by Sylvie Kurtz
“I’m not risking your life.”
“The risk isn’t yours to take.”
His face turned grim and his voice dangerously low. “We’ll discuss this later.”
“I’m not going to change my mind.”
“I can throw you out.”
“I’ll stay at the inn.”
“I can make sure they don’t take you in.”
“You don’t control the whole state.”
With a growl, Nick pressed against the wings of her shoulders to get her moving and probed the shadows with a searching gaze. “The guy who attacked you could still be out here. I’d feel better inside.”
Taking in a deep breath, she shook her head. “He knows you’ll call the cops. He’s long gone. You go on ahead. There’s no cell reception inside, and I need to hear my mother’s voice.”
“I’m not leaving you out here when security’s compromised. You can use the inside phone. The lines are still up. I just called the electric company.”
With a relief she’d never admit out loud, she hung on to Nick’s hand with a bit too much force as he led her into the dark mansion to the small windowless den Holly used as an office. For all Valerie’s tough talk, the attack had scared her spitless. She didn’t breathe fully again until Nick had set up an oil lamp to light the room and chase away the pitch of night.
“I have to check on Rita and get the generator running.” Nick’s expression was too somber and tense as he studied her. “You’ll be okay?”
“I’m fine.” She forced a smile and tucked a windblown strand of hair behind her ear. “Thanks for everything.”
At the doorway, Nick hesitated, tapped the door frame once, then left.
Valerie paced the den as far as the telephone cord would let her and called her mother. “Mom?”
“What’s wrong, Valerie?”
Everything! Her career-making assignment was turning into a nightmare. How could she admit to her mother that her job—a job her mother was constantly warning her against—had put them both in danger? Reverting back to an old habit, she chewed on a thumbnail. “Nothing. I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“As well as can be expected when I’m not living in my own space.”
Too worried about her mother’s safety to take offense, Valerie ignored her mother’s suffering tone. “Hey, I just remembered I forgot to tell you that the lock on the back door is sticky. Make sure you double-check it before you go to bed.”
“It’s Saturday, Valerie. In a few hours, it’ll be Sunday.”
Valerie swallowed a mouthful of guilt. “I’ll be home on Monday at the latest, Mom. I promise. How’s Luna doing?”
“You’ll have two noise-ordinance citations to pay when you get home,” her mother said in a pinched tone. “But it’s raining tonight.”
Would the rain keep an intruder away or give him enough cover to abet his task? Her mother was too frugal to “waste” money on a hotel. Last Valerie had heard her mother’s cousin—the only other family she had—was in the middle of relocating. And if Valerie told her mother about the threat, her mother would insist on a showdown. Nobody, but nobody threatened her baby and got away with it. Never mind that the threat was against her. Valerie had learned to edit what she told her mother a long time ago. Which left her with only one option—protecting her without her knowledge. “It’s windy here, Mom, and the power’s out. I’ll call you tomorrow. Be careful, okay?”
Valerie put in one more call to her friend Sheree’s brother. He was a cop. She told him about the threat she’d just received and about the investigator Nick was sending. By promising Sheree’s brother a date when she got back, she got him to keep a second set of eyes on her mother until Valerie returned tomorrow night.
Her mother would be all right. Within fifteen minutes she’d have a cop bodyguard. Nick would send his investigator. Luna’s hair-trigger yodel would wake up the whole neighborhood.
Besides Valerie knew of no one as tough as her mother. Valerie had seen a hardened patrol cop cower in fear when he’d tried to ticket her mother for speeding after he’d tail-gated her into going faster than the limit. He’d been willing to let her off on a warning. She’d insisted on a court date, and even the judge had gone out of his way to get her out of his courtroom in record time.
Nobody could sneak up on her, either. God knew Valerie had tried all the tricks over the years. And since Valerie’s father had died two years ago, her mother slept with a gun she knew how to use with deadly precision.
