Love With A Stranger (4 page)

“So did I,” Peter revealed, “but I didn’t want to spoil our dinner talking about it. I was running around part of the day taking care of errands, so it took them until late this afternoon to catch up with me. I didn’t phone you afterward because we needed time and privacy to discuss the matter.”

It sounded to Cass as if he answered the questions forming in her mind before she could ask them. “They were rude and insensitive, Peter, and downright intimidating.” She related the episode to him. “How did they behave with you?”

“They were smart-ass all the way and covered that same ground with me. They’re stupid if they think somebody killed my father. Nobody tampered with his car; it was kept in a fenced area when not in use. The only other person with keys is the mechanic who services it, and he’s totally trustworthy. It was an insult to Dad and to me to even hint that anybody could hate him that much. I told them not to bother me again unless they had evidence of foulplay, which they don’t.”

Cass loaded the two plates as she pointed out, “Either there has to be something strange that caught their eye or they’re just snooping out of curiosity. They certainly could use lessons in manners. I should tell you, Peter, they annoyed me to the level of being rude in return.”

“I know; Inez told me; she could hear you yelling at them from the kitchen. She said you were a nervous wreck after they left and that’s why you took those tranquilizers.”

Cass felt her cheeks flush. “I’m really embarrassed about how I behaved. My parents taught me good manners and respect for elders and authority. I’ve never been hot-tempered like that before, but they made me so angry with their crude insinuations and near accusations. Maybe it was a result of delayed shock or something. Whatever happened to me after they dropped
their bombshells, I know I made a terrible impression on them. If they come back again, I guess I owe them an apology.”

“You’re wrong, Cass; they owe
you
the apology. Don’t talk to them alone again; insist on me or Simon Johnson being present.”

She dried and put away the skillet as she asked, “Why do I need a lawyer? I don’t have anything to hide, and I want this matter resolved fast.”

Peter draped the dishcloth over the double-sink partition and leaned his left hip against the counter, “Don’t be naive, Cass. Men like that can have a cunning way of twisting innocent answers and causing you trouble. We don’t want them digging into our lives and exposing family dirt.”

Cass finished her work and faced him to query, “What kind of dirt, Peter?”

“I didn’t say we have any, but everybody has things in their past or private lives they don’t want the world to learn. Things can leak out during investigations, innocent things that might be twisted and become harmful to our family reputation. My father was a rich and well-known man, those scandal rags would delight in finding some innocent or forgotten angle they can exploit for money. I insist. If Beals and Killian call you or come around again, refuse to see them until you phone me and I get hold of Simon Johnson.”

Cass was becoming more fidgety by the minute but tried to conceal her tension. “Won’t it look suspicious if I refuse to answer their questions and demand our lawyer be present? And the same applies to you.”

Peter knew he had to rush their conversation before she got too antsy to finish their talk. It was obvious to him that the drug he had slipped into her coffee was working properly for him to carry out his plans. “What does that matter when neither of us has anything to hide?” he asked. “We just want to protect ourselves and our interests, and Dad’s reputation. For them to imply he was murdered and to start probing us for suspects
before they finish examining his car for the cause of his accident tells me they’re looking for trouble and hoping to find it. At this early stage, they have no right or reason to be exploring that absurd possibility. Don’t you agree?”

Cass nodded before she asked, “Tell me, Peter, do you know who Gretchen Lowrey is and why she came to Sea Island with Tom?”

Peter knew those answers from keeping tabs on Tom, but he wasn’t going to reveal any of his father’s carefully concealed flaws and weaknesses to Cass. Learning the truth could cause her to become furious and quickly spiteful. He needed to get her under his control before his father’s will was read. Thomas Grantham, he knew from experience, was an unpredictable man, so Peter couldn’t imagine what that will would contain. For certain, he didn’t want Cass to walk away with things that rightfully belonged to him. He was glad Inez had phoned him and given him a report on the detectives’ visit, so he had been prepared for his confrontation with them. He repeated to Cass the same lies he had told Beals and Killian, “She’s a model, but I’ve never met her. Dad was planning an advertising campaign for Smooth Rider, Texas-G Beef, and Grantham Seafoods; maybe he wanted to see how she acted around crabs and lobsters before he hired her to do the ads and commercials. He might have been planning to shoot a test video or photos with her at the company or on one of the shrimp boats. She certainly couldn’t be a prospect for the job if she was scared around sea creatures or cattle,” he said with a grin. “I know Dad wanted to use a fresh approach. Since she’s a ‘new face’, she would be a good choice for those campaigns, if she had acting skills to match her good looks. When we spoke on Saturday, he said he was bringing home a surprise for me to check out, so I assume Gretchen was it.”

