Kingsley Baby Trilogy: The Hero's Son\The Brother's Wife\The Long-Lost Heir (63 page)

Iris nodded. “You haven’t called the police, have you? The publicity…”

“Not yet,” David said grimly. “But I may have to. My main concern at this point is Bradlee’s safety. I don’t care about the publicity.”

“But you must,” Iris said in a feeble voice, “now that you’re a Kingsley.”

* * *

A
T
I
RIS’S DIRECTION
, Illiana managed to produce another key for David, and a few minutes later, he opened the door of the nursery and entered. Bradlee followed him inside, and for the longest moment, neither of them spoke a word. They stood in the center of the room, gazing around.

“Try not to touch anything,” he said. “We don’t want to disturb any evidence.”

The blinds were still drawn, and the gloom added to the ominous atmosphere. Bradlee had left the French door open the night before, and a draft gave the room the chill of a tomb. The hair on the back of her neck rose up, but Bradlee thought the feeling had more to do with what had happened in the room thirty-
two years ago than with her experience last night.

One tiny bed remained in the nursery. The other two—Andrew’s and the one Bradlee had slept in that night—had been removed, but Adam’s bed had been left untouched all these years, waiting for his return.

She glanced at David. He was staring down at the bed, too, and for a moment, he seemed to have forgotten her presence. Then he roused himself. “Remember anything?”

“Not yet.” She took a deep breath, gazing around. She pointed to the door across the room. “That door leads to the nanny’s room. It was locked last night.”

David crossed the room and taking a handkerchief from his pocket, tried the door. “We’ll probably have to unlock it from the hallway if we want to have a look around.”

“I don’t really think there’s a need to,” Bradlee said softly. “This is where it happened.” And they both knew she was once again talking about the past.

David walked over to the balcony. He stepped outside and after a moment, he called her name. Bradlee reluctantly joined him. Last night she hadn’t had time to consider that Adam’s kidnapper had gained access to the nursery in the very way that she had escaped, but now the irony was chilling.

David’s expression was grave when he turned to face her. “It’s a wonder you weren’t killed. Look.” She came uneasily to stand beside him. He was staring down at the missing post from the balcony railing, the one that had come loose in her hand the night before.

She shivered. “It’s falling apart. I found that out last night. No one’s likely been out here for years. I’m not so sure we should be standing here.”

“The balcony itself is solid enough.” Something in his tone made Bradlee’s heart start to beat in slow, painful jerks. He straightened to stare at her. “But the railing has been pried loose.”

Her heart slammed against her chest then. “You’re saying last night was all some kind of setup? I was
meant
to fall off the balcony?”

“You were locked in the nursery with only one way out. And that way was booby-
trapped.”

Bradlee was shaking. She wrapped her arms around her middle. “I’m not so sure we can handle this alone anymore, David. I think it’s time we call the police.”

He knelt to examine the railing again. “I’m thinking the same thing. We probably should have reported the Dr. Scott episode, but it’s too late to worry about that now.” He stood and took her arm. “Come on. Let’s go make the call.”

* * *

I
RIS WAS FURIOUS
. All through the interview with Sergeant Packer, it was obvious she was seething. Having the police called in behind her back was tantamount to treason, and she was not likely to let Bradlee and David forget it.

Immediately after Sergeant Packer departed, Iris rose without a word and had Illiana help her upstairs and back into bed. Once she was out of earshot, Pamela’s own carefully controlled demeanor cracked. She turned on Bradlee and David in a fury. “How dare you make fools of all of us like that? Have you any idea what you’ve done? When the media get wind of this, we’ll be swarmed. Our pictures will be splashed across every sleazy newspaper in the country.” She got up and started to pace.

Bradlee said, “Sergeant Packer promised he’d tried to keep it as quiet as possible.”

Pamela paused to give her a I-
don’t-
believe-
you look. “They always say that, don’t they? Then the next thing you know, you’re being hounded by reporters. You can’t even go out of the house.”

“Mother’s right,” Jeremy chimed in. “You should have consulted with the rest of us before you called in the police. Something like this affects all our lives.”

