Borrowed Identity (21 page)

“I already explained this to you,” Michael interjected. “Let’s not rehash it in front of your guest.”

Paddy turned to Wade and stuck his hand out again. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Wade.”

Wade glanced from Paddy to Kelly.

She nodded.

Wade shook Paddy’s hand, pumping it hard. Paddy winced a bit, but the smile didn’t leave his face.

“I find things,” Wade said.

“That’s nice,” Paddy replied.

“Wade found this,” Michael said, lifting the necklace high for Paddy’s inspection.

The investigator whistled between his teeth. “My word. Just exactly where did he find that?”

All eyes turned to Wade.

Michael couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought to ask the question himself. Of course, he really hadn’t had time to get over the shock of seeing the thing up close and personal yet. The clasp was broken. If it hadn’t given out, the chain would be looped around Landis’s neck.

Wade seemed to wilt under the intense curiosity of the trio. “I don’t remember. I don’t want to get into trouble.”

“You aren’t in trouble,” Kelly assured him. “It’s just important that we know everything you can tell us. Are you certain you don’t remember where you found the chain? I won’t get mad, Wade. None of us will.”

“I found it in your bedroom,” he admitted with a sigh. His shoulders sagged beneath the weight of his confession. “I’m sorry I took it. It was in your bedroom, and I know that was bad.”

“It’s okay, Wade.” Kelly patted him on the arm. “Where in the bedroom did you find it?”

“On the floor in front of the bathroom door. If something’s on the floor, it’s lost. Right, Kell? It was lost.”

“Okay.” Michael asked, “Do you remember when you found it? What day?”

He shook his head, refusing to meet Michael’s eyes.

“Wade doesn’t understand the passing of time the way we do,” Kelly murmured. She turned back to Wade and asked, “Did you find anything else that day, the same day?”

Wade appeared to be thinking hard, trying to remember for Kelly’s sake. The man was so besotted with her it was ridiculous. Michael knew he shouldn’t be jealous. First of all, he himself had no right to Kelly; she’d made her feelings clear enough. Secondly, Kelly wasn’t interested in Wade.

But it burned all the same.

Michael followed Kelly with his eyes. The memory of her entwined in his arms surfaced. He had to concentrate hard to make it fade. He wanted her even now when he should be concentrating on finding his brother’s killer. Wade’s words skittered by his ears instead of into them.

Paddy and Kelly both looked in his direction. Neither of them spoke. They were waiting for something, he realized—some sort of reaction from him.

“Sorry. What?”

Paddy chuckled. The old Irishman was too familiar with Michael and his expressions. He knew what—or rather who—was on Michael’s mind.

Hands on hips, Kelly asked, “Weren’t you listening?”

“Sorry. I was going over something in my head.”

It was close enough to the truth.

“Wade says he didn’t find anything else at that time, but he did find something interesting last night after the fire was put out.”

“What?” Michael searched the faces of everyone there. “Well?”

Wade pulled a silver lighter from one of his overall pockets. He handed it to Michael. There were initials on the lighter: E.G.

“Elvin Grant,” Michael said without hesitation. “Elvin Grant could have started the fire. I knew that bastard was involved in this somehow.”

“But his boss wants the house,” Kelly reminded them. “Why would he burn down the place if his boss wants to live here?”

“Maybe the boss doesn’t want to live here,” Paddy interjected.

“Maybe they want the diamonds,” Michael said.

“Diamonds?” Wade frowned.

Kelly explained, “Some people think there are diamonds hidden in the house. There aren’t. Some folks are just plain silly.”

“Yeah.” Wade nodded as if in full agreement. “They sure are.”

“Yeah,” Paddy confirmed, but his eyes held no humor. He looked directly at Michael. “It would be funny, though, if those diamonds should happen to turn up.” He turned to Kelly. “You could be sitting on a fortune and not know it.”

“I have enough money to keep the house running and
food on the table for decades to come,” she said. “I don’t need diamonds. I just need some peace and quiet.”

Paddy’s probing gaze returned to Michael.

