White Lies (The Arcane Society #2)(65)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“You heard the lady,” Jake said. “Sit.”

Ingle swallowed hard. He turned, went very quickly behind his desk and sat down abruptly.

Jake moved again, as fast or even faster than the first time. It seemed to Clare that in the blink of an eye he had circled the desk and grabbed Ingle’s right wrist.

“No guns,” Jake said.

He opened the drawer that Ingle had been reaching for and removed a pistol. Then he made a quick check of the rest of the drawers and felt around under the desktop. When he was satisfied, he stood back, holding the gun loosely at his side.

“Put your hands on the desk,” he said to Ingle. “Leave them there where I can see them.”

Clare looked at Jake, raising her brows inquiringly.

He shook his head. “Pretty sure this wasn’t the pistol that was used to kill McAllister or anyone else, for that matter. There aren’t any traces on it. It’s clean.”

“What are you talking about?” Ingle yelped. “I didn’t kill McAllister.”

Clare turned back to him. “Somebody did.”

“Not me.” Ingle seemed to fold in on himself. He flattened his palms on the desk. “All right, I understand what’s going on here. Let’s get to the bottom line. What’s this going to cost me?”

Clare sat down in one of two client chairs and crossed her legs. “You’re going to get off cheap. All we want are answers.”

“Bullshit.” Ingle rallied a little. “I know a couple of blackmailers when I see them. You want money.”

“No.” She smiled coldly. “Just answers.”

“About what?” he asked warily.

“Let’s start with your role as Dr. Ronald Mowbray in Phoenix,” Clare said.

Ingle looked at her for a moment and then turned to Jake. “First, tell me who I’m dealing with.”

“I’m with Jones & Jones,” Jake said.

Ingle was startled. “I haven’t done anything to attract the attention of Jones & Jones.”

“Yes,” Jake said, “you have. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here, would I?”

Ingle regarded him carefully. “What are you? One of the throwbacks they say work for J&J?”

Clare was on her feet without conscious thought. She swept past Jake and came to a halt in front of the desk. Planting her palms on the gleaming surface not far from Ingle’s hands, she leaned forward and lowered her voice.

“Mr. Salter is not a throwback,” she said. “He is an investigative consultant. You will show him respect. Is that understood?”

“Hell, everyone knows about the exotics Jones & Jones uses,” Ingle said.

“Let me put it this way,” Clare interrupted. “If you do not show Mr. Salter the appropriate degree of professional respect, I will see to it that you are turned over to the Tucson police this afternoon along with all the evidence they will need to send you to jail for fraud. Your name and face will be on the evening news and in tomorrow morning’s papers. Do we have an understanding, Ingle?”

Ingle’s jaw flexed a couple of times. “Certainly, Miss Lancaster. Whatever you say. I am, of course, happy to cooperate with Jones & Jones.”

The sarcasm was only barely concealed but she decided to let it go. Time was a factor, after all.

She took her hands off the desk, turned and walked back to her chair. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Jake was amused. She flushed. As if he needed her to defend him, she thought.

For the second time she sat down and crossed her legs.

“Now then, about your career as Dr. Ronald Mowbray,” she said to Ingle.

Ingle seemed to relax a little. He was obviously less concerned now that he knew Clare and Jake were connected to Jones & Jones. What did he fear more than the Arcane Society’s investigators? Clare wondered.

“Brad McAllister contacted me,” Ingle said. “He told me that he wanted me to play the part of a shrink for a couple of months. Said it would only require two days a week and that it wouldn’t interfere with my business here in Tucson.”

“Were you two acquainted before he contacted you?” Clare asked.

“No,” Ingle said. He smiled humorlessly. “We weren’t exactly in the same league. McAllister was a major player. He must have made millions over the years. In case you didn’t notice, my clients don’t come from the higher tax brackets.”

“How did McAllister know you’d be a good candidate for the scam in Phoenix?” Jake asked.

Ingle shrugged. “He said he’d heard about me. Admired my work. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. When he told me he was running an operation involving the Glazebrook family, I had some second thoughts. Like I said, I’m not used to playing in those circles. But everything went off like clockwork, at least at first.”

“Then what happened?” Clare asked.

Ingle smiled coldly. “Then you showed up, Miss Lancaster. You snatched Elizabeth away so fast, McAllister was left flailing. Took him a while to understand what had hit him. Congratulations. I doubt if many people were capable of taking him by surprise.”

Clare stilled. “He talked to you about me?”

“Yes,” Ingle said. “He told me that you were a problem that he had not anticipated but eventually he indicated that he had a plan to deal with you. Frankly, I more or less expected you to suffer an unfortunate but highly convenient accident. When McAllister turned up dead instead I figured you’d just moved a little faster than he had, that’s all.”

“You thought I killed McAllister?” she asked.

He elevated one brow. “You were the one who found the body. I knew you had a motive. You wanted to save Elizabeth from McAllister’s clutches. True, it wasn’t the motive that the rumors attributed to you, but it seemed like a reasonable one to me.”

“You knew that I wasn’t having an affair with Brad McAllister,” she said.

“Didn’t seem very likely under the circumstances.”

Jake watched him with a feral stare. “You were aware that Miss Lancaster was in mortal danger from McAllister but you made no move to warn her?”

“I assure you it was just guesswork on my part,” Ingle said, politely innocent. He grimaced. “Not like I knew what the guy was really thinking. I doubt if anyone knew what was going on in McAllister’s head. The longer I worked with him, the more I realized he was some kind of wack job.”