So was she gone? Had another part of his life closed off from him forever? How many more losses could he take?
All he could do was sit and wait and hope that it wasn’t over even before it started.
Throwing the last of the coffee down his throat, he was trying to decide how to distract himself when he heard a car turn in the drive. He couldn’t help himself. He practically leaped out of the deck chair and raced to the drive, in time to see Elise turn in to the garage.
Certain she’d seen him, too, he stood there, reluctant to do anything that would give him away. He tried on a few different expressions—angry…concerned…challenging. But by the time he got in line with the garage and she got out of the car to face him, he’d chosen neutral.
She was trying not to look guilty. “I borrowed your car.”
“So I noticed.”
“You were asleep, so I could hardly ask you about it.”
Now she was sounding defensive. But he decided not to ask that burning question. He might never know where she’d gone. And maybe it didn’t matter. She was here now.
Opening the back door, she pulled out a bag. “I brought breakfast.”
“From where? Wisconsin?”
“If you don’t want it, all the more for me,” she said, winging by him.
He followed her into the house and the kitchen. “Smells good,” he admitted as she ripped open the package.
Not that he was fooled. She hadn’t gone out to get breakfast. She was merely using it as her excuse. And he let her. It was enough that she hadn’t done a vanishing act.
So Logan chose to eat with her and make all the appropriate noises of gratitude at what was, after all, a decent meal. And while he ate, he studied Elise. Something different…some fresh nuance shaped her features. And when she looked at him, she really looked at him. No looking away.
His throat tightened and he had to force down the food.
“Have you thought any more about this Rafe Otera?” he asked when they’d finished eating.
She nodded. “But I don’t have anywhere new to go with him.”
“Don’t discount him.”
“I’m not. Only…”
“Only?”
“I find it hard to believe that any man would kill over Carol,” Elise said, stacking the dishes. “Not that my sister-in-law doesn’t have her own charms. But she was married twice while she knew Rafe Otera. Obviously he didn’t take offense strong enough to kill one of the husbands. So what could Brian say to this guy that would sign his death warrant?”
She carried the stack over to the dishwasher and set the plates and cups inside.
“I’ve been thinking, too.” Logan followed her into the kitchen. “According to what you said the other day, Brian had been planning on running for office himself.”
“I think I was clear that I didn’t believe he would kill Brian because of sibling rivalry.”
“No, but what about financing the race?”
After closing the dishwasher door, she leaned a hip against it. “I don’t understand.”
“You indicated Kyle isn’t all that charismatic,” Logan said, “and yet he has major backing from somewhere. All that money going to the Caymans—where is it coming from and what’s it being used for?”
“You mean the campaign.”
“That. And payoffs.”
“You think Kyle could be buying his party’s vote?” Elise asked.
Logan decided she still was a bit naive to sound so shocked. “Just a thought.”
“A pretty sick one.”
“So is murder.” Watching his suggestion register and harden Elise’s lovely features, Logan pressed his advantage. “What if Brian got wind of certain improprieties in Kyle’s campaign and tried to stop them?”
Logan steeled himself against the guilt of not telling her everything. Not telling her about Ginny’s death and the fact that she’d been investigating Mitchell for embezzlement of funds from his wife’s charity.
“I—I don’t know,” she said.
“Find out.”
“How?”
“Through someone else in the family.”
“Diane would never betray her husband. That would destroy her standing in the community.”
“What about Carol?”
“Carol may be a wild card, but Kyle is her brother. And I can’t be honest with her. I can’t even mention Brian.” She shook her head. “I don’t think she would talk, either.”
“She seemed to be doing a lot of talking last night.”
“She was drinking.”
“When isn’t she?”
“If I get the opportunity—”
“Make the opportunity.”
She stared at him. “You’re not the boss of me, so don’t give me any more orders.”
“Not even if it’ll bring Brian’s murderer to justice?”
The hard expression in her eyes shifted to confusion…and then to determination.
Logan relaxed when Elise nodded and said, “I’ll find a way.”
BEFORE GOING TO HIS OFFICE in downtown North Bluff, Kyle Mitchell stopped in the study to make a copy of a document that he didn’t want in the system where anyone could get a look at it. He gave the machine a few minutes to warm up, then lifted the lid and froze.
“What the hell!”
The copier wasn’t empty.
He lifted an original of his last transaction to his bank in the Cayman Islands, just two days before. He hadn’t made a copy…so who had?
“Diane!” he roared. “Get in here—and now.”
It took her a minute, but like an obedient dog, she came. “What is it, Kyle?”
“When was the last time you were in my office?”
“How should I remember?”
“Yesterday?”
“No, not for a week or more.”
“What about anyone else?”
“You would have to ask them.”
“Maybe I’ll do that.”
Or maybe he didn’t have to. Maybe it wasn’t someone who lived in this house at all.
Pressure mounted in his head, nearly blinding him with rage, as he thought about the night before and the woman who’d had nearly six hours of uninterrupted access to this house and this room….
