By the time lunch was over, she was convinced that Elizabeth was falling for Donovan and she couldn’t have been happier, it was more than time for her cousin to settle down. He was 35 years old, and had never had a serious relationship in his entire life. Elizabeth was perfect for him, she would keep him on his toes, anyone who had accomplished as much as she had at only 30 would provide the challenge he needed.
After they had eaten, her company gathered up their things and said their goodbyes. “You should be just fine here until the storm breaks, you won’t lose power since it’s solar, but you may not have cell phone reception or an internet connection for a few days, it might be out now.” Garrett said, as she walked them to the door.
“I’ll just hunker down and stay inside. Thanks for giving me a head start on the shoveling.”
“No problem. When all this is over, if you can’t get yourself out call us and we’ll come back down.” Sebastian said, walking out the door.
Daphne was the last one to leave, she paused at the door then said. “I hope we can get to be friends, if you need to talk I’m always available to listen.” Then surprised Elizabeth by giving her a hug.
Elizabeth again felt tears coming to her eyes as she hugged Daphne back. “I’ll call you as soon as the storm passes and we can start getting that help to those people on the lists.” Daphne said, as she too went out the door.
Watching them drive away, she realized just how nice it had been to have company. As she cleaned up the kitchen she began to feel sleepy and decided that a nap would be just about the best way to spend the snowy afternoon. After she’d finished in the kitchen, she put the living room back in order, put some more wood on the fire, curled up under an afghan and was asleep in minutes.
Chapter 10
When she awoke a few hours later, she felt guilty for napping the afternoon away, but she did feel better. Maybe all the crazy emotional upheaval she’d been experiencing had just been from lack of sleep. She felt more grounded now, ready to move onto the next step of their plan. What she really needed was some more information about the people in town they discussed, but nothing could be done about that until the snow storm passed.
In the meantime, she hadn’t heard from the professor or for that matter Donovan. The newest water sample results should have been in by now, but she hadn’t heard a word from him. After making some coffee she found her laptop and tried to log onto her email, but Daphne had been correct, she had no internet connection. Checking her phone, she realized she had no service.
It was strange at first to be so out of touch with the world, but then she decided it might be nice to have some peace from all her electronics for a while. She spent the next two days, reading her books, cooking elaborate meals, and shoveling snow which seemed to pile up every time she turned around.
By the end of the third day, she was tired of the gray, snow producing skies, and was happy when mid-afternoon the sun finally came out. She was tempted to go straight to her cell phone and computer, but instead went outside and cleared the sidewalks and driveway one last time. The man she’d hired to clear the road had finally showed up yesterday, so there was little snow on the road, if she needed to get out she could.
Once the shoveling was done, she filled the wood box, then made herself some coffee. Then she took her cell phone and computer to the living room and the roaring fire she’d built. Anticipating a phone message from Donovan, she was surprised to find that he hadn’t called. She had several messages from Daphne, but nothing else.
Grabbing her computer, she pulled up her email, relieved to see that Donovan was on the list. She opened the message expecting something personal, but found instead only an attachment with the water reports and nothing else. She looked at the results, but was thinking more about the fact that after all their intimacy, Donovan hadn’t even included a personal message.
Even more distressing was the fact that he hadn’t called either, but maybe he knew that she wouldn’t have any reception during the storm. Feeling sure that he’d call later, she went back to the emails happy to see that the professor had finally sent her some thoughts. She opened the email and read his opinion with a sinking stomach.
In his opinion, she’d read, they were dealing with at least a dozen, if not more, barrels of some type of industrial waste. He estimated that at least one had to have leaked all its contents or all the barrels were leaking to some extent or the other. He couldn’t determine exactly what type of waste they were dealing with, but it was clear that it was something that had to have been transported in from the outside.
She should have been excited that these results supported their hypothesis of the source, but it felt like a hollow victory, sitting there by herself. Picking up her phone, she decided to call Donovan, he’d want to know what she’d discovered. The phone rang several times before Donovan picked up, she could hear a lot of noise in the background and had to identify herself twice before he recognized her voice.
“Is this a bad time? I could call back later.” She said, over the noise in the background.
There was a slight pause, then Donovan said. “Uh, well. I’m out to lunch with a client.”
Elizabeth could hear a woman’s voice calling Donovan’s name in the background, then Donovan saying something. “Just call me when you can. I have an update for you.” She said, then hung up the phone, heart beating in her chest.
She should have known better than to fall for Donovan Terrell, he might not be involved in the pollution, but he was still a man. He’d taken advantage of their situation, then as soon as he’d gotten home, forgotten her. His words had only been that, words. He’d said what ever was necessary to keep her right where he wanted her and now here she was missing him.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed thoughts of Donovan from her mind, after all she’d only know the man for a few weeks. It shouldn’t be that hard to forget him, especially now that she knew what the man was really like. She’d just have to concentrate on the case and doing what she’d originally planned to do, make someone pay for polluting the water.
