Operation Reunion

by Justine Davis

  Or maybe it had been Kayla.

  Her defense of you was what they call spirited, Quinn had said.

  She had never doubted him. Not for a minute. It was he who had fallen down on that particular job. Maybe he was the one who needed to make that up to her. Maybe he was the one who needed to give some reassurance.

  Or maybe he was just looking for a way to still make this work, to keep this woman he’d loved for so long in his life.

  A door opened, and Dane stopped midstride and turned. Kayla’s head came up. Quinn stepped out of the secured area, the heavy, steel door closing behind him with a solid thud. He nodded to Dane, but it was Kayla he went to, crouching beside her chair.

  “Chad’s talking now. Detective Dunbar made him see the wisdom of coming clean, for his own sake.”

  “His own sake. All he cares about.”

  She sounded hollow and, worse, broken. Just the bitterness in her voice made Dane’s chest tighten. He hated that she could sound like that, that after ten years of searching, of never giving up, it seemed she finally had.

  He hated that she could still make him feel that way. That she could make him feel that strongly.

  That she could make him feel.

  “What about Troy?” Dane asked.

  “He’s a tougher nut,” Quinn said. “But he took those shots at us, so he’ll be on his way to county on attempted murder charges when Dunbar is done questioning him. That should soften him up a little.”

  “I still can’t believe it was Troy. He was always the quintessential charmer.”

  “I’m no expert,” Quinn said, “but I think that man’s been a puppet master for a long time.”

  “So you think he manipulated Chad?”

  “I think he’s gone beyond that to controlling,” Quinn said.

  “Chad was easy prey for that,” Kayla said, the bitter edge back in her voice. She’d come a long way in the past few hours, now seeing the truth about her brother for the first time.

  “Do you want to talk to him?” Quinn asked her.

  Kayla hesitated, then stood up. She seemed to sway slightly, and Quinn steadied her with a hand on her shoulder. Something sparked through Dane, something hot and unsettling. Not jealousy because he’d never seen a man more in love with his woman than Quinn was with Hayley. But that was his place. Kayla was his—

  He broke off the automatic thought. No, she wasn’t. Not anymore, no matter what his automatic, long-ingrained reaction to another man touching her might be.

  “I want to hear his explanation,” she said, sounding a bit stronger now. She looked up at Quinn. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

  “Probably not all of it,” Quinn said, “but what he is telling is true, I think. He’s too shaken not to. Dunbar is good.”

  Quinn glanced at Dane, one eyebrow lifted in query. Dane nodded; he wanted to hear this, too. Chad had cost him everything; he had the right to know what had really gone down that night and why.

  Shaken, he thought after a few minutes on the other side of that steel door, wasn’t a strong enough word. Chad looked like he’d shrunk to child size.

  He wasn’t behind bars per se—the small room was screened, not barred. But it was clearly a cell, and Chad clearly knew it. He was willing to talk to his sister, although Dane suspected it was an effort to regain her sympathy and enlist her help in saving him from the consequences of what he’d done.

  From the consequences of who he was, Dane amended silently as Chad again gave them the same version of that night’s events that he had back at the abandoned arcade. Kayla listened, expressionless, although Dane knew that hearing about it all again had to be excruciating. It was hard enough for him to listen to Chad’s repeated excuses, his declaration that he’d had no idea, that he’d only wanted the money.

  “Why?” Kayla finally said, asking again the ultimate question.

  “I told you, they walked in on us. Startled us.”

  “Please,” Dane said. He’d stayed quiet throughout the long, rambling discourse, but now he was unable to stop himself. “Troy could talk squirrels out of trees, and you expect us to believe he murdered two people because he was startled?”

  “But he had the money in his hand and was reading Dad’s papers. He was caught red-handed.”

  “Papers?” Dane asked, brows furrowing. “Even after he had the money? What papers?”

  Chad looked blank. “I don’t know.”

  “I think I do.”

