On the Edge (The Gregory Series - Last Book) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  The Gregory Series ~ Blurbs

  About the Author

  ON THE EDGE

  by

  Sue Fineman

  On the Edge

  Copyright © 2011 Sue Fineman

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from Sue Fineman.

  Published by Amazon KDP

  Seattle, WA

  Electronic KDP Edition: April, 2011

  This book is a work of fiction and all characters exist solely in the author's imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Any references to places, events or locales are used in a fictitious manner.

  Chapter One

  Baylee Patterson tucked a lock of blond hair behind her ear and eased closer to the yellow crime scene tape, hoping to see or hear something to flesh out her story. The early edition of the newspaper had already gone out, and her editor had bumped another story to make room on the front page of the later edition. Her first byline on the front page. She should be happy about that, and she would be, if not for the subject matter.

  Melissa Blackburn, the brave woman who’d testified against her husband after the last brutal beating, was a victim again. This time, Black Jack Blackburn had beaten her to death. Baylee felt sick just thinking about how much Melissa had suffered as the life seeped out of her battered body.

  Detective McBride walked over, popping a lemon drop in his mouth on the way. She’d seen him do that on other crime scenes. Something to keep the nausea at bay.

  “Baylee, we need to talk.”

  She turned on her little recorder. “On the record or off?”

  “Off.” He took the recorder from her hand and flipped it off before handing it back.

  A gust of wind whipped her hair around her head. Another storm blowing in from the coast. As if these homicide detectives needed rain to contaminate the crime scene.

  McBride glanced up at the dark clouds blowing in. “Shit,” he said under his breath.

  He looked back at Baylee. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up. Jack Blackburn told his cellmate he had eight people on his list. Number one was his wife. Numbers two and three were his wife’s divorce attorney and the attorney’s ex-wife.”

  “Chance and Emma Gregory.” And he’d already killed Emma. “Who else?”

  McBride looked her in the eye. “Number four is the reporter who stirred up public sentiment against him.”

  Oh, God! Baylee sucked in a deep breath. “That would be me.”

  He nodded. “That would be you.”

  She wanted to go home and hide under the bed, but the reporter in her needed more information. “Who are the others?”

  “The officers who arrested him, the prosecuting attorney who convinced a jury to convict him, and the judge who sentenced him.”

  Melissa Blackburn wasn’t the first woman Black Jack had beaten, and Baylee suspected Emma Gregory wasn’t the first person he’d killed. She shivered and rubbed her arms, cold from more than the chilly early morning temperature.

  McBride glanced down the street. Baylee followed his gaze and saw Chance Gregory walking toward them. He looked handsome and composed in black slacks, a dark red sweater, and a black leather jacket. She knew this death had hit him hard. Everyone who’d known Melissa had liked her, and this had to remind him of Emma’s murder.

  “I told him to get the hell out of town,” McBride muttered. He turned back to her. “I’m telling you the same thing, Baylee. Get the hell out of town, and stay gone until we pull in Blackburn.”

  “I can’t go anywhere now.”

  Chance walked up. “Neither can I.”

  McBride stormed back toward the crime scene, muttering, “Damn civilians are going to get themselves killed.”

  Baylee stared into Chance’s dark chocolate eyes. They’d had a little fling after his divorce became final, a one-night stand. He’d promised to call, but that was over two years ago.

  “What was that about?” Chance asked her.

  “Apparently you and I are on Black Jack’s list.”

  “He comes near me and I’ll shoot him.” He sounded bitter, and she couldn’t blame him for feeling that way. Even though he and Emma had divorced, they’d remained friends. The divorce had saddened him, and Emma’s murder had torn his world apart. He had three children who’d lost their mother.

  “You can’t watch for him twenty-four/seven, Chance. If Melissa had heard him coming, she would have shot him.”

  “I know,” he said on a soft sigh.

  She shoved her recorder into her purse and grabbed her car keys from the pocket of her jacket. She had a story to write.

  He grabbed her arm. “Baylee, wait.”

  She stared at his hand on her arm, and he let go.

  Sorrow had etched new lines on his face, and his eyes looked a lifetime older, yet he was still the most appealing man she’d ever known. Aside from a slight slant to his deep brown eyes and an Asian complexion, Chance’s Korean mother hadn’t given him much of herself. Just shy of six feet, he had a strong presence and an intensity that drew the attention of everyone in a courtroom. He kept juries spellbound with his passionate pleas, and he seldom lost a case. As an attorney, Chance Gregory was a star. As a man, she hadn’t quite figured him out.

  “Be careful,” he said gently.

  His quiet concern left her speechless. All she could do was nod and back away. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he cared about her. But he didn’t. For the past two years, he’d ignored her as if she didn’t exist.

  Baylee drove back to the newspaper office and worked on her piece for the next edition of the paper. She’d written a series of articles on domestic violence. After the Tacoma police chief shot his wife and then himself, many reporters wrote about the problem. For them it was a one-time thing. For her it was a lifetime obsession.

