Fool Me Once

by Fern Michaels

  Later, when she was drifting into sleep, Olivia thought of it as a magical moment, one she would carry with her forever.

  Her destiny was lying right beside her. It all felt so right.

  The following morning after Jeff left for work, Olivia walked back to her studio to begin preparations to resume her work schedule. She spent an hour calling her clients and scheduling appointments. She was going to need the money to buy her wedding dress.

  Within an hour, when she was satisfied that she had a full schedule mapped out, she tidied up and walked back to her office. She had a few days left till Monday to work on Adrian Ames’s business affairs. After Monday, that business would have to take a backseat to her own work.

  Olivia shifted and collated the papers she’d printed out on the Great Rock Insurance Company. Before she hired Miki Kenyan again, she wanted to take a stab at finding the insurance agent herself. Subterfuge was what she needed. Her mind raced, and then she picked up the phone and dialed the 800 number at Great Rock’s home office in Biloxi. When the operator came on she asked for Human Resources.

  The voice on the other end of the phone was young, warm, and cheerful-sounding. Olivia did her best to match it. She identified herself as Helen Noonan, researching her family tree. “This is my problem, Ms. Berensen, I’ve managed to track everyone but one uncle. His name was Leroy Sullivan. A cousin seems to recall him working for your company when he was young and your offices were in Oxford, which was some forty years ago. We can’t seem to find any information on him. Is there any way you can help me?”

  “I’m afraid that was way before my time, Ms. Noonan. I wouldn’t even know where to look. I know there is no one here by that name now. Was he an agent?”

  Of course there was no one there by that name—she’d made it up. “Yes, the cousin believes he was an agent. Do you have any employees from that time period, maybe someone I could talk to? It’s possible they might remember.”

  “Let me check, Ms. Noonan. Do you mind holding on for a few minutes?”

  “Not at all. I appreciate your help.”

  While she waited, Olivia stared out the window. She groaned when she saw snow flurries swirling. She let her thoughts drift to Jeff. As soon as the weather got nice she was going to take him on a picnic. She loved picnics.

  Olivia was jolted from her thoughts when Ms. Berensen’s voice came over the wire again. “I don’t know how much help this will be, but you might try Hudson Buckley. I can’t give you his phone number, but I can call him and ask him if it’s all right to give it to you. He lives here in Biloxi. The company had a retirement dinner for him last year. He’s about seventy-five years old. If you don’t mind holding on again, I can call him to see if it’s all right to give out his number. If he has an e-mail address, do you want that, too?”

  “Yes, that would be a big help.”

  Olivia turned her thoughts to Jeff again as she was put on hold. Would his family like her? Would she like them? What were the brothers like? How would she fit in with that huge family? Would they go to Jeff’s family for holidays?

  Olivia jerked upright when the voice came back on the line. “Ms. Noonan, Mr. Buckley said it was okay to give you his phone number and his e-mail address. Do you have a pen handy?” Olivia said she did and copied down the information. She thanked the woman again before she broke the connection.

  Her eyes on the weather outside, Olivia debated whether she should use the e-mail address or the phone number. Her alias of Helen Noonan wouldn’t jibe with her e-mail address, so she opted for the phone. She dialed the number and waited.

  The voice was brisk, professional-sounding. “Hudson Buckley.”

  “Mr. Buckley, this is Helen Noonan. Great Rock gave me your number. I hope I’m not calling you at an inconvenient time.”

  “Not at all. How can I help you?”

  Olivia ran through her family-tree spiel again. She waited for the retired agent’s comments.

  “I don’t recall a Leroy Sullivan working for Great Rock. I wasn’t an agent back then. I started out as a janitor and worked my way up. If I recall correctly, there were two male agents. It was a small company.”

  “Did you know either of the two agents?” Olivia asked.

  The man on the other end of the line chuckled. “As much as a janitor can be friendly with two ‘suits.’ I do remember their names, though. Nate Clancy and Darryl Spencer. Both of them left about a year after I started working for the company. I saw them last year at a concert at Ole Miss. I go every year. I almost didn’t recognize them, but they recognized me. Our wives talked for a while. They’re retired, too, but they still live in the area. That’s about all I can tell you.”

