He blinks several times. “Somebody is threatening Amelia?”
Now he looks worried again. OK, maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say.
“At the moment it’s looking as though that person is you,” Dan says, hand still on his gun. “You appear to have motive and opportunity, you’re lacking alibis, plus we have evidence linking you to Amelia.”
“Motive and opportunity for what? What incidents? Why didn’t Amelia tell me if something was going on?” he says wide-eyed.
“Blackmail, stalking,” Dan replies. “Which seems to tie in quite conveniently with large regular deposits of money into your account from Amelia’s.”
“What is the nature of your relationship with Amelia?” I ask. “You’re more than employer and employee aren’t you? Did you have an affair? Is that why you’re blackmailing her?”
Tom looks appalled. “What? NO!”
Dan takes a step forward. “Then why is she paying you money which far exceeds your wages for being the chalet handyman?”
“You should talk to her about that,” Tom says, nervously pushing a hand through his hair. “We’ve been keeping it quiet because that’s what she wanted.”
I sit on the sofa next to Tom. “You need to tell us.”
“It won’t go any further?” he asks, looking panicky.
Dan opens his mouth to say something but I shoot him a look to keep quiet. “For now. Come on, tell us what this money is all about.”
“Amelia is my half-sister,” he eventually replies, sagging back against the sofa. “We only found out we were related a few years ago but we’ve kept it quiet. Amelia wanted it that way.”
I frown. “Half-sister. So how did that come about?”
“Amelia is adopted. Nobody knows, outside of family, I mean. A few years back Amelia decided to track down her birth mother, that is to say, my mother. They arranged to meet and that’s when Amelia found out she had a half-brother.”
“Can I ask what happened? Why was Amelia put up for adoption?” I ask trying to fight my curiosity but failing miserably.
“My mum was young when she got pregnant with Amelia. It was an accident. She was encouraged by her own parents to give the baby up for adoption,” Tom replies, staring at his hands as he speaks.
Dan is strangely quiet so I push on with yet more questions. “So you and Amelia hit it off then?”
He nods. “Yeah. Unfortunately my mum doesn’t pick the best men to get involved with. Amelia’s dad didn’t want to know when my mum told him she was pregnant. My own dad wasn’t much better. He was a drunk and a gambler. They married but he left us when I was about nine years old. My mum, God rest her soul, passed away fifteen months ago and I lost it completely. Walked out on my job, started drinking, gambling, getting into debt.” He sighs. “Turns out I’m a chip off the old block huh? Don’t know where I’d be right now if Amelia hadn’t have helped me out. I owe her my life.”
“So Amelia has been helping you pay off your gambling debts?” I ask as Dan is still not saying anything.
Tom nods. “Yep. Paid off my debts gradually. That’s what the money into my account is for. You probably think it sounds stupid to give a gambler money but I swear I’ve been attending addiction meetings every week and I’m doing well. Honestly. Anyway, I have to be the one making the payments. Obviously it wouldn’t do for Amelia to be paying them off directly. Not just because if the news got out the scandal could damage her career and her reputation but also because I don’t want these guys I owe money to knowing that I have a famous actress as a half-sister. I have no doubt they’d milk it and we would be looking at blackmail.”
Dan finally speaks. “We’ll need to confirm all of this with Amelia,” he says as his phone rings and he moves a hand from the top of his gun in its holster to take the call.
We got this wrong. Tom isn’t the stalker.
“I’m sorry,” I say, resting a hand on Tom’s arm. “But you can surely understand how we came to this conclusion, that you might be Amelia’s stalker. She should have warned us who you were at the start of the case.”
He nods. “Is Amelia going to be OK?”
“Yes, she’ll be fine. We’ll make sure of that,” I reply.
Across the room Dan is still talking on his phone. “What? It would have been a real help if you guys had told me about this stuff at the same time as you said about the money in the other account.”
Oops. Looks as though somebody in agency research has done something to upset Dan.
“Let’s go,” Dan says as soon as he ends the call, still sounding annoyed.
I get to my feet. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding,” I say to Tom.
Tom nods but says nothing.
Dan is already out of the door so I rush to follow. What did he find out in that last phone call?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Wow, I did not see that one coming,” I say, as I lean against the worktop in Dan’s studio kitchenette. “Fran has a gun licence and is a member of a gun shooting club? Really?”
“Yep, that’s what the research guys just said.” Dan stirs his coffee and picks up the mug. “She even won awards in shooting competitions at regional level when she was a teenager. She’s quite an accomplished shot.”
“So now Fran is a key suspect. She has motive in terms of revenge for the way Amelia has screwed her over about the audition stuff and her acting career over the years. For how Amelia has done the dirty on her. Never helped her to get into showbiz and then flaunted her stardom in front of her.”
“There’s more,” Dan says as he flops onto the couch and I sit next to him. “Her husband Spencer has a criminal record. It was at juvenile level so the guys had to do some digging to discover it, but it’s still a record.”
“What’s it for? What did he do?”
“Violence mainly. Fights. Assault. They think he’s mentally unstable. There was one charge of breaking and entering as well.”
