Extreme Exposure (31 page)

The thought that he’d shared a few meals with Stanfield sickened him and turned the rage in his stomach into a white-hot fury. He wouldn’t stop until he knew the truth, and he would do it all above-board, publicly, sharing whatever he uncovered with Kara and the other media.

Kara.
She was investigating Northrup, probably still unaware of its ties to TexaMent. She needed to know, and she needed to hear it from him. Otherwise, when she connected the two companies she would believe that he’d lied to her. After all, he was carrying a bill for TexaMent.

But that was about to change. He’d pull the bill tomorrow morning and launch an official probe into both companies.

Reece flicked through his Rolodex, picked up his phone, and dialed Stanfield’s number.

H
E STARED
down at the lights of the city, tossed back the last of his scotch, and winced as it hit the ulcer in his stomach like a piercing arrow.

So the reporter had not only survived, but now she’d gone into hiding. Well, hired help wasn’t always what you hoped it would be. He should have handled it himself from the beginning. Perhaps then things would never have come this far.

Now Sheridan had become a problem, too. Certainly, the senator wasn’t the first man to think with his cock, and he
wouldn’t be the last. But his involvement with the reporter posed a serious threat. The situation needed to be managed.

It was time to try something different. They couldn’t very well kill a senator outright, especially not after the failed attack on the woman he was screwing. That would bring the entire state bureaucracy into the fray and draw even more attention to the McMillan girl. But there were other ways to get Sheridan out of the picture.

As for the reporter, there was no point in wasting time trying to find her. He would make her come to him. And when she did, he would make sure to answer all of her questions—she deserved that much for all her hard and fruitless work.

Then she would die.

He wasn’t a murderer. He was a risk manager. He’d built his fortune by staying one step ahead of everyone else, by using circumstances to his best advantage, by doing things other people were too afraid or too lacking in vision to do. Laws and rules were for men too weak to reshape the world after their own desires. He was neither weak nor afraid.

Boldness was a lesson he’d learned from his father, though not in the usual way. He’d always struggled to please his father, a moderately successful oilman, but he had somehow seemed to fall short of the mark. His father hadn’t approved of his ideas for running the company and had gotten in his way whenever he tried to strike out on a project of his own. The solution to the problem came one day during a private lunch meeting when his father, who’d been in the middle of another tirade about the danger of taking shortcuts, had started to choke on a bite of steak.

His first impulse had been to call for help. But then, as he’d watched his father flail and turn purple, he’d realized that this was the break he’d been waiting for. And so he’d put down the phone and watched as his father had choked slowly to death.

After that, everything had been easy. He’d replaced the board of directors, hired managers who shared his hardnosed
vision, and moved the company to a level of profitability his father had never imagined. Where he’d once cowered before his father, trying desperately to please him, men now cowered before him and raced each other to win his favor.

No one was going to take that from him now. Not some bitch of a reporter who liked to stick her nose into other people’s business—and certainly not some self-righteous state senator.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He had several calls to make.

CHAPTER 23

K
ARA WASN
’
T
quite healed yet. That was the only explanation for why she’d slept until ten—that and the fact she’d awoken in the middle of the night, heart pounding, body wet with sweat, sure she was fighting for her life. It had taken a moment to remember her attacker was dead, to remember where she was and that she was safe. It had taken much longer to fall back asleep again. She’d only succeeded after she’d curled up against one of the king-sized pillows and pretended Reece was beside her.

She crawled out of bed, mildly disgusted with herself for being so weak-minded, shed her pajamas, and walked naked into the enormous bathroom with its walk-in shower and sunken tub. She turned the water in the shower on hot, stepped in, and let the scorching spray wash her nightmares away. By the time she emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later, she was awake and ready to work.

She called room service; ordered the huevos rancheros, some orange juice, and tea; and then slipped into a pair of jeans and her ivory silk blouse. She sat down to read over her notes from the night before. She’d read through Devlin’s file and that of four other committee members and found nothing pertaining to Northrup—no memos to the health department, no bills, no requests for favors. She had, however, found an interesting note in Devlin’s file.

