The Silent Witness

A midnight visitor

“Alex?” Nicki sat up, all too aware that she was naked beneath her sheet. “What do you mean, coming in here scaring me half to death in the middle of the night? Who do you think you are?”

“Your first lover?” He sat down on the bed, much too close to her. She could feel the heat of him against her hip right through the sheet. “Talk to me, Nicki. Tell me what you saw last night.”

“Why don’t you tell me why you’re here? Why now, when you’ve been in town for months?”

“You knew that?”

“That you were back?” She hoped he didn’t hear the pain she tried to bury deep in her heart. “Have you been gone so long you’ve forgotten what it’s like to live in a small town?”

His hand stroked her cheek. The caress made her shiver. “You’re still soft as midnight.”

She didn’t want to respond to his touch, but it would have been easier to stop breathing. She stared into his eyes and tried not to want him anymore. “We aren’t the same people, Alex.”

His mouth descended, covering hers. Firm lips demanded a response. This wasn’t the kiss of her dreams, or her memories. This was an assault of raw passion.

He broke away. “Yes, we are.”

Dear Reader,

I’ve been fascinated by Alex Coughlin since he appeared in For His Daughter. The man just can’t seem to stay out of trouble. Since he insists on popping up, I decided he’d better explain why he walks so close to the edge with his dangerous, dark good looks and his collection of less-than-savory friends.

And as soon as I started writing, I discovered I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t forget him. Nicki Michaels is about to watch her peaceful, uneventful life blow sky-high when she tries to help a friend and finds herself on the wrong side of a two-way mirror, staring at the one man she’s never been able to forget.

Nothing is ever what it seems in Fools Point. I hope you’ll enjoy The Silent Witness.

Happy Reading!

Dani Sinclair

The Silent Witness

Dani Sinclair

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Mary McGowan and Karin and Rita Shaughnessy with thanks. A special thanks to Kelsey Roberts. And always for Roger, Chip, Dan and Barb.

With the premiere of Mystery Baby for Harlequin Intrigue in 1996, Dani Sinclair launched her dream career. An avid reader, she never took her own writing seriously until her only sister caught her between career moves and asked her to write a romance novel. Dani quickly discovered she could combine her love of action/adventure with a dash of humor while creating characters who find love together despite the odds. Dani lives in a Maryland suburb outside of Washington, D.C., a place she’s found to be a great source for both intrigue and humor!

Books by Dani Sinclair

HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

371—MYSTERY BABY

401—MAN WITHOUT A BADGE

448—BETTER WATCH OUT

481—MARRIED IN HASTE

507—THE MAN SHE MARRIED

539—FOR HIS DAUGHTER*

551—MY BABY, MY LOVE*

565—THE SILENT WITNESS*

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

690—THE NAKED TRUTH

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Nicki Michaels—Her favor to a friend made her a target for murder. Now she must put her trust in the man who loved her and left her.

Alex Coughlin—The town bad boy is back—but this time, his reputation hides a bigger secret.

Thorton Biggs—His death was premeditated—was it also a setup?

Bernie Michaels—Nicki’s father knows more about Alex than he’s ever admitted.

Hope Michaels—Is Nicki’s sister a pawn, or a player?

Thad Osher—He has a bad attitude, but does that make him a crooked cop?

Ilona Toskov—What did she see in the alley, and who is she trying to protect?

Pavel Toskov—Ilona’s brother is handy with his fists.

Vic Unsdorf—Will silence cost him his life?

Matt Williams—The precocious teen knows more than he’s saying.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Prologue

“He knows where you are!”

The five words on the other end of the phone caused her stomach muscles to contort violently. She continued peering out the window at the street below straining to see. Was someone lurking in the doorway of the small appliance store across the street? His words made it more than likely. The darkened shop made it impossible to tell for sure.

“He can’t know.”

“I’m telling you, he knows. It’s all coming unraveled. We have to talk, right away!”

