Authors: Cassie Miles
Greedy enough to commit murder? Kelly shuddered.
Chapter Fifteen
Wednesday, 9:24 p.m.
Nick wished he could dismiss Arthur’s accusations, but the little weasel had hit on a theory that had been playing around in the back of Nick’s mind. He had been considering Marian as a suspect—not because of nefarious motives to take control of the business but because she was the only other person nearby when Samuel was shot. She might
have staged the moment when they had to break down the door.
“You know I’m right,” Arthur said. “The killer is one of those upstanding citizens, maybe both of them. They did it. They’re scum. And they have to pay.”
“If they’re guilty.”
“Take off the blinders, Nicky. These people are nicey-nice with you, but I know them from a different perspective. I can’t count the number of doors
they’ve slammed in my face.”
Nick didn’t want to waste time raking over the coals of old grudges. Marian had pulled the plug on a couple of Arthur’s investment schemes. So what? Nick had also turned him down. His own sister wouldn’t loan him money.
“I get it,” he said. “You don’t like lawyers and accountants. But that’s not proof. You still haven’t explained what Marian or Rod stand
to gain by killing Samuel.”
“They’d get their dirty little paws on Samuel’s stock. He owned 33 percent of Spencer Enterprises.”
“How do you know that figure?” Nick asked.
“It’s my inheritance.”
Arthur’s murky logic was beginning to come clear. Nick hadn’t known he was the beneficiary. “You inherit, and the company has to pay you for the value of the stock.”
“And I become
a wealthy man.” He chuckled to himself. “Then Rod and Marian buy my shares or shuffle it into the corporate pool that they manage. Either way, they get controlling interest.”
“Not entirely,” Nick said. “Jared and I still own 40 percent.”
“And Samuel always voted with you. With him out of the way, the Spencer magic is over. Marian and Rod can take over.”
An ugly scenario
. Though
Nick didn’t like the constrictions of corporate business, he wasn’t willing to throw away his birthright. If bean counters like Marian and Rod were running the show, Spencer Enterprises would be only about the bottom line. Property holdings would be sold or leased, building projects would be outsourced, and there would be no new architecture, no creativity.
“I have a question,” Kelly piped
up. “How do you know that Samuel made you his beneficiary?”
“You’re cute and smart,” Arthur said. “An impressive combo. I like her, Nicky.”
“Answer her question.”
“Your uncle loved my mother. That’s no big secret. Everybody knew it. He liked to give her presents, but Mom didn’t care for jewelry or fancy vacations. She’s a practical woman.” He gestured to the beautifully designed
structure they were approaching. “She asked Samuel for a house, and he delivered. She asked for financial security for herself and her kids. Samuel wrote us into his will. He told me. My sister gets property. I get stock.”
“Have you seen the will?” Nick asked.
“No.” He paused in the middle of the road to take a breath. “I know what was promised to me. That’s why I’m hanging around here.
I need final confirmation.”
That was the truest statement Arthur had made. He was hovering like a vulture, waiting to hear the reading of Samuel’s will.
“That’s interesting,” Nick said. “I thought you were here because you were investigating my uncle’s death. Seeking justice for his murder. Punishing the wrongdoers.”
Arthur clapped him on the shoulder. “Now that I know you’re on
the case, I’ll step back. You can handle it.”
“Give me a phone number where I can reach you.”
“Why should I?” Arthur turned his back and walked toward the driveway where Nick’s SUV was parked.
“You need me,” Nick said.
“Why?”
“Because I’m an insider and you aren’t. I can find out the actual terms of Samuel’s will. I could find out tomorrow. As soon as I have information,
I’ll let you know.”
Arthur gave an unpleasant little chuckle. “Who would have ever thought you and I would be working together?”
Since he didn’t have a card with his current number, they waited while Kelly dug through her purse and found a scrap of paper and a pen. Nick made a note of the number, which would come in handy if he needed to contact Arthur again.
“Are you going to be
staying at the house?” Nick asked.
“Might as well. Mom is off playing Lady Bountiful at Lauren’s place. It could be her last chance to reap the benefits of being Samuel’s longtime companion. With your uncle out of the picture, nobody is going to pay much attention to her.”