Chapter Twelve
About to leave to pick up a few more auction items, Elise stopped several yards from the door. There, on the floor, lay a familiar-looking envelope. Pulse jagging, she took another step forward and stooped to retrieve it.
Both sides were blank.
“Dear Lord,” she murmured, sucking in a big breath before tearing it open.
Another newspaper clipping, newer, this one detailing her escape and her supposed death.
Her knees nearly buckled and she backed herself against a wall. She didn’t know how long she had stood that way before she heard Logan descending the stairs.
She pulled herself together and called out, “Logan, did you ever speak to Bob Hale?”
“No. Actually, I haven’t reached him. Why?” Then he spotted her. “What’s wrong?”
Obviously she hadn’t pulled herself together enough.
“Another souvenir.”
She handed it to him. One glance and his expression hardened. He met her gaze.
“I’ll call him right now.”
He helped her to a chair, and she collapsed there, ready to put her head between her knees at the first sign of a panic attack.
Then he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the operator, who told him Bob Hale’s number was unlisted. He hung up.
“Sorry, can’t get him by phone, either.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Elise said, trying to put on a good face. “Someone knows.”
“If someone recognized you,” Logan said, “why haven’t we had a visit from the police?”
“The real killer’s idea of a sick, twisted mind game? Or an attempt to frighten me away?”
“Why?”
“So I don’t involve
the police.”
“Why would anyone think you would want to draw that kind of attention to yourself when you’re presumed dead and no one is even looking for you?”
“A warning.”
Expressing her real fear made Elise too agitated to sit, so she stood and moved around to work off the negative energy. Still…
“If I stay around, what’s to keep whoever murdered Brian from murdering me, too?”
A conclusion that made her want to grab her son and take off for parts unknown at the first opportunity. To forget neat plans, just go blindly into the night. Or the day, for that matter. Just get out.
Where? How, without having the authorities on her within minutes?
She would have to wait it out for a few more days.
“Elise, calm down,” Logan said, taking her arm and stopping her from wearing out the floor. “The killer would have to go through me to get to you. That’s if he even recognizes you, which I doubt he does.”
Logan’s expression was so earnest that Elise knew he meant what he said. But what if the murderer did go through him? What if something happened to him because of her? She couldn’t stand the thought.
She shook her head. “This was a bad idea.”
“What was?”
“This setup. You putting yourself on the line for me when you don’t have to.”
Even if Logan had some motive of his own—a possibility that she hadn’t discounted—she sensed the integrity of his promise.
“But I want to,” he stated.
“Why? What if something happens to you?” She wouldn’t say the word die.
“I can take care of myself, Elise, better than you know. I’ve been doing it since I was little more than a kid. And I can take care of you.”
“If anything happened to you, Logan, I would never forgive myself.”
Elise reached out and touched his face, and a flood of emotions overwhelmed her. Emotions she’d been holding in check for far too long.
But when Logan pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her, she gave those emotions free rein. She wondered if this was the actual moment she fell in love with him…or if she had loved him all along and only now was willing to admit it.
She’d been alone for so very long…
She trembled in his arms, but he only held her tighter. He almost made her feel safe.
Almost.
She remembered what she’d promised to do. What she would do. But first she needed her excuse to get into Mitchell House.
“I should get going,” she said softly. “Places to go, merchants to see, auction items to collect.”
“Right.”
When he let her go, he seemed chagrined. He touched her face possessively for a second and then stepped back.
Heart steadying, she took a breath that was amazingly calm—for the way he was looking at her was enough to take away her breath altogether.
Elise smiled with the knowledge that she and Logan had just entered a new phase of their strange relationship.
It was a wonder that energized her as she scurried around town for the several hours to gather auction items, after which she delivered them back to Mitchell House just as Minna was driving off somewhere.
“You’re incredible,” Diane said, taking the bags from her. “Where did you find the energy, after staying here so late last night?”
The sound of heels along the hall alerted Elise to Carol’s presence.
“Eric was no trouble at all.” As she was trying to figure out how she could get Carol alone, the woman slipped out the garden door. “And after I put him to bed,” she said distractedly, “I just relaxed for the first time in months.”
She was getting to be a practiced liar.
“That’s understandable, you being a newlywed and all.”
Watching Carol stroll down toward the lake, Elise almost missed her cue. “What? Oh, right.”
“Can I get you something?” Diane asked. “Iced tea?”
Elise blinked. The woman was actually being sociable, undoubtedly because Elise had saved her butt the night before by watching Eric.
“No, really. The afternoon is so beautiful, I think I’ll get out and get some fresh air.”
“Good idea,” Diane said, turning away to inspect the contents of the bags. “I need to get ready, anyway. Kyle and Eric and I are leaving for a friend’s home shortly.”
That was more like the self-centered Diane she knew, Elise thought, heading for the garden door herself.
