When the Smoke Clears (Deadly Reunions) (21 page)

He pulled into a spot near the entrance to the hospital reserved for security. “But first, let’s see who has access to your mother’s house.”

They walked through the lobby doors and headed for the elevator. The ride to the fourth floor was a quick one. Once off the elevator, Alexia led the way to her mother’s room. “I wonder if she has company.”

She got her answer as soon as she approached the cracked door. Voices from inside the room grabbed her attention. As did the mention of her name.

“I can’t ask her that.”

“You have to. Right now, she’s pretty much your only hope.”

Alexia frowned at Hunter, who lifted a hand to knock. She motioned for him to stop. To listen.

He raised a brow and shook his head. Alexia felt shame creep up into her cheeks. Right. Eavesdropping wasn’t exactly very ethical. Alexia turned to knock.

“She’ll think I only want to make amends so she’ll help me out.”

She let her knuckles come into contact with the door as she processed the words. Her mother needed her help? With what?

“Come in.”

Alexia pushed the door open and stepped inside. Hunter followed and she nearly jumped when she felt his hand at the small of her back. His touch shivered through her, but the silent gesture of support meant so much more.

Her mother lay in the bed, looking frail and wan. But at least she was awake and talking. Michael Stewart sat in the chair beside her, holding her hand. Alexia nodded at him and he smiled his welcome as he stood and held out a hand to Hunter, who shook it.

“I’m Hunter Graham, a friend of Alexia’s.”

Friend? She looked at him in surprise. She would have thought he’d introduce himself as the detective on the case. Then she remembered. No one had told her mother about Devin yet.

“Hi, Mom.”

“I’ve gotten your messages.”

“Great.” Could the conversation get any more stilted? She sighed. “How are you doing?”

A weak smile crossed her face. “I’ve been better.”

“What is it you think I can do to help you out?”

Her mother flinched, then lifted a brow. “What makes you ask that?”

“I was in the hall and heard part of your conversation.”

Uneasiness flickered on the pale features. “It’s nothing.”

“Tell me.”

“Not right now.” The sharp words stung.

Alexia stared at her for a few seconds, then shrugged. “Fine then.” She’d drop it for now. Maybe her mother didn’t feel comfortable talking in front of Hunter. “Um . . . I need to give you some bad news.” Her gaze landed on Hunter, who gave her an encouraging nod.

Michael moved closer to her mother, his hand tightening protectively around hers.

“Devin’s . . . dead.”

Her mother’s harsh gasp echoed in the room. Then she asked, “How? What happened? When?”

“He was killed Monday night.” Should she give her the details? “Um, Mom? He was killed in your basement. I . . . found him when I got here from Washington. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been so scarce around here. I’m . . . sorry.”

The woman gaped at her. “Oh Lex. Oh no,” she whispered.

“I . . . understand you were helping him out.” Alexia hoped her mother would fill her in, but she didn’t want to press her or put any stress on her.

“Yes. I was.” Her mom breathed out, closed her eyes, and leaned her head back against the pillow. “He was having a hard time. I let him move in the basement apartment.”

“Mom, Hunter is a detective, trying to find Devin’s killer. He needs to ask you some questions.”

Eyes still shut, her mother nodded. “All right.”

Hunter asked, “Is there some reason he didn’t move back in with his parents?”

Faded green eyes opened. “He didn’t get along with them.”

“Why not?” Alexia asked.

Her mom looked at Michael as though asking permission for something.

He nodded. “I think you need to tell them as much as you know. It might help them find out who killed him.”

Her gaze turned toward Alexia. “I got to know Devin through a Bible study at church. He was a very confused young man at first, but as he started to realize God’s love, it was amazing to watch him change, to become confident in himself, in who he was created to be.”

“What?” Alexia stared, dumbstruck. Who was this woman? Her mother talked about God like he was a friend or something.

Kind of like Hunter did. And Serena.

“Anyway,” her mother continued, “throughout Devin’s childhood, his father was very abusive toward his mother—and still is. I didn’t want him going back there. He and his father had had some pretty bad . . . incidents, and I told him he didn’t need to put himself back in that situation.”

