-Dooing on me too.”

“Scooby-Dooing? Is that a verb?”

“Everyone runs off separately to search Kendall’s,” Alexandra explained.

“What part are you searching?”

“Attic. Leah has called dibs on the dead computer closet.”

“Only if Nate is with her,” Tricia insisted.

“She’s Velma,” Alexandra said. “What room do you want to search?”

“No idea. But Kendall must’ve left a message for you somewhere. She was too deliberate with the recording. Didn’t you say one of the couches is yours?”

“Convince Keith to babysit you,” Tricia said. “Otherwise, you’re in the attic with me.”

“Trina, we’re going to need you to give Keith sexual fav?—”

Tricia covered her ears. “Stop. You are talking about my boss.”

“Sorry, Trish,” Isabel said. “I’ll make sure they behave.”

Tricia shook her head. “Right.” But she was smiling. “C’mon. The sooner we get to the house, the sooner you meddling kids can start your crime solving.”

A chill ran down Alexandra’s spine as she approached the front door. The last time she’d been here, she’d been on the run and had only stopped to take Kendall’s car, which was still up on Catoctin Mountain.

She and JT planned to drive north after the wedding to enjoy a week up at the cabin with Gemma, and then she’d drive the Jetta back here, which was fine with Tanya.

Later, she and JT would take a real honeymoon, leaving Gemma with Lee and Erica for a few days.

But first, she had to cross this threshold.

“I want to search the house first,” Keith said. He, Chase, and Nate had been waiting in the driveway when they arrived.

She handed him the key and stepped back. Three operatives searched the house while Chase stood guard over the rest of them outside.

After the house was cleared, Tricia led Erica, Mara, and Alexandra to the attic. Nate and Leah headed for the home office with a closetful of old components. Trina and Isabel went with Keith to search the upstairs bedrooms, while Eden and Chase took the living room and kitchen.

The attic ceiling was low and pitched, requiring Alexandra to hunch over even in the very center. It contained a daunting number of boxes even though Kendall had only lived here for five years. But of course, she was storing more than her own lifetime in this attic. She’d been generous and held on to Alexandra’s forgotten items.

Penance for the little betrayals of letting Russ show up in their apartment periodically?

Deep down, she must have known there was more truth on Alexandra’s side.

“Will you recognize the box?” Erica asked hopefully.

“No. Honestly, I don’t remember packing it up. It’s entirely possible Kendall did it and didn’t tell me. I might have told her to donate it. Or throw it away. I was a bit of a wreck.”

“Let’s hope Kendall liked labeling things, then.”

Sadly, Kendall was not a labeler, and the first several boxes were a bust. They were several boxes in when they found one that held textbooks and papers from graduate school—and some of the papers were Alexandra’s.

“The box will be large—the skirt of the gown is big —and lighter. The heavy ones are almost certainly school papers and books.”

They lifted and sorted. Some boxes were plastic, some cardboard. They had to move heavy ones to the side to reveal stacked boxes in the next row.

“This plastic one is light for its size,” Tricia said as she lifted a hinged storage box that looked to be four feet long, two feet wide, and eighteen inches high.

Alexandra set aside a small but lighter box and joined Tricia. “That does look promising. It’s sealed tight with plastic wrap.” Most boxes were taped shut, not wrapped with cling wrap. “Let’s move this downstairs where the light is better, and it’ll be easier to cut off the wrapping when we aren’t hunched over.”

“I would not mind getting out of this attic,” Mara murmured.

“Same,” Erica said.

Mara descended first, followed by Erica, then Alexandra. When she was halfway down the attic ladder, Tricia handed down the box, which Alexandra then passed to Erica below.

They all sported a fine layer of dust and cobwebs as they carried the box to the living room, where Eden and Chase were searching the bookshelves.

“Any luck?” Eden asked.

“We hope so.”

Mara grabbed four knives from the kitchen and passed them out. They each took a side and made quick work of the layers of wrap. Hearing the commotion, the others left their search areas to watch as Alexandra flipped the latches on the plastic trunk and raised the lid.

Her heart surged as she lifted the pile of silver silk fabric from the airtight container. The gown was more beautiful than she remembered.

She held it to her chest, and there was a collective gasp along with more than a few cheers.

“Wow,” Trina said. “That’s stunning.”

“Perfect for New Year’s Eve,” Isabel said.

“I hope it still fits. Eleven years and one baby later, my body has changed.”

“Dresses—especially ones with that much fabric—can be altered,” Trina said.

Leah cleared her throat. “This trip was successful in more ways than one.”

Alexandra’s gaze jerked in her direction. “What did you find?”

“First, I found two things inside the case, taped to the side. A Post-it Note with a file name for a Word doc, and this.” She held up a plastic bag with the note and what looked to be a small vial with some kind of liquid in it.

“Last,” Leah continued, “I found something jammed in the CD ROM slot, which is where I’d hide something if I didn’t have time to open the case where I’d already hidden other items.” The bag contained a small memory card—the kind used in digital cameras. “It holds a terabyte.”

“Not something I’d have used with that old computer. It’s been at least ten years since it was used regularly. I don’t think terabyte storage disks were even available back then.”

Leah nodded. “They were not—not in this format, anyway. I’d ask if anyone has a camera so we can view the contents,” Leah said, “but I think this is something we should do at the compound. Mothman can make sure the files aren’t damaged or contain a trojan or virus.”

“We should check out the other old computers and drives before we go,” Keith said.

“Nate and I already started. We’ll finish while Alexandra tries on the dress.”

Tricia looked to her boss. “You want to call Rav, Dominick, and the investigative team while I call the operatives?”

Keith nodded. “Tell everyone to meet at the compound in two hours.”