ASantiniinLoveMelissa Schroeder (13 page)

Of course, the man needed help with his communication skills. Of course, he was the boss and there was no way Zach was about to complain.

He stepped into the office.

“Shut the door.”

He did and waited.

“You were the one who caught that report of a murder the other night?”

“Oh, yes. A woman reported seeing a man shoot a woman.”

The captain handed him a file. There was a picture of a woman lying on the sand. She had been dead at least a day from the looks of it. She was nude. Paper clipped to the file folder was a picture of the woman…how she looked before she’d been murdered. And extensive reports.

“She was stalked?”

“Yes. Her name is Allison Bradley. We could never pin the guy down.”

He scanned the report. “Tom Richards? Damn. I hadn’t heard of this.”

Tom Richards had been a local high school football hero and son to one of the richest men in Southern California.

“It was while you were deployed. We could never pin it on him, but check him out. And take the undead pic; show it to the woman. See if she recognizes her. If she does, it might give us a timeline to this and make it easier to pin it on the bastard.”

Zach nodded and turned to leave.

“Make sure you keep this on the down low, Ellis. We don’t need the damned media getting a hold of it.”

Zach nodded and headed back to his desk. Sitting down, he got to work. Now that he had a possible lead, he wanted to get it set to rights as fast as possible. He couldn’t forget the look in Madison Baker’s eyes when Zach had to tell her they hadn’t found a body.

He would do anything to give her closure.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

On Wednesday, Madison found herself in her therapist’s office a couple days early.

“Thank you so much for switching your schedule,” Dr. James said. “I have a family thing this weekend, and I wanted to make sure to be there for it. My wife’s family.”

She nodded. “Not a problem. I don’t have a class to teach until tonight.”

“So, any issues since last time? Any nightmares?”

Now that she actually thought about it, she realized other than a couple of smaller panic attacks; she hadn’t had any real issues. Not since Dante had practically moved into her house.

“No. Not really. And it’s kind of odd considering what happened this past weekend.”

“Oh?” he asked without looking up from his notepad.

“Yeah. I was on my way back from my friend’s house and saw a woman get shot.”

He stopped writing and looked up at her. “You saw a murder?”

“Yeah. Or, at least I am pretty sure I did.”

“A murder?” he asked again. His gaze sharpened. “Madison, why didn’t you call me? I’ve told you I am here to help you.”

She sighed. “I had friends with me that night, so I was very lucky. Otherwise I would have called you. In fact, it was only a couple blocks from here, but thanks to Dante, I’m fine.”

“Dante?”

She felt her face heat. “He’s…well, I guess you would say he’s my boyfriend.”

“You’ve never mentioned him before.”

“I’ve known him awhile, but I just started dating him.”

“Ah. Okay, but make sure you call me if you ever need me to help. Now, is there anything you want to talk about?”

She shrugged. “Not really. I did go out Friday night, so I am pretty proud of that.”

* * * *

Later that night, Madison and Charlie arrived home before Dante. She had sent him a text to tell him she was done with work and heading to the house. Dante had offered to pick up dinner. She tried to suppress a smile but found it impossible. It was kind of nice having someone look out for her. The fact that it had only been a few days and it was intense didn’t seem to bother her. It just felt right. She grabbed her purse out of the back just as Jack pulled up.

“Hey, there, Madison,” he said. “Class tonight?”

She nodded. “You still haven’t taken me up on the offer of a free class.”

He rolled his eyes. “I will, however, thank you profusely for getting Hannah involved in yoga. It definitely has made her more flexible.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“You’ve been hanging around the Santinis too much.”

He chuckled. “I could say the same thing about you.”

She shook her head but kept smiling. “I refuse to engage about my personal life, especially with someone who regularly converses with the head of the family.”

“Night, Madison.”

She waved behind her as she unlocked her door. She stepped inside and instantly felt as if something was wrong. Closing the door, she locked and unlocked the door the regular amount of times. Then she did the same with the light. Gently, she set her purse down and slipped off her shoes. Padding barefoot, Charlie right behind her. He sensed it too. Or, maybe he was sensing her worries.

She brushed it aside and walked through the house. There seemed to be nothing wrong, but she could feel it in the air. She returned to the kitchen and opened the cupboard to grab a glass. There, on the second shelf, were bath towels. She
slammed the door shut as her heartbeat tripped up. Her stomach knotted as she stepped back.

No
. Not again. She’d had a problem with this before, but it had been over a year. There were weeks during that period that she never knew where to find things. In the end, Dr. James had told her it had to do with stress, which made sense. At the time, she had just been through some major upheavals personally and acting out like that had made sense. The thing that bothered Madison was that she
never
remembered when she had done it.

She started to pace, afraid to look at the rest of the house. She didn’t remember it this time either, but she remembered her day. She woke up with Dante kissing his way down her body, then they had breakfast. She had gone to the companion pet training, her therapist’s, and work.

With more courage than she felt, she straightened her shoulders and walked down the hall to the bathroom. Nothing was out of place, but she caught a scent of something that was a new smell.

Dante arrived home and called out to her. “Hey, you beat me home. I was trying to make it here and have dinner laid out for you.”

She walked down the hall to the kitchen. He was smiling when he turned around to face her, but it dissolved when he saw her. A frown marring his pretty face. He set a bag with what looked like Chinese takeout on the kitchen table.

“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked.

She said nothing. She couldn’t. The words seemed trapped in her throat. Instead, she pointed to the cabinet. He opened it then looked back at her.

