“Can’t sleep, either?” she asked.
“No.” If she only knew why. Maybe she did. Maybe her reason matched his.
She leaned her head back against the sofa. He changed the furniture in the room during the fall and winter months for warmth. During the summer, he had more patio-like furniture installed.
“I love the rain,” she said.
“Me, too. That’s why I had this room added.” Going to a standing patio heater, he turned it on and then slid open the door, leaving the screen door shut. Then he went to the sofa and sat beside her.
Rolling her head, she looked at him. “What do you love about it?”
“It’s peaceful.”
“I love the sound and the smell.” She breathed in and looked up at the glass ceiling, peppered with drops of rain and rivulets.
Rainwater ran through the downspouts and trickled onto the rock border around the house. The soggy patter on glass and grass added to the melody.
“Today was nice,” he said.
“Yes.”
She sounded noncommittal. He’d noticed a few times when she’d gone from enjoying the day to thoughtful and silent. What had been on her mind?
“Can I ask you something?” He saw her relaxed eyes widen a bit and she turned to him.
“Sure.”
“Was it difficult to give up Jamie?”
She stared at him awhile and then turned her face away. “What kind of person would I be if it wasn’t?”
That wasn’t really an answer. She seemed to make light of something she felt strongly about.
“I was glad he was going to a good home,” she said.
“But you questioned giving him up?”
“That was the agreement. I needed money, and you and Tess wanted a baby. She told me once how much she wanted one of her own.”
“She did.” Sometimes he wondered if Tess had felt threatened that Adeline had been Jamie’s biological mother. Could she tell he’d thought of Adeline at all? He hoped not.
He didn’t press Adeline for a more direct answer. By her evasiveness, he knew giving up Jamie must have been hard.
“I did go through some postpartum depression,” she finally said.
“I’m sorry.” He still didn’t understand how any woman could give up their child, but he was glad she had. Jamie was everything to him.
“I’m glad you didn’t.” Her eyes blinked with unpretentiousness. “I don’t regret being your egg donor and surrogate. Jamie had two good parents. And if I hadn’t done it, he wouldn’t be here. He’s adorable and precious.”
Jeremy chuckled. “He is.” But he also only had one parent. The last two years had been rocky for him. Only one thing worked in his favor—if anything good could come of such tragedy, his son had been too young to really know what he’d lost. Having his biological mother still alive might help him later in life.
Thinking along those lines unsettled Jeremy. Every time he contemplated finding another woman to share the rest of his life, he felt sick. Dread described the feeling well. He never wanted to feel like that again, that loss and being left to raise a young child alone. He worried a lot over how Tess’s death would affect Jamie, over whether or not he’d be a good father.
“I’ve always been so grateful to you.” He met her eyes, trying to convey his sincerity. “You have no idea what he means to me. I love him so much. It’s...indescribable, the intensity of that love.”
“I think I do have an idea,” she said. “I felt it the moment I held him for the first time.”
Their gazes locked in that moment. Jeremy felt a bond cement between them, one only a mother and a father could have. He let the feeling take him without concern over consequences.
He leaned toward her, turning his head to bring his lips to hers. The first featherlight touch seared him with sensation. When she put her hand on his face, he deepened the kiss.
An instant later, she answered his passion. He leaned more, pressing her down onto the sofa. She bent one knee and his hardening erection found itself against her groin. The shock of sensation pushed him to the brink of no control.
Jeremy went still. If they took this any further...
“Jeremy?”
He heard her alarm and moved back. She seemed to have snapped out of the spell with him.
“I’m sorry... I...”
“It’s okay.” She swung her legs over the sofa and stood, hurrying off toward the stairs. “Good night.”
It would be a long night for him. He wouldn’t be able to fall asleep anytime soon. Not with a hurricane of passion urging him to go after her and seduce her into finishing what they’d started.
Chapter 6
Breakfast with Jeremy and Jamie had become a delightful routine over the last several days. Jamie loved pancakes and a fair amount of discipline had to be applied to keep him from demanding them every day. Adeline’s disconcertion had intensified after dropping the boy off at her mother’s house.
Now she sat with Jeremy at a downtown café, where he had asked her to meet. She had some down time while she had assigned her assistant to look into Tess’s activities prior to her accident. This felt like a date, which made her uncomfortable. Alone with Jeremy, she couldn’t ease the invisible and powerful awareness of him as a man, and remember every detail of last night. How close they’d come to making love...
“I should get going,” Adeline said. “I need to check in at the office.”
“Okay.” He seemed equally uncomfortable.
Adeline began to gather her things when she caught a glimpse of a man entering the café. Tall and well built for a man of about sixty, he had close-shaved gray hair and steel blue eyes in a blocky, masculine face. He approached a table where she recognized the deputy who had brushed Jeremy off over Tess’s accident.
“Look,” she said to Jeremy.
Jeremy looked at the deputy and then the man approaching the table.
“I don’t believe it,” Jeremy said.
“What?”
“That’s Evan Sigurdsson. My former CFO. I fired him for sexual harassment.”
This had gotten much more interesting. She abandoned gathering her things. “How long ago?”
