“Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help,” Sarah offered, tears glimmering in her eyes.
Juliana thanked them for their kindness. She’d always liked Sarah.
Wearing dark, narrow sunglasses and a ponytail, Phillip Ballard stood out—a veritable maverick in the sea of corporate suits. His suit had neither a lapel, nor a tie. A black leather lace secured his ponytail. He and his very pregnant wife didn’t give Juliana a second glance, but she didn’t sense any animosity from the couple, either.
But Sable Holden… Well, the instant Sable held out her hand to Annette and said she hoped Ross and Lexi would rest in peace, Juliana experienced an unbridled urge to wipe the smug twitch off the woman’s lips. In her thirties, Sable had the lacquered finish of a woman who worked too hard to look good. Her body was too sculpted, her clothes were too pretentious—as if she were a widow in mourning. Her hair was coated with too much hair spray and her makeup was overdone. The brunette would have been much more appealing with a fresh-scrubbed face and more conservative clothes.
Annette smirked at Sable. “I’m sure they’ll be as madly in love with each other in heaven as they were on earth. I guess you’ll have to lust after someone else’s husband now.”
Sable gave Annette a subzero smile. “You never were half the lady your sister was. But I’m sure you know that.” Rattling her jewels, Sable stormed off, her high heels clicking sharply.
Annette trembled with suppressed rage. “What a bitch.”
“I can have her removed from the church if you like,” Juliana offered. “That’s what the gentlemen behind us are for.”
“What? And give Sable a story for the tabloids? Not on your life!”
Several more people arrived. Friends and co-workers of Lexi’s from the hospital where she’d worked before she married Ross. Friends of Lexi’s parents. And a lanky young man with a raggedly trimmed brown beard and owlish hazel eyes in an ill-fitting gray tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows.
“Darren, what are you doing here?” Annette stammered, color infusing her face as the young man crushed her to him.
“I came to pay my respects. See if you needed anything—a shoulder to cry on? I’ve missed you.”
Annette’s features hardened. “Darren, I told you, it’s over.”
“But I—” Darren broke off and looked at Juliana as if he’d just noticed she was there. “We need to talk.”
The conversation was beginning to sound too personal for Juliana’s ears. She wondered if Darren might be a former boyfriend or possibly Annette’s ex-fiancé. Juliana excused herself and told Annette she’d return in a moment.
Off in a shadowed corner near the confessional she spotted Kendrick Dwyer having a private conversation with Stacey Kerr. Stacey looked upset, her eyes dark in her pale face. What were they talking about?
Visions of Hunter’s conspiracy theory filling her mind, Juliana skirted around the pews toward them, hoping to catch a nibble of their conversation. Her bodyguards followed at a discreet distance.
Gord Nevins, however, intercepted her plans. Juliana stepped right into the stocky household manager’s bone-jarring embrace. The strain of the last few days showed in the deep white lines scoring his mouth and the puffiness around his eyes. Juliana introduced her bodyguards as her father’s cousin and his wife. “I brought them for support.” Then, drawing Gord aside, Juliana gently broke the news of her father’s stroke. Gord and her father had worked together in harmony for years and respected one another. “He’s in a coma, and I’m afraid they don’t know if and when he’ll come out of it.”
Gord’s pale eyes glistened. “I’ll keep him in my prayers. Your father is strong-willed. Can I see him? Sit with him? It might do him good to have a visit from an old friend. I’ll tell him how the staff and the house have gone to hell without him. That ought to rouse him.”
She shook her head, tears bathing her cheeks. Her heart felt like a heavy stone in her breast. She hated this. Hated suspecting people whom she’d trusted for years. “I wish you could, but the police are taking extra security precautions. No visitors.”
“You’re coming back to the house after the interment, then?”
“Yes, for a little while.”
Gord patted her arm and kissed her on the cheek. “Good. This is a time for us to be together. I’m being signaled by the funeral director. The service is about to start. We’ll talk more at the house.”
