by Dee Davis
"Anderson was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, and from what we could tell, most likely not capable of providing the degree of support he is supposed to have been giving the negotiations."
"But he's an expert in Chinese custom, right?" Harrison asked, frowning.
"Was," Gabe said, still watching Madison. "He evidently came home from China a sick man. That's when he moved out to Connecticut. And according to his father, even on his best days there was no chance he was operating at the level necessary to provide support to the negotiations."
"So it was a scam."
"We don't know that." Madison's voice was quiet, but firm. "What we do know is that whatever arrangements were made, Anderson wasn't doing the work he was credited with."
"So who was doing it?" Payton put down the paper he'd been reading, curiosity at war with speculation.
"Cullen." The name hung in the air, taking on a life of its own, and Gabe suddenly felt as tired as Madison looked.
"So we've got a lot of odd incidences without seeming connection or motive," Harrison said. "First we have a paper company with SEC problems that took over vulnerable companies in the '80s. And Cullen was chairman of the board. Which would have been just about the time his empire was taking off. Then we have the consortium. Again with Cullen as a major player. And ultimately the chairman of its board."
"And the accord—" Payton took up the story "—apparently with Cullen as one of the two or three who masterminded the original idea."
"But from the get-go there are problems. And people start dying," Gabe added, his mind moving over the facts, trying to put them into some kind of coherent order. "But no one knows it. Or at least recognizes it as murder."
"Except Cullen." This time it was Madison who hammered the nail home. "He knew something was wrong."
"But apparently not before he had the opportunity to lumper with evidence and persuade survivors against au-topsy. And enlist a mentally unstable man to handle crucial portions of said negotiations." This from Payton, who had moved to stand by the window, twirling a pen between his fingers. "Eventually however, he begins to see signs of something amiss and calls you in."
"And Madison," Gabe added.
"But why?" Madison asked. "I don't see how any of this fits together. We have no connection between Vrycom and the Chinese negotiations. In fact, it wasn't even in existence when the first idea for an accord was discussed. There could be any number of reasons to explain any of the things we've mentioned here. All of them perfectly innocent. Cullen is a major player across the board. There are probably hundreds of ways he connects with all of the people involved. Six degrees of separation and all that."
"And you don't believe a word of that."
She blew out another breath, her sigh audible. "No. 1 guess I don't. But I'll be damned if I understand how it all fits together."
Gabe shrugged. "There's only one way to find out for certain."
"I know." She tipped back her head, tears shimmering in her eyes. "We've got to talk to Cullen."
Madison didn't want to believe anything she was hearing. Didn't want to think about Cullen involved in anything as nefarious as murder. But there were questions here that couldn't be answered easily, and the only way she knew to deal with the matter was to tackle it head-on.
They'd spent the past half hour putting facts together, preparing for what they hoped was a cogent attack. One Cullen would have to answer truthfully. All that remained was to face the man.
Her godfather.
Some part of her refused to accept that there was any possibility of wrongdoing on Cullen's part, but she also knew that at his level of business it was kill or be killed, and that often meant tough tactics. But surely not murder.
The truth was, there was no motive. It made no sense for Cullen to try and ruin the accord. And the SEC viola-tion at Vrycom was just part and parcel of doing business. She wasn't her father's daughter for nothing, and it was a ruthless world out there. Hadn't Nigel just proved that very fact?
"Maybe you should let me handle this." Gabriel's voice was warm and concerned, and Madison suppressed the irritation that flashed through her.
"I'll be fine. If there's a connection somewhere in all of this, we need to find it. And Cullen appears to be the link."
"But you're not willing to go as far as admitting he might be the problem." His eyebrow lifted in question, the gesture, as always, adding a hint of the devil to his expression. Madison might love him, but she sure as hell didn't know him. And the two facts ought to be mutually exclusive.
But of course they weren't.
And a part of her did know him.
Just like she knew Cullen, the little voice in her head whispered. It was almost as if the world had turned topsyturvy, someone she trusted suddenly suspect, and someone she'd never thought to trust, her lover.
But then, she overanalyzed everything. It was a part of the job that she took home with her all too often. Surely there was a point where faith had to come into play. She trusted her instincts every day when it came to profiling. So why not now?
Why couldn't she trust her instincts where Cullen was concerned? Or Gabriel?
She felt his hands on her shoulders, and looked up to meet the icy intensity of his gaze. She wanted to trust him, to believe they had a future, but suddenly it was all too much. More than she could handle, her fear taking hold and digging into the dark recesses of her mind.
He leaned down to kiss her, his lips warm as they moved against hers, taking possession. Possession. Her heart hammered, and she felt faint. Part of her wanted to pull him closer, to throw propriety to the wind, but she couldn't. Not when the other part of her kept singing the word possession.
She didn't want to belong to anyone.
Ever.
She'd been there and done that. Playing the role of little woman wasn't what she was cut out for. Better to be alone.
With a little cry she pushed him away, ignoring the flash of hurt in his eyes, and Payton and Harrison's astonishment. She simply wasn't ready. What had felt right in the dark of the night felt wrong here in the light of day.
