Smoke in Mirrors(40)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

She pulled open the bottom drawer in the desk and removed her satchel. When she undid the clasp and looked inside she saw at once that the contents had been disturbed.

She took out her wallet, opened it and quickly counted the cash inside. It was all there. So were her credit cards.

But if Julie Bromley had not come in here to help herself to some easy money, why had she searched the office?

The restlessness drove him out of his workshop late that afternoon. Wrench looked up from his empty food dish.

“Want to go for a ride?” Thomas said.

Wrench trotted briskly toward the front door. Thomas picked up his keys, the binoculars and his jacket and they left.

Outside, Wrench bounded up into the passenger seat of the SUV and took up his usual position, riding shotgun. Thomas got behind the wheel and fired up the engine.

They drove to the abandoned cottage near Alex Rhodes’s house, parked the SUV behind the old structure, got out and locked up.

Together they made their way through the wet trees to the vantage point Thomas had discovered yesterday with Leonora.

Wrench amused himself investigating scents and smells while Thomas settled down with the binoculars.

He wasn’t sure what he expected to discover today. He had just needed to get out of the house for a while. Spying on Rhodes was as good a way to pass the time as any.

An hour later he was about ready to head back to the SUV with Wrench when a small, battered Ford drove into the front yard of the cottage.

A young woman dressed in jeans and a red leather jacket got out of the car. Her long hair was caught back in a ponytail.

“Not his usual kind of client,” Thomas said to Wrench. “Judging by that old beater she’s driving, I don’t think she can afford his antistress formula. So what’s she doing here?”

He heard her car in his driveway just as he was about to check the living room window for the twelfth time to see if the lights had come on in her cottage on the other side of the cove.

The realization that she had come here on her own volition sent a rush of pleasure through him. The uneasy sensation that had been worrying at him all day faded beneath the onslaught of anticipation.

“Okay. All right. This is good, Wrench. This is a very positive sign.”

Wrench was already on his feet, heading toward his pile of personal possessions.

Thomas opened the front door. Leonora came up the steps looking tense, not like a woman who wished to engage in acts of wild sexual abandon. She clutched something in her hand.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I found this today.” Leonora dropped a gold bracelet into his palm as she went past him into the hall. “It belonged to Meredith.”

Wrench appeared, a badly gnawed leather chew-toy in his mouth. He sat down on his haunches in front of Leonora and dropped the imitation bone at her feet.

She stooped, picked up the toy and patted Wrench on the head.

“Thank you, Wrench. It’s lovely.”

Wrench was satisfied with the response.

Leonora handed Thomas her jacket, went into the living room and stood at the window, arms folded tightly around herself.

He examined the bracelet. There was a small gold plaque inscribed with Meredith’s name.

“I gave it to her when she graduated from college with a terrific grade average.” Her mouth curved in a wry smile. “Of course, that was before I discovered that she had fiddled with the computer database in the college records office to adjust her final grades.”

He studied the gold links coiled in his palm. “Where did you find it?”

“Behind the card catalog in the library office. There’s a door there. It opens off a flight of servants’ stairs. Do you know, I never saw Meredith without that bracelet after I gave it to her. She even had it on the day I found her in bed with Kyle.”

Thomas looked up suddenly, his attention caught by the grimly resigned inflection of her voice. Leonora’s face was angled away from him. She appeared to be fascinated by the view of the cove.

The light of the flames on the hearth gave her khaki-green silk sweater a soft sheen. The garment had a rolled neckline and long sleeves. It fit snugly across her elegantly sculpted shoulders and skimmed over her small, high br**sts. The trousers she wore were also green, a hue that was several shades darker than the sweater. Her hair was caught up in its customary sleek knot.

He forced his attention back to the broken bracelet.

“I remember seeing it on her wrist,” he said, not stopping to think.

Leonora looked at him over her shoulder. The icy irritation that glittered in her eyes made him tighten his fingers around the bracelet.

“What do you want me to do,” he said, “pretend that I didn’t have an affair with her?”

“Of course not.” She turned back to the window. “What would be the point? I already know the truth. There are enough lies and half-truths floating around as it is.”

Anger sparked, catching him off-guard. He crossed the room in three strides and came to a halt directly behind her. Close enough to catch her scent. He did not touch her.

“That’s the real issue here, isn’t it?” he said. “You want me as much as I want you but you can’t handle the fact that I had a brief affair with Meredith.”

“Let’s stick to the problem at hand, okay?”

“Hell, no, it’s not okay. There’s something we need to get settled first. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the feeling that you see me as just another one of Meredith’s dumb-as-a-rock conquests.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is true and I don’t appreciate your low opinion of my intelligence, maturity or self-control.”

“I never said you weren’t intelligent or mature or self-controlled.”

“You didn’t have to say it. You’ve made it clear in a thousand other ways. For the record, I’m not some nineteen-year-old, hormone-driven kid who follows his balls wherever they lead him.”

“There’s no need to get angry about this.”

“Too late. I’m already angry. You know what? It really pisses me off that you assume I was powerless to resist Meredith. You think she was some kind of succubus? A siren who was totally irresistible to weak-minded men like me and your ex-fiancé?”

“I never said you were weak-minded.”

“I’m not your ex-fiancé, either.”

“I know that.” She took a jerky step away and swung around to confront him. “You’re not anything like Kyle. You’re very different.”