Secret Sisters (28 page)

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Madeline waited until she was almost certain that Daphne was asleep in the adjacent bed before she pushed the covers aside and got to her feet.

“Going somewhere?” Daphne mumbled.

“Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you. I can't sleep. I'm going to go into the front room and work on some email.”

“Give my regards to Jack.”

“I am not heading for a secret rendezvous with Jack.”

“Why not?”

“Go back to sleep.”

“Okay. Have fun.”

Daphne turned on her side and pulled the covers up over her shoulder.

The curtains were open, allowing the light of the desert moon into the room. Madeline pulled on her robe, stepped into her slippers, and crossed the space to the small desk. She picked up her computer and headed for the door.

She and Daphne had been given the guest suite, a gracious bedroom
with two beds and a private bath. Jack and Abe had been assigned a room at the other end of the house.

Night-lights lit the way down a corridor to the glass-walled great room. She sat down on a low, rust-colored sofa, curled one leg under her, and cranked up the computer. The dog, Max, padded into the room and stretched out on the rug. She reached down and scratched his ears.

And then she started searching.

It did not take long to find the information she was looking for. None of it was new information, but tonight she considered it from a different perspective. She knew a lot more about Jack than she had a few months ago when she had looked into his past.

The body of Victor Ingram, president and CEO of a high-tech security firm in San Jose, California, was recovered late yesterday in the waters off a popular Mexican resort town. Local authorities announced that Ingram was the victim of a diving accident. He had gone spearfishing with his friend and business partner, Jack Rayner, but the two became separated while exploring an underwater cave system.

Ingram is survived by his wife and two children. In the wake of his death, rumors have begun circulating that the security firm Ingram co-founded with Rayner is experiencing serious financial difficulty.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

The desert nightscape looked and felt good after the dark, claustrophobic world of Cooper Island.

Jack braced one foot on the bottom rail of the fence that enclosed his mother's cactus garden and immersed himself in the night. Something inside him relaxed a little. He had been running in a state of heightened awareness since the call from Madeline that had taken him to Cooper Island. But tonight she was safe in his parents' house and he could let down his guard, at least for a while.

He heard the crunch of shoe leather on the gravel path that wound through the garden, but he did not turn around. He recognized his father's stride.

Garrett came to stand beside him. He, too, propped one foot on the low rail and looked out at the sparkling lights of the houses scattered across the valley.

“Thought I heard you come out here,” Garrett said. “Still worried about your clients?”

“They're safe here.”

“That's a fact. We've got damn good security, thanks to that overpaid expert we hired.”

“The overpaid expert may have been a bit obsessive about it, but tonight he's glad you bought the upgraded package.”

“We've also got a dog.”

“A loud, barking dog beats high-tech every time.”

“Cheaper, too.” Garrett leaned on the top rail. “So what's worrying you?”

“A few loose ends. I can monitor most of them online, and my FBI connection said he'd keep me posted. But if one of the Websters goes off the grid, I need to know about it.”

“Sounds like that Webster bunch is one messed-up family. Probably raised on rattlesnake venom.”

“Something like that.”

“Not that many of 'em left from the sound of it, though,” Garrett said. “Let's see, one son killed in a boat explosion, the father shot by his wife, who is now under arrest—”

“Louisa Webster is out on bail. Claims it was self-defense. Joe says she's still on the island.”

“Does she worry you?”

“You bet. She's already proven that she's willing to pick up a gun and kill someone.”

“Which brings us to the one remaining son and his wife,” Garrett concluded.

“Joe texted me a couple of hours ago letting me know that Travis's wife, Patricia, gave a statement to the local cops saying she had no idea her mother-in-law planned to shoot her father-in-law. Then she packed up and left the island on the late-afternoon ferry.”

“Given what's been going on, I'd think any smart woman in her position would want to get out of town.”

“It does appear that Patricia Webster is not going to play the part of the loyal politician's wife standing by her man.”

“So that leaves Travis Webster. He's the one who worries you?”

“Never quite got a handle on him,” Jack said. “And, yeah, that worries me.”

Garrett snorted. “You did say he had what it takes to be a successful politician.”

“True. They were calling him the ideal candidate, but now his world has fallen apart around him. Hard to know how a person will react when that happens.”

“But your FBI pal is keeping an eye on him, right?”

“Definitely. Joe is extremely interested in Travis because he and his team would really like to know what happened to the millions Egan Webster made by defrauding investors in recent years. The money is probably stashed offshore, but there's always a chance Travis can lead them to it. If the funds are recovered, it would be a major coup for Joe's team.”

“You think Travis knew his old man's secrets?”

“What I think,” Jack said, “is that Travis is a little tougher, a little smarter, and maybe even a little more ruthless than Egan Webster realized.”

“Any evidence that he murdered a few people the way his old man did?”

“No hard evidence,” Jack said. “But it was Travis's decision to run for office that seems to have triggered the entire chain of events. It started with the murder of Edith Chase.”

“You're sure the hotel fire was murder?”

“Given all that's happened, her death is just too damn coincidental.”

“They say coincidence happens.”

“I've heard that.”

