Body Of Evidence. Debra Webb
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here.”
For some reason, she didn’t feel the slightest bit better about this nightmare. Part of her held on to the fleeting possibility that any moment she would wake up and discover that the whole morning had been a dream. Things like this didn’t happen to regular, everyday people. She felt as if she’d been shoved onto the set of a thriller movie. Any minute now the director would give the order to run.
Traynor climbed out of the car and rounded the hood to her side. She emerged to join him. She shook off the troubling thoughts and focused on the reality staring her in the face right this second. She was standing in front of a safe house. A place where she would stay until William’s murder was all sorted out.
“It’s beautiful, in a sort of austere way,” she said, mostly to make conversation.
“You’ll feel more comfortable inside.”
At the door, he pressed his palm onto a keypad and the door locks released. He pushed the door open and waited for her to step inside before him. The walls were a warm beige with lovely gloss white trim. Rich furnishings and draperies added a very elegant touch. All those large windows allowed sun to pour in between the slats of the shutters. Unlike the exterior, inside it actually felt warm and inviting.
“You’re right. It’s a very lovely house.”
“Take whatever room you’d like upstairs, and then join me for coffee in the kitchen.”
She took her bag from him and headed for the grand staircase. Upstairs, she wandered into the first room with a view of the rear gardens and the lake. The rock paths and dense greenery made the stone patio and gorgeous pool with its rushing waterfall look as if they had always been there—as if they were part of the natural landscape. She sighed. Too bad this wasn’t some exotic resort where she’d spend the next few days soaking up the sun. She hadn’t taken a vacation in years.
But this was no vacation.
Feeling more exhausted than she had since medical school, she tossed her bag onto a chair and opened it. One by one she hung her jeans and T-shirts in the largest closet she’d ever seen. Maybe hanging them would help with the wrinkles from being stuffed into her bag. She carried her toiletries to the massive en suite. A luxurious marble tub, a shower for at least four and two sinks designed in colorful glass that crowned the endless vanity. The window over the tub looked out over the lake, as well. The view put the bathroom over the top.
“A grand hideaway,” she mumbled.
She leaned against the counter and stared at her reflection. Her pale skin looked even paler. The dark circles under her eyes spoke loudly of the morning’s horrors. The stop they’d made at the Edge had taken longer than she’d anticipated. Eva insisted on knowing exactly what happened. She drew the necessary blood samples and ensured them the analysis would be handled stat.
Eva had promised to explain everything to Dr. Pierce. As much as she adored Eva, Marissa really hadn’t wanted to talk about it anymore to anyone except those involved directly in the investigation. Her body and soul felt tender, and she needed time to think and process all that had happened. But sweet Eva had coaxed the story out of her. In the end, Marissa supposed it was better if her dearest friend, as well as Dr. Pierce, understood the precarious situation.
She supposed precarious was the best way to describe her current dilemma. Part of her wanted to call her brother, but he would only insist on coming home, and that wouldn’t be fair. He was doing important work. She doubted this was going away anytime soon. There was always time to call her brother later if the situation deteriorated.
Pushing away from the vanity, she trudged back into the bedroom. She made it as far as the bed before she collapsed. Traynor was waiting for her downstairs, but she couldn’t seem to make her body obey the command to get up and move.
Tears rushed over her lashes and down her cheeks. She didn’t want to cry. It was too late for tears, but she couldn’t stop them. Giving up the fight, she dropped her face into her hands and let them come. Her shoulders shook with the sobs that tore at her heart. No matter that she and William had been over for years—she had loved him so deeply before everything fell apart. She had expected to spend the rest of her life with him...to have children with him. Eventually. Though she couldn’t say that she still loved him, she cared about him and wanted the best for him.
Now he was dead.
He’d threatened to kill himself and her mere hours before his death, and somehow that made the tragedy all the sadder. Had he really wished her dead? She’d tried so hard to help him before his abuse turned physical. She had already stayed in the marriage too long. Why was it women so often stayed, somehow believing they could salvage what remained of their marriage?
Foolish. Simply foolish.
A soft knock on the door drew her attention there. Traynor stood in the doorway, his tall frame and broad shoulders filling the space. She swiped at her eyes and attempted to pull herself together. “You’ll have to excuse me. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t stop crying.”
Most men usually found an immediate excuse to disappear when a woman cried. To her surprise, Lacon Traynor crossed the room, grabbed the box of tissues on the bedside table and sat down on the bed next to her.
“You needed to cry,” he said gently as he offered her a couple of tissues. “It doesn’t help to keep all the emotions bottled up inside. This has been a seriously bad day for you. If anyone I’ve ever met needed a good cry, it’s you.”
She dabbed at her eyes and nose. “I keep asking myself how it happened without me waking up. No matter how I examine it, it doesn’t make sense.”
“We’ll have a better handle on things when the lab results are in. For now, just know that none of it was your fault. You’re a victim in this.”
Marissa stared at the soggy tissue in her hand and asked the question that had been pounding in her brain since Traynor told her what he’d discovered about William. “Why do you think they didn’t kill me?” She shrugged. “I mean, I can see how, if William was lurking around my house and they followed him there, it was a coincidence of sorts. But it feels like more than just a coincidence.”
“The body was staged,” Traynor said. “Since there was no sign of a struggle in your home, I believe they drugged Bauer and put him in position, then shot him.”
Marissa shuddered. She’d seen enough gunshot wounds involving .22s to know that when dealing with a caliber that small, all kinds of things could go awry. The bullet could have glanced off his skull, traveled around beneath the skin and come out someplace else. The damned thing could have ended up hitting her. After all, William had been lying on the bed facing her.
But that wasn’t what happened. The coroner’s report would tell the detailed story, but shoving the muzzle against the back of his neck just below the base of the skull in that particular spot pretty much guaranteed the brain stem would be damaged. The likelihood of death was extremely high. Since there had been no exit wound, the bullet no doubt penetrated the skull and bounced around in the brain, doing all manner of additional damage. Even if by some twist of fate William had lived, he would in all probability have suffered significant physical and cognitive damage.
She pushed away the thoughts. If he’d been drugged, perhaps he hadn’t suffered. She hoped he hadn’t suffered. As horribly as he’d treated her in recent years, he hadn’t deserved to be murdered.
“Were they trying to send me a message for some reason?” Marissa couldn’t see the thought process behind such a move. She had nothing to do with William’s work or any debts he might owe to angry loan sharks. Frankly, she hardly knew the man who had once been her husband anymore.
Traynor didn’t answer for a second that turned into five. “That’s it, isn’t it?” She stared directly at his face, silently demanding that he meet her gaze. “You believe the person or persons who did this wanted me to know they could come into my home and commit murder right in my most intimate space. They left me alive for some reason, didn’t they?”