by Brenda Joyce
Kait did not move. She had one coherent thought. Rafe wasn’t really arresting her—was he? This was all a part of Kait’s plan!
“A warrant?” Trev echoed as if he did not understand English.
Rafe didn’t look away from Kait, but he nodded at his men. They took off toward the stairs. “Try the master bedroom first,” he said. He added, “Inside tip.” He looked at Kait directly again.
“I told you she wouldn’t be on that flight,” Kait managed.
“Yeah, guess you did. An’ I got another warrant, signed about a half an hour ago.” Rafe almost smiled. “This one’s a warrant for your arrest.”
Kait felt her knees buckle. This was it, then. But this was her plan, wasn’t it?
Except that Rafe Coleman seemed to be truly enjoying himself.
“You have the right to remain silent,” Rafe said, coming toward her. He jerked her hands behind her. “Anything you say can and will be held against you.”
For one moment, Kait closed her eyes, steadying herself. Everything was going to be all right, she told herself. The papers would broadcast the news of Lana’s arrest, and her sister would think she had a free pass to go anywhere in the world. She’d be careless. She’d be caught.
Kait’s eyes flew open as Rafe snapped one handcuff closed. The cold metal gleamed on her wrist. Panic consumed Kait.
She struggled against it and failed. She turned desperately to Trev.
He was staring, eyes horrified—mesmerized.
The other cuff snapped closed. “You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed for you.”
There were other deputies present. Kait wanted to scream that she wasn’t Lana. That Lana and Farrell stole that ring, that they’d been stealing together for years. She said, “This is a mistake. I’m innocent. I didn’t steal anything.” She was perspiring—she told herself to stay calm no matter what it cost.
Rafe Coleman smirked at her.
“Hey, boss, look at this!”
Kait twisted so she could see one of the officers pounding downstairs, holding up a plastic bag. The movement caused the manacles to chafe her wrists, but she ignored it. Then she saw what the bag contained.
Kait cried out.
It was impossible.
It contained Georgina Parker’s yellow diamond ring.
“You are under arrest,” Rafe Coleman said.
Kait did not see Rafe Coleman again until they had arrived at the county jail. It was a long brick building, one story high, set behind the separate redbrick building that housed the sheriff ‘s offices and the county recorder. Along paved walkway was between them. The entire compound was new, neat and clean, with manicured lawns surrounding the buildings and tall, stately trees lining the parking lot.
An officer unlocked the back door of his SUV and reached in for Kait. Kait let him pull her out, as she did not have the use of her hands, her eyes on Rafe as he approached from his own police car. He was wearing his sunglasses again. The lenses were reflective so she couldn’t see past the silver coating on them. He had planted Georgina Parker’s stolen diamond ring in her bedroom, the oldest trick in the book. But surely he had only done so to make her phony arrest look real. Hadn’t he?
“Rafe. We have to talk.”
“It’s Sheriff to you and unless you intend to make a full confession, I suggest you wait to speak to your lawyer,” he said. He jerked his head and the officer pulled Kait toward the walkway.
She tripped on the curb and the officer helped her to recover her balance. She tried to grab Rafe’s arm but he easily moved out of the way of her manacled hands. If this was theatrics on his part, then he deserved an Academy Award. “I’m Kait London and you know it! You even told me that you knew Lana had a twin. What is this? What is going on?”
“You have the right to make a single call and I’d call that lawyer if I were you,” Rafe remarked, not looking back at her as he led the way toward the front door of the second building. Engraved in the concrete stone above the door were the ominous words skerrit county jail. “I’d also shut up for now. Anything you say can and will be held against you. I’d save it for your lawyer, Lana.”
Panic claimed her all over again. This could not be happening.... She wet her lips. “Kait. The name is Kait. We have to talk! Privately? Please,” she added with desperation.
This time he didn’t even bother to answer her.
Kait was aghast. Had she made the mistake of her life trusting him? Surely he was not going to pin Lana’s rap on her? After all, he had spent all of last night looking for her sister—Kait had overheard a deputy talking about it. Apparently the Washington, D.C., police had also been involved.
