Aggie had always felt inadequate when it came to her sisters. In her mind she was the plain one. Clara was thin and delicate, although she knew that her sister was anything but fragile. She knew about Clara’s childhood abduction and the subsequent events six months ago. She was tough, although not as tough as Naomi. Of the three of them, Naomi was the strongest by far, it was clear from her physique that she spent a lot of time working out. Aggie didn’t know much else about Naomi, but she did know that her sister had fought an attacker after receiving a stab wound that had almost killed her, and from which she was still recovering from six months later, in an attempt to protect Clara.
Despite her intentions to put up with Nick if it helped her father, she wasn't going to play this game. She had turned on her heel to leave when Nick grabbed her arm, stopping her. “Aggie. Wait.”
“No. I'm done. You ask me to come even though I tell you not to contact me again. You ambush me by having them here. I won't be your pawn any longer.”
Looking both intrigued and wary, Naomi said, “Detective Sleigh, you didn’t tell us that you knew Aggie.”
“Then he would have had to explain how we met.” She tugged on her arm, and Nick released it slowly, his fingers lingering as though attempting to memorize what she felt like in case he never got to touch her again. Which he wouldn’t.
“What's going on here?” Clara’s green eyes were narrowed suspiciously. “You say we have to come down here to answer questions about our father but you won't say why. You neglect to mention that there is animosity between yourself and one of the daughters of a man you're interested in. Either you start explaining, or Naomi, Jonathon, and I are leaving.”
Nick said nothing. The door opened and his partner, Miller Chau, entered. Aggie couldn’t suppress a shiver at the sight of the man. It didn’t matter that she knew the attack had only ever been intended to scare her, the facts were that it had, and she couldn’t look at that man without fear rushing back up to strangle her.
Naomi noticed the shudder, and her demeanor changed to protective. She turned to Clara’s boyfriend, who was also a detective, and asked, “Do you know them?”
“Not well. I know who they are, but we’ve never done more than exchange pleasantries,” Jonathon Dawson replied.
“They think our father killed my ex-stepmothers, so they decided to fake an assault on me so that Nick could pretend to save me, therefore getting me to trust him, so they could play me and get evidence to prove my dad is a murderer,” Aggie explained. “Only I found out, and now they have to scramble to get their proof. Which I'm guessing is why we have all been summoned.”
“You did what?” Naomi turned incredulous brown eyes on Nick. “You assaulted her. She clearly has injuries.” She gestured at Aggie’s cast. Turning to her, she said, “You can file charges against them. In fact, I recommend that you file charges against them.”
To be honest, that had never even occurred to her. She had been so wrapped up in her pain and anger and humiliation that she hadn’t even thought of the fact that what Nick and his partner had done was illegal. Her gaze darted to Nick who she found was watching her intently. Could she do it? The momentary thawing of her anger that she’d felt last night when they had spoken in her apartment was over, but she still didn’t know if she could send Nick to jail. She couldn’t just turn her feelings off like a switch, she still loved Nick, she knew it would take time for those feelings to fade.
“You do whatever you have to, Aggie,” he told her. “But right now, we do have to ask you some questions about your father.”
“What exactly do you think he did?” Naomi glared at him.
“I don’t think, Iknowwhat he did. Did you two know that both his second and third wives were murdered?” Nick directed the question to Naomi and Clara. When both nodded, he continued, “Both of them had a small heart carved into their left breast post-mortem.”
“Both?” Clara sounded confused.
“I was under the impression that they were murdered by their partners, who then committed suicide.” Naomi’s eyes had narrowed. “If they both had this little heart carved in their chests then how come the cases were never linked before?”
“Both cases were closed, but I suspected that the same person killed all four victims. And now Emily Hadden is missing.”
“Wife number four,” Naomi murmured.
“Right. Your father is the one thing that connects all three women. We don’t have any proof, we were hoping to get some background on your father from his children.”
“We don’t know him all that well.” Clara gestured to herself and Naomi. “One weekend a fortnight with him until we turned eighteen. Friday and Saturday nights spent in a hotel. That was it.”
“Did you two go together?”
“No,” Naomi answered. “One weekend with me, one with Clara, then back to me again.”
“What did the two of you do on your weekends together?”
“He would pick me up after dinner, take me out for dessert someplace, then to the hotel, always the same one. Then Saturday we would go someplace, the zoo, the park, the aquarium, out for dinner at some fancy restaurant. Then home Sunday morning. As I got older the Saturday activities changed, maybe shopping, or I would just do homework at the hotel,” Naomi replied.
“Same with me,” Clara added.
Nick turned to Andrew. “What about you. Were you and your dad close?”
“I spent a lot of time as a kid bouncing back and forth between my parents, my maternal grandparents, and my paternal grandparents. Both my grandfathers were more like fathers to me than my actual father.” Aggie knew that had been hard for Andrew. She remembered the rebellious stage he had gone through as a teenager, angry that his parents had been so irresponsible as to get pregnant so young.
“That just leaves you, Aggie.” Nick turned to her.
“I already told you I won't help you pin this on him.” She still stood near the door, ready to bolt.