by Sheryl Lynn
Catherine leaned back on the chair. “Roberta’s idea?”
“Yeah.” Noreen nodded eagerly. “She was scared she’d end up sticking Jeff with big medical bills. She’s the—”
“Noreen,” Easy interrupted, “are you claiming Roberta told you, face-to-face, she wanted you to impersonate her?”
“Not exactly. But Jeff said—”
“I can’t listen to this.” Catherine pushed off the chair. Unable to look at the woman, she hung her head. “Roberta Livman is dead. You helped Jeffrey make killing her profitable. Now you want to act like a victim? You’re the one with the cast-iron stomach, Easy, you talk to her. She’s making me sick.”
He waggled a hand at her. “Hold on a sec, Tink. It sounds like Noreen is a victim.”
“Just like every other criminal is a victim.” She whirled on the woman and leaned over the desk. Her purse hit the desktop with a thud. “You know what he did, but you never warned me. When I turned up dead, were you going to call that an accident, too?”
Easy rested a hand on Catherine’s shoulder. “Chill. We need to hear Noreen’s side of the story.” He jotted a few notes in his book. In a casual tone, he added, “I find it hard to swallow that she’s an accessory to murder.”
“Accessory? No!”
“That’s what the cops will think.” He clucked his tongue. His brow twisted in an expression of bemused concern.
Smooth, Easy Martel, Catherine thought, backing away to give him room to work.
“Look at it from their point of view. There’s no question you committed fraud. Witnesses can identify you. The question the cops will ask is, why? If you and Livman were lovers, that would be one thing. But you say it’s nothing like that. Which leaves only monetary gain. You can get the death penalty.”
“Oh God, oh God,” Noreen whispered.
A knock on the door was followed by an older woman poking her head inside the office. “Excuse me. Noreen, your two-o’clock closing people are waiting.”
Noreen covered her face with a tissue. Nodding, she waved at the woman to indicate understanding. “Be right there.”
“Uh, okay.” After giving Easy and Catherine wondering looks, the woman backed out, closing the door behind her.
“The law treats accomplices as culpable as the perps,” Easy said. “That means the way things stand, you’re as guilty as Livman. But if you confess to the insurance fraud, and cooperate in his prosecution, they’ll probably go easy on you.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I’ll lose my job.” She blinked rapidly. “I’ll go to jail.”
“If you make them come after you, you’ll definitely go to jail. Right now it looks like Livman paid you to help him murder his wife.”
“It does?”
“That’s how it looks to me.”
“He didn’t give me any money!”
Catherine gritted her teeth. “Then what did he give you?”
“Nothing! It was a favor. Just a favor!” She popped to her feet and gripped the edge of the desk with both hands. “Get out of my office. I have clients waiting. Get out!”
“Are you afraid of Livman?” Easy asked gently. “Did he threaten you?”
The woman scowled stubbornly at her desk.
“This isn’t over, Noreen.” Easy closed his notebook. “If I were you, I’d hire the best attorney I could find.”
Catherine managed to hold her peace until they left Morgan Title. At the elevator, awaiting a car, she could stand it no more. “She’s a liar!”
“I know.” He draped a comforting arm around her shoulders. “But it doesn’t matter. We have her dead to rights.”
“She’ll never talk.”
“Care to make a small wager? We have witnesses and physical evidence that she committed fraud. It’s a baby step from there to a murder investigation.” He winked. “Noreen won’t go down alone.”
His smug self-confidence irked her. “What if she leaves town? Runs away?”
“She has family here. Friends. A good job. She owns a condo. She won’t run, trust me. Bury her head in the sand and hope we go away, yes. Run, no.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I have to be. I can’t lock her in the trunk of my car until the cops finish the paperwork.” He chuckled and pressed the already lit down button. “Don’t worry. It won’t take much for her to realize she has no choice except to spill her guts.”
The elevator arrived. Easy guided her inside and turned, never releasing his hold of her shoulders. Despite her frazzled, anger over Noreen, Catherine liked the safe feeling—the comfortable familiarity—of his arm.
