Scarlet Nights

by Jude Deveraux

  “Yeah, I read that,” Mike said. “And if it weren’t for some vague eyewitness reports, we wouldn’t know who he was.”

  “Right, because Stefan left nothing behind, not so much as a fingerprint. And you know the rule: no evidence, no conviction. Personally, I’d like to arrest the man right now, but the higher-ups want an undercover operation so we can get the mother. We take away her son, and she’d just start using her nieces and nephews. She’s the brains, so we have to get her out of action. Permanently.”

  Mike looked at his watch. “I just need to stop by my apartment to get some things, then I can leave—”

  “Uh, Mike,” the captain said in a tone of apology, “it looks like you haven’t seen the local news in the last couple of hours. There’s something else you need to know.”

  “What happened?”

  The captain took the last documents from the bench and handed them to him. “I’m really sorry about this.”

  When Mike opened the folder, he saw a computer printout of a news story. APARTMENT BURNED, the headline read. CIGARETTES TO BLAME, SAY THE AUTHORITIES.

  Mike’s anger flared as he looked at the photo. It was his six-story apartment building, and flames were coming out of the corner of the fourth floor—his apartment.

  He put the papers with the others before he looked up at the captain. “Who did it?”

  “The Feds say it must have been … Let me check. I don’t want to misquote anyone.” His voice was sarcastic as he flipped a paper over. “‘A fortuitous accident’ is what they called it. Lucky for them, that is.” The captain’s eyes were sympathetic. “I’m sorry about this, Mike, but they want you to go there clean. Your story is that your apartment burned down, so you decided to take a much-needed vacation from police work. It makes sense that you’d stay at your sister’s apartment since it’s empty. It’s supposed to be a coincidence that her place is on the same property as Miss Shaw’s. We—they—want you to lie as little as possible. Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out a new BlackBerry, and handed it to Mike. “Stefan cut his teeth on pickpocketing, so when you do meet with him he’ll take your phone. We don’t want him to find any numbers on it that would give you away. While you’re in Edilean you’re to contact us only through your sister. Will that be all right with her?”

  “Sure,” Mike said and renewed his vow to tell Tess to stay away. The case must be really serious if they’d burned his apartment. He’d never tell anyone, but Tess had been sending him baked goods from her friend Sara Shaw for years now, and it was Mike’s opinion that anyone who could bake like she could deserved to be saved.

  When Mike was silent, the captain said, “Sorry about your clothes.” They all knew Mike was a “dresser.” “What did you lose?”

  “Nothing important. Tess keeps whatever means anything to me in a storage bin in—” He hesitated. “In Edilean.”

  “My advice is that you don’t visit it.” The captain wanted to lighten the mood. “Again, too bad about the apartment. I was going to volunteer to look after your goldfish.”

  Mike snorted as he stood up. He didn’t have goldfish or a dog or even a permanent home. He’d lived in furnished, rented apartments since he left his grandparents’ home at seventeen.

  Mike glanced at the roadway that wound through the park. He’d take a run—he needed it—then go. “I’ll leave in two hours,” he said. “I should be in Edilean about ten hours after that—if I use the siren now and then, that is.”

  The captain smiled. “I knew you’d do it.”

  “Want to go for a run with me?”

  The captain grimaced. “I leave that torture to you. Mike?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful, will you? Stefan has a bit of a conscience—or at least a fear of reprisals—but his mother …”

  “Yeah, I know. Could you put together more info for me on mother and son?”

  “How about if you jog over to my car right now and I give you three boxes full of material?”

  Mike gave one of his rare laughs, making the captain look at him in question.

  “You have something in mind, don’t you?”

  “I was thinking of how to introduce myself to Miss Shaw and I remembered a story my sister told me about a very old tunnel. It just happens to open right into the floor of my sister’s bedroom. All I have to do is move Miss Shaw in there.”

  The captain waited, but Mike didn’t elaborate. “You’ve only got three weeks. Think you can entice Miss Shaw away from a big city charmer like Stefan in that time?”

