by Vella Munn
Kim’s hard question rocked Mark. Still, although he would have given anything to spare her having to ask it, he admired her courage.
“I didn’t. God help me, I didn’t!”
Mark held Kim tightly, accepting that right now even the strength of his love couldn’t stop her from shaking. “I don’t believe you.”
“Do.” Rogan’s confidence was gone. The man’s face had gone deathly white. “You have to. I didn’t know she was down there. Do you think I would have…”
“I don’t think you’ve done any thinking since this damn thing started,” Garner interrupted.
“I can guarantee you the man hasn’t done any thinking for years,” Anthea added.
Neither Kim nor Mark were prepared to have Garner and Anthea come into the room. Garner was concentrating on the shifted furniture, the open trap door. Anthea, however, was more concerned with the conversation she’d interrupted. Once she had Kim’s and Mark’s undivided attention, she explained that she’d just left Charmaine Coffers. “You upset your wife,” Anthea told Rogan. “She isn’t used to threatening phone calls from her husband. I’d have thought you’d know better. Charmaine isn’t a woman you can do that to.”
Rogan pulled out of William’s grip. He made no effort to leave the room, but collapsed in his chair. He leaned forward, his eyes trained on the trap door.
Anthea was still talking. She explained that as soon as the visit to the hospital was over, Charmaine had called her and Anthea had gone to the Coffers house. They’d been talking about Kim’s accident when Rogan called. “I didn’t get the whole gist of the conversation until after Rogan hung up. According to Charmaine, her husband was jumping all over her because she was wearing some ring he didn’t want her to. Charmaine sets a lot of store in that ring. Of course she sets a lot of store in anything she can flash and impress people with. That’s what you bought it for, isn’t it? So your wife could flaunt it, and people might believe you’ve still got what it takes to hold on to her.”
Kim had no idea what Anthea was talking about. But before she could open her mouth, Anthea started talking again. It didn’t surprise Anthea at all that Rogan had finally crossed over the line. Desperation, or pride, could do that to a person. Anthea didn’t want to speak evil of a woman she saw socially, but the operative word was “gold digger.” Charmaine would never have married Rogan if he hadn’t been rich. Not rich in his own right, Anthea explained, but his parents had been wealthy and that money had held Charmaine’s loyalty until she’d finally gone through it like she had her own inheritance. Anthea had wondered when the time would come when Charmaine would demand more than Rogan was able to provide.
“You want motive,” Mark said to Charles. “Maybe that’s it.”
“Maybe. I’ve been thinking. That woman who has that antique place in Oakland? Somehow it wouldn’t surprise me if she fingered Rogan as the man who sold her those items.” Charles tapped Rogan on the shoulder. The man didn’t seem to notice. “Come on. I don’t want to put cuffs on you, and I don’t think you want it, either.”
“Wait.” Kim tore free from Mark’s grip. She faced Rogan, wondering which of them looked the more haggard. “I—I know you don’t have to answer this, but… What you said earlier about my grandmother selling the pin to you. It wasn’t the truth, was it?”
“What does it matter?”
Kim could almost feel sorry for Rogan. Almost. “I think you know the answer to that. Which was it? Please. Did you steal it from the museum, or did Grandmother sell it to you.”
“Don’t, Kim,” Mark warned. “Wait until he’s talked to his lawyer.”
The civilized woman who’d come to Camp Oro and fallen in love no longer existed. Kim had been torn apart both mentally and physically today. There was nothing left of her except gut reaction. “People have been lying to me for days. People I thought I could trust.”
Mark backed away. He could have reached out to touch her; he was still close enough for that. But he didn’t.
For too long Kim could think of nothing except the pain she’d inflicted on him. And the pain he’d inflicted on her. She barely noticed when Rogan began to speak.
“Your grandmother doesn’t need the money, Kim.”
Those words had been important a minute ago, but they no longer were. Now there was only Charles and Rogan leaving the room, Anthea and Garner and William looking into the hole, and Mark watching her.