  Detective Dunbar’s voice came from the doorway behind them. The detective walked into the room, wearing the expression of a man who’d figured out a puzzle.

  “I went back through the old evidence files. There was a list of the papers from the desk that were booked as evidence because of blood spatter.” He glanced at Kayla, as if to see if she was okay with the blunt description. She gave the slightest nod of her head, so he continued. “The investigators at the time thought it was just a result of the fight. And because the killer wore gloves, there were no prints, even if we did go back and look with better technology now.”

  “I already told you Troy had gloves on,” Chad said, that whiny note that had always irritated Dane creeping back into his voice. Dunbar ignored him, which made Dane like him even more.

  “One set of those papers had more blood than the rest, indicating they were on top of the desk. Or closest to the attack.”

  “Meaning they were what Troy was holding?” Kayla asked, getting there quickly.

  Dunbar nodded. “There was a void in the pattern, indicating perhaps a thumb holding them and that they were on top.”

  “What were they?” Dane asked.

  “Insurance,” Dunbar said. “Life insurance.”

  Kayla frowned. “I remember that. It took a long time for the insurance claim to come through because the police had the papers. Dad’s attorney had to step in.”

  Dane remembered that, too, but he was focused now on something else. “Wait, are you saying there’s a connection? Between the insurance and the murders? That makes no sense—Kayla got the money.”

  He didn’t mention that she’d spent a goodly chunk of it hunting down her brother. Or the painful fact that she’d accused him of being after it himself. But he saw her wince and suspected she was thinking just that.

  Detective Dunbar looked at Kayla. “According to those papers, you and your brother were equal beneficiaries.”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “What did you do with the money?”

  “Wasted too much of it looking for him.” She confirmed Dane’s suspicion about her thoughts, indicating Chad with a jerk of her head, not even looking at him.

  “Including his half?”

  She looked startled. “No. Of course not. I never touched his.”

  Dane saw Chad perk up at this. He was thankful they were separated by that metal screen, or he likely would have punched him again. As if he’d sensed it, Dunbar moved them over to the far side of the room, where Chad couldn’t listen to every word.

  “Chad’s half is still sitting in a beneficiary account,” Kayla explained.

  Dunbar looked as if the number-one thing on his list had just been checked off. “Okay,” Dane said, still baffled, “I get that there’s a tempting pile of money there, but—”

  Dunbar held up a hand. “Here’s what I think went down. Troy—and if that guy’s not a pure sociopath I’ll be surprised—sees the insurance papers in the desk. Realizes that with their folks dead, Chad comes into a hundred times what he had in his hand. And knows he’s got Chad under his thumb.”

  Kayla gaped at him. “You think he killed my parents so that Chad would get that money and he could manipulate him out of it?”

  “So when Troy called Chad a tool, he meant it literally—is that it?” Dane asked.

  “If I’m right, yes.”

  “I always wondered why Troy stayed friends with Chad.” It made perfect, if twisted, sense, Dane thought. Except for one thing. “But Chad ran and never co
llected. And if he had contact with Chad all this time, why did he wait so long? And why was he sending him money, which helped him stay away?”

  “Yeah, that hung me up, too. I figured at most he’d give it a cooling-off period, until things settled, before he brought Chad back.”

  “But Chad was the only suspect you were looking for,” Kayla said. “He couldn’t have collected the money, could he?”

  “Not likely while he was the suspect, and especially not if he was convicted. This state has a pretty solid Slayer Statute. But that would mean it would go to the next likely beneficiary. If Troy convinced Chad to make that him, gave him power of attorney on that account or something...”

  Dunbar let it hang with a shrug.

  “And he could,” Kayla said. “Chad’s that weak-minded.”

  Something in her voice, something steely and solid, told Dane she truly had reached the end when it came to her brother. He was a little puzzled; he should be glad, but he was feeling a bit numb. Had the love that had guided his life for a decade truly died, or was he just afraid to believe after having been burned so many times?