Cass decided that Peter’s conclusions were credible about using a beautiful model to advertise beef products from his San Antonio ranch and company, or his seafood company in nearby
Brunswick, or his golf cart company in Augusta, Georgia. Tom also had an electronics firm in Brunswick, Big-G Real Estate in New York City, A Taste Of Heaven restaurant, and A View Of Heaven art galley in Aspen, an import/export company in Los Angeles, and small investments in other men’s companies. She had seen ads and commercials for those businesses in the past, and always with beautiful half-clad women in them. “Is that what she said to the detectives?”

“They didn’t say, but I told them what I just told you.”

“How did they know Miss Lowrey had flown in with Tom?”

“Dad’s pilot told them when he was questioned Tuesday morning before we left for LA. From what I gathered from those detectives, they went to see Miss Lowrey that evening. Obviously they didn’t find anything suspicious about her because they let her leave town on Wednesday.”

Cass wondered why Peter hadn’t mentioned the woman to her, as the pilot must have told Peter about her on Tuesday. “Taking her to the Embassy Suites explains what he was doing on the highway so late at night and in the opposite direction from the airport to home, but Beals thought it was odd I was in bed when Tom was on his way home.”

“Don’t worry about it, Cass; you told them the truth. I suppose he got busy and forgot to phone you about his change in plans.”

Cass took a deep breath before she asked Peter, “You don’t think Tom was…murdered, do you?”

“If he was, it’ll be one of the biggest shocks I’ve ever gotten.”
It’ll rank right up there with my discovery of his dark secret and his news about marrying you. Soon, Cass, I’ll have you right where I want you, out of your skull and under my thumb.

Cass felt as if bugs were crawling around under her skin and were taking tiny bites of tissue inside her head. She felt excessively warm, though the early March temperatures were
comfortably cool. “I hope and pray you’re right, Peter. Now, is there anything else we need to discuss?”

“No, and you’re looking exhausted, so I’ll leave you alone to relax.”

Cass observed his departure. She locked the door and pressed the code to set the burglar alarm system, picked up the box of cards, flipped off the light switch, and headed to her bedroom.

She made certain her drapes were drawn so Peter couldn’t see her pacing the floor as she attempted to walk off her mounting tension. Perhaps she wouldn’t feel so keyed up if she hadn’t drunk two cups of strong coffee. She glanced at the brown bottle on her nightstand, but decided she wouldn’t take a Valium until she was sure she needed one. She had never taken tranquilizers until this tragedy struck, but Tom and Peter’s local physician had recommended them after she became so upset by her husband’s sudden and violent death. The medication had calmed her Monday and helped her sleep that night, but she feared becoming dependent upon it. Yet,-she felt as if she wanted to jump out of her skin and scream at the top of her lungs for relief from whatever was attacking her mind and body.

Cass decided to unpack her luggage instead of going through the sympathy cards, which might only increase her anxiety. As she worked; she sipped water to quench her unbearable thirst. When the cases were finally empted, she put them in a large closet in another room and returned to hers to prepare for bed.

Sitting on her closet floor, Cass noticed the brown paper grocery sack and Tom’s briefcase. She had forgotten to tell Peter that Killian had brought them over this morning, as Tom had left his luggage aboard his private jet to collect the next day. She decided she should pull out anything personal to her and turn the rest over to the officer tomorrow. She retrieved the sack and emptied its contents on her bed: keys, wallet, two tattered gift-wrapped boxes, a current novel, a demolished video camera, and other small possessions. It was amazing to her that
the intelligent Peter hadn’t missed his father’s belongings and asked about them before now. She couldn’t help but wonder if Beals and Killian had studied the items.

