Page 83 of Stolen Love

“So when she said she’d have her institutionalized…” My burner phone vibrates with an incoming text.

Rebel: We got a number for West. Organizing to meet in a hotel on the outskirts of town. Can you get there?

“Ivy?”

“Possible lead. There’s a girl…” Rebel sends through a second text message with the address of the hotel.

A third text is Rebel’s reason for believing West might actually help. Apparently he’s the reason our mother in on new medication and seems to be doing the best she has in a long while.

I shove my phone back in my pocket. “I’ve got to go, but we’re not finished here.”

“Let me lock up. I’m going with you.” He puts away the glasses and the bottle and heads toward the house.

“Hell, no.”

“Trust me, we’re on the same side. I’ll fill you in on the way.”

I follow him into the house. “Do you think Nicole can really have Ivy declared mentally unfit?”

“She’s already tried once. But Doctor Keller wouldn’t sign off on it. But that doesn’t mean she can’t find a doctor who will. It happens all the time. And she’ll have Ivy locked up somewhere where she’ll be treated awfully. She’ll do it out of spite. She has had no love for that girl her entire life.”

“And you haven’t gone to the police because… you can’t work out who to trust.” I trail him through his house as he locks doors and shuts off lights.

“That and she has my name on documents that could have me imprisoned for a very long time.” He walks into an office and opens a cabinet. He retrieves a box with a new phone in it and rips through the packaging. “By the time I realized… I’m looking at a long time in prison if I can’t find a way to prove my innocence. That woman is the devil.”

“Christ.” We really are on the same side. Just working different angles and getting nowhere fast. “What about Mark Anders?”

“She paid him to get in your face and when that didn’t work, she escalated.”

“And you went along with it because…?”

“There has to be something more than money,” he says. “Something Richard said to me… I haven’t been able to let it go.”

“And?”

“And now we need to hurry. Ivy could be anywhere.” He shuts off the light and opens the front door. “We can talk more in the car.”

“Yeah.” I choose to believe that we’re reducing the suspect pool with this new information from Nathaniel. And would Alec really have been out drinking if he had Ivy in his possession? So it’s most likely Dizzy or Nicole who has her. West could still be a suspect, but if Rebel thinks he might actually be trying to help us I can give our triplet the benefit of the doubt. Just like I am with Nathaniel. “I’ll send my ride home.”

I jog over to the car where Jason is waiting.

“We’re going to see West.” I pop open the glove box and take out the gun he keeps there.

“Seriously?” Jason’s knuckles are white around his steering wheel.

I pocket the weapon. “Nathaniel seems to be telling the truth, but better safe than sorry. You should go home. I don’t know where this night will lead, but if I get caught it’ll be better if my lawyer isn’t also arrested.”

He lets out a long suffering sigh as I shut the door. The engine purrs quietly as he takes off slowly down the road.

“Nicole killed Richard,” Nathaniel says when I climb in. “But I haven’t found anything to prove it. There’s no money trail. No paperwork. I couldn’t get the driver to talk to me when it happened.”

“You didn’t talk to the wife,” I say as we reverse out of his driveway. “There were medical bills and she was on the organ donor list. The accident happened and suddenly she has a guardian angel pay off their bills and their house.”

“There’s no evidence of that on Nicole’s side.” He shakes his head. “If there was I would have found it by now.”

We fall quiet as we cruise through traffic. Lights flash by outside and something mellow and instrumental plays in the background. I switch it to the news to see if they’re reporting anything new.

“I might be wrong about this only being a business transaction for Nicole. The last time I talked to Richard he was agitated and out of sorts. He didn’t make much sense, but it stuck with me all this time.”

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