Her mother was safe. Running back home now would only bury the truth deeper.
VALERIE’S ATTACK pecking at his mind, Nick strode to the kitchen, which would lead him to the generator. He bowled into Gardner, coming up the basement stairs.
Gardner puffed up proud. “I have your answer.”
“Great,” Nick said as he tried to squeeze by.
Clueless, the professor anchored himself on the door frame. “There’s no ghost. As I suspected, it’s infrasound traveling up a pipe close to the sump pump. The motor runs rough, expending a huge amount of unneeded energy that’s causing the infrasonic wave.”
Suppressing a growl, Nick asked, “Then why does the baby cry only when the door is closed?”
“Because then the doorjamb is supported and vibrates at the right frequency to make the movement audible. Which also explains why it’s localized to the tower room. In the day you don’t hear it because of the ambient noises, but at night when everything’s quiet, the noise travels.”
Nick couldn’t give a flip about ghosts or infrasound. He wanted the power back on. He wanted the perimeter shored up. More than anything, he wanted Valerie safe. “Send me your report.”
Gardner sputtered, less than pleased with Nick’s reaction to his revelation.
Nick pushed by the professor and descended the stairs, the beam of his flashlight whirling a macabre dance on the walls.
Nick had lived with an abuser long enough to recognize the hidden meaning behind every word, the implied threat behind every inflection, the imminent action behind every twitch of body language. Once the hitting started, only blood would stop it.
Gardner might have solved the mystery of the ghost, but a greater danger lurked nearby, waiting for one moment of inattention on Nick’s part to destroy his world.
HE COULDN’T LET the bastard take this away from him. Not after all the work he’d put into this venture. He couldn’t let them win. Again. He deserved that money. He deserved his reward.
He wasn’t a cruel man. He’d tried to get what was his without hurting anyone. A few hundred thousand dollars wouldn’t wipe out any of those greedy investors. It was mere pocket change for them. A joke they would laugh off when they all got together for their next cocktail party.
But now all bets were off.
He would silence her—as he should have long ago. Bury his mistake.
He would take what she owed him for all the grief she’d caused him.
With one last play, he would solve all of his problems.
Chapter Twelve
By the time Valerie had finished her calls, Nick and Lionel had the generator running and the mansion lit up as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
Nick checked in with Holly, helped the nurse install Rita in the library, then dealt with the police. He left soon after, skipping dinner and saying something about checking on security. Valerie worried that he was patrolling the grounds alone, looking for her attacker.
After dinner, Rita claimed she was feeling better and insisted Valerie do her interview in the library while they had tea. She’d applied makeup artfully and dressed in a cyan-blue pantsuit that would look good on camera. Her champagne hair was combed back into an elegant chignon. Her skin still looked too pale and drawn, but an inner strength shone above the physical weakness.
“It’s late,” Valerie said. “Are you sure you’re up to an interview tonight?”
“I’ve slept all day.” Rita poured herself a cup of tea. �
�I won’t be able to sleep again for hours.”
“Nick won’t like that he’s not here.” Valerie shuffled the notes she already knew by heart. “I should call him.”
Rita tasted her tea, then added sugar. “Please don’t. I’d prefer he not be here. Nicolas can be too protective at times.”
Like Valerie’s own mother. “He means well.”
“I know he does.” A touch of sadness clouded Rita’s eyes. “I don’t know how I would have survived all those years without him. He’s been a blessing.”
Rita had arranged for this segment and her uncle had granted her the resources she’d wanted. Valerie had to respect Rita’s wishes to put Valentina’s story out there. Without Nick hovering nearby, maybe Rita could be more open, too.
If Valerie could get this interview taped tonight, she could catch an earlier flight and relieve some of the pressure of getting this package to Higgins on time. And the faster she got this story on air, the faster her attacker’s threats against her mother would stop. And, she hoped, the faster he would become a guest of the department of corrections and give Rita the resolution she’d sought.
