Page 98 of The Wedding Party

“Did they meet?” I ask.

“That seems highly unlikely. And it might not have even been when we were married.”

“I think it was.”

“I don’t.” She shifts the topic. “I hate this, but we’re understaffed with Carrie gone. I’ll call you,” she says, already turning toward the door.

She walks to the exit, but I can feel her energy.

And right then, I’m fairly certain of where this is headed, and I do all I can. I turn off my emotions. She is a suspect in the crime of murder. She is no friend of mine.

A suspect who’s at least thinking about running.

Now we just have to watch and see where her panic leads her. And us.

Chapter Eighty-Six

By the time I’m in the car, Aiden is calling me. “She’s driving toward the treatment facility.”

“Oh my God,” I say. “Could they be in on this together?”

“Seems more right than wrong right about now,” he says and then adds, “Yep. We’re headed to Rosewood.”

“I’m on my way.” I disconnect and start my engine, blown away. Lana is way more involved in this than I know, and I start playing with a variety of hypotheses. Lana might have killed Oliver. Or helped kill him? Maybe she helped Carrie clean up just enough to look like she wasn’t straddling Oliver to stab him? Or maybe she and her ex are not exes at all, and there is some kind of financial plot? I need to look into Lana’s finances. People who lose money can become desperate.

I come back to Carrie and Lana. The two of them working together doesn’t feel right.

How would Lana or her ex know about Carrie’s biological father? That answer comes quickly. Money. Lana has money. And money can buy things it sometimes shouldn’t. Some people might say, If she has money, why kill for money? Because money is as addictive as a drug. Or again, full circle here, the source of money runs out.

All of the facts, or lack thereof, don’t matter, though. I have a bad feeling clawing at me. And that feeling has never been wrong. Urgency builds inside me, and it feels like a lifetime before I pull into the parking lot of the center.

The instant the building is in my view, I must be in Aiden’s because he calls again. “She just left. I’m following her.”

“Damn it,” I murmur. “I’m going in to talk to Carrie. Why can’t anything be simple?” I disconnect and head inside the building.

In the lobby, I flash my badge at the receptionist. “I need to see Carrie Reynolds.”

“Visiting hours just ended.”

“That wasn’t a question,” I say. “This is urgent FBI business. Call your supervisor and do it now.”

Her eyes go wide and she grabs her phone. “Dr. Thompson, I need you up front now. It’s urgent.”

I reach over the counter and grab the phone from the receptionist. “Dr. Thompson, this is Agent Castle. I need to talk to Carrie right now about the visitor she just had, and it’s time sensitive. Have her buzz the door. Now.”

“I’ll have to call her attorney.”

That feeling I’m having tells me to push, and I do. “I need five minutes and you can sit in. I’ll get Ms. Littleton on the phone.”

She must hear the seriousness in my voice, because she says, “I assume she’s gone back to her room. I’ll get her and meet you in the room where we talked to her previously. Put the receptionist on the line.”

I hand the receptionist the phone. She listens a moment and then hangs up. Without a word, she buzzes the door. I dial Ms. Littleton even as I hurry toward the room I’ve visited in the past. I get her voicemail and leave a message. “I need five minutes with your client in a meeting that could work in her favor. Now. I’m at the center. Call me back.”

I reach the room in question and open the door. To my surprise, Carrie is standing with her back to me, facing the fireplace. Alone. She must not have ever gone back to her room. “Carrie,” I say, shutting the door behind me.

She turns to face me, and her expression is emotionless, a coldness about her I don’t recognize, not in her. “I need to know what Lana just said to you,” I say.

She hesitates and then huffs out her confession. “She said she’s the one who sent Oliver my adoption records. She wanted him to hate me and dump me.”