Chapter 10: Laid Bare

CHAPTER 10

Laid Bare

Iwas surprised to find Leo gone by the time I woke up the next morning. There was a note next to a fresh pot of coffee with his apologies. He had an appointment he’d forgotten about, and would return later—his phone was fully charged.

Doing a final walk-through of the second floor with Danny took up most of my day. Leo sent a text in the afternoon letting me know he’d take care of dinner and that he missed me. The latter part sent my heart soaring.

Despite my best efforts to quell my feelings, I had fallen for Leo so quickly, and so hard, I was worried about the damage it would cause if things didn’t work out. I didn’t think I’d ever get over Leo if he rejected me.

As promised, Leo returned in the evening with takeout, but was mum on where he’d been all day.

“Did you get a chance to talk to William?” I asked, wondering why he wasn’t sharing his whereabouts, when he was normally an open book with me.

Leo shook his head. “I’ll tell you after dinner—I want to hear about your day,” he changed the subject.

Annoyed, but knowing he’d be good on his word, I ran through the short list of fixes Danny and I had located upstairs, wanting to wrap everything up before flooring work began on the first level in another week.

After we finished eating, Leo took our dishes to the kitchen and returned with refilled glasses of wine and a manilla envelope tucked under one arm.

I followed him closely as he handed me my glass, then removed the envelope from his hold. He slid a pen across the coffee table along with it.

“What’s in there?” I asked.

Leo leaned back into the couch and took a drink of wine before replying, “It’s an updated contract for you.”

He tried to hide a smile, but I had pierced the veil of many of his tells since we’d admitted our feelings for one another.

I set my glass down and took the envelope, slowly opening it and pulling the paperclipped pages from it. “What does it say?” I flipped through the papers, but wanted to hear it from him.

“You’ll be contractually hired by the trust to conduct the renovations and redesign. As an employee of the trust, multiple people will have to sign off on any changes to your employment status,” he answered.

“Which means…?”

“I alone have no power to remove you from the project, if you sign that document. The trust will be your client, not me. Your pay will come directly from the trust, not me. I will no longer be your direct boss or hold any controlling influence over your tenure working on the house.” His grin was wide as he took another sip of his wine.

Once I signed that document, there would be nothing between us. Nothing to stop me from pursuing him. No fears of repercussions on the project. There would always be the threat of gossip in the circles his family ran in, but I knew he’d protect me as well as he could. And even if things went south, I’d always have Willowbrooke on my resume, a fair start to my career with or without his help or influence.

I should have reviewed the document, asked Mina if her lawyer boyfriend could make sure I was protected enough, but I didn’t care—I trusted Leo had my best interest at heart. Without looking at it, I signed on the dotted line and pushed the papers back across the coffee table toward Leo.

“What if I still want you to be the boss?” I teased playfully.

“That can be arranged,” Leo replied coyly, taking a final pull of his wine and setting the empty glass on the coffee table, before slowly leaning forward and taking my half-full glass from me, his fingers grazing mine. He placed it next to his.

I watched, frozen, as Leo slowly moved toward me. Then without warning, he was on me. One hand weaved through my hair, pulling me to him, as he teased my mouth open with his. The other snaked around my waist, holding me close as he pushed me back into the couch, settling between my legs, which I instinctively wrapped around his hips, silently pleading for him to come closer.

His searing, maddening kiss was undoing me. Heat pooled low, a coil wound tightly, every nerve ending in my body responding eagerly to his touch. Before, exchanges like this had always had an expiration date—a boundary that couldn’t be crossed, but it was gone now.

I made quick work of unbuttoning his shirt. Only one more layer stood between me and his skin. I was lost to his ministrations as his mouth found purchase at every nook and cranny available to him.

A low and heady moan stifled the air, and Leo chuckled against me as I realized the sound had come from me. Unaware of the passage of time, Leo and I could have been kissing for seconds, minutes, or hours, but when he drew back, I protested.

