Chapter Fifty-Three Stella
Chapter Fifty-Three
Stella
We stood in the entry of Xavier’s sprawling house. Make that Jeremy’s house. Either way, Hanna, Marni, and I waited for our
invited guest with more than a little apprehension. The tight band closing over my chest made it difficult to breathe.
“This is a terrible idea.” I’d mentioned that four or five times in the last twenty minutes.
“Do we have any other type lately?” Hanna asked with her gaze locked on that closed front door.
She’d texted us from the police station earlier, ready to fight. Questions about the possibility of Jeremy torching the café
set Hanna off. Understandably. The idea sounded ridiculous, as if blaming him was easier than finding him.
Hanna’s rampage included a lot of yelling and plans to confront anyone who might have a clue as to Jeremy’s whereabouts. Her
arguments avoided logic. She operated on pure emotion.
I couldn’t blame her, but I could rein her in. That meant clearing my patient schedule. Again. With little warning, I grabbed Marni and dragged her over here with me. But we were a beat too late. Hanna had already acted.
“I can’t believe you called him,” Marni said.
Hanna snorted. “He left his contact card. I used it.”
The doorbell tolled its dignified bong a second time. We still didn’t answer. My body froze to the floor. Every brain cell
begged me to throw the lock and shut all of this out.
Hanna had other ideas. She walked to the door with slow, unsure steps. Her usual confidence had abandoned her. Under all that
rage, all that determination and will, her worry had her fumbling. She’d spent days without Jeremy and every hour took a toll.
Her shoulders rose and fell on a deep breath as she reached for the knob. One pull and Gabe filled the doorway . . . Or whatever
his real name was.
His smile faded as he glanced over Hanna’s shoulder. To me. To Marni. To our army of reluctant and unqualified crusaders.
“I thought this was a one-on-one interview.” His fake smile immediately returned. “But hearing from all of you will be better.”
Little did he know.
“Come in.” Hanna gestured for him to head for the family room and moved around him to lead the way.
With each step his gaze wandered. He took in the walls and the paintings. Peeked into the rooms. We traveled in a small group,
then sat down, leaving Gabe alone in the middle of the couch. Marni and I took the chairs across from him. Hanna stayed on
her feet. She probably wanted to keep her balance in case she decided to take a swing at him.
He set his cell phone on the table in front of him. “Do you mind if I tape this?”
“Yes.”
The sharp slap of Hanna’s voice made me smile. She intended to get answers. Gabe didn’t know that yet, but he’d figure it
out.
“Ah.” Gabe lifted a small notebook out of his bag. His hand lingered inside until it came out with a pen.
Hanna nodded at his bag. “Put the second recorder on the table. Turned off.”
I doubted she cared if he taped our discussion or not. This was a power play. Her letting him know she controlled the room
and the topic.
After some hesitation, he placed a small tape recorder next to his phone. “It wasn’t turned on.”
“Sure.”
Hanna’s eye rolls rivaled my mom’s.
Gabe scanned his first page of notes. “I have a few questions to start. Background and—”
“Who are you?” I’d told the ladies about Lukas’s findings, so I led with that. About Gabe being someone other than Gabe until
recently. “Not the fake identity. Your real one.”
Gabe frowned. “Excuse me?”
“Let’s make this easy.” Hanna sat on the table right in front of Gabe, facing him. “This is us asking a few questions to see
if you can be trusted with an interview.”
“A test?” Gabe shifted the pillows piled behind him. Slid over a few inches on the cushions. Treated us to more than a few
“uh” responses before settling down again.
“The Tanner story is too personal for us to blurt out what we know. This is about building a rapport, and by that I mean we need to trust you. We don’t currently.
You have one shot to change that.” When he started to ramble about his qualifications, Hanna talked over him.
“We know your real name isn’t Gabe. We know you’re tied to Aubrey. You came to town with her.”
The last two were guesses. But we knew what we saw in the Tanner house. Gabe in the window. Not Jeremy. He wouldn’t have run.
He wouldn’t have had a reason even if seeing Hanna there panicked him. Gabe had a reason. We just needed to know what it was.
He shook his head. “I think we’ve gotten confused.”
“You’re staying at her run-down family home.” Marni picked that moment to talk. She kept it brief, which gave the comment
more punch.
“That’s not . . . No.” Gabe shook his head. “I’m staying at a place in Tarrytown.”
Marni didn’t let the answer slide. “Where?”
