Finding Justice (5 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

“W
HAT
?” C
AT
STARED
and fought the panic running through her veins.

He closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to blurt it out
like that.”

“You...you’re an...” Cat clutched a hand to her throat.

“Well, look who we have here.”

The booming, jovial voice came from behind Jay, making Cat
jump. She snapped her gaze over his shoulder, her heart pounding.
George. Oh, God, not now.

Trembling from the shock of Jay’s admission, she forced a wide
grin onto her face. “George. What are you doing here?”

He opened his arms. “Well, I work for Jay now. His father is
off around the world enjoying his retirement, so Jay here makes good use of me
instead.”

“I don’t believe it. You’re Jay’s handyman now?”

His expression changed to feigned insult. “Of course. Do you
think this boy could find anyone else to match my caliber? I think not.”

Cat forced a laugh, words lodging in her throat as tension
hummed on an invisible cord between her and Jay. George was clearly oblivious to
the shockwaves ricocheting from the walls around them. She glanced at Jay and
his eyes lingered on hers for a heartbeat before he turned and moved away to
stand at the fireplace.

She snapped her gaze back to George, her smile wobbling. “It is
so good to see you.”

He beamed. “Little Catherine.” He stretched his arms wide.
“What a sight for sore eyes you are.”

Cat stepped into his embrace and closed her eyes. It had been
far too long since she smelled George’s comforting combination of tangy,
old-fashioned aftershave and the mint lozenges he perpetually had tucked into
his cheek.

Nausea burned hot in her stomach while fondness for George
swelled her heart.

Jay was a recovering addict.

Her blood boiled hot in her veins as confusion, hurt and
disappointment rushed through her heart and soul, branding her with Jay’s
betrayal.

George pulled back and held her hands at arm’s length, an
expression of soft adoration on his face, tufts of silver hair shining at the
sides of his otherwise bald head. Whenever she’d spent time at Jay’s family
home, George was her summertime guardian, a man who made her feel just as loved
as her father had. She forced a smile once more. “You look wonderful. You
haven’t aged a single day.”

He chuckled. “Well, you have.”

She pulled her face into an expression of mock offense. “Don’t
you know it’s rude to say that to a lady?”

He immediately reddened. “Oh, no, I meant you’re all grown up
and not the girl running around with her hair hanging out of its ribbons all the
time.”

Cat laughed and cupped her hand to his jaw. “I know what you
meant, silly. It’s great to see you looking so well.”

His blue eyes sparkled. “You, too. I couldn’t believe it when
Jay told me you were coming back home for a while.”

Warmth furled in Cat’s stomach. He called Templeton Cove her
home in the same easy way Jay had. She glanced at Jay. “I’m not so sure about
the Cove being home, George.”

She turned back and George’s smile faltered as he looked from
her to Jay and back again. He opened his mouth to say something and then shook
his head. “Hmm...well, whatever you might say, you know as well as I do this is
where you belong.”

They lapsed into silence and the tension permeated the room.
After a time that must have been moments but felt far longer, George cleared his
throat. “So, how’s Julia?”

Cat stared. “Um...fine. She’s fine.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Just fine? The woman I remember was full
of life, running around after you and Chris but always managing to look so damn
glamorous.” He sighed. “Yes, a gorgeous woman who should never have been left a
widow at such a young age.”

Cat swallowed as tears lodged in her throat. “She’s carrying on
as she always did. You know Mum, strong as an ox and just as stubborn.”

He laughed. “She had to be, with you lot trying to run circles
around her. I remember the time you swore you never pinched that makeup from her
bag and then came in with it all smudged around your eyes. Lord, I had to leave
the room so she could tell you off without me standing there fit to burst with
laughter.”

Happy memories rushed into Cat’s heart. “She didn’t miss a
thing back then, did she?”

“Nope. She had your cards marked, you and Chris, both.” He
winked. “As we all did. The pair of you couldn’t get anything past me, either.
No matter how many times you tried.”

Cat continued to smile, her heart aching with the heavy weight
of her mother’s demise bearing down on her chest. George’s intelligent gaze
wandered over her face as though looking right inside her. She looked to the
floor. “I’ve missed you.”

