Smoke in Mirrors (34 page)

He materialized in the opening, a jacket hooked over his shoulder.

“Ready for lunch?” he asked.

She sat back in her chair and drank in the sight of him.

He came to a halt in front of the table where she was working and gave her a quizzical smile.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“No.” She closed the little book very carefully. “Nothing’s wrong. Tell Deke I’ll finish the job.”

He stilled. “You’re going to stick around for a while?”

“Yes. This is a very interesting and important collection. It has historical significance and should be made available to scholars.”

“What about me?” Thomas watched her very steadily. “Do I have historical significance, too?”

“Yes, indeed,” she parried. “But I wasn’t planning to make you available to any other scholars.”

Thomas gave her his slow smile. “Going to keep me just for yourself?”

“In my own private collection.”

“Okay by me. So long as I’m the only guy in your private collection.”

“You will be,” she said.

More footsteps echoed in the hall. Kyle appeared in the doorway.

“What’s with all these creepy old mirrors?” he asked.

“The original owner of the house collected them,” she said. “What are you doing here, Kyle?”

He flicked a glance at Thomas. “Came to see if you wanted to join me for lunch.”

“Thanks, but I’m busy.”

“You heard the lady.” Thomas took her arm and started toward the door. “See you around, Delling.”

“Leo, wait.” Kyle grabbed Leonora’s free hand. “I’ve got to talk to you.”

“Some other time.” Thomas did not break his stride.

Kyle ignored him. He kept his grip on her wrist. “
Listen to me, time is running out. I can’t hang around here much longer. I’ve got to get back to my classes.”

Both men tugged on opposite arms.

“I’ve always had this fantasy,” Leonora murmured.

Thomas halted and turned around. “Let go of her, Delling.”

Something in his expression must have rattled Kyle. Leonora found her hand suddenly free. But Kyle’s desperation was apparent and made her pause.

“Leo—”

“It’s all right, Kyle,” she said quietly. “I’ll call Helena this afternoon.”

It took a few seconds for comprehension to sink in.

“You mean it?” Kyle asked.

“Yes. No promises regarding the final results, though. The decision is made by her committee, and I can’t predict what she’ll do. But I’ll make the call.”

“Thanks.” Exuberant relief lit Kyle’s eyes. “I knew you’d come through for me, honey.”

Before she realized his intentions, he grabbed her by the shoulders and aimed an enthusiastic kiss at her mouth.

She started to turn her head so that she would take the caress on the cheek, but at the same instant Thomas used his grip on her arm to draw her out of Kyle’s path.

Kyle wound up kissing air. He was too euphoric to notice.

“This calls for a celebration.” He opened his hands in an expansive gesture. “Let me take both of you to lunch.”

“Forget it,” Thomas said.

He whisked Leonora out of the library.

“So much for my fantasy,” she said.

“What fantasy?”

“Two men, dueling over my honor.”

“Hey, you want me to go back and beat the crap out of him in your honor? No problem.”

“Never mind,” she said. “You’re worth two of Kyle Delling. Make that a dozen.”

He grinned, obviously pleased. He reminded her a bit of Wrench when she accepted one of his doggy gifts.

“Think so?” Thomas said.

Roberta passed them on the stairs before Leonora could answer. She gave them a slightly harried smile.

“There you are, Leonora,” she said. “A very nice man came to my office asking for you a moment ago. I sent him up here. Did he find you?”

“He found me,” Leonora said.

“Good, good.”

“Preparations for the reception under control?” Thomas asked.

“I’m a wreck. It’s complete chaos down there. The news about the Rhodes murder and Professor Kern’s suicide has distracted everyone, including me, I must admit.”

“I’m sure the affair will go off right on schedule,” Leonora soothed.

Roberta chuckled. “Easy for you to say. You two off to lunch?”

“Yes,” Leonora said. “The pub. Want us to bring you anything?”

“Very kind of you to offer, but no, thanks. I brought a sack lunch with me today. I knew that I wouldn’t have time to leave.” She continued on up the stairs. “I’ll see you later.”

Leonora walked beside Thomas through the busy confusion that gripped the first floor of the mansion. Neither of them spoke until they went out onto the terrace.

