Pushed to the Limit (Quid Pro Quo 1)

by Patricia Rosemoor

BENNO FLEW to catch Sydney before she could hit the ground. She was a light weight in his arms and he balanced her easily.

  Worry for her competed with the shock of seeing his friend’s body. What in hell was going on? he wondered wildly. Sydney had claimed Kenneth had gone off a cliff, but here he was, shot to death... as had been the man in her dream. Or had it been a dream? he fleetingly wondered before realizing she’d seemed as shocked as he. She couldn’t be playacting, could she?

  He pulled her unconscious body tightly to his chest, his free hand stroking her face. “Sydney, tell me you’re all right.”

  “Aren’t you going to do anything?” Martha demanded of Brickman.

  “That depends on what you mean. I’m going to hand the deceased over to the state police. They’ll take the corpse to Portland to do the lab work.”

  “Kenneth has been shot dead. Any fool can see that.”

  Still cradling Sydney, Benno watched Martha carefully kneel next to the corpse as though she didn’t want to get her clothes dirty. He thought she might touch her brother – but at the last second, she recoiled, no doubt because of the dried blood.

  “I’m talking about procedure, Martha.”

  Two perfect tears rolled down her cheeks as she glared up at the policeman. “And I’m talking about justice.”

  Brickman stooped and slipped what could be thought of as a steadying arm around her. Benno recognized the gesture as one more intimate and was surprised that Martha didn’t move away, that she actually allowed the lawman to hold her fast after pulling her to her feet.

  “I’ll take care of getting justice, too.” Brickman sucked in his gut, stood taller, made his voice reassuring. “Be patient for a little while longer. The lab men are trained experts. They’ll find the evidence we need to catch the murderer.”

  “I don’t need any evidence to know who did this.”

  Benno’s attention came back to Sydney who stirred in his arms. Her eyes fluttered open. First they were filled with confusion, then horror.

  She grabbed at his shirt front with desperate fingers. “That isn’t Kenneth.”

  “But it is. Was,” Benno corrected, studying her intensely.

  She shook her head wildly and struggled to get her feet under her. Then she pushed herself out of his arms. “That’s not the same Kenneth Lord I married.”

  Benno heard the conviction in her words. If she hadn’t married Kenneth Lord, then who?

  “Finally, we get something called truth here.” Pulling herself free from Brickman, Martha attacked. “I knew Kenneth would never have committed himself to some stranger without telling me. Now all we need is justice. What was your scheme, anyway? An elaborate plan to kill my brother and then plead a nervous breakdown? Why? Did you really think I’d let you have his money?”

  “Benno?” Sydney choked. “There must be some kind of explanation.”

  Benno couldn’t help his tight-lipped response. He wanted to believe her... but Kenneth had been his friend. He truly didn’t know what to think.

  “I’m afraid things look bad for you,” Brickman said, earning a grateful look from Martha. “You told us your husband went over the cliff. You should have stuck to your story and buried the body.”

  “My husband did go over a cliff. I never saw this man before in my life. Not until the dream.”

  Her brow furrowed and her head tilted to one side as she seemed to be looking deep within herself. Then she held out her right hand whose fingers were curled into a fist. Benno looked from her to the dead man. He couldn’t stop himself. Picking up the flashlight she’d dropped, he stooped and, with difficulty, pried open Kenneth’s right hand. He flashed a light over the palm and from it, freed a small piece of metal that had stuck to the skin.

  “Don’t touch that,” Brickman ordered too late.

  The triangular shaped piece of metal was already in Benno’s hand. “Looks like a stud.”

  “Shouldn’t have done that.” Brickman produced a handkerchief. “Now your fingerprints are on it.”

  Benno dropped the object into the handkerchief which Brickman stuffed back into a pocket.

  “Trying to cover for the lady here?” the lawman asked.

  “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Sydney protested, her voice rising with each word.

  Brickman grunted. “Let’s get back to the house so I can make the necessary calls. In the meantime, we’ll be investigating you more closely, Miss Raferty. Don’t even consider doing a disappearing act.”

  Benno saw how stricken Sydney appeared. Emotions rushed to the fore and he set a protective arm around her, not because she was the widow of his friend – she’d just denied that connection – but because she had a pull on him he couldn’t deny. His head was whirling as they picked their way back over the grounds.

  “Can’t you just arrest her and lock her up in one of your jail cells?” Martha pleaded with Brickman. “I refuse to have a murderer under my roof.”

  “No one has proved Sydney is a murder,” Benno stated.

  When Martha flashed him a look of pity, he frowned. Maybe he was losing his mind. What if he were getting himself tangled up with a woman capable of committing murder?