by Carrie Carr
"I don't know if I'll ever be able to like you, but I do want to apologize for my earlier behavior." Michael held out his hand. "It's apparent to me that you love my daughter, and that she loves you. So for her sake, I want to try and get along with you." He felt the strong grip as Lex shook his hand.
"Sounds fair enough to me, Mr. Cauble." Lex glanced over his shoulder and saw Amanda smile. I'd try to get along with Satan himself if it would keep that look on her face.
He looked closely at Lex's face, and saw it soften as she met his daughter's eyes. Mom and Dad think the world of this woman. Guess being a little nice can't hurt. "You might as well call me Michael, since we're going to be seeing each other some."
Lex saw her lover's plaintive look. "All right, Michael. Most folks call me Lex. At least that's what they call me to my face." She winked and smiled broadly.
Michael nodded. "Lex. It's going to be real interesting getting to know you, I think."
"Hey. Remember me?" Amanda waved her hands wildly. "Hello?"
Michael turned around and smiled at his daughter. Thank God for my parents. They've done an excellent job with her and Jeannie. I couldn't ask for two more wonderful daughters. "What's the matter, sweetheart? Feeling a little left out?" He sat back down on the bed and grasped her hand.
Amanda stuck out her bottom lip. "No. I'm fine. Just a little ignored." She saw the look on Lex's face and almost laughed out loud. "What?"
"You are a brat." Lex walked back to the other side of the room and picked up the plastic bag. "And after I bought you all of this--stuff." She brought the bag over and dropped it on the other side of the bed. "Now, if you two will excuse me, I'm going to go mug someone for a cup of coffee." Lex ruffled Amanda's hair and started for the door.
"Thank you, honey." Amanda enjoyed the view as Lex walked away from her. Definitely got to get her to rest and eat more. Those jeans are too baggy.
Lex stopped in the doorway and turned. "Anytime. I'll be back in a few minutes. Give you two some time to talk."
"I really appreciate that, Lex." Michael nodded in her direction. "Thank you."
"No problem." Lex waved and closed the door behind her as she left the room. She had only taken a few steps when the two policemen from the night before caught her in the hallway. Great. Just what I don't need. Backwater Vice.
Sergeant Byers held out his hand to stop Lex. "Ms. Walters. Can we have a moment of your time?"
She glared at him. "Sergeant. I really don't think this is a good time. I'm tired, sore, and there's a cup of coffee in the cafeteria with my name on it." She started to walk around him.
The shorter detective grabbed her arm. "You don't understand, Walters. That wasn't a request." The muscles in her arm tightened before she shook his hand away. "You can either talk to us now, or I'll be more than happy to handcuff your sorry ass and drag you down to our office."
"Keep your hands off me, Officer," Lex purposely didn't use his title, "or I'll sue you for harassment and false arrest." She moved closer, so that he had to strain his neck to look up into her face.
Byers grabbed the detective's shoulder and pulled him back. "Dammit, Barry. Back off." He glared after his partner. The shorter man raised his hands in the air angrily and stormed down the hallway. The sergeant gave Lex an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry about that, Ms. Walters. He's been under a lot of stress lately."
Lex snorted. "Haven't we all? What the hell have I done to him, anyway?"
"It's not you, exactly. His wife just recently left him. I hope you'll understand. I've worked with him for almost ten years, and he was never like this until this separation."
"Yeah? Sounds like she got smart, if you ask me." Lex was fed up with the stocky man's attitude. "Find herself a better guy?"
Byers ducked his head. "No. A better woman." He looked up into her widened eyes. "Just don't hold this against him, okay? He's normally a really good guy."
With a curt nod, she leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest. "What is it that you need from me, Sergeant? I could use some coffee and maybe a little bite to eat." Lex refused to discuss the detective any further. Serves him right. Hope she bagged a beauty.
"I understand. How about if I buy you that cup of coffee, and we talk in the cafeteria?" He gestured for her to precede him to the lunchroom.