  Mike gave a sigh. “Usually, I’d say yes, but now …” He shrugged. “In my experience, the only way to get a woman is to find out what she wants, then give it to her. It’s just that I have no idea what a woman like Sara Shaw could possibly want.” He looked at the captain. “So where are these boxes of info? I need to get out of here.” Mike followed him to his car.

  Ramsey McDowell was sound asleep when he heard Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” blasting from his wife’s cell phone. Groaning, he put the pillow over his head and tried to shut out the noise—and shut out his feelings. It was her brother calling her, a man Rams had never met, a man more elusive than a ghost, more secretive than a spy. But even though he’d never seen the man, Rams had heard more about him than he cared to. According to his bride, her brother was the smartest, most industrious, most heroic and, of course, the best-looking man on the planet.

  “She’s succeeded in making you jealous, hasn’t she?” his cousin Luke had said, laughing. “Don’t worry, old man, a few days—or years—in a gym and you might live up to his reputation.”

  Jealous or not, Ramsey knew that his wife halted everything—meals, arguments, even sex—if her phone emitted that outrageous song.

  “He is not a hero,” Ramsey said the first time Tess had jumped off of him to run to her phone. “He’s just a policeman.”

  “Detective,” Tess said over her shoulder. She was nude, and the sight of her beautiful body running was enough to make him forgive her. But that had been weeks ago and he was tired of the daily calls.

  Tess said, “He usually only calls me once a week, but he’s off now so we can talk all we want.”

  “All we want” turned out to be every day, and with the way the man caught them in the midst of every “activity,” Rams thought a camera had been set on them. Even now, on their honeymoon, he still called her.

  “Mike!” Tess said as she picked up her phone. Her voice was breathless and a bit frightened. “Is something wrong?”

  Rams looked at the clock. On European time, it was the wee hours of the morning. Why couldn’t the man get a girlfriend like normal people did?

  “All right,” Tess said softly into the phone as she sat back down on the bed. “Of course I’ll do it.”

  Rams moved the pillow off his head and looked at her with curiosity. He’d never heard her use that tone before.

  “Mike, you’ll be careful, won’t you? No, I mean it. Really careful.”

  Rams sat up in bed and watched her more closely. There was enough light in the room that he could see tears in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  She held up her hand for him to stop talking. “I understand completely. Luke will do whatever I ask him to.”

  “Luke will do what?” Ramsey asked.

  Tess looked at her husband. “Would you please be quiet? This is important.”

  Angrily, Rams flung back the covers, pulled on his trousers that were hanging over a chair, and opened the curtain to look at the mountains outside. Behind him, Tess kept talking.

  “Yes, I think it’s in good condition, and besides me, only Luke knows about it. I’m sure he didn’t tell Joce. He was afraid she’d want to explore it, and he’s always thought it was too dangerous.” Pausing, Tess smiled. “Not yet, but Rams is working on it with enthusiasm and endurance. Yeah, the first one will be named Michael.”

  In an instant, Ramsey’s anger left him and he stretched out on
the bed beside his wife. He didn’t like the way she’d told intimacies about them to her brother, but he did like that she’d said she planned to have children. They’d not talked about having kids, but he now realized he hadn’t done so in fear that she’d say she didn’t want any. Tess was a woman of very strong opinions. But once he was over his first pleasure at hearing that she did want children, Ramsey began to imagine a dozen of them, all with a name in some form of Michael: Michaela, Michalia, Mickey, Michelle—

  “What an extraordinary call,” Tess said as she clicked off her phone.

  “I draw the line at Mickey. No mice.”

  Tess gave him a look of disgust. “Are you going to start on your jealousy again?”

  “I’m not—” Rams began but stopped himself. “So why did your brother feel he had to call you in the middle of the night? Or is he playing James Bond in a country where it’s now teatime?”

  “He just arrived in Edilean.”

  Rams looked at her. “Your brother is in our hometown and you aren’t packed yet?”

