Trinity Harbor 3 - Along Came Trouble (28 page)

“I’m not leaving til I’ve said my piece and you’ve listened to it,” King said.

“Like I said, you’ve made your opinion plain.”

“Not plain enough, apparently. You’re stil mixed up with that woman.”

“I’m not ‘mixed up with her,’ as you so eloquently put it. Mary Elizabeth is in a little trouble. I’m helping her out. I’ve said that so many times, I thought for sure even someone as thickheaded as you would have gotten the message by now.”

“You make it sound as if she got a parking ticket,” King snapped irritably. “The woman’s under suspicion of murdering her husband. I would think that would give even you, her faithful defender, pause.”

“She didn’t do it,” Tucker said. “Not even Walker believes she did it.”

“The two of you know that for a fact?” King shot back.

“Yes,” Tucker said. “I do. And so do you. Mary Elizabeth would never intentional y hurt someone.”

“She hurt you bad enough,” his father reminded him.

“That’s old news,” Tucker said. “And hardly the same thing.”

“Is it real y?” King said with an edge of sarcasm.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Daisy said, scowling at Tucker. “You’re wasting your breath, Daddy. Whether we understand it or not, I’m sure Tucker is doing what he thinks is best. Nothing we say is going to change his mind. In fact, he’s just more likely to dig in his heels to defy us.”

Tucker couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face. “Daisy, believe it or not, my actions have absolutely nothing at al to do with any of you.

I’m doing what’s right, what you’d want me to do for any one of you if you landed in a similar mess.”

“Oh, hogwash! Right for whom?” King demanded. “Is it right for Mary Elizabeth to come back here and stir things up?”

“This is her home,” Tucker pointed out. “When she ended her marriage, where else should she have gone? And you can’t blame her because a kil er snuck into her house and kil ed her husband while she was out, can you?” He scowled at his stil -silent brother. “What about you, Bobby? Do you have an opinion about this you’d like to share?”

“Nope,” Bobby said cheerful y. “I’m just along for the ride.”

King scowled at his younger son. “Dammit, boy, I was counting on you to tel Tucker that what he’s doing is crazy.”

“I don’t know what he’s doing,” Bobby pointed out reasonably. “Neither do you, for that matter. Maybe we ought to ask.”

King frowned. “Okay, I’m asking. What are you up to with that Chandler woman?”

Tucker held onto his temper by a thread. “When did she become ‘that Chandler woman’? She used to sit around our table for Sunday dinner. You and her granddaddy were friends. You used to fish together.”

“And then she dropped you like a hot potato when she thought something better had come along,” King said bitterly. “Nobody treats a member of my family like that and gets away with it.”

“I think that’s for me to decide,” Tucker said. “What are you real y so upset about, anyway? Is it because I’m helping Mary Elizabeth out of a jam, or is it that you’re afraid I’m fal ing in love with her again?”

King looked as if he’d swal owed a fly and was about to choke on it. “Don’t even say that,” he ordered, as if Tucker had uttered a blasphemy.

“Wel , guess what, Daddy? I never stopped loving her. Now, go home, old man. It’s been a long day and I’m tired.”

It was plain that his declaration had shaken both his father and his sister, but Bobby shot a warning look at Daisy that kept her silent. Natural y King wasn’t as prudent.

“I’m going,” King said, standing up. “But not before I say one last thing.”

“As long as it
is
the last thing you say on this subject,” Tucker warned.

King shook a finger under his nose. “You watch your step, Tucker. She used you before. She’l use you again. And the rest of us wil be left to pick up the pieces, same as before.”

Tucker sighed as his family left. It wasn’t as if that were the first time that thought had occurred to him. Sadly, his heart didn’t seem to give a damn about the risks.

Liz faced the prospect of another idle day with nothing but her own troubled thoughts for company and concluded that she’d probably tear her hair out. She needed to be doing something,
anything,
to help her own cause. That meant talking to Selena.

Okay, Tucker had said it was a bad idea, and she real y did hate to go against his wishes when things between them were just getting back on an even keel, but it wasn’t
his
life on the line. At least that was how she justified setting off for Richmond shortly after 9:00 a.m. Besides, who would think twice about her turning up at the Chandler offices? She could be there to see any one of dozens of people. If she happened to bump into Selena, wel , that was pure luck.

