“The gun belonged to her ex-husband. Remember, she changed her name from Fargo back to her maiden name of Jacobson after the divorce.”
Holly wanted to smack herself. “Stupid oversight,” she said through gritted teeth. “A nine millimeter?”
Her dad nodded. “Rodgers is out looking for Nora to have a chat.”
She checked her watch. “Wes and his sister should be here soon. I want to see if his sister can recognize a picture of Ashley Gaines, the woman I think is behind this. Then I’ll call Rodgers and get her up to date.”
Her father put his elbows on the sides of the chair and tented his fingers. “Maybe it’s Nora, even though you and Wes didn’t think so last night.”
Holly’s gut went tight with tension and worry. “Maybe. The quickest way to find out is for Wes’s sister to identify a picture. I did backgrounds on the three women from the book club, but I didn’t do identity checks.”
“Ah,” her dad said. “It’s possible that Wes isn’t the only one hiding behind an identity he wasn’t born with.”
She heard the door to her office open. Looking up, her breath caught as Wes walked through the door with his sister and George. Wes wore dark slacks, an expensive green shirt that matched his eyes, and his sun-streaked dark hair framed his handsome face. He looked like he’d just walked off a glossy magazine. And it hit her—Wes loved her, she believed him. But he’d been on the run for the last three years, ripped away from his fancy life and his sister. The bond between her and Wes had been forged in a time of stress.
Would it hold up to everyday life? Was living in a beach and college town, running a bookstore, and loving a beer-and-pizza PI really going to make him happy?
Could he really live with not ever having a child?
She realized she was staring when her dad stood up and said, “Wes, this must be your sister.”
Holly recovered while Wes made introductions. She had the stack of pictures on her desk. Standing up, she picked up the four pictures and held them out. “Michelle, here are the pictures I’d like you to look at. Which one is Ashley Gaines?”
Michelle took them. She looked down at the first one and shook her head. “Not this one.”
Holly knew which one was on top—the driver’s license photo of the woman that was supposed to be Ashley. Damn. Her stomach tightened as Michelle flipped through the remaining three. Was she in there?
Wes walked over to stand between Holly and Michelle. He reached out and settled his hand on Holly’s shoulder.
“This is her.” Michelle held up a picture.
They all looked at it and Holly said, “Helene Essex. Well, well, it looks like Ashley Gaines found someone to switch identities with.”
Michelle said, “Really? She used to have lighter colored hair and hazel eyes, but it’s her.”
“Her eyes are brown now,” Wes said.
Holly felt the tension in his hand. “Contacts. So if Helene is really Ashley, the woman in the Riverside apartment is Helene. Ashley is here in town, going to your book club and stalking you.”
Wes frowned. “How did she find me?”
Holly turned and looked at him. “Well, I thought about that. Brad gave it away at your bookstore when he said I recognized the picture of you coaching the Little League team. So I did a Google search of Little League coaches and your team picture popped up in the newspaper. You’re recognizable in that picture.”
George shook his head from where he sat on the couch. “Told you not to get involved in stuff like that.”
Wes shot him a look. “You’re the assistant coach.”
George did his usual arrogant look of gazing over the top of his glasses. “Only ’cause I had to protect your ass.”
Wes looked at Holly. “You gonna let him get away with that?”
“Me? Hey, fight your own battles, book boy.” She ignored him and sat down behind her desk. “So Ashley went looking for you.” She waved her hand toward Wes. “Then got a new identity, moved to Goleta, joined your book club, and killed Cullen.”
“Who is her cousin,” George added.
“Yeah, what’s the connection about?” Holly got back up and paced past them to the kitchenette. “I mean, what’s the end game here? She’s done all this work, getting Michelle to Goleta and isolating the two of you.” She turned to look at them.
“Revenge?” Michelle asked.
Holly didn’t know. “Brad said something about a book. But I can’t believe all this is over a book.”
“Doesn’t make sense. She could publish the book without Michelle’s or my consent. Unauthorized biographies are published all the time.”
