Finding Laura (40 page)

Laura laughed shakily. “Unlike you, yes! I think I always knew it would be this way, and that’s why I was so cautious for so long. Until I met Daniel. With him … I’m happy, Cass. I mean, when it’s just the two of us, nothing else matters. It’s like I’ve … come home.”

After a moment, Cassidy said, “Then I envy you that. But as for the rest, it sounds like a real mess. It’s obviously getting to you. Like I said, you’re looking awfully tense. And what’s that stuff about you dreaming and then not being able to get near the footbridge? You’ve never been psychic, have you?”

“Not to my knowledge. Daniel accepted it so matter-of-factly that we haven’t even talked about it, but I don’t know where it came from. And I don’t know why it is that I feel this urgency to finish Amelia’s portrait. I worked like a demon on that thing this morning—it’s nearly finished, I think. Even Amelia was pleased. Of course, she thinks it’s just a practice portrait.”

“But it isn’t?”

Laura stared at her and felt an odd chill. “No. It isn’t. It’s the only portrait I’ll ever do of Amelia.”

Cass shivered suddenly. “You’re scaring me, friend.”

“I’m scaring myself.” Laura turned away briefly to pour fresh coffee, then said in a steadier voice, “Maybe it’s just that house having its effect on me, or more of my odd whims and notions—but I know what I know, Cass. There won’t be another painting of Amelia.”

“Are you … afraid something might happen to you? The way it did to Anne?”

Shaking her head, Laura said, “That I don’t know. I don’t feel
afraid
, really, just uneasy. But more than before. I keep wanting to look back over my shoulder, and I think you’d have to peel me off the ceiling if somebody yelled ‘Boo’ real loud.” She let out a little sound that wasn’t really amused. “It’s probably just the house. I mean, God, look at everything that’s happened there, in that family. Is it any wonder you could cut the tension with a knife? Is it any wonder I’m having unsettled dreams and looking over my shoulder?”

“Don’t go back there,” Cassidy said definitely.

“I have to.”

“Why? Because Daniel’s there?”

“Yes. Because he’s there. Because it isn’t finished.”

“What isn’t finished? The portrait? The story of the mirror? Your love affair?”

Laura managed a smile. “All of the above. And who killed Peter. We still don’t know that.”

With an impatient gesture, Cassidy said, “I give up. You’re hell-bent to get
yourself
killed. I can see it now. Amelia’s finally going to crack and push you down the stairs, in the best tradition of Gothic heroines. Or Madeline will slip some of her sedatives into your drink one night and shove you out a window because you smiled at her the wrong way at dinner. Or Daniel—”

“Daniel won’t hurt me,” Laura interrupted.

“Now I know what they mean by crazy in love. You certainly are.”

Laura set her cup on the counter and said lightly, “Maybe so. And if I crash and burn, you can say you told me so. In the meantime, though, would you keep watering my plants for me? And keep an eye on the place?”

“Oh, sure.” Cassidy got off the bar stool, shaking her head. “Nuts. She’s nuts.”

“Thanks.”

“Just send me a postcard from the asylum, huh?”

Later, as Laura drove herself back to the Kilbourne house, she thought about the conversation with Cassidy and wondered once more at her own inexplicable feelings. The only portrait she’d ever do of Amelia? Where had that certainty come from?

It was a question she couldn’t answer, just as she couldn’t answer the question of why it had upset her so much to read the material Dena had left for her at her apartment building, the copies of letters written just after the turn of the century. She had done that first upon returning to her apartment, and the letters that Shelby Hadden had written to her lover and then husband, Brett, had left her almost in tears. Dena hadn’t been kidding when she had referred to the intense passion between those two, but it was the utter devotion they shared that had gotten to Laura. They had been through hell in order to be together, but both clearly felt the prize worth the price they had paid for it.

I just envy them, that’s all
.

Shaking off the wistful thought as she reached the Kilbourne house, she parked her car near the garages and then went into the house through a side door off the kitchen, taking the back stairs up to the second floor. She had brought only a small bag with her, and unpacked her things in the guest suite rather than Daniel’s room. She
didn’t know why she was still so reluctant to move her things there, especially since no one in the house could be in any doubt as to their relationship, but her inner voice was still resisting and so she listened to it.