“Hey.” He put a finger to her chin, forcing her gaze to his.
“While you’re here we’ll find time to catch up properly, okay?”

She smiled, warmth spreading through her. “I’d like that.”

“Good. But right now, I must get on.” He pressed a kiss to her
cheek. “I’ll see you soon, my darling.”

Cat smiled, not wanting him to leave. No part of her wanted to
be left alone with Jay. “See you.”

George moved to step away and then stopped. His canny gaze fell
on Jay and his brow furrowed. “Cat got your tongue?” He laughed. “Did you hear
what I said? Cat got your tongue. Cat. Catherine.” He shook his head and swiped
a hand under his eye. “Lord, I make myself laugh sometimes.”

The tension hitched up a notch, the silence heavy and
awkward.

George’s smile dissolved and he looked from Jay to Cat and back
again. “Right...well, I’ll leave you to it, then.”

He shot Jay a meaningful glare before ambling from the room and
out toward the kitchen that lay beyond. Alone again, Cat met Jay’s stare.

“I...” She shook her head as any words to sum up how she felt
escaped her. “Just show me where I’m sleeping.”

“Cat, we need to talk.”

Anger rose in a hot flame scorching her heart. “Not yet. I
can’t...I can’t even look at you right now.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “I told you the truth. Surely that’s
better than lying?”

“The truth?” She trembled. “How about you telling me the truth,
the
whole
truth when you picked up the phone and
summoned me here like some damn innocent, huh?”

His eyes snapped open, their brown depths shining with what
looked like unshed tears. “What?”

Anger blistered through Cat’s sympathy. “You heard me. Now, I
said show me where I’m sleeping.” Her breath rasped painfully against her throat
and her chest grew tight.

After a long moment, he threw up his hands. “Fine. Follow
me.”

He brushed past her toward the stairs and she followed.
Stopping at the third door along a long gallery landing, he pushed opened the
door. “I’ve put you in here.”

“Thank you.” She stepped inside and slammed the door.

She waited with her forehead against the wood until his
hesitant footsteps disappeared. Only then did she release her held breath.

“No, no, no.” Cat’s words whispered out on a breath of barely
contained despair.

An addict. Jay was an addict. An addict like her mum...and
possibly Sarah.

She pushed away from the door and faced the room. She shook her
head. How had he afforded the cabin? How had he managed to get sober and look so
damn good while her mother festered in her own destruction? The room and its
opulence swam in her blurred vision as she stumbled toward the four-poster
bed.

Cat willed her heartbeat to slow. How could seven years pass
and a man still smell the same? His lingering scent of musk and man
infuriatingly teased her nostrils as it had before. When she’d sat next to him
in the taxi, the smell had risen between them. She inhaled, actually smelled him
like she was Hannibal Lecter savoring his next meal, for crying out loud.

He’s a suspect. A suspect. A recovering
addict. An angry man, a selfish man, a dishonest man...

Although she saw the peach satin-finished wallpaper and the
thick, cream carpet pile, her mind still reeled with Jay’s news and what that
now made him in her mind. Cat dropped backward onto the bed and covered her face
with her hands as bitterness scorched her throat.
Is that
why he called me? Does he know about my mother and assume we’ll have some
sort of affinity? Is any of this about Sarah?

She groaned into the silence of the room. She couldn’t even
leave, couldn’t run away despite the urge rising in her on a tidal wave. The
possibility of Jay being a suspect stuck hard in her mind. Yes, he’d loved Sarah
back then, but four years was a long time. A lifetime for an addict. Had Sarah
given up on him? Or enabled him? Had she been selling drugs rather than using?
Cat’s mind whirled with a kaleidoscope of heartbreaking possibility.

How had all three of their lives spun so completely out of
control? Drugs and alcohol had seeped into their once-innocent lives and
completely obliterated their dreams of what was real and what wasn’t. Sitting
up, Cat swiped angrily at her cheeks. No tears. No self-pity. She stared at the
closed bedroom door.