"Sure. But I need to get back soon to check on Amanda, all right?" She walked into the cafeteria and saw the detective brooding at a far table. She shrugged her shoulders and went over to sit by the sullen officer. When he looked up with a sneer, Lex raised her hands in defense. "Don't look at me like that. You're the ones who want to talk." She pulled out a chair and sat across from Weingart.
"Thanks again, Ms. Walters." Sergeant Byers sat next to his partner and opened a manila folder. "We just finished going over some information forwarded to us from your sheriff's department and wanted to ask you a few questions."
"Okay, but I don't know how much help I will be." Lex leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Should I call my lawyer?"
Detective Weingart stood and leaned over the table. "Don't give us any attitude, Walters. You're in no position to be a smartass."
The sergeant grabbed the shorter man's shoulder and pulled him back to his seat. "Sit, Barry." He gave Lex an apologetic smile. "I will try to make this as short as possible, Ms. Walters. I know you've been through quite a bit lately."
Lex nodded. "Thanks. I'll try to help you any way I can." She glared at the detective. I don't care what Grumpy's problem is, but he's about to get an attitude adjustment, Walters-Style.
Sergeant Byers consulted the papers in front of him. "All right. As I was saying, the sheriff's department has found some relevant information. They sent it to us, in hopes that we can somehow tie it in to Miss Cauble's poisoning."
They did? Charlie hasn't notified me yet. Lex tried to appear unconcerned. "Really? What does that have to do with me? I haven't heard anything."
"I'm not surprised," Weingart grumbled. "Civilians aren't usually very high up on our need-to-know list." A well-placed kick to the detective's leg shut him up. He frowned at his partner and continued to look sour.
"Ms. Walters," Byers asked carefully, "from what Sheriff Bristol told us last night, you've had some problems with Miss Cauble's family, correct?"
"What do you mean by problems? Her parents don't care much for me, but I get along just fine with everyone else." Lex watched as Byers continued to take notes.
He looked up seriously. "Do you think that her father is capable of hiring someone to do you harm?"
Lex closed her eyes and thought for a moment about the man she had first met in California. He'd been drinking, and he accused Lex of being a "dirt-poor farmer trying to sink her claws into Amanda's money." No matter what she said about her income and finances, he hadn't believed her. She eventually got into his face and said, "I love her with everything that I am. Nothing can change that." That didn't sit well with Michael Cauble. He'd slammed her against his wet bar and punched her in the face. If it hadn't been for Amanda, Lex didn't know what would have happened. Michael told her she wasn't welcome in his house, and Lex hadn't bothered to argue. She had no intention of spending another second with someone so hateful. To this day, she didn't care if she ever saw him again.
She opened her eyes and sighed. Oh, yeah. He was more than capable. Her mind then compared that scene with the man now sitting in Amanda's hospital room. "I'm not sure. I suppose that if he were mad or upset enough, maybe." She looked at the sergeant carefully. "What makes you ask that?"
"They found where Matt Sterling had been staying," the detective answered. "He received several calls from a number in California, and the prosecutor's office traced them to a private office number in Los Angeles." He took the folder and passed a sheet of paper across the table. "The office was listed as Cau-King Enterprises, which is the name of the company for which Michael Cauble is the CEO."
"Cau-King?" Lex looked down at the paper on the d
esk and then reached into her pocket. Of course. Cauble-Kingston. It's the combination of his last name and Elizabeth's. Damn. She wadded up the scrap of paper from her pocket and tossed it on the table. I wonder if he knew that I was one of the majority stockholders in his company. "Great."
Sergeant Byers stopped writing when the paper hit the table. "What?" He looked at his partner in confusion.
"I just sold my stock in that company, recently," Lex mumbled. "But I had no idea that it was his."
"How much stock are we talking about?" Weingart asked.
Lex frowned. "Umm. Over forty percent. It had been my mother's." And if the other stockholders bailed, that would just about ruin him.
The detective snorted. "Guess he figured it would be safer to get you out of the way. According to our records, Michael Cauble lost everything." He gave Lex an obnoxious smile. "Bet your little friend won't be too happy with you when she finds out you ruined her father." He leaned back in his chair and chuckled. "But then again, she'll probably dump you when she learns that her father nearly killed her while trying to get to you."