  “No, and I’m not going to. He wants us to go on an extended honeymoon—and stay away from home.”

  “Not that I object, but why does he want us to do that?”

  “It seems that my big brother has been sent to Edilean on a case.”

  “But he—” Ramsey swallowed. Tess’s brother went undercover for big cases. Huge cases. He dealt in crimes that had international repercussions. He infiltrated gangs that were at war with each other—he’d been shot repeatedly.

  Rams got off the bed and went to the closet.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going home; you’re staying here. If your brother’s been sent to Edilean, then something is very wrong.”

  “If you go, I’ll follow you, and that will put my brother in danger. And Mike said that if I’m there I might become a target. Is that what you want?”

  Turning, Ramsey looked at her. She wore no makeup or clothing, and she was so beautiful he could hardly stand upright. He still couldn’t believe that when he’d asked her to marry him just four weeks ago, she’d said yes. Three weeks later they’d been married in a private ceremony with only a dozen guests. And except that her brother hadn’t been able to be there, it was how they’d both wanted it. In fact, Tess had said, “If you think I’m going to make a fool of myself by wearing a hundred yards of white silk and having a bunch of women around me in pink dresses, then you’ve asked the wrong woman to marry you. Spend the money on a rock. I want a ring big enough to dance on.” He’d happily done just what she asked. And he’d added a pair of diamond earrings—all of which she was wearing now. Just the diamonds, her skin and hair.

  “What’s going on in Edilean?” Rams asked. “Who is in danger?”

  “You know Mike can’t tell me anything. His cases are top secret. If anyone found out, lives could be lost.”

  Ramsey gave her a piercing look. As far as he could tell, her brother didn’t keep secrets from her.

  Tess sighed. “Sara.”

  Ramsey took a deep breath. “My cousin Sara? Sweet, dear Sara? It’s that bastard she wants to marry, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Tess said simply. “He’s not who he says he is.”

  “Now there’s news! I’ve disliked him from the moment I first saw him.”

  “All of us have felt the same way, but he’s helped Sara to recover, and their customers love him. Mike wants us to do some things.”

  “Mike wants us …?” Ramsey grimaced. “If he asked us for help then he meant for you to tell me about Sara, didn’t he?”

  Tess smiled. “Do you think I’d tell you anything Mike didn’t want me to?”

  Ramsey started to, yet again, tell her what he thought of her elusive, secretive brother, but he didn’t. “Okay. I’ll bite. What does he want us to do?”

  “First,” Tess said as she lowered her voice and slid down in the bed, “he wants nieces and nephews. He says he’s sick of having no kids to buy Christmas presents for.”

  “Did he now?” Rams said as he slipped off his trousers and slid under the covers. “And what else did your very intelligent brother ask for?”

  “To figure out what Sara owns that a thief would want. It seems that Greg is a big-time crook and Sara has something he’s gone to a lot of trouble to get.” When Rams started to move away, Tess pulled his face down to hers. “And you’re to take me to Venice.”

  “For how long?” he murmured.

  “Until Mike says we can return.”

  Ramsey didn’t like the autocratic way his brother-in-law was making decrees, but he would do whatever he must to keep his beloved wife safe. Abruptly, he pulled away from kissing her neck. “What kind of gifts does your brother give to kids?”

  “C-4.” When Ramsey gave her a look of horror, she laughed. “I don’t know. Why don’t we wait and see?”

  The next morning, while Ramsey was in the shower, Tess called her friend and Ramsey’s cousin, Luke Connor, to talk about what Mike needed. He and his wife, Jocelyn, lived in Edilean Manor, a rambling mansion built in 1770. They resided in the two-story main part, while Sara had an apartment in one of the flanking wings on one side. Until her marriage, Tess had had the apartment on the other side.

  A few years ago, Luke, a famous best-selling author, had returned to Edilean to recover from a disastrous marriage. As a way of healing, he’d taken over the maintenance of the old house and grounds. After days of heavy rain that nearly flooded the town, he’d discovered an old tunnel. It had been shored up with heavy timbers, and the floors had been laid with handmade brick—and it opened into the floor of Tess’s apartment.

