Page 40 of You Know Why

She laughs. “Me neither.”

“Why do you think he bolted?”

“Two words. Eden Barrow.”

“Oh.” He drags out the word, realization setting in. “He saw the dead wife’s sister. She was at the airport?”

“He was on her flight. Get this, it was a total fluke. A rerouting at the last minute. Eden confronted him, he pretended not to know who she was, and then the first opportunity he had, he took off. Walked right out of the airport and left his new family behind.”

“Harsh. Ten years is a long time to stay off the radar.”

“Keeping his nose clean helps with that,” Theresa says. “If he’s been on the straight and narrow, there’s no reason to be on the radar. It’s always driven me nuts, trying to figure out where he’s been all this time. Working for her uncle makes sense, though he’s definitely keeping a low profile.”

“Hmm. Okay, I’m going to tell you something in strictest confidence. There are some money troubles at TGG. The Gussins came to us a few weeks back, quietly requested an examination of the company’s finances. They think someone’s been stealing from the accounts.”

Theresa’s sense of equilibrium returns. Crimes are committed for several reasons, but almost all boil down to one of three things: love, greed, or revenge. She can take a coincidence, but she knew in her heart there was something deeper going on.

“Did they accuse Andrew?”

“Yeah. When I put Locke’s name in the system, it flagged. I took a look, then talked to a friend in financial crimes.”

“So he’s been stealing from his wife’s uncle? The man who’s kept him sheltered all this time? That’s bold.”

“Unconfirmed as of this moment, it was just a hunch the old guy had. They’re just getting started on the case.”

“Now this is starting to make sense. Maybe it wasn’t just seeing Eden after all these years and being afraid she would tell his new wife about Chloe. Maybe it was the danger of his wife discovering other secrets. She didn’t know about his past. He’s using a different name. The wife calls him Trey.”

She hears clicking, then the ribbed clatter of a mouse wheel scrolling. “So the name Trey Locke doesn’t pop anything connected to Malogen, Georgia, or Chloe Barrow.” He types some more. “Interesting. The name Andrew Locke doesn’t either. Headlines at the time of the murder case, yeah?”

“You were there. So many headlines.”

“Well, looks like your boy may have had some help cleaning up his internet history. A talented friend or a powerful company. Anything can be done for the right price.”

This makes a strange kind of sense—no wonder they haven’t been able to find him.

Theresa leans back in her chair, pops her feet up on the desk. It’s her best thinking position.

“So he has his history wiped, starts a new family in Tennessee, and manages to keep his nose clean for a decade—except he’s maybe embezzling from his job, and thought he was gonna get caught and took off with the family to Europe. Sees Eden on the way, freaks, and bails. That’s a new one for me.”

“It’s more complicated than your average criminal motivation, for sure. You say the wife acted totally shocked when she heard about his first wife?”

“No chance she was acting. She flipped out. Barreled out the door straight into a running SUV. One that conveniently kept going after it clipped her.”

“Hit her on purpose?”

Theresa sucks in a deep breath. “I don’t know. There are too many coincidences for my liking, but that one does seem like a true accident. No one could time her leaving in a rush like she did. It was an organic panic attack.”

“Or they were lying in wait, and when they saw her walk out, they gunned it.”

“I hadn’t considered that it was on purpose. Wow. I need to wrap my head around that.”

“You’re welcome. Anything else you want me to do?”

She twists her pen in her fingers. “Well, let’s hold on to this information for the moment. The Atlanta police are searching for the SUV, so we can follow up with them. I don’t know Brooklyn’s status—the accident was pretty dreadful. Bad head injury. If she makes it, and recovers, obviously, we need to ask about the money. I’d really like to find Locke, talk to him myself. He’s somewhere in the area—or he was earlier today.”

“A lot of cameras around Atlanta, he shouldn’t be too hard to track.” Drake sounds dubious, though, mimicking the feeling that she has. “You sure it wasn’t him in the SUV, taking out the new wife?”

“Aw, man. That’s pretty damn cold, don’t you think?”