She did another scan of the notes. “I don’t see any mention of a different location for the meeting or it being canceled.” She closed the file and handed it to Ash. “Maybe Dad was like you and just assumed Bobby came to dinner, so he never bothered to ask Mother.”
He muttered a low curse, clearly annoyed with himself. As if he should have known that Bobby had lied. “I think I need to have a chat with Hutton.”
“He’s the assistant district attorney now,” she warned.
A hard smile curled his lips. “All the better.”
“Why is that better?”
“He has more to lose.”
About to remind him that a career in the DA’s office also ensured that he had friends in high places, she was distracted as her dog launched himself across the room, barking loud enough to make her ears ring.
Instinctively, her head turned toward the large window, catching a faint movement before it disappeared. With a sharp gasp, she surged off the couch, her hand pressed against her racing heart. “Ash.”
In an instant, he was standing beside her, his arm wrapping around her shoulders. “What is it?”
“Someone was looking in the window,” she rasped.
“Stay here.”
Before she could protest, Ash was grabbing the coat he’d left on a nearby chair and heading out the front door. Remi cursed and hurried to retrieve her phone from the kitchen. She would give Ash five minutes to return. A second longer and she was dialing 911.
Chapter Nine
Ash darted outside and quickly pressed his back against the house. He didn’t want to make himself a target for whoever was lurking outside. Plus, he needed a couple of seconds to let his eyes adjust to the darkness.
Inside, he could hear Buddy still barking, although it wasn’t with the same ferocity as earlier. At the same time, he saw a flicker of movement near the corner of the street. Damn. He hurried off the porch, but he knew he was too late. If it was the person who’d been peeking in the window, they’d already disappeared into the darkness.
Of course, he couldn’t allow himself to leap to conclusions. It could have been a neighbor heading home.
The thought of neighbors had Ash veering to the right. He stepped around the edge of Remi’s house. Next door, the lights were on, and Ash could see a shadow moving behind the closed curtains of the front window. Would Doug Gates have had time to dart back into his home? Probably. But there was no conclusive proof.
With a shake of his head, Ash made a quick circle around Remi’s yard to make sure there was no one hiding in the bushes before heading back inside.
Remi rushed to meet him as soon as he stepped through the door, her phone clutched in her hand.
“Did you see anyone?” she demanded.
“No.” Without considering what he was doing, Ash wrapped her trembling body in his arms and dropped a light kiss on top of her head. “Whoever it was took off too quickly for me to get a good look at them.”
“Who could . . .” Her words trailed away. “Oh, I forgot.”
He felt a sharp pang of loss as she pulled out of his arms and headed toward the narrow table next to the front door.
“Remi?”
She grabbed a piece of paper and crossed back toward him, shoving it in his hand.
“I forgot. I found this near the door when we came back from Bailey.”
Ash glanced down, reading the brief note.
I need to see you.
What the hell? It didn’t sound like a threat. More something a friend would leave. Or a creepy next-door neighbor.
“It wasn’t in an envelope?” he demanded.
“No.”
“We need to give it to Jax,” he abruptly decided. Under normal circumstances, he’d dismiss the note. But these were far from normal circumstances. He wasn’t going to risk overlooking any clue. “He can have it checked for fingerprints. Do you have a paper bag?”
“In the kitchen,” she said, leading the way.
He was just tucking the paper in a small bag she’d pulled from a cabinet when his phone buzzed. Pulling it out of his pocket, he glanced at the screen.
“Speak of the devil,” he murmured, pressing the phone to his ear. “Hey, Jax, what’s up?” His brows lifted as his brother revealed he had the background check finished on Doug Gates. “That was quick,” he said. Jax was kicking ass on this case. Probably to the point of exhaustion. “Thanks,” he said after Jax finished sharing the intel he’d discovered. Then he rolled his eyes as his brother spent the next few minutes giving him a stern lecture. “Of course I’m not going to do anything stupid,” he promised, even as he mentally crossed his fingers. There was a 100 percent chance he was going to do something stupid. “I’ve got something I think you’ll want to see,” he said in an effort to distract Jax. “I’ll bring it by your office in the morning.” He heaved a sigh of resignation as the lecture continued. “I promise, nothing stupid.”
Ending the connection, Ash shoved the phone back into his front pocket.
“Why does Jax assume you’re going to do something stupid?” Remi asked.
“Older brother syndrome.”
“Tell me.” Her expression warned she wasn’t going to let go of the subject. She called him stubborn, but she was the one who could give lessons to a mule.
“I had Jax run a background check on your neighbor,” he grudgingly revealed.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you did.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
She paused, clearly torn between her good manners, which said it was rude to spy on her neighbor, and an overwhelming desire to know the secrets Jax might have uncovered.
Curiosity won the battle.
“What did he discover?”
“Doug Gates is a loan officer at a local bank,” Ash repeated what Jax had told him. “He was divorced last year and has two daughters.”
“That’s exactly what he told me.”
She looked relieved. Obviously, she didn’t want to think her neighbor was a serial killer. Ash, on the other hand, wished he was the Butcher. He could walk next door, arrest the bastard, and bring an end to the threat.
Every day that passed was more opportunity for the killer to strike again.
“Did he also share that his ex-wife has a restraining order against him?”
“Why?”
“She reported that he tried to push her out of the car while they were driving home from the lawyer’s office,” he told her. “And there was at least one witness who backed up her story.”
She flinched, her features tightening with disgust. If Doug had hoped to ever earn Remi’s affection, that was effectively dead. Something that pleased Ash more than it should.
“He’s obviously a horrible person,” she said. “But that doesn’t make him a serial killer.”
“No, but it reveals he’s willing to be violent toward women. And it gives me a reason to check him out.”
She looked confused. “Isn’t that what Jax just did?”
He shrugged. “I like to get the intel straight from the source.”
Her eyes widened as she grasped what he was implying. “You’re not going to confront him, are you?”