  He made himself get back to the matter at hand. “So why the wait?”

  “I did a bit more digging. You knew Troy’s dad died shortly after the murders?”

  Dane nodded. “Cancer. Troy was—or seemed—pretty devastated.”

  “So was his mother,” Kayla said. “She just wasted away afterward. He even moved back home to take care of her. Everybody thought that was so noble of him.”

  “A million dollars buys a lot of nobility,” Dunbar said.

  Dane blinked. “What?”

  “His father had a million dollar life insurance policy, too.”

  Kayla’s eyes widened. “And taking care of his mother likely meant taking care of the money, too.”

  Dane’s mind leaped ahead. It was crazy, but so was this whole thing. “So you think it was just coincidence that Troy’s dad died during the...cooling-off period after the murders, as you called it?”

  “Had to be. It’s the only explanation for why they never went ahead with it. Troy didn’t need the money by then.”

  Kayla’s eyes widened. “I remember once, when his father was still alive, Troy saying how his dad’s illness was sucking up everything. He said it as if he were worried about his mother doing without, but it was probably just himself he was worried about.”

  “Makes sense. Things must have been tight, and anything extra would have gone to his father’s care. Time, attention, money, everything. A guy like Troy wouldn’t take to that very well. He’s got that entitlement mentality to the bone.”

  “So that triggered the theft of Kayla’s dad’s stash?”

  “I’m betting if we dig deep enough, we might find some other thefts, too. Buddy burgs, we call them—stealing from friends’ homes.”

  “And then when his dad died and the insurance came through, he didn’t need that anymore,” Dane said.

  “Or Chad’s,” Kayla said.

  “He has been living pretty high,” Dane said.

  “And,” Dunbar added, “sending money to Chad. To keep him on the string, if my theory is right. I’ll put the financial guy on it in the morning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s run through most of that money in the last ten years.”

  Kayla shuddered visibly. “So now he needed Chad’s.”

  “Did Troy know you hadn’t touched it?”

  She nodded, her expression grim. “The subject came up a time or two when we would run into each other. It seemed casual at the time, but now I see he was checking to make sure it was still there.”

  “So there were two options,” Dunbar said. “Chad comes back, somehow proves his innocence and collects and Troy manipulates the money out of him. Or...”

  He hesitated, looking at Kayla as if not sure he wanted to finish. Dane did it for him.

  “Or he tells Chad to come back knowing he’d be arrested and convicted.” Kayla sucked in an audible breath. She had to be reeling from all this, Dane thought, but he made himself finish. “Much easier to just be the secondary beneficiary.”

  “Unless Kayla fought it,” Dunbar said as Dane had just gotten there himself. “He did it, didn’t he?” he asked, staring at Dunbar.

  The detective looked at Dane. Then, slowly, he nodded. “That’s my guess.”

  Kayla glanced from Dane to the detective and back, looking a little shell-shocked. “What?”

  “I’m betting the insurance policy or your folks’ will said that if one of you died, the other got what was left of that money. Troy would have to fight that, as long as you were still alive.”

  Dane saw the realization dawn. Her voice shook as she spoke it. “Troy threw that fire bomb. He brought Chad back to collect one way or another and tried to kill me. He planned it all along.”

  Dane would have done worse than kill Troy if he’d been able to get at him just because of the look on her face. She’d been betrayed by her brother and a man who was supposedly a friend.

  And by he himself?

  He shoved aside that thought as another occurred to him. “Why was Troy there at all tonight?”

  Dunbar studied him for moment. “I think you already know.”

  “To clean up the other lose end,” Dane said slowly. “Chad.”

  Dunbar nodded as Kayla gasped yet again. “I think he knew things were falling apart. Once he realized Foxworth was never going to stop, he decided to cut his losses. And the only person who could throw suspicion on him for the murders was Chad.”

  “My God,” Kayla breathed. “Is he really that...evil?”

