Beach Reads Boxed Set

by Marie Force

  “Are you kidding me?” Chuck exclaimed when Susannah explained what had happened.

  “I wish I was.”

  “And he’s never met this girl?”

  “He said he’s never even heard of her.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “Yes, but the cops—they seemed pretty sure they had the right guy. I can’t imagine they’d go so far as to come here and pick him up, especially in light of who he is, if they didn’t have some kind of evidence against him, right?”

  “Susannah, listen to me. This is a girl in crisis. Everything she says and does will be suspect at this point. Don’t panic, and don’t think the worst until we know more.”

  Susannah took a deep breath. “Okay. Can you get over there right away?”

  “Absolutely. I’m also going to call one of my partners who specializes in criminal law, just in case we need him.”

  “Do you really think that’s necessary?”

  “It will be if they charge him with statutory rape.”

  She gasped. “They can’t do that!”

  “Let’s just wait and see what happens. I’m leaving right now.”

  “I’m leaving, too. I’ll see you there.”

  Susannah’s mind raced as she drove to the police station, which teamed with people that Friday night. After fifteen minutes in line, she was told to have a seat and someone would be with her as soon as possible. A tense thirty minutes passed before an officer came to find her.

  “Mrs. Sanderson?”

  Susannah leaped to her feet.

  “Right this way.”

  She followed him through a winding maze of hallways to a room where Ryan conferred with his attorney.

  Ryan stood up when she came in. “Susie! I told you not to come.”

  His distress was so palpable that anxiety rippled through her.

  “What’s going on?” Susannah asked as she took the seat next to Ryan and reached for his hand. “What are they saying?”

  “Apparently,” Chuck said, “this girl, Misty, had refused to name the baby’s father until yesterday.”

  “But how could she name you?” Susannah asked Ryan. “You said you’ve never met her, right?”

  “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Are you sure, Ry? You meet so many people...”

  His eyes were cold as he took back his hand. “I’m positive. I’ve never met her, and I’ve certainly never slept with a sixteen-year-old!”

  “That’s not what I meant!”

  Ryan turned back to Chuck. “What are we waiting for?”

  “They’re talking to her again. They should be back soon.”

  They waited in silence for twenty long minutes until the door opened and the detectives came in.

  “Mrs. Sanderson, we’re going to need you to wait outside.”

  “Why?” Ryan asked. “If I’m not under arrest and not being charged with anything, why can’t she stay?”

  The detectives exchanged glances.

  “All right,” Cooper said. “She can stay. For now.”

  “Ms. Carmichael said she met you on the evening of September 29 after one of your games,” Ortiz said. “There was a party somewhere downtown. She couldn’t recall the exact location, just that there were a lot of people, including other members of your team. She said you bought her several drinks, you danced with her, and then invited her back to your place at...” He consulted his notebook and rattled off the address of Ryan’s apartment in the city. “Where you had sexual relations.”

  Susannah stiffened as she listened to the detective’s monotone account.

  “She’s lying,” Ryan said first to the cops and then again to Susannah.

  “You’re going to have to do a little better than that, Mr. Sanderson,” Ortiz said.

  “No problem.” Ryan’s eyes flashed with anger. “On September 29 we played the New England Patriots. We lost 24 to 21. I remember that date because after the game I had dinner with my father for the first time in thirty years.”

  The detectives were clearly taken aback by this news.

  “Do you have a phone number where we can reach him to confirm this?”

  “I don’t know it by heart. We aren’t exactly in touch. His name is David Sanderson, and he lives in the San Francisco area. I’m not sure where.”

  “What restaurant did you go to?”

  “Sullivan’s,” Ryan said, referring to the downtown steakhouse.

  “Who paid?”

  “I did.”

  “Cash?”

  Ryan thought for a second and then shook his head. “AmEx.”

  “Where did you go after dinner?” Ortiz asked.

  “I was upset.”

  Susannah reached for his hand and was startled when he shook her off.

  “Why were you upset?” Cooper asked.

  “Because all he wanted was money—a half million dollars to be precise.”

  “Did you give it to him?”

  Ryan nodded. “I can get you the cancelled check to prove it.”

  “Did he say what the money was for?”

  “Gambling debts. After I left him I drove over to the house in Cherry Hills. My wife and I were estranged at the time. I sat outside for a long time. I wanted to talk to her, but...”

  “So you didn’t go in?”

  Ryan shook his head. “I didn’t think I’d be welcome. Eventually I went home.”

  “To your place in the city?”

  Ryan nodded.

  “Did you see or talk to anyone in the building?”

  He thought about that. “Not that I can recall, but it was more than six months ago. The one thing I know for sure is I didn’t have sex with this Misty Carmichael or anyone else for that matter.”

  “He’s told me this before,” Susannah said in a voice that sounded high and almost hysterical, even to her. “This whole thing about seeing his father and the money and coming over to the house afterwards. He told me this a month ago after we got back together.”

  The cops exchanged glances.

  “Give us a chance to confirm what you’ve told us,” Cooper said. “We’ll be back.”

  “This is good,” Chuck said with an enthusiastic grin. “This is really good.”

