Dangerous Deception

by Beverly Barton

  “I couldn’t bear to think of what I’d done. I—I destroyed the one thing that meant more to me than life itself.” Edward’s big, broad shoulders shook with emotion.

  Lausanne turned her gaze on Jeremy Loman. “You’re the one who held things together, the one who took care of the details.” Her mind created a logical scenario. “The day it happened, you took your employer upstairs to his room, gave him a sedative and put him to bed. Then you went back downstairs and carried the bodies outside and put them in the trunk of—” she pointed directly at the Bentley “—this car, because you knew the police were unlikely to inspect a car used by no one else in the family. Afterward you cleaned up the blood as best you could and tidied the room. Then that night, you took the bodies to the river and dumped them.”

  “You are very smart,” Loman said.

  “And so are you,” Lausanne told him. “Your devotion to your employer is admirable. I’ll bet you’re the one who took care of all the other dirty work, like arranging to pay off Megan and maybe even hiring someone to kill her and to kill me.”

  Loman lunged for Lausanne, who jumped out of his grasp.

  When she broke into a run, Edward Bedell shouted, “Catch her!”

  “Shoot her, sir,” Loman retaliated.

  Edward aimed the gun, but before he could fire, a rifle shot rang out, shattering the left back window of the Bentley.

  WITHIN SECONDS, the hidden police officers surrounded the Bentley, handcuffed a startled Jeremy Loman and ordered Edward Bedell, who had crawled back inside the car, to surrender.

  Dom came racing toward Lausanne, who rushed into his open arms. He swung her off her feet and shoved her behind him, up against the concrete wall near the elevators.

  A single shot rang out, as loud as a cannon blast in the quiet of the underground parking garage.

  “God damn,” Desmond bellowed the curse. “Everyone stay back. That shot came from inside the Bentley.”

  From where he stood, Dom couldn’t see the other side of the parked Bentley all that well, but he was able to see Desmond heading toward the car, his 9mm ready to use if necessary.

  Less than a minute later, Desmond called out. “Bedell’s dead. He shot himself in the head.”

  While the police buzzed about the parking garage like a swarm of worker bees, Dom yanked Lausanne around and into his arms. She held on to him for dear life, but sniffling softly as if she didn’t want him to know she was crying with relief.

  “It’s all right, honey. You’re safe. It’s all over.”

  Desmond marched over to them, all the while issuing orders to his men. He paused in front of them and said, “Take her home. We’ve got everything we need for now.” When Lausanne raised her head from Dom’s chest and looked at the lieutenant, he stared right at her and said, “Thank you, Ms. Raney. You did a great job here tonight.”

  Dom didn’t waste any time getting Lausanne out of the parking garage and away from Bedell, Inc. The officer who had brought Lausanne there in the taxi drove the two of them back to the Chattanoogan Hotel.

  When the elevator stopped at the fifth floor, Dom lifted Lausanne in his arms and carried her down the corridor toward their room. The way he felt right this minute, he might not ever let her go. He just might keep the two of them locked up in the hotel room for the next forty or fifty years.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  IN HIS LINE OF WORK, Bain Desmond had been responsible on numerous occasions for informing a family that a loved one had been killed. But in his fifteen years on the Chattanooga police force, he’d never dreaded anything as much as he did telling Cara Bedell that her father had committed suicide, after confessing to murdering his elder daughter and her lover. He had phoned ahead and told her he needed to speak to the family and would appreciate it if she would assemble everyone together before he arrived. Bain had no idea how she’d handle the news or what effect the old bastard’s death would have on her life. Maybe she would inherit her daddy’s fortune, kick stepmommy dearest out, marry Grayson Perkins and live happily ever after.

  When Bain arrived at the Bedell mansion on Lookout Mountain, an area where old money had lived for generations, and rang the bell, Cara Bedell opened the door for him. Her eyes were wide and bright and he realized she sensed that his news was not good.

