Suspicion (29 page)

  His hands cupped her bottom, drawing her closer. ‘"You’re playing a dangerous game, lady."

  Using her tongue, she traced a small, wet circle around his nipple. "I’m willing to risk it if you are."

  She was aware of being lifted, carried up the stairs, of Mitch’s hot breath against her cheek. She guided him to her room but didn’t turn on the light. There was no need for it. Moonlight poured in through the window, spotlighting the big four-poster bed.

  The moment they fell onto it, heat and madness took over. They tore at each other, pulling off clothes and discarding them while feeding their passion with hot, greedy kisses. His hands were all over her now, cupping her breasts, circling her waist, moving over the swell of her hips.

  "You’re beautiful, Kate." He bent to take a taut nipple into his mouth. "Beautiful enough to drive a man mad."

  She felt an insistent tug, deep inside the core of her. "Don’t stop, Mitch."

  He stroked a hand along the length of her leg and continued to feast. "Never."

  His mouth moved lower, tracing a slow, scorching path from her breast to the inside of her thigh. His tongue was like a flame, hot, flickering, driving her higher. Every cell in her body seemed to come alive, pulsing with need and passion.

  When his tongue found her center, a gasp escaped from

  her throat. "Come inside me, Mitch." She pulled him to her, parting her legs. "Otherwise…"

  He covered her body with his. "Otherwise what?"

  "Otherwise I won’t be responsible for what will happen."

  With one single thrust, he entered her, moving powerfully, filling her as she had never been filled before. Responding at once, Kate locked her thighs around his hips and clasped him deep within her.

  They moved together, slowly at first, then with increasing speed until they’d worked each other into a frenzy.

  Climax slapped into her like a huge tidal wave, engulfing her, making her gasp for air, dissolving everything around her, everything but this glorious, exhilarating, earth-shattering moment.

  He watched her sleep, astounded that after spending half the night making love to her, the mere sight of her could still arouse him.

  The memory of last night brought a tightness to his throat. No woman had ever felt so right, no sensations more powerful as those he had experienced in her arms.

  It was pointless to deny his true feelings any longer. He had fallen madly, hopelessly, irrevocably in love with Kate Logan.

  A bit shaken at the realization, Mitch traced the delicate contour of Kate’s cheek. "You’re awake," he said as he saw her mouth twitch into a smile.

  "Mmm. How could you tell?"

  "Male intuition."

  A low, sexy laugh escaped from her throat. "That’s an oxymoron."

  "And that’s a sexist thing for a woman of the nineties to say." He nuzzled her ear, felt her shift in his arms as she turned to face him. "How do you feel?"

  She opened her eyes. "Terrific. I didn’t know you had such remarkable healing powers."

  He kissed the corner of her mouth. "You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, lady." Then, because he had to know, he asked, "Any regrets?"

  She tilted her head back, looking deep into his eyes. "None whatsoever. You?"

  "Are you kidding?" The dimple in his cheek deepened. "I’ve wanted you since the first day I laid eyes on you."

  "I don’t believe you."

  "It’s true. Don’t tell me you never knew it. I must have been as subtle as a Sherman tank at times."

  She laughed, then coiled a long, slender arm around his neck. "Actually, I did notice something, but I thought it was just a bad case of juvenile infatuation. Who would have guessed it was the real thing?"

  "And who would have guessed that the cool, sophisticated Kate Logan could harbor such passion?"

  Her fingers began to stroke his neck, awakening in him a desire he could no longer conceal.

  "What can I say? You bring out the beast in me." A wicked expression gleamed in her eyes. "And in case you’ve forgotten how wild this beast can get, I’d be glad to refresh your memory…"

  An hour later, they sat at the kitchen table, sharing a pot of coffee and Maria’s delicious surullitos, small, cigar-shaped corn sticks they ate with great gusto. The news from the hospital, which Kate had called earlier, was good. LuAnn had spent a restful night and showed no signs of adverse reaction to the operation.

  As Mitch refilled their cups, Kate watched him. Last night had been ruled by lust and passion, by the needs of two people who hadn’t given tomorrow a single thought. It was different now. Lust was taking a back seat to a new feeling, one that left her almost as breathless as she had been last night.

