House of Strangers (Harlequin Super Romance) (21 page)

“You haven’t been successful so far.” He thrust his hands into the pockets of his slacks and walked away from her. After a moment he turned back. “I came here to do precisely what you surmised. Take everything. Own it, make it mine the way I’m making that house mine. I planned to reveal the secret of my birth in a way that would most damage the Delaneys.”

“What have we ever done to you?”

It was his turn to laugh. “What have you ever done to me? Let’s see. David Delaney convinced my eighteen-year-old virgin mother to marry him secretly. Believe me, in France marrying in secret is extremely difficult. He worked it out carefully. He didn’t give her the right information about his family, who he was, where he lived. All because she wouldn’t go to bed with him or pose nude for him without a marriage certificate.”

“So she forced him to marry her.” Karen gave a little nod of satisfaction.

“She loved him, but she didn’t believe in sex before marriage. Old-fashioned idea, but then, she was an old-fashioned girl. She also didn’t believe in divorce. I have seen some of her letters to my aunt. She didn’t give a damn if the two of them starved in a garret while he studied art and she worked in her father’s coffee shop. She wanted to spend the rest of her life making him happy.”

He sighed. “Funny thing is, she did make him happy. For three whole months. Until the powerful Delaney clan decided it was time to reel him in, bring him home, put
him to work at a real job, marry him off to the girl next door. When he left for America my mother truly believed he meant to come back to Paris. How long did it take you all to convince him to stay? That he’d be happier as a planter married to you?”

She stuck out her chin. “Not long.”

“He never knew she was pregnant with me. Maybe if he’d known—”

“He would have gone back to France? I seriously doubt it. After all, he must have known he might want to disappear, otherwise why give your mother false information?”

“I can’t deny that. But we were talking about what the Delaneys did to me. Marrying my mother, getting her pregnant and then abandoning her was only the first step. She spent the next six years and every dime she could save trying to find him. She finally did. And when she confronted him, he killed her.”

“What?” Karen surged to her feet. “Now that
is
a lie. My husband would never harm a gnat, much less a woman he’d supposedly loved.”

“Killed her,” Paul kept on as though she hadn’t spoken. “And buried her body so that it’s never been found. So while your Trey was being raised by doting parents and grandparents who surrounded him with luxury, my uncle Charlie and my
tante
Helaine struggled to support two of their own children and me on a plumber’s salary.”

“You don’t seem to have been hurt by the process.”

“I was hurt in ways you could never know. But I survived, I made a little money and then, lo and behold, just when I’d completely given up hope of ever finding and punishing my father, I found him, never mind how.”

“And you’re so certain he is the man who fathered you?”

“Aren’t you? You’re the one who had Trey steal my toothbrush.”

Her gasp told him he’d guessed correctly. He risked a smile. “Took me a while to tumble to that one. How closely does our DNA match? We’re only half brothers, after all. I assume you didn’t secretly exhume my father just to get some hair follicles.”

“I had to know for certain. DNA is the only sure way.”

“If you had asked me to provide you with blood for a DNA test, I’d gladly have given it to you. But that would have meant telling me you suspected who I was. Then you’d have had to tell Trey. You didn’t want to do that, did you.”

“Of course not.”

“You recognized me that first day, didn’t you. I assume I’m enough like my father to trigger some memory in you. What I don’t know is why you didn’t simply think I resembled your dead husband without making the connection that I might be his son.”

“Because I’ve been expecting you for over thirty years.”

“You knew about me?”

“I was positive he’d had an affair with someone in Paris. I knew he loved her, or thought he did. I didn’t know she’d had a baby, but I worried about it. The last few years I pushed it to the back of my mind. I thought we were safe. The nightmares haven’t been so frequent.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You said you intend to take everything.”

He shook his head. “No, I said that’s what I’d intended to do when I first drove through Rossiter and saw the mansion was half-derelict and up for sale.”

