What Echoes Render Read online

  Beside him, he could feel Jesse tense up. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, but she didn’t seem to notice.

  “Jesse?” Kit said, sitting forward.

  Jesse shot David a quick look, one that looked awfully apologetic, then her eyes fell to the floor as she answered the question.

  “I went to see my lawyer after I was almost run off the road. I wanted to make sure the will was in place for the boys if anything happened to me. He mentioned to me that Mark had been in a few months before he died asking about setting up a trust for the kids. He’d never mentioned anything to me so I was curious. I went through his papers in his office to see if I could find the information our lawyer had given him or any reason why Mark was looking into it.”

  The corners of David’s mouth turned down. She hadn’t mentioned any of this. He wasn’t too worried about it, but if had been bothering her, it would have been nice to know.

  “And did you find anything?” Vivi asked.

  She shook her head and a cascade of blonde hair hid her face.

  “Jesse?” Vivi spoke softly. “Is there something you think you need to tell us?”

  His gaze locked onto Jesse’s profile. She bit her lip and closed her eyes. He brought her hand to his lips and held it there for a few moments, hoping to give her some strength or encouragement or whatever it was she needed to continue.

  Finally, she looked up, straight into Vivi’s eyes. “Mark was a good father and, for most of our marriage, a good husband. We were talking about separating, though, when he died.”

  David’s chest constricted at her announcement. He felt a flash of anger but was smart enough to know it was really hurt disguising itself as anger. Why hadn’t she told him? In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a huge deal, but still, it wasn’t nothing.

  “Why, Jesse?” Vivi prodded in a soft but encouraging voice.

  He saw Jesse’s throat work. “Because he’d had an affair. Two actually. I knew about one, and we tried to make it work after I found out. It was when James was about ten. It wasn’t a lot of fun, but I thought we were working it out.” She paused and her hand went limp in his. “But then I found out about a second. And well, one might be a mistake, but two?”

  She let the question hang in the air and refused to meet David’s eyes. Like she thought he might blame her for something or, worse, think less of her. He took a tighter hold of her hand and pulled her closer to him.

  “Why didn’t you ever say anything?” Vivi asked, trying to mask her own surprise.

  “Because it hardly mattered. I didn’t even know you when it was happening, Ian was in the service and it was unlikely I would have told him anyway. Kit was the only person around when all this was happening.”

  “But you never said anything to me either,” Kit pointed out.

  Jesse looked down again. “Because I was embarrassed. And then he died and it just didn’t seem to matter. There was no reason anyone needed to know.”

  Only there was, and, judging by the look she gave David, she knew it. He had needed to know, not because he would judge her or blame her or take pity on her, but because it was a part of who she was. Not all of who she was, but certainly a part of her.

  “What the hell do you have to be embarrassed about?” Caleb interjected, breaking the moment. “As far as I can see, the only thing you did was try to save your marriage. Excuse my French, but he was the dickwad that fucked up.”

  Kit smacked her brother on his arm but he didn’t even flinch. His gaze was focused on Jesse, and for the first time, David thought he could actually grow to like the guy. Maybe.

  “I have to admit, I agree with Caleb,” he said.

  Jesse’s eyes flew to his, searching for any hint of anger or betrayal in his face. The only thing he was capable of thinking when she looked at him like that was how lucky he was to have walked into the hospital that day. She offered him a tentative smile and squeezed his hand.

  “Okay,” Caleb once again interrupted. “Now that we’ve established that your husband, though he might have been a good father, was an unethical scumbag, what does that mean for the investigation?”

  Jesse was about to mouth her objection, but David silenced her by directing her attention to Vivi and Ian, who were looking at each other, clearly having a silent conversation.

  “Well, it doesn’t give us anything concrete,” Ian started, shifting his gaze back to Jesse. “But it does align with some of the theories Vivienne came up with last night.”

  “Theories?” Jesse asked.