Her mind twisted, looking for a way out. A movement caught her attention. Someone was watching from the shadows across the street. She was pretty sure she knew who that someone was. She turned from the window, bumping her already bruised arm and nearly stepping on Nicki’s cat. She ignored the pain and the animal. If he was right, she was no longer safe. Not here. Not anywhere.

“How soon can you meet me behind the craft store on Main Street?”

“Two minutes,” he said, sounding surprised. “I’m at the restaurant.”

“Hurry.”

She disconnected but continued to clutch the phone’s portable handset like a lifeline. Reaching for her purse, she almost knocked the bowl of fresh flowers off the coffee table. The heavy weight of the gun inside the soft leather bag reassured her. She pulled out the weapon, staring at the dull, ugly metal. No matter. Ugly, but deadly. No one would add new bruises to her body with this in her hand.

She blocked the cat when it tried to escape into the night. Shutting the door, she hurried as she descended the back stairs over the shop as quietly as possible. It was nearly nine o’clock. Nicki would be closing the craft store any minute now. She must be gone before Nicki headed upstairs to the apartment for the night.

She reached the darkness of the alley and the parking lot behind the shops and stopped. Her lips formed a curse. She held Nicki’s telephone. Her own cell phone sat on the hall table by the door. She’d have to go back for it.

A car engine shattered the silence of the moonless night. The vehicle swung around the corner and entered the alley. There was no time to go back for her telephone now. Yet, even as she hurried forward, instinct screamed that she wasn’t alone. Someone else shared the darkness of the alley.

The car stopped in front of her only a few feet away. Now or never. It was too late for second thoughts. She really had no options left at all.

She stepped from the deep shadows.

The explosive sound of the barrage of gunshots seemed to echo off the walls of the old brick buildings. She turned to run. Her fingers punched 911 into the phone she still held.

“Emergency operator. Do you need police, fire or medical assistance?”

She reached the stairs. A figure rose from between two parked cars. She fired the gun in her hand at the shape, and knew she had missed. He ducked, but she had seen him—just as he had seen her. She fled up the stairs and back inside the apartment. The handset dropped from her fingers, bouncing across the carpeting. She grabbed her cell phone and plunged through the front door. Her heart hammered in her throat as her fingers pressed the now familiar number.

Chapter One

“Nicki? What’s the matter? You sound funny.”

Nicki locked the front door and turned off the main light. There were no customers inside the craft shop so it didn’t matter if she closed early. What did matter was the man leaning almost negligently against the brick wall near the mouth of the alley across the street.

“Nothing’s wrong.” She told herself he wasn’t staring at her windows, he was just waiting for someone. The second feature at the movie theater started at nine. He was probably waiting to meet someone and go inside. He could even be waiting for someone to come out from the last show. It was silly to feel so uneasy. “Everything’s fine. What’s up?”

“I was wondering if you could go out and check your car after you close tonight. I can’t find my gold bracelet and I think I might have lost it in your car the other day.”

Nicki called on patience. Her much younger half-sister wasn’t generally careless, but the request didn’t surprise Nicki. If it didn’t involve a horse, Hope seldom paid a lot of attention to details.

Nicki’s gaze flicked to the street. The man was in deep shadows, but he was still there.

“Uh, Hope, I’ll let you know if I find it.”

“Okay. Did Ilona find you okay the other day?”

Shocked, Nicki forgot about the man and focused on her sister. Ilona Toskov had been her roommate at the University of Maryland more than eight years ago. Nicki had run into her at a Frederick shopping center a few weeks ago and they’d decided to meet for lunch the following month. Two days ago, Ilona arrived on Nicki’s doorstop, scared, bruised, and seeking a haven.

“What are you talking about?”

Hope hesitated. “Is something wrong, Nicki? She called here trying to find you and I gave her your number and told her where you lived. That was okay, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. Of course. It’s just that Ilona is having some, uh…personal problems. I didn’t know she’d spoken with you.”

“Oh. She didn’t say anything about that to me.”