She swallowed hard, avoiding his gaze. "You ready?" She pasted on her most winning smile, her emotions still reeling, her thoughts tangled together in a mess of present and past and impossible future.
"Sure." The word was clipped, and he might as well have stabbed her, considering the pain. But even as she had the thought, she knew she'd brought it on herself. It was her fears that were threatening the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Her fears alone.
"Madison?" Payton's voice was hesitant, more timid than she'd have thought possible with him.
She turned to face him, knowing her face was red and that her feelings were transparent across her face. But all she saw reflected in his green eyes was concern. "I just got a call from your father."
Great. All she needed now was another male in her life trying to tell her what to do. "What did he want?"
Payton's glance took in Gabriel standing at her elbow and the tension radiating between the two of them, and he actually took a step back. Not a bad idea, actually, as she'd always found it better to avoid a battle zone. "He wants to meet you at your apartment."
Gabriel mumbled something and moved away, the lack of physical presence making Madison's heart shrivel. "Did he say why?"
"Yeah," Payton said. "Something to do with Cullen. He said it was really important."
That got her attention. A welcome relief against her surging emotions. Maybe her father had something to tell her that would help clear things up. Exonerate Cullen.
"I'll go with you." Gabriel had returned to her elbow, but his voice was all business now.
"He said alone." Payton looked apologetically at his friend.
"Fine," Gabriel barked. "You go talk to your father, and I'll tackle Cullen. Then we'll all meet back here and see where we stand."
He turned to go, and Madison reached out to stop him, then dropped her
hand. What was the use? By the harsh light of day she could see clearly that there was no future for them. Their paths would always take them in different directions.
"Sometimes you have to grab what you want, no matter how ridiculous the notion may seem." Payton's voice was soft, his words meant only for her ears. "He's a proud man, Madison. It took a lot for him to show his feelings here in front of us. If it matters at all, I've never seen him care about someone like this. He's finding his way, too. Don't shut him out, unless you're sure that's what you want."
She nodded, not willing to look at him, certain she'd fall apart if she did. Instead, she hurried through the door, praying that Gabriel would still be in the hallway, that she'd have the chance to make it right.
But it was too late. Gabriel was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Gabe sat in the vestibule of Cullen's office, trying not to dwell on what had just happened. For all practical purposes, Madison had rejected him. Or run scared, the voice in his head insisted loyally.
Either way, she'd disengaged, and done it in a very public kind of way. His heart twisted at the memory, his slomach churning. Women were unpredictable, that was lor certain. But he'd thought there was more between them. That they'd decided to at least give a relationship a try.
But then what the hell did he know about relationships? He'd spent his entire life alone. On purpose. And here he was trying to preserve a connection with another human being. Not exactly something he had experience with. Maybe he'd made a mistake. Read more into it than was really there.
He replayed their conversations in his mind, trying to find his error, to understand why he could have thought there was more to it than there obviously was. He sighed, knowing there wasn't an easy answer, wishing there was a way to quell the uneasiness in his heart.
He wanted her. Hell, he loved her. But it took two to tango. Still, she'd said she loved him, too. So what the hell was the withdrawal all about? He wasn't certain. It was all too new. But he did know one thing, he'd be damned if he would let her run away.
She was too important. They were too important.
He was halfway out of the chair when the door opened and Cullen beckoned him in. He pushed his thought about Madison away; he'd have to deal with it later. Right now he needed to handle business, and judging by the somber expression on Cullen's face, he knew what was coming.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." Cullen gestured toward the chair in front of his desk, choosing the adja-cent chair for himself, rather than keeping the desk be-tween them. It was a move calculated to make the conversation more intimate.
Gabe suspected Cullen might soon prefer the barrier of the desk. "We've uncovered some new evidence."
"Something to do with Anderson McGee." It was a statement, not a question. "You found out he wasn't actu-ally taking part in the negotiations."
"According to his father he wasn't capable of reading the paperwork, let alone negotiation." Gabe watched Cul-len, looking for something to give away his thoughts, but the man hadn't gotten where he was by wearing his emo-tions on his sleeve.
"He wasn't." Cullen shook his head and sighed. "But he did have moments of lucidity. And memories. He knew what he'd been. Can you imagine what that must be like? To know that you were once capable of greatness, only to wind up losing it all to a chemical fluke in your brain."
"It still doesn't explain his part in the accord."
"He didn't have one." Cullen sighed, absently twining a loose upholstery thread around his finger. "It was a ruse. Just as you suspected. But not for any sinister reason. We were all in on it. Bing, Jeremy, Kingston and I. It gave Andy purpose. Helped him to get up each day."
Gabriel sat back, waiting, realizing there was more.
"About eighteen months ago, Andy tried to kill himself At first his father thought it was an accidental overdose, but it soon became apparent that it had been intentional. Martha and Thomas are old friends." He shrugged as if that explained everything.
"So they came to you for help."
Cullen nodded, still fingering the thread. "Martha actually. She thought that if Andy had a reason to get up in the morning—if he honestly believed his life mattered—he wouldn't try again. She knew we were working on the deal with China. Had Andy been well, he would have indeed been an asset to the team. So we concocted a plan to make him believe he was handling parts of the negotiation. The written work primarily."
