Broken Trust (13 page)

From a short distance Cole stopped and studied them. Petal watched them from beneath her dreds.

“You might not need an auditor if you can find a competent accountant
to be
your
F
inancial
D
irector,” Nora said.

Daniel shrugged and held his arms out. The flamboyant gesture suited him. “What do you mean? We have a
F
inancial
D
irector. Surely our meeting didn’t scare you of
f ?
We were tough, admittedly, but we are concerned for the Trust and you were giving us information that has been lacking in recent years.”

“I’m not scared,” Nora said. “I was fired.”

Daniel laughed. Oh my, if she thought his accent, his dark handsomeness
,
and
his
smoldering masculinity were intoxicating, this cheerful abandon nearly did her in. “You are definitely not fired. The board begs you to stay.”

They wanted her
.
But did she want them? “I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m such a good fit at the Trust.”

He considered that. “I understand the atmosphere around there might not be, shall we say, warm and fuzzy. But stay, please. We are serious about getting the Trust back on track. Our first priority is the finances.”

Nora studied the sophisticated, and no doubt wealthy, investment banker sitting with Abigail.

Petal’s eyes pleaded with her.

Daniel murmured, “Please join us, Nora Abbott. I am begging you. You will have total autonomy and report directly to the board, to me.”

Talk about employment benefits. She
still
hesitated.

“May I be frank with you?” Daniel said. He seemed earnest and his eyes focused on hers.

She nodded.

“I am a wealthy man.”

No surprise.

“It is family money. I am ashamed to say I have not always been responsible and wise. But it is time for me to grow up. I chose to serve on the board of the Trust and to raise money for them because I am passionate about this planet. But my father?” When Americans shrug it’s usually a simple movement of the shoulders. Daniel’s shrug seemed to come from his whole body. “My father indulges me because he thinks I am a child. I want to show him I chose a good organization and I can make it successful.”

Nora peeked into the coffee shop. Abigail hadn’t spotted her, yet. “The Trust’s work on
o
pen
s
pace is a model for cities all over the country. That’s got to say something for the Trust.”

Daniel agreed. “But that was before my time. I am eager to see the work move ahead in the Ecuador
ian
rainforest
.”

Nora inched
out of
Abigail’s sight line. “Sylvia’s research has potential to be very press-worthy.”

He shifted uncomfortably. “However, when my father discovered I was on the Trust board, he used his influence and money to bring Sylvia here. He did it out of goodness, to prove to the board I could bring in world
-
class scientists.
I didn’t ask him to do this, he just did.
”

Cole watched them from several yards away.
Yes,
Nora knew what it felt like to have someone else always saving you.

Abigail spotted Nora. She waved.

Nora pretended not to see her. “What do you have in mind?”

“I will work here with you and together we will
root out
the financial discrepancies and
then
grow the Trust into an international environmental protector.”

Petal shivered even though the afternoon felt warm to Nora.

Abigail rose as if to hurry out to get Nora.

Nora looked from Petal to Abigail and back again.

seventeen

Sylvia sat on a
hard plastic chair in a tacky lobby. The drafty space with muted colors and linoleum smelled of commercial room freshener punctuated by the odor of the unwashed as they came through the doors. Body odor, cheap perfume, clothes steeped in grease from fast food restaurants—low class.

A uniformed woman cop, nothing more than a clerk, stood behind the counter tapping on a
keyboard
and pretending to ignore Sylvia. A few other uninteresting drones worked away on their dull jobs sitting behind their metal desks. Boulder’s police station wasn’t like the gritty TV shows
,
where cops dragged in perps
,
and hookers and pimps wandered around. This was just a
crummy
office with Sylvia waiting
endlessly.

Sylvia had been here for hours at the mercy of these imbeciles. She had refused to talk to them, of course. She insisted they wait for her attorney and they’d allowed her a phone call. She’d contacted Daniel, who had dispatched a lawyer.

The Cubreros always had connections and this lawyer was some whip-smart savant from Denver who wasted no time freeing Sylvia from custody, if not
from
suspicion. Without the results from the test fire to match the bullet rifling, they had no hard evidence. In their fear Sylvia was a flight risk, they’d overplayed their hand. The hard-nosed young woman Daniel sent had no trouble springing Sylvia from their clutches. The attorney had double-timed it back to Denver to leave Sylvia waiting for Daniel to pick her up from the station.

Finally, Daniel sauntered in
to the station
. As usual, he created a ripple of admiration when he appeared. The clerk behind the counter perked up and smiled eagerly. At
forty-five
, Sylvia had a few years on Daniel but she was every bit his equal. Together they were a couple worth noting.

Sylvia jumped up and hurried to him, her heels clacking on the cheesy linoleum. She met him halfway through the lobby, fuming. “How nice of you to grace me with your presence.”

He lifted her hand and kissed it. “At your service.”

She scurried to the door and waited for him to open it for her. “You should have been here twenty minutes ago.”

“
Carina
, I arrived as soon as I could. Did the attorney not get here in good time?”

Daniel and his father used the same endearments for her. If only they each knew where the other had whispered those names.

She pushed the glass lobby doors open
herself
and stomped to the parking lot, only to slow down for Daniel to show her where he parked. She’d been waiting so long that the afternoon had drifted into evening and the sun dropped below the Flatirons. She scanned the lot filled with Subarus, economy cars, rugged SUVs, and the collection of various sedans and minivans. She didn’t see
the
sports car she’d expect of Daniel. She glared at him, waiting for his direction. “
Yes, t
he attorney made it here from Denver.”

