by Ann Yost
****
Damn Theo to hell.
Nick damned himself, too. He’d involved Daisy in this mess. He should’ve followed his initial instincts and broken into the place at night. Instead, he’d confided in Daisy and, curse the woman, she’d acted on her own and last night, she’d been attacked by the murderer. He shuddered at the close call. If she’d turned around and recognized him she’d be dead. Nick shuddered at the close call. His fault. All his fault.
His eyes narrowed at her unnatural pallor. He scooped her into his arms.
“We’re going to the hospital,” he growled.
“I just want to go home. To the cabin.”
Buzz came to stand next to them and he examined the bump, too.
“I think she’s right. With an ice pack and some rest and she’ll be as good as new.”
“Thank you, Dr. Bowman.”
The smile she bestowed on Buzz triggered a hot rush of an unfamiliar emotion. Jealousy?
“Could you stay with me?”
Nick’s arms tightened around her.
“Both of you, I mean. I’d feel safer with both of you at the cabin.”
“Both of us?”
She smiled at Buzz. “Why don’t you pick up some beer and pizza from the Grainery and follow us home?”
Nick started to protest.
“Please.” Daisy widened her eyes. He suspected her attempt to look pathetic was deliberate. She probably wanted the brothers to have a chance to talk.
On the drive back to the lake Nick scolded her about the folly of searching for the blue diamond alone. He felt badly that she’d gotten hurt and guilty about the Bowmans’ plan to acquire the Gray Lady. The one thing he did not regret was what she called their one-night stand and what he’d begun to think of as the start of their life together.
When they reached the cabin Nick carried her into her bedroom.
“Larry,” she said.
“He’s fine. And full.”
She let him remove her clothes and work a nightshirt over her head. He put a hand on each shoulder and peered into her eyes. He studied her pupils. They seemed to match. He wished he could crawl into bed with her, that he could lie next to her in case she woke but he knew he could not.
****
“I’ll check on you every hour or so.”
“I’m fine.”
He heard the screen door open.
“Go talk to your brother.”
“Step-brother.”
She flashed him an exasperated look. “Whatever.”
“Daisy, there’s something we have to talk about.”
A new expression appeared in the golden eyes. She looked lost.
“Tomorrow,” she said. “The pizza’s probably already lukewarm.”
“I’ve got ice,” Buzz called from the doorway.
Nick didn’t turn to look at him. “Put it in a plastic bag. They’re in the lower right hand cupboard next to the coffee.”
“Right.”
He didn’t want to leave but her lashes fluttered and he knew she needed rest. He brushed his lips against her forehead, her cheeks and her lips and only lifted his head when Buzz returned with the ice pack.
“Call if you need me.”
“I will. Go. Talk. Settle things with your brother.”
“My step-br—” he started to say, but she put a finger against his lips.
He checked on her every half hour. In between times he and Buzz drank the beer and consumed the pizzas then he sprawled in the upholstered chair and Buzz stretched out on the sofa.
“I haven’t been here in seven years but things look the same.”
The comment surprised Nick. “I figured you’d be out here every weekend. You loved the place. What changed?”
Buzz’s trademark cheerfulness faded. “Everything. You were gone. I got married.”
Ah. He’d almost forgotten Alice.
“What happened with that? Why get married so fast?”
Buzz scraped a hand down his face. He looked much older than his twenty-eight years. His large athletic frame had settled into a plodding heaviness and wrinkles bracketed his mouth. The blue eyes had dulled.
“It’s a long story.”
In other words, not Nick’s business.
“Let’s just say it’s been a long seven years, professionally and personally. You’ve done well.”
Nick nodded. “I drove away from here that morning and I couldn’t see my way clear to the next day but, eventually things worked out.”
“I don’t know why he did it. Pops never trusted me to run the company. He’d assign me to stuff like company morale or public relations. He sent me to meetings of the grain consortium out in Iowa. I never had real power or even access to the financial situation. Pops did it all. With Arthur, of course.”