“A little more than a year.”
Then he couldn’t have had motive to kill Tess, could he? Tess had died two years ago. Unless Tess had known something that threatened him, Oscar had no motive. That left Livia. If Tess had been murdered, it seemed she’d turn out to be the most likely suspect.
Together they watched Evan sit with the deputy awhile.
“I had trouble with Evan before Tess’s accident,” Jeremy said, bringing Adeline’s attention swinging back to him. “The first time someone accused him of sexual harassment, I gave him a warning. He didn’t take it well. He argued that I took the side of subordinates who were trying to sabotage him. I threatened to fire him right then if he didn’t stop. That was about a week before Tess’s accident.”
So he’d gone less than a year before getting caught again? He must have harassed other women before that.
“What happened?” This could mean something to her investigation. Now he might give her some kind of motive.
“Evan has a very personable way about him. He can be charming and funny. At first impression he’s a harmless guy. I was stunned to learn what he did. Then I realized he is a man who works hard to hide what he really is. By the time the accountant came forward, she had been harassed for several months. The last straw came when Evan made her work late, not an unusual occurrence, but he became much more aggressive. He asked if she ever fantasized about having sex on a conference room table. When she tried to leave, he said they still had work to do and touched her rear. She managed to get away with him threatening she’d lose her job. The next day she went to Hu
man Resources. Human Resources informed me and I hauled Evan into my office. After I explained everything, I told him he’d apologize to the accountant and if he so much as smiled wrong at her I’d fire him.”
“How did he take that?”
“Not well. He denied everything. I told him he was lucky I was giving him a second chance. I wanted to fire him but took the recommendation of my head of HR to give him one warning, since the employee had agreed not to press charges. I said he’d be watched from then on.”
“He must have done it again.”
“Yes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have cameras inside offices and conference rooms. He behaved wherever security could keep an eye on him. He never harassed the accountant again and I moved her to another manager so she wouldn’t have to work with Evan. As it turns out, she ended up finding another job a few months later. I did give her a bonus and a raise but she wasn’t comfortable working at the same company as Evan.”
Adeline wasn’t sure how she’d react if she was in the same situation. Give him a good knee to the groin. Press charges. Yes, she’d press serious charges. But some women didn’t want the trouble or the disruption to their lives. It wasn’t worth the unhappiness. Adeline had aspired to work in law enforcement, so bringing the law down on a man like Evan would have been no trouble for her.
“Then his executive assistant came forward,” Jeremy said. “Evan chose her for his next target when he couldn’t pick on the accountant anymore. She was much more vulnerable, lower on the pay grade in a role that had her doing whatever he asked. I brought her into my office a few times to see if he was treating her well. Although she never revealed anything untoward, I sensed some fear in her. I gave her the name of someone in HR to contact if Evan did anything inappropriate. I gave her examples, too. It could be anything from telling her she looked pretty to threatening her job if she turned him in. I reassured her Evan would not be allowed to fire her and if he did anything to her that made her uncomfortable he’d be the one fired. I told her he’d already been warned. He wouldn’t get a second chance.
“A few days later she’d reached out to the HR contact. Turned out he was threatening her. He also made her wear low-cut dresses or shirts and just before my meeting with her he cornered her in a conference room and made advances. She managed to get away, again with Evan threatening her job.”
“That’s when you fired him?”
“That same day. I had Security haul him out the door in front of everyone.”
“How did he react to that?”
“He shouted threats to me the whole way. Apparently he didn’t think I could—or would—fire him. I encouraged the assistant to file charges but she refused. Instead, I did the same as I did with the accountant, gave her a bonus and a raise.”
She stared at Jeremy awhile.
“Do you think he could have killed Tess?” she finally asked.
He shook his head. “Why? He wasn’t fired back then. He got away with harassing the accountant. He and I didn’t get along well after that, but I don’t think he had reason to go after my wife.”
She agreed. If Tess’s accident had been staged, Livia made a better suspect. She had motive. The timing for Evan’s motive was off.
Checking on Evan and the deputy, Adeline noticed Evan had grown agitated and the two talked in low tones. The deputy leaned forward and said something back to Evan through gritted teeth.
Evan reached inside his jacket and retrieved an envelope, sliding it across the table toward the deputy. Nicholson took it and stood, saying something to Evan before walking out of the café.
“Let’s go find out what’s in that envelope.” As Adeline stood, she caught Evan glancing over at them. His eyes narrowed when they landed on Jeremy. Naturally, he wouldn’t be fond of the man who’d canned him.
She slung her briefcase over her shoulder and started for the door. Evan watched them go with unfriendly eyes. He had a chilling look to him, that direct stare, strong and full of animosity.
She and Jeremy left the café.
“Why did you bring that thing?” Jeremy nodded toward the briefcase she often carried with her during investigations.
“The documents you have on Tess’s accident. I found a crash expert I want to go see. I’ve got an appointment for later today.”
“Why a crash expert?”
“I want to see if we have a good reason to suspect foul play.” She didn’t sugarcoat.
As expected Jeremy became annoyed. “We have good reason, Adeline.”
