Credible Alibi

Chapter Two

Six months later, Madi was standing on the back porch, trying really hard to convince herself that she wasn’t thinking about Julian Mercer. There wasn’t time, and even if there were, she had already gone down that particular road so much that her tires were absolutely bare. Her metaphorical tires. Her real tires were in fine condition and attached to the van she hadn’t wanted, but needed, to buy.

She replaced the mental image of smiling Julian Mercer with one of her behind the wheel, gunning in the direction of Loraine Wilson. She knew it wasn’t polite, but it made her smile to imagine wiping the smug look off that wealthy woman’s face.

Madi knew a murderous rampage was taking her irritation too far, but she could blame it on her hormones.

Being pregnant, in the Tennessee summer heat no less, had stretched her patience and politeness thin.

“How are you doing it?”

Jenna Diggins—Hidden Hills’ chef, bartender and occasional cleaner—nodded toward the stone pathway that led from the backyard and forked between the rental cabin and a small nature trail. Loraine, one of three guests currently booked at Hidden Hills, was pacing across it, immersed in her phone conversation.

“How am I doing what?” Madi asked, feigning innocence. Jenna wasn’t just the only other employee—she had been Madi’s friend for a decade.

Jenna giggled. She bumped her shoulder against Madi’s.

“How are you destroying Mrs. Pearls and Coiffed Hair?”

Madi swatted at the woman but didn’t deny anything.

“Destroying seems like such a harsh word. What I’m doing is simply giving her a love bump with my new mom van.” She paused, then grinned. “Over and over again.”

Jenna laughed and handed her a bottle of water from her backpack. Madi took it, grateful.

Summer in Tennessee was just about Madi’s favorite time. Every tree and flower was teeming with life; every stream, creek and river was asking for companionship; and the skies stayed a shade of blue that had a way of making Madi appreciate life all the way down in her bones.

Or at least that had been her feeling about the sunny season before she’d been pregnant.

Now the sun made her already-hot body hotter, the trees and flowers stood by as the mosquitoes and bugs dive-bombed her every chance they got, and the blue of the sky was a reminder that she wasn’t the same woman she had been the year before. Just like she wouldn’t be the same woman next year, either.

The water was the only part of summer that Madi remained fond of, which was why she was getting ready to show the guests to the creek in the nearby forest that stretched across the property line. Madi had grown up taking advantage of the creeks and ponds and rivers to cool off. Not even Loraine’s passive-aggressive comments could derail her plans to enjoy herself today.

Someone cleared their throat behind them. Heat instantly flooded Madi’s cheeks. Ray Cutler, the guest staying in the rental cabin, gave them a humoring look.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “After listening to her go on and on about how she had to let her dog nanny go because she was positive he was watching her Netflix, I can appreciate your frustration.”

Jenna laughed but Madi still felt shame at being caught bad-mouthing a guest. After her whirlwind romance earlier that year she’d made a vow to never stray into unprofessional territory again. She should have known better. Yet there she was prattling on about how she’d like to run over someone less than two yards away.

“It’s the hormones making me cranky,” she said, knowing it was a lame excuse. “That and the heat, and I can’t stop babbling nonsense.” Jenna snorted. Madi pushed on. “Are you ready to go, Ray?”

Ray was what Madi’s mother, Dorothy, would call a middle man. He wasn’t short but he wasn’t tall. There was no myriad of muscles filling out his clothes but he wasn’t bone thin, either. He had one of those faces that seemed to be universally familiar, pleasant to look at but not knee-buckling handsome. His hair was a dirty blond, cut short and wavy, and for the last two days he’d been sporting a pair of glasses across his dark eyes. His personality so far had fallen in the middle, too. Polite and quiet but vocal when you hit the right topic. Madi liked the man because—unlike Loraine and her husband, Nathan—his love for the outdoors and Overlook seemed genuine. He cracked a broad smile.

“Two lovely ladies taking little ole me out to the creek on a hot summer day? This day would only get better if I could go back and tell my fifth-grade self about it.”

