by Sonia Parin
Risking everything, she brought her hand up and looked at the phone long enough to guide her finger to the correct button, but just then she felt a tug.
Richard Parkmore’s fingertips had connected with her sweater. She went ahead and pressed the button and prayed she’d hit the right one.
Eve lost her balance and stumbled but then straightened. Her steps were awkward but her legs kept moving.
He roared again. Eve imagined him foaming at the mouth.
Another tug.
“Help,” she screamed. She had no idea if she’d succeeded in hitting the right button but she didn’t dare check. She could only hope the person who’d rung was still on the line.
When she saw the clearing coming up, she panicked.
If Richard caught up with her then, they’d be close to the cliff and that was one place she didn’t want to be in.
She screamed again but when she did, she lost her rhythm. Again he reached for her. She knew this because this time he managed to push her.
Her arms flapped about and she desperately tried to keep herself upright. And that’s when she collided with a solid shape.
At first, Eve thought she’d crashed against a tree trunk.
But then a strong set of arms hauled her to the side as if she weighed nothing more than rag doll. One moment she’d been running, and the next she found herself sitting on her butt staring up at Jack who had his back to her.
In front of them both was Richard Parkmore crouching and looking like a cornered animal.
Clearly he’d lost his senses because he actually lunged for her, the noise emanating from his bloodied mouth making him sound like a raving lunatic.
Jack had him pinned to the ground in two easy moves.
Eve blew her hair out of her eyes and snorted.
She’d seen that move plenty of times. Why hadn’t she thought of doing it?
Jack looked over his shoulder at her. “Are you all right?”
She nodded.
His gaze skated over her body as if looking for something she might have missed.
“I’m all right,” she insisted, speaking around her choppy breaths.
He gave a nod and turned back to Richard. Taking his foot off his back, he pulled his hands together and handcuffed him.
She held her hand against her chest. Her heart still pounded. She counted to five. “Jack?”
“Yes?”
“Was that you on the phone... calling me?”
“Yes.” The edge of his lip kicked up. “Do you always answer your phone with a scream for help?”
Only when she was running for her life.
“I think I’ve lost part of my hearing.”
“So what did you want?” she asked.
“To remind you to stay put.”
* * *
Collapsing on her back, Eve stared up at the sky.
“You ruined everything.”
She slanted her eyes toward Richard Parkmore and quickly looked away. She didn’t want the image imprinted in her mind in case it came back to haunt her.
“Yeah, tell that to the judge.” Sure, she was curious and wanted to know the full story but she’d just scraped through with her life in one piece, and all she could think about was lying back and gazing up at the sky... and catching her breath. The sky looked so calm and so far removed from the troubles down below; it somehow put everything into perspective.
She relaxed her face and smiled, a small sigh pushing past her lips.
Remembering the phone message that had prompted Richard to make his move, Eve used what little energy she had left, raised her hand and brought her phone to eye level.
She tapped the screen and found the last message.
“Mira.” With a grunt, Eve sprung upright and tried to focus on the words.
Coming home. Hope to still find you there.
She heard Jack read Richard Parkmore the Miranda rights to which Richard answered with another litany of growls.
He was actually foaming at the mouth, or at least spitting.
Unfortunately, he’d opted to remain otherwise silent.
Eve supposed that put her at Jack’s mercy. He’d either share what he would eventually extract from Richard or he’d make her wait until she could read all about it in the newspapers.
“Hey, Richard. Has anyone ever told you that you run like a girl?” she asked.
Again he told her she’d ruined everything.
“Oh, poor baby,” she couldn’t help taunting him.
“You found it, didn’t you?” he spat out.
She shrugged. “What can I say, intuition is a woman’s natural talent.” Although, she had no idea what he meant.
“If Henry hadn’t written that letter, your aunt would never have found out my plans and she would never have contacted Alex.”
So, there was a letter and presumably, Richard had been trying to find it, hence the break-in. And she didn’t have to hear him confess to that. It had been Richard...
It sounded as if she and Mira would have plenty to talk about when she returned. Eve bit the edge of her lip. Mira had contacted Alex... and whatever had been in that letter had prompted Alex into action. “Well, she did.”
“I never thought Alex had it in him to come to your rescue.”
Her rescue? What had Richard Parkmore been planning? “Alex was many things, but never a coward.” A thieving weasel, but not a coward, she insisted.
“It’ll be Henry’s word against mine. He’s a rambling old fool.”
“It was very nice of your uncle to put it all in writing,” she reminded him.
He roared again and made a futile effort to break free of his handcuffs.
“Did you really think you’d get away with it?” she asked. She had no idea what had been written, but the question was generic enough to bait him into hopefully revealing more.
“I would have. I’m just as good as Alex, if not better. You would have fallen for me eventually. Mira Lloyd’s going to leave you her fortune. A chance to marry an heiress doesn’t come along every day—” He seemed to realize then he’d said too much.
