Haunting Rachel (7 page)

She thought it said something about this man’s character
that he insisted she know about a part of her inheritance she would never have missed; she couldn’t help wondering how many people would have just kept the money and their silence. But all she said was “It doesn’t really sound like Dad, investing money with no records. He must have trusted you a great deal.”

Adam looked down at his clasped hands. “He was very kind to me at a point in my life when kindness meant more than money. And he had faith in my future, something I didn’t have myself. I don’t know why he trusted me, but he did. I’ll always be as grateful to him for that trust as for the money that put me back on my feet.”

Rachel was moved despite both uneasiness and fascination.
Dear God, he looks so much like Thomas!
And sounded like him. She clasped her hands together and made herself concentrate. “How did you know Dad? I mean, how did you meet him?”

“It’s a bit involved.” He raised his gaze to her face and smiled faintly. “He came out to California, where I’m from, more than five years ago on a business trip. I had, the week before, called up an old friend to ask for help. The friend, as it turned out, was away in Europe. His partner, as it turned out, was Duncan Grant.”

“Nicholas Ross?” That surprised her, although she couldn’t have said exactly why.

“Yes. We’d known each other a long time and Nick … sort of owed me a favor. Anyway, when I couldn’t reach him, I spoke briefly to Duncan. I found out when he came out to San Francisco the next week that he had called Nick and asked about me. To this day I don’t know what Nick told him, but he came out to California specifically to see me. He listened to my problems and my plans, and offered me the money I needed on the spot.

“Over the next three or four years I flew out here
several times to see him. To let him know how his investment was doing. How I was doing. We’d have lunch, maybe even do a flyover of the city in that little plane he was so proud of. And then I’d go back to California.”

Rachel flinched a little as she thought of the sleek twin-engine plane her father had loved—and that had taken both her parents to their deaths. Adam obviously saw her reaction.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you any pain, Rachel.”

“No, it’s just … I don’t like to think about that plane, that’s all.” Planes had taken all the people she loved. She conjured a smile. “So you know Nicholas. Didn’t you assume he’d tell me about Dad’s investment?”

Adam shook his head. “No, I knew he’d leave it to me. Nick isn’t exactly the most candid of men, you know. I mean, he isn’t apt to discuss other people’s business.”

“Or even his own,” Rachel observed dryly.

“Very true.” Adam’s eyes grew even more intense when he smiled at her, and it made her feel strange.
He isn’t Thomas. He isn’t! No matter how much he looks like him.
But those logical reminders did nothing to curb her growing desire to reach out and touch him.

Unwilling to let a silence fall between them, she said, “Why did you leave the scene on Friday when I hit that tree? The paramedics told me only the highway patrol was there near the car when they arrived.”

“You should have asked the highway patrol about me,” he told her with a touch of amusement. “When they reached the scene, they made everyone else stand back. You were in expert care and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do, so I left when I heard the ambulance coming.”

She half nodded, then said, “Why did you come to my
room at the hospital so late? You did, didn’t you? I didn’t imagine it?”

“No, you didn’t imagine it.” He hesitated. “I just wanted to make sure you were all right. Didn’t expect you to wake up, but you were obviously groggy and went back to sleep almost at once, so I didn’t stay.”

“You came late. After visiting hours.” That still bothered her.

“There were some things I had to take care of first,” he said rather vaguely, looking briefly down at his hands in a way that shuttered his gaze for a moment. “It was late when I finished up and got to the hospital. To be honest, I snuck in.”

She thought his smile was very disarming. “I see. All right—Adam. I suppose all this makes sense.”
But it doesn’t, none of it does.

“But you still have your doubts?”

“Well, let’s just say it surprises me that Dad would have done business the way you say he did. However, you didn’t have to come and tell me all this, and I can’t think of any devious reason why you would have. And I imagine Nicholas will vouch for you.”

A flicker of some emotion Rachel couldn’t read crossed his handsome face, but he merely said, “I’m sure he will. In the meantime, I just want to assure you that Duncan’s investment will be repaid as promised. By the end of the year, I believe.”

Realizing suddenly that she had no idea, she said, “I suppose I should ask what kind of business Dad invested in.”

“It was more a project than a business, initially. I had dreamed up an electronic gadget that would improve most manufacturing facilities. I had to get the design patented, a prototype built, and try to sell it. It was so successful that I
was able to start my own electronic design and engineering firm. All possible due to the investment Duncan made.”

“I’m sure he was pleased with your success. Dad loved to see people achieve their dreams.” Rachel started to rise to her feet. “How much was the investment, by the way?”

Matter-of-factly, Adam replied, “Three million dollars.”

achel sat back down. “Three million dollars?”

He nodded.

“You’re telling me that my father invested three million dollars of his own money on a handshake?”

Patient, Adam said, “I’ve already told you that, yes.”

“You didn’t tell me it was three million dollars.” She was incredulous. “Adam, I’ve seen Dad’s bank records going back years. There was no unexplained withdrawal anywhere near that size, not five years ago and not ever. Every penny has been accounted for.”

“I don’t know what to tell you. Except—as I remember, he transferred the funds to my bank from a Swiss bank account.”

She blinked. “He what? He doesn’t have a Swiss bank account.”

“He did five years ago. I was sitting in the room, admittedly
a bit numb, but I remember the call clearly. He definitely called Geneva.”

Rachel had passed bewilderment; now she felt distinctly unnerved, and not only because the image of her long-dead fiancé was sitting across from her. What would an honest businessman want with a Swiss bank account? And why had no sign of such a thing come to light during all the months countless experts had combed through Duncan Grant’s financial records?

