TICK TOCK RUN (Romantic Mystery Suspense) (22 page)

I hugged her. 

She shuddered at first then relaxed in my arms. 

“Thank you,” she whispered.

She felt warmer now, and snug, but inside I knew she must have been broken and listless.  When we ended the hug, I looked at her, silently trying to convey that we’d find a way to work things out together.  She attempted to smile, but I’d also just learned how well she could cover up her true feelings. 

I broke off and held her at arms length.  “How much money do they want?”

“A lot.”

An image of cash flashed into my mind.  “So that money I found in your wardrobe—”

“Yep.”  She nodded.  “Bang on thirty-five grand.”

I cupped my chin, at first unable to close my gaping mouth.  “Jesus!  That much?  I get it now, why you yelled at me for snooping.  So who’s doing this?”

“The only person I can think of is Lee.”

I gulped.

“Daryl must have told him about us.”

I closed my eyes, picturing Lee’s handsome face.  Is that what it looked like from her perspective?  No wonder she wasn’t happy about me spending time with him.

I tilted my head as if to plead.  “It must be someone other than Lee.  Who did you tell?”

“I didn’t even tell
you,
Chelsea.”

“Then someone saw you.”

“Perhaps, but we were discreet.  Lee is the obvious suspect.”

“Obvious doesn’t mean guilty.  Could Daryl have told someone?”

“You mean apart from Lee?” she fired back.

I stood, then stomped across the room in silence for a moment, wheeling ideas through my head.  “What about contact details and text messages?  Love notes?  Could someone have read them?  Did you write Daryl’s number anywhere?  Could someone have found his number and put it together?”

“No.  I had everything covered.  His number was only in my mobile and programmed as ‘Emma.’”

“Oh!” I said.  “Bet that confused you.”

Her nose wrinkled.  “Not really.  The last two digits of his number were sixty-nine.”

I rolled my eyes.  “That figures.”

Laura spent the next few minutes apologising for getting me dragged into her messy affairs. 

Though nothing actually changed, for a moment, in my mind, the lights blacked out, background noises faded, and the floor tilted.  The world was collapsing in on me.  I shut my eyes and swayed, experiencing Laura’s shrinking hell.  No wonder she wanted to bury the truth.  Her recently odd behaviour had been a smokescreen and nothing more.

“Daryl is the reason why I went to that pole-dancing bar on my hen evening,” Laura said.  “He liked the place, which surprised me once I saw it.  But he said it was good for unwinding.  I couldn’t risk being spotted at the funeral, so figured if I went there, it’d be a bit like paying my respect.”

“Did you know Lee would be there on the same night?”

“Hell, no,” Laura said with a cold chuckle in her tone.  “If I’d known that, I’d never have set foot in the sleazy place.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t feel able to talk to me about any of this,” I said.  “You know I’d never tell Paul.”  I felt a smile coming on and sat down.  “The fact that Lee didn’t tell me about the affair tonight means it isn’t him.”  I put power into my voice.  “He’s innocent.”

She gripped my arm.  “No.  Lee’s been using you to get to me.  Besides, I already agreed to pay.  He’s not your friend.  It’s all an act.”

“You’re wrong.”  I pushed my fingers through my hair, stood and moved out of her reach.  “I’m not that gullible.”

After a moment of avoiding eye contact and pacing the room, I sat down again.  “Why didn’t you tell me about your affair
before
the emails?  I thought we were best friends?”

Laura rested her head back against the sofa and sighed.  “We are best friends, Chelsea.  But I knew how you’d react.”  She lifted a brow and stared at me as if to hammer the point home.  “You’d blame yourself.”

Before I could question her on this point, she continued.  “You were fantastic, such a rock to me when my parents died.  I know how guilty you feel about what happened, but you have nothing to feel guilty about. Besides, I didn’t want to burden you anymore.  I thought that by
not
telling you about my affair, I was protecting you.  When I met Daryl he helped me through the bad times in new ways.”

“Oh, no!” I groaned, wishing I’d not been blind to how she’d handled her grief better all those months ago.  A flashback of that awful time triggered a shiver across my shoulders.  I was touched she’d gone to the trouble of sparing my feelings, but I’d have rather known the truth long ago.

“I miss my parents so much.”

“I know you do.”

“Daryl seemed to understand.”

“Of course he did.  That’s how he earned a living.”  I shook my head in disgust.  “He’s broken every rule of professionalism, having a fling with a patient.”

She frowned.  “An ex-patient, actually.  Get your facts right.”

Her upcoming fairytale with Paul was disintegrating in front of us, until I realised something.  “Hold on.  Daryl’s the one in the wrong here.  He used your pain to get sex!”  I stepped forward and clapped my hand on her shoulder.  “Laura, don’t you see?  This isn’t your fault.”

CHAPTER 19

“M
oney.  That’s what will end this, Chelsea.  I’m going ahead with the drop.”  Her voice sounded like a scream within a moment of calm. 

I slammed my mug on the armrest and coffee splashed over the rim.  “No way!  I won’t let you.”

“If I don’t pay, they’re going to expose the affair while I’m standing at the altar.”

I jerked.  “Christ almighty!”

