by Lynn, Janice
Jessie nodded. “I know its way outside your jurisdiction, but I need help proving he’s innocent.”
“That’s why you’re here, to get Jill to help you?” He sounded disapproving. He’d been telling Jessie to grow up for years, to quit relying on Jill to solve her problems.
This wasn’t about growing up. It was about keeping an innocent man from paying for a crime he didn’t commit.
“This isn’t like the past, Dan. It’s about an innocent man’s future. You have to help me.” She told Dan what she knew. Well, with the exception of J.P. slipping Colin out of the building and that she knew where Colin was. But she did tell him all the crazy stuff that had been happening at Wolf, including the fact Maxwell planned to can their show.
“Jessie, it sounds as if the guy has been trying to knock you off, too.”
“That’s not the way it’s happened. Someone’s trying to frame him.”
“Doing a damn good job of it, too, from what I’ve heard.”
“What have you heard?”
“The same things you have, I imagine. The news keeps playing interviews with Wolf employees. Several have commented on the ‘accidents’ that have been happening on the set. They also aired clips from old interviews. None paint Crandall in a good light. They’re definitely casting stones in his direction.”
“Don’t you find that odd? That his own station would turn on him so quickly? Why would the Wolf employees be allowed to talk to other stations? You’d think Wolf would want to keep this quiet, or at least have an insider’s exclusive, yet they aren’t taking either route. Why?”
“Good question,” Dan admitted. “But not good enough to convince me Crandall isn’t guilty.”
“He was with me all night. I’d barely gotten home yesterday evening when he showed up on my doorstep, and he didn’t leave until about an hour before we were due on set today.”
“Which provided him with a helluva loyal alibi. It doesn’t take long to get rid of someone, Jess. This Crandall guy, hell, he’s already had one murder charge brought against him.”
“That he was found not guilty of.”
Dan took a deep breath. “Guilt is a funny thing, Jess. Just because the law can’t find enough evidence to prosecute, doesn’t mean a person isn’t guilty.”
“He was passed out drunk.”
“Which means he’d drunk enough to not be able to make rational choices.”
“True, but he didn’t kill her. No one did. She overdosed.”
Dan’s gaze wavered just enough that Jessie zeroed in. “What do you know that I don’t?”
“There are some things I can’t tell you.”
She curled her fists at her sides. “If it has to do with Colin, you better tell me.”
Dan considered her a few minutes, then leaned close. “This is off the record and just because I want you to understand what this guy is capable of so you will stay the hell away. A buddy of mine worked the Karen Bennett case. He says the bruises on that girl’s body suggested someone forcibly held her and gave her that heroin.”
Jessie’s mouth went dry. “I never saw anything about that in the court report.”
Dan shrugged. “The coroner dismissed the bruises as self-inflicted.”
“That’s not what your friend thought?”
Dan nodded. “He thought Crandall was guilty and got away with murder.”
Jessie gasped. “Colin didn’t kill her.”
“He was drunk. He doesn’t know what he did or didn’t do. Even he admitted that.”
It was true. Colin had told the jury he didn’t have any recall of Karen using drugs, much less on the night in question.
“What if her death was a set-up, too? What if the same person who’s framing him for Tamara’s disappearance was involved in that actress’ death?”
“Your imagination is working overtime.”
For Jessie it all clicked, made perfect sense. “Think about it, Dan. It’s the most logical conclusion.”
“I am thinking about it. I don’t see what’s logical at all. It stretches plausibility too much, Jess.” He sighed, leaned back in the chair. “I know you don’t want to believe he’s guilty, but face facts, the guy is connected to two women’s deaths.”
“Deaths?” Jessie took a deep breath. “Have they found Tamara?”
“Not yet, but they will.”
“Colin is innocent. I know it with all my heart.”
Dan let out a long breath. “You really care about this guy, don’t you?”
“Like I’ve never cared before.”
Dan shook his head. “What is it you came here wanting Jill to help you with?”
“I need to know about the hair in Colin’s backseat. Tamara hasn’t ever been in Colin’s car. Is it possible the hair came off me? Or off Colin from when he visited our apartment?”
He shrugged. “It’s possible. The fact the police can’t find him makes him look guilty as hell, though.”
Jessie didn’t look away, but she couldn’t stop from swallowing.
Dan’s eyes widened. “Please tell me you didn’t.”
“I’m not admitting to anything.”
“You don’t have to since it’s written all over your face. Jill is going to kill you.” He winced. “Hell, she’s going to kill me if I let anything happen to you.”
Jessie grinned and winked at the man who had treated her like a kid sister since the day they’d met almost eight years ago. “Guess you’d better help me prove Colin’s innocent then so she won’t kill either of us.”
* * *
J.P. drove to the hand-written address Beverly had given him moments before telling him to get Colin out of the building and fast. He’d known there was something dubious about the woman.
After all, she’d turned him down for a date.
