by Brynley Bush
“What?!” His deep baritone, filled with a terrifying fury, has me scrambling to clarify.
“I mean…in his note Griffin said that you did, and…”
He fixes me with a thunderous stare. “Griffin said that I killed Camille?” he asks incredulously. Emma places her hand on his leg and I can see him visibly try to rein in his anger. He lets his breath out in a big whoosh.
“Did Griffin specifically say I killed Camille? Think about it long and hard, Mila. What exactly did he say?” he asks evenly.
Although they all know that Griffin left me a letter, no one has asked to see it, undoubtedly knowing it held intimate words meant only for me. I’ve read it so many times I have it memorized.
“He said that even though he didn’t kill Camille, he was willing to take the blame to repay you for saving his life. He thought that by disappearing, everyone would think he had killed her and divert the suspicion from you.”
As I’m relaying the words in the letter, I realize that not once did Griffin actually say that he thought Beckett had killed Camille, just that he was going to take the blame for it so that Beckett didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble. “I just assumed….”
Beckett’s jaw is set in a hard line but he nods his acceptance of my apology.
“I didn’t kill Camille,” he says grimly. “And I wouldn’t let Griffin take the blame for a crime I did commit. I sure as hell am not going to let him take the blame for one that I didn’t. But I can see Griffin’s point. It sure looks like I’m being set up to take the fall for Camille’s murder.”
“Where were you when it happened?” Marcus asks quietly. The two men had sized each other up when we first walked in, but I can tell that Beckett respects Marcus, if only because he knows Griffin holds him in such high regard.
Beckett sighs heavily. “I’d received a call from the answering service for the oncologist practice I frequently work with at the hospital asking me to come in and consult on an emergency case. When I got there, none of the doctors said they’d called.” His lips press together in a thin line. “Unfortunately, the parking garage has a record of me arriving within the time period that Camille was allegedly murdered.”
“Luckily, in a criminal case the burden of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. There may be a lot of conjecture, but with a body too badly burned to provide any DNA evidence I think it will be hard to pin anything on you, despite your unfortunate threat at the courthouse.”
I forget that Marcus’ background is in criminal law, and I’m glad he’s on Beckett’s and Griffin’s side, even if it’s peripherally.
“I hope you’re right,” Beckett says grimly. “Either way, I’m guessing my career will be over.”
I look at him wide-eyed. I hadn’t considered the effect that even being considered a suspect in a murder would do to his career. Camille would no doubt be thrilled that her death accomplished the one thing that she had never been able to do when she was alive—destroy Beckett.
I spend another sleepless night thinking about Camille’s murder, Griffin’s disappearance, Beckett’s career, and the mysterious photograph Griffin left as an insurance policy. In the morning, I wait until Marcus has left for a run before leaving him a note, making up some flimsy excuse about going to visit a friend from college before our afternoon meeting with Beckett’s defense attorney. Marcus is my friend as well as my boss, but he’d have my head for what I’m about to do. But I have no choice. I need answers.
I take the rental car and plunge into Houston traffic, arriving at the dreary prison in Humble an hour later. The warden waves me through to the visiting area after seeing my credentials and listening to my request with barely concealed boredom.
Gavin is already waiting in the visitation room, his eyes registering surprise as I walk in.
“You’re Emma’s friend, the lawyer, right?” he drawls.
I nod.
“If you’re here to ask me about Camille’s murder, I can’t help you,” he says. “I don’t know anything.”
“I think you do,” I say, sliding the photograph of him and Dominic across the table. “Shelly told me that on the night you tried to kill Emma, she had just told you that Dominic and Camille were together.”
His eyes register shock and surprise before he carefully masks his features with an air of studied boredom.
“So what? Look, I’ll tell you the same thing I told that tough Navy SEAL brother of Beckett’s. That photo was taken a long time ago. Dominic and I aren’t together anymore.”
“Griffin was here?” I say, shocked.
“Yeah, last week.”