Even so, she parked down the block, plunked a wide-brimmed straw hat on her head, hurried down the street and slipped in the employees’

entrance in the back. Proud of her evasive tactic, she took the elevator to the executive suite, removed the hat and ruffled her hair, then looked up and straight into Tucker’s amused gaze.

“Wel , hel ,” she murmured, trying not to notice how total y masculine he looked in his snug, worn jeans and white polo shirt. His tan had deepened in recent days, making his eyes appear even bluer than normal. “What are you doing here?”

“Darlin’, I’ve known you forever. I knew you’d never be able to resist coming to Richmond to talk to Selena.”

“You could have saved me the drive and picked me up,” she grumbled.

His grin spread. “I thought I’d let you have your fun. Sneaking around was always great sport to you. I never did believe your grandfather objected to the time we spent together. I was always convinced you just liked slipping out a window late at night to meet me by the river.”

“So what? You have to admit that the fear of discovery added a certain thril to our meetings.”

“I was thril ed enough when we met in plain sight,” Tucker insisted.

She frowned at the comment, then asked, “So, are we going or staying?”

“Now that is a quandary,” he conceded. “I did promise Walker that I’d steer clear of Selena.”

“But I didn’t,” Liz said, sensing an opening. “I could go on in and pick up a few papers, see how she’s acting. I don’t have to cross-examine her.”

She regarded him hopeful y. “Wel ?”

“Can you make it sound credible? Are there papers you need?”

“The incorporation papers,” she said at once. “We know they’re in the safe. And I could tel her that the lawyers want to see how things get divvied up in the event of the death of one of the partners.”

“The lawyers would probably know that,” Tucker pointed out. “Just say you want to know, so you can make sure everything is handled the way Larry would have wanted it.”

Liz knew then that she had won. “She’l buy that. She thought al of us lived to do whatever Larry wanted.”

“Al right, then, let’s do it,” Tucker said, turning toward Larry’s office.

Liz balked. “You can’t come in with me. It wil make her suspicious.”

“And I’m not letting you go in there alone,” he responded calmly. “Besides, you need a cop’s perspective on her behavior.”

She supposed she could see the value of that. “But you can’t tip her off that you’re a cop,” she said thoughtful y. “I’l tel her you’re just a friend who drove me down.”

He regarded her with amusement. “The strong, silent type, huh?”

She patted his arm. “You’l be good at it. Besides, once she gets a look at those biceps, she won’t be interested in your brain, anyway.”

He laughed. “Is that what drew you to me?”

“Twenty years ago, you didn’t have biceps or much of a brain, Tucker, but I loved you, anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because you had character.”

He shook his head. “Just what every man wants to hear.”

“Don’t knock it. Besides, the brains and biceps effect kicked in later.”

“How reassuring. Let’s go, before I get al weak-kneed,” he said.

Liz walked into the reception area for the executive suite, waved a greeting at Barb Prescott, who was on the phone, and went into Larry’s outer office. Selena’s head snapped up from the papers she was feeding into a shredder. Alarm flared in her dark eyes. Liz walked over and gently removed the remaining pages from her hand.

“Anything important?” she inquired sweetly.

“Just some old documents we no longer need,” Selena said without missing a beat, but, fingers visibly trembling, she nervously brushed a strand of stylishly cut black hair away from her cheek. “I didn’t expect to see you down here. I thought you were living in Trinity Harbor now.”

“I am,” Liz said distractedly, while scanning the pages she’d saved from destruction. She repeated the request she and Tucker had agreed to, asking for the incorporation papers. “Would you mind getting them for me?”

Selena hesitated. “I’m not sure—”

“Please,” Liz said firmly enough to make her point that it was an order.

Temper flared in Selena’s dark eyes. “I don’t work for you,” she said heatedly.

“Which raises an interesting question,” Liz said. “Who exactly
do
you work for now that Larry’s dead?”

“Roland, of course. He’s in charge now.”

“He told me he doesn’t have much use for an executive assistant. He only needs someone to take messages. I imagine Barb can handle that just fine. We probably should think about cutting expenses around here now, anyway.”

