When All The Girls Have Gone(43)

He smiled. "How about a seat on the Loring-Greenslade board?"

She thought about that. The Keyworth buyout was going to be big-far and away the biggest deal she had ever done-but the profits paled in comparison to the kind of money that sloshed around the pharmaceutical industry. And Loring-Greenslade was a prime takeover target.

"I'll take the seat on the board," she said. "I also want shares in the company-a controlling interest."

Trey's brows rose. "You play hardball." He smiled. "I like that about you."

"Then we have a deal?"

"We have a deal."

Too easy. Did he think she was a fool? He was convinced he was playing her. But the reality was that she was playing him.

A thrill of passion and excitement snapped through her. Trey might be the most exciting man she had ever met, but she did not trust him. She could never trust any man.

She was wearing a tiny, state-of-the-art digital recorder under her very short skirt. When she got home that night, she would copy the contents into the computer file she had created on Trey Greenslade.

With luck she would never need to use the file to protect herself, but a woman couldn't be too careful. When you slept with the devil, it seemed like a good idea to have some leverage.





CHAPTER 52




"Damn, but it's good to see you, Jocelyn," Madison said. "I was afraid you were dead-just like Louise. You do know that Emily has disappeared, don't you? I have no idea where she is or even if she's alive."

"I sent the code," Jocelyn said. "She's probably in hiding. That was the plan-your plan. What is going on?"

"The plan didn't do Victoria any good. She's in intensive care at a hospital over on the coast."

"Oh, shit. What happened? How did he find her?"

"I have no idea. They're calling it a carbon monoxide accident-something about old trailer heaters being prone to that kind of thing. But given what's been going on, I'm not buying it."

"I'm here because you used the code word that we agreed would be used only if my stepsister was in danger," Jocelyn said. "But I made an anonymous call to the door station at Charlotte's apartment building. I said I wanted to deliver some flowers to Charlotte. The doorman didn't seem concerned. Said he would make sure she got them. Charlotte's okay. So what the hell is going on?"

Jocelyn had been very careful to arrive ahead of the agreed-upon meeting time. After driving past the roadside restaurant, she had left the car she had rented with a fake ID on a side road. She had made her way back through the woods and waited for Madison.

She had been the first one in line when the library had opened that morning. The coded message had been waiting in her email inbox. It had been sent during the night. She had responded immediately and then driven hard and fast to make the rendezvous point. It was now late morning. There weren't many cars in the small parking lot. When Madison had arrived it was clear that she was alone. No other vehicle had pulled into the parking lot behind her. When Jocelyn had walked out of the woods to join her, Madison's relief had been unmistakable.

Now they sat at one of the small tables, drinking bad coffee out of cheap paper cups. Jocelyn was vaguely aware of being hungry, but the smell of stale grease emanating from the kitchen was not appetizing. She reminded herself that she had a wedge of cheddar cheese and some bread and dill pickles in the rental car.

"Here's the problem," Madison said. "I don't know what is going on with Charlotte, but I think she may be in real trouble. She was nearly killed a few days ago."   





 

Jocelyn's stomach knotted. "What are you talking about?"

"Did you know that Charlotte has hooked up with a private investigator?"

"Why? She thinks I'm in the Caribbean."

"She knows you're not at that convent."

"Damn. This is all getting so complicated. I wanted to keep her out of this mess. What made her think I wasn't at the retreat?"

"You can probably blame Cutler. He's the PI. He's the one responsible for dragging Charlotte into this thing. Louise's cousin hired him to look into Louise's death. I guess Cutler somehow connected it to your disappearance."

"How? It makes no sense."

"All I can tell you is that he has dragged Charlotte into his investigation," Madison said. "It gets worse. For some reason the two of them drove to Loring."

"What? Why?"

"Evidently they went there to talk to Egan Briggs. That's how Charlotte almost got killed."

Jocelyn's head was starting to spin. It was her worst nightmare, she thought, and somehow she had given Charlotte a starring role.

She tried to concentrate, to focus.

"Why would they go to see Briggs?" she asked.

