“That’s it? That’s all you could find?”
“No.”
“Don’t keep me guessing. What do you have?”
“They’re fakes.”
“What? The statues?”
“Yeah.”
“So what?”
“It’s illegal to take real Aztec statues out of Columbia. Aztec Corporation does reproductive work. So they’re not authentic antiques.”
“Why does that matter?”
“You said it was an antique auction. They don’t do antiques. They’re scamming people.”
“That’s not revolutionary. I’m sure there’s a lot of fakes out in those fields being passed off as authentic.” He thought about it a minute. “It could be a front. You’re the research girl. See what you can find out.”
If there were a way to uncover information about Aztec Corporation, she’d do it.
“Well, what I found so far was just surface stuff,” Sonny said, a little hint of satisfaction in her voice.
He rolled his eyes. “Sounds like you’re on to something. Don’t keep me in suspense, Son. If you have more, give it.”
She chuckled. She was having fun with this. Most of the time, her job as a computer-software specialist was dry as hell, she’d told him. She worked at a high-tech company, figuring out ways to hack into systems and keep others from doing the same. She was good at what she did and loved discovery.
“I’m not asking for you to do anything illegal.”
“I know you’re not. And you know I wouldn’t. Even if I could, which, you know I can, but I won’t.”
“But.”
“There just isn’t a whole lot out there, which is strange.”
“Why?”
“Most companies have info out there. Businesses want to sell their goods either in stores or online. There’s nothing there. Only the write up about the Eastmeadow Auctions and some info I uncovered in Columbia. Aztec Corporation is far from home.”
He’d just picked up his sandwich to take a bite, but he dropped it back on the plate, curious about where she was going. “Go on.”
“Okay, so when I realized they were selling fakes, I researched South American and Mexican art. The Aztec Indians were not South American. They were Mexican. Yet the headquarters for Aztec Corporation is in Colombia.”
“Haven’t you ever seen Native American dolls that were made in China?”
She paused as if I’d let the air out of her little red balloon, then said, “Point taken.”
“Yeah, give me something else.”
“I’m just wondering, why not sell statues of their own culture? Colombian art is beautiful. I went through pages and pages of the stuff and they could easily reproduce South American art and sell that.”
“That’s a great art-history lesson, sis, but I need something to go on here. When I saw the name on the truck, it was as if I’d seen it before.”
“Exactly what I said to myself.”
He didn’t get it.
“On the pier? That day we went sailing? Don’t you remember the boat coming in to the pier in Providence? That boat had crates that said Aztec.”
Dylan fought his disappointment that he’d gone down a dead end road. “Okay, so they ship to Providence. That might explain why I recognized the name. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“They don’t distribute anywhere in the United States, Dylan. I couldn’t find anything where these statues were being sold anywhere. So why ship to Providence? There were a lot of crates on that boat. You’d think they’d be showing up somewhere in the States on the Internet. Nothing.”
“Huh, interesting.”
“Do you think it’s drugs? Do you think Cash was investigating it?”
“Don’t know. He never said anything. At least not to me.”
“Same here.”
“Is that all you have?”
“Pretty much. There was some press about some paintings that were stolen like a million years ago.”
“How long?”
“Um, hold on.” She paused, as if she were checking the computer. He heard the clicking of keys. “Looks like they were stolen almost thirty years ago, but one of them just popped up on the black market a while back. Do you think that’s something?”
“I don’t have a clue. But if it has to do with Aztec Corporation, check it out. I want to know where it leads.”
“I can comb Cash’s apartment tonight to see if I can find that info he had on Aztec Corporation if you want. Maybe he has something there that I can use to look into this a little deeper.”
Dylan thought about it. He could easily have missed something when he searched the apartment before he left. He’d had very little to go on when he’d left Providence. “Take Dad with you.”
She sighed heavily. “I’m not twelve, Dylan. I can go to my own brother’s apartment and water the plants—which, by the way, are now practically dead.”
He laughed. “You forgot to water them.”
“I watered them too much, I think. You know I don’t exactly have a green thumb.”
“Have Mom nurse the plants back to health. If that doesn’t work, we’ll get Cash a spider plant. He’ll never know the difference.”
“Yeah, he will. He notices everything. And he’ll blame me.”
Dylan liked talking about their brother as if he was still part of the here and now. It was too upsetting to think of the alternative.
His appetite suddenly gone, he pushed the plate with the sandwich away. “Email me when you have something, okay?”
Sonny promised to do that, then hung up. Dylan put the cell phone on the table and scrubbed his hand over his face as he looked out into the darkness. Most of the campers had doused their campfires and turned in.
He should be doing something. He didn’t want to lie in bed, waiting for the hours to pass until he could go back to the Davco mansion and talk to Serena.
“You’re full of shit, buddy,” he said to himself as he got up from the table and pushed the camper door open. The warm night air bathed his face. The days were getting hotter. Summer was here.
He hoped he hadn’t sent Sonny on a wild-goose chase. Aztec Corporation might just be another company trying to make a buck by copying and peddling pottery originally made by ancient civilizations.