"But he couldn't have been contributing anything helpful."
Cullen ran a hand through his hair, the gesture uncharacteristic. "You'd be surprised, actually. The talent and knowledge was still there, but unfortunately it came out a bit on the garbled side. Bing and I fixed it. At times even rewrote it, but let the credit stay with Andy. It seemed harmless at the time. But now, I feel like I dragged him into the quagmire. Caused his death, even."
"You couldn't have known this was going to happen." Gabe studied Cullen, surprised to find that he believed him. It made sense in a convoluted kind of way. And besides, the story could easily be checked. "What about Thomas? Did he go along with the idea?"
"No. He thought I was taking advantage of his son."
"But surely with Martha involved..." Gabe frowned, trying to understand the dynamics between the three of them.
"I didn't tell him she came to me. He thought it was all my idea. It was easier that way."
"For who? Martha?"
"Everyone, really." Cullen shrugged. "Thomas and I had a falling-out a while back over a business endeavor We've remained cordial, but he doesn't trust me."
"Vrycom?" The name seemed to hang in the air, and Cullen's eyes widened.
"I'm surprised you've heard of it." Whatever surprise there'd been at the question was gone as quickly as it had come, replaced by a mask of polite indifference.
"Harrison stumbled across it, actually. He was trying to find a connection among the dead."
"But none of them had anything to do with Vrycom."
"Come on, Cullen, you're more on the ball than that What do you say we cut the games?"
"I'm not sure I'm following." The words were cold. "But if you're referring to the fact that some of their fathers sat on the Vrycom board with me, I'm more than aware of it. But I don't see how it could possibly have any thing to do with the murders."
"More than a few, Cullen. Eight of nine." Gabw frowned. "And we're not sure if there's a connection, but you've got to admit it's a hell of a coincidence. What do you know about Bluemax?"
It was Cullen's turn to frown, this time with an obvious effort to remember. "It was a company we wanted to buy out. They had some patents we needed. Small-time business, but they weren't interested in anything Vrycom had to offer. So things got ugly." He shrugged. "That's what Vrycom was for."
"What about the lawsuit?"
"A minor annoyance. They had no chance of winning. It was just a matter of time. As I recall, the case was dismissed, the takeover was accomplished, and we dismantled the company and used the patents. Sounds a bit harsh in the telling, but it was just business. And Bluemax was hardly the biggest fish we took on."
"Until the SEC stepped in." Gabe shifted in his chair, watching Cullen, listening, hoping for something that might tie into the murders.
"Again, it was standard operating procedure. They didn't really have a case, but it wasn't the kind of publicity any of us wanted, so we abandoned the company. It had quite obviously outgrown its usefulness and so we all went our separate ways."
"Considerably better off, I'd imagine."
"Of course." Cullen looked surprised at the question. "That was the whole point of the endeavor."
"And you can't think of anything that would link your activities there with the murders?"
"None that are stronger than the potential failure of the accord. Besides, as you've already noted, Jeremy's death breaks the pattern."
"There are still a lot of anomalies surrounding your behavior, Cullen. We'd be crazy not to suspect you're guilty of somet
hing."
"Does Madison agree?" It was a personal question, and it was Gabe's turn for surprise.
"She doesn't want to." He saw no point in not being honest. "But it's hard to deny the coincidences. There's the fact that you told Alan Stewart's wife not to authorize an autopsy. And the fact that you were pretending that Anderson McGee was doing work that he wasn't. There's also the odd connection between you and the murder victims' lathers. And you're responsible for bringing me into this and you knew damn well I'd bring Nigel. And you can't tell me that you hadn't considered the possibility that it might be a conflict of interest for him."
"Of course I thought of it, but I thought you'd keep him in line."
"Well, you obviously thought wrong." Unwanted bitterness filled his throat.
"In any case—" Cullen dismissed Gabe's discomfort with the wave of his hand "—there's nothing in what you've listed that hasn't been explained. And more im-portantly, there's no logical link between them."
"Except the very real possibility that you want the accord to fail."
Cullen tipped back his head and started to laugh. Not with the maniacal laughter of someone caught out, but with the genuine amusement of something found funny. "Oh, my dear boy, you're on the wrong track, believe me."
"I want to," Gabe said, frowning at the sudden turn of emotion.
Cullen dabbed his eyes with his handkerchief, sobering. "If anything, Gabriel, my financial life, no, my very corporate existence, depends upon the accord's success."
"That's easy enough to say," Gabriel prodded, but he was beginning to feel certain they were barking up the wrong tree.
"But it's true." Cullen got up to walk around behind his desk. "And I can prove it." With a sigh, he unlocked a small drawer and removed a file, tossing it onto the desk. "When the dot-com industry went belly-up, I lost a hell of a lot of money. On paper, I still looked good because I had the common sense to use dummy corporations for my transactions, but the financial hit couldn't be ignored. I managed to stay afloat, barely. But I can't do it indefinitely, and even with the economy on the rebound, it's not happening fast enough for me to cover my losses. So I'm in trouble." He pushed the file toward Gabe. "Real trouble."