“Don’t forget, Nora has a gun,” her dad said.
George sat up. “What? There’s no gun permit registered to Nora Jacobson.”
Holly turned and looked at George. His face was tight, probably with pain. “Rodgers found that Nora’s ex-husband, whose last name is Fargo, has a gun registered to him. He didn’t take it to prison with him, so we’re assuming that Nora still has it. A nine millimeter.”
George’s gaze drifted to Michelle. “Could be the women are in this together. Maybe they know who Helene really is. Maybe Nora does have a grudge against Wes, believes he is somehow responsible for her husband’s sports gambling, which led to him embezzling.”
“What would Maggie have against Wes?” Holly turned to look at him.
He was standing by Michelle, catching her up on details. He met her gaze. “Nothing that I know of. Unless she blames me for letting Cullen into the book club.”
“Then maybe we need to talk to Maggie. The whole lawsuit was bogus, just a way to get on TV. Dumb-ass Brad fell for it, of course. But I’m sure he’s just another puppet. And I think Helene…” She paused and added, “I’m just going to keep calling her Helene to keep it straight even though we now know she’s Ashley Gaines.” Another breath. “I think Helene is the puppet master. Maybe Maggie needs to be informed that Helene is playing her.”
Her dad said, “Detective Rodgers needs to be informed that Helene is really Ashley Gaines.”
Holly nodded. “I’ll call her.” Then she turned. “Or can you do it, Dad? I really want to go talk to Maggie. Catch her off guard.”
“I’m going with you.” Wes turned from Michelle to Holly.
“I’m going, too,” Michelle added.
Wes started to argue with his sister but Holly cut him off. “Both of you go to my house and stay there.”
Wes shifted around and took a large step toward Holly.
She held up a hand. “We can’t tip our hand, Wes. Right now, you’ve convinced Brad at least that you fired me and walked away. If you and I show up together, and Maggie’s in on it, she’ll know I’m still working for you.”
His eyebrows drew together and he flattened his mouth into a tense line. “I am not going to sit in your condo while you’re in danger!”
Holly pasted on a smile. “I’m no threat if they believe you hate me.”
“She’s right,” George pointed out.
“Shut up,” Wes snapped.
“Nick.” Michelle touched his arm. “Holly will be in less danger if we aren’t with her.”
She watched Wes struggle. “I don’t like it.”
She met his gaze. “You don’t have to like it, Brockman. You just have to keep your sister safe.”
Tanya’s voice broke through the tension. “I found it.”
They all turned to look at her. Tanya had sat down at Holly’s desk and held up a page of hand-written notes that she must have gotten from the files she had organized for Holly.
She looked up at Holly. “I remembered a reference to a book in the podcasts from the O’Man’s Web site that I listened to. Here it is. It’s the podcast about Anti-Princess, who we all thought was Helene.”
The back of her neck tingled. “I remember,” Holly said. “Read it.”
Tanya said, “These are my notes after listening to the podcast:
“Anti-Princess is Helene.
This one isn’t as icky with sexual details. It’s more a…I don’t know…profile. Cullen says she wants to have the same power as men in the world. She’s tough, acts like she has balls, might even be a cop or someone in authority. But in the end, she’s not a man, can’t have the same power as men in a man’s world, so she’s forced to use men to get things done, and being the woman behind the man. But when the men she chooses fail her, she’s reduced to writing a book about a powerful man. To seduce her, act like you’re the man who will help her gain power and get what she wants, and she’ll put out.”
It felt like someone walked over her grave. “Cullen knew about the book. He was threatening Helene with that podcast. So she killed him.”
Michelle tilted her head. “What does this Cullen look like?”
Tanya paged through the files and pulled out one of the pictures Holly had of the death scene. She silently handed it to Michelle.
Michelle looked down at it. Her face paled and her breathing grew rapid.
Wes put his arm around his sister’s shoulder. “You okay?”
She looked up at him. “I dated him. Just for a couple weeks, right around the time you graduated law school.”