“Charmaine? He did it for Charmaine?”
It was Garner speaking. The handsome man no longer seemed handsome. His emotions were making inroads on his features. “He risked everything, stole from the museum he’d spent years building up, because of his wife?”
“Does that surprise you?” Anthea asked in a gentle tone she’d never used before around the business manager.
“Yeah. It does. She isn’t worth it.”
Anthea was still being gentle. “You really believe that?”
“I think you know the answer to that. Put it together,” Garner went on. He slumped against a wall. “I chase skirts. Any skirt. At least I used to. Charmaine and I…”
Kim roused herself from the quicksand of her thoughts long enough to whisper her question. “You and Charmaine were—?”
“Yeah,” Garner interrupted. “Were is the operative word. I’ve been playing the swinging single for years. The game’s getting old, Kim. So old. I’m tired of it. I just don’t know how to stop. Yeah, she’s older than me, but the woman’s a looker, and she knows how to make a man feel like a man.” Garner focused on Kim. He was still powerful, but today she sensed she was the stronger one. “I’m sorry, Kim, for what I put you through.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Kim wasn’t sure anything mattered.
“I’m still sorry. I wanted you to know that. Charmaine? She’s exactly what Anthea called her, a gold digger. She dumped me damn fast when she found out I didn’t have the kind of money she was looking for. The last I heard, she’d set her sights on Harden Langford. I saw the two of them together one night. She didn’t give a damn who saw them, including her husband.”
The only time Kim had ever seen Harden Langford was at the town council meeting when the president of the community pride group had been presenting his plan to develop the cave-in. That night Charmaine had been with her husband.
Kim thought she shouldn’t feel sorry for Rogan, after all his lies and the attempt to collapse the tunnel, which had almost resulted in her death, but she did. Rogan had wanted his wife’s love and loyalty. He hadn’t gotten either. And, right or wrong, in desperation he’d stolen from the museum to try to keep her with him.
Kim could never imagine resorting to breaking the law to keep someone she loved with her. But she knew what Rogan had gone through. She’d fallen in love with a man. She’d placed her heart in his hands.
And he hadn’t accepted her gift. He hadn’t given her the truth.
Chapter Thirteen
“Kim? It’s for you.”
Kim stared at the telephone Garner was holding out to her, as if she’d never seen such an instrument before. She felt like a boxer left too long in the ring, not yet on the canvas but in no condition to continue the fight. “I don’t want to talk to anyone,” she managed.
“It’s your grandmother.”
Kim reached for the phone, hating the fact that there was no opportunity for a private conversation. Five minutes ago Charles had led Rogan Coffers out of what had been his office. The others: Anthea, Garner, William and Mark, were still here with her. Kim had been listening to Garner’s explanation of Charmaine Coffer’s expensive tastes in both money and men. Her thoughts had been on Mark.
“How did you know I’d be here?” Kim asked after Margaret’s strained greeting. She sank into Rogan’s chair and closed her eyes. For a few minutes, she needed to hold, and be held, and she longed for things to go back to what they’d been before. “Are you all right?”
“I’m the one who should be asking you that.” Margaret’s voice was th
ick with concern. “I tried to reach you at the hospital. They said you’d left without being released. You weren’t at the house. I didn’t know where else to try. What’s happening, Kim? You should be in bed.”
Kim wasn’t going to dispute that. However, it would be a long time before her mind would allow her the luxury of relaxation. Briefly, and as gently as possible, she told her grandmother about Rogan’s arrest. “I’ve always thought of him as almost without emotion. But I guess he loved Charmaine.”
“Love? What those two had wasn’t love. Kim? How are you?”
“I’ll survive. Don’t worry about me.”
“But I do. I can’t help it. Kim, can you come here? Please?”
Mark couldn’t hear what the woman on the other end of the line was saying, but he was achingly aware of the impact it was having on the battered woman sitting across the room from him. Kim’s mouth twitched and her eyes became enormous. For too long she stared at nothing. When she fastened her gaze on him, he wasn’t sure he could handle that, either. “Are you sure?” Kim was asking. “It’s been a hard day for both of us. All right. No. I don’t know.”
