Deadly Inheritance: A Romantic Suspense (23 page)

“Get up.” Hands fisted, Gabe stared down at the thin man who lay crumpled against the wall.

Don Bain, the handyman. Why didn’t that surprise him?

Bain didn’t move. Gabe nudged him with the toe of his shoe, grunted, and bent down to feel his pulse.

Still beating strongly.

So he was alive.

Einstein sniffed Bain’s stringy hair and sneezed before growling again, deep in his throat.

“Watch him, Einstein,” Gabe commanded.

He straightened and staggered over to the pool. Nora was sitting on one of the rungs with the housekeeper propped up just below her.

“Are you all right?” he called down to her.

Nora glanced up. When she saw him, a smile lit up her tired face. “Fine. What about you?”

“I’m good.” His left eye was swelling shut and his ribs caught at his lungs with each breath, but that didn’t matter. What was important was the woman clinging to the ladder just a few feet out of his reach.

He lowered himself down on his belly and reached down. The tips of his fingers brushed the ends of the ladder, but he couldn’t get a grip on it.

Some of the light drained out of Nora’s face as she watched him. “I—I don’t know if I can drag Sarah up there.”

He stood and glanced over his shoulder. The man who had attacked him still lay on the floor, apparently unconscious. Einstein looked at Gabe and wagged his tail.

“Just hang on.” Gabe took a deep breath, winced at the pain in his ribs, and dived into the pool.

When he surfaced, Nora was glaring at him. “What are you doing?” She looked up anxiously at the edge of the pool. “We could all be trapped in here.”

“I don’t think so.” He kicked over to the ladder and hooked a foot around one of the rungs. “Even if that idiot wakes up, he’s going to have a hard time getting this ladder out of my grip.”

It took a little maneuvering, but he managed to heave Sarah up the ladder and onto the floor above before helping Nora ascend. Einstein trotted over when Nora removed the tiny kitten from under her shirt, but the dog seemed content to lick the bedraggled creature.

“Is your dog okay around cats?” she asked, trying to keep the kitten out of Einstein’s reach.

Gabe smiled and hugged Nora closer, rubbing her back to warm her shaking body. “His name is Einstein, and he’s okay. He’s got a cat fixation. He thinks they all want to play with them, despite the fact that every cat he’s run across has whacked the snot out of him whenever he got close enough.” He rested his chin on the top of her head.

At their feet, the dog gently groomed the cat and then cradled it between his paws. When the kitten moved, he emulated Gabe by putting his chin down on the small cat to keep it warm and snug.

“Let him take care of the kitten.” Gabe smiled. “He’ll clean it up and keep it warm, better than any mother ever could.”

The world seemed right when she rested her forehead against his neck.

The tramp of feet and irritated grumbles soon alerted him. The cavalry had arrived.

Gerhardt led the way and stumbled to a halt when he caught sight of them. His startled gaze rested on Gabe and then strayed to the expanse of water behind them. His brows rose.

Before he could speak, a low moan caught Gerhardt’s attention. He gestured for one of the cops to go over to Bain. The handyman shook his head and tried to sit up.

“You might want to cuff him,” Gabe recommended, nodding in Bain’s direction. “He tried to drown Nora and Ms. Lennox.”

“I see,” Gerhardt drawled. “So he did occasionally break the rules and come into the house.” He stared at the cop who had cuffed Bain. “Makes me wonder if Bain is really his name. Does he have any identification on him?”

The cop patted him down and pulled out a wallet. He searched it before announcing, “Driver’s license says Dennis Boxwood.”

“Driver’s license?” Gerhardt shook his head mockingly. “And here we all thought he couldn’t drive.”

“What’re you doing?” Boxwood mumbled, jerking his arms as if testing the handcuffs. “Why am I cuffed?”

“Why are you cuffed?” Gabe echoed, a sense of wonder edging close to admiration at Boxwood’s gall. He couldn’t possibly expect them to believe he was just an innocent bystander, could he?