Holly felt her own pulse kick up. “She knew who you were.” She turned to Wes. “Ashley Gaines had her cousin date your sister and learn everything about you, even back then.”
“Why?” Wes ran his hand through his hair, his voice thick with frustration. Then he straightened up and added, “She sent the thugs after Michelle. To stop me from testifying against her husband.”
Holly crossed her arms beneath her breasts, struggling to get the facts to line up. Helene/Ashley had played people in Goleta for months. So it stood to reason she always had done that. In Cullen’s O’Man blog, he said she wanted the power of a man, and used men to achieve it. She shifted back to Wes. “How did you get your job at Apex Sports Agency?”
“They called me.”
“Based on what?”
He shrugged. “Holly, I signed a major league contract before I was shot. People in baseball knew who I was.”
“And didn’t you tell me once that Helene is a baseball fan? That you two sometimes talked about baseball?”
His green eyes burned. “Shit. She worked for an employment agency. She recommended me, probably got an under-the-table finder’s fee.”
She kept his gaze. “Because she assured the partners in your firm that you’d look the other way when her husband doped the players. She knew you wanted to succeed bad enough to ignore it.”
“But why track me down now?”
It was beginning to make a twisted kind of sense. “Because if she wrote an explosive enough book, she wouldn’t need a man anymore. She would be famous and powerful in her own right.” She took a breath. “We need to find that book. Dad, you call Rodgers.” She turned to George. “Armed?”
He nodded.
“Get them to my house.” She turned again. “Tanya, that was brilliant of you to remember the podcast. Thank you. But I want you to go home now. I want you out of this in case it turns ugly.”
Tanya stood up from the desk. “Are you sure, Holly? I’ll stay, do whatever you need.”
“I’m sure, Tanya. You did great. Go home.”
Tanya nodded and started gathering up her belongings.
“Dad, you lock up.”
He nodded.
Holly started toward her desk to get her purse and her gun, but Wes stepped in her path. She looked up at him. “What?”
He didn’t say a word, just pulled her into his arms and pressed his mouth against hers. When he let her go, he said, “If you don’t call me the second you leave Maggie’s office, I will find you, Hillbaby.”
She opened her mouth.
He cut her off. “I mean it, Holly. I want to know exactly where you are, and if I think you’re in danger, all bets are off. I’m coming after you.”
“Damn it, Brockman, I keep telling you that you’re paying me to handle the danger.” He made her feel protected. Safe. And it was pissing her off. She took care of herself.
“And I keep telling you that I love you. If I think you need me, I’ll find a way to get to you.” He let her go and said, “George, Michelle, let’s go before she finds her gun and shoots me.”
Chapter 20
Holly walked into Maggie’s office to find her consulting with a young couple at a table piled with photo albums. Maggie looked up, her brown gaze narrowed, and she said to the couple, “Excuse me.” She wore slim, charcoal gray tailored pants, a pearl-colored top, and a furious expression framed by her perfectly cut black hair as she stalked over to Holly. “What are you doing here? I’m going to call my lawyer—”
“Cut the shit, Maggie. Brad never filed the lawsuit. There is no lawsuit. You’ve been played.”
Maggie’s fury melted into confusion.
Holly was pretty sure that was a rare look for Maggie, aka Wonder Woman.
Recovering, she glanced back to see the couple engrossed in the photo albums, then returned her glare to Holly and said, “You’re lying to save yourself. Get out.”
Holly took a shot. “I’m not lying and I’ll prove it. There’s a book on Cullen’s computer. Give me his computer and I’ll show you.”
Maggie touched one of the cell phones clipped to her waist. “Book? I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“I’m sure you don’t.” Holly noticed she didn’t say anything about Cullen’s computer. If Helene murdered Cullen, and Nora stayed at her house to provide the alibi—although she thought the alibi was to cover the theft of the computer, not murder—then Maggie must be the one who went to Cullen’s boat to steal the computer. “Helene wrote a book about Wes, well, about Nick Mandeville.” She wanted to see what Maggie knew about that. Of course, it had been a couple of hours since the scene this morning, so word had to be out.
