Free Where Evil Waits by Kate Brady Page B

and picked up the next three cards, one after another, examining each gift. A pair of leather gloves and a similar card, with the same handwritten word. A man’s tiger-eye ring and another card. An engraved ink pen and card. All of them: TRUTH.
    “And you have no idea who is leaving them or what the message means,” he said.
    “No. Aidan always thought it was a secret admirer confessing his crush—
truth.
And he laughed and called him cheap because none of these gifts is new,” she said, pointing to the black gloves. Luke had noticed: Theywere leather, but worn at the edges. The pearl necklace was broken; someone had tied a knot in the string to keep the beads from falling off. The pen even had a message engraved on it.
All my love, Gina.
    “Weird gifts to get from a secret admirer,” Luke said.
    “Weird, yes. But until I received Andrew’s sunglasses, I didn’t consider the possibility that their owners were dead.”
    “Were they all delivered to your front door?” Knutson asked.
    She blinked, as though she’d forgotten he was there. “I found the sunglasses and card on my car at the grocery store. On Monday.”
    “What store?”
    “Harry’s, on Powers Ferry.”
    Knutson would find out if there was video of that parking lot.
    “And Penny’s scarf was tied to Aidan’s bike handles. He and Seth were at Seth’s neighborhood pool.”
    Christ. Whoever was leaving the gifts had been keeping an eye on both of them.
    “And you never noticed anyone following you, calling you at strange hours, like that?” Luke asked.
    “Only the gifts and the text messages.”
    Maddie came out of the bathroom, looking for Kara.
    “Okay,” Luke said, and pushed the tokens and cards back into the bag. “Go get your new look. The last thing I want is to blow up a boat and arrange for your bodies to be found, only to have the two of you re-surface somewhere.”
    She looked at him, a dubious tilt to her head. “You’re very thorough, Mr. Varón.”
    “That’s why you hired me,” Luke said, but knew KaraChandler was too familiar with cops to be snowed too easily. He’d have to remind her that he was, as she put it, a resourceful thug and not a Federal agent suddenly scrambling to save an undercover operation.
    He’d have to make sure she stayed wary of him.
    He went to Maddie’s stash and sifted through the boxes of hair color.
    “Use this,” he said to Maddie, reading the box. “E-twenty-three, ‘dark chocolate.’ ” He shot a wink at Kara. “I told you: I’m partial to brunettes.”
    Luke left Maddie to handle Kara, a job that was certainly within her capabilities despite the meek demeanor she’d presented. He picked up the pillowcase and Knutson followed him down half a flight of stairs to a study with windows from floor to ceiling. He poured himself a deep shot of tequila, drained it and poured another, then opened the French doors to the wraparound deck. He rubbed his thigh.
    “The leg okay?” Knutson asked, joining him on the balcony.
    “It’s fine,” Luke said, though they both knew he was lying. A chunk of bone had come out with the bullet, but another chunk hadn’t. Most of the time, it didn’t show in his movements, even when it hurt like hell. But a sprint through the uneven terrain of the riverbank had got it going.
    “You’re scaring that poor woman to death,” Knutson said.
    “She needs to be scared. She doesn’t know what she’s into.”
    “Do you?”
    “No,” Luke said honestly. “But I know more than I didwhen you rigged the boat. The man who killed Andrew Chandler and Elisa Moran is still alive. He’s the one sending those gifts to Kara and he’s probably the one who killed Louie Guilford. John Wolff was part of it—he copped that guilty plea in exchange for money—and Wolff’s wife is missing. Dead.”
    Knutson went to stone. “I think you’d better catch me up.”
    Luke did, as much as he knew, from Kara’s receiving the sunglasses to going to Penny Wolff and then