But he hadn’t found Lana. And now there was only Kait.
Kait’s fear escalated. “Rafe, stop! Just for a minute. I’m not Lana. I’m not Trev’s wife! We switched places—she’s the thief,” Kait pleaded to his broad back.
“Yeah, right. You’re her twin. How convenient.” He finally looked back at her as he pushed open the door. “Hey, fellas. Looks like we got ourselves a little cat burglar here. Jimbo, get the DA on the line.”
Kait swallowed hard and reminded herself to stay calm. She reminded herself that she was not going to prison for her sister’s crimes because she was not Lana and she had told Rafe and Trev the truth. But she was becoming afraid. The police hadn’t found Lana. Why should they believe anything she said?
Why should Rafe or Trev believe anything she said—after all she had done?
Was her own plan to entrap her sister about to backfire?
Was Lana’s plan to set up Kait going to succeed?
Kait felt faint now. Now, she thought about Rafe planting the stolen ring on her. God, she could go to jail for a long, long time....
“I didn’t steal that ring,” Kait whispered. “Farrell stole it, and Lana gave it to me yesterday and I turned it over to you.” She grabbed Rafe’s arm so that he turned, forcing him to look down at her. “Damn it! Please don’t do this!”
He looked at her with a cool, even smug smile. “I don’t know and I don’t care whether you are Kait or Lana or Anna Banana.” His eyes blazed. “You know what I do know, sister? What I do know is that you are here, living with my brother, as his wife. What I do know is that about a year after you turned up in Trev’s life a string of thefts began. In fact, it was like two heists the first year and then three and then four....Yeah, so innocuous that at first no one even figured it out—then one day, it was like, geez, there’s been a dozen burglaries in this county, all with the same MO—an easy safe crack from the inside and very valuable missing jewels. So what’s your story? Oh, yeah. You’re not the woman my brother married six years ago. You’re her twin. You just showed up in town—conveniently switching places with your sister, who’s the real thief. And that this other woman is where? On her way to Paris? You know what I do know?” He didn’t wait for a response. “If you do have a twin, an identical twin, who’s to say that you’re not the thief and she’s not the honest, hardworking, law-abiding one?”
Kait recoiled. Suddenly she realized just how much Rafe Coleman hated Lana. She could not move. He hated her with a vengeance. Enough to frame her for what he couldn’t prove, enough to shoot her with the intent to kill, enough to drive her off the road with the same murderous intention, and to set fire to his own brother’s barn.
She wasn’t Lana, but he didn’t know that.
“The day you conned my brother into believing that you loved him was the day you made your first mistake, baby, and the day you married him was your second,” Rafe Coleman said, his green eyes blazing.
Oh, God, she had made a terrible miscalculation. Rafe Coleman was the enemy. How had she ever thought, for an instant, to trust him?
“We lifted half a dozen sets of prints from the Parkers’ bedroom,” Rafe said flatly. “They got two housemaids and then there’s Parker and Georgie. How much you want to bet your prints are all over that room, Lana...Ms. London—or whoever you rea
lly are?”
Kait didn’t move. Farrell had worn gloves when he’d cracked the safe. She hadn’t worn any gloves, as the thought hadn’t even occurred to her. She had, at least, touched the door or doorknob. Her prints would be in that room. And Rafe Coleman had planted the ring.
She was doomed.
“Book her,” he said with disgust.
Kait sat on her bunk, her hands in her lap, unmoving. There was one other inmate in the jail, a young man who was badly battered and appeared to be sleeping off an excess of alcohol. His cell was across the corridor and at the end of it, and for that small amount of privacy, Kait was grateful. How long would she be imprisoned like this? And where were Lana and Farrell right now? She was in the throes of despair. Right now, the police should be chasing Lana down. But now Kait knew that Rafe Coleman hadn’t believed a word she had said to him.
She heard the door at the front of the corridor opening. Kait stiffened, as footsteps sounded, approaching. She did not stand up.
An officer was approaching. “You got visitors,” he said.