  “Please, come in,” she said. “Gray is here. He came straight from work an hour ago and told us that something terrible must have happened at Bedell, Inc., tonight, in the underground parking area. He said that the police wouldn’t allow him to get his car and asked him to take a taxi home, but wouldn’t tell him what was going on.”

  “Yes, ma’am, that’s correct.” Bain entered the two story foyer.

  “I did as you requested when you phoned and had Patrice come home from her charity event, but I can’t seem to locate Daddy or Jeremy. I’ve tried reaching them on their cell phones and—”

  “Could we join the others, Mr. Perkins and Mrs. Bedell?” Bain requested. “What I have to tell y’all, I’d like to say to all of you at the same time.”

  “Certainly. They’re waiting in the living room.” Cara turned and headed toward the closed pocket doors.

  She paused at the double doors and glanced over her shoulder at Bain, who stood directly behind her. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but for a good thirty seconds, she simply stared at him, then she opened the doors and walked into the living room.

  As soon as she entered, Patrice Bedell shot up off the sofa where she’d been sitting with Grayson Perkins and said, “What’s this all about, Lieutenant? If you’ve dragged me away from—”

  “Sit down and shut up,” Cara told her stepmother.

  “Why, I never,” Patrice gasped. “Your manners are deplorable, every bit as bad as your father’s.”

  “What happened in the underground parking deck?” Grayson asked. “When I left, there were police cars and an ambulance and—”

  “Yeah, I know. I was there.” Bain took a deep breath. “There is no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it. Edward Bedell committed suicide. He shot himself in the head. He was in the back seat of his Bentley, parked in the Bedell, Inc. basement parking garage.”

  Deafening silence.

  Patrice slumped down on the sofa, her eyes glazed with shock.

  “Poor Edward,” Grayson said. “He couldn’t bear the thought of living without Audrey. I know just how he feels, but—” He looked up at Cara like a hungry dog begging for a bone. “But he should have thought of Cara, his other daughter, who loves…loved him far more than Audrey ever did.”

  “Was Jeremy with Daddy when he—?” Cara asked, then clenched her teeth, obviously trying her best not to cry.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Bain replied.

  “Where is Jeremy now?” she asked. “He must be devastated. He loved Daddy like a brother. He’d have done anything for him.”

  “Mr. Loman has been arrested,” Bain said.

  “What? Why?” Cara’s gaze collided with Bain’s.

  “Mr. Loman confessed to being an accessory to murder.”

  “Whose murder?” Grayson asked.

  Bain cleared his throat. “Lausanne Raney telephoned the three of you this morning and told each of you that she had received a letter from Megan Reynolds.” Bain took his time, speaking carefully, as he explained how Lausanne had worked with the CPD to set a trap for a killer. “Did any one of you tell someone else about the phone call you received from Ms. Raney?”

  “I went straight to the police,” Cara said. “I spoke to Sergeant Swain.”

  Bain nodded.

  “I didn’t mention it to anyone,” Grayson said. “I didn’t want anything to do with Ms. Raney and whatever trick she was trying to play on us.”

  “I told Edward.” Patrice glanced from person to person, her gaze questioning them, as if asking, Did I do anything wrong? “I thought he should know that the Raney woman was trying to cause trouble.”

  “Ms. Raney received a call from Mr. Loma
n this morning, and following his instructions, she met him in the underground parking garage at Bedell, Inc. tonight. Ms. Raney was wired and had police backup.” Bain went on to explain about Edward Bedell’s confession—that he had accidentally shot his own daughter when she’d stepped in the way of a bullet meant for her lover. Without going into details, he explained how Jeremy Loman had removed the bodies and taken them to the river.

  “Dear God, Edward killed Audrey!” Grayson crossed his hands over his chest in a dramatic manner.

  “Poor, poor Daddy.” Cara gazed off into space, a lost look on her face.

  “Later, if you’d like to talk to me about this…about anything, Ms. Bedell, call me.” Bain laid his business card on the antique coffee table.

  When he walked out of the room, Cara followed and caught up with him just as he reached the front door. “Lieutenant?”

