Embracing Danger (24 page)

“But,” Arden prompted. “I hear a
but
at the end of that sentence.

“But you can’t let this take over your life. Many people have family that let them down, lie to them, and are basically pains in the ass. The sun will come up the next day and you’ve got to be ready for it. You came back to Tremont to start a new life and honey, we can have that new life. Don’t you want to?”

More than anything.

“Everything feels so up in the air.” Arden didn’t know how to explain the unsettled feeling she’d had since her father disappeared and she found out her mother was murdered. “Nothing is the same.”

He leaned forward, criss-crossing his legs. “That’s not true. I’m the same and I love you. I want to have a future with you. I think you want that too.”

She did. So very much. “I do want that. More than you can know. But I feel like my new life can’t start until I bury the ghosts from my old one.”

Shane nodded and then tugged on a lock of her hair, giving her that Anderson smile. “Then we better get busy digging some holes because we’re going to bury every one of them sons of bitches. This time, honey, no one is getting in the way of our happily ever after.”

That’s what she was counting on.

“I’ll get a couple of shovels.”

‡

T
he next morning,
Shane left a sleeping Arden tucked up in a warm bed while he met Wyatt in the hotel restaurant just off the lobby. The other man was already sitting at a table sipping his coffee while the waitress tried to flirt with him. Clearly from the patient expression on Wyatt Stone’s face, the poor girl wasn’t getting very far.

“Shane, glad you could make it. Have some coffee.”

The waitress poured Shane a cup while he settled into his chair opposite Wyatt. Both of them quickly ordered – Shane the scrambled eggs and bacon, Wyatt the waffles also with a side of bacon – and the waitress bustled away to put in their orders.

“I got your message this morning.” Shane dumped some cream in his coffee. “What’s going on?”

“First, the ballistics came back on the bullet in Arden’s uncle’s chest. It matches the gun used in Susannah Hollis’s murder.”

That was news Shane wasn’t expecting. David’s motive was weak at best. “Is he awake yet? I would imagine the police would want to talk to him.”

“Not yet. But when you see this you won’t be concentrating on him anymore. If I were a betting man – which I am not – I would say that gun was given to him. We’ll have to wait until he wakes up to find out by whom because the serial numbers were filed off.”

“This case gets stranger by the minute. Do you have anything else for me?”

Wyatt tapped a legal size envelope on the table between them that Shane hadn’t noticed before. “You were right. When I went looking it was right there. I thought it might be something you’d want to see right away.”

Shane pulled the piece of paper from the envelope and quickly scanned the contents. His fingers curled into fists and he had to concentrate on relaxing his hands.

“It says Susannah’s trust fund was to be turned over to her on her twenty-sixth birthday and she died just thirty days shy of that. She never received the money. Are you one hundred percent sure about this? It’s a hell of a coincidence, the timing and all.”

Wyatt nodded, his own expression somber. “I am.”

Scraping his fingers through his still damp hair, Shane shook his head, his mind still trying to come to grips with what he’d read. “This changes everything.”

“Can Arden handle this? She has to be reeling from all she’s learned in the past few weeks.”

Arden was a strong woman but this would put her to the test. Shane felt a pang of remorse for the speech he’d given her last night. This new blow wasn’t going to be something she’d come back from easily. It was going to take time and he’d be by her side every step of the way.

“She’s tough and we’ll all be there helping her.” Their food was placed in front of them and the waitress slid the check on the table before heading back to the kitchen. Shane looked down at his plate, his usually strong appetite suddenly gone. “I guess it’s back to Tremont, then. That’s the only way to know for sure.”

Wyatt shook his head. “I hope I’m wrong.”

“Are you wrong a lot?” Shane asked hopefully, but he knew the answer and it wasn’t in his favor.

“About women and relationships? All the time. About stuff like this? Hardly ever. I’m sorry, man.”

No one was sorrier than Shane.

*     *     *

Arden’s grandmother Elaine
Graham lifted the delicate china teacup to her lips and sipped daintily. She was the first person Arden had wanted to see upon her return from Chicago yesterday. Now they were sitting in Elaine’s parlor having tea and cookies while Arden answered her grandmother’s questions about her trip.

Elaine was dressed in her usual Chanel suit, this one a frosty pink with white buttons. Her hair was perfectly done and her face made up to look at least ten years younger than her actual age. The perfect matriarch to an incredibly dysfunctional family.

“I’m so glad you’re back in Tremont, my dear, and you found that heartless father of yours as well. That’s good news.”

Arden drummed her fingers impatiently on the arm of the chair. Her grandmother was smiling as if everything was lovely and wonderful when clearly it was not.

“That was the only good news I had, Grandmother. Did you hear me earlier when I said that I found out Mother was murdered and that Ben isn’t my real father?”

The older woman sighed and sipped at her tea again before reaching for a cookie from the silver tray. “I did, dear. I suppose we should have told you years ago but the time got away from us and you were happy. There didn’t seem any reason to upset you with such news. I mean, it doesn’t really make any difference, does it? Your mother is still gone and Ben is still your father.”

