Within a minute everyone was gone except James, Caryn and Kevin.
"They are not going to get away with this," Caryn said, her voice shaking. "They're not."
Kevin was being extraordinarily quiet. James wondered what he was thinking.
"I'll fix us some lunch if you show me where the stuff is," Kevin said to James.
Surprised, James looked at him. As if Kevin didn't know what was in the refrigerator and where he kept the bread and chips? Then Kevin intensified his stare and angled his head ever so slightly toward the kitchen. James followed him.
"We'll be back in a minute," he said to Caryn as he passed her, touching her briefly on the shoulders and finding her as yielding as concrete.
In the kitchen Kevin shoved his hands through his hair. "Look, man, maybe this is nothin'." He paced a bit, looked back toward the living room, and lowered his voice. "Johnson is a common name."
"Yeah." James ducked his head to hear the boy. "So?"
"So those notes are all signed Johnson. Venus's last name is Johnson."
James frowned. "You can't think she could have anything to do with this?"
Kevin's gaze might have turned James into petrified human. "After I told her you were a P.I. she got, you know, chummier with me, was all nervous. Asked more questions. I know it seems crazy, but I keep hearing about how people should trust their instincts. My instincts say there's a connection."
James sorted the idea with what he knew of the girl. She'd been hired shortly after Caryn, had no waitressing experience, had never gotten good at her job, had made friends right away with Caryn and Kevin, although keeping her distance from the boy-until she found out that Caryn's friend was a P.I. Plus she'd turned the heat up on Kevin.
"You could be on to something," James said.
"I know Mom wants the money back. I want that, too-it's a lot-but I want the men who killed my father more."
"That's not a given-that he was killed. Let's take it one step at a time." James needed to see the site where Paul died, talk to the CHP officer who wrote the report. "Who do you think is following us-or me, or whichever of us they're following?"
"Someone who doesn't want us to find out the truth."
"What's the next step?" James asked.
Kevin thought it over. "Talk to Venus."
"Right. Let's go tell your mom what's going on." James started to leave.
Kevin grabbed his arm, stopping him, then looked him in the eye. "You know we're not a family."
"Who?"
"My mom, me and you."
James couldn't find words to reply. He wasn't sure what Kevin was saying, nor was he sure he wanted to know.
"This is too weird, you know, man? I mean, like, I could never introduce you to my friends. People would figure it out by lookin' at us."
"Why are you bringing this up?"
"'Cause my mom and you." A flush spread across his face. "You like each other. Do us a favor, okay? When this is over, just go away. I don't want her hurt ever again."
And stay away from you, too? he wanted to ask.
But this was not the time for debates or promises. "We'll worry about all that later," James said. "For now, why don't you give Venus a call and see if she can meet you for lunch, someplace public so I can see if she's being followed or if we are. Someplace no one will have staked out." His mother's house, James decided, where he could leave Kevin, if he had to, knowing he was taken care of. Kevin wouldn't defy Emmaline. "Do you want to be the one to tell your mom what you figured out?" James asked Kevin.
"Can I?"
"It's your discovery."
Kevin grinned. James wanted to wrap his arm around him and pull him close. What a warrior he had turned out to be. He would lay down his life for his mother, that was certain.
And James was an unwanted outsider to him. That was certain, too.
Caryn didn't know who she was more nervous about seeing-Venus or James's mother, Emmaline. If what Kevin and James thought about Venus was true, Caryn had just been dealt another blow, been victim of another deception. That was hard to take.
As for Emmaline, Kevin adored her already. But why shouldn't he? He'd never known Paul's mother, who had died before Kevin was born, and Caryn's mother moved to Arizona a few years ago and rarely saw them. Emmaline was his grandmother, even if in a roundabout way, and she lived in town, and apparently she was a great cook and advice-giver. Caryn would be jealous-if she didn't want it all so much for Kevin.
