Page 131 of Waiting to Lose
The front door clicked and Rob rushed through the door in an angry flurry.
“What?” Jake commanded as he lunged upright.
“He’s gone,” Rob said with angst.
“What do you mean? Who’s gone?”
“Peter Markum. We’ve been trying to reach one of my guys all morning. When he didn’t answer our repeated calls, we sent someone over to check on him. They found him lying near his car. Peter was nowhere to be found.”
Madi gasped and jumped out of her seat. “Is your guy okay?” Madi asked.
“He’s in the hospital in critical condition. He ambushed him and shot him point blank in the chest.”
“Oh my God!” Madi covered her mouth with her hands.
Jake placed his arm around her. “Have you contacted the police in L.A. and here in Chicago?”
“Yes, I’ve talked to both. The security here is on high alert. We have no time frame for how long he’s been gone. But there’s more. Madi, you might want to sit down.”
Madi slowly slumped back down into her seat as Jake furrowed his brows. Rob removed his iPad from his bag and opened an app. There were pictures of Jake coming out of Allison’s home along with captions of him being a distraught lover and Allison killing herself. Below two additional articles there was a photograph. Madi gasped. It was a picture of her and Jake from Titan’s pharmacy, as well as a photo of them entering the Trump Tower. The caption read, “Who is Madison Ryan and How Long Has She Been the Other Woman?”
“Fuck!” Jake shouted. His hands plowed through his hair and remained on top of his head as he began to pace.
“How did they find out? How did this happen?” Madi asked.
Madi’s cell buzzed from the couch. She took a deep breath and wandered toward the noise. She’d left it there last night after Jake came in. There were three missed calls from Kendra and two from her mom.
Madi turned toward Jake with her phone in her hand.
“I’m sorry, Madi,” Jake said with dread in his voice.
Madi nodded her head without looking at him. She stood frozen with her phone buzzing in her hand.
“We checked his laptop as you requested. He sent them to the press.”
“Peter?” Jake asked.
Rob shook his head. “No, Caleb.”
“Oh, this just keeps getting better and better,” Jake huffed in an angry rant, looking for something to throw.
“He sent them yesterday before you met with him. It looks like he might have been the one to send Madi the pictures of you and Allison as well.”
“Son of a bitch!” Jake shouted before he tossed the table. The plates and glasses went crashing to the ground.
Madi jumped and gasped. “Stop!” she yelled.
Jake froze. He hadn’t meant to frighten her.
She sped toward him and he lifted his eyes to hers. “What’s done is done,” she sputtered. “There’s nothing we can do about any of it. We knew the press could find out about me, that itwouldhappen eventually. We just need to figure out how to deal with it.”
Jake immediately relaxed as she arched her fingers around his face. She glanced up to him with a small smile and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Rob’s phone rang and he answered. “What have you got? Yes… Okay… What did it say? That’s surprising… Is Jake a suspect? Good. Yes, he’s here. I’ll let him know.”
Rob jerked his head and blew air from his mouth.
“Now what?” Jake asked. He leaned back to steady himself on the couch. Madi did the same. He held her hand firmly in his. “Do they think I hurt her?” he asked.
“No. You’re clear. You have an alibi for the entire day yesterday. Dave talked to a buddy of his on the force. There were two sets of wine-colored footprints going up the stairs. One was Allison’s. The others were most likely male. It doesn’t look like suicide. It looks like murder.”
***