“I believe her when she says she didn’t know he meant murder.”
“I don’t.” Catherine concentrated on recalling every word the woman had spoken. And, the way she’d spoken. “I think she knew what he intended to do the minute he asked her to impersonate his wife.”
He cocked his head and frowned. “Why do you say that?”
‘‘Call it intuition.”
The car stopped, the doors slid open. Jeffrey Livman stared directly into her eyes.
The three of them stood for so long, the doors began to slide closed. Jeffrey shot out a hand and blocked the door. “Well, darling, fancy meeting you here.” He glanced at the directory of businesses hanging on the wall next to the elevators.
His smile chilled Catherine’s blood. Had she actually kissed him? Imagined she could love him? Wanted to bear his children? Looking at him now, she could not conceive of ever missing the emptiness in his eyes.
Easy urged her to move, but he never loosened his hold on her shoulders. On wooden legs, with her heart pounding so fiercely it battered her chest, she walked out of the elevator. She knew if Jeffrey touched her, she’d scream.
He shook a finger in the air. “And you, sir, you’re the private eye. I’ve heard you guys move fast, but this must be a record. Catherine, do you think you can tear yourself away from lover boy long enough to have a little chat with me?”
“No.”
Jeffrey’s smile remained, but his eyes narrowed. A vein pulsed in his forehead. “I’m not finished with you, Catherine.”
“Stay away from her, Livman.” Easy placed himself between Jeffrey and Catherine.
“She’s my fiancée, Martel. I’ll thank you to take your hands off her.”
The lobby doors opened and a knot of people in business attire walked inside. Catherine murmured, “Let’s go.” Jeffrey frightened her, but at the moment, Easy made her nervous. Cords stood out on his neck. Jeffrey would love nothing more than for Easy to take a swing at him. She nudged Easy’s hip, hard.
To her relief, he headed for the door.
“Catherine St. Clair!” Jeffrey yelled. “It’s bad enough you have to sleep around with every guy you pick up off the street, but at least you could give me the ring back!”
Catherine gasped. Heads swiveled in her direction. Her face burned. She stumbled and would have fallen, but for Easy’s strong arm. He hustled her out the door and onto the street.
She looked back, her horror rising. “He knows we talked to Noreen.”
“Relax, that’s a big building. Besides, I doubt even Livman can convince Noreen to go to prison while he gets off clean.”
EASY PARKED HIS CAR in Catherine’s driveway. Still shaken by the encounter with Jeffrey, she licked her lips and played her fingers over the door handle.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be all right again. Did you see his face? He’s going to get me.”
“Relax. By Monday, it’ll all be over. He’ll be arrested, charged and locked away.”
She graced him with a baleful look. “And what do I do in the meantime?”
He gave it a moment of thought. “The Sky Sox are playing Saturday. Want to go?”
One more second of his sexy smile and sparkling eyes, and she’d agree to ride a soapbox racer to the moon with him. The scent of him filling the car interior torm
ented her soul. “I hate baseball, Easy. That much hasn’t changed.”
“You still love popcorn, don’t you? My treat, all the popcorn you can eat. I’ll throw in a hat, too. An official Sky Sox baseball cap. What do you say?”
A strange dilemma, she mused. Hang around the house and worry about Jeffrey, or run around with Easy and worry about him. She opened the car door. Heat slapped her face. A storm was building, making the air feel heavy. “I have stuff to do.”
“What stuff? What’s so important?”
She explained about Doc Halladay wanting to do a piece for his show about her. She swept out an arm, indicating the property. “I have to clean the house from top to bottom. There’s painting. The deck is a mess, and I have to do something about the driveway.” With so much physical labor to occupy her, she could keep her mind off Jeffrey—and keep her traitorous body away from Easy.
“I’ll paint your deck.”
“That’s all right. I’ll hire someone. I know you have a lot to do, too.”
“You can hire me.”
She laughed.