Donovan did call later that night, but she’d been in the shower and missed his call, then when she’d called him back it had gone straight to voice mail. She went to bed that night and hugged Donovan’s pillow to her once again, but tonight her heart ached at the thought of him. He might not ever be back to leave his scent on her pillows.
The next morning she did talk to Donovan but it was a very short conversation, he was clearly distracted by something else and ended it quickly. The next week followed in much the same pattern, early morning phone calls that left her feeling abandoned and lonely. She and Daphne had quickly become friends and that seemed to make it even harder. Worse still, she was too embarrassed to tell Daphne how stupid she’d been.
Together they had managed to help the people on their list, most had received fake prizes from contests they’d never entered, but it seemed like the best way to approach the problem. They couldn’t give them money directly from Terrell industries, but the gift cards would go a long way to keeping food on the table and the bills paid. Elizabeth got some satisfaction from the process but not as much as she’d anticipated, Donovan’s absence had affected her more than she wanted to admit.
By the middle of the second week of his absence, Elizabeth was fed up with the whole thing. She was tired of waiting for something to happen, it was time to get out into the town and see if she could meet the mayor and his wife. If she was lucky, she might even meet some of the other people from the resort. There was no law that said she couldn’t go to the resort, even if she wasn’t going to ski.
It was time to do some investigating on her own, and the best place to start was city hall. She wanted to meet the mayor’s wife, see for herself what the woman she’d heard so much about was like. She dressed carefully, wanting to leave an impression on the woman, she chose a look that was both casual but expensive. In her travels around the world, she’d managed to accumulate some wonderful clot
hes that could have only been accumulated by someone with money or who traveled.
If the mayor’s wife was as big of a snob as she’d heard, it would be perfect. Gaining the woman’s trust seemed an important part of getting to the people she wanted to meet. Setting out in the cold and snow, she shivered a little, hoping she hadn’t made a mistake buying a house up in the mountains. Daphne had promised that she’d get used to the cold, but it hadn’t happened yet.
By the time she reached city hall, which was actually just a renovated house on main street, she was frozen to the bone. It would have been better if she’d worn her parka but that would have spoiled her look. When she walked thought the door of city hall she spotted a fire place with a blazing fire and made a bee line straight to the heat emanating from the cheerful logs.
Taking off her gloves, she warmed her hands, looking at the room. It was decorated in an overabundance of country themed knickknacks, well past the point of cute and into the area of nauseating. After she’d warmed up a little, the smell of the place suddenly made her feel a little sick. The air was heavy with a combination of some floral air freshener and a heavy perfume, mixed in was the smell of cooking food and of all things, hairspray.
Combined with the heat, that seemed heavy now that she’d warmed up, she began to feel a little faint. Just as she was thinking about making her escape a woman came in through a back hallway. It took Elizabeth only a second to realize that the woman standing before her dressed like a teenager was actually a grown woman of advanced years.
She’d never understood women who couldn’t seem to understand that dressing like the younger generation did nothing to make them younger. If anything it only made them look slightly ridiculous, and this woman was a perfect example.
“Hi. Welcome to Pleasant Valley, you must be new here, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Veronica Hassleman, my husband is the mayor.” She said, extending a hand with nails painted black and so much jewelry that Elizabeth worried that her wrist might break from the sheer weight of it all.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Elizabeth Mathews, I bought the place on Shadow Lane.” Elizabeth said, shaking the woman’s hand.
“I’ve heard about you. You’re some kind of environmental activist or something.”
“Yes, that’s me. I’ve been in the Amazon for a long time, but it was time to come home. Well, to call someplace home.” She said.
“We were so excited when we heard you were moving here, Jared and I were just talking about it the other day.” The woman said, clearly trying hard to charm Elizabeth.
“Thank you, it’s always nice to hear that people appreciate what you do.”
Elizabeth was fighting an increasing need to retch, the room was hot and stuffy and the smell was only getting worse. But she could see that Veronica was studying her.
From the expensive boots on her feet to the handmade hat on her head, the woman was assessing how it would help her to become Elizabeth’s friend. She’d seen it often enough over the years, people always wanted someone with power on their side. With a slight nod of her head, Veronica seemed to make up her mind.
“Would you like something to drink? I’ve just put on a fresh pot of coffee.”
“No thank you. I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself.” Elizabeth said, the thought of coffee making her nausea worse.
“Well, I’m glad you did. Jared and I are planning a little get together tomorrow night, nothing fancy, but I wonder if you’d like to join us. I could introduce you to some of the better people in town.” She said, putting her nose up in the air a little.
The last thing Elizabeth wanted to do was spend time with this woman, but what better way to meet not only the mayor but some of the other people in town. “That sounds wonderful. What time should I be there?”
“If you give me your number I’ll text you the address. It will be fun to have someone new with us tomorrow night. It can get old seeing the same people every day.”
