Chapter Six
Owen spotted the black sedan in his rearview mirror less than a minute after they drove away from the lake house. He glanced at his passenger. She stared out her window, arms crossed protectively over her chest.
This day had been particularly tough for her.
She had every reason to fear that her friend was gravely injured or perhaps dead.
The situation with the missing date, Raymond Douglas, had grown exponentially more complicated with the insurance-beneficiary revelation.
At this point, all Leah had was her word that she did not know Douglas other than as a potential blind date.
Isla was not here to confirm, and the other friend, Maya Ortiz, who had been with Leah and Isla the night Leah briefly met Douglas, was no help.
According to Lambert, Ortiz had no idea if Leah and Douglas had dated once or a dozen times since that accidental encounter.
She claimed to have been preoccupied that night with watching an ex-boyfriend she had spotted in the crowd at the club.
If there were other newly discovered details, Lambert wasn’t sharing.
Owen was surprised the detective had revealed as much as he had.
As if all the questions and the troubling lack of any ability to confirm her statements wasn’t bad enough, Leah was faced with yet another blow: Lambert asked for permission to search the apartment she and Isla shared.
Owen had recommended she agree to the search.
With the discovery at the lake house, obtaining a search warrant for the apartment was a mere formality—no judge would deny the request. Leah’s cooperation was necessary to prevent any additional suspicion being cast her way.
She had nothing to hide, and Lambert needed to see that.
The problem was, her innocence didn’t mean someone hadn’t planted something to make her look guilty, which was why the two of them were going straight to the apartment right now to look around.
Bolling, the building manager, had confirmed that the police had released the apartment and the repairs had been started.
Owen and Leah could go into the apartment, but there was still work to be done before she could move back in. Bolling would provide them access.
Owen checked the rearview mirror once more. The sedan was still behind them.
He might as well wait until they were in the city to bother with losing him. If he could somehow manage to get the license plate number, that might prove useful in identifying the driver.
“He’s following us again,” Leah said, sitting up straighter.
She’d obviously spotted the tail in her side mirror.
“He is,” Owen confirmed. “Unless he makes an aggressive move, we’ll just pretend we don’t notice until we’re in the city. Losing him will be simpler, and arriving at our destination before he finds us again will be far more likely.”
“Okay.” She relaxed into her seat, but her attention remained on the mirror.
Rather than allow her to fixate on that troubling detail, Owen opted for making conversation. “Tell me about when you met Isla.”
Leah glanced at him. Her brown eyes reflected the increasing worry haunting her.
She had beautiful eyes—deep brown, and such a generous oval shape.
She was a very attractive woman. Her quiet nature made him curious, knowing her history as he did.
Those painful years after the Chris Painter situation had changed her, it seemed.
He wondered if she would ever allow her adventurous spirit to slip past all those tight restraints put into place in an attempt at self-preservation.
It was a shame that a single incident stole so much of what made her who she was.
Maturity and wisdom were always valuable, but one’s true spirit should always have a place inside the normal course of development.
“She had just finished her first year of medical school, and I was deep into my undergrad work.” She stared forward.
“I felt so far behind before I even started. Most people start college right after high school. Here I was, more than four years later.” She sighed.
“Once I arrived in Chicago, the first order of business was to find a place to live, and truthfully, I was drowning in uncertainty. The only good thing was that my student loan had come through, so I was okay with the education costs. I had decided I might just survive. The first couple of years, I managed by the skin of my teeth and the bit of extra allowance in my student loans. Eventually, I landed the position at the library, and I was in heaven. Isla and one of her friends were there one night for a workshop, and that was the beginning.”
“You said Isla was already in the apartment you share now.”
“Yes, she’d been there awhile. Later, I learned she hadn’t really needed a roommate, but she wanted to help me and decided to make the offer.
” She fell silent a moment. “Not long after I moved in, Maya—Isla’s friend, and mine, too, eventually—made some remark about Isla always taking on projects.
I was offended at first, but in time we worked it out. ”
“This Maya,” he glanced at Leah, “never apologized or elaborated?”
“No.” She laughed dryly. “Maya does not apologize for anything. She has a rich daddy and an even richer new boyfriend. She has her master’s in journalism. She works for one of the major networks now. She is utterly unrepentant. But she is Isla’s friend, so I have to like her.”
“You and Isla became friends quickly.” From all Leah had said so far, their relationship evolved swiftly and deeply.
“Over the fall,” Leah explained. “By Christmas, I was moving in, and we were like sisters.”
“What about Isla’s dating habits? Does she date frequently? Different people, or was there anyone who lasted longer than the others? Maybe someone who left her upset?”
“Unlike me,” Leah said, “Isla is very social. That said, she’s as happy with a group of girlfriends as she is with a guy.
In the time I’ve known her, she has not dated anyone seriously or for any length of time.
There were a few who got past the third date but none who lasted more than a month or so.
She is thoroughly focused on the future.
I mean, totally dedicated to a singular goal.
She has this plan and is determined that nothing will stop her or get in the way.
I’ve tried really hard to do the same. She’s helped me a lot with moving forward and not looking back. ”
“The man, Chris Painter …” Owen braked for a traffic light and spent a moment studying her. “Were you in love with him?”
Though she had been young, her heart could still be broken. Sometimes an old wound like that one was difficult to heal.
She leaned against the headrest. “I was as in love with him as a naive eighteen-year-old, incredibly overprotected girl could be. I was devastated when he just vanished. I searched for him. Confronted his friends and a few of his enemies. Had the bejesus scared out of me more than once and ended up in the ER with a black eye, busted lip and fractured rib.” She met his gaze.
“There are some bears one shouldn’t poke. ”
He could see the fearless girl-woman storming into the presence of dangerous thugs and demanding answers. She was lucky she hadn’t gotten herself killed.
“At that point I stopped trying to force the truth out of the people he’d surrounded himself with.
I went home with my tail between my legs and told myself falling for a guy like Chris would never happen again.
And it hasn’t. But it took time and distance to put it behind me.
I changed myself and my life over and over until I realized that it wasn’t my physical being that needed to change—it was my mental self.
My attitude and personal boundaries. I’m still a work in progress. ”
“I think you’re doing great.” He checked the rearview mirror once more. Their tail kept his distance but remained vigilant.
“Well…” She drew in a big breath and released it slowly.
“If I don’t end up charged with murder, maybe I’ll be able to keep moving forward.
” She fell silent for a time. “But I have to tell you, Owen, I’m worried.
The trouble just keeps stacking up, and every time something new is discovered, it points to me. ”
“That is the way a good setup works,” he told her with a sidelong look to punctuate it. “Which is why I believe whatever we’re wading into was well planned, perhaps for a considerable period of time.”
“But how do I prove my innocence when I have no proof? No one besides Isla and Raymond know when I first met him. No one but those two know Saturday night was our first and only date—not that it was an actual date. And until Mrs. Morris told me that Isla claimed I went to the lake house with her occasionally, I was certain she was as much a victim as me—maybe more so since she’s missing.
But now I don’t know. Nothing we learn makes sense.
Nothing Lambert throws our way makes sense—like that insurance policy. ”
“We will find the right answers,” he promised. “I’m very good at my work, Leah. You can count on that.”
She turned toward him fully, her expression steeped in concern. “I am counting on that. I mean, really counting on it.”
Gerard/Morris Apartment
Chestnut Street, 5:15 p.m.
“KEEP YOUR ATTENTION FORWARD,” Owen said when he shut off the engine. “Don’t look at him. Just ignore him completely. We’ll go inside and have a look around. Then when we head for the safe house, we’ll lose him.”