  Baylee had done interviews with battered women at the shelter, she’d interviewed two women in the Purdy Women’s Prison who’d killed their husbands rather than endure another beating, and she’d done her best to keep the subject alive in the media.

  Melissa Blackburn had revealed a lot about herself and her marriage in an interview after her husband was sent to prison. She said Jack had two personalities, and before their marriage, he’d only revealed the nice one. She thought it was a fluke when he came home from work in a rage one day, ripped the lamp out of the wall, and threw it across the living room. But it wasn’t a fluke. He’d often turned that anger on her, verbally blasting her and blaming her for everything that went wrong in his life.

  When Melissa had had enough, she asked for a divorce. He hit her then, beat her so badly she passed out. When she came to, she drove herself to the hospital, where a police officer advised her to disappear. But she thought a divorce would end it, and she didn’t want to leave her job. She’d just gotten a big promotion.

  The promotion wouldn’t do her any good now.

  Baylee poured out her thoug
hts through her fingers on the computer keyboard and wrote an impassioned plea for the courts to treat domestic violence as they would any other violent crime. A vicious assault against a spouse or former spouse or girlfriend shouldn’t bring a lesser sentence than an assault against a stranger, but too often the courts treated it as a lesser crime. Too often a woman ended up in the hospital, savagely beaten.

  Or dead.

  Jack Blackburn had glared at his battered wife in the courtroom, threatening without words. Thank God they didn’t have any kids, although Baylee didn’t think having kids would have stopped him from killing their mother. Chance and Emma Gregory had three kids, and that hadn’t stopped him from killing Emma. And it wouldn’t stop him from killing Chance or her or anyone else.

  She finished her article, proofed it, and hit the send button. Baylee knew she was fighting a losing battle. Some men systematically beat their wives down, so much so the women were afraid to leave them. They should be afraid. Statistics showed the most dangerous time for a battered woman was when she left her abuser. It was a no-win situation. Stay and live a life of fear and pain, or leave and risk a worse fate.

  Jack Blackburn spent five years in prison for nearly killing his wife, and he came out meaner than when he went in. In leaving her abusive husband, in testifying against him in a court of law, Melissa had sent an enraged monster on a killing spree.

  Baylee shivered and rubbed her arms.

  She could be next.

  <>

  Chance unlocked his office door and fear skittered along his spine. Someone had not only broken in, they’d smeared blood on the walls and spray-painted GOOK across the window blinds and YOU’RE NEXT on the wall over the copier. The file cabinets had been pried open and the pages of Melissa Blackburn’s file were strewn on the floor, with blood dripped all over them. In the middle of the mess lay a jack of spades. A black jack. Nothing like leaving a calling card.

  Without touching anything, Chance used his cell phone to call 911. After he explained what happened, he said, “Send Detective McBride. Tell him this is connected to the Melissa Blackburn murder.”

  Baylee Patterson arrived before the police. She must have been listening to the police scanner again. “Chance, what happened?”

  “Blackburn was here.”

  She leaned in the door and snapped pictures of the office. She’d slipped her digital camera in her pocket before McBride stormed through the outside door of the office building and strode toward the crime scene. Chance thought Baylee would leave, but she hung around, watching and listening to the police activity. After the police determined there were no dead bodies inside the office, she cornered McBride and asked for a statement.

  “Give me something, McBride. Anything. The killer has murdered two women and threatened his wife’s attorney. I’m afraid he’s just getting started.”

  “You should be afraid, Baylee.” He cocked his head. “Didn’t I tell you to leave town?”

  “Did you?”

  McBride shook his head as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “Put that in the newspaper. Tell the world I ordered you and Chance Gregory to leave town until we caught the killer. That way when you end up dead, they won’t blame me for not protecting you.”

  Baylee’s chin came up. “Did you order the judge and arresting officers and prosecuting attorney to leave town?”

  McBride pointed toward the outside door. “Get out of here. Go pack your bags and get the hell out of Tacoma while you still can. I’m running out of body bags.” He dropped his hand and looked over at Chance. “You, too. Keep your eyes open so he doesn’t follow you out of town.”

  “I have a job,” said Baylee.

  McBride leaned into her face. “Will that matter if you’re dead?”

  All the color left Baylee’s face.

  “Jacobs,” called McBride.

  A young uniformed officer appeared at his side. “Escort Miss Patterson and Mr. Gregory to their homes, where they will pack their things and leave the city.”

  Baylee said, “You can’t make me leave.”

  “No, I can’t,” said McBride, “but I don’t want to see you killed, Baylee.” He turned to Chance. “No arguments from you?”

