Falling into step beside Annie, Jennifer followed her into the den. “He seems very nice,” Jennifer said.
“I thought you’d like him.”
“He’s charming and well mannered and—”
“And every bit the gentleman that Daddy was.” Annie finished the sentence for her.
“Is he, dear?” When Jennifer tilted her head, her chin-length auburn hair swayed slightly.
“Don’t play coy with me, Mother. I’m your daughter. I know you.” Annie dropped onto the floral chintz sofa, kicked off her flats and tucked her feet up under her. “Dane is exactly what he seems. My guess is that he was born and raised with a silver spoon in his mouth, just as I was.”
“What, other than his good manners, makes you assume that?” Jennifer sat beside Annie, crossed her ankles and smiled pleasantly.
“He was married to Richard Hughes’s daughter.” Annie wiggled her toes as she stretched her arms over her head and leaned back into the plush sofa.
“Was he? How interesting,” Jennifer said, her smile enlarging just a fraction. “I believe Vera told me that Richard’s daughter died about ten years ago.”
“I don’t know. We haven’t discussed his wife. All Dane told me is that he’s a widower.”
“And he’s the CEO of a private security agency in Atlanta—is that right?”
“The Dundee agency.” Annie entwined her fingers and cupped her open palms behind her head.
“You have no idea how thankful I am that you hired Mr. Carmichael. The very thought that someone is trying to kill you frightens me terribly. I can’t believe that poor little Halley might be dead.”
“Mr. Carmichael is my temporary bodyguard,” she said. “Just until another agent is free.”
“Why is that, dear? Does Mr. Carmichael have a previous commitment?” Jennifer stared at Annie, a look of puzzlement in her brown eyes.
Loosening her entwined fingers, Annie sighed, then brought her hands down and around to her lap. She lifted her head from the soft sofa back and looked directly at her mother. “I asked Dane to arrange for another agent. He and I don’t—we have a difficult time… I’d feel more comfortable with someone else.”
“But why would you be uncomfortable with him? Dane Carmichael is obviously a fine man and a perfect gentleman.” Jennifer’s eyes grew bright as she uttered a silent, Ah. “He reminds you of Preston, doesn’t he? You’re attracted to him and that upsets you.”
“You’re much too smart, Mother.”
Dane stood in the doorway, suddenly feeling as if he were a voyeur secretly listening to a private conversation. He was about to make his presence known, but Annie made a confession before he could clear his throat or shuffle his feet.
“It would be much too easy to give in to the feelings I have for Dane, and it would be disastrous if I did. The man saved my life and he’s been at my side, protecting me, for the past four days. The danger that surrounds me combined with the feeling of safety I have when he’s near is getting all mixed up with physical attraction.”
Jennifer glanced past Annie, her gaze locking with Dane’s for just an instant. She quickly returned her full attention to her daughter.
“Why would it be disastrous for you to give in to the feelings you have for Dane?”
“Good heavens, Mother, stop and think! Dane is cut from the same cloth as Daddy. And yes, of course, he reminds me of Preston. Not physically, of course, since there’s no resemblance. But that smooth charm and old-fashioned good manners and—”
“Preston Younger was a fraud. He only pretended to be a gentleman, unlike your father, who was a gentleman.”
Dane wondered just how long Jennifer Harden would continue the conversation with her daughter, knowing full well that he was listening. Not liking the feel of being an eavesdropper, Dane cleared his throat.
When both women jerked around, he thought what an accomplished actress Mrs. Harden was.
“I left the bags in the kitchen,” he said.
“Do come in, Dane,” Jennifer said. “Annie can show you to your room later. My sister and her husband are due here anytime now. I’d like for you to meet them. Royce is a business associate of your former father-in-law’s. He owns a substantial amount of stock in Hughes Chemicals and Plastics and I think I might own a few shares, too. I’ll have to ask Royce.”
As if on cue, the doorbell rang before Dane had a chance to respond.