“I’m serious. You wouldn’t believe how much the payments are on my motorcycle. I can use all the cash I can scrape together.”
She knew darned well his offer had nothing to do with earning money. “Stop pressuring me. I’m not ready for a relationship.” Her cheeks began to warm. Making love with him had been heaven and hell rolled into one. “I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but it’s over.”
His sunniness cooled and his gaze went distant. “You don’t mean that.”
“Give me a break.” She bit back a complaint about how easily she’d fallen into Easy’s bed, and in the process turned upside down everything she thought she knew about herself. “I don’t even know how I feel right now.”
“Yeah, sure.”
His hurt burned through her heart, aching like an open wound. “We have a deal.” She hated the uncertainty in her own voice. “I cooperate, you leave me alone.”
He swung about, his expression raw with emotion. “Come on, you know I didn’t mean it. Neither did you. We’re meant to be together.”
The truth cut her to the quick. She’d probably go to her grave loving him and only him. As a boy he’d ripped apart her life; as a man he was doing it again. Yet, he pleaded with her as if shredding her life were the sign of ultimate affection. Her heart yearned toward him; her body ached for his touch; only her mind rebelled.
“That’s why you blabbed to your sister?” She regretted the accusation as soon as it emerged, but refused to stop. “You had to go and tell her about Elizabeth. She thinks I’m hard-hearted and you’re the poor victim whose little baby was stolen away.”
He flinched as if she’d slapped him. Some of the color faded from his dusky cheeks. “Because you want to act like Elizabeth is a nasty little secret doesn’t mean I have to.”
Touché. She lashed him; he slashed her. As far as Catherine was concerned, they were even. Biting her lower lip to keep from crying, she lifted her chin. “Goodbye.” She stepped out of the car.
“That’s your answer to everything, isn’t it, Tink? Batten down the hatches and run like hell.”
THE THROATY GROWL of the Harley-Davidson rumbled through the trees.
On the deck, Catherine straightened too fast and a rush of dizziness made her vision swim. She dropped the scraper she’d been using and leaned heavily against the deck railing. She blinked rapidly and gulped air. “Ought to wear a hat,” she muttered to the dogs. Storms had raged through the Front Range, but this morning the sky gleamed like turquoise enamel and the temperature soared into the nineties. Summer had officially arrived. She wiped clammy sweat off her face.
She watched Easy guide the motorcycle around potholes. He’d called her several times. The calls had been chatty, filling her in about what was going on with Noreen and the insurance company, but cautious, as if he feared she might hang up on him. She dreaded him finding out how much she looked forward to the sound of his voice. Or how much she missed him.
She picked up the scraper. Easy Martel was a man she needed to get over, not encourage. Still, her heart leaped with joy at the sight of him. Her body tingled with remembered passion.
He parked the bike and turned off the engine. The sudden silence made even the birds seem hushed. With greedy anticipation, she watched him pull off the helmet, freeing his hair. His smile held the power to melt her knees.
“Hey, Tink. What are you doing?”
“Cleaning the deck. What are you doing?” Beside her, the dogs rose and stretched, yawning to show all their teeth. They wagged their tails in a lazy greeting.
He hopped lithely onto the deck and caught both her hands. She dropped the scraper for the second time and it bounced, clattering on the wood. “I’m celebrating,” he announced.
His happiness made her wary. Their last argument had been nasty, and neither had apologized yet. She refused to believe he’d merely forgotten. She certainly hadn’t. “Celebrating what?”
“Toni Johnson finally called me.”
“Who’s he?”
“She. Assistant district attorney. She’s opening an investigation.”
Eager for details, Catherine nodded in encouragement.
“Romoco Insurance backtracked over what I dug up. John provided enough handwriting samples for Romoco to say, without a doubt, that Roberta’s signature on the insurance papers is a forgery. Romoco’s employees will testify that Roberta isn’t the woman who applied for the insurance.”
“Jeffrey will be arrested?”
“Eventually. Toni doesn’t want him on fraud alone, she wants him for murder. We won, Tink. Livman is going down.”
