High-Stakes Inheritance

by Susan Sleeman

  “So how come you have the day off?” Mia asked as Jessie came into the kitchen.

  “Teacher conference day. Daddy says my teacher told him I was a peach, but I don’t know what that means. Daddy says it means I’m a good girl.” She gazed up at Mia with beaming eyes.

  “That you are, kiddo.” Mia turned to Reid and handed him a mug.

  “Thanks.” He blew on the cup and sat on a counter stool.

  “How about a cup of hot chocolate?” Mia asked Jessie and leaned on the countertop next to Reid.

  Shaking her head, she pointed ahead. “I wanna play on your computer.”

  Reid slid forward. “I’m sure Mia doesn’t have any games for you to play.”

  “Nuh-huh. If she can get the Internet, I can play Barbie.” Her eyes pleaded. “You have the Internet? Daddy helps me at home, but he probably doesn’t know how to on this kind of computer.”

  Mia set the sleeping laptop in front of Jessie and she poised her tiny fingers over the keyboard in anticipation.

  “It’s not much different than a big computer. It’s just all packed into one little box.” Mia pointed at the touch pad. “Here’s the mouse.” She slipped her finger along the pad and the computer woke up.

  A man’s picture filled the screen. Bald-headed, with large dark eyes, he resembled a mean Mr. Clean.

  Jessie jerked her face away. “No. Turn it off.”

  “I don’t know where this came from.” Mia looked at the name of the file. Gladys’s Suspects. “It’s okay, kiddo. Gladys loaded these pictures last night. He might look mean, but he’s just a guy who bought something at the gas station.”

  “Nah-uh!” Jessie started crying and she tried to push the computer away, but the rubber pads on the bottom held it firmly in place. She pounded on the keys as if she hit the right one it would kill the machine.

  “Jessie.” Reid stood and grabbed her hands. “That’s no way to treat Mia’s computer.”

  “That’s the man,” she whispered. She closed her eyes and sobbed harder.

  “Jessie, what is it?” Mia asked with an urgent voice.

  Eyes still closed, Jessie pointed at the computer.

  “He did it.” Her voice broke on a sob. “He’s the man who started the fire.”

  NINETEEN

  Even after Jessie departed with Reid, her fear saturated Mia like a sponge filled with water. Now Lincoln Pope’s taunting grin from a mouth surrounded with coarse stubble ramped up her concern. His eyes glinted like hard steel, razor-sharp and deadly. He’d hurt little Jessie not once, but twice now. Mia wanted to punch her computer screen to erase the snarling man’s picture, but how would that help?

  She pressed the Internet button on her laptop and waited for the slower dial-up service to open the home page. She typed Lincoln Pope in the search box and sat back to stretch a kink from her neck.

  “Mia, did you hear me?” Russ asked from the other side of the island where he and Ryan had been discussing this new development.

  She looked up. “Sorry, I was running a search on Pope.”

  “I need to get back to the office.” Russ pulled a business card from his uniform shirt. “Here’s my e-mail address. Send that picture to me. Sooner rather than later.”

  “Don’t worry,” Mia said. “I’ll send it right now.”

  Russ left and she turned back to the computer. “What on earth?”

  “What is it?” Ryan asked.

  She pointed at the screen where 35nc63n *6*e appeared in the search box. “I typed Lincoln Pope in the search engine and this is what came up.”

  “That’s odd. Maybe you were distracted and mistyped.”

  “I’ll do it again.” She studied the keyboard and punched the right keys for Lincoln Pope.

  “Same thing,” Ryan said.

  She typed other words. “Left hand keys work fine. Right is screwed up.”

  Ryan shook his head. “Looks like you’re typing in Morse code.”

  “Morse code?” She peered at the keyboard, then at the text message on the counter. She shot to her feet and ran to the door.

  “Russ,” she shouted, halting him as he climbed into his car. “Come back. I know who killed Fuzzy.”

  Ryan studied the keyboard to see if he could figure out what Mia had discovered. Since his comment about Morse code sparked a fire in her, it had to have something to do with a code, but what?