Gerhardt snorted and covered his reaction by rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand, although there was no way for him to hide the laughter crinkling his eyes.

“Yeah.” Boxwood thrust his chin forward and expanded his chest. “If anyone is arrested, it should be you.” He focused on Gerhardt. “He,” he jerked his chin at Gabe, “hit me. Beat the crap out of me. I never did nothing but try to protect myself.”

“And try to drown your mother,” Gabe said dryly. “And Ms. James here.” He hugged Nora closer.

“You don’t know shit,” Boxwood threw back. “I’m innocent.”

“You’re not wearing gloves. I bet your prints are all over that ladder and the lever controlling the water,” Gabe observed. A smiled tugged his mouth, but he managed not to laugh. At least out loud.

The theories he’d been considering were starting to tumble into place.

“That don’t prove nothing. I was trying to shut it off. To
save
them.”

“And then there are the vents. And your little toys.”

Boxwood stared at him. Gabe could almost see the thoughts flitting back and forth behind his pale, gray eyes. His sharp nose, pointed chin, and thin face gave him a rat-like appearance that wasn’t helped by his lank pale brown hair and long, bony limbs.

He looked oily and untrustworthy. His eyes shifted to the left as he assumed a casual air that he obviously hoped would make them think he had no idea what Gabe was talking about. “Vent? Toys?”

“Yeah. The vent covers have been modified to slide out of the way when you need to access a room with your drones. Like the drones you used to shoot Archie James, your father. And Michael James and Candace Westover.”

Boxwood laughed. “No drone small enough to fit through a vent is gonna be able to handle the recoil. You’re full of shit.”

“You’re a smart boy, Denny, and that isn’t such a big problem to solve. All you have to do was add a couple of metal struts that a drone could deploy at the vent opening to keep it from recoiling back into the duct. And I bet everything is covered with your prints.”

“I don’t know nothing about electronics. And I wasn’t even here the first time. The police checked the ATM’s camera. It’s proof.”

“There’s an app for that,” Nora murmured against Gabe’s neck. “You didn’t need to be here to operate a drone.”

“That old man deserved it.” Boxwood’s eyes flared with anger. He lunged at Gabe, but the cop holding him yanked him back by the arms. “They all did. This,” he looked around at the cellar, “should be mine. I’m his
son
! He threw me away like I was nothing. Trash. Wouldn’t even let me in the house. And he was giving it all away. I’ve looked for weeks, and there’s nothing here—
nothing!
He wasted his money. It’s gone, and it’s not
fair
—it should have been mine.”

“Get him out of here,” Gerhardt told the officer as Boxwood descended into cursing and threats against the remaining members of the James family. When the policeman pushed Boxwood forward, Gerhardt turned to Gabe. “Can you prove those accusations?”

“Yeah. I discovered the sliding vents just before Nora disappeared. They’re easy enough to check, and I’d make sure I dusted them for prints.”

“What about the drones?”

“I found one about three feet into one of the vents in the den. You’ll find more, and a lot of them may be down here, just inside the vents. Check them all if you can.” Gabe chuckled. “You may end up with quite a collection.”

“If he hasn’t removed them.”

“He wouldn’t have done that, he hasn’t had time. And they were safer in the vents than anywhere else. I’m sure he didn’t want to get caught with one if someone happened to see him leaving.”

Gerhardt shook his head. “You know, if that kid had let his father die of natural causes and then hired a lawyer instead of killing three people, he might actually have inherited something.”

“Yeah, well, that would have required patience. He didn’t seem like a patient guy to me.”

“Yes.” Gerhardt’s mouth twisted wryly. “He might have had to wait a whole six months.”

“Six months?” Nora repeated.

“Archie James had liver cancer. The medical examiner found it during the autopsy. It was the reason I couldn’t entirely dismiss the idea that he might have killed himself, although how he could have done it without leaving behind a weapon did make it difficult to explain.”

“I guess so,” Nora said. “I still can’t believe he killed his father. And then tried to drown his poor mother. It’s so sad. I wonder if Uncle Archie even realized that Don Bain was actually Dennis Boxwood, his son.”