She glanced toward the corner where she’d seen Stacey and Kendrick Dwyer, but they were gone. Needing a tissue to wipe her face, she flipped open the small black leather purse she’d borrowed from Hunter’s sister’s closet for today. It was just big enough to hold her cell phone, some tissues and a lipstick. Juliana dried her tears. People were taking their seats and Annette was motioning for her to join her in the front pew.
Juliana gathered her courage for the strength to make it through the ceremony and the interment and wished once more that Hunter were here with her.
MEETING JULIANA HAD changed him, corroded the detachment that he wore like armor when he was working on a job. Feeling as if his heart were suspended in midair, Hunter monitored her every movement on the bank of television screens connected to covert video cameras planted inside and outside the cathedral. He took note of everyone who spoke to her or even looked at her. And made sure her bodyguards were doing their job.
Juliana was too precious to Cort to lose. And somehow, in the long dark hours of their wedding night as Hunter had waited for her to wake, she’d become infinitely precious to him.
Though he knew she was frightened about being the target of a killer and worried sick about her father, you’d never know it by looking at her. She had her chin up and was lending Annette moral support.
He was so damn proud of her! Grace under pressure. Even when she cried, she wiped her eyes with a quiet dignity and carried on. No histrionics.
Disguised in a groundskeeper’s uniform, dark glasses and a thick mustache, Hunter attended the interment, which had been limited to Annette and the household staff. As the short ceremony ended, the wind tore savagely through the trees and the swollen clouds above split their gray under-bellies. Rain pounded into the ground as the staff scuttled into limousines that would take them back to the Collingwood estate for the reception. Hunter and Investigator Bradshaw followed behind in an unmarked car.
Upon arriving at the estate and making his way to the command center the troopers had set up, Hunter’s tension jackknifed. More covert cameras had been planted in the house to record the reception, but there were many holes in the coverage.
If something happened to Juliana, he’d never forgive himself.
MELANCHOLY SETTLED heavily on Juliana’s shoulders as she entered the packed drawing room after leaving her coat with a maid. The Collingwood Estate had been built for glorious parties, and today it was a house in mourning—the atmosphere oppressive with the heavy scents of flowers and wet wool and the sounds of muted conversation. She hadn’t the heart to ask Hunter what would happen to this magnificent house. Maybe all that would become known once the will was officially read.
Annette was nowhere in sight. Nor were her bodyguards. Yet Juliana knew Annette had arrived at the house before her.
Juliana slipped through the mourners overflowing into the vast center hall that had soaring Palladian windows on each end, and tried the dining room where a buffet had been set up.
She stopped Stacey Kerr, Lexi’s personal secretary. “Have you seen Annette?”
“She said something about needing to lie down, poor thing,” Stacey replied. “I didn’t have a chance to ask you at the church, but how’s your baby? Did you bring pictures?”
Juliana felt a prickle of apprehension at her nape. “He’s getting so big! But I didn’t think to bring any photos. I will next time, I promise. Excuse me, I want to check on Annette. She shouldn’t be alone.”
She hurried up the gold inlaid staircase to the second floor, replaying Stacey
’s interest in Cort in her mind. Was the secretary’s question as innocuous as it had seemed? Stacey and Kendrick Dwyer had had their heads together at the funeral. But they could have been discussing the eulogy that Kendrick had given. He’d also read a loving tribute Annette had written.
At the top of the stairs Juliana encountered Sable Holden. She stopped the woman. “May I ask what you are doing upstairs?”
“Who the hell are you?” Sable responded with a curl of her crimson lips.
“Part of the staff. I repeat, what are you doing up here? There’s a sign at the bottom of the stairs clearly stating this area is off-limits to guests.”
Color slashed Sable’s cheeks. “I was looking for a bathroom.” She forcibly tried to brush past Juliana, ramming her with her shoulder.
Knocked off balance, Juliana teetered on her high heels and clutched at the banister to keep from falling down the stairs.
Her bodyguards were on Sable in an instant.
