He sat up in bed, feeling a sense of helplessness that was entirely new to him. He never wanted to envisage a time when he and Rebecca wouldn’t spend time together as a family. Could Sarah have been right after all? He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, picked up his blankets and walked out into the hall. Laying his bedding outside Rebecca’s room, he settled down across her door, instantly feeling more comfortable and relaxed. He just needed to be as close to her as possible, acting as her shield. He wished he could do the same thing every day for the rest of his life.
In the darkness of the hallway, Jack did something he had never done before in his life: he prayed.
TWELVE
Rebecca sat in the backseat of her minivan, watching the world pass by in a whirl. She had waked that morning and almost fallen over Jack, lying sleeping in the hallway outside her bedroom door. He told her that his odd sleeping place was for added security, but she sensed the explanation wasn’t entirely truthful. He had looked at her for a very long time while he had said, “The closer I am to you, the better.”
She felt reassured knowing that her house was being guarded by Cole Strachan and Dillon Harding. She had met them only briefly at Ian’s funeral yet had instinctively felt they were as honorable and trustworthy as her late husband. Ian had been surrounded by five comrades as he had taken his last breath, and she had ensured that each one of them received a personal note of gratitude from her. Each one, that is, except Jack, who had received her thanks in person and had never left her side since. But that was soon to change. Today was the first day of her new plan to bury her feelings deep inside and begin the process of becoming truly independent. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she was confident of her ability to see it through.
“I’ll fake it till I make it,” she muttered under her breath, as if saying the words out loud gave them extra credence.
“Did you say something, Bec?” Jack asked, glancing behind from the driver’s seat.
“No,” she answered quickly. “Just saying a quick prayer for the day, that’s all.”
He smiled broadly, and she averted her eyes to the other side of the car. Darius was sitting in the passenger seat, wearing khaki pants and black boots. He looked as though he was on military assignment, whereas Jack was dressed in his usual casual style of shorts and a cotton shirt. The two men couldn’t be more different. At least Darius’s presence prevented a recurrence of intimacy between her and Jack. There had been too many times recently when their closeness had almost ignited a spark of a kiss.
Her purse began to buzz on the seat next to her. She rooted around inside to find her cell phone and looked at the display. It was a local number that she didn’t recognize.
“Hello,” she said tentatively. “Who is this?”
“Rebecca,” came the reply. “It’s Simon.”
“Simon!” she exclaimed. Darius and Jack both turned their heads to look at her. “What do you want from me? Darius told us how you and Peter attacked him yesterday. Whatever you’re trying to do, it won’t work.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Simon retorted. “I’ve just been arrested by the police for an assault that I know nothing about. They want to know where Peter is, but he’s vanished, and I’m totally clueless about all of it. I’m allowed one phone call before I’m interviewed by the cops, and I’m hoping you can help me out here.”
Rebecca fell silent. She knew Simon well enough to know how slippery he could be. He was accomplished at manipulation, but he sounded so sincere and honest that she didn’t know what to believe. “You and Peter attacked Chief Finch last night while trying to break into my house,” she said. “He told us all about it.”
“That’s a total lie,” Simon shouted into the phone. “Why would I do that?”
“You tell me, Simon,” she said. “Are you involved with the gang who stole the art?”
Jack’s eyes flitted between hers and the road, clearly concerned. She mouthed the words It’s okay at him.
“No,” Simon replied. “I would never do something like that. Why would I be so desperate to run a story in the paper if I was involved in the theft?”
Darius was staring at her from his seat directly in front. “Just hang up,” he hissed. “Don’t let him draw you in.”
“Simon’s been arrested,” Rebecca told him. “But he’s denying everything.”
“Shall I pull over?” Jack asked.
Rebecca shook her head lightly. She dropped her voice to a whisper into the phone. “If you didn’t attack Darius last night, then who did?”
Simon gave a short intake of breath on the end of the line. “Now that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Tell me something, Rebecca. Was his injury serious?”
“No.”
“Superficial, huh?”
She turned her body away from Darius’s eyes. “You could say that.”
“The kind of injury that could be self-inflicted?”
Rebecca’s heart began to thud. Was Simon on to something here? The leg wound Darius sustained hadn’t been inflicted with severe force—just like the head wound he had suffered while chasing her attacker. If Simon’s theory was correct, that could only mean one thing—Darius was lying.
Simon interpreted her silence. “Is Darius Finch with you right now?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Is Conrad Jackson with you, too?”
“Yes.”
“Good. He and I have never been the best of friends, but he looks after you well.”
She heard voices behind Simon, telling him his time was up. “I gotta go,” he said. “I’ve got a cast-iron alibi for yesterday. I’ll be out of here in no time, but you need to be careful. Don’t trust Darius. Stay close to Jack.”
“Leave me alone, Simon,” she said loudly into the phone, hoping he would realize what she was doing. “Whatever you have to say, you can tell it to the police.”
He sucked through his teeth. “You sure can be feisty when you want to be. Keep yourself safe.”