Leo only smiled conspiratorially as he ran his hands along my bare thighs. I had changed into a pajama shirt and shorts before dinner. He gently tugged my legs from around his hips, which garnered another moan of disapproval from me.

“Leo…” I pleaded—for what, I’m still not certain.

His hands on the crook of my knees, Leo repositioned himself lower. My breath hitched when his fingers slid up to my hips, hooking themselves onto the edge of my shorts and panties at the same time. He glanced up at me briefly, giving me the opportunity to stop him, but I was too enraptured in what would come next to do anything but try to slow my panting.

Dragging the fabric down my legs, over my knees, and then off me completely, he discarded them on the floor. Leo pulled me toward him so my back was lying flat on the couch, before hooking my knees over his shoulders, as he lay on his stomach. A moment later, I felt his warm breath caressing me, just before his mouth found my core.

I bucked at the sensation, and Leo stilled, clamping one hand tightly around my leg, while using the other to accompany the attention of his tongue against me. I was immediately lost in the dance, unable to focus on anything but my building climax.

Daring to watch, I let my eyes slide toward him, and I found his darkened gaze locked on mine, challenging me, proud of his victory, claiming what he wanted without abandon.

“Fuck…” I hissed, as one of his fingers easily slid into me, shortly matched by a second, dragging against me from the inside, while Leo’s mouth slowly moved closer to the spot he knew would finish us both. And when he made it there, it only took a split second for the coil to snap. My body trembled beneath him, and he continued his movements, wanting to extend my pleasure as far as it would stretch.

Leo slowed at the same pace as my breathing, finally withdrawing from me, and his cocky grin, now seemingly permanently affixed to his face, had me briefly questioning why he had just done what he had…and why I’d let him.

Before any doubt or embarrassment could seep in, Leo wiped his arm across his mouth, leaning down to kiss me again, gently…slowly…a preview of the pace to come. “Let me clean you up,” he whispered. “I’ve made a mess of you.”

But when he tried to pull away, I stopped him. “Can we go to the room?” I asked softly.

I wasn’t finished with him yet.

He nodded, offering me a hand as he extricated himself from on top of me. I was appreciative of the gesture, as my legs were unsteady as a result of his activities.

Once in the room, I kneeled at the end of the bed, drawing him against me, as he still stood.

I pulled his undershirt over his head. Feeling the heat from his chest made me want to burrow inside him and never leave.

I’d soon get my chance.

I felt him tug at the hem of my oversized night shirt—a soft old concert tee. “It’s only fair,” he whispered against my ear.

I lifted my arms, allowing him to remove it from me. We really were skin to skin then, but he was still wearing pants. I wasn’t close enough.

While he used his mouth to explore my breasts, I worked to unfasten his belt, then his zipper. He stepped out of his pants, gently helping me recline on the bed, with him still on top of me.

“Condom?” I murmured against him, my legs again finding purchase around his hips, keeping him as close as possible.

Without leaving his position above me, he reached out to the nightstand, feeling around the top drawer until he was able to pull one out from the back and hand it to me.

We worked together to free him from his boxer briefs and utilize the condom. He needed no help preparing himself for me otherwise.

Feeling him slide inside me was heaven. He was so close, peppering me with gentle, languid kisses and caresses, whispering adoring words as he moved within me.

I thought I’d known Leo West before that moment, but I’d had no idea.

I hadn’t expected making love with him to be so sweet, so slow, so emotional, so very intimate.

It was like nothing I had experienced before.

And as we came together in one final climax, I couldn’t help but feel like it was so much more than my body he had penetrated that night; he had reached something deep inside me, a place where nobody had been before, a place I had never allowed anyone to enter. I had let him in willingly, and I knew I’d fight to let him stay there. I had given him a piece of myself that had never and would never belong to anyone else.

