Gilded Craving: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 3) Read online

  "How did they find this out about each other? I sure as shit don't remember this coming up in casual conversations."

  "The way Brad described it, he didn't know either. The night after he got back into town from school, we saw Isla and Daphne out at The Alleyway. Brad and Isla got drunk and ended up making out. Long story short, he went home with her and she asked if it was okay if the roommate and roommate's boyfriend joined in. Brad was into it, so..."

  More names to add to Ryan's list to talk to. Roommate and roommate's boyfriend.

  I'm sure they're going to want to unearth some one-night stand from over a decade ago.

  "Did Brad and Caro argue a lot about this?"

  "She didn't know. She knew he flirted and shit, but she didn't have any idea that Brad was getting his freak on just about every other night with some girl."

  Ryan finished the last bite of his cinnamon roll. "She knew. Trust me."

  "He never told her."

  "He didn't have to. He wasn't exactly discreet. People talk, Theo. Now...were they arguing a lot? Brad had been home from university less than three weeks but it sounds like he'd been a busy boy. Was Caroline pissed about that? She wasn't the happiest person that last night."

  Theo's shoulders sagged. "He said that she was riding him hard. Wanted him to straighten up and start making future plans. But I swear, he didn't know that she knew all that he was up to. He always said that Caro would kill him if she'd found out he'd slept with another girl. Wait...you don't think...? No way would Caro do something like this."

  "I don't think anything. I'm just trying to figure out what happened that night, and who might have had motive and opportunity. We've always known that Caroline was the jealous type but none of us thought for one single second that she offed Brad after he disappeared."

  Ryan didn't tell Theo about Caroline and Trent. One, because he didn't know if it was the actual truth, and two, because it wasn't Theo's business. He was a little surprised that Theo didn't already know. Their social group wasn't known for keeping their mouths shut.

  Or was he completely wrong about that? It seemed that some people had secrets that Ryan hadn't known anything about back then. Maybe they weren't the gossipy circle he'd thought they were.

  "That's good," Theo replied, relief in his tone. "There's no way Caro would have done something like this. She loved Brad. It took her a long time to move on and it was only because Danny had been there to support her through it all. They were friends first."

  "I have to ask this. Did Danny have any feelings for Caroline that you know of? He never mentioned anything to me."

  "Not that I know of. He was sort of there for her out of sympathy in the beginning. You know how he is...the kind of guy who would take in a stray kitten. I think he felt sorry for her, to be honest."

  "They seem to be very happy now."

  "They are. We don't see them much but when we do, they seem to be really in love and happy together."

  Ryan didn't have any more questions, at least not for Theo. He stood and pulled a business card from his pocket, placing it on the coffee table.

  "Thank you for meeting me this morning. I have several people to talk to today so I won't take up any more of your time. If you think of anything else, call me. Anything at all. What seems like a small, insignificant detail can often be the missing puzzle piece that breaks a case open."

  Chuckling, Theo picked up the card and tucked it in his breast pocket. "It's kind of strange, you being a cop. I know you talked about it all the time, but to be honest, I think we all thought you'd give in and go into business with your dad. But here you are...a cop. You did it. Just like you promised."

  "I was never going to go into the family business."

  "That's what Mariah always said but I have to admit that we didn't believe her. I guess she was right."

  Mariah had said so? He hadn't known that.

  Maybe she'd known him a little better than he'd given her credit for.

  "I hope you find out the truth about what happened that night," Theo continued. "We're all counting on you to solve this and figure out who or what killed Brad."

  That's exactly what Ryan planned to do. Next stop...Caroline and Daniel Bosworth.

  14

  Mariah and Daphne had promised to visit Caroline the next day. They'd planned to catch up on each other's lives but in reality, it was about supporting Caroline in her grief. She was taking Brad's death hard and they wanted to be there for her even if they hadn't been all that close in the last ten years.

