Framed
Page 23
Jess stretched languorously in Kyle’s bed. This was the second time she’d awakened here. Unlike the first time, she and Kyle hadn’t spent the night in innocent sleep. She was deliciously sore in places she hadn’t imagined.
She realized Kyle wasn’t in bed with her. He was probably one of those annoying early risers, she decided. She’d have to break him of that habit, at least on his days off.
A sound thump on her bottom brought her more fully awake. Kyle was standing by the bed looking huggably rumpled, holding two steaming cups of coffee and a folded Kansas City Star. All right, maybe it wasn’t so bad having him wake up before her.
“Did you just thump me with a newspaper?” she asked suspiciously.
“Mmm-hmm. I thought you wouldn’t mind, since the front-page story is about you.”
“Really?” She sat up and rubbed her eyes, then sipped greedily from the cup of coffee Kyle handed her.
“Scoot over. We’ll read it together. I think it might answer some of the questions you’ve had. An ‘inside source’ gave the paper some details we didn’t know about.”
“You’ve already read the story,” she concluded as she made room for him under the covers with her.
“While the coffee was brewing. Couldn’t resist. You’ll like it.”
Even with Kyle’s recommendation, she was still leery of reading about herself on the front page. But she soon found he was right. The press, which had vilified her in every story over the past couple of weeks, now thought she walked on water.
“Murder ‘Victim’ Found Alive and Kicking,” the banner headline read. And beneath, “All Charges Dropped Against Jess Robinson.” She liked it so far.
The story went on to detail Terry’s demented plan to punish Jess for rejecting him. Apparently not the least bit ashamed, he’d bragged of his cleverness to the police.
“Who gave all this information to the press?” Jess wondered aloud. “It couldn’t have been Clewis. This whole thing makes him look like a fourteen-karat turkey.”
“No, not Clewis,” Kyle agreed. “Maybe Easley. He’s apologized to me ten or twelve times already, and I think he wants everything out in the open so it can be digested and forgotten as quickly as possible.”
Jess continued to read, fascinated. Terry had started his plot against Jess by disposing of the shower curtain and storing the rug in Kevin’s basement. Then he’d faked the shaving cut and planted the blood—a drop on his shirt and a casual suggestion that Mrs. Tanglemeyer might have some good stain remover. More blood had been splattered on the rug. And lots of it—two pints of human blood appropriated from the hospital where Kevin worked—dumped all over the bathtub, sink and washing machine. Terry had carefully coached Kevin, who’d thought the “practical joke” nothing more than a harmless prank at first, on what to tell the police.
He’d rented a U-Haul truck, then failed to pick it up.
He’d stolen Jess’s knife a few days before his disappearance, but hadn’t actually planted it under the porch steps until he’d needed more evidence against Jess. The crank phone calls had been designed to disrupt Jess’s sleep and make her doubt herself.
He’d even thought to dispose of the shirt with the bloodstain so no evidence would corroborate her story. Finally, he’d hidden his personal possessions—keys, wallet—under Jess’s mattress. Since he’d intended to assume a new identity, he didn’t need those things.
Terry was charged with fraud—it was the best the D.A.’s office could come up with. But the resultant investigation turned up some interesting facts about Terry Rodin, a.k.a. Howard Ghetty, a.k.a. a half dozen other identities. He was wanted for forgery in three different states.
“I knew he was not quite right,” Jess said, shaking her head. “But I had no idea...”
“Don’t feel too bad, Jess,” Kyle said, sliding his arm around her shoulders. “He’s taken in a lot of people. The good news is he’ll be mired in the legal system for some time to come.”
The story went on to describe Kyle and Jess’s unsanctioned stakeout and Jess’s daring move to take Terry on her own. The wording managed to make Jess sound courageous instead of desperate and foolhardy.
When she finished reading, Jess laid the paper down. “Well, that was pretty thorough,” she said. “But the evervigilant members of the press did manage to overlook one very juicy detail.”
“They did, didn’t they?” Kyle said with a satisfied smile. “Maybe we should enlighten them.”
“No way,” she said flatly. Much as she enjoyed seeing the reporters take back every nasty word they’d printed about her, she didn’t want any more personal details of her life splashed across the pages for anyone to read.
“Guess they’ll have to find out about our marriage when we send ’em the wedding announcement,” Kyle said, nuzzling her neck.
“Mmm, that would be refreshing—keeping our private affairs private. But I don’t understand how they missed the fact that we applied for the wedding license not more than an hour after the charges against me were formally dropped.”
“I don’t know, either...but I don’t really care.” He took her coffee from her hand and set it on the nightstand, then pushed the newspaper out of the way and concentrated on thoroughly kissing her ear.
Neither coffee nor newsprint held much interest for Jess at that point.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-7215-6
FRAMED
Copyright © 1997 by Karen Leabo
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review. the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or here after invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
“Oh, we slept together, all right,”
Letter to Reader
Books by Karen Leabo
About the Author
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Copyright
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
“Oh, we slept together, all right,”
Letter to Reader
Books by Karen Leabo
About the Author
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Copyright
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