O'Halloran's Lady

by Fiona Brand

  She had bought the roomy old Victorian house a couple of years ago with the royalties from her first six books, and as wonderful as it was, it had a lot of doors. Despite her attempt to remain upbeat, the silence seemed to ring as she walked through the house. For the first time, instead of taking pleasure in the elegant ranks of French doors and tall sash windows, she couldn’t help noticing the large amount of glass through which she could, conceivably, be watched.

  Despite the luxurious kilim rugs she had strewn on the glossy, kauri wood floors, her footsteps echoed eerily. As she switched out lamps, shadows seemed to flood the large, rambling rooms, sending a preternatural chill down her spine and making her vividly aware that she was very much alone.

  Security wasn’t an issue, she reminded herself. The property was alarmed and gated and her fence was high and in good repair. A brief glance at the blinking light of the alarm system she’d had installed shortly after she had moved in assured her that the house was secure.

  Jenna carried a glass of water up the long, sweeping staircase lined with, admittedly, gloomy Whitmore family portraits. She avoided the dark stares of ranks of long-dead relatives. Lately the sepia-toned record of the past and her lack of current family portraits had become a depressing reminder of the emptiness of her personal life.

  It was one o’clock before she finally climbed into the elegant French provincial-style bed she had bought in response to an article she’d read on curing insomnia.

  Apparently, there were two keys to getting a good night’s sleep: forming a routine and setting the scene for a restful night.

  She was hopeless at the first, so she’d decided she could at least make her bedroom look as serene and inviting as impossible. With dark teak wood and white-on-white bed linen and furnishings, her bedroom could have been lifted straight out of a movie set. Unfortunately, that fact didn’t seem to make any difference to her sleep pattern, which was erratic.

  As she switched off the light she became aware of sirens somewhere in the distance and recalled the current story in the news. Apparently there was a serial arsonist on the loose, a creepy coincidence since six years ago a serial arsonist had been responsible for Natalie’s and her baby’s deaths.

  She stared at a bright sliver of moonlight beaming through a gap in the heavy cream drapes and found herself fixated on the possible identity of her poisonous fan.

  She had not been callous enough to use Natalie’s mysterious death in her story, but she had drawn on the fact that Natalie had had a secret online friend who had sent her Valentine’s-style gifts: single long-stemmed white roses and chocolates.

  Although the idea that the person who had sent the threatening email could be Natalie’s long-ago secret admirer was definitely pushing theory into the realms of fantasy.

  It had to be a coincidence that she had received the email on the anniversary of Natalie’s death.

  Chapter 3

  The next afternoon, Jenna drove to the cemetery. The cars occupying almost every space and the large numbers of well-dressed people walking through the grounds signalled that a funeral was in progress.

  Gathering the bunch of flowers she had placed on the backseat, she slipped dark glasses on the bridge of her nose and strolled through the grounds. The sun was warm, the air crisp, the sky a clear, dazzling blue. Large oaks cast cooling shade on row after row of well-tended plots.

  As she neared the vicinity of Natalie’s grave, she noted the lone figure of a man. For a split second she thought it could be O’Halloran. Her heart slammed against her chest then she dismissed the idea. The man was tall, but not tall enough, and on the lean side rather than muscular. He was also wearing a ball cap, something that she had never seen O’Halloran wear.

  A large group of mourners moving toward the parking lot obscured her view. The next time Jenna got a clear view of the gravesite, that part of the cemetery was deserted.

  She strolled the rest of the distance to the grave, which was already decorated with a wreath of pink roses and a tiny blue teddy bear, which Aunt Mary would have placed there first thing that morning. Blinking back the automatic rush of tears at her aunt and uncle’s pain, which, after all the years, showed no sign of abating, she unwrapped the bunch of bright yellow and pink chrysanthemums she’d bought from the local florist, and placed them in a stone vase set to one side of the headstone.

  Extracting a bottle of water from her purse, she topped up the vase. Straightening, she stepped back to admire her handiwork, and became aware that she was no longer alone. She spun a little too quickly, wincing as her knee, still stiff and sore, twinged. The plastic bottle bounced on the grass as a large hand briefly cupped her elbow.

  A small shock ran through her as she processed dark, cool eyes beneath black brows, clean-cut cheekbones and a tough jaw made even edgier by a five o’clock shadow.

  For a split second, even though she knew it was O’Halloran, she had trouble accepting that fact. Six years had passed since she had last seen him up close, and in that time he had changed. His hair was still the same, dark and close-cut, his skin olive and tanned, but his face was leaner than she remembered, his gaze more remote. A scar decorated the bridge of his nose, and his chest and shoulders were broader, as if he worked out regularly, which, given the rehab he’d had to do following his operation, was probably the case.

  The rough jaw, oddly in keeping with his long-sleeved T-shirt and black pants, added a wolfish quality that signalled that whatever else O’Halloran had been doing, he hadn’t taken the time to shave. A small quiver shot down her spine when she realized that O’Halloran was studying her just as intently as she was studying him, and suddenly, the notion that the large, fierce male looming over her had anything remotely in common with the model who had posed for the cover of her latest book was ludicrous. “I didn’t expect to find you here.”