“The towels?”

She nodded and started to shiver.

“Hey,” he said coming to her. He hesitated, then pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay.”

They stood there in the kitchen as he rocked her back and forth. The warmth of his body eased some of her panic.

“It happened before.”

He said nothing but kissed her temple.

“I never remembered doing it. I would find my clothes in another room, or even the dishwasher. One time, I turned on the oven to preheat and then smelled something burning. A pair of new, very expensive shoes were sitting in there. Ruined. I just…I knew something was wrong when I came home.”

He kissed her again, pulled her back and urged her to sit down. He took the chair next to hers and scooted close to her.

“Do you remember everything you did today?”

She nodded and went through her day.

“Tell me.”

So she did. She went through every action, every person she interacted with. Every minute was accounted for.

“Wait…you didn’t turn off the alarm?”

She blinked. “I know I set it when I left. I just didn’t even think.”

He stood and went to it. She stood and followed, Charlie right behind her.

“Damn,” he muttered. “The green light is blinking.”

“But…I know I did. I
remember
doing it this morning.”

He nodded. “When you came in the house, tell me what you saw, what you smelled.”

“Nothing. Well, it was off somehow. Like something wasn’t right. I think Charlie sensed it too.”

“Anything else? Any smells, anything out of place?”

“No. Well, in the bathroom there was a scent, but I am not sure what it was. I thought it might be your aftershave.”

“Pfft, I don’t wear aftershave. I’m all man, baby.”

She rolled her eyes. “Then, the towels.”

“Let me check the rest of the house, okay?”

She didn’t like it, but she sensed something else behind the request. “What?”

“I want to make sure there wasn’t anything else around here, if that is okay with you. Go on.”

She nodded. He gave her a kiss on the forehead, and she headed for the living room and waited with Charlie.

* * * *

Dante didn’t move anything as he went through her belongings until he found the picture. He didn’t know where it was taken, some restaurant and several years earlier. His sister and Madison had been seated next to each other, laughing. Or at least, he assumed Madison had been laughing. Her face had been scratched out. He found a few of them around her room.

Rage poured through his blood.
The fucking bastard
. Somehow he had found out where she lived. It had to be the man from the shooting. Someone who realized she had issues. If someone was a good hacker, they could probably figure out how to get her info. Of course, even the cop had known about it. It was probably in the damn report.

Fuck.

And the bastard thought he could use it against Madison. If Dante ever got close to him, he would wring the man’s neck.

With his heart heavy, he walked back out into the living room. She had resumed pacing. She stopped when she saw him. “What?”

“I think we need to call the police.”

“Why?”

“Things were definitely moved around.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me.” Then her gaze fell to the pictures. Her face drained of color.

“Oh, no.”

He set the pictures down on the coffee table. He walked towards her, grabbed her upper arms and forced her to look at him.

“Listen to me. You did not do this.”

Unshed tears shimmered in her eyes, and he knew she was barely keeping it together.

“How do you know that? Who would have done this?”

The desperation he heard in her voice tore his heart to shreds. Seeing her like this almost killed him.

“I think it might be our mystery killer.”

She blinked, sending a couple of the tears dripping down her cheeks. “What?”

“Think about it. The cop from the other night—”

“Officer Ellis?”

“Yeah. He knew about your PTSD. It might even be in the report.”

It took a second or two before her eyes widened and her face grew even paler. “Oh, God.”

The doorbell rang then, sending Charlie into a tizzy. Dante made his way to the door. When he looked through the peephole, he was surprised to find Officer Ellis standing on the porch. He opened the door.

“This is a good coincidence.”

“Excuse me?”

“We think someone might have broken in here. I am assuming you decided that maybe Madison
did
see a murder.”

The officer nodded.

“Come on in.”

Officer Ellis followed him down the hall. One look at Madison and he glanced at Dante. “Is she okay?”

“She can answer for herself,” Madison said, wiping away the tears. “What do you have for me?”

“I have a name and a body.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Officer Ellis showed her pictures, first of the woman before she had been attacked.

Madison studied them and sighed. The woman, Allison, had been pretty. Not gorgeous or striking, but she looked like a very nice person. She had one of those smiles that made people feel at ease.

But Madison wasn’t sure if she had been the woman.

“She could have been the woman, but I’m not sure.” She handed the picture back to Ellis. “Did they find any clothes? I might be able to recognize them.”

He shook his head. “She was found nude. No ID on her.”

“And you said she was the victim of a stalker?”

He nodded. “The guy has an alibi though. He was in the hospital that night.”

“Convenient,” Dante murmured. He was sitting beside her on the couch. Every now and then she would feel his hand brush over her back.

“Not so much. He ate some very bad oysters in San Diego. He spent the night getting his stomach pumped.”

“So, where does this leave us?”

He blew out a breath. “I’m not sure. I am going to go back over my notes. Now, tell me what happened here tonight?”

She told him everything, citing everything she did that day and what she found when she got home.

“And you’ve done this before?”

“Yes.”

“But she didn’t this time,” Dante said.

The officer looked between them, then down at Dante’s hand on her knee. “I know you don’t want to think it.”

“No. Just like every freaking drama on TV, you have a preconceived notion about people with PTSD.”

She could tell that Dante’s comment irritated the officer. “I served in the Marines, so back off on the subject.”

Dante shrugged. “The truth is, in the past, she always had huge blocks of time missing. Or she would wake up with her house that way. This time she can account for every minute of her day.”

“How about when you got home?”