Page 36 of Night Fall (The Quantico Files 1)

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Alex heard a sound beside her. Logan stood there with his weapon aimed at the man’s chest. She backed up so she wasn’t in his way.

“You better tell us right now why you’re here,” Logan said. “And how you knew where to find us.”

The man held up his hands. “I just know how to track people. I’m not armed.” He looked around him, and Alex could see the nervousness in his face. “When I found out the police were searching the hospital for me, I decided to find you. Look, I was with the Circle once, but I’m not anymore. I left years ago. But I’ve kept an eye on them.”

“Why?” Alex asked. “And why were you at the hospital? Did you kill Nettie?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t be here if I had. When I heard what happened at the house, I went to the hospital to protect Willow, hoping she was the one who’d survived. But ... she hadn’t. Not that I wanted Nettie to die either, but Willow’s death...” He looked behind him again. “Could you point your gun at me inside? I’m afraid of being seen.”

Logan glanced at Alex. “What do you want to do? Call Chief Rogers?”

“No. At least not yet. Let him in.”

She backed up and grabbed her own gun. She’d left it on the kitchen counter, and now she pointed it at Gedrose.

“Come in and sit down,” she said. “You have fifteen minutes to convince me you didn’t kill Nettie, if not Willow. If you don’t dispel my doubts completely, I’ll call the police and tell them you’re here. Right now you’re their prime suspect.”

Gedrose stepped inside the room, and Logan closed the door behind him. He wiped his feet on the small rug in front of the door, and when Logan gestured toward it, he moved to the chair next to the couch.

“Do you mind if I take off my coat before I sit down?” he asked.

“You have two guns pointed at you,” Alex said. “And we’re both trained to take you down with one shot. You have no chance of survival if you try something. Just remember that.”

Surprisingly, Gedrose smiled. “Warning noted.” He slipped off his black coat and put it on the back of the chair. He was dressed in dark slacks and a dark blue pullover sweater. He had to be at least in his sixties, but he carried himself like someone much younger. His beard was neatly trimmed and matched his gray hair. He could pass for Santa Claus, but he wasn’t overweight.

He sat down and waited, apparently for them to decide what came next. Alex took a seat on the couch. She wanted to keep a comfortable space between them. She had no intention of allowing him to grab her gun. Logan stood behind her.

“You’re Jimmy Gedrose,” Alex said. “I saw you a long time ago. At my aunt’s.”

Gedrose nodded. “So you do remember me.” He pointed at their guns. “You don’t have anything to worry about. I ... I loved your aunt, Alexandra. I know you thought she was unbalanced, and, well, she was. But I got to know the woman she could have been. Against the rules, we became friends to the point we told each other our real names. She was Willow to me, not Lady X. She had a generous, kind soul beneath all her problems.”

“You didn’t really know her,” Alex snapped, ignoring the echo of her mother’s words in her mind. She’d said Willow had been sweet too. “I had to take care of her as if she were a child. I kept the house clean, shopped, made the meals, fed the cats, paid the bills. She was completely irresponsible.”

“But she gave you a place to live, didn’t she? I know you may not believe this, but she really cared about you. When you left, it almost destroyed her.”

“You’re right. I don’t believe you.” She was certain her aunt cared for her on some level. But was she destroyed to see her niece leave? No. Not unless losing a captive caregiver was that important to her.

Gedrose shook his head. “I saw the police going through her place. Have they found her will yet? She left everything to you, you know.”

Alex was so surprised she wasn’t certain how to react. “Great, so I get her debts?”

“You get the house, and everything in it. As far as debts, she has none. The house is paid off.”

Alex pushed back the anger that bubbled up inside her. “That’s not true. She could never have paid it off, even in the eighteen years I’ve been gone. She owed thousands of dollars on that dump.”

“I helped her pay it off, Alexandra. You’ll learn it’s free and clear now.”

“Will you quit calling me Alexandra? I’m Alex.”

Gedrose smiled. “Sorry. Your aunt always called you Alexandra. It’s a beautiful name.”

Alex put out her hand. “Give me your wallet.”

He reached around and slowly pulled his wallet from his back pocket. “If you’re trying to rob me, you’ll be disappointed.”

Alex didn’t respond. She didn’t find the situation funny. She took the wallet from his hand and opened it, then pulled out his driver’s license and stared at it, trying to decide if it was real. It looked legitimate and was issued to a James R. Gedrose. She quickly looked through the rest of the wallet. Credit cards, gift cards, vehicle registration—all with his name and a Wichita address. She put it on the coffee table and wrote down his address in a notebook. “If you pull anything, or if we find out you’re lying to us, we will call the police. Do you understand?” She handed the wallet back to him.

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