  “C’mon,” Mia said to Russ and rushed to the computer while he followed. “You’re probably familiar with Num Lock on a full-sized keyboard, right?”

  Russ rolled his eyes. “When it’s pushed, the numbers on the side of the keyboard work. If not, they don’t.”

  “It’s not the same on a laptop if it doesn’t have a number pad.” She pointed at the right side of the keyboard. “See how these letters have numbers on the front of the keys. If you look at the arrangement, it looks just like the number pad on a full-sized keyboard. When Num Lock is activated on a laptop, these keys turn into numbers, not letters.”

  “So.” Russ’s tone was bored.

  “When Jessie spotted Pope’s picture and she tried to push the computer away, the rubber feet kept it from moving. So she pounded on the keys in frustration, and she accidently turned on Num Lock.” Mia slid the paper with the text message toward Russ. “If you compare this to the keyboard with Num Lock turned on, 2533 *5. 36605s, spells Kill PI. Loomis.”

  Russ straightened up. “Kurt Loomis?”

  “Loomis?” Ryan asked, catching Mia’s excitement. “Why would Loomis tell Pope to kill Fuzzy?”

  Russ offered one of his rare smiles. “A good question. One I intend to ask him when I bring him in for questioning.”

  “So this is enough to arrest him?” Mia asked.

  “Arrest? No. Interrogate? Definitely.” Russ jogged to the door. “I’ll let you know what we find out.”

  “You are brilliant.” Ryan swept Mia off the stool and swung her around. She giggled like a schoolgirl and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. This was the Mia he remembered. Full of life and excited over new discoveries. The Mia, if he were totally honest, who had found a way to open his heart again.

  He set her down, and she peered up at him. He expected to see clear eyes filled with joy, instead a spark of unease tainted the deep green shade. “What’s wrong?”

  “We may have figured some of this out, but we still don’t know where Pope is—and it looks like he’s the killer.”

  Renewed fear over her safety sent Ryan’s interest ebbing away like the ocean surf heading out to sea. He sucked in air and cleared his head. “Guess you better send that picture to Russ.”

  She returned to the computer and clicked F11. “That should turn off Num Lock.”

  “How’d you know about that anyway?”

  “I accidently turned it on one day and had to get a computer tech to tell me what was wrong.” She surfed to her e-mail provider, opened a new message and typed a short note then attached the picture file. She looked up. “In all the excitement, I forgot to ask if you had time to talk to Chuck about working with Eddie tonight.”

  “I did. He’s cool with it.”

  Mia nodded. “Good. If we can produce a picture of Pope from the camera, it’ll be one more piece of evidence to put him behind bars.” She started typing again. “I’m gonna mention that in this e-mail, too, so Russ knows about it.”

  Ryan stood back and watched Mia’s fingers fly over the keyboard. Her tongue peeked out the side of her mouth as she paid full attention to her work. Hopefully, this message would result in the arrest of Pope, and she would once again be safe.

  She hit Send, then peered up at him with a spectacular smile that warmed his heart. His pulse quickened. He wanted to let go of his fear of losing her. Wanted to sweep her into his arms. Wanted to tell her what she meant to him.

  Help me let go of this fear, Lord.

  The e-mail program finished and the computer screen cleared, bringing Pope’s hard face back into view. Mia was far from safe un
til this man was captured.

  Ryan’s heart constricted with pain. He couldn’t let go…not yet.

  Mia sat next to Ryan in the John Deere as they drove toward the documentary crew’s equipment trailer where she would meet with Eddie. Throughout the day, she’d managed to tamp down her fear of Pope, and as they drove toward the blazing orange ball of a setting sun, a peaceful feeling about being with Ryan settled over her. She would actually miss him when he left her at the trailer for a staff meeting in the rec center.

  Somehow, she’d let him get close. Too close and she had no idea how she was going to deal with that. Didn’t know if she wanted to fight the emotion or give in. Sure he’d been controlling, but through his domineering ways she could see his reasoning. Feel his caring. Understand his motives.

  She glanced at him as he parked the cart near the trailer. His strong profile gave her confidence. His presence, hope.

