Lewis had killed his brother.
Jack had pushed Selina right into his arms.
Let her have ignored his threat completely. Let her have gone.
He parked in the hotel car park. Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe she hadn’t had her meeting with Lewis yet. Maybe he could still stop this …
Entering the lobby, he saw them straight away, standing in the doorway to the dining room, shaking hands. Close. Too close. Lewis’s hand closed around hers, he was drinking her up with his greedy eyes. And she was smiling at him, wide and generous.
Since when had they become so chummy?
Since Jack had insisted she meet up with him again.
And now, she was shaking hands with a murderer.
Chapter 11
Jack’s stride didn’t miss a beat as he bee-lined towards Selina, his only thought to get her away from Lewis.
Before he’d reached them, Lewis turned. Flanked by two heavy-set lackeys, he was heading in Jack’s direction. Jack eyeballed him as they neared. It wasn’t smart, but he couldn’t keep what he knew off his face.
Lewis took it all in.
Did he recognise Jack from the first time he’d seen Selina in the corridor? Did he know who Jack was and why he was here? There was recognition in Lewis’s eyes, along with a healthy measure of disdain.
They passed one another and Jack’s gaze switched to Selina, still standing where she’d been shaking Lewis’s hand.
The smile, the smile that Lewis had put on her face, dropped as she took in the barely contained thunder he knew must be on his face, in his too-fast, too-rough movements. She probably thought he was angry with her about last night. He was—Selina definitely hadn’t been playing nice—but it paled into insignificance compared with everything he’d learned since.
‘Good meeting with Lewis?’ he bit out when he’d reached her. ‘You two seemed pretty chummy.’
She frowned, crossed her arms neatly. ‘He is my great-uncle.’
‘So what? You’re bosom buddies now?’ He could hear that the tone of his voice left a lot to be desired.
Her frown deepened. ‘You’re the one who wanted me to get up close and personal.’
That was before. ‘Not that close.’
She expelled a breath. ‘What’s your problem, Jack?’
Frustrated, he raked a hand through his hair. He wanted to tell her exactly what his problem was, wanted to tell her the truth about Lewis, but he had to cool down and think the situation through. For the moment, Selina was safe. If he wanted to keep her that way, he needed to proceed strategically. He couldn’t afford to make another mistake, like ordering her to turn up today. The stakes were too damn high.
‘What did you learn?’ he asked, and was relieved to hear that it sounded like he’d taken it down a notch or two.
She assessed him for a moment, then smiled and held a key up in front of her. ‘Guess what I have?’ She looked incredibly pleased with herself.
‘A key to what?’
‘Everything. It’s a master for the Empire.’
She jiggled it slightly, and his gaze shifted to the shining piece of silver metal. ‘Lewis gave it to you?’ he guessed.
‘Of course. I’m a Holloway, aren’t I?’
The day just kept getting better and better.
He looked back at Selina, who was still smiling.
‘I’m going to go check out the penthouse. Where my family used to live. Want to come?’
Without waiting for his reply, she turned and walked towards the lifts. Jack followed. He couldn’t have let Selina out of his sight right now even if he’d wanted to. Lewis seemed to have a bad habit of shooting down his nearest and dearest, and until Jack had figured out what to do about the situation, Selina was stuck with him. The more interesting question was, why was she inviting him along? ‘I thought we’d established that you weren’t much of a sharer,’ he said, catching up to walk next to her.
‘Consider it a peace offering. After last night, I figure I owe you one. Maybe this will even up the score.’
He shot her a disbelieving glance.
She noticed. ‘Or at least, part of the score.’
They reached the lifts. Selina pressed the up button, then shifted around as they waited for the lift. When she looked at him, she was sombre. ‘I am sorry, Jack. About last night. Really.’
‘Only because you didn’t find the necklace.’
She turned abruptly to face him properly. ‘No.’ Her voice was high and loud with emotion, there was heat in her eyes. ‘I hated doing that to you. I hated seeing you like that. I wish more than anything I hadn’t had to do it.’