She went downstairs, and found Daniel working at his desk in the library. She knocked softly on the doorjamb. “If I’m interrupting—”

“I’ll thank you for it,” he said, pushing his chair back and holding out his hand to her with a smile.

Laura came to him, finding herself pulled smoothly onto his lap.

“I missed you,” he said, kissing her.

When she could, Laura said, “I was only gone a couple of hours. But I missed you too.” She linked her fingers together behind his neck, trying to keep it light, casual. “You must have been busy, though. Has the phone finally stopped ringing?”

Daniel shook his head. “As of this afternoon, we have a service, and it’s taking all calls.”

“Probably a good idea. Where is everyone?”

“Josie’s upstairs getting the latest batch of letters from Amelia. Kerry went for a walk in the gardens, I assume taking the path that doesn’t go near the footbridge. Alex should be back anytime now.” He frowned. “So should Mother.”

“Isn’t Lieutenant Landry due here soon?”

“He called to say he’d been delayed a few minutes.”

“Did he say—?”

“No. Just that something interesting had turned up. He can be a cryptic bastard when he wants to be.”

“Speaking of cryptic”—Laura nodded at the papers spread out on his desk—“what is all this?”

Daniel looked at her a moment as if debating, then said, “Preliminary designs for an aircraft tracking system. And various work logs and sign-in sheets for the research and development lab.”

A little surprised, Laura said, “Is this the kind of work you do? I thought your end was finance.”

“That is my end.” He grimaced slightly. “As far as the science of this stuff goes, I’m out of my league.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Looking for fingerprints.” Daniel shook his head. “And finding only the ones that aren’t the least bit helpful.”

“I see Landry isn’t the only one who can be cryptic when he wants to. Daniel, if this is one of those things we aren’t talking about yet—”

“It was,” he admitted frankly. “But it looks like the whole damn thing’s going to be public sooner rather than later, and I want you to be prepared.”

“That sounds ominous.”

He looked grim now. “It won’t be pleasant.”

Before he could say anything more, Alex walked into the room. The young lawyer was dressed casually in jeans and a Georgia Tech sweatshirt, but carried a businesslike satchel briefcase. And he said a single, succinct word to Daniel.

“Bingo.”

Laura felt Daniel tense, and quickly got off his lap. “I’ll leave you two.”

Daniel held her wrist to keep her near. “No, Laura, you might as well hear this now.”

Alex asked instantly, “Has something happened?”

“I got a call,” Daniel told him. “They’ve moved up the meeting. If I can’t produce the schematics by the end of the week, my name is mud.”

Baffled, Laura looked from one to the other. “Daniel?”

“It’s a long story,” he told her, “but the short version is that we believe Peter stole a set of plans from the lab before he was killed. Very important plans, designed for the military. Plans that certain other powers would pay a great deal to get their hands on. And our government is
not going to be happy with me when they turn up missing.”

“But if Peter took them—”

Daniel shook his head and released her wrist. “All the evidence points to my having taken them. Peter must have lifted my keycard at some point and used it; all the logs agree that I was the last one in the vault before the plans disappeared.”

“But anyone would know you couldn’t have done it,” Laura said.

Daniel sent her a quick look, a glint of something in his eyes flashing too quickly to be read, but all he said was, “My good character won’t count for much with all the evidence against me. Alex, you found the second lockbox?”

“Yep. I played a hunch and tried Macon again. Sure enough, he had a box at another bank.”

To Laura, Daniel said, “Among other things, we found a key to a safe-deposit box in Peter’s room after he was killed. Needless to say, we were hoping to find the plans. But no luck so far.” He explained about the first box and its contents, then looked at Alex questioningly. “And this one?”

Alex set his briefcase on the desk and opened it. “No plans, I’m afraid. Definitely another stash, though. But not money this time.” He dropped a handful of audio cassette tapes on the top of the papers Daniel had been working on, then stacked four videotapes there as well. “I stopped by the office to check these out. And I’m real glad I closed and locked my door first. Want to take a guess?”

