by Elle Kennedy
Releasing a frustrated breath, he glanced at his assistant, his expression grave. “Anything else?”
“Chicago Imperial turned down our loan application for the Lakeshore shopping plaza.” Ian looked utterly miserable. “They feel you might be overextended, and that, uh, there’s a chance your assets may be frozen if you’re charged with a crime.”
“Damn it!” Cole slammed his hand on the tabletop, sending the papers flying. He quickly collected his composure and fixed the strewn contracts.
Funny, how Teresa seemed to be doing more damage in death than she had in life. The humiliation of her infidelities he could handle, but the destruction of his business? He’d built his empire from the ground up, worked himself to the bone to become successful and now he risked losing it all.
Ian hesitated, clearing his throat. “But I do have some other news.”
“Good or bad?” Cole muttered.
“You could look at it from both ways. We’ve had an offer for Donovan Enterprises.”
His breath jammed in his throat. “What?”
“Lewis Limited wants to buy us out.”
The air in his lungs slowly drained as he mulled over what Ian had said. Lewis Limited was another competitor, an outfit that had recently entered the real estate landscape and made a killing in housing developments. “I’m not selling,” he grumbled. “It’s ridiculous to even consider it.”
When Ian didn’t answer, a defensive edge laced Cole’s tone. “The case will be closed soon. Teresa’s killer will be caught and the public will know I’m not a murderer.”
“Did your FBI agent tell you that?” There was no mistaking the dubious pitch to Ian’s question.
“No, but I have confidence she’ll turn up some new leads. She’s smart, Ian. And good at her job, from what I can tell.”
Ian’s brown eyes searched Cole’s face. “You like her.” It was a statement, not a question. “She’s…nice.”
He almost rolled his eyes. Nice? Try drop-dead gorgeous. Wildly sexy. Or maybe intelligent and captivating was a more apt description. However you described her, Cole couldn’t deny that he was drawn to Jamie Crawford.
“She did seem nice,” Ian conceded. Then he sighed. “But let’s just hope she really is on our side, boss. The company is in trouble as long as the case remains unsolved, and if Agent Crawford is playing you, building a case behind your back while pretending to be open-minded…”
“She’s not.” The conviction he felt resonated in his voice.
“Like I said, let’s hope.” Ian’s next words brought a chill to Cole’s body. “Otherwise you’re in danger of losing everything you worked so hard for.”
After stopping at the B&B to shower and change, Jamie drove straight to the police station to see Finn, who spent twenty minutes describing to her the damage caused by the storm. He finished with, “At least I didn’t have to worry about coming to rescue you. You made it back to the B&B okay, right?”
Jamie fidgeted in her seat. “Actually, I didn’t. It started pouring as I was leaving, so I sought refuge at Cole Donovan’s.”
A beat of silence, then Finn’s face turned beet red and he looked ready to explode. “Are you crazy? You should have braved the damn storm and driven home!”
A thorn of offense stung her skin. “Jeez, you really need to calm down when it comes to that man. He was a perfect gentleman, Finn.”
“He’s a potential murder suspect,” he shot back.
“I had a gun. Not that I expected to use it, though. If he did kill his ex-wife, I highly doubt he would draw more attention to himself by hurting a federal agent.” She cocked her head. “Out of curiosity, why do you dislike him so much? Don’t tell me you’re jealous of his wealth.”
Finn barked out a laugh. “Hardly. Though he does like to flaunt his money, cocky bastard that he is.”
Somehow she found that unlikely. Cole seemed unbelievably indifferent to his wealth, a huge contrast to the rich folks Jamie’s mom had been forced to deal with. Kelly Ann Crawford’s job at the maid company had exposed both her and her daughter to some really nasty people. Jamie’s mom suffered veiled put-downs from her rich employers and had even been accused of stealing jewelry more than once. From what Jamie had seen so far, Cole didn’t flaunt a thing nor did he treat her as inferior.
She suspected Finn might have some bottled-up resentment toward the guy, and his next remark confirmed her suspicions.
