Tyler said nothing about the weekly letters Daniel had tossed at him, saying, “Read it for me, will you, Ty, and tell me what kind of reply to send.”
Berry had written reams of detail about her life to Daniel, but Daniel had been busy with his own life and hadn’t paid much attention. He’d figured Tyler was more experienced at being a big brother than he was.
“Daniel thought you spent so much time in science labs, you were falling in love with your lab partners because of propinquity,” he said.
Her gaze fell. Tyler noted she had long, dark lashes that covered an expression of deep loneliness—a loneliness he suspected had existed for a lot longer than the six months since Daniel had died. Daniel and Berry had never been close in spite of the efforts Tyler knew Berry had made.
“He was probably right,” she admitted. “The guys in science labs were the only men besides Daniel I had a chance to get to know under real-life conditions."
“Real-life conditions? Science labs?” Tyler tried to remember the two college biology labs he’d suffered through. “Since when is dissecting a fetal pig a real-life condition?”
“You know what I mean. You’re working together on a project, so you get to know each other as partners instead of just concentrating on the man-woman aspect. I figured if I liked a man in a biology lab, I’d probably like him in the kitchen and around the house. After all, marriage is a partnership, isn’t it?”
“You have a point there,” Tyler conceded. Her reasoning made a weird sort of sense. “Is that why you stayed in school so long?”
Daniel had feared she was destined to be a professional student. He hadn’t listened when Tyler had suggested that perhaps Berry considered her professors and lab partners a surrogate family.
A faint hint of red tinged her smooth, golden skin. “Actually, I just felt … unprepared for life. So I’d decide to major in something else in hopes of feeling a little more prepared by the time I graduated.”
“There’s nothing that prepares you for life like getting a job. Are you leaving school at last?”
“I had all the requirements for a degree in earth science, so I went ahead and graduated.” Berry’s gray eyes darkened with emotion. “Now that school is off my mind, I can concentrate on Daniel.”
“Daniel thought he was lucky to have a sister like you,” he murmured.
Suspicion darkened her gaze. “He never said that, and you know it. Why do I keep getting the feeling that you’re setting up something of your own here?”
“Okay, but he did notice how hard you worked at maintaining family ties.”
That had to be true, he figured. It would have been hard not to notice, even for someone as basically egocentric as Daniel.
“Daniel and I were the proverbial oil and water,” she said. “He liked sports and business, and I liked books and science.” Her face clouded, and tears glistened in her gray eyes. “Still, he was my brother, my only family, and I loved him.”
Tyler nodded sympathetically. Their mother had died when Berry was eight years old, and their father, a few months after Daniel’s graduation from Rice University. That had left Berry and Daniel with no one but each other.
And now, Berry Challoner had no one.
“And what’s worse is that he seemed to be changing just before he was killed,” Berry added. “When he got the new job, he called me and told me he had named me as the beneficiary on his life insurance policy. He even said he loved me.”
“And now you’re wondering if he had some sort of premonition that he was going to die?” Tyler asked, surprised.
She frowned and shook her head. “No, because Daniel had that ‘never give in’ mentality. It’s more like he was beginning to grow up and understand what was important in life, like friends and family.”
“I see,” Tyler said. He had noted the change in Daniel’s thinking, also.
“I intend to set the record straight so Daniel can rest in peace.” Berry’s fingers tightened on the chair arms.
Tyler detected a strange quiver in her voice. “Do you have some reason to think he isn’t resting in peace?”
“Well, how can he? Everyone thinks he was up to some nonsense like dope dealing or gun running.” Her eyes flashed gray fire. “Do you know what really frosts me?”
He shook his head. If he died the way Daniel had, Tyler wondered suddenly, would his sisters personally go in search of his killer? He considered the question a moment and came up with a doubtful maybe.
