Chapter Sixteen
Lexa was sure that Owen wasn’t going to approve of Aiden and her showing up at Gillian’s, but that hadn’t stopped them from rushing out to the cruiser to head that way.
Because Gillian could have met the same fate as Chloe.
Possibly.
Lexa didn’t know why the killer would go after Gillian, but she doubted a break-in was a coincidence after everything else that’d happened.
“Stating the obvious here, but this could be a trap,” Aiden reminded her as she drove toward Outlaw Ridge. “A trap either set up by Gillian herself or by the person who murdered Chloe.”
Yep. It could be. It was possible there was no break in at all and that Gillian’s scream and dead phone were all part of a plan to lure the police to her house so she could kill them. But there was that pesky question of motive. If Gillian had been the one who’d killed Chloe, then why try to eliminate any cops? It didn’t make sense unless…
“Maybe Gillian or the killer think we’re getting too close to solving this case,” Lexa spelled out.
“Or they think we saw them,” he added. “We did see someone at the manor, but we didn’t get a good look at him or her. The killer might not know that. As long as we’re alive, there’s a chance we could ID the person we saw at the scene.”
Again, that was true. And if that had occurred to Owen, then he definitely might not want Aiden and her out and about. But cops couldn’t always afford the luxury of staying safe when there was a killer on the loose.
She took the turn toward town, heading now to Main Street, but to the north side, on the outskirts, where there was a new subdivision, Wildflower Bluff, being built. Shortly after she’d moved back here, Lexa had considered buying a place there, but she’d nixed that since there had still been a lot of construction going on. Only about a dozen houses had been finished, and there were more than twenty more slated to be built. She hadn’t wanted to deal with the noise.
“Gillian’s address is 2220 Bluebell Lane,” Aiden told her. “After we’re on the main drag of the subdivision, we take the first right, and it’s the fourth house on the left.”
So, the house was toward the back of the development. Probably not good because it could mean neighbors hadn’t seen her or heard what was going on.
Her phone rang, and Owen’s name popped up on the dash screen. She used her hands free to accept the call.
“I’m guessing you’re on your way to Gillian’s,” Owen immediately said. “And if you’re not, I need you here right away,” he added, surprising her. “There’s blood and signs of a struggle inside the house, but no Gillian. I want you to search for her because we got other problems, and, yes, that’s plural. Someone’s put small explosives devices all over town.”
“Hell,” Aiden muttered. “Have any of them detonated?”
“Not yet, but we need to find them and keep people away from them. Shaw, Declan, Jemma, and Hayes are on that since we don’t know how damn many there are. Callie and I are heading to Brady’s house. Someone firebombed it, and he says the person ran into the greenbelt behind his property.”
Aiden repeated that “hell” along with some other profanity. Lexa had a similar response. This was basically a three-pronged attack of some kind. But who was behind it?
“Get to Gillian’s,” Owen said. “Find out where she is, and the rest of us will deal with these other shitstorms.”
Lexa and Aiden assured him they would as Owen ended the call. She sped up, turning on the blue lights, and the cruiser quickly ate up the distance to Gillian’s. She looked for any of those explosive devices along the way but didn’t see any. Maybe the deputies would be able to round up all of them before anyone got hurt. Or killed the way Orville had.
After only a couple of minutes, she spotted the white limestone sign at the entrance to Wildflower Bluff, and while there were lights around it, the neighborhood itself was cloaked in darkness. That was in part due to the lack of streetlights and that nearly every other lot was still vacant.
Following the directions that Aiden had given her, Lexa slowed down, again checking for any possible explosives on or alongside the road. Checking for a killer, too, because all of this could have been orchestrated to set a trap. She thought of the massacre that’d nearly wiped out the police force and prayed that wasn’t what the killer had in mind now.
She took the turn onto Bluebell Lane and silently cursed the darkness. It would be hard to spot anyone with only a handful of lights. Added to that, there were mainly unfinished houses here with stacks of construction vehicles and equipment. Plenty of places for someone to hide.
Lexa pulled into the driveway of 2220 Bluebell Lane and got her first look at the one-story stucco house.
And the front door that was wide open.
She figured it’d been like that when Owen and Shaw had arrived, and she wondered if the intruder had left it that way or if Gillian had used it to try to escape. If it was the latter, the woman could be around here somewhere.
“Watch your six,” Aiden reminded her, and they both drew their weapons as they stepped from the cruiser.
