Star Attraction (29 page)

Cormac's brows knit, but he waited
for her to continue.

She rubbed the back of her neck
for a moment, then raised her eyes to meet his hard emerald gaze without
flinching.
 
"Please, you have
to know that I never would have kept silent if I had ever thought there was any
irreversible danger to your family.
 
I had no idea my ex would ever stoop to ruining Brad completely, let
alone outright
 
murder.
 
I thought that at worst, Jonathan would
have been stealing, but that once I was safely divorced, I would have dropped a
few anonymous tips for you to follow his paper trail.

"But Jonathan knew I would
never keep this true identity to myself if I sensed any danger to Brad.
 
He could ensure my silence until the
divorce, but after that I could have told everyone he was a criminal.

"But if he were the head of
Clarke Studios, he would have status, power, money.
 
Even if I did turn him in, who would care?
 
I’ve paid back all the clients
anyway.
 
He wouldn’t even have got
a suspended sentence.”

Cormac nodded, and Zaira
continued.

“I think it’s also jealousy as
well.
 
I love Brad, but I now know
I never loved Jonathan.
 
He used my
for my brains, skills, talents, creativity, and when that wasn’t enough, he
moved on.

“Cormac, I know how his mind
works.
 
I think Jonathan has been
setting up this whole scam for some time. But he got scared of me, and moved
prematurely against Brad.
 
I think
he wants to be your heir, and once you name him, then something will happen to
you.”

Cormac’s mouth dropped open.

“Can you think of anything he has
done which could lead you to suspect him?”

“That’s just the problem, this all
seems so unreal. I can't think of a thing."

"Are you sure?

He shrugged one shoulder.
 
"Well, now that you are telling me
all this, the odd thing here and there, but no, not really anything
concrete.
 
He's just been dropping
hints against Brad, money going missing which he has called to my
attention.
 
There's obviously
always been bad blood between he and Brad, but Jonathan has always made himself
out to be the injured party.”

Cormac stood up to pace
about.
 
“But just lately, I had a
heart attack scare, which turned out to be nothing, and he suggested then I
should make my will, with any contingency plans in case something happened to
me, and to Brad.”

Zaira looked at him, appalled at
the significance of Cormac’s revelations.
 

“And who would inherit?” she
whispered.

“At the moment, my sister’s
family, but I have a feeling, if he's as clever as you say, he could alter the
will, get it all.
 
God, we have to
stop him!”

“Wait, let’s think this through,”
Zaira soothed.
 
“If he knows you
suspect him, we could lose any hope we have of catching him redhaanded.
 
No, I think we should give him enough
rope to hang himself.
 
Let him
think that you
are
changing the will in his favor. That you never want to see Brad again as long
as you live.
 
With any luck he’ll
be careless, and then the trap will spring."

Cormac's eyes glinted eagerly.

"But I'm warning you now, it
could be dangerous.
 
Once his name
is on the new will, there's nothing to stop him from trying to get rid of you
as soon as possible.”

Cormac turned white for a moment,
and looked utterly defeated.
 
“And
to think I trusted that man, and refused to believe my son when he begged me
for help.
 
You’ve actually come out
here to try to clear Brad. You’ve given up everything in New York to help him.”
He gazed at Zaira with admiration.

 
She blushed. “I had no choice, Cormac.
 
If I had told you at
Tavern on the
Green
who
Jonathan was, maybe none of this would have happened.
 
In any case, there was nothing to give up in New York
compared to what I feel for Brad.
 
But I promise, once all of this is over, I’ll be out of his life
forever.”

“Don’t be silly. You love each
other.”

She shook her head. “How can he
forgive me for all this?”

“It isn’t your fault your husband
is a vile criminal.
 
You’re helping
Brad now. That’s what counts.”

“And you?
 
What will you do?” Zaira asked.

“I’ll get on to a few friends of
mine, and get a new butler, who can be used as a body guard.
 
I think the books should be audited as
well, but very quietly, discreetly.
 
I shall see my lawyer about the new will, but don’t worry, I shall make
a new one immediately after the fake one leaving Jonathan as beneficiary, and
everything shall go to Brad,” Cormac reassured her.

Cormac rose to leave, and patted
her on the shoulder.
 
“Don’t worry,
I’ll be careful, and if you speak to Brad, tell him I send all my love, and
will speak to him soon.
 
It's too
dangerous for me to talk to him now. Jonathan must be absolutely convinced I've
disowned Bad.
 
Then maybe he’ll
drop his guard.”

“I hope so.
 
The waiting will be the hardest part.”

“I’ll be in touch,” Cormac
promised.
 
“And thank you, Zaira,
for everything.”

Zaira made him memorize her
address and phone number at the Tremaines' and said he should wait a few more
days before coming over.
 

Cormac agreed, and with a last
handshake, departed with a purposeful stride.

Once he had gone Zaira slumped in
her chair, exhausted.
 
The long
days and nights had been taking their toll. Though she felt her interview with
Cormac had gone far better than she had dared hope, her battle with Jonathan
was still a long way from being over.

Zaira restlessly waited as the
days passed.
 
Each day brought a
fresh new development, but nothing which would put Brad fully in the clear just
yet.
 