  "A penny for your thoughts."

  She smiled at him over the rim of her cup. "If you must know, I was enjoying a moment of sheer contentment, mixed with just a bit of anxiety."

  He put his cup down. "Anxiety about what?"

  "Us." She dunked her surullito in her coffee. "Where are we going with this relationship, Mitch? How far do we take it?"

  "How far do you want to take it?"

  "I don’t know. There are… factors that should be taken into consideration."

  He pushed his cup aside and rested his arms on the table. "You’re referring to Alison, aren’t you? And the fact that she doesn’t like me very much."

  Kate moistened her lips. Hated him was more like it. That was the word she had used. "I love her so much, Mitch. I don’t want to hurt her, or make her feel threatened in any way."

  He took her hand and brought it to his mouth. "Then why don’t we just say nothing for the time being?" The calm tone of his voice melted her fears away. "Who knows? If I can clear her father of a murder charge, she might start to look at me under a new-"

  "Oh, my God!" Kate exclaimed. "Cora Winslow!" She yanked her hand from his grasp, nearly falling out of her chair. "With all this excitement, I forgot all about your trip to Myrtle Beach." As he just sat there, clearly amused, she shook his arm. "Come on, tell me what happened down there."

  He laughed. "All right, all right." He covered the hand that still held his arm with his own. "Cora found the money in a safe-deposit box. One hundred thousand dollars-in cash."

  "Oh, my God! Did she tell you that?"

  "No, her neighbor did. A nosy, mean-spirited woman who couldn’t wait to tell me that Cora had struck it rich."

  "How did you get the neighbor to open up to you?"

  He threw her a cocky grin. "Jim and I rented a theodolite and pretended to be land surveyors. She got curious and came out to see what we were doing. When I casually mentioned her new next-door neighbor, it was like opening a floodgate."

  "How does Cora explain the money?"

  "She doesn’t. She assumed her husband had saved it over the years and never told her about it. I don’t know how she thinks he could have saved a hundred thousand dollars on a janitor’s salary, but that’s her story and she’s sticking to it."

  "Maybe she’s lying. Maybe she’s known all along about her husband’s perjury."

  Mitch shook his head. "I doubt it. She may not be the brightest woman in the world, but she’s not stupid, either. If she knew where the money had come from, she wouldn’t be flaunting it the way she is. And she wouldn’t be sharing the news with all her neighbors."

  Kate tapped a finger against her bottom lip. "You know what this means, don’t you?"

  He smiled. "That you were right all along and I was just a dumb cop?"

  "That, too." She slanted him a teasing glance. "But

  more importantly, Cora Winslow’s newfound money could be enough to warrant a new trial."

  "That could take months, Kate. Maybe years."

  "Or, I could produce the real killer so Tony can be set free and Eric cleared."

  Fascinated at how quickly and efficiently her mind worked, Mitch gazed at her admiringly. "You have a theory, don’t you?"

  "As a matter of fact, Detective Calhoon, I do." She pursed her lips, looking smug. "Want to hear it?"

  "Go ahead, Counselor. Dazzle me."

  Propping both elbows on the table, she rested her chin on her clasped hands. "Lilly Moore was a brilliant law student and a fanatic researcher. In the three years she clerked for us, she had familiarized herself with nearly all of our criminal cases, even those dating back twenty and thirty years. That must be how she found out about the rape of Peggy Bertram."

  "It was never a full-fledged case, remember? Sean McKackney was let go two hours after his arrest."

  "Nonetheless, since Douglas was Sean’s attorney, the case was recorded in Fairchild Baxter’s files, and Lilly found it. What was not widely known about Lilly, however, and irrelevant to her murder at the time, was that she was a feminist, born and bred, and a fierce defender of women’s rights."

  "And you think she took interest in this particular case because of that?"

  "That’s precisely what I’m thinking. A rich boy rapes a young coed and gets away with it. That’s exactly the kind of injustice a girl like Lilly would want to look into. She could have read Sean and Mary Sweeney’s statements and decided to take it one step further."

