Love at First Sight (12 page)

“Where is Karen?” Denny demanded.

Jack had a sudden clear mental picture of her in the claw-foot bathtub. He dragged himself back from the enticing scene of his “wife” chin-deep in a bubble bath. “I don’t know.” Another lie. All for a good cause.

“I don’t believe you,” Denny said, no recrimination in his voice. “You’d be freaking out if you didn’t.”

Freaking. The same word Liz had used on the answering-machine tape. “This is so freaky.”

“At least she wasn’t in the hotel when it blew up,” Denny said.

“She was determined to go to the meeting place so she gave her guards the slip.”

“Amazing woman, isn’t she?”

More than Denny knew. “There has to be a leak in the department,” Jack said, voicing his suspicions.

“Seems that way, huh?” Denny was silent for a moment. “I hope you don’t think I had anything to do with it.”

Silence. Jack didn’t know what he thought anymore.

“Baxter is going crazy,” Denny warned. “He’s beside himself. I thought he was going to shoot the two officers who lost her.”

“They got off the floor before it exploded?” Jack asked in surprise.

“Supposedly, they were out looking for Karen. It seems she climbed out the bathroom window while they thought she was taking a bath, and down a fire escape.”

Jack shook his head and smiled to himself. “She’s something, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah, well, Baxter wants her found,” Denny said.

“Denny, there weren’t any cops at the stakeout. Someone had pulled them off.”

“I heard Baxter got a call that said Karen was in trouble at the hotel and they were responding when it blew up.”

Is that where they’d been, just across the river when Karen was attacked? How convenient. Jack no longer knew what to believe.

“Another letter came to the paper,” Denny said into the silence.

Jack wasn’t surprised. The killer had failed twice. He wanted another chance. Especially now with Karen missing. “When is she supposed to meet with this one?”

“Tomorrow night.”

Jack knew he should tell Denny about Karen’s memory loss. This was his partner. But he couldn’t trust even Denny. Not now. Not until he could prove to himself that Denny wasn’t involved.

“Who knows what Baxter will do if he can’t locate Karen before then,” Denny said. “You think it’s another
setup.” It wasn’t a question. Denny had to be thinking the same thing Jack was.

“Yeah. I think all the killer really wants is to draw her out now. He doesn’t care if she’s made him—or if she’s told anyone else what she knows. He just wants her dead. With her dead, it would be hard to prove he killed Liz.”

Denny was silent.

“How are you holding up?” Jack asked.

“All right.”

He didn’t sound all right.

“That new cop, Marni Phillips, is about Karen’s size,” Jack said. “Baxter could have her fill in tomorrow night and see who shows.”

Jack heard the water draining in the bathroom. Karen would be coming out soon. The thought of her fresh from the tub, her skin rosy and glowing, set a fire in his groin.

“I have to go,” he told Denny and turned to find her standing barefoot, her body wrapped in his robe, her damp hair a dark fringe around her glowing face. How much had she heard? The look in her eyes said,
enough.

K
AREN STARED
at her husband, touched by what she’d heard of the conversation. The killer was still on the loose but another man had responded to the ad Jack had told her she’d put in the newspaper. Another meeting had been set. But Jack wanted a female cop to take her place.

“I should be there,” she said softly.

He looked a little surprised, then shook his head. “Too dangerous.”

“You say you think there’s a leak in the police department,” she reasoned. “Unless I really show up, then neither will the killer.”

He laughed. “Your logic has always scared me.”

“That’s probably because it’s so…logical,” she said, laughing as she moved closer. Oh, how she wanted him to make love to her. Forget what the doctor had said. Throw caution to the wind. Just take her, madly, passionately.

No, she was definitely not herself. But she liked this new her. And thought she could get used to her. And Jack.

“Jack, I feel so good—” She pressed closer and trembled as her gaze met and held his. “Don’t you want to live dangerously?” She saw the answer in his eyes.

He took her upper arms in his large hands and pulled her closer. She thought he planned to kiss her. She knew by the look in his eyes that once he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop. They would finally be true honeymooners. She could hardly wait.