Nicki wasn’t surprised. Ilona had seemed horribly embarrassed. An abusive boyfriend who turned out to be married wasn’t something most women would want to discuss with anyone.

“Look, Hope, I’d rather you wouldn’t mention her name to anyone else right now, all right?” Especially not with Ilona hiding in Nicki’s apartment over the store at this very moment.

“No problem. So you’ll go out back right after you close and check for my bracelet?”

“I’ll check.”

“Thanks, Nicki. Talk to you later.”

Nicki replaced the receiver and stared out the window of her shop. The man was still there.

Nervously, she checked the lock on the front door, flipped the sign to Closed, removed the cash drawer and headed for her minuscule office. A car barreled down the alley leading to the parking area behind the building. Nicki tensed.

Good grief. If she kept jumping at every sound she’d need tranquilizers. Someone probably wanted to reach one of the stores before it closed. Despite her own slow evening, she hoped the store they wanted to reach wasn’t hers.

Nicki sighed as she opened the safe. Fools Point didn’t have much crime as a rule, but lately, things had been changing. There was that unsolved car bombing several months ago in which a man had died a terrible death. The police believed it was gang related. That struck a nerve locally, occurring so close to town. Then the rash of car thefts in the area was increasing, and Fay Garvey’s murder and the destruction of the Bide Awhile Motel had shocked everyone. Only a month later Jerome Inglewood had been killed in a bank robbery in D.C. Local men had been involved. They’d gone after Jerome’s pregnant wife because she was a witness to the murder.

Nicki sighed again. There was no such thing as a safe place anymore. Ilona had brought that home when she sought refuge in Nicki’s apartment two nights ago.

Ilona refused to go to the police. The bruises and threats her boyfriend had made had given both women good reason to be nervous.

Nicki closed the safe and spun the lock. She hefted the awkwardly shaped box of new supplies and tried to plan the next window display in her mind. But her mind wouldn’t cooperate. She was far too edgy.

A car engine idled behind the store. She needed to get a grip. There was nothing sinister in that. Three days ago, she wouldn’t have thought a thing of it.

Three days ago, her life had been a whole lot simpler.

Telling herself to stop acting so jumpy, she carried the box out front. The car suddenly backfired several times. The noise reminded her of firecrackers going off.

Nicki hesitated. She set the box down and listened hard. Gunshots could sound like firecrackers.

Heart in her throat, Nicki ran to check the lock on the rear entrance. That lock was the only thing that stood between her and whoever was in the alley outside. Thankfully, the dead bolt was in place. The rear door was secure and there were no windows back here to worry about. She was safe.

So was Ilona, as long as she didn’t unbolt the apartment door upstairs.

Nicki peered through the peephole. All she could see in the darkness was the hood of the running car. Nicki hesitated, unwilling to telephone the police until she was sure of what she’d heard. She strained to listen over the sound of blood pounding through her veins. The car continued to idle harmlessly.

Shots? Or backfires like she’d first thought? Ilona wouldn’t thank her for calling the police and drawing attention to the shop needlessly.

Nicki practically jumped three feet in the air when the telephone sliced through the silence. She hurried to the office, shutting down lights as she went. She didn’t want to draw attention to the store from the outside. Everything was okay, she told herself. Ilona’s boyfriend could not have found her. Ilona was safe.

But she had to be terrified.

As Nicki reached for the receiver, she saw both phone lines were lit. The business line flashed with the incoming call. Ilona? Calling from the apartment phone? Nicki lifted the receiver. A click filled her ear. She frowned, her pulses racing.

The house line was no longer lit. But why would Ilona hang up? She wouldn’t have.

Unless she didn’t have a choice.

Nicki snatched her purse from the bottom desk drawer. In her rush to get upstairs, she tripped over the edge of the large box she’d left sitting out. Stumbling sideways, she knocked into a cardboard display and nearly fell. With an oath, she shoved the box to one side.