  Under normal circumstances, he would have told the people of Edilean what he’d found, but at the time he was so miserable he wasn’t talking to anyone. In private, with only the help of his grandfather, he’d restored the tunnel—which he figured had been used during the Civil War as part of the Underground Railroad to help slaves escape.

  After his grandfather died, no one but Luke knew about the tunnel—until Tess discovered it. She was curious about the big square cut in the boards in the middle of her bedroom floor. Luke had made sure there were no handles on top and that it was locked from the inside, but that didn’t stop Tess from using a crowbar to pry up the boards. She went down the ladder Luke had put there and used a flashlight to make her way along the dark, dank corridor. When she tripped over Luke’s sleeping body—and found out where he disappeared to when no one could find him—for several long moments they’d both been in a state of panic. After they’d calmed down, they went to Tess’s apartment, and Luke ended up telling her his personal problems. And Tess told Luke about her brother and a little of why she’d come to Edilean. She didn’t have to tell him that she was madly in love with her boss, Luke’s cousin, Ramsey. He said the whole town knew that. But Tess had had to wait a long time before Rams figured that out for himself.

  After that first nearly hysterical encounter, Luke and Tess had formed a bond between them, and unknown to the gossipy little town, Luke often entered her apartment through the tunnel and spent the night in her second bedroom. So now she called and told him what her brother needed.

  “Let me get this straight,” Luke said. “You want me to sabotage Sara’s apartment so she has to move into yours because your brother—who I’ve never met—wants to sneak into your bedroom where Sara will be staying? And this is in the dead of night?”

  “That’s exactly right. Is the tunnel in good shape?”

  “Bugs and cobwebs, but the structure is sound.”

  “So will you do it?”

  “I have one question.”

  “And that is?”

  “Is your brother married?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Think he could seduce Sara away from Anders?”

  “My brother could seduce Jolie away from Pitt.”

  Luke groaned. “Sometimes I almost feel sorry for my cousin.”

  “Rams needs competition,”
Tess said. “How’s Joce?”

  “Not so good. We just found out that she has to stay in bed for the rest of her pregnancy or risk losing the twins. But I got her started on doing the family genealogy, and she’s liking that.”

  “Tell her that my heart is with her and I’ll call her tomorrow. Anything I can do for her?” Tess asked.

  “Come home as soon as you can. She misses you. About Sara, if I tell her I have to fumigate her apartment, she’ll be out in seconds. Leave it all to me.”

  “Thank you very much,” Tess said and hung up. When Rams got out of the shower, she was sitting on the little sofa in the hotel room, reading a magazine. “So what do they wear in Venice?”

  “Exactly what you have on.” She was completely naked. “Except they add a mask.”

  “And where do they put it?”

  Ramsey laughed as he walked toward her, his towel dropping to the floor.

  2

  EDILEAN, VIRGINIA

  IT WAS LATE at night, and Sara was sewing some adjustments on the bodice of a gown she and Greg had bought on a trip to New York. It had been “one of those,” meaning a dress that Sara’d had to bite her tongue about.

  “No woman in Virginia is going to wear this,” Sara had said. It had cutouts on the hips.

  “Marilyn Steward,” Greg mumbled as he tossed aside four other dresses.

  “Her left thigh is wider than the waist of this dress.” She was holding it up and looking at it. “Maybe Carol Wills. She’s young enough and thin enough that she—”

  Greg snatched the dress from her hands. “Why do you have to give me trouble on every dress I want to buy? Leave the designing to me, will you? I’ll buy the dress in a size twelve, put an eight label in it, and Mrs. Wealthy Steward will love it.”

  “Right.” As always, Sara backed down. As she put the dress on the to-buy rack, she thought, And I’ll have to completely remake it to fit her. Which is what she was doing now. She had a closet full of dresses, slacks, jackets and even underwear that needed to be remade to fit their exacting customers.