Daniel picked up a couple of the audiotapes. One was labeled
Andrea
, while the other bore, also in Peter’s handwriting, the name
Melissa
. The videotape on the top of the stack was labeled
Gretchen
. Each label also had a date, several going back at least three years. “Christ,” Daniel muttered.

“If he wasn’t already blackmailing them, he undoubtedly planned to,” Alex said. “I just checked quickly, but what’s on these tapes—audio and video—would destroy a couple of marriages for sure, and at least one political future. I didn’t recognize three of the women, but I think we can safely assume they would also have had a lot to lose if Peter had played these tapes for their nearest and dearest.”

Daniel’s face was impassive, but instinct made Laura put her hand on his shoulder. He didn’t react visibly, just looked at Alex and said, “Now it’s becoming clear where he found his gambling money the last few years.”

“Yeah.” Alex began putting the tapes back into his briefcase. “I’ll destroy these.”

“No,” Laura said. When both men looked at her questioningly, she said, “You have to let those women know that it’s over. Hand them the tapes and tell them. Otherwise they’ll never be sure that Peter’s blackmail stopped with his death.”

Daniel looked back at Alex. “She’s right.”

“Okay.” Alex grimaced. “It’s not a chore I’m looking forward to, but I’ll take care of it as discreetly as possible. Identifying those three I didn’t recognize might be a problem, though.”

“Do your best.”

It was Laura who said slowly, “All those women had a strong motive to kill Peter.”

Alex looked at Daniel, his brows raised, and it was obvious to Laura that the two men had discussed the subject.

Daniel reached up to take Laura’s hand from his shoulder and hold it in his. He leaned back in his chair and gazed up at her steadily. “I don’t approve of people taking the law into their own hands, but in this particular case, all my sympathies lie with the women Peter blackmailed. If one of them found a desperate way out of an impossible
situation, then maybe she was justified. He sure as hell wasn’t.”

“In other words,” Alex said, snapping shut his briefcase, “we aren’t passing this information on to the police.”

“You don’t condone that decision?” she asked him.

“As a matter of fact, I do. I’ve always said it would be poetic justice if one of Peter’s women finally got the upper hand with him. But it’s a dubious opinion for someone in my line of work, so don’t spread the word around.” He smiled at her, then looked at Daniel. “This stuff should be safe enough here at the house for tonight. I’ll lock it in my safe at the office tomorrow and start tracking these ladies down.”

“Thank you, Alex.”

“Don’t mention it.” The lawyer took his briefcase and left the library.

“I can see now why you didn’t want to tell me,” Laura murmured. “It must be awful for you, knowing your own brother could do these things.”

“The worst of it,” Daniel said, “is that I never really doubted he could. Except for the plans—that surprised me.”

“Why? You didn’t think him capable of it?”

Daniel sighed. “I didn’t think he’d sell his country’s secrets, no. Even more, I didn’t think he’d frame me in the process.”

“Why would he? Did he hate you that much?”

“I never thought so.” Daniel frowned suddenly, his gaze moving to the papers spread out on his desk. “But—”

Josie knocked on the doorjamb. “Brent’s here. He wants to see all of us in the front parlor.” She grimaced slightly. “Again.”

Daniel looked across the room at her a moment, then nodded. “All right.” He released Laura’s hand and began gathering up the papers to put them into his desk drawer.

To her, he said, “Why do I have the feeling that Brent is going to tell us Anne was definitely pushed?”

“We knew it was likely,” Laura reminded him.

He slid his chair back and stood up. “It must have been an accident.”

“Of course it was.” Laura’s fingers twined with his as he took her hand, and they moved toward the door. She had some idea of what he was feeling right now. As Brent had said, this death had occurred in the Kilbournes’ own backyard and it seemed a virtual certainty that someone in the family was involved.

It was a very short list of suspects.

“I
WAS IN
my room all evening,” Amelia told Brent coldly. “Writing letters.”

“Did you go to your window? See or hear anything?”

“No.” Amelia sat upright as usual in her chair, and the dark gaze fixed on Brent was distinctly unfriendly. “What do you mean, she was pushed?”

“I mean just what I said, Miss Amelia. The medical examiner found marks on Anne’s shoulders, just where someone’s hands would have been if they were trying to shove her backward. And over the handrail of the bridge.”