“That’s Vera and Royce, now.” Jennifer brushed past Dane on her way out of the room, then paused to look back at him over her shoulder. “Would you be a sweetheart and play bartender for me?” She glanced at Annie. “Show him where things are, will you?”
“The liquor is in the mahogany secretary.” Annie inclined her head toward the large antique piece situated along the wall to the right of the sofa. “Nothing for me, thanks. Mother and Aunt Vera will take sherry and Uncle Royce will want whiskey…neat.”
Dane nodded, then busied himself at the makeshift bar. Moments later Jennifer reappeared, along with a woman who could have been her twin, except that she was several years older and a few pounds heavier, and a tall, slender man with a shock of snow-white hair and piercing gray eyes.
“Sweetie.” With her arms open wide, Vera Layman rushed toward Annie, who stood and went into her aunt’s embrace. “We’ve been worried sick ever since Jenny told us about Halley Robinson’s disappearance and the attempt on your life.”
Annie’s uncle sized Dane up quickly, then extended his hand. “Royce Layman.”
“Dane Carmichael,” he replied, and shook the older man’s hand.
“So you’re the young man who saved our Annie’s life. Well, we’re mighty grateful, I can tell you that. This girl—” his gaze fell on Annie, the look warm, caring and paternal “—means the world to us.”
“Jenny tells us that Annie has hired you as her bodyguard.” Vera released her niece and turned to Dane. “If you’re playing bartender, I’d like a sherry, please.”
Dane poured the sisters’s drinks, then took the glasses to them. Each responded with flirtatious smiles of appreciation.
“Dane was married to Richard Hughes’s daughter,” Jennifer informed her sister.
“Is that right? Oh, my, we’re friends with Richard and Gloria,” Vera told him. “They’re lovely people. Richard is a candidate for governor, you know.”
Royce Layman looked at Dane oddly, then nodded to himself and said, “We appreciate your taking the job as Annie’s bodyguard. I feel reassured knowing what sort of man you are. I believe Richard’s daughter married a young man who was with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is that right?”
“Yes, sir. I was with the Bureau nearly thirteen years before going to work with the Dundee agency.”
“Shouldn’t y’all be leaving?” Annie asked. “We don’t want to keep y’all from your dinner plans.”
“We’re just going over to Stillwater,” Royce said. “I don’t think they’ll run out of steaks anytime soon. Besides—”
The doorbell rang. All four people in the den stilled instantly.
“Are you expecting anyone else, Mother?” Annie asked.
“No, dear,” Jennifer said.
“Would you like for me to go to the door, Mrs. Harden?” Dane offered.
“I’ll get it,” Royce said. Taking charge with his usual gusto, he marched out of the room.
Three minutes later he returned, a small package in his hand. “Nothing to get upset about. It was a special delivery for Annie.” He held out the small rectangular object to his niece.
Annie eyed the brown paper-wrapped parcel as if it were a poisonous snake. Could this be the little gift Halley had mailed to her from Point Clear four days ago, the day Halley had disappeared?
The rush of her heart pumping blood through her body thundered in her ears as she reached for the package.
“Wait!” Dane called to her.
All eyes turned toward him. Annie dropped her hand away.
“What’s wron
g?” she asked. “This could be the gift Halley sent me.”
Dane gave her a hard look, silently rebuking her for mentioning the item Halley had mailed.
“This is my family,” she told him, understanding the meaning of his menacing glare. “My mother and aunt and uncle. I trust these people with my life.”
“What’s going on here?” Royce demanded.
“Give me the package, please, Mr. Layman,” Dane said. “I want to have it checked before Annie opens it.”
“Checked for what?” Vera asked.
“A bomb,” Dane said.
Chapter 8
Royce Layman handed the ominous package to Dane. Their gazes connected briefly, exchanging a silent message. We must protect the ladies. Checking the outer covering of the package, Dane noted the return address on the special delivery form had been written in ink and that moisture of some type had obliterated it, leaving only a dark smudge. And the postmark was so faint as to be unreadable.