Kim hung up. “She wants you to take me to her.”
Ignoring the others, Mark took Kim’s icy hands. “Did she say why?”
“She wanted to talk.”
Talk. What a simple word for what was going to happen. Mark wasn’t a man given to fears. Even when he entered a courtroom knowing the odds were stacked against him, he accepted that reality as a challenge. He might not win his case, but he would do his best to give his client competent representation.
Mark felt different today. He had no ammunition for this fight. Nothing to contribute. He would be a silent bystander. And either Kim could accept his role in what had been kept from her, or she couldn’t.
“Are you coming?” Kim asked in a tone void of emotion.
Mark nodded, not because he wanted to do this thing, but because it was unthinkable for him to refuse. He loved the woman staring up at him with searching eyes. He would hurt for her today, and no matter what her reaction was to what she was to learn, he would never stop loving her.
He drew her to her feet. “Take care of her, Mark,” Garner Dillon said as they passed the business manager.
“Kim?” Anthea called after them. “I’ll get in touch with you tonight.”
William Lynch was the last to say goodbye. The museum guard said nothing, but his fingers reaching out to trail over Kim’s shoulder and down her arm said it for him.
“They’re shaken, all of them,” Mark said to fill the silence once he had Kim settled in his car. “This has really knocked them out of the complacency, made them take a hard look at their lives.”
“They aren’t the only ones.”
Mark nodded but said nothing. Kim didn’t want to look at him. She wanted to stare out the window and take comfort from the crystal-clear summer afternoon. But that was impossible. She’d almost been killed today. She’d watched a man be arrested. The hardest fight was still ahead of her. And this man was going with her. He already knew what her grandmother was going to say. Still, he wasn’t telling her anything. He wasn’t trying to prepare her.
Lawyer/client confidentiality. Was that what it all boiled down to? Was it as simple and complicated as that? He’s with you, Kim reminded herself. Don’t forget that, he’s with you.
But that wasn’t enough. Mark was concentrating on driving, his mouth frozen in a strong, distant line. He’d touched her in Rogan’s office, but he wasn’t touching her now. Maybe he didn’t want to. Maybe, like her, he didn’t know how.
They’d been so close, closer than she’d ever been with another human being. Kim wanted, needed that closeness back. But it wasn’t to be. Not now, and maybe not ever again.
Neither of them spoke during the rest of the drive to Grass Valley. Kim tried to concentrate on her surroundings, to make sense of everything that had happened in Rogan’s office, to divert herself.
Those tactics didn’t work. She was scared. More scared than she had been in the tunnel.
Margaret Revis was waiting for them in the manor lobby. “Do you mind if we go outside?” she asked, after hugging Kim. “I’ve been pacing around my place ever since Mark brought me home. If I have to stay in there any longer, I’m afraid I’m going to start screaming.”
“Are you sure you’re up to this? We can wait.”
“No. We can’t.”
Kim took her grandmother’s hand and let her lead the way to the secluded courtyard set with a half-dozen outdoor tables and accompanying chairs. Margaret chose a table with a white-and-yellow umbrella in the middle and sank into one of the rattan chairs. She watched closely as Kim slowly lowered her aching body into another and Mark took a seat next to Kim.
“What happened?” Margaret was staring at her hands as if fascinated by the state of her fingernails. “Why did you go to the museum today?”
Kim had been able to keep her emotions under control until it was time to tell her grandmother why she’d begun to suspect Rogan. “You were there when I told Mark about the ring Charmaine was wearing. You didn’t want to talk about it. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t accept that.”
“I didn’t think you could.”
Margaret Revis’s voice was low, but there was strength in it. Kim took courage from that strength. “You were frightened. Grandmother, why?”
“Frightened?” The word hung in the air, a formless sound. “Such a simple word. It doesn’t say nearly enough.”
