River Road(32)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“I’ve got to tell you, all things considered, this date turned out a lot better than it looked like it would when we started out tonight,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. “It did.”

He closed the door, went around the front of the car and got behind the wheel. He did not start the engine immediately. He sat quietly for a while, watching the river, very intent, very serious now.

“How will you know when the time is right?” he asked.

She smiled, serenely confident in her newfound feminine power.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you,” she said.

He flashed her a wicked grin and fired up the engine.

“Promise me you won’t forget,” he said.

“I won’t forget.”

16

Mason drove back into town, aware that in spite of extreme sexual frustration, he was feeling good—better than he had felt in ages. Years, maybe. He walked Lucy into the lobby of the inn and watched her climb the stairs. When she disappeared, he went back outside, got into the car and drove to the cabin.

The lights were still on. Joe was stretched out on the front porch. He got to his feet to greet Mason.

“Hey, there, Joe.”

Mason gave Joe a greeting rub behind the ears and opened the front door. Joe followed him inside and padded into the darkened kitchen.

Deke was still awake, lounging on the sofa. He was watching a movie on television. Mason heard Bogart speak the familiar last line of the film: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Mason headed for the kitchen. “Casablanca again?”

“Best movie ever made.” Deke pushed himself up off the couch. “About time you got home.”

“It’s a little late to tell me I’ve got a curfew,” Mason said. He went into the kitchen, flipped on the overhead light, opened the cupboard and took down the bottle of whiskey that was always there. “Probably should have done that fifteen years ago.”

Deke made his way into the kitchen. “You never got into any trouble you couldn’t handle, so why bother giving you a curfew?” He sat down at the table. “How did things go tonight?”

“Beats me.” Mason took two glasses out of the cupboard and splashed a little whiskey into each. He put both glasses on the table and sat down across from Deke. “Lucy and I both think that there is some real instability inside the Colfax empire. Got a hunch Warner’s second wife is sleeping with the CEO, Cecil Dillon, and it looks like Quinn is drinking—maybe a lot. As for Jillian, you saw her yesterday. She looks desperate.”

“Maybe scared.”

Mason thought about that. “Maybe. One thing’s for sure: Everyone with a vested interest in the merger wants it to go through—except Warner. He owns the largest block of shares, but if the others combine their shares, they can outvote him.”

“Unless Lucy sides with him.”

“Unless.”

Mason drank some of the whiskey.

“Lucy is going to take a lot of heat from both sides,” Deke said. “She ought to sell those shares back to the family and get out of Dodge while the getting is good.”

“She won’t—not until she’s got some answers.”

Deke drank some whiskey and exhaled heavily. “Figured as much. Sounds like she turned out a lot like you. Stubborn as hell.”

“Yeah.” Mason smiled. “Yeah, she’s a little on the stubborn side.”

Deke cocked a brow. “You really think that car accident that took Sara and Mary might have been murder?”

“I don’t know.” Mason leaned back in his chair and drank a little more whiskey. “I pulled up the accident report this morning. There was nothing in it to indicate that it was anything other than an accident.”

“Manzanita Road hasn’t been well maintained in years. It’s used mostly by motorcyclists and bicyclists who are into off-road riding. But Mary and Sara both knew it well. They drove it countless times. Everyone knows they liked to stop off at the old commune and have a snack.”

“The accident occurred early in the afternoon. There was no fog. No indication that either of them had been drinking.”

Deke sipped some whiskey. “Accidents happen.”

“Sure. But there’s something else I don’t like about this one.”

“What?”

“The timing. Lot of money in play because of the Colfax merger. Lot of tension in the family.”

“There’s always been tension in that family. Warner is a tough SOB. Got to hand it to him, he built himself a real empire. But he paid a price.”

“And now all he wants to do, apparently, is make wine.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Deke said. “The company still means a hell of a lot to him.”

Mason raised his brows. “You don’t think he’d murder his own sister to try to get his hands on those shares, do you?”

“Mary wasn’t his sister—not by blood, at any rate. She was his stepsister. Her mother was a widow with a little girl when she married Warner’s father.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“A lot of people don’t know that,” Deke said. “Or they’ve forgotten about it.”

“How did you find out? You didn’t grow up here. We didn’t move here until Aaron and I were in our teens.”

“Got the info from Becky. She was born in Summer River.”

Mason nodded. “Did Becky tell you anything else?”

“She did, and it’s something you might find interesting. She told me how Mary got those shares and why they are wild cards. When Mary turned twenty-five she came into an inheritance from her mother’s side. That’s where she got the money to invest in Warner’s company. Mary believed in the company because she knew that Warner had a talent for making money. But she and Warner were never close. For Mary, it was a business investment. Warner was desperate for the cash infusion, so he gave her the shares on her terms.”

“Okay, that changes things up a bit. Any idea why the partnership between Colfax and Brinker broke up?”

“I heard the same story everyone else heard. After his son disappeared, Jeffrey Brinker lost interest in Colfax and Brinker. He became obsessed with trying to discover what had happened to Tristan.” Deke wrapped both hands around the whiskey glass and looked straight at Mason. “Only natural. I’d have done the same if you or Aaron had gone missing.”