He shrugged. “I wanted to take it all, make the remaining Delaneys admit their sins and grovel in the dirt.
I wanted you all brought low.” He looked up at her. “But I never intended to keep any of it. I wanted to hand it back to you like a lord conferring a fiefdom on a serf. To have to thank me for giving you your lives back. And then I planned to put the house on the market and leave town.”

“And now?”

“Now you have faces.”

“So what do you plan now that we have faces?”

“I don’t know. I still want to find my mother’s grave and give her a decent burial if possible. And I want the Delaney family, if not the law, to acknowledge privately not only what my father did to her, but that I am his legitimate son.”

“I see. So I suppose I won’t have to kill you, after all.”

“Not if you help me find my mother.”

“I can’t. I don’t know what happened to your mother, but I do know my husband didn’t kill her.”

“You can’t know for certain.”

“How do you know she didn’t disappear voluntarily? That’s she’s not living in Phoenix or Los Angeles with a whole new family?”

“There’s evidence she came here to meet my father. Then she disappeared before she could tell her family she’d found him. She’s not living some other life somewhere else.”

“Then someone she met on the road killed her.”

“Too big a coincidence.”

“Coincidences happen.”

“Not that conveniently, they don’t.”

“You have evidence?” she asked.

“Let’s say I have knowledge.”

“But why are you so certain David killed her?”

“Nobody else knew about her, so nobody else had a motive to kill her.”

“The whole Delaney clan had reason to kill her,” Karen said softly. “I might have if I’d met her and known who she was.”

“Did you?”

Karen shook her head. “No.” For the first time she looked at him with real compassion. “There is another theory. She had been abandoned with a child. You said she was struggling financially. If she found out that David was married with another child, maybe she couldn’t take it.”

“You’re saying she might have committed suicide.”

“Isn’t it a possibility?”

“Never. First, she was a devout Roman Catholic. Suicide is a mortal sin. She would never have endangered her soul, no matter how unhappy she was. Second, because of me. She would never have abandoned me without a word. She loved her sister, too. They were on excellent terms when she left. Then there’s the problem of her body. She didn’t know this part of the country at all. If she’d walked off into the woods and hanged herself from the nearest tree, somebody would have found her. The same with stabbing. She didn’t own a gun or know how to use one, and she had no access to poison. If she had killed herself, she would have wanted her body to be found. She would never have left me in limbo all these years.”

“This is obviously not the first time you’ve thought this through,” Karen said.

“I’ve thought of very little else for thirty years.”

“And yet you must have been a good student with a good record to get into the Air Force Academy.”

“You’re saying I should have become a drug addict or a juvenile delinquent?”

“It wouldn’t have been outside the realm of possibility.”

“It was for me. No matter how much I believed she was dead, for a child, that’s merely another form of abandonment. My father had already abandoned me. I decided there were two ways to go. To hell—to show them how badly they’d messed me up. Or to the top—to show them I didn’t need them.”

“When is she supposed to have died?”

“The last day we know she was alive was the twenty-first of August, 1974.”

Karen sat up. “The twenty-first of August. Thank God.” She clasped her hands in front of her and closed her eyes. “Then David didn’t kill her.”

“How can you know that?”

“I not only know it, I can prove it.” She surged to her feet and began to walk around the room. “It may take some time to get you the proof, but I swear I can get it.”

“What proof?”

“His alibi.” She turned to him, her face now radiant. “Every year from the time Trey was born until David died in 1977, we rented a condo down at Destin, Florida, for the last three weeks in August. He couldn’t have killed your mother. He was in Florida with me.”

“Even if you were registered for the whole time, he could have caught a plane back, killed her…”

“You were against coincidences before, now suddenly you’re willing to consider this nonsense.”

“And I suppose you have the same alibi?”

“Yes. Neither of us slipped back into town to commit a murder.”

“She might have found out he was in Florida and kept on going until she got there. I may have been looking for her in the wrong place.”