  But one look at Ryan told Susannah it wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all.

  Chapter 29

  Ryan fixated on a faded poster-sized picture of the Rocky Mountains but didn’t say a word while one hour stretched into two as they waited for the detectives to return.

  “I need to use the restroom,” Susannah finally said, and Chuck showed her where it was.

  She was washing her hands when the door opened and a pretty young girl came in. Only her pregnant belly gave her away as the girl who was trying to turn their lives upside down. Her long blond hair was in a ponytail, and her blue eyes were red from crying. Susannah was startled to realize the girl was a younger version of herself. She could have been her sister or her daughter.

  “Why are you doing this?” Susannah asked her. “My husband has never met you, let alone slept with you.”

  “Please excuse me,” she whispered. “I need to use the bathroom.”

  “You’re lying! I don’t know what you hope to gain from this, but you’re not going to destroy his life—our life. I won’t let you.”

  The girl began to weep. “Please...”

  A female police officer came in to check on the girl. “Mrs. Sanderson, please be on your way.”

  “I just want some answers,” Susannah pleaded.

  The cop gestured to the door, the warning clear in her expression.

  With one last pointed look at the girl, Susannah left the bathroom. “I saw her—Misty Carmichael,” she said to Ryan and Chuck when she returned to the interrogation room. “She looks just like me.”

  “What do you mean?” Ryan asked.

  “Just what I said. She could be me fifteen years ago.”

  “What the hell?”

  Chuck shook his
head. “This whole thing stinks to high heaven.”

  By the time the detectives finally returned an hour later, it was after one in the morning.

  “I’m afraid we owe you an apology, Mr. Sanderson.”

  Ryan’s sigh of relief was audible. “I told you she was lying.”

  “Did she say why?” Susannah asked.

  “She was hired to say Mr. Sanderson fathered her child. However, she wasn’t counting on her father bringing the police into it.”

  “Hired?” Ryan roared. “By who?”

  Ortiz consulted his notebook. “A Henry Merrill and a Betsy James. Do you know these people?”

  Susannah, who had been pacing the small room, sat down hard when her legs gave out under her.

  “Yes,” Ryan snarled. “We know them.”

  “And do you know why they’d want to do something like this to you?”

  “I know exactly why.” He told the cops about Henry’s history with Susannah and the restraining order he had out on Betsy. “That should be easy enough for you to confirm,” he said, barely managing to contain his hostility.

  “We have people running their names through the system right now.”

  “Please tell me they’re going to be charged with something substantial,” Chuck said.

  “They’ve both been arrested and are on their way in right now to face numerous charges. We’re still sorting out the details, but apparently Ms. James knew Ms. Carmichael’s family and somehow discovered the girl was hiding a pregnancy.”

  “So who’s the father?” Ryan asked.

  “Ms. Carmichael has been seeing a University of Colorado student, whom her parents didn’t know about, and he’s the baby’s father. When Mr. Merrill and Ms. James offered her twenty-five thousand dollars to name you as the baby’s father, she saw it as a way for her and the boyfriend to live together. That she closely resembled Mrs. Sanderson was a bonus to them. According to Ms. Carmichael, they figured it’d make sense that you’d be attracted to someone who looked like your estranged wife. Their scheme fell apart because they took a gamble and picked a date when you had a solid alibi, which your father has confirmed, by the way. Eventually, DNA would’ve exonerated you, but that would’ve taken a while.” He didn’t have to add it would’ve taken just long enough to ruin Ryan’s life, which, of course, had been the goal.

  Ryan’s lips were white, and his cheek pulsed with tension.

  “I hope the girl is being charged, too,” Chuck said.

  “Yes, as a juvenile. Reporting a false crime and defamation.”

  “Can’t you leave her out of it?” Ryan asked. “She’s as much a victim in this as I am.”

  Cooper looked at Ryan with surprise. “Mr. Sanderson, do you have any idea how much trouble you would’ve been in if we could’ve made this case?”

  “Of course I do!” He slapped his hand on the Formica table. “You’ve given me three hours to sit here and think of nothing else. But she’s a kid who was victimized by two people with a thirst for revenge against my wife and me. Leave her out of it.”

  “I’ll pass along your thoughts to the Family Court judge,” Cooper said. “That’s the best I can do. You’re free to go. I appreciate your cooperation and your patience. I’m sorry again for any inconvenience.”

  “Is this going to be all over the papers?” Ryan asked.

  “We’ve had several calls from reporters. Unfortunately, it’s public information.”

  “Great,” Ryan said. “That’s just great.”

  “You were the victim of a crime, Mr. Sanderson. I’m confident it’ll be reported as such.”

  “Yes, with my name and the words ‘statutory rape’ in the same sentence,” Ryan said with a bitter laugh. “I’m sure that’ll do wonders for my reputation not to mention my endorsement deals. Damage done, Detective.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Ryan glanced at Susannah. “Let’s go.”

  Chuck followed them as they navigated the maze to the waiting area, which had all but cleared out in the hours since they had arrived. The doors burst open and four cops came in, escorting Henry and Betsy, who were handcuffed. Henry’s coat hung open, and there was a big, wet stain on the front of his pajamas.

