AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A man in a gray suit opened the far door and approached her with an extended hand. “Ms. Webster, please step into my office.”
She immediately sensed some strain in his demeanor and followed him into a much smaller room than she’d expected. The decor was almost austere after the lavish woodwork and arched ceilings in the rest of the manor. It held only a utilitarian desk and chair with two other chairs on the other side.
She perched on the wooden seat of the closest chair and fumbled in her bag. “I have a letter from my sister. She also should have contacted you personally to explain the change in plans.” Her fingers closed around the envelope, and she yanked out Jess’s letter authorizing her to take Simon. “Here you go. If you fetch my nephew, we’ll get out of your way.”
He pulled out the sheet of paper and read it, then folded it back up. “Ms. Legare called, but unfortunately, it came through in the middle of the night and she left a message about your arrival. I recognized her voice, of course, so there won’t be a problem releasing the boy to your care.” He passed over a folder. “Here is his passport. Simon is packing his things and should be with us shortly. However, there’s a problem, Ms. Webster, a serious problem. Since I was unable to speak directly to Ms. Legare, she does not yet know of this situation. I’m sorry to tell you that Fairhurst is expelling Simon, and he will not be allowed to return after the break.”
The breath left her lungs, and she tensed with her hands fisted. “I don’t understand. He’s ten. What could he possibly do to deserve this punishment?”
“Please don’t think of it as punishment.” He steepled his fingers in front of him. “He’s run away three times. He’s quite determined to make his way to the U.S. His unhappiness is dangerous to his well-being, Ms. Webster. If he was injured whilst in our care, we would be liable. And beyond that, Simon is a sweet boy. I’d hate to see anything happen to him. It’s best for him to be with his mother right now. If his emotional state improves, we could reconsider having him back at Fairhurst. Really, it’s for the best.”
What was she going to do? Before Savannah could gather her thoughts, the door opened behind them, and she twisted in the chair to see a boy standing in the doorway. She drank in the first sight of her nephew. He could have been Ella’s older brother. He wore a Pikachu backpack, and his blond hair fell across his forehead just like Ella’s used to.
Mr. Lloyd brushed past them. “I’ll leave you to explain everything to Simon.” He shut the door behind him.
She found herself on her feet and moving toward the little boy. No recognition registered in Simon’s blue eyes, and he took a step back at her headlong rush. He eyed her open arms, and she dropped them to her sides.
She tried for a lighthearted, cheerful tone. “Hi, Simon. I’m your aunt Savannah. You’re so much like y-your mom.” She wanted to say like Ella, but that would be even more confusing to him.
“My code word is Savannah.” He studied her face. “Mum said she had an older sister. Why haven’t you ever come to see me before?”
How could she answer that when she questioned it as well? “We have a lot to catch up on.” Did he know he was being expelled? “I—I have a nice inn nearby, and you can show me around.”
“Is Mum in London? Why didn’t she come?”
“There’s a lot going on back home, and your mom sent me in her place.” Lame. How would she explain all this to a ten-year-old?
The even bigger question was what was she going to do with Simon?
* * *
“You’ll never find what you’re not looking for,” one of Hez’s early mentors liked to say. The forensic techs who processed Jess’s house hadn’t found any evidence that she had been framed, but they hadn’t been looking for it. Hez wasn’t a tech himself, of course, but he had seen enough of their work that he’d know what to look for. Or at least he hoped he would.
He didn’t currently have any evidence that Jess had been framed, but that was his theory of the case. It had to be. The evidence the police found at her house was overwhelming. Either it had been planted or she was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The most damning evidence came from Jess’s laptop and the grove of trees behind her house. Ed was working on getting a copy of the laptop hard drive for Bruno to evaluate for evidence of hacking. Jess had agreed to hire both of them without hesitation, despite the fact that she was already paying Hez fifteen hundred dollars an hour. She apparently had made more money on Wall Street than he realized.
Meanwhile, Hez was trying to trace the steps of someone planting evidence in the trees behind Jess’s home. He parked on the side of the road behind her house, where his car wouldn’t be visible to anyone in the home. He picked a spot as far from other houses as possible, where he would probably be out of range of Ring doorbells or security cameras. The road shoulder was asphalt bordered by grass, which unsurprisingly held no tire tracks or footprints.
The trees started about five yards back from the roadside—mostly loblolly pines and silver maples decked in brilliant yellow autumn finery. Hez guessed that meant water was nearby, and the faint burble of a stream confirmed it as he approached the tree line. He picked a spot where the growth seemed thinnest and carefully pushed his way in.
Ten feet in, a little patch of white caught his eye. A twig had been snapped off at shoulder height. The break was recent, though he couldn’t tell how recent. A deer or wind gust might have done it, but it was a hint that he was on the right track. He snapped a picture of it and moved on.
The sound of water grew, and he soon reached a little creek. It was only a couple of inches deep, but it was too wide to step across and the banks on both sides were soft and muddy. His gaze scoured the ground, searching for any unusual marks.
Jackpot! A partial footprint on one side and a full one on the other, with the heel particularly deep. Someone had taken a running jump from one side and landed heel-first on the other. The prints appeared to come from a man’s boots, but Hez would need to consult with a forensic podiatrist to be sure. He would also need to hire his own forensic tech to come out and do an independent investigation now that he’d found something to investigate. He pulled out a pocket ruler and photographed it next to each print.
Hez’s heart rose as he continued toward the house. He doubted he could establish reasonable doubt in jurors’ minds based on a snapped twig and a couple of footprints, but it was a promising start.
He reached the spot where the techs had dug up the evidence. Yellow tape still fluttered from tree trunks marking a broad triangle around the hole that gaped at the foot of an ancient willow oak with a trunk like a cathedral pillar. He was only a few yards from Jess’s rose garden, but the tree was so wide that it completely blocked his view of the house—and would have prevented anyone in the house from seeing someone burying evidence here.
He snapped a few more pictures, but he didn’t bother with a more thorough investigation. This little piece of the crime scene had already been thoroughly documented by the police department’s techs and investigators, and he had their reports.
He noticed two things in rapid succession when he stepped around the tree. The first was Jess’s garden. Two rows of rosebushes ran along each side of a flagstone path that paralleled the back of the lawn—and they were due for a trim. Anyone walking directly from the house to the big willow oak would have to squeeze between the bushes, tearing skin and clothing in the process. The only other option would be to enter the forest on the other side of the lawn and go through a hundred yards of underbrush, fallen tree limbs, and leaf mold. He raised his phone to take more pictures—and then he noticed the second thing and froze.
Someone was in Jess’s house. He caught a glimpse of movement. A figure in black appeared for an instant in one of the windows.
Heart pounding, he ducked below the top of the bushes. He called 911 to report a burglary in progress. Then he found a gap in the bushes and crouched down to watch. He recorded the scene on his phone, though he couldn’t get much detail even with the zoom maxed.