“Everyone in Orange, where we grew up, thinks Daniel died a drug addict. All his old friends, his old teachers, even our neighbors.” She swallowed hard, obviously furious. “You’d think they’d listen to the autopsy report that totally cleared him of drug use. But, no, that’s not the way it is. Daniel is guilty until I can prove him innocent.”
Tyler was silent, watching her. He kept his face dourly impassive. He strongly suspected Berry was burying her anger at Daniel for ignoring her most of her life beneath a passionate desire to bring his killer to justice. Although he couldn’t blame her, he knew better than to think she—with or without his help—would find Daniel’s murderer.
“Besides, Daniel sent me an email the day before he was killed,” she added unwillingly. “I have no idea what it meant, but I intend to find out.”
“What?” Tyler leaned forward. “Are you telling me you have a clue in your possession that you haven’t given the police?”
“I did give it to them, for what that’s worth.” Berry scowled at him. “They don’t think it means anything. But I think it does.”
“So what did it say?” he asked, fascinated.
Berry pulled a folded sheet of paper from her purse and handed it to him. “He says not to be worried if I don’t hear from him for a week or two because he’d be out of the office working on a special assignment for Mr. Walter Farley.”
“And what does Mr. Farley say about this?”
“The police said he explained it was something private he wanted Daniel to look into for him, but since Daniel was killed before he began the assignment, they don’t believe it had anything to do with his death.”
Tyler studied the sheet in silence for a moment then handed it back to her. Berry refolded it carefully and stowed it away in her purse once more in equal silence.
“Well?” she demanded at last. “Are you going to be like the police detectives and tell me to run along and see a grief counselor?”
He couldn’t repress a smile. “What would happen to me if I said that?”
She smiled back reluctantly. “Haven’t you ever read a murder mystery where the accountant is found lying across his desk, strangled by the power cord of his own computer?”
“I can’t say that I have. Would you mind answering another question for me?”
She regarded him curiously. “It depends.”
“Daniel always called you Razz. What were your parents thinking when they named you Raspberry?”
She was like a berry, he decided, watching her face brighten into a sunrise of a smile. She was a luscious, spring dewberry; the type he used to treasure in his youth when he’d turn over some leaves and find a single, hidden berry, full of deep red juice and flavor.
Tyler studied her while ostensibly keeping his attention on the scribbles he was making with his pen. Yes, he could see why young men accustomed to staring at test tubes would fall for Berry Challoner. Gazing on her, even dressed in that drab secretary’s outfit, restored his faith that one woman could hold all a man needed of excitement and pleasure.
“Did Daniel tell you my name was Raspberry?” she asked. “It’s a family joke. I have this awful old great-aunt who claims to be rich, but the only thing she ever used her alleged money for was to threaten the family into doing what she wants. She wanted me named for her, but Daddy named me Beryl instead after my mother’s mother. He told Aunt Mary my name was Raspberry.” She chuckled faintly. “Daddy said he’d been wanting to give her the raspberry all his life. Daniel has always c
alled me Razz for that reason.”
“I had a grandfather like that,” Tyler said. “When he died, the family held a celebration.”
“Exactly,” Berry said, nodding vigorously. “Aunt Mary managed to alienate every member of her family. By the time I was born, there were only two members of her family left alive for her to alienate—my father and my father’s cousin. That’s why she was so hot to have me named after her.”
“Since your father officially gave her the raspberry, I presume you were struck out of her will.”
Tyler scribbled some nonsense on his work pad. He’d better stop noticing how attractive Berry Challoner was. He never looked twice at a woman if she wasn’t a blonde. Everyone knew that.
She smiled. “Assuming Aunt Mary actually had any money to leave. Daddy always doubted it because nobody had ever seen her show any signs of having money.”
“What happened to her? Are you sure you’re out of her will?”
“The last I heard, Aunt Mary was still living in Newton and being as mean as ever,” Berry said positively. “Daniel and I never even met her. Considering how mad she was at Daddy over the naming rights to me, I’d be amazed to find out she left me five cents.”