Gasping, Arden almost dropped her teacup at Elaine’s matter-of-fact tone.

“Grandmother, Ben isn’t still my father. Not really, anyway. And Mother’s unsolved murder is heartbreaking. I don’t feel like she can rest in peace until I find her killer and see him brought to justice.”

“What can you do to solve a murder that happened over thirty years ago? If the police couldn’t do it, I doubt you can.”

Arden set the cup and saucer on the table between them. “That’s why I’ve hired Jason Anderson’s law enforcement consulting firm. With their help, and Shane’s too of course, I’m sure they can make some headway. Science has come a long way since then and Shane said that cold cases get solved all the time.”

Nibbling at the shortbread cookie, Elaine nodded. “I’m sure they do, dear. And how is Shane? Did you two…kiss and make up, as they say?”

They’d done a hell of a lot more than that but Arden wasn’t going to be confessing any of her sins. Not today. She had more pressing matters to deal with.

“We did, but then I think you knew that. Isn’t that why you encouraged me to ask him for help?”

Elaine smiled triumphantly. “You’re perfect for each other. Ben should never have interfered. Shane wouldn’t care if you could have children or not. He’s not that kind of man.”

“You’re right, he’s not. But I’m still very angry with you, Grandmother. You and Father kept so much from me all these years. I understand why when I was a child but when I became an adult you should have said something.”

Swallowing down the giant-sized lump in her throat, Arden pressed her palms to edge of the table, the knuckles turning white. Her stomach was turning somersaults in her abdomen and her heart was racing a million miles a minute against her ribs. She had to get herself under control quickly or this was going to go south.

“It was for the best,” Elaine sniffed. “I knew it would upset you and I was right. Sometimes the less we know the better.”

That was true. Arden would love to go back about twenty-four hours ago but sadly she lacked a functional time machine.

“I can’t argue with that logic but I’m still upset. My mother was shot and Ben seems to think David did it.”

“And David thinks Ben did it.” A smile played on Elaine’s lips. A smile that shouldn’t be there. She was talking about her own daughter’s murder like they were discussing the latest episode of
Sherlock
. “Don’t you think one of them did? The police do.”

Arden gripped the table more tightly until pain shot up her fingers. “No, I don’t think either one of them did it. I don’t think you do, either.”

Elaine shrugged and picked up another cookie. “I don’t remember what I thought at the time. It was many years ago, my dear, and best left in the past. There’s nothing to be gained by digging up old hurts and putting them on display.”

Funny thing about shovels and digging up ghosts…you’re sure to get the crap scared out of you.

Unfurling her clamped fingers, Arden placed them on the arms of the chair. It was now or never. She was losing her nerve and she’d told Shane she could do this. She’d wanted to do this for her mother. It was all she could do for Susannah Hollis. Arden gathered her courage and took a deep breath to calm her destroyed nerves.

“How did you get in and out of the house that night without anyone seeing you? Or did David see you?”

Elaine blinked a few times at the question but then took another bite of cookie. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, dear. What night? And what about David?”

Arden licked her dry lips and tried again. “The night you shot my mother. Was David there? Did he see you? How did you convince him not to tell the police?”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Arden. Have some more tea, perhaps that will clear your mind.”

For the first time in a very long time, Arden’s mind was clear.

And her heart was broken.

“Was the only reason the money? Or were there other reasons you shot her?”

Placing the cookie back on the china plate, Elaine dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a snowy white linen napkin.

“You and Shane were quite busy, but not in the way I thought. When I told you to ask him for help I assumed you two would fall into bed with one another and forget all about this. I see I miscalculated that one.”

A chink in the older woman’s armor. A small one, but it was a start.

“I doubt that happens often, Grandmother,” Arden offered, holding her breath in a wait and see. “I’m sure you’re very detail-oriented.”

“I’ve had to be. There’s no excuse for sloppiness in any endeavor. If you’re going to do something you owe it to yourself to do it well.”

“You must have thought of everything. After all, thirty plus years and not one person suspected you.”

“My dear, most people are not very bright. The vast majority of the population is simply waiting for someone to tell them what to do. So I did.”

Her grandmother’s sense of privilege was breathtaking and it almost left Arden speechless.

Almost.

“You mean the
little people
?”

Elaine sat back on the sofa, a small smile on her lips. “I mean all people.”

“And that’s why you were never a suspect?”

“I was never a suspect because I never did anything that could be construed as suspicious.”

Arden wouldn’t win these verbal spars.

“So you’re are denying that you shot my mother.”

Elaine leaned forward, the blue eyes so like Arden’s own as cold as ice chips. “Are you accusing me of killing my own daughter?”

Everything in that moment was amplified. The ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner. The bergamot aroma of the Earl Grey tea and the vanilla in the shortbread cookies. The slight creaking sound as a gust of wind blew the old oak tree outside the window.

“I’m not asking you, Grandmother. I’m stating a fact. You killed my mother. And you did it all for money.”

‡