“I don’t know that I’m up to this job, Andrews. It should be you in this office, solving this case. This is your area of expertise, not mine. When are you coming back?”
“Soon, I hope. I hate being away from Emily and this place.”
“Have you told her yet?” Ernie shot his friend a mischievous grin.
“Told her what?” Colin asked, as if he didn’t know what Ernie was talking about.
“That you love her, knucklehead.”
“I’m working on it.”
“Work a little faster. You can’t expect a great girl like Emily to wait around forever.”
“I don’t.”
“You’re not the only buck in town sniffing around that doe.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just means there are other eligible bachelors in town that would love a chance with Emily.”
“Like who?”
“No names,” he replied with raised hands and a cock of his head, “I’m just sayin’.”
~*~
Emily returned home and cautiously entered her house, the uneasy feeling of knowing a stranger had been there that morning settled on her again. She didn’t want to feel this way every time she came into her house. She had to find out who the person was and put an end to this madness.
She kicked off her flats and pulled her gun from her purse, slinging her handbag over one shoulder. Moving slowly through the house, she listened carefully for any sound of movement, a creak of the old floor or a bump against a wall. She ended up in the kitchen, confident she was alone and set her gun and purse down on the breakfast bar.
Emily stood before her open refrigerator, and considered making something for lunch. As she pondered her choices, her phone shrilled in her pocket. She jumped. Her nerves were frazzled and raw. Not only was she trying to find Lucas’s killer, and dealing with someone stalking her—but now she wondered if she could trust her boyfriend and her best friend.
Trust no one.
“Hello,” Emily answered.
“Hey, Em. This is Isabel. Everything okay, you don’t sound like yourself.”
“Sorry, just distracted. What’s up?”
“I got the results back on Lucas’s fingerprints. Turns out his name wasn’t Lucas Wakefield after all. It was James Belden.”
“James Belden.” Emily pulled a carton of yogurt out of the refrigerator and shut the door. “What else?” She grabbed a spoon from the drawer and nudged it closed with her hip.
“I thought I’d get more reaction out of you than that. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Someone broke into my house again this morning, so I’m a bit spooked by it,” Emily shared. She considered filling Isabel in on the note she’d found at the bank, but thought she’d better keep things to herself for now. Trust no one.
“Did they take anything?” Isabel asked.
Emily thought she heard sincere concern in Isabel’s voice, but what if it was just part of the act? She couldn’t be sure. Should she tell her about seeing the black sedan speeding off down the alley? She hesitated to divulge too much until she was certain that Isabel could be trusted.
“No, not that I can tell,” Emily replied. “Enough about me, what else did you learn about Lucas, besides his real name?” Cradling the phone between her shoulder and her jaw, she ripped off the cover to the yogurt and pushed the spoon down into it.
“He has a record, spent some time in prison for petty theft. He was arrested for fraud a few years back, but he disappeared while out on bail and he never went to trial.”
“Fraud, huh? That’s no big surprise. Seems like a lot of people are not who they say they are.” She sank down onto a chair at the kitchen table.
“Are you sure you okay?” Isabel asked. “Like I said before, you don’t sound like yourself.”
“You know…if he isn’t actually Lucas Wakefield, then his mother couldn’t really be Gloria Wakefield, could she?”
“I had that same thought. She’s probably still his mother, but if she knew he was going by a different name and she went along with the name change, then she’s probably part of the scheme. Or at least she agreed to go along with it so he could pull it off. Imagine using your mother like that.”
“We’ll need to find out for sure, won’t we?” Emily said. “I think I’ll drop by the hospital and pay that woman a visit.”
“I’d come with you, but I’m stuck at work.”
Another call was beeping through Emily’s phone and she saw it was Maggie. “Sorry, Maggie’s calling. I need to take this call. We’ll talk later?”