  Since the day was warm and sunny, they'd decided to sit out next to the pool. Caroline and Dan had a large, beautiful home in an affluent suburb for their family of four, plus a cute beagle named Ted. The children - a boy named Adam and a girl named Alice - were off of school for summer break but were headed out the door to a day camp with the nanny when Mariah arrived.

  "Your son and daughter look just like you and Dan," Mariah said as they relaxed under the shade of an umbrella. "They're really cute, and so polite."

  They had been, too. Unlike so many kids that she'd met over the years, Adam and Alice had politely shook Mariah's hand. They seemed happy, calm, and well-behaved.

  "When are you two going to have some kids?" Caroline asked. "You'd both make great mothers."

  Daphne vehemently shook her head. "Not me. I like other people's kids fine because you can give them back when they pee, poop, or cry, but I don't want any of my own. Too loud and messy. I'll stick with my two cats, thank you very much. I don't even scoop their litter. I bought one of those automatic litter boxes. All I have to do is change the bag every now and then. It's genius."

  Now they were both looking at Mariah.

  I guess it's my turn to share.

  "I wouldn't mind having a child but it would have to be with the right man. I don't want to be one of those marriages where the father does nothing and the mother does everything. I'd want him to be involved."

  Ryan would be an involved parent. He had strong opinions about how he was parented and none of them were very positive.

  "Dan is a very hands-on father," Caroline said. "He was always better at getting the kids to sleep when they were babies. He could get a burp out of them when I'd failed."

  "He sounds like a good dad," Daphne observed. "You both seem happy."

  Caroline's smile dropped. "We are. I love him so much. I'm just afraid that I'm hurting him with all of this crying over Brad. I don't want him to think that I don't love him or our family."

  "I'm sure he wouldn't think that," Mariah replied. "I'm sure he understands that it's just the past got dug up. No one was prepared for Brad to be found after all of these years."

  Caroline was wringing her hands together, the knuckles white. "I'm realizing now that I haven't really dealt with all of my emotions from back then. I loved Brad, or I thought I did, and then he was gone suddenly. Just gone. No warning. Nothing prepares a person for that. So I made up a story in my head and tried to move on with my life. Apparently, I did a lousy job at it because look where I am now."

  "I think you're handling it quite well," Daphne declared. "This was a shock to all of us and you wouldn't be human if you weren't upset. You and Theo were the closest to Brad, after all."

  "Theo didn't seem upset yesterday," Caroline replied. "And I was all weepy."

  "Men are taught not to express their emotions," Mariah reminded her friend. "Just because he didn't cry doesn't mean that he wasn't sad or upset."

  The sound of Ted barking interrupted whatever Caroline had been about to say. The back door opened and Dan and Ryan walked out of the house and into the backyard, the beagle at their heels.

  "Honey, Ryan is here to talk to us," Dan said taking a seat at the round table.

  Ryan sat in the empty chair next to Mariah. Today he was wearing casual blue jeans and a light blue button-down shirt, the sleeves rolled up. He didn't look like a man on a mission, but she knew for a fact that he wasn't here to socialize. He'd told her last n
ight that he was going to try and talk to everyone in their friend group today, if at all possible.

  Ryan greeted them briefly, but basically got right down to business.

  "I'm talking to everyone that was at the bar that night to try and get a better picture of the evening and what might have been going on in Brad's life. Yesterday, I spoke with Carl and this morning I talked to Theo."

  Daphne checked her watch. "Wow, you were up early then. It's barely ten o'clock."

  "I didn't want to waste any time." He shifted his focus to Caroline. "I also just spoke with Dan so I do need to ask you some questions. Can you talk to me about that night?"

  Dan reached for Caroline's hand as she took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders as if bracing for a blow.

  "I can. I want to help find out what happened to Brad."

  "Great, then let's start at the beginning. Tell me about that night, even details that don't seem important. Take your time. There's no rush."

