Annie's Rainbow (35 page)

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Authors: Fern Michaels

BOOK: Annie's Rainbow
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“Are we ready?” Daisy whispered.
“We're ready. Now remember, you have to make your wish, then blow out every candle. You can't tell anyone what that wish is. I'm going to turn out the light. We'll sing ‘Happy Birthday' and then you blow out the candles. After the cake you get to open your presents.”
Jane turned out the light. Everyone sang with gusto, the dogs howling right along with the off-key singing.
“Blow, honey!”
“Yay!” everyone said as they clapped hands. Jane turned on the light. “Can Jake have cake, Clay?”
“Absolutely. I'll have a big piece.”
“Can I save mine for later, Mommy? Can I open my presents while the big people eat their cake?”
“I don't see why not,” Elmo said. “You go ahead and start to open the ones with all the pretty wrappings and ribbons. I'll fetch mine and Annie's presents from the garage.”
“I'll help,” Clay said, jumping to his feet.
“I like that guy,” Jane hissed.
“I do, too,” Tom said.
“All right, all right. Yes, he's nice. Yes, he's very nice. I offered him a job today. He accepted, but we have to work out the details.”
Daisy squealed as she opened each package. Storybooks, games, puzzles, a new book bag, hair ribbons, and a scarlet-satin purse with a crisp ten-dollar bill inside. Annie smiled when the child looped the long gold chain around her neck and sashayed around the kitchen to show off the vibrant purse.
“It's just what I wanted, Aunt Annie. Thank you.”
“Well we have a few more presents for you that Elmo and Clay are bringing in for you. Okay, are you ready?”
“I'm ready. I can't wait! What is it? Oh, a red wagon! I always wanted a red wagon, Uncle Elmo. Thank you so much,” she said, throwing her arms around the old man. “You're the best,” she whispered.
“This is from Clay,” Annie said.
“Oh, Mommy, look at this! My very own car. Thank you, Mr. Clay. You too, Jake,” she said impishly.
“One more, little lady,” Annie said, handing over the green canvas bag. “Careful now.”
“It's alive! It's a dog! Is it for me, Aunt Annie?”
“I think so. There's a letter inside the bag. I think it's probably for you.”
“Read it, Mommy. Read it to me,” Daisy said as she cuddled Charlie next to her cheek. “Oh, is he really and truly all mine?” Annie nodded as Jane read the letter.
GOLDENRAY
CHER HILDEBRAND
 
