Chapter 7 Tessa #2
“I was thinking the same thing,” Tessa agreed. “The last thing we need is for Piper to be at a barbecue with someone who might be dangerous.”
“Yeah.” Ryan put the truck in reverse and backed out of the parking spot. “I’ll text my father quickly and let him know that Piper has been invited to stay at Emma’s tonight. I’m sure the answer will be yes.”
They drove in silence for a few minutes, leaving the camp behind and heading back toward Pelican Bay. Tessa found herself thinking about Sally Lane, about the plan to manipulate her into revealing herself.
“I don’t like it,” she said finally.
“Don’t like what?” Ryan asked, glancing at her.
“What they’re doing to Sally,” Tessa said. “Basically, luring her in and manipulating her like that. I know the tactic, and I’m guilty of using a form of it myself.” She bit her lip and glanced out the window. “But, still, in this case, it feels wrong.”
“Have you seen Sally’s file that Marcus put together?” Ryan asked. “Trust me, Sally is no saint.”
Tessa nodded. Marcus had sent her a digital copy that morning, along with all the other documents she’d requested related to the case.
“Then you know what we’re dealing with,” Ryan said. “Sally isn’t some innocent victim being manipulated. She’s a legitimate suspect.”
“I know,” Tessa said. “But I’ve read that file, and I don’t see Sally the way the profile portrays her.”
“Really?” Ryan’s tone was skeptical. “Because I see someone who’s single-minded, narcissistic, jealous, and more than a little unhinged.” He glanced at Tessa before looking back at the road. “Did you see how many times she stabbed her ex-husband?”
“She didn’t do it,” Tessa said firmly.
“Oh, right,” Ryan said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “It was an accident, and her husband just happened to fall on his own hunting knife three or four times.”
“She didn’t do it,” Tessa repeated, more forcefully this time. “I read the file. I read it carefully. And I’m telling you, Sally Lane did not kill her husband.”
“I think you should go over it again, counselor,” Ryan said, his tone challenging. “Because to me, she’s as guilty as anything.”
“Did you look at Sally’s arrest photos?” Tessa asked.
“I glanced at them,” Ryan admitted.
“Well, I studied them,” Tessa said. “And if, by some slim chance, she did do it, it was self-defense.”
“How do you figure that?” Ryan asked, his skepticism clear.
“Think about it,” Tessa said. “Why was she up at that cabin in the woods with him in the first place?” Her brow creased. “I mean, come on. Does Sally look like she’s the type to go to a hunting cabin in the woods?”
“People change. And the report said they were there to divide the assets of the hunting cabin,” Ryan answered. “That’s what it said, right there in the report. And I saw the settlement Sally got. She seems greedy enough to want to take whatever she could’ve got from that divorce.”
“I saw the divorce papers,” Tessa told him. “Did you actually read them?”
“I didn’t have time,” Ryan admitted. “I had to take Piper to camp.”
“In the original divorce settlement, Sally got nothing,” Tessa explained. “Absolutely nothing. Then, all of a sudden, her husband dies, she gets exonerated, his death is ruled an accident, and his family pays Sally millions of dollars. Does that seem normal to you?”
“No,” Ryan said slowly. “But that could be because Sally hired Barstow Securities to intimidate them into paying her off.”
“Or,” Tessa countered, “she hired them to prove her innocence.”
“Didn’t she hire them before her husband was killed?” Ryan asked.
“If she did, don’t you wonder why?” Tessa shot back.
Ryan frowned, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. “Because she was getting nothing in the divorce and wanted something?”
“Maybe,” Tessa said. “But think about the bigger picture. Why was she divorcing him anyway?” She paused.
“Did the divorce papers list the grounds for the divorce?” Ryan queried.
“Actually, I didn’t get that far,” Tessa admitted. She pulled out her phone and opened the file Marcus had sent her. She scrolled through until she found the divorce petition and pulled it up.
Her eyes widened as she read the grounds listed.
“What?” Ryan asked, noticing her reaction.
Tessa read aloud from the screen. “Irreconcilable differences arising from conduct that made continuation of the marriage intolerable and endangered the physical and emotional well-being of the petitioner.”
“Well, that’s vague,” Ryan said.
Tessa nodded. “Which usually means one of two things. Either a cheating spouse, or...” She flipped through the digital file again until she found the photo of Sally being taken in for questioning. “Abuse.”
She turned her phone around so Ryan could see it, though she was careful not to distract him too much from driving.
“How do you think she got that bruise on her cheek?” Tessa asked.
“And look at her wrists. Those marks weren’t there by accident.
” Her eyebrows rose. “We both know Sally isn’t clumsy, so I doubt she ran into a closet door.
And I seriously doubt she wore a long-sleeved shirt with cuffs that were so tight they bruised her wrists like that. ”
Ryan’s face sobered. He glanced quickly at the photo, then back at the road, then back at the photo again before focusing on driving.
“What are you saying?” he asked, his voice quieter now.
“According to the court case documents, Sally’s husband kept putting off signing the divorce papers,” Tessa said, scrolling through the file. “He forced her to go to marriage counseling for months. Only after a very long time did Sally finally get him to sign the papers.”
“And then a year later, they go up to the hunting cabin to divide assets,” Ryan said, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “You don’t think they were actually there to divide assets, do you?”