His brother’s words stunned Nick. Theo had designated Buzz as the heir apparent but refused to elevate him to the throne?
“I felt like Prince Charles. I envied you, Nick. You didn’t have to answer to anybody and I was so stuck.”
“The grass is always greener.”
Buzz stared at him. “Did you miss the family?”
“Not for a damn minute.”
Buzz shook his head. A slow, ironic grin appeared. “You never were any damn good at lying.”
Despite the late hour Nick knew it was time to get serious. “What’s going on here, anyway? Were you in rehab?”
Buzz sighed. He leaned back on the pillows and closed his eyes.
“When Pops got sick I tried to take over. I figured out revenues were down so I studied the books and noticed a pattern. In the past year we’ve lost a number of clients. None of the grocery chains but still, enough to make a difference in our bottom line.
“I called ’em up but couldn’t get any satisfactory answers. They’d switched suppliers. Period. The net profit slipped and I met with the accounting department. Remember Harry Foster?”
“Sure. He’s been around forever.”
“Not anymore. I wanted to fire him, to bring in one of the Big Four firms, but I didn’t have the authority. Then, one day he just disappeared along with a chunk of our ready assets.”
“Shit.”
“Arthur and I hushed it up. You know the rumor mill in the bread business.”
Nick nodded. He knew the power of rumors. They could destroy any business or reputation overnight. He thought of the one-night stand and the risk it had been to Daisy.
“I knew there was something rotten going on but I couldn’t figure out what it was.”
Nick understood. He’d felt the same way in Langston’s apartment in Chicago.”
“I did my best with staff morale but I was the boy with my finger in the dyke. Our products don’t fit the marketplace anymore, the plant’s outdated, and our personnel policies need to be streamlined. We need a plant manager on the floor and an outside accounting firm. We need a CEO who’s been trained in business. I was a marketing major, you know that. I thought I’d be the face of Bowman’s Biscuits while you ran the show. Turns out the company doesn’t need a face. We’re gonna tank, Nick. Unless we find some capital and expand.” He shook his head. “I don’t have the heart for this.”
The despair in his brother’s voice disturbed him.
“There’s more, isn’t there? What aren’t you telling me?”
Buzz sighed. “I’d been hanging out a lot at the bar. One night, after closing at two, I drove past the office. There was a light on in Arthur’s window. I should’ve gone in and investigated but, I don’t know, I never was any good at confrontations. Instead, I checked with Aunt Isabelle in the morning. She said he’d had a late meeting in Ralston and decided to stay over.”
“Arthur? You think Arthur’s behind all this?”
“I don’t know what else to think.”
“Good God. He’s devoted his life to Bowman’s Biscuits and Pops.”
“But Pops is gone now. Maybe Arthur figured it’s time he got his cut.”
Nick couldn’t see it
. On the other hand, he’d never imagined Arthur would marry Aunt Isabelle either. “What happened when you talked to him?”
A ruddy color appeared in Buzz’s cheeks. “I haven’t. I decided to quote-disappear-unquote for awhile. No one doubted the booze problem. For awhile I stayed in Nadine’s spare room and she’d bring me food. Lately I’ve been in the room across Pine Street.”
“What made you move?”
His brother shifted uncomfortably. “It was the drifter. The one who drowned. When he started hanging around young Junie Budd I checked him out. He was a P.I. from Chicago with a shady reputation. I figured I’d keep an eye on him while I sorted out the business at the company.”
Nick stared at his step-brother. “You’re interested in Junie Budd?”
“No. No, not in the way you mean. It’s just, well, those girls are alone.”
“Yeah. Why’d he bill you fifty thousand dollars?”
Buzz sat up, abruptly and the blue eyes widened. “What?”
“Langston. Aunt Iz showed me an invoice addressed to you.”
“No way.”
“Yesterday I broke into his office and found your business card. What’s the connection between you two, Buzz?”
