Chapter Twenty-Seven Stella
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Stella
All of Sleepy Hollow descended on and around the acres that made up Xavier’s back lawn. They couldn’t broach it, but the neighbor
let them gather on his side of the property line. A few shadowed figures popped up at the far end of Xavier’s property, around
the pond.
Hours had passed since I’d arrived here for our impromptu meeting. Just the three of us had turned into a free-for-all of
looky-loos and nosy neighbors hanging by the fence, peeking over. People standing on the street, trying to barge into the
middle of the emotional explosion.
Thick clouds had rolled in, blocking the last bits of sunset and covering the sky in a blanket of grayish white. Large searchlights
drenched Xavier’s lawn in yellow. People in official uniforms marched around, issuing orders and yelling at everyone to clear
the area, and when that didn’t work, to at least stay on the other side of the fence.
A helicopter buzzed overhead as I stood next to Lukas, about fifty feet from the action. We watched the excavator borrowed from the cemetery dig a deep hole in what was once the pristine wildflower garden dedicated to Dea Tanner.
I didn’t realize I was leaning until Lukas wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close. His lips brushed over
my hair. The bit of comfort contrasted with the gloomy mood.
Cam and Marni stood by Cam’s car. He’d parked it in the circular driveway, not venturing closer. Hanna waited nearby but kept
her focus on the ground around her feet. She’d answered the detectives’ questions. We all did, though Lukas made sure I kept
my responses short and tight.
Someone had taken photos of Hanna’s hands and collected samples. Dried mud still covered her fingers and ran up past her wrists.
Jeremy showed up, saying friends called him about the commotion. While he paced around Hanna, I took the opportunity to study
him. Searched for any sign of Xavier’s bloodline—my bloodline—in him.
Jeremy was a typical college student dressed in jeans and scuffed sneakers. Handsome and showing hints of becoming a very
attractive man. His black hair and dark eyes hinted at the Japanese heritage handed down from his mother. Nothing shouted
to Xavier’s genes.
Despite all the body blows Jeremy had taken about who he was and what Hanna had hidden from him, he walked with confidence.
With purpose. His attention remained on the ever-growing hole in the ground except for those times when he snuck a peek at
his mother. Then concern would flood his features.
Yeah, I’d been right. He was a decent kid raised by a strong woman.
For the hundredth time since I saw Hanna’s reaction to Xavier’s surprise division of assets, I regretted not knowing her better.
For so long being near her touched off a spiraling panic.
Now I wondered if we would have ridden out the years of tense uncertainty better as friends.
Aubrey’s call to the police about someone possibly “vandalizing” her grandfather’s home—a claim she knew wasn’t true but clearly
counted on to bring squad cars and flashing lights—turned into this mess. They saw the dirt and asked questions, then the
detectives arrived.
The initial dig by the forensic team picked up where Hanna started and uncovered something. Now the entire area had been roped
off, some of it restricted under a white tent and cordoned off behind yellow caution tape. The police had tried to clear us
off the property like they did with everyone else, but Hanna had shown them the trust documents about Jeremy’s ownership rights.
She vouched for all of us to remain at an appropriate distance.
Lukas said the quick agreement allowed law enforcement to assess us and the crowd and try to read our reactions. That warning
had me guessing and second-guessing every time I shifted my weight or coughed or even moved.
Everly was staying with Agatha, my nanny. Mom was on her way here. I braced for the fuss she would make when she saw the torn-up
grounds and discarded flowers. She’d act like she owned the house, ran it, had the right to make decisions about it. She would
not easily hand over the title of lady of the manor. That role fell to Hanna until Jeremy got a little older. Mom would try
to bulldoze right over that fact.
Aubrey stood closer than the rest of us to the caution tape. She waited with an unreadable expression.
“I’m surprised Jeremy is here,” Lukas said.
“He hasn’t gone back to school. After the fight with Hanna, he slept in the café office downstairs.”
“That can’t be easy on Hanna.” Lukas exhaled. “Why was Aubrey here today with the rest of you?”
She was following us or tracking us, but I refused to let my mind wander in that direction. Figuring out Aubrey’s motivations,
filling in that blank, would turn into an obsession if I wasn’t careful. “She wasn’t. She popped up right as Hanna focused
on the garden.”
“Convenient.”
“Not really.” Nothing about Aubrey Tanner was convenient or even tolerable.
“I heard she moved back into her family’s house.”
