Dying to Have Her (20 page)

“Serena …” His voice was a whisper now, a hiss. He had something in his hand, she saw. A handkerchief … a cloth? … he’d drawn from his pocket. Every crime show she’d ever seen flashed through her mind. He was about to cover her nose with a cloth soaked with chloroform. He was too close; the way he said her name made chills snake through her.

She’d had enough. She started past him.

“Oh, no!” he said softly, catching her by both arms.

Joe had called Liam in because Conar had been asking for him.

At first, in front of the others milling around, Conar was casual. “Hey, it’s great that you’re here-. You got Serena to come, eh? She’s the original recluse of the group. There’s a room upstairs I wanted to show you. I’m thinking of some redecorating.”

Conar had never mentioned redecorating before in his life.

“Great. Let’s see it.”

They excused themselves to Joe and those around them and started up the stairs. “A room?” Liam said. “You’re going into design?”

“You’ll see.” Conar flashed him a smile. They walked down the long hall.

“Master bedroom,” Conar said briefly, pushing open a door.

The room was huge, including a sitting area and double closets that led to a bathroom the size of a small country. Liam briefly noted the size and decor, but he had discovered what Conar had wanted him to see immediately.

The large entertainment cabinet in front of the bed was open. He saw the configuration of television, VCR, and stereo, and the tiny circular lens in the center of the controls.

He nodded to Conar. “Yeah, sure, you want to do something just like this. Jennifer would love it.”

He walked over to the entertainment cabinet. Ames-bury had a large collection of DVDs and a larger collection of tapes. Liam selected one.
Blue Velvet.
He pulled the tape out of its box; the packaging again announced
Blue Velvet.

He put it back and selected a tape from a row of classics.
Jamaica Inn.

Again, the inside packaging was the same.

There was a row of tapes from
Valentine Valley.
They were numbered by episode. There were also notations on them.
Featuring David’s Return. Featuring Maria Valentine, Featuring …

Verona Valentine. Serena McCormack.

At least ten of the episodes in the row of fifteen or so featured Serena.

He didn’t want to look further at the moment. The camera lens was above him.

“The guy has some great films,” he said briefly. “There are guest rooms on this floor, too, right?”

“Yeah, want to take a look?”

“Sure. Kyle doesn’t mind?”

“Not at all,” Conar said clearly. “He’s proud of the house.”

He made a quick perusal of the three other bedrooms on the floor. All were lavishly appointed, with special attention paid to the bedding and entertainment systems.

When they started down the stairs, Conar asked softly, “What do you think?”

“I think he has a serious case of voyeurism.”

“Illegal?”

“This is private property,” Liam said. “Depends on what he’s doing.”

“That’s his security system?” Conar said doubtfully.

Liam barely heard him. Looking downstairs, he saw that Doug, Allona, and Jinx had come inside and stood by the buffet talking to Jennifer. Serena was nowhere in sight.

“Serena,” he said softly and hurried ahead.

K
YLE’S HANDS WERE ON
Serena, his breath hot against her cheeks. “Serena, you don’t understand, I’m trying—”

“There you are, Serena!”

Kyle’s hands fell from her shoulders. He spun toward the door.

To Serena’s surprise, it was Jay who entered, and Jay’s flat, cheerful tone that dispelled the demons in her mind.

“Jay!” She slipped around Kyle, anxious to reach Jay’s side.

Before she could do so, Liam appeared behind him. He put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her protectively against him as he looked at Kyle. “It’s a really great house, Amesbury,” he said. His tone was light, complimentary. His eyes were not. Kyle didn’t notice, nor did Jay. But when Liam’s gaze fell on Serena, she knew that he was thinking she was an idiot and that she never should have gone into the cabana.

“Thanks,” Kyle said, recovering quickly. “I am really in love with the place. Big mortgage, though, you know. That’s why I’m so anxious about the show.”

Liam left Serena’s side, walking into the cabana, looking around with appreciation.

“If you ever want to stay for the night, this is the main guest room,” Kyle told him.

