His Secret Son

by Jacqueline Diamond

  “The kids could go to the Halloween party at church,” Fred suggested. “That will be indoors.”

  “It’s not the same as trick-or-treating, but I suppose they’d have to,” his wife said. “What do you think, Joni?”

  At the prompting, Joni gave voice to a nagging worry. “I’ve been concerned about letting Jeff go door-to-door this year, with a murderer loose in Viento del Mar. The church sounds like a good idea.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Kathryn said. “That was just horrible about Mrs. DeLong.”

  Her husband touched her arm warningly. “Maybe we should talk about something else.”

  “Oh! That reminds me,” Kathryn told Joni. “I was going to suggest that Jeff come home with us tonight. That way, if you want to watch a newscast or if the police come by with questions, he won’t have to see it. I know this whole situation’s been tough on him.”

  The boy would enjoy staying overnight with Bobby. More than that, it would give Joni a chance to talk privately with Dirk.

  “That’s a wonderful idea,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you two.”

  “Don’t thank us,” said Fred. “Bobby’s a lot less trouble when he has company. The two of them sit in front of the computer and we don’t hear a peep out of them.”

  The boys began kicking the ball across the grass, each vying to get a whack at it. The Owenses’ attention shifted away, and of their own accord, Joni’s thoughts flew to Dirk.

  She wished she knew how he felt about the change in their relationship last night. This morning, he’d seemed withdrawn.

  Was he afraid she would try to cling to him? If so, she would soon disabuse him of that notion.

  Joni had learned from her mother’s experience that a woman needed to stand on her own two feet. All she wanted from Dirk was whatever part of himself he could give freely. If he wished, they could go back to being—what? Casual friends who shared only their affection for Jeff?

  Anguish twisted inside her. She couldn’t imagine never again enjoying the throbbing, tingling, steaming excitement they had discovered last night. She wanted to see those piercing blue eyes every morning, to meet him in the kitchen every evening and exchange impressions of the day.

  Oh, Lord, what kind of mess had she made? She must accept that they could be nothing more than friends or she’d drive Dirk away completely.

  A soccer ball whizzed by, grazing Joni. “Sorry,” called a little boy who didn’t look particularly sorry.

  Fred scooped up the ball and flung it onto the field. As Charlie caught it, his eyes met Joni’s. His heavy lids and nearly invisible eyelashes gave his gaze a remote, inhuman quality. Then he tossed the ball into play, and a shouting mass of little boys battled for it. Had that been anger she saw on his face? she wondered. Or was she imagining it?

  No one else appeared to have noticed anything amiss. Paranoia must be playing tricks on her.

  DIRK PAGED THROUGH the data about Charlie Rogers. Age: 38. Marital status: Divorced. Military service in the navy. No children.

  Two years ago, he’d moved from San Jose to Viento del Mar. He would have arrived just as Joni and Lowell were splitting up, so he could have read in the newspaper about her allegations that her husband was harassing her. Had he remembered the details and mimicked them later to discredit Lowell?

  Through a service his business subscribed to, Dirk used Charlie’s driver’s license number to access his credit and police records. He found that the man hadn’t told the whole truth about not having a criminal record.

  There’d been one conviction for drunken driving and another for misdemeanor battery, no details provided. Then, three years ago, Charlie had been taken into custody for spousal abuse. As part of the sentencing, he’d had to complete an anger-management course. He’d also gotten a divorce.

  The picture wasn’t reassuring. Charlie Rogers had problems with alcohol and he’d beaten his wife.

  Charlie had had an opportunity to throw paint at Dirk’s car on Saturday. He would also have heard Kim’s tirade against Joni. Plus, he presumably knew Del Mar Park well enough to have spied on Dirk and Joni on Sunday, then vanished when he was spotted.

  On the other hand, the man hadn’t exactly behaved like an ardent suitor, Dirk mused. He’d flirted with Joni previously and had brought flowers to the hospital. Still, aside from the way he’d glared at Dirk on Saturday, that didn’t add up to much.