“What day?” I ask urgently.
Gavin considers. “Let’s see. Sunday nights are movie nights, and I work in the laundry room on Mondays, so it must have been Monday night.”
I try to think. Griffin wouldn’t have known Camille was dead at that point. Why would he have been here talking to Gavin?
“What did he want?” I ask.
He eyes me warily. “Why should I tell you?”
I sigh. “Because he’s in trouble and because I’m in love with him. Just like you’re in love with Dominic.”
He fixes me with a cool, level gaze. “Prove it,” he says.
Wordlessly, I hand him Griffin’s letter. He unfolds it and reads it, his face expressionless. When he’s finished, he carefully refolds it and slides it back to me.
“Sit down,” he says with a heavy sigh. “I’ll tell you what I know.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
When I arrive at the defense attorney’s office ten minutes late, everyone is already assembled in the conference room. Marcus shoots daggers at me as I come in and introduce myself to Beckett’s attorney before taking the empty seat next to him. Ariana Ragsdale, the defense attorney, is a tiny blonde powerhouse with a straightforward demeanor and a personality as big as the state she practices in. I like her immediately.
“You’d better have a hell of a good reason for disappearing all day,” Marcus growls to me.
“You have no idea,” I murmur as the meeting begins.
“Dr. Black was explaining why he thinks he’s being framed for the murder of Ms. Penworth,” Ariana says to me, catching me up to speed.
“He’s right,” I say definitively. “He is being framed. I know what happened to Camille Penworth.”
The room erupts in shock at my revelation.
Marcus’ quietly authoritative voice cuts through the cacophony of questions, and I’m once again amazed at how he commands respect from everyone, even a man as imposing as Beckett Black.
“Start at the beginning, Mila,” he says, his voice terse, and I know I’d better make it good.
“Okay,” I say, taking a deep breath. “Based on a hunch and a photograph that Griffin left me in case Beckett needed an insurance policy to prove his innocence in the murder case, I went to see Gavin Villareal this morning.”
I purposely ignore Marcus’ glare and explain who he is to Ariana.
She nods and says, “Dr. Black and I spoke extensively last Friday. I’m up to speed on Mr. Villareal and Ms. Penworth, as well as everything that has happened up to this point.”
“Good,” I say. “That will save us some time. As we all know, Gavin was found guilty of theft and assault when he stole Emma’s laptop and tried to kill her to get the flash drive with all of her notes regarding what Dr. Black had told her about his research for a cancer drug based on the fruit from the guanabana tree.”
Turning to Ariana, I say, “Emma and I recently went to see Gavin and found out that he hadn’t originally planned on stealing Emma’s research; it wasn’t part of some master plan of his or Camille’s. It was a spur of the moment decision he made on his own after he learned some shocking news at the club that night. He confirmed to me this morning that just before he took Emma home that night, he’d found out that Camille was involved in a relationship with Dominic Bonnaire. Apparently, Gavin was also having an affair with Dominic and was, in his own
words, madly and deeply in love with him.”
Beckett is staring at me, stunned, while Emma’s expression is one of smug satisfaction at knowing she was right about Dominic being gay. Marcus’ face, as usual, is impassive granite. I continue.
“According to Gavin, he lost it. He was tired of Camille always having everything that he wanted and that should have been his—his father’s time growing up, a life of privilege, and even his father’s name, since Gavin and his mother were the hidden family and Camille was the child that he recognized publicly. Now he’d just learned she had also stolen the man he loved.
“Although they had agreed to a business partnership to try to recover their father’s inheritance, Camille was the one on the board of directors at Coker Pharmaceuticals, and Camille had the social stature and connections, not Gavin. He’d had a sneaking suspicion she was stringing him along, and he figured it was only a matter of time before she double-crossed him and cut him out of the picture altogether, leaving him with nothing. When he found out she and Dominic were together, he was determined he wasn’t going to lose everything to her.