“She didn’t. No one would have told her where we were.” She frowned at him. “Condos keep records, and even if they don’t, Marshall is a bear about tax records and bank receipts. It may take a week or two, but we will come up with the proof that we were in Florida.”

“Can you fly a plane?”

“Good grief, no. Neither could David.”

“Did you tell Trey your suspicions?”

“Certainly not. He still doesn’t know. He thinks you’re exactly who you say you are.”

“Then who did you get to screw up my plane?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The person who punctured my oil line so the engine would quit thirty minutes into my flight.”

For a moment she simply gaped at him. Then her eyes shifted to her right. He saw her chest heave. “I hired no one.”

“And the stirrup leather? Did you pay one of Trey’s grooms to cut it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Somebody has been making inept attempts to kill me, or at least hurt me. Any idea who?”

She refused to look at him.

“If you didn’t tell Trey who I am, what did you tell him exactly? Can he fly a plane?”

She stammered. “He…he took a few lessons, but the ground school bored him. Trey’s a good boy. He’d never do anything like that.” She looked into Paul’s eyes. “He likes you, God help him. He told me so. I warned him how dangerous you were to us, but…” Her face blanched.

“But not why.”

Karen shook her head. “Only that you could cause terrible trouble for the family.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “I told him that somehow you had to be forced
to go away and leave us alone.” She closed her eyes, “Dear God, he said not to worry, he’d take care of it.”

Paul handed her the telephone. His face was grim. “Call him. Get him over here. Now.”

“Please, if you bring in the police—”

“Call him.”

She called. Trey wasn’t home. Paul hit the button for the speakerphone. Karen saw what he was doing, but didn’t stop him.

“Mother Karen,” Sue-sue said, “I thought he was with you. He said you called him and asked him to come over.”

“How long ago did he leave?”

“An hour or so. I tried to stop him. He’d been drinking. Lord, I hope he hasn’t had an accident with the car.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. Don’t worry.” Karen let the phone drop into its cradle. “Trey never drives drunk, and I most certainly did not call him to come over.” She looked up at Paul. “I’m frightened. We’ve got to find him before he does something that can’t be fixed.”

“I’m not certain any of this can be fixed.”

“Please, nobody’s been hurt. We’ll pay for your airplane. You know now that David didn’t kill your mother and neither did I. Just go away and leave us alone.”

“I can’t. Not yet.” He picked up the telephone, dialed Buddy Jenkins’s office, identified himself and asked the dispatcher if there had been any automobile accidents reported that evening. He glanced at Karen. “None that you know of. Okay. I’ll explain later, but at the moment I need you to tell Buddy to locate Trey Delaney. His wife says he’s been drinking and he’s out in his truck.” He listened and turned to Karen. “The dispatcher says a few minutes ago his truck was in front of his office in Rossiter.”

“He’s probably inside getting even drunker.”

“Nerving himself up for another little accident?”

Karen grabbed his arm. “I told him that if you hadn’t bought that damned mansion, you’d never have come to town.”

“You think he’d try to destroy the
house?
That’s nuts.”

“I don’t know.”

Paul spoke into the phone. “Look, would you get Buddy on his radio and tell him to check my house?” He hung up. “Come on, Karen, it’s time to end this thing.”

“T
REY
D
ELANEY
, what are you doing here?” Ann asked.

Trey was kneeling between Paul’s newly installed kitchen cabinets when Ann walked in on him. He jumped to his feet and dropped the pipe wrench he’d had in his hand. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Neither are you, so I guess that makes us even.”

“There weren’t any lights on. I made sure before I came in.” His eyes darted around the room. “Go away.”

“I was in the upstairs bathroom reading with the shutters closed. And I will not go away. I’m
supposed
to be here. Why are you?”

He made a sound that was half groan and half whimper.

“What are you hiding behind your back? Show me.” She reached for his arm playfully, but he shoved her away with more force than was necessary. “Ow! Stop that!”

“I’m sorry, Ann,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you. God, I never wanted to hurt anybody.”

