Page 60 of Alibi for Murder
Madison’s neighbor on Hamilton Road. The nosy one. Why would she be calling at this hour? Hope rushed into his throat. “How can I help you, Mrs. Fischer?”
“Well, I don’t know if this is anything, but just before 1:00 a.m. a vehicle went into Thomas’s driveway. I might not have noticed it, but I was outside on the porch because I couldn’t sleep. Insomnia is my companion all too often lately.”
“Can you describe the vehicle?” Steve wasn’t waiting, he walked to the car, scanning those around him to ensure no one noticed. He climbed behind the steering wheel and started the engine. He cringed at the sound, but no one paid the slightest attention.
“It was some sort of SUV. One of those foreign jobs. White, I think. I woke up my husband, and he said it had been there before, but sometimes he gets things wrong, so I watched.”
Steve resisted gunning the engine. Instead, he rolled slowly and quietly away from the other vehicles gathered around Rivero’s house. “Can you tell me if the vehicle is still there?”
“It left just a few minutes ago, and that’s why I’m calling you.”
He drove, moving faster as he put distance between him and the cluster of official vehicles. “Were you able to see who was in the vehicle?” If she’d seen Allie, that would explain her calling him instead of the police. Hope dared to swell in his chest.
“No. Unfortunately not. But after the SUV left, I walked over there to see if anything had been disturbed. Lights were on, so I approached with caution. I saw the woman who was with you the other day. She and a man were in the kitchen. It looked to me like they were just talking, but when she moved toward the door, he blocked her path. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think she might be in trouble.”
“I’m on my way,” Steve assured her.
“I’ll stay where I can see them through the windows, but I don’t think I should go inside,” she said. “I don’t want to have to shoot anybody, and I never could tolerate a man pushing a woman around.”
As much as he wanted Allie protected, he said, “You shouldn’t go inside, Mrs. Fischer. Stay back from sight. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Call me back if anything changes.”
“I will.”
The call ended, and Steve pressed the accelerator even harder.
The faster he could get there, the sooner Allie would be safe. A part of him wanted to inform Potter and Fraser and the police, but he didn’t have a handle on the situation. The last thing he wanted was for a show of force to put this guy into desperation mode. Better to go in quietly and assess what needed to happen.
Steve didn’t stop for red lights. He just kept going.
He had to get there.
Now.
Chapter Fifteen
Madison Residence
Hamilton Road
Woodstock, 2:27 a.m.
“Why am I a target?” Allie struggled to maintain her composure. Strangely, it seemed staying calm made a difference.
“The answer is one I can’t provide,” Tommy said.
He sounded human. Maybe he was. She had no idea who that scumbag Rivero had been keeping locked downstairs. By his own admission, he came into this house after Thomas Madison’s health became so bad he couldn’t care for himself or defend himself. He’d been here often enough to know all the secrets of the home and its owner.
“What did that man who was here before, Rivero, do to your father?”
His brow lined in thought. “My father’s time here was finished. I was supposed to go before him, but he grew too ill to perform the necessary dismantling. Mr. Rivero explained that he would be supervising my continued existence.”
Allie tried to remember if Rivero had hit her on the head or drugged her somehow. This couldn’t be happening.
She kept recalling the man who’d done the Madison child’s cremation saying that his eyes were missing, and now…
Allie looked directly into this man’s eyes—the ones that looked exactly like that little boy’s. But that was impossible. This person was…too human to be a robot?
“Is Rivero the one who made me a target?”
