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Question: If Timmy was sleeping with Audie, what motive would he have for stalking her? It ran contrary to everything he knew about the psychology of stalkers-people obsessed with "proving their love" to someone who had rejected their advances. That love letter described a lot of activities, but rejection wasn't one of them.
Fact: Timmy hated Qui
Qui
Why the hell had Timmy taken everything so calmly? Why didn't his lawyers raise a stink about anything? It was almost as if Tim wanted to be arrested, wanted to go to jail.
Qui
Qui
Qui
The caller may have been a female-was she the perpetrator? This female would have to have known everyone involved and know exactly how to make all the pieces fit together. She had to know Tim Burke. She had to know enough about Audie's life to use it against her. She had to have access to Audie's stationery.
Qui
Marjorie Stoddard?
He didn't know why or how, but he knew he was right.
The next few moments were a blur. Qui
"Goddamn it!" he hissed, spi
As he blew through red lights and snaked through weekend traffic, Qui
Not tonight she didn't, thanks to Qui
He suddenly saw it so clearly-Marjorie had killed Helen Adams. Why and how, he couldn't say yet, but she'd done it. Marjorie was a killer. A killer with big plans for Audie.
Qui
What had he done? Had he been too busy fighting with Timmy Burke to protect someone he loved? Was history about to repeat itself?
Had he just let Audie die?
Drew flicked on the lights.
He could count on one hand the number of times he'd been in this place and he'd hated every moment of every visit-because she'd always been there. Tonight it was the silence that made it eerie. He shivered.
Drew headed straight into Audie's office.He hadn't seen it since Helen died, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. My God, it was amazing that Audie had held up as long as she had! Drew had to give her credit. He was proud of his sister for trying so hard.
He spied the legal-sized folder on top of a precariously balanced pile of… debris, really, and smiled to himself. Things were certainly going to be different around here from now on, now that he was going to be ru
The first mistake to be corrected would be Marjorie. The next thing to go would be the god-awful name Homey Helen. He'd give Griffin a trial run, see how things went. He seemed like a decent enough guy.
Drew strolled back into the front office and headed for the door, but something caught his eye.A plain white envelope sat propped up against the back of Marjorie's desk chair. In flowing cursive writing he saw the words "Getting My Affairs in Order."
A tingle spread through Drew's body, and he found himself standing over the chair, staring, reaching toward the envelope in slow motion with a shaking hand.
The sickening sense of dread was back and his mouth went dry as he opened the envelope and a pair of earrings fell out into his palm-small, elegant gold twists he'd given to his mother for her birthday several years ago. But these were the ones the police said were never recovered…
As Drew's eyes raced across the first sentence, he knew he didn't have a second to waste. He called the police, ran out of the building, and prayed that Audie wasn't already dead.
Tim Burke's hair and smile were perfect and he was wearing an outrageously expensive tuxedo accessorized with a surgically enhanced blonde, and Audie smiled-it was like looking at Satanic Ken on a date with Hose-Bag Barbie!
"Tim Burke," she chirped. "Is prison food as bland as they say?"
"Audie, please." His voice was soft and tortured and it was the last thing she expected. She turned slowly to see that he was absolutely stricken. "Please. One minute."
Tim whispered to his date and she went down the stairs without him.
Audie's heart was thumping and she could barely breathe. "The clock's ticking."
"I didn't threaten you with those letters, Audie. Please believe me."
"Good-bye."
"Audie!" He gripped her arm-hard. "I love you! I've loved you since the first minute I saw you!" He lowered his voice to a whisper, aware that people were starting to stare. "I would never hurt you, sweetheart, but I think you really are in danger-it's Marjorie."
Audie's jaw dropped and she shook her arm away from his. "You're sick. And your girlfriend's waiting."
He shook his head sadly. "She means nothing to me, and I'm not the one who's sick. Marjorie is. I hate to say this, but I'd stick close to the police for a while if I were you. She put those letters in my computer yesterday, Audie. She forged that love letter to me. She wants to hurt you."
Audie began to tremble.
"I'm real worried about you."
Tim was absolutely sincere, Audie realized. He was telling the truth-at least what he thought was the truth-and the questions whirled around in her mind and her heart until she could hardly breathe. Then Tim said, "I'll never stop trying with you, Audie," and he reached for her hand.
That did it. Her brain snapped to attention. She almost fell for it! "Are you threatening me?" she whispered.
"I'm telling you that you deserve so much better than Qui
Suddenly the fear disappeared and she started laughing, somewhat hysterically.
"Let me see if I've got this straight," she said, still laughing. "You're i