The Betrayal of Lies

by Debra Burroughs

  From the Amazon Bestseller Debra Burroughs, topping the charts in Romantic Suspense and Women Sleuths, comes another exciting and entertaining short story, The Betrayal of Lies.

  Praise for Debra Burroughs’ romantic suspense novels…

  “I love this series. I enjoy the characters, the drama, and the overall mystery. The stories are well written and believable.”

  ~ Luciann Smith

  Amazon Reader

  “Each time Ms. Burroughs puts out a new book I can’t wait to download it. And once again the folks of Paradise Valley don’t disappoint. It’s almost like reading about people you know and can’t wait to catch up with. From the first page I was intrigued and caught up in the plot. I really enjoyed the entire book and was kept guessing til the end.”

  ~ Janet

  Amazon Reader

  “The main character is recently widowed and fiercely independent. She has a close knit group of girlfriends who’ve been helping her along. And it is with this group of friends in this small town setting that quickly comes to life right before your eyes. The characters and the plot are both superbly written. I’ve read 3 in the series and hope there will be others to follow…I’ve grown comfortable with this small town and this fun group of friends.”

  ~ Dryzl

  Amazon Reader

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  Afterword

  Other Works by Debra Burroughs

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

  ~ Sir Walter Scott

  Prologue

  Lies, either big or small, seem most painful when delivered by someone you care for. Whether in word or deed, like a knife stuck in your back, a betrayal cuts twice as deep when perpetrated by someone you love.

  ~*~

  The man stood screaming, crazed, arms waving wildly about. “Shoot her! Shoot her!”

  The woman’s eyes grew wide, glowing with terror. Hot angry tears sprang from them as she fought against her restraints. The cloth gag in her mouth was suffocating, her nose filling with fluid as she cried.

  The straight-back wooden chair rocked as she hysterically pulled against the ties, clacking against the wood floor, hoping to free herself. She struggled to scream, but only managed a pitiful high-pitched moan—the tortured squeal of a scared little rabbit caught in a trapper’s snare.

  Why did he want her dead? What had she ever done to him? It didn’t make any sense.

  Dust danced around in the shards of light streaking through the small window beside her. The angle of the light told her it was late afternoon. Would they be looking for her? Would anyone at all be searching for her? Not likely. Not after what she had done.

  A dazzling garnet and diamond necklace hung around her neck. There was a time when it had been a symbol of her husband’s love, but now it felt heavy, like a noose.

  Why hadn’t she made different choices—choices that would not have brought her to this dangerous circumstance, to this desolate place where her body may never be found? But no, she gave in to temptations when she should have been strong—and now she was paying for it.

  An excruciatingly loud blast exploded in her ears and searing pain ripped through her skull. Everything was going dark. Life was seeping out of her.

  Chapter 1

  Oftentimes, it’s best just to rip the Band-Aid off in one quick motion. A little at a time only prolongs the agony. The same can be said of delivering bad news.

  “Sorry, but there’s no other way to say it than plain out. Your husband is every bit the lying, cheating scumbag you thought he was, Mrs. Santori.” Emily Parker sat back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest, letting her salacious comments sink in to the client seated across her desk.

  The woman was plump, likely somewhere in her mid-forties, with wavy black hair and dark Mediterranean features. She was not totally unattractive. She may even have been beautiful in her younger years when she snagged her well-to-do husband. But things had obviously changed since that time and the mister was now grazing in greener pastures.

  In the year or so since Emily had taken over her late husband’s private eye business, she’d been hired to investigate a number of unfaithful spouses, both husbands and wives. In that time, she had learned to deliver the bad news quickly and unemotionally, then deal with the fallout.

  “I knew it!” the woman snapped, her dark eyes widening as she pinched her red lips together. Yet as fast as she had become angry, her expression relaxed and she leaned forward, putting a well-manicured, bejeweled hand on the edge of the desk. She arched a brow and looked Emily in the eye. “So…are there pictures?”

