Chapter 18
AVA
Ava’s heart skipped a beat as she stared at the scene spreading out in front of her. The air from the ceiling fan blew strands of her hair around, tickling her cheeks. The sensation sent a shiver down her spine.
Her features twisted, and she slid her hand from inside the sleeve of her hoodie and grabbed Alex’s arm.
He bobbed his head without answering, already pulling his phone from his pocket to call.
She took another step into the room, swallowing hard.
“Avs, don’t touch anything.”
She nodded as she stared at the woman sitting behind the desk. She didn’t need to touch anything. There was no reason to take her pulse. The gunshot wound made her death obvious, and from the flies buzzing around her and the congealed blood, it hadn’t been within the past hour or so.
She wrinkled her nose, as she studied the surroundings, in search of any clues.
Alex’s voice droned behind her, speaking with the police to report the find. He joined her a few seconds later, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him. “They’re on their way.”
Ava narrowed her eyes, drinking in the scene again, despite the gruesomeness.
“Let’s wait in the foyer,” Alex suggested.
“Something’s off here,” she answered, her brows pinching.
“Yeah, there’s a dead body. Come on, Avs.”
“Wait, wait,” she said, pushing back against his tug.
“Ava, come on. We’re going to have nightmares.”
“Just a second,” she answered, taking a step closer to the desk.
A pen lay next to a note. She waved her fingers at him. “Give me your phone.”
“For what?”
“I want to take a selfie. Come on, hand it over, quick.”
Alex wrinkled his nose as he pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to her.
“That’ll teach you to toss my phone again.”
“The code is–”
“0920,” she repeated, typing in their wedding date. “Yeah, got it.”
Ava toggled on the camera and snapped a few pictures of the scene.
“Ava! Don’t put those on there. I don’t want that on my phone.”
“Shh,” she warned before she leaned closer and took a picture of the pen and the note. She studied the picture before she shook her head.
“Police!” a deep voice shouted from the door.
She skirted the desk, lowered the phone closer to the blood-spattered desk, and snapped another picture of the note before she toggled it off and shoved it in her pocket, hurrying across the room as dark figures crept down the hall.
The police burst in with their guns drawn. “Hands up.”
Ava raised her hands in the air as they studied them both. “You the folks who called this in?”
“Yes,” Alex said with a nod. “I’m Alex Stone, I’m…her boss.”
“Mind stepping onto the porch with me?” one of the officers asked. “Tony, you call for the coroner.”
“On it,” the other man answered, reaching for his radio.
Ava lowered her arms, crossing to the door with Alex behind her. They hurried down the hall with the uniformed officer and into the fresh air.
She wrapped her arm around Alex as he sucked in a breath of fresh air.
The officer tugged a notepad from his pocket. “You said your name was Stone?”
“Yes, Alex,” he answered.
The officer shifted his eyes to Ava.
Alex tugged her tighter to him. “This is my wife, Ava.”
The man bobbed his head up and down as he jotted a note. “Ava Stone.”
“Collins,” she corrected.
He snapped his gaze to her, his thick brows knitting. “I thought he said you’re his wife.”
She wiggled her ring finger at him. “I am. I kept my last name.”
The officer flicked his gaze to Alex as though he was searching for approval from him.
“It is the twenty-first century,” Ava added, glaring at the man as Alex offered him a nervous chuckle.
“Anyway, what other information did you need from us,” Alex asked.
“What were you doing here inside the victim’s home?”
“I own StoneCorp, where Marianne Wells works,” Alex answered.
The officer scrunched his eyebrows again. “Do you regularly visit your employees on a Sunday?”
“No,” Ava answered. “We are in the middle of a massive financial investigation. We’ve been tracking some of the suspicious activity and noticed a curious pattern with Ms. Wells’s absences.”
The officer cocked his head. “That’s interesting. So, there was trouble between you? Did you argue?”
“No,” Ava answered. “She was dead when we arrived.”
“So you say,” the officer answered as he jotted something on his notepad.
“We are the ones who called it in. If we did it, why would we report it?” Ava shot back.
“Guilt? Maybe you wanted to throw us off your scent.”
Ava crossed her arms. “I’m fairly certain you’ll find that she’s been dead for far longer than the few minutes we’ve been here. And based on the time frame you find when she was killed, we’d be more than happy to provide an alibi.”
“And where can we reach the two of you if we have to obtain that alibi? Ahh, you do live together, or is that another twenty-first-century marriage thing?”
Alex offered a nervous laugh again as he squeezed Ava tighter. “Of course, we do. Yes. Uh, you can call my cell or stop by anytime.”
