Low Country Liar (9 page)

"An understanding?" she repeated angrily, and tried to push away from his chest, but he simply tightened his hold. "I'll make no bargain with you!"

"You'll make one and like it," he snapped. "I'm going to say this once and only once. You're going to keep your nose out of things that don't concern you—and that includes Mitzi's life!"

"Her life concerns me," Lisa protested.

"All you are is her nice little niece from Baltimore. Keep it that way."

"While you keep stealing her money—not a chance!" she retorted.

"I—"
But Slade didn't have a chance to finish what he was going to say. Three light raps sounded in swift succession was warning only a second before the study door opened and Mitzi's dark head peered around the door.

"You two have been in here so long I was certain you'd gotten into a scrap and needed a referee," she said. Slade was slow in releasing Lisa, despite her angry attempt to twist free. A knowing smile spread across her aunt's face. "But it wasn't that kind of a scrap that you got into."

"Yes, it was." Lisa fired a venomous look at his unruffled exterior, trembling with violent hatred. "Your Slade Blackwell was molesting me, Mitzi." He glanced at Mitzi and drawled lazily, a hand lifting to the cheek Lisa had slapped, "I kissed her, but only after she'd practically invited me to do it."

"What he means is I slapped him," Lisa translated.

"For heaven's sake, why?" Mitzi laughed, not entirely sure how much of what was being said was the truth and how much playful exaggeration.

"Because—" Lisa began.

"Because I was criticizing her for letting so much time go by without visiting you," Slade inserted swiftly. "But it really wasn't my place to say anything, and I apologize." He turned to Lisa, his dark eyes offering a silent challenge. "That's about what happened, isn't it? Or did you want to add something?"

He was daring her to accuse him of stealing her aunt's money. But it was something Lisa wouldn't do, not until she had some proof to back up her claim.

"I can't think of anything that needs to be added," she agreed. "Not for the time being."

There was a complacent twist to his mouth. "You have quite a niece, Mitzi. She's really very stimulating. I think she intends to keep me on my toes while she's here."

"I intend to try," Lisa retorted. The review clipping had fallen to the floor. She stooped to pick it up and walked to her aunt. "I'm afraid the clipping is a little bit worse for the wear. It was caught in the middle of our confrontation."

"It's a little wrinkled," Mitzi agreed, smoothing the paper in her hand, "but not hurt. The coffee is still in the living room if you two are still interested."

Slade pushed aside the cuff of his jacket to glance at his watch. "It's getting late for me. But to show you how much I enjoyed the dinner and the company tonight, I'd like to return the hospitality by taking you and Lisa to dinner tomorrow night. If you're free, of course," he added mockingly.

"I'm never free where you're concerned," Lisa snapped.

Without blinking an eye, Slade faced her. "Then how much will it cost me?"

"You know very well that's not what I meant," Lisa flashed, and longed to slap that complacent look from his face.

"Then you are free?" he taunted.

"But not easy." If he seemed to be determined to issue innuendoes, so would she.

"It's rare that anything worthwhile is easy." The look on his saturnine features seemed to take up the challenge she had inadvertently made.

Lisa had to clamp her mouth tightly shut to keep from telling him exactly what she thought of his chances. There had been enough arguing in front of Mitzi. The time for taking a stand against Slade Blackwell hadn't come, not until she had something to back up her suspicions.

"It's settled, then." Slade turned back to Mitzi. "Dinner tomorrow evening. I'll pick the two of you up at seven."

"No!" Lisa snapped, and received a piercing look of inquiry from him.

"She's just being stubborn." Mitzi seemed to be amused by their cutting byplay. "Of course we'll have dinner with you, Slade. I want Lisa to have a few nights out in Charleston while she's here and you know all the good places."

"No," she refused again.

"Lisa," Mitzi said in a cajoling voice.

The tiredness of Lisa's bones and muscles was making her doubly irritable. She felt at her wits' end trying to cope with this intolerable situation.

