A Very Merry Hitman (Holiday With a Hitman #2)

24. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Dear Santa, is it too late to start trying?

Aileen slid onto the stool at her island top, glad the “cleaners” were gone and that body was out of her house. She didn’t even want to think about what could have happened if Nessa had woken up… Nausea threatened but she swallowed it back. No sense in traveling down that path.

Dante kissed her forehead as he slid coffee in front of her—and no one in her family batted an eye at their little display of affection.

Of course, her family rarely acted surprised at anything, and only an hour ago there had been a dead man in her kitchen. She was just glad that Dante hadn’t shot him so there was no blood to clean up.

And oh my god, she hated herself for thinking that but whatever. She wanted to keep her daughter protected.

“Until we’ve decided things, the cleaners are going to keep the body preserved,” her mom said, leaning against the nearby countertop.

“Good,” Aileen murmured as she pulled out her cell phone. “And I know why he was here. I realized it when he drew the pistol on me.”

Dante made a dark, growling sound.

She ignored him as she pulled her cell phone out and started scrolling through pictures. “Something had been bothering me but I couldn’t figure out what it was. But there was just something nagging me…” She found what she was looking for and set her phone on the countertop. “Look at the background in this one, then look at the video background of the next. Just swipe left.”

Everyone crowded together and she watched as one by one their eyes widened.

Calvin True was in the background of a couple photos and one video with Christina Fraser, the murdered teacher who’d been all over the news for the last month.

“The video is from the day she disappeared. It was earlier in the day, but according to her friends and at least one coworker, they were pretty sure she was having an affair with a married man.”

“Oh. My. God.” Elliana had her laptop out even as she spoke.

Aileen watched again as this time Dante pulled it up. Nessa was popping her soccer ball up on her knees, and sure enough, in the background of the parking lot was Christina Fraser sitting in the passenger seat of Calvin True’s vehicle. Or his wife’s Cadillac, to be more specific. That was what had been bothering her.

The car.

When Theo had mentioned the car they’d been following, it had struck something in her memory, but she couldn’t remember what. Now she did. She hadn’t been close enough to see the Fraser woman, and it wasn’t clear who she was until Aileen zoomed in. Then the woman’s face and hair were clear. “How did he even know I took this?” From the angle, he wasn’t paying attention to anything other than the woman in his passenger seat. They made out briefly before he pulled away from the parking spot and tore out of there.

“I heard him say something earlier,” Dante murmured as he set her phone back down. “He said, ‘I got rid of all the video evidence, but then saw you with your stupid phone, recording your daughter.’ Or something to that effect. If he got rid of video evidence, he could have been talking about the security feeds at the community center, the soccer fields. That’s where you took this video. And if he destroyed the videos, he would have seen you recording. And the angle makes it obvious it was trained in his direction. It seems clear that he was having an affair with the Fraser woman, and whether he murdered her or not, he didn’t want to risk their relationship getting out. ”

“He broke into my house and wanted to kill me for my phone. Pretty sure he killed the woman.” Which was why Aileen felt a lot less guilty about the whole thing.

“Agreed.” And Dante didn’t look like he felt one ounce of guilt.

“I’ll find out soon enough,” Elli said from across the island top. “Not this morning, but I’m going to make some calls. The police will definitely want to know about their relationship and…” Elli shook her head. “This is going to tear apart his family.”

Aileen nodded, a heavy weight settling in her gut. “He had three kids. Girls. No wonder his wife thought we were affair partners or whatever. She must have known he was having an affair and thought it was me.” Maybe because she’d run into him at the gala and he’d looked surprised. Or maybe horrified. Then Aileen had run into him at that Christmas store— Nope, she hadn’t run into him. He’d clearly been watching her videos. He’d made it seem like they ran into each other. “Oh my god,” she muttered. “He must have planted something on me yesterday. A tracker or something.” It was the only explanation for how he’d found her, because her home wasn’t in her name.

“Where are the clothes you were wearing?” her mom asked.

“My jacket is hanging up in the laundry room.”

Her mom disappeared, then was back moments later, already feeling around for something on her black pullover. Moments later she paused, then ran her fingers over the pocket a couple times before pulling out a flat little disc smaller than a dime. Her mom’s lips pulled into a thin line. “This is pretty high-tech stuff.”

“Yeah, we’ve seen it surging,” Elli said, nodding along. “Well, it explains how he found you and why the power in the neighborhood went off.”

They knew that someone had taken out two transformers, which had sent everyone in the neighborhood into lockdown essentially. Calvin True wouldn’t have known he’d targeted a neighborhood full of hitmen, wouldn’t have realized the chaos he’d set off inside all the quiet houses.

“So what are we going to do?” Aileen asked into the quiet lull .

“I’ll see what I can find as far as video evidence from the community fields. If he really did somehow manage to get rid of it, then we’ll go from there. But we’ve got video proof of their relationship on your phone. We can anonymously give it to the cops… And make it so the cops find his body?” Elli asked, looking at Theo.

Theo nodded. “Yeah, we can maybe make his broken neck look like an accident. If we send him and his car over a bridge, it could be believable. After that, it’s not up to us to do the job for the police. They’ll have the evidence of his relationship and I’m sure from there they’ll be able to unravel more.”

Aileen nodded even as she stifled a yawn. Nessa would be up in a couple hours and Aileen wanted to grab some sleep before then.

“All right, everyone out. Aileen needs to rest,” Dante said suddenly. Authoritatively. “We’ll meet up later and discuss everything, but unless you need her or me, we’re getting some sleep.”

Ooooh, she loved that he just took over, that he’d basically read her mind about wanting to crash. Or at least he’d been paying attention to her yawning. Either way, she really did love the man.