“You wouldn’t dare fire me,” Selena said fiercely, clearly trying not to let them see how shaken she was by the threat. “You don’t have the authority, for one thing. For another, I would make a very bad enemy.”

“Why is that?” Liz inquired, trying to sound only mildly curious rather than outraged by the sudden shift in Selena’s demeanor.

“Because I can destroy this place,” Selena said bluntly.

“Real y?”

Selena smiled, but it wasn’t a happy expression. “You have no idea how much I know.”

“About?”

“Al of Larry’s shady dealings with the SEC, about the way he lined up investors with a phony prospectus, about the insider trading that went on.”

“So that’s what you were holding over Larry’s head? Were you blackmailing him?” Liz asked, being very careful not to turn to look at Tucker and give away her sense of triumph.

Selena looked genuinely horrified by the idea. “Of course not!”

“Did he know just how much you were aware of?”

“Of course. He trusted me with everything.”

“And you never once hinted at how much damage you could do to him if, say, there were to be a change in your relationship?”

“Absolutely not. I loved him, which is more than I can say for you.”

Ah, the gloves were definitely off now. Selena no longer had any reason to feign even mild pleasantries for the wife of her lover. “You know nothing about my relationship with my husband,” Liz countered.

“I know that you were a cold, heartless bitch,” Selena shot back.

Liz chuckled. “Is that what he told you? It must be what he told al of the others, as wel .”

Selena fel silent at that.

“You didn’t know about the other women?” Liz persisted. “Funny. For a long time, neither did I. I suppose that’s something we have in common.

Larry made fools of both of us.”

“He did not make a fool of me,” Selena said, though she looked as if she were about to cry.

“He convinced you to keep silent by tel ing you he loved you, didn’t he? And at the same time he was sleeping with who-knows-how-many other women.” Liz nodded. “Yes, I’d say that makes you a fool.”

“Dammit, get out of here,” Selena said. “I did not have to blackmail him into staying with me. I won’t listen to this.”

“Because in your heart, you know it’s true,” Liz said more gently. “Don’t you, Selena? How long have you known that you weren’t the only other woman in his life?”

“I don’t believe it,” Selena insisted.

“I can show you a list of names and dates,” Liz told her. “The police are looking into the names on that list. They’re al considered possible suspects in Larry’s death. I started writing them down a few weeks ago in case I needed them for the divorce.”

Selena paled, looking seriously shaken for the first time. “You were divorcing him?”

Liz nodded. “I told him the day before he was kil ed. I’m sure you heard about the fight at Chez Dominique.”

Selena nodded.

“That’s what it was about. I told him I was leaving him for good.”

“He said you’d never agree to a divorce,” Selena whispered, looking shattered.

“He never asked for one. That was one more lie,” Liz told her gently, reminding herself that Selena was only a naive young girl. It must have been incredibly easy for Larry to manipulate her and keep her in line. “I’m sorry.”

Selena stood up slowly, swiping viciously at the tears tracking down her cheeks, her expression grim. “I’l get you those papers,” she said tightly, and hurried from the room.

Liz started to speak to Tucker, but he held up a silencing hand. She nodded and waited for Selena to return.

“Here,” she said, shoving the papers into Liz’s hands, then reaching into a desk drawer and removing her purse. “I’m taking the rest of the day off.”

“Selena?”

“What?” She stood stiffly, her back to Liz.

“I real y am sorry.”

Selena turned slowly, her cheeks once again damp with tears. “And I’m sorry for what I said to you before, for what I cal ed you,” she whispered.

“And I’m even sorrier for what I did, you know…”

“I know,” Liz said, and watched her go.

“Let’s get out of here,” Tucker said. “There’s something about the atmosphere in here that makes me sick to my stomach.”

“Me, too,” Liz agreed, and fol owed him out.

Outside in the fresh air, she dragged in a deep breath, then faced Tucker. “Do you honestly think that girl could have kil ed Larry?”

“She blackmailed him, didn’t she?”

“She says not.”

“Cynthia Miles thought otherwise.”

“Now there’s a reliable source,” Liz said sarcastical y. “Maybe Selena didn’t even realize that once she knew so much she could hold it over his head. As for murder, I can’t imagine it. Tucker, she loved him.”