Madi and Jenna laughed and soon they were off across the stone path. Loraine ended her call but didn’t seem interested in focusing on her husband. Instead she breezed past him and matched Madi’s pace when the stones ended and the dirt trail began.

“Sorry about that,” she started, waving her smartphone around. “You’d think our gardener would know what we want by now. Do I like succulents? Yes. Do I want them in my bedroom? No. Roses are the only flower I’ll allow in there, and only on special occasions. You’d think after working for us for over a year he’d know better.” She let out a long, dramatic sigh. “But I suppose it isn’t his fault. His daughter is trying to become some kind of interior designer. She’s been trying to use me for practice. Stick with what you know, little girl. I’m not running some kind of weird work charity.”

Loraine gave Madi a look that clearly said she was waiting to be agreed with. Madi begrudgingly flexed her customer service muscles.

“Working relationships are hard to navigate sometimes. I used to work with my family before I opened Hidden Hills. It definitely can be tricky.”

Loraine nodded emphatically. Her hair, a teased-out red that matched her shade of lipstick and her purse, barely moved at the motion. A look of disgust flitted across her impeccably made-up face.

“My Nathan is a wonderful man in the boardroom but I barely can stand him at the house sometimes. I can’t imagine working alongside him, either. He’s been talking about retiring early and staying at home and that just makes my skin crawl.” Loraine let out a laugh. It wasn’t a good one. From Madi’s experience with the socialite during the past two days, she knew what was coming next. “Maybe I should do what you did. Buy a funny little house out in the middle of nowhere to keep myself busy. How fun would that be?”

Madi couldn’t blame the pregnancy hormones on the rage that kicked up in her chest. Luckily, she didn’t have the time to regret anything she might have said. Loraine prattled on without a care in the world.

And right onto the worst subject she could have prattled about.

“Though I suppose you won’t be doing this for much longer. Once that baby of yours is here you won’t have time to be a single mother and run your little inn.” Madi must have made a face. Loraine adopted a look of concern. Madi doubted it was real. “Oh, honey, just remember, there’s no shame in raising a kid all on your own. Whoever the father is, I’m sure you had nothing to do with him abandoning you. Try not to beat yourself up about it, okay? It isn’t healthy for you or the baby.”

Every part of Madi tensed. Her shoulders, her jaw, her fists. Her heart. Good customer service and good manners became just words in her head. Loraine Wilson continued to smile. There was a pointedness to it. An edge. Sharper than she’d expect from the wife of a rich businessman from Portland.

Loraine was intentionally trying to rile her up.

Why?

Was she that bored? Was she that unhappy in her own life that she had to tear down others?

“Hey, Madi! Could I steal you for a second? I have a question about tonight’s dinner.”

Bless her heart, Jenna appeared at Madi’s other elbow like a guardian angel. She gave her a squeeze that brought Madi out of her angry haze and back to reality.

“Sure, let’s talk.” Madi pointed a small nod and an even smaller smile at Loraine. “Just keep following the path. If you’ll excuse me a moment.” The woman seemed put out that the conversation was ending and let her husband, Nathan, who had been trailing behind them deep in his business call, walk alongside her.

Madi and Jenna waited until there were a few feet between them and started walking again.

“That was uncalled-for,” Jenna said in a harsh whisper. “Want me to go get the van?”

Madi didn’t mean what she said next but her heart was hurting. And she was sure that Loraine had done that on purpose.

“Forget the van. I’d like results faster than that.”

Jenna’s expression softened. She put her arm around her friend. They walked the rest of the way to the creek without saying a word.

The pain in Madi’s chest only grew once she dipped her feet into the cool, crisp water.

Madi felt no joy in it.

And that was Loraine’s fault, too.

* * *

THE DAY CRAWLED into night. After showing the guests the creek, Madi busied herself with chores around the inn. For the first time since opening Hidden Hills, she skipped dinner with the guests. Not that it was required of her or even asked, yet she had thought it was a nice touch. Tonight she couldn’t stomach sitting there and pretending everything was all right.

It wasn’t.

Even before Loraine showed up.