But enough for Eve to start putting some pieces together.
Marry him?
To fix his money problems?
She couldn’t help laughing under her breath. Marry another man like Alex and fall for the same trap? Not in this lifetime.
The police arrived then and took Richard away.
Jack stretched his hand down to her.
“I’m still catching my breath.” And doing a quick mental review of the last few days. She’d never experienced such an adrenaline rush in her life.
Marry Richard?
How had she ruined it all? By coming back to the house and finding him? If she hadn’t, then eventually, the case might have been filed away unsolved. That would have left Richard free to pursue her.
But she’d ruined it all. By finding Richard in the house? Proof that he’d been the one who’d broken in.
Eve gave herself a mental pat on the back. “Okay. I’m ready.”
Jack took hold of her hand and helped her up. “Can you walk?”
“In my mind, I think I’m still running.” She wondered what would happen if she went limp. Would Jack gather her in his arms and pick her up?
Eve’s lips parted then her mouth gaped open.
That was something she’d never be able to mention to Mira.
“Mira sent me a message. She’s on her way home,” she said.
“That’s a relief.”
“How did you get here so fast?” It occurred to ask.
“I was already at Jill’s house. The phone you gave us provided a solid lead. I came to make sure you were staying put. I’d already sent the police over to Richard’s place to arrest him.”
A feeling of warmth uncurled inside her. He could have just sent the officer over to her, but he hadn’t.
“So the phone belonged to Richard.”
Jack nodded.
“He’d
been in contact with your ex. But the calls stopped a week before you arrived.”
“I guess we won’t be able to fill in all the gaps until we read the letter.”
“We?”
Eve huffed out a breath. “Even if you confiscate the letter, Mira will still be able to tell me what was in it, so there’s no point in trying to leave me out of the loop.” She looked up at him. “Jack, you wouldn’t... would you?”
Not surprisingly, he didn’t answer.
They strode back to Jill’s house and found her there.
When she spotted Eve, she ran toward her.
“You’re all right. You’re all right,” she kept saying. Then a barrage of words spilled out, tripping over each other. “I was walking along the beach, then I turned and thought I saw you run out of the house. Actually, Mr. Magoo spotted you first. We all ran back, but by the time I got there you’d disappeared. I ran onto the road to see if there was still a squad car parked outside your place and there was. They called it in and brought us back here. I’ve been frantic. The dogs haven’t stopped pacing.”
She looked down at both Mr. Magoo and Mischief. Their tails had turned into propellers, they were that happy.
“I saw them take Richard Parkmore away. What happened?” Jill asked.
“Oh, we went for a bit of a run.”
“Eve.”
“He was skulking around the house. Actually, he was in the house. All that time I was in there,” she shivered. “He must have been looking for the letter.”
“What letter?”
“Henry Parkmore wrote Mira a letter. We don’t know what was in it, but... there must have been some mention of Richard’s plan to marry me.”
“Marry you?”
Eve grinned and fluttered her eyelashes. “Henry must have disapproved of Richard’s plans. And we know Henry has been rambling, so maybe he rambled on about it to Mira. He’s very possessive of her, actually, he appears to be protective.” Eve slanted her gaze at Jack who stood beside her, his hands hitched on his hips as he studied her. “We’ll only know for sure when Mira returns... oh, I didn’t tell you, Mira sent me a message. She’s coming back. We have no idea where she’s been but I’m going to hazard a guess and say she went to see Alex.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Jack said.
“That’s right. We need facts.”
His eyebrow lifted.
Eve ignored the gesture. “It all comes down to Richard wanting to marry an heiress.”
“Who?” Jill asked.
“Me, apparently.” Eve raked her fingers through her hair. “I could really do with a long soak in your bathtub.” She looked at Jack. “Unless you have any further questions you’d like to ask me?”
“They can wait until tomorrow.”
The case was nowhere near closed, Eve thought.
Chapter Sixteen
Eve wanted to get an early start to the day, so she could get to Mira’s house and open some windows to air out the place before Mira returned.
She’d tried calling her aunt, but Mira was clearly avoiding talking on the phone which could only mean she was on the road driving.
Reluctant to miss out on anything or even stay alone in her house, Jill came along.
“I’ve never walked so much in my entire life. Or spent so much time thinking,” Eve said.
“I’ve been going over what you told me Richard revealed yesterday, about Alex coming to your rescue. What do you think that was about?”
“I can only take a wild stab and say Richard had told Alex of his plans to woo me.”
“Woo you?” Jill burst out laughing.
“They knew each other, that has to be a given now. I’m guessing Richard found out about the divorce and because he knew Alex, he must have also found out Mira was my aunt. Maybe Alex made a passing remark about missing out on the big prize. Seeing his chance, knowing his uncle lived on the island, Richard might have decided to gain some sort of advantage. I’m thinking he planned on taking his time.”
“Wooing you?”
“Why not?”
