All That Lies Broken (Ashmore's Folly Book 2) (66 page)

“I am afraid,” said Lucy, “that you are not taking my meaning. Come on, we’re both adults. Certain things about sex are just plain messy. The sergeant could tell – do not make me spell this out – that the lady who had been occupying the bed had entertained a gentleman caller.”

More silence. Then Richard swore a curse that she had seldom heard him say, at least not to a woman.

Lucy let the word fall between them.

“Precisely,” she said. “And from the condition of the sheet, the gentleman had been there within the last couple of hours. Don’t look at me like that, this is basic crime scene stuff, the police always check for that. If you watched
CSI
instead of the History Channel, you’d know that. Well, the sergeant put two and two together, and he came up with four – namely, that Dr. Philip Ashmore had had sexual relations with Laura St. Bride—”

“What!”

“—and that the entire story of his flight to the island, his accidental discovery of her, and his not being able to identify her was bogus. His assumption,” Lucy said, “was that Dr. Ashmore had an afternoon tryst with the lady, they had a fight during which things got heated, and she ran off crying and fell into the cove. Then, after a while, Dr. Ashmore got worried, went looking for her, found her, and called for help. After all – they were the only two people that the sergeant knew to have been on the island.”

“God almighty,” Richard said wearily, and sat down across the table from her.

His guard was slipping. He knew how well she could piece together a puzzle. Maybe, just maybe, he understood that he couldn’t stonewall his way out of this.

And he hated the idea of his father taking the heat for something he had done himself.

“But there was that moment when he thought that the pilot threw something out the window,” Lucy said, “and then there was that blood splatter on the door, and the bullet hole in the door frame.”

Something terrible flashed across his face then, but not shock, not surprise.

“In a follow-up phone call, Dr. Ashmore said that he had accidentally fired a gun several months before and hadn’t gotten around to fixing the door frame yet. When asked about the blood, Dr. Ashmore thought he must have cut himself recently on a trip to the cottage.”

Richard held up his hand. “Lucy. Stop. Stop right there.”

“No, I won’t stop!” She leaned across the table to stare him right in the eye. “I’m not stopping until I have my say, and you, oh friend of mine,
you
are going to sit there and hear me out. And you know
why
you are going to sit there and hear me out? Because you
lied
to me, you SOB. I asked you, time and time again, I said, Richard, have you ever heard from Francie? Do you know where she is? And what did you say to me, time and time again, Richard Ashmore?”

Her voice rose.

“You said no. You said you had never heard a word. You knew how I worried about them. They’re my baby sisters. You knew I was trying to find them, you knew I was running ads and hiring that PI – and the whole time, you knew where she was. You knew! You had been in contact with her. You – you had
sex
with her, for God’s sake. You
knew
.”

In the face of her fury, he remained as always – stoic, unmoved. That stupid Vulcan mask of his! For the first time, she understood Diana’s visceral need to ruin that beautiful face.

Diana had always thought small. Lucy wanted to go the distance. She wanted to beat the crap out of him.

He waited until it became apparent that she had said her say. Then, quietly, “No, I did not know where she was. And I didn’t know – I swear to you, Lucy,
I did not know
– where Laura was.”

“I don’t believe you.” She couldn’t hold back anymore. “You knew – and what’s even worse, Dad knew! He knew! Why didn’t he ever say anything!”

She collapsed in her seat and covered her face with her hands, and she didn’t care if he hated feminine tears or not. She deserved these tears; she had held them off since the moment she had seen that report in the long-forgotten police file. Let him see that he had broken her heart! Let him see the damage he had caused with his stupid, thoughtless actions that day!

She had trusted three men totally in her life, and two of them had let her down in the most terrible way. They had lost her her sisters.

She heard him moving, coming around the table to sit down beside her, but she did not look at him. A few seconds later, he pulled her gently against him and cradled her head on his shoulder. “Shh,” he whispered, “don’t cry, Lucy. Don’t. It’s not good for you.” He tightened his arms around her, rocking her, her big brother again, her champion and defender. “I am so sorry you had to find out about this. I never wanted you to have to deal with any of this.”

She sobbed against his shoulder, “Can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”

“No,” and he patted her back. “Or the toothpaste back in the tube.” She managed a broken laugh. They had heard that from Philip so many times when they were small and something had turned up broken and they had run out of dogs, cats, hamsters, and goldfish to blame it on.

After a minute, she pulled away. He let her go but kept his arm loosely around her, and she realized he needed the contact too. She glanced at him; he looked as raw and upset as she felt. “Will you tell me what happened? Please?”

“Wait here.”

He got up and disappeared into his darkened office next door. A minute later, he reappeared and handed her some tissues and a box of Thin Mints. “Here. From my secret stash.”

Lucy wiped the tears from her face and reached for the Thin Mints. “Maybe one. Two. But only because the baby likes chocolate.”

He gave her a smile. “Can’t have the baby needing a chocolate fix.”

They munched companionably for a couple of minutes. Chocolate soothed the soul and made everything a little brighter. Lucy felt herself calming down. The world had righted itself. Richard was going to clear everything up. This all had to be a horrible misunderstanding. Francie hadn’t tried to kill anyone. Richard hadn’t slept with Francie. Philip hadn’t kept Laura’s whereabouts a secret from her.

Richard said finally, “Before we go any further, I want you to know something. Until this evening – until you told me – I had no idea Dad went to the island that day.”

“Really?” But she believed him.

“Really. I knew nothing about Laura being in the cove or getting flown out to a hospital. For
damn
sure I knew nothing about St. Bride showing up here.” He exhaled. “Dad never said a word about that.”