“So you're thinking that Travis is a little more dangerous than some people think.”

“Right.”

Garrett exhaled deeply. “Egan Webster wouldn't be the first man to underestimate his own son.”

Jack nodded, but he did not speak.

The night settled more heavily around them.

“Charlotte likes your Madeline,” Garrett said after a while. “So do I.”

Jack focused on the glowing jewels scattered across the valley. “I like her, too. A lot. But she's not my Madeline.”

“You said Travis Webster's world is falling apart and that makes him hard to predict.”

“So?”

“So your world fell apart two years ago. But you're not unpredictable like Webster. We all knew you'd get back on your feet. But in the process you made some tough rules for yourself, thinking they would keep you from screwing up again.”

“I got blindsided two years ago.”

“It happens to everyone sooner or later,” Garrett said. “Okay, maybe not quite as spectacularly as it happened to you, but still, it happens. And you won't be able to protect yourself with a lot of hard rules.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Might be time to reconsider those rules of yours. Cut yourself some slack, son.”

“You make it sound simple.”

“It is simple. You made those rules two years ago. That means you're the only one who can break them.”

Garrett turned and walked back through the garden and into the house.

Once again Jack was alone in the night.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

She heard the muffled sound of a door opening and closing somewhere inside the big house. It was the second time she had caught the faint noise in the past few minutes. Two people had gone outside into the desert night. Both had returned. One had retreated to the far end of the house. The other one was coming down the hall toward her. She knew from his stride that it was Jack.

The wall of windows in the great room where she sat looked out over a portion of the cactus garden. She realized that he had probably noticed the glow of the computer screen when he had started back into the house.

Max stirred, stretched, and got to his feet.

She sensed Jack's presence even as Max trotted across the room to greet him. The little frisson of awareness that shivered through her was probably nothing more than her body's response to a subtle shift in the shadows or maybe a faint change in the currents of air that drifted through the room. But it would always be like this, she realized. She would always know when he was nearby. In the past several days she had somehow become tuned to him.

“Working late?” he asked.

She turned her head to look at him. He watched her from the entrance of the big room. He was dressed in what she had come to think of as his uniform: dark trousers, a black crew-neck T-shirt, and low boots.

Automatically she started to blank the screen of the computer. But her fingers paused over the keyboard.

“No,” she said. “My curiosity got the better of me.”

She set the computer on the end table and turned the device around so that he could see the screen. She knew his eyesight was excellent, but she was pretty sure that even he could not read the small print on the computer from where he stood.

The familiar, icy stillness came over him. Then, very deliberately, he walked closer. He stopped when he was a short distance away from the computer.

“Your grandmother knew the facts when she hired me,” he said without inflection. “You knew them, too.”

“Yes. But tonight I got curious.”

“About what?”

“Why you didn't tell anyone the whole truth.” She indicated the news account on the screen. “Something happened in that underwater cave, but I don't think it was an accident.”

Jack looked at her for a long time. “How did you figure it out?”

“Because I know you, Jack.”

“Think so?”

She felt herself turning red. This was his personal business. She had no right to push for answers. She took a deep breath and uncoiled from the sofa. When she was on her feet, she faced him.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I shouldn't have searched for the details.”

He moved one hand slightly toward the glowing screen. “It's all public knowledge. The high-tech-industry media covered it for days.”

“I know. But still, I shouldn't have allowed my curiosity to push me into prying into your personal history. I had no right.”

“It doesn't matter. Like I said, it's all a matter of public record.”

“Maybe it shouldn't matter, but it does.”

“Why?”

“We both know why,” she said. “You let what happened two years ago change your whole future. It doesn't have to be that way. Not your future with me, at any rate.”

“Where are you going with this?”

Anger flashed through her, overriding her guilt.

“You're the one who says there's always a pattern. Well, I can't find the pattern in your story. Everything fell apart for no obvious reason. Your company financials were sound but you let everyone think your security firm was in deep trouble. You deliberately closed down the business rather than sell it or run it by yourself. I can think of only one reason why you would do that. You're trying to protect someone.”

Jack made a harsh sound deep in his throat. “You think you've figured it out.”

“It's not that hard to figure out.” She spread her hands wide. “You screwed up. You made a mistake, didn't you?”

“I'm the ace profiler, remember?” Jack's voice was raw. “I'm the one who is supposed to be able to see the pattern. But I missed all the clues with Ingram . . . and with someone else. I was a fool.”

“I understand all that. But you didn't shoulder the responsibility for a failing company that wasn't, in fact, failing, just because you made a mistake. Who were you trying to protect?”

There was a long silence. She began to despair. And then he shrugged.

“I told myself I wanted to protect Victor's wife and kids. They all loved him. He was their larger-than-life hero. In the end, I couldn't destroy that image. It was all they had left.”

She caught her breath. “If it wasn't about money, what was it about?”

“Victor and I were both on the FBI consulting team. Victor was good with the computer stuff. Very good. He thought he was the smartest guy in the room, and most of the time he was. It was his idea to go out on our own and set up a corporate security company catering to the high-tech industry. I was ready to quit the profiling. I wanted to be in control of my own business.”

