01 Untouchable - Untouchable (18 page)

“
You mean I have to look
like I’m falling for you?”

He wrapped his arm around
my shoulder and pulled me close, kissing my forehead. “You’ve got
to be my girl—just like you’re falling.”

“
On one condition.”
Although I knew I wasn’t in a very good position to make demands.
But, I wrapped my arm around his waist to see if this would work.
“You don’t go crazy on me like last night or in the bedroom. You’ll
be a perfect gentleman.”

“
You’re going to make this
job tough on me aren’t you?”

“
I hope so,” I said,
resting my face against his chest. “Hard enough to change your
mind.”

“
Don’t plan for it,” he
chided me.

I tipped my face up and, to
his surprise, kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“
Tomorrow?” he questioned
with clear curiosity.

“
Yes. Be at my house by
nine-fifteen. We have church.”

“
I don’t think…”

“
My
boyfriend
would go with me,” I reminded him. “And besides,
I don’t think you’ll burst into flames or anything like
that.”

“
I don’t know,” he quipped,
“Tomorrow is supposed to be stormy and lightening is a distinct
possibility. But I’ll be at your house at six tonight.”

“
For what?”

“
Dinner.
My
girlfriend
would go out with me on Saturday night—some place
nice.”

I smiled. “Fine, I’ll see
you tonight. Just remember your promise.”

He sighed and turned me
loose.

I needed to go home. I had
a lot of work to do before my ‘date’ tonight.

I got home around one
o’clock. I had to get on the computer and print out some things I
wanted him to go over. I had determined that he was going to remain
Evan in my book. Besides, he wouldn’t go back to being himself
until I was dead, and then it wouldn’t matter to me anyway. There
were newspaper articles about my grandfather’s death, names and
information about our family and some friends. And of course, there
was the matter of family history on both sides.

It was almost three p.m.
when I finished. Just in time. Kimmy and I called home, every
Saturday at three. It was a chance to talk with our parents, catch
up on what was going on in Palm Beach and listen to Mom’s latest
suspicions about what was happening. I really owed her an apology,
but I didn’t want to give her more to worry about. If I was lucky,
Evan would discover what was going on, and I’d expose it to the
police before anyone else in my family was hurt.

I tried the house phone,
but there was no answer. That wasn’t unusual. They could have been
out at the pool or out for lunch. Maybe Mom even felt good enough
to go out shopping. I tried her cell, but it went to voicemail
after a few rings. Next was Dad’s. It rang once and he picked
up.

“
Hey Dad,” I said, relieved
to have someone answer. “Where’s Mom? I tried her cell
phone.”

“
She’s right here, Leese,
but she isn’t feeling so good right now; she’s lying
down.”

“
Oh, I don’t want to wake
her if she’s sleeping…”

“
No, she’s not asleep, yet,
but she’s kind of groggy. She didn’t get too much sleep last night.
You know how that is. She heard a hundred sounds in the night and
stayed up until almost dawn, so she took a sleeping
pill.”

I didn’t like the idea of
Mom taking pills. She was one of those people who wouldn’t take an
aspirin for a headache, much less a sleeping pill. I heard her in
the background asking if it was me on the phone. She sounded far
away and woozy. And then I could hear the sound of the phone being
passed to her.

“
Hey, Honey,” she slurred.
“How are my girls?”

“
We’re okay, Mom. What
happened? You didn’t get any sleep last night?”

“
Leese, becareful…” she ran
it together. “…make sure your doors and windows are
locked.”

That sent a chill down my
spine as I remember the unlocked window in my room. Could someone
be doing the same thing to Mom, going around and unlocking things
just to freak her out? “I do, Mom. I check every night before I go
to bed. Kimmy wants to say hi, hold on?”

Kimmy was jumping up and
down, anxious to have her turn. She got a funny look on her face
though when she finally got on the phone. She wanted to know if Mom
was okay because her voice was different. Eventually Dad got on the
line and she talked with him for about ten minutes telling him all
about her week at school. And then I heard her say something I
didn’t expect,

“…
and
Leese’s got a
boyfriend!
”

“
Kimmy!” I
scolded, “I was supposed to get to tell that if
I
wanted to.”

She stuck her tongue out at
me and continued her conversation. She was telling Dad all about
Evan; he was big and strong and handsome and he has a cool car, but
that I wouldn’t let her ride in it (the tongue stuck out at me
again). She finally said her goodbyes and returned the phone to
me.

Well, that should be a fun
act to follow. I took a deep breath and put it to my ear.
“Hey,”

“
So you have a boyfriend,
huh?” he asked with a chuckle.

“
He’s just a friend from
school who happens to be male, that’s all.”

“
Yeah, I know how those
things end up. First he’s a friend, and then a boyfriend, and then
it’s ‘Daddy, I want a big wedding, please,’” he laughed.

“
Let’s not start planning
my wedding right now. I think I’m still warming up to the boyfriend
idea.”

“
Have fun, Leese. You’re
only young for a little while.”

I held in a bitter laugh;
that thought was too literal.

“
Tell Mom that we both love
her when she wakes up. Maybe you guys should go for a short
vacation to a hotel or something so she can get some rest at
night.”

“
She’d never go for that,”
he said honestly.

“
Yeah, I know. Bye, Dad.
Love you.”

And the call
ended.

A few minutes before six
p.m, the red Pontiac pulled into the drive. Matt was a little
surprised as he looked out the window.

“
Wasn’t his car black the
last time he was here?”

“
This one’s a rental. He
got a scratch on the Z last night so it’s in the shop.”

“
Gee, that must be nice. I
wonder what kind of insurance company he has?”