  It was a long shot, but to be on the safe side, the police ought to check out his alibis for the times of the murders. And Joni should avoid being alone with him.

  Dirk glanced at his watch; it was a minute past five. Nearly dark. She and Jeff would be leaving soccer practice soon. Although other people were likely to be around, he knew the killer was a master at manipulating people.

  There was no way to contact her at the park short of going there himself. Dialing his cell phone as he walked, Dirk started for his car. He doubted a patrol officer would respond to his vague suspicions, so he put in a call directly to MacDougall. He got voice mail and left a terse message.

  Outside, he couldn’t spot his rental. It took several precious seconds to remember that he’d replaced it with a different model.

  By the time he located it, the time on his watch clicked to 5:07.

  THE SOCCER FAMILIES dispersed quickly into the cool night. Joni waited until Jeff retrieved his ball and started off with the Owenses before she headed in the other direction.

  The rising ground blocked her view of the road. Only one streetlight marked her way and it cast more shadows than illumination. She hadn’t realized the park could feel so isolated.

  Off to her right, a figure moved into her range of vision. Her pulse pounding in her ears, Joni took another step and stumbled on a rough spot in the turf.

  “You okay?” With two long strides, Charlie Rogers reached her. His hand closed over her arm with possessive tightness.

  “Fine.” Joni swallowed hard. She didn’t want him to see how nervous she was.

  “Where’s Jeff?”

  She wished she dared lie and say her son would be there any minute with Bobby’s family in tow. But the field obviously stood deserted. “He went home with a friend.”

  “How’s he taking all this?” The dim light gave the coach’s square face a yellowish cast.

  “All what?” Joni asked.

  “A person can hardly help hearing what’s on the news.” He was so close she could smell peppermint gum on his breath.

  With Charlie holding her arm, she couldn’t move away unless she made a big production of it. Joni tried to shift backward unobtrusively, but he didn’t release her. “He’s taking it okay.”

  “And you?” he probed.

  “Me?” She hated the way she kept responding with questions, but she couldn’t concentrate on what he was asking.

  A few minutes ago, they’d been surrounded. Now there was only dimness and silence. All she could think about was getting over the rise to the street, where there’d be houses facing them and, presumably, people arriving home from work.

  “Look, I know you’re under a lot of stress.” His jaw worked. “It’s none of my business anyway. But you know, Joni, I don’t like hearing gossip about you.”

  “Gossip?” Oh, Lord, if he would only let go!

  “People are talking about you and your brother-in-law.” His forehead creased. “You’re a classy lady. I’ve admired you for some time. Why are you doing this?”

  She decided to take the direct approach. “Would you walk me to my car?”

  “There might be other people hanging around,” he said. “I don’t think you want them to hear this conversation.”

  “I don’t care!” Joni tried to tug her arm free, but his grip tightened. The man had powerful hands; she remembered that he taught fitness classes. He probably worked out with weights, too.

  “Why not? Because what they’re saying is true?” He caught her other arm and swung her to face him. “Are you really that kind
of woman, Joni?”

  The movement pulled his sweater up enough for the dim light to glint off something thrust into his belt. Something hard and metallic.

  A knife.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Answer me!” He shook her. “I asked you a question!”

  Where the fury came from, Joni didn’t know. Welling up without warning, it galvanized her into action.

  Her knee struck Charlie in the groin but not hard enough to hurt. It startled him, however, into releasing her arms, and she snatched at his ears, gripping them and digging in with her fingernails.

  “What the—” Curses flew, but he couldn’t jerk free without her nails ripping deeper into his ears.

  Forcing his head down, Joni thrust upward with her knee and felt it connect with a crunch. With a curse, he shoved her back, and she stumbled to the ground. She scrambled for footing, but the darkness disoriented her and she staggered onto her knees. At any instant, she expected to feel the slash of a knife.

  “I think you broke my damn nose!” Charlie gurgled from several feet away.

  “Good!” Joni shouted.

  On the street, a car door slammed. “Joni?” It was Dirk. “Joni, are you here?”

