Her Mistletoe Protector(12)

"I'm so glad, Rachel," he murmured, reaching over to take her hand in his. "Looks as if my prayers have been answered. I've been praying that you'd allow the Lord to help carry your burden."

Nick's hand was warm on hers, and she found it odd that she didn't want to let go. Never before had she ever depended on a man to help her. Except for her father, especially when she'd needed to escape Anthony. She knew she was lucky to have Nick's help with this. She never would have been able to manage alone.

Her new phone rang, interrupting the peaceful silence. Startled, she glanced at the screen, half expecting to see the familiar blocked call.

But the call was from Edith Goodman, her assistant. She winced as she realized she had forgotten to let Edith know she wouldn't be in the office today. Or at all, considering she wouldn't be the owner of the company once she returned from the bank in a few hours. "Hi, Edith," she said to her assistant. "I'm sorry I forgot to let you know that I'm taking the rest of the week off."                       
       
           



       

"The rest of the week?" Edith's voice rose sharply. "This isn't like you at all. What in the world is going on, Rachel?"

"I'm sorry, Edith, but there's something important I have to do." She wanted to reassure her assistant that Gerry would be there to take over the company, but Edith would find that out sooner or later. No need to spill the beans yet. "Just cancel my meetings and let everyone know I'm taking a personal leave of absence, okay?"

"If that's what you want," Edith replied slowly. "But that wasn't the reason I called. I just thought you should know what happened, before you read about it in the newspaper."

"Read what?" She had no idea what her assistant was talking about. She hadn't even thought about reading the newspaper since getting the threatening notes. Surely there wasn't another pending lawsuit? She'd feel guilty selling her shares of stock to Gerry if in fact they weren't worth the price.

"Dr. Josie Gardener is dead, Rachel," Edith said, her voice tinged with sorrow. "It looks like she may have committed suicide late last night."

* * *

Nick knew that, whatever the contents of the phone call between Rachel and Edith, it was bad news. Rachel went pale, her fingers gripping the phone tightly as she listened.

"Do you know anything else?" she asked. He couldn't hear Edith's response, but then Rachel said, "Okay, thanks for letting me know," and she disconnected from the call.

"Rachel? What happened?" He took her hand in his, trying to offer some sort of comfort.

"One of my top research scientists was found dead in her home early this morning," she said in a whisper. "They think it might be a suicide."

Suicide? As before, the timing was too much of a coincidence. "Was this the same research scientist who was responsible for the new diabetes drug going to market and then being recalled by the FDA?" She nodded. "Josie Gardener wasn't the only one involved in creating the new medication. She worked with Dr. Karl Errol, too."

Nick glanced around, not wanting to discuss anything further in a public place. "Let's go out to the car," he murmured.

Rachel seemed to move in slow motion as they packed up and went back outside, carrying their coffee. He felt better once they were safely settled in the car. "Is there any reason to suspect she was involved in covering up the side effects of the medication?"

"Of course not!" Rachel's denial was swift. "Her reputation was on the line with this new medication. And even if it wasn't, why commit suicide now? Why not back when the lawsuits were initially filed?"

She had a point, but he found he couldn't let it go. "Maybe she was afraid you'd find out the truth and couldn't bear to face the consequences of her actions?"

Rachel frowned for a moment, as if considering his idea. "I don't know, Nick. We have been working on releasing our research documents to the FDA, but if there was something Josie was trying to cover up, I'm sure Karl would have told me."

Unless Karl was in on it, too, he thought. Was it possible that Karl was responsible for kidnapping Joey? Maybe Karl's goal was to keep Rachel preoccupied while he swept the truth about the diabetes drug under the rug? Once he had the money, he could disappear out of the country without anyone being the wiser.

The more he thought about the theory, the more convinced he became that he was onto something. But he didn't think Rachel was going to go along with his idea-she was too loyal to her coworkers to think anything bad about them. "Where does Karl live?" he asked, trying to sound casual. "Maybe we should pay him a visit? See what he knows about Josie's death?"

"He lives in a small house not far from the company," Rachel said, her forehead wrinkled in a deep frown. "I would say he'd be at work, but, with Josie's death, I guess I'm not sure. They were close, but only in a professional way as far as I know. Neither one of them is married. Josie has a brother and a twin sister, but no children."                       
       
           



       

Nick felt bad for Josie's family, but he was more interested right now in where Karl Errol was. "Do you know Karl's home address?"

Rachel rattled it off as he entered it into his phone GPS. He pulled out of the coffee shop parking lot and followed the directions with a sense of grim determination. Hopefully, the good doctor would be at home, playing the role of grieving colleague.

When they pulled up in front of Karl Errol's house, the small, brick Tudor appeared to be deserted. There were no holiday decorations adorning the home, and the yard had a shaggy look of neglect beneath the light dusting of snow. "Stay here," he advised Rachel. "I'm going to take a look around outside."

"Should I call Edith and see if he's at the office?" she asked, as he slid out from behind the wheel.

"Sure." He flashed a reassuring smile before heading up the cracked sidewalk leading to the researcher's front door.

No response from inside the home, which was pretty much what he expected. He peered through the windows but couldn't see much-the sunlight outside caused a glare that made it difficult to see. He walked around the house, crunching on leaves as he made his way to the garage, which was closed and locked up tight. He strode over to the back door and checked it as well. The screen door opened, and his heart quickened as he tested the interior door.

Locked, but with a flimsy, old-fashioned type of lock. He considered trying to jimmy it with a credit card, but was loath to do anything illegal.

He hesitated on the cracked stoop. What if Joey was inside the old house? What if his theory about Dr. Errol was right? That he'd kidnapped Joey to keep Rachel from uncovering his mistakes?

Wrestling with his conscience, he turned away from the door, but then caught sight of one of those fake rocks that were sometimes used to hide keys. Why people bothered with that sort of thing, he had no clue. Talk about being obvious. He reached down, opened up the fake rock and removed the key.

He accessed the house, wrinkling his nose at the stale air. When was the last time the doctor had been home? Either the guy simply lived like this, or he was holed up somewhere else-with Joey-biding his time until he could get his hands on Rachel's cash.

He quickly swept through the house, including the upstairs bedrooms but didn't find anything suspicious. There were only three bedrooms, and they were all empty. He even went down in the basement, which was dark and dank, smelling strongly of mold.

Nothing. Which he found a bit odd. Usually people left a bit of themselves strewn around, at least a bill or a coupon or something. But the place was so void of anything personal that he couldn't help wondering if he was on the right track. Granted, he hadn't found Joey here, but he wasn't willing to give up his theory just yet.

Back up in the kitchen, he searched for notes or anything at all that might indicate where Dr. Errol had gone. The garbage can was empty and there wasn't a single stray note to be found. He even went back to the master bedroom, but still didn't find anything.

Dr. Errol was either innocent or smarter than he'd given the guy credit for. And he was leaning toward the latter.

He left the house the same way he'd come in, returning the key to its hiding place in the fake rock. He hurried back around to the front, where Rachel was waiting in the car.

"What took you so long?" she asked, when he slid in behind the wheel. "I was getting ready to come out and look for you."

"Sorry, I was poking around and lost track of time. Did you get in touch with Edith?"

"Yes, she said that Karl called in saying he was staying home today." She stared at the house through the windshield. "Maybe we should try knocking at the door again?"

Time to come clean. "Actually, I found the house key hidden in a rock near the back door. I went in and checked out the house. Believe me, no one is home. And from what I saw, I don't think he's been home in a couple of days, either."