“Was the person outside your window a man or a woman?”
Willow, sitting on the biggest, most comfortable couch in the library with a cup of hot chocolate beside her, looked at Tyler in frustration. “It was my guardian angel. I already told everybody.”
The police had left fifteen minutes earlier. Willow had attempted to give them a description of the evening, but between tears, shuddering, and a case of hiccups, her story had been nearly incomprehensible. Tyler had decided that since she’d calmed down a bit, they had to try again while the events were fresh in Willow’s mind.
“Was the angel a man or a woman?”
“Angels aren’t boys or girls. They’re just angels,” Willow explained with a pained expression. “How come you don’t know that?”
Tyler sighed. “A lapse in my religious education, I guess. Okay, honey, tell me exactly what happened earlier tonight.”
“I already did. And I told the policemen who came.”
“I know you did but I’d like for you to tell me again. Please, Willow.”
“Yes, dear,” Clarice said when the little girl looked like she might go silent out of pure annoyance. “I didn’t understand everything you said to the policemen. My hearing isn’t so good.”
“But your gran’girl Katy says you’ve got ears like a bat and bats hear great.”
Clarice looked affronted while Diana and Tyler tried not to grin. “Katy is only thirteen and she doesn’t know as much as she thinks she does,” Clarice replied tartly. Then she drew a breath and smiled at Willow. “Please tell the story again so I can hear all of it.”
“Oh, okay.” Willow snuggled deeper into the same afghan that Clarice had earlier wrapped around Diana. “I was sleepin’ and then I woke up real slow ’cause some-thin’ was makin’ a sound at the window. Christabel heard it, too. She was lookin’ at the window. I got up and looked out and I saw the angel.”
“How did you know it was an angel?” Tyler asked. “What did it look like?”
“I didn’t know it was an angel at first. It was dressed in a long, white robe—not a robe like you wear over your ’jamas but a flowy robe with big, flowy arms—”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Diana said, “but by flowy do you mean flowing, or draping like a cape or a cloak?”
“I mean flowy,” Willow returned irritably. “And a light shined on its face and its face glowed!”
“It glowed?” Simon repeated doubtfully.
“It glowed, Uncle Simon. Why can’t anyone understand what I’m sayin’ tonight?”
“We’re sorry. We’re just very tired and we were very scared for you. We’re not thinking too clearly,” Simon said, trying to soothe the exhausted, frightened, and cranky child. “Have another sip of your chocolate while it’s still warm and then go ahead with your story and we promise not to interrupt you again.”
Willow slurped hot chocolate, then somewhat mollified, continued. “I slid up my window. I just looked ’cause I was scared. Then it said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Willow. I’m your guardian angel and I’ve come to take you to your mommy.’ I said, ‘But I’ve never seen you before,’ and the angel said, ‘People don’t see me till they really need me. Now come outside real quiet and I’ll take you to see your mommy.’ Christabel was standin’ on her back legs beside me. She saw the angel, too, and she’d tell you about it if she could talk. Then I said to the angel, ‘I’m not s’posed to go outside at night by myself.’ And the angel said, ‘You won’t be by yourself. You’ll be with me.’
“I knew the angel was right and that no one could get mad at me for goin’ out at night ’cause I was with my angel. So I put on my slippers and I shut my bedroom door so Christabel wouldn’t follow me. I could hear her meowin’ inside my room and scratchin’ at the door and I felt bad, but I remembered Diana sayin’ Christabel could get lost in the woods and might not come back for ages.
“I tiptoed down the stairs and all the way to the back door and I unlocked it and opened it and went outside, thinkin’ the angel would be right there waitin’ for me. But it was farther away from the house. I thought it was leavin’ without me ’cause I’d been too slow, but then it turned and waved to me, you know, like to follow it. So I did. Then it went in the woods and I went after it, but I couldn’t find it. I kept runnin’ around the edge of the woods ’cause I don’t like to go way back in the woods at night, but I didn’t see it.
“Then I heard Diana callin’ to me and I ran to her and told her maybe she could come to see Mommy, too, and then . . .” Willow broke off, her face paling, her hands starting to tremble as they’d done earlier. “And then someone started shootin’ a gun at me and Diana, and she pushed me down on the ground and rolled on top of me.
“There was more shootin’ and she told me to close my eyes and think of the prettiest place I’d ever been. I thought of a while ago when Mommy and Badge and me climbed to the top of the hundred steps in the park and saw the rose gardens with roses in every color, all bloomin’ just when the sun was goin’ down and the sky was sorta dark blue and had pretty pink and orange streaks. Then there was more shootin’ and Uncle Simon yellin’ and lights comin’ on and then there was Badge.” Willow ran down like a clock slowly stopping. She smiled sweetly at Tyler and asked, “How come you’re here when you’re s’posed to be a secret?”
“It was time for me to stop being a secret, sweetheart,” Tyler said gently. “Your mommy wouldn’t want me to be a secret anymore.”
After Simon and Clarice had taken Willow and her feline companions up to bed, Diana said softly, “I know Willow is your daughter. I’m not judging you, Tyler, but it’s so obvious. She looks like you.”
