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Was it suicide and Macey would have to be the one to help this family accept that?
He sank into the chair next to her and tapped his clenched fist against his leg. “I’ve been going out of my mind,” he admitted. He focused on her, his blue eyes sincere. “I apologize that I got frustrated. We brought you here hoping to find answers. If you feel …” He took a deep, steadying breath. “If you feel we need to investigate me and my family members again. I will do it.”
She did not want to put any of them through that, but maybe she would have to. “I’ll go through the information the team you hired compiled again and we’ll reevaluate after that.”
He nodded.
“Can you tell me what you know about the accusations against Curtis and Malik?” Macey knew enough to put the story together, but Ray might have insight that she hadn’t uncovered. She’d also like to see if he could tell her the story without biasing it to his family’s side.
“Yes. Curtis was climbing with a close friend and an accomplished climbing instructor.”
“A woman, right? Suzanne?”
“The woman we all thought he was in love with.”
Macey sucked in a breath.
“Curtis thought the anchor Suzanne had put in thirty meters up the cliff face was secure. He started to climb, but their combined weight ripped the anchor out and Suzanne fell. She would’ve probably just been banged up and bruised, but her head slammed into the wall first and she was unconscious and bleeding profusely.” His clenched fist kept thumping his leg, his obvious tell that he was upset. “Lowering her down wasn’t an option. A hundred and twenty meters of a sheer cliff face and no cell service at the bottom.”
Macey’s eyes widened. Almost four hundred feet. Yikes. Her stomach pitched just imagining being that high up, hanging by a rope. These were the kind of details her computer programs couldn’t uncover.
“My brother somehow secured her to his back and climbed almost sixty meters to the top of the cliff.”
“That’s insane.”
“Insane and superhuman. Curtis is incredibly strong, but the adrenaline and miracles from above had to play into it. Unfortunately, he’s buried himself underneath the pain, wandering aimlessly, not completing projects or climbing ...”
He focused on her face, and Macey was terrified to hear more. She knew the other climber had died. Her heart ached for Curtis. A man who would go to such lengths to save someone and then hurt his own mother? It didn’t fit.
“He had cell coverage at the top, so he called Chad for a military helicopter. Curtis tried to administer first aid and CPR when her heart stopped beating. By the time Chad got there, she was gone.” He paused to let the awful ending sink in and then said, “Curtis blamed himself, and Suzanne’s family blamed him as well. It’s been … horrible for him. Then to lose Mum two months later …”
Macey wished she could hug Ray. She wished she could hug Curtis. Instead, she sat there awkwardly and mumbled, “I am so sorry.”
Ray didn’t speak for a few beats, then cleared his throat and said, “Malik escaped to Prague after Mum’s funeral. He was staying in the Grand Mark, a luxury hotel. Early in the morning, he woke to the sound of a woman crying out in pain from the room next door. It was muffled, and he wondered if he wasn’t making it up because he was so upset about losing Mum. Then the sound stopped.”
Macey’s heart thumped faster, sick to her stomach.
“Late that night, Malik couldn’t sleep and heard the cries, some thumps, and sobbing. He couldn’t sit by, so he knocked on the door. When the man opened it, he told him to stop beating his wife or he’d show him how it felt to get thrashed.”
Macey stared at him, imagining how that woman felt—scared, hurting, wanting to find the top shelf in a closet to hide. These details made her regret asking for the whole story. Her hands trembled, and she clasped them together.
“Malik said he might’ve just left it at a warning, but the woman stepped into view. She was naked and had bruises all over her body and her deep blue eyes were pleading for his help and …” He cleared his throat again. “They were the exact shade of Mum’s eyes. He told me he was already close to losing it, and then the man yelled at the woman, ‘You tramp! I’ll kill you for letting him see you.’ Then he turned to Malik and told him, ‘My wife is none of your business. Walk away now, or I’ll slit your throat’.”
Ray clenched his fist, even as a half-smile played at his lips. “If you knew my brother … You don’t threaten or hurt women, and you don’t threaten him. He thrashed the guy and tied him up with the bedsheets. Then he told the woman to get dressed and took her straight to the police.” His fist tightened, and he thumped it on his leg. “The Czech people are very honorable, but the man was a visiting Russian dignitary. They had to let him go and arrest Malik. They dropped the charges quickly but revoked his visa. Thankfully, the woman somehow disappeared and she might be safely living in Switzerland.”
“I’m glad he could help that woman,” she said, her voice trembling. “It’s awful to be afraid.”
His gaze sharpened on her.
“Thank you for sharing with me,” she hurried to say. “I think I’d better … get ready for dinner. If you’re okay walking Tristan from his office to his room to dinner,” she tried to tease but she did want to be part of Tristan’s security detail and ease Ray’s burden.
“Of course,” he said, but his eyebrows dipped together in concern. It was only four in the afternoon, and he probably realized it wouldn’t take her two hours to primp. “I’ll walk you to your room.”
Thankfully, he didn’t ask her to explain how she knew what it felt like to be afraid.
Macey stood, closing her laptop and picking it up. They walked silently out of his office and along the hall, up the stairs, and to her suite, not even seeing Ray’s guards that they sometimes ran into. It was crazy how huge this place was, and how empty.
“Thanks for the information. I’ll keep researching.” She held the laptop up.