“You’re really going to make that phone call to your friend, Helena?” Thomas asked neutrally.

“Yes.”

“Whatever happened to sweet revenge?”

She thought about that as they went down the stone
steps to the parking lot. What
had
happened to sweet revenge? She wondered silently.

“I found something tastier,” she said.

Shortly before four
o’clock that afternoon, Thomas wandered into his favorite store in Wing Cove, Pitney’s Hardware & Plumbing Supply. It was one of the oldest stores in town and one of the few that hadn’t been gentrified to appeal to the tastes of the college community.

He found what he was looking for three-quarters of the way down one of the long aisles.

The elegant, compact household tool kit included an array of screwdrivers, including a Phillips head, a gleaming crescent wrench, a small hammer and a set of pliers. The tools were attractively boxed in a black plastic storage case.

He removed the hammer and hefted it in one hand, feeling for balance and weight.

A figure darkened the far end of the aisle. Thomas lowered the hammer and suppressed a groan when he saw Kyle coming toward him.

“Thought I saw you come in here, Walker,” Kyle said. “I was having coffee across the street. Glad I caught you.”

“I was sort of hoping you’d be on your way out of town by now, Delling.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be leaving soon. But I wanted to talk to you first.” Kyle came to a halt in the middle of the aisle. “It’s about Leo.”

Thomas did not move. “I don’t really want to discuss her. Especially with you.”

“She’s a nice person,” Kyle said, looking serious and profound. “A genuinely nice person.”

“Translated, that means that you came here knowing
that you could talk her into making that phone call to her friend for you.”

“Well, sure.” Kyle raised one shoulder in an easy, unconcerned shrug. “She was bound to do it eventually. I know her, you see. She wouldn’t sabotage someone else’s career by refusing to make a simple phone call.”

“You got what you wanted. You can leave now.”

Kyle looked amused. “You’re in a hurry to get rid of me, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Take it easy, I’m on my way. But before I go I thought I’d give you a little advice about Leo. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“She’s a little old-fashioned in some ways. Probably because she was raised by her grandparents. Some things she just can’t handle.”

“Like finding her fiancé in bed with her sister? Gosh, Delling. Think she overreacted?”

“It was a one-time thing.” Kyle grimaced. “You sound as uptight as Leonora. Trust me, if you’d ever met Meredith, you’d know why I ended up in bed with her that day. She came on to me, not the other way around.”

“I knew Meredith. We dated for a while.”

Kyle looked momentarily confused. Then understanding dawned. “You screwed Meredith? No shit.”

Thomas did not respond.

“This is not good,” Kyle said. “Not good at all. Does Leo know?”

“She knows.”

Kyle went back to looking bewildered. “I don’t get it. Why the hell is she still seeing you if she knows that you and Meredith had a fling?”

“I dated Meredith before I met Leonora. You screwed around with Meredith while you were
engaged
to
Leonora. Can you grasp the basic distinction here, Delling?”

Kyle’s gaze dropped briefly to the hammer. “No offense, but I don’t need a lecture on semantics from a guy who knows how to use large and dangerous tools.”

“I’m not delivering a lecture,” Thomas said patiently. “I’m insulting your honor and integrity.”

“I get the point. If you’re looking for a fight, forget it. My doctorate is in English Lit. In my field, we prefer to settle our arguments in print.”

“There you go, spoiling my whole afternoon.”

Kyle sighed. “If you knew Meredith, you know why I screwed around and ended up shooting myself in the foot.”

“No,” Thomas said. “I don’t understand why you risked losing Leonora for a fling with a woman who was cold as ice.”

“Meredith? Cold?” Kyle looked startled. Then he chuckled. “Don’t know how she was with you but with me she was one hot little firecracker.”

“You bought into her act, huh? And here I thought you Ph.D. types were supposed to be smarter than the average single-celled animal.”

“What act?” Kyle demanded.

“Meredith didn’t like men.”

“Didn’t like men? You’re out of your mind.”

Thomas shrugged. “Ask Leonora. Meredith was sexually assaulted when she was a kid. Turned her off sex for life. She didn’t like or trust men. Used her body to get what she wanted, but once she had obtained her objective, she ended the relationship.”

