Lawman Lover

by Saranne Dawson

  Amanda merely nodded, then brushed a kiss against his cheek. But the truth was that she was already thinking just what she suspected Michael must be thinking. Jesse had to know something.

  “You BELIEVE HIM, don’t you?” she asked as the elevator carried them down to the lobby.

  “Yeah, I do. I don’t think he could lie that well.” He arched a brow at her. “I also think he knows about us.”

  She smiled. “I think so, too. He’s just too discreet to ask, but he’ll probably be quizzing Lise.” She let out a sigh. “So now we have to talk to Jesse.”

  “Yeah. I probably should have started with her. She was always higher on my list anyway, because of the crowd she was hanging with then.”

  The elevator stopped and several people got on. They both remained silent until they reached the lobby. Then Michael turned to her. “Have you ever stayed at the Plaza?”

  “No. Why?” she asked with a frown.

  “I was thinking maybe we could get a room—just for the rest of the day. I have to be back by sometime tonight.”

  “Michael,” she said in exasperation, “we can’t just walk into the Plaza with no luggage.”

  “Why not? Are you going to tell me that no one else does that?”

  “I don’t care if they do or don’t. I’m not going to.”

  “Okay. It was just a thought.”

  “Why the Plaza?” she asked curiously, not quite able to banish a certain wicked pleasure his suggestion had aroused.

  “I’ve never been there. When I was a kid, I sometimes baby-sat for the little girl next door when her Mom had to work at night. She had this ratty old book that she loved, and I’d read it to her.”

  “Eloise at the Plaza,” Amanda said, smiling. “I had it, too.”

  “Yeah, that was it. It kind of stuck in my mind—probably because I must have read it a hundred times. And I figured it must be a really great place if there was a book about it.”

  “It is lovely. I’ve had lunch in the Palm Court.” She smiled and took his arm. “We’ll go there sometime.”

  “With luggage.”

  “With luggage.”

  “We could go buy some luggage first.”

  “No. I need to get back. I have a campaign meeting this evening.”

  “Humph! I guess it wouldn’t do to call your campaign people and tell them that you’ve decided to shack up at the Plaza instead.”

  She laughed. “No, I don’t think that would be politic.”

  Michael hailed a cab, and they returned to Grand Central, where a train was just boarding. They settled into their seats, and Michael was once again asleep within minutes and she was once again envying him.

  Amanda was glad that Michael believed John, but it didn’t really solve anything. In fact, in a way, it only made things even worse, if that was possible. Now his suspicions—and hers, as well—turned to Jesse.

  She leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. Her thoughts were muddled, but gradually, they came into focus. And that focus was on Tina Jacobs Workman and what she’d said.

  Tina had never suggested that it was John. She’d merely said that Eve Lauden had claimed to have a customer from the island. What if it wasn’t John—but it was someone else from the island families?

  In her mind, she ran through them all, but she couldn’t see any of them being involved with a teenage prostitute. It just wasn’t possible.

  She hadn’t asked Michael whether or not the forensics people would be able to identify the body as being that of Eve Lauden. But if they could, didn’t that make it far less likely that Jesse was involved?

  On the other hand, given her behavior at that time, it was possible that Jesse had known Eve Lauden. And if she did, that could be the basis for Eve’s story that she had a customer from the island. Perhaps she’d been out there with Jesse, and had just made up the rest of it.

  She decided that she would call Tina this evening and ask her, even though she thought that Tina would have already mentioned it.

  “TINA? IT’S AMANDA Sturdevant. I’m sorry to be bothering you again, but I have another question. And by the way, Lieutenant Quinn will be contacting you to hear what you told me, and probably to ask a lot of other questions.”

  “He won’t come to the bank, will he?” Tina asked nervously.

  “No, I didn’t even tell him where you work. But just to be sure, I’ll call and ask him to see you at home.”

  “Thanks. It’s just that I haven’t been there long and I know banks must get pretty suspicious if the cops come to see someone.”