  Caroline took another deep breath. "Brad wanted to go out and party, which as you know wasn't unusual. I was a little worried about getting up early to catch our flight but he said that it would be fine and that I could go home early if I wanted to. He never really needed all that much sleep so I didn't think it would be a big deal. We went to the bar and met Theo, who was already there. Everybody else started showing up. You and Mariah got there last. We'd already had a few cocktails and had been dancing. Well, I was dancing. Brad hated to dance."

  "Was he in a good mood that night? Was anything bothering him?"

  Frowning, Caroline shook her head. "He was fine, just like always. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He had been a little moody since he got home from school a few weeks before but he said he was just stressed out and he needed to have some fun."

  Ryan didn't follow up right away, appearing to be struggling with his next question. After Mariah's conversation with him last night she had an inkling of what he wanted to ask but was afraid to.

  Caroline and Dan exchanged a glance and then Dan nodded to his wife.

  "It's okay, honey. We don't have anything to hide."

  Returning her gaze to Ryan, Caroline smiled weakly. "I knew about Brad's other girls if that's what you were trying to ask me about. For the first few years that we dated, he tried to hide all of that from me but that last year...he didn't bother as much. Sometimes I think he wanted me to find out. He wanted us to argue, yell, and scream. Brad loved a good fight. He always said it cleared the air. He was always in a better mood after we'd argued. I, on the other hand, despised confrontation and avoided it until he pushed me into it. So yes, Ryan, I knew about Brad's extracurricular activities, and at that point I didn't care. I was planning to end things with Brad after Hawaii."

  Mariah hadn't been expecting that declaration. Not at all.

  Had Brad known? Did he care?

  It was beginning to look like the past that Mariah had known had never really actually existed.

  What other surprises were there?

  So Caroline had known pretty much the whole time?

  Ryan couldn't help but ask the next question. "You knew he was cheating but you stayed with him?"

  The couple exchanged another glance and Dan patted his wife's hand in a comforting gesture.

  "I'm not sure I can explain, but I'll try," Caroline said. "I was brought up to think that men would sow their wild oats when they were young and then later they would settle down. When I complained to my mom that Brad was cheating, she'd just tell me that he was young and he'd eventually stop. I really believed that. I truly thought that he would stop running after other girls, but eventually I got tired of waiting. I could clearly see that other couples didn't have the same problems. You never ran around on Mariah, and it was obvious you loved her. I wanted someone to love and respect me like that. So I'd decided to break up with Brad after the Hawaii trip. I didn't want to ruin everyone's vacation, and it didn't seem to matter if I waited a few weeks. I'd already waited far too long anyway."

  Caroline's mother sounded like a 1950s nightmare of a parent. She'd actively encouraged her daughter to stay with a boy that disrespected her.

  And Ryan hadn't ever cheated on Mariah. He'd never wanted to, and she would have dumped his ass if he had. Even back then she'd been a force to be reckoned with. She certainly hadn't put up with much shit.

  "Did Brad know that you knew?"

  A few tears slid down Caroline's cheeks. "Of course, he did. He liked to pretend that I was just confused or that I didn't understand. He would never admit it out loud."

  "Did he know you were going to break up with him?"

  "I don't know," she confessed. "I don't think so, although I gave him plenty of warning. I kept telling him that eventually I wasn't going to put up with his bad behavior anymore."

  But if she never actually broke up with him, Brad might have thought that she never would. She'd put up with him forever.

  "Had you...already moved on?"

  Shit, he didn't know quite how to word this, especially in front of Danny.

  "If you're talking about Trent, I know about all of that," Danny said with a smug smile. "We don't have any secrets from each other. Trent was a long time ago and frankly, he doesn't matter anymore."

  "Not that he ever mattered," Caroline said firmly. "I was only trying to show Brad that he wasn't the only person that could cheat. I could, too."

  "So Brad knew about you and Trent?" Ryan asked. "Did you tell him?"

  Caroline shook her head. "No, I never did. I was going to because I wanted to hurt him and then I realized that he wasn't worth it. I'd already decided to end things."

  "So you and Trent..."