An anger-induced tremor worked its way up Juliana’s spine. Had they just nabbed Ross and Lexi’s killer? “Please escort this woman to security. Have them check her purse to make sure she hasn’t removed anything from the house. I’m sure the police will have a few questions for her, as well.”
“You can’t do this,” Sable blustered.
“I can. And I will. Now, please go quietly before you create an unpleasant scene. And, I suggest, in future, you refrain from trespassing.”
“Do you know who I am? I’m on the board of directors of the Collingwood Corporation.”
“I don’t care if you’re Santa Claus.”
Leaving Sable in the capable hands of her bodyguards, Juliana hurried down the hall, concern for Annette uppermost on her mind. Had Sable followed Annette upstairs? Had she turned back when she’d noticed Annette was well guarded by the troopers?
She tried the guest rooms on the second floor left wing first. But surely if Annette were here Juliana would see bodyguards out in the hallway. Juliana crossed over to the right wing where the family’s rooms were. The door to the nursery stood slightly ajar. Juliana grasped the knob and pushed the door open.
The bright room Lexi had lovingly prepared with a Noah’s ark theme was empty.
She moved farther down the hall to the room Lexi’s parents had shared when they’d moved into the mansion after Riana’s abduction. That door, too, was ajar. Juliana saw an imprint on the bed as if someone had lain down for a while. Who, Sable?
She tried Lexi’s suite next. Relief expanded in her chest when she pushed the door open and was immediately halted by two troopers. She told them about her encounter with Sable Holden on the stairs. One of the troopers radioed Investigator Bradshaw while Juliana continued to the bedroom to check on Annette.
She knocked softly on the door and entered the room.
Annette sat on Lexi’s bed with some of Lexi’s clothes spread out around her.
“She’s really gone, isn’t she?”
Juliana slipped her purse off her shoulder and joined Annette on the bed. Compassion welled in her as she gently stroked Annette’s back. Tension bunched in the petite woman’s body like stones tightly packed in a jar. “I’m afraid so.”
“It didn’t seem real until I came in here. They’re all gone.” Suddenly, Annette gripped Juliana’s knee. “But not Cort, right?”
Juliana cast an anxious glance toward the door and lowered her voice. “Annette, I assure you he’s safe and sound.”
A frustrated cry broke from Annette’s throat and twisted her features. “I need to see him. He’s the only family I have left. Tell me where he is. Or better yet, take me to him.”
“I wish I could, but I can’t.”
“Don’t tell me you can’t. I’m ordering you to tell me where my nephew is.”
Juliana looked at her sharply. “I don’t take orders from you.”
“It’s him, isn’t it? That damn Guardian! He can’t do this! He won’t even tell me who has custody of the baby!” Annette jumped off the bed and swung her arm at a collection of crystal figurines—birthday gifts from Lexi’s parents—displayed on a mirrored table. Several pieces crashed to the floor.
Juliana leaped up to prevent Annette from wreaking more damage as the bedroom door flew open. Both troopers filled the doorway, weapons drawn.
“It’s all right,” Juliana told them. “She’s just upset. Annette, you must calm down. Losing control will achieve nothing.”
The troopers withdrew, closing the door.
“I just realized—you probably have custody of Cort! The Guardian is working for you.” Annette dragged a shaking hand across her brow, her green eyes blazing with anguish. “Oh, my God, I can’t believe my own sister chose the butler’s daughter to raise her baby over her own flesh and blood. And to think that I postponed my wedding so that Lexi could marry Ross first because she was pregnant!”
“You are so wrong. I don’t have custody of Cort, either. I wish I did.”
Annette advanced toward her. “But you know who does.”
Juliana’s back stiffened. “I’m not going to jeopardize Cort’s safety—or yours—by discussing this any further. There are enough people dead. I haven’t even been allowed to visit my father at the hospital! I’m sure a safe meeting will be arranged for you and the baby as soon as possible. Now, come downstairs. I’ll get you something to eat and a nice cup of tea.”