Kelly and the Tremaines made
a great deal of progress in tracking down the girls they had seen at the Studio,
after the tip-off Zaira had gotten when she’d seen Mike and Jonathan
together.
 

They also kept a constant watch on
Mike the model, gathering ample evidence of his nefarious activities all over
LA, even as Brad was making headlines for himself all over London in his
campaign to prove his innocence, that the pictures were all fakes and he was a
decent, clean-living man, not a drugged-up monster.

The drugs charge against Jonathan
was going to be much harder to prove, since so far they had not seen him dealing
with anyone, though his conversations with Mike had about them suggested he was
in deep.
 

Zaira wondered how Cormac’s
investigations were proceeding. Late one evening, he finally came to visit.

“I would have been here sooner,
only it’s been difficult to get away, and Jonathan of course can’t be come
suspicious.
 
I've started up the
audit, in the middle of the night when we're reasonably certain he shouldn’t be
around. It’s turned up some pretty interesting results.”

"Please sit, and tell me
everything. Can I get you a drink?"

He glanced around her small room,
and motioned to a chair.
 
"Just that, thanks."

"Please, make yourself at
home."

Cormac sat and sighed.
 
“It’s is amazing how wrong you can be
about a person.
 
I placed my
absolute trust in Jonathan. I would have sworn he was honest. Yet look what
he's done to me and my family.
 
And
Brad.
 
I've sold my own son short
ever since his mother and sister died, and I’ll regret that for the rest of my
life.”

She was surprised at the
admission, but shook her head. “There’s no point in regretting it. Just do
something about it before it's too late.
 
If you love him, tell him, as soon as this is all over.
 
You can still be good friends.
 
You’re both very proud men, but also
have the potential for great warmth and generosity,” Zaira said with an
encouraging smile.

“And I've been wrong about you
too, my dear, I don't mind admitting it.
 
When I saw you at the hotel so many days ago, I never really thought you
were completely right.
 
You know
the old saying, “There's no smoke without fire.”
 
I really thought Brad had deceived you too, maybe not been
guilty of all the things he was accused of, but perhaps some of them.
 
Now I realize you had complete faith in
him.
 
You must love him very much.”

She smiled wanly. “I do, but that
doesn’t matter now.”

“It does.
 
You love him.
 
At the end of this all, you must be together, however
horrible you feel about what's happened to him at the hands of your ex-husband.
 
You aren’t to blame for anything
Jonathan ever did. Surely Brad will see you are doing everything to help him
now, and that's what counts."

“Let’s just take this one step at
a time, shall we?” Zaira said quietly, eager to change the subject.

“No, because it's too important,
my dear. It's also the same subject I was talking about, regrets.
 
I lost everything except Brad in that
car crash.
 
You know what it’s like
to lose money, but what about love?
 
You love Brad.
 
Don’t give
up on him, or yourself.
 
You’re
young, and have too many years ahead of you to regret ever letting him go, of
living without him.”

“I only had him for a short time.
I’ll get over it,” Zaira muttered.

“You may, but I won’t, and neither
will he.
 
He loves you, my
dear.
 
If you go out of his life,
the light will go out of it as well.”

Zaira shrugged.
 
“When Brad knows the truth, he’ll
forget all about me.”

“I doubt that very much,
Zaira," Cormac said in a firm tone, "but we’ll have to wait and see
which one of us is right.
 
Now,
I’ll see you again as soon as I have any more information.”

She twisted her fingers in her lap
and sighed.
 
“This is all taking so
long, isn’t it?
 
I’m afraid Brad is
going to get restless and want to come home.
 
What should I say?”

“Tell him I’ll be in touch when I
think it's safe, when the auditors have enough to convict Jonathan.”

“That won’t help Brad if we can’t
prove the drugs and porn charges.”

“I know, but your people the
Tremaines are doing a great job. If it’s the best we can do, we’ll have to take
it.”

“I don’t think Brad could stand a
trial, Cormac,” Zaira sighed.
 
“He's
too proud. Plus, the smear campaign has been so extensive, it's bound to go
against him.
 
No, we have to catch
Jonathan red-handed.”

“All right, we’ll be cautious, but
if we get no results soon, I’m phoning Brad and telling him to come home.”

Zaira worried for days about
Cormac’s suggestion that Brad come home.
 
On the one hand, the newspapers were now printing his side of the story,
and many witnesses had come forward, including Matt and the entire cast of
Hamlet
.
 

She herself was conspicuously absent
among those witnesses, which seemed odd because she had been his roommate, and
would certainly have known his whereabouts in more detail than mere passing
acquaintances and students, in order to help establish his alibi and that the
pictures were fakes.

Kelly urged her to go to the
papers and police with the whole story of what they knew so far and could
prove. But Zaira was convinced Jonathan would manage to wriggle out of all he
had done with only fraud charges, which would put him in a white-collar prison
for a year or two at best.

“Listen, he's going to suspect if
you don’t turn up.
 
He'll wonder
why you're reluctant to come forward.
  
I'm sure he'll have checked that you aren’t in New York
by now.
 
Matt and Raymond Ness are
the only two people who can give him any clues.
 
Raymond doesn’t know where you are, so that leaves
Matt.
 
He might try to trick Matt.
“