  “I’ll call him tonight,” Amanda promised, though that wasn’t going to be necessary. Michael was likely to be on her doorstep any moment.

  “What I wanted to ask you is if you knew my sister, Jesse, back then.”

  “I knew who she was. I guess everybody did. She was always so gorgeous.”

  “Is it possible that she could have been hanging out with Eve and her crowd?”

  “No, at least not that I know of. Jesse’s a bit older than any of them. Besides, why would she have had anything to do with them?”

  “Uh, well, Jesse had some problems with drugs back around the time that Eve disappeared.”

  “Oh.” Tina was silent for a moment. “I guess having all that money doesn’t mean you can’t have the same problems as everybody else, does it?”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Amanda replied, wondering if it was her imagination, or if she’d heard a note of satisfaction in Tina’s voice. And if so, why was she inclined to be more understanding of it in Tina than she was in Michael?

  “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything about it. Jesse’s fine now, and she has her business to think of.” Half of that was true, anyway, she supposed.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. I won’t say anything. She has great clothes in her shop. I’ve just been thinking. I remember that someone told me once—it could have been Eve—that there were some rich kids who bought their drugs through...the same woman Eve worked for. But she never mentioned any names, and she probably would have if she’d known them.”

  Amanda’s grip on the phone tightened. Tina had said before that the woman had a middle- and upper-class clientele. So the connection could be there, even if Tina didn’t know about it. On the other hand, Tina was right: if Eve had known Jesse, she probably would have bragged about it. Sometimes, she forgot just how prominent her family was.

  “Michael-Lieutenant Quinn, that is—is going to try to get the name of that woman from you, Tina.”

  “I won’t tell on her!” Tina said vehemently. “I’m not going to hurt her! She’s a good person.”

  “Well, I thought I’d better warn you.” She wondered just how hard Michael would push Tina.

  MICHAEL SHOWED UP only moments after she’d hung up from her conversation with Tina. He looked exhausted, despite his naps on the train. She supposed that she must look the same, even though she’d had more sleep than he had.

  “You know how ‘sleeping together’ is usually—what do you call it?—a euphemism?”

  She nodded, smiling.

  “Well, tonight it isn’t. Plus I’ve got to be out of here at the crack of dawn to avoid your nosy neighbors.

  “We got Weems, by the way—the drive-by shooter. He’s already lawyered up and trying to cut a deal.”

  “No deal. But we’ll make that official tomorrow when we meet with Annie. I know she’ll agree.”

  “We might have to deal if we can’t get any witnesses other than the driver. He doesn’t exactly have a lot of credibility.”

  “Then find someone. I can’t cut a deal on this one. He killed a child, for God’s sake!”

  Michael grinned. “And you’re running for office.”

  Anger flashed from her eyes. “I wouldn’t deal on this one—and you know it!”

  “Yeah, but I like to see you get riled up.”

  “Let’s not talk about business now.”

  “No, let’s face the
fact that we’re always going to be talking business.”

  She sighed. “You’re right. I talked to Tina a few minutes ago, by the way, and she...”

  “Dammit, Amanda, I told you to stay out of it now. Let me handle it.”

  She ignored his outburst. “She doesn’t want you coming to see her at work.”

  “Okay. I’d planned to see her tonight, but I didn’t get around to it, so I’ll wait till tomorrow night.”

  “I called her to find out if she knew Jesse—or rather, if Eve Lauden did.”

  “Thank you, Ms. Detective. That was on my list of questions.”

  “She doesn’t think Jesse knew her, and she says she won’t give you the name of that woman.” She paused, glaring at him. “And I don’t want you harassing her about it.”

  Michael rolled his eyes. “Heaven forbid that I should try to get information about a murder.”

  “You don’t even know that it was a murder, let alone that the body is Eve Lauden.”

  “Let’s go to bed,” he said, taking her hand and pulling her toward the stairs.