“When he first showed up, he bought half the inventory at the art gallery just to show everyone he could.”
Jamie cast him a knowing look. “Ah, I get it now.”
“Get what?” he muttered.
“I happened to meet the gallery owner yesterday.” She studied his handsome face. “A stunning brunette by the name of Sarah Connelly.”
Her revelation got the reaction she’d expected—the same shuttered expression Sarah had donned when Jamie had mentioned Finn. The tight line of his jaw told her more than he probably wanted to reveal. Finn obviously had some history with the woman. Important history, seeing as he apparently hated Cole just for having had contact with Sarah.
“So you two used to date?” she added nonchalantly.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Did you love her?”
“Again, none of your business,” he snapped.
Jamie instinctively backed off. She’d never seen this volatile side of Finn. His blue eyes had darkened to metallic cobalt and his hands had become fists, pressed tightly over the arms of his chair. She suddenly realized the question she really should have asked was Do you still love her? But the answer was written all over his face.
“Sorry I brought it up,” she said in a quiet voice.
A breath shuddered out of his chest. “Sorry I snapped at you. Sarah…she’s a touchy subject for me.”
“Yeah, I see that.”
As if to punctuate his statement, Finn promptly changed the topic at hand to a more pressing one. “My deputy Max interviewed a few people yesterday before the storm hit. I’ve got Anna typing up the statements, and I want you to look over them when you get the chance.”
“No problem. Is there anyone who stands out as a suspect?”
“They all have alibis that check out, but they all share the same hatred for Teresa too.”
Jamie shook her head. “What was it about that woman that made everyone hate her?”
And why did Cole marry her? she wanted to add. She kept the thought to herself. Cole must have seen something in the woman to fall in love with her, yet from everything Jamie was learning about Teresa Donovan née Matthews, she couldn’t figure out what.
“You know how I always say that some people are just born evil?” Finn gave a bleak shrug. “Well, Teresa was rotten to the core. I knew her ever since we were kids, and honestly, there was nothing good or pure about her, even back then.”
“Bad childhood?”
“More or less,” he confirmed. “Dad ran out on the family when Teresa was five. Her mother was a drunk, so all the responsibility of running the house and raising Teresa fell to Valerie, who’s equally rotten. I think both of them felt they were entitled to something more. They had a crappy life and they wanted everyone to know it.”
“Well, at least Teresa had her sister. Misery loves company, after all.”
“Valerie settled down over the years. She works as an office manager for a law firm the next town over. But Teresa didn’t do so well. She was waitressing at Sully’s when she met Cole. Second she realized who he was, she turned up the charm and got a ring out of the deal. A few of us were tempted to tell him the kind of woman she really was, but he pissed off too many people by closing down the mill.”
Finn chuckled, the sound raising Jamie’s hackles. She understood the idea of small-town solidarity and all that, but these people had loathed Teresa themselves. Not one of them could have warned Cole about the woman he was about to marry? She found herself disappointed in her friend, unable to fathom how someone a
s honorable as Finn could let the closing of some silly paper mill relegate him to the sidelines so he could watch another man make the biggest mistake of his life.
She was about to voice her thoughts when Finn’s young deputy Anna Holt appeared in the doorway. “Got a minute, Sheriff?” the dark-haired woman asked.
Finn waved her inside. “What’s up, Anna?”
Anna took a step forward, looking a tad stricken. “There’s a Ronald Emerson here to see you.”
“Who?”
“Ronald Emerson.” Anna sounded slightly confused. “He was Teresa Donovan’s divorce lawyer, and he says he has some information about the case.”
“Let him in,” Finn said with furrowed brows.
Uneasiness climbed up Jamie’s throat, especially when Teresa’s lawyer entered the sheriff’s office and she saw the look on his face. Emerson was in his late fifties, a portly, bearded man who would’ve made a great mall Santa. Only he didn’t look particularly jolly. There was a nervous flicker in his eyes, and he shifted awkwardly, as if fighting the impulse to run out the door.
