Chapter Fourteen
Wednesday, 8:32 p.m.
Kelly had a really bad feeling about this break-in. From the first time she met Julia, she’d sensed that Uncle Samuel’s longtime secretary and lover was a woman with a lot of secrets. The biggest mystery was why she and Samuel never married. Something kept Julia from saying “I do.”
Though it was possible that Samuel had never asked her to get hitched, Kelly found that doubtful. The man had built a magnificent house just for her. The details he incorporated in the design, like the three-story library and the shimmering stained glass, showed that he knew her well and took her interests seriously. Of course he’d asked.
Why would she say no? Maybe she didn’t think Samuel would be a good stepfather. From what Nick told her, Julia was protective of her children. That had to be difficult with a problem kid like Arthur. What about Julia’s daughter? Nobody talked much about her.
Kelly glanced over at Nick. The mountain road leading to Julia’s house was extremely dark—the only illumination came from the dashboard lights. He looked mysterious...and determined.
She asked, “Is Julia’s daughter coming to Valiant for the memorial service?”
“She might. She and my uncle seemed to get along fairly well, and they had interests in common.”
“Is she an architect?”
“More of an artist. Annette works for one of the top clothing designers in New York, and I’ve heard that she might be starting her own line of shoes and handbags.”
“Married?”
“For twelve years. No kids, though. The last time I saw her, she was carrying around a yappy little dog with a rhinestone collar.”
“And what does she think of her brother?”
“Arthur has pretty much burned his bridges with everybody in the family. Annette told me that he came to visit her in New York and seriously overstayed his welcome. She was ticked off about a loan she made to him that wasn’t ever going to get repaid.”
When they rounded the last curve leading to Julia’s house, Kelly saw lights through the canted front windows and from farther back in the house. “Someone’s here.”
“It’s got to be Arthur.” Nick sounded excited. “I should have figured this out. I knew he was here in Valiant following you, which means he needed a place to stay. Why not here with mom?”
Though Kelly wasn’t an aggressive person, she wished they had some kind of weapon to protect themselves. Arthur might be dangerous. “If we keep after bad guys, you might want to rethink your no-guns policy.”
“Arthur won’t hurt us. He’s a con man, not a hit man.”
She wasn’t so sure. Arthur had been following her, stalking her through the streets. When Nick parked the SUV in the driveway, she said, “You’re not making any attempt to be secretive. I guess that means we’re not breaking in.”
“Not when I can walk up to the door and ring the bell.” He looked toward her. “Are you scared?”
“A little,” she admitted. “I don’t know Arthur like you do, but he sounds like a desperate person. He was tailing my car, watching me on the street. I don’t know what he was after, and I don’t think I want to find out.”
He reached toward her and gently stroked the line of her jaw. “You can stay in the car with the motor running and the doors locked.”
Hiding in the car while she knew Nick was in peril frightened her more than facing her stalker. “What if he’s not alone? What if he’s got a hit man in there with him?”
“Stay here. If I don’t signal you in ten minutes, call 911.”
They were in the middle of nowhere. It would take the police forever to respond. She peered through the windshield at the house, and her imagination ran wild, seeing an army of thugs lurking in the shadows. She definitely didn’t want to be alone with her fear. “I’ll come with you.”
She followed him up the winding path that led to the stained-glass mosaic above the front entryway. Wind rustled through the branches of the pines and conifers at the edge of the house. She heard rippling water from the fountain in the Japanese garden. The atmosphere had been designed for serenity, but her heart was pounding like a jackhammer. She stayed a step behind Nick with her weight on her back foot, ready to run at the slightest hint of threat.
The doorbell resonated with rich alto tones. Though she couldn’t identify the noises she heard from inside, somebody was moving around. “He’s not exactly rushing to the door,” she said.
Nick pushed the doorbell again and called out, “Arthur, it’s me, Nick Spencer. I want to talk to you.”
To her right, she heard the click of a door closing. Nick stepped off the porch to look in that direction. He swore under his breath. “He’s running.”
She wouldn’t have minded letting Arthur get away. As far as she was concerned, he was acting like a guilty man who should be turned over to the authorities. But Nick had already taken off in pursuit. She had no choice but to follow.
Nick ran along the edge of the house toward the deck. With his long-legged stride, he pulled away from her quickly. Kelly slung her purse strap across her chest and concentrated on moving fast. Following him, she descended a slope at the edge of the deck and darted into the surrounding forest.
Her years of rock climbing made her sure-footed, but it was dark and she wasn’t familiar with the terrain. She had to slow down so she wouldn’t twist an ankle.
Nick kept moving, dodging through the trees and leaping over rocks in his path. He was a powerful runner. There was no way she could keep up with him, and they were moving farther away from the house and the car.
Nick was still headed downhill when she caught sight of a man hiding in the shadows by a stand of aspen. Nick had gone too far. She was closer to the man.
“This way,” she yelled. Her breath was nearly gone. “Nick, come back this way.”
The man turned toward her. He was too far away for her to see his face, but she felt his gaze boring into her. He peeled away from the trees and came at her. Where was Nick? Hadn’t he heard her calling him?