Tyler took her hand and looked deeply into her eyes. “She looks like Penny.”
“Willow loves you,” Diana went on calmly. “It’s clear you’ve been around for as long as she can remember. Penny told her to keep you a secret, but I should have guessed a powerful tie existed between you by how frantic you were at the explosion site. You weren’t horrified the way a stranger would be—I knew it at the time. Then Willow came to you in the woods after hiding from everyone else. Whenever I ask her about you, she gets very cagy. I told you she was collecting sparkle bugs for her mother. Everyone else asked what sparkle bugs were, but not you. You knew she called fireflies sparkle bugs.” Diana drew a deep breath. “I’ve finally realized you and Penny were—”
“Siblings,” Tyler interrupted. Diana had been so close to saying lovers, she went completely blank, nearly gaping at him. “Oh, we weren’t related by blood, but we might as well have been,” he said earnestly. “When I was fifteen and she was thirteen, she came to live in the foster home where Child Protective Services had placed me.”
After Diana’s first stunning surprise, she asked incredulously, “You were in the same foster home? That’s your connection to Penny?”
“Yes, Diana. But our ‘connection,’ as you call it, went deeper.” He smiled at the memory. “She was a pretty little thing, but she nearly drove me nuts because she just attached herself to me and I didn’t want a thirteen-year-old girl trying to hang out with me all the time. It wasn’t cool, and I thought I was the height of cool. Then I got used to her. Later, to my horror, I realized I loved her—not in a romantic way, but the way I would have loved a little sister if she’d actually been my sister by birth. Probably more, because my sister wouldn’t have been Penny, and I think you know how irresistible Penny is.”
Suddenly, Diana’s words came in a flood. “She told me she was an only child. I didn’t know she was a foster child until Jeffrey Cavanaugh told us, but he didn’t say anything about you. If she’d remained close to you, why wouldn’t she want Jeffrey to know about you? Why did you have to stay a shadow in her and Willow’s life?”
Tyler took a deep breath as if debating how much to tell her. He began slowly. “I told you I had an uncle who was a cop. That was true. I admired him and wanted to be just like him. When I turned eighteen and left the foster care system, I’d already finished a year of college—I majored in criminal justice—and I’d decided I wanted to work undercover. I wanted Penny to go to college, but she was too impatient. She wanted to go out and live, as she always said. Anyway, she worked in stores and was a waitress for a while. When she was twenty-one, she began the exotic dancing. By that time I was beginning to work undercover, and considering how many lowlives she came in contact with, we decided it would be safer if no one knew she had any connection to me, although I don’t use my real name on the job.”
“But after she married, why did you want her to keep your identity a secret from Jeffrey Cavanaugh?” Diana asked. “He’s not a lowlife.”
“Isn’t he? Exactly how much do you know about the guy?”
“Well, not a lot except that when his father died he took over the company and—”
“And there the saga begins. Do you want to hear the whole story or do you want to go curl up in your bed and sleep for the next ten hours?”
“I couldn’t sleep if you paid me,” Diana said ruefully. “Aside from hurting all over, I can’t remember anything about yesterday until I woke up in the hospital. I have no idea who was trying to murder Willow and me in my own backyard. I’m afraid Jeffrey Cavanaugh is going to storm in here and take Willow away and I’ll never see her again. My best friend is dying a slow, ghastly death. . . .” Diana’s voice broke and her eyes filled with tears. “In short, I’m a nervous wreck.”
Suddenly Simon’s voice came from behind her. “Then what you need is an ice pack for your head, one for your hip, one of your pain pills, a mild tranquilizer, and a nice glass of—”
“Wine? Please?”
“Warm milk.”
“Oh that should finish me off,” Diana said between crying and laughing. “I hate warm milk.”
“Nevertheless, it will do you good,” Simon said authoritatively. “Clarice and I will have you medicated and comfortable in fifteen minutes flat, then we shall retire and you two can sit here and talk all night long. And Tyler?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Number one, you must call me Simon, not ‘sir.’ Number two, you look like you could use a drink. What’s your poison?”
“Vodka.”
“A double Grey Goose vodka it is. And I’ll leave the bottle on the counter in the kitchen if you care for more. Number three, I would like to thank you with all of my heart for saving Diana’s and Willow’s lives. The world would not be the same without them.”
Tyler looked into Diana’s teary eyes, smiling tenderly. “I’ll certainly drink to that, Simon.”
Diana sat curled on the couch, wearing Clarice’s long-sleeved heavy fleece winter robe that she had insisted Diana put on before the police arrived. In spite of the warm night, Diana felt cold to her core and the robe was comfortable.
“How did you happen to be here when Willow and I needed you?” Diana asked.
“I’ve been your shadow since Friday night. I thought you knew that by now.”
“I think I did.” Diana dutifully took her pills, held an ice pack against the lump on her head, and drank a third of her milk. “Tell me more about Penny and you.”
“Penny never talked to me about the years before she became my foster sister. I’d be boring you with a story mostly about me.”