“Nick’s been living at Moongate for a long time,” Valerie said while Mike set up his camera.
He was so quiet that Valerie doubted Rita was aware of his presence. He had the uncanny knack of being able to fade into the background when he was shooting. Valerie had gotten some incredible shots because of that ability.
“Nicolas has been living here since he was five,” Rita said. “He and Holly came to stay here at the mansion—about a year before…Valentina disappeared.”
“What happened to Nick’s father?” Valerie was di gressing from her goal, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.
“He went to prison. Fraud. The wretched man was charming but selfish. Holly worked her fingers to the bone trying to make a home for him. And what did he do? He gambled their future away every night. That he had a wife and child to support seemed to make no difference to him.”
No wonder Nick was so touchy about being taken in by a scam artist.
Mike gave her the at-speed signal. Valerie started out with nonquestions to ease Rita into the conversation.
“Your daughter was born in October, yet you named her Valentina.”
The smile wiped ten years off Rita’s face, shed it of its brittle mask of sadness. “It was my mother’s name. She’d died the year before, and I missed her horribly. Valentina Stefania Meadows Callahan. That’s such a mouthful for a baby! So I called her Tina when it was just the two of us.”
“Tina, come with me. I have something to show you.” Mama’s eyes twinkled like stars at night.
“What, Mama?” Bubbles fizzed in Valentina’s belly like soda in a glass. Mama made the best surprises.
“Your very own big girl room.” The door to the tower room whooshed open.
“Oh!” Valentina slapped both hands to her mouth.
“Do you like it?”
Valentina nodded and her breath gushed out. “It’s a fairy princess room!”
A race of shivers swept over Valerie’s arms. She was letting Valentina’s lingering spirit get to her again. “Tell me about Valentina’s father.”
“Rushton Callahan. He was quite a catch in his day. Oh, your father was a handsome man. Tall, too.” Rita leaned her head and seemed to measure Valerie. “You should have grown taller. The reconstructionist told me you’d be at least five-six.”
Valerie shot back in her chair. Nick would have her head. If Rita still thought she was Valentina, then Rita wasn’t well enough yet to do an interview. “Both my parents are on the short side.”
Rita didn’t seem to hear her. “I’ve noticed that you have your father’s good heart, but also his tendency toward caution. He never liked to take risks and that kept him from achieving as much as he could have. If you’re going to succeed in your chosen field, Tina, you’re going to have to act with more courage. You’re going to have to trust that you can succeed.”
Valerie glanced at Mike, who simply shrugged, leaving the decision up to her. Rita was wrong, she wasn’t a pushover. When it came to work, she could be as cutthroat as anyone else. And although she’d agreed to pretend she was Valentina when Rita was so sick a few days ago, she didn’t like continuing the charade now. It seemed a cruel thing to do to a woman who’d already had her hope slashed so many times. “Maybe we should do this tomorrow.”
Rita slid her teacup onto the coffee table. “I’m sorry, dear. I’ve frightened you.”
Frightened wasn’t the half of it. Valerie was falling into the same twisting vortex she’d plunged into in the tower room the night Nick had kissed her. Emotions that couldn’t be hers tossed her deeper into the spinning tornado and, when it spit her out, she was going to crash hard.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Rita said tenderly. “I know it’ll take time for you to get used to the truth. Let’s continue. I think we should talk about that night.”
Unable to speak, Valerie nodded.
“I’ll start with the party….”
Rita went on to describe the preparations, the games of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and musical chairs, the blue butterfly-shaped cake, the fun all the children and parents were having. Her descriptions were so vivid that Valerie could hear the bright music, taste the sweet icing and feel the happy laughter rippling all around her.
Valerie shook her head, dissolving the gauzy montage of images. Why were they so vivid? Maybe the stress of this story and Valentina’s spirit were starting to affect her mind. Maybe Higgins was right and Bailey did deserve the promotion. Forcing herself to concentrate, she edged the conversation toward the moment Rita had realized that Valentina was gone.
