Page 21 of Witness To Murder
Leah wished there was a way to protect Isla’s mother from all this until they knew more. She would be devastated. And then, if the blood turned out to be Raymond’s…
Then what? Isla was still missing. Something had happened to her, whether it was in this house or elsewhere. She was missing. The police needed to be looking for her. Yet somehow, this all felt as if it were moving in slow motion. Yes, the detective was here, but nothing seemed to be getting done. No answers appeared to have been found.
The weight of it all settled on Leah’s shoulders, and she desperately wished she could shake it off. But that was impossible.
Owen leaned forward, braced his forearms on his knees and turned his face to hers. “Isla set you up on a blind date with Raymond Douglas. When Douglas disappeared, Isladisappeared. If one of the two set this up, Leah—and I can’t see any way around that possibility—they set you up to take the fall for whatever the finale is to be. But the real questions are, which one and for what reason?”
“I can give you a reason—five million of them, as a matter of fact.”
Leah and Owen turned to the detective who had just walked out the back door.
“What?” Leah demanded.
Owen put his hand on her arm and said to the detective, “We’re listening.”
“The ex-wife, Louise, is the one who first told me about the insurance policy. When I spoke with the insurance company, I learned there was not one but two beneficiaries—who would receive five million each.”
Leah remembered him saying there was an insurance policy, but he’d only mentioned the ex-wife.
“The sole beneficiary was Louise until just a few months ago. Douglas changed his policy at that time. Half of the proceeds go to his ex-wife, and the other half goes to you, Leah.”
“What?” She shook her head. “No.” That was absurd. She shook her head again. “Why would he leave me anything? We hardly know each other. We’d never even met before two weeks ago.”
“That, Ms. Gerard, is the five-million-dollar question,” Lambert said.
No, no, no. This simply could not be right. It was completely ridiculous. Outrageous.
This situation grew more inexplicable by the day. It was as if, once the momentum started, there was no stopping it. The absurdities just kept piling up.
Leah turned to Owen. “I do not know Raymond Douglas. Not like that. There is no way he would want to leave me anything. This is all wrong.”
But how would she make anyone believe her?
CHAPTER SIX
4:50 p.m.
Owen spotted the black sedan in his rearview mirror less than a minute after they drove away from the lake house. He glanced at his passenger. She stared out her window, arms crossed protectively over her chest.
This day had been particularly tough for her. She had every reason to fear that her friend was gravely injured or perhaps dead. The situation with the missing date, Raymond Douglas, had grown exponentially more complicated with the insurance-beneficiary revelation. At this point, all Leah had was her word that she did not know Douglas other than as a potential blind date. Isla was not here to confirm, and the other friend, Maya Ortiz, who had been with Leah and Isla the night Leah briefly met Douglas, was no help.
According to Lambert, Ortiz had no idea if Leah and Douglas had dated once or a dozen times since that accidental encounter. She claimed to have been preoccupied that night with watching an ex-boyfriend she had spotted in the crowd at the club. If there were other newly discovered details, Lambert wasn’t sharing. Owen was surprised the detective had revealed as much as he had.
As if all the questions and the troubling lack of any ability to confirm her statements wasn’t bad enough, Leah was faced with yet another blow: Lambert asked for permission to search the apartment she and Isla shared. Owen had recommended she agree to the search. With the discovery at the lake house,obtaining a search warrant for the apartment was a mere formality—no judge would deny the request. Leah’s cooperation was necessary to prevent any additional suspicion being cast her way. She had nothing to hide, and Lambert needed to see that.
The problem was, her innocence didn’t mean someone hadn’t planted something to make her look guilty, which was why the two of them were going straight to the apartment right now to look around. Bolling, the building manager, had confirmed that the police had released the apartment and the repairs had been started. Owen and Leah could go into the apartment, but there was still work to be done before she could move back in. Bolling would provide them access.
Owen checked the rearview mirror once more. The sedan was still behind them.
He might as well wait until they were in the city to bother with losing him. If he could somehow manage to get the license plate number, that might prove useful in identifying the driver.
“He’s following us again,” Leah said, sitting up straighter.
She’d obviously spotted the tail in her side mirror.
“He is,” Owen confirmed. “Unless he makes an aggressive move, we’ll just pretend we don’t notice until we’re in the city. Losing him will be simpler, and arriving at our destination before he finds us again will be far more likely.”
“Okay.” She relaxed into her seat, but her attention remained on the mirror.