“That’s when
my
timer runs out, remember?”  She held her expression stiffly, resembling a face over-pumped with Botox.  “A chunk of money and it’ll be over.”

“Chunk?  Huh.  And I’m sure whoever’s doing this will be thrilled to get such a huge chunk of your inheritance.”  I glanced at the wound on my hand.  “You make it sound as easy as sticking a band aid on a cut.  Can’t you see you’re covering a mistake with an even bigger, in fact, flamin’ stupid mistake?”

Her upset gave way to a serious mood and voice.  “I made up my mind yesterday when you left my house to go with Lee.  I’m paying.  Don’t try talking me out of it because you’ll be wasting your breath.”

“What if they come back for more?  What if paying doesn’t shut them up?”  Thinking about how to change her stubborn mind had my head in a slow, rickety grind.  Although she’d listened to what I’d said, I don’t think she truly
heard
.  “What proof do they have?”

“They’ve got video footage of Daryl and me, together.  If I pay the money, it’ll get destroyed.  I love Paul so much.  I can’t lose him and go back to that devastating place again.”

I knew she was referring to the depressed state she fell into after the death of her parents.  I felt a sting of sympathy for her, followed by a burst of guilt.  “What if they don’t destroy the footage?”

Laura tilted her head.  “I won’t hand over the money until they do.  Simple.”

Something continued to bug me.  “You can handle being blackmailed, strange as that sounds, but you can’t handle telling your fiancé the truth?”

“I’m paying to keep Paul, not to lose him.”  She paused.  “He’s got a thing about infidelity and he’d leave me straight away.” 

“I know he would,” I muttered, remembering the doorstep conversation with Paul when he thought Laura was having an affair with his best man, Mark. 

Her dark eyebrows slanted.  “How?”

“It doesn’t matter.  Look, you could work through it,” I said, badly disguising my uncertainty with my words rising like a question.  “Maybe you would split up at first, but if you truly love each other you’ll work it out.  Especially when Paul finds out that Daryl used your grief to bed you.”

She sighed.  “You don’t understand.”

“Tell him how you lost your mind in grief.  Christ!  Haven’t you been through enough already without letting someone do this to you?  I’ll support you.”  I tapped her leg.  “Come on.  We’ll go to your house together and I’ll help you explain it to Paul.”

Laura set her hand on my knee, making it hard for me to stand up.  “His family was ruined because of an affair.  There’s no way I can tell him about this.”

To resist the urge to shake sense into her, I sat on my hands.  “Paul’s a grown man.  He knows the way of the world.  Give him a chance to forgive you, Laura.  Start married life without lies.”

“This would destroy him, and in turn destroy me.  How my affair started won’t count for sweet fuck all in Paul’s mind.”  Laura’s lips fell into a tight line, as though experiencing Paul’s pain through each spoken word. 

“It can’t be that bad, surely?”

She looked at me, sharp and unnerving.  “He’s reminded of his mum’s affair every time he does his hair, cleans his teeth or shaves.”

Mystified, I said, “How is that possible?” 

Her body sagged.  “Paul’s the child from the affair.”

I gulped.  “Blimey.”

“He’s spent his whole life feeling like an outsider.”  She traced her finger in circles around the rim of the mug.  “Paul was a walking, talking reminder, you see?  He once told me that when he was old enough to leave home, it felt like he’d been let out on parole.  His childhood was
that
bad.  Felt like jail time.  The only family member he still speaks to is his brother.  His half-brother.  And that’s a rarity.”

“That’s so sad.”

“I made a mistake.”  Her voice became raspy.  “Paul shouldn’t suffer because of it.  We’re good together, and I can’t break his heart.”

I lifted my index finger to her chin, almost not touching her at all.  I stared deep into her eyes. 
How would Laura deal with losing Paul? 
Not well.  Not when losing her parents was still so very raw.  “No wonder you’re determined to hide this.” 

She shook off my gaze.  “I’ve done the one thing he can never,
ever
forgive. He’s finally happy with life.  With me.  If he ever finds out, I don’t know what I’ll...”  She burst out crying. 

I blinked, trying to hold back my own tears.  “Oh, Laura.”

“I can’t lose anyone else from my life.”  She bunched her top in her fist and pressed it against her heart.  “It’ll be the death of me!  It’s killing me now!”

I recognised her past depression returning to her sad eyes.  She didn’t need to spell it out.  I understood what lay behind her words.  Losing Paul would indeed finally kill her off emotionally.  She would struggle to find reasons to face life with a second huge hole gouged in her heart.  “Laura.  Don’t you dare say things like that.  Ever.  You’re scaring the shit out of me!”

“I’m sorry.  I can’t help how I feel.”  She nestled against me and sobbed in my arms. 

“I don’t know how you’ve managed to keep all this to yourself.”  I gently swayed her while processing everything I’d just heard.  It was not unlike tombstoning.  No matter which way she jumped to end the problem, she’d hit at least one of the large rocks that lurked under the surface of the water.  I needed to work out how to shift those rocks.

“How did you tell them you’d pay?” I asked, stroking her hair while shaking the image of Laura plunging off a cliff out of my head.