The memory wrenched Rita’s face and tears flowed freely as she described the chaos of the search, the police investigation and the ransom demand’s arrival. “Rushton put the ransom together and followed the directions given by the kidnapper to the letter. But right before he reached the exchange destination, he was stopped by an officer for speeding.”
Rita uttered a small cry. “Speeding! How could he go a mile above the speed limit when Valentina’s life was on the line?” Her voice cracked in two. “The officer’s presence frightened the kidnapper, and Rushton wasn’t able to save our daughter.”
Valerie rubbed the knot tightening her chest at the thought of Rushton’s anguish as he raced desperately to save his little girl. “The kidnapper never made another ransom demand?”
She shook her head. “But I have it ready to go. I never gave up hope. And I was right. Here you are, back after all those years.”
Poor Rita. All this reminiscence had locked her back into the past. Valerie pulled out a few tissues from her purse and handed them to her. “You look tired. We should stop.”
Rita dabbed at her tears, but continued on. “I blamed Rushton, but he blamed himself more than I ever could. He couldn’t live with the constant barrage of guilt, so he left, and frankly, I was glad to have him out of the house. I was already too raw. His vast grief only served to mire mine deeper. Someone had to look for Valentina. If he wasn’t up to it, then I had to take charge. She was my baby.”
“Daddy! Daddy! Come play with me.” Valentina rushed to her father as he walked through the front door, briefcase in hand.
He caught her flying leap into his arms. “Give me five minutes, sweet pea, then I’ll take you to the park.”
“Swing me high?”
Holding her by the armpits, he swung her around the foyer. The walls blurred and his big smile curved crisp dimples into his cheeks. “To the sky!”
Blinking to dissolve the clip that was tender like a bruise, Valerie asked, “What happened to him?”
A hopeless sigh reverberated through Rita’s mic. “He went out for a drive one day and sped right into the Connecticut River. You could say he literally drowned in his guilt.”
“Daddy, no! Daddy, come back!”
A choking sob reverberated through Valerie’s
whole body. She clamped her hands around her notes to stop the shaking. “How awful for both of you.”
Rita flattened the damp tissues against her knee. “I’d rushed into marriage at a young age to appease my father. I didn’t want to go to college. School was boring. I liked the parties and the clubs, but the rest…” She gave a short, sharp laugh. “Too bad you can’t get a degree in Social Butterfly, I’d have been a shoo-in.”
“So you left school and married.” Valerie scoured her notes, desperate to find the thread of questions she’d lost.
A small smile full of pride tipped Rita’s lips. “I gave the best parties and was a great corporate wife. I had no interest in the family business. Rushton did, and he was good to me.”
Valerie sensed that this was a woman who’d laughed a lot before Valentina was kidnapped. That the whole house had once pulsed with life. Lucky Valentina.
Rita folded the damp tissues into a palm-size square and placed it on the coffee table. “Nicolas thinks I’m gullible and easily manipulated because of my obsession with you. But a mother knows.” Her gaze burned into Valerie with fervor and her hands reached for Valerie’s. “And I could always feel you in my heart.”
“Rita…I’m not Valentina.” The last thing Valerie wanted to do was string Rita along and make her think her daughter had come back home.
“Tell me about the people who raised you.” Rita’s eyes were much too brilliant. Had the fever returned? “Were they good to you?”
“Rita…” Valerie shook her head helplessly. “If you think I’m Valentina, then why are you doing this interview?”
Rita’s too-warm hand squeezed Valerie’s as if the answer was obvious. “I’d hoped hearing all the details of your life here at Moongate would bring memories back to you. You were loved, Tina, and the heart doesn’t forget love.”
“What’s going on here?”
Nick.
Valerie’s heart thundered as she whipped around to face him.
A towering quiet palled the room. His stare could have frozen boiling water.