“Call the police,” he told Royce. “Tell them we have a package we suspect might contain a bomb. Then call the post office to see how quickly they can trace the package’s origins. I’ll wait outside for the police.”
Dane left the others in the family room while he made a hasty retreat through the kitchen and out the back door. Despite her mother’s nervous cry for her to stay, Annie followed Dane as far as the kitchen.
Jennifer came up behind Annie and laid her hand on her daughter’s back. Annie shuddered. “Our lives aren’t ever going to be the same, are they?” Jennifer sighed.
Annie nodded. “No. Not until we find out who is behind Halley’s disappearance and the attempts on my life.”
“Come back into the den with me.” Jennifer tugged on Annie’s arm. “There’s nothing we can do to help Mr. Carmichael.”
“You go, Mother,” Annie said. “I’m waiting right here until Dane comes back.” The fear within her grew stronger with each passing minute. If there was a bomb and Dane was hurt— No, no! She shouldn’t think that way. Dane wasn’t some amateur who would take unnecessary chances. He was a professional who could take care of himself.
“I’ll stay here with you.” Jennifer slipped her arm around Annie’s waist.
The two women waited together, the moments ticking inside them with the rapid beating of their hearts.
“What’s going on?” Royce asked as he and Vera entered the kitchen. “Have the police arrived yet?”
Both Jennifer and Annie gasped and jumped. “Lord have mercy, Royce, you should have given us some warning you were there,” Jennifer said.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten y’all.” Royce marched across the room and peered out the window. “I can’t see him. He must have taken the damn thing as far from the house as possible.”
Thirty-five minutes later, Florence Police Chief Milton Holman handed the unopened package to Dane, who waited in the chief’s office, Annie at his side. He had done everything he could to persuade her to stay at home with her family, but being the mule-headed woman she was, she’d insisted on coming with him.
“Looks like this was a false alarm, folks,” Holman said. “But better safe than sorry, right, Ms. Harden?”
“Right.” Annie let out a long sigh. “So, it’s safe for me to open the package?”
“Go right ahead,” Holman told her.
Just as she took the parcel from Dane, the chief’s telephone rang. He excused himself and quietly answered on the fourth ring. With nervous fingers, Annie ripped open the package. She prayed that the contents would be something—anything—that could help them solve the mystery of Halley’s disappearance. Inside the thick, brown wrapping paper was a shoe box. Annie’s heartbeat accelerated as she opened the lid. Then the air in her lungs swooshed out loudly when she exhaled the breath she’d been holding.
She lifted the envelope lying on top of a pair of leather sandals, which were nestled inside the box. Inserting her fingernail under the edge of the flap, she zipped open the envelope and pulled out the card inside. She scanned the card quickly, then burst into laughter.
“It’s a birthday present from my great-aunt Rosetta in Italy.” Holding the shoe box in her arms, Annie pressed it against her chest and slumped down into the nearest chair.
“That was Tony Reed from the post office on the phone,” Chief Holman said. “The package was sent from a Mrs. Rosetta Pirandello, in Salerno, Italy.”
“All this to-do over a pair of Italian leather sandals,” Annie said.
“Well, considering what you and Mr. Carmichael have told me, I’d say you’re lucky that this was a gift from your aunt.” Chief Holman crossed his arms over his broad chest. “If you get any more packages, we’ll check them out for you. It takes only a few minutes to X-ray them.”
“Thank you, Chief.” Annie shook hands with Milton Holman, then turned to Dane. “I’ll call Mother on the way home and let her know that everything is fine. It’s nearly seven. They still have plenty of time to go out for dinner.”
The minute they arrived home, Annie’s family rushed into the foyer to meet them. Royce Layman had a dozen questions, which Dane answered. And her aunt and mother hovered over Annie as if she had just survived a horrible accident.
“Look, y’all go on out to dinner. I’m fine,” Annie said. “Right now, I’m going upstairs to try on my new sandals from Aunt Rosetta.”
“Annie, wait, dear…” Jennifer called as Annie raced up the stairs to the second floor. When Annie disappeared into her room and slammed the door, Jennifer turned to Royce and nodded.