Slade must have sensed that she didn't want to bring everything out in the open yet and was backing her into a corner. Tomorrow was going to be another trying day, and she simply couldn't face the thought of seeing him tomorrow night.

"Mitzi, I'm going to be out all day tomorrow with Peg and Susan," she reasoned. "I'm not going to feel like going out tomorrow night."

"We'll make it Thursday, the day after," Slade suggested.

"Yes." By then, Lisa intended to have all the information she needed to convict Slade Blackwell beyond Mitzi's reasonable doubt.

"I'll look forward to it," he said with a maddening smile, and took his leave.

"He's an infuriating man." Lisa muttered as the study door closed behind the arrogant set of his shoulders.

"But he is a man," Mitzi observed with a bright twinkle in her eye. "If I were your age—"

"If you were my age, you'd be welcome to him." She turned away from the door to face her aunt. Her lips still felt tender from his bruising kiss. "I told you once that I don't care for the strong, masterful type. He leaves me
cold."

"Cold?" Mitzi raised an eyebrow, amusement evident in the action. "I think hot is more like it."

"Please, Mitzi." Lisa lifted a warning hand of protest. "At the moment, Slade Blackwell is a very volatile subject as far as I'm concerned. And unless you want me to explode, you'd better drop it."

There was a heavy sigh of agreement from her aunt. Lisa knew she was hurt by the veiled animosity between two people she liked, but she also knew that Mitzi was going to be even more hurt when she found out the kind of man Slade Blackwell really was. In the long run it would be best, though.

Mitzi wisely didn't introduce Slade's name into the conversation again. Despite that, neither the incident in the study nor the man himself was far from Lisa's thoughts.

By ten o'clock a mental and physical exhaustion began to set in. Lisa was grateful when Mitzi suggested that it was time they went to bed. Upstairs in her room, Lisa ignored the bed in favor of the bathroom where the shower spray massaged the aching muscles of her shoulders and neck. She tumbled into bed and turned off the light. In the darkness, she wondered if thoughts of Slade and how she would unmask him, would keep her awake. That was the last thing Lisa remembered thinking.

THE STUDY DOOR WAS OPEN when Lisa came down the spiral staircase a little after seven the next morning. The typewriter was silent.

"Is that you, Lisa?" her aunt called and appeared in the doorway an instant later. "Gracious, but you are up early this morning. And all dressed, too."

"I decided that I didn't want to sleep my vacation away," Lisa lied, preferring to be snugly asleep in her canopied bed.

"Come in and join me for coffee. Mildred just brought me a fresh pot," Mitzi invited.

"I wouldn't want to disturb you. I know you're working." Her finger clutched her large purse, its sides bulging with the red wig she had crammed inside.

"Nonsense. You aren't disturbing me," her aunt insisted. "I was just taking a break before I began the next scene."

"I'd love to have coffee with you, but I'm afraid I can't." Lisa glanced at her watch. The minutes were ticking away. She needed the early start to work so she could make the transformation into Ann Eldridge before reaching Slade's office.

"Are you going somewhere at this hour?" Mitzi frowned in astonishment.

Poor Peggy and Susan, Lisa thought, they might never know how useful they had been to her since she arrived in Charleston.

"I'm meeting Sue and Peg for breakfast." She hated deceiving her aunt this way, but it was for her own good. "Since we didn't get any sight-seeing done yesterday, we thought we'd get an early start at it today."

"Oh, I see." But something in Mitzi's tone indicated that she thought they had taken leave of their senses. "What are you planning to see today? There is a tour boat that takes you to Fort Sumter where the first battle of the Civil War took place. It's really quite fascinating to wander about the old battlements and listen to the park ranger explain about the long Union siege of the fort. The South never lost it in battle. They ultimately abandoned it toward the close of the war, but it was never taken from them."

"Actually I'm not sure where we're going today," Lisa explained. "The girls know their way around better than I do, so they are making all the plans."

