there, Doctor.”
“I’d like to do an ultrasound, so your husband should come along.”
“Sure. Of course.” If he’s in town.
“Good. See you tomorrow, Mrs. Steel.”
I hung up the phone, feeling a little more relaxed. Marjorie was kicking up a storm.
Yes, Marjorie. I’d always liked the name, and I’d been considering it seriously since I’d learned from my baby name book that it meant pearl. A little research from the local library informed me that pearls are supposed to offer protection.
Now? After that little kicking storm, I wasn’t sure my Marjorie needed protection, but just in case…
Marjorie was her name.
I’d named all our children. Jonah was my little dove. Talon meant claw, but I liked the name anyway. Brad had wanted to name him John, but that seemed too common to me. I agreed to it for Talon’s middle name.
Then Ryan…
Had I named him? Strange. I didn’t remember.
So much I didn’t remember about his pregnancy.
I walked to the family room and grabbed my baby name book off the coffee table. Hastily I flipped to Ryan.
Ryan. Irish origin. Most sources said it meant “little king,” but the original meaning had never been confirmed.
Odd.
I didn’t remember the pregnancy, and the meaning of his name was unconfirmed.
I always checked out the meaning of my children’s names, and I doubted I’d choose anything that might not have a meaning.
Strange that I hadn’t checked that time.
Very, very strange.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Brad
You don’t shit where you eat.
Philosophy from George Steel.
The disappearance of Raine Stevenson months ago, and now Luke Walker…
It was horrendous and gut-wrenching. Who would harm an innocent child?
Problem was?
I knew.
I didn’t have proof, mind you, but I knew. Wendy had already told me about Fleming Corporation and how they were into some bad shit. Heinous had been the word she’d used. I also knew Theo, Tom, and Larry had hooked up with gangsters.
It didn’t take a genius to put it all together.
Wendy knew that.
That was why Wendy had told me.
Damn! She was a mother herself. A mother to my child, even though my child would never know that. How could she condone such horror? How could anyone?
Wendy had a place in Grand Junction. She was there now. I knew because I had her watched twenty-four seven.
She knew I had her watched.
I made sure of it.
It was all part of my master plan.
Wendy was brilliant, but she could be manipulated by one person, and that person was me. As long as I let her figure out everything I was doing—but didn’t let her know I knew she knew—I could keep one step ahead of her.
I had to.
Because in the end, I knew I’d have to move my wife someplace secure.
Ironically, she’d be in hiding, close to the island owned by Fleming Corporation. The perfect plan. Hide in plain sight.
Plain sight beyond a twenty-five-foot stone wall and security guards, actually, but still in plain sight considering the close proximity to the den of horrors.
I parked my truck and walked to her door.
It was a modest suburban house, one of several she owned throughout Colorado. Her mother and father still lived in Snow Creek, but her father wasn’t in good health. Wendy planned to move her mother in with her once her father passed away.
That would be interesting, but I had no doubt Wendy could continue to pull off her double life while living with her mother.
The woman could pull off anything.
Which was why I had to tread very carefully.
I walked to the front door and knocked.
She opened the door.
I half expected her to be naked. During our college years, she almost always answered her door naked.
Thank God she was fully clothed.
“I’ve been expecting you,” she said.
I nodded. She had…because I’d made sure she was. Staying one step ahead of Wendy Madigan was hard work, but it was work I had to do.
For Daphne.
For my children.
“I need answers,” I said.
She lifted her eyebrows so her blue eyes looked wide and innocent.
Innocent. I held back a scoff. She was anything but.
I walked into her house.
“I was just going to pour myself a glass of your lovely Steel Vineyards wine,” she said. “Would you like a glass?”
“No, thank you.”
“Your winemaker is a genius. So sad about what happened to his girlfriend back in college.”
Hold it together, Brad.
Wendy didn’t know I’d found out she’d been the mastermind behind the murders of Murph and Patty. Nothing I could do about it, anyway. Much better for me to play dumb.
“Ennis moved on with his life long ago.”
“Still, such a pretty little redhead. And then Sean, too.