The Another Try Collection

CHAPTER SIX-1

CHAPTER SIX

In his apartment, Mason Gentries had also happened upon the broadcast, and winced, partly from his hangover and partly from what he’d just heard.

“Man,” he muttered. “Feel sorry for that guy’s family. Their whole world must be turned upside-down right about now.”

***

* * * *

It took four officers each at Maddie’s and her parents’ residences to move along the hordes of trespassing reporters. Even then, the mass of fact-seekers didn’t leave completely, just returned to the public easement side of the property line.

Man, I hope he never looks like that because of me, Maddie thought as she watched Detective Kenney’s glowering expression. He was speaking to someone at Flower Mound’s police headquarters, and Maddie could tell they were trying to figure out who had leaked information.

“Dammit. You sure?” he huffed, then listened a moment longer, then replied, “Got it,” and hung up.

“Well, no one in our department leaked it, Mrs. Nibless,” he told her. “Wyoming’s officials swear they didn’t either. I still need to confirm this, but we think the killer sent at least one network a full copy of the same packet you were sent.”

***

* * * *

Mason left the TV on as background noise while he worked through an idea to try to save both his project and his company. At eleven a.m. the broadcast repeated, using previously recorded footage from a residential area.

The on-scene reporter intoned, “Our attempts to speak with the victim’s widow about the revelations that have surfaced have so far been unsuccessful,” as footage from the morning’s events scrolled across the screen.

Mason’s jaw dropped when he glanced at the screen and saw whose shocked face had been captured briefly on camera. She’d only been visible for three, perhaps four seconds. But that was long enough.

I’d know that face anywhere.

After all, he’d been in love with Madeleine Kay Smithing since the fourth grade.

Maddie was in the back of his mind the rest of the day. Mason finally worked up the nerve to try to reach out to her that evening to check on her and offer his condolences, since he knew firsthand what being widowed was like.

But he couldn’t find her. All her social media accounts had been closed, and he had no idea where she lived.

She’d disappeared from his life all over again.

***

* * * *

“I can’t do this anymore,” Maddie told Kathy after three days of being hounded constantly. “I can’t. I want to hurry up and sell the house and just... move away. Far, far away, maybe. I never even wanted this place to begin with. Besides, it’s way too big for just me. I want to get rid of it and move somewhere where I don’t have to deal with this... this...”

“Bullshit?”

“Yeah,” Maddie agreed. “That’s the word I was looking for. It’s ridiculous. I didn’t ask for any of this, and I don’t want it. I’m done. The phone rings constantly now, Kathy. It never stops.”

“Hey, I just thought of something,” Kathy said. “A realtor friend of mine has some cabins he rents out down around Lake Travis. If you want, I could give him a call. Maybe you can use one for a couple weeks until everything dies down. Take some time to decompress before you make any big decisions like leaving town for good, all right?”

Maddie contemplated only briefly before responding, “Deal. Make the call please, Kathy. I think that arrangement just might save what’s left of my sanity.”

Kathy called her back within twenty minutes.

“He says it’s all yours, as long as you need it. And he offered the one that’s the most secluded but still close to the water. It’s got its own little dock, and the next closest cabin is a good hundred yards away. You’d have privacy, for sure. I’ve stayed in that one before. It’s really nice, Mad. I think it’s perfect for what you need.”

“Kathy,” Maddie sighed, “you’re a lifesaver. Now all I have to do is hope no news people follow me out there.”

***

* * * *

The following morning, Maddie put her suitcase in the trunk, started the car, and opened the garage door. Same stuff, different day, she sighed to herself as the usual sharks circled just beyond where her property boundary ran.

“Keep up if you can,” she muttered through clenched teeth, and pulled out of her garage, pausing only to make sure the door closed firmly behind her. Then she rolled down her driveway, turned right, and sighed again as three news crews opted to follow.

But Maddie’s spirits were high. In addition to her brilliant skills as a realtor, Kathy’s natural ability to outthink most people in any given situation was a huge weapon in Maddie’s arsenal.

“Here’s what you do,” Kathy had told her, before laying out a foolproof plan to evade the media.

“I love it,” Maddie had grinned.

Per Kathy’s suggestion, Maddie drove to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The media hounds tailed her, as both women thought they might, so for her pursuers’ benefit Maddie did her utmost to make them think she was catching a flight.

She parked at the terminal, retrieved her suitcase, and walked inside. Her followers peeled off, and she giggled to herself as she surreptitiously watched them drive on.

She waited twenty minutes then returned to her car, left the airport, and headed south on I-35 toward Lake Travis and a long overdue break from her life.

***