What about this? Does the stupid bitch really think I’d give her anything incriminating?

Those words had been scrawled on a yellow sticky note that had somehow become stuck to the back of an innocuous e-mail to the health department about the annual Senate holiday party. Kara would bet anything that Devlin’s intern had written it and that it referred to some document the intern felt Devlin might not want her to see. She was equally certain that its presence in this folder was sheer, delightful accident. She had saved the sticky note, tucked it carefully into her pile of papers, and made a note to interview his intern as well. If she found nothing, she might be able to use this in a lawsuit against Devlin to prove that he had broken state law by withholding requested documents.

The next file belonged to Miguel de la Peña. A moderate and a family man, he was closely allied with Reece. Kara knew the two of them were friends outside the Capitol as well. Not that any of that meant anything, of course. She opened the folder and had just glanced through the documents when room service knocked at the door.

“I hope you’re feeling comfortable here.” Mr. Osterman carried her tray toward the dining table.

“It’s covered with documents. Sorry. You can just put it here on the coffee table.” Quickly she moved her notes aside, the smell of bacon making her mouth water. “And, yes, I’m very comfortable. Thank you.”

“Is there anything else I can get you?”

“No, thanks.” She waited until he’d gone to dive into her breakfast. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this hungry.

She reached for the remote and switched on the television and then surfed for the news. Being in the hospital and shut up in the hotel left her feeling cut off from the world. For all she knew, space aliens were parked over Washington, D.C., and peace had broken out in the Middle East.

Nell Parker’s heavily made-up face and brassy blond hair popped onto the plasma screen television in such sharp
detail that Kara almost winced. At thirty-five, the popular anchorwoman had already had her first lift.

“—was found dead this morning in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. She had been shot twice through the head. Police say there was no indication that she had been sexually assaulted, but until autopsy results are available later this week they can’t be certain.

“While police said they could not discuss possible motives for the murder, a source close to the investigation told News 12 that the senator had reportedly been intimate with the deceased but that the two had become estranged.

“Again, police are currently conducting a search at the home of State Senator Reece Sheridan, who is believed to be the primary suspect in the shooting death of Alexis Ryan, a Denver lobbyist. Sheridan has reportedly agreed to submit voluntarily to questioning by police and is expected to accompany them within the hour from his office at the state Capitol to the justice center. We’ll have more on this breaking story as it unfolds.”

Kara stared at the television screen, her breakfast forgotten, blood pounding in her ears.

No!
This wasn’t possible! There’s no way Reece could have murdered anyone! The police must have made some kind of terrible mistake.

She grabbed the remote and flew through the channels. Dog food. Mr. Clean. Minivan. Tampons. Oprah.

“—is expected to accompany the police to the Denver Justice Center for questioning at any moment in the alleged murder of his former lover, Alexis Ryan. We’re here on the west steps of the Capitol, where only moments ago several officers from the Denver Police Department entered the building.”

Hands trembling, Kara turned down the volume, grabbed for the phone, and dialed Tessa’s cell number. One ring. Two. “Answer it, Tess!”

“Kara? Bless your heart! Aren’t you supposed to be sequestered in a nunnery or something?”

“He didn’t do it, Tess. He couldn’t have done it.”

Tessa was quiet for a moment. “It looks bad, Kara. They found a nine-millimeter handgun in his briefcase this morning, and they found a bloody tarp in the Dumpster behind his condo. They’ve got a search warrant for his home and his vehicle and have taken his Jeep into custody for forensic testing. He says he was at home alone and asleep last night, so he has no viable alibi. He admits that he had a fling with her a couple years ago and that the two of them haven’t gotten along since she tried to trade sex for votes. But he swears he didn’t kill her.”

Then it dawned on Kara. “The TV stations don’t have any of this. Did he give you an interview?”

“Yeah. An exclusive.”