  “Just how sure are you,” Dane asked sourly, “that Troy’s mother died of natural causes?”

  Dunbar’s brows raised, and he gave Dane a slight nod of salute. “I’ll be looking into that,” he said. “It would explain why he got so cocky, if he’d already gotten away with it once.”

  “My God,” Kayla said again.

  She swayed on her feet. Dane caught her but with, he told himself, no more personal involvement than Quinn had shown before.

  It really was over. There was nothing left to do but pick up the pieces of their lives, separate them and move on.

  Chapter 36

  He’d forgotten they’d both come in one car, Dane thought as they arrived back at Foxworth. It would have been easier if they each had their own, but then, none of this was going to be easy.

  It hit him suddenly. Where was Kayla going to go? Back to the house, which was so damaged? Maybe even still smoldering?

  He glanced over at her as she slid out of the other door of Quinn’s SUV. Hayley was already at the back, opening the hatch for Cutter. She and Kayla had been in quiet conversation for a few moments after they’d left the police station; had they been discussing what would happen now, where Kayla would go?

  He should offer his place, he thought, but the idea of having her in his apartment, so near and yet so far, was more than he could handle just now. Maybe later, when he’d had some sleep and was steadier, he could deal, but now? No way.

  Cutter jumped to the ground, and Hayley closed the hatch. If the dog was tired, as the rest of them were, it didn’t show. His head and tail were up, and he trotted off toward the back of the building.

  “Rounds,” Quinn said as he walked around the front of the car. “He seems to think it’s part of his job to inspect and secure everything whenever we’ve been gone for a while.”

  Kayla smiled at that, but it seemed halfhearted.

  “He’s amazing,” Dane said.

  “Yes, he is,” Hayley said, then added with a grin up at Quinn, “and so’s Cutter.”

  Quinn’s smile at that was like a punch to Dane’s gut. He’d been like that once. Happy in his life, confident in Kayla’s love and enjoying her teasing him like Hayley had just teased Quinn.

  “Come along, dear,” Hayley said, linking her arm through her fiancé’s.

  “What?” Quinn looked surprised.

  “Just
come inside, Quinn. Now,” she added when he still hesitated.

  Dane didn’t know what she did, but the man suddenly glanced at him and Kayla, and realization dawned; she was trying to get him to leave them alone.

  “Oh. Yeah. Right.”

  They vanished inside the Foxworth building, leaving the two of them standing there in the growing morning light. Saying nothing.

  Rafe, having parked the Foxworth vehicle he’d borrowed because they had his, came up to them. His brain fogged by weariness, it took Dane a moment to realize Rafe needed his keys back. He dug into his pocket and handed them over with assurances it was in the same condition it had been in.

  “No new dings? Too bad,” Rafe said. “Adds to the sleeper effect.”

  “Don’t mention sleep,” Dane said.

  “We could all use some,” the lanky man agreed. He turned as if to go, then turned back. “You two have something special. Don’t blow it.”

  And then he was gone, leaving them standing there once again in awkward silence.

  “We did have something special,” Kayla finally said. “And I’m the one who ruined it.”

  “You did what you thought you had to do.”

  “That’s no defense for what I did to you. And I’ll pay for it every day I have to go on without you.”

  He didn’t have an answer for that. And he didn’t like the sound of it, put flatly into words like that.

  “I love you, Dane Burdette. I have loved you more than half my life. And I will love you for the rest of it, whether you love me or not.”

  “Kayla—”

  “So is that what I’m facing? A life spent knowing I ruined the best thing I ever had because I was such a fool?”

  This was it. All he had to do was say he was sorry and walk away. Quinn and Hayley would see to her, he knew that. But he stood there in silence, letting the painful question hang in the air unanswered.

  He was vaguely aware of movement out of the corner of his eye. Cutter, he thought, finishing his “rounds.” The dog headed for the front door of the building, stopped suddenly and spun around to look at them. Then he started toward them.