  Since Ryan and Susannah were blocking their way, the cops had no choice but to stop with their prisoners.

  “You stupid son of a bitch,” Ryan hissed at Henry, who refused to look at him. “Didn’t work out quite like you planned, did it? You just assumed I spent the time I was separated from Susie whoring it up, didn’t you? Must’ve been a big shock to hear I had a rock-solid alibi that had nothing to do with another woman. I’ve got to give you an A for effort, though. When you go over the edge, you do it spectacularly.”

  “Fuck you,” Henry muttered.

  “Ryan, don’t,” Susannah said, placing her hand on Ryan’s back. “He’s so not worth it.”

  Henry’s eyes filled when he looked at her. “This is all your fault! You drove me to it by jerking me around for years.”

  “No, Henry,” Susannah said quietly. “You drove yourself to this with your unhealthy obsession with another man’s wife.”

  “Today was supposed to be our wedding day, Susannah. You made promises to me, and then you left me for him, just like you always do.”

  “Ryan,” Betsy said with a frantic edge to her voice. “I only went along with it because I love you. She doesn’t appreciate you. Not like I do.”

  “Shut up, Betsy,” Henry snapped.

  “All right, that’s enough,” one of the cops said. They ushered Henry and Betsy toward central booking.

  “Ryan!” Betsy cried again before the door closed behind them.

  Susannah clutched her stomach when a vicious wave of nausea rippled through her.

  “What’s wrong?” Ryan asked.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  He hustled her outside into the cold, which was a shock to her system after the stagnant air of the police station.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  He turned to shake hands with his attorney. “Thanks for everything tonight, Chuck.”

  “You might want to consider civil charges against them,” Chuck said.

  Ryan shook his head. “No way. This’ll get enough ink without me perpetuating it. I just want it to go away.”

  “You’ll both be called to testify if it goes to trial,” he warned them.

  “Freaking nightmare,” Ryan muttered.

  “Take your wife home,” Chuck said, his hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “She’s looking kind of pale. You’ll both feel better after you get some sleep.”

  He left them, and Ryan guided Susannah to the passenger side of her car. They drove home in silence to a house where the lights were still on in the den, his guitar still leaned against the sofa, and the fire had burned down to embers. The house was exactly as they had left it, but everything was different. Altered.

  They went up to bed and lay awake for hours, both trying on their own to absorb what had happened, what had nearly happened, and the stunning array of implications.

  “Ry?” Susannah finally said as the sun began to peek through the blinds.

  “What?”

  “Talk to me.”

  “What do you want me to say?

  “Something.”

  “Hmmm, how about I’m grateful to be here with you and not in jail? Or, your ex-fiancé did a real number on me? Or how about this? I appreciated your support. Where do you want me to start?”

  She sat up to look at him. “What’s that supposed to mean? You appreciated my support? I was right there with you the whole time.”

  He chuckled, but there was an edge to it that set her already frazzled nerves further on edge.

  “If you have something to say, just say it.”

  “You believed it. For an instant, you believed what they were saying about me. I saw it on your face.”

  Furious, she said, “Ryan Sanderson, I don’t know what you think
you saw, but the only thing I was feeling was shock—the same thing you were feeling.”

  “No, it was different for me, because I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. You weren’t so sure.”

  “How can you say that to me? I never thought for one second that you fooled around with a teenager!”

  He mimicked her tone and her accent when he said, “‘Are you sure you don’t know her, Ry? You meet so many people.’”

  “That was a perfectly honest question! I was just wondering if maybe you did know her, and she’d turned something innocent into something more. We both know how that can happen to people like you who’re in the public eye. We’ve seen it happen. That’s all I was saying.” When her stomach churned violently, Susannah bolted for the bathroom and vomited.

  Ryan came to the doorway. “Are you all right?”

  With her head hanging over the toilet, the whole thing finally hit her, and her sobs echoed through the bathroom.

  He wet a face cloth and sat down next to her, drawing her into his arms. Running the cloth over her face and mouth, he wiped away her tears.

  “I didn’t believe them, Ry,” she said between sobs. “I didn’t. I believed you. I tried to help you. When I said you’d told me that story about your father before. I tried to help.”

  “Okay, baby. Let’s just forget about it.”

  She pulled away from him. “Do you believe me?”

  “Yeah,” he said, bringing her head back to rest on his shoulder.

  “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.

  “For what?”

  “Henry. You tried to warn me he was dangerous, but I never imagined he’d do something like this to you.”

  “He didn’t do it alone,” Ryan said bitterly. “He found an able accomplice in psycho bitch. We should’ve reported him when he sprained your wrist. Maybe that would’ve scared the piss out of him before any of this could’ve happened.”

  Susannah chuckled sadly. “I just can’t believe...”

  “What, baby?”

  “That they hate us so much just because we’re together and we’re happy,” she whispered. “It’s overwhelming.”

  “Well, they’re going to be punished for it.”

  “So are you. What you said to the detective about your reputation and your endorsements was true. This’ll kill your Q.”