She felt the hairs on her neck prickle. Nonsense. This was Trey, her dim-witted cousin, a sweet guy she’d known all her life. There was not a mean bone in his body. She didn’t need to feel frightened around Trey, did she?

She kept her voice calm. Trey had always responded well to authority. So she’d exert it. “Trey Delaney, you show me what you have in your hand right this minute. I mean it.”

“It’s just an old candle.” Now, he sounded sulky.

“A candle? Why were you putting it on the floor?” She looked past him. “Good grief, some nitwit left the cap off the gas valve to the stove. That could be danger…” Suddenly her eyes widened. “Oh, my God.”

Trey threw the candle across the room. “Why’d you have to show up? The house was supposed to be empty.”

“I didn’t just show up. I’ve been here waiting for Paul.”

“He’s at Mama’s. She called him. He’s not supposed to be back until…until…”

Anger drove out any fear she felt. “You’re the one who’s been pulling those stupid stunts, aren’t you? What’d you do—buy
The Idiot’s Guide to Assassination
? You could have
killed
somebody. Dammit, you could have killed
me!
”

He dropped his eyes. “I’m sorry about that. You weren’t supposed to get in the way.” He opened his hands and reached out to her. “I didn’t want to
kill
him, maybe hurt him a little, make him go away.”

“Why on earth would you want to make him go away? My Lord, Trey, those weren’t high-school pranks. They were dangerous and stupid.”

“Mama told me he was dangerous to the family.” He drew himself up. “Nobody threatens my family.”

“He’s not threatening your family. He’s a perfectly nice man…”

“No, he’s not.” Suddenly Trey’s face went hard. His hands twisted into fists.

Until this moment she’d never realized how big he was. She felt her pulse race in her throat. She forced her voice to remain calm. “Did she happen to mention
why
he’s dangerous to your family?”

“She said she couldn’t tell me for a few days, but I know it’s about Daddy or Granddaddy. Maybe a ven
detta—the son of somebody one of them screwed in a business deal. Something like that, at any rate. Retaliation. Revenge. Mama swore she’d tell me when I stole his toothbrush, but she didn’t.”

Ann stared at him in amazement. “
You
stole Paul’s toothbrush?”

“Mama told me to. I gave her the glass he used in my office, too. She wanted his fingerprints.”

“Trey, don’t you watch any of those forensic shows on TV? Don’t you know about DNA?”

“Sure I know. What’s DNA got to do with anything?”

“You can get DNA off a toothbrush.”

“Why would Mama want his DNA?”

“I don’t know.” She closed her eyes and ran her hand over her face. “Trey, I cannot believe you went out on nothing more than your mama’s say-so and tried to kill a total stranger. Don’t you understand you could go to jail?”

Now he was back to sulky. “I didn’t really try to kill him. I figured he might land in the hospital for a while, long enough to be convinced to go back where he came from. The Delaneys can make Rossiter damn uncomfortable for anybody they don’t want here. We’re still powerful. And I wouldn’t go to jail. Not in
this
county.”

“You would if Buddy had anything to say about it. You may be rich, but you’re no different from anybody else under the law.”

“I’m still a Delaney.”

“Don’t be an idiot, Trey. What do you think Buddy would have done if you’d killed me?”

“I’m so sorry about that, Ann. After you fell off Liege I realized I couldn’t take a chance on hurting somebody else.” He took a deep breath. “The only way to make
him leave town is to make doggoned certain he doesn’t have a house to live in.”

Suddenly he didn’t seem quite sane. His eyes glittered with excitement.

Ann felt her stomach churn. She mustn’t throw up.

She had to keep him talking, try to bring him back to the real world where he would never consider arson and murder. She had to stay calm. If she broke, if she turned and ran, he’d catch her. She held his eyes. She must not break the spell between them until she could figure out what to do next.

“Okay,” she said, “let me see if I can figure this out. First you take the cap off the gas line inside. Then you light your candle and set it on the counter. Then you go outside and turn on the gas main—that’s what the pipe wrench is for, am I right? The house fills with gas, the candle ignites it, and goodbye house.”