It naturally occurred to her that she was hearing this from a virtual stranger, and that she had every reason to doubt what he was telling her. Except that he seemed about to hand her three million dollars, and she couldn’t imagine how that could be part of some tangled deception. And—he looked like Thomas. He looked so damned much like Thomas.

“Rachel? Are you all right?”

“No, I’m not.”

He hesitated, then said reassuringly, “I’m sure there’s no reason for you to be concerned. Duncan may have routed some of his funds through Geneva temporarily for some tax reason. If the account still existed, you surely would have found some record of it among his papers.”

“Would I? I found no record of a three-million-dollar investment, so I would say nothing’s certain where my father is concerned.”

Adam hesitated once again before saying, “He wouldn’t have wanted you to miss getting part of your inheritance, so I’m sure he would have left some kind of word for you if he had money … put aside somewhere you wouldn’t expect it to be.”

“You mean if he had money hidden somewhere.”

“I didn’t want to put it that way,” he murmured.

“My father,” she told him fiercely, “was an honest man. He earned every nickel he had. Every last one. There was no reason for him to hide money.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” Adam shook his head. “Look, Rachel, I’m sorry I’ve upset you. It wasn’t my intention to do that. I just wanted to let you know that Duncan’s investment will be repaid this year. You might want to talk to whoever advises you financially. That’s a pretty large chunk of money.”

“No kidding.” It was Rachel’s turn to shake her head. “And how do I explain it? How will
you
explain it?”

“Repayment of a personal loan,” he said promptly. “It started my business, so I’ve had to be fairly specific in my own paperwork, but since the repayment is coming out of clear and already taxed personal profit, I don’t expect there’ll be many questions.”

Obviously, his “dreamed-up” design and new company had proven to be enormously successful if he could repay three million dollars from his personal bank account. “Simple for you, but I know enough about finance to be fairly certain that if I can’t prove that loan was made to you out of already taxed earnings, I’m going to have problems. Somehow, I doubt that’s the way Dad planned it.”

“So do I,” Adam agreed with a slight frown. “Which means he must have left some record somewhere, if only a notation about making a personal loan and where the funds came from. Have you gone through all his personal papers?”

“Not all of them, not yet.”

“There you go. Until you do and nothing turns up, let’s not borrow trouble.”

Rachel managed a smile, even though too many questions remained unanswered. “I guess you’re right. Besides,
an hour ago this money didn’t even exist for me. Anything realized from it is more than I expected.”

“That sounds like a sensible way of looking at it.” Adam got to his feet. “And now, since I’ve taken up enough of your time, I’ll be going.”

Rachel got to her feet as well, and hoped her voice didn’t sound as anxious to him as it did to her when she asked “Back to California?”

“No, not yet. I plan to stay in Richmond another week or two. I’ll be at the Sheraton if you … need to get in touch.” He took a step toward her and held out his hand.

Rachel hesitated only an instant before giving him her hand, and as braced for it as she was, the touch of him was still a little shocking.
He isn’t Thomas. He isn’t.
But that certainty didn’t have the power to change what she felt. She gazed up into his eyes and felt stirrings of sensations she hadn’t experienced in a long, long time.

This is wrong. I don’t know him. I know only what he looks like.

“I realize I’m a stranger to you,” he said abruptly, still holding her hand, “but—I’d like to see you again, Rachel. May I call you, say in a day or two? We could have dinner, see a movie. Something casual.”

He isn’t Thomas.

“I’d like that.” She hadn’t planned to say it until the words came out, but once they did, she didn’t regret them.

“Good.” He smiled at her and squeezed her hand gently, then released it. “I’ll see myself out. It was very nice meeting you, Rachel—at last.”

“And it was nice finding out you weren’t a ghost or a figment of my imagination,” she told him, keeping it light.

He had a nice laugh.

When she was alone in the study, Rachel sat in the chair and stared across the room at nothing, thoughts and
emotions swirling within her and her hand still tingling from the touch of his.

“My God,” she murmured.

“Three million dollars?”

Rachel nodded, gazing across his desk at Graham’s surprised expression. “That’s what the man said.”

“Duncan lent this man three million dollars on a handshake?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“Startled me too,” she murmured.

“No, I mean I flat-out don’t believe it. Rachel, that’s not the way Duncan did business. It’d be insane to risk that kind of money with absolutely no written promise of repayment. What if this man—Delafield, you said his name was?”

“Adam Delafield.”

Graham made a note on the legal pad on his blotter. “What if he denied getting the money? Or simply decided not to repay it? Duncan would have had no recourse, no legal means of demanding the debt be repaid.”

Calmly, Rachel said, “Obviously, Dad thought he could trust this man. And the proof of his good judgment came to see me yesterday. If he hadn’t, I never would have known about the loan—not unless something turns up in Dad’s private papers, anyway. All he had to do was sit on the money and keep silent. But he came to tell me the debt will be repaid in the next six months or so.”

Graham shook his head. “There’s something fishy about it.”

“Well, if you can figure out some way a con artist
would benefit by promising to pay me three million dollars, let me know. I couldn’t think of a damned thing.”

“Did he ask you for anything? Anything at all?”

I’d like to see you again, Rachel.

She shook her head. “No.”

Graham drummed his fingers on the legal pad. “And you say you saw him watching you before he came to the house? That he was the man you mistook on that street corner for Thomas? And that you saw him just before your car’s brakes went out?”

“I told you why. He wasn’t sure how to approach me, especially since he looks so much like Thomas.” Despite her own uneasiness, Rachel smiled. “Graham, you’re so suspicious. Why can’t Adam Delafield just be an honest man trying to repay a loan? Why does there have to be more to it?”