As an apology, it was both satisfying and unsatisfying. That it was genuine and heartfelt he didn’t doubt. She really had hated drugging him. On the other hand, what was with the ‘having to do it’ bullshit? An important part of an apology was admitting you were in the wrong, that you’d made a bad choice, that you wouldn’t do the same thing again. It didn’t sound to him like that was what Selina was saying. ‘You didn’t have to. You chose to.’
She shook her head slightly with annoyance, then lifted the key again and jiggled it. ‘It turns out you’re right. I didn’t have to.’
The lift doors opened and they stepped in. Selina pressed the button to take them to the top. ‘You haven’t asked me what I learned from Lewis,’ she said, resting back against the walls.
‘Anything interesting?’ he queried flatly.
‘You want to know what happened that night, don’t you?’
He smiled, grim. Whatever Lewis had said hadn’t been the truth. If it had, Selina wouldn’t have been smiling at him and shaking his hand when Jack had walked in.
‘It was all a terrible accident,’ she said.
That’s what he’d told her? This ought to be good.
‘When Lewis realised what Andrew was up to, he tried to talk him out of it. The security guard caught them. He was a bit batty. He didn’t recognise them … He shot Andrew thinking he was an intruder, and turned his gun on Lewis, who ended up killing him in self-defence.’
When Jack didn’t say anything, Selina crossed her arms and continued. ‘It’s so sad. I know that Andrew wasn’t a bad person, he was just trying to make a better life for himself and nonna, and it all went from there.’
Selina was no fool. If Lewis had her thinking the whole thing was a sad accident, he was very, very good. Something to bear in mind.
Jack didn’t want to say too much until he’d decided what to do, but he couldn’t resist pushing a little. ‘Why make up that story about the robbers?’
‘I asked that question too. Lewis didn’t want his parents to remember their son as a thief, who’d died stealing from the hotel’s guests.’
‘What a great brother,’ Jack quipped sarcastically, and Selina shot him a sharp look.
Good, he’d push a little more. See if Selina could draw her own conclusions, get there by herself. ‘So Lewis made up the whole story on the spot, before the police arrived, and then told it over and over again faultlessly. Pretty impressive for a teenager who’d just seen his twin shot.’
She shot him another look, taking in his sarcasm but unsure of what had prompted it.
Time to pull his head back in. Jack would warn Selina about Lewis of course, he’d have to, but not before he’d thought of the best way to present the information. He didn’t have much by way of proof: just the word of a retired cop about something he thought he saw fifty years ago. And it wasn’t like he and Selina were friends—if he told her the truth, told her to run, she would probably dismiss it as a ploy to get her to pack her bags and leave the necklace to him.
And did he really think that if she left the hotel she’d be any safer? Lewis had her in his sights, he wasn’t going to just let her walk.
He changed the subject before he got himself into trouble. ‘You think the necklace might be up there?’
Leaning back against the elevator wall, arms folded across her chest, she shr
ugged. ‘It could be anywhere.’ She looked down, briefly examined her sky-high black heels, then hit him with the full force of her green eyes. ‘I’m not looking anymore.’
And he was supposed to believe her?
His expression must have shown his doubt about that claim, because a frown settled between her brows. ‘I’m not.’
‘Why we heading upstairs then?’
‘I want to see where my grandfather lived. And my great-grandparents. And the generation before them. Soak up some family tree.’
A family tree with poisoned fruit. ‘So if the necklace were to drop into your lap, you’d just walk on by?’
She gave him a one-sided smile. ‘I don’t know if I’d go that far but …’ She looked down at her feet again. ‘I don’t need it anymore. I’m Lewis’s only family, and he wants me to take over his company.’
Hell to the no.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Jack forced himself to bite his tongue, to restrain his initial reaction. Which was something along the lines of screaming at Selina to keep herself away from the murderous bastard.