But instead of a kiss, he whispered, “Believe me, ever since I met you, I’ve been living dangerously. More than you know.” He swatted her on the behind and moved away from her. “Forget it, Karen. We’re going to follow doctor’s orders. I refuse to risk your health for—”

She followed his gaze to find that his robe had fallen open exposing a fair amount of her naked body beneath.

With a groan, he headed for the bedroom. “I’m going to get you something to wear.”

She smiled after her cop husband. That definitely was not a gun in his pocket.

After she’d dressed in jeans and a sweater—what
she’d discovered in her suitcase definitely wasn’t much of a trousseau—she found Jack sitting in front of the fire, a frown on his face. She’d glimpsed that same worried look earlier.

“What is it, Jack?” she asked as she joined him on the couch. She curled up next to him and he put his arm around her as if he’d done it a thousand times before. “Is it something you can talk to me about?”

He seemed to hesitate. “It’s this friend of mine, actually my partner….” He told her about Liz’s bombshell she’d dropped on Denny, about the trip to the grave, about Liz lying about searching for the baby.

When he’d finished, she didn’t say anything for a few moments, just sat thinking to herself. “Keeping a secret like that…” she said finally. “Can you imagine what a burden it would be to live a lie that many years? Poor Liz. But I can understand how your friend Denny must feel.”

She mulled over everything she’d learned about Denny, Jack, Liz and herself over the days she’d lost. A lot of what she’d heard surprised her. For a woman who seldom got away from her workbench, she’d certainly gotten into a lot of trouble and involved with some interesting people. Jack especially. “The baby is the key,” she said emphatically.

He pulled back and seemed to study her as if surprised. “Why do you say that?”

“Because, why would she pretend to look for a baby she knew was buried at the City Cemetery?”

“Maybe she wasn’t in her right mind, after the divorce and all,” he suggested.

Karen shook her head. “From what you’ve told me,
she was nervous when I had coffee with her. She was upset when I saw her at the hotel with the man in the hallway. And she left me a message on my answering machine indicating she’d found out some things about the man she’d been seeing that had made her angry.”

Jack nodded as if all those things would have led him to believe Liz was unstable.

“She sounds like a woman in trouble. I’d try to find out what happened to the baby,” she said. “Isn’t that what Liz said she was trying to do before she was killed?”

Jack laughed. “Yeah, it was.” He drew back to look at her, fascinated by this woman. There was so much more to her than he’d ever imagined when he’d first seen her in the hotel lobby—and he’d been captivated by her even then. “I think you just might have something.” The baby definitely added a different dimension to the case. If it was dead, then there would be paperwork, proof. If not… He smiled at her. “You are something else.”

She smiled back at him, her eyes warming, her gaze starting a fire in him. “Isn’t that why you married me?”

Her words were like a bucket of ice water. He got up and moved away, his right side imprinted with the feel of her.

“What’s wrong?” Karen asked behind him.

“This is very hard for me,” he said, ready to tell her the truth and suffer the consequences. He hated lying to her. He hated seeing love and trust and desire in her eyes and knowing that it was all a lie.

“Oh, Jack, I’m sorry. I know you want me as much as I want you.”

She thought this was about sex?

“I’m not being fair, asking you to make love to me, when all you’re trying to do is protect me,” she said.

That much was true at least.

His cell phone rang. Damn, he’d forgotten to turn it off. He’d expected to hear Denny’s voice. Or even Baxter’s. The one voice he hadn’t anticipated hearing was Janet Henderson’s.

“Jack?”

He felt his heart quicken at the ex-cop’s tone. “Janet, what is it?”

“It’s Denny. He’s been mugged.”

Mugged?

“He’s in the hospital. He asked me to call you. He said if he called, you wouldn’t believe him.”

Just Denny crying wolf again. “How badly is he hurt?”

“He’s been beaten up pretty bad. He’ll be laid up for a while. But I think he’s in some mess other than the mugging.”

At least
that
Jack believed. A coincidence that Karen had been attacked? Then Denny? Both on the same day? Both within hours of each other? Jack thought not.

“No one else knows about this,” Janet was saying. “He’d like to keep it that way. He’s in room 204.”

Was Denny afraid that whoever had done this would come after him in the hospital? That didn’t sound like
Denny. But who knew just how much trouble he was in?

Jack looked over at Karen. Her eyes were wide with concern. He couldn’t leave her here alone. Especially on their honeymoon. “We’ll be right there,” he told Henderson.

