by Peggy Jaeger
“So it was just casual between the two of you?”
Cade’s attention went back to Nick. “Yes. A few weeks later she asked me to the party, said it was her best friend’s twenty-first and she wanted me to come and have a good time. So I went.”
“But you didn’t arrive with Miss Doubletree even though you were dating.”
“No. She’d asked me to meet her there, which turned out better since I had to work later than usual that day. I’d just been assigned a major client and was working twelve to fourteen hour days.”
“And you arrived to the party at what time?”
“Honestly, Detective, it’s been fifteen years. I can’t remember the exact time, but probably close to eleven, eleven-thirty.” He flicked a glance my way. “I wasn’t there long before everyone started singing Happy Birthday. I told you all that in my statement.”
Nick nodded and slipped his hands into his pants pockets.
“I heard screams but couldn’t get close enough to see what was going on.”
“What did you do once you got into the club?”
“Looked for Phillipa. I didn’t know anyone else there.”
“And you found her?”
He threaded his fingers through the sides of his hair, and blew a breath slowly through his lips.
“Yeah. I spotted her near the dance floor and went over. It was…weird, to say the least.”
Another snippet of memory shot back to me. I’d seen Phil talking to a man. His back was to me, but she’d looked agitated and nervous, her eyes ping-ponging back and forth around the room.
“Explain,” Nick commanded.
“She wasn’t exactly thrilled to see me. She couldn’t keep still. Kept darting her eyes all over the place as if she was looking for someone.” His lips pressed tight together and a flash of anger crossed his eyes. “I asked her what was wrong and she said it had been a mistake to ask me to come. Her ex-boyfriend was there and he was all over her, not giving her a minute alone. She asked me to leave. Well, told me to is more appropriate.”
“That’s true,” I said, for the first time entering the conversation. Both men looked at me. To Nick, I said, “That memory you sparked before?”
He nodded.
“It was about Phil and me. We were in the club’s restroom at one point in the evening and she told me Trey was being especially possessive that night. He wouldn’t leave her side or give her a moment’s peace.”
“Why didn’t you leave after Miss Doubletree asked you to?”
“In all honesty I was pissed off. I’d cabbed all the way there for the party, I was starving and I was tired. I was going to leave right after speaking to her, but I figured since I was there I’d have a drink at the bar since it was free, eat a few hors d’oeuvres, linger a bit, and then leave.” He looked at me again. “And that’s what I did.”
“Did you have any contact with Miss Doubletree after that night?”
“I tried. I called her a few times and my messages went straight to voice mail. I texted her but she never responded. She ghosted me and after a few tries I just gave up.”
I had a suspicion that wasn’t the end of it because his eyes and mouth both went flat and a subtle tick tugged at his jaw.
“There’s more,” I said.
He stared at me for a beat, then at Nick.
“Enright?”
“I can’t prove it, but I think Phillipa’s boyfriend got me fired.”
I cried, “What?” at the same time Nick told him to, “Explain.”
His hair was taking a beating today as he ran his fingers through it again, then cupped the back of his neck.
“A few days after the party I got called into my supervisor’s office. He said they’d gotten a complaint from one of the clients assigned to me about shoddy work and never returning phone calls, which was just bullshit. I never received any calls from this guy and my work was exemplary.”
“Why do you think Bookman had anything to do with it?”
“He’s Bookman’s uncle. His mother’s brother, Derek Canterbury.”
“And you think his nephew what? Put a bug in his ear about you?”
Slowly, Cade nodded. “I figure he must have found out about my relationship with Phillipa and wanted, I don’t know, revenge, or to hurt me in some way. It was my first job out of business school and the one I’d done everything I could to get. They wouldn’t give me a reference when they let me go.”
“Why didn’t you fight it?” I asked.
His gaze took a stroll from my face, then around the room, until it lighted back on me. I got the message loud and clear before he ever said a word.
“He was a valued, rich, and influential client. It was his word against mine. If I’d protested or taken legal action against the firm it would have been fruitless. They had a battalion of lawyers and I was barely paying my rent month to month. I had to move back in with my parents and look for another job that wouldn’t ask for references.”
He faced Nick again. “I have no proof that’s what happened, but I feel it in my gut. Phillipa’s ex instigated my firing.”
Nick’s expression hadn’t changed once while Cade had spoken. His face remained blank, his emotions in check, even his thoughts were hidden from any facial ticks or movements. He was impossible to read.
“You never confronted James Bookman?”
“Trey,” I said. Both men looked toward me. “That’s how he’s known. James is his father and grandfather. Trey never wanted to be confused with them.”
“Like I’ve said, I didn’t have any proof. I wasn’t about to go see the guy and get into it with him. Especially after learning about his anger issues.”
“What anger issues?”
Cade averted his eyes from the detective and shook his head. “I asked…around, after I was fired. The guys I went out for drinks with when I met Phillipa?”
We both nodded.