“I’d like to hear it if you don’t mind telling it.”
Tyler leaned forward, picked up his glass of vodka from a coffee table, and took a sip. “I’ve only told a few people about my childhood. Because finally you seem to be putting your trust in me, though, I guess it would be best if you know everything.” He leaned back and grinned at her, his dimples deepening. “Everything suitable for a lady to hear.”
“I’m not easily shocked, Tyler. I promise not to flounce off to bed if I find out you weren’t a choir boy.”
“Well, that’s comforting because I certainly wasn’t.” He drew a deep breath and looked straight ahead, as if reluctant to meet her gaze. “My parents both wanted to make it big on Broadway. They were from small southern towns and very young. They met at an audition and married shortly afterward. I don’t think they were really in love—they shored each other up in a city they couldn’t handle, but they refused to go home. They just turned to drugs.
“I was born two years after they married. My mother’s parents had turned their backs on her. My dad’s father was a widower but he kept taking me in, and so did my dad’s big brother, Don. He was the cop. Don was seven years older than my father and I thought he was a god. He still lived down South in the same town as Grandpa and I spent a lot of time there with them.”
“Hence your Southern accent,” Diana said.
Tyler nodded. “My parents never lost theirs, and the happiest times of my life were spent in the South, so I hung onto that accent for dear life. Silly, but true. Grandpa and Don wanted to keep me, but my parents would get clean and demand they give me back to them. They never stayed clean, though. When I was twelve, they were hooked on crack, scraping out a living. They were ready to let me go to Uncle Don’s or my grandfather’s when Don was killed in the line of duty. Three months later, my grandfather had a fatal heart attack. By the time I was thirteen, all of my parents’ efforts were concentrated on raking up enough money to support their habit.”
Tyler paused and swallowed hard. When he began again, his voice had roughened. “I came home from school one day and they were gone. The apartment we lived in was a rattrap, but I managed to hang on in it for a month until the rent was due. Then I hit the streets. For nearly a year I begged, I slept in boxes in the summer and abandoned buildings in the winter. Finally I got a job cleaning up at a diner. The owner’s wife turned me in to Child Protective Services. I hated her then, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
“Lots of times when I was with my grandfather we used to visit Al Meeks, and he became like a second grandfather. After Grandpa died, I’d write to him. When he hadn’t heard from me for nearly two years, he tracked me down. By then I was in the care of the CPS. He wanted to take me, but he wasn’t a relative, he was divorced and they prefer two-parent homes, and he wasn’t approved to take in foster children, so I ended up in a home in New York. Lucky for me, it was a good home.” He stopped, looked at Diana and smiled. “About a year later, along came Penny. Al visited me at the foster home a couple of times a year . He took to Penny right away. Twice my foster parents brought Penny and me to Huntington to visit Al. One year we went to a football game at Marshall. We even came to Ritter Park. Penny loved Huntington.”
“Which is why she came here when she left Jeffrey,” Diana said quietly.
“The main reason, but not the only one. She thought it was a city big enough to get lost in, but not overwhelmingly big. After all, she’d never been a single mother. She knew she could handle herself in a large place, but she wasn’t as sure of herself with a child in her care. And she’d never told Jeffrey about her trips here because she was afraid she’d slip and mention Al or me.”
While Tyler talked, Diana had forced down the rest of her warm milk and she now set the glass aside and put her hand on his tanned arm. “I called Al Meeks.”
“I know. He told me.”
“You know, I didn’t trust you. I knew you were lying about not knowing Penny and Willow. I thought you might be lying about knowing Al. Anyway, he tried to give away as little information as possible, but he did say your grandfather’s heart would have been broken if he’d known what happened to you when you were younger. He meant the last years with your parents and you ending up on the streets fending for yourself when you were only thirteen.” Diana tightened her clasp on his arm. “Do you know what happened to your parents?”
“I know my mother died from an overdose when I was sixteen. I found out about that many years later. I don’t know what happened to my father. He simply became one of the people lost on the streets—the kind I see so often in my job.”
“I’m sorry, Tyler. Truly sorry.”
Tyler took another sip of his drink. “Enough of my sad tale. Now tell me about Diana Sheridan.”
“Diana Sheridan isn’t nearly so interesting.”
“I doubt that. Spill.”
“My father was from a family with money. He and my mother married young, almost immediately had me, and were baffled by what to do with a child. So they left me in the care of my grandmother and they traveled a lot. And spent money. Too much money. By the time I was twelve, most of it was gone. They stopped traveling, stopped having parties, stopped enjoying life.
“When I was fourteen, my father had too much to drink at the first party he and my mother had attended in months, and on the way home, he missed a curve in the road and the car tumbled down into a ravine. They both died instantly. Grandmother was devastated—my mother was her only child and just thirty-four. I loved my parents and I missed them, but I wasn’t as lost as most fourteen-year-olds would have been if their parents died. They’d been gone so much of my life, I’d learned to depend on Grandmother and myself. And Simon, of course. Also, I knew how unhappy they were with the life they had ahead.”