It had been almost five months since Madi had found out she was pregnant. In that time a lot of things had gone right and wrong. The inn had hit its stride for a few months and made Madi money rather than just breaking even. She threw herself into work and welcomed the distraction that kept her thoughts away from the fact that Julian Mercer was nowhere to be found.

The number he’d given her was disconnected. The emails she’d sent bounced back. His social media existed but wasn’t active. They’d spent two amazing, surprising and magical days together that had turned into a week. One blissful week she had never imagined would be as great as it had been. Yet the moment Julian’s SUV had disappeared down the road on his way out, it was like the man had vanished completely.

Since then the burn of anger and embarrassment had cooled. The drive to be the best parent she could be had taken its place. Along with what she had thought was acceptance. Never seeing the father of her unborn child again was a harsh reality, sure, but what had she really expected? What they’d had was, to her, once-in-a-lifetime hot, but once in a lifetime nonetheless. Julian had been a ship passing in the night. A momentary escape.

Though that had been her decision, hadn’t it?

Could she be mad at him for being radio silent after she’d been the one who said their week together was all they should have?

Madi ran her hand over her naked belly. The water from the bath had never been that warm. Now it was cold. She was only fooling herself. Almost every single time she felt her stomach she thought about Julian. Where was the mountain of a man who had rocked her world? She felt an emptiness that let Madi know she hadn’t accepted anything. At least, not with any enthusiasm.

The music that had been playing from her phone lowered. A rhythmic sequence of beeps filled the bathroom as a call came through. Jenna’s name scrolled along the screen. Madi wasn’t about to ignore her friend, even if she’d asked not to be disturbed.

Madi sloshed water out of the tub and with wet fingers answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Sorry to mess up your quiet night,” Jenna said, diving in. “But, uh, I have Nathan here with me right now and—” There was a rustling sound as she must have moved away from the man. She lowered her voice as she continued. “He wants to know if you and Loraine are done talking.”

Madi gave her reflection in the mirror over the sink a dubious look before grabbing her towel to dry off.

“Come again?”

“Right? That’s what I was thinking when he asked but he said that you called Loraine an hour ago and asked her to come up to your room. He tried calling her to come to dinner but the phone went straight to voice mail. He didn’t want to come up there because he didn’t know the rules.”

Madi felt her eyebrows fly high.

“Why would I do any of that? I wanted to not be disturbed because of Loraine. She was two seconds out from getting popped in the face.”

“Nathan seems adamant.”

Madi sighed.

“Tell him to go ahead and call Loraine again. She was probably just tying up the phone line with her gardener complaining about life.”

Jenna repeated the suggestion while Madi bent down awkwardly. She felt around for the drain plug and shouldered the phone. When a song started blaring from the next room she nearly dropped both.

“What in the world?”

“What?” Jenna asked, voice still low.

Madi pulled the drain plug up and placed it on the counter. She shook her hand off and looked at the door separating her from the small living area. A weird knot started to tighten in Madi’s stomach. She slipped into her robe.

“What’s going on, Madi?”

“I think Loraine might really be in my living room,” she whispered. “A phone is going off.”

Jenna said something, but for the life of her, Madi couldn’t pay attention to what it was. Her focus narrowed to pinpoint precision. She opened the door, ready to confront the woman who was still managing to ruin her day, but found it empty. Or, at least, no one was around.

A cell phone continued to play music from the coffee table. It wasn’t the only thing out of place. A shotgun sat next to it. Madi’s blood ran cold.

“That’s Dad’s.”

“What’s going on, Madi?”

Madi felt like she was falling down some wild rabbit hole. She knew that shotgun. Her father’s initials were carved into the grip. Right next to her grandfather’s. It was supposed to be at the ranch.

Not on her coffee table with a phone that wasn’t hers.

The phone finally stopped ringing. Madi touched the gun, running her finger over her dad’s initials to make sure it was real.

“I’m coming up,” Jenna said, no longer trying to be discreet.

Madi heard the concern, knew she should say something, but another detail caught her attention.

Her bedroom door was closed.