“Hey, I may take you up on that,” Liam said. “It would be my big chance at a night like the rich and famous. Cops and P.I.’s don’t do as well as business moguls, you know.”

“Cops do all right in this town,” Kyle said with a shrug. “And now that you’re on your own … I hear that on this case, you’re just about worth your weight in gold.”

“I don’t come cheap,” Liam said.

“Try the bed,” Kyle told him.

To Serena’s astonishment, Liam grinned and did just that, falling onto the mattress under the canopy and lacing his fingers behind his head. “A great entertainment center here, too. You have one hell of a movie collection.”

“Everything you can think of,” Kyle agreed. “Everything.”

Serena detected something in his tone. A guy’s way of telling another guy that he was loaded with the best in pornography as well?

Despite Liam’s return and Jay’s being with them as well, Serena was anxious to escape. “I think I’ll grab something to eat.” She was sure that Liam would come with her.

“I’m hungry, too,” Jay said.

Liam didn’t rise. Serena turned and headed out, Jay at her heels. Liam stayed behind.

She nearly screamed when Jay put his hand on her shoulder as they started back across the pool area. “You okay?” he asked her.

“Yeah, sure. He just makes me nervous.” She looked at Jay, who was studying her with a concerned gaze. “You came to rescue me, didn’t you?”

“I—I don’t really trust the guy either,” he said briefly.

“Thanks.”

“You’d have been okay. Your bodyguard was behind me, flying across the patio like a linebacker.”

She arched a brow. Liam had entered the cabana as casually as if he were sightseeing.

“Well, thanks. You got there first.”

Jay grinned at her, but she found herself frowning. “Jay, Kyle knew Jane, right?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“They had a thing?”

“Serena, what do I really know about other people?” His voice had a bitter tone. “She came on like a blockbuster, bigger than life, nicer than pie. And yes, she had an interest in Kyle. He was with the money people, you know.”

“I know you know more than you’re saying.”

“Okay. I’m sure she slept with him. Probably back there on that nice big bed he asks everyone to try out.”

“Everything okay?”

Serena started. The French doors were open again. Jinx was standing there, looking out anxiously.

“Right as rain,” Jay said as they both joined her. Serena gave Jinx a reassuring smile, and they walked in to the buffet table.

Doug and Allona were deep in conversation with Jennifer. Joe and Andy were talking. Conar was standing with Dayton Riley, who was chewing on a chicken wing. Conar had been watching the door, and he noted her return.

Serena helped herself to another glass of wine. She wasn’t hungry at all.

A minute later, she saw that Kyle had returned and joined in the conversation with Joe and Andy. She didn’t see Liam again, not for a few minutes.

By the time he finally reappeared, she’d had it. She set her wine down, approached Kyle, and thanked him for the get-together. She was afraid that Liam was going to say something about having a great time, they should stay longer, but he thanked Kyle as well, complimented the house again, and said his good-byes to the others.

They walked out. He opened the passenger door for her silently and didn’t speak when they started down the street. Then his words were like a whiplash.

“Don’t ever go anywhere alone with that man again.”

“Excuse me, I didn’t even want to go to that party,” she told him angrily. “I didn’t mean to wind up alone with him. You know my opinion of him—”

“So, great. Wander off into a cabana alone with the guy then.”

“You’re the bodyguard. You should have been there.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“You spent the whole party nearly kissing his butt,” she snapped.

He didn’t reply to that. He kept driving in silence. By the time they reached her house, she was seething. She slammed the door of the car on her way out. She could barely twist her key in the lock, and tap in the code correctly for her alarm. Inside, she walked straight into her bedroom and closed the door. She sat on the bed, still unnerved.

She sat there for a long time. Waiting. Thinking he would come. Like a dictator, of course. He would tell her more about what she had done wrong. Warn her to watch out. Give her a hard time about something.

But he didn’t. After a few minutes had passed, she was pretty sure he wasn’t coming. Maybe he was on the phone with Sharon, patching things up. She looked at the phone.
You will not pick it up and listen!
she told herself.
You are not that type of person; you are better than that.