“Do you think they care about that?” Pamela demanded. She turned to Bradlee and David. “You two have caused nothing but trouble since the moment you set foot in this house.”

“What I can’t understand,” David said slowly, his gaze cool and assessing as it moved from Pamela to Jeremy, “is why no one here seems in the least concerned about what happened to Bradlee. She could have been killed.”

Edward rose at that and set his drink aside. He’d remained quiet all through the interview with the police and afterward, but now he came toward Bradlee. “David’s right. I’m very sorry about what happened. I can’t imagine who would have done such a thing.”

“We don’t know that anyone did anything,” Pamela said icily. “According to your father, you’ve always been given to flights of fantasy. Isn’t it possible you imagined the whole episode?”

Bradlee held out her arms, displaying the deep red scratches from the rose vines. “Did I imagine these, too?”

Pamela shrugged. “Oh, I’ve no doubt it happened much the way you described it. But isn’t it possible that you panicked when you got inside the nursery? Considering what happened in the past, it would be only natural. You were very traumatized by Adam’s kidnapping.”

“How do you explain someone knocking me out?” Bradlee asked. “Or the locked door?”

Jeremy took up his mother’s argument. “Maybe a draft from the hallway blew the door closed after you were inside and it locked automatically. Overcome with terror, you fainted. When you came to, you thought you’d been attacked. Again you panicked, and when you couldn’t get the door open, you decided to climb down the trellis.”

Obviously, he and Pamela had discussed this scenario previously.

David said, “That doesn’t explain how the balcony railing came to be pried loose from the frame.”

“No one has been out on that balcony for years,” Pamela said. “The wood probably just rotted away.”

“I don’t think so,” David said. “The railing had been tampered with.”

“You’re an expert on such matters, are you?” Jeremy asked coolly.

David replied just as coolly, “I’ve examined a few crime scenes, yes. Haven’t you?”

“I’m not a criminal attorney.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to take my word for it,” David said. “And Sergeant Packer’s. He agreed that it looked as if a portion of the railing had been deliberately separated from the frame.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Pamela argued. “If someone wanted to get rid of Bradlee, why didn’t they just kill her while she was unconscious?”

“Because they wanted it to look like an accident,” David said. “They wanted everyone to jump to the same conclusion you and Jeremy just outlined so brilliantly.”

For a moment, Pamela didn’t seem to catch David’s meaning, but Jeremy did. He took a step forward. “Now see here. If you’re accusing us—”

Pamela gasped. “How dare you?”

“Oh, I dare,” David retorted. “I’ll dare to do and say a lot of things until I find out who tried to kill Bradlee.”

* * *

B
RADLEE HAD JUST
finished drying her hair that night when someone knocked on her bedroom door. She drew on a silk robe over her short nightgown and crossed the room to the door. “Who is it?”

“David.”

She drew back the door and he strode into the room. “I’ve been thinking about something all evening, and I want to run it by you. What if the trap set in the nursery wasn’t meant for you, after all? What if it was meant for…me…?” His words trailed off as he turned to face her for the first time. Something sparked in his eyes as his gaze lowered to the deep vee where the sides of her robe met.

Self-
conscious, Bradlee pulled the robe more snugly around her. “I just got out of the shower,” she mumbled.

“So did I,” David said absently, his gaze still on her. He ran a hand through his damp hair, looking distracted.

Bradlee closed the door and leaned against it. “What did you mean, the trap might have been set for you? Why?”

“Why?” He was focusing on her legs now and seemed to have lost track of his thoughts. Then, with an effort, he tore his gaze away and walked over to the French doors. Opening them, he stepped out, and Bradlee followed.

“I went up and examined the railing again,” he told her. “It was pulled loose from the frame about here.” He demonstrated what he meant. “Just enough so that it probably wouldn’t be detected. But that also meant it wasn’t loose enough to come apart immediately with your weight. You were able to grab hold of the trellis and save yourself from falling. But supposing someone heavier than you, someone like me, for instance, had been the one climbing over that railing? It would have broken apart instantly. I wouldn’t have had time to grab for anything but thin air.”

“But I’m the one who saw something the night you were kidnapped,” Bradlee said.

“Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with the kidnapping.”

“What do you mean?”

David shrugged. “I’m saying I think we may have overlooked a critical piece of the puzzle. Let’s assume my mother was right. Someone at the fund-
raiser that night paid Raymond Colter to kidnap me. Maybe you really did see that person in the nursery. But it’s been over thirty years. The secret has been safe all this time. Why would my being found or your coming back here cause Colter’s accomplice to panic? After all, if you couldn’t finger him back then, why would he think you’d be able to now?”

“Go on,” Bradlee prompted.

“When I made the announcement that I intended to find out who was behind my kidnapping, I may have laid the groundwork for an even deadlier plan. If someone were after the Kingsley fortune, I’d be the last person he’d want around. By making my death look as if it were tied to the kidnapping, the police would have a whole slew of suspects to investigate, namely, everyone who was present the night of the fund-
raiser and the night of my party.”

“You keep saying `he,’” Bradlee said. “I take it you have someone in mind.”

“The one person who would benefit most from my death has an airtight alibi for the night I was kidnapped,” David said. “I pointed it out to him myself.”

“Jeremy Willows.”

David nodded. “Makes a certain amount of twisted sense when you think about it. You said yourself he’s remained in this house all these years hoping to become Iris’s heir. With me around, that may not happen.”

“All right, I can buy your reasoning up to a certain point,” Bradlee said. “But what about Dr. Scott? What about what happened to me in her office?”

“Since we didn’t take you to the hospital, we can’t be sure anything really happened. You could have just gotten sick, maybe from the anxiety of the hypnosis.”

Bradlee frowned. “I’m beginning to feel as though you think I’m paranoid. First Jeremy and Pamela accuse me of imagining the episode in the nursery, and now you’re suggesting I made up the scene with Dr. Scott. I suppose I never overheard her conversation on the telephone, either,” she said peevishly.

“No, I’m sure you heard exactly what you thought you did. Dr. Scott’s disappearance seems to bear that out. She may even have given you something while you were under, but that doesn’t disprove my theory. Maybe Colter’s accomplice did call Dr. Scott to find out if you’d remembered anything. But you hadn’t. So why would he need to worry? Why risk exposure by getting rid of you when, by all indications, it isn’t necessary?”

“If what you’re saying is true,” Bradlee said, “then I’m not the one in danger. You are.”

“It’s only guesswork, and the bottom line is still this. You could have been killed last night. I think it’s time we consider getting you away from here.”

Bradlee glanced at him sharply. “You don’t mean that. I can’t go away now. You need me to help you find the person who paid Colter to kidnap you.”

“Bradlee.” He took her by the shoulders, holding her in front of him. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a kid anymore. I can take care of myself, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Nothing will,” Bradlee said. “I’ll be a lot more careful from now on. But David—” her voice grew soft with emotion “—I’ve waited over thirty years for you to come back. Don’t send me away now.”

His gaze deepened as he lifted his hand to her hair, tangling his fingers in the damp strands. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I can think of a few things,” she said, closing her eyes briefly at the softness of his touch.

Both of his hands wove through her hair, holding her face up to his. Their eyes met for one brief, electric moment before his mouth claimed hers in a soul-
shattering kiss that was anything but soft.

Bradlee pressed her body to his as his hands left her hair to skim heatedly over the silky contours of her robe.

Then his hands were between them, untying the belt, and in an instant, the robe slithered from her shoulders. He lifted her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom, not once breaking the kiss.

Bradlee had never felt so adored. So…loved. She wanted him now, instantly, more than she ever thought possible.

But David had something else in mind—a slow, silky seduction that began at her lips and ended with her toes. And then moved all the way back up again. Over and over.

In the throes of deep passion, Bradlee whispered the words she’d waited a lifetime to utter: “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

“I love you. I love you. I love you.”

The words repeated themselves in David’s head as he propped himself on his elbow and watched Bradlee sleep. She looked so vulnerable, lying on her side with the covers pulled up to her chin. Her hair lay in silky waves against the pillow. He resisted the urge to touch it. He didn’t want to wake her. Not yet, anyway. Not until he had some time to think things through.