“And then there he was in Emma’s house, the research that Camille wanted within his grasp. It was his chance to level the playing field and get the upper hand. He told me he originally thought he could just take Emma’s laptop without her being any wiser. But when she told him all of the research was on her flash drive, not her laptop, something in him just snapped. He demanded she give it to him, and when she fought back, he got desperate.”
To Emma I add, “For what it’s worth, I think he is truly remorseful for that.”
She nods as I continue.
“Gavin went to jail and Camille walked away with Gavin’s boyfriend. Although Dominic has tried to see him numerous times since he’s been in jail, Gavin has refused to see him, too hurt by his betrayal.”
Switching gears, I turn back to Ariana. “When Griffin and I were at Dominic’s club trying to find out what Shelly had said to Gavin, Griffin had the opportunity to, um, check out Dominic’s office.”
I shoot her an apologetic look but she just shrugs.
“Griffin learned that Dominic, who is an oncologist at the same hospital where Beckett is on staff, was also on the board of directors at Coker Pharmaceuticals and appeared to be working with Camille on developing several cancer treatment drugs. While Griffin was trapped in Dominic’s office because of some, uh, activity outside, he started digging more and found a file hidden at the bottom of a drawer. About that time he was able to leave and he was worried about me, so he didn’t have time to look through it; he just took it. The next day he got a chance to look through the file and found this.”
I place the photograph of Dominic and Gavin on the conference table.
“I don’t think I quite understand,” Ariana says, studying the photograph.
“After I talked to Gavin, I called Dominic, who agreed to meet me at his office at the hospital.”
Marcus looks at me sternly. “Mila! That could have been dangerous,” he chastises me.
I glance at Beckett briefly before turning to Marcus. “From everything Beckett has said, Dominic is extremely private, but he is a conscientious and well-respected oncologist.”
Beckett nods his agreement.
“I had to trust my instincts, and they were right. Dominic isn’t the bad guy we thought he was, which Griffin had already figured out. According to Gavin, Griffin had gone to talk to Dominic the night before our pretrial conference. Apparently the photograph of Dominic with Gavin had set off Griffin’s radar that things weren’t as they seemed.
“Dominic told me everything he had told Griffin about how he came to be on the board of directors at Coker and romantically linked with Camille. When Dominic started working with Camille and Coker, he had no idea about her connection to Beckett and the Black’s research. Gavin had introduced them, and she had promised him that Coker could fund his research developing a protein that prevents cancer cells from becoming resistant to anti-cancer treatments, a project that has been near and dear to Dominic for some time. Camille convinced Coker to hire Dominic as a medical consultant and they provided financial backing for his clinical trials. Eventually, he was appointed to the board of directors.
“Camille insinuated herself into every aspect of Dominic’s life, increasing her influence in a way that she would eventually leverage to get what she wanted. She spread rumors about his sexuality and then used those rumors to manipulate him into escorting her to society events to quell further speculation, making it look like they were romantically involved. Then one night, feigning interest in a friend of his who was into the D/s lifestyle, she convinced him to do a scene with her at the club, telling him she wanted her first scene to be with a friend that she trusted. She played it up at the club afterwards, telling everyone that she was Dominic’s sub and girlfriend, which got back to Gavin the night of the attack.
“You all know what happened next. Gavin snapped and tried to kill Emma to get the research and he went to jail, thinking both Camille and Dominic had betrayed him. That was when Dominic first saw Camille for what she was, and how she was manipulating him, Gavin, and Beckett to try and corner the market on the newest and best cancer treatment drug that would make her rich.
“He tried to extricate himself from his partnership with Camille and Coker, but she blackmailed him into staying on to work on the graviola based drug by threatening to out him and ruin both his career and his research, which was just a few months from being complete. He decided to pretend to play along with Camille and stay until his research was complete, but he began planning his way out and plotting revenge for what she had done to him and Gavin.”
Marcus is looking at me with dawning comprehension.