Elizabeth gave her contact info to the mayor’s wife and made her escape as fast as she could. Once outside it took a few minutes, but the nausea soon passed. She certainly hoped the woman’s house didn’t smell as bad as city hall, she’d never be able to make it through an entire night if it did.
*****
Donovan sat back in his chair and dragged his hand over his face. “I told you last week, we have to get to the bottom of this. How is it possible that my name is the only one on the account? Someone had to have set it up and it wasn’t me.”
“I don’t know, they won’t give me any information. It was all done over the phone from what I understand. Nothing’s changed since last week, not even our top attorney could crack them. I’m still sure the only way to get to the bottom of this is to go to Switzerland yourself.”
“I can’t just take off and go to Switzerland. Things are bad enough as it is. Elizabeth is getting increasingly cold every time I talk to her. How am I going to tell her that we’ve found the account where all the money is, but that it’s in my name? She didn’t trust me before, I can’t imagine she’ll trust me after this.”
“Then you’re going to have to go. Just tell her it’s for something else. She’ll never know, then once it’s straightened out, you can tell her the whole story.” Charles said, tired of telling Donovan the same thing.
“Fine, I’ll go, but I want you with me. The faster we get to the bottom of this, this sooner I can tell Elizabeth what’s going on.” Donovan said, getting up and opening the closet in his office and removing the bag he always kept there for emergencies.
“Donovan, it’s probably none of my business, but why are you so concerned about what Elizabeth thinks? Charles said, still surprised by his friends preoccupation with Elizabeth Mathews.
“Because it matters, okay. And that’s all I’m going to say.” Donovan said, shoving papers into his briefcase.
“Sorry, but I’ve never seen you worry so much about what a woman though of you, especially an environmentalist. I hope you’re not letting it cloud you’re judgment.”
“My judgment is perfectly clear and let me assure you that Elizabeth is more than just one of those environmentalist that we hate. Just drop it okay?”
“If I didn’t know better, I might think that you’re in love with her. That’s the only thing I can think of to explain it. You’ve cut off all the other women in your life, explain that.” Charles said, not letting Donovan off the hook.
“Look, I don’t know what this is, but it’s going to be nothing if we don’t get that Swiss bank account sorted out.”
Charles just shook his head and left to go get his bag for the trip. They would need plenty of evidence to show the bank if they were going to convince them that Donovan didn’t open up that account, and then some way to convince those people to tell them who had. It was going to be all about red tape and maybe a few bribes, but they’d get to the bottom of it.
Donovan had been staring out the window since Charles had left the room. Charles knew him just about as well as anyone and he’d read his feeling better than he had himself. He’d never believed in love at first sight, but was it possible to fall in love in only a week? Because he’d really only spent that one week with Elizabeth, he couldn’t possibly be in love with her.
She was sexy and smart, but other than that he didn’t really know that much about her. It just wasn’t possible to fall in love that fast, never mind that he thought about her all the time. Lust often looked a lot like love, but then faded after time, it was probably only lust. He’d never felt anything like this before, but he’d also never met a woman who stirred him the way she did. It wasn’t only her body, it was her mind.
Thinking back to the night they’d been working on the maps brought back the memory of how animated she’d become as the mystery had slowly been solved. He’d been more attracted to her right then than he’d ever been. Then when he’d been at his lowest, realizing that the waste was in the mine, she’d given him exactly what he’d needed.<
br />
Turing from the window to sink into this chair, he realized that Charles was right, he was in love with Elizabeth. Completely and deeply in love, it had never happened to him before, and it was an overwhelming feeling. It had happened quickly, but now that he’d admitted it to himself, it somehow felt right. Now he had two things to fight for, besides saving the people of Pleasant Valley and seeing the guilty parties punished, he needed to clear his name so Elizabeth would give him a chance.
With new purpose, he began once again to pack the papers he and Charles had agreed they’d need. If necessary they were ready to expose the entire scheme to the authorities in Switzerland, it might be the only way to uncover the truth. They were so close Donovan could almost taste victory, then he’d have to make things right with Elizabeth.
He was ready when Charles came in to let him know that their car was ready and waiting for them. If they were lucky this whole thing could be over in just a few days, the guilty parties arrested and then he and Elizabeth could move on. If they had time while they were in Switzerland he might even do a little shopping.
Chapter 11
While Donovan was getting on a plane, Elizabeth was sorting through her closet trying to decide what to wear. Evidently she’d been invited to one of the biggest social occasions of the year in Pleasant Valley, everyone who was anyone was going to be there. She had to find something suitable to wear, but nothing in her closet was nice enough.
In desperation she called Daphne, even if her cousin was a total jerk, Daphne was a nice person and she might be able to help. Daphne answered on the second ring. “You got invited to the party tonight.”
Make Me Whole (Brothers From Money #3) Page 11