Kait saw Sam behind him—and Trev standing in the doorway that they had just come through. She leapt up. “Trev.” Her voice was a barely audible whisper.
His jaw tightened and he halted, standing there staring at her.
“Trev!” she cried, gripping the iron bars of her cell. “Please, I’m not Lana! I’m her twin! I’m Kait! I told you last night—you have to convince Rafe! Otherwise she will get away....” She trailed off. “Please help me,” she begged.
He whirled and walked out.
Had Kait not been gripping the bars of her cell, she would have collapsed. He had been her last hope.
“You got a few minutes. Boss says five.”
Kait realized the guard was unlocking her cell to allow Sam in. Sam was ashen.
“Go tell your boss to jump in the lake,” Kait whispered.
The officer shook his head, allowing Sam to walk inside, locking the cell door behind them.
“Clearly he doesn’t think me a murderer,” Kait said, as he walked away. “Otherwise he wouldn’t let Sam in to visit me!”
There was no answer except for the sound of the door at the end of the hall as it closed.
“Damn you!” Kait cried. Then Sam touched her arm. Kait started, turning to face her.
Sam looked frightened. The next thing Kait knew, they were hugging one another hard.
“Don’t worry,” Kait whispered roughly. “Everything will be fine, just fine.”
Sam pulled away. “The sirens woke me up. I thought Ben Abbott had lied and they were coming for me! I went to the window and saw them taking you instead. I had to come see you.”
“Thank you,” Kait whispered, touched. She thought about Trev, who would not talk to her now, who was in another room, only a few doors away. “How is Gabe today?”
Sam seemed surprised by her question. “If he continues the way he is, they’re moving him out of ICU this afternoon,” she said.
“That’s great!” Kait was thrilled. “I’m so glad, Sam.”
Sam hugged her, and this time, she clung. It was a moment before she pulled away. “How could anyone think you’re her?”
Kait hesitated. “I’m her twin. I switched places with her, Sam, and what I did was very wrong.”
Sam regarded her. “Dad said she lied to you just the way she lied to all of us. He said you thought she was in trouble, and you switched places only to try to help her—not to hurt us.”
Kait almost swooned with relief. “He said that?”
Sam nodded, smiling a little. “Yeah, he did. Your name is Kait?”
Kait nodded, flooded with another wave of relief. Trev had defended her behavior to his own daughter. Did that give them a chance?
But why did he doubt her identity now?
“That’s a nice name. It suits you... Kait.”
Kait smiled back and sat down on the bunk. Sam sat beside her. “Why aren’t you angry about my lie, Sam? I know you know that what I did was wrong. The end doesn’t justify the means.”
Sam shook her head stubbornly. “I’m glad you lied! I’m glad you came into our lives the way that you did! And Marni’s glad, too!”
Kait tensed. “Does she know?”
“No. She’s at school. I guess Dad will tell her what he told me.”
“Are you and Trev talking now?”
Sam hesitated. “Sort of. I guess.”
“Don’t blame him for loving you so much,” Kait said softly.
Tears filled Sam’s eyes. “See? That is why I’m glad you lied and pretended to be her! Can’t you stay, Kait? I mean, after you get out of jail? I know it’s odd, but we want you to stay.” She was vehement in spite of her tears.
Kait wet her lips. “I want nothing more,” she whispered unsteadily. “But I can’t. I hurt your father—he deserves so much more, Sam.”
“He loves you.”
Kait started. “How can you say that?”
She shrugged, smiling slightly. “It’s, like, obvious.”
Kait didn’t correct her and tell her that she was wrong. “He won’t talk to me.”
“He’s upset. When Dad’s upset, he can get pretty cold. And he’s really upset.” Sam’s hazel eyes held hers. “But he’ll come around. He always does.” She hesitated. “He never loved her the way he loves you.”
Kait jumped to her feet. She didn’t dare have any hope. Sam was only sixteen, and believing what she wanted to believe. At her age, she couldn’t fathom loving someone and being so betrayed that walking away forever was the only adult choice.