“I want an expert’s opinion.” She would not sacrifice her detective work to placate his adamancy that Tess was murdered. He was too personally tied to the accident and the loss of his wife. Adeline had studied everything Jeremy had collected, including the accident report and the insurance claim.
Outside, Adeline spotted the deputy getting into his marked car. She walked close to the curb as they passed the parallel-parked vehicle. Nicholson opened the envelope and took out some cash. Adeline saw enough to recognize they were one-hundred dollar bills. Not an alarming amount but the fact that it was cash indicated something nefarious. The deputy put the money back into the envelope and dropped it onto the passenger seat, looking up through the window as she and Jeremy passed. He didn’t seem affected by her, but when he looked at Jeremy, his brow lowered a fraction. He hadn’t noticed them in the café. She walked on, as though thinking nothing of seeing him inspect an envelope full of cash.
Why had Jeremy’s former CFO given a deputy cash? They’d met in public so neither man had feared being seen. Maybe they were just friends and Nicholson had done Evan a favor. But maybe the favor hadn’t been legal.
* * *
The crash expert ran his own agency and handled cases for insurance companies and individuals seeking to prove liability in court proceedings. He also had handled a handful of homicides, which was why Adeline had chosen him.
A short, plump man who resembled Danny DeVito smiled wide and shook first her hand, then Jeremy’s.
“I did a little reading before you arrived.” The crash expert held Jeremy’s hand a moment longer than typical. “I’m very sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.”
The man stepped back and gave them an exuberant welcome to his office with a sweeping hand gesture.
Adeline sat before his desk beside Jeremy.
He sat across from them. “I understand you suspect your wife may have been murdered?”
“Are you familiar with Livia Colton?” Jeremy asked.
The man’s brow rose, creasing his high forehead. “Ah. Why, yes. Is there anyone in this town who isn’t familiar with that name? I read in the news she drowned when the prison transport vehicle was washed downstream. Good riddance, wouldn’t you say?”
“Her body was never recovered,” Jeremy said.
After a few seconds, the man said, “And you think...”
Adeline sensed the crash expert’s skepticism and knew that wouldn’t settle well with Jeremy.
“I discovered my wife had an affair with one of my employees, who also happened to have been with Livia long before this,” Jeremy said.
He didn’t sound defensive. Jeremy’s confidence didn’t allow intimidation or irrational emotion, not that she’d seen so far. He had his conviction and stood by it, a steadfast, stoic man. One more thing to admire about him—and to attract her.
“You suspect that perhaps Livia took her revenge and tampered with Tess’s car?” the crash expert asked.
“I suspect she arranged for someone to do something to cause her accident,” Jeremy said definitively. “Livia was in prison.”
The crash expert put on a very businesslike face and folded his hands together on the desk. “I’ve gone over everything you sent me.” He glanced at Adeline as though he found allegiance with her. “The report is th
orough. The officer questioned witnesses and captured all their information along with insurance information. None actually saw the accident itself, only saw the car pass unsteadily and faster than the speed limit. There were no skid marks, and it appears the driver lost control and crashed into the light pole.”
“Yes, that appears to be what happened,” she said.
“The weather was clear that night and the road well lit.”
“Yes.”
“The officer noted he smelled alcohol in the car.”
“She was drinking,” Jeremy admitted. “Would you mind telling me your background? I only just today learned we were meeting.” He glanced accusingly at Adeline.
She remained quiet but used her eyes to say he should know why.
“I’m an engineer and an automotive technologist. I specialize in recreating crashes. I’ve been doing this for more than twenty years now.”
Adeline saw how Jeremy couldn’t refute the man’s experience. He said nothing.
“Now, before we go on, I’d like to develop a computer-generated scale diagram. The report included a vehicle inspection, which documented the measurement of the amount of damage and the damage profile. I see an independent mechanical inspection was done.”
“Yes,” Jeremy said. “I had a mechanic go over the car.”
“That’s good. He was very meticulous and his report was very useful to me. The brakes, steering, tires, suspension and lights were all in good working condition, but there was a lot of contents in the vehicle.”
“Tess went shopping the day before,” Jeremy said. “She must not have brought the items into the house.”
The crash expert nodded. “Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The mechanic noted the headrest had broken off during the accident. One could speculate the headrest had been tampered with and caused the death. However, reconstructing the crash, I find it highly unlikely this was deliberate. I used the damage profile to calculate the speed at which the vehicle struck the tree. Analyzing other things along with this—the vehicle’s position during the accident sequence, direction of travel, the absence of skid marks, point of impact, impact angle and weights of the vehicle—all of these point to a driver not braking when they lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the tree. The headrest was damaged from the door frame bending inward. That’s what struck the victim’s head. A heavy item in the back of the car passed by the damaged headrest and struck the windshield. The only other way I can see this could be a homicide is if the suspect were present at the crash site. Perhaps he or she was in the road or driving on the road. However, none of the witnesses reported seeing anyone or anything like that. There were no other cars near the victim’s. There were no other pedestrians.”
Mission--Colton Justice Page 7