“I would,” Nick said.
“Yeah, sure. After your kids and your brother and whatever chick you’re dating, you might
get around to saying hello to Julia and reminiscing about the good old days when you and me helped your uncle build this house.”
A thought occurred to Nick. “You knew it was me as soon as I rang the doorbell.”
“How do you figure?”
“You went out the side door onto the deck. If it had been anybody else you would have taken the secret passageway and hidden in the basement. You and
I are the only ones who know about the sliding door in the bedroom and the staircase.”
“And I would have been trapped in the basement. Good call, Nicky.”
“Why did you run?” Nick asked.
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” Arthur spread his arms wide. “I don’t like you. Not you or your brother or any of the other Spencer family trust funders. When I have my money, I promise that you
Spencers will never see me again.”
He swept low in a bow, pivoted and jogged up the stair to the house that Samuel built. It was a ridiculous and dramatic exit, appropriate for a ridiculous man. Nick would be happy for the day when Arthur was out of his life for good.
In a quiet voice, Kelly asked, “How much of that do you think we can believe?”
“He’s not to be trusted, that’s for
sure.” He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “I thought you saw the good in everyone.”
“It’s hard to be positive about somebody who chases you through the forest. Arthur scared me half to death.”
“But you fought him off with your purse.” He kissed the top of her head. “I don’t think he’s a real threat, but I’m not sure. Arthur is desperate. When he knew it was me at the
door, he took off running.”
“You’ve known him since you were kids,” she said. “Has he done that before?”
As a general rule, Arthur stood his ground and defended himself with a wall of insults. But he’d been afraid to face Nick. “He’s got something to hide. We can believe some of what he said to us, but he’s leaving a lot out.”
She tilted her face toward him. “I almost feel sorry
for him. He was raised with all you Spencers but never really felt like part of the family.”
“That was his choice.”
As he gazed down at her, other thoughts fled from his mind. The rest of the night belonged to them. Taking her arm, he directed her to the passenger side of his SUV. If he drove fast, his condo was only twenty-five minutes away from here, and it was going to be hard to
wait that long before he started kissing her.
“Arthur was an outsider.” She came to a stop at the car door. “Believe me, I know what that’s like. It can warp a person.”
“Can we stop talking about Arthur?” He yanked open the door. When she climbed inside, he ran around to the driver’s side and got behind the steering wheel. In seconds, he had his seat belt on, had the engine started and
was backing into the road.
“When I was with my ex,” she said, “his job required us to go to lots of gala events. I always felt like an oddball. I didn’t know the people in that crowd, and there wasn’t a reason for them to pay attention to me. I wasn’t famous or stunningly beautiful or powerful. So, I got ignored. I spent a lot of time alone in a corner with the potted plants.”
“That
was your ex-husband’s fault. He should have made sure you were comfortable with the people around you.” Every time she talked about that jerk, Nick had another reason to hate Ted Maxwell. “Any man who escorted you would be the luckiest man in the room.”
“Thank you, but you’re just being nice.”
“I’ve watched you in action, and your behavior is always appropriate, whether you’re pretending
to be a dragon or meeting a top executive. People like you. They like to talk to you. Kelly, you made a friend of my ex-wife, and that’s not easy.”
“You might be prejudiced in my favor.” But he heard in her voice that she was pleased. If he could have seen her in the dark, he suspected she’d be smiling. “I was using my experience to show you how it feels to be an outcast, like Arthur.”
“You’re nothing like him. Even when he was a kid, Arthur was working the angles, trying to get something for nothing.”
“As a desperate plea for attention?”
“He was treated fairly,” Nick said. There were a lot of things wrong with his family, but this wasn’t one of them. “The Spencers have money and a certain amount of status, but we’re open-minded. That’s a tradition in the West.”
“How so?”
“You can’t be a rancher or a gold miner all by yourself. You need other people doing their jobs and doing them right. It’s something you learn when you work together, especially when you live close to nature. In a blizzard or a forest fire, everybody pitches in. Everybody is valued.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“If you pull your own weight, we’re glad to have
your help, and you’re rewarded. The first time you saw me in my tuxedo, I’d been at a ceremony giving scholarship awards to deserving teenagers. That’s my family’s legacy.”