If she went in the direction she’d seen Nick running, she’d crash right into the man. Making a pivot, she headed toward where she thought the road should be. Dry brush and pine needles crunched under her feet. She ducked to avoid the low-hanging limbs of pine trees and dodged around thick shrubs.
She stumbled and went down on her hands and knees. He was getting close. She could hear him. “Nick, over here. He’s over here.”
There was no way she could outrun this guy in the forest where every rock was trying to trip her. If she made it to the road where the footing was better, she might have a chance in a full-out sprint. She looked over her shoulder. He was tall, not muscular like Nick, but tall.
He called to her. “Kelly, that’s your name, right? Kelly, wait up.”
She had to make a stand. Coming to a dead stop, she yanked her purse off her shoulder. Slinging it by the strap, she could use it as a weapon. “Stay away from me.”
Ten feet from her, he stopped. In the moonlight she could make out his features. He was the same person who had been following her in Valiant—Arthur Starkey.
“I mean it,” she yelled, swinging her purse in a wide arc. “Don’t come any closer.”
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Damn right you’re not.” She swung her purse again, and he stepped back. “Why were you following me? What do you want?”
“Just calm down.” He held up both hands in an appeasing gesture. “It’s all good. Nothing to worry about.”
Nick dived through the trees and tackled Arthur. They were both down on the ground. It took less than a minute for Nick to flip him onto his belly and jam his knee in the center of Arthur’s back, pinning him to the ground.
He looked up at her. “Are you all right?”
“I think so.” She was shaken. Her heart was still racing, and she was sweating hard.
“You’re sure? No bumps? No bruises?”
“I’m fin
e.”
On the ground, Arthur squirmed. “Get off me.”
“Not until you tell me why you ran.”
“I wasn’t sure it was you at the door. There are people who want to kill me.”
“Like who?”
Arthur continued to struggle, trying to get up. “There’s this guy named Trask.”
“Liar!” Kelly flung her purse on the ground and bent to stare into his face. “I saw you in the car with Trask.”
“That’s right. I was following you, and then this white-haired guy appears out of nowhere and gets in my car. He tells me to back off. He says I’d better get out of town.”
She didn’t know if she could believe him. Arthur had a reputation for being a liar and a scam artist. “Why were you following me in the first place?”
“I heard you were with Samuel when he died.”
“What does that mean to you?” Nick demanded. “Why do you care?”
“You’re not the only one who lost someone important to them. Samuel was like a father to me.” The pitch of Arthur’s voice was smooth, too smooth to be believed. “I want to find out who killed him.”
Nick lifted his knee from Arthur’s back and rose to his feet. When Arthur scrambled up, the two men stood facing each other, each taking the measure of the other. Nick was clearly in better shape than Arthur, who was too skinny, with hunched shoulders. He was older than Nick, and the years had taken a toll. His narrow face was lined, and his nose was crooked as though it had been broken and improperly set. His thin mouth and dark eyes showed a resemblance to his mother.
Nick spoke first. “You think Samuel was murdered.”
“Don’t you? He wasn’t the kind of guy who commits suicide, especially not now. He had everything to live for.”
“Julia told me you were working with him.”
“Maybe I was,” Arthur said, “and maybe I just told my mother that to keep her off my back. She always said she liked it when me and Samuel spent time together, but when it got right down to it, she wanted him all to herself.”
Kelly remembered the story Nick’s ex-wife had told her about Julia refusing to marry Samuel unless he parted with the family gold. Arthur might have a valid point about her jealousy. At the same time, she reminded herself that Arthur Starkey couldn’t be trusted. It was a typical con man trick to lay down a thread of truth before spinning a web of lies.
“Why were you stalking me?” she asked. “If you had questions, you could have introduced yourself like a normal person and asked me.”
“Like a normal person,” he said with a cold smile. “Is that why you’re dating good old Nicky? You like things to be normal?”
“Knock it off,” Nick said.
“You’re Mr. Normal, you know you are. Nicky Spencer is the guy everybody likes, the guy you can count on to do the right thing. Not a superstar like your brother. That bothered your pretty little wife, didn’t it? She wanted the boss, not the back-up quarterback.”
Nick didn’t rise to the bait. “Kelly asked you a question. Why the stalking?”
“Are you going to stand there like a big dumb ox and let me insult you? In front of your new girlfriend?”
“I don’t have time for your games, Arthur.”
“What are you going to do? Knock me down again?”
A muscle in Nick’s jaw twitched. Otherwise he was cool. The childish taunts had to be irritating, and she admired Nick for ignoring them.
Quietly he said, “Believe me, Arthur, I don’t like asking you for help. I’d rather consult with a homicidal Colombian drug lord than to make you my ally. But the truth is that we both want the same thing—to find Samuel’s killer. If you ever cared at all for my uncle, you’ll talk to me.”
Arthur ran his hand along his jaw, wiping off his sneer. “I wasn’t stalking Kelly. My plan was to approach her, but Trask scared me off before I could make my move.”
“What did you want to ask her?”
Arthur turned to her. “I thought Samuel might have said something before he died that would identify his killer.”