He figured he should return to the reason for her visit. “Berry, what if we find out Daniel was dealing drugs or doing something else that was illegal?”
“He wasn’t.”
Tyler knew absolute conviction when he heard it, and he heard it in Berry’s voice. She echoed his own feelings about his best friend.
“Then why do you think he was killed?”
“It’s obvious he knew something that was dangerous to somebody,” she said, in the best television-detective-show tradition. Her pointed chin thrust forward, and her eyes glowed with enthusiasm. “I’ll bet he stumbled on something at Farley Brothers, something he might not have even known was dangerous. I’m telling you, Tyler, there’s something going on at that place, and I intend to find out what it is.”
Tyler concentrated on maintaining his mistrustful expression. He had been in business as a Certified Public Accountant for enough years to have seen almost every type of tax-reporting evasion in the book. That sixth sense nagged him that Berry Challoner wasn’t telling him everything.
The telephone on his desk buzzed. After regarding it balefully for a moment, Tyler picked it up. The caller was his sister, Debra, who had just gotten engaged and was calling him all the time with wedding planning ideas. Before the wedding took place, she was likely to drive Tyler crazy.
“You’ve got to help me, Tyler,” Debra said.
“I’m busy with a client right now.” He tried to inject more annoyance into his voice. “Get Martin to help you.”
“That’s why I’m calling you,” Debra said. “Martin’s boss is sending him to London tomorrow. I need an escort to the Pin Oaks Ball tomorrow night. Please, Tyler. There’s no one else I can ask on such short notice.”
Tyler frowned. He despised charity balls. He especially despised charity balls in the company of either of his sisters.
“Try Dad,” he said.
“I did. He said you’d take me. Please, Tyler. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. I have to turn in a report for the paper, and I can’t very well go without an escort.”
“Why can’t you? Other society reporters do.”
He glanced at Berry. She was pretending not to listen to the conversation. He noted suddenly that she had Daniel’s profile. The way she turned her head to the side accentuated the resemblance.
“Well, I can’t,” Debra said unequivocally. “I need someone to go with me. Please, Tyler. I need you.”
Tyler melted inside, although he was careful to maintain his frowning demeanor. He was a sucker for women who needed him and he suspected Debra knew it.
“Oh, all right,” he said. “What time?”
“Sevenish.” Debra’s voice went from cajoling back to its usual spunky tone. “Thanks, Tyler. You’ll have a good time. I promise.” She hung up.
“I’ll bet,” he muttered. He replaced the receiver and glared at the phone.
Berry said nothing. She turned her face toward him, and all resemblance to Daniel vanished.
Tyler watched her closely. She looked as though she longed to say something but was restraining herself.
“Where were we?” he asked.
“I was telling you Daniel probably stumbled on something at Farley Brothers he didn’t know was dangerous. I’m going to find out what it is. With your help, I hope.” She gazed at him pleadingly. “Actually, I can do this myself, but even if I get into their computers, I won’t have the faintest idea what I’m looking at. I figure you will.”
Again Tyler suspected Berry was hiding something from him. He studied her slender, exotic face and wondered what it could be. More to the point, how much trouble could he get into if he was discovered aiding and abetting someone who had broken into the Farley Brothers’ computer files?
He decided he didn’t care. Berry needed help. And to tell the truth, no amount of good sense kept him from wanting to do his bit to put Daniel’s killer behind bars.
“In that case,” he said, letting his gaze dwell pleasurably on her radiant, honey-gold complexion, “you’d better fill me in on your plan.”
Chapter 2
Berry narrowed her eyes. Just when she thought she had a handle on Tyler Reid, some nuance of his voice told her she’d missed something vital. Perhaps Tyler knew the truth about why Daniel had been killed and didn’t want to tell her.
She dismissed the thought immediately. From everything Daniel had said, Tyler was so honest he’d tell her straight out.