A sense of unease—someone staring at her back?—made Elise stop halfway there and turn back the way she’d come. But Diane was carrying the bags off, undoubtedly to wherever she was storing the auction items.
Elise continued turning…and froze when she spotted Kyle filling the doorway of his office. He was staring at her. From this distance, she couldn’t see his expression, but she could feel hostility come at her in waves right across the living room.
Swallowing hard, Elise told herself to stay cool. She forced a smile and waved at Kyle, then continued turning until she was once more aimed at the garden door.
At first she thought Carol had disappeared, so she stood on the patio for an indecisive moment until she heard the sound of heels from somewhere near the boathouse. Was Carol planning to take one of the boats out on the lake? Unless something had changed drastically, Carol wanted nothing to do with boats.
Elise rushed to catch up with her and found the other woman standing at the foot of the dock and staring out across the water, over the hulls of both docked Mitchell craft.
“Expecting someone?”
Carol turned. Her eyes were hidden by dark glasses and she held what was left of a drink in her hand. “I don’t ever expect anything from anyone anymore.”
Thinking of how she herself could count on Logan, Elise asked, “Not even from your mystery man?”
Carol gave her a look that Elise couldn’t read. “Hmm, I told you about Rafe, did I?” She shrugged. “Rafe knows I have all these obligations while my brother is running for governor…”
Which wasn’t exactly an answer, Elise thought. Carol was good at being evasive. “If you want to see him, why don’t you?”
Carol laughed. “You mean, in front of God and Minna Mitchell?” she asked, as if equating the two. “You obviously don’t know Mother well enough.”
“What does Minna have to say about it? You’re an adult.”
“Mother orchestrates all our lives. She may not really believe in Kyle, but with Brian dead, Kyle’s all she’s got. Well, until Eric is old enough.”
A statement that sent a chill through Elise. Surely Minna wasn’t already planning her son’s life.
“But he’s only five.”
“Never too early to start planning a bright future, Mother says. She did it with Brian—”
Swallowing hard, Elise echoed, “Brian?”
“The kid’s father. My brother. Dead brother,” Carol added flatly and downed what was left of her drink.
“I’m sorry.”
If Elise expected Carol to show even a modicum of sorrow, she was disappointed.
Carol merely shrugged again and went on. “Sorry doesn’t change anything. Anyway, Mother had both Brian’s and Kyle’s political futures all mapped out for them, and that became especially important to her when our father grew too ill to work out his Senate term. I think she saw herself as another Rose Kennedy, the matriarch of a new Midwestern political dynasty. She even pushed me in that direction. I got a great internship with a U.S. Congressman, and he got…well, me.”
Carol raised the glass, saw it was empty and threw it in the lake. Elise really felt sorry for Carol, but didn’t think her sympathy would be appreciated.
“Well, at least you’re not living according to her plan for you.”
“You think not? That relationship got Kyle the start Mother wanted for him. Well, actually she wanted it for Brian, but he was resisting her at the time. The irony is that Brian was going to throw his hat in
the ring when he was murdered.” Carol laughed. “Think of how frustrated Mother must have been then!”
Appalled, Elise couldn’t even speak. How could Carol be so flippant about her own brother’s death?
Unless she had something to do with it…
“So now Mother is determined that Kyle will come to heel. But Kyle is too clever for her. Maybe for once the old bitch will get what she deserves.”
Startled by her sister-in-law’s frankness, Elise softly asked, “What does Minna deserve?”
Carol looked willing to tell her, but the loud whine of a motor cut across the water and bounced around them, grabbing her attention. Without so much as a “nice talking to you,” she teetered down the pier as a speedboat slid into the slip. The man piloting it was a bronzed god wearing nothing but a thong and a pair of sunglasses.
Rafe Otera, Elise presumed.
He reached out and plucked Carol from the pier. They kissed long and hard, and his hands were all over her. Obviously neither of them cared if they were making a spectacle of themselves. Then Otera set Carol down and stared out at her, Elise realized, shifting uncomfortably. Carol glanced her way only for a second and said something Elise couldn’t hear over the boat’s engine.
Rafe kept staring, even as he backed the boat out of the slip and turned it toward the center of the lake.
Elise watched for several minutes, then turned to spot Logan standing on the deck looking out to the lake, as well. She hurried up the hill and shared the conversation she’d had with her sister-in-law.
“I couldn’t help thinking that Carol knew something both about Kyle and Minna that she wasn’t saying,” Elise said.
“Some kind of conspiracy?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe we should make the effort to find out.”
But if he had more concrete plans, Logan didn’t share them with her. Telling her he’d left her something to eat, he retired to his room, leaving Elise alone and uneasy.
She’d shared with him, so why wasn’t he sharing with her? Why weren’t they making plans together?
After eating, she went up to her room. Glancing out the window, she noted Kyle, Diane and Eric were off for that family outing, and Minna hadn’t yet returned. The Mitchell House stood empty.
Fake I.D. Wife Page 14