  He turned to face her. “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Will you notify me when the police release my sister’s body and my father’s? I believe it only fitting that they have a double funeral. Daddy would have liked—” Her voice cracked. She tightened her jaw and breathed in through her nose.

  Instinctively, Bain took a step toward her. She was trying so desperately to be brave and strong and not fall apart, but he knew she needed somebody to lean on, if only for a little while.

  “If there is anything—” He took another hesitant step toward her.

  “Thank you, but no,” she replied.

  He stopped dead still.

  “I…uh…should contact our lawyers and see about taking care of Jeremy. He—he tried to take care of Daddy, didn’t he, but he went about it all wrong. And then there will be the funeral arrangements to make later and—oh, God, I’ll have to make a statement to the press. Bedell, Inc. stock is bound to be affected by this. Gray will be so overwrought that he’ll be of little help to me and Patrice will want the will read before breakfast in the morning, the greedy bitch.” Cara talked rapidly, as if her mind were whirling out of control with so much to think about, so many plans to make. “I loved him, you know, even if he never loved me.”

  At first, Bain wasn’t sure if Cara meant Edward Bedell or Grayson Perkins, then when she said, “Daddy wanted to love me, but he just couldn’t,” Bain saw such raw pain in her face that he didn’t know whether to turn away or pull her into his arms.

  He closed the distance between them and without giving any thought to what he was doing, acting purely on instinct, he wrapped his arms around Cara. She gasped the moment their bodies touched, but when Bain cupped the back of her head, she relaxed against him and rested her head on his shoulder. A few seconds later, she trembled, then began weeping.

  “Cara, where are you, darling?” Grayson Perkins called out as he emerged from the living room.

  Cara jerked out of Bain’s embrace. Their gazes connected for half a second, then she replied to her brother-in-law. “I’ll be right there.”

  Grayson stood on the far side of the foyer, a lost little boy look on his handsome face. He held out his hand. “I’m simply devastated, Cara. However will we survive without Edward?”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant.” Cara seemed uncertain of what else to say or do.

  “Cara!” Grayson lamented.

  “You’re being summoned,” Bain told her.

  “Gray needs me.” She wiped the tears from her face with her fingertips.

  And what do you need, Cara Bedell? “You know how to reach me if…” Bain left his sentence unfinished, then turned and walked out of the Bedell mansion. When he closed the door behind him, he stood there on the expansive veranda and cursed a blue streak, calling himself every kind of fool known to mankind.

  WHEN LAUSANNE WOKE the next morning, Dom was sitting across from the bed, his feet propped up on the edge of the bed and a cup of coffee in his right hand. He wore his wrinkled slacks from the night before, but his chest was bare.

  “Good morning, sleepyhead,” he said.

  Stretching, she smiled at him. “What time is it?”

  “Nearly ten-thirty.”

  “I’m hungry.” She kicked the covers to the foot of the bed, revealing her naked body and issuing Dom a seductive invitation.

  “I’ll order breakfast,” he said teasingly.

  “I’m not hungry for food.”

  Dom grinned. “Woman, you’re insatiable.”

  “Are you complaining?”

  “No, ma’am. I’m no fool. I know a great thing when I see it.” He appraised her body in a mockingly lecherous fashion. “But twice last night will have to hold you until later. We have business to discuss.”

  She crawled out of bed and slinked toward him. He set his coffee mug on the nightstand. When she snuggled onto his lap and curled her arms around his neck, he swatted her playfully on her butt.

  “What sort of business do we have to discuss?” She planted half a dozen kisses over his face as she rubbed her breasts across his chest.

  He grabbed her, shoved her back and said, “Down girl.”

  Lausanne giggled.

  “Come on, honey, let’s be serious for a few minutes.”

  “Okay. I’m serious.” She frowned. “Is this serious enough for you?”