He passed his number and address along to the officer.
“Okay, thanks. Now, before you go, I’m going to need to speak with both of you about what exactly you saw here.”
“Sure,” Ava answered with a nod.
“Ladies first,” the officer said as he poked a pen at Ava. “Mr. Stone, if you wouldn’t mind waiting a few steps away.”
“Of course.” Alex kissed the top of her head before he bounced down the steps of the porch and wandered to the car.
“So, Mrs.…ah…Ms. Collins…”
Ava held back an eye roll at his inability to use her own name. “Can you describe what you saw when you got here?”
“Yes,” she said with a curt nod. “My husband and I have been following up with the finance employees who worked at StoneCorp when the financial anomalies were noticed. There were several absences by Ms. Wells that coincided with unauthorized access attempts. We decided to follow up on it with her. When we arrived–”
“Which was what time if you know?” the officer interrupted.
“It was just after 1:30.”
“How certain are you?” he asked as he jotted the information down.
“Pretty certain. We left our house around quarter after twelve, and it took a little over an hour to get here when I mapped it. My husband doesn’t drive over the speed limit.”
“Smart man.”
“Very,” Ava said with a smile.
“How long have you two been married?”
“Seventeen years,” she said, her eyes trailing to him as he paced back and forth in front of his Mercedes.
“Wow,” he answered, surprise etching his pudgy features. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
She smiled at him, raising her eyebrows. “We’ve been together since college.”
The officer slid his eyes toward Alex before he centered them on Ava again. “I bet you were a popular girl, huh? And you married the captain of the geek squad?”
Ava clicked her tongue, settling her arms over her chest. “And I suppose you expected me to marry the captain of the football team.”
“That’s how it usually works. You know, back in my day, I was the center. My wife…she was the head cheerleader. Course, we’re divorced now.”
“Sorry to hear that. Would you like me to continue with what happened after we arrived?”
“Sure, sure,” he said, sliding another glance at Alex before he set his gaze on her again.
She scratched her forehead as she tried to find her place again. “We arrived just after 1:30. When we approached the door, it was slightly ajar. We knocked, and it opened. We called out to Ms. Wells.”
“I’m going to assume she didn’t answer.”
“No, she didn’t,” Ava said. “We stepped inside–”
“Why?” he interrupted.
“Uh,” she said with a shrug, “something seemed off. The open door, but no answer. We took a look around, calling out for her, and when we went into the office, it was obvious why she hadn’t answered.”
“Okay, anything else?” he asked as he finished writing.
“Not that I can think of.”
“If you do think of anything, Mrs.…Ms. Collins, here is my card. Give me a call.” He withdrew a card from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Thank you,” she said as she accepted it. “I’ll send Alex over.”
“Thanks,” the officer said with a smile and a nod.
She stepped from the porch and shuffled to her husband. “He’s ready for you.”
“Okay,” he said as he pulled her door open. “Wait in here.”
She climbed inside, and he closed the door behind her with a quick smile before he strode back to the officer.
The man grinned at him as he climbed the stairs. They spoke for a few minutes before the man chuckled, his eyes flicking to Ava before he returned them to Alex and wiggled his eyebrows.
She imagined the conversation that was ensuing given how their conversation went.
Alex spoke a few more words, his head tilting and his shoulders lifting. Ava hid a smile behind her fingers, recognizing the signs of Alex’s embarrassment.
A few minutes later, the cop clapped him on the shoulder as he closed the notepad and shoved it in his pocket. With a wave, the officer headed back into the house, and Alex crossed back to the car, skirting it and climbing behind the wheel.
“Well?” she asked as he fired the engine.
He slid on his seat belt and fired the engine. “Well, what?”
“How did your conversation with him go?”
“Fine,” Alex said with a shrug, as he headed home. “Outside of his weird obsession about my hot wife.”
Ava chuckled. “He really seemed interested in our relationship.”
“Yeah.” Alex shook his head, his grip on the steering wheel tight. “He was surprised you weren’t married to a football player, a pretty girl like you. And you married me before I had money.”
A laugh escaped her. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. He didn’t say that.”
“He did. I kid you not, Avs.”
She heaved a sigh and shook her head. “Hey, do you want to grab something to eat? I’m starving.”
He grinned at her, sliding his eyes sideways. “Sure,” he answered. “You want to go home and change? Hit the beach club?”
“Mmm, can we grab take-out and hole up at home? I owe you a butt-kicking game session since I fell asleep in record time last night.”