“So you went to live with your grandmother,” Tyler said. “And the two of you spent even more time with Simon, and when you were eighteen, he took you on an Egyptian expedition. Penny thought that was the most fabulous thing she’d ever heard.”
Diana smiled. “It was fabulous. It was hard, but it was also wonderful.” She sighed. “Penny and I used to talk about going on an expedition some day and taking Willow, of course. I always knew it would never happen, but we were like young girls planning what they were going to do when they grew up. It was fun.”
Tyler grinned. “I know. She told me. You were her first real girlfriend, you know. She always sounded about sixteen when she talked of all the fun things the two of you talked about and did together.”
“I had no idea, but I’m glad Penny enjoyed our friendship. It was the best one of my life, too.”
A tear ran down Diana’s face, and Tyler’s eyes suddenly shone in the lamplight with his own unshed tears. He quickly glanced at his empty glass. “I think I’ll take advantage of that fine bottle of Grey Goose vodka Simon left out in the kitchen and fix another drink. May I get you anything?”
“You may get me a glass of wine.”
While Tyler was gone, Diana rid herself of the ridiculous ice pack and rested her head on the back of the couch. She didn’t know how it was possible, but she was happy. In spite of everything, she was happy. “You must be crazy, Diana Sheridan,” she said aloud, softly. “Only you would be happy two hours after someone tried to shoot you to death.”
“Were you talking to me?” the object of her happiness asked as he strode back into the room. His face looked more relaxed, and his eyes no longer seemed to be probing every corner, searching for possible danger. He handed her a wineglass and walked to the front bay window, parting the draperies. “Good. Surveillance still in place, although I wish they were closer to the house. I looked out the kitchen window. They’re still searching the woods, too.”
Diana took a sip of her wine. “Ugh! Tyler, this is Willow’s apple juice!”
“Yes indeed. Your uncle said no alcohol on top of a pain pill and a tranquilizer.”
“An extremely mild tranquilizer.”
“Be that as it may,” he said, sitting down so close to her she could feel the heat of his body, “I’ve just won over Simon. I’m not going to lose his good will because of a glass of wine.”
“You won over Simon the night you met him.” Diana grinned. “You know that. He loaned you one of his cars. And I think Clarice fell in love with you.”
“Well, I think Clarice is one hell of a gal, but she’s not the one I’d like to have fall for me.”
Diana had always felt disdain for women who acted coy, but she couldn’t help herself. “What kind of girl do you have in mind?”
“One who’s ambitious and wants to make her own good fortune, not have it handed to her. One who isn’t consumed by her considerable beauty.” He paused. “And most important, one who would risk anything to protect the people she loves. You risked your life to protect Willow.”
“Yes, I did a wonderful job tonight, didn’t I?”
“You woke up. You went after her. You shielded her with your own body. I’d certainly call those the actions of a protector.”
“I woke up because of the cats. People who say cats aren’t capable of heroic acts haven’t read much about how many cats have saved their owners by alerting them of danger. And naturally I went after Willow and tried to cover her body with mine. Who wouldn’t have?”
“A lot of people. I see it all the time.”
“Well, the person who tried to kill Willow and me must have been the same one who tried to kill Penny. We can’t have two potential murderers after this family.”
Tyler smiled and took her hand. “I like it that you think of Penny and Willow as being part of ‘this family.’ ”
“We felt as if she and Willow were family. We loved them.” Diana looked into Tyler’s eyes. “That’s why I feel you should tell me the reason Penny ran away from Jeffrey instead of divorcing him. Why did she choose a life of hiding?”
Tyler glanced down, and Diana could almost feel him marshalling his forces to tell something he’d probably sworn never to tell. She didn’t believe he broke promises easily. Then he began to speak in a low, hesitant voice.
“I hated what Penny was doing before her marriage. She was a stripper, plain and simple. Not a prostitute like some people said later, but a stripper. Then she met Jeffrey Cavanaugh. She’d been seeing him for over a month before she told me. She was in love, and I was horrified.
“I already knew all about Cavanaugh. His father, Morgan, was a rough customer with more criminal associations than the authorities probably knew about, but he was so devious, nothing could ever be pinned on him. He was also smart—enough to know if he wanted to start a legitimate business, he needed a partner with prestige. That’s why he needed Charles Wentworth, Blake’s father. People thought Wentworth had lost most of his money in bad investments or he would never have teemed up with someone like Cavanaugh. Anyway, together they formed Cavanaugh and Wentworth.”
Tyler took another sip of his drink. “The business took off like a rocket. Morgan Cavanaugh actually began to earn some respect in the business world if not the personal one. He had a wife and two kids, but he was always involved with at least one other woman, and he had nothing but contempt for his son. I’ve heard some terrible stories about how he treated Jeffrey. That kind of treatment would leave scars on anyone.”
“So you feel sorry for him.”
“So I think his childhood might have warped him. That’s too bad, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think the guy has some serious problems.”
“I understand. You’re not talking about causes. You’re concerned about the result.”
