by Rebecca York
Dana shook her head. “No.”
“I don’t think the man has the whole thing figured out. But somebody else has. This is the computer age, remember? It’s a lot harder to hide secrets than it was twenty years ago.” Lying with a straight face, he continued, “I’ve gotten a half-million-dollar blackmail demand, and it’s not from the adoptive father. Somebody else has figured out who Lee is. I think your only choice is to set up a meeting between me and Lee so we can figure out what to do. I’ll be back this evening at nine. Tell Lee he’d better be here.”
“He may not want to come. I don’t tell him what to do. You must know by now that he makes his own decisions.”
“Not this time. I’ll call you later to work out the details.”
“What if Lee can’t get back here in time?”
“He’d better.”
Without giving her time to reply, he turned and strode out of the room, knowing Clark Hempstead would be very interested in how the discussion had gone.
SARA SAT in the motel-room chair watching Alex get ready for his evening meeting. Ever since he’d come back and explained what he had in mind, she’d felt like a giant fist was squeezing her chest. She didn’t want him to put himself in danger. Not again. But he’d given her that hard-jawed look of his and insisted that everything was under control, because this time Chief Hempstead was his backup.
The look wasn’t just from his determination to go through with his risky scheme. She’d learned to read Alex Shane over the past few days, and she knew that there was something else going on besides the meeting. Something he deliberately wasn’t telling her. And she was planning to find it out.
“I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” he told her.
Not trusting herself to speak, she only nodded. Quickly she crossed the room. Taking him in her arms, she closed her eyes and held him tightly for several heartbeats. There was so much she wanted to say to him, starting with a plea that he come clean with her. But she couldn’t do it now. Not when he needed to focus on a confrontation.
So she stepped away from him, then sat back down to give him a head start before she went after him.
It helped that she’d listened to his phone conversations with Chief Hempstead. She knew exactly what they had planned. And she didn’t have to follow Alex. She could catch up with him after he reached Dana Eustice’s house.
Five minutes later, she climbed into her car and headed into St. Stephens.
IT WAS FULLY DARK when Alex drove slowly past the neat white Victorian house that he’d visited early that morning, noting the light shining through the closed blinds in the living room. Was Lee in there? Or was it his killer?
Pulling around the corner, he saw a gray windowless van parked at the curb. He knew Clark Hempstead was inside. Without approaching the vehicle, he parked and spoke into the darkness of his SUV. “If you’re reading me, flash your lights.”
The lights on the van flashed briefly.
Alex nodded to himself. “Okay, I’m going in,” he said, climbing out and starting up the alley, thinking it was too bad Hempstead couldn’t send a verbal acknowledgment. But the transmission went only one way.
Listening to the crunch of his footsteps on the gravel surface, he concentrated on looking as if his heart wasn’t threatening to pound its way through the wall of his chest. He wasn’t worried about getting killed, he assured himself. He was simply on edge because he didn’t know whom he was going to meet.
He didn’t want it to be Lee. But in many ways, the alternative was worse.
He’d talked to Dana again, setting up the meeting. And as they’d arranged, the back door was open. Stepping inside, he made his way through the kitchen and down a short hall to the living room.
Ms. Eustice was waiting for him, sitting in a chintz-covered wingback chair, wearing a flowing green and gold caftan.
“Did you give Lee my message about the blackmail scheme?” Alex asked.
“Yes. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be here.”
Alex knew that was a damn lie. No way would Lee Tillman ignore a demand for half a million dollars.
“He’s not worried about the whole world discovering who he is?”
“It won’t matter because he’s not coming back.”
“You mean because you killed him?” Alex asked in a conversational voice. “And then you killed Emmett Bandy and Tripp Kenney?”
Dana gave him a narrow-eyed look, then pulled a small revolver from the folds of her caftan and trained it on Alex. “Right. I killed them, and you’re next,” she said in a low voice.
“You admit it?”
“Why not? You’re not going to tell anyone.”
Except Clark Hempstead, Alex thought, wondering how long it was going to be before the chief came bursting through the door.
AS SARA DROVE slowly down the block, she saw the gray van. Saw Alex’s car parked in back of it. Saw something was badly wrong.
The driver’s door of the van was open, and Chief Hempstead was lying on the ground, gasping for breath, his face contorted with pain.
She pulled to the curb and slammed on her brakes. In seconds, she was down on her knees beside the chief, a strange background buzzing in her ears. “What? What’s wrong.”
“My heart,” he gasped. “I called 911 and called for backup.”
As he spoke, she suddenly realized then that the buzzing sound was coming from a small box on the ground beside the chief. It was a receiver, no doubt attached to a transmitter Alex was wearing. Quickly, she turned up the sound so she could hear better.
Alex was saying, “You imitated Lee’s voice to make me think he was still alive.”
“Yes. I’m very good at voices,” a woman replied. It was Dana Eustice. “My theater training, you know.”
“Why did you kill him?”
The question riveted Sara’s attention.
“Why should I tell you?” Dana asked.