Dear Daisy,
This little guy is a Yorkshire Terrier. He is very special and looking for a very special little girl of his own, which is why he is coming to you. I understand that you are very special and have a lot of love to offer him. He needs you and I know you will take good care of him & love him as he loves you. You will be his sunshine.
Yours truly,
Cher Hildebrand
“Daisy's going to be busy for the rest of the evening. Why don't we all have a beer out on the patio,” Elmo said.
“We need to talk,” Tom said.
“I can go upstairs,” Clay volunteered.
“No. You can stay. Clay told me about an idea he had on the way home from the airport,” Annie said. “I'd like you all to hear it.”
“Then let's get comfortable,” Tom said.
“Let's hear your ideas, son,” Elmo said.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Parker Grayson tossed his lab coat into a corner. He stared for a long moment at his nephew. Once he'd been this young. Once he'd been full of spit and vinegar like the young man standing in front of him. The only difference was, this boy loved living on the mainland and going to school. He'd hated it. He wondered if he'd ever been idealistic. “Let's talk in my office, Ben.”
“How's it all going, Uncle Parker?”
“Slow. You know us island people. The world thinks we do nothing but bask in warm trade winds making leis for tourists. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can't rush science. Were close, though. So, are you ready to go back to law school? How did the summer project go?”
“I've been ready for weeks now. I love autumn, with the changing of the leaves and the smell of burning leaves. I like the football games and all the holidays. It's so different. I know you. said you hated all that. I guess I don't understand why.”
“It was another time. I'm an island boy. I guess I'll always be an island boy. I thought you were going to spend the summer here. Instead you blow in and blow out like the summer winds. When do you leave?”
“Tomorrow. I just came to say good-bye.”
“Your mother insisted, is that it?” Parker grinned.
“Something like that. I would have done it over the phone. Lately it doesn't seem like I have enough hours in the day. This case kicked my butt. It kicked all our butts. We have to wrap it up by next week. All we have is speculation, and each one of us has a different idea. How do you defend something that can't be proven?”
“The law is not my forte, Ben.” He was a handsome young man, Parker thought. Bright, intelligent, dedicated to learning the law and motivated beyond belief. He wondered where he'd come by all those traits. “Do you want to run it by me for my opinion?”
“Yes and no. I have to get back home to pack up. If I miss my flight, I'm up a tree as the saying goes.”
“I have an idea. Why don't I fly you to school. I can take a few days off here. We can talk through the flight.”
“I'm meeting up with my partner in LA. We planned to fly back together. Will it be a problem?”
“Not at all. So, you didn't solve the case, eh?”
“We did and we didn't. As I said, we each have a different opinion. I think mine is right on the money, but then Andreas thinks his is, too. I'm the prosecution, Andreas is the defense. I think I can make a good case. The real reason I came here, Uncle Parker, is to warn you. I talked about it to Mom, and she said she didn't think you knew about it. She said she thought you needed to know.”
“Maybe you better explain what you're talking about,” Parker said.
“It's about Miss Clark and her friends. The lady who owns all those Daisy Shops. The same Miss Clark you were going to marry.”
Parker's face set into hard lines. “Let me make sure I understand this. The case your professor assigned you, a criminal case of some sort, has to do with Annie Clark? I think you need to explain that to me, Ben.”
“I didn't know she was the lady you were engaged to until after the fact. When I finally realized it, I tried to switch up with some of the other guys, but they were already into their cases and didn't want to trade. I didn't say anything because everything I knew at that point was circumstantial, and I didn't want to open cans of worms for the family. Things like this tend to backfire and cause all kinds of problems. Like I said, it was all circumstantial.”
“Just spit it out, Ben, and let me be the judge. What is it you think she did?”
The words ricocheted out of the young man's mouth like bullets from a machine gun. Parker listened, his eyes popping and his jaw dropping. His brain whirled. Now he had the answer as to why Annie had broken off their relationship. For two months he'd played and replayed their two-hour conversation over and over in his mind. Now it all made sense.
“Annie Clark is an honorable person, Ben. She didn't rob any bank. I'd stake my life on that.”
“You weren't listening, Uncle Parker. I never said Miss Clark robbed the bank. I came to the same conclusion the insurance investigator came to, and I can't prove it any more than he could prove it. The case is closed. Miss Clark committed the perfect crime in my opinion. And she got away with it. Where the law is concerned, opinions and theories don't work. Only hard, provable facts count. I'm going to zero out because I can't prove anything.”
Parker felt his stomach start to churn. “Is that how she started her business, with the bank's money?”
“No. I have every profile ever written about her. She's just who she says she is. She started the business on the proverbial shoestring. There is no money trail. There's nothing. The same thing goes for the pharmacist, Elmo Richardson, and Miss Clark's very good friend, Jane Abbott.”
“Then why do you say Annie is the guilty party?”
“Because all the evidence points to the three of them, her in particular. All the other suspects were eliminated. There are literally
pounds
of reports. I went through all of them; so did my partner. It's either Clark or Abbott. Miss Clark was, as the police say, on the scene. Jane Abbott was in the apartment, and there's no one to vouch for her. Mr. Richardson was in his store. And, his car windows were closed and his car locked. The Abbott and Clark cars were open and unlocked. There were eleven or twelve other cars with open windows but they weren't anywhere near where the robber could have tossed the money bag. The Abbott and Clark cars were right there, in the first row of parking spaces. Andreas and I did dry runs for a whole day. First I'd run with the money bag and toss it, then he would do the same thing. Each time it landed in the Clark car. Peter Newman did the same thing while he was investigating the case. He was convinced it was the Clark car.”
“If it was such a perfect crime and if Annie Clark did find the money, why in the hell did she give it back?”
“Guilty conscience. Everything I've ever read about the lady says she's squeaky-clean and a straight arrow. Fear maybe. The Abbott woman and the pharmacist are above reproach. Abbott's husband is a scoundrel. They have zip when it comes to money. He lives beyond his means. She appears to be quite frugal, and there's a child involved.”
Parker digested the information. “A half million dollars is not that much money, Ben. Annie Clark has megamillions.”
“Back then she had zip and she was working sixteen and eighteen hour days. A half million dollars was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for someone like Annie Clark, who worked her way through school carrying a full load. My guess was she found it and panicked.”
“I don't believe any of this. Annie is a fair, tough-minded businesswoman. She's not a thief. All right, let's head out. I need to pack a bag. Meet me at the airport in say, three hours.”
“You're upset, aren't you?”
“You could say that. Did you talk to Annie at all?”
“No. I planned on doing that in Boston. Andreas tells me her class reunion is scheduled for next week. He got a copy of the acceptance list, and her name and Jane Abbott's are on it. It's my last shot. Andreas is going to take Abbott, and I've got Clark.” .
“If I asked you to let this go, would you do it, Ben?”
Ben stared at his uncle for a long time before he replied. “No.”
“What about the pharmacist?”
“We've crossed him off our list.”
“You shouldn't have done that.”
“In my opinion, it was the right thing to do. He's old and in failing health. His bank records show nothing but regular deposits and a history of hard work. The last report we had on Mr. Richardson is that he is terminally ill. Neither Andreas nor I want to be a party to anything that might ruin his last days. Besides, we're convinced he had nothing to do with it.”
Parker closed the door behind him. It was all making more and more sense by the minute. Annie's deep, dark secret. The way her face had gone alabaster white when he'd said the rainbow was Annie's rainbow. Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Damn, what the hell was this going to do to his business? The six-month contract had only three months to run. Would Annie renew? Would he be forced to shut down the lab? What could two law students do that the police and a monster insurance company couldn't do? Rake up old skeletons? To what end? The case was closed. He wondered then if he was capable of blackmail. How far would he go to pursue the work he'd started in the lab? How important were the caffeine-free coffee beans to the world? Damn important. No one in their right mind would pass up billions of dollars down the line. Christ, he was so close. Another six to eight months and he was sure he'd have the decaf coffee beans. So close. All he needed was money—Annie Clark's on-time money payments. With only three months remaining on the present contract, he could lose everything if he didn't get her to renew.
Parker watched his nephew drive down the hill before he climbed into his own jeep. He needed to pack a bag, needed to issue a few orders, and, by God, he needed to do some heavy-duty thinking. If he called Annie, would she talk to him? Probably not. Maybe he should call Tom. He really needed to know which way the Daisy Shops were going to go at the end of the six months. He was still smarting over the fact that he hadn't been able to charm Annie into a three-year contract. Marrying her was the only option left, and now that was swinging in the wind. He'd been so sure, so confident of a happy ending, he'd gone ahead and given the sisters control over the business. Kiki had threatened once to bring things to a boil. She might still do it, and where in the hell would that leave him? Without a coffee bean to his name.
He thought about Annie then because he often thought of her these past weeks. He could have been happy married to her. He would have made a good husband and father. There had been no doubt in his mind that the moment children arrived on the scene, Annie would turn her end of the business over to him, content to raise her family and do all the things wives and mothers do. How could he have been so wrong about so many things? Was it even remotely possible that she had seen through his charade? Did he give off bad vibes along the way? He knew his lovemaking had been more than satisfactory. Things hadn't chilled until she started questioning him on the laboratory and what it was he was testing. Then after what he now referred to as the infamous two-hour phone call, where he'd told her about Ben and his casework, things became downright bone-chilling.
Maybe he could turn things around. Maybe he could convince her he didn't care about her past. Maybe if he called her and warned her, she'd take it as a sign that he really did love her. And he supposed he did, in his own way. His gut told him when Annie Clark made a decision, she stuck with it and she didn't look back.
So then, if he knew that, why the hell had he offered to fly his nephew and his friend to Boston?
Was it because he was a man and his ego was bruised and bloody and all because of a woman?
Parker pressed the pedal to the metal. Business always came first. He was simply taking care of business. Everything else would fall into place.
 
