Chapter 24
Gregory wasn’t following Sascha’s question about the night he had sent Raymond to fetch her in his limo. “Everyone at the party. Well, some, anyway. Most were busy drinking, eating, talking, and probably didn’t see me ask Raymond to pick you up.”
“Stephanie did.”
Gregory raised his brows as he lay curled up with Sascha in bed. “You think she’s the one who ran into the limo?”
“No, because it would have to be someone who thought you were in the limo, since he tried to kill you before when you were alone. So anyone at your party would have known.”
Gregory was confused. “So that would let all the partygoers off the hook.”
“Right. And all your staff. Or most of them. They would know you were at the party and not going in the limo anywhere.”
“Correct.” He didn’t think anyone who worked for him or who was a friend would come after him like that. But she was right to think they would all have known he was at the house until he tore off to rescue her and Raymond after the accident.
He loved how Sascha’s mind worked.
“Thank you.”
He laughed. “You constantly are mulling over who it could be.”
“Right. Just like you are, when you’re not thinking about us. You've never seen any sign of this Brendan, then?"
"No, I've never seen him before. I'll have to keep thinking on it. It's nobody I've done business with. They're mostly older gentlemen. I haven't fired anyone from any of the businesses.”
“That’s good.”
“Everyone has been with me since the beginning.
One lady left on maternity leave and didn't return because she wanted to stay home and raise her baby.
Her husband could afford to take care of both of them.
A couple of men retired since they had worked for my dad first, and then worked for me, but they were getting up in years and wanted to just have some fun. "
"Okay. So no disgruntled workers then."
"Well, a couple of my employees didn't get along. One transferred to a different furniture store that I owned, and both were happy with the arrangements. But the gripe had been between the two of them, and had nothing to do with me."
"Hmm, okay. Did you hire anyone recently?"
"A couple of cooks, but they were here when you and Raymond were in the accident."
"Anyone else?"
"The new bodyguards. They were checked out thoroughly, but still, I can have my PI check on them again.
I mean, I believe most of the issues I had with the maniac were before they were working for me, so if one of them was involved in all this, it would have been easy for him to do so before he started working for me," Gregory said.
"Right. No one has tried to kill you with a vehicle since they began working for you. Everything else has been about emails, and those could have been done at any time. And the clown at the fairgrounds could have still been just a prankster and had nothing to do with us."
“Exactly.”
"And the woman who called me? That was a younger woman, not like Brendan's mother's age, so I still wonder if it's his ex-girlfriend or sister who called me to warn me," Sascha said.
"It could be either. We need to learn more about them and speak to them about this. Since Brendan is no longer seeing the girlfriend, she might be more receptive to telling us what she knows, if she knows anything."
"I think that's an excellent idea. Let's do that," she said.
"Too bad one of you can't read his mind."
She laughed. "Yeah, that would help to know if someone was telling the truth or not. So what do you think? A sister or ex-girlfriend?"
"Well, either. Maybe he doesn't have good relations with his sister.
Especially if he feels his parents act as though they love her more than they do him, since, according to his parents, Brendan isn't their child.
So they might have shown her all the love and affection that he needed too.
And the girlfriend might have a grudge against him since they broke up.
We need to know why they broke up also."
"Do you want to try and learn what we can from them? Or do you want to send the police to question them?" she asked.
"I don't think the police will check on them at this point without more to go on."
"What about your PIs?"
"They're doing all the background checks. I'm ready to go with you. His girlfriend might even know his alias."
"Okay." She loved it when she had a mission where she felt she could learn the truth about something. Especially since she and Gregory were at risk while the maniac continued to harass them.
Then they made love and settled down to sleep.
She wasn't sure what happened, but she thought she saw a man in a clown suit coming for her. The same one that Kat had described, who might have fired off the missile at the fairgrounds that hit their booth. She gasped and immediately woke herself up.
"Are you okay?" Gregory asked, holding her tight in his arms.
She loved that about him. "Yeah, it was a nightmare about the clown at the fair shooting off the missile. It wasn't a vision. Unless it was a vision of the past event. But it's not current. I don't have any more shows until next spring."
"Okay, good."
She sighed and snuggled next to his chest. She hoped she wouldn't have any more nightmares or visions. But then she couldn't quit thinking about the fairgrounds and who had been where during the event.
"Sleep. We'll think about it again tomorrow," Gregory said, kissing the top of her head. "And we'll ask Hank if he has the address for both the sister and the girlfriend.”
Sascha couldn't believe they might be able to finally figure out just who the attempted murderer was. But it was on her mind constantly, even when she was taking pictures of the shark in the Gulf and taking walks along the beach with her family. She had to admit that at one time, Kat had read her mind to learn what she was thinking about, since the other ladies were talking about the wedding and the beauty of the island and Sascha had been silent, as if she’d been a million miles away.
But it was never very far from her thoughts, trying to unravel the mystery.
She still wondered if they had anything to do with Brendan, or if they were totally wrong about him.
So what if he had changed his name and identity?
So what if he had issues with Gregory dating his girlfriend on one single date when the two of them had broken up?
But the thing about relationships was that something little like that could very well lead to a case of stalking and murder.
It often happened. An ex-boyfriend or girlfriend going after their other half, or the person who stepped in to take their place.
Or an ex-wife or ex-husband—the same thing.