  Instantly, Jenna regretted the bluntness of the comment, even though it was true. Since Natalie’s and Jared’s deaths, O’Halloran had almost completely distanced himself from the family, politely declining all invitations. According to her aunt and uncle he seemed to have no interest in visiting the grave. She had certainly never seen him here any other time she had visited, or seen any evidence that he left flowers.

  O’Halloran retrieved the empty water bottle and handed it to her. “I visit. I just try to keep out of Mary’s way. The stuffed toys are hard to take.”

  The blankness of O’Halloran’s gaze made her chest squeeze tight. For the first time, she saw it for what it was, grasped just how deeply O’Halloran had been affected by the loss of his family. It was etched in his face, in the muscle pulsing along the side of his jaw.

  He had not attended the funeral because he had been flat on his back in hospital at the time.

  While he was injured, she had worried about him to the point that she had tried ringing him and, once, had even gone looking for him. She hadn’t found him. Like a wounded animal, O’Halloran had gone to ground. Months later, he had surfaced but had continued to keep his distance.

  Crouching down, she retrieved the cellophane wrap for the flowers and stuffed it in her purse along with the bottle. “I’m sorry, I should know better than to make assumptions.”

  His gaze touched on hers as she straightened, before shifting to a group of mourners drifting past, sweeping the cemetery, with a mechanical precision, as if he was looking for someone. “You’ve had your own grief to deal with. The military is hard on families.”

  She frowned. “How did you know that I came from a military family?”

  His gaze was suddenly way too percipient, reminding her of just how seductively dangerous O’Halloran could be. The last thing she needed was a reminder that aside from possessing the kind
of dark, dangerous good looks that made women go weak at the knees, O’Halloran had another set of traits that had always threatened to melt her on the spot. He liked women. He was solicitous of and ultra-protective of them, and he didn’t seem to have a built-in fear of emotional reactions. Nine years ago, after the near miss with the drunk driver, O’Halloran’s offer of a shoulder had proved to be her breaking point.

  He shrugged. “Your family didn’t tell me, they closed ranks. I checked newspaper records and paid a visit to the military base.”

  “Why?” The question was blunt and just a little rude. She didn’t care. Years ago, O’Halloran’s failure to find out the most basic facts about her life, his easy defection, had hurt. In that moment, she realized how much she had deceived herself about him. In her heart of hearts, she had wanted him to come after her, to insist that what they had was worth the risk.

  “I was worried about you. You were too closed-off, too self-contained. I couldn’t figure out why you should be that way. I needed to make sure you were all right.”

  And suddenly, that night nine years ago was between them; the stifling heat, the edgy emotions, her shattering vulnerability. On the heels of the discovery that, like it or not, she had been carrying some kind of a torch for O’Halloran for nine years, the conversation was abruptly too much.

  Glancing at her watch, she picked up her bag and hitched the strap over one shoulder. “I need to go. I’m late for an appointment.” She aimed a blank smile somewhere in the direction of his shoulder. “It was good to see you.”

  And she wished that she hadn’t. After her moment with the cover yesterday, she wasn’t sure what she felt for O’Halloran. All she knew was that his memory was a lot more manageable than the man himself.

  O’Halloran fell into step beside her, making her tense. “I’ll walk you to your car.” His fingers slid around her wrist, sending a hot, tingling shock down the length of her arm. He turned her palm up, so that the grazing was exposed. “How did that happen?”

  Jerking free, she quickened her pace, wincing again as the movement put just a little too much pressure on her knee. Annoyed, Jenna resisted the temptation to rub the knee. The last thing she needed was to invoke O’Halloran’s protective instincts.

  Although, grimly, she noted that if she had thought O’Halloran hadn’t seen the elastic bandage beneath her leggings, she would be wrong. “Nothing much. As it happens, I had another run-in with a car.”

  O’Halloran threw her a sharp look, as if he was as surprised as she that she’d touched on a topic that was so closely connected to the hour they’d spent in his apartment making love. But that didn’t stop him from firing a string of questions at her as they walked, his voice relaxed and low-key, almost casual, although by the time they reached her car he had mined every salient detail.

  “Ticked anyone off lately?”

  She found her key and depressed the lock. “Yeah, a fan.”

  O’Halloran opened the driver’s side door, his arm brushing hers as he did so, sending another one of those small electrifying shocks through her. “Are you telling me,” he said quietly, “that you think the driver aimed for you?”

  Jenna tensed as a replay of the shiny black car heading straight for her at high speed flashed through her mind. “Not exactly, there was no room. If he had swerved he would have hit another car and damaged his own. That’s what saved me. I dived between two cars. What bothers me is that he had a long time to see me and he never slowed down.”

  “It could have been some kid—”

  “Playing chicken. I thought of that.” Her fingers tightened on the strap of her handbag. “The only problem was it didn’t feel like a game.”

