Page 35 of Shadowed Witness (The Secrets of Kincaid #2)
After getting her emotions under control, Allye slipped into the bathroom. She wet a washcloth and held it to her face. The cold soothed her burning eyes and cheeks.
What happened in there? she asked herself again. Her head had begun to clear, but she was still reeling from Eric’s angry accusations. She’d never seen him like that. He was always cool and collected—levelheaded even in the most charged of situations. What flipped that switch in him?
A light tap sounded on the bathroom door, then Corina’s voice filtered through. “Allye? You okay?” Her sister-in-law was here too? She should have expected that.
She pulled the cloth away from her face. “I’m fine,” she croaked. Oh, that sounded awful. She swallowed and tried again. “I’m fine. I’ll be out in a minute.”
A board creaked in the hallway floor, then she heard Corina’s light footsteps retreating back toward the kitchen. She let out a breath and dabbed at her face with the cloth. Not much could be done about the redness, but she needed to get a move on before they came to check on her again.
When she emerged from the back of her house a few minutes later, she found both Bryce and Corina camped at her kitchen table.
She rested her hand on the back of a chair and focused on Bryce. “What are you two doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
“Eric called me when he couldn’t get ahold of you,” he said. “He was just outside the far end of town and hoped I could get here faster, but I was checking an engine and missed his first couple calls. I headed right over when I couldn’t reach you either, but he’d beat me here by that point.”
She didn’t want to talk about Eric right now. Shifting her attention to Corina, she asked, “What about Western Outfitters?” She was pretty sure her sister-in-law ran the shop by herself on Thursdays.
Corina shrugged, but the movement was anything but nonchalant. “I closed up for a few hours. It’ll be fine. Making sure you were okay was more important.”
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
Bryce leveled his gaze on her. “You tell me. What have you not been telling us?”
Was he parroting Eric’s accusations? “I’m not hooked on pills, if that’s what you mean.” She lowered herself into the chair, feeling like her strength had suddenly bottomed out again.
Bryce’s gaze softened. “It’s not. But Eric wouldn’t have called me frantic if something weren’t going on.”
Eric had been frantic when she didn’t answer her phone? With everything going on, she supposed she couldn’t blame him for that.
“And he said you’re sick.”
Her stomach dropped with the addendum. She felt a flicker of anger that Eric had betrayed her secret, but she didn’t have the energy for it to ignite into full flame. And Bryce and Corina were waiting for her response. She massaged her forehead. Where did she even start?
She decided to go with the most important matter. “First of all, I need to warn you guys to watch your backs. Eric and I were supposed to warn you together today, but I guess that’s my responsibility now.”
Bryce placed a hand on his wife’s arm, but they both waited quietly for her to continue.
“I, uh...” It was harder getting the words out than she’d anticipated. She moistened her lips and took a deep breath. “I witnessed a murder.”
“You what?”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Corina asked.
She grimaced. “I know I probably should have, but it was ... complicated.” As succinctly as she could, she explained what had been going on over the last week.
“And I have been sick. For several months.” She averted her eyes and traced an invisible line on the table.
“Based on my symptoms, I suspected MS, and I didn’t want to burden anyone with that until I knew for sure. ”
“Oh, Allye.”
She held up her hand to halt Corina’s sympathetic words.
“It’s not MS though—at least, the tests so far seem to be ruling that out.
But we don’t know what it is yet.” She shook her head.
“I wasn’t ready to share about my illness, and so much of the confusion about what I did or didn’t see was intertwined with the possibility that I was losing it.
I was overwhelmed and didn’t know how to explain one without the other, so I just didn’t say anything.
But last night, I got a text threatening you two and Mom if I didn’t tell the police I was mistaken about everything. ”
“I see,” Bryce said slowly. “Have you warned Mom yet?”
“Not yet. We were going to tell you two first, but telling Mom is a little more complicated.” She reiterated the pertinent part of last night’s conversation with Eric, along with her suspicions of the mayor’s involvement.
They both looked stunned. Again. Corina found her voice first. “Mayor Jennings? Are you sure?”
Allye raised her shoulders in a helpless shrug.
“I’m not sure of much right now, but he’s acting weird, and he knows things he shouldn’t.
While I have no intention of throwing false accusations around, I don’t trust him.
And I don’t know what to tell Mom. She needs to know to be careful, but I don’t want to hinder the investigation or, worse, put her in more danger by telling her. ”
“Come on, Allye. Give Mom a little credit. She might not like it, but I think she’ll agree not to say anything while the investigation is going on.”
Would she? Allye wasn’t sure, but the critical-thinking part of her brain felt like it had been operating on fumes for weeks. At this point, she wasn’t sure she could trust herself. She rolled Bryce’s words around in her mind. He was probably right.
Her body slouched further in her chair, whether from relief or the weight of helplessness, she wasn’t sure. Perhaps a combination of the two.
“I wish you’d told us what you were dealing with.” Corina’s soft voice held concern and maybe a bit of hurt too.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to worry everyone, and I guess maybe I didn’t want to admit how bad things were getting.
It would have felt so ... final.” But it hadn’t felt that way when she’d spilled her guts to Eric and Hailey.
And while the weight of her illness hung heavy with every word, she realized it was no more real now than it was a few minutes ago.
“What can we do to help?” Corina asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t have any idea what I actually have if it’s not MS.” And she didn’t want them to feel obligated to step up. They were still newly married and had their own lives to tend to.
As if he’d read her thoughts, Bryce got up from his seat and gathered her into a bear hug. “We’re here for you, sis. And we want to be. You’re not an obligation.”
She squeezed him back, but she couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat. Hailey had said basically the same thing, but did they really get what kind of toll that could take on them if she ended up needing more than occasional support? She’d heard so many stories of burnt-out caregivers.
After Bryce retook his seat, he and Corina gently pressed her for details about her symptoms and then about the attacks she’d experienced. The more she shared about the latter, the harder his expression grew.
“You really shouldn’t be staying here alone. Why don’t you stay with us for a couple days?”
“Absolutely not.”
Corina touched her arm. “You and Bryce stayed with me through all my danger last year.”
Allye shook her head, determined to hold her ground on this point. “That was different. These threats aren’t aimed at me, they’re aimed at you guys to intimidate me into keeping my mouth shut. Plus, you have the baby to think about.”
“There’s a lot less chance someone will come after any of us if we’re all together.” But Corina’s hand slipped to her stomach and hovered protectively over the tiny bump.
“They used my camera for target practice when I was with Eric last night. If they’re not afraid of a cop, I doubt they’ll be scared off by you two.
” She shot her brother a look. “And don’t even think about offering to protect me by yourself—leaving Corina alone would be like putting a bullseye on her back. ”
“What about a bodyguard?” Corina suggested. “I could look up the info for Peter’s agency.”
Allye thought about the British bodyguard who had nearly lost his life trying to help protect Corina last year.
Those had been unusual circumstances, but she still shuddered to think how close he’d come to dying.
She wasn’t sure she’d be okay with someone putting himself in that kind of danger for her.
A sigh escaped her. It was irrelevant anyway. She had no idea what hiring a bodyguard cost, but it had to be far more than she could afford. She was already going to be making payments on the copay for her MRI.
She shook her head. “I’ll figure something out.” A bodyguard was out of the question, but she was not going to endanger the people she loved—at least, not any more than she already had.