He strode down a row of cars with easy elegance. “She’s very good, I’m told.”

“She made it to the Boulder Police Department before you could drag yourself away from whatever consumed you.” Sylvia’s short legs worked double time to keep up with his saunter.

That smile of unconcern burned her. “Your charms are difficult to resist,
carina
, but I have other business to attend to. See? You are not so injured. Let me take you home and we will see what can be done to erase your troubles.”

Did he think to appease her with a roll in the hay? If Daniel knew the riches she was about to provide for him, he’d treat her with more respect.

At least Eduardo knew her value. She hoped he wouldn’t find out about her being accused of murder.
Still,
if this hotshot attorney didn’t get her off,
she’d
have to call Eduardo. He’d take care of it because he needed Sylvia.

Daniel
pulled a key from his pocket and hit a button. The taillights on the car in front of her lit up.

She laughed. “A Prius? Taking this environmentalist image a little too far, aren’t you?”

He raised his eyebrows and gave her an amused smile. He pressed another button on his key and the door unlocked. She waited for him to open it and she slid inside. With the smoothness of a jaguar
—
the
kind of
car he should be driving
, incidentally—
Daniel eased himself into his own seat.

Sylvia anticipated their tryst in a few minutes between the silky sheets of her exquisite antique bed.

“So,” he said, as if starting a casual conversation. “Why did you feel it necessary to kill our little Darla?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”
I couldn’t have killed Darla.
A shot in the dark couldn’t be that lucky
. O
r
that
unlucky
.

She folded her arms and
gazed at
the city park outside her window. As usual, grungy college students and leftovers from the hippie days of Boulder’s glory sprawled on the grass. The cops should be out rounding them up and carting them off the streets instead of chasing Sylvia down.

She
tried to calm down and think of something pleasant. She would wear the new lace bustier with the black garter belt and the spiked leopard print sling-backs Daniel favored.

Daniel switched lanes and turned right on Broadway. “A charge of murder is serious. Even if you didn’t kill Darla, you will have to devote much time and expense to defend yourself.”

A flare of panic flashed inside her before she thought about it.
No.
Eduardo wouldn’t let her go to prison. “My work is very important. Perhaps the Trust can pay for my legal defense.”

They drove in silence, Daniel hummed tunelessly while maneuvering through traffic. After several minutes he pulled into her exclusive neighborhood directly underneath the Flatirons and stopped in front of her house. The 5,500
-
square
-
foot home with its cathedral ceilings, thick pile carpets
,
polished wood floors
,
and what the real
estate agent
described as
“
spectacular Flatirons view
”
always made Sylvia cringe. It seemed so pedestrian and ordinary. But she didn’t have the time to devote to building something more suitable. When she finished her work here, she’d pick the perfect location
—
maybe several locations
—
and build something more fitting. For now, she could tolerate this, as long as she obtained the Chihuly.

She watched
Daniel’s gaze flit to the cement porch.
She knew i
t really should be much larger with a few columns. S
till, s
tone lions might be too much.

“I did not know you were an animal lover.”

Sylvia spun around to see the scruffy calico cat on her porch. “I’ll need to call the HOA again. She turns up every few days and begs for food. Someone in the neighborhood must feed her.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows in dismissal. He waited a moment. “And how do you propose the Trust find the money for your defense?”

She thought he’d dropped the subject.

“You haven’t given the board much progress to make them inclined to pay for expensive lawyers.”

What had gotten into everyone all of the sudden? The board and Eduardo, all of them thought she did nothing all day except dance to their tune.

Only her dignity kept her from slapping him. “What about your family foundation? Can’t you get it from your father?”

Daniel eyed her as if gauging her mood.

Sylvia opened her car door and a rush of cold air invaded them. “Are you saying you won’t support me in this?”

His eyes focused on her cleavage in obvious desire. “I did not mean to upset you. I am only wanting you to think about the problems you’ve created for the Trust and my family.”

His family. As if Daniel had the slightest clue what his father felt about anything. “Ask Eduardo. He’ll make sure I don’t go to prison.”

Daniel’s eyebrows jumped up. “
Eduardo.
How is it you and my father
have
met?”

In her anger she’d made a wrong step. Eduardo wouldn’t want his name brought up to Daniel. “He admires my work. That’s why he brought me to the Trust
in the first place
.”

Daniel digested that. “He brought you to the Trust, where I sit on the board, so
that
your groundbreaking study would reflect well on the organization. And he so generously allows the family trust to donate to your research.”

Careful now. She
reached over and
ran a fingernail along the base of his throat and watched the goose bumps rise. “
He
wants you to be happy.”

He caught her hand and pulled it away from his neck. “Is that why he sent you? Because I can’t find my own importance in the world? Because I can’t find my own women?”

“You couldn’t be suggesting
your father
is pimping me out to you, either personally or professionally?”

Daniel studied her. “Did he?”

How dare he? She flew out of the car. “Eduardo doesn’t control my research or who I sleep with.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you on his payroll to keep an eye on me?”

Intolerable! She slammed the door and started up the walk.

The damned calico cat twined herself between Sylvia’s legs nearly bringing her to the pavement.
She
kicked it into the grass. It yowled and sped away.