I knew the man didn't like me, but I never thought he'd resort to attempted murder of his daughter's lover! If he did, that is. But he nearly killed his daughter trying to save his own rotten hide. Dear God. Lex jumped up from the table in a rage. "That son of a bitch!" She knocked her chair down as she raced from the cafeteria.
Chapter Twenty-One
LEX STORMED DOWN the corridor, oblivious to everything around her. I should have never left him alone with Amanda. That bastard nearly killed her. She brushed by a group of people that had just stepped out of the elevator.
"Lex! Where are you--" Frank was nearly knocked down by the distraught woman. He looked at his wife. "What's bitten her on the butt?"
Jeannie grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hallway. "I don't know, but I think we'd better follow her."
Lex shoved open the door to Amanda's room. It slammed back against the wall with a bang. Michael was sitting on Amanda's bed with his arms around his daughter. Both were smiling. "Cauble! Get your slimy hands off of her." She rushed into the room and grabbed the man by his shirtfront. "You don't deserve to be anywhere near Amanda, you bastard." She picked him up and shook him roughly.
"Lex! What are you doing?" Amanda tried to break Lex's hold on her father. "Have you lost your mind?" She frantically clawed at Lex's hands. "Put my father down."
"It's the money, isn't it? That's all you've ever cared about." Lex tightened her grasp on the flailing man's shirt. "I ought to toss your sorry ass through that window, but I'd probably be arrested for littering."
Michael fought the iron grip on his shirt in vain. "What the hell are you talking about? What's gotten into you?"
Lex continued to shake him as she dragged the frantic man away from her lover. "The police traced the calls you made to Sterling and they'll probably connect you to the poisoning, too." Lex slammed him into the wall. "Amanda almost died, you greedy son of a bitch."
Jeannie and Frank burst into the room. "Daddy?" she yelled, as her husband rushed over to the older man's aid. "What's going on?"
"I don't know." Amanda was trying to pull the IV from her hand while she watched her lover manhandle her father. "Frank! Do something, please."
"Come on, Lex. Let him go." The ex-football player wrapped an arm around Lex's chest and pulled. "It's bad form to kill the in-laws, no matter how much they might deserve it."
"I didn't have anything to do with this." Michael pleaded his case as Lex was forcibly pulled away. He rubbed his chest where her fists had dug into him. "Believe me, as much as I disliked you, I would never put my daughter in any danger."
"Let go of me, dammit!" Lex strained to break away from the big man's grasp. "I'm gonna kill him!" She kicked at the older man, trying to make some sort of contact. "Lying bastard."
Amanda had finally given up working the intravenous needle loose gently. She ripped it from her hand and rushed over to stand between Lex and Michael. "Honey, please." She reached up and touched the struggling woman's cheek. "What's going on?"
Lex looked into Amanda's eyes and stopped thrashing around. Damn. I think I blew this one. "Let me go, Frank," she requested quietly. She's never going to forgive me.
He looked at Amanda, who nodded. With a heavy sigh, Frank released his hold on Lex. "You okay?" he whispered in Lex's ear.
"Yeah. Sorry about that." Lex glared at Michael. "You've got some nerve, showing your face around here." She calmed when she felt Amanda's hands on her stomach. Lex studied Amanda sadly. "The police traced calls from your father's private office to Matt Sterling." Please understand what I'm trying to tell you. He almost killed you just to get to me.
Amanda turned around and looked at her father. "Is that true, Daddy?"
"No. I swear I had nothing to do with this entire mess. Someone else used my office while I was out of town." Michael looked back and forth between his two daughters. Jeannie stood skeptically off to one side, her arms crossed over her chest. Amanda was gently patting Lex on the stomach as she tried to calm her.
Lex shook her head. "Yeah, right. Who else has access to your house? Are you trying to tell us that the butler did it?"
Jeannie began to laugh at the absurdity of Lex's statement, then paused. "The only other person who would be in his office is . . . Mother?"
"No way," Frank scoffed. "She's a lady, a--"
"Cold-hearted, two-faced, money hungry manipulator," Michael finished quietly. "She practically admitted everything to me before I left."
