“No? You’ve never heard of him?”
“Afraid not. What makes you think I might have?”
“He’s camped outside your door, for one thing.”
Kane was talking about the man in the car across the street from the motel. She shook back her hair. “Really?”
He took a couple of folded pages from his shirt pocket and unfolded them, then tossed them over in front of her. “That’s what he looks like, and also his rap sheet.”
She glanced at the fax page, which showed a blurred photograph of a man with a thin face, sharp nose, and narrow, haggard eyes. After a moment, she looked up at Kane again. His gaze bored into hers. She blinked quickly in reflex action, though she recognized that was a mistake. With as much composure as she could manage, she said, “I saw this man across from the motel, I think, but he could be interested in anyone.”
“He could, but I don’t think he is.” Kane’s words were grim, though his attention seemed to wander an instant to where sunlight shafting through the window was warming the top of her head.
“Are you suggesting he’s there because of me?”
His eyes narrowed at the amusement in her voice. “It crossed my mind.”
Lewis Crompton cleared his throat with a loud rasp, a warning, apparently, for the accusation in his grandson’s tone. He asked, “How did you find out about this reporter?”
“I noticed him yesterday and had Roan run a make on the rental car. The Taurus was picked up at the airport in Baton Rouge. Slater has a record a mile long for harassment, assault, breaking and entering, not to mention enough parking tickets to paper several rooms.”
Breaking and entering. Regina turned those words over in her mind in dismay. At the same time, she watched the two men with care. If either of them had set this Dudley Slater to watch her, then the other didn’t know about it. But she didn’t think they were involved. No one could be that good at faking either the concern of Mr. Lewis or the grim effort to get to the bottom of the business that was plain in Kane’s face. It was not a pleasant discovery.
“Who,” she asked in clipped tones, “might Roan be, and just what is his part in this?”
“Sheriff Roan Benedict,” Mr. Lewis answered in polite explanation. “He’s the law here in Tunica Parish.” Turning back to Kane, he went on, “Why would this Slater bother with Miss Regina? Why isn’t he after me? Or you, for that matter?”
Kane looked at Regina, his gaze unyielding. “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
“Maybe he thinks I’m a star witness,” she quipped with more bravado than she felt.
“Could be,” Kane allowed with a curt nod. “The only question is whether for the plaintiff or the defendant.”
She frowned as anger for his unending suspicion flowed through her. “Why would you even think such a thing?”
“I don’t know what to think. I’m listening if you’d like to tell me anything.”
The force of his will was like a powerful magnet. The impulse to tell him whatever he wanted to know shivered along her nerves. It was compounded, she thought, of fear that he could see through her and an insistent need to gain his approval, to see him smile at her as he did at others. If this was what it was like to face him from the witness stand, then she pitied anyone who wound up there.
Moistening her lips, she said, “You’ll have to excuse me. I can’t help you.”
He didn’t believe her; she could see it in his face. There was nothing she could do to prevent that. She didn’t need this, couldn’t stand it just now. More than that, she had a strong urge to get back to the motel, check her room and the things she had left there.
“Thank you for the breakfast,” she said, summoning a smile for her host as she rose to her feet. “I’m sure you two have business to discuss, so I’ll leave you to it. Perhaps you’ll give me a call when you’ve made your decision?”
“I’ll do that,” Mr. Lewis said genially, rising to his feet and taking the hand she offered. “This has been a very great pleasure.”
She was warmed by his words even as she wondered if they were mere politeness. “For me, also,” she said, and meant it. She turned to Kane who was standing, as well. She felt like striding off without a word to him, but that would be too pointed after her cordial farewell to his grandfather.
Before she could speak, he said, “I’ll see you to your car.”
She could hardly object without adding to his suspicion. “If you like.”
He indicated that she should precede him, then followed her from the room. She was acutely aware of him behind her, so much so that it was difficult to walk naturally. As she stepped past him onto the front porch, he said, “You aren’t carrying jewel cases, so I’m assuming you still don’t have the collection.”
“Your grandfather decided to give you another chance at it.”
“Did he now?” There was an intrigued note in his voice. Closing the door behind him, he walked beside her across the porch and down the steps.
“That was my impression. I expect he’ll get around to talking to you about it soon, since he asked me to stay on a couple of days.”
“Crafty old devil,” he muttered, staring straight ahead.
“What?” She flung a glance at his set face.
“Never mind. It looks as if you’ll be on hand for Luke’s open house this weekend after all.”
“I suppose.” Her tone was not encouraging.
“I’ll drive you, if you care to go. Before you say no, let me add that my only motive is hospitality. You’re kicking your heels here because of Pops. The least we can do is provide a little entertainment.”
“That would certainly be considerate,” she said, “if I believed it.”
He stopped. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“Lawyers aren’t exactly known for their ethics. Isn’t bending the truth the name of the game?”
“Not for any I choose to play.”
She gave him a sardonic glance. “Of course not.”
“I mean it. I prefer the truth as a weapon.”
“And I’m supposed to accept that while you doubt every word that comes out of my mouth?”