“I heard about Wes being that sports agent, but that doesn’t have anything to do with us or our lawsuit.” She pulled a cell phone off her belt. “If you don’t leave, I’m calling the police.”
Holly folded her arms. “Good. Do it. I have my associate calling the police, too, specifically Detective Rodgers. She’s going to be very interested in hearing how you and Nora helped Helene murder Cullen.”
Maggie stared at her.
Holly inclined her head toward the phone. “Go ahead, call. I’ll wait.” She was done playing.
Maggie dropped the hand holding her phone. “You’re not bluffing, are you?”
“No. Brad thinks he’s going to help broker a book deal for Helene. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about a lawsuit when he can represent Helene in a huge book deal.” Was the book on Cullen’s computer? Holly thought it probably was. “What did you do with Cullen’s computer after you stole it from his boat the night Cullen was killed?”
Maggie whipped her head back to look at her clients. They were engaged in a whispered argument. She walked over to them and said, “I’ll be right back.” Then she gestured to Holly and went into her office.
Holly followed. Maggie’s office was as tailored as the woman herself. A sleek desk with a sleek computer monitor. Tasteful filing cabinet. Lots of custom-framed pictures of big parties and receptions that Maggie had planned. Holly took it all in automatically—her real attention was focused on Maggie, who sat in the chair behind her desk, where she felt in control.
She looked up at Holly. “I am not going to admit to a crime, Holly. So what are you here for?”
To save Wes and his sister. “Okay, here it is. I think you and Nora wanted your names off Cullen’s computer so no one could ever link you to the things he wrote about you in the O’Man blog and the podcast recordings. You are Wonder Woman, and Nora is the Invisible Woman. But I don’t think you knew Helene was going to murder Cullen.”
Maggie didn’t move. “Hypothetical. What’s your point?”
The woman had ice in her veins. “I need to find the computer.”
Maggie leaned back in her cha
ir. “If I were going to steal a computer like you say, to get rid of evidence, I would get rid of it. I wouldn’t keep it around.”
Holly felt like a door had been slammed in her face. “Permanently?” She was sure the computer would tell her what Helene was up to.
Maggie fingered the arm of the executive chair. “A boat has a lot of water around it.”
Shit. What now? What next? So Maggie had gone to Cullen’s boat that night, found the computer, and dropped it in the ocean. A team of divers might be able to find it, but it would take too long and there was no guarantee they could get the information off the computer after it had been submerged in salt water. Holly looked around Maggie’s office again, noting the way everything was placed with precision. Maggie was efficient and organized…An idea hit Holly. “Backup?” That’s what Holly would have done. She’d have taken a copy of the computer hard drive for herself in case she ever needed it.
Maggie’s brown eyes widened slightly. “I am not going to incriminate myself.”
The gloves were coming off. Holly sat forward. “Helene Essex is not who you think she is. Her real name is Ashley Gaines. Her husband went to prison for doping baseball players. A player died from the steroids. Guess who was that player’s agent?”
Maggie’s gaze sharpened. “Wes. Who is really Nick Mandeville.”
Holly nodded. “Wes blew the whistle and testified against Ashley’s husband. At first I thought all this was revenge. But Ashley didn’t attain a new identity and go through all this just for revenge. She’s doing it to get famous in her own right. She’s tired of being the ‘woman behind the powerful man.’”
It was as if a string yanked Maggie straight up from her leaning back position. “That’s exactly the way Helene talks about men. But I thought she was just angry because she’d hit the glass ceiling in her job in human resources.”
“She was never in human resources. That’s the real Helene, who Ashley traded identities with. Wes’s sister identified Helene’s picture as the real Ashley Gaines.”
Maggie took it all in, keeping her body still, but it was obvious that her mind was working. “So what does Helene want? What does the book have to do with it? And Brad?”
The Sex On Beach Book Club Page 25