She wasn’t usually clumsy, but a sense of urgency practically overwhelmed her. Nicki couldn’t explain why, but she needed to get to Ilona. She had to be certain her friend was all right.

Nicki fumbled for her keys, dropping them, then stepping on them in her frantic hurry. As she locked the shop door, a figure dashed out of the alley and raced across the street. For a second, her breath caught in her throat.

Was it the same man who’d been watching her shop? Though she’d never had a clear view of his face, there was something hauntingly familiar about the form that sprinted out of sight.

With an impatient shake of her head, she opened the communal door leading up to her apartment and the one across the landing.

Her apartment door gaped open, showering the steep staircase with light. She scooped up her cat, who’d taken the opportunity to try to sneak outside, and rushed up the stairs.

“Ilona!”

Silence met her call.

Nicki set Ginger down inside and closed the door. She didn’t have to search her small apartment to know Ilona was gone. The emptiness struck her immediately.

She nearly tripped over the handset of her portable telephone that lay on the carpet. Had Ilona dropped it as she fled? But why had she run? Nicki picked it up, trying to stem the apprehension hammering in her throat. There were no signs of struggle.

The telephone in her hand shattered the silence. Jolted by surprise, Nicki answered cautiously as if the instrument itself presented some danger.

“Hello?”

“Nicki!” Ilona’s usually sultry voice came over the line as if she was out of breath.

“Ilona! Where are you?”

“He found me!”

Fear welded the handset to Nicki’s fingers.

“I tried to go out the back but a man started shooting!”

“Your boyfriend shot at you?” The bruises and threats made that a frightening possibility.

“No! The other man.”

“What other man?” Ilona’s rush of words weren’t making any sense. “Slow down, Ilona.”

“Oh, God, Nicki, I just saw a man get killed. Right in front of me!”

For a second, fear nearly made Nicki deaf. “What?”

“A man walked up to the car and shot the driver. I saw the whole thing.”

Gunshots. Not backfires.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course not! I’m terrified! Don’t you understand? A car pulled up and a man walked up to it and opened fire. I was standing right there! I’ve never been so scared.”

“But you aren’t hurt?”

Ilona didn’t seem to hear her. “I can’t believe it! It was so incredible! Then I did something really stupid, Nicki. I called the police!”

“That’s not stupid. You—”

“No! It is stupid! They’ll have a record of the call! They’ll know there was a witness!”

Nicki tried to stay calm. “It’s okay.”

“No! It’s not okay! I can’t be a witness!”

“Take it easy, Ilona. Who was the man?”

“Which man? Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I’ve never seen either of those men before.”

“But you said your boyfriend found you.”

“I’m rattled, Nicki. Will you just listen a minute?” Almost calmly, Ilona began to describe the man in the car. Nicki thought about the man she’d seen run across the street.

“Nicki, I can’t tell the police what I saw!” Ilona concluded.

“Of course you can. You have to. A man is dead. You have to tell them—”

“No! You’ll have to tell them.”

Nicki stared at the flowers on her coffee table. The cut crystal bowl rested precariously near the edge of the table. “Ilona, I didn’t see the murder, you did.”

“I know that, but the police don’t. You have to pretend to be me. You can tell the police what I saw. I’ll describe everything to you.”

Nicki sank down on the couch and shoved the flowers back into place. “You can’t be serious.”

“You have to! Please, Nicki! They’re going to think the caller was you anyhow. I didn’t give them my name.”

“But—”

“Is that sirens in the background?”

Only then did Nicki process the sound of the siren turning down the alley. The police were here already.

“Promise me, Nicki! You have to promise me!”

“Ilona, this is crazy. Just come back and tell them what you saw.”

“I won’t. I can’t! If you don’t give them the description then the murderer will get away free. Is that what you want? Because I’m not coming back, Nicki.”

Nicki gripped the telephone even more tightly. Ginger jumped up beside her on the couch, her feline eyes staring with unwinking intelligence. Nicki reached out to stroke the comforting fur.