“No. It doesn’t.” Kim could be patient. Her grandmother had invited her and Mark here because there was something she needed to say. It might not be easy. It might not come quickly. But it would come. And then Kim would understand.
“You were right, Kim. It was the stone from the pin your grandfather gave me.”
“Why didn’t you want to talk about that before?” When her grandmother remained silent, staring at her nails, Kim went on. “Rogan stole it from the museum. He had it made into a ring for his wife, a bauble to keep her with him. What I don’t understand is what it was doing there.”
“I know you don’t.” Margaret leaned forward and then pushed herself back. She gave up her study of her nails and focused, not on her granddaughter, but on her attorney. “Mark said I had to tell you. When I first learned you were going to be working at the Comstock Museum, he told me I would make myself sick if I didn’t say something.”
“Grandmother. You are making yourself sick.”
“I know.” Margaret sighed and closed her eyes. “Don’t interrupt me, dear. Please. I gave the pin to the museum.”
Kim waited. Her grandmother looked frail and vulnerable even with the sunlight on her face. Kim turned toward Mark to find him carefully watching his client and friend. The sun was playing with Mark’s features as well, sanding them down, somehow, and giving her no insight into what was going on beneath the surface.
Margaret began talking again. “I was so afraid you’d see the pin while you were at the museum. That’s why I said those crazy things about hoping you wouldn’t have to spend much time there. I knew you’d recognize it if you saw it. And you’d ask me questions I didn’t want to answer.”
“I don’t understand,” Kim whispered. She couldn’t remain silent. She had to, somehow, help her grandmother. “You could have told me you’d donated the pin. I would have understood that.”
“Would you? I suppose, if that’s all I told you. But, Kim, I didn’t donate it. One day…one day I walked into the museum with the pin in my pocket and left it there. I turned around and walked out without telling anyone what I had done.”
“What? Why?” If only her grandmother would look at her Kim thought she might understand. But because Margaret refused to meet her gaze, Kim had only words with which to try to reach her.
“Why?” Margaret repeated. “A thousand reasons. No reason. None that can possibly make sense. Kim, you’d just graduated from college. My first grandchild was out in the world on her
own. I was so proud of you. So proud. You had accomplished something I never had. You didn’t need a man to support you.”
“Grandmother!”
Margaret’s eyes remained closed. “It’s crazy, isn’t it, what triggers a person to do something? I’d hung on to that damned pin for years. Thinking I had to have it to remind me. But I’d just come back from your graduation, and when I looked at it, the only thing I knew was that I didn’t want any more reminders of the past. Your future was opening up for you. I—I wanted the same for myself.”
Her grandmother had sworn again. Kim was on her feet but only for a moment. She dropped to her knees before Margaret Revis, barely stifling a moan as she forced her bruised legs to do it. “You could have told me that.”
“No.” Margaret opened her eyes. “No.” She tore her eyes off Kim and forced herself to face Mark’s unwavering stare. “I couldn’t tell you a partial truth. Oh, Lord, do you hear what I said? I couldn’t tell you everything so I told you a lie. Mark?”
Kim turned. Mark hadn’t moved, but he didn’t have to. Kim felt his energy touching her, supporting her. Compassion and understanding and a relentless commitment all battled for control in him. With his unspoken energy, he was pressuring her grandmother to continue. Kim could tell him to stop and save them all pain. She could tell her grandmother that she would accept the partial truth she knew now and not ask for anything more.
But if she did that, there would always be something between her and her grandmother. And something between her and Mark.
And because she didn’t want that, she didn’t try to stop Mark.
“I can’t help you, Margaret,” Mark was saying. “Not anymore.”
Kim didn’t expect her grandmother to smile, but although the older woman’s eyes still looked trapped, the corners of her mouth turned up. “You’re an honest man, Mark. Cruel and honest.”
“It’s time for both things.”
Kim had no idea what Mark was getting at, but she sensed that if she continued to hold her grandmother’s hands and wait, she would soon know. “Grandmother, I said something to Rogan today. I demanded the truth from him. I told him I’d been lied to too much.”