“Exactly, especially when that result affected Penny,” Tyler said. “About ten years after they founded the business, Wentworth killed himself. Supposedly, he’d been caught embezzling and couldn’t face the shame. A lot of people didn’t believe the whole scenario. Wentworth had a spotless reputation, the business made so much money he didn’t need to embezzle, and he was devoted to his wife and son. The police couldn’t prove anything, though.
“Morgan now had control of the entire business. He provided well for Wentworth’s wife and son, but the wife had a complete breakdown about six months after her husband’s suicide and she never recovered. She’s still in a sanitarium. Meanwhile, Morgan took Blake in, treated him like the son he thought he should have had instead of Jeffrey, paid for Blake’s Harvard education, just like Jeffrey’s, and approved Blake’s marriage to his daughter. Everyone thought Jeffrey must resent the hell out of Blake, but apparently he didn’t.” Tyler shrugged. “From what I’ve heard, they weren’t close before Charles Wentworth’s death, but afterward they became good friends in spite of the six-year age difference.”
“That speaks well of Jeffrey,” Diana said. “As long as it wasn’t an act.”
“With Jeffrey, you never know. The man is an enigma. Brilliant, reclusive, and strange.”
“How strange?”
“That depends on who’s talking about him. I’ve heard dozens of people talk about Jeffrey Cavanaugh and no one has given the same description of him. Some say he has a few minor eccentricities. Others say he’s crazy. No one says he’s just a friendly, normal guy.”
“Well, that’s comforting,” Diana muttered.
“Isn’t it? Just after Jeffrey turned thirty, his father was murdered—one shot at close range to the head. It looked like a Mafia hit, but people speculated that maybe Jeffrey had gotten rid of his father. Jeffrey hated Morgan, and with Morgan gone, the business fell to Jeffrey. He made a success of it and later brought in Blake as chief operating officer. In the meantime, he married a socialite named Yvette DuPrés. She was beautiful and definitely crazy—no one quibbles about her mental state.
“The marriage was a complete mess from the beginning. She started having affairs almost immediately. By the third year, she seemed to be doing everything in her power to humiliate Jeffrey. After one particularly bad evening in San Francisco, she left a hotel dinner party with Jeffrey and a bunch of bigwigs he hoped to reel in. She went up to her hotel room and half an hour later took a dive from her eighth-floor window.”
“Lenore told me about Yvette’s death,” Diana said with a shudder. “She said the police didn’t believe she committed suicide.”
“That’s because of the necklace.” Tyler shook his head. “You’d never believe the trouble that cursed necklace has caused Jeffrey. Even he doesn’t know all of it.”
“What’s so special about a necklace?”
“It’s a coincidence, but Yvette was fascinated by ancient Egypt—the way people lived, their beliefs, you name it. I can imagine how she would have loved to meet Simon. She even had Simon’s first book.”
Diana nearly gasped. “You’re kidding! Tyler, that’s just . . . just—”
“Creepy, in layman’s terms.”
“Exactly.”
“Nevertheless, it’s true. So, Yvette had a passion for Egyptian culture and she especially loved some myth about the Egyptian lotus. Lotus or lily? Does that sound familiar?”
For a moment Diana was speechless. He could have been spinning one of Willow’s fabulous bedtime stories, but he wasn’t. “Are you serious?” she finally asked. Tyler nodded. “Go look at the center pane of the rear bay window.”
“I already have,” he said, smiling but going back to the window anyway. He drew aside the draperies and tilted his head, then said, “Just as Penny described it.”
“You should see it when the sun shines through the glass. It’s beautiful. And Penny told you about it?”
“You bet she did. But I don’t remember the myth. You tell it.”
As Tyler stood, looking at the glass as if mesmerized, Diana said, “It’s known as the myth of the blue lotus, although depictions in temples show that they were really referring to a water lily. According to the myth, when the world began, dark waters of turmoil covered everything. Then the Primeval Water Lily surfaced from the waters. It opened its blue petals, and inside sat a child-god on the golden center of the flower. Light streamed from the child-god’s body and banished the darkness. He was considered the source of all life.”
Tyler turned and looked at her. “Did Simon write about the myth in his first book?”
“He wrote about it in one of them. It could have been the first one.”
“The one Yvette owned.” He let out a low whistle and said, “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“Okay, you’re damned, hopeless, a lost soul. Now get over here and tell me about Yvette’s necklace.”
“I’m glad you’re so unconcerned about the state of my soul.”
“I’m not at all worried about the state of your soul because you have one of the best souls I have ever encountered.”
“Oh, I’ll bet you say that to all the guys.” Tyler grinned, but Diana thought he looked moved.
Diana patted the seat beside her and Tyler returned to the couch, once more sitting close to her, this time throwing his arm around her shoulders. “Cretin that I am, I only knew the necklace was a blue and canary diamond concoction Jeffrey designed for Yvette because of some myth that obsessed her. I think someone told me it was a Chinese myth. Anyway, what interested the cops the most was that it cost a fortune and that Yvette always wore it but it wasn’t on her body after the fall. It also wasn’t in the hotel room.”