“No,” Tessa shook her head. “We both know Sally. What on earth would she want with anything from a hunting cabin in the woods?”
She flipped through the photos until she found the ones taken at the crime scene. The cabin was rustic, barely more than a large room with a kitchenette, a bathroom, and a loft area for sleeping. There wasn’t much in the way of furnishings.
“There’s not much in here at all,” Tessa murmured, zooming in on one of the photos. “What the...”
“What?” Ryan’s eyes widened with curiosity as he pulled into the driveway of Sunrise House and turned off the engine. “What did you see?”
“What does this look like to you?” Tessa automatically scooted closer on the bench seat, their shoulders brushing. Heat jolted through her at the contact, but she gritted her teeth against the sensation and concentrated on the photo.
“Ropes,” Ryan said, taking her phone and squinting at the screen. “Can we enlarge it more?”
“There’s a large copy of the original photo in the file inside that Marcus brought,” Tessa reminded him. “The physical file your father has.”
“Then let’s go look at it,” Ryan suggested.
They were out of the truck and heading inside in a flash, moving with the kind of urgency that came from sensing they were onto something important.
They found the file exactly where Tessa expected it to be—in Mitch’s office, away from the prying eyes of Piper or any guests who might stop by.
Tessa grabbed the file and flipped through it until she found the crime scene photos. She spread them out on the desk and studied each one carefully.
“There,” she said, pointing. “Those are ropes. Right at the foot of that dining table chair.”
Ryan leaned in, his shoulder pressed against hers as they both examined the photo. “Why on earth would there be ropes at the foot of a chair?”
“Two possible reasons,” Tessa said. “Either she was tied to that chair, or...”
“They had someone else there tied to a chair,” Ryan suggested.
“Possible,” Tessa said. “I was going to say they’d been accidentally dropped there.
” She looked closer at the photo. “But I think it’s more feasible that it was Sally tied to that chair.
” She shuffled through the photos until she found the ones of Sally being taken in for questioning on the day of her husband’s death.
She pointed to Sally’s wrists in the photo. “Look. What do you see?”
“Those are definitely rope burns,” Ryan said, leaning even closer to examine the image. “So you think her ex-husband kidnapped her and took her up there? Why would he do that?”
“He didn’t want the divorce,” Tessa pointed out. “Or...” She flipped back to the divorce papers. “She divorced him because he was abusing her. And since he’s from a prominent Boston family, one that would be greatly embarrassed by a scandal or accusation like that...”
“They tried to have her killed,” Ryan finished, his voice grim. “And the best place to do it would be an isolated hunting cabin in the woods where no one would hear or see anything.”
“Only,” Tessa speculated, “Sally had hired Barstow Security.”
“Are you thinking they took care of the ex for Sally?” Ryan asked. “Like, actually killed him?”
“They would be the only firm that would do something like that, even to a family like the Lanes,” Tessa reasoned.
“And it would explain why the murder investigation was suddenly hushed up, and Sally was exonerated. Barstow Security probably dug up dirt on the Lane family. Enough dirt to make them back off completely and pay Sally to keep quiet.”
“They are not a firm anyone wants to mess with, no matter how powerful they are. So, that would definitely explain the big payoff,” Ryan nodded in agreement. “But this is just our theory. We don’t have any proof.”
“We need to prove it,” Tessa stated. “We need to find out exactly what Sally hired Barstow Security to do.”
“I agree,” Ryan said. “But even if we do prove it, even if we prove Sally was the victim and not the murderer, she’s still suspect number one for terrorizing you and Lori at Seabird Cottage.
” He raised his brow. “And Tessa, we can’t ignore the fact that Sally may have hired Barstow Security specifically to kill her husband.
” His eyes held hers. “She’s still capable of paying someone to do her dirty work. ”
Tessa opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything, a resounding crash echoed through to them from outside.
Misty started barking frantically from inside Seabird Cottage, where they’d left her when they’d taken Piper to camp.
“What the heck?” Ryan was already moving toward the door, and Tessa followed close behind.
They ran outside to find Ryan’s pickup truck sitting in the driveway exactly where he’d left it. Except now the passenger-side window was completely smashed, with glass scattered across the seat and the ground below.
“No,” Ryan breathed, hurrying toward the truck.
As they drew closer, Tessa could see a brick lying on the passenger seat, surrounded by shards of glass. There was something attached to it. A piece of paper.
Ryan grabbed his hoodie from where it was lying in the back of the truck bed and used it to carefully position the brick so they could read the note without touching it directly.
His military and intelligence training was clearly kicking in—preserve the evidence, don’t contaminate it with fingerprints.
The note was written in block letters, the kind that would be impossible to trace to any particular handwriting:
RYAN - YOU AND YOUR FATHER NEED TO BACK OFF. THIS ISN’T YOUR FIGHT. KEEP INTERFERING AND THERE WILL BE DIRE CONSEQUENCES FOR THOSE YOU BOTH CARE ABOUT.
Tessa’s stomach dropped as she read the words.
Someone knew they were investigating. Which meant someone had been watching them, closer than they’d realized.
From the warning the threat was now clear.
This wasn’t about the Brandon family, it was about Tessa and or Lori.
They were the targets and the Brandons were starting to get in the way.
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