“Because I’ve worked hard for the answers.”
“A lot of good they’re going to do you.” She sighed. “All right. Lee was mine. He used to like inviting other people in for performances. Kinky performances, like you said. But he didn’t join in the action. He was into scenes where he directed the actors and watched the action.”
“Scenes like in his picture gallery?”
“Yes, like that. I could deal with his diversions, but then he started going after that sweet little thing—Sara Delaney. Buying her stuff, paying her college tuition, giving her jobs that paid ridiculous amounts of money. I wasn’t going to lose him to her. Not after all these years.”
“That’s crap! Sara was Lee’s niece. His dead sister’s girl.”
“No!”
“Oh, yes. That’s part of what I found out when I started digging into Lee’s background.”
Sara was so stunned that she couldn’t move. She’d thought Lee Tillman might be her father, but it turned out he was her uncle? Dana Eustice had killed him. Now she was going to kill Alex, she realized, pulling herself together.
“I’ve got to go to Alex,” she whispered.
“No…dangerous,” Chief Hempstead said from the ground. “Backup…here soon.”
“He’s in danger now!”
When Hempstead saw the determination in her eyes, he heaved a pained sigh. “Take my gun.”
With the gun in one hand and the receiver in the other, Sara started running up the alley.
She thought she heard Hempstead call out something, but she ignored him and kept running. The voices from the box stayed with her as the conversation inside the house continued.
“Where did Lee get the money for his sex-change operation?” Alex was saying. “The operation that transformed Lacy Anderson into Lee Tillman.”
Sara almost dropped the speaker box. Sex change operation?
“Lacy lived through years of abuse. She swore that men would never get the better of her again. She was going to beat them at their own game. So she found a rich old man to keep her, and she helped h
im along to his grave, shall we say. Then she took the guy’s money and went off to that clinic in Amsterdam that you found out about. Damn you! Why couldn’t you just leave it alone?”
“Because Lee was paying me to protect him. Too bad he never told you who adopted Callie’s baby after Lacy brought her down to St. Stephens. Then you would have known Sara Delaney was his niece.”
“No. I won’t believe that!”
“Right, of course you don’t want to believe. You killed Lee because you thought he was sweet on Sara. Maybe if I hadn’t been stopped on the road by that work crew, I would have caught you dragging his body out of the house. So why don’t you tell me what you did with him after you wrapped him in his rug and carted him downstairs.”
“You’ll never find him! He’s at the bottom of the bay in an old trunk. I did him a favor. The world will never know his secret. I even got rid of the painting in his gallery that might have given him away.”
“What painting was that?”
“The man and the woman in bed making love. The man and the woman with the same face. Like identical twins.”
“So why did you do Bandy and Kenney? Were you doing them a favor, too?”
“Kenney was working for me. Going after Sara.”
“But you kept it up after Lee was dead. Why?”
“I was punishing the bitch. She’s the one responsible for Lee’s death.”
Sara gasped. By what twisted logic, she wondered, had Dana come to that conclusion?
“And Bandy?” Alex was saying.
“Lee hated him. His death was no loss. I figured I could get you off the investigation by doing him.”
“So you imitated his voice and Lee’s voice on my answering machine?”
“You have it all figured out, don’t you? But it’s not going to do you any good.”
Sara had reached the house. God, now what? Dana was in there holding a gun on Alex. He must be waiting for Hempstead to come charging in—but Hempstead was lying out on the ground beside his van.
So it was up to her.
Quietly Sara opened the door she knew had been left unlocked for Alex and stepped into an empty kitchen. Knowing she had to get Dana’s attention away from Alex, she twisted the volume knob on the receiver.
“What’s that?” Dana’s voice came from the speaker—and from the far side of the house. In the next moment, the woman’s voice escalated to a shriek. “You bastard. You’re broadcasting it!”
A shot reverberated through the house.
“God, no! Alex!” Sara screamed, sick with fear as she charged forward, gun in hand.
Dana had already turned and was coming toward her. “You!” The woman stared at her in wide-eyed astonishment, and maybe the shock was what caused the bullet to go whizzing past Sara’s head.
Sara’s own fingers were already squeezing the trigger. She fired once, twice, three times, and the woman slumped to the floor.
Leaping past her, Sara sprang into the room.
Alex was sprawled facedown on the floor.
When she set down the gun and knelt at his side, he raised his head, and his eyes were as wide with shock as Dana’s had been. “Sara?”
“Alex. Oh Lord, Alex, are you all right?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” he answered. “I was expecting Hempstead.”
“The chief had a heart attack. I came instead.”
“He sent you? He must not have been thinking too straight.”
“Well, he didn’t exactly send me. I couldn’t leave you here after I heard she was going to kill you. Are you hurt?”
“No. She missed me, thanks to that stunt with the box.” He grimaced. “I thought it was Hempstead out there. I was wondering what the hell happened to him.”
“I know,” she breathed. “I know you had to be playing for time, asking her all those questions.”
“Yeah. And I know you could have gotten killed.”
