Chapter 30
Thirty
Erin tried to concentrate on her manuscript, but she couldn’t. The minutes ticked by like hours. When the front door finally opened and Kaely came inside, she couldn’t wait to tell her what she’d learned.
Kaely reset the alarm and carried her shopping bags into the kitchen. “I’ll start supper right away.”
“Not yet,” Erin said. “We need to talk.”
Kaely left the bags on the counter, pulled up a chair at the table, and sat down. “Sounds serious. Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I think it is . . . now. I need to ask you a couple of questions.”
Noah waved Lee over to the table where he sat with Kaely and Erin. Lee looked a little surprised to see the women, but he smiled as he approached.
“Thanks for asking me to meet you here,” he said as he sat down. “The food was so good last night, I’ve been hungry for pancakes ever since.”
The waitress came over to the table and asked him what he wanted to drink. Lee ordered coffee and the waitress handed him a menu. When she left, Noah leaned over and took the menu from him. “You won’t be needing that,” he said.
Lee frowned. “I . . . I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
Noah leaned back in his seat, his arms crossed across his chest. “Here’s the deal, Lee.
A woman by the name of Christine Dell has threatened to sue my friend, Erin Delaney, on grounds of plagiarism.
She claims that Erin stole her idea for a book titled Dark Matters.
Of course, it’s hard to prove her innocence since the claim popped up after the book was published.
” He shrugged. “Sometimes publishers will pay someone like Ms. Dell off just to get rid of them. Bad publicity and all that. If she’d just stopped there, she might have walked away with a decent amount of money.
But she pushed it a little further in an attempt to get more money. ”
Lee looked confused. “I don’t understand. Why are you telling me this?”
Noah’s smile widened. “Let me finish, and it will become clear.”
The waitress came back to the table and poured coffee from a carafe into Lee’s cup. “Have you had a chance to look over the menu?” she asked.
“He won’t be staying to eat,” Noah said. “But thank you anyway.”
She stared at Lee for a moment, shrugged, and left.
“I’m not sure what’s happening,” Lee said. “I thought we were friends.” He stood up as if he were getting ready to leave.
“I did too,” Noah responded. “Sit down. Now.”
His tone was so commanding that Lee collapsed into his chair as if he’d lost the ability to stay upright.
“So anyway,” Noah continued, “this Christine Dell claimed Erin’s second book, the one she’s getting ready to send in to her publisher, was also her idea. She says that Erin stole her concept and that the money the publisher paid her . . . her advance . . . should have gone to Miss Dell.”
“Look,” Lee said. “I wouldn’t know anything about that.”
“Oh, really?”
This time it was Erin who addressed him. Perspiration had formed on Lee’s forehead, and he wiped it away with a napkin on the table.
“We did a little checking,” Erin continued. “Seems you and Christine are cousins. Wasn’t hard to find that information. I guess your mother died a few years ago. Christine was listed as a relative. Obituaries are easy to pull up, Lee.”
“Tell him where he went wrong,” Kaely said. She grinned at Lee. “You’re going to enjoy this.”
“Something you and your cousin must not know,” Erin said, “is that the first synopsis or plot idea for a novel can change. You see, Kaely and I worked together on my new novel. We brainstormed several ideas. The notes you found in Kaely and Noah’s filing cabinet?
Not the plot I eventually went with. So, when your cousin told her attorney about the plot I supposedly stole?
” She made a clicking sound with her tongue as she shook her head.
“The wrong plot, my friend. Not even my agent knew that I’d decided to make some changes.
And the only way Christine could have known about this unpublished story’s plot was to get into Kaely’s filing cabinet .
. . or inside one of my files at home with my most recent work in progress.
Your friend who raided my home in Sanctuary and shot a police officer?
The police department there found his DNA.
We know his name is Eddie Pilcher. Seems Eddie looked through the file with the old plot line.
If he’d picked the other notebook, he would have seen the current plot.
The one my publisher has for the book I already finished. ”
“I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lee said, standing to his feet again.
“You’re the only person outside of me and Kaely who has been in our office,” Noah said.
“I’m sure the sheriff won’t have any problem matching your fingerprints to the ones taken off the filing cabinet—the one I forgot to lock the night you stayed in there.
” He glared at Lee. “So, when did you hatch this thing? Was this your intention from the beginning? Or did you think of it after you knew Kaely was friends with Erin and had helped her with the book?”