“Right.”

“That won’t work. You may set off a minor explosion and cause a fire, but you won’t blow the house up. It would take a month to fill the house with gas from that tiny pipe. Besides, the minute the first fumes reach your precious lighted candle, you’d get a nice little boom that would blow the flame out. There are smoke detectors all over this place. Buddy insisted on them. The fire department will be here within five minutes, Trey. They’re only two blocks away.”

His eyes had turned sly. The smile she had always thought charming now seemed ugly and twisted. He was going to do this horrible thing. There was nothing she could do to stop him.

And she was a witness. He didn’t seem to have realized that.

Yet.

“Don’t try to kid a kidder, Ann. There’s a bunch of cans of varnish and oil-based paint on the floor over there. They’ll blow the minute the gas touches this candle.” He bit his lip. “That’s why I had to do it when I was sure nobody was here. I don’t want to burn anybody alive.”

“What about the café? You want to burn that to the ground, too?”

“The fire department can keep that from happening.”

“Listen to me. So far you haven’t caused any real damage. You’ve got to stop this right now before you do. If you burn this house down, Daddy will make sure you go to jail.”

Trey shoved his fingers through his unruly hair. “Everybody’ll think it’s an accident. I can’t go to jail. I’ve got a family to support. Buddy won’t find out.”

“He will. Now, for heaven’s sake put the cap back on that gas line, and let’s go next door for a cup of coffee.”

“No. I’ve come too far. Buddy won’t find out if you don’t tell him.” He stared at her sadly. “But you will, won’t you?”

He knew she would. She had to try and convince him she’d keep her mouth shut. She was truly frightened of him now. “I promise I won’t tell Buddy.”

He sighed deeply and shook his head. “You will, too. It’s not my fault you showed up. I got to protect my family.”

“Are you threatening me?”

He stood very tall. “I guess I am.”

“Trey, you don’t want to do this.”

“I have to. I’m so sorry.” He started toward her with the wrench in his raised fist. “I promise I won’t let you burn to death.”

She was gearing up to run when she heard a deep rumble from the doorway.

Both she and Trey turned to see Dante. His teeth were bared and every hair on his back was standing on end.

Trey froze.

Dante jumped.

Trey screamed, dropped the wrench and fell with Dante on his chest. There was a sickening thud as Trey’s head struck the floor.

“Dante!” Ann yelled. “Dante, no!” She grabbed his collar and yanked.

He didn’t move. Only the chokehold Ann had on his collar kept him from tearing out Trey’s throat.

Trey screamed. “Get him off me!”

The back door burst open, and Buddy rushed in with his gun drawn. “What the…”

The dog turned his massive head, saw Buddy and immediately relaxed into his slobbering happy self. Ann pulled him away.

Trey sat up, blinking hard. “My head hurts,” he said.

“You’re lucky that’s all that hurts,” Buddy said. “Dante could have ripped you to pieces. Now get up from there before I blow your stupid brains out.”

“I wasn’t really going to do anything.” Trey’s eyes pleaded with Ann.

“He hadn’t done anything
yet
, Daddy.” She glared at Trey. “He planned to burn this house down.” She didn’t mention that the house would have burned with her inside. She was afraid of what Buddy might do.

Brakes squealed.

A moment later Paul rushed in with Karen on his heels.

“Mama?” Trey said. He still sat on the floor with Buddy’s gun in his face.

“Don’t you say one word until Marshall gets here,” Karen said. She turned to Buddy. “He wants a lawyer.”

“I was just trying to do what you wanted.”

“Shut
up.
”

Paul swept Ann into his arms. “Are you all right?”

She held him tight for a long moment until fear gave way to anger. She pushed away from him to glare at Trey. “I’m fine. My idiot cousin was going to blow up the house just to get you to leave town.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. “Did he hurt you? If he did, I swear…”

“I’m okay.” She looked at her dog. “Dante protected me. I think if I hadn’t grabbed him, Trey wouldn’t have much of a head left.”