“I called the one who knew her. Asked about Bookman. I was told he was a lose cannon and to stay away from him. So I did.”
“He’s not wrong,” I told Nick. “Trey always had a…blind spot, I guess, where Phil was concerned. He could go off at nothing.”
Nick leaned back on the desk, considering.
“Okay,” he said after a few moments. “Why did you lie to Miss Brightwell about knowing her?”
“I didn’t. Not in the beginning, anyway.” He turned to me and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he peered at me. “I didn’t recognize you at first. That’s the truth. It was only when we met again at the auction that it dawned on me who you were. We never met at your party. I had no idea who you were until your face was splashed across the newspapers when they reported what happened.”
“Why didn’t you tell me after you realized it?”
“Because, first of all, you introduced yourself to me as A.J. Callahan, not Aurora Brightwell. I didn’t think you were married because you weren’t wearing a ring. People, in my experience, introduce themselves to you the way they want to be addressed, your friend Trey Bookman for example.”
“He hasn’t been my friend in fifteen years. What else?”
He blew out a breath all the while keeping my gaze prisoner in his. “I had no idea if you knew about Phillipa and me dating all those years ago. She was your best friend back then, and for all I knew still was. It was…awkward for me to tell you who I was.” He scooted close to the end of the chair, closer to me.
“I wanted to see you again, get to know you, Aurora. Go out with you. I wasn’t sure you would if you knew about my past with your friend. Girl code and all.”
“So you purposefully kept your identity a secret. You lied to me about who you were.”
“When you say it like that it makes me sound like a horrible person.”
“And yet,” I waved my hand in the air. “That little guess my name game you played was, what, a ploy to get me to trust you? Divulge who I really was without you having to probe? What did you think, I’d tell y
ou of my own volition who I really was? And then what? Were you going to just continue on without telling me the truth? Ever?”
“I wanted to, but things between us got”—he flicked a quick glance at Nick then back to me—“complicated.”
“That’s one word for it. I can think of others.”
I despised the condescension and scorn I heard in my voice. I knew that underlying my nasty tone was a none-too-veiled trace of hurt and I hated feeling that way, hated that he’d had the power to hurt me.
He stood, crossed to the couch and lowered himself next to me. The heat from his body was cool compared to the scorching in his eyes and when he took my hand in his I felt that searing heat spread all the way up my arm.
“Aurora, believe me, I never meant to deceive you the way I did. I went back and forth in my head a thousand times about telling how, how to tell you, why I hadn’t. Couldn’t. Nothing sounded, I don’t know…right, somehow. When you texted me to cancel our date and added to stop calling you I knew something had happened. I had to see you, explain myself. I don’t want to lose what’s between us. What we’ve started. I can’t. Please, please forgive me for deceiving you.”
How is it possible to be furious with someone and still so drawn to them that you’re convinced of the sincerity oozing from them?
“I know you’re mad at me, and I deserve your anger, but I really didn’t know what to do.”
“The truth,” Nick said, “is always the best option.”
With his gaze still on mine, Cade nodded. “I’m so sorry.”
So many things ran through my head it was a wonder it wasn’t spinning like a carnival ride. I believed he was sincere in his apology, but was that enough?
Something pulled at the back of my mind as I sat there, his hand holding mine, his face a mask of contrition. Something about…Phil.
When it snapped forward I actually startled.
“What’s wrong?” Cade’s hand tightened on mine.
To Nick I said, “There’s no mention in Phillipa’s statement about Cade.”
“No,” he said, drawing the word out. “There isn’t.”
“She didn’t tell you she’d invited me?” Cade asked. “That’s odd because my name was on the doorman’s list.”
“So that’s how you got in,” I said. “You weren’t on my list.”
“Phillipa told me she was going to add me to the approved one. And she did because I had no trouble getting in once I gave my name at the door.”
“It’s interesting that she never mentioned it at any of her interviews,” Nick said.
“What are you thinking?” I asked him. From the way his eyes were concentrated out on the distance and the erect, alert stance he’d adopted, I knew something was running through his head.
“If she omitted telling me one thing, what else has she kept to herself?”
The full import of his words shattered through me.
“You can’t think she had anything to do with what happened,” I cried. “You can’t. There’s no way Phil would ever do something to hurt me.”
“Are you so certain of that?”
Well, that was a loaded question if ever I’d heard one.
Was I?
A week ago I would have said yes without hesitating. The Phillipa Doubletree I knew and loved almost as a sister-from-another-mister back then would never have intentionally, knowingly, done anything to cause me harm. We’d been the best of friends since we’d met, always had the other’s back, and generally liked one another.
Growing up the privileged and spoiled daughters of multi-millionaires we shared a bond not many girls could. We each knew exactly what it was to have family expectations and rules guide our every day lives. We had to attend the schools our parents toted, be seen at social events that they dictated we be seen at, and had to live under their watchful eyes. The small rebellions we’d each had – basically clubbing before we were of legal age – hadn’t brought any ill will or issues down upon our family names. In fact, the fodder for the public’s desire to know every single thing about our lives kept out family names relevant.