  With one arm around her waist, he leaned down and grabbed the edge of his discarded shirt from where he’d tossed it on the floor last night. They’d been in a frenzy, ripping off each other’s clothes and going at each other like a couple of wild animals. They had been riding the crest of adrenaline highs created by the danger and excitement they’d shared.

  “Here, honey, put this on,” he told her. “I can’t think straight with you naked and wiggling around in my lap.”

  Lausanne slipped into his shirt, but left it unbuttoned. “Down to serious business. I’m listening.”

  Dom cleared his throat. “I love you.”

  She tensed. “What?”

  “I love you,” he repeated.

  “Oh.”

  “I think this is where you say you love me, too.”

  “I—I can’t.”

  “Why not? You do love me, don’t you?”

  “Of course I love you,” she said.

  “Now that we’ve got that settled, I have a very important question to ask you.”

  She averted her gaze, looking everywhere except right at him.

  “Lausanne Raney, will you marry me?”

  “What did you say?”

  “I love you, honey, and I want you be my wife. You know, love and marriage and kids and happily ever after. The whole nine yards.”

  She shot up out of his lap, placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Are you out of your mind? Just because I’m not a murderer doesn’t mean I’m not an ex-con with a horrible track record where men are concerned. What would your family—your sisters—say if you brought a woman like me home and introduced me as your wife?”

  “Actually, I’d thought we’d do things up right and have a big Texas wedding back in Green Springs, in the same church where my folks got married. That way my sisters could be your bridesmaids and my dad could be my best man.”

  “I can’t marry you. I’d ruin your life. You know what kind of—”

  He yanked her down into his lap and kissed her into silence. When they finally came up for air, he said, “You have to marry me.”

  “I do?”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “I’m not pregnant, so it’s not as if there’s a child involved.”

  “Well, that’s not exactly true.”

  She glared at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you see, I’m planning on adopting a little girl named May. She’s ten and a half years old and has lived most of her life in foster care. She really needs a mother and father who’ll love her and take care of her and appreciate her for the very special child she is.”

  Lausanne’s heart stopped. Then she started breathing again, air rushing out of her mouth in a giant gasp. “Dom?”

  “Hmm…?”

&
nbsp; “Are you talking about my little girl?”

  He nodded.

  “Her name is May?”

  He nodded again.

  “Why has she been in foster care all these years? I was told she would be adopted by a loving couple who desperately wanted a baby.”

  Lausanne sensed the hesitation in Dom, saw the sorrow in his eyes. Oh, God, no! “Tell me,” she said.

  “There were several couples who wanted May, but it seems they all wanted a perfect baby, one without any flaws.”

  “And May was flawed?”

  Dom wrapped Lausanne in his arms and held her tightly, as if he was afraid she’d crumble into pieces if he didn’t hold her together.

  “May was born with a condition known as ONH. Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. ONH is not progressive. It’s not inherited and cannot be cured.” When Lausanne keened softly, Dom squeezed her fiercely. “There is no known cause for ONH.” Dom kissed her temple. “Honey, May is legally blind, although she can see light and shadows.”

  “My baby girl is blind and I never knew…and because she has this condition, this ONH, nobody wanted to adopt her?” Lausanne trembled, from head to toe.

  “As an infant she lived with foster parents who were very good to her and got her all the help she needed, but this couple were in their late sixties. The wife died when May was five and she lived in a couple of other foster homes until she was eight. She’s been living with Brenda and Larry Grissom for the past two years. They’re good people and are caring for half a dozen children with mental or physical disabilities.”

  “Oh, Dom. Dear Lord, if only I’d known.”

  “You know now, honey. Your little girl needs you. She needs us.”

  Lausanne twisted around on Dom’s lap so that they were face to face. “Where is she? Can we go see her?” Tears trickled down Lausanne’s cheeks.

  “The Grissoms live in a little town less than an hour from here. It’s a place called Jasper.” He swiped the tears off her cheeks with his open palm. “I spoke to them about an hour ago, while you were still sleeping. They’re expecting us this afternoon.”

  “I’m going to see my daughter this afternoon?”