Finn rose from his chair and shook the attorney’s hand. “I’m Sheriff Finnegan. My deputy said you might have some information about Mrs. Donovan’s murder?”
Emerson visibly swallowed. “I’m not sure if this will help in any way, but I thought I should come in.”
“I’ll decide if this will help. What do you have, Mr. Emerson?”
The lawyer moved toward the desk and set his briefcase atop it. Unsnapping the buckles, he opened the case and extracted several sheets of paper stapled together. Jamie noticed his hands trembled as he handed the papers to Finn.
“What’s this?” Finn asked with a frown.
Emerson sighed. “The restraining order Teresa Donovan was in the process of filing prior to her death.”
Jamie briefly closed her eyes. This did not bode well.
Letting out an expletive, Finn studied the older man. “Teresa was filing a TRO? Against her ex-husband?”
Emerson nodded.
“Did she say why?”
The attorney released another breath. “Because she was scared for her life.”
Chapter 6
The new information sent Jamie’s mind reeling. Its implications were clear. Teresa Donovan had had reason to think that Cole would hurt her. She’d even taken steps to protect herself by getting a restraining order.
This did not look good for Cole. And the tiny glimmer of victory in Finn’s eyes told Jamie that he was now even more convinced of Cole’s guilt.
So why wasn’t she convinced?
She’d spent the entire night with the man, heard about his relationship with his parents, kissed him. She wasn’t easily deceived, and unless Cole was the most phenomenal liar on the planet, she didn’t think she’d pegged him wrong.
“Why didn’t you come forward two weeks ago?” Jamie spoke up, fixing a suspicious look at Teresa’s lawyer.
Emerson went a tad pale. “I was scared,” he confessed. “Mr. Donovan is a very powerful man. I worried he might consider this a personal attack, and perhaps take action against me.”
Jamie stifled a sigh.
“When was the order filed?” Finn asked.
“The date is on the top of the first page.” Emerson rushed on. “She came to my office and admitted that she feared for her life. Apparently her ex-husband had made some threats.”
Jamie raised a brow. “What kind of threats?”
“Teresa said he pulled her aside after a meeting in which we were attempting to reach a settlement. This would have been two or three days before she came to me about the restraining order. Mr. Donovan resisted the idea of settling, and left the room. Teresa went after him, and she claims he told her she didn’t know what he was capable of, and that if she kept pushing him, she was going to regret it.”
Although Finn’s expression went triumphant again, Jamie didn’t quite agree with the obvious conclusion he’d reached. It wasn’t necessarily a death threat, though when taken out of context, she could see how it might sound that way.
“Are you willing to give us a signed statement of everything you’ve told us?” Finn asked the lawyer.
Emerson seemed reluctant, but he nodded. “I suppose I don’t have a choice. If I can help put my client’s murderer behind bars, then I will.”
Finn moved to the window that looked out into the bull-pen and signaled for Anna. When she came into the office, he gestured to Emerson and said, “Anna, will you take Mr. Emerson’s statement?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
“And I’ll need to keep this,” Finn said, holding up the paperwork. “It will have to be logged as evidence.”
“I understand,” Emerson said, then followed Anna out of the room.
After closing the door, Finn walked around his desk and sat down again, giving Jamie a grim look. “Well?”
Uneasiness rose inside her. “Well what?”
“This points to premeditation, Jamie. He threatened Teresa a week before her death. Scared her badly enough that she took out a TRO.”
She couldn’t bring herself to share in his enthusiasm. “And you don’t find it suspicious that she filed the TRO two weeks before they were due in court?” She shook her head. “I don’t know, Finn. This feels too calculated on her part. She knew she had no chance of breaking that prenup. She might have been trying to garner sympathy from the judge, painting Cole as a big, scary thug in order to get his money.”
Finn looked utterly frazzled. “I know you don’t think he did it, but you can’t ignore this. Teresa admitted to being scared of him. He threatened her.”