I let out a long breath. “So Spencer has been bumped up the suspect list as well. But what motive would he have for stalking Amelia? Did they have a fling?”
“Possible.”
I sip my coffee. I am drinking way too much coffee these days. “So we’re almost back at square one then with this case. It feels, with one thing and another, like it’s been a very long day.”
“So, let’s brainstorm about Fran and Spencer then and see if we can get this case cracked as soon as possible.”
It’s past one in the morning. But, fuelled by coffee and determination, we push on with trying to figure out who Amelia’s stalker is. We draw up lists, and Dan, annoyed with their lack of thoroughness and the fact it dropped us in an awkward situation with challenging Tom, gets me to phone the research guys and ask for a whole load more checks to be done on our two new prime suspects.
And he wants them done immediately.
At three in the morning I’m struggling to keep my eyes open. Everything is a jumble in my head - from the photos in the paper of Charlie and Delilah, to the break up, the complications in the case, all helped by drinking too much red wine earlier. Then there’s the surprise sleigh ride with Dan. A headache is starting to pound at the back of my skull. “Do you have any aspirin? I’ve got a headache coming on.”
Dan flashes me a small smile. “Is this a real headache or another fake one and an excuse to get out of here?”
I grimace. “It’s a real one.”
He gets up and goes into the kitchen, opening a drawer. Ah, someone else who keeps their medical kit in a kitchen drawer like me. I follow him into the tiny kitchenette space just as he turns to hand me the bottle of painkillers. For a moment we’re face to face, so close I can feel the heat coming off him and smell that aftershave again. The one Charlie also wears. Some weird instinct kicks in at the familiar smell. A whiff of aromas I associate with deliciously good things. Of Charlie. I close my eyes.
Before I know it his lips are on mine and I lose myself in the moment, in the kiss. It takes me a
second or two to give up on my little dream and come back to reality. The lips softly, enticingly, brushing mine and sending delicious tingles of excitement through me are not Charlie’s. They’re Dan’s.
What on earth am I doing?
I leap back and clatter into one of the kitchen cabinets shooting an accusing look at Dan.
He holds both hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry, so sorry. Blame it on instinct. Lack of sleep. Too much booze earlier.”
I turn and begin frantically searching for my coat. Then remember I didn’t bring one. It’s still back in the hotel function room where I left it hours ago. I can’t believe I just kissed Dan. Well, technically he kissed me but it amounts to the same thing doesn’t it? Guilt surges through me. I should never have let this happen, no matter how sleep deprived, drunk or depressed I am about Charlie and our relationship issues.
Dan’s hands are on my shoulders and I jerk away from him.
“Amber, will you please just chill for a minute and listen to me?” he says.
“Is it about the case?”
He shakes his head.
“Then I don’t want to listen,” I say, heading for the door.
He sidesteps me and blocks my exit. “Amber, you and Charlie, splitting up…”
“We’re just on a break,” I reply, hurt and a whole load of other emotions churning inside of me. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Maybe you will. Maybe you won’t. I just feel it’s time for you to know some things. I know before when you asked me I said I wouldn’t snitch, but I’ve changed my mind. I want a chance to explain something to you. It will help you understand why Charlie and I have an awkward working relationship. It will help you understand why I just kissed you and why I have the reputation I do where women are concerned.”
“I need to go,” I say trying to push past him.
He stays exactly where he is. “Amber, there’s some stuff you should know about Charlie.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I glare at him. I don’t want to know things about Charlie. I want to get out of here. Go back to the chalet and hide under my duvet and try to forget today ever happened.
He bows his head. “Don’t worry. I promise to keep my hands and lips well away from you from this point onwards. Will you sit down, please?”
Reluctantly I perch on the edge of a chair and fiddle nervously with my hands, not looking at Dan. He sits on the sofa opposite, pushing both hands through his hair with a deep sigh.
“If everything had gone right I’d be a married man by now.” He flashes me a look of sadness. “I’d also be a dad.”
His words take me completely by surprise. What has this got to do with Charlie?
“What happened?” I say in a voice not much more than a whisper.
“I met a woman called Sarah. She used to work at the agency. For the first, and only, time in my life I fell in love. I’d never been a relationship kind of guy, but all that changed with her.”
Curiosity, tinged with something resembling fear, bubbles inside me. “Was she an agent?”
“No. She worked in agency support, was one of the research team for cases. One of the best in the business. She was brilliant at her job.”
“What happened?” I ask again.
“I asked her to marry me. She said yes. We got engaged, made plans. About three months from what should have been our wedding day she found out she was pregnant.”
There’s heaviness in his voice and it’s obvious the pain is still raw for him. “It was a surprise, but we were happy and excited about it. We had talked about starting a family but weren’t intending to begin quite so soon.”
Silence hangs between us. I have so many questions, and yet, I’m not sure I want to know the answers.
“She was still so slim but met with her dress designer to have her dress altered slightly to allow for gaining some weight before the big day. I was worried about her. She had morning sickness so bad it lasted most of the day. She was losing weight instead of gaining it. I asked her to go to the doctor; she refused, saying she was fine.”
I realise how this story is going to end and a shiver runs down my spine.