  Emily dragged a crisp manila envelope out of her side drawer and slid it across the desk to the wife. “That’s what you paid me for.”

  The woman rifled through the stack of candid photos. “Oh my,” she said, pausing to closely examine a few of them. “She’s very flexible, isn’t she?”

  Emily put her elbows on the desk and steepled her fingers. “It would seem so.”

  The woman shook her head, seemingly incredulous at what she was seeing. “What on earth does a lovely young thing like that want with a balding middle-aged man with a paunch?”

  Twisting a section of her blonde curls behind her ear, Emily kept her mouth shut, hoping that was only meant to be a rhetorical question. She’d hate to have to tell the woman that the girl in the photos was a call girl.

  The scorned wife waved the photos at Emily. “This is all I need to make that man pay.”

  “Divorce?”

  “Heavens no,” she said, shaking her head. “We still have kids at home.” A wicked smile curled on her full lips. “There are so many other more creative ways to make that mid-life Romeo pay.” She tapped her finger to her chin and gazed upward. “I’ll start with a new wardrobe, I think. Then we’ll see where it goes from there.”

  “Ah, blackmail.” Emily gave a slight nod. “That’s one way to handle it.” Certainly not the way she would have handled it if she had discovered her husband with another woman. Sending him on a trip to the emergency room sounded more like it, and by the time they released him from the hospital, her attorney would be delivering a second blow—divorce papers.

  At least that’s how she played it out in her mind, if she found herself in Mrs. Santori’s shoes.

  Emily checked her watch and rose from her seat. “I hate to rush you out, but I have another appointment I need to get to and I’m running late.”

  “Another case?” Mrs. Santori looked up as she shoved the photos back in the envelope.

  “Not today. I’m meeting with my wedding planner and some of my girlfriends to iron out all the details.”

  “Well, congratulations on your upcoming nuptials, Emily.” The woman grabbed her purse and stood. “I sure hope your marriage works out better than mine.”

  Colin’s handsome face popped up forefront in Emily’s mind—tall, dark, and handsome with the most amazing hazel eyes fringed with dark lashes. She wanted to reply I’m sure it will, but decided that might sound like gloating, so she settled for a smile and something more sympathetic. “Me too.”

  Once Mrs. Santori was on her way, Emily gathered up her purse and bridal magazines then headed out. As she stopped to lock the office door, she paused, gazing at the opaque glass in the door. It still read Evan Parker, Private Investigator.

  Months ago she had promised Colin she would change it from her late husband’s name, but life happens, she got busy, cases needed to be solved, friends needed her time—there was always some excuse. The latest one was that she was going to be changing her name soon anyway, as soon as
they got married, so why not save the expense of having it done twice and just change the signage once.

  Still, for some reason, Emily got a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach every time she thought about having Evan’s name scraped off the door.

  Was it because it felt like she was erasing him from her life, too? Removing his name would be one more way of forgetting him, one more push, until he disappeared completely from her life. How could she do that to him? Especially after the way he’d loved her and all he had done to protect her from his dangerous past.

  Colin had lost a loved one, too. His previous fiancée had been tragically killed in the line of duty. Surely he could understand the inner turmoil she was going through with Evan’s memory.

  ~*~

  “Sorry, sorry,” Emily said as she rushed, arms full, through the door of Bon Appetit!—her friend Camille’s catering and event planning business. Camille and the girls were already seated around the large oval table, as well as Camille’s new wedding consultant, Elise Murphy.

  Thanks to Camille Hawthorne, Emily had become part of this tight-knit group of friends shortly after moving to Paradise Valley with Evan. Over six years ago, Camille had offered six weeks of cooking classes to kick off her new business. As a newlywed with little cooking skills, Emily had signed up to take them, for the benefit of her poor husband, who had been kind enough to suffer in silence. Maggie Sullivan and Isabel Martínez had also been part of that class, and the four of them had become fast friends.