With that, he hung up, and Rebecca held the phone close to her chest, letting Simon’s words sink in. What he had just told her put a whole different slant on the situation. Was the chief trying to deflect attention away from himself? She and Jack could be in grave danger.
“What did he want?” Darius growled. “He’s got a lot of nerve calling you after what he did.”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding her head. “He’s claiming he didn’t attack you last night, but he’s obviously lying to save his own skin.” She forced a smile. “The police will see through him, no doubt.”
“Don’t worry, Rebecca,” Jack said. “With Simon already in custody, it won’t be long before Peter and Claire are found. If they’re all working together, the police will break them with some tough questioning.”
She nodded in agreement, her mind a whirl of questions all her own. And the main question she needed to answer was this: Was the criminal behind the theft none other than the man sitting barely two feet away—Chief Darius Finch? Had he been cleverly manipulating both her and Jack, trying to steer them off course in an effort to hide in plain sight?
*
Jack pulled the car into the lot of the Tallahassee Museum of Fine Art and parked as close to the entrance as possible. They were almost home free, but he didn’t want to take any chances until they got back to Bristol with the proof they needed to hand over to the FBI. He wanted to keep Rebecca out of public sight as much as possible just in case any menacing eyes were watching them. She had barely said a word since speaking to Simon on the phone an hour ago. She had simply closed her eyes and rested her head on the seat behind her, occasionally rubbing her temples with her fingers.
He should’ve known that Simon would try to persuade her of his innocence. Rebecca and her editor went back a long way, and Jack knew she didn’t want to believe that Simon could behave so callously. But despite Jack’s misgivings about Darius, the chief was a SEAL and, therefore, true to his word. S
EALs were men of honor.
The museum was warm, with high ceilings and numerous windows where the sun’s rays streamed onto the whitewashed walls. The foyer was filled with beautiful paintings and sculptures on every wall and surface, interspersed with lounge chairs and magazines to peruse. Jack breathed in the tranquil atmosphere, hoping that some of the serenity of the room would seep through to his troubled core. Rebecca was treating him like a stranger, and it hurt him deeply. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and approached the reception desk, where a smartly dressed young lady was sitting.
“I’m here to see Professor James Sears,” he said, reading from his note. “We have an appointment at nine-thirty.”
The girl smiled up at him. “Yes sir, the professor is expecting you.” She handed three visitor badges to Jack. “Please attach these to your clothing and make your way to the second floor, where you’ll find Dr. Sears in room 106.”
“Thank you,” Jack said, pushing aside a growing sense of unease. This building was vast with many places for someone to hide. He took Rebecca’s elbow and steered her to his side. “Stay close,” he whispered. “I’ve got a bad feeling.”
“I need to talk to you,” she whispered back. “Simon says Darius is lying.”
He pulled her quickly toward the stairs, leaving Darius lagging a little behind. “Do you believe him?”
“Yes.”
Jack stopped in his tracks and looked over to Darius. “Chief, could you give us a minute here? We’ve got something private to discuss.”
Darius raised his eyebrows and smiled slyly. “Sure.” He pointed to a bronze statue in the corner. “I’ll go appreciate the art while you talk.”
Jack waited until Darius was far enough away before he spoke freely. “Darius was pretty clear about who attacked him. What makes you think he’s lying?”
Rebecca rubbed her palms on her jeans nervously. She was wearing a turquoise sweater that emphasized the opaque blueness of her eyes, and the V shape exposed her long, elegant neck where tendrils of hair fell down from her loosely piled ponytail. She looked more beautiful than ever.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that Darius’s injuries have been very minor?” She glanced nervously over at Darius, who was walking around the sculpture, clearly bored. “And Simon may be ruthless and hard-nosed sometimes, but I’ve never known him to be a violent man.”
Jack touched her arm gently. “Maybe you don’t know him as well as you thought.”
Rebecca shook her hair, and more strands fell from her ponytail. “I’ve known Simon for twelve years.” She fixed Jack with a stare. “That’s longer than I’ve known you. I believe Simon when he says he didn’t attack Darius, and he says he has an alibi. I think the chief is lying, and I don’t trust him anymore.”
Jack moved in closer. He smelled her sweet perfume. “Darius has a knife wound on his thigh. If Simon wasn’t responsible, then how did it happen?”
“I think Darius inflicted it on himself. It was a very superficial wound, clearly not intended to do real damage.” She took a deep breath. “I don’t want him to come into the room when we meet with Professor Sears.”
Jack rubbed his chin, pulling at some beard strands with his fingers. Rebecca was talking a lot of sense. Darius’s story was full of holes, but Jack had never doubted the chief’s word because of his status as a SEAL. Jack simply didn’t want to believe that a navy SEAL could be capable of behaving so shamefully. But Rebecca had seen what he had missed, and he was thankful for her level head.
Darius cleared his throat loudly. Jack turned to look at him, and the chief tapped his watch impatiently.
Jack turned back to Rebecca and gripped her by the shoulders. “Give me two minutes.”
He walked over to Darius and spoke quietly in the silence of the gallery. “Listen, Chief,” he said, putting his hand on Darius’s shoulder and leading him back to the entrance. “Rebecca is really nervous that somebody followed us here. She’d feel a lot happier if you guarded the entrance to make sure that no one comes in after us.”