He had picked up Venus and driven her to a nearby restaurant. When no one appeared to be following any of them, they piled into one car and drove to Emmaline's, Venus asking questions, no one giving any but the vaguest of answers-until they were safely inside the house.
Emmaline hugged Caryn, but out of deference to Venus's presence, no one talked about the relationship. Emmaline went into the kitchen under the guise of preparing a snack, but merely leaving them alone.
Venus's normally rosy-cheeked innocence seemed suddenly faded and guilty. She twisted her fingers together, tried to smile, looked from face-to-face.
"We know about your father," Kevin said.
Caryn felt James react to the statement. She gathered it wasn't the interrogation route he would've taken, but he didn't interrupt, either.
"You know what about my father?"
Kevin leaned toward her. "Do you think I'm stupid? A girl like you isn't interested in a guy like me. You wanted something. It just took me a little while to figure out."
"I don't have a clue what you're talking about. What would I want?"
Kevin didn't answer. He had apparently backed himself in a corner. He looked at James.
"You were sent to spy on Caryn and Kevin," James said.
"Why would I do that?" Her chin went up, her blond curls bounced.
"Because someone needed to keep an eye on them. To see what they were up to."
"Because my father was murdered," Kevin said.
Venus spun toward Kevin. "No!"
"And it was your father who did it," he added.
Color leeched from her face. "My father died ten years ago. And that's the truth."
Silence crash-landed in the room. They were wrong. How could they be wrong? Caryn thought.
"May I speak to you alone?" Venus asked James.
Caryn bristled. She'd trusted this young woman, had enjoyed her company, had taken her in, treated her almost like a daughter. "What you have to say, you say to all of us."
Venus looked at each of them individually, then at the floor. Finally she pushed her hair back from her face. "It's my brother you want. I … I don't know what his business is exactly-" she glared at Kevin "-but it isn't murder."
"He was the one who sent you to keep an eye on Caryn and Kevin," James said.
After a few seconds she nodded.
"He lined up the job at GGC."
"Yes."
"Why did you do it?"
Her eyes filled with tears. She looked away, her hands clenched in her lap, her back stiff. "He was holding something over me. I'm not telling you what. It wasn't criminal or anything, just family stuff. He said if I did this for him, he would let me off the hook."
"We trusted you," Caryn said.
"I know. I'm so sorry." She almost pleaded with her eyes.
"Okay, I've had enough of this. What's next?" Caryn asked James. Tired of everything happening around her, she was ready to take action.
Plans were made. For now, everyone would go about their lives as before, especially since no one seemed to be under surveillance anymore.
But in a couple of hours James would fly to L.A. with Nate and Sam to investigate Paul's death and determine the cause, armed with the knowledge the CHP didn't have at the time, that there was a possibility Paul was murdered. James shared Paul's note with Nate and Sam, indicating the possibility that he could have been running away, too.
Kevin was furious at James at being left behind. James understood his anger but didn't back down. Kevin made his case, arguing that they wouldn't have figured out what they had so far without him putting two and two together. He may be right, but it didn't change James's mind about how the investigation needed to be handled.
Kevin stayed with Emmaline, although James considered Kevin's reason might be more to irritate James than to promote his relationship with Emmaline. Kevin seemed aware that James envied their bond. He didn't care about the reason. He only wanted the boy safe.
James drove Caryn home and followed her up her stairs, carrying the sacks she'd brought to his house. His gaze on her hips, he remembered how beautiful she was last night, stretched out naked on his bed, flames from the fire like a flickering golden spotlight on her pale skin. She wore a green skirt and white button-up blouse, and her comfortable shoes. He knew her bra was white and lacy. Every so often he would see hints of lace if she leaned a certain way. He remembered a moment from last night where she'd stretched like a cat in a flood of sunshine. How graceful she was. How incredibly sexy. Any hesitation had been tossed away with the towel last night. She'd been open and provocative and demanding, especially in the morning when she'd awakened him with exploring fingers and increasingly hot kisses.