"Be sure to have them take you to Fort Sumter."

"I'll tell them," she promised with fingers mentally crossed. "I'd really better be going, Mitzi. I'll see you tonight."

"Have fun."

"I will," she returned and nearly dashed out the door.

Her heels clicked loudly on the paved sidewalk as she hurried along the street. At least this time she wouldn't have to stop to ask directions to Slade's office. Lisa glanced at her watch. It was nearly seven-thirty. She quickened her pace.

Using the ladies' room of a restaurant to change, she donned the flame-colored wig, outlined her lips with a coral gloss and replaced her birthstone with the wedding band. She smiled secretly to herself as she emerged, wondering if anyone had noticed the blonde going in and the redhead coming out.

When Slade arrived at the office, she was hard at work, busily transcribing the legal briefs from the dictaphone. Nodding an indifferent "good morning," he picked up the few phone messages from her desk and went directly into his own office. Lisa hoped that he hibernated there. Now that he had met Lisa Talmadge, she didn't want him noticing similarities to Ann Eldridge.

At each sound coming from the outer reception area, Lisa glanced expectantly toward the door. Drew was supposed to return her aunt's file this morning, and she desperately needed to get her hands on it. She couldn't hope to fool Slade indefinitely. The sooner she could get her hands on the information she needed the better.

Half the morning was gone before Drew appeared. Lisa was on the telephone when he walked in. She smiled a greeting, her eyes lighting up when she saw the folder in his hand.

It added a special glow to her smile that she was unaware of and caused Drew's quick intake of breath. While she transferred the phone call to Slade, Drew sat on the edge of her desk, gazing at her silently.

"It's a crime for someone so beautiful to be married," he declared when the transfer had been made.

"My husband doesn't think so," she smiled faintly, concealing her impatience to take the folder from his hand.
 

"Oh, yes," Drew nodded ruefully, then frowned. "What's his name again?" Lisa drew a complete blank. She couldn't remember the name she had given her fictitious husband. "Burt, that's it." Fortunately he supplied it. "Lucky Burt."

"Yes." But Lisa wanted to get off that subject before she buried herself in lies. "I see you brought the folder back safely."

"Yup, it's all here intact," he assured her, depositing it on the desktop. Lisa's fingers inched to open it and peruse the contents. It was an almost uncontrollable urge that she checked with a great deal of effort. "What about lunch today?"

"I'll have to take a raincheck," she refused, knowing exactly how she intended to spend her lunch hour—glued to the folder.

"Come on, have a heart,"
Drew coaxed. "Make a poor bachelor happy for an hour."

"Sorry." Her mind wasn't going to be changed by any amount of flattery. "I'm behind with a lot of correspondence. I'm going to do what you did yesterday—have Ellen bring me back a sandwich to eat here."

"Okay," he capitulated unexpectedly. "If that's what you want, I'll buy the sandwich and we'll have a little picnic right here in the office."

"No," Lisa protested instantly, then tried to temper the sharpness of her refusal. "If you join me, then we'll talk and I won't get anything done, which would defeat my purpose for not going out to lunch. Let's just make it another day."

"I suppose I'll have to console myself with the knowledge that you didn't turn me down flat." Drew gave an exaggerated sigh.

"Exactly," she laughed briefly. "Now run off so I can get some work done." Her hands inched toward the folder as he straightened from her desk.

"You're a worse slave driver than Slade," he joked. "But a beautiful one."

With a wink and a wave of his hand, he left, and Lisa's hands greedily snatched up the folder, flipping it open to briefly scan the contents. The very first document caught her attention. It seemed to be a power of attorney.

Before she had a chance to examine it, there was the alerting sound of a doorknob being turned. She barely had time to close the folder when Slade walked in, aloof curiosity in his dark eyes at her guilty start.

"Is something wrong, Mrs. Eldridge?" His hard, handsome mouth softened slightly as if bemused by her reaction.