“But I didn’t,” she answered. She was fine. And Alex was fine. Raising her chin, she asked, “If you’re not hurt, maybe you’d like to explain when you were going to tell me about Uncle Lee. Or is it Aunt Lacy?”
He used the arm of a chair to lever himself to a sitting position, then propped his back against the wall. “Give me a minute,” he muttered. Gaining his feet, he started across the room.
“Where do you think you’re going? Come back here!” she shouted after him, standing up and wedging her hands on her hips.
“After I make sure Dana Eustice isn’t coming back in here to shoot us.”
Sara suddenly felt all the starch go out of her.
Alex was back in less than a minute. “She’s dead.”
“I shot her,” Sara whispered, her body starting to tremble as the realization hit her.
“Clearly in self-defense. She fired at me and then at you.” He slung his arm around her and guided her to the sofa, where he eased her down and turned toward her, rocking her in his arms.
All she could do was try to stop shaking.
She was still clinging to Alex when a uniformed officer found them minutes later. Not the state police this time, but Hempstead’s chief deputy.
“Oh God, not again,” she moaned. “Are you going to arrest me for shooting Dana Eustice?”
“No. The chief insisted on telling us what happened before they took him to the hospital. He said Dana Eustice confessed to killing Lee Tillman, and she was going to kill you.” The man stopped, looked from Alex to her. “And, uh, Tillman is…he had a sex-change operation.”
Alex cut him off. “It’s on tape. We don’t have to talk about it now.”
“Yeah, right.” The man shook his head. “I guess you’ve been through enough in the past few days. You can just make a statement down at the station.”
“What about the chief?” Sara asked. “Is he going to be okay?”
“They say he is.”
“Good,” she breathed.
Down at the station, Hempstead’s staff listened to Dana Eustice’s taped confession to the murders of Emmett Bandy and Tripp Kenney as well as Lee.
Sara could see that the local police were speeding things up for her and Alex, the way the state police had done the day before. And only a couple of hours later, they were free to go.
Feeling almost too limp to walk, Sara let Alex lead her to his SUV. She hardly noticed the ride home until he pulled up in her driveway.
Suddenly her mouth went dry. Back at Dana’s house, she’d been ready to confront him. Now that she wasn’t charged up with adrenaline, her courage failed.
Still, she had to know where she stood with this man, because it was no longer possible to live with uncertainty. Her lips were parched, and her tongue flicked across them as she turned her face toward him. “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s going to happen? I mean with us.”
He didn’t answer, and she felt her stomach knot. “You’re going back to Baltimore?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I mean…”
“Alex, just say it! Whatever it is, say it.”
She saw him swallow. In the moments of silence that followed, she felt the earth turn dark and cold. Then he began to speak, and she could hardly focus on what he was saying. “Okay. Here it is. Sara, I’ve been a fool. I could have gotten you killed. I could have gotten myself killed. I was out of control. Because—” He stopped, and her heart stopped along with him.
“Because?” she managed to say.
“First it was Cindy. I couldn’t cope with her betrayal. Then it was you.”
Pain flashed through her. “I didn’t betray you.”
“God, no. That’s not what I meant. Not at all. I meant I was afraid to admit the feelings I had for you. Afraid to trust what was happening between us.”
“Oh, Alex,” she whispered, reaching for him, her arms clenching around him and holding tight.
He had risked telling her some of what was in his heart. She knew she had to take the same risk. Softly she began
. “That night in the car with you was a memory I cherished. I never got over you, but I kept telling myself I’d made more of it than I should have. Then, when you came back to St. Stephens, and the feelings for you started building all over again, I was scared, too. Scared that you’d hurt me—because I—I knew you didn’t trust me. I knew you thought I was mixed up with what happened to Lee. And, of course, it turned out I was.” When he started to speak, she rushed on. “It wasn’t just that. I knew that you’d been hurt, and that you didn’t want to get involved with anyone. But after they arrested you, I had a lot of time to think, and I realized that I didn’t want you to leave me again. I knew that you were worth fighting for. Alex, I love you.”
She heard him drag in a breath and let it out. “Sara, I didn’t want to love you. I fought tooth and nail against it. But everything that happened drew me closer to you.”
She lifted her face and sought his eyes. “I knew you were afraid to trust something good.”
“Yes. But then I knew I’d be a fool and a coward to walk away from you. Sara, I do love you. Very much.”
“I never thought I’d hear those words from you.”
He laughed. “I never thought I could say them. But it’s true. And it’s true that you gave me back my faith in humanity.”
“How?”
“By trusting me. By charging into danger to save me. By making me realize what I’d be losing if I lost you.”
“That’s how it is for me,” she breathed. “Exactly how.” She ended the sentence by bringing her lips to his for a long deep kiss filled with warmth and promises.
As he kissed her back, she knew he was making his own promises in return. Promises of deep feelings and caring and commitment—all the things she had longed for in a life mate and was afraid she would never find because she couldn’t get over the memories of Alex Shane. But now here he was in her arms again. A dream come true. More than a dream. Reality.