  “Look out!” she yelled. “He’s got a knife!”

  “I—what?” Bent over, cradling his injured face, Charlie appeared to be trying to shake his head. “It’s just a Swiss Army knife.”

  “Put your hands up!” Dirk came over the rise, hands clenched in front of him as if holding a service revolver. It was too dark to see if he was really armed.

  “Aw, jeez, man!” Charlie dabbed at the air with his hands, then sank onto the grass. “Call an ambulance.”

  Lurching to her feet, Joni hurried to Dirk’s side. She heard the harsh rush of his breathing, and when she touched him to steady herself, she felt the tightness in his muscles.

  She could also see that what he held in his hands wasn’t a gun but a phone.

  While Charlie continued to sit on the ground complaining, Dirk punched a button and put the phone to his ear. “Joni Peterson was just attacked at Del Mar Park. We need the police and we need an ambulance.”

  “Hey!” Charlie gasped. “She attacked me!”

  “You grabbed me and shook me!” Joni snapped. “What did you think you were doing?” The pent-up tension of the past week intensified her anger.

  “I just wanted to talk,” he muttered.

  “Like you used to talk to your ex-wife?” Dirk challenged.

  “What?” Joni brushed away the tears.

  “He’s a wife abuser,” he said.

  “Man, I’ve changed.”

  “I suspect the police have heard that line before,” Dirk returned sharply.

  The man was sniveling now. “Look, I wanted to ask her out, that’s all.”

  He didn’t sound to Joni like the monster she’d been fearing all week. But then, she reminded herself, no doubt he could act harmless when it suited him.

  A few minutes later, sirens shrilled toward them. A patrolman and two paramedics ran into view, followed a short time later by Detective MacDougall. He grimaced as he watched the patrolman slap handcuffs on Charlie. “Guess I was wrong about you two” was the only comment he offered.

  DIRK COULDN’T BELIEVE he’d let Joni get that close to danger. He should’ve foreseen it or done more to prevent it.

  Something had changed between them last night. Joni had plugged into a long-buried need, connecting him to her and, in an inexplicable way, to himself. The prospect of harm coming to her was intolerable.

  Heck, how much of an explanation did he require? She was the mother of his child, essential to Jeff’s happiness. If for no other reason, Dirk would have gladly laid down his life to preserve hers.

  Fortunately, she didn’t appear to have suffered more than a few scrapes. And it was a lucky break that their son had gone home with the Owenses before the incident.

  In Charlie’s trunk, police found a nearly empty can of water-soluble red paint, left over from decorating booths at a soccer fund-raising carnival the previous spring. Charlie admitted having thrown the contents onto Dirk’s car out of jealousy but denied any involvement with the murders. For the moment, he was being held for assault. The police were getting more warrants to search his apartment and health-club locker.

  After a round of questioning, Dirk and Joni went home. It was hard to believe, as they unlocked the door and went inside, that they didn’t have to be afraid anymore.

  Unless, of course, the police screwed up and released Charlie. “I’m staying tonight,” Dirk said. “I’ll sleep on the sofa bed.”

  Long lashes curtained Joni’s eyes as she considered. He hoped she wasn’t going to insist on staying alone because, in that case, he would sleep in his car outside.

  She faced him across the den. “You don’t have to stay on the sofa.”

  His body responded instantly, viscerally. After last night, he knew how warm her mouth would be and how quickly she would come to heat. But he didn’t dare let down his guard again. In one day, he’d stumbled across Kim DeLong’s body and nearly lost Joni to a man he should have suspected all along. What else had he overlooked?

  “I’ll be more alert if I stay by myself.” He forced himself not to move toward her, not to touch.

  “But Charlie’s in custody.”

  “I’ll feel better when the D.A.’s brought murder charges and a judge has denied bail,” Dirk said. “Until then, he could get a lawyer to spring him.”

  She sighed. “I suppose you’re right.”

  “By the way,” he said, “Herb suggested you move back to the estate and offered to live there, too. If Mrs. Wright is a problem, I’ll give her a pension or find her another job.”