"Apparently they wanted to interview him about Louise."

"What could he possibly know about her? Briggs and Louise never even met."

"I don't know, but evidently when Cutler and Charlotte attempted to drive down out of the mountain, Briggs deliberately used his vehicle to push theirs into a river."

"Oh, my God," Jocelyn whispered again.

It was too much. Overwhelming. She had put all of them, including Charlotte, in danger.

The snowballing disaster was her fault. She was the one who had been unable to let the past stay buried.

"I'm on my way to Sea-Tac," Madison said. "I'm going to Mexico. I would have caught an earlier flight, but I felt I had to warn you first."

"Thank you. You're a good friend." Jocelyn rubbed her temples, but the spinning sensation was getting worse. "At least . . . at least Charlotte has that investigator-Cutler-with her. She's not alone."

"No, but you should know that the bastard who is hunting us is doing his or her damnedest to make it look like you're the killer. I think Cutler is convinced that is the case."

"What?" Jocelyn raised her head so quickly she nearly fainted. "Why? What possible motive could I have for murdering Louise and the rest of you?"

"The Keyworth deal," Madison said.

Jocelyn felt a great weight crushing her. "I don't . . . I don't understand."

"Back at the start it was going to be a five-way split. Now it's a four-way split. If Victoria doesn't survive, it's a three-way split."

The shock stole Jocelyn's breath for a few seconds.

"You can't possibly believe I'm the one who murdered Louise and tried to kill Victoria," she finally whispered.

"Of course not. If I thought that was the case, I wouldn't have asked you to meet me here. But I've been going crazy thinking about what happened to Louise and what almost happened to Victoria. I know this is going to sound like some kind of wild conspiracy theory, but I've come to the conclusion that we have a traitor in our midst. She's been there all along, waiting for her opportunity. I think she's decided to score big with the Keyworth deal-by getting rid of the rest of us."

Jocelyn closed her eyes. "Emily."

"Think about it. If Louise and Victoria and I are dead, you and Emily will be the last ones standing. And if Emily manages to make you look guilty of murdering the rest of us, she can kill you, too, and claim it was self-defense."

"No." Jocelyn opened her eyes. "Emily isn't the one behind this. It's him, the bastard who raped me. I've got to find him, Madison. I have to pull him out into the open and finish this once and for all."

"I wish you all the luck in the world, but I can't help you. Like I said, I'm getting as far away from this mess as possible. From where I'm sitting it looks like neither of us will be safe until after the buyout happens."

Jocelyn shook her head, trying to clear it. But her thoughts were chasing each other in tighter and tighter circles.

"Cutler," she said, trying to focus on the name.

Madison frowned. "What about him?"

"You said he was hired to investigate Louise's death and now he's looking for me."

"Because he thinks you killed Louise."

Jocelyn drank some coffee, hoping the caffeine would steady her nerves. "Maybe my best option is to come out into the open. I'll contact Charlotte. Let her know I'm safe. Then I'll talk to the PI. Tell him everything I know. We can pool our resources. Maybe if we work together we can find the bastard before he kills again."   





 

Madison's expression tensed. "Do whatever you think is best, but I'm warning you that at the rate this thing is going down, there's a good possibility that you're the one who will be arrested for murder. I know that Charlotte will believe you're innocent, but Cutler won't. He struck me as pretty damn cold, to be honest."

"I'll have to take my chances," Jocelyn said. Another wave of dizziness swept through her. She really needed to eat. "This is my fault. I brought the devil out of hiding."

"What do you mean?"

"Long story. I can't go into it now. I've got to contact Charlotte, try to find a way to protect her."

"Do what you have to do." Madison glanced at her watch and slipped out of the booth. "I have to move. I brought some extra cash with me. Figured you might be running low and I know you don't want to use your credit cards."

"I don't know how to thank you, Madison," Jocelyn said.

She used both hands to set her cup down on the table and pushed herself up out of the booth with an effort of raw will. She was exhausted, she realized. She'd been sleeping poorly for days now and it was catching up with her. Getting the coded warning from Madison had been the last straw.