The wallet held credit cards, three pictures of her, one of the two of them, and over seven hundred dollars in cash. The novel, an unusual choice for him, was a historical romance by one of America’s best-selling authors; perhaps, Cass concluded, Miss Lowrey had left it behind by accident. She knew that Tom often had carried a video camera with him in case he saw something he wanted to record or to tape meetings when a secretary wouldn’t be there.

Cass unwrapped the two boxes with their mangled paper and ribbons. She was astonished by the sexy garments within. One box contained a fiery red silk teddy with black lace trim and a crotch slit; the other, an ebony nightgown in a see-through sheer material; both had lacy cut-outs so the woman’s nipples would protrude. They were hardly the type of garment that Tom normally purchased for her and she couldn’t imagine why he had done so. Then Cass noticed they were not her size. That observation baffled her even more, because Tom chose most of her clothes and shoes and knew her sizes by heart. Obviously the store clerk had picked up the wrong sizes or, more likely, she reasoned, the wrong items to gift wrap for him. She tossed the naughty lingerie aside.

She looked at the remaining items in the sack, but found nothing more of interest to her. Her fingers toyed with the keys on Tom’s ring as she eyed his briefcase and wondered if she should open it. Since there might be something for her inside and he was her husband, there was no reason why she shouldn’t open it and check its contents.

Cass sat on the bed, placed the case between her spread legs, and unlocked the catches. After lifting the lid, she saw papers, pens, a current business magazine, a calendar with a spiral binder, an address book, note pad, a jewelry and a cigar box, and two videotapes. She opened the oblong black velvet box
first to find a gold bracelet of hearts with a diamond in the center of each. Her eyes misted and she winced in painful sadness as she touched the parting gift she assumed was for her.

Cass opened his calendar and read notations about appointments. She gazed at the large “G” penned in on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March first through third. Oddly, “Home” was written in on Monday, the day after he flew in and the one following his death. Obviously Tom had meetings with Gretchen Lowrey for three days and wasn’t expecting to come home until after the weekend. “Pick up packages at Marie’s” also was recorded on last Friday’s square. She glanced at the boxes nearby and saw gold stickers with that boutique’s name on them.

An unbidden thought came to mind,
If he bought them for Gretchen, they wouldn’t have been in the car when he was killed after dropping her off at a hotel, unless he forgot to give them to her.
If they were for another woman and if not for the accident, she would never have seen them, since only Tom used the Aston Martin DB7 Volante convertible.

Cass scolded herself for such wicked thoughts and kept reading the March, February, and January entries. She saw other meetings listed and unknown names penned in here and there, sometimes only a woman’s or a man’s first name. No less than every other day it said: “Call C.” Sometimes “Send flowers” or “Send gift” was included. It almost sounded as if he required a reminder for his “thoughtful” gestures.

Her fingers flipped through the pages of his address book and her gaze found the same names featured on his calendar, but only first names and phone numbers, no addresses. It bewildered and intrigued Cass that she didn’t recognize those names.

Most of the papers her eyes scanned pertained to business. Those she would pass along to Peter. She looked through a collection of receipts held together by a gem clip, as Tom was a stickler for matching them to monthly bills. There was a
receipt for the naughty lingerie in the wrong size, more costly than she had imagined, so it should be returned for a credit. Another was for the gold-and-diamond bracelet, an expensive item from an exclusive jeweler in New York City. There were restaurant bills and two for hotels: one for the local Embassy Suites where he had paid in advance for Gretchen Lowrey to stay there for four days; the second was for a hotel in New York, which didn’t make sense to her because Tom had an apartment there. He could have paid the bill for a business associate or consultant, but she was still puzzled because the registration was in his name, not in the person’s who had used it and run up an expensive room service tab in the process.

Her fingers checked the lid pockets of the case and withdrew several coin-shaped items. She gaped in horror at the condoms in her palm. Tom had no need for contraceptives since she was on the pill and he never used them with her.