  “I appreciate it, Mr. Buckley. I guess I have to continue looking for my uncle in another area or industry. Thank you again.”

  Olivia got up to stretch her legs. While she was up she made her bed and took a load of clothes to the laundry room. At least she now had two names and a location. If she was lucky, the Information operator might be able to give her their phone numbers. Would they talk to her on the phone? How much should she divulge? Which retired agent had been assigned to the robbery?

  Olivia made fresh coffee, and while it was dripping into the pot she stared out the window. It seemed like it was snowing harder. She shivered a little even though she was wearing a toasty-warm dusty rose sweat suit. The phone rang just as she reached into the cabinet for a cup. She snatched at it, wondering who was calling her.

  “Jeff!”

  “I just called to tell you I love you. I don’t think I say that often enough. I do.”

  Olivia smiled as she cradled the phone against her ear. She hugged her arms against her chest. “I love you, too. I miss you. I spend a lot of time staring at this ring. I just love it, Jeff. You made a wonderful choice. It’s snowing again,” she said, changing the subject.

  “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be there tonight even if I have to come on snowshoes. I miss you, too, Olivia. I really should go, I have a ton of work on my desk. I just wanted to hear your voice. I’ll see you tonight. Love you.”

  Olivia smiled at the declaration. “I love you, too.” When she broke the connection, she looked around, amazed that nothing had changed. The earth wasn’t shaking, the sky was intact, the house hadn’t blown up. Something should have happened. Then she grinned. She was glad there was no one around to see her just then. She couldn’t help but wonder if all first-time loves were like hers.

  Coffee cup in hand, Olivia literally skipped her way back to her office, not caring if the coffee sloshed out of the cup, knowing the dogs would lick it right up. She was in love and loved and had the ring to prove it. When you were in love, there were no rules. When she finally settled herself in her ergonomic chair she was shocked to see she’d lost half of the coffee in her cup. She laughed, a sound of pure joy. She looked around, expecting the room to at least tilt. When it didn’t, she laughed again. She’d never been so happy. Never. Ever.

  Olivia settled down to work, her mind half on what she was doing, the other half on Jeff. Pencil ready, she dialed the Information operator for Oxford, Mississippi, and was amazed to hear there were dozens of people with the names Clancy and Spencer. When the operator told her she could only give her three phone numbers at a time, Olivia groaned aloud. This was going to take forever. She opted for a coffee refill before she settled down to her calls.

  By midafternoon, she’d whittled her list to six, maybe seven, possible people who fit the initials of Nate Clancy and Darryl Spencer. She didn’t discount the fact that one or more of the numbers she’d crossed out might be listed under the names of the wives.

  Olivia looked down at her watch. Time to think about something for dinner. Then she looked outside and was shocked speechless. Snow was coming down so heavily she couldn’t see across the yard. She bolted from the office and ran to the kitchen for a better look. It looked like there was about four inches of fresh snow. Jeff would never make it. The thought was so devastating
, she sat down, her eyes filling with tears. Hope arose with the thought that maybe it wasn’t snowing in the District. But then hope was dashed as she told herself, What a foolish thought. Of course it’s snowing in Washington. The weather patterns were almost identical.

  Still, on the off chance Jeff might make it, Olivia rummaged in her freezer for something to prepare for dinner. She finally selected three large pork chops that she’d stuffed weeks before, then frozen. She’d learned to cut corners when her father taught her how to cook. He always set aside one or two days a month to do nothing but cook and freeze. With both their late-day work schedules it was then a simple matter to take something out of the freezer to pop in the oven. A garlic sweet potato–turnip casserole, her father’s favorite, went into the oven next to the pork chops. When the chops were almost done she would drizzle a sweet Vidalia onion relish over the top. A garden salad, some frozen rolls, and a cop-out frozen dessert would round out the meal. She rummaged in the freezer again before she withdrew a rock-solid peach cobbler that just needed to be put in the oven. She crossed her fingers that Jeff would show up.