Drifting off, naked and spent, in Leo’s arms, I felt satiated for the first time, finally knowing what it felt to love someone who loved me in return. I could have sworn as I faded from consciousness that I heard him say he felt it too…

The next morning, I couldn’t help myself from initiating a sleepy and slow second round. Leo’s breathy moans, while I used my mouth to conduct some exploring of my own, were well worth the effort, before he helped me straddle him, holding my hands and watching me closely as I rocked against him, bringing us both to another euphoric release.

He was everything. I couldn’t get enough of him.

Unfortunately our post-coital, pre-coffee cuddling was cut short when he received a text from William, who was on his way over, against the advice of counsel.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Leo apologized as we helped each other dress.

“It’s okay,” I assured him.

Leo made quick work of tidying the mess we’d left behind in the kitchen and living room the night before. Luckily, I spotted my missing panties and shorts tucked under one of the curtains mere moments before William arrived.

William was unusually discombobulated when he appeared. While he still looked tidy in his business suit and tie, his face was drawn, with deep circles under his eyes and his mouth set in an unnaturally thin line.

I made myself busy pouring a round of coffee for everyone. I thought William might ask me to leave, or feel awkward because of my presence, but he greeted me warmly and was appreciative of the coffee, and took me up on my offer of some breakfast pastries, which Val had conveniently purchased the day before, while at the farmer’s market.

“I’m glad you came,” Leo told William. “I know your lawyer won’t be pleased.”

“He means well, but he doesn’t know you. I’m not concerned by what you know—and I want you to know everything.” William made his intent very clear. “Can you tell me what you’ve heard thus far?”

Leo glanced at me before relaying what we’d learned, both from the PI as well as Margot’s town gossip. As he proceeded, William’s shoulders slouched. It was worse than he’d feared. He hadn’t anticipated that the news would move so quickly, but didn’t seem surprised that Margot had been the messenger.

“None of it’s true—that’s the first thing you need to know,” William stated. “You can choose to believe me or not, but I love my wife and have never stepped out on her. I haven’t seen Julie Sullivan since your father’s funeral, and I certainly have never physically harmed a single person in my entire life.” He was resolute, but sounded exasperated.

“How do you think the evidence was found at her home?” Leo asked.

William shrugged. “I can only assume I’m being set up.”

“Why would someone want to do this to you—who would do this to you?”

William closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t know—I’m sure I’ve crossed people over business, but none that I would suspect would try to so thoroughly ruin my life like this.” He began to pick apart his croissant, leaving flakes scattered across the plate as he went.

“How can I help you? How can I make this right?” Leo clearly felt responsible for what was happening to William. But it wasn’t his fault, it was the person or persons behind everything—they had made the decision to hurt people, not Leo.

“You’ve done what you can, son.” William clapped a palm over Leo’s shoulder. “You didn’t have to come the other night, but you did. I won’t soon forget your loyalty.”

“I’m afraid I have more questions, but they’re not exactly about what happened to Julie,” Leo said slowly. I knew Leo was wary about bringing up what he and I had been investigating, but if he didn’t ask now, we might not get another chance.

“You want to know about Christine…” William sighed, knowing it was bound to come up sooner than later.

“We’ve been poking around after learning some things…” Leo was cryptic.

“What things exactly?”

Leo glanced at me, silently asking permission to mention the diary. I nodded subtly.

“Penny found my mom’s journal, and it had entries from the months before her death,” Leo revealed.

William raised a brow, genuinely surprised. “What did it say?”

“She wasn’t suicidal,” I replied.

William turned his attention to me.

“No, I don’t suppose she was,” William agreed.

“Why did you and Dad let me believe that my whole life, then?” Leo’s tone betrayed his anger.

“Because the alternative would have been worse—to tell you that George suspected she had been murdered and that the police had done nothing. How would that have made anything better?”

“At least it would have been the truth,” Leo growled scornfully.