  “No, sir.” Chance had a picture of his children sitting on his desk. Seeing that picture with blood smeared on the glass pretty much sealed it for him. He’d never feel safe enough to bring his children back to Tacoma. He’d move to Caledonia, Texas. His family lived there now, and the kids were with his mother. Greg was the sheriff there, Bo had served in the Marines, Mia used to be a cop, and Mia’s husband, Dave Montgomery, spent several years as a special agent in the FBI. The kids couldn’t be in a safer place. “I’m going to Texas. If Baylee wants to come along, that’s fine.”

  McBride stared at Baylee. “She’ll go.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t work from Texas.”

  “Come on, Baylee,” said Chance. “The Tacoma Police Department can’t protect us forever, and nobody wants you to end up like Emma and Melissa.”

  “But you don’t want—”

  “Don’t tell me what I don’t want,” he snapped.

  She stared at him, probably wondering why he cared. But he did care, more than he wanted to admit, even to himself. He’d never forgotten the night they spent together. She was generous with her heart and her body that night. He’d promised to call, but he felt so guilty for using her, he couldn’t face her again. She probably had some great guy in her life by now, but whether she did or not, he wouldn’t fail Baylee like he’d failed Emma. Somehow, he had to keep her away from Jack Blackburn, and he couldn’t keep her safe in Tacoma.

  He couldn’t even keep himself safe here.

  He’d needed a push to close his law practice, and Blackburn had just given him one. His assistant had recently quit, and his once thriving legal business dropped off after Emma was murdered. People were afraid to get close to him, and he couldn’t blame them.

  With his family in Texas, Chance had thought about selling his law practice and moving there. Abe Rosenbloom had made an offer once before. Maybe he was still interested.

  As the police finished in the office, Chance called Abe. “Are you still interested in buying my law practice?”

  “Of course,” Abe replied. “Do I get you in the deal?”

  “No, I’m moving to Texas. Do you want the furniture and office equipment?”

  “I’ll take everything, Chance.”

  They negotiated a price they could both live with, and after the phone call, Chance called a moving company to box up his files and take them to Abe’s storage facility, along with the furniture and office equipment.

  McBride said, “Jacobs is on his way. He’ll follow you home.”

  “Okay. Where’s Baylee? Did she leave already?”

  “She’s with Jacobs. Chance, I’m not sure we can protect you, and if that stubborn woman reporter hangs around the city—“

  “I’ll take her with me.” If she’d go. He wasn’t an expert marksman like his siblings, but he did know how to shoot a gun. She’d be safer with him than in Tacoma.

  “Why don’t you and Baylee go up to my cabin at Snoqualmie Pass?” McBride handed Chance a key. “Do you remember how to get there?”

  “Not exactly.” Chance had been there with his father and McBride’s son the winter before Dad was killed. That was years ago.

  McBride gave Chance directions to the cabin, and Chance nodded his thanks.

  No sense in luring Blackburn to Texas if he had another choice. The cabin should be fine as long as Baylee didn’t tell the world where they were. After the police arrested Blackburn, he’d bring her back to Tacoma, then drive to Texas to be with his family.

  <>

  Baylee’s editor had given her a stern lecture before she left the office. He said he didn’t want to have to print a story about her murder. Maybe he and McBride were right. Maybe she should go before that monster came after her.

  Chance wouldn’t stay in Tacoma
after finding his office destroyed, and his family needed him in Texas. She had no family left except an aunt in Houston. She could stay with one of her friends in Tacoma, but she didn’t want to bring trouble down on them.

  Officer Jacobs followed her to her apartment. The apartment door stood open, and a jack of clubs lay just inside the door. Baylee turned cold. If she’d had any doubts about being on Black Jack’s list, the card did away with them.

  The officer also found a card on her pillow, a queen of spades, with a kitchen knife anchoring it to the pillow she’d slept on last night.

  “Okay, Jack,” she said on a shaky breath. “You have my attention now.”

  She snapped several pictures, and when the police were finished, she packed her bags. Time to leave town, before she ended up dead.

  She’d always hated the sight of blood. Especially her own.

  Chapter Two

  Chance drove home and pulled his car into the garage beside Emma’s SUV. After his divorce, he never thought he’d find himself living here again. Her death changed everything. The day she died, he moved back to take care of the kids, but when he realized who had killed Emma and why, he had to send the kids away. He didn’t want them caught in the crossfire when Jack Blackburn came after him. And he would come after him. Blackburn considered Chance his enemy because he’d encouraged Melissa to testify against him in court and helped her with the divorce.

  He walked through the house to make sure no one had been there since he’d left that morning and then brought some boxes up from the basement and packed the important papers, family pictures, and a few keepsakes to take with him. He didn’t want Emma’s killer to touch these things, and after seeing his office, he was fairly sure the bastard would come into the house again, searching for his next victim.

  He loaded the boxes in Emma’s car and went back inside to pack his clothes. Before he reached the stairs, the doorbell rang. Officer Jacobs had arrived with Baylee. Chance let them in and locked the front door behind them. “I’m not ready to go yet.”

  Baylee shed her jacket and tossed it on a chair in the living room. “How can I help?”