“There’s a difference,” he said, his eyes as hard as his voice was soft.
She stared at him. He meant he made a habit of stating facts, but knew she did not. Heat rose in her face as she exclaimed, “Of all the—”
“I guess this means you won’t be going with me to Luke’s after all?”
“I can find my own way, thank you very much.” With a scathing glance, she started again toward her car on the drive.
“Suit yourself.”
In a childish need to have the last word, she said over her shoulder, “I intend to.”
He returned no answer for long seconds. Then, just as she opened her car door, he said, “Regina?”
She stopped and looked back at him, caught by an undercurrent of concern in his voice.
“Watch out for Slater. He doesn’t play by the rules.”
She had suspected as much. That didn’t make his continued assumption that she had some connection to such a sleazy character any less irritating. Her gaze as lethal as she could make it, she said, “But you do, right?”
“Always.”
Strangely enough, she almost believed him. She looked away, then stepped into her car and slammed the door. The loud noise was satisfying. Still, she knew the last word hadn’t been hers after all.
Regina’s thoughts were chaotic as she drove back to the motel. Fine tremors ran through her hands. She didn’t know why she let Kane Benedict get to her. Her defenses were many and well perfected against most people. She was a grown woman, not a teenager overwhelmed by hormones and a romantic imagination. She had seen handsome men before and had brushed off her share of those who assumed red hair equaled a passionate nature or who saw her disinterest as a challenge. They got nowhere against the barricade of her indifference.
She wasn’t indifferent to Kane. He had pushed through her defenses at
their first meeting, closing in before she was prepared. She felt exposed, emotionally vulnerable in a way she hadn’t in years. It was disturbing on some level she preferred not to explore. It was also nerve-racking.
Back at the motel, everything in her room was exactly as she had left it. Nothing was gone, nothing out of order. If Slater had been there, he was very good at what he did.
Not that there was anything for him, or anyone else, to find; she had seen to that. Regardless, she was outraged at the possibility of intrusion. Her personal privacy was important to her, and the thought of having it breached for no good reason was far too much like a violation to be tolerated.
What bothered her more than anything else, however, was the possibility that her cousin had not been aboveboard with her. She intended to get to the bottom of it.
Gervis should have been at his office since it was the middle of the morning. He wasn’t, according to his secretary. Instead, he was at the apartment. That worried her even before he answered the phone.
“Gina, baby,” he said, his voice hard, “I hope you’re calling with good news because I could sure use it.”
“I’m calling to find out what you think you’re doing.”
“Me? I’m doing something? Hell, I’m not doing anything because I’m too busy fighting a lawsuit. Which you’re supposed to be helping me with. If you’ve got nothing to report, why are you wasting my time?”
She would not let his irascible mood throw her. “I want to know why you lied to me about Dudley Slater.”
“Baby, baby, what do you take me for?”
“I’d be hard put to say right this minute,” she said as his abrupt change to a caressing tone rang alarm bells. “You told me you had nothing to do with the man watching me, this Slater, yet you knew he was a reporter. Why is that?”
“Must have been a lucky guess. Gina, listen—”
“No, you listen. I’ve heard you talk about doing this to other people, but never dreamed you’d try it on me. Why? That’s all I want to know, just why?”
He said nothing for a minute, then he asked, “They really made Slater as a reporter? Somebody down there is on to him?”
“You could say that,” she returned with irony.
His only answer was several short and pithy comments on the reporter’s mentality and antecedents. They struck her as incredibly vulgar, not to mention lacking in imagination, when they would hardly have registered not so long ago. The change, she thought, was a direct result of not hearing such phrases in her presence over the past few days, something she’d hardly noticed until now.
“What is this all about, Gervis?” she demanded, cutting him short. “Don’t you trust me?”
“It’s not that, sweetheart. It’s just that you’re not exactly a pro, you know? I thought you needed backup.”
“A cheap reporter with a face like a weasel and a record to match is supposed to help? Give me a break!”
“All right, so I wasn’t sure you had the guts for the deal, okay? You’re great with people, they like you right off, whereas with me—but never mind that. You said yourself you were on shaky ground. You think you’re tough, you talk tough, but you don’t know how to take care of yourself. I got a right to worry about you, now don’t I?”
“If you were really worried about me,” she said with sudden pain in her chest, “I wouldn’t be here. I want you to call off Slater.”
He gave a long-suffering sigh. “I can’t do that.”
“Can’t or won’t?” She held her voice steady with a valiant effort.
“I don’t have the man on a leash. He’s a newshound and he smells a story.”
“He’s a cut below a paparazzo, a certifiable creep!”
“Be that as it may, he’s arranged his own deal with his magazine, one that’s got nothing to do with me and what I sent him to find out.”
She hesitated, thinking hard. “Are you saying…?”
“What, baby?”
She didn’t answer. Abruptly, she couldn’t speak at all as her concentration focused on something else entirely, a sound that she had been hearing all along. In the background, from the living room beyond the study, a television program was going. She recognized it without any trouble since it was the soundtrack of a cartoon movie she had heard a thousand times before.