  Camille was the mother hen of the group, a little older than the other women, with a daughter graduating high school and a son in college. Her spiky red hair helped to hide her age and it seemed unusually fiery today, setting off her brilliant blue eyes.

  “You’re late…again.” Isabel looked at her watch as she flipped her long dark curls over her shoulder. Isabel worked for the FBI and was a stickler for punctuality.

  “Yes, sit, sit,” Camille directed, fluttering her manicured hand toward an empty chair.

  “I know, sorry.” Emily grimaced as she took a seat next to Camille, around the large planning table, dumping the pile of magazines in the center of it. “I had to give some bad news to a client and it took a little longer than I’d planned.”

  “Usually it’s me apologizin’.” Maggie—the blonde bombshell of the group—batted her blue eyes as she admitted to her propensity for being late. She often blamed her tardiness on her southern upbringing.

  “Bad news?” Camille asked. “I hope everything’s okay.”

  “Everything’s fine,” Emily replied. “Just another case of a philandering husband getting caught on camera.”

  “Oh dear,” Camille gasped. “Anyone we know?”

  Was that hopefulness she heard in Camille’s voice? Looking for a juicy tidbit of gossip? “No one you know, Camille.” It was time to change the subject. “So, what did I miss?” Emily glanced around the table.

  “You remember Elise, don’t you, Emily?” Camille motioned to the woman seated across from her.

  “Yes, hello, Elise,” Emily said, hiding behind a friendly smile.

  She understood that with Camille’s booming catering and event-planning business, which now included planning weddings, Camille had found herself taking on more work than one person could handle and needed to hire someone to help take some of the load off of her own shoulders. That’s when she had hired Elise. But still, Emily wondered why the woman was included in this appointment—Camille had promised to handle everything herself.

  Emily had met Elise briefly a few times, when she’d stopped in to visit with Camille, but they had never really gotten to know each other. Camille had told her that she’d met Elise at an event she had planned for Elise’s husband’s company, and they had gotten along famously.

  Maybe Emily was overreacting. She surreptitiously surveyed the new member at the table. Elise was attractive, tall and elegantly thin. She was well spoken and impeccably dressed. Her thick auburn hair hung in layers around her shoulders and her soft brown eyes sparkled when she smiled.

  When Camille had decided to begin interviewing for the position, Emily remembered she had said that she’d mentioned it to Elise in passing, hoping she might know someone who would be interested in the job. To her surprise, Elise had told Camille that she was interested in it. She didn’t need the job, of course, but she wanted it, Camille had said. Her daughter was grown and off to college and her husband, who traveled a lot for business, made plenty of money, but he left her with a lot of time on her hands. She wanted something interesting and fun to fill her time, not to mention having some money of her own.

  Elise had been cordial to Emily when they’d met, somewhat friendly even, but always busy working on a wedding for one of their clients. They hadn’t had a chance to get very well acquainted yet. She supposed she could give her a chance.

  Camille must have caught Emily’s expression at seeing Elise there and she placed her hand gently on Emily’s forearm. “Well, Em, now don’t get mad…”

  Emily stiffened and her breath caught. Starting a conversation off with those words was never a good thing.

  “I’ve asked Elise to take over as your wedding planner. She’ll be doing the—”

  “What?” Emily gasped. She hadn’t meant to sound rude, but her surprise escaped her lips before she could censor it. The atmosphere in the room became suddenly thick and uncomfortable.

  Trying to redeem herself, Emily turned to the novice wedding planner. “No offense, Elise,” she said before twisting back to Camille, “but, Cam, you’re my close friend. You’re the one with years of experience. Besides, you promised me you’d take care of everything. Why are you shuffling me off to, well, a newbie?” She briefly glanced back to Elise. “Again, no offense.”