She had to give him the benefit of the doubt. Had to seek out
the evidence and assess it logically and unemotionally. The reality was that Jay
had turned things around and surrounded himself with luxury. She was happy for
his success. He had managed to get on in the world, and even though Cat hadn’t
done too badly in the intervening time, she had little more money now than she
had when she was last at the Cove.

Her mum’s stealing, spending and drinking it away had seen to
her lack of savings. Swallowing against the pain of what had happened to her
family, Cat pressed her hand to her stomach, willing the gnawing shame away.

She and Jay lived different lives now. Lives tainted by toxic
substances—but different lives, all the same. The fact she had left her mum in
Chris’s hands and came to the Cove still felt liberating. She’d shown both of
them, in no uncertain terms, that she gave priority for certain people and
certain circumstances. She drew in a shaky breath. It would take a while for the
guilt skimming over her skin to disappear, but despite the short time since she
and Jay had been reunited, some of her responsibility was already subsiding.

This trip, even with its sickening cause, would allow the
perspective and space she needed to figure out how to help her mum and herself
from falling into the abyss of hopelessness that grew wider every day.

Tears threatened and she snapped her eyes open, determination
heating her blood. Jay couldn’t have killed Sarah. He would never be capable of
locking his hands around her throat, squeezing and squeezing until no breath
came from her. But if he had been high...

She shook her head vehemently in an effort to banish the ugly
consideration from her mind. Her thoughts were born from her perpetual doubt
about everything. Nothing more. She needed to put his addiction to one side. She
needed to think clearly and professionally.

Maybe her coming to the Cove was God’s great plan. She might
have been sent there to learn enough from Jay that she would return home with
the inner strength to put her mum into rehab. Who was to say her mum couldn’t
emerge a success story, just as Jay had? Cat’s chest tightened as she tried and
failed to bring forth some faith, some belief it would all come right in the
end. She gripped the silky-soft bedspread beneath her. It had to be possible.
She had to believe Jay’s intentions had been nothing but honorable when he’d
asked her here. She had to. The alternative was unbearable.

Her thoughts turned to Sarah. For her friend, it was too late.
Drugs or no drugs, Sarah was dead, her life over. The one thing Cat knew for
sure, even before uncovering a single thing, was that she and Jay owed it to
Sarah’s memory to solve her murder and live the best lives they could.

She had to work from the foundation that Jay was innocent until
proven guilty. She would put all her energy into finding the killer without
closing her eyes to the truth. It was out there waiting to be uncovered. Cat
Forrester never left anything uncovered.

She pushed to her feet and marched into the ensuite bathroom.
Jay might have suffered problems in the past seven years, but so had she.
Whatever those problems, they didn’t make him a killer.

She’d shower and change and then phone Chris to see how things
were at home. Trying to act as though the lavish silver-and-gray-tiled
bathroom—complete with silver faucets and thick gray towels stacked on chrome
shelves—was the norm for her, Cat stripped off her clothes and stepped into the
open shower. The hot water slid in torrents over her head and down her body.
Closing her eyes, she soaked her hair as she relived the anger and self-hatred
in Jay’s eyes when he confessed his addictions.

God knew there would be plenty of time for them to talk during
the coming days.

She opened her eyes and reached for the shampoo. This wasn’t a
time for accusation. It might be the perfect time for a few revelations...from
both of them. But asking him about the drugs and how that affected his
relationship with Sarah was vital, whether he liked it or not. There was a very
real possibility the drugs were the reason for their estrangement. Addiction
killed friendships like arsenic killed people.

Digging her nails into her scalp, Cat scrubbed her hair as
though scrubbing out the turmoil, shame and disappointment of not being able to
“fix” her mum. Jay didn’t know her mum as anything other than glamorous Mrs. F.,
as he used to call her. Telling Jay about her deterioration brought a harsh
sense of fear and betrayal to Cat’s conscience. She feared his reaction to her
as well as to her mum. Added to that was the horrible feeling that if she shared
their family secret, she was talking behind her mother’s back. Painting her in a
way Julia would rather die than Jay know.