“What did the San Francisco police believe happened to it?”
“They thought someone had helped Yvette out that window and had kept the necklace.”
“I take it Jeffrey wasn’t with her when she went out the window.”
“That’s open to debate. Jeffrey, Yvette, Lenore, and Blake had gone to San Francisco to attend an anniversary party in the hotel ballroom for one of Cavanaugh and Went-worth’s biggest clients. At the party, Yvette made one of many public scenes, but this was probably the worst. She screamed that Jeffrey had killed his father, that he was a thief, a sexual deviant, you name it. Then she threw champagne in his face and stalked out of room.
“Everyone at the party said Jeffrey just stood there. He didn’t answer her, he didn’t try to shut her up, he didn’t even wipe the champagne off his face. He didn’t show any emotion whatsoever. I guess Lenore ran up to him and tried to dry his face, but he brushed her away. Lenore left the ballroom looking upset, then people started trying to act like nothing had happened—as if that was possible. Finally Jeffrey dried off his own face, downed another glass of champagne, talked to a couple of people, or rather talked as much as he ever does, and after about half an hour, he left the party. Everyone thought his behavior was almost as bizarre as Yvette’s.”
“Lenore says Jeffrey’s odd behavior is the result of his father always tormenting him,” Diana said.
“I wouldn’t doubt it. I told you Morgan was a mean old cuss and he supposedly couldn’t stand his son because Jeffrey wasn’t at all like him.” Tyler smiled pityingly. “The ironic thing is that Jeffrey’s mother doesn’t care much for him either because she thinks he’s exactly like his father.”
“That would have to badly affect him, Tyler. He couldn’t win.”
“Well, don’t feel too sorry for him. We don’t know which parent was right.”
“Anyway, Jeffrey went to their hotel room after leaving the party. The police were certain that if he’d arrived before Yvette’s plunge out the window, Jeffrey had jerked the necklace off her before he pushed her, or the necklace caught on his hand during the struggle. But someone in the next room claimed they’d heard Yvette shouting at somebody about ten minutes before Jeffrey could have arrived, and a man in the hotel lobby said he saw Jeffrey at almost the exact time Yvette fell, or jumped, or was pushed. That’s where the matter ended. Again, no proof,” Tyler ended in disgust.
“Two deaths—one appearing to be a Mafia hit, the other a suicide—and both benefitting Jeffrey,” Diana said slowly. “That’s stretching coincidence a bit far.”
“I’ll say it is!” Tyler’s voice had risen. His distrust of Jeffrey Cavanaugh and anger that no one could prove anything against him couldn’t have been more obvious. “So you see why I didn’t want Penny involved with him? He’d lived like a hermit after Yvette’s death, then he and some client went to see ‘Copper Penny’—that was her stage name—and suddenly he started dating her. You can probably imagine how the tabloids loved it.”
“You read the tabloids?” Diana asked teasingly, trying to lighten Tyler’s mood, which seemed to be teetering on the edge of fury.
He smiled for the first time in twenty minutes.
“Of course. I read them voraciously,” he said, tongue in cheek. “I’m much more interested in who’s just married for the sixth time than I am in Ahab chasing a white whale.”
“It sounds to me as if Jeffrey has become your white whale,” Diana said softly.
“I guess he has.” Tyler grew serious. “I knew a lot about him after the Yvette business. Then to find out Penny was involved with him threw me for a loop, as my grandpa used to say. I begged Penny to stop seeing Jeffrey. Instead she married him. Diana, I would rather she had kept stripping than be married to him. I was afraid for her.”
“No wonder. But you didn’t interfere. Did Jeffrey know about you?”
“No, he didn’t. Because of his suspected underworld associations inherited from his father, I couldn’t have him knowing about me. Penny kept assuring me Jeffrey was entirely honorable, but frankly, Penny could be incredibly naive. She knew how important anonymity was to me, though, and she kept me a secret. We talked on prepaid cell phones so calls couldn’t be traced. We met briefly in Central Park. Later, Penny would bring Willow to the park for me to see, and as she got older, we taught her to call me Badge so that if she ever mentioned me, Penny could say she meant the cops wearing badges that patrol the park.”
“When Willow kept saying ‘badge’ in the emergency room, the doctor and I thought she was referring to the badges worn by police at the scene.”
“Even now she doesn’t know my real name. Penny said Willow could start calling me Tyler as soon as they were safe.”
“Safe from what? I still don’t know why Penny ran away.”
Someone rapped softly using the knocker on the large, wooden front door, and Diana jumped. “Oh God, who’s that?” she asked, grabbing Tyler’s arm.
“Well, most killers don’t knock to announce their arrival. It’s probably a cop.”
Diana huddled on the couch while Tyler strode to the door. He was at least six-foot-one with wide, muscular shoulders, a toned body, and an almost catlike grace—the kind that in an instant could turn into the strong, agile moves of a dangerous adversary. Diana realized how much safer she felt with Tyler there tonight. If he hadn’t stayed, she would have lain in her bed wide-awake and trembling all night, even if Simon had allowed her more than one tranquilizer.