Come to find out, she was there spying on the lot of them. Question was for whom. Who had wanted to keep Colin out of jail? And why?
Just as important, who wanted him behind bars?
How had they known J.P. would risk getting into trouble to keep Colin away from the police today? Hell, he didn’t no more than think the boy had anything to do with Tamara’s disappearance than he believed Colin responsible for Karen Bennett’s death. But someone took a mighty big leap of faith to assume J.P. believed in Colin that much.
Colin was getting a bum rap. After Maxwell’s odd behavior, J.P. couldn’t help but think there was a connection. Not that Maxwell would ever sully his hands with kidnapping or murder, but something weird was haunting the halls at Wolf.
Something that centered around Colin Crandall.
Jessie was involved. He hadn’t meant to involve her. Only there hadn’t been time to get Colin alone and out of the building. Now, Jessie was as guilty as J.P. himself of helping Colin to avoid the police. Hell, Rob would strangle him if he ever caught wind of this.
Had Jessie headed straight for the boys home? Knowing her, it was likely. The girl had it in her head Colin was the one for her. Maybe he was. Certainly, she’d never looked at Steve Jernigan that way. J.P. hadn’t met any of her other beaus, but Jill had been impressed by her sister’s relationship with the former military man. Personally, J.P. believed Jessie’s flippant remark about Steve being about nothing more than lust. J.P. had had relationships like that in the past. Lots of relationships like that.
All his relationships were like that.
Now, look at him. A man in his sixties, working on a show that would be canceled despite the fact he’d made it a success, and alone. That one was the real kicker. He was alone.
He still had his best friend, but Rob was a married man and things would never be quite the same. He didn’t want them to. J.P. loved Jill and thought her the perfect mate for Rob. Rob was happy. Really happy. An old man couldn’t ask for more in regards to a boy he loved as much as any father could love a son. Rob should have been his son. A case of the mumps guaranteed he’d never fathered any kids.
After six wives and more women than he co
uld recall, you’d think he wouldn’t be facing his golden years all by himself. Yet, here he stood at the threshold with no one to go home to. No one to care that his hip ached and his shoulders got so stiff he sometimes worried he wouldn’t be able to move them.
No doubt he could go find some wannabe starlet to share his bed. They were a dime a dozen and charming women had always came easy to him. But the idea left him cold. He wanted a real woman, not someone to use or who was looking to use him for what he could do for her career.
What he wanted was…Beverly.
Now where had that thought come from? He did not want that nicely rounded woman. He liked his women long and lean. He liked his women young. Very young. Beverly was in her late forties. Not that that was old, but she wasn’t a teeny-bopper either.
But maybe he’d changed. Something. Because the thought of coming home to a woman like Beverly appealed a great deal. Visions of them sitting by a fireplace, reading, talking about the day’s events appealed. Appealed a lot.
Maybe he’d ask her out again. And maybe this time he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
* * *
Beverly often wondered who would take care of her mother if she ended up going to jail. Tonight the thought threatened to paralyze her. Because she was sure warning J.P. to get Colin out of the building constituted some type of crime that could have her locked away for years.
But Marian had been paying for Beverly’s mother’s medical expenses for almost two years now. Keeping her mother out of a nursing home was worth whatever price she had to pay. Marian wanted Colin warned, so Beverly warned him. Via J.P.
She sighed, paced across her living room. Why had she involved him? Marian had told her to go to J.P. if she needed help, that J.P. was a good and honest man. He’d had six wives. How good and honest could he be?
But she’d needed to get Colin out of the building fast and she hadn’t thought he’d listen to her warning that the police planned to detain him. Colin didn’t trust anyone, but instinctively Beverly knew J.P. could get him out of the building. Of course, having J.P.’s car brought to an almost deserted part of the garage helped. Having Marian’s knowledge of Wolf helped. And the security guards on Marian’s payroll.
Regardless, they’d gotten Colin out of the building. If Colin was innocent, and Beverly believed he was, then it was up to him to prove so.
A knock rapped on her front door.
Her breath caught. J.P.? Or the police?
Both options made her nervous. Made her palms sweat and her heart race.
“I’ve got it, Sandy,” she called to the nurse who sat reading in her mother’s bedroom.
When she opened the door, J.P. asked, “What is going on, woman?”
“Come inside.” She stepped back for him to enter, hating the stiffness he moved with. Why didn’t he see a doctor? Or at least take an ibuprofen to ease his aches? Stubborn man.
She motioned for him to sit on her sofa. Nervously, she cast a glance toward the hallway. Unless her mother woke and needed something, Sandy would be lost in her romance novel for hours, but it felt strange having a man in the house. A man she didn’t want to have to explain.
J.P. didn’t sit immediately. He took his time and looked around the tiny living room. Beverly tried to imagine her worn, but well-loved furniture through his eyes. He probably thought she lived one step away from poverty. Thanks to the high cost of round-the-clock medical care, he might be right.
