Лиза Джонс - Secrets Exposed

Lindsey had defended him on four rape counts, all of which he was acquitted. The crimes had all fit a certain profile. Eerily, the woman had all looked like Lindsey: blond, petite, long hair. He couldn’t help but think that had to have rattled her a bit. A high profile criminal case was stressful. Add this little tidbit, and it got downright intense.

Reading his notes, he started remembering the details. A mere two weeks after Hudson was released, another woman fitting the same profile as the prior crimes was attacked. But this time she was killed.

Hudson was picked up for the crime and later convicted, but Lindsey had refused to defend him. Mark looked up from his computer screen, pressing his fingers against his strained eyes. He vaguely remembered Edward talking about the circumstances around Lindsey’s rapid departure from the legal profession. She had blamed herself. From what he could see of their strained relationship, he figured she blamed her father as well.

Mark flipped through the few articles he could find on Williams. He read a few minutes and then shoved his chair back from his desk, feeling a sickening dread. Something was very wrong. This case was almost identical to the Hudson case. Even the victims looked the same.

Like Lindsey.

Chapter Two

He’d hungered for her return for so long.

And now she was back. Just when he thought he might have to go after her, she had come to him.

His plan had worked. Recreating history had brought her home. A chance to undo her wronged past. A chance to catch him. Because he knew she really wanted him as he wanted her.

No one else had proven smart enough to see through his little game of hide and seek. Only Lindsey. She’d known Hudson was innocent, and she’d figure out the same about Williams.

At times, he was angry for the pain she had caused him. He tried not to think about it. The way she had left him alone had ripped through his very heart. But he’d vowed to push aside the fierceness of his devastation. Because now she was home with him where she belonged.

Oh, how he had missed her attention. Because Lindsey was his soul mate. The woman who knew how to find him, and make him whole.

For now it was enough to watch her, to see her in action. But soon they would be together.

And the darkness he felt would become light.

* * * * *

Lindsey stepped out of the cab onto the cement pavement of the cancer center’s parking lot. Seeing her father always made her tense. She had only seen him once since her return, making work-related excuses for her absence when she called him each evening. But after a morning of forced attention on case files, she’d seen a disturbing trend.

Her father had been taking on clients who couldn’t pay their bills. For a man who had always been motivated by money, it made no sense.

As she walked through the medical complex, Lindsey wondered if she should tell her father about her meeting with Mark, and decided against it. Bringing up a replacement for Mark seemed an even worse idea. But sometime soon it would have to be discussed. Lindsey found her father sitting in the courtyard, a large elm tree offering him shade.

When he spotted her, a tired smile turned up the corners of his mouth. “Hi, Lindsey. What a surprise. I’m so happy you came.”

Lindsey bent down and kissed his cheek. It baffled her, the way he pretended three years of silence between them had never occurred. She forced a half smile to her lips. This place reminded her of her mother’s car accident, and her death. Of the bedside prayers for her recovery.

“How do you feel, Daddy?”

As she waited for his answer, she examined him more closely. The cancer treatments were taking a toll. His hair was sparse, and he was too thin. The remaining hair that had seemed only peppered with gray on her last visit now seemed to be a cap of silver. She didn’t want to think about him dying. She swallowed hard against the pain and fear. They might not have a good relationship, but facing his death wouldn’t be easy. In fact, their strained relationship might make it harder.

She needed to make peace with him. And she would. Soon.

He reached for her hand. “I’m better now that you are here.” Not a man who showed affection, his action took her off-guard. Her chest tightened with emotion. What was with the sudden change of temperament? God, was he going to die soon and he just wasn’t telling her? Trying to act calm and controlled, she forced light conversation, afraid to hear an answer to the question buzzing through her head. “Aren’t you hot out here? Do you want me to roll your chair inside?”

He patted her hand. “No, I asked the nurse to bring me out for some sun.” He pointed at a woman who stood several feet away, and a scowl filled his face. “She watches me like I’m a child or something.”

Lindsey almost laughed. Here was the Edward Paxton she knew. His bad temperament made her tension ease a bit. “She is just doing her job, Daddy.”

He flicked a sneer at the woman and then lifted his gaze to Lindsey. “I know honey. I just wish she wasn’t so damn irritating as she did it.” He paused a minute. “Anyway, it’s so good to have you back home again.”

Lindsey opened her mouth to speak and then clamped it shut again. This wasn’t the time to tell him this wasn’t her home anymore. “How are the treatments going?”

His response was cranky. “My stomach feels like I swallowed rocks, my head is almost bald, and I am stuck in this damn place. How do you think they are going?” Then he started coughing to the point that he hunched over and seemed to gag.

Lindsey looked towards the nurse in nervous desperation. She hurried towards them. Her father got a glimpse of her movement and pointed at her. “No, I am fine.” He coughed again, and scowled at her. The nurse looked at him with a keen eye, and then stepped back to her original spot. Lindsey suspected she had backed off only because his coughing had subsided.

He settled back in his chair. “How are things at the firm, Lindsey?”

“Oh fine, I guess,” she said, not up to the conflict of saying otherwise. Not after his little attack. “Ms. Moore hasn’t changed a bit. I love her as much as ever.”

He smiled softly at the mention of his long-term assistant, surprising Lindsey once again with the play of emotions in his usually cold eyes. “Yes, she loves you too. Change She’s always asking about you. How’s everyone else at the office?”

Lindsey leaned her bottom against the tree trunk. “Fine,” she said with a shrug. “As far as I can tell. You know I really haven’t had time to figure out much of anything.”

He nodded and coughed again. “Yes, I suppose that’s true.”

She cleared her throat. “Daddy, I do have a few questions.”

His eyes narrowed. “Ask away.” His tone was cautious, contradicting the lightness of his words.

“Tell me why you think Williams is innocent.”

He seemed to relax, his shoulders dropping a bit as if he had been holding himself stiff, waiting on her first question. “For one thing, the evidence is circumstantial. In my opinion, our wonderful police force had a lot of public pressure and needed someone to call guilty. He is as much a victim as the murdered girls.” He looked at Lindsey’s darkened expression and added, “Well, not as much of a victim, of course, considering he’s alive and they aren’t.”

Lindsey nodded and pushed away from the tree, dropping to the grass Indian style, glad she had on slacks. Her expression was thoughtful as she pushed her fingers into the grass beneath her. “But there hasn’t been another victim since he was arrested, correct?”

He grimaced. “Oh, come now, Lindsey, surely you don’t think that means anything? Any smart person would take the arrest as a sure-fire way to get the heat off. I suspect the real killer moved along to another state or is simply sitting back laughing.”