  Olivia walked over to the sliding doors and forced them open. The dogs looked up at her and took off running back through the house. She shrugged. How could she blame them? She put down fresh doggy pads by the door and returned to her office, where she continued making phone calls.

  It was totally dark outside when she contacted a man who said his name was Nate Clancy. “No, ma’am, I handled the outlying areas. Darryl was the one who worked the Oxford area. He lives about a mile away. I can give you his phone number if you hold on. My wife, Emily, and Darryl’s wife, Melissa, are best friends. I’ll just be a minute.”

  Olivia’s clenched fist shot in the air. She quickly scribbled down the number Nate Clancy read off to her. She thanked him and cut the connection.

  Then she realized she was cold. The dogs must be cold, too—they were all huddled together in Alice’s bed in the corner. She turned up the thermostats that controlled the heat in the front end and back end of the house. She turned on lights as she went along. Before she returned to her office, she checked the oven and built a roaring fire in the great room. The dogs scampered around her, yapping and growling. She slapped at her forehead. Of course! It was their suppertime. She trotted back to the kitchen to feed them. All day, she’d felt as if she was on another planet.

  Olivia let her thoughts drift to Jeff and the snow outside. Would he make it? Wouldn’t he make it? Of course he would. Maybe she should call him and tell him not to attempt the seventy-six-mile trip. She looked down at the sparkling ring on her finger and smiled. As much as she wanted to see her fiancé, she didn’t want him to risk his life out on the roads. She called him but reached only his voice mail. She left a message telling him to stay put but to call her, then tried his cell phone, but a voice said she should try her call later.

  The phone was ringing in her office when she started down the hall. Thinking it was Jeff returning her call, she clicked on and said, “Oh, you dear sweet man!”

  The voice on the other end of the wire made Olivia cringe. “Obviously, Olivia, you were expecting someone else to be calling you. I’m sorry to disappoint you. This is Lea. I’m sure you know what’s been going on with your father and me. At least that’s what he led me to believe. How can you be so narrow-minded, so uncharitable in regard to Dennis and me? You could have made our lives so much easier. Dennis is your father. I treated you like a daughter, Olivia. I loved you because you were Dennis’s daughter. Shame on you for being so selfish. You’re just like your mother. If you loved Dennis, you would have found a way to make his life easier. It’s all your fault that Dennis and I are separating. Your fault, Olivia! Do you hear me? I hope that money brings you nothing but misery. Are you listening to me, Olivia?” Lea screeched.

  Olivia was too surprised to say anything. As she searched for words, the phone pinged in her ear. “Oh, God!” Tears burned her eyes as she grappled with what she’d just heard on the phone. She wasn’t like Adrian Ames! She wasn’t! Lea was the one who wanted the money! Not her father! Her father asked her to take out a mortgage. If he wanted the money, he would have asked for it. Wouldn’t he? What if Lea was right? What if asking for the mortgage was to sidetrack her into thinking he didn’t want the money to make her feel sorry for him? Lea was right, the money would make her father’s life easier. Damn, she didn’t know anything anymore.

  The sudden desire to run away as far as she could go was so strong, she almost ran out of the room. She’d been deliriously happy a few minutes ago. Now, after one phone call, she was miserable. Her tears splashed down on the diamond on her finger. She cried harder as she dried off the ring.

  Olivia squared her shoulders as she sat down at her desk. Lea could invade her thoughts only if she allowed it. Well, she wasn’t going to allow it. Her face grim, she picked up the phone and dialed Darryl Spencer’s phone number. It wasn’t until she heard the man’s voice that she realized she didn’t have a reason for the phone call. She was going to have to wing it.

  The voice on the phone was elderly, reedy, and thin-sounding. Olivia announced herself as Margaret Tyson, an intermediary in a forty-year-old insurance case. “I understand, Mr. Spencer, that you were the insurance investigator at the time. I’m sorry to say I am not able to divulge the name of my client at this time. My client is, however, prepared to pay back the money to Great Rock that they paid to the bank after the theft. Are you following me here, Mr. Spencer?”