  She resisted. “Now that you have a name, will you be able to find out if it is Eve?”

  “How should I know? That’s up to the forensics people.”

  “But you can guess,” she persisted, backing off as he reached for her again.

  “My guess is probably,” he replied as he scooped her up in his arms and started up the stairs.

  “I thought you were too tired to do anything but sleep.”

  “I was wrong,” he said, his breath fanning softly against her bare skin. “But it would have been better if we’d gone to the Plaza. You’re a prude.”

  “Not here I’m not,” she said, laughing.

  They were both tired, but their hunger for each other overcame that. Lovemaking in slow motion, bodies moving languorously, voluptuously. Smooth skin against bristly hairs, gentle curves entwined with hard muscles. Their tiredness took the sharp edge off their passion, revealing a tenderness that both knew was there, but that had mostly lay hidden before.

  And before the last shudder had passed through them, they were both asleep. But their dreams were dark. Michael hadn’t quite told her the truth, and Amanda wasn’t as certain as she wanted to be that Jesse couldn’t have been involved.

  “JESSE, WE NEED TO TALK about that spring, when you were home from school and Amanda had her accident.”

  Amanda didn’t want to see the sudden surge of fear in her sister’s eyes at Michael’s words. From the moment Jesse had opened the door to them, she’d been wary. It was clear that she’d have preferred not to open it at all. But now that wariness had turned to fear.

  “What about it?” Jesse demanded, her voice rising as it always did when she was upset. Steve, who was sitting beside her on the sofa, shot her a look intended to calm her and took her hand. Amanda thought Steve was fearful, too, worried about Jesse’s fragile state right now.

  “We think that the girl whose body we found died that spring, too,” Michael said, and Amanda noted silently that he didn’t use the word murdered. Michael, she realized, was capable of subtlety, for all his reputation as a hard-nosed interrogator.

  “Her name was Eve Lauden. Did you know her?”

  Amanda knew that wasn’t, strictly speaking, true. They hadn’t yet made an identification. Michael’s team was trying to track down her family.

  She watched Jesse carefully. Michael had told her on the way over that he would handle the questions, and that she should try to determine if Jesse was telling the truth. At the moment, Jesse was frowning, her gaze turned inward. Amanda was surprised that she hadn’t immediately denied any knowledge.

  “Eve Lauden?” Jesse echoed softly. “I...what did she look like?”

  Michael opened his attaché case and produced the photo that Amanda had already seen. It was a candid shot from her high-school yearbook, taken not long before her disappearance. She’d been rather surprised, given what she knew about Eve, to learn that she’d still been in school.

  Eve Lauden had been attractive, and she’d certainly looked older than her years or, as Tina had said, more sophisticated. Amanda watched Jesse carefully as she took the photo from Michael and studied it in silence for a long time. Her face was lowered, so Amanda couldn’t see her expression, but tension was evident in her posture and in the way she gripped the photo in both hands. Finally, she handed it back to Michael.

  “I didn’t know her, but she looks vaguely familiar. I might have seen her a few times.”

  “Where?” Michael asked as he put the photo back in his attaché case.

  Jesse affected a casual shrug that didn’t quite work. “Just around, that’s all.”

  Michael’s dark eyes regarded her solemnly. “Look, Jesse, all of us here know you were doing drugs back then and hanging around with a bad crowd. I need some names—people she might have hung out with, and especially the name of the madam she was working for.”

  Amanda had to hand it to Michael. He’d managed to slip that last in very casually. Prior to this, he hadn’t said anything about Eve’s being a prostitute, and there was no reason why Jesse should have assumed that, either.

  She felt pricks of ice along her spine as she stared at Jesse. Her sister gave no indication that she found this information to be shocking.

  “I don’t know anything like that,” Jesse stated, instantly becoming defensive.