Tyler opened the front door, and Diana crept to the entrance of the library. A patrolman said, “They’re finished searching the woods for tonight. Just thought I’d tell you they’ll be leaving now.”
“Find anything?” Tyler asked.
“Some kind of white robe. Big thing.” Flowy, Diana thought, remembering how Willow had described it. “It’s bagged as evidence and forensics will see what they can recover from it. Other than that, they didn’t find anything. They’re going to take another look around tomorrow in the daylight, though.”
“Good. And you’re going to keep twenty-four-hour surveillance on the house.”
“Well, we’ll do the best we can, but I don’t think we have the manpower for constant surveillance.”
“Do you mean that after what happened, you’re going to leave these people unprotected?”
“That’s not what I said.” The patrol officer sounded nettled. “I said we’re going to do the best we can. I know you’re from New York City and this isn’t New York, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have crime here—it’s not confined to the Van Etton house.” The man apparently took a deep breath. “Look, maybe you should take this up with the sheriff tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Tyler said easily. “I didn’t mean to jump down your throat. I just care a lot about these people.”
“I understand.” The patrol officer’s voice sounded more affable. “I’ll be leaving now, but we’ve got two guys in the car out front. Hope the rest of the night goes well.”
“I don’t see how it could get much worse,” Tyler said dryly, and the patrol officer laughed as Tyler shut the door. He turned and looked at Diana hovering in the door. “He said they found a white robe in the woods.”
“I heard. The one worn by Willow’s guardian angel, of course.”
Tyler’s gaze traveled over her, swathed in heavy blue fleece. “My, you do go in for the sexy nightwear, don’t you?”
“Clarice and I have traded robes. You should see the one I gave her on the first night she stayed here. It was a gift from my ex-mother-in-law meant to inspire unbridled passion in her son. I think Clarice took one look at it and was ready to run for what was left of her home.”
Tyler walked toward her and put his arm around her waist. “Well, she didn’t, and from what I’ve been able to see, she seems to fit right in with the Van Etton household.”
“Especially its master. Do you know Simon not only took her to church yesterday but also stayed for the service? I can’t remember the last time Simon entered a church.”
“Not for your wedding?”
“I was married in a judge’s office. No frills. I didn’t feel like I’d even gotten married.” She steered Tyler back to the couch and they both sat down, their bodies touching, their faces inches apart. “Now tell me about Penny’s marriage.”
Tyler reached for his glass and emptied the remaining vodka. “Well, Penny seemed really happy the first year of the marriage. She immediately went on a self-improvement kick. She took lessons to lose her New York accent, which was fairly strong. She spent hours reading etiquette books and books about gourmet foods and fine wines. She seemed more eager to become a ‘lady’ than to run around buying expensive clothes and jewelry. She wanted Jeffrey to be proud of her. Of course, she was never going to be accepted by high society—not a former stripper—but she didn’t know it, thank goodness. That would have broken her heart because she thought Jeffrey was an integral part of that world.” Tyler rolled his eyes. “He wasn’t. Blake Wentworth was, but not Cavanaugh.”
Diana frowned. “Did that bother Jeffrey?”
“I don’t think so. He’s not a social creature, if you haven’t noticed. But Wentworth lowered his participation in that world nevertheless. I think he did it out of consideration for Jeffrey.”
“Also Lenore?”
“Probably. I don’t think she’s considered one of the social elite, either,” Tyler continued. “Anyway, Penny was thrilled when Willow—or Cornelia, as Jeffrey insisted she be named—was born. She doted on the baby and she was disappointed that Jeffrey didn’t. She said he loved Willow but he just wasn’t demonstrative. Still, things began to go downhill after that. Jeffrey spent more time away from the apartment. He’d work until ten at night and leave at seven in the morning. When he went on trips, he took Lenore and Blake but not Penny. I could tell she was unhappy. Then Jeffrey assigned Penny a bodyguard. She wasn’t supposed to go anywhere without this guy.”
“Are you certain Jeffrey wasn’t just overprotecting her, especially because they had a baby?”
“She believed he thought she had a lover.”
“Did she?”
“If she did, she didn’t tell me about him.”
“Are you sure she would have told you?”
“No. In fact, she probably wouldn’t have. She wouldn’t want another lecture from me about playing with fire, especially because she wasn’t good at sneaking around. Well, the question of a lover aside, one day over a year and half ago, she called me, frantic. Penny had always been intrigued by a wall safe in Jeffrey’s study that he never let her look into, saying it was full of boring business papers. While he was gone on one of his trips, she searched his study and under a heavy piece of sculpture, she found a piece of paper with numbers, which she thought were the combination to the safe.
“She was right, and inside the safe she found Yvette’s necklace. Penny had heard so much about it over the years, she recognized it instantly. The clasp was broken and the chain twisted almost in two. She said the damage didn’t look like what could have happened in a fall. To her it looked like the kind of damage the necklace would have sustained if there had been a struggle and someone had twisted it off Yvette’s neck.