  Russ’s cruiser came barreling down the drive, forcing Ryan to hit the brakes hard. He shot out a hand to stop Mia from slamming into the dash. She clasped his muscled arm and knew in that instance that he would always act to protect her. She had come to trust him to know what was good for her and when to back off. Still, she had no idea what to do with these emotions.

  “Sorry about that,” Ryan said as he climbed from the vehicle.

  “Not your fault.” Mia joined him and waved away the churned up dust as they made their way to the cruiser where Russ had already rolled down his window.

  “Loomis sang like an American Idol contestant,” he said.

  “What’d he tell you?” Mia leaned toward the window.

  Russ turned the volume down on his squawking radio. “Turns out he has a gambling problem, and he embezzled money from Pinetree a few years ago. Wally found out about it, but instead of prosecuting Loomis, he gave him a chance to straighten up and repay the money.”

  Mia smiled as pictures of her trusting uncle flashed in her memory. “Sounds like Wally. He was always more than willing to give people a second chance.”

  Russ’s expression turned skeptical. “Yeah, well I’d never let a guy who stole from me remain in charge of my finances.”

  “Wally must have thought of that, too,” Mia said. “David told me they made some changes in how the books were handled. Maybe that was to keep Loomis from taking more money.”

  “So if this happened a few years ago, what changed to set Loomis off?” Ryan asked.

  “Wally’s death. Loomis knew he’d have to prepare reports for the transition in ownership, and his embezzlement would come out. Then he got the bright idea if he scared you away, David would inherit and not ask for any reports. So he hired Pope.”

  “But how did he get my bracelet?” Mia asked.

  “Accidentally, that’s how. He’d paid the bills for Pinetree for years so he knew about a large storage unit Wally kept. He was afraid the unit held files with proof of his embezzlement so he broke into it.” He shrugged. “Instead, he found items from your house in Atlanta. David told him about how your dad wouldn’t let you keep anything so he knew the bracelet would freak you out.”

  “Wally kept a whole storage unit of our things? Why didn’t he tell me?” A cold wave hit Mia, and she instinctively sought Ryan’s gaze for comfort.

  He came closer.

  “I don’t know about that,” Russ’s voice turned soft. “But at least you now have something to remember your mother by.”

  He was right—this was a good thing in disguise. She might have a whole shed full of positive things. But why had Wally kept it a secret all of these years? Was he guilty of betraying her…?

  No, she wouldn’t think that way about him. For some reason he knew she wasn’t ready to see them. He was also right when he decided she’d want these memories. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on them, but first they needed to connect the remaining dots.

  “So how did Fuzzy get mixed up in this?” Mia asked as Ryan wrapped an arm around her. She moved into the warmth.

  “Loomis got greedy.” Russ’s tone was unforgiving. “Confident he’d make you leave, he not only quit paying back the money, but found a way to steal more. What he didn’t count on, was Wally had told Fuzzy all about the embezzlement—and Fuzzy wasn’t so trusting. He decided to check up on Loomis. Caught him and Loomis ordered Pope to kill him.”

  “He admitted ordering Pope to kill Fuzzy?” Her tone turned shrill.

  Ryan shushed her. “They’ll hear you.” He tipped his head at the trailer

  “Sorry,” Mia said.

  Russ’s face turned deadly serious. “Not only to kill him, but to dispose of the body. Pope must have thought he could take care of the body and start the fire at the same time. He just wasn’t smart enough to do it right.” Russ lifted a travel cup from a holder and took a long sip.

  “What about the office break-in?” Ryan asked. “Was that Pope, too?”

  Russ nodded. “Except he wasn’t stealing anything—he was planting files that pointed at Verna for the embezzlement. Pope put Springer’s wallet in the file cabinet a few days earlier, and when he went back to add the files, he staged the break-in so we would find the wallet and the files.”

  “And we fell for it.” Mia felt like a fool. “Now all we have to do is find Pope.”

  “I have an APB out, but I imagine he’s long gone by now. If he hasn’t split before today, when he hears we picked up Loomis, he’ll figure Loomis will give him up and he’ll take off.”

