by LENA DIAZ,
“Mind if I join you?”
“Of course not.”
Luke would have rather had a private conversation with her, but since he didn’t have a choice, he followed the two of them back into the room and closed the door.
Alex leaned his forearms on the table. “Grant gave me permission to share what he and I discussed, but you hired me, Carol. Do you want me to share the information in private or can Luke be included?”
“Of course he can be included. Please, tell us what you found out.”
Carol’s quick agreement to include Luke had some of his earlier worry fading.
“Okay,” Alex said. “But first, I’m curious to know why you hired me in the first place. You never really explained that on the phone.”
“The phone? When did you have a chance to call him?” Luke asked.
Her face turned a light pink. “I wasn’t with you every single minute since we got to the station.”
Luke frowned, then enlightenment dawned. She’d called Alex from the bathroom. He grinned but decided to stay quiet so he wouldn’t embarrass her further.
“I hired you because it was the right thing to do. Grant isn’t the killer—”
“You don’t know that,” Luke insisted.
“Yes. I do. I’ve known Grant for a long time. And while I may not know a great deal about his personal life and what makes him tick, I do know one thing for certain. When he gets upset, he lets everything out. There’s no holding back. He doesn’t know how to be clever or coy. Back at the country house, his emotions were raw. He was telling the truth when he said he didn’t kill Richard. It isn’t right for him to be railroaded into prison. And it especially isn’t right that his wife and daughter should suffer, either.”
Luke watched her intently. “I notice you haven’t said anything about your other brother-in-law during all this time. Do you feel Daniel’s innocent, too?”
She frowned. “Honestly, I have no idea. Daniel is more...self-contained than Grant. He’s always treated me politely, respectfully. But he didn’t come to the mansion very often. I really don’t know that much about him except that he’s not married. Daniel and Grant are in many ways opposites. With Grant, you know what you’re getting. With Daniel, he’s all manners and self-control.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Richard was very controlled, too. I guess that’s one of the reasons I can’t come to any conclusions about Daniel. They seemed so much alike.”
“Well, Cornell is looking into both of them,” Alex said. “He was excited, hoping he’d caught his man earlier, but he’s keeping an open mind and making sure his team explores every possible lead.”
“What all did Grant tell you?” Luke asked.
“He reiterated what he’d already told Cornell. He basically admitted to breaking into both houses and assaulting both of you.”
“I don’t want to press charges for that,” Carol said.
Luke cursed.
Alex shot him a warning look. “That’s for you to discuss with Cornell. It would be a conflict of interest for me to talk about that. I will, however, tell you that Grant’s main hang-up seems to be about the will. He’s convinced the will that was filed was fake and that his brother wouldn’t have left him only five million dollars. He wanted me to try to get a search warrant for the mansion. He’s convinced the will is hidden inside.”
“Would a judge go along with that?” Luke asked.
“Highly unlikely, and that’s what I told Grant. Unless he has some kind of proof, no judge will want to get embroiled in that kind of mess. When I told him that, he got upset and said he should hire Leslie Harrison to represent him. He said Leslie represented Richard in a dispute with the IRS last year and won. He figured if she could beat the IRS, she could get a judge to look into the will. I reminded him Harrison isn’t a criminal lawyer. I also told him if she was his lawyer I wouldn’t be. I’ve never cared much for Miss Harrison and how she does business and I don’t want to be associated with her professionally.”
Carol frowned. “What’s he going to do?”
“I don’t know. He’s in an odd state of mind right now, hard to reason with. I think he knows more than he’s telling. I know you want me to protect him, but he’s his own worst enemy. Hopefully my warnings to him to not say anything else to Cornell will sink in. I’ll come back in the morning and talk to him after he’s had a chance to sleep on everything.”
Alex stood to leave. “Oh, I almost forgot. Cornell said to tell you that you’re free to go. His lead detective wanted to discuss the investigation with him and he wasn’t sure how late he’d be. He’ll call you if he has more questions about what happened today.”
“Thank you, Alex,” Carol said. “For everything.”
“My pleasure.” He shook their hands and left.
Luke sat back in his chair and considered Carol. “We’ve had an incredibly full night and day. Any idea where you want to go this time? As your bodyguard, I’m advising you not to go to any of your husband’s holdings, no matter how much you believe no one knows about them. And I think we need to pick up a rental car just to be sure no other GPS trackers are hanging around.”
“I’ll leave the destination up to you this time. I’d like nothing better than one night without worrying about some madman finding me. But first, we need to stop at the mansion here in town.”
“To get more clothes?”
“No. To get Richard’s will.”
Chapter Eleven
It was late afternoon by the time Luke and Carol arrived at the mansion, or at least, arrived a block away and parked on a side street while they surveyed the mass of news vans and reporters surrounding the estate.
“Good grief,” Carol said. “The press has never been this bad before.”