Her cousin hated cartoons.
“Gervis,” she said, her voice taut, “who do you have there with you?”
“Now, Gina. It was supposed to be a surprise.”
“Is Stephan there?”
“It’s just for a few days.”
“You took him out of school?” Her voice was rising, but she couldn’t help it.
“Now, Gina, don’t get all upset.”
The sharper her own words, the more soothing, almost oily, her cousin’s became. On the edge of panic, she demanded, “What are you doing with him?”
“He was missing his mama, so I brought him for a visit. Take it easy.”
“How can I take it easy? He has to have his medicine and have it on time. He shouldn’t be upset, and you know he doesn’t like Michael, won’t take his medicine from him or from you.”
“It’s fine. I’ve taken care of it, hired a nurse and everything.”
“Why?” she demanded with panic fluttering in her chest. “Why are you doing this?”
“For you, for Stephan. What else?”
“Let me talk to him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’ll upset him for nothing. Maybe next time, when you’ve got something to report.”
She didn’t like what she heard in his voice, didn’t like it at all. “What do you want from me?”
“Now, baby,” her cousin complained, “you know what I want.”
“Don’t call me baby!” she yelled into the phone. “I want you to take my son back where he belongs.”
“Sure, sure, I promise. When you’re done with the job down there.”
She breathed in quick gasps, trying to think. “I’m no miracle worker, Gervis. I can’t find out secrets that aren’t there or manufacture crooked deals where there aren’t any.”
“You can do something, damn it! How you coming with Benedict? Are you close enough to work on him?”
“Work on him how?”
“Talk to him, come on to him, screw his brains out. Hell, Gina, you’re a female. Figure it out for yourself.”
Horror shafted through her. “I can’t do that!”
“You’d better try. I turned down the old man’s offer and now they’re upping the ante, hinting about millions in damages. They win, I’ll be bankrupt. I want the goods, and I don’t care what you have to do to get them.”
“But you know how I feel. You know why.” He was the only one who did, the single person who had stood behind her during that terrible time. She couldn’t believe what he was asking of her now.
“I know you’ve been hiding behind that for years. It’s time you got over it.”
“But what if—”
“Don’t ‘what if’ me, Gina. I’m doing you a favor here, making you face this, if you want the truth. Lots of people have bad things happen. They don’t let it get to them, but pick themselves up and go on. You get in there and do whatever it takes. Use your imagination, your feminine wiles, your tits and ass. Hell, I don’t care. We got a week, give or take, to get something and figure out how to use it. Either you do this for me or you can expect to be sorry.”
“You wouldn’t hurt Stephan, you couldn’t.”
“I won’t have to if you come through for me, now will I? But all I got to do anyway is tell him what a bastard his old man was. Tell him how his mama nearly died having him. We could have a nice discussion about what a terrible thing it is, the way the law forces girls who are children themselves to carry babies that come from rape. Especially babies with problems. You think that’ll make him feel good, huh, Gina?”
“How can you do this? How can you even think of it?” she cried, her voice thick with unshed
tears. “He’s like your own. We’re family!”
“Families stick with each other, Gina. I’ve been begging for your help here, and you keep making excuses.”
“I told you I’m trying,” she said thickly.
“And I’m telling you I’m a desperate man. Maybe you’ll believe me now. Maybe you’ll be desperate, too, so you’ll get something done. What do you think, Gina? Think you can find out what I need to know now?”
Before she could answer, the phone was slammed down on the other end. She sat motionless, staring at nothing, until the automatic request to hang up came on the line. Then she dropped her own receiver into its cradle and put her hands to her face. She pressed hard against the facial bones as a shudder ran over her. Tears seeped from her eyes, trickling through her fingers.
Stephan was the most important thing in life to her, her whole world. He was so young, so sweet and defenseless. How could anyone hurt him? The very thought made her feel as if her heart were being squeezed in a vise.
Surely Gervis didn’t mean what he threatened? Her cousin was only trying to frighten her. He had been so good to Stephan from the time he was born, had brought in a nanny when he was a baby and, later, paid the bills for expert evaluation, a special school. She would never have made it without Gervis.
She owed him so much, had wanted to do something in return for so long. Coming to Turn-Coupe was the first major thing he had ever asked. If not for her gratitude and sense of obligation, she wouldn’t be here.
Still, Gervis had changed in the past few months. She hardly knew him. It was worry over business that caused it, she thought. Now the fear that he might lose everything he had worked so hard to gain had pushed him over the edge. That was it, it had to be.
He had started with nothing, a welfare kid from the back streets of Brooklyn. His father had died shortly after he was born, and his mother, left alone, could never quite cope. She had depended on wine and fashion magazines to get her through the days. She’d lived on dreams of striking it rich, winning the lottery or some sweepstakes, too involved in the fantasy and her depression to be much of a parent. Taking in Regina after her mother died had been an act with more heart than practicality, even if she had been Regina’s mother’s best friend. It hadn’t lasted all that long in any case. Gervis’s mother had died of a prescription drug overdose barely five years later, when Regina was fifteen.
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