They entered through the back way of the hospital. Jack wasn’t surprised to find an old high-school friend of Denny’s sitting outside his room.

The large man Jack knew only as Bruno the Biker stood as they approached and Jack felt certain Denny would be safe with this man standing guard.

“He wasn’t sure you’d come,” Bruno the Biker said.

“Sure he was,” Jack said and shook the man’s hand. Bruno studied Karen for a moment, taking her measure. “This is Karen.” Jack hesitated. “My wife.”

Bruno lifted a brow, smiled and nodded. “Nice.”

“Thanks,” Jack said and quickly ushered Karen into Denny’s room.

Denny looked as white as the sheets on his hospital bed. A bandage hid most of his dark hair, but his dark eyes missed nothing as Jack and Karen entered.

“You remember Karen,” Jack said quickly.

“Hard to forget.”

“I’m sorry I don’t remember you,” she said, extending her hand.

Denny took her hand with a frown, his gaze shifting to Jack’s. Jack could tell it hurt Denny to move his head.

“It’s a long story,” Jack said in answer to the look. “How are you?”

“Hell of a headache, but other than that… I got to thinking after I talked to you. It just didn’t add up. So I did a little digging. I found Liz’s ad, the one she ran in the personals last week. I had it in my pocket, but whoever hit me took it and my wallet and left me for dead.”

“Most muggers aren’t interested in personal ads,” Jack commented.

Denny smiled. “My feeling exactly.”

“What did the ad say?” Karen asked.

“It was short and sweet. ‘On March 11, 1984, I saw you take her. I saw you again yesterday. You recognized me, too. Contact me at once or suffer the consequences.’ Liz always did have a way with words.”

So the ad hadn’t been about finding a lover, secret or otherwise. Maybe Liz really
had
been looking for her baby.

“Now that I think about it, Liz never said she was
sleeping
with the man,” Karen said thoughtfully. “She said she had a ‘relationship’ with the mystery man. I guess I just assumed he was a lover. Why else had she advertised for him in the paper?”

Jack stared at Denny. Had Liz’s search always just
been for her child? Had the man she met that night at the Carlton been the man who had Denny’s daughter?

“Jack told me about the baby,” Karen said, moving closer to his bed. “You think the mystery man is the connection to your daughter?”

Denny nodded. “March 11, 1984 was our daughter’s birthday. I think she’s alive. And he knows where.”

Jack worried that Denny and Karen were reading too much into the ad. Mostly, he just hated to see his friend get his hopes up. “If that’s true, then we should be able to find proof. There will be paperwork to prove it one way or the other.”

Denny shook his head. “I already checked. Joanna Kay Vandermullen was born on March 11, 1984 at 1:57 a.m. and was pronounced dead a few minutes later. I found both a birth certificate and death certificate filed at the county courthouse. There is even a record of the purchase of a cemetery plot and a headstone—all signed by Dr. Carl Vandermullen.”

End of story. So, why didn’t he believe it any more than Denny did? Jack frowned. “What are you saying?”

“It was a home birth.” Denny closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them Jack didn’t like what he saw there. “Vandermullen had to be in on it.”

“In on what?” Jack demanded.

“I don’t know,” Denny admitted. “But I don’t think the baby’s dead. I think Liz was actually telling the truth. She was looking for our daughter. I think that’s what got her murdered.”

“Why would anyone murder her over an adoption?” Jack asked.

“To cover up what they’d done,” Karen piped in. “If Denny is right, then Liz and Carl had wanted the world to believe their baby was dead. But at least one other person, the man Liz saw with her baby, knows the truth. I would imagine neither man wants that truth coming out now.”

Jack shook his head. He should have known not to bring her. Didn’t he realize she’d get involved in this? Hell, she was already involved. She’d seen the man with Liz. Whoever he was.

“Think about it, Jack,” Denny argued. “The baby was born here. Liz met Vandermullen just weeks after breaking up with me, married him and moved to Columbia Falls.”

“But Vandermullen kept his house here up in Rattlesnake,” Jack pointed out.

“All right,” Denny said. “Maybe Liz came back to Missoula to have the baby, hoping Vandermullen wouldn’t realize how far along she’d been when she met him. Maybe he followed her. For some reason, she had a home birth.”