She motioned for the cup of water on her end table. Alexia reached for it the same time as Michael. He withdrew his hand with another smile. Alexia held the cup so her mother could sip.

“Thank you.”

“So you let him live with you.”

Her mother’s eyes met hers once more. “It was a temporary arrangement. Just until he could get another job and get back on his feet. He had decided to save his money and open his own lawn care business. Living rent free was helping him do that faster.” She shrugged. “And he took care of things around the house that I couldn’t do.”

“He didn’t have any other friends he could have stayed with?” Hunter asked.

A frail shoulder in a half shrug. “He said no.”

“Do you know anyone who might want to hurt Devin?”

A frown creased her mom’s forehead. “No. Certainly not.”

“What about his parents? You know anyone who would want to hurt them?”

“His parents? No.” Confusion rippled across her face. “Why?”

“Someone tried to kill them too,” Alexia whispered.

Shock held her mother speechless. Michael made a sound in his throat and Alexia looked at him. Wrinkles pinched his forehead and his face had paled to the color of parchment.

“His father’s dead and his mother is in critical condition.”

After a few seconds of processing this news, Alexia’s mother said, “I’m not sure anyone knew their family secret other than Michael and the few people in our Bible study. And none of us wanted to do them harm. We just wanted to help them.”

Hunter said, “Can you tell me anything about a woman Devin was dating? Marcie Freeman?”

Her mother raised a shaking hand to scratch her nose. Her eyes closed and she swallowed.

“Mom?” Alexia frowned and touched the soft hand lying on top of the blanket. “Are you all right?”

The concern she felt for the woman who’d basically thrown her out of the house ten years ago surprised her. But this was her mother. And Alexia cared.

“Just tired.” Her grimace said it was more than just fatigue bothering her. After a deep breath, she opened her eyes. “Marcie’s a young woman in our church. She and Devin had been dating for about a year. I think he was planning on asking her to marry him.”

“Really?” Hunter looked to the silent pastor standing by, watching the interactions. “Did you talk to him much? Did he say anything about the women in his life?”

Michael shook his head. “Women? There weren’t any women as far as I know. As for Marcie, she’s a great girl. And while Devin and I talked extensively about his childhood and his plans for the future, he never mentioned dating anyone else.”

“A secret life?” Alexia suggested.

“No.” Michael shook his head. “Not Devin. He was an open book.”

Alexia noticed her mother had fallen asleep. She stood. “I guess we’d better go and let her sleep. I think this visit wore her out.”

Hunter looked at Michael. “Do you think you could give me a list of people who have access to Mrs. Allen’s house?”

The pastor scratched his head. “I’ll be glad to try.”

Hunter handed him a piece of paper and a pen.

A knock on the door made Alexia swivel.

Lori Tabor stuck her head in and smiled. “Hi. I hope I’m not interrupting.”

“Not at all.” Alexia motioned her in. “She just fell asleep.”

Lori entered, a vase of flowers clutched in her right hand. “Oh well, that’s okay. I had told her I’d come by sometime today.”

Hunter took the flowers and placed them on the counter next to the sink.

Lori smiled. “Thanks.” She looked at Alexia. “How’s she doing?”

“She’s hanging in there.”

“I came yesterday too, and we had a nice chat, but she seems to get tired very easy.”

“She does.”

“Well, I won’t stay. Tell her I’m thinking about her. And see you tonight, right?”

The reunion committee meeting. Right. Alexia swallowed a groan and forced a smile. “Right. See you then.”

Lori wiggled her fingers and headed out the door.

Alexia smacked her forehead.

“You okay, Alexia?”

Hunter’s question brought her head up. She met his gaze. “I agreed to help with the reunion committee. We’re having the first meeting tonight and I just don’t know if I’m up to it. That’s all.”

“Here.” Michael held a sheet of paper out to Hunter.

Ten minutes later, armed with the list of names, Hunter and Alexia walked out of the hospital and toward his car. The sun beat down and she broke into a sweat. Her nerves tightened as she glanced around. Staying hyperalert was getting tiring, but she couldn’t relax her guard.

Beside her, Hunter glanced at the list. “Okay, we have a ton of information but no real leads. I need to sit down and process all of this.”