“Murder sells.” He glanced at his watch. “We’re five minutes early. Are you sure you want to go in there? We can leave right now, rent a car, hole up in a hotel somewhere.”
“A hotel hardly seems like the place to hide out. I’d think the paparazzi have lookouts all over town. A hotel is one of the first places they’d expect me to go.”
“Not if you’re in disguise.”
“Hmm. Maybe. But the point is moot for now. Because I’m not going anywhere but the mansion. I have to find that will.”
“You’ve been secretive about the alleged will since dropping that bomb on me back at the police station. I think now is a good time to explain why you’re suddenly so sure there is another will.”
“It just makes sense. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Richard would never leave his fortune to me, not after the first six months of our marriage, at least. I wasn’t...important to him as a person. I was an object, his property, to control. He wouldn’t have wanted to risk leaving his legacy to me. He wouldn’t expect I’d be intelligent enough or capable enough to keep his businesses on the right track. He would have left the bulk of the estate to his brothers. Which means, there must be another will inside, in his papers somewhere.”
“Possible, but he had Leslie as his personal lawyer on retainer. Why not file the will if he went to the trouble of drawing up another one?”
“Good question.”
“I’m not sure I understand why you’d want to find the will, assuming it exists.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a billionaire. If what you say about an alternate will is true, you could lose everything. Why would you risk that?”
“Because it wouldn’t be right. If the money belongs to someone else, they should have it.”
“We’re talking about Grant and Daniel here. Grant tried to kill you—”
“Allegedly.”
“He held a freaking knife to your throat. Twice. He left you dangling off a balcony.”
She winced. “Okay. Good points.”
“And Daniel hasn’t exactly come around to check on his beloved widowed sister-in-law after news of Richard’s treatment of you leaked to the press. Neither of them seem particularly deserving of a massive change in fortune. On the other hand, you lived through hell and deserve every penny.”
She looked out the windshield. “I can see where you might feel that way. But it’s not like I could ever enjoy the money, knowing what I went through to get it. Don’t you see? Everything I have reminds me of Richard.” She held up her carefully manicured nails. “He dictated the color of my nail polish and how long my nails should be.” She grabbed a handful of her long hair and held it up. “I’m a natural brunette. I never wanted to be blonde, but Richard wanted my hair this color. These clothes—” she waved her hand toward the silky pantsuit she wore “—these clothes were all chosen by Richard. All I want is to resolve this case so I can be safe once and for all. And then I want to go away somewhere, anywhere, someplace that doesn’t remind me of him. If I buy another house, or new clothes, I’m buying them with his money. How will I ever truly escape him that way?”
Luke gently pushed her hair out of her eyes. “I always seem to say or do the wrong thing around you. It’s none of my business what you do with the money or how you choose to live your life. You don’t owe me any explanations.”
She took his hand in hers. “You’ve been nothing but kind to me. You don’t deserve to be lambasted for asking an obvious question.” She shook her head. “But I just want to make sure the rightful owner of the money gets it. I want to be done with it so nothing ever comes back to haunt me later. I want to be free.”
“You will be. Soon.”
“I hope so. Too much has happened too fast. I just want to search the obvious places in the mansion to see if I can find a will. And then I want to get out of here. We can go wherever you think we’ll be safe and won’t be bothered by the press.”
“Okay. Leave that to me. This won’t be the first time I’ve had to sneak a client out from under watchful eyes and take them to a safe house.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “Here they come. Get ready. As soon as the press realizes what’s happening, they’ll be all over us.”
She clutched her purse in her hand and grasped the door handle. “I’m ready.”
A black Suburban pulled up beside them per the plan. Another one pulled up behind them. The doors popped open and half a dozen Stellar Security guards jumped out, surrounding Carol as she got out of the car.
Just as Luke had predicted, the press saw the Suburbans and started running toward them, aiming their cameras in their direction.
Carol hopped into the lead truck and it took off toward the mansion. Luke cursed and tossed the two bags that contained his and Carol’s clothes into the back of the second truck and jumped in.
“Hurry up,” he growled as the woman he was supposed to be guarding pulled farther away.
* * *
CAROL SLID THE bottom drawer of Richard’s desk closed and plopped down in his leather chair. She’d searched every place she could think of for another will but hadn’t found anything. At this point, she was inclined to think maybe Luke was right. Grant was just desperate for funds and had convinced himself the will that had been filed was a fake.
Luke walked into the office and propped himself on the edge of the desk. “I searched the master bedroom like you asked, top to bottom. Nothing. Even the wall safe is empty.”
“Empty? It wasn’t locked?”
“No. I pulled on the door handle and it opened right up. I assumed you’d given Cornell and his men the combination when they searched the room the other day and they didn’t relock it.” He frowned. “You didn’t?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t even know the combination. But Richard put papers in that safe all the time. I find it hard to believe he would have left it unlocked. And I’ve never known it to be empty.”
