The Betrayal of Lies (8 page)

“Clients depending on you, like me?” Emily feigned a sad face.

“I guess I’ll be the one doing your wedding after all.” Camille swirled the remaining ambrosia around on her plate. “Poor Elise, I sure hope they find her alive.”

“Cam, is there anything you can tell me that you hadn’t this morning?” Emily asked. “Something maybe you thought of after our conversation?”

“Like I told you before, she was desperately unhappy in her marriage and—”

“Was her husband abusive in any way?” Emily interrupted. That would certainly motivate her to leave him.

Maggie’s eyes grew round at the thought of it. “You mean, did he beat her?”

“There are other ways to be abusive,” Isabel pointed out in her matter-of-fact way. “Verbally, emotionally, psychologically.”

“No, not that I know of.” Camille responded pensively, with a slight shake of her head. “But I know some women get good at hiding it, like it’s their fault somehow. Remember that Abby Russell?”

Maggie and Isabel nodded their agreement.

“She always went on and on about how perfect their marriage was and what a fantastic husband and father her husband was, remember?” Maggie asked, glancing around the table. “Nothin’ is ever that perfect.”

“Sounds like she was overcompensating,” Isabel added, “like it was her fault somehow.”

“So you think Patrick might have been abusing Elise?” Emily asked Camille, before taking a forkful of macaroni and cheese.

“I hate to share things she told me in confidence.” Camille took a long sip of iced tea.

Emily wondered when that started. Usually Camille was the first to spread whatever juicy tidbit she was privy to.

“He kept her on an extremely tight budget, I know,” Camille added, “especially for someone with so much money. I think that’s why she wanted the job so much, to have her own money and not have to rely on him.”

Emily swallowed her bite and cleared her throat. “Do you know if she was seeing anyone on the side?”

“Elise?” Camille frowned. “Oh, heavens, no.”

Maggie rolled her eyes.

Emily picked up on the gesture. “What is it, Maggie? You don’t agree?”

“I have nothin’ to say about that,” Maggie replied.

Did Maggie know about Elise and Jake?

“What can you tell me about a trainer at Serenity named Jake Mitchell?” Emily asked, eyeing Maggie.

Maggie’s eyes widened for a second, then she regained her composure. “He’s been there for a few months.”

“And?”

“He’s Elise’s trainer.”

“I thought you just told us you were her trainer,” Emily’s questioned. Hadn’t Maggie said she did a workout with Elise after the wedding appointment yesterday?

“No, I was just fillin’ in for Jake. He’s her regular trainer.”

“So you know Jake?” Emily asked.

Maggie nodded hesitantly. “A little.”

“Have you ever gone out with him?” Isabel asked directly, seeming to know where Emily’s line of questioning was going.

Maggie’s eyes grew wide. “Of course, not!” Her gaze flew to Camille. “I’m in a relationship with Peter. I’d never do that.”

Emily hoped Maggie was telling the truth. She and Camille’s brother only got to see each other every couple of months, because he worked as a television reporter in Seattle, so it was possible that she might have been drawn into a date or two by a handsome and charming man like Jake Mitchell. Maggie wasn’t known for making the wisest decisions when it came to men, and she certainly would never want Camille to know if she had.

“So Elise was having an affair,” Camille mused, leaning back in her chair, fluffing her spiky red hair. “I never would have guessed.”

“Now, don’t go startin’ any rumors,” Maggie chided. “I never said they were havin’ an affair.”

“Oh, all right,” Camille reluctantly agreed.

“Well, you did say she was painfully unhappy, Camille,” Emily said. “Do you think she’d be unhappy enough to run off and leave her husband?”

“Maybe.” Camille nodded thoughtfully. “Especially if she could make him believe she was dead.”

“Because then he wouldn’t go looking for her,” Emily said, finishing Camille’s train of thought.

“It’d sure be easier on him than goin’ through a messy and expensive divorce,” Maggie added.

Isabel propped her elbows on the table. “It would save his reputation and he wouldn’t have to give her a dime in the settlement.”

That’s true. If she had been too afraid to leave him before, for fear he would track her down and drag her back, then making him think she had been taken, maybe even killed, could be a real possibility.