Daniel had always praised Tyler’s financial abilities and intelligence to the highest, and Daniel had been the kind of man who rarely credited anyone but himself with intelligence. That meant Tyler had a lot on the ball in terms of business knowledge.
When she’d realized she needed an ally who understood business, his was the name that had leaped to mind. Now she wondered if she might not have made another of her famous mistakes.
Accountants were not supposed to be six feet tall, with broad shoulders and athletic builds. Somehow she hadn’t noticed these things about Tyler the other times she’d met him. The way he’d frowned at her pink gauze dress at Daniel’s graduation had kept her from wanting to know him better.
This was not a good time to notice he had thick, chestnut-colored hair and broad, slashing brows that set off startling turquoise eyes. His well-cut nose balanced a chin that erred on the side of aggressive. It was too bad he usually looked as though he’d eaten something that disagreed with him.
Why he was so gloomy, Berry didn’t know. Daniel had told her Tyler had loving parents and two beautiful younger sisters, so she knew he hadn’t been mistreated during his youth. Both his parents were in good health, and his sisters were doing well. He had gone to work for his father’s accounting firm immediately after graduation and Daniel always said it suited Tyler better than anything else he could have chosen to do.
For an instant she let herself gaze at the magnificent specimen of elegant manhood facing her. He looked as though he had stepped out of an advertisement for expensive men’s clothing. She must be crazy to let herself notice Tyler Reid, especially when she’d just finished with Grady Craig. After Grady, she had sworn off men and engagements forever.
Fortunately, Tyler wasn’t likely to be interested in her. They were complete opposites, after all. Tyler was a steadfast, upright, correct businessman and she was a …
She wasn’t sure what she was, except that she was a woman with a college degree at long last and three broken engagements.
The office door opened suddenly, and an older version of Tyler stalked in, clutching a manila folder. “Tyler, I’ve got to have the P and L statement for the Magician’s Supply House by tonight. I’m not going to be able to get to it because—excuse my interruption, ma’am—your mother demands my attendance at that silly charity ball tomorrow
tonight and I have to get my tux refitted.”
Tyler regarded his father wryly. “Sorry, Dad. Debra is demanding my attendance at the same ball. It’ll be all I can do to get Quinoa’s quarterly reports done on time.”
The older man ignored these words and proffered the manila folder. “See if you can get this statement done first. It’s more important.”
Tyler frowned heavily. “Dad, I—”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” the older Reid said, bowing gracefully to Berry. “I have an appointment waiting. Excuse me, please.” He exited as swiftly as he’d entered.
Berry pretended not to notice Tyler’s look of weary resignation. She glared indignantly at the older man’s back in spite of his graceful apology for interrupting. Daniel had said something about Tyler’s relatives taking shameful advantage of his extreme good nature. Someone ought to do something about it.
“Sorry for the interruption,” Tyler said. “My father thinks he has special privileges because he owns the company.”
She forced a smile. “Daniel thought he had special privileges because he played football for Rice. I had to turn a plate of spaghetti over on top of his head in order to change his attitude.”
Tyler set the folder aside. “Did it work?”
“What do you think?”
“It didn’t work.” He smiled, and his entire face was transformed. “I doubt if burying Dad beneath the entire contents of a file drawer would work.” His face fell instantly back into the impressive frown. “Go ahead, please. You were going to fill me in on your plan for investigating Farley Brothers.”
Berry remembered suddenly that Tyler had been engaged once himself. If he could smile like that, she wasn’t surprised. But why wasn’t he married?
Daniel had claimed Tyler was still single because he didn’t have time to court a woman properly. Daniel had further said Tyler had given up girl-next-door types when his engagement ended and was now dating expensive blondes exclusively.
But that was the sort of male-chauvinist statement Daniel was always making. Berry dismissed it. Tyler had probably discovered he’d made a mistake, just as she had.
Texas Temptation Page 2