“Don’t be sad,” Sam whispered, reaching for her hand as she also stood up. “I know you’re innocent. Soon everyone will figure that out. Dad included. He’ll take you back, Kait. I know he will.”
Kait had to hug her, hard. How she had come to love this confused teenager. “Sam? I do need your help.”
“Anything,” Sam said cockily.
“I need a lawyer. A really good criminal lawyer.”
Sam nodded grimly. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you one. I’ll start making calls the minute I get home.”
The door at the end of the corridor opened. Kait stiffened, turning; Sam said, “D.C., right? There should be plenty of really good lawyers there.”
The deputy was strolling in with another woman. “Got visitors lined up to see you, Mrs. Coleman,” he said.
And the moment he spoke, they had come close enough for Kait to realize that it was Alicia. She gripped the bars. It seared her mind that whoever had shot at her and run her off the road and then set fire to the barn was still out there, and word had just gone out that Lana had been arrested. Alicia was smiling. Kait’s grip on the bars increased.
She told herself that she was safe because she was in jail.
The rationalization was not reassuring.
“Time’s up, Sam,” the deputy said, unlocking Kait’s cell door. Kait met Alicia’s eyes. Sam stepped out. “Don’t worry,” she said to Kait.
Kait couldn’t nod. Alicia stepped into the cell, the door closing behind them. Kait faced her warily as Sam and the deputy left. The door at the end of the corridor closed resoundingly. Alicia said, “Finally. You’re finally getting all that you deserve.”
She lifted her hand; Kait shrank back, for one heart-stopping moment thinking she held a gun.
Instead, the redhead’s palm struck Kait with a loud crack across the face.
CHAPTER 21
Two days later.
It was only noon. Sarah Selman sighed with annoyance, having checked her watch for the hundredth time as she stood behind the Delta counter at Reagan National Airport. She was a newlywed; in fact, she had been married exactly three days. She could not wait to get home to her husband, and the mere thought “husband” made her break into a grin. Home was Three Falls, Virginia. She had grown up there, and Jason had instantly fallen in love with the small, quaint town, so that was where they had decided to live. Jason ran a small business on
the Internet, so he could live anywhere.
They were going on their honeymoon in June. They had decided on Paris, the most romantic city in the world.
“Excuse me, I would like to check in. I do have a flight to catch,” a woman said.
Sarah realized that she had been daydreaming. She smiled at her customer, accepting her ticket and passport, and then she did a double take.
The beautiful brunette waiting for Sarah to check her in was immediately familiar—her photograph had been on the front page of the tiny local newspaper, the Three Falls Sentinel, two days in a row. Jason read the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times—Sarah read the Sentinel front to back every day.
“You’re staring,” the woman said, still smiling a bit curiously now.
“Oh!” Sarah started, feeling herself flush. “I love your haircut. Who did it?” she asked quickly, but even as she spoke, even as she looked at the woman’s ticket—her destination was Mexico City—all she could think of was that this woman looked exactly like Lana Coleman, a burglar who had finally been caught by the police after preying upon Skerrit County for six years. But the name on the ticket was Kait London. Clearly, Lana Coleman had escaped, and she was using an alias!
“I had it done in New York,” the brunette said patiently.
Sarah was sweating. “Would you like a window seat?” Oh, God, she was face-to-face with an actual thief—and an escaped felon!
“No, aisle, thank you.”
Sarah gave her an aisle seat, telling herself to breathe, and praying her hands would not shake. “Two bags?” she asked, glancing at her customer’s baggage.
“Yes, and one carry-on,” the woman smiled warmly.
She seemed like a nice lady—hardly like a conscienceless thief. Sarah looped the baggage claim tickets on the bags and hefted them onto the conveyor belt. She handed the woman her tickets with another smile. “Enjoy your flight. The gate is to your right,” she said.
“Thank you.” The woman smiled, picked up her carry-on, and left.
Sarah finally was able to breathe. Gulping down air, she ignored her next customer, slapping a closed sign on her countertop, and dashed into the back room, where she called the police.