Endangered: A Delecoeur Mystery #1 (8 page)

BOOK: Endangered: A Delecoeur Mystery #1
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“No print matches yet, but it was stolen
hours before the accident from a tech firm in Palo Alto called...Digiteknic.”

“Digiteknic.” There was that kick of
adrenaline that came with feeling like the answers were coming together.

“Yes. It was some sort of moving van for
transporting equipment,” Harry said.

“I know Digiteknic,” Max said.

“What do you know about it?”

“Well, I used to do business with it. It
is a supplier of fiber optic and high tech materials. But, we developed some
stricter guidelines for suppliers particularly in the area of environmental
conservation and Digiteknic didn’t meet the standard, so we didn’t renew the
contract.”

“Any backlash about that?”

“The President, Martin Shaffer
complained that the guidelines made it difficult for small and medium sized
companies to compete. I offered to help them through the Delecoeur Enterprise
Foundation. Basically it’s a grant that they don’t have to repay to make
earth-friendly changes.”

“Did they take you up on it?”

“Not so far.”

Madeleine whispered, “What about the
heckler? He was mad and a corporate type.”

Max nodded towards her. “He has a son…
Gavin.”

“What?” Harry asked.

“I was thinking about Madeleine’s
heckler. She said he was young, but a corporate type. Maybe it was Martin’s
son. He is being groomed to take over the business. Hold on just a second.”

Max grabbed his laptop from the side
table. He pulled up the Digiteknic Corporate website and motioned for
Madeleine. “Is that the heckler?”

“Yes!” Madeleine caught herself and
lowered her voice. After all she was supposed to be dead. “Yes, that’s him,”
she whispered.

“Have Springer’s men talk to Gavin
Shaffer.”

“Will do,” Harry said.

“Also, you might want to look into Chas
Newcomb.”

Madeleine’s eyes widened in surprise.

"I thought you said he was
clean," Harry said.

"I thought he was, but he used to
work for Digiteknic,” Max explained.

“Small world,” Madeleine whispered.

Max hung up with Lt. White. Progress was
being made, but the contents of the manuscript still hovered at the edges of
his mind. He forced himself to push it out of his head. He would confront Julia
about it, but right now it was most important to find out who had tried to kill
Madeleine, twice.

“I’m going to take a shower,” he told
Madeleine.

“Okay. Want me to make breakfast?”

“No. I want you to stay here. I’ll make
some coffee and breakfast when I’m done and bring it to you.”

“You’re confining me to this room?”

“Yes … the rest of the house is open and
anyone spying would see you,” he added when she started to argue. “I’ll close
everything up when I go down.”

“Couldn’t you make coffee first?”

“I could, but how much do you want to
bet Julia is going to show up any time soon?”

Madeleine pouted. “You want breakfast
ala Julia?”

“No,” he said pulling her against him.
“I don’t want to be in my robe, with nothing underneath, when she gets here.”

“Good point.”

“I thought you’d think so.” He kissed
her and then headed to shower.