William took another sip of his coffee. “Neither of us wanted to lie to you—in truth, I think George hoped he’d solve it on his own and then be able to tell you everything, but the longer it took—the colder the case grew…he just decided it would be better to let you believe the official story.”

“Do you recognize this symbol?” Leo grabbed a memo pad and pen from the entryway table and drew the overlapping W and M.

“No.” William shook his head. “Should I?”

Leo looked at me, brow furrowed. “Aunt Margot said you used to draw it, that it was your initials.”

William looked at it again. “Maybe when I was a child—I grew up with George and Margot—honestly, I don’t remember it.” He seemed bewildered by the monogram, but he hadn’t adamantly denied it was his.

“Tell me more about Dad’s investigation,” Leo demanded, though I didn’t think he’d meant to.

“I’ll do you one better, I’ll show you.” William rose from the barstool. “Follow me.” He motioned, when Leo and I merely stared at him without moving.

Leo grabbed my hand as he passed me, squeezing it gently to reassure me as we trailed behind William.

When I hesitated as William opened the door to the basement, Leo turned back. “You don’t have to.” He knew I hated it down there.

“No, I’ll go.” I swallowed hard.

I reminded myself that nothing was down there and that both Leo and William would be there with me.

Still, the musty, damp, heavy weight of the lower level immediately enveloped me only a few steps down the staircase. I released Leo to use the railings to steady myself, but he quickly found my hand again when we were at the bottom. Maybe he was drawing as much comfort from me as I was in him.

William turned on the available lights as he went, but the space remained murky and dank, almost as if in rebellion. He approached a bookcase, and managed to easily push it to the side, as the baseboard of the shelf was concealing casters. Moving it revealed a room previously hidden from view.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Leo breathed in shock.

“A lot of old houses like this were retrofitted with hidden storage and tunnels during prohibition.” William stood aside, allowing Leo and I to enter the room after he’d flipped on another too-dim lightbulb overhead.

The room had no windows and couldn’t have been larger than ten square feet. The walls were plastered with notes, newspaper clippings, photographs, and other ramblings of a madman. A long folding table in the middle of the space was stacked with binders, folders, and papers in some kind of organized chaos. Behind the desk was the lone missing dining chair I’d been trying to find for weeks. I never would have found it otherwise.

“What is this place?” I let my eyes wander the packed space, not knowing where to look next.

“George only told me when he was too weak to come down here by himself,” William admitted. “He called it his investigation den—decades of work trying to figure out what happened to your mother.” He turned to Leo. “He never did find anything concrete enough to go to the police, but he had his theories.”

Leo had approached one of the walls, where most of the photos were taped. “I can see that.” He examined the images. “You’re on his list of suspects.” Leo pointed to an old photo of William. There were sticky notes next to the photo that said “Motive?” and “Confirmed in-person meeting with investors at T.O.D.”

“What’s T.O.D.?” I asked.

“Time of death,” William answered. “George told me he had long ruled me out, but he didn’t want to trust anyone with what he was doing until he had something more solid…only that day never came.”

“Margot’s on here too,” Leo commented.

The note next to her photo said, “How close were they?” and “Confirmed out of country with Ted.”

“Even you’re on there.” William pointed to a small picture of Leo as a toddler in a corner, almost hidden by other notes.

The note next to Leo read “Confirmed with nanny at park, on playdate.’”

“He exhausted every avenue—left no stone unturned,” William said.

“It looks like these two were his main targets.” Leo shuffled to view the center of the wall, where larger photos of two men were positioned. Under each was a name: Jeremy Pruitt and Warren Kane. I recognized the former from the police file Leo’s PI had unearthed.

“Warren Kane—is that Kane Industries?” Leo turned to William.

William nodded. “He was our primary business rival at the time—he died in a plane crash about ten years after Christine died. I didn’t like the guy, he was a prick, but I never got the impression he’d cross that kind of line—still, he took a lot of secrets to his grave, and George could never manage to get a solid alibi from him.