Biting on her lower lip, Jamie forced her brain into impartial mode, so she could examine the data without any bias. Her gaze drifted to the crime scene photos littering Finn’s desk, zeroing in on one in particular. She found herself reaching for it, studying the macabre scene. Teresa on the floor, her black hair fanned behind her, the small bullet hole directly in her heart. Something niggled at the back of her mind and she struggled to bring it to the surface.
“Okay,” she said absently, more to herself than to Finn. “Okay, this is what we know. Crime of passion.”
Finn made an annoyed sound. “Yeah, I kind of figured that already.”
She held up the photograph. “It wasn’t an execution, or the bullet hole would be between her eyes. Our killer was enraged, he wanted her to die. This is where we get to see his personality.
“He’s a reserved man, aloof, keeps his emotions tightly reined in,” she continued. “I think he works in a distinguished position, he’s held in high regard. He’s a perfectionist, neat, analytical and definitely aware of crime scene procedures, though anyone could be nowadays thanks to the internet. He keeps a distance in his regular life, and as a killer, he kept that same distance. He used a gun—”
“Seems pretty up close and personal,” Finn cut in.
“The opposite actually. A gun gives the killer power, but it also allows him to distance himself from the crime.” She cocked her head. “What do we know about the gun?”
“Hasn’t turned up. But the ballistics guy in Raleigh said the bullet came from a forty-five caliber semiautomatic pistol.”
“Does Cole own any guns?”
“None that are registered.”
“Okay. Well, back to the profile. What was I saying? Right, keeping a distance. I didn’t kill her, the gun did.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Finn grumbled.
“But psychologically sound.”
“Fine, even if that’s true, that man you just described, reserved, aloof, emotionless—sounds a lot like Cole Donovan, doesn’t it?”
“That’s not who he is,” she said softly.
Before she could stop it, the memory of that explosive kiss flew into her head. She remembered the unrestrained passion blazing in his eyes, how he’d taken those big strong hands and yanked her toward him.
Hoping she wasn’t blushing, she said, “Cole’s aloofness is a
show. His emotions aren’t buried deep—they’re rippling beneath the surface. All they need is a trigger and they come spilling out.”
“So you’re saying if he killed Teresa, he would have lost control,” Finn said, a skeptical glint in his eyes.
“Exactly. But this crime had an element of control. A controlled rage. The gun, the pristine crime scene.”
Finn still looked unconvinced. “Cole could have calmed down afterwards and cleaned up the scene.”
“Jeez, you really want him to be our guy, don’t you, Finn?”
“He’s got the strongest motive.” A suspicious cloud crossed his face. “And you don’t want him to be our guy—why is that, Jamie?”
She shifted in discomfort. “It’s not about what I want. I’ve studied dozens of killers, I’ve spoken to them. And my instincts are telling me Cole isn’t one of them.”
Finn crossed his strong arms over his chest. “And mine say he did it. Especially in light of this new evidence.”
“At least tell me we’re going to speak to Cole about this before simply taking Ronald Emerson at his word—which is hearsay, by the way.”
Finn’s jaw hardened. “Not we. Me.”
“What—”
“I want to speak to him alone. I’m beginning to think you might have a bias here, Crawford.”
Disbelief flared in her gut. She couldn’t believe he’d even said that. There was nobody more professional, more objective, than her, and it grated that he actually thought she couldn’t remain impartial around Cole.
Was kissing him impartial?
She pushed the reminder away, but not before a rush of guilt filled her chest. Fine, so kissing Cole probably hadn’t been the smartest thing to do. But it had just happened. An impulsive, crazy moment, made even crazier by the storm and the dog she’d tried to save. And so what if she might be a tiny bit attracted to Cole? She wouldn’t let something as silly as desire cloud her judgment, and Finn had no right shutting her out—especially when he’d asked her to come to Serenade.
“You wanted my help,” she said in an irritated tone. “You begged for it. And now you don’t want me along on an interview?”