  “Yes,” Vivi answered. “Theories as to why you are being targeted. And, knowing about Mark’s past actually makes me more certain I was on the right track.”

  “Meaning?” David prompted, pretty sure he wasn’t going to like where this was going. He knew Vivi was an FBI profiler and profilers usually only worked the worst of the worst kinds of cases. If she was putting her mind to this case, it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “Well,” she started. “The kind of violence we’re seeing against you is unusual. When a woman like you—a single, working mother with no real ties to anything shady—becomes the subject of systematic criminal violence, it’s usually either a stalker, who may or may not also be a serial killer.” At her use of the phrase, Ian reached out and stroked a hand down her back. She turned and gave him a soft smile before continuing. “Or it’s related to someone she knows, usually a parent or spouse.

  “We know your parents live on the West coast, closer to your sister, so it’s unlikely they would be the origin of what’s happen. And because Mark has been dead for two years, I’ve been struggling to figure out how he might be the cause of this.”

  “But now,” Caleb interjected, “because you know his past and know it wasn’t as apple pie as it seemed, you think it fits your profile?”

  Vivi wagged her head. “Yes and no. Yes because the things that have happened to you, Jesse, are classic manifestations of jealousy. If Mark were still alive, I would be much more certain that one, or both, of the women he had an affair with was jealous and acting out on that emotion. I still think it’s likely, and it does fit the pattern, but the fact that he’s been dead two years isn’t something we can discount. Why now? What would a woman like that have to gain two years—or more—after the fact?”

  Jesse stood and walked to the window. Everyone watched her but no one moved. David ached to go to her but knew instinctively that she needed some space to think. She wasn’t sold on Vivi’s theory and he didn’t blame her. Beside the time gap, for all intents and purposes, Mark had been a good father and he knew she was struggling to comprehend or even contemplate that his actions all those years ago might be the cause of what was happening to her today.

  Finally, she turned and asked, “What do you mean ‘a woman like me?’ I know you said a single working mom, but is there something else to that comment?”

  Vivi frowned. “I’m not sure I follow your question.”

  Jesse paused, her eyes darted to David, then went back to Vivi, then she spoke again. “I mean, what if I were some other kind of woman. More specifically, what if I weren’t single?”

  Vivi tilted her head. “Well, we all know you’re not, but not many other people do. Is there something you’re trying to tell us?”

  David felt his stomach sinking; this was a morning for revelations that was for sure. And though he hated hearing Jesse air her secrets in this kind of forum, selfishly, he hated that he had to hear them in this kind of forum, too.

  “Jesse?” he pressed.

  “I just, I mean,” Jesse paused, took a deep breath, and continued. “I do think whatever was going on with Mark before he died was, well, maybe something to look into. But would it be worth looking into any exes, of mine or David’s?”

  David heard the words, but the meaning refused to sink in for a moment. And then he frowned. She had told him he was only her third lover and not that he cared about numbers, but he had assumed her first had been before she’d married. And th
at would be a long time to go back.

  “Do you have any exes?” Kit asked. Now that he and Jesse had successfully kept their relationship a secret for so many months, David could hear the speculation in Kit’s voice—had there been another secret relationship?

  Again, Jesse’s eyes flitted to his before they landed on the floor in front of him.

  “Not an ex, not really, anyway.”

  “Jesse?” Vivi prodded gently. Both Caleb and Ian had gone preternaturally still.

  Jesse let out a big sigh. “Look, I’m not saying I think it’s him, but since we’re looking at Mark and that seems like a stretch, it seems like maybe we should just lay everything out there.”

  “I agree,” Vivi said, keeping her voice soft and encouraging.

  Jesse hesitated, fiddling with the hem of her sweater, then she looked up and met his gaze. “About nine months after Mark died, I was at a holiday party for an organization supported by a few of my board members. It was the first holiday season I was on my own, and even though Mark and I had been having problems before he died, I think, well, I think I was just feeling lonely. And probably a little bit sorry for myself.”