“Jesus. There’s no connection. I don’t know. None of it makes sense. I never met the guy. I mean it, Nick.”
Nick studied him. “You always used to say that. ‘I mean it, Nick.’ Whenever you were trying to convince me of something. I’d forgotten all about that.”
“I didn’t know Langston. There was no reason for him to send me a bill.”
“I believe you.”
Buzz’s blue eyes filled with hope the way they used to when Nick was about to bail him out of some kind of trouble. Nick’s heart twisted.
“You find out anything about Bowman’s Biscuits?”
“Not much. I can’t make head nor tail of the records. I was so damn glad to know you were back.”
Nick automatically started to assert his lack of interest in the company and then he remembered his promise to Isabelle and Arthur.
“I tailed Arthur a few times. He spends about half his nights out at the house on Dollar Lake, where he lived before the marriage.”
“And from this you conclude what?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was having an affair. One night I caught a glimpse of a passenger in his Lincoln. Looked like a woman.”
Nick nearly choked. Was Isabelle right? Was the buttoned-up attorney, the near lifelong bachelor involved in a liaison with Leilani Harter? It seemed impossible.
“What about your wife? She know about your clandestine activities or does she think you’re in rehab?”
Buzz closed his eyes. “I don’t know what she believes. We don’t talk. Haven’t for years. When this is straightened out I’m gonna talk to a lawyer. The marriage was a mistake from the start and we both know it.”
Nick felt a pang of sympathy for the mismatched couple but Buzz’s personal problems weren’t his business. He needed to focus on Bowman’s Biscuits and the damned blue diamond and the murder. He had a strong hunch they were all related.
Before the estrangement he’d trusted Buzz. He decided to trust him now. He needed his brother’s help. He told Buzz about the posthumous letter from Theo and the blue diamond. His brother paled at the tale about Nazi loot but he listened in silence until Nick finished.
“Nazis, huh? That’s why you and Daisy weren’t surprised about the Time magazine.”
“I think Langston was after the treasure.”
“That makes sense. But why drag me into it?”
Nick shrugged. “Maybe he set you up to take the fall.”
“Yeah, but why? How did he even know about me?”
“Come on, Buzz. Bowman’s Biscuits has a national reputation. Anybody who buys biscuit mix knows the name and most folks know the family. Theo emphasized family loyalty enough.”
“I get that Langston somehow found out about the blue diamond and went after it, possibly using me as a cover, but who killed him?”
“A partner, maybe? Someone who knew enough about the Bowmans and Mayville and the Gray Lady to give him a road map?” They looked at each other. Such a person had to be someone they knew.
“Then why kill him?”
“Maybe they had a falling out. Or maybe the partner didn’t trust him. He smoked a lot of weed.”
Buzz fell silent for a moment. “There had to be a partner. Somebody conked Daisy on the head.”
Nick’s heart jerked and his eyes narrowed. “And that somebody’s gonna pay.”
“We’ll both keep an eye on her, Nick. We won’t let her get hurt again. Does this mean you’re gonna marry Daisy and stay in Mayville to run the company?”
Nick searched his brother’s words for hidden malice or resentment but he couldn’t find any. “Yeah. If it’s okay with you. That’s exactly what it means.”
Buzz’s grin, the one Nick remembered from a more lighthearted time, spread across his face.
“It’s okay with me.”
Chapter Seventeen
The soft rays of the sun woke Daisy. She felt warm and safe. And excited. She sucked in a breath and inhaled the scent of Nick. Umm. She turned over to touch him and pain streaked through her head. She let out a moan.
He exploded from the bed. An instant later gray eyes, darkened by concern, peered into hers from point blank range. She stared at the whiskers on his face and ran her fingers over his cheek.
“Nice.”
“Never mind that.” His voice sounded like the floor of a movie theater after a performance if it could talk. “Does your head hurt?”
“Only when I breathe.”