Of course she did. A creepy woman living in a creepy house. That was very Sleepy Hollow of her. “That place is falling down.
Does it even have running water and electricity?”
He shrugged. “She probably thought she could bunk here. Or . . .”
He could have skipped the ominous tone. “What?”
“Aubrey could have something hidden in her old house. She might need to be there.”
“After so many years and all the police searches, I doubt it.” But there was one other thing. “I’m not sure if this is related
but someone was skulking around earlier. Watching us.”
Lukas’s hold tightened on my shoulder, but he didn’t say anything.
“Over by the bushes. Could have been Aubrey, but why hide?” She sure had no problem confronting us or calling the police in. Not the expected conduct of a supposed family annihilator. If she’d killed them she’d want them to stay buried.
“Maybe it was her brother.”
Lukas was testing his theory. Throwing it out there a third time to see if I’d bite. “The author, Gabe, is really Noah? You’re
still on that?”
Lukas shrugged. “If he was really an author working on a big story, wouldn’t he be here right now? And not sneaking around.
Actually here. Asking questions.”
I hated when Lukas used logic to win an argument.
“We know Gabe is not who he claims to be. He also showed up in town right when Aubrey did.” Lukas said. “Is it that hard to
believe both kids hid for years, possibly with Xavier’s help?”
“A few days ago, I would have said yes and told you the whole idea was ridiculous. But it’s pretty clear that Xavier had far
more secrets than even I suspected.”
Lukas nodded in Aubrey’s direction. “Runs in the family.”
As if she sensed we were talking about her, Aubrey lifted her head and shot us a look. Her expression didn’t change but she
started walking over.
“Shit.” I bit back a groan. “I don’t have the strength for more of her today.”
“I’ll handle this.”
He liked to use that word. Handle. I needed him to do some handling, whatever that might mean.
“Lukas.”
That’s all Aubrey said. No greeting for me.
Her tone suggested they knew each other.
That was barely true. She’d been a teenager fifteen years ago.
He’d attended family events as my husband.
He also came around my home office a few times while she was there, but not more than once or twice.
I’d been Aubrey’s informal therapist back then.
A huge mistake that I paid for every single day.
“Should you be here?” he asked Aubrey.
She smiled at him. “Should you?”
The strange lilt to her voice sent my defenses spiking. “What does that mean?”
Lukas squeezed me tighter against his side, but his focus stayed on Aubrey. “You might not want to be on the property right
now in case the police uncover something upsetting.”
Aubrey’s smile didn’t waver. “Like my dead parents?”
The way she said that. Like they weren’t people. Like they weren’t people she loved. “Are they dead?”
She snorted. Actually snorted. “They’d owe me a pretty big apology otherwise.”
What the hell? “I see you still try to get attention by being provocative.”
“Don’t we all?” Her gaze shifted to Lukas as she talked. “Lukas understands me. Don’t you, Lukas?”
If she planned to target him, she needed to stop. He was the one person who got dragged into the Tanner family drama and tried
to help. He’d paid for that with our marriage. I wouldn’t let him lose his political future, too.
“You should tell whatever it is you know to the police.” I said it but silently wondered if she should. She was a wild card.
She could say anything but her failure to speak felt far more fraught than her potential lies.
“That would be interesting, wouldn’t it? And dangerous.” She did it again. Her gaze moved from me to Lukas. “Imagine if I told people what I knew. What would happen then?”
Threats? She once told me she’d ruin my career. A little late, but it sounded like she intended to make good on that promise. “I don’t
know what you think—”
“I wonder what other secrets are about to come out and whose future they will destroy.” She pretended to think about her own
question.
“I wonder if anyone would believe anything you had to say,” Lukas said. “After all, your word is a bit shaky around here.
Most people think you’re a killer.”
“I guess we’ll know soon enough who is worthy of being believed.” She winked. “Excuse me. I need to go say hello to a blood
relative who is very much alive.”
I watched her walk away, headed for Jeremy, both relieved to be out of her presence and on guard because she’d made it clear
she was not done with us. “Hanna is going to kill her if she messes with Jeremy.”
“Aubrey needs to be careful or Hanna won’t be the only one in line to do the deed.”
I glanced around to make sure no one else heard Lukas’s inappropriate remark. He was supposed to have a meeting with the governor
tomorrow about the judicial appointment. “That’s not funny.”
“I’m not joking.”