“Every time they spoke, it was something else. He had a different meeting on his work calendar from his personal calendar, and his personal assistant said he was with his mistress at the time, but George never found her, and Kane—he was an asshole. I think he was amused by your father’s obsession with him, but murder—he was the type to initiate a hostile takeover, not kill his adversary’s wife. He’d want a business victory, not a personal one.”

William’s phone began to ring, echoing menacingly in the enclosed space. He looked at the caller ID and declined the call. “It’s my lawyer—I can’t stay.” He frowned.

“William…” Leo faltered. “There’s something else…” He looked down at his feet, then up at me, needing a boost of confidence, which I provided with a reassuring smile.

“I think someone killed Dad.”

William took a step back, alarmed by the declaration. “But the cancer—”

“The cancer was real, but he’d secretly asked me to conduct a private autopsy, and multiple pathologists think he was likely smothered.” Leo raked his hand through his hair nervously.

William was silent for a minute, trying to take in everything.

“I wondered when I first heard, but they declared it a natural death so quickly, I was almost relieved. I saw him that day; he seemed in good spirits, that’s why it caught me off guard when Margot called me to tell me.” William’s face clouded as he recalled that day.

“You were the last person to see him alive—the nurse found him an hour later, and he was gone.”

“The dead nurse…”

“You know I have to ask,” Leo said painfully.

“I know.” William’s eyes met Leo’s. “Your father was alive and as well as he could be, given his diagnosis, when I left him.”

“And the nurse—I know you didn’t have an affair with her, but what was your impression of her?” Leo asked.

William took a beat to think about the question. “She joked with him, but was professional. I had confidence she knew what she was doing, and I was glad she was willing to put up with his shit.” William released a humorless laugh, recalling his best friend and business partner. “But I suppose, people like her, they fade into the background so easily. I never paid much attention to her. Never got to know her beyond George’s treatment plan and schedule.”

Leo nodded. He’d had the same experience with the woman.

William looked down at his phone again; it had chirped with a voicemail alert.

“I need to get going,” William said regretfully.

“If you need anything—” Leo offered.

“I will.” William gave him an understanding smile. Then he turned to me. “Take care of him, young lady.”

I grinned.

“You lucked out with her.” He turned back to Leo. “Don’t let her get away.”

Leo sighed through a smile, giving William a small wave as he backed out of the room, his footsteps dissipating as he ascended the stairs, leaving the two of us alone again.

“You heard him,” I joked. “You are so lucky.”

Leo closed the space between us, sweeping me into a hug, holding me tightly. He was upset and needed physical comfort. I returned the embrace.

“Very lucky…” he whispered, placing a soft kiss just below my ear, before stepping back. “I knew my dad was secretive, but I didn’t expect him to have a hidden lair.”

“Hope you didn’t have any plans for the day,” I laughed, picking up a folder from the desk.

“You’re willing to stay down here?” he asked seriously.

“We wanted answers, and we suddenly have the opportunity to get inside the mind of a dead man.” I cringed at the last two words—I hadn’t been thinking.

Leo didn’t seem to notice and took no offense. “There’s a lot to go through. What are we looking for exactly?” He began to examine the document piles on the desk.

“I’m not sure…” I trailed off. “But I do think William is right, your dad wouldn’t have told him about this place if he suspected him of hurting your mom.”

“True—but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have been responsible for what happened to Dad. We assumed it was the same person who committed both crimes, but it could have been different offenders.” Leo sighed.

Even with all the new information we had in front of us, I still felt like we were back at square one. I was overwhelmed with the possibilities, and the danger that still loomed over us.

For quite a few hours, Leo and I busied ourselves trying to make some sort of sense of how George had organized everything in his secret room. We shared insights as we discovered them, but came across nothing definitive that altered our perception of either death.

Mid-afternoon, the doorbell rang. Leo went to answer it, but I insisted on getting it, as I was unwilling to stay in the basement alone, even for a moment.