Gabe pressed back tighter into the couch cushions. “I’m here about a story.”
For Aubrey’s sidekick, Gabe lacked her killer instinct. Wasn’t great at lying either.
“Is this the choice you want to make?” I leaned forward in my chair.
This is the point where I’d normally bring up my position in the courthouse.
Mention Lukas and his job. The performative posturing tasted sour in my mouth.
It smacked of being a Xavier move. The sort of thing Victoria would say.
Their names opened doors and closed mouths, and I’d relied on that power for so long.
Now the exercise rang hollow. The implied threats sounded like nonsense in my head.
“We need to know if this is really about a story or if you’re hunting for gossip. Or, worse, if you’re working for Aubrey.”
I spelled the concern out as clearly as I could.
“This is about the Tanners. She’s one of them.” Gabe’s gaze bounced from one of us to the next.
“Oh, Gabe.” I waded into my usual role no matter how uncomfortably it fit today. “You’re not helping yourself. We want to
trust you.”
Hanna hadn’t moved. She sat there, forcing Gabe to pay attention to her. “Have you been inside the Tanner house? Patrick and
Victoria’s?”
“I’ve been in it.” The words came out choppy, as if he thought about each one as he said it. “It’s not in any condition for
guests.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. “Were you there the other day when we showed up?”
“I was outside. I saw you drive in.”
“No,” Marni said. “You were in Noah’s bedroom.”
Gabe frowned. “Which one is his bedroom?”
A good answer. Safe. Practiced. We needed to throw him off again. Gain the upper hand. We should ask if he was the one who
hit Marni but there was a bigger question. “Are you Noah?”
I could feel Hanna and Marni’s sudden attention. Their heated stares. Their restlessness as they waited for an answer.
Gabe sighed. “Of course not.”
“Prove it.” Unreasonable, I know, but was he acting? I didn’t trust my instincts anymore. Not when it came to the Tanners. Everything and everyone touched by them had an angle and secrets they’d die to protect.
A change came over Gabe the longer we sat there. A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. “I’m willing to trade information
if you are.”
“That’s not—”
Hanna talked over me. “What do you want to know?”
“You were all at the Tanner house that day. Aubrey told me that much during our initial interview.” He flipped his pen between
his fingers. Totally at ease. “I’m confused about when each of you came and why.”
Too close. Having him, or anyone, dig around in the timeline spelled danger. I fell back on diversion. “The police know all of this.
We’ve all been interviewed. Several times.”
“They know what you told them.” His gaze stopped on Hanna. “But not the truth.”
“That’s it.” Hanna stood up. “You failed. You can go. And tell Aubrey that if she has questions for us, she should ask us
and not use you.”
“No. You’ve got this all wrong.” Gabe gripped his notebook but didn’t stand up. “I’m independent.”
Another Hanna eye roll. “Sure you are.”
It took another ten minutes to get him up and out the door. He hedged. He pretended he’d take our original deal and earn our
trust. He finally slinked away when Hanna didn’t give him any choice.
“Sorry for the abrupt stop but I wasn’t expecting the Noah angle. Gabe will tell Aubrey the theory. That makes me nervous
as hell,” Hanna said.
Marni shook her head. “Is the Noah theory also from Lukas? I’m not buying it. Where has this fake Gabe been?”
“Probably the same place Aubrey was. Locked away in some boarding school, then living on Xavier’s dime, out of the way.” The
idea made more sense the longer I talked.
Hanna made a humming sound as she thought it all through. “It would explain why Aubrey never talks about Noah. She knows he’s
fine.”
“But if Xavier thought Aubrey killed her parents and didn’t take in Noah, does that mean he thought Noah was in on it?” Marni
made a face. “That’s hard to believe. He was only eight at the time.”
“If we want the answer, we’ll need to get it from Aubrey.” I hated the idea of talking with her, even being in the same room
with her, but ignoring her hadn’t worked for fifteen years. It was time for me to face her.
“What’s wrong?” Marni looked at Hanna when she asked the question.
“Now I understand the odd sensation that came over me right before he left. If both Tanner kids are alive there’s only one
person standing between them and Xavier’s fortune.” The blood ran out of Hanna’s face as she spelled it out. “Jeremy.”
We were operating on the theory that we needed to move because Jeremy was running out of time. What if we were already too
late? I looked over and Hanna was staring at me with wide eyes.
“He’s not dead,” she said. “I would feel it.”
I hoped she was right.