 
“I hate leaving with things hanging in the air,” Annie grumbled to Jane, who was calmly sipping coffee at the kitchen table.
“It's only been a week, Annie. You know the authorities never work quickly. Why would you want to go back to a house that isn't structurally sound?”
“I don't. That's not the point. The point is, they must have every investigator in the state working on this, and not one of them has told us a thing. It was probably something very sophisticated and outside the realm of what they normally deal with. Once the house is repaired, I'm never going to live in it again. Hopefully some fool will buy it from me. I feel so violated. I felt the same way when I realized some person sat in my car and pawed through my. stuff and ended up stealing my purse.”
“How's your leg this morning?”
“Each day it's better as long as I don't stand on it for long periods of time.”
“Have you heard from Clay Mitchell, Annie?”
“I sent a box of T-bone steaks for Jake. He called to say they were tasty. Guess that means he ate one of them. He said the car was gone from the ditch and it was a rental. The name on the lease was Stephen Lake. Lake reported it stolen that very night. No fingerprints. No nothing inside the car other than hairs and fibers that belonged to Stephen Lake. Another dead end. They aren't going to find out anything from the debris on my house, either. We're dealing with one clever man. A man who has no intention of getting caught.
“You know, Jane, I think it's real nice that you're bringing Daisy. I think she's going to like seeing where we lived and worked and went to school. Maybe someday she'll want to go to college in Boston. Like mother, like daughter. She can walk Charlie all over the grounds.”

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