Amanda looked at her father with a shocked look on her face.
"I don't believe it. Mother can be distant at times, but I don't think that she would ever purposely hurt anyone."
Michael watched as Lex put her arm around his daughter to comfort her. "I can prove it. All we have to do is find Mark Garrett and ask him. He's been working for her since I fired him several weeks ago."
"It won't do you any good. You won't find Garrett in any shape to talk." Charlie stood in the doorway with Martha behind him. "What's going on here? We could hear you folks all the way down the hall."
Lex pointed at Michael. "I can't believe he's trying to shift the blame to his own wife. Ask him. He seems to have all the damned answers." She allowed Amanda to pull her back to the bed and sit her down.
"Calm down, love. Let's see if Charlie can make any sense out of this, okay?" Amanda sat next to Lex and held her hands. I can't believe that my mother could have anything to do with this. Why would she want Lex hurt or killed?
The sheriff moved further into the room. "I hate to ask you this, Mr. Cauble, but do you have proof that you've been out of town for the past couple of weeks?"
Michael nodded. "I do. Just not with me. But I can get my business expense receipts together in the next day or so." He paused momentarily. "Wait a minute. You said that Garrett couldn't help? Let me talk to him. I bet I can get him to cooperate."
"I don't think so. He's dead," Charlie informed the executive. "We've got a man flying to England to bring back his body."
Michael shuddered. "Dear God. How did he die?"
Charlie released Martha's hand so that she could walk over to check on Lex and Amanda. Amanda had tears in her eyes, and her companion was sitting with her head hanging down and her shoulders slumped. "He fell in front of a bus. Although witnesses said that he may have been pushed."
"How horrible," Amanda gasped. She was grateful for the touch when Martha put a gentle hand on her shoulder.
Martha looked down at Amanda's hands and noticed that the top one was bleeding. "Let me call a nurse." She pulled out a linen handkerchief and covered the wound. Lex was about to reach for the call button on the bed when Detective Weingart stomped into the room all out of breath.
"Walters. What's the big idea, running off like that?" He looked around the room at all the people now staring at him. "Shit. Now what's going on?"
Lex stood and faced him. "Get out of here, Detective. Th
is is a family matter." She was still upset and was on the verge of losing complete control. One wrong word out of you, and I'll gladly tear into your pathetic ass.
"I don't think so." He edged up until he was directly in her face. "Give me an excuse, lady--"
Sergeant Byers stood in the doorway. "Barry." He looked around the room. "I'm going to need everyone to leave, except the immediate family. We have a few questions to ask."
Michael shook his head. "No one will be talking to you without having our lawyers present, gentlemen." He glanced at Amanda, who was now standing behind Lex with one hand on her back. "My daughter is still recovering from her ordeal, so I'd appreciate it if you would come back at a later time."
"Your daughter? So you're Michael Cauble?" Byers asked. At the older man's nod, he took a step forward. "I have some questions for you, sir. If you'll just come with me, we'll go somewhere that we won't disturb your daughter."
Charlie saw the worried look on Amanda's face. "Why don't you fellows step out into the hallway with me, and I'll update you on what's going on." No sense in upsetting her any more than necessary. Poor girl.
"Sheriff, you don't have any authority here." Detective Weingart turned around to face the lawman. "We'd appreciate it if you'd just mind your own business." A firm hand on his shoulder made him jump slightly.
"I'd appreciate it if you'd show Sheriff Bristol the respect he deserves," Lex said menacingly as she tightened the grip she had on the detective's shoulder. Cocky little bastard. No one talks to Charlie like that.
Weingart spun back around and broke her hold. "That's it." He grabbed Lex's right wrist and twisted her around, bending her arm painfully behind her back. "I've had it with your attitude, Walters." He reached under his jacket and behind his back for his handcuffs.
Amanda moved forward when she saw the look of pain on Lex's face. "Stop it, please. You're hurting her." Sergeant Byers sighed and grabbed his partner's arm. "Let her go, Barry. Let's see what Sheriff Bristol has to tell us." "She assaulted me, Kent. I have every right to book her," the detective objected, but he pushed Lex away roughly.