“Why do you think he never said anything? He knew how much I wanted to find them. I can’t think why he wouldn’t have told us.”

He said slowly, “Whatever his reason, it must have been a good one. It must have been something that overrode your need to know – Mom’s need to know, for that matter. Dad wasn’t a capricious man. He was one of the most selfless men I’ve ever known. That he perpetrated this silence—” He shook his head. “I don’t know why.”

They sat for a minute, contemplating the impossible. Richard had to be dealing with the same thing she was facing – the surreal notion that Philip had acted dishonestly.

She finally asked, “Why did you go out there?”

He answered without hesitation. “Because Francie called me to meet her there.”

Lucy stared at him. “Francie called you? Why?”

“I don’t know,” said Richard. “I was at my desk at work – this was before Scott and I left McGuire Cantrey – and I got a call from her. She said she was out at Ash Marine and she needed to talk to me.” He looked into the box of cookies and grimaced. “And, like a damn fool, I went running, moth to the flame, to tell her to stay the hell out of my life.”

“Richard – this makes no sense.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “She’s on this murderous rampage. She calls Di to come out there so she can kill her in cold blood. She already has Laurie there, and presumably she knows the two of you can keep her from hurting Di. Why would she call you? That just puts another obstacle in her way.”

He shrugged. “Got me.”

“All right,” said Lucy, “you go out there and – instead of her killing Di, you two end up – whatever. And then something happens to you, and Laurie falls into the cove. What happened? Did Laurie walk in on the two of you and very properly run away screaming?”

Something flickered on his face. “No. Laura did not walk in.”

She decided to be blunt. “What happened?”

“Lucy – I am not going to tell you. Don’t push.”

That disappointed her, but she wasn’t surprised. Even if Francie hardly deserved his protection, Richard was not going to break a lifetime of habit by kissing and telling.

“Okay,” she said. “Do you want to hear my theory?”

His tone acknowledged the impossibility of stopping her. “Not really, but go ahead.”

“All right.” Lucy gathered her thoughts. She had spent most of the afternoon piecing together a scenario to fit the known facts. “I think Francie does go out there with murder on her mind. No one takes a knife and a gun along for a reunion. I don’t think this is ever intended as a coming home – she doesn’t call Dominic, Laurie doesn’t call Mom and Dad. This is exactly what Laurie told Di it was – Francie’s quest for revenge.”

Richard said wearily, “I’m not sure I buy that, but go ahead.”

“At some point, Francie tells Laurie what she intends, and Laurie tries to talk her out of it. She tries to deal with it by herself. After all,” and Lucy bit her lip, “that’s what she always did, wasn’t it? Deal with things. She always took everything on her shoulders and tried to take care of problems without confiding in anyone.”

“Nothing’s changed there.”

“The only person she can turn to,” Lucy said, “is Cam St. Bride. Now why she doesn’t, I don’t know, because in her shoes I’d be screaming for Tom to help me. But that marriage – well, for some reason she doesn’t feel she can go to him.”

Richard was drumming his fingers lightly on the table, the only outward sign of his uneasiness. “He may have been having an affair around this time. She said something about him seeing someone else. That may be why she didn’t ask for help. I know she didn’t tell him she was pregnant.”

“Really?” Lucy was nonplussed. What an extraordinary thing not to tell a husband. Laura’s marriage must have been far more strained than she had admitted. “So the first he knew—”

“— was probably when he received the call from the police.”

Unbelievable. And fascinating, but beside the point. “So she tries to stop Francie by taking away her gun. And Francie retaliates by drugging her with something that induces convulsions.”

“This drugging,” Richard said. “That’s difficult to buy. She ran the risk of doing real harm to Laura, and for what?”

“To keep Laura from putting a spanner in the works or calling for help.”

He said nothing. Then, unexpectedly, “I wonder what Francie slipped her.”

Lucy shrugged. “That’s something I want to research – what sort of drug can cause convulsions or make someone act out of character. There’s something odd about Laurie ending up in that cove. In fact, nothing about her actions that day hangs together too well. She has to see you land, and she doesn’t run to you for help? I wonder if that’s the drug speaking there.”

She had been straightening her exhibits, not looking at him. But, from the corner of her eye, she saw his hand, reaching for another Thin Mint, freeze just shy of the box. She glanced at him. He was staring off just beyond her arm, his attention arrested.

“What is it?”
What caught your notice?

He shook his head.

“Francie calls you.” She felt her chest start to tighten again. “You go out there and things happen. Di never shows up. Laurie falls into the cove because she is none too steady on her feet. She knocks herself out, and there she lies. Something happens between you and Francie, and you get hurt.”

Now
that
ought to provoke a reaction. A protest, a denial, another demand for her to stop… nothing. She had never seen anyone so deliberately not react.

“Francie—” oh, she hated this, she hated the pricking of that ancient wound. “Francie finds the infamous gun.”

His face was utterly wiped clear of response.

“I think you give her the bad news that you really don’t want her back in your life, and she flips out and shoots you.”

No reaction again, and that told her all she needed to know.

“We can’t know where Laurie hid the gun; maybe Francie knows the whole time where it is, but since Di never shows up, she hardly needs it – I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. Francie is on edge – the person she wants to kill hasn’t shown up, you’re there, you – um, and then you tell her she’s history – and let me tell you, that is not the time to do it – and she loses her head. She fires several times, and mostly she hits the wall or the door frame – but at least one of the bullets hits you on your right arm.”

He said, the word forced out of him, “Stop.”