Still, it was a long shot. It was more likely someone would kidnap her for a sizeable ransom. And Patrick Murphy did seem to be genuinely upset over his wife’s disappearance, and more than willing to pay the two million dollars the kidnapper demanded.

And then there was Maggie. Did Emily want to overlook the possibility she was involved simply because they were friends? If Maggie turned out to be involved, and she and Colin didn’t follow up on every possible clue, they’d both lose their jobs, not to mention their reputations.

On the other hand, if they were too heavy handed with Maggie, and she in fact had nothing to do with Elise’s disappearance, Emily will have killed a deep friendship for nothing.

“It’s been a very long day,” Emily said. “I’m going to call it a night and go home and crawl into bed. I have an early morning.”

“Not stayin’ for dessert?” Maggie asked.

“Sorry, no.” Emily stood and pushed her chair in. “You guys enjoy the pecan pie.”

The others gathered around her and took turns hugging her good-bye.

“Can I talk to you for a sec?” Emily whispered into Maggie’s ear as she hugged her last.

Maggie nodded. “I’ll be right back,” she said over her shoulder to the girls.

Emily stopped by the front door. “I wish I didn’t have to ask you those questions about Elise earlier, but after you said you had seen her, I had no choice.”

“I understand, although it was a tad uncomfortable.”

“I’m going to have to mention it to Colin, you know, and he’ll probably have some questions for you as well.”

“I understand, Em, but tell me, after all the years you’ve know me, you really think I could be involved?”

Emily saw a flash of something in Maggie’s eyes. Was it anger, or tears?

“It’s not about what I think, Maggie. There are questions that have to be answered.”
Blood that needs to be accounted for
. Emily brushed back one of Maggie’s blonde curls. “We’ll just go through the formalities and it’ll help us eliminate you as a suspect.”

Maggie’s bright blue eyes turned dark and a small wrinkle formed between her brows. “I can’t believe you and Colin could ever consider me as a suspect,” she said between clenched teeth. Her eyes glistened with tears. “I would never harm Elise, or anyone else, for that matter.”

Anger and hurt were clearly bubbling below the surface of her words.

Emily wouldn’t have thought Maggie capable, but there were things pointing directly to her. Friend or not, it was her job to find the truth, and there was evidence that needed to be accounted for.

“Tomorrow you can talk to Colin and explain what really happened. You’ll be in the clear and we can move on.”

Maggie arched an eyebrow. “Can we, Em?”

Chapter 8

Emily’s thoughts were a jumble as she drove to her little bungalow. She had never seen such pain in Maggie’s eyes, she had looked so betrayed. Emily hadn’t meant for that to happen. It wasn’t like she had wanted to question Maggie, but she and Colin had to follow the evidence wherever it took them, even if that was Maggie’s doorstep.

Once she was home, Emily stripped down and climbed into bed. It had been a horribly exhausting day, both mentally and emotionally—on one hand desperately working to find her new friend and on the other hand suspecting one of her long-time best friends of being somehow responsible for the disappearance.

Her eyes were tired, but her brain wouldn’t shut down. She thought of Colin and wondered how the search of Jake Mitchell’s apartment had gone. She hadn’t heard from Colin, which surprised her a little. Then again, he was used to her Thursday night dinners with the girls often going late.

Her phone trilled on the nightstand. She saw it was Colin and snatched it up. “Hello, darling,” she said in a low, seductive voice, wishing he was there with her, aching for his strong arms to hold her.

“Hey, Babe. You sound tired.”

“Thanks, but I was trying to sound sexy.”

“Uh, sorry, I didn’t mean…uh…”

Emily smiled to herself. “It’s okay, I am tired. Exhausted actually.”

He told her about the search of Jake’s apartment and that nothing of value had turned up. They took Jake’s laptop, which was on the search warrant, but until they could go through it, there wasn’t much to tell.

“You should know, it kind of came up about Maggie being at the Murphy house. But I pretended not to know, and I didn’t say anything about the blood. Of course, neither did Maggie. But I asked her a few questions and told her that you’d have some for her too.”

“I’ll give her a call tomorrow. Get a good night’s sleep, Babe, and we’ll talk in the morning.”

~*~

By the time Emily made it in to Colin’s office, he had apparently already gotten Maggie to come in for questioning.