Lee’s fake look of confusion turned into a sneer, and he swore at them.
“We cooked it up months ago. You fell right into our trap. Eddie was in charge of getting the original manuscript. I was digging up all the notes that Kaely had. If I hadn’t found the wrong notes, we could have walked away with a lot of money.
That publisher would have laid out a load of cash to keep their shining star clean and pure.
Maybe we blew it this time, but thanks for the tips.
Next time we’ll make sure we have the right information.
I’m going to be glad to kiss your stupid church and all the hypocritical goody-two-shoes good-bye.
I’d say it’s been nice knowing you, but it hasn’t been. ”
“I’m sorry,” Noah said. “Did you get the impression you were going somewhere?”
Lee laughed. “Yeah, I got that impression. I’ll be out of town before you can call the police.”
“Oh, now that’s where you’re wrong,” Noah said. He raised his hand and waved. Lee turned around and found Nick standing behind him with a pair of handcuffs.
“Lee Johnson, you’re under arrest for fraud and attempted blackmail .
. . and probably lots of other charges once we find your partner who shot a police officer,” Nick said.
“Your cousin has already been charged. She confirmed that you were working with Eddie Pilcher. Like Noah said, we already had his identity, but we weren’t certain he was in on it.
Now we are. And by the way, with your record, you should get prepared for living in a cell for a long, long time.
” He handcuffed Lee and pushed him out of the diner, reading him the rest of his rights.
“Well, that was rather satisfying,” Noah said once they were gone.
“And sad,” Kaely added. “You really tried to help him, honey. Lee could have had a very different life if he’d chosen a better path.”
Noah reached over and patted his wife’s hand. “I know. Now we need to locate Pilcher. He has a long history of violence and theft. Not a nice guy. I’m hoping Nick can get Lee to give up his whereabouts.”
“We can pray for that,” Kaely said, “but for now, let’s order supper. After all this excitement, I’d rather not cook.”
Noah laughed. “I can understand that. I’m starved.”
As the women looked over their menus, Noah thanked God silently for protecting them against Lee’s scheme. He also prayed that Lee’s partner in crime would be caught quickly. Pilcher was a dangerous man who needed to be captured and put away for the rest of his life.
When they finally got home, Erin went straight to bed.
She was completely exhausted. She’d called Brandon to tell him that he didn’t need to worry about Dell’s threats anymore.
He was ecstatic. As happy as she was that Lee and Christine had been caught and arrested, she was still worried about Patricia.
Noah had called the command center when they got home to let them know about Lee and Christine.
Erin was certain they had no connection to the Novel Killer—neither one of them was clever enough to pull off these murders—but since she’d told Noah about Christine, Noah needed to report what had happened.
He also asked about Pat. She still hadn’t been located.
Had she left on her own? Was she safe? Or had the Novel Killer kidnapped her?
If so, for what reason? None of it made any sense.
Even with her concern for Pat’s disappearance, and Dale’s shooting, there was something running through Erin that she couldn’t explain.
A joy that bubbled from somewhere inside of her.
And a kind of peace she’d never experienced before, even when Kaely had prayed for her the first time.
This was different. She was different. Although she couldn’t completely understand it, she knew it had nothing to do with circumstances.
This peace came from something deeper. From someone who had changed her on the inside into a brand-new kind of person.
Even with everything going on, Erin drifted off to sleep without worrying about the nightmares that had plagued her for so long.
I tried not to laugh as I stared down at the dirt covering the box.
I could still hear her screams. She wasn’t really part of my plan.
I just did it because I could, and because the police and the FBI would be so distracted looking for this missing woman, they wouldn’t think at all about my actual target.
I heard a noise and looked around, but the cemetery was still empty.
It was getting dark and even if someone was there, they wouldn’t notice me.
I’d picked an old and abandoned part of the graveyard, one that was full of ancient headstones.
There were no new graves here. Even if someone figured out what I’d done, which I doubted, they’d never find her in time.
There was a loose end I had to take care of, but it wouldn’t be a problem. I’d deal with it soon.
It really was funny. Causing pain. Making people afraid. I loved it. It had turned out to be more fun than I’d ever imagined.
Now, for the final act in my little play.
Erin Delaney had only one more day to live.