They didn’t linger around outside. No need to make themselves easy targets for a sniper. But eventually, they would have to search the grounds. For now though, they started with the house.
Lexa didn’t see any blood on the porch, but she did the moment Aiden and she stepped inside. There were some drops on the white tiled floor of the foyer.
“Gillian?” Lexa called out.
No response. And she couldn’t hear anyone moving around.
Aiden and she moved together, slowly and with lots of caution while they began to check the open-plan living, dining, and kitchen. Owen had been right about there being signs of a struggle. The lamp had been knocked off the end table, and there was a shattered wine glass next to it.
Lexa nearly gasped when there was a sharp beeping sound in the kitchen area, and with their guns aimed, they pivoted in that direction. It took her a second to realize it was the microwave. The light was flashing “Ready” on it, and she guessed Gillian had put something in to cook before she’d heard the intruder.
If that story was true.
Lexa reminded herself again that Gillian might have staged this the way Chloe had done at the manor. The woman could be lying in wait to try to kill them.
“Gillian?” she tried again as they made their way through the other rooms.
Still, no answer, and there were no signs of a struggle in the main bedroom and bath. Ditto for the powder room in the hall. Aiden and she searched them, looking in every possible hiding spot.
No Gillian.
There were two more rooms off the hall, both with their doors shut, and Aiden and she made their way to them. He took the right side. Lexa took the left. When Aiden threw open the door, he immediately flicked on the lights. Nothing out of the ordinary here. It appeared to be a guest room, and everything seemed to be intact so they moved to the next one, repeating the same maneuver as they entered a home office.
This time though when Aiden turned on the lights, they saw something that definitely qualified as out of the ordinary . There were dozens, maybe hundreds of photos pinned to the walls.
Of Brady.
A few were shots with Gillian and him, but most were of Brady solo. Lexa recognized some of the other pictures as being printed out from social media and the town’s newspaper, but others appeared to have been taken with a long-range camera lens. In some of them, Brady didn’t seem to be aware that he was being photographed.
None of the photos included Chloe.
In addition to the pictures, there were framed articles detailing all of Brady’s military accomplishments, his wins when he’d been the quarterback of the high school football team, and even his graduation from college.
“Shit, she’s obsessed with Brady,” Aiden murmured.
Lexa agreed. No way was this normal. Gillian had basically been stalking Brady, and judging from these photos and printouts, it’d been going on for years. She had always known that Gillian had a thing for Brady, but she hadn’t imagined the woman taking it this far.
But had Gillian done even more than this?
She could have murdered Chloe to make sure she was out of Brady’s life.
Something else caught Lexa’s eye when she looked at the trash can. There, on top of some other garbage, were torn-up bits of paper, and there was enough of it left for Lexa to recognize what it was.
An invitation for Brady and Chloe’s wedding.
“Hell. That’s not good,” Aiden said, and she followed his gaze to a small table tucked to the side of the desk. “That’s a detonator for an explosive.”
That got them moving, fast, and they hurried out of the hall and to the front door. Lexa hadn’t noticed any actual explosives attached to the device, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t some in the house.
“Let’s get in the cruiser,” Aiden suggested. “We can call the bomb squad, let Owen know what we’ve found, and then drive around and look for Gillian.”
That sounded like a good plan to her, and she didn’t waste any time dashing out of the house and back into the car. “I’ll call Owen. You deal with the bomb squad,” she said though both were no doubt tied up with looking for those explosives. Still, they had to know.
Lexa made the call to Owen, and he answered on the first ring. “There’s a detonator in Gillian’s house,” she blurted.
“Shit, how did I miss that? Never mind. I was in and out because of the call I got about the explosive device, but I’ll get somebody over there now. Any sign of Gillian?” he tacked onto that.
She was about to say no, but then she caught some movement from the corner of her eye. Lexa’s head snapped in that direction, and in the dim moonlight, she spotted someone.
Gillian.
She was by the side of a Dumpster filled with construction debris that sat on the edge of an empty lot. Behind her was a partially finished house, and to her left was a heavily treed lot that hadn’t yet been cleared.
It was hard to tell, but it appeared as if the front of her dress was covered in blood.
Gillian looked at the cruiser, and for a moment, Lexa thought the woman was about to head their way. Then, Gillian glanced back over her shoulder. Back into that shell of a house.
And she screamed.
Before she started running straight toward the trees.