  Elise remained quiet, her hands serenely folded in her lap, but her eyes gave away how awkward this exchange was becoming.

  “Emily, don’t worry. I have every confidence in Elise. I know she can handle it,” Camille said. “Furthermore, I’ll still be involved, still overseeing everything.”

  “Then why?” Emily knew her irritation was obvious, but she couldn’t help it. This was her wedding, after all.

  “Calm down, Em,” Maggie said, patting Emily’s hand. “I’m sure Camille has a good reason. Don’t you, Cam?”

  “Let’s hear it.” Isabel crossed her arms and settled back in her chair.

  “I’ve given it a lot of thought, Emily,” Camille began, “and it occurred to me that if I’m working the event on the day of your wedding, I won’t get to enjoy it.” Camille paused, draping an arm loosely around Emily’s shoulders. “And I want to enjoy it, Em. I want to be a guest at this one. You can understand that, can’t you?”

  Camille raised her eyebrows to Emily, asking for her agreement. “Elise will be there running everything on the day of the wedding. It’ll be perfectly fine.”

  Emily’s gaze shot briefly toward Elise as she drew in a long breath, trying to calm herself.

  “It will,” Elise said offering her a sweet smile. “I promise.”

  Emily dropped her shoulders, resigning herself to the thought. Of course she wanted Camille to enjoy the wedding and the reception, not be flitting about, making sure everything was going off without a hitch. And it wasn’t like she and Colin were going to have a big lavish wedding anyway.

  Picturing it all in her mind, she saw herself standing with Colin and the minister, reciting their vows in the beautiful gazebo Evan had built for her in their garden when they were first married.

  Evan. His name screeched across her mind. Would Colin appreciate or resent the symbolism of Evan watching over their ceremony?

  “I understand what you’re saying, Cam.” Emily nodded. “You simply want to be a guest. It’s going to be a very small wedding in my backyard anyway. It shouldn’t take all that much work on the day of the wedding.”

  “How small?” Maggie sat up straight and her bright blue eyes widened.

  “Twenty
or thirty people,” Emily replied. “I was thinking we can recite our vows in the lovely white gazebo and put the reception food and tables out on the deck. Nothing fancy.”

  “That’s very manageable,” Elise agreed, writing something into her notebook.

  “No, no, no,” Camille said, shaking her head. “Oh, Emily, that just won’t do.”

  “What do you mean that won’t do?” Emily didn’t want some overblown affair. And wasn’t it her choice?

  “You and Colin are too well connected in this town to have such a small wedding. No, no, no. People will be offended,” Camille explained.

  “Offended? Like who?” Emily was getting irritated.

  “Well, Colin’s boss, the Chief of Police, for one,” Camille responded. “And then there’s Maggie’s brother, the Mayor, and his wife, and all my family, including my brother, Peter.”

  “Absolutely, we can’t forget Peter,” Maggie added. She had been carrying on a long-distance relationship with Camille’s brother for almost a year. Emily thought there might be an announcement of another wedding soon.

  “And don’t forget Colin’s family members in California,” Isabel added. “Oh, and then there’s Ernie Kaufmann and his wife. He’s like an uncle to Colin.”

  Emily nodded and rolled her eyes.

  “What about your family, Emily?” Elise asked. “How many will there be?”

  “I only have one sister in Maine, and she has a husband and three kids,” Emily replied. “Oh, and my friend Annie that runs the little bookstore downtown.”

  “Do I need to continue to make my point?” Camille asked.

  “All right, I get it.” Emily raised her hands slightly, in surrender. “We need a bigger venue, but Colin and I don’t want an over-the-top extravaganza. We want to keep it simple—no tuxedos or fancy gowns, a few flowers here and there, a small cake and some finger foods, with just our close family and friends.”

  And maybe it might be better not to get married in Evan’s gazebo.

  “How about Isabel and Alex’s place?” Camille looked around the table for confirmation. “Isabel? What do you say?”