  Mia looked up at the trailer. “As much as I want him caught, even if he does get away, at least Kurt isn’t ordering him to do anything else.” She lifted her head up and let a warm smile settle over Ryan. “Now we can get on with life and help these kids.”

  Ryan returned her smile with a flirtatious grin that kicked her pulse into high gear.

  Russ groaned. “Can’t you two wait for this mushy stuff until I leave?”

  “You waiting for an invitation to go?” Ryan asked, not taking his eyes off Mia.

  “Don’t let your guard down too much. Pope may still be hanging around.” Russ revved the engine.

  Ryan stepped back and drew Mia with him. She rested the back of her head against his chest and let out a sigh of contentment. She had no idea what was going on in Ryan’s mind, but standing with him felt right. So right she wanted to turn and kiss him.

  This reaction stunned her. Had she not only let him get close but had she actually fallen for him again?

  “Ready to meet with Eddie?” His breath stirred her hair.

  “With all of this stuff behind us, I’m more ready than ever.” She reluctantly pulled away.

  They walked to the makeshift wooden stairs leading to the door of the editing trailer. The wind pulled a strand of her hair free from her clip and whipped it over her face.

  Ryan caught the ends and tucked them behind her ear. “I’ll be in the rec center if you need me.” He slowly lowered his head.

  Mia waited, her breath coming in little pulses against the chilly air. She forgot about Eddie and the murders, closed her eyes and lifted her arms around his neck.

  Nothing. She flashed open her eyes.

  With a groan, he slid his hands up her arms and pulled them down. He took a step back, and let a finger trail down her cheek. “Eddie’s waiting.” His tone conveyed his reluctance to leave, so why did he set her aside like this?

  She drew in a hearty breath to cool her rushing emotions.

  How had she so readily responded to him? She didn’t know what she was doing anymore. Was she leading Ryan on, or was she ready to commit to a future with him?

  A future that meant she would have to remain in Logan Lake. The love for his job shone on his face every minute he was with the students. She would never ask him to leave his life behind to move to Atlanta. He’d probably agree to go, but he belonged here.

  She had to be careful to keep things less intense when she saw him later. At least until she figured out what she wanted.

  Her cell rang and she dug
it out of her jeans pocket. A local number. Maybe David. Good. She longed to tell him she’d been wrong about their father and admit how much she wanted to mend fences with him…

  “Hello.”

  “I just read the newspaper. The front page is devoted to all the things that have happened since you came back. I knew something like this would happen.” Her father’s stern tone shot through the phone, dashing her hopes for reconciliation. He was clearly embarrassed over the publicity, and felt a need to run damage control. He always had to be in control.

  Like her. Keep things within her scope of containment then she didn’t get hurt. But that wasn’t true. Look at her now. She’d worked so diligently to take back her life, but bad things kept coming. She couldn’t control anything. Finding the body proved beyond doubt that she couldn’t stop life from unfolding. Her efforts had been futile. So had his. No matter his iron will, her mother died, and Mia rebelled.

  Oh, my gosh.

  She fell back against the railing. She’d been a thorn in his side, making it harder on him. Pushing, testing, trying. Like rough sandpaper, scraping away. Much the same way Ryan had acted with her.

  True, her father had been the mature one in the relationship and should have behaved differently, but she was supposedly mature now, too, and look at how she was handling things. Making a real mess is what she was doing. On all fronts. She had to stop. Find another way or she’d end up bitter and angry like her father.

  Time to make a change. Extend the verbal hand of compromise. “I’m sorry if this embarrassed you.”

  “Embarrassed?” His audible frustration that sent her running in the past, swept over her like a tidal wave. “I wasn’t embarrassed. I just wanted to see if you were okay.”

  “You did?” Her tone was like a little child, uncertain and begging for confirmation from the man who was supposed to love her.

  Silence flooded over the phone, uncomfortable and awkward. She waited with held breath for him finally to make the effort to be her father.

  She heard him rummaging around and then he cleared his throat. “I have an emergency page. I have to go.”