  She took a deep breath. Here was the point where O’Halloran called the men in white coats with the interesting drugs and the padded cell. “Whoever it was, I got the impression he wanted to hit me. Even if he had braked seconds before, he still would have hit me, and he didn’t brake.”

  Instead of dismissing her statement as emotional overreaction, O’Halloran crossed his arms over his chest and seemed content to listen. “And the disgruntled fan? Where does she come in?”

  “He,” she corrected. “When I got home I found a threatening email.”

  His expression altered very slightly. Jenna couldn’t even say what it was, exactly, that had changed, just that the temperature seemed to drop by several degrees.

  Briefly, she outlined the content of the email, omitting her own suspicion that the poisonous fan, aside from being someone from her past, could be somehow linked with Natalie. So far, that part was just a theory, and she didn’t want to cause any unnecessary upset. She couldn’t forget that O’Halloran had never believed the house fire that had killed Natalie and Jared had been a random arson. According to her aunt, he’d believed that his family had been targeted because he was a cop, and despite leaving the police force, it was an investigation he had never given up.

  O’Halloran’s gaze settled on her mouth for a pulse-pounding moment. “I’d like to see a copy of the email.”

  Digging into his pocket, he found his wallet and handed her a card. “You can scan it or fax, or alternatively, drop it by my office.”

  Battling the sudden warmth in her cheeks and a humming, deepening awareness that was definitely scrambling her brain, she took the card and slipped it into her handbag. The last thing she had expected was that O’Halloran would want any contact with her at all, and the fact that he seemed to want to help her increased the unsettling awareness. “I’ve deleted the email, but I did keep a print copy. I’ll send it to you.”

  “Did you report the accident?”

  “Not to the police. I talked to one of the mall security guys. He was going to check out the parking lot tapes and get back to me.”

  “What was his name?”

  “Mathews.”

  Another string of questions about the security set-up at the mall and she found herself haemorrhaging more information, including her phone number and email address and eventually handing over Mathews’s business card.

  She drew a deep breath, feeling suddenly too aware and a whole lot confused. Giving her details to O’Halloran shouldn’t have felt like part and parcel of a dating ritual, but suddenly it did. “You don’t have to check up on it.”

  He tucked the card in the pocket of his jeans. “I drive past there on my way to work. It won’t hurt to see if Mathews managed to record the licence plate.”

  O’Halloran held her door as she climbed into her car. The clean, masculine scent of his skin and the faint whiff of some resinous cologne made her stomach clench. Not good!

  Stepping back, he lifted a hand as she pulled out of her parking space.

  Heart still beating way too rapidly, Jenna couldn’t help checking out her rearview mirror. O’Halloran was still studying the mourners gathered in knots and strolling toward cars and she suddenly knew what he was doing at the cemetery.

  The dark casual clothes that made him fade into the shadows, the reason there were no flowers.

  He wasn’t there to mourn; he was surveilling Natalie’s

  grave.

  * * *

  Frowning, Marc watched as Jenna’s car merged with traffic.

  He had come, as he did every year, to watch the gravesite from a distance and see who visited apart from Natalie’s family. Although this year, with a big funeral in progress, the exercise had been a little pointless.

  Grimly, he noted that, as with other years, the only bright spot of his vigil had been when Jenna came to place flowers. Now that she had gone, the vigil felt empty.

  In point of fact, after blowing his cover so thoroughly, the whole exercise of watching the gravesite was now a waste of time. If the perp had been anywhere near, he would be miles away by now.

  Sliding dark glasses onto the bridge of his nose, he t
urned back to study the cemetery, which was now emptying rapidly. After a few minutes Marc gave up searching for the lean guy wearing the ball cap who had stopped by Natalie’s grave.

  The man hadn’t left anything at the gravesite, or taken anything away; Marc had established that much while he had talked to Jenna. It was possible the man had been seeking out another gravesite and had simply stopped to read the name on Natalie’s headstone, but something about him had caught Marc’s attention.

  Marc was certain he had seen the man before somewhere. He didn’t know where or when, but it would come to him.

  The moment when Jenna had told him that she had received a threatening email replayed itself, shoving every instinct on high alert.

  He didn’t like coincidences, and he didn’t believe in this one.

  There was a connection. He didn’t know how, or why, he just knew that in some serpentine way, and after six years, that Jenna held the key to the breakthrough he needed.

  Frustration and disbelief held him immobile for long seconds. For years he had meticulously researched every piece of information and evidence connected to both the house fire and the police investigation he had been involved with at the time. He had assumed the motivation for the crime against his family was a revenge attack based on his police work. Now he had to revise that approach.

  The thought that the killer had had another motivation entirely was a quantum shift. In his research and briefs to private detectives, he had kept the focus on the criminal family, who were, ironically, because of his personal investigation, now mostly behind bars for a series of other crimes.

  He had made the basic error of discounting Natalie’s life, and he hadn’t factored Jenna in at all. Two mistakes he would now address. He should have examined every aspect of Natalie’s life. Jenna, as her cousin and best friend, should have been at the top of his list.

  One thing was certain, if Jenna was the key to unlocking the identity of the killer then from now on every part of her life was of interest to him.