So it wasn't so far out to believe it could happen in this case.
But she couldn't see who the guy was in her mind's eye.
She hadn't been close enough. No one had gone in for treatment of fire ant bites, so she didn't know what that was all about.
Why wouldn't he? He wouldn't assume anyone would know he'd been bitten up and would be under surveillance because of it.
So that was odd. Unless he wasn't affected that much by the bites or maybe hadn't suffered as many bites as Aunt Meg thought he had.
No one on the staff that she had seen had bite marks. Though she didn't see all the staff, she was sure, as everyone was going about their business. And it was only supposed to last for three days, so it would be gone by now.
Unless someone was always watching the house, how would he know when Gregory was going out so he could attack him? She figured he had to be watching his movements.
"You have a beautiful mansion with lots of acreage, landscaping, trees, and it would be hard to watch every inch of it."
"Right."
"Well, someone must be sitting somewhere on the road watching you come out. I mean, they know where you are when they attack."
"I see what you mean. I'm not sure. I'll have a couple of my men go over to ask my neighbors if they have seen a particular vehicle in the area that doesn't belong.
We all have security cameras, though mostly we're set back off the road, so our cameras are supposed to be there to make sure no one is on the property who shouldn't be. "
Which made her think again about the people who worked for him. But if he cleared them, that shouldn't be an issue. However, with the new information they had, maybe it would make a difference.
"I will talk to Hank in the morning and have him investigate everyone who is in my employ, including the ones at the businesses I run.
I wouldn't think that any of them would be involved.
My managers know when I'm going to be gone for long-term trips, like to South Padre Island, so they can get hold of my parents to oversee things it something comes up.
But like my trip to the grocery store to get Rose's birthday cake, I wouldn't tell anyone at my businesses what I was doing. "
"And most of your staff wouldn't know either."
"No. They just do their job. Unless they'd overheard me talking to Chef Paul about making a cake for my sister to find."
"He would be above reproach," she said.
"Yeah. He's worked for me for a decade, ever since I bought the mansion. I've never done anything but praised his meals."
She chuckled. "That's good. Some chefs could be sensitive, and if they don't get their accolades, they might get mad and get even."
Gregory smiled and kissed her forehead. "Yeah. I think we're good there."
She knew Maria wouldn't have anything against him. Just a gut feeling, and she always seemed to be here, taking care of things. Raymond was with Sascha when they were in the accident, so he was definitely off the hook.
"Yeah," Gregory said.
She laughed. "I can't get used to you reading my mind."
"Same here!"
"Okay, so unless he just happened to 'run' into you at various locations and then try to take you out, then that would be pretty unlikely, don't you think?"
"Yeah, and we checked for trackers. There were none on the cars we use. Or that I use. And now I'm using different used vehicles."
"But you notice that no one has crashed into you since you started driving different vehicles?"
"Maybe he just didn't like that I had such fancy vehicles."
"No. I don't think so. I think it's just made it harder for him to determine where you are, or if you are the one in that car."
"Speaking of cars, when we eliminate the threat permanently, you can pick any car you want to use for your own."
"Oh, how sweet of you."
"Yeah, well, I was going to offer before, until the maniac tried to kill you and Raymond. I just need to make sure that he doesn't target you again."
She wished they had already captured him.
She hated that they had to worry about this all the time.
It would be nice not having to have a bodyguard with her at all times.
Though she liked all of them. She hoped that they wouldn't have to keep them even after they caught the guy and incarcerated him.
"After what's happened this time, and because of my wealth and your importance to me, we'll be keeping the bodyguards."
She sighed. "All right."
Then she wondered about Brendan's sister and his ex-girlfriend again.
Gregory rubbed her back soothingly. "We're going to check on them in the morning after we have eaten breakfast. Don't worry about it. Sleep."
She tried to close down her mind, count sheep, anything to stop thinking about it. He began thinking about making love to her, and she smiled. "Now that's something I can get into. She kissed him and reached down and found he was fully aroused and ready for her—again.
That's all she needed to get her mind off the issue facing them. "Love you."
"You're the only one for me."
Early the next morning, Gregory and Sascha went down to have breakfast, and then they didn't tell anyone where they were going. They didn't even take a bodyguard. Not until Hank could do another background check on all of them.
Then they drove to Austin, where both Brendan's sister and ex-girlfriend lived. They stopped at a drive-thru, got some mocha lattes, and then took off again.
"Which woman are we seeing first?" Sascha asked.
"The ex-girlfriend, because the sister may not have a beef with Brendan.
But the ex-girlfriend might. Though she might not be willing to talk to me after I didn't see her any further. And seeing you could also hamper the investigation since you’re the new girlfriend who became my fiancée and soon-to-be wife. "
"Do you think that you should drop me off somewhere else while you see her? I could go to a mall or something."
"No. You don't have a bodyguard." No way would he let Sascha out of his sight. He suspected the attempted murderer was staying around the Dallas area, but what if he had followed them here, and if Gregory left Sascha at the mall by herself, he went after her?
Then he pulled up to a four-story apartment complex, and they both got out of the car. They walked up to the door, and he knocked, noting the peephole so Janie would know it was him.
She finally opened the door. He was glad she wasn't at work. "Hi, do you remember me? Gregory Landry?"
She glanced at Sascha.
"Sascha Lassiter."
"What do you want?" Janie asked.