  “I think so. The company fired me after they paid out on the claim. The payout almost forced the company into bankruptcy. I was young back then and had never investigated anything like that claim. Mississippi forty years ago was a lot different than it is today. That’s just another way of saying I didn’t know what I was doing. But to this day, I still believe it was an inside job. There was something off-kilter about the owner of the bank, too. The company paid up real quick. I thought that was suspicious. At first the bank didn’t even want to report the theft. I never could figure that out. There wasn’t much follow-through, I can tell you that. Then they fired me, and I had to find other work because I’d just gotten married and we had a baby on the way. I did my best to nose around on my own time, but nothing ever came to light. That’s about all I can tell you.”

  “My client wants to pay back the money, Mr. Simpson.”

  “Is your client the one who…made off with the bonds?”

  “At this time, I’m not at liberty to say, Mr. Spencer. You said you thought it was an inside job. I believe those were your words. Who did you think was responsible?”

  Olivia could hear a woman’s voice in the background shouting to her husband to shut up and mind his own business. The female voice went on to say they were too old to get involved or sued for something that happened forty years ago. Olivia could barely make out Spencer’s thin voice when he told his wife to shush, that it was time to speak up.

  “I always thought it was that smug young girl who worked there part-time. She was a smart-alecky one, she was. Cool as a Popsicle on a hot summer’s day, she was. She looked me right in the eye, defiant, daring me to accuse her. I couldn’t do it because I had no proof. Mr. Augustus wouldn’t hear one bad word about that girl. She was a student at Ole Miss. I could tell you—” The wife’s voice in the background turned shrill as she screamed at her husband to shut up.

  There was a small silence on the other end of the phone line, but Olivia could hear husband and wife hissing at each other. Whatever it was Spencer’s wife said to her husband, it was effective, because he backed away from what he had been about to say. “They watched the young woman for a long time, years actually. At least that was the rumor. She got married right after graduation and moved away, and they tracked her for years, but nothing ever came to light. That was rumored, too. The company just gave up, I guess. After a while, I didn’t care anymore. Why does the person you represent want to pay back the money? I’m sure the company closed the books
on the payout.”

  Olivia’s gut churned. There was something Spencer wasn’t telling her. Something his wife didn’t want him to talk about. “Because it’s the right thing to do, Mr. Spencer. My client also wants to pay the earnings the money would have generated if the insurance company had invested that sum of money.”

  Darryl Spencer whistled. The sound was as weak-sounding as the man’s voice.

  “Well, I’ll be doggoned. Imagine that! Well, good luck, miss.”

  “Mr. Spencer, are you sure there’s nothing else you want to tell me? You can think of me as a reporter, a reporter who never divulges her sources.”

  Spencer’s silence went on too long. Finally, he said, “I told you all I know.”

  Olivia sighed. She knew the man was lying, but what could she do? “Thank you for your time, Mr. Spencer.”

  Olivia leaned back in her chair as she stared off into space.

  Chapter 21

  As the hours wore on, Olivia was unable to get the conversation with Darryl Spencer out of her mind. What did he know or suspect that he was afraid to tell her? She tried diverting her thoughts to other things, like Jeff, the snow, her dinner that was going to be dried out. Even the dogs couldn’t distract her.

  It was nine o’clock when Olivia sat down to eat the almost ruined dinner. She chewed her way through her somewhat dry pork chop as she struggled to make sense out of what Spencer hadn’t told her. She wondered what would happen if she called him back. Even though he was an old man, his mind seemed sharp, his memory clear. He and his wife had probably talked her phone call to death. If she called him back that night, she didn’t think he’d part with anything. If she waited a day or so and caught him off guard, he might open up.

  But did she want to do that? Why bring up the man’s past? He didn’t deserve to be lied to and grilled just so she could honor Adrian Ames’s last wishes.