“He wasn’t coherent,” Kelly said, “and I was too busy trying to stop the bleeding to listen carefully. He told me to close the door.”
“Which door?” Arthur asked.
“There was only one door to the room. It had to be that one.”
“And the closet,” Nick said. “There was also the closet door. Don’t worry, Arthur, I checked in Samuel’s hideout to make sure nobody was in there.”
Arthur turned back to her. “Anything else?”
“Something about gold. He repeated the word several times. And he talked about a heart of stone.”
“Heart of stone,” Arthur repeated. “I was hoping for something more. Let’s head back to the house.”
Instead of hiking up the slope they’d raced down, Nick and Arthur went to the right. The two-lane road was only twenty yards away. They walked abreast with Nick in the middle. After dodging down the hill in the dark, the asphalt under her feet felt as smooth as marble.
“You introduced Samuel to Radcliff,” Nick said.
“I made that connection. Samuel needed to borrow money from an untraceable source, and I was happy to help out. Samuel paid me four thou as a finder’s fee. It should have been more.”
“And you don’t know what he did with the money. Or what he intended to do.”
“I can tell you this much,” Arthur said. “It had something to do with the Valiant gold mine. If I had to guess, I’d say he was looking into starting up the mining operations again.”
Nick scoffed. “That’s pretty far-fetched.”
“Is it? Oil might be king, but gold keeps going up in value. A gold mine would be a hell of a lot more profitable than the current housing market.”
“Why keep it a secret?”
“You know how Samuel was. He liked to play tricks like a magician. He could pull a solid-gold rabbit out of his hat and save the precious family business.”
Kelly thought Arthur’s ideas fit with what she knew of Samuel’s character. He liked to do the unexpected, like setting an office park with a ten-story building in a low-population town like Valiant. “If he opened the mine again, would that be a motive to kill him?”
“It’s a risky venture,” Nick conceded.
“And there are people who want to control Spencer Enterprises,” Arthur said. “I’m thinking of Marian Whitman and Rod Esterhauser. They want to steer the ship. The two of them are as cutthroat and greedy as a couple of pirates.”
Greedy enough to commit murder? Kelly shuddered.
Chapter Fifteen
Wednesday, 9:24 p.m.
Nick wished he could dismiss Arthur’s accusations, but the little weasel had hit on a theory that had been playing around in the back of Nick’s mind. He had been considering Marian as a suspect—not because of nefarious motives to take control of the business but because she was the only other person nearby when Samuel was shot. She might have staged the moment when they had to break down the door.
“You know I’m right,” Arthur said. “The killer is one of those upstanding citizens, maybe both of them. They did it. They’re scum. And they have to pay.”
“If they’re guilty.”
“Take off the blinders, Nicky. These people are nicey-nice with you, but I know them from a different perspective. I can’t count the number of doors they’ve slammed in my face.”
Nick didn’t want to waste time raking over the coals of old grudges. Marian had pulled the plug on a couple of Arthur’s investment schemes. So what? Nick had also turned him down. His own sister wouldn’t loan him money.
“I get it,” he said. “You don’t like lawyers and accountants. But that’s not proof. You still haven’t explained what Marian or Rod stand to gain by killing Samuel.”
“They’d get their dirty little paws on Samuel’s stock. He owned 33 percent of Spencer Enterprises.”
“How do you know that figure?” Nick asked.
“It’s
my inheritance.”
Arthur’s murky logic was beginning to come clear. Nick hadn’t known he was the beneficiary. “You inherit, and the company has to pay you for the value of the stock.”
“And I become a wealthy man.” He chuckled to himself. “Then Rod and Marian buy my shares or shuffle it into the corporate pool that they manage. Either way, they get controlling interest.”
“Not entirely,” Nick said. “Jared and I still own 40 percent.”
“And Samuel always voted with you. With him out of the way, the Spencer magic is over. Marian and Rod can take over.”
An ugly scenario. Though Nick didn’t like the constrictions of corporate business, he wasn’t willing to throw away his birthright. If bean counters like Marian and Rod were running the show, Spencer Enterprises would be only about the bottom line. Property holdings would be sold or leased, building projects would be outsourced, and there would be no new architecture, no creativity.
“I have a question,” Kelly piped up. “How do you know that Samuel made you his beneficiary?”
“You’re cute and smart,” Arthur said. “An impressive combo. I like her, Nicky.”
“Answer her question.”
“Your uncle loved my mother. That’s no big secret. Everybody knew it. He liked to give her presents, but Mom didn’t care for jewelry or fancy vacations. She’s a practical woman.” He gestured to the beautifully designed structure they were approaching. “She asked Samuel for a house, and he delivered. She asked for financial security for herself and her kids. Samuel wrote us into his will. He told me. My sister gets property. I get stock.”
“Have you seen the will?” Nick asked.
“No.” He paused in the middle of the road to take a breath. “I know what was promised to me. That’s why I’m hanging around here. I need final confirmation.”
That was the truest statement Arthur had made. He was hovering like a vulture, waiting to hear the reading of Samuel’s will.
“That’s interesting,” Nick said. “I thought you were here because you were investigating my uncle’s death. Seeking justice for his murder. Punishing the wrongdoers.”
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