  "Had a fling," Caroline replied with a shrug. "It was short and forgettable, to be honest. It meant nothing. It was just petty revenge on my part and I'm not very proud of that."

  "You are absolutely sure that Brad didn't know? Could Trent have told him?"

  "If Trent told Brad that he and Caroline were sleeping together, we all would have known about it," Danny said. "Brad and Trent would have definitely argued or possibly even physically fought."

  That was exactly what Ryan was thinking as well. Had Brad and Trent argued that night so long ago?

  One thing was for sure...one of them had ended up dead.

  15

  Trent Garfield had done well for himself in the last decade. A quick search into his background had turned up a man who made a great deal of money and liked to spend it. Trent had a bevy of women and an active social life. When he wasn't squiring a date to a charity winetasting or a fundraising gala, he was playing golf with his friends or jetting off for a ski weekend in Aspen.

  He'd joined his family's real estate business and worked out of his home which was where Ryan caught up with him later in the afternoon after visiting Caroline and Danny. Trent lived in a penthouse apartment that overlooked Lake Michigan. Decorated in chrome and white, it really wasn't Ryan's taste, but he had to admit that no one would be looking at the furniture with a view like that.

  "Can I get you a drink?" Trent said, ushering Ryan into the living room. The drapes were all pulled open to reveal wall to ceiling windows. "I've got just about anything you could want. Soda, water, beer, or something harder if the mood takes you."

  "Thank you, but I'm good." Ryan settled on the couch. "You know why I'm here so I guess we should just get down to it. I'm talking to everyone about the night that Brad disappeared. What they remember. That sort of thing."

  Trent sat down, his body sprawled and a water bottle dangling from his fingers. Today, he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that made him look like a college kid again. When Ryan had made the appointment with him, he'd said it was the perfect day because he didn't have any outside meetings.

  "I don't remember much," Trent admitted. "I was hammered that night. I'm not sure how much I can help you."

  "Did you talk to Brad? What did he say?"

  Trent shook his head. "I don't think th
at we had any sort of conversation beyond whose turn it was to go to the bar and get the drinks. He was hanging around with Theo and Caro, and I'd met some girl, too. Can't remember her name but we danced and had some drinks. That's pretty much it. I didn't see much of him that night, to be honest, and I didn't stay late. We all had to catch a plane the next day."

  "Were you surprised that Brad didn't make the flight?"

  Smiling, Trent rubbed at his chin. "Shit, you know how he was as well as I do. He sort of marched to his own drummer, if you know what I mean. He didn't like rules and he loved causing chaos. So...no, I wasn't surprised at all. I will say that I was surprised that he never showed up. I thought he'd fly in the next day and make a big entrance. He liked to be the center of attention."

  That was the pot calling the kettle...

  "So do you."

  "Can't deny it," Trent said with a cocky grin. "I was born to make a splash. It was my destiny."

  He doesn't have a self-esteem issue. But then he never did.

  "You two argued a few days before. What was it about?"

  Trent's grin vanished and his body language went from relaxed to tense in less than three seconds. He was now sitting straight up, his lips a thin line.

  "Who told you that?"

  "Everyone knew. What was it about?"

  "It wasn't a big deal. We were a couple of idiots that argued about stupid shit, that's all."

  "Since it was so stupid, you won't mind telling me what it was then."

  Shoulders stiffening, Trent stood from the chair. "The fact is I don't really remember all the details. It was dumb stuff."

  "Was it about Caroline?"

  Trent turned his back on Ryan, staring out of the large windows. "Why would we argue about her?"

  "Because you and Caroline were sleeping together. You don't have to pretend. I talked to Caroline this morning and she admitted it, plus she was seen going into your room in Hawaii."

  Turning around, Trent shrugged carelessly. "It wasn't about Caroline. Frankly, she was never important enough to argue about. I wasn't in love with her or anything, and she sure as hell wasn't in love with me. She just wanted to get back at Brad and I was convenient."