Strong, gentle fingers probed the bump with care. “I’ll get some more ice.”
“I’d rather have coffee.” She smiled at him. “Did you and your brother get a chance to talk?”
A combination snore/snort drifted in from the other room.
She waited to hear him correct her and was pleased when he refrained from saying “step-brother.”
“Yeah. We’ve come to the conclusion you’re in danger. I want you to close Happily Ever After until this is over.”
She struggled to sit up and her head throbbed. “I can’t do that. Harmony Lime’s coven comes today. There’re a weekend of festivities planned.”
He didn’t argue.
“You knew I’d say that, didn’t you?”
“I don’t want you alone there, Daisy. Not for a minute, day or night.”
Love, as warm as molten metal, poured through her. Nick Bowman was sensitive and caring, a perfect family man. Except he didn’t want a family. She had to remember the plan to pursue eminent domain, to deprive her of her house. She didn’t want to remember that. She wanted to be near Nick for as long as she could. She knew it wouldn’t be long.
“You can stay at the Gray Lady.”
“At night, too.”
She smiled. “You really want to sleep in an ex-mortuary with a coven of witches?”
“I won’t be with the witches. I’ll be with you.”
She lifted her eyebrows.
“With guests present?”
“I’ll sleep on the sofa on the side porch.” He held her gaze a moment longer. “I want you to know something, Daisy. When the murder is solved and we’ve found the blue diamond, I’m not going back to L.A.”
Something stirred under her heart.
“You aren’t?”
“I’ve told Isabelle and Arthur I’d stick around to try to save Bowman’s Biscuits. You were right, honey. Family’s family even when it isn’t.”
He was staying for his family, for his company. This wasn’t about her. Later she’d think about the implications of that. Not now. She found a smile for him.
“I’m pleased for all of you,” she said, simply.
He brought her Cocoa Puffs and coffee and helped her into a shower that somehow seemed lonely. She assured him she could dress herself and soon they were he
aded toward town.
“We should stop at the hospital.”
He sounded like an anxious father. “No need. I’m fine. I’ve been thinking about something.”
She noticed the way his fingers tightened on the steering wheel and she stifled a sigh. He probably thought she was going to make demands.
“Whoever hit me last night must have worked with Spuds and then killed him.”
The white hue faded from his knuckles. He was going to allow her the change the subject. Daisy shook off the disappointment.
“That, uh, person, is probably somebody local.”
“You mean someone in my family.” He sounded remarkably calm. “I agree. In fact, Buzz and I suspect Arthur.”
That startled her. “Arthur Sneed? Theo’s attorney? Isabelle’s husband? But why?”
“We are fairly certain someone is sabotaging the company. It has to be an inside job and, well, frankly, there’s no one else inside. “
“And the same reasoning applies to whoever’s searching for the blue diamond,” Daisy said, slowly.
“The two issues have to be connected. Mayville’s too small to support two villains.”
“But I thought you were the only one in the Bowman circle who knew about the loot.”
Nick shrugged. “Arthur had daily access to Pops for thirty years right up until Pops died. He may have found out at some point.”
“I still can’t believe he’d have cheated Theo or any of you. And I think he cares about Isabelle.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem. The Bowmans suck at marriage.”
“Not always. Buzz and Alice have been married for years.”
Nick shot her a wry look.
“He’s divorcing her.”
“Oh.”
“Hell, Daisy. It’s no big deal. Fifty percent of marriages break up in a courtroom. The Bowmans are heavy contributors to that statistic.”
She didn’t like the cynicism in his voice. “That means fifty percent of marriages make it to the finish line,” she pointed out. “There’s been divorce in my family, too, Nick, but I haven’t given up on happily ever after.”
“No kidding.” His voice was dry.
“Don’t make fun of me, Nick. I believe in the concept of a happy marriage.”
“I believe in the concept, too.”
Her head whipped around too fast and the sharp pain elicited a moan.