Michael could practically read his colleague’s mind. He wanted to search for the missing jewels. Michael shook his head slowly but didn’t say a word.

“Can I go now?” Wade asked the question while he was picking up the box.

“Sure,” Michael replied. “But the necklace and the lighter stay. They’re evidence now.”

Wade nodded but didn’t seem too sure about what Michael was getting at. Kelly insisted on walking her friend to the front door. While she was out of hearing, Michael told Paddy about the drawings of the house and the secret door they couldn’t find. Paddy went to the study to check it out for himself.

Kelly returned a moment later. “Where did your friend go?”

“He’s in the study.”

She rolled her beautiful eyes. Michael knew what she thought about the idea of hidden passages in her home. She didn’t need to spell it out.

“I wanted a second alone with you,” he said.

Immediately, her shoulders tensed. She stood straighter, as if preparing for an attack. Her arms went around herself in that damn protective gesture he was coming to despise. She was trying to erect an invisible wall between them.

“None of this worked out the way I planned.”

“Planned?” She appeared to be startled by his choice of words. At least he had her complete attention now. Curiosity would keep her standing in one place long enough for him to say what he had to say.

“After we made love, I wanted to wake up next to you, wrapped around you.”

She blushed furiously. The pink tinge encouraged him to
go on. He moved closer to her and lowered his voice lest Paddy overhear.

“I was going to get up early and make a fantastic breakfast. Then I was going to serve it to you in bed.”

“In bed?”

“That’s right. I just wanted you to know that night meant something to me. But I never got the chance because of the fire, and then you found out the truth about me.”

With that Michael headed for the study, but Kelly had other ideas. She grabbed his forearm. Her slender fingers closed around his flesh, burning his skin through the thin fabric of his shirt.

“What, uh, what did that night mean to you? Was it supposed to be a one-night stand, a fling? Was it the beginning of an affair? Or something—more?”

Her eyes were trained on his face. She wouldn’t miss the slightest hint of excitement or disappointment. He had to be careful. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he couldn’t give her false hope, either.

The truth was Michael wanted more than one night with her. However, in his current line of work, he couldn’t promise her there was going to be a tomorrow for them. What could he possibly say to her?

His hands slid over her shoulders, clasping them lightly. He wasn’t going to let her go until he was finished.

“You are an incredible woman. I’ve honestly never felt like this about anyone before.”

“But,” she interjected, “you need to go your own way once this is finished. You’re probably anxious to get back to your life, your home, your job.”

She couldn’t be further from the truth. He lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in Washington, D.C., sparsely furnished. He could afford something better, but what was the point? He was rarely at home. His apartment was a pit stop between operations.

As far as his job was concerned, he had grown to hate it. Every time he went out into the field, it got harder to lie. It was a young man’s game. Although he was only thirty-three, he felt as if he was going on fifty.

If he continued on in his current situation, he would probably wind up dead. Agents were killed in the line of duty every day.

Those who lived to see retirement more often than not found themselves alone. They had angry children and bitter wives. Michael didn’t want to wind up an eighty-year-old man in a retirement home dreaming of what might have been had he chosen a different path.

Now, looking into Kelly’s expressive blue eyes, which were clouded with pain and doubt, he wanted to promise her forever. He wanted to hang up his gun, hand in his badge and live a long life with her.

But what did he have to offer her?

He’d opened his mouth to tell her how he genuinely felt about her when Paddy’s voice called down the hallway to them. “I found something! Come in here.”

Exchanging surprised glances, Michael and Kelly headed in that direction.

“Did you find the door?” Michael asked as they entered the study.

“Uh…no,” Paddy said. “But I think this paper was turned the wrong way. Look. See what I mean?”

Michael laid the blueprints on the table and studied it. The words would have been written upside down, though, if Paddy was correct. His eyes went to the bookcase on the other wall. Could it be possible they had just been looking in the wrong place?

T
HE DOG YELPED FROM
somewhere in the house. Without a word to Michael, Kelly left the study. She followed the dog’s soft barking. She hadn’t seen Boomer since the fire
and was worried sick about him. At least he was alive. Maybe he had gotten locked in one of the rooms, poor thing. He was probably scared and hungry.