“Dominic killed Camille! That son of a bitch!” he says. “I don’t know who’s more brilliant, Griffin for figuring it out first or you for catching the obscure clue Griffin left for you and following up on it.” He shakes his head. “I told you the two of you were made for each other.”
“I certainly won’t let Beckett take the rap for this, but is there any way to protect Dominic?” Emma asks. “I’m sorry, but he’s truly done a service to society.”
I hold my hands up. “Hold on,” I say. “I do think when Camille turned up dead the next day Griffin thought Dominic had killed her, but Griffin was wrong.”
Both Emma and Marcus look at me in surprise. Ariana is studying me closely, her pen poised in mid-air over the legal pad she has been taking notes on, and Beckett is regarding me coolly beneath hooded eyes, waiting for me to finish my story.
“If Dominic didn’t kill her, then who did?” Ariana asks.
“Nobody,” I say. “Dominic thinks Camille isn’t dead. He thinks she faked her own death.”
This time, the small conference room is silent except for Emma’s breathed, “Shut up!”
I can’t help but smile a little. I love Emma.
“Why would she fake her own death?” Emma asks.
“To get revenge on Beckett by framing him and ruining his career. Dominic says he thinks she was a borderline sociopath before, but the case being judged in our favor may have pushed her over the edge. He had spoken with her after the hearing and he said she was almost out of her mind with rage at Beckett. Since Beckett had threatened to kill her, a fact that she had conveniently documented on national news, she probably saw it as the perfect opportunity to screw him over once and for all. She had little to lose since the judge had ruled against her being able to continue to develop the graviola-based drug.”
“Dominic originally thought I had to come to see him because Griffin had killed Camille. When Griffin talked to him last week, he had vowed that he would stop Camille regardless of the cost, and when she was murdered the next day and Griffin disappeared immediately afterward, Dominic assumed Griffin was responsible for it. When I assured him that was impossible, but that all the evidence was pointing to Beckett, including the fact that Beckett was at the hospital
where the body was found and had been called in to consult on an emergency case but none of the doctors said they had called him, he put two and two together and began checking into a few things.
“He speculated that Camille could have procured a body from the lab at Coker, burned it beyond recognition, and then put it in her car and left it near the hospital. Since everyone at Dominic’s club thought she was in a relationship with him, no one would have thought it unusual that she was in his office at the club looking up the number for his office’s answering service. She could have easily called them, pretending to be his nurse, and told them that Dominic asked them to call Beckett in for a consultation. Once Beckett arrived, she probably left the car with the body in it and disappeared, making him the logical suspect.”
“Can you prove any of this?” Ariana asks skeptically.
I’m not offended by the question. She’s just being thorough, making sure she has an ironclad case. I’d do the same.
“Dominic has documentation. While I was there, he obtained the answering service’s phone records. Luckily, they record all of their calls, and it appears that Camille did place the call. He also called the lab at Coker, and it turns out that a cadaver was taken on Monday afternoon. When I left, he was working on getting the security tapes from Coker. He said he would e-mail everything to you as soon as possible.”
Ariana immediately presses the intercom and asks her secretary to alert her to any e-mails she receives from Dominic Bonnaire. I look over at Beckett. He is looking at me with approval in his liquid brown eyes, and I feel the warmth down to my toes.
“And thanks to Griffin going to see Gavin the night of Camille’s murder to tell him Dominic’s side of the story, it looks like Gavin and Dominic may get back together again,” I add. “Gavin has agreed to see Dominic next Saturday.”
Emma smiles broadly. “I love a romantic ending,” she says happily.
“There is one other thing,” I say to Ariana, remembering the last thing Gavin told me this morning. “The day Emma and I went to visit Gavin, Camille had also been there. Gavin said she promised him that her attorney could get his conviction overturned if he would sign over his rights to any interest in the cancer research to her mother, Vivian Penworth. She gave Gavin some story about her mother having Alzheimer’s and wanting to make sure she had enough money to provide for her care.