Fuck. If he’d thought it was going to be difficult to break the news to Selina about Lewis being responsible for Andrew’s murder before, it was going to be twice as hard now. Selina obviously thought she was on to a good thing—Lewis had literally handed her the keys to the kingdom. She wasn’t going to want to hear her prospects were now in jeopardy.
Would she listen if he told her what he suspected?
She wouldn’t want to believe him. The money she now stood to inherit would be tainted, and more than that, what he had to tell her would stand in the way of her fledgling bond with Lewis, her new identity as a Holloway. Not wanting to believe – denial – could be very powerful, and if he couldn’t offer any real proof …
Something even worse presented itself as a possibility: what if she believed him, but she didn’t care? What if she cared more about the money than the fact that Lewis had killed Andrew? What if she went one further, and tipped Lewis off to the fact that Jack was on to him?
He hated to think that Selina would choose money over justice. He wanted to believe she was better than that, but the fact was, he’d trusted her once and wound up unconscious. Spiking his drink wasn’t murder, but it wasn’t a line he would cross. And he couldn’t forget she was here to steal something that wasn’t hers.
He couldn’t say anything. It wasn’t a decision he was comfortable with, but he wasn’t comfortable with the alternative either. Too many risks either way. He’d just have to keep a close eye on her until the time was right.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘I suppose that takes care of your need for a rich husband.’
She shot him a quick unimpressed glare.
What did she expect? That he’d be congratulating her on her good fortune?
The elevator hit the top floor and they exited into a small, elegant entrance area, decorated with a red Persian runner over white carpet, a sideboard with nothing but two Chinese vases—Ming probably—and a brocade-upholstered armchair. The sideboard was dust-free and the rug vacuumed. Impeccably maintained, despite the fact that no one had used either suite for a good long while. There were two doors leading to two penthouse apartments; one had been for the family, the other for VIP guests, like the Petrovskys.
‘This one, you think?’ she asked, choosing the door on the left.
‘Give it a go.’
She opened the door and walked through. He followed her in, and had to pull up sharp because she’d come to a complete standstill.
‘Wow.’ She was looking around the living room hungrily, eyes devouring the scene in front of her.
The place was wow alright. A weird little Victoriana-sixties hybrid time capsule. White and green and a lot of gold trim. Ancient television set in a corner, ancient radio set on the mantel piece, ancient record player on a sideboard.
No one had lived here since Lewis’s parents had died a few years after Andrew, and though the place was scrupulously clean, he’d be surprised if anything had moved so much as an inch since then.
Selina stretched out a hand towards an antique porcelain vase resting on the mantelpiece, then drew it back on an intake of breath. ‘I can’t bring myself to touch anything. It’s all so immaculate.’ She turned to him. ‘Where do you think Andrew’s room is?’
‘Through that door,’ he said, pointing to a closed door on the far side of the living room. ‘He and Lewis shared.’
She stared at him. He smiled. ‘I broke in on Monday morning.’
‘Of course you did. And didn’t find the necklace obviously.’
He shot her a sharp look. ‘I thought you weren’t looking anymore.’
‘I’m not. I just … well, you can’t help but wonder, can you?’
No indeed.
She headed off towards the twins’ room and Jack trailed behind. ‘So, when are you seeing Lewis again?’
With all that heir apparent talk, it was obvious a whole future had been lined up. He needed to know how much time he had to neutralise the threat.
‘Friday,’ she said. ‘He’s invited me to sit in on a meeting with the architects responsible for the new hotel. The one going in once the Empire is demolished.’
The way she said it … The pleasure, the pride.
She wanted it. She wanted to be a Holloway so bad.
He tried to imagine what it was like for her, knowing there was a legitimate claim to immense wealth, but never having that claim acknowledged. And then, having it dangled out in front like the world’s biggest gold-plated carrot.
Then having someone like him telling her she couldn’t have it after all.
Better that Selina had never met Lewis at all. Better that Jack hadn’t insisted that she meet with him again today.