“Look, Ilona, I know you’re scared, but be reasonable. All you have to do is tell the police what you saw. They’ll protect you. I keep telling you they’ll protect you from the man who hurt you too.”

Silence.

Finally, in a stilted voice Ilona said, “The man who hurt me is a policeman, Nicki.”

The words filled her ear like a tidal wave of destruction. No wonder Ilona had refused to discuss going to the police. No wonder she was so frightened. Who do you turn to when the protectors turn on you?

“I didn’t want to tell you,” Ilona continued. “I was afraid you wouldn’t let me stay if you knew.”

“Of course I would have let you stay,” Nicki said automatically. But she realized she would have been even more nervous if she had known the truth. “Look, Ilona—”

“Don’t tell me I should report him. I’m not going to and that’s all there is to it. Now, are you going to cover for me or not?”

“But I can’t be a witness when I wasn’t even there.”

“All you have to do is describe what I saw. No one will know it wasn’t you in the alley. Please, Nicki. I’m so scared. I don’t want that man’s murderer to walk free just because I’m afraid.”

“Then come back and—”

“Nicki!”

Nicki realized her options were down to two. She could refuse, but then she’d have to explain the phone call. And that might put Ilona in harm’s way if her boyfriend found out. Only, to agree to this preposterous plan…Nicki envisioned the figure running across the street and hesitated. Maybe she had seen the killer after all.

“Tell me exactly what you saw.”

Nicki listened closely this time. The general description could fit a dozen men right here in Fools Point. The dark jeans, T-shirt and wavy black hair also fit the man Nicki had seen standing across the street. The man who had looked so hauntingly familiar.

But it couldn’t be Alex. He’d been in town for months now and he hadn’t once come to see her. She shelved the tiny seed of hurt. Rumor had it that he’d taken up with Vic Unsdorf and some other unsavory friends. The men were nothing but trouble. In fact, Alex had already been questioned in several incidents lately. Her stomach clenched.

“Give me that description again,” she demanded.

Jeans, dark shirt, dark wavy hair, six feet, muscular.

Alex.

“Ilona, I can’t!”

She heard Ilona sigh. “Then you can’t. Take care of yourself, Nicki.”

“Wait! What about you? Where are you going to go?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll find another place to stay.”

Nicki gripped the portable phone more tightly. “Are you absolutely sure about what you saw?”

“I was standing right there!”

She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t.

“I’ve got to go before he finds me. Thanks for everything, Nicki.”

“Wait!”

Ilona hung up before Nicki’s common sense could offer more of a protest. She shut her eyes trying desperately to think. An authoritative pounding sounded on her back door. Nicki quivered in reaction. Time was up. She had a choice—betray her old friend or her first lover.

Taking a deep breath, Nicki slowly stood and went to admit the police.

“ON YOUR FEET, Coughlin.”

Alex stared at Sergeant Thad Osher’s boyishly round face and thought about how good it would feel to plant his fist in that smugly satisfied expression. Keys jingled in the lock. The cell door parted. Alex came off the cot in one unhurried motion. The fast movement was enough to make Osher take a quick step back. His hand automatically went to the weapon at his side.

“Planning to shoot me, Thaddie?”

Red-faced, Osher glared at him. “Just give me a reason. Turn around.”

“Restraints?” He tried not to let the other man see how angry he was. “You really are afraid of me, aren’t you? My lawyer’s going to have a field day with this one. I don’t imagine Chief Hepplewhite’s going to be any too pleased either. He cares about things like a prisoner’s rights.”

“Shut up.”

Osher clamped the handcuffs around his wrists tight enough to pinch. Alex didn’t make a sound, not even when he was given a shove forward that caused him to crash against the far wall.

Down the hall, a cluster of men waited outside a room. Alex recognized Jake Collins right away. Collins had recently converted the old Perry place into a local bar and restaurant. There were a lot of wild rumors circulating about the newcomer and where he’d earned the money to pull off such a feat. But Alex knew that was mostly because Collins tended to keep to himself.