hopped out of the SUV and called to the woman, “Are you okay?”
She spoke in a heavy accent. “Are you crazy? You could have killed us!”
She kept screaming at him, gesturing wildly with her arms as the boys clung to her legs. Ethan stood silently by and took it. She had every right to call him out. What had he been thinking, engaging in a high-speed chase?
He scanned the neighborhood from his periphery. Many of the houses along the street were in various stages of disrepair, but he could see signs of gentrification creeping in. He wondered what the upwardly mobile millennials would think of their fixer-upper investments when they learned about the house at the end of the dead-end street.
Apologizing profusely, he got back in his vehicle. He waited until the woman was safely across the street with the children and then he circled the block and headed back to the abandoned house, parking in the very spot he had vacated only a few minutes earlier. The incident left him shaken. He’d been able to stop in plenty of time, but that was beside the point. What if his brakes had failed? What if he’d lost control of the wheel? He’d behaved recklessly, and that wasn’t like him. Not anymore. Maybe he’d played the game for too long, kept his head down and his nose clean for so long that his dangerous impulses were rebelling. Ever since he’d received the first email from a woman named Naomi Quinlan, his life had been one risky decision after another.
He locked the vehicle and walked through the tall weeds in the front yard, pausing at the bottom of the steps to scan the ramshackle facade. He could no longer see anyone inside. Whoever he’d glimpsed earlier had moved into another part of the house or perhaps had left the premises altogether. He hoped that wasn’t the case. Far better that he approach Addie on neutral ground than to show up unexpectedly at her house.
He lifted the crime-scene tape over his head and opened the front door. Before he could step into the foyer, a male voice halted him. “Stop right there. In case you can’t read that yellow tape, this is a crime scene. You need to get back behind the barricade and stay there.”
Ethan took out his wallet and showed the man his credentials. “My name is Ethan Barrow. I’m with the FBI.”
The man glanced at the badge and scowled. “No one said anything about federal involvement.”
Ethan returned the wallet to his pocket and removed his sunglasses. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Detective Matthew Lepear, Charleston PD.” He glanced behind him into the gutted room. “Delmar Gainey’s victims have been dead for over two decades, Agent Barrow. The man himself died five years ago. Why would the feds be interested in this case?”
“I’m not interested in your case, Detective. I’m looking for Adaline Kinsella.”
“What’s your interest in Detective Kinsella, if you don’t mind my asking?”
The slight proprietorial edge in the man’s voice caught Ethan’s attention. He gave him a sharper scrutiny. “I’d rather discuss my business with her.”
“Detective Kinsella is on vacation this week.”
Ethan turned to glance out one of the sidelights before resettling his gaze on the detective. “Isn’t that her silver SUV at the curb?”
The man shrugged. “New cars all look alike.”
Ethan folded his sunglasses carefully and tucked them into his inner jacket pocket. “Detective Kinsella is your partner, isn’t she?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You seem overly protective. I can appreciate your concern, but I’m not sure she would.”
Something flashed in Lepear’s eyes, a fleeting acknowledgment that Ethan had hit a little too close to the truth. “You could be right. Addie’s got a mind of her own, that’s for damn sure. The one thing I do know about her is this—she won’t be happy to see you.”
Ethan tamped down his annoyance. “You know her well enough to make that assessment?”
“We go back a long way. Ten years, to be precise. She’s not just my partner. She’s also a friend. And you’re the SOB who almost ended her career.”
Ethan was jolted by an uncomfortable truth. Lepear knew who he was.
Anger mingled with remorse. “I never meant to cause her trouble.”
“People like you never do. You just tell yourself the end justifies the means.”
Ethan waited a beat before he continued. He didn’t want to lose his temper. Lepear was defending his partner and friend. Ethan would do the same if the positions were reversed, but it wasn’t like he’d walked away from the relationship unscathed. It wasn’t like he’d gone back to Virginia and forgotten all about Adaline Kinsella. He’d spent many a sleepless night staring up at the ceiling, wanting to call just to hear her voice but knowing she would never pick up.
“I’m not looking for trouble now,” he said. “I just want to talk to her.”
Lepear gave him a derisive look before he finally acquiesced. “She’s out back. You can go through that door.” He nodded toward the crumbling archway. “But if I were you, I’d watch my step. I mean, I’d really watch my step, Agent Barrow.”
Their gazes held for a moment longer before Ethan nodded. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
* * *
ADDIE STOOD ON the back porch, staring at the mounds of dirt and empty graves where the remains had been excavated and removed. A broken wheelchair had been pushed up under the porch railing, and she couldn’t help but imagine Delmar Gainey sitting there alone in the dark, admiring his gruesome garden by moonlight. Another ramp had been built beside the back steps, and if Addie closed her eyes, she could see him out there among the graves, enjoying the mingled scents of jasmine and death wafting on the afternoon breeze.
She felt light-headed from the heat and from old memories, and she curled her fingers around the wood rail, clinging for a moment while she tried to beat back her emotions. She was no stranger to death. She’d lost her mother to a brutal killer and her grandmother to the gentler reaper of natural causes. As a cop, Addie had seen all manner of death and violence, but those empty graves reminded her of the thin veneer of humanity that could too easily be peeled away.
A sound brought her around with a start, and she felt a shudder go through her as her gaze connected with the man in the doorway. Tall and fit, he stood ramrod straight in his dark suit and tie, hardly more than a silhouette against the dim backdrop of the house.
“Ethan?” Even as she spoke his name, her chin came up in defiance. Before she could demand to know the purpose of his presence, she heard a crack, followed by a splintering sound as the rotting floorboards gave way beneath her feet. Her arms flailed wildly as she tried to catch her balance, but the wood disintegrated and she crashed through the porch.
She saw Ethan lunge for her, and then she saw nothing but blackness as she found herself in a free fall.