With steps that felt like wading through water, Madi went to the door and swung it wide.

“Oh my God.”

She saw the pearls around the woman’s neck first. The dark red, tight-fitted dress second. The Louboutin pumps third.

Finally, as though her eyes had been reluctant, Madi saw the woman’s red hair. It flowed around a disfigured face covered in blood.

She was dead.

And if Madi were a betting woman, she’d wager that the gun lying on her coffee table had been used to murder Loraine Wilson.

Chapter Three

“And you think this is a good idea?”

Chance Montgomery gave him a look filled with skepticism.

“I never said it was a good idea,” Julian admitted. “I just said it was an idea.”

They were standing on the side of the road, their cars parked in front of the town of Overlook welcome sign. It was as quaint as Julian remembered. Worn but filled with charm. Two small spotlights lit up the hand-painted letters. It sent a warm glow bouncing off the hood of his truck.

It probably would have been better to come back during the day but the pull of seeing the Overlook innkeeper had tugged Julian right off the road to his new life.

Chance took his cowboy hat off. He’d been finishing up a personal matter in North Tennessee and had met up with Julian to caravan on the way back to Alabama. He sucked on the toothpick between his lips. He’d gotten it from the diner where they’d eaten an hour ago. In another hour they were supposed to be stopping at a hotel. The next day, Tuesday, they’d be in Alabama at the security firm. Next Monday would be Julian’s first official day as a private bodyguard.

His first official day in his new life.

Yet there they were.

“Well, I can’t really tell you not to do it,” Chance said. “Just that you might want to think it over a little. I can’t say my track record with women has been outstanding but even I’d be a bit worried about rolling into town unannounced. You haven’t talked since you left. That’s a lot of time between then and now. A lot could have changed.”

Julian knew better than anyone how different life could be from one moment to the next. He knew how just one second could irrevocably change everything. He also knew that dropping in after all this time could be construed as too much.

“Listen, I’m not going to go there and stand outside in the rain with a stereo over my head and hearts in my eyes,” Julian deadpanned. “I’m just going to see if there’s an opening at the inn for the night and, if there is, see if she wants to grab a quick meal to catch up. Last we talked she was worried about the inn doing well and I was on the way to a job interview.” He shrugged. “Nothing more or less than a conversation or two. Then I’m back on the road tomorrow. No harm, no foul.”

“And if she doesn’t want you there?”

Julian shrugged again, though he had to admit he didn’t like the thought.

“Then I’m back on the road tonight.”

Chance nodded, conceding to the logic. Plus, he was right, there wasn’t much he could do to stop Julian from taking the detour.

“Well, here’s to hoping she’s not married and keeping your time together a secret from her husband,” Chance teased. He clapped Julian on the shoulder and went back to his truck. Before he got in he paused and grinned. “And if she’s happy to see you, well, then I guess I’ll see you Monday morning.”

Julian watched his friend take off down the road before he got back into his own truck. There he sat and stared at the sign for a moment. It had been over half a year since Julian had seen Madi Nash. For all he knew she could absolutely be married. She could have sold the inn. She could have moved.

She could be happy to see him.

She could wish he hadn’t shown up at all.

Julian scrubbed a hand down his face and exhaled. He’d been deployed six times in his career, three of those in combat zones. He’d set boots down in the dusty heat of Iraq. He’d navigated the islands of Japan with little more than a partially busted radio. He’d even, to the chagrin of their spec-ops commander, fought his way through a bar brawl in Germany. And yet here he was, in small-town Tennessee, actually nervous that a golden-haired, freckled-skinned bed-and-breakfast owner was going to put him in his place.

How the mighty had fallen.

Not that he’d counted himself as mighty.

Julian finally turned the engine over and got back onto the road. He marveled at the fact that he remembered the town as well as he did. The streetlamps across the main strip cast light on the same businesses he remembered, just as the moonlight shone across the houses and landscapes he’d passed before. Not much had changed. He knew plenty of people, including those he’d served with, who would have been bored by the lack of change. Julian welcomed the familiarity. It was everything he was hoping to have for himself when he finally got settled in his new job. Roots. Ones that grounded him. Ones that centered him.