  “This madam was also supposed to be a supplier of drugs to middle-class types—the kind of person a kid from a good home would go to if she wanted something. We know she lived in Parkside, but we don’t have her name yet.”

  “I don’t know anything about her,” Jesse said stubbornly.

  “So where were you getting the stuff, Jesse?” Michael demanded, his attitude changing along with hers.

  “From a friend, and I don’t know where he got it. I never asked.”

  Michael stared at her in silence for a moment, then nodded. “Let me tell you what I’m thinking,” Michael went on, his tone dropping back to neutral again. “I’m thinking that there’s a connection between Eve Lauden’s death and Amanda’s accident. I’m thinking that maybe Amanda and your cousin saw something that night and were maybe even chased by the killer. That means that not only did he kill Eve, but he also is responsible for the death of your cousin—and for nearly killing Amanda.”

  “You’re crazy!” Jesse said, but her tone was less certain than her words. Her gaze swiveled from Michael to Amanda, then back again. “You’re out of your mind, Michael!”

  Jesse turned to Amanda, who was still recovering from her shock at hearing Michael say that. He’d said it before, but since he hadn’t brought it up again, she thought he’d dismissed the notion.

  “Do you believe that?” Jesse demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Amanda admitted honestly. Then, with a brief glance at Michael, she went on. “There is one reason I could believe it, Jess. You know as well as I do that Trish wasn’t reckless, and she knew the lake well—including the location of the ski jump. But if we did see something, that could explain why she was running the boat so fast and why she hit the ski jump.”

  “And then there’s the question of the anonymous call to the police about the accident,” Michael added. “Why wouldn’t the caller identify himself? Why not rescue Amanda? Trish was almost certainly dead, but if the witness saw it happen, he must have guessed that Amanda could still be alive.”

  Jesse said nothing. Her gaze was faraway. Then, finally, just as the silence was becoming unbearable, she turned to Michael. “You came here because you thought I might have had something to do with this Eve’s death, didn’t you?”

  Amanda expected Michael to demur, but he didn’t. “I had to consider the possibility that you might have gone out to the island with some of your friends—and something happened.”

  “I never went out there with anyone other than family,” Jesse stated. “But if I need an alibi for that night, I’ve got one—that is, for
the night of Amanda’s accident.”

  “You do?” Amanda blurted out, realizing that of course Jesse would remember where she was that night.

  Jesse glanced at her briefly and nodded, then turned her attention back to Michael. “I was over at the Verhoevens, with Mother. Aunt Sara was alone because Uncle John was in Europe on business. I remember where he was because he’d wanted her to go with him and she wouldn’t But by the time we got there, she was claiming that he hadn’t wanted to take her, which was probably true, but I know that he did ask her to go. Mother said so.

  “Sara Verhoeven was mentally ill. I don’t know if you knew that. Uncle John stuck with her longer than he should have, since she wouldn’t get help. She only did that after he left.” She shrugged.

  “Anyway, I was planning to go out, but Mother caught me at the door and practically begged me to go with her to Sara’s. Sara had just called, and Mother thought she really sounded off the wall, which she was. Mother had to call the doctor, who came and gave her something.

  “We were still there when Father called to tell us about the accident. The police had just called him.”

  Amanda belatedly became aware that her mouth was actually hanging open. She’d never wondered where anyone else was that night. It was too painful for her to think about that night. She felt Michael’s eyes on her and turned to him.

  “Then John couldn’t have...”

  “Apparently not,” Michael said.

  “John?” Jesse echoed. “What does John have to do with this?”

  “We already knew that John was going out to the island that winter and spring, and...”

  Jesse cut her off. “And you thought that Uncle John could have killed that girl?” she asked incredulously. “Uncle John? He was going out there to escape from Sara!”

  “Amanda never believed it,” Michael said. “But I had to consider him as a suspect.”

  “Well, you can just forget about it—that is, if you think it happened the night of the accident. Or even if it didn’t. John was in Europe—Paris, I think—for some big conference.”