  She paused and took another deep breath. “Ken Bennet, a doctor in the hospital, was there. He’s kind of a pompous jerk, you know. Almost a cliché of himself as a surgeon,” she said as an afterthought. “Anyway, he was always flirting and he has a reputation for not wanting much from the women he’s with.”

  “And,” Vivi pressed when Jesse paused.

  “And I went home with him that night,” she said in a rush. “I’m not, believe me, I’m not proud of it, but I did. And again, while I don’t think he has anything to do with what is going on, if we’re stretching for things to look into enough to include Mark, I just, well, I just thought it might be worth knowing about.”

  “And did it last more than that one night?” Ian asked.

  David already knew the answer to that. If Jesse had found someone she wanted to spend time with, she wouldn’t have been so embarrassed to say something.

  She shook her head. “No,” she said, confirming his assumption. “But he wanted more,” she added and David noted a sad hint in her voice.

  “Meaning?” Ian asked, obviously taking more notice.

  Jesse dipped her head. “I went home with him because I was feeling lonely and sorry for myself on that night. He had a reputation for going through women so I figured there wouldn’t be any messy aftermath.”

  She paused and pursed her lips together. Obviously, she’d been wrong, but how wrong was something he didn’t know. He remembered meeting Dr. Bennet, twice, and it was hard to imagine him with Jesse. Not that he was biased.

  “But there was a messy aftermath,” Jesse continued. “Not too messy, he has too big of an ego to let anything get too messy around him. But it turned out that he had been interested in me for a very long time before that. He wanted more than just one night. And when I didn’t, I think I hurt him. Badly.”

  Everyone in the room was silent for a long moment. And then her gaze came back to David’s and he could see the regret for the pain she’d caused—even to someone as arrogant as Ken Bennet—reflected in her hazel eyes. He held out a hand and she came back to sit beside him. Wrapping an arm around her, he pulled her close.

  “Is Dr. Bennet the good-looking, dark-haired guy, on the short side?” Vivi asked.

  “He has a receding hairline, but what hair he has is dark, and he’s about five foot six or so,” David said.

  Ian frowned, “You know him?”

  David gave a quick nod. “I met him at the hospital once. I was with Jesse and had come down to visit Aaron Greene. I also met him at a fundraiser this past spring,” he paused, remembering that meeting. “Actually,” he said, his brow shooting down, “he asked if I’d come with her.”

  Jesse turned in his arms and looked up at him, “He did?”

  “Yeah, he did. I thought it was a little strange that he would think that, but then again, his only context for knowing me was because he’d seen me with you at the hospital, so I figured it wasn’t that strange.” But now with this new twist, Ken Bennet’s curiosity about Jesse seemed to take a sinister bent. It could have been a harmless inquiry, but then again, maybe not.

  Vivi sat back in her chair and stretched out her pregnant belly as she took a deep breath, then refocused on Jesse. “Okay. Thank you for telling us, we will definitely look into it, especially given that statistically, exes do show up quite a bit in cases like this. But before we move on, I have to ask, has there been anyone else?”

  Jesse shook her head.

  “Ever?” Caleb almost goaded.

  David looked down in time to see Jesse roll her eyes at Caleb. He wasn’t sure what she would say in response, but she surprised even him when she answered.

  “I didn’t date in high school, I married when I was eighteen, and unlike my husband, I was faithful for all the years we were together. I had that one regrettable night with Ken and many more memorable ones with David since. So, as prim and proper as you might think it sounds, no, other than the three you know about, there has never been anyone else.”

  That seemed to shut Caleb up and David almost, almost, hid the smirk he wore as he cast the other man a smug look. It wasn’t very forward thinking of him, but he couldn’t help throwing it in Caleb’s face that clearly Jesse was a discerning woman and still, she’d chosen David. And again, it wasn’t about the number of men she had or hadn’t been with, it was her take on, and belief in, what relationships meant to her. Different people had different views, for sure, but what he admired about Jesse was that she knew what she wanted and valued it enough to live it.