“You'd had enough of profiling the monsters.”

“I was so eager to get free that I jumped at the idea of partnering with Victor. He was the wizard with the online stuff. I was the one who could figure out motives and see the patterns. We should have made a great team. And we did, at first.”

“What happened?”

“Everyone has a weak spot. Victor's turned out to be a woman. She was very beautiful and she was working for some very bad people. Somehow she got Victor to give her access to some of our clients' secrets.”

“Industrial espionage?”

“Yes.” Jack went to stand at the window. “And fool that I was, I never figured out what was going on until that spearfishing trip in Mexico.”

“But in hindsight?”

Jack glanced back over his shoulder. His mouth twisted in a humorless smile. “In hindsight, I did see the pattern—small stuff. Anomalies that Victor easily explained away. Remember, he was the tech genius, not me. So yeah, I saw the pattern and I refused to accept what it was telling me. But I was starting to ask more questions and Victor was getting very nervous.”

“So he suggested the spearfishing trip.”

“He was the one who wanted to check out the underwater cave,” Jack said. “It had already been explored. There was a guide line toward the bottom of the cave. As long as we kept a grip on the line we would
be safe. He motioned for me to go first with the flashlight. And then he took a shot at me with the spear gun. I got lucky. The spear hit my tank. That's what saved my life.”

Jack stopped talking.

Madeline moved to stand very close to him. She put one hand on his arm. His battle-ready tension told her that he was reliving the scene in his mind. She did not speak. She did not take her hand off his arm. It was the only comfort she could offer in that moment.

After a while Jack started talking again.

“I turned around in the water and finally accepted the reality of what was happening. Victor planned to kill me. But what he hadn't planned on doing was missing the shot. He had no backup plan. Victor never had a backup plan.”

“Because he was the smartest guy in the room.”

“He started to panic when he realized he had missed the shot. He dropped the spear gun and grabbed his knife. He swam toward me. I went low, trying to get beneath him. And then I switched off my flashlight, thinking it would make me less of a target. Everything went . . . very, very dark.”

“Ingram didn't have a flashlight?”

“He had one on his belt, but he wasn't using it because he wanted to have both hands free to take the shot with the spear gun. When he realized he'd missed, all he could think about was coming at me with the knife. When the world went dark, his panic exploded. There is nothing that will kill you faster underwater. Victor did what most divers do when they lose it. He instinctively tried to go up.”

“But you said the guide line was toward the bottom of the cave.”

Jack looked at her. “It was. And that's what I used to get out of the cave. I wasn't exactly levelheaded myself at that moment, either. My heart was pounding and I was using up air at a dangerous rate. Once I was outside in open water I realized that Victor had not followed me.”

“You went back in.”

“I couldn't just . . . leave him there. I kept thinking of his wife and kids. I was still trying to convince myself that maybe it had all been an accident. But by the time I found him he was dead. There was some air left in his tanks, but in his panic he had spit out the regulator and drowned. It happens more often than people realize.”

“You never told Victor's family the truth, did you?”

“There didn't seem to be any point. It was bad enough that he was dead. I didn't want to add to their pain and grief. And I had absolutely no proof of what had happened in that cave.”

“What about the woman with whom he was having the affair?”

“My fiancée? That didn't go well, either.”

“Your
what
?” Madeline stared at him. “Your fiancée was the industrial espionage agent?”

“I know. Doesn't make me look too bright, does it? When I returned to California I finally took a good, long look at the pattern and I put it all together. Jenny and I had a very short conversation. She took off. Didn't seem to be any point calling the police because industrial espionage is very hard to prove and companies rarely prosecute, anyway. They don't want their secrets exposed any more than they already have been.”

“What happened to Jenny?”

“Last I heard she was on the East Coast. Married a guy with serious money.”

Madeline took a deep breath. “So.”

“So? I tell you my big secret and that's all you've got to say?”

She thought about it. “No. What I'm going to say is that I get why you're gun-shy when it comes to relationships.”

“I am not gun-shy.”

“Yes, you are. Just like me. We're both afraid of making mistakes.
But what I'm thinking is, now that we both know each other's secrets, there's no reason why we shouldn't get married.”

She had just stepped off a very high cliff and she knew it.

Jack didn't say a word for a full sixty seconds. She was aware of the time because she was counting under her breath.
One thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three . . .

He framed her face in his powerful hands and looked at her with his fierce eyes.

“Did you just ask me to marry you?” he said.

She allowed herself to breathe. “Yes. Do I get an answer?”

“Yes.”

She blinked, bewildered. “What does that mean?”

“It means yes.”

He groaned and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly, as though fearing she might fly away.

“I love you,” he said into her hair. “I've loved you from that first day in your office when you tried to fire me.”

“I wasn't trying to fire you,” she said into his shirt. “I was simply suggesting that the hotel security business might not be a good fit for you and that you ought to pursue other professional opportunities.”

“You tried to fire me. But under the circumstances I'm willing to let bygones be bygones.”

“Good. That's good.”

He kissed her with the soaring passion of a man who has just been set free from a cage. She understood his response because she had only recently escaped from an invisible prison herself.