“Maybe not.” Gabe glanced at Gerhardt. “Can you get an ambulance? These women need medical care.”

Nora stirred and his arm tightened around her shoulders. “I’m fine. I just need a shower.” She coughed wetly and made a face. “And some bleach.”

“You and your bleach. This time, you’re going to the hospital. They can disinfect you there without turning you into a blonde.”

“Bully.” She smiled and closed her eyes, nestling closer. “You might like me blonde.”

Gerhardt pulled out his cell phone, scowled at it, and turned to one of his men. After a short conversation, the cop ran out. “There’ll be one here shortly. You want to explain to me what happened, and why you think Don Blain, a.k.a. Dennis Boxwood, is Sarah Lennox’s son?”

“We’ll need to verify that, but I think it’s likely.”

“So they were in on this together?” Gerhardt asked, frowning down at Sarah, who lay breathing heavily through blue-tinged lips. He stooped and checked the pulse in her neck and then took off his jacket and spread it over her.

“No,” Nora interrupted before Gabe could speak. Her cold hands gripped his shirt. “I don’t think she knew that Bain ever came into the house. We’ll have to ask her to be sure, but I don’t think she knew anything.”

“Excuse me,” Johnny strolled into the room, followed by a portly, graying police officer, his face lined with concern.

When the officer saw Nora, his expression cleared. He smiled and gave her a wink.

“Tell them what we found, Officer Tilton,” Johnny said, pushing the older cop forward.

“Boxes.” He touched his temple and glanced up, flushing as if belatedly realizing he still had his hat on. He pulled it off, looked briefly at Nora, and fixed his gaze on the toes of his black shoes. “In the moat, sir.” He eyed Gerhardt as if expecting a sharp reprimand. When the detective remained quiet, he continued, “They was wrapped in plastic, sir. Three boxes.”

“The gold,” Gabe said.

Nora stiffened in his arms and raised her head to study his face. “The inheritance—I can’t leave. I can’t go to the hospital, now.”

“You can go for a couple of hours.” His grip on her tightened.

“You know perfectly well that it won’t be a couple of hours. It never is. And I’ve come too far to throw it all away. The shelter—”

“I know, the shelter can use all the money you can get. You are the most stubborn woman—”

“Not stubborn. Determined. And I want to know what’s going on, what really happened.”

Another officer entered the room and went over to the detective. Two paramedics trailed after him. After a quick conversation, Detective Gerhardt said, “The ambulance is here. Ms. James, I suggest you go with Ms. Lennox.”

The paramedics had already removed the detective’s jacket from Sarah and were efficiently checking her vitals. “What happened?” one of them asked.

Gabe gave them a terse rundown, and although both men gave Nora a quick, professional glance, they concentrated on the unconscious woman.

Despite Nora’s protests, Gabe escorted her to the ambulance and insisted she go with them. “I’ll bring some clean clothes for you,” he promised as the emergency tech shut the door in his face.

By the time Gabe returned to the house, Gerhardt had already dragged Dennis Boxwood into the hallway.

“Where are you going?” Gabe asked, torn between his desire to question Boxwood and his promise to follow Nora to the hospital.

“The station.” A smile creased Gerhardt’s thin face. He looked like the proverbial cat that swallowed the canary.

“Can’t you question him here? Now? I’ve got to follow Nora to the hospital in a few minutes. She’s entitled to know what happened.”

Gerhardt’s grin widened. Amusement sparkled in his eyes. “No doubt. And she’ll hear in good time.”

“Come on. You can take the time.” His jaw ached from gritting his teeth. Why couldn’t Gerhardt stop acting like a hidebound asshole and for once be human? How hard would it be to put a few questions to Boxwood now?

“It’s procedure, Mr. O’Brien. You should understand that.” Gerhardt nodded and gave Boxwood’s back a sharp prod.

Scowling, Boxwood jolted forward. “I want a doctor. He assaulted me,” he jerked his head in Gabe’s direction. “I think he broke something.”