He had said we were going
someplace nice tonight and I figured it wouldn’t hurt for me to
look wonderful. But I had to be careful that the balance was ‘wow,
she’s beautiful,’ but not quite ‘wow, she’s sexy.’ I didn’t want to
end up having to punch him in the side and ruin our
deal.

I wore my black mini skirt,
with a snug black spaghetti string tank and my light weight black
Roxy jacket—besides being a little cool tonight, I needed something
to cover my arm. I finished it off with black high heels. I wore a
little more make up than usual and used my red lip gloss to give me
a punch of color. My long hair was loose, but I brought a couple
pony-tail holders in case he had the top down. The only jewelry I
wore was my simple silver stud earrings and my silver cross
necklace. I was a little worried at first I might have this whole,
‘going to my own funeral’ kind of look, but when I checked the
mirror, I just looked very polished (even if it was a low-budget
outfit). I slipped my iPod into my pocket, grabbed my purse and
headed out the door.

The reaction I got from him
was very good. The mouth was slightly open and then he remembered
his manners and ran around to the other side of the car to let me
in. I thought about asking if I could drive, but I looked down and
saw the car was an automatic. I settled comfortably into the plush
seat and figured I might as well relax. I had five weeks left and I
was going to enjoy them.

He wore black tailored
dress slacks and a white button up the front dress shirt. He wasn’t
going to go so far as a tie, and I liked it better anyway because
he left the top two buttons undone. Tonight he definitely didn’t
look his fake age.

He didn’t say anything as
we backed out and headed down toward the waterfront. I noticed his
car had an iPod hookup, which I had been hoping it did, so I took
mine out of my pocket and plugged it in. Jeremy Camp’s,
Lay Down My Pride
filled
the air. He was frowning at the lyrics, but I didn’t care. It had
been one of my favorite songs before I met him. I couldn’t help it
now if some of the words had become a little bit prophetic. The
next song was another Jeremy Camp,
Take my
Life
, and it was part way through as we
pulled into Skopelos. He appeared relieved to have it turned
off.

“
Did you pick that music
out especially for tonight?” he asked as he placed his hand on my
lower back and guided me into the restaurant.

“
No, I had it on random
play. But, if you want to be honest, all my favorites might make
you uncomfortable.”

“
Lewis,” he said to the
maitre d as we approached.

“
Right this way, Mr.
Lewis.” She took us to a table outside on the patio. There was a
light breeze blowing and the sun would be setting in an hour. She
took our drink order and left us alone.

“
So why
would I
not
like most of your music?” he continued, leaning back in his
chair.

“
Well, I
guess because most of my music is about surrender, change,
sacrifice and love. You know the heartfelt stuff that would make a
hit man puke,” I added with a smile. “It really bothers you,
doesn’t it? I mean like the song I sang,
Perfect People
, that got to you, and
don’t say it didn’t. I was there. I saw your eyes.”

“
I just have different
taste that’s all. And, if it pleases you in some sadistic way,
yeah, you threw a couple darts when you sang it.”

“
It does please me,” I
admitted.

The waitress was back with
our drinks and asked if we’d like an appetizer. Evan suggested the
bacon wrapped scallops, and I said that was one of my favorites so
it was fine with me. As soon as she walked away, I could see he was
dying to ask, “Why?”

“
If I can hit you with a
consciousness dart then that heart of yours isn’t as off limits as
you think.” I lifted my drink as if in toast. “Here’s to
darts.”

“
Annalisa,” he said,
refusing to lift his glass. “Don’t go through these next weeks
thinking you’re playing a game with someone who can
change.”

“
Everyone can change, Evan,
but that’s not why I hired you.” I opened my purse and pulled out
the folded papers that I had run off from the computer. You have
work to do for me and time is of the essence, right?”

He gave me an annoyed
breath, as he took the papers from my hand. He didn’t say anything,
but I could see his brow furrow as he read the article about my
grandfather.

“
My mom suspected, not long
after he died that it wasn’t suicide. There were too many things in
his life that brought him pleasure to just throw it all
away.”

“
It says that your
grandmother died of cancer the previous year. That certainly sounds
like a reason for depression.”

“
He loved her and he was
crushed, but he was back on the road to recovery. He had been on a
couple dates just the month before they found him in the garage. He
had a small amount of barbiturates in his system when they did the
toxicology reports—he didn’t take any medications and there weren’t
any in the house.”

“
Leese, if he was planning
on ending his life, he might have purchased just a few. It doesn’t
mean he had to have a bottleful.”

“
But why take it before
getting into his truck and turning the engine on? The exhaust alone
would have knocked him out, right?”

“
Not necessarily. Maybe he
was afraid that he’d get sick from the carbon monoxide and give up
before finishing the job.”

“
He wasn’t that kind of
man. He had almost a billion dollars in banks all over the United
States. He was making business deals up to the day before he died.
Why make deals if you’re planning to die.” Wow. I hadn’t realized
how deep that statement was until I had uttered it.

He gave me an odd look from across the
table.

The waitress returned with
our appetizer, took our orders and then left us alone once again.
The sky was starting to cloud up to the south, and I found myself
hoping it wouldn’t fill before we got to see the sunset.

“
Can you find out if
someone was paid to get rid of him? I know it was two years ago,
but I would think, in your circles, taking out a billionaire would
be…”

“
Like taking you out,” he
finished.

I frowned, “No, that’s not
what I meant. But don’t they like have some kind of hall of fame
for whoever bags the person worth the most bucks?” I was being an
ass at this point, but I didn’t like the comparison he made when he
mentioned me.