“I want to look at that list and see if I recognize any of the names.”

He handed it to her.

She frowned. “Michael, her pastor, has a key. What does he need a key for?” Without waiting for him to respond, she continued. “A couple of her friends from church. A Mrs. Love and a Mrs. Hardy. Devin had one.”

“And yourself.”

Alexia snapped her gaze up to his. “Yes, and me.” She gave a fake smile. “Thanks for pointing that out.”

“Anytime.”

“I don’t know Mrs. Hardy, but I remember Mrs. Love.” Alexia frowned. “She lives one street over from Mom. She would bring food over every Christmas Eve. And she was the one woman my father couldn’t intimidate. She was one of the reasons I started standing up to him.” She blinked. Where had that memory come from?

But once she opened the door on it, she remembered more. The time her mother had been so sick and in excruciating pain, Alexia had been scared to death. Her father had refused to get her help. Alexia had snuck out of the house and run to Mrs. Love, who had promptly called for an ambulance. Her mother had been in the hospital for six days after her appendix ruptured on the way. The doctor said if she hadn’t gotten into surgery when she did, she would have died.

Mrs. Love’s voice echoed in her mind even now. “You saved your mom’s life, Alexia. Good job, hon.”

Alexia saved the memory to dwell on later.

“I’m going to call Katie and give her these names,” Hunter said. “She can do a background check, a little digging, and see what she comes up with.”

“Okay. I’m going to call a locksmith and have the locks at Mom’s house changed.” She waited while Hunter made the call to Katie. When he hung up, she said, “Anyway—” Her foot caught on a piece of cracked cement and she stumbled.

Hunter moved fast and caught her arm.

She looked up to thank him but startled when a puff of dust blew up right in the very spot Hunter had been before moving to grab her.

Then she found herself facedown in the hospital parking lot. Heart thudding, she rolled with Hunter as he grabbed her and pulled her back toward the building. A bullet slammed into him and he spun backward, jerking her with him.

27

Thursday, 12:47 p.m.

“Hunter!”

“Keep going!” He gave her a shove.

She looked. The door to the hospital was much too far away. She’d be exposed. The only cover available was the short brick wall that surrounded the nearby fountain.

And Hunter was hurt.

People screamed and scrambled for cover. Hunter had his phone in one hand, his gun in the other. The blood pooling on his shirt didn’t seem to bother him. But it bothered her.

He’d been shot.

But how bad?

Not bad enough to slow him down. A slight comfort.

Alexia made it to the back of the brick wall and scrunched behind it. Two and a half feet tall, it was the best choice for protection at the moment. As long as the shooter didn’t move and angle for a better shot from a higher elevation. Her back felt exposed, like it had a big red target on it.

Hunter slammed into the small space beside her, his pained groan reaching her ears. “Officer needs assistance.” Vaguely, she heard him bark the location. “I’ve got a shooter.”

He screamed at a couple exiting the building across the street. “Down! Down! Get back inside!”

They froze and ducked back into the office just as another bullet zipped over the wall to dig into the post next to Hunter’s head. Alexia swallowed a scream and scuttled forward next to him. “He’s shooting at you!”

“Looks like it,” he muttered as he adjusted his gun in his hand. “I can’t get a location on him. He’s hiding pretty good.”

“How bad are you hit?” Concerned, she eyed the circle of blood that seemed to grow with each passing moment.

“Just a graze, I think.” He grimaced. “Burns like fire.” He rotated his arm and hissed. “But no major damage. That’s good.”

“Let me take a look at it.”

“Later. I’m all right.”

Alexia studied the surrounding area. Tops of buildings. Parked cars. Nothing. “Where is he?” she whispered.

“I don’t know. Stay down.”

Sirens rent the air. Help was on the way. Alexia pulled in a shuddering breath. “He stopped shooting. That’s good, right?”

“For now.” His gaze met hers. “Just because he’s not pulling the trigger doesn’t mean he’s not there.”

Alexia dropped her head into her hands and closed her eyes. With danger coming at her from all sides, she was beginning to think she should have stayed in Washington.

But someone had tried to kill her there too.