Catherine squeezed his fingers. “He’s finally going to pay for what he did.”
“It won’t be easy, but it’ll happen. That’s why you need to go to the D.A.’s office on Monday.”
“Why me?”
“Right now, the fraud case is airtight, but the homicide case is shaky. Motive isn’t enough to prove murder and Toni isn’t sure Noreen will give up Livman all the way to murder. Toni needs every scrap of evidence she can find. She’s afraid if she arrests Livman on the fraud charge, he’ll make bail and skip.”
“He won’t run. He thinks he can win.”
“Toni won’t take the chance. Livman has plenty of liquid assets. He can cash out and be gone within hours.”
It finally struck her how very close she’d come to marrying a murderer. The queasy, light-headedness returned. Catherine had to sit down.
Easy dropped to one knee before her. “Are you okay? Your face went dead white.”
She used her wrist to wipe clammy sweat off her brow. “I’m okay.” She drew in several deep, calming breaths. She blinked moisture from her eyes and her vision cleared. “Jeffrey and I were always running in secluded areas. We did some rock climbing.” She turned her gaze on her house. “He could have pushed me down the stairs.”
He patted her knee. “You’re safe now.”
“What if he tries to shut me up? Or you?”
“Won’t do him a bit of good. If he wanted to shut up witnesses, he should have shut his own mouth. He told different stories to the paramedics and to the police. Then he changed his story again to you and everyone else. We have some of his lies on tape.”
“What about Noreen? If she doesn’t testify, is there a case?”
“She’ll testify. She has no other option. We’ve got her cold.” He threw back his head and laughed at the sky. “And get this! If Romoco recovers their half a million, they’ll pay a reward.”
“That’s wonderful,” she said unenthusiastically.
“Half of it is yours. You gave me the lead on Noreen.”
Shuddering in distaste, she hugged her elbows and grimaced. “You’re unbelievable!’’
“I know. Let’s go celebrate.”
“Poor taste, Easy. I can’t celebrate the fact that he murdered his wife.”
He leaned an elbow on the railing. �
��I always celebrate when the dirtbags get theirs.”
“Is life that black-and-white for you?”
He gave her question visible consideration. He frowned at a bird feeder. “Yep,” he finally said. “It’s definitely a no-brainer. The good guys win and the bad guys suffer retribution.” He poked her shoulder with a finger. “Don’t tell me after all you’ve been through that you have feelings for the guy.”
An undertone of worry in his voice alerted her senses. “Looking back I can see how he hustled me. He knew where I was vulnerable. And I’m angry.” She clasped her hands. “I’m embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Because every time I get involved with a man, I mess up.” She shoved out of the chair and retrieved the scraper. “You, Jeffrey. Maybe I’m too stupid for love.”
He placed a hand on her shoulder. She twisted away. “Come on, Tink. It isn’t your fault. He’s an operator. He preys on women. He messed with your head, but it’s over.” He caught her shoulder again, and this time she let him gently turn her about. He touched a finger to her chin, lifting her face. His intense gaze touched her soul.
“This isn’t about Livman. It’s about me. How many apologies will it take until you know how sorry I am about Elizabeth?”
“I don’t know.” Her throat tightened.
“If there was anything I could do to make things better for you, I would.”
She wanted to believe him. She wanted to love him…and that frightened her.
An approaching mail truck saved her from herself. She pulled away from Easy and watched the driver negotiate the driveway up to the house. The mail carrier brought an overnight package that Catherine had to sign for. She noted it was from her agent’s New York office.
“Good news?” Easy asked after the mail truck trundled away.
Catherine opened the bulky package. She pulled out a copy of the Doc Halladay contract. She hefted it in her hand, amazed at how it was at least three times thicker than any other contract she’d ever received. A knot tightened in her belly. Fulfilling this contract would have an indelible effect on her career. Either she’d be a wild success or a total failure, with no in-between measures possible. “Ever seen paper worth a million bucks?”