Luke pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll update Cornell. See if he dusted the safe for prints. If he did, and didn’t get any besides Richard’s, I’ll ask him to send a crew out here again and dust every inch of the thing. And then we’re getting out of here. Is there anything you need if we don’t come back for several days?”
“No. My bag from when we went to the country house has everything I need.”
“All right. Wait here. I’ll make that call, and then I’ll arrange our escape from the press.”
* * *
LUKE HURRIED OUT of the room and waved down one of the housemaids. He made his request and a moment later she came back with an envelope and a sheet of paper. He thanked her, explained what he wanted to do to get Carol safely out of the house, and she ran off again to do what he’d asked.
He was going to call Cornell, but first he had two other calls to make. And since he didn’t want anyone to overhear him, he hurried to the little glassed-in garden off the back of the house that Carol had shown him a few days ago during the house tour. There was a fountain in the middle of the garden that splashed and made enough noise that he felt confident no hidden cameras or spying servants would hear his conversations.
First, he called Trudy at the office. She commiserated with him over Mitch’s death, which made him feel guilty because he hadn’t thought much about Mitch with everything else that was going on. He didn’t have time to grieve for his friend right now, so he forced the emotions aside and gently brought Trudy back to the task at hand. He explained what he needed in detail and had her repeat it back to him. Satisfied she would give his message to his men so they could set his escape plan in motion, he hung up and made his second call.
To Alex.
Guilt gnawed at him again as he waited for Alex to answer. What he was about to do would horrify Carol if she ever found out. He’d made a promise to her, and he’d assured her he never broke his promises. And up to this point, he never had. But after what sheʼd told him about the safe, he knew they were on borrowed time.
Whoever was behind Richard’s death had also managed to break into the house and empty Richard’s safe without anyone knowing, which meant the killer was most likely someone Carol knew and quite possibly trusted. It was Luke’s duty to keep her safe, which meant—in this one instance—he needed to break his promise, because it very well might mean that he would find out the killer’s identity.
“Alex Buchanan,” the voice answered on the phone.
“It’s Luke. I have to make this fast. First, can you ask your investigator to look into Stellar Security?”
“Okay. What’s he supposed to look for?”
“Anything suspicious, anything to do with the Ashtons. I’m getting a weird feeling about Stellar. There have been too many security breaches with them supposedly in charge.”
“All right. You said ‘first.’ What else did you need?”
“A huge favor. I’m going to leave something for you in a van later today. The keys will be under the front bumper in a hide-a-key box. I’m leaving you an envelope under the driver’s seat.” He gave Alex the address of where the van would be.
“Okay. And what am I supposed to do with this envelope?”
“I’m hopeful you can examine the evidence inside it and let me know if you can figure out who broke into the safe in the Ashtons’ master bedroom. I have a feeling whoever broke into the safe is Richard Ashton’s killer.”
“And just what is this evidence that you want me to look at instead of the police?”
Luke glanced around to make sure no one had come into the garden. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the video card Carol had given him back at the
country house.
Chapter Twelve
An hour later, Cornell’s CSI team was upstairs dusting the master-bedroom safe and the wall surrounding it, just in case they’d missed any prints the first time. Moments later, a housemaid and one of the Stellar Security guards—dressed in Carolʼs and Luke’s clothes—ran out front to the circular driveway and hopped into the Rolls-Royce, sandwiched between two black Suburbans.
The caravan took off and barreled onto the street.
Just as Luke expected, the press made a mad dash to follow, and soon most of the news vans were racing after the decoy.
Some of the reporters remained, perhaps to ensure their counterparts hadn’t been fooled. But they expected the wealthy socialite would leave the mansion in luxury, driven in one of the estate’s expensive cars. They didn’t pay attention to the pretty young housemaid and coarsely dressed gardener who left by way of the servantsʼ entrance a few minutes later, walking hand in hand down the sidewalk.
When Luke and Carol in their disguises rounded the corner of the next street a couple of blocks over, another Stellar Security truck was waiting for them. They jumped in and rode in the truck a couple of miles away. Then the driver pulled over next to a dark blue Dodge Charger.
“Are you sure you want to do this, ma’am?” the driver asked. “Our company is more than capable of providing the security you need.” His disdainful look wasn’t lost on Luke.
Luke shrugged. “Up to you, Carol. They’ve done a smashup job so far.” He didn’t bother to temper the sarcasm in his voice.
She shook her head. “No, thank you. We’re sticking to our original plan.”
She got out, and Luke followed with their bags. Another security guard got out of the Charger and tossed the keys to Luke. He and Carol got inside, but as soon as the security van turned the corner, they hopped back out. They ran across the street to the parking garage on the corner and ducked inside.
“Where is it?” Carol asked.
“Two rows over, the white van on the end.”