It took some doing, but she finally coaxed Annette downstairs. Lexi’s sister had been in isolation since the bombing. It would do her good to be surrounded by people and feel their support.
She settled Annette on a sofa in the drawing room with Stacey Kerr and brought her a plate of food from the buffet and a cup of tea. Then Juliana dispatched a maid to clean up the broken crystal in Lexi’s room while she circulated through the house to talk with each member of the staff. To offer comfort and be comforted. The staff was solidly divided in opinions about the cook’s disappearance. Half firmly believed she was doing something odd like meditating on her past lives. The other half was convinced she was working her magic in someone else’s kitchen.
No one seemed unduly interested in her movements. Juliana found herself praying that Sable Holden was confessing.
At least Annette had pulled herself together and was moving from one group to another thanking people for coming.
Juliana took a moment to dodge into the ladies’ room. When she came out into the lounge to wash her hands, Sarah Younge was seated on one of the upholstered stools in front of the mirror replenishing her lipstick with a sienna color that matched her dark-auburn hair.
“I’m glad to have caught you alone, Juliana. I thought you might know if the search will still continue for Riana.”
Juliana lathered her hands with scented soap. Had Sarah followed her in here on purpose? Gina, her female bodyguard, had ostensibly engaged the powder room maid in conversation.
“I’m sure the search will continue. I don’t think any of us, especially now, have given up hope that she’ll be found.”
Sarah’s lips wobbled into a smile and her gray eyes grew misty. “Well, I’d like to continue to help. If you need a spokesperson, I’d consider it a privilege. Ross and Lexi were so good to us—especially recently. Ross called David into his office last week and told him to take some time off. We’ve—our son David Jr.’s been having some problems at school. Getting into serious trouble. Ross told David that there was nothing more important in life than your children and—” Sarah broke off with a choked cry, pressing her hand to her mouth. “David finally decided to take Ross’s advice.”
Juliana used a fresh towel to dry her hands and dab at the new spring of tears welling in her eyes. Sarah’s explanation accounted for the tension in David Younge’s life and the private meetings with Ross. She’d have to tell Hunter. “I’ll pass your offer along, Sarah. Thank you.”
“It’s the least I can do.”
Juliana took a moment to compose herself after Sarah left. Her reflection in the mirror t
old of the day’s emotional drain. Her eyes were red and swollen, her lipstick had worn off and her hair needed combing. She reached for her purse to repair the damage, only to discover it wasn’t on her shoulder or the vanity counter. Had she left it in the stall in the bathroom?
She hurried to check.
There was no sign of it.
Fortunately she didn’t have any identification or anything of value in the purse—except her cell phone. What if the hospital had called with an update about her father’s condition?
She tried to think when she’d had it last and couldn’t remember. Had she forgotten it in the limo after the interment?
Left it upstairs in Lexi’s room? Or accidentally set it down someplace when she’d brought Annette some refreshments?
Juliana alerted one of her bodyguards who radioed a message to The Guardian in the security command center. Maybe it was nothing, but still…
A quiet search was begun by the staff. The guests were discreetly informed that Annette was overtired and perhaps they should take their leave.
Juliana stood sentry in the foyer keeping a sharp eye out for the missing purse as the guests departed. Try as she might, she couldn’t dispel the disquieting fear that someone had deliberately taken her purse.
Chapter Nine
When Stacey Kerr found the purse underneath the buffet table forty-five minutes later, Juliana snapped it open to check the contents, then clutched it to her chest in relief. Her cell phone was there. Everything seemed to be in order.
She must have accidentally dropped it when she’d filled a plate for Annette and it had been kicked under the buffet table.
The day had been rife with too much tension. She was relieved when one of her bodyguards informed her that her car was waiting outside. Her stomach muscles clenched tightly in the fervent hope that Hunter would be in the car waiting for her.
She needed the reassurance that only being with him, feeling the safety of his arms around her, could give.
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