“Good boy,” Paul said.

Dante sat up and wagged his stump tail.

Ann dropped to the floor and wrapped her arms around him. She began to cry. “Good old dog,” she said, and buried her face in his neck.

Trey stood up carefully. He didn’t take his eye off Buddy’s gun.

“If that’s all, Buddy, this has been an exhausting night. I’m going to take Trey home,” Karen said. She slipped her arm protectively around her son’s shoulders.

“The hell you are,” Buddy said. “We’re all going over to my office, and we’re going to stay there until we sort this thing out.”

“But—”

“Karen, I said git. Now git.”

“I
DON’T INTEND
to press charges,” Paul said once they were settled in Buddy’s office. “Thankfully nobody was hurt and Karen’s agreed to pay for the repair to the Cessna and the Stearman. Charges wouldn’t serve any purpose.”

“I don’t give a damn whether you press charges or not. I seem to recall that sabotaging an aircraft is a federal offense.”

“You can’t prove I did that,” Trey said.

“Trey, I told you to shut up. If you want to blame anybody,” Karen said, “blame me. He thought he was doing what I told him to do to protect his family.”

“I don’t intend to press charges, either,” Ann said. “I’m the one who got dumped off Liege. Remember, Trey? Me, not Paul. And I’m the one you were threatening to bash with that wrench.”

Trey hunkered down and averted his gaze.

“Family be damned,” Buddy said. “What is this mess all about? Nobody’s leaving here until I know.”

Karen took a deep gulp of air. “There’s no good way to do this. Trey, meet your half brother, Paul Delaney. Your older half brother.”

Trey and Buddy both gaped.

B
Y MIDNIGHT
Buddy swore he was going to lock the entire passel of them up and sort them out in the morning.

Marshall Lowrance managed to calm him down long enough to get him to release Trey and Karen into his custody.

“Sue-sue is frantic,” Marshall told his stepson as he led him out. “You call her from my car.”

“What about my truck?”

“You are not touching your truck until I know you can pass a breathalyzer. Now come on. You, too, Karen. Sometime I wish I’d never met any of you.”

Buddy watched them leave, then turned to Ann and Paul.

“I’ve about had it. Will somebody please start at the beginning and tell me what’s happening here?”

Ann turned to Paul. “I know who killed your mother.”

Paul turned to her. “So do I. Took me long enough to
figure it out. The only person who could have killed her was Maribelle.”

Ann gaped at him. “You knew?”

“I figured it out on the drive over here. Karen and Paul were in Florida when Michelle was last seen. Then I realized, Paul and Karen had just moved into their new house in the country—the house that Trey and Sue-sue live in now. That address wouldn’t have been listed in the old phonebook. The only address my mother would have had for Paul Delaney was the mansion in town.”

“That’s right. So…”

“So she showed up unannounced at Maribelle’s front door looking for my father. I don’t know what happened then, but I do know Maribelle must have killed her.”

“You bet she did.” Ann handed him the brown-paper-wrapped parcel.

“Addy’s journal?”

Ann shook her head. “I suspect that’s gone for good. Probably went into the trash a long time ago. This is more like Addy’s blackmail material. She wanted to make certain Maribelle didn’t kill
her
to shut her mouth. So she wrote a detailed account of what happened. Apparently, she left three copies—one with her lawyer to be opened in the event of her death, one in her lockbox, which she knew would have to be cataloged by a bank officer after she died, and one hidden in the top of the dumbwaiter,” Ann said.

“Why didn’t they come to light after Miss Addy’s death?” Buddy asked.

“Addy writes that if Maribelle dies first and leaves her the house and the trust fund the way she promised, she’ll destroy all three. According to Miss Esther, she forgot where she put the one in the house and never did find it.”

“When was all this supposed to have happened?” Buddy asked.

Paul told him.

“You got a picture?”

“In my suitcase.”