Pride surged through him. He hadn’t realized that he felt so deeply about this topic. “Arthur went out of his way to spit on our heritage. He bitched and whined and claimed that he deserved more. Something for nothing,
that was his motto. It still is, and I don’t feel the least bit sorry for him.”
“You have strong feelings about this.”
“Damn right, I do.” He cranked the steering wheel to make a sharp turn on the twisting mountain road. “It might seem silly to hang on to the antique mining tools and the paintings and the kilobars of Valiant gold, but that’s who I am. It’s who Samuel was.”
“Okay,”
she said, “forget about Arthur’s personality and think about what he said. He’s certain that Samuel was murdered.”
“Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
Arthur had been right about a couple of things. Rod and Marian were ambitious and wanted more control of the business, and they had been putting pressure on his uncle to retire. Still, murdering Samuel to get his 33 percent of
the company stock seemed like a roundabout way of taking over, not to mention the negative light it shone on Spencer Enterprises.”
“He mentioned the gold mine,” Kelly said.
“That’s where I think Arthur was holding back. He knows more about Samuel’s project than he was telling us.”
He guided the SUV off the winding road onto a more main thoroughfare. Only ten minutes away from his
condo, his anticipation was building. Stopping to pick up groceries might be smart, but his hunger had nothing to do with food.
“We’re almost to your place,” she said.
“Are you tired?”
“Kind of.”
“If you’d want, I could give you a nice, long massage.”
“I’d like that.”
Her voice held a slightly husky tone, and he hoped he wasn’t imagining her interest. Agreeing to
a massage was a step in the right direction; it meant she wanted him to touch her.
Realizing that he was speeding twenty miles over the limit, he eased up on the accelerator. “We could have some wine, just lie back and relax.”
“That’s a good place to start.”
Where did a nontherapeutic massage lead except to bed? There was no mistaking her intention. He wouldn’t be sleeping alone
tonight. And then he heard the ring for her cell phone.
She answered right away.
Nick was praying that it wasn’t anything important, but he heard her ask how far apart the contractions were and he heard her promise to be there as soon as she could.
Kelly ended the call and sank back against the passenger seat. “That was Daisy. Her water broke an hour ago, and she’s going into labor.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to go home with you,” she said. “I want that wine and the massage.”
Don’t toy with me, woman.
He wanted that, too. “And?”
“I’ve got to be with Daisy. This is her first baby. Even though she’s studied the natural and organic ways to give birth, she needs me.” She exhaled a deep sigh. “We need to stop by the Spencer Building so I can pick up my
van.”
Reluctantly, he adjusted his course. They wouldn’t make love tonight...not unless Daisy went through labor and delivery in record speed. “My ex-wife was in labor for twelve hours with Maddie.”
“Not unusual,” she said.
Nick just couldn’t catch a break. “There’s something else to consider. One of the reasons I want to keep you with me is for your own protection. We still don’t
know what’s going on with Trask. If Arthur is to be believed, he might be more dangerous than we first suspected.”
“I can’t have you hanging around while Daisy is in labor. She needs to be calm and serene. I can call you if I see Trask.”
“Which would be too late,” he said. “It’s better if I wait outside on the street and keep an eye on the house.”
“All night?” She reached toward
him. Her touch on his arm reminded him of what he was going to be missing. “How are you going to investigate if you’re spending the night in your SUV?”
There was another solution—one he hadn’t used because he wanted the job as Kelly’s protector for himself. “I’ll contact O’Shea and arrange security. They’ll be instructed to be subtle and not disturb Daisy’s house. You’ll never know they’re
there, but they’ll be ready if you need them.”
“I’ve never had a bodyguard before.”
“You’ll like these guys. They have guns.”
He dropped her off at her van. In his vehicle, he followed her to Daisy’s house, parked at the curb and got out. He wanted to prolong his time with her, even if it meant nothing more than walking her to the door.