Kara closed her eyes and fought the lump that was trying to form in her throat. She knew this was Reece’s way of reaching out to her, his way of asking her to trust him. He’d granted her paper an exclusive at a time when he needed every bit of good ink he could get.
What an idiot!
“How’d he look?”

“He looked pretty good, considering—got a cute bow tie on with suspenders. Classy.”

“No, I mean how did he
seem
to you?”

“He’s pretty shaken up, but he looks good, truly, Kara. He said he was certain the evidence would prove his innocence.”

“God, I hope so, because he
is
innocent.” She knew it just as she knew the sky was blue and the sun would come up in the morning. “Who’s his attorney?”

“He has declined counsel.”

“What?” Kara was on her feet now, pacing. “The cops will shred him to ribbons!”

“He says he has nothing to hide and therefore doesn’t need an attorney.” Tessa said something to someone else, and Kara heard Joaquin’s voice in the background. “They’re coming out now. I’ve got to go.”

Kara hung up and turned up the volume on the TV.

“—walking down the west steps of the Capitol now.”

Kara’s heart gave a sick thud, and pain sliced through her stomach. Two officers flanked Reece as he walked gracefully down the steps and toward the squad car, jacket tossed over his shoulder. His head was high, but Kara could see the grim set of his jaw, the tension that brewed just beneath his skin.

The crowd of reporters pressed in on him with cameras and microphones and threw questions in his face, some of them rude.

“Is it true you’ve agreed to submit to a lie-detector test, Senator?”

“How do you respond to reports the murder weapon was found in your possession?”

“Will you confirm that you and Alexis Ryan were lovers?”

“Where does Kara McMillan fit into the picture?”

Reece stopped short and looked toward the television cameras. “I wish to express my condolences to Ms. Ryan’s family. I have every confidence the Denver Police Department will discover who took her life and that justice will be served. The police will have my full cooperation throughout their investigation.”

Kara saw the anger and humiliation in his eyes. She knew what this was costing him, felt his pain as if it were her own. He’d become a senator to be a better teacher, to prove to his students that one person could make a difference, to show the world that it was possible to hold political office without bending to the corruption that so often went with it. And now he was on display before the world as a murder suspect.

The police pushed through the crowd, opened the door of the squad car, and with a hand on Reece’s head, guided him into the backseat. Then the door slammed shut, and he disappeared from view. The siren chirped twice in warning, parting the crowd, and the squad car drew slowly away from the curb.

Kara was halfway to the door, her purse in hand, when she remembered. She wasn’t going anywhere.

P
ICTURES OF
Alexis, her skull blown open, her eyes staring at nothing, lay on the table before Reece. Rage was a slow burn in his gut. No matter how much he had despised her, she hadn’t deserved what had happened to her. No one deserved this. He hoped whoever had done this to her would soon be sitting where he was sitting.

“Let’s get this straight. You argued with the deceased yesterday afternoon. Then you went back to your office, where you worked until approximately twenty-three-thirty.”

“That’s correct.” Reece stared into the skinny cop’s gray eyes. They’d been questioning him in this miserable little room for two hours nonstop. The skinny one, whose name was Charlie, was playing good cop, while the fat one, whose name was Stan, was clearly playing bad cop. They had grilled him on every aspect of his relationship with Alexis, on every step he’d taken yesterday evening. And yet it didn’t seem to satisfy them.

Stan leaned across the table and spoke in a low and menacing voice. “And while you were in your office, the things she said really ate at you and pissed you off. You decided to track her down and have it out, didn’t you? You grabbed your gun, tracked her down, and blew her brains out. Then you wrapped her in the tarp and dumped her in the park.”

“No, I didn’t. As I’ve already told you, I think someone is trying to frame me. I didn’t give Alexis another thought after I turned my back on her. I went up to my office and did several hours of research on the Internet, which the browser on my computer ought to be able to confirm. I left the office at eleven-thirty, drove directly home, watched CNN for a while, and then went to sleep. I didn’t see Alexis after our argument at all.”