Still, all her needs were met and her mother remained at home. That was what mattered. Not material possessions. If J.P. didn’t know that, then it didn’t matter what he thought of her home. Or her.
She crossed her arms and regarded him, daring him to criticize even the slightest thing.
“Get that look off your face, woman. I did what you asked, and now I’m here.” J.P. lowered slowly onto the sofa and her antagonism eased at his obvious discomfort.
“Now,” he adjusted himself amongst the star-patterned cushions her mother had made over a decade ago, “tell me what’s going on.”
“I can’t.”
A bushy white brow rose. “What do you mean you can’t? You ask me to help a man avoid getting arrested and then you don’t plan to tell me why?”
He had a point. “It’s complicated.”
“I figured that much out for myself.”
Beverly sank onto the other end of the sofa. “Like I told you earlier, my boss didn’t want Colin arrested.”
“Who’s your boss?”
It was a natural question, but Marian hadn’t given permission to reveal her role in the events that would soon unfold at Wolf.
“That’s complicated, too.”
J.P. frowned. “Just what are you planning to tell me?”
“What makes you think I plan to tell you anything?”
“You slipped me your address and told me to come here after I got Colin some place safe. I assumed you planned to tell me what the hell is going on.”
“No.” Why had she given J.P. her address and told him to come here? “I need to know where Colin is at.”
“What?”
“Where did you take him?”
“Why would I tell you that when you won’t tell me a damn thing?”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the one who told you to get Colin out of the building. You know I can be trusted.”
“Do I?”
He gazed intently at her, and she wanted to look away, to stare at her hands in hope the tremble didn’t show.
She held fast to that blue stare. “What do you think?”
“I think you should have dinner with me so we can discuss why I should trust you.”
* * *
Despite his scrambling his log-in, Colin knew it was possible the police might track his location when he logged into his email account. Still, he had to see if his informant had contacted him.
The bogus yahoo account appeared in the subject line just as he suspected it would.
The email suggested he contact a particular man who worked for the company awarded several large military contracts. It also suggested he check deposits made to Senator Bill Thomas’ account around the same time. An account not kept in the U.S.
A Swiss bank account.
How Hollywood-ish, Colin couldn’t help but think. For that matter, he felt like he was in a bad movie. One where he was being hunted and lacked the superhero abilities needed to save his hind-end.
Still, the email contained account numbers and dates. Whoever his informant was, they’d either done their homework or was sending him on a wild goose chase. At this point, he had to believe there was something to the emails and that by finding whatever his informant knew he’d also be proving his innocence.
The cell phone in his pocket rang. Not a normal ring. Of course, Jessie wouldn’t have a normal phone ring. Instead, Steven Tyler’s voice screeched out the words to Dude look like a lady. Apparently, she hadn’t been kidding when she’d said Aerosmith was her favorite band.
He looked at the number display. A number he didn’t recognize came up. He dropped the phone back into his pocket. It immediately burst into song again. If it wasn’t Jessie, he could always pretend it was a wrong number. If it was, she’d keep calling. Or worse. She’d come to the boys home.
“Hello,” he said into the phone, trying to disguise his voice. Just in case.
“Hey, if you think that ridiculous voice will fool anyone you’re sadly mistaken.” Jessie giggled.
Despite the craziness of the day, Colin smiled. Smiled because her voice calmed the raw edge to his insides and was full of emotion and energy. Pure Jessie.
“Who is this?” he teased.
“You know who it is. Now, come unlock this back door so I can get in.”
Oh hell. She wasn’t. “You aren’t here.”
“Yes, I am. Now let me in.”
“Is this the part where I’m supposed to say ‘Not by the hair on my chinny c
hin chin.’?”
“No, this is the part where you say, I’ll be right there, then you run your sexy bottom to this back door, let me in, and kiss me like you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you.”
Colin swallowed. “I’ll be right there.”
He printed the email, stuck the paper in his pocket, closed down his online search and headed for the door where Jessie and J.P. dropped him off so many hours before.
Let her in and kiss her like he’d missed her, he could handle that.
Only when he got to the back door, Jessie wasn’t alone. A tall, lanky blond man was with her. One wearing a police uniform. Oh hell. What had she done?
“Where’s my kiss?” She puckered her lips, closed her eyes, and waited with apparent expectation.
Colin flicked his gaze from her to the man. The guy didn’t look comfortable being here. Didn’t look friendly. And he was wearing a police uniform.
Jessie’s eyes opened. “Colin?”
“Who’s he?”
“Oh, this is Dan. He’s my sister’s partner.”
“Your sister’s partner?”
Jessie nodded. “Let’s go in so we can talk.” She pouted. “Since you don’t seem to be forthcoming with my kiss.”
Reeling that Jessie would bring a cop, Colin bent and dropped a kiss onto her full lips.