But that was wishful thinking. Jack recalled the avarice on Lewis’s face and knew that the fact that he’d pushed her towards Lewis wouldn’t have made any difference. Lewis had rounded that corner on Monday afternoon, seen Selina standing right where he’d shot his brother, and her fate had been sealed. In that moment, it was already too late.
Now he just had to figure out how to bring this thing to its conclusion.
‘This isn’t what I imagined,’ she said, drifting through the twins’ room. ‘I’d always thought the Holloways would live in the lap of luxury.’
This room certainly couldn’t be called luxurious. It was reasonably sized, but not large, especially for two teenaged boys. The furniture consisted of two single beds, two desks and two wardrobes, set out in perfect symmetry. One side of the room was Spartan, monk-like. Nothing there beyond the furniture, no hint of personality. The other side was full of sporting equipment—all that a well-to-do nineteen-sixties lad might require. Tennis racquets, a cricket set and various balls occupied most of the available space. If he’d had to guess, he wouldn’t put his money on Lewis being the sporty one.
Selina was leaning over one of the small study desks, examining what he knew from his previous visit to be a small image of a beach, cut out from a newspaper. The caption below indicated it was the Gold Coast, but the photo was so faded, there was no making out the sparkling cerulean of the Pacific ocean or the famous white-gold sands.
‘He must have loved the sea,’ she murmured. Like Jack, Selina had concluded this was Andrew’s side of the room. She drew back with a sigh. ‘I wish I’d got to meet him.’
Turning, she picked up a red cricket ball, tapped it against the bat leaning against the wall, and tossed it lightly from hand to hand like it was special. Which it was, to her.
How the hell was he going to keep her safe?
There was only one way: he had to put Lewis away, and soon. This case had shifted. It was no longer about finding a sapphire necklace, it was about gathering evidence on a fifty year old murder. It wasn’t going to be easy. It was unlikely there was any DNA evidence intact. In fact, there was probably only one way to convict Lewis. And Jack had an appointment for this afternoon that might furt
her that cause. He’d take Selina along. Two birds with one stone. ‘You want a chance to learn more about Andrew?’
She tilted her head to the side, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
‘I’ve lined up an interview with a school friend of his. Why don’t you come with me?’
‘You’re inviting me? Why?’
‘Why not? You’ve abandoned the hunt. Two dogs and one bone isn’t us anymore.’
The beginning of a smile formed. ‘Does this mean you forgive me?’
He hated to admit it, but he was getting there.
***
Once Selina saw Jack’s car, she couldn’t imagine him in anything else. A dark blue Maserati—a dream of a car, she knew, because she’d dated her fair share of guys obsessed with obscenely expensive Italian sports cars. Or at least, it would have been a dream of a car, if it were well maintained. This one was beat-up, bits of it missing, no regard whatsoever paid to the paint job. Jack must have got it second-hand from a wreckers.
Even so, it was quite a contrast to the constantly failing Corolla she was stuck with.
But no … Not if Lewis was serious about taking her on as his 2IC. Before long, she’d be able to afford any kind of car she wanted. She wasn’t the type to count her chickens, but … she knew he meant it. He honestly thought of her as a Holloway. She’d come here for Anna, but maybe one day soon, she’d have a Maserati of her own.
Smiling, she slipped into the passenger seat.
Her eyes were drawn irresistibly to the handsome, bronzed man at her side, and she examined his clean profile as they drove south through the crowded city streets. He was uncharacteristically quiet today, distant and preoccupied. Of course, he had reason to be distant with her, but … He hadn’t grilled her nearly as much about her meeting with Lewis as she’d expected, then he’d invited her to come with him to meet a school friend of Andrew’s. Not that she was complaining, but what was up?
And where did they stand exactly after last night?
Despite her teasing question earlier, she knew he couldn’t have forgiven her. She wasn’t kidding herself about the severity of what she’d done. She’d drugged him. She’d done it countless times for Anna, but this was different. It had to be the single most crumby thing she’d ever done. And now more than ever, she regretted it. Not only had she not found the necklace, she wasn’t even looking anymore.
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