Dan stares at his hands. “She lost the baby. Our child. But that wasn’t the worst part. Neither of us coped well with the news that she’d miscarried. I wanted to talk. I even suggested some kind of therapy, counselling. She wouldn’t hear of it. She wouldn’t talk to anyone, not even me. She shut me out. Called off the wedding, ended our relationship. Nothing I could do or say got through to her. I was angry, frustrated, grieving.” He lets out an ironic chuckle and shakes his head. “I took the classic male way out, of dealing with stuff. Working all hours. I took cases back to back. I was out of the country all the time. Sarah was still working at the agency and I couldn’t stand seeing her. It was as though she’d completely blocked out the past as her way of coping. She moved on to try to forget I think. All bad enough in itself. I still loved her, which made things even worse and a part of me held onto a slim hope that, given time, we might be able to work things through and try to get our relationship back.”
He glances up and our eyes meet. “I returned from a trip and didn’t have another case to immediately go off on. So I got drunk. I ended up going round to her flat to try and get her to talk, to listen, to understand. She wasn’t there alone.”
My stomach clenches. I don’t want to hear the rest of this. I know what he’s about to say.
Still holding my gaze he continues, “Charlie was there with her.”
I close my eyes and try to will back the tears but it doesn’t work. They fall, trailing slowly down my cheeks.
“He’d only just started working at the agency. He and Sarah had hit it off. I think she just wanted someone. Anyone but me, basically. Someone she could pretend everything was OK with. The thought of her with another man made me feel sick. The thought of her with a man I had to work with. Well, you can imagine. To this day I’m still not sure if it would have been better if it had just been a meaningless fling she had with him. Either way it felt as though the pair of them had ripped my heart out and stamped all over it. The fact they were involved for a good while, well, I think it might even have made it worse. If he hadn’t turned up Sarah and I might have stood a chance. ”
So that’s why Dan dislikes Charlie so much.
“Does Charlie know about all of this? Did he know you and Sarah were together and planning to get married?”
Dan nods. “Yeah, he knew.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what? The death of my child? The end of my relationship with the only woman I’ve loved? For your ex-boyfriend replacing me in Sarah’s bed?”
“For everything,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry for everything.”
“Which is more than he is,” he says bitterly.
The silence is back. I want to get out. Run away and hide. Why didn’t Charlie ever tell me all of this? What other secrets has he been keeping?
“Since then I’ve never dated the same woman more than three times. I’ve made sure to keep everything fun, casual and be honest about the fact that’s all I can give. That I’m not interested in anything heavy. Until lately when I’ve realised I’m fed up with all of that. I’m thirty-five years old, I want to settle down, have kids. It’s just finding the right woman - again. I found her once with Sarah and I didn’t know if I would be lucky enough to find that again.” He shoots me a look which says a thousand words. “Until I met you. And guess what? I found out you’re with him. And working with you these past few days I’ve found I like you. A lot. But it’s not so simple as that is it?”
I don’t know what to say. I should probably leave but I feel as though my legs are incapable of holding me up. I stay on the chair and avoid looking at Dan.
“Are you going to get back with him when everything is sorted?”
Am I? I don’t know at the moment about anything, my head is spinning so much. Plus, Charlie was the one who said we should take
a break. Maybe he won’t want to get back with me anyway.
“I have to go.” I manage to push to my feet and make for the door, expecting Dan to make a move, block my exit again.
But he doesn’t. He stays on the couch, looking angry and sad.
Should I try and comfort him? Would he misconstrue my actions if I did?
I pause in the doorway. “Dan?”
“I’m fine.” He gets to his feet, shakes himself and pins a faint smile on his face as though the past ten minutes never happened. “I’ll run you home.”
“It’s only a ten minute walk,” I protest.
“It’s cold and it’s gone three in the morning. I’m getting the car and taking you back to the chalet.”
It’s snowing again as we drive through the empty streets in silence. He stops the car just feet from the front door of the chalet.
“Thank you,” I say as I fumble with the seatbelt.
A hand snakes across and rests on my knee. “I’m sorry about all this stuff with Sarah, but I thought you should know the history. I guessed he hadn’t told you by the way you didn’t seem to know the reason for the strained working relationship between me and him.”
I nod. “I should go. Try and get some sleep. We have a case to crack in the morning. First we talk to Fran, then Spencer. Just like we planned.”
He takes his hand away. “Yeah. The sooner we solve this case and get the hell out of here the better right?”
“Right.”
I lie in bed in the dark but there is no way I’m going to get any sleep. My mind is still racing. I calculate the time difference. Four in the morning in France. Eight in the evening in LA. I could call Charlie and get his side of the story. But I don’t want to. I’m mad at him for so many reasons right now.
I eventually get up, get dressed and wander around my bedroom aimlessly. It’s still only six in the morning. My phone buzzes and immediately I think of Charlie. But it’s Debs’ name on the caller display. It’s even earlier in the UK. What’s she doing calling me at this time? Is something wrong? I grab the phone.
Forever Mine: A Fun and Flirty Romantic Mystery (Amber Reed Mystery Book 3) Page 18