But after meeting Phil recently, and the bizarre, erratic way she’d behaved, I wasn’t so sure anymore. I’d thought at the time she’d acted scared when she’d seen me on the street. I couldn’t think why. Now though…
When I didn’t reply, Nick nodded.
“I thought so. I think,” he pushed off the desk and lifted her file. Opening it he said, “She hid more than just Enright’s name.”
Chapter Eighteen
“What are you going to do?” I tugged my hand out of Cade’s, surprised he still held it, stood and crossed to Nick. Cade rose from the couch as well.
“Officially, I can’t do anything since I’m retired.”
“How about unofficially?”
He shook his head. “I’m not a private detective and I don’t work in law enforcement anymore, Aurora.”
“But I thought you told me the case is still open since it was never solved.”
“While that’s true, I still can’t do anything. If I called my old house and asked for someone new to look into it, it would be a very low priority for them.”
“What can be done, then?” Cade asked.
Nick looked from him, to me. His face was expressionless as usual, but there was something floating in his eyes as he stared at me that was hard to miss. I’d said he was difficult to read, but at this moment I knew just what he was thinking.
“You want me to meet with her.”
Very slowly, he nodded. “It might be the best option. You have, or had, a relationship with her. A friendship, and a good one. She might open up to you if you asked to meet with her.”
“I doubt that. You didn’t see the way she sprinted out of the café the other day. She wanted nothing to so with me and even though I hadn’t seen her in fifteen years her reluctance to reconnect was loud and clear.”
“Wait.” Cade came to stand next to me. “You’re not still friends?”
I shook my head. “The last time I saw her before a few days ago was the night of my party.”
“She never kept in touch with your family while you were,” he flapped a hand in the air.
“No.”
His brows beetled as he regarded me.
“What?”
A sheepish look crossed over his face.
“Because we never talked about this, really, I don’t know the answer, but when did you? Wake up, I mean. I never read anything about it the newspapers or online. ”
“Five years ago, and the reason you didn’t hear about it is because my mother and my doctors decided to keep it quiet to protect me from any undue stress from the press. Waking up after a coma isn’t necessarily unheard of. Waking up and having all your mental faculties unaffected, is.”
“A miracle,” Nick said. “Call it what it really is, Aurora. You’re a walking miracle.”
Before I could respond my mother’s voice rang out.
“On that we agree.”
The three of us turned to find her striding into the room, Maeve at her side.
“What’s going on?” She moved straight to me. If Cade hadn’t moved out of her way I truly think she would have pushed him out it, so focused was she on getting to me.
She slung an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to her side, all the while her livid gaze bouncing back and forth between the two men in the room.
“Why are you here?” she asked Nick. She didn’t give him a second to tell her before she shot to Cade. “And who are you?”
Here’s the thing about my mother most people don’t realize and never see. She may be diminutive in size and stature, and her manners may be as perfect as if they’d jumped out of an Emily Post guidebook, but when it comes to anything relating to me, she morphs into the biggest, most ferocious and badass lioness on the planet. I’ve seen her knock the most aggressive and annoying of people back several paces when she turned all that contained and potent fury on them.<
br />
Cade winced at her tone and seemed to shrink in on himself a bit.
“I’m Cade Enright, Mrs. Brightwell. We met at the Women’s Center auction last week.”
“Oh yes, right. You bought the Ainsworth.”
He didn’t correct her that he’d merely been the go-between for the actual buyer.
Dismissing him, she turned back to Nick, who’d taken a full step backwards to give my mother a wide berth.
She glared at him now, her eyes raking across his face. “Maeve told me you were here.”
“I asked him to come,” I said. “I had something I needed to discuss about my case and it was just easier to do it here.”
The grip she’d placed on my shoulders loosened and I felt some of the emotion drain out of her in a long, deep inhale. When she let it out, she let go, then turned to face me.
I could read so much emotion on her lovely face but what really stuck out was the concern drowning her eyes.
“It’s okay, Mom. I want to do this.”
After a few moments she nodded, then turned her attention to Nick.
“You look good,” she told him, her voice lower, her tone now less antagonistic. “Aurora told us you were retired now. It agrees with you.”
“And time stands still in this house,” he said, his mouth quirking in one corner. “Neither you nor Maeve have changed a bit. Both still as beautiful as ever.”
The look she tossed him was pure regal snootiness mixed with a dollop of pleasure tugging on her quirking lips.
“Well.” She glanced at Cade then returned to Nick. “Since you’re here and it’s close to dinner time I’ll assume I need to feed you both.”
Neither man said a word. Cade looked at me with a question in his eyes, gaging if I was going to throw him out or let him stay for supper.
I was torn, that’s the plain truth. Still incensed that he’d lied to me, but his explanation rang truthful. And he did look repentant.