“You somehow don’t strike me as the type to respond to that sort of attention or fall in love.”
“For your information, I loved Alex. Divorcing him wasn’t easy.” She then remembered her first encounter with Richard. There had been something... a sort of eagerness about him. She shrugged it all off, thinking they’d get the facts after Jack drilled Richard for them.
They came up to the house and let themselves in through the back door.
Striding into the sitting room, they both stopped.
Mira sat on the couch drinking a cup of tea and nibbling on a muffin. Eve couldn’t remember her ever looking so good. Dressed in a stylish pair of dark gray pants and a light pink sweater with a polo neck, her graying hair had been cut into a short bob; a new look for Mira who’d always worn her hair in a thick braid.
In an instant, Eve forgot all about telling Mira off for leaving without saying anything.
She yelped. “Mira!” Eve threw herself at her aunt and was surprised to find her eyes tearing up. “You have no idea what’s been happening here.”
“I think I do. Hello, Jill.”
Jill hesitated, and then she too rushed to Mira and threw her arms around her.
“I’ve never felt so popular.”
“When did you get back?” Eve asked. “We’ve been so worried about you.”
“Really?” Mira sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to go through the whole sorry tale again.”
“What do you mean again?”
“I’ve just spent an hour at the precinct talking to Detective Jack Bradford. Have you met him?”
“Yes... but how did you know to go there?”
Another sigh. “Well, you know I don’t watch the news or read newspapers. As I was driving back—”
“From?”
“From going to visit you, of course.”
“You went to New York.”
“I had to. Anyway, I heard the horrible news on the radio. I’d been looking for a music station when I heard Alex’s name mentioned. I thought it best to drive straight to the precinct and tell them what I knew.”
Eve sat up. “You better start from the beginning. We know there was a letter.”
“Yes, Henry Parkmore wrote it. That’s the reason why I had to warn you his nephew was keeping an eye out for your next visit and if he was anything like Henry, he would have been unrelenting in his pursuit of you. When I didn’t find you, I contacted Alex. It never occurred to think you’d come here. And your neighbors weren’t at all helpful.”
“You drove all that way, just to see me and warn me—”
“Oh, there was also a planned visit to my publisher. They’d been badgering me to do some promotional work for some time now and had organized a book signing.” She took a sip of her tea. “I never even suspected it would all turn out the way it did. If I’d known Richard Parkmore could be so dangerous, I would have...” Mira shook her head, “Well, I couldn’t go to the police then because I had nothing to go on with. There’s no law preventing a man from deciding he’ll pursue a woman with the intention of marrying her.”
“But Alex must have known something could happen. Otherwise why come all this way...” To face his death.
“I suppose so,” Mira said. “But Alex only came after I spoke with him. I wanted to find out more about Richard Parkmore’s background. People come to the island and they try to blend in so we don’t know what’s gone on in their lives beforehand.”
Eve shook her head. “I can’t begin to tell you how I feel about Alex putting himself in harm’s way just because he felt compelled to warn me.”
Mira chuckled lightly. “If it’s any help, Alex was fuming. The thought of someone else jumping in and grabbing what he hadn’t been able to, made him see red.”
“He can’t have been that bad. He included me in his will.”
Mira patted her hand. “Yes, as a way to show you he meant busines
s. He wanted to get you back for himself. Over my dead body, he said after I showed him the letter Henry had sent me.”
“That’s the part I don’t get,” Jill said. “Why would Henry explain it all to you in a letter?”
“Oh, he rambled a lot. His thoughts came and went. It’s all a shame. He used to have such a sharp mind. Henry used to be my financial advisor. Then he retired and came to live on the island. It didn’t take me long to realize he had a protective way about him. All those years looking after my finances and then the onslaught of his illness left him so confused.” Mira sighed.
“I wouldn’t mind reading the letter,” Eve said.
“Sorry, I had to turn it in as evidence.”
Eve slumped back and brushed her hands across her face. “I’m glad you went away. Just think, what if you’d confronted Richard and he lost his temper with you.”
“He was a bad apple. Henry complained about him not being any good with money and always living above his means. He said Richard had been pestering him about his big plans and how he’d strike it lucky, and that’s why Henry wrote to me. I’m just glad he found a moment of clarity to put it all down on paper and not try to tell me himself. He could rattle on and lose his way.”
Eve shook her head. “Richard had the nerve to say I’d ruined everything.”
“He was the type to blame everyone else for his misfortunes, never accepting responsibility for his actions.”
Eve didn’t want to admit it, but two men had fought over her, and they’d both come out losers. Two wrongs definitely didn’t make a right.
Or did it?
Eve thought about Jack Bradford...
Best to keep her mind on finding something worthwhile to do and well away from any romantic involvement, she thought.
“You know you saved Henry Parkmore,” Mira said.
“How do you figure that?” Eve asked.
“That nice detective filled me in on what happened. If you hadn’t found him that night, then I doubt he would have survived the night outdoors.”
