Page 89 of Wrecked for Love
“Fuck…” Log sighed, grimacing as if he felt for both of us. “We can’t handle this ourselves, man. We need help.”
“The Vosses aren’t gonna give her up.” This time, I managed to utter a whole sentence without agonizing my best friend. “And the police will only care about arresting her.”
Suddenly, we heard voices outside the door. Someone was insisting, “You’ve got to tell them the truth!”
Logan swung the door open. Annette and Daniel stood there.
“Annette? Daniel?” Logan asked, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
Daniel—I’d seen him around town on his bike, doing deliveries. I’d heard he had a learning disability, but he was a good kid.
“Daniel! You’ve got to tell them!” Annette pressed.
“Uh…sir…” Daniel stammered, looking down at the floor, not ready to face either Logan or me.
“Daniel, you’re not in trouble,” Logan said, his tone gentle.
“I…I…um…I’ve been delivering those notes to you,” Daniel confessed, finally making fleeting eye contact with me. “I didn’t know…I didn’t know it would be like this.” He now really stared at me.
I blinked, hoping the kid understood that none of this was his fault.
Daniel continued, “When I picked up those notes, I overheard some people talking about New York. There was a big guy—just got in from the city.”
It had to be Saxum. But then, something else clicked—the cleaner. What if he was from the East Coast, too, just like Saxum? He’d shown up late at The Cove, probably after his prized fighter missed his check-in.
I closed my eyes, piecing it all together. The cleaner hadn’t been leering at Claire like some creep—he’d recognized her. And right there, he’d tipped off Lucien Voss. I was sure of it now. Whether he was tied to The Revenants or had caught wind of the Brentwood massacre and Dr. Ashbourne’s murder didn’t matter. The damage was done.
“They were in a house. It’s big, but dark. I don’t know the exact address, but I can draw you a map,” Daniel offered innocently.
Logan grabbed a piece of paper—probably a form or some info sheet—from the small table by the window. “Here. Draw.”
Daniel sketched a map. “If this is the garden center, head south, then west,” he explained, though “west” had some turns. “There are two huge ponderosa pines and a green metal fence.”
I studied the map, which was clear enough to follow.
Daniel stayed silent again, his eyes darting nervously.
“Go on! Tell the rest!” Annette urged, giving his shoulder a shake.
“Um…I saw Miss Claire at The Willow,” Daniel finally said.
The words hit me like a jolt of electricity, and I instinctively tried to sit up, only to be forced back down by the sharp pain.
“You mean just now?” Logan probed.
Daniel shook his head. “That afternoon, after she went shopping at the garden center. She forgot to take the sunflower seeds with her, so Mrs. Dobson asked me to deliver them to her house.”
The memory slotted into place. That was why I’d found the pack of sunflower seeds on the ground at my feet when I took Claire back to The Willow after the incident.
Daniel continued, “When I got there, I saw the other big guy, the one who’s now bandaged and in a wheelchair.”
“Armand Voss?” Logan asked.
“I don’t know his name. He was attacking Miss Claire, but she fought back. I was scared, so I hid. Miss Claire drove off, and just when I was about to leave, another car pulled up, and two men took that big man away.”
Logan kept speaking to the boy on my behalf. “Thank you, Daniel. Do you know anything else about that man from New York?”
He shook his head.