A life that would start after the detour.

The GPS on his phone remained off as the houses turned to fields, the fields turned to trees, and the trees started to open up to the inn’s property, which he’d recalled countless times in the last half year. Despite all of his resolve, he was starting to feel something like nerves when the drive curved, indicating the inn was almost in sight. In his mind Julian had already pulled into one of the spots, gotten out of the car with calmness and determination and bounded up the stairs with a smile on his face.

However, what really happened when the road straightened and the inn came into view was drastically different.

Blue and red lights were strobing from the tops of two parked deputy cruisers. One had two uniforms standing next to it. They were talking to a man Julian recognized from pictures in Madi’s room as one of her triplet brothers. A truck was pulled up on the grass next to him, and in the far corner of the lot was something that made Julian even more uneasy.

It was a coroner’s van.

Julian coasted to a stop far enough away from the closest cruiser so everyone could still drive around him. By the time he cut his engine, one of the deputies was on his way over. The other seemed to be in deep conversation with Desmond Nash. Neither of them looked his way.

“Howdy there,” the deputy greeted. His voice was tight. As was his body language. “How can I help you?”

Julian wished he were a people person, but he knew better. Sure, he prided himself on being a good friend, but putting strangers at ease had never been in his wheelhouse. He didn’t have the patience, especially now.

“I’m here about a room,” he stated without any preamble. “What’s going on?”

The deputy looked like a man who very much did not like what was going on. His jaw hardened.

“There’s been an incident that we’re investigating.” He cast a look back at the inn. Jenna, Madi’s friend and employee, shut the front door behind her with enough vigor to draw the attention of everyone outside. She didn’t look sorry for the force. Though when she swept her gaze across her onlookers as she stepped off the porch, she stopped with obvious surprise at Julian.

Neither had a chance to explain.

The door behind Jenna opened. A dark-skinned woman with a badge swinging against her chest came out. Her face was impassive, frown set so deep that Julian tensed even more than he thought was possible.

That was when he saw Madi.

In the distance between them the glow of moonlight mixed with the whirls of blue and red. It was unsettling.

But what put fire in Julian’s gut the most?

Madi’s hands were handcuffed in front of her.

A uniform led her out, hand against her back. Her eyes stayed on the porch as she walked to the steps.

“What’s going on?” Julian asked, his voice becoming an octave too low. The deputy tensed in return. His hand moved near the butt of his service weapon. Julian made sure not to move another inch, but couldn’t stop himself from yelling when she was waiting for her escort to open the back of the closest cruiser. “Madi?”

For a moment Julian was worried she hadn’t heard him. But then she turned, first her face and then her entire body. From the side Julian noticed something he hadn’t seen when she’d first walked through the front door.

Her stomach.

Her pregnant stomach.

Part of Julian’s mind went into overdrive; the other, cool-under-pressure part gave him the patience to stay still.

Madi’s eyes widened in surprise, just as Jenna’s had.

“I didn’t do it,” she yelled. “I swear!”

Then, in a movement that was neither harsh nor easy to watch, Madi was ushered into the back seat. When the door closed behind her, all Julian could do was stare.

* * *

GRANDMA MADELINE NASH had always said a person was never given more than they could handle in life. She’d said it when their house was destroyed in a flood, when the ranch fell on hard times, after her husband passed away, when the triplets were abducted and right through the aftermath of the attack, leading up to her only son’s death.

Madi put her head in her hands. She had a hard time believing she could handle everything like her namesake had. She’d been at the Wildman County Sheriff’s Department for almost five hours. In that time she’d been handcuffed to a metal table in the interrogation room before being uncuffed and brought a rolling office chair because it had more padding. During those five hours she’d only spoken to three people.

The first had been Detective Santiago, her brother’s partner. Jazz was a family friend but treated Madi with short, clipped questions. Where had Madi been in the hours leading up to dinner? Why had she called Loraine? If she hadn’t done it, then why did the call log on her phone say she had? Where did she get the shotgun?