Darius looked over at Rebecca. “Then why don’t you guard the entrance?” he asked, clearly irritated.
Jack smiled. “She wants me to go see the professor with her.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess she feels more comfortable with me by her side.”
The look on Darius’s face turned suspicious. Jack found himself seeing the chief in a new light. “We’d really appreciate it,” he said with a bright tone. “We should be back in an hour.”
After a few seconds of silence, Darius gave a curt nod of his head. “I guess I don’t have a choice,” he said, relenting. “I’ll wait for you here.”
Jack patted him on the arm. “Thanks, Chief,” he said, holding his hands out toward the display of art around them. “It’s the ideal opportunity to improve your knowledge of the arts.”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Darius said with a tiny shake of the head. “Some of this stuff is worth millions of dollars, and it all looks like trash to me.”
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, I guess,” Jack replied.
Darius raised an eyebrow. “Ain’t that the truth.”
Jack began to back away from the chief. “We’ll be right back,” he said, pivoting around to return to Rebecca. He put his arm protectively around her shoulders and led her toward the stairs, glancing back to ensure that Darius remained in the foyer. In a matter of a few short minutes, his trust of Darius had evaporated into thin air. After meeting with the professor, Jack would need to decide whether Rebecca could be safe anywhere in the vicinity of the chief. He couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. Her life might depend on it.
*
“Please come in,” Professor Sears said, extending his hand toward a trio of upholstered chairs around a low coffee table. “I made a pot of coffee for your arrival.”
“Thank you so much for agreeing to see us,” Rebecca said, stepping into his large office with bookshelves on each wall, full to the brim with enormous reference manuals. “Your expertise is very much appreciated.”
“No thanks necessary,” he replied with a smile. “From what I understand, you have some photographs for me to study.”
“We do,” said Jack, reaching into his jacket pocket to pull out the photographs along with the auction house brochure. “As I said on the telephone, we’d like your opinion on whether the artworks in these four photographs match the items in this brochure. We did have a lot more, but unfortunately they were stolen.”
Jack handed the images to the professor, who sat at the table, laying them out before him. He was a lot younger than Rebecca had been expecting, with a smooth, fresh face and wearing modern, fashionable clothes—not as old as she had assumed a man of his experience would be.
“Please,” Professor Sears said, looking up at them over his glasses. “Help yourself to coffee while I make my assessment.”
Jack lifted the white china pot from a desk in the corner and poured two cups, handing one to Rebecca. She took it with a smile.
“It feels like we’re finally getting somewhere,” he whispered in the quiet room. “Now that we have an expert on our side, we’ll have something to hand over to the FBI when they review our case. This could be the start of the trail that leads to the thieves.”
Jack took a gulp from his cup and exhaled like he really needed the shot of caffeine. “You got me wondering whether that trail will lead to Darius Finch,” he said. “I just don’t know who to believe anymore. Except you.”
“Either Darius or Simon is lying,” Rebecca said. “Which one do you trust?”
He lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “By my reckoning, they’re both capable of dishonesty. Darius doesn’t seem to have a friend in the world, and Simon would sell his own grandmother for a decent story.”
“What do we do now, Jack?” she asked. “It isn’t safe to have Darius around us.”
“Leave the chief to me,” he replied. “Once we leave here, I’ll make sure he doesn’
t come within a yard of you. Once the police interview Simon and his alibi checks out, they’ll be certain to want to quiz Darius about his story again. The truth will come out.”
“I hope so,” she said with a sigh. “I really want to bring the girls home.”
Jack’s face fell. “Yeah,” he said. “I miss them, too.”
Rebecca moistened her lips, realizing how selfish her actions must appear to him. “I’m sorry, Jack. I know you must be hurting, too.”
“You’ve been treating me like a stranger today,” he whispered. “It’s like you shut me out completely.”
She closed her eyes and creased her brow, gripped by an unexpected pain. “It’s better this way,” she said.
“Better for who?”
“For both of us.” She placed her coffee cup on the desk and crossed her arms, creating a barrier that put a little more distance between them. “We’ve gotten way too close to each other, Jack. I didn’t see it until it was too late.”
She saw his breathing change rhythm, becoming quicker. “What do you mean, Bec?” he asked. “Too late for what?”
She looked down at the floor. “Too late to go back to being friends.”
He nodded. His brown eyes blinked slowly, and she wanted to melt into him and forget everything around them. He could even make her forget her own name sometimes.
“Actually,” he started to say, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.” He looked a little nervous. “I don’t think I want to go back to being friends anyway…”
Professor Sears suddenly looked up from the table and removed his glasses, interrupting Jack. “These items in the photographs are not a match to the items in the auction house brochure.”
Rebecca gripped Jack’s sleeve. “No!” she exclaimed. “Are you certain?”
The professor rose from his chair and approached them. “Quite sure,” he said. “I’m afraid you’ve wasted a trip.”
Love Inspired Suspense May 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: Trail of EvidenceGone MissingLethal Exposure Page 52