“Did you ever think she might have come here to tell you about the baby?” Karen suggested.

That stopped them both. Denny stared at her. It was obviously something he hadn’t considered. Nor had Jack.

All of it was just speculation, but he had to admit, a lot of it did make him wonder.

“Maybe Vandermullen never even knew the baby was mine,” Denny said.

Jack stared at the two of them, a bad feeling in his gut. “Or maybe Vandermullen
did
know.”

They both turned to look at him.

“You think this Dr. Vandermullen wouldn’t have wanted the baby if he’d found out it wasn’t his?” Karen asked. “That he made her give it up for adoption? Illegally, to hide the truth?”

Jack shrugged. He’d heard a little about Vandermullen. Enough to think that could have been the case. “Look, for all we know the baby died at birth. No mystery.” That didn’t, however, explain Liz’s ad but then he wasn’t sure any of them could explain Liz’s last days let alone hours. They may never know what happened.

“Oh, Jack, the man Liz met at the hotel could be the mystery man she saw with her baby,” Karen said. “If he is and the girl’s alive, then he might know where she is.”

“I think Karen’s right,” Denny said. “I think Liz got into more than the wrong bed.”

Jack moaned. He was looking for Liz’s killer. If she really had been looking for her child, then the two paths might have crossed.

“We may never know who that man was,” he said to Karen. “Or where your daughter is—
if
she’s still alive,” he added for Denny’s sake, hoping all the time that he was wrong about that.

His friend didn’t say anything for a moment. Jack knew Denny had a plan and that he wasn’t going to like it.

“You’re probably right, Jack,” he said finally. “But there is at least one person who knows the truth. Dr. Carl Vandermullen.”

D
R
. C
ARL
V
ANDERMULLEN
had a large upscale home in Rattlesnake Canyon just minutes outside of Missoula.

Going anywhere near the doctor was a form of professional suicide that wasn’t lost on Jack. Baxter would get wind of it. Although Missoula was the third-largest city in Montana with a population of forty-three thousand, the entire state was like a small town when it came to the speed with which gossip traveled.

Bringing Karen along was an even worse plan. But low on options, Jack wasn’t about to leave her unless he absolutely had to. At least with him, he knew she was safe. He also wanted to gauge Vandermullen’s reaction when he saw her.

But the real reason Jack drove to the palatial home of the good doctor was for Denny. To find out what he could about the baby. And for Karen. There was still a killer out there who wanted her dead. If Vandermullen had any of the answers, Jack planned to get them.

As he pulled down the long stately drive into Dr. Vandermullen’s, Jack looked over at Karen. She seemed quite happy sleuthing with him, even knowing her life was at risk. It startled him to realize it was because she trusted him. Worse yet, he liked it. Too bad he wasn’t trustworthy, he thought as he parked the Jeep, cut the lights and sat for a moment waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dark.

A silver Mercedes convertible was parked in front of one of the three windowless garage doors. Jack wondered if a large, dark, newer American car was parked in one of the garages.

He’d borrowed Denny’s gun and holster and felt less naked than he had since his recent suspension. But even with the pistol pressed against his ribs, he felt vul
nerable. It was this case. It had taken too many twists and turns. At first he’d thought he was chasing a secret lover who’d killed Liz to keep her from ratting to his wife about their affair.

But now Jack wasn’t sure who he was chasing or why. All he knew was that it felt more malevolent. More dangerous. And he felt more for Karen, a woman he feared was in worse danger than he knew.

“Ready?” he asked her softly.

She nodded and straightened, looking as if she were ready to take on evil single-handedly.

He smiled, realizing that the more time he spent around her, the more he liked her. She was sharp-witted, smart and entertaining company. His only concern, other than that fateful moment when her memory returned, was staying out of bed with her. The more time they’d spent together, the more Jack wanted her. Each hour, it was becoming increasingly difficult not to make love to her.

“Let’s go,” he said and climbed out to open her car door for her.

Vandermullen opened the large carved wooden door, dressed in slacks, a polo shirt and boat shoes. If he was surprised to see either of them, he didn’t show it.

“Why, hello,” he said, glancing from Jack to Karen, apparently recognizing them both. “And to what do I owe this honor?”