  "I’m with you so far. Especially since we already know that she went to the Carteris Agency and from there went to confront Gina Lamont. But what did she expect Gina to do? Surely not confess to perjury."

  "Maybe all she wanted at that point was a reaction, something that would justify her suspicions." Kate’s tone was mildly teasing. "Much as you did when you went to see Sean McKackney."

  "Would she do something like that without telling Douglas?"

  "Maybe she was planning to tell him and never got a chance. Gina could have panicked and gone to Maddy, even though she no longer worked for her. Maddy, in turn, could have contacted Senator McKackney, and somehow the two of them plotted to kill Lilly. And then later, Gina."

  "But why wait six months to kill Gina? Why not do it when they killed Lilly?"

  Kate sighed. "I don’t know. I’m afraid that from that point on, my theory gets fuzzy. Maybe Gina wasn’t a threat to them at the time. Maybe she became a threat afterward, when she realized how badly she needed money."

  Sliding his chair back, Mitch took Kate’s hand and pulled her onto his lap. "I must say I’m impressed, Counselor. It’s not a bad theory at all."

  Kate sighed. "Now if I could only prove it."

  "You might be able to," he said, sliding his hand up and down her back. "I’ve tracked down one of Sean McKackney’s former med-school buddies. He might be able to shed some light on Sean’s relationship with Mary Sweeney." He kissed the tip of her nose. "If you’ll have lunch with me later. I’ll tell you what I found out."

  Kate’s sigh Was heavy with regret. "I won’t have any time at all today. Douglas scheduled back-to-back meetings that will most likely last through the lunch hour. I also have a deposition and somehow, during the course of the day, I have to find time to go see LuAnn." She nudged closer. "Maybe tonight?"

  "I won’t be free until late. I promised Father O’Malley I’d have dinner with him and the boys. And since I’m sure they’ll challenge me to a basketball game afterward, I won’t be finished until ten or so."

  Another layer of his life was being revealed. "Who are Father O’Malley and the boys?"

  "Tim is the parish priest at St. John’s in Adams Morgan. You’ll have to meet him sometime. He’s quite a guy. Six months ago, he was attacked at gunpoint by two teenagers high on crack. They clobbered him on the head and ran off with the church’s petty cash. Rather than press charges, Tim took the boys under his wing, made sure they cleaned up their act and then invited them back into his home. You wouldn’t recognize those two kids today. They worship him. They’re drug free, go to school, attend church on Sundays and even help raise money for the community. This past summer they washed cars and this winter they’ll be shoveling snow."

  "And how did you meet Father O’Malley?" Her eyes twinkled. "Somehow you don’t strike me as the churchgoing type."

  "I’m not, much to Tim’s sorrow. I met him when he came to the police department to bail the kids out. We started to talk and realized we lived in the same neighborhood. I’m still not sure how he got me so involved with those boys, though," he added with a laugh. "Tim

  has a way of making you do things while believing all along that it was your idea in the first place."

  "Hmm, that’s good to know." Kate ran her finger along the crease in his cheek. "Why don’t you stop by anyway, no matter how late it is? I might just put that new knowledge of mine to good use."

  He grinned. "You’ve got yourself a deal."

  Although Megan Hollbrook had been in the public eye all her life, she had never felt comfortable around reporters.

  The vigil they had kept outside the Hollbrooks’ luxurious home in McLean, Virginia, since Gina Lamont’s murder was one of the reasons she had chosen to remain secluded during the past two and a half weeks.

  But when her mother had reminded her of the UNICEF fund-raising luncheon at the Village Green Country Club on Wednesday, Megan hadn’t had the heart to cancel it.

  Fortunately for her, the handful of reporters and television crews outside the house that morning hadn’t been prepared to see her come barreling down the driveway at forty miles an hour. By the time they realized who was at the wheel of the green Jaguar, Megan was long gone.

  It was a different matter when she left the country club at two o’clock that afternoon. As she emerged from a back entrance, the hungry pack was waiting for her, ready to devour.

  "Have you heard from your fiance, Miss Hollbrook?" The question had come from a bespectacled man who had shouldered his way forward.