Page 118 of Deception

“Good idea!” Madison shot him a look of appreciation.

Dani shook her head. “I’m not up to a two-hour drive.”

“And it’ll be dark before we get there—what if someone follows us and runs us off the road?” Bri jutted her jaw. “I’m staying here—I figure you two will keep us safe.”

Clayton chewed his bottom lip. It might be better to stay together. “Then Nadine needs to stay in one of the guest bedrooms.”

Nadine reluctantly agreed to stay in an upstairs bedroom. He couldn’t shake his uneasiness. He didn’t like was that the house sat at the edge of town in the middle of five acres with a privacy hedge all around, and no entrance gate that could be locked, and no cameras. He texted the chief and reminded him to send officers by as often as he could.

Clayton’s sixth sense was screaming that things were about to pop.

61

Madison picked up the cloth bag with the bank papers. “I’ll take these to my room.”

Clayton followed her out of the kitchen. “I could help you go through them after dinner, if you’d like.”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll put off looking through them until tomorrow. I honestly don’t think I can absorb one more shock today.”

He grimaced. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“Nothing to worry about,” she said. “I am going to get started on my files once we eat. Brooke texted me earlier that she’d already started combing through them.”

“I can help, if you’d like.”

“Let me see what I can get done tonight.” She stopped and impulsively hugged him, breathing in the light woodsy cologne he wore. Clayton wasn’t like any man she’d ever known. “Thank you for being here for me.”

“No problem.”

She grinned at him, then started for the stairs and stopped. “If you’d like to help Dani to Grandfather’s bedroom, I’ll be right back to help her get settled in.”

“Aye, aye,” he said, saluting.

Madison hummed as she climbed the stairs.

Once she got to her room, she placed the cloth bag on thebed and then decided to put the items in her briefcase. Madison hesitated when she came to the handwritten letter, then put it with the other papers. She couldn’t read it tonight. If she did anything, she would boot up her computer and start on her case files like she’d told Clayton.

Who was threatening her? And why? If she was honest with herself, several cases she’d investigated qualified, especially from her violent-crime days. There would probably even be people she’d put away for theft and kickbacks who wanted to see her dead.

One white-collar investigation popped into her mind. Not her best investigation, but it’d been her first. In stomach-turning detail, she recalled the case, another collaboration with the FBI. A realty firm was selling oil rights they didn’t own, and she’d painted every employee with the same guilty brush.

One man, Howard Douglas, swore he knew nothing about the scam, but she’d ignored his claim until the owner cleared him. Her accusations could have very easily ruined his career, but he’d died in an auto accident. That case had taught her so much and was the last time she accused anyone of a crime until she had all the facts. Madison wished she’d gotten the opportunity to apologize to him for the anxiety she put him through.

There were other cases where she’d been threatened with retaliation, but they were years in the past. Why now? What was the trigger?

Hopefully after a good night’s sleep, something would come to her.

A spicy Italian aroma wafted up the stairs, making her stomach growl. Nadine must be making Madison’s favorite comfort food—lasagna. She checked her watch. But why was she so hungry? It was only a little after five, then she realized once again she hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

Dani was in her grandfather’s recliner when Madison walked into the bedroom. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired ... and that aroma is making me hungry.”

Madison had a lot to tell her, but not tonight. “Tomorrow, we’ll talk,” she said to her sister. “But right now, we need to eat. Are you up for lasagna?”

“It’s one of my favorites.”

“Sounds like we may have more than looks in common—it’s mine too,” Madison said with a chuckle.

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