He sounded as if he might have had a few bourbons but he didn’t seem in the least antagonistic to find a cop and a star murder witness on his doorstep. His only reaction to Karen was to leer for a moment.

“We wanted to talk to you,” Jack said. “In a strictly unofficial capacity.”

“Well, then you’d better come in and have a drink,” he said, seemingly amused, as he led them into a huge living room.

When Jack was seated on the couch beside Karen, the doctor took their drink orders. The air held the sweet distinct scent of bourbon and Vandermullen’s glass had left a half-dozen wet ring marks on the glass coffee table.

Under normal circumstances, Jack would have declined a drink but he figured Vandermullen would feel more comfortable not drinking alone.

“Sure. Scotch if you have it. On the rocks.” Jack looked to Karen.

“I’ll take a beer,” she said. “Bottle if you have it.”

No white wine. Not even a light beer in a glass. His Girl Next Door was just full of surprises.

Vandermullen seemed to find her choice of drinks delightful. He brought her a cold beer. “I assume you don’t want a glass?” he said, smiling down at her.

Jack noticed that Carl Vandermullen wasn’t a bad-looking man. Older, distinguished and in good shape, a man who would have no trouble finding another younger wife.

Karen smiled up at the doctor as she took the beer. “This is just perfect.”

Jack watched her take a long drink, tilting her head back, giving him a clear view of the pale vulnerable skin of her sleek neck.

Vandermullen stepped in front of him, blocking his view. He reached up to take the Scotch the doctor
offered him, aware that Vandermullen had been flirting with Karen. Suddenly Jack wanted to nail Vandermullen for the murder and anything else he could dig up on him.

“So, what is it the two of you want with me?” the doctor asked, taking a chair across from them, a large glass of bourbon on ice in his hand. But when he spoke, his gaze went to Karen and stayed there.

Karen took a sip of her beer, trying to decide how she felt about the man. There was something too relaxed about him considering his ex-wife had been murdered and he’d been hauled down to the police department for questioning. But then, she reminded herself, he just might not have anything to hide. Or was a very good actor.

She glanced around the living room. Done all in white, it had the sterile feel of an operating room—except for several splashes of bright-red color tossed about the room like bloodstains.

“I know the police have already asked you, but I wondered what you were doing at the Carlton the night of Liz’s murder,” Jack said. “Also, what you were doing at El Topo yesterday afternoon?”

Vandermullen studied his bourbon for a moment. “I followed Liz to the hotel because I was worried about her.” He looked embarrassed by the admission. “Liz always liked picking up strangers. She liked doing dangerous things like that. Going to bed with men she’d just met.”

He shook his head sadly. “I followed her Saturday night because I knew she had a new lover. I could
always tell. Only this one seemed…different. I feared he truly might be…dangerous.”

Hindsight was twenty-twenty, Karen thought.

“I answered the ad for the same reason,” he continued. “I knew Liz had met men through the personals columns before, so I guess I’d gotten in the habit of watching them, wondering who my wife would pick this time. When I saw your ad,” the doctor said, looking over at Karen, “I hoped you might know who’d killed her. No matter what happened between us, I want to see Liz’s murderer brought to justice.”

Neither Jack nor Karen said anything as he drained his glass and went to refill it. They both declined another drink. Karen wondered if Jack was surprised as she was that Vandermullen knew she’d been the one to put the ad in the paper. The only way he could have found out was from Captain Baxter.

It had also been clear when Vandermullen opened the door that he knew them both. Jack had told her that she’d seen Vandermullen at the Hotel Carlton. And he’d seen her. But had he also seen her at the El Topo, when according to Jack she’d almost been run down?

When Vandermullen sat back down again, he said into the silence, “I loved Liz, but the truth was, I couldn’t keep her happy. Nor it seems could I protect her from herself.”

He was trying to portray himself as the wounded husband who put up with his wife’s infidelities because he loved her. Karen wished she could remember her meeting with Liz. Could Liz have been the woman her
ex-husband was portraying her to be? Hadn’t Jack told her that Liz had mentioned a jealous ex she’d recently left?

“Then you didn’t see her at the Carlton Saturday night?” Jack asked. “Nor the man she met?”