  “This house does hold some terrible memories,” Joni conceded. “But some wonderful ones, too.” The look she gave him left no doubt what she was referring to.

  “You’ll think about Herb’s offer?”

  “Sure.” Her expression softened. “Dirk, thank you. I’m so grateful you showed up tonight.”

  “You’re the one who saved yourself.”

  “He made me mad. But...that was quite a trick with the phone. That took guts.” She came closer, her palm reaching to cup his cheek. Slowly, her thumb traced his temple and jawline.

  Dirk held himself motionless, and then the flood burst. Fiercely, he caught her against him and invaded her mouth with his tongue. Claiming her, stamping her.

  His body hardened as she responded with silky sweetness. Beneath her clothes, he could feel her moving to a seductive beat. Inviting him to a private dance.

  Then what? Dirk asked himself harshly. He couldn’t promise her a future. Last night, he’d operated on pure instinct. Tonight, he had no such excuse. He had never felt as close to anyone as he did to Joni. All the more reason to avoid giving cause for bitterness. More than anything in the world, he needed to keep her as his friend.

  When the kiss ended, he stepped regretfully away. “I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep. Let’s leave it at that, Joni.”

  In her expressive face, he saw disappointment, but no anger. “What made you so gun-shy? Was it...that woman you mentioned?”

  “Partly,” Dirk said. “Her death made me face what kind of person I am and what kind of life I need. Sooner or later, I’d let you down, too. I don’t want that to happen.”

  She released a long breath. “Once you’re sure the police will hold Charlie, you’ll be going away, won’t you?”

  Once, he’d loved the prospect of flying off to new places. Now he thought with displeasure of the dry air inside a jet, stiff plastic seat cushions and tough, flash-frozen food. Foreign airline terminals weren’t romantic. They reeked of cigarette smoke, and the flight announcements echoed incomprehensibly.

  Excitement. Adventure. Emptiness.

  Yet beyond the tedium of air travel lay a wild unknown that stirred Dirk’s adrenaline and made him most truly himself. He needed the challenge. He
needed the freedom.

  “Yes,” he said. “I’ll only be a phone call away if you need me. I’m sorry I can’t promise more.”

  Her lips curved into a weary smile. “My father never told us he was leaving. At least with you, I’ll have a phone number. I guess that qualifies as an improvement.”

  When she said good-night and walked away, Dirk stood rooted to the spot. He wished she had slapped him. It would have hurt less.

  BY THE TIME JONI GOT dressed on Thursday morning, she discovered Dirk was ready to go out. He had a long day ahead, he said. Two potential buyers wanted to see the Peterson estate, and he’d decided to keep the printing company in the family for Jeff’s sake.

  That meant whipping it into shape for someone else to step in, then finding that someone. He wanted to interview top employees as well as contact an executive search service.

  At the door, he gave Joni one wistful glance and then he was gone. Not even a kiss.

  Rationally, she knew he had a point. Lovers built up layers of emotion that could explode; friendship was steadier and more enduring. She didn’t care. She wanted to enjoy every scrap of time together while they could. But there was no use beating her head against a brick wall.

  After collecting the newspaper, Joni went inside to eat and read. The front page, as expected, was full of news about Kim DeLong’s death and the arrest of Charlie Rogers. Apparently, he’d suffered a bloody nose but not a broken one, she learned.

  Silence lengthened through the house as she finished her cereal and coffee. Suddenly, she ached to see her son.

  She called Kathryn. “Did you hear about Charlie?” she asked right after saying hello.

  “Yes!” Her friend sounded breathless. “I can’t believe it. I mean, he was so nice to the kids. But I’m glad it’s over.”

  “You two have been wonderful through this whole thing,” Joni said. “Why don’t I pick up the boys at day care, fix dinner and take them trick-or-treating? They can sleep over, too. You and Fred deserve a night to yourselves.”

  “We could use some time together,” Kathryn agreed. “But aren’t you and Dirk going to celebrate your birthday?”