Looking up at the moon, he closed his eyes. Somewhere out there, there had to be information that would lead him to Cash. He had to find his brother.
Everything he’d found in Cash’s apartment had led him to Eastmeadow. And had also led him to Tammie.
* * *
“Let me take the tray to her,” Tammie said, holding out her hands.
Susan stood at the foot of the stairs, a dinner tray filled with food in her hands. Serena’s dinner was being served at nine-thirty, because she’d slept so late. Tammie was beginning to think Serena would sleep the whole night. But while she’d been in her room, she’d smelled the food that was being prepared and found Susan getting ready to feed Serena.
“It’s my job. I’d appreciate you letting me do it.”
Tammie put her hands down. “Fine. Then I’ll go with you. I’d like to see how Serena is doing.”
“That won’t be necessary. Aurore is already up there.”
Despite the attempted brush-off, Tammie followed Susan up the stairs and into Serena’s room. She didn’t know what to expect after last night’s nightmare. Serena had been so distraught, but Tammie was caught off guard when she looked at Serena in the bed and discovered she was worse.
Serena lay lifeless in the bed. Aurore stood next to her, lifting her so that she was sitting almost upright, propping her up with pillows. Her eyes were glazed over, and she appeared almost catatonic, with her head slightly turned to the side.
Aurore turned as Tammie came beside the bed. “You might want to get some dinner yourself, since you didn’t eat when you got home,” Aurore said to Tammie. “Susan is a good cook. I’m sure she’s made plenty.”
“Thank you, bu
t I had something to eat earlier, in town.”
Aurore sighed. “As you can see, Serena is not up to talking. You’ll be wasting your time if you try.”
“Isn’t that for me to decide?”
“Why don’t you find something else to do?”
“You’re trying to get rid of me again,” Tammie said pointedly.
Aurore gave her a half smile. “Would it work if I were?”
“No.”
“Then it’ll only be a waste of my time if I try.”
Susan put the dinner tray on the space at the foot of the bed, and Aurore cleared a spot there and sat down. “That will be all, Susan. Thank you.”
When she was gone, Tammie pulled a chair closer to the bed, opposite where Aurore was sitting.
“Did you raise her?” she asked.
Aurore gave her attention to feeding Serena. “Serena? No, her father did.”
“A mother’s love is important, too. She had no stepmother?”
“Eleanor was her mother. I made sure she knew what kind of woman her mother was. Her father never remarried. He never got over losing Eleanor.”
An ache settled in the pit of Tammie’s stomach. She knew nothing about any of them. Would she have the opportunity to know what kind of person Eleanor Davco had been, and how she had come to live in someone else’s home? She hoped so.
But more than her, she hurt for Serena. She hadn’t grown up with a mother. At least Tammie had had a mother’s love her whole life until her parents died.
“You’ll have to tell me about that sometime,” Tammie said. When Aurore glanced at her, sh added, “If you don’t mind.”
Aurore’s face remained expressionless, but she paused for just a fraction of a second before she continued to spoon-feed Serena.
Food dribbled out of Serena’s mouth, and Aurore quickly scooped it away from her face and wiped her with a soft white cloth, as if she were an infant again. The scene was almost too much for Tammie to bear.
“What’s wrong with her?”
Aurore paused with the spoon in her hand before continuing her task. “She hasn’t gotten over the loss of her father.”
“He’s in a nursing home. He’s not dead.”
“He is to Serena. He doesn’t remember her at all. It was a devastating blow to be left alone like that.”
But she’s not alone, Tammie wanted to say. More and more, she was becoming convinced that she was Serena’s sister. How could they be so alike and not be sisters? It just didn’t make sense.
“She wasn’t always like this?” Aurore tried to spoon some food into Serena’s mouth, coaxing her. “Off and on. She’s suffered from mental illness throughout her life. First the trauma of losing her mother in the fire. That would scar anyone emotionally. And then losing her father.”
From where Tammie was sitting, she had a clear view of Aurore’s scar. “Did you get that scar in the fire here at the mansion?”
Aurore turned to her, startled. Then her face changed. Tammie had expected anger, but she saw none. What she saw instead was more a look of surprise.
“You sure are a curious one,” Aurore finally said.
Tammie closed her eyes, guilt eating at her. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”
She was surprised again when Aurore chuckled.
“No, you’re not. And I’m not offended. You’re curious and you want to know things. I can see the questions behind your eyes, and I know that you’re having a hard time keeping yourself quiet. You want to know everything.”
Tammie asked, “Is that so wrong, given the circumstances?”
Aurore seemed to weigh her words. “You want to know about this ugly scar? I’ve been with the Davco family since before Serena was born. I was here the night Eleanor Davco died. I tried to help her, but failed. The scar I feel inside is much worse than the one I have on my face because of that failure. And I’ll tell you one more thing—you shouldn’t be asking so many questions.”
“Why not?”
Aurore dropped the spoon in the half-empty dish. “People get hurt when they ask too many questions.”
“I’m not trying to cause—”
“Trouble? Well, you are. More than you know. If you don’t want trouble to find you, then you need to leave it alone. If you can’t do that, I suggest you pack your bags and go back home to Oregon.”