Despite herself, she picked up her bedroom extension, then felt like a fool. A dial tone greeted her ear. Still, she was restless. Tired, but not at all able to settle down.

She exited her room quietly. He was not in the living room. She ventured down the hall. The door to the guest room was closed. She was tempted to test it—see if it was locked or not.

She put her hand on the knob and twisted it silently. He couldn’t possibly hear her. There were sounds coming from the guest room. He was watching television or … something.

She stood very still outside the door. She could hear … moaning? And panting.

For one horrible second, she thought that he had invited his girlfriend to her house, and that he was with another woman in
her
guest room. But the dim light visible beneath the door assured her that he was watching television. Or a tape. A tape with …

Moaning. Heavy breathing. Some shrieking … some screaming.

The door suddenly flew open. And there she was, just standing there. And there he was, down to a pair of black Calvin Klein boxers.

“Yes?” he asked politely.

I was just passing by?
No.
What could she say?

He leaned against the doorjamb, arms crossed over his chest, waiting.

“I was going to make tea,” she lied. “I just wanted to see if you wanted any.”

He shook his head in disappointment. “You can do better than that.”

“All right. What are you watching?”

He arched a brow. “You can hear the tape down by your room? You came to check out what I was doing? Lord—you thought I’d brought someone into your house?”

“No!”

He caught her arm and pulled her into the room.

“Wait! I do not want to watch a … a …porno flick with you!” she protested, her cheeks red as a lobster.

“Maybe you’ll recognize the people in it.”

“What?”

He had pulled her in front of the television. To her astonishment, she immediately recognized the room. She had recently been in it. The setting for the tape in the VCR was Kyle Amesbury’s cabana.

Her jaw dropped. There were two people on the bed. The lighting was very low. The female’s body was fully exposed. The man’s head was bent over, dark in the shadows.

“It’s Jane!” she whispered.

“Different camera angles, even,” Liam commented. “I saw the lens set in the middle of the controls. The other one is situated in the bed frame.”

Suddenly the tape went to fizz. Serena stared at Liam. “Where did you get that?”

“Where else?” he asked with a shrug. “The cabana.”

“That’s why you stayed behind.”

“There are cameras all over the house.”

“That must be illegal!”

“It’s private property. He owns the place.”

“Still, it’s an invasion of privacy—”

“He can call them security cameras.”

“In a bed?”

“Trust me, they’d never get anything against a guy for cameras in his own house.”

“But this tape … Jane wouldn’t have allowed it. She was incredibly aware of her value, and she—”

“She’s dead. And I can’t figure out who the guy is. Can you?”

She shook her head. “I just saw the head—”

“Yeah, strategically positioned. That’s all there was.”

“You stole this tape?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“That’s illegal.”

“I’m trying to find a killer.”

“Kyle was never at the studio—”

“Maybe he used these tapes to blackmail people. Or maybe he’s just close to someone. This was the only tape I could slip out easily.”

“You could get a search warrant.”

“I’m not a cop.”

“But Bill Hutchens or George Olsen could.”

“Not yet.”

“But Kyle’s a slimy rat.”

“You can’t arrest people for that, especially not in Hollywood.”

“I’m confused. We should do something. We—”

“We
shouldn’t do anything.
I
am doing something. I’m investigating. You’re an actress. Act. Go to work—do your job.”

“But … Kyle has to be stopped.”

“How do we know Jane wasn’t willingly being taped?”

“Because I know Jane!”

“Serena, you have to pretend you haven’t seen this.”

“But—but I have friends who go over there. I can’t let them … I can’t let them wind up on tape without having a clue!”

“Serena, I need to find some things out. Without people knowing that I’m on to them. Understand?”

“So what? You’re going to break into Kyle’s place and steal all his tapes? Without him noticing? He has a tape of Jane. Give it to Olsen.”

“To prove what? That she slept with people?”

Serena spun around and left the bedroom. She walked into the kitchen, straight to the bar, and poured a shot of whiskey. She hated whiskey, but she kept a tight grip on the bottle anyway, glad of the stinging warmth of it as she downed the shot.

She jumped when she realized he was right behind her. “I thought you were making tea.”