The barks led her to her own bedroom.

Kelly raced toward the sound.

She shoved the door open and stepped inside in time to see someone disappear into her closet. She stared, disbelieving, at the vanishing figure. She wanted to run, wanted to scream, but was frozen to the spot.

Boomer yelped happily and followed his tail in a circle, then raced toward the closet door.

“Boomer, no,” she whispered with frantic urgency, but the dog was gone. He had disappeared inside.

Kelly grabbed a weapon, a heavy clock carved of marble. If there was an intruder and she wasn’t losing her mind, she could use it to hit the person over the head. She left the bedroom door open, hoping the two men downstairs would hear her if she screamed for help.

She edged closer to the closet.

Every step she took led her nearer to the edge of terror.

Her heart took up residence in her throat, blocking her oxygen. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. Her entire body shook with fear.

Kelly stepped in front of the closet, marble clock raised high above her head.

There was nobody in the closet, but there was another opening. Part of the wall had been moved to reveal a dark abyss.

Michael was right! There were secret passages in her house. This was how the guy who’d tried to strangle her had gotten into her room in the first place. This was why she had seen two flashes of light that night. The man had escaped back into the passageway just before Michael had come racing down the hallway to see if she was all right.

Boomer barked from somewhere deep in the black corridor.

Kelly entered the dark space carefully and called for the dog in a barely audible whisper. The bad guy could still be around, hovering nearby, ready to attack her.

The secret door shut behind her.

She didn’t have time to stop it.

She was plunged into inky blackness and screamed.

Chapter Thirteen

“I think I’ve got something,” Paddy said. He grunted with the exertion it took to reach up high, struggling on the tips of his worn leather shoes. He swayed and grabbed on to the bookshelf with his free hand. “It feels like a small metal piece buried in this groove of wood here. Just a second. I think I can…yes.”

The bookcase opened, revealing a door-size black hole. It gaped wide, yawning before them, leading into the unknown.

Michael turned to note Kelly’s expression, but she was gone.

Just then a scream echoed from the passageway, sounding faint and far-off.

“Kelly?” Michael pushed Paddy out of the way and raced into the dark tunnel without giving the lack of light a thought. Fear for Kelly’s safety had adrenaline pumping through his veins.

Michael grabbed the lighter from his jeans pocket once he remembered it and clicked it on. The small flame barely lit the pitch-black passageway, just enough to reveal a dirty wood floor and unfinished walls. Spiderwebs hung down from the ceiling beams. He stepped farther into the black abyss, leaving the security of the study behind. He was in a hurry to find Kelly, but placed his feet with care. The
floorboards could have rotted in places. Since Kelly hadn’t known about the passageways, he doubted anyone was repairing damage done by time and bad weather.

He held the lighter high and yelled Kelly’s name.

K
ELLY’S FISTS WERE
bruised from banging against the hidden door. It wouldn’t budge an inch. She suspected there should be a latch or something to spring the damn thing open again, but her groping fingers couldn’t find anything in the dark. She was trapped. Without a light it was going to be extremely difficult to find another way out. But she had to try. She started to feel her way along the narrow passage..

“Kelly!”

Michael’s voice reached her in the darkness. All of her doubts about him fled as if with an outgoing tide. She longed to find a refuge in his arms, a safe spot that would be hers forever. In her twenty-four years she hadn’t found anyone besides her father whom she could count on, but Michael was there for her every time she needed him.

But he had lied to her. Could she ever trust him again?

“Michael! I’m here,” Kelly shouted. “There’s a secret door into my bedroom closet. Follow my voice.”

She didn’t have to wait long before a tiny dot of light floated toward her. At first she thought she was imagining it, but the flickering glow drew closer and grew brighter.

Michael was holding Elvin Grant’s lighter in his hand. When he reached her, he grabbed her with his free arm, pulling her into the safety of his embrace. She reveled in the feeling. Kelly didn’t want him to let her go. Not ever.