 

 ~~~

 

Madeleine was glad that if she had to be
stuck in one room, it was her bedroom. It was large, but warm and cozy even
with the curtains closed. She had a library and office space in the corner when
she felt inspired, and a daybed by the bay window when she needed to be
inspired. And she had a lot of floor space. She decided to take advantage of
that by doing some exercise. She slipped on a pair of shorts and a tank top,
then pulled a rubber mat out from a drawer under the bed and rolled it out on
the floor. She loved yoga and Pilates. This morning she opted for Pilates. She
was in the middle of doing a double-leg stretch when she thought she heard the
front door shut. She sat up, cocking her head to listen.

“Max?” she heard a woman call.

Julia?
Madeleine wondered. Still
surprised that someone had gotten into the house, Madeleine sat until she heard
the woman call again. Only this time she sounded closer.

“Oh, no.” She didn’t dare call out Max’s
name in case the visitor heard her. She bundled the mat and shoved it in a
drawer. She started to head for the master bath and then noticed the bucket
with a champagne bottle and two empty flutes. Quickly and as quietly as she
could, she gathered the items and ran to her side of the dressing room. She
rounded the corner where the dressing rooms were connected by the bathroom and
headed up Max’s side.

“Hey gorgeous.” Max was in his slacks,
but didn’t have a shirt on as he prepared to shave. “There is more downstairs
if you need it," he said referring to the champagne bucket clutched to her
chest.

“Someone’s in the house. I think it's
Julia.” Madeleine said ignoring his remark.

“What?”

“I think Julia is in the house.”

At that point they heard a knock on the
bedroom door. “Max?”

He wiped his face quickly with a towel
and grabbed his golf shirt. “Hide.” He pulled on his shirt and headed out to
the bedroom as Madeleine headed toward the back of the U-shaped bathroom again.

The door to the bedroom opened. “Max?
Are you okay?”

“Julia? How’d you get in?”

“Oh, there you are. God Max, I was
frantic. The door was open. I’m not surprised you forgot to turn on the alarm.
You were pretty out of it last night.”

Remembering the manuscript, Max’s face
darkened. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m just checking on you. I was
worried. Are you hungry? I could make you breakfast.”

He really wanted coffee and began to
feel a guilty that he wouldn’t be getting Madeleine her promised coffee anytime
soon. But, breakfast would be a good way to get Julia out of the bedroom.

“Oh, I see you had a tough night,” she
said without waiting for his response.

He turned to where she looked over the
rumpled bed. His face heated as he wondered if she knew what he had done in
that bed and with whom. Then he noticed Madeleine’s nightgown. He panicked when
Julia notice too.

She smiled. “I remember when William
died,” she said as she touched the soft fabric of Madeleine’s nightgown. “I put
one of his suits in the bed with me.” She looked up at Max. “We didn’t have a
good marriage at the end, but somehow when he died, I missed him.”

Max just nodded, relieved that she
didn’t suspect the truth.

“You know, if you need help packing up
her things, I’ll be happy to do it for you.” She moved back towards him and
laid a hand on his cheek.

“Huh?”

“At some point, you’ll need to decide
what to do with her things. I can help with that. I had to do it with William.
You’ll see Max. Someday the pain will stop and you’ll be able to go on. Maybe
even allow love in your life again.”

His confusion and embarrassment quickly
turned dark as anger rode its way up to his face. “Is that how your book ends,
Julia? You get rid of Madeleine’s things and try to take her place.”

She jerked back. “What?” her body
stiffened and to Max, she seemed genuinely surprised. “No, Max, I don’t want to
take her place. I’m just trying to help.”

“More like help yourself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I read your manuscript.”

“So?”

“There are many details that are not
fiction.”

“The characters are based on us that’s
true, but that is as far as it goes. The rest is made up.”

“The lake?”

She sighed. “Okay, so I used a few real
life …”

“The baby?”

Visibly shaken, Julia sat on the edge of
the bed. Her reaction affirmed what he feared.

“When you came to see me in college, you
were pregnant with Chas weren’t you?”

“Yes,” she said on an exhale.

“You were never going to tell me.”

She looked him in the eye. “What for?
You didn’t want me. You blame my greed on choosing William, but you were never
going to marry me.”

That part was true; he never intended to
marry her. But, she wouldn’t have married him either. Although he developed
wealth, it hadn't been his goal. Out of high school, his plan was to get a
degree in engineering and find a job somewhere. The decision to start his own
business came long after he left Julia.

“Don’t skew the story now Julia. We both
know that you married William because he was rich. And I never begrudged you
that. He seemed like a nice guy and I was glad you had someone to take care of
you. But, to keep a baby from me.”

“Look Max, I don’t know who Chas’ father
is, okay? I took a chance that it was William’s and it worked until Chas got
sick when he was eleven and a blood test revealed that William wasn’t the
father.”

Max’s eyes narrowed. “If William isn’t
the father…”

She took another deep breath resigned to
tell all. “There were others. You remember me Max.”

He did remember her. He remembered a
happy, friendly kid who even as a child was prone to over dramatize. When he’d
first heard the term ‘drama queen’ he’d immediately thought of Julia. But
despite her outward selfishness, she had been a good friend to him. He had been
there for her too. When her father split and left her and her mother with
nothing, he’d seen how they struggled. That was when Julia made her Scarlet
O’Hara vow to never go without again. He had admired her determination even if
he knew he’d never be the one to help her reach her goal. But of everything
he’d remembered about Julia, promiscuity wasn’t one of them. 

“I know you don’t believe this,” she
continued. “But I did love you and wanted to be with you always. I just didn’t
want to have to keep going through life without things. You had other goals and
weren’t worried about how you would survive.”

She began to pace around the room. “I
understand now that what we had was just a lovely little romance. But when you
left, I felt like I lost everything. You were the only one who understood me…or
put up with me.”

She stopped in front of him to look him
in the eyes. “I was lost and kept looking for a replacement… in several
different men. When I found out I was pregnant, I went to you first hoping
you’d change your mind, come back to school here. But, you were so committed to
your goals. Not telling you about the baby was the only selfless act I ever
did.”

“Selfless?” he said in disbelief.

“Yes, selfless,” she cried. “I didn’t
tell you because I finally realized that you cared for me, but didn’t love me.
You had moved on and I wanted you to have your dream. If I told you about the
baby, you’d have done the right thing without questioning if you were the
father or not.”

Max found himself touched by her
actions. He’d rather have known about the baby, but he had to agree, it was
unusual for Julia not to use any and every weapon she had to get what she
wanted.

“What about Chas, what does he know?”

“He knows that William isn’t his father
because William disowned us both when he found out. We stayed married, but it
was an empty marriage. And he stopped being a father to Chas.” She shook her
head and Max realized how much it had hurt her to see Chas rejected by the only
father he knew.

“What does he know about me?”

“He believes you are his father. I never
told him that,” she added quickly. “I just never corrected what I think he
believes.”

“Why didn’t he say anything?” Max
thought Chas was as conceited and selfish as his mother. It didn’t make sense
that he wouldn’t say anything.

“I begged him not to. I told him that
you didn’t know and that you had a life that didn’t need that kind of
interruption. He threatened to tell you, so I agreed that I would do it.”

“The lunch the other day…”

“Yes, with Madeleine out of town, it
seemed like a good time to get you alone. But, I couldn’t do it. It was so
great to see you and to spend time with you again. I couldn’t ruin it.”

“What about Chas? Wasn’t he upset when
you didn’t tell me?”

“Livid is more like it. I told him I
would take care of it when Madeleine was feeling better. He agreed although I
thought for sure he’d tell you when you had that meeting.”

Max shook his head. “He said nothing.”

“He’s not stupid. He knows that the
information would best serve its purpose if it came from me. But with
everything going on with Madeleine…I didn’t want to burden you…”

“Another selfless act?”

Julia didn’t miss the sarcasm. “No, just
cowardly.”

“So you both want what? Inheritance? The
family you never had? What?”

BOOK: Endangered: A Delecoeur Mystery #1
10.49Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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