The doors opened. Madeline walked out of the elevator.
“No,” she said. “Partly because, as I just explained, I don’t know what the problem is. But mostly because it’s none of your business. This is personal, Jack.”
But she was learning that once Jack Rayner sank his teeth into a problem, it was very hard to shake him loose. He followed her out of the elevator.
“Your grandmother told me that the two of you left Cooper Island nearly two decades ago,” he said. “Ever been back?”
“No.”
She kept going across the building lobby, heading for the glass doors on the far side.
“You didn’t need me to do the research on William Fleming,” Jack said.
She glanced at him, wary of the sudden change of topic. “What do you mean?”
“You were never even close to marrying him.”
“I was thinking about it.” But that sounded weak, even to her own ears.
“No,” Jack said. “You would have ended the relationship sooner or later.”
Now she was getting mad. “How do you know that?”
“You wouldn’t have asked me to vet him unless you were looking for a way out. I made it easy for you to escape because I found a good excuse you could use. But if I hadn’t been around, you would have ended things on your own.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“There’s a look people get when they feel cornered or trapped. You had that look.”
“What kind of look is that?”
“Hard to explain. Let’s just say I know it when I see it. Like I said, you were looking for a way out, so you asked me to hand it to you on a silver platter.”
She thought about that. She wanted to argue, but he had a point. “You’re right. William was a little too perfect. It bothered me. I was going to end the relationship, but I wanted a good reason.”
“A good reason to give to yourself, not to him.”
She reached into her shoulder bag, took out her dark glasses, and very deliberately put them on so that he could not see her eyes.
“I think we’re finished here,” she said.
He didn’t say anything. Instead he took his own sunglasses out of a pocket, slipped them on, and opened the heavy glass doors.
They walked outside into the brilliant warmth of the spring day. The sun sparked and flashed on the cars parked in the lot in front of the office building. It was only March, but the heat coming off the pavement was already palpable.#p#分页标题#e#
Beyond the parking lot was the main street of Sanctuary Creek. The town had been founded well over a century earlier, but it had remained little more than a dot on the Arizona map for most of its history. Eighteen years ago Edith and Madeline had moved to the small community. Edith had opened a B&B to make ends meet. The property had been the first in what had become a chain of boutique inns.
In recent years the town had been discovered by tourists, retirees, and those seeking winter homes in the Sunbelt. The developers had soon followed. Sanctuary Creek was now a picturesque Southwestern destination that rivaled Scottsdale and Sedona.
Jack walked her to her car. His continuing silence worried her. There was another boot waiting to drop.
She got in behind the wheel and looked up at him.
“What?” she asked when she couldn’t take the suspense any longer.
Jack looked out at the view of the desert and mountains for what seemed like a very long time.
“I know about commitment issues,” he said. “Got a few myself.”
She clamped her hands around the steering wheel. Just breathe.
“Excuse me,” she said in her iciest executive accent. “I don’t recall discussing commitment issues with you.”
He looked down at her, sunlight glinting on his dark glasses.
“Next time, use someone else to dig up the dirt on one of your dates,” he said, his voice cold, flat; emotionless. “I’m good with the business side of things, but I don’t want to get involved in your personal relationships.”
She felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her.
“Use someone else?” she repeated. “But doing background checks is part of your job.”
“My firm provides business-related background-check services. Not the personal kind.”
“No offense, but from what I can tell, your company could use whatever work it can get. Why don’t you want this kind of business?”
“We all know what happens to messengers. Sooner or later they bring news that the client doesn’t want to hear. The outcome is never good for the messenger.”
He closed the car door, turned, and walked toward a silver-gray SUV parked a couple of slots away. He did not look back.