Royce clasped Dane’s shoulder. “Mr. Carmichael, we—that is, Annie’s mother, my wife and I—want to hire you as Annie’s permanent bodyguard, for as long as her life is in danger. Jennifer explained that your arrangement with Annie was only temporary, but we prefer not to have another agent take over at a later date.”
Dane surveyed the threesome—a distinguished gentleman and two lovely ladies, all three products of wealth and good breeding. They were the type of people he’d known all his life, people very much like his relatives. He realized that, in him, they sensed a kindred spirit. He was, after all, one of their kind.
“Annie has been insistent that the first available Dundee agent replace me,” Dane explained. “She won’t approve of y’all hiring me on a permanent basis.”
“Annie can be stubborn,” Jennifer said. “An annoying trait she inherited from her father. But the fact is, that when Annie chose to go against my husband’s wishes, he disinherited her. She’s a working girl, Mr. Carmichael, and although she is successful at her job and has a nice income, she isn’t wealthy.” Jennifer paused for effect. “But I am wealthy. I can, and will, pay your fees. Annie knows that she’ll have to come to me for the money to continue your or any agent’s employ.”
“So, you’re saying that you don’t intend to give your daughter a choice in the matter?” Dane thought that perhaps Annie hadn’t inherited all her stubbornness from her father.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying!”
“And we agree and support Jennifer’s decision,” Royce said. “While y’all were at the police station, I telephoned Richard and told him what was going on and that his son-in-law was acting as our Annie’s bodyguard. He praised you highly and advised me to keep you on the job.”
“I’ll have to make a point to see Richard while I’m in Florence,” Dane said. He had avoided contact with his former father-in-law for years. They had both suffered greatly when Lorna died and seeing each other again was bound to dredge up old memories and open old wounds. Sometimes he wondered if Richard blamed him for Lorna’s death. He had to admit that sometimes he blamed himself.
“Then you’ll take this case, as my employee, until I terminate our agreement?” Jennifer Harden extended her small, delicate hand.
Annie would be livid if he agreed. But he had to admit that he’d had every intention of finding a way to stay on this case. Despite the fact that he had originally agreed to take the assi
gnment, temporarily, he had known then that he didn’t want anyone else keeping Annie safe.
Dane shook hands with Annie’s mother. “I’ll take the case.”
“Good.”
“Who’s going to tell Annie?” Dane asked.
Laughing, all four people glanced up the staircase.
“You leave Annie to me. I know just how to handle her,” Jennifer said, then turned and went upstairs.
Annie lay across her bed, hugging a pink pillow to her body. The open shoe box rested on the floor, the shoes still inside, and the cheery birthday card from Aunt Rosetta stood on the nightstand, propped up against the lamp.
When she’d moved into her grandparents’ house with her mother, she had, at her mother’s insistence, redecorated the bedroom she’d chosen from the four available rooms. Her mother had taken over her parents’ suite on the ground level, leaving the upstairs Annie’s domain and allowing her some semblance of privacy.
She’d brought her bedroom suite from the apartment in Memphis, an eclectic mixture of antiques she’d found in little shops and at auctions. The pale pink walls added a soft, rosy glow to the room when late afternoon sunshine flooded through the long narrow windows.
Glancing around the room, Annie sighed as an inner voice chided her. Get your butt up off this bed, go downstairs and tell Dane that you’re ready to drive to the Robinsons’s cottage right now. There’s no point in waiting.
If there were any clues at the lake house, she wanted—no, she needed—to find them as soon as possible. She had never been an overly nervous woman nor was she the type to worry needlessly. But recent events had shattered her sense of security and unbalanced her equilibrium. She felt off center, as if her whole world had tilted sideways on its axis.
Only a few days ago she’d been in complete control of her life and now here she was at the mercy of some unknown person determined to kill her for information she didn’t even have. But they didn’t know she was clueless, that Halley had imparted very little to her in their brief conversation.
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