  “Okay,” Vivi said, “Then that takes care of Jesse, what about you, David? We haven’t asked you if you have any exes.”

  He felt Jesse raise her head to look at him. Then Caleb chuckled and David shot him a glare and cleared his throat. “There hasn’t been anyone between the time I moved here and when I met Jesse.”

  “No dates, no dinners, nothing?” Vivi clarified.

  He shook his head. “No, I was pretty focused on my new job for the first several months, then between Miranda, my daughter,” he clarified, “and then meeting Jesse . . .” He let his voice trail off.

  “And before you moved?” Ian asked.

  He frowned. “I lived in California, and, yes, I dated. But given that you aren’t looking at any connection to Jesse’s family who live in Washington, wouldn’t it be just as unlikely to be connected to someone from my past in California?”

  Vivi lifted a shoulder. “It’s not exactly the same thing. We’re not looking at Jesse’s family as a reason because when family is used against each other, whoever is conducting the violent behavior typically wants their true target to see and suffer with the actual target. So in Jesse’s case, if someone wanted to go after her parents for something, they would be way more likely to go after her sister, who lives near them.

  “But in a romantic relationship, it’s a little different,” she continued. “We have seen men and women follow an object of romantic interest around the country, and sometimes even the world. But I’m inclined to agree with you that anyone you might have dated in California probably isn’t going to be relevant here for the simple reason that you were here nine months before you met Jesse, right?” Vivi asked.

  He nodded.

  “If someone followed you from California, it would be more likely than not that she would have tried to make some sort of contact in those first nine months. It’s very hard for people with that kind of personality to go unnoticed for so long, so she probably would have done something to make you notice her.”

  David’s eye narrowed. “That is really creepy.”

  “Yes, welcome to my world,” Ian said, earning a small laugh from all three women in the room, which was, no doubt, his intention.

  “Okay, so we add Dr. Bennet to the list to look into and, Jesse, I hope you know how much I hate to do this, but I r
eally do think we need to take a deeper look at Mark’s life,” Vivi said. The question that was left unsaid: Who’s to say what other secrets he might have had?

  For a moment, Jesse rested, unmoving, against David’s side. Then she looked at each person in the room before her gaze landed on Vivi and she spoke.

  “Look, Vivi, I’m not arguing with your logic and I’m not dismissing your theory, but it’s hard for me to even think it through, let alone accept it. And I wouldn’t have the first idea where to start looking into whether or not you’re right.”

  “But you don’t mind if we do?” Jesse’s head swiveled to see Ian better, his question made it clear that this was something he and Vivi had already discussed.

  Slowly, she shook her head. “But not a word to anyone outside this room. If Mark has nothing to do with this, I don’t want the trash dragged out in front of the boys for no reason.” She held up a hand cutting off something Caleb was about to say. “And it’s my decision and mine alone. I’m not saying bury things or hide things from me. But until we know, if we ever know, if Mark’s—” she paused, searching for the right word but then settled on calling a spade a spade. “Until we know if any of Mark’s affairs had anything to do with this, we keep it quiet.”

  When everyone nodded in agreement, Caleb reluctantly so, she leaned back into David. And though he wasn’t happy with this turn of events and with having had a big part of the last few years of her life kept from him, he knew it would be alright. Because despite everything she’d been through, the lies and the betrayals, she was still beside him.

  CHAPTER 22

  “JESSE, YOUR ASSISTANT IS IGNORING ME.”

  Jesse looked up to find Caleb walking into her office without knocking. She sighed; she should be annoyed, but the truth was, she was having a hard time trying to concentrate on anything at the moment. She really wanted to be with Abigail’s family. Unfortunately, she had some work that just couldn’t be put off, so after the meeting that morning with Vivi, Ian, Kit, and Caleb, she’d come in for a few hours.