“I don’t believe that. Why the hell did she seduce me if she wasn’t interested?”

“You really don’t have a clue about what that one afternoon in Leonora’s bed was all about, do you?” Thomas
said. “It was designed to destroy your relationship with Leonora. Meredith didn’t want her sister to marry you, so she seduced you to prove that you couldn’t be trusted.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it? Meredith knew Leonora well enough to know that cheating was the one thing her sister wouldn’t forgive.”

“That’s pure bullshit.”

“Use your head, Delling. Why do you think Meredith made sure it happened in Leonora’s bed? Who do you think called Leonora a half hour before the big seduction scene to make sure she would walk in the door at the right moment?”

Kyle looked shocked. “Meredith called Leonora? So,
that’s
why she came home early.”

“You never figured that part out, huh?”

“Now just a damned minute here, you’re twisting this.”

“Tell me something,” Thomas said. “Did Meredith ever make another play for you after you and Leonora broke up?”

Kyle’s mouth compressed. “The situation was complicated. I doubt if you’d understand.”

“Sure, I understand. You tried to call Meredith afterward and she didn’t give you the time of day, did she?”

Kyle reddened. “She had some issues. She and Leo were half sisters, after all.”

“Meredith didn’t have issues. Meredith had agendas. Once she had finished with you, she moved on.”

Kyle looked as if he wanted to argue the point. But he must have reconsidered.

“Leo told you all this?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“She knew that her bitch of a sister set me up?”

“Sure.”

“I don’t get it.” Kyle spread his hands. “If Leo knows that it wasn’t my fault, why didn’t she give me a second chance? It’s not like her to just walk away from a relationship after putting so much into it.”

“She may be willing to work hard at a relationship, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have certain standards. You failed to meet those standards, Delling.”

Kyle’s face worked. “
Failed?
That’s hardly the appropriate word.”

“It’s the perfect word, when you get right down to it.”

“I’ve never failed at anything in my life. I’ve aced everything, from my SATs to my comps. I’ve got a dozen peer-review papers in print. Who are you to tell me I
failed
?”

Thomas put the hammer aside and selected a gleaming screwdriver. “Think of yourself as one of these. You’re bright and shiny, but you’re made out of some weak alloy instead of good-quality steel. You won’t stand up to extended use. Nothing for it but to chuck you into the discard pile.”

Kyle turned livid. His hands clenched at his sides. “Leonora didn’t
discard
me, you son of a bitch.”

“You’re the English Lit man here. I’d think you’d want to use the correct word. But suit yourself. The point is, she did what any smart person does with a poorly made tool that isn’t up to the job. She junked it.”

“Shut up,” Kyle said through his teeth. “Just shut the fuck up. You know nothing about Leonora. From what I can see you’ve got zip-all in common with her.”

“Because I don’t have a couple of advanced degrees?”

“Get real, Walker.” Kyle snorted softly. “You’re hardly her type. She might enjoy the macho tool man routine for a while, but it won’t last long.”

“If you knew Leonora as well as you think you do,”
Thomas said softly, “you’d have realized that the fastest way to lose her was to prove to her that she couldn’t trust you.”

“Hell, that romp with Meredith wasn’t about trust, it was about sex. It was just a simple fuck.”

“Leonora didn’t see it that way, did she, Delling?”

“If there was anyone she couldn’t trust, it was her bitch of a half sister, not me.”

“Unfortunately, Meredith had an advantage over you. One she knew going in and one she exploited all the way.”

“What?” Kyle demanded. “What advantage did she have?”

“She was family.”

Kyle stared, speechless.

“Leonora could ditch a guy who cheated on her,” Thomas explained patiently, “but she couldn’t ditch a sister. You know what they say, you can choose your friends, but you’re stuck with family.”

Kyle managed to get his sagging jaw back in place. “What makes you think you know how Leo’s mind works?”

Thomas thought about Leonora setting out to find the answers surrounding the death of a half sister who had caused her nothing but trouble. He thought about how he and Deke had stood side-by-side all these years.

“When it comes to the important stuff,” he said softly, “Leonora and I understand each other just fine.”

Kyle’s features clenched into an outraged mask. For a moment Thomas thought he might take a swing. The possibility raised his spirits.