“Alright,” he conceded. “Any chance you’d bring down something for lunch? I’m starving.”

As if on cue, his stomach growled, leaving us both laughing.

On my way upstairs, I noticed something odd across the basement, along the far wall from George’s hideout. There was a mark scraped along the floor, as if someone had moved something recently, but I didn’t recall Leo or any of the workmen being down there. The wall was empty, with no furniture that could easily explain the size and shape of the mark in the floor. The thought nagged at me as I made my way to the front door.

A delivery driver had an overnight package addressed to Leo that requested signature service. I didn’t think he was expecting anything, and I usually put my name on all orders for the house. I thought maybe it was an early Christmas present and set it aside to make a quick and late lunch for myself and Leo.

I had just finished gathering everything when I realized why the spot in the basement stood out. I recalled going through different versions of the blueprints I had ordered when I first started working at Willowbrooke, and noticed an anomaly in the basement between the original floor plans and one from the 1950’s.

Precariously balancing two plates and two bottles of water, I stopped by the library, where I had stored the printouts on my way back to Leo, intent on re-examining them with him.

“Who was it?” he asked, helping relieve me of the plates.

“A delivery—required a signature.” I raised a brow at him, wondering if he’d share what he’d ordered.

Leo shrugged. “Probably some wine someone sent over—that always needs a signature upon delivery.” He motioned to the poster tube under my arm. “What’s that?”

“There’s something weird on the other side of the basement. I thought I saw something on the blueprints for the house that might explain it.”

Over sandwiches, we tried to locate the discrepancies between the various versions, and finally, I found what I’d been looking for. “See, there’s this indent that wasn’t there in the original plans.” I pointed to the almost insignificant change.

“Show me.” Leo stood from his chair, gesturing for me to proceed.

I made my way across the basement and found the scrape marks I’d seen while I was going upstairs. “I haven’t moved anything over here, have you?” I pointed to the marks, which were in a curved pattern, as if we stood in front of a door that had opened toward us. But in front of us was a brick wall.

“It wasn’t me—and none of the guys would have any reason to come down here.” Leo took out his phone and turned on the flashlight, using the light to examine the wall.

After a moment, he exclaimed, “There’s a seam!”

Sure enough, with the light shining directly onto a specific line of grout, from a precise angle, you could see a slight shadow.

“How do we open it?” I began looking around for anything that stood out, pressing against the brick wall, until I realized the wall seemed to have a bit more give when I pressed near the seam. When I pushed hard enough, there was a click, like a cabinet with a magnetic latch, and the seam expanded just enough to fit my fingers into, to pry the entrance open.

“What the fuck?” Leo shone his flashlight into the abyss. We couldn’t see where the space ended.

“William said there could be prohibition tunnels.” I could feel my heart beating in my chest. The darkness felt sinister, and I wanted to get as far from it as I could.

“Now we know how someone was getting in here,” Leo spat bitterly.

Suddenly his phone alarm rang out, startling him enough that he dropped his phone. “Shit,” he swore as he bent down to pick it up. Luckily, it hadn’t sustained any damage, thanks to his case.

“What’s the alarm for?” I asked, stepping back from the dark entrance.

Leo looked up at me impishly. “The gala.”

“The gala,” I repeated.

Leo took a look down the tunnel before latching the door in place. “We’ll have to come back—we need to get ready. Margot will kill me if we’re late.”

“We?” I asked. I’d forgotten about Margot’s invitation, assuming it had merely been a courtesy and that Leo would send her my regrets, much to her relief.

“If you think I’m going to suffer alone with a bunch of blue-hairs and social climbers, you’re mistaken.” He took my hand and led us back toward the staircase.

“It’s black tie.” I frowned. I didn’t think they’d let me through the door in jeans and a blazer, which was currently the fanciest clothing I owned.

“I know.” He closed the basement door behind me, attempting to hide a mischievous smile.