“Colin’s got a sizzling blonde in his office, Emily,” Stella the receptionist quipped with a grin. “Just a word of warning, my dear.”

Stella had worked for the Paradise Valley Police Department for more than twenty years. She was a petite woman with graying hair falling in gentle waves a few inches above her shoulders, and she had the clearest blue eyes Emily had ever seen. They seemed to look right through you. That woman had a big heart and a sharp tongue to match her rapier wit.

“I’ve got it covered,” Emily replied, moving to the security door. “I’m not exactly chopped liver, you know.”

Stella laughed as she buzzed Emily through. As Emily wandered down the hallway, she could hear Colin’s and Maggie’s voices wafting toward her.

“Good morning,” Emily said, standing in the doorway, doing her best to wear a friendly smile.

“Emily,” Maggie greeted flatly from her seat across the desk from Colin.

Emily realized that Maggie had every right to be annoyed with her, so she tried to ignore the irritation in her voice.

Colin stood. “I was just about to escort Maggie into the interrogation room.”

Emily had hoped to keep Maggie’s questioning low-key and casual, but knowing Colin, he would want to keep it professional and arms-length. The interrogation room had a video camera, so everything would be recorded and above board. He was right to do it that way, she knew, but it was hard seeing her friend treated as a suspected criminal before they had any real proof.

Colin ushered Maggie to the interrogation room and Emily stepped into the observation area.

“Have a seat,” Colin said, gesturing toward the chair across the table.

Maggie slowly sunk down onto it. She fixed her gaze on Colin. “Do I need a lawyer?”

“If you want one,” Colin replied, taking a seat too. “You’re not a suspect yet, I just have some questions. Hopefully you can clear a few things up for us so we can move forward to finding Elise.”

“Of course, I want that too.”

Emily watched as Maggie crossed her arms and sat back.

“What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with why your blood was found at the crime scene?”

“My blood?” Maggie’s voice rose and her brows wrinkled into a frown. “How could that be?”

“I was hoping you could tell me.” Colin leaned forward, resting his elbows on the edge of the table, his gaze riveted on her.

“How do you know it’s my blood?”

“We got a match—turns out your blood and prints were already in the national law enforcement system,” Colin said. “You’ve been arrested before? Care to elaborate?”

Emily noticed Maggie’s cheeks flush as her gaze fell to her hands, fidgeting in her lap. “Not really.”

Although Emily was anxious to know what she’d been arrested for, it was obvious Maggie was self-conscious about going into the details. Hopefully Colin would let it go for now. They could find out easily enough without pressing Maggie further, making her squirm, and forcing her to talk about it. Emily made a mental note to check on it later.

“Think back, Maggie,” Colin suggested. “When was the last time you were at Elise’s house?”

“Well, let’s see…I did a workout with her the day she disappeared. I told Emily that at dinner last night.”

“Did Elise normally work out at home? I thought she went to the health club.”

“Jake Mitchell went to her house twice a week to do workouts with her, and I was called to fill in for him last Wednesday.”

Emily wondered how long he had been giving Elise more than just exercise instruction.

“So what happened that day that caused you to spill blood there?” Colin asked. “Did you get in a fight with her?”

“A fight? Lord, no.” Maggie let out a nervous giggle.

“Did she struggle with you when you kidnapped her?” he asked.

Emily gasped at Colin’s direct blow, while she watched Maggie’s brilliant blue eyes grow large at the accusation.

“What?” Maggie almost shouted. “You think I forced her to leave with me? That I’m part of this whole kidnappin’?”

“So, that’s a no?”

“That’s a hell no!” Maggie’s beautiful face turned to an angry scowl. “I can’t believe you would even ask me such a thing, Colin—or should I call you Detective Andrews now?”

“I have to treat you like anyone else. I thought I made that plain. This is serious, Maggie. Elise Murphy has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. I’m sure you know that sometimes these things go bad and the victim winds up dead.”

“Dead?” Maggie pulled back like someone had slapped her across the face.

“We have to follow the evidence wherever it leads,” he continued. “If it leads to you, then we’re obligated to question you and get at the truth. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Maggie’s expression relaxed and she crossed her arms over her ample chest. “I got it.”

“So, about the blood?”