“There’s nothing left for me there.”
Aurore drew in a slow breath. “There’s nothing for you here either. What you’re looking for, you’ll never find.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it won’t bring back your parents. And when you finally realize that, you’ll have to bury them again.”
Tammie lifted her chin, glanced at Serena, heard a soft moan escape her lips, as if she were trying to communicate with them.
Tears stung Tammie’s eyes, but she wouldn’t let them show. She wouldn’t let Aurore know how much her words had hurt. If her parents hadn’t left Eastmeadow, she would have grown up in this town, just like Serena. As hard as it still was for her to imagine, she probably would have grown up right here in this house.
But then she wouldn’t have known her mother and father. She’d never have had their love. She couldn’t imagine that.
It was becoming harder and harder to cling to the belief that her parents hadn’t known she was not their biological child. They had to have known. If they really had lived in Eastmeadow, they would have seen Tammie’s resemblance to Eleanor Davco. Maybe not at first, when she was a baby, but certainly when she grew up.
“No one is going to force me away from here,” Tammie said quietly. “No matter what questions I ask.”
Rising from her chair, she gave a gentle squeeze to Serena’s hand, but got no response. Oh, Serena, please wake up and talk to me. How could she possibly get answers to all the questions burning in her mind without Serena’s help?
It was selfish of her to think only of herself, when Serena so clearly was the person in need. But until she could talk to Serena and find out what she knew about Tammie, how she’d known Tammie was coming, and what all this had to do with her parents, she just couldn’t move on.
She left the room and shut the door. This house didn’t feel like a home. It was a fortress. She was free to leave, but how could she leave with Serena here, without knowing how her life had come to be what it had?
Her mind wandered to Dylan. He’d said he had some things to take care of tonight, but she wished he was still here with her. Aside from Serena, he seemed to be the only ally she had in a town that held too many secrets.
He’d taken her in his arms earlier, held her in a way that made her feel protected. It was almost as if she could still feel his touch. Her adrenaline raced at the thought of what could have happened at the auction grounds today, had she not been able to get out of the way of the falling armoire. She’d never been so scared in her life when she’d seen that armoire come down on top of her. And she’d never been so glad to see anyone as she had been when Dylan suddenly appeared by her side.
She touched her knee and winced at its tenderness. It would feel a little achy for a few days. She’d had a chance to clean out the scrape and seen the nasty bruise that had already turned purple and swollen.
Dylan was convinced the armoire had been a warning. She couldn’t say she was completely convinced herself, but she would make sure the door to her bedroom was locked.
#
Chapter Nine
The moon was sitting behind thick clouds, making it impossible to see anything without strong headlights or a flashlight. Dylan’s eyes were good, though. He’d been on many ops where the moonlight, although pretty, was his team’s downfall, making it harder to search for what they were looking for.
Or to remain unseen by those he didn’t want to know he was there.
Tammie had said there had been someone lurking in the garden last night. It had frightened her, and Dylan couldn’t say he liked the idea of it either. After today’s near miss at t
he auction grounds, he wasn’t going to leave it to chance that it wouldn’t happen again.
When he’d seen Tammie splayed out in the dirt, he couldn’t breathe until he saw her moving. Then he’d held her in his arms, felt her heart beating as strongly as his own and known she was all right.
The memory of the feel of her body against his had made his groin ache. Even the thought of her made his blood stir and his body go into overdrive with need. The sway of her hips and the curve of her cheek that accentuated her full lips, lips that had taunted him even though she did nothing to provoke the response. He couldn’t get Tammie Gardner out of his mind and it was as maddening as not knowing where his brother was.
He focused on what he did know. Although there was no proof, Dylan still believed the accident was some kind of a message. Whether it was from someone at Aztec Corporation or if they were merely the messengers, he didn’t know. What he did know was that someone wasn’t happy they were asking questions. He had no proof, but he felt it in his gut. Instinct. He’d gone on less than that and was right.
He didn’t want Tammie to get caught in the crossfire. She had her own reasons for being in Eastmeadow. He didn’t know what had made the pastor and his wife take her from this town and move clear across the country without anyone knowing about it. Or why they’d kept hidden the fact that Tammie had a whole family in Eastmeadow from her all these years.
Dylan was convinced there was a connection with the reason Cash had disappeared. He was waiting for Sonny to email him with the information he’d asked her about earlier. If his suspicions were right, he’d have his first lead about Cash’s disappearance since he’d gotten to Eastmeadow.
He’d parked the Jeep down the road a ways from the mansion, so as not to rouse the suspicions of anyone in the house. Tall maples lined the street and stretched over the road, keeping the moonlight from revealing his presence.
Eastmeadow was so unlike the streets he worked as a cop. Unlike here, he knew what kind of trouble lurked in the shadows in a big city. He’d have to draw on his years in the Marines tonight. He was used to dealing with all kinds of situations, changing course on the fly, and moving unnoticed until he was ready to reveal himself. If there was someone out here tonight, he’d find him.
Reckless Hours: a Romantic Suspense novel (Heroes of Providence Book 3) Page 12