“The fact that Yvette’s necklace was missing was the only reason the police didn’t immediately rule her death a suicide. They believed if she’d jumped out the window, the necklace would have been on her body. But Jeffrey—and several of his lawyers—claimed the necklace could have been stolen after Yvette hit the street. Before the police could arrive, a lot of people had gathered around her body and somebody did CPR and checked her pulse and God knows what else. Also, Yvette was drunk that night, she’d threatened suicide many times—even the day before her death—and it was fifty degrees outside but her window was wide open. Everything except the missing necklace pointed to suicide.”
Tyler’s expression hardened along with his voice. “Over the years, Jeffrey kept talking about the necklace, supposedly wondering what happened to it, as baffled as everyone else. And all along it had been in his safe. When Penny found it, she knew Jeffrey must have struggled with Yvette and pushed her out that window.
“That alone frightened and horrified Penny, but what really terrified her was that she finally believed all the things people said about him—that he’d killed his father and Yvette. She talked hysterically about the way Jeffrey had begun acting with her—the moodiness, keeping her a near-prisoner in the apartment, paying no attention to her or to the baby. She thought that because he believed there was another man in her life, she was going to be his next victim.”
“Why didn’t she take the necklace to the police?”
“I told her the necklace wouldn’t convict Jeffrey of murder. He’d just left his guests at the party when a man in the room next to Yvette’s heard her shouting at someone in her own room. Then the guy in the lobby claimed he saw Jeffrey heading to the elevators right before she would have gone out the window. If what the witness said was true, Jeffrey wouldn’t even have had time to make it to the hotel room, much less struggle with Yvette and toss her out a window then hide the necklace. As for Jeffrey having the necklace years later, he could say it come into his possession after the murder. He might claim someone stole it and sold it back to him.
“Mainly, I didn’t want Penny’s knowledge to become public, because I was afraid Jeffrey might still have contact with some of his father’s mafia connections. I thought if he didn’t shut her up, they’d do it for him.”
“So you told her to run away.”
“No,” Tyler said emphatically. “I told her to get a divorce. If Jeffrey didn’t care much for Willow, he probably wouldn’t fight for custody. Penny said he’d fight for the sheer hell of it, but she didn’t think he’d let things get that far. She thought he’d kill her before he’d let her leave him, especially if he thought there was another man. I told her, ‘Penny, you can run, but you’ll never be safe.’ She was determined, though. She begged me to help her. She said she’d do it alone if I refused.”
Tyler gave Diana a despairing smile. “Penny was smart, but she didn’t know the first thing about pulling off a disappearance. She would have bungled the whole process, Jeffrey would have found out, and God knows what he would have done to her. So I relented.
“I got her all the fake identification and bought the Social Security cards from a homeless woman—they are so desperate, they’re more than willing to sell Social Security cards. I couldn’t believe my luck when I found a woman with a child almost the same age as Willow.” A smile flickered across his face. “Penny insisted I give the woman twice the money she asked for the cards. No one could say Penny wasn’t a generous soul.” The smile disappeared. “Penny told me she intended to come to Huntington, primarily to be near Al Meeks although she had other reasons, too. So Jeffrey returned from his trip to find absolutely no sign of his wife and daughter.”
“That would seem cruel if you didn’t know Jeffrey’s history,” Diana said gravely. “But I’m not certain I wouldn’t have done the same thing if I had been in Penny’s place.”
“I didn’t think it was the way to ensure her safety, but I think like a cop. Anyway, we kept in touch and I even came to Huntington to see her a couple of times—it was easy for me because I could stay with Al.”
Tyler looked away from her, his face etched with pain. “Then I got a hysterical call from Penny about two weeks ago. She said someone was asking too many questions. I had a feeling there was more going on, but she wouldn’t give me more details. She just insisted she’d been found out. She said she had to get away, which broke her heart because she’d have to leave you and Simon. Of course, I agreed to help her again. I couldn’t come immediately—I needed time to gather false IDs again. When I finally got here, Willow was in the hospital with appendicitis. We were going to leave Sunday morning.” Tyler drew a long, shaky breath. “But Sunday was too late.”
Tears glittered in his brilliant blue eyes. Diana put her arms around him and lay her head on his chest. His arms immediately enfolded her and she felt a tear fall onto her forehead, just as her own tears spilled onto his T-shirt.
Finally, when she could speak, Diana asked, “Do you have any idea who found out about Penny?”
“No. She knew, though. She said she’d tell me when she got away from here. I think she was afraid if I knew who it was, I’d go after the person. I might even kill someone. I wouldn’t have, but Penny could get carried away, exaggerate.” He sighed. “But she sure wasn’t exaggerating the fact that she was in danger.”
“And not from Jeffrey if he didn’t know where she was until after the explosion, when her fingerprints were sent to a national database.”
“Even if he wasn’t directly responsible for that bomb, Diana, he killed her just the same. If he didn’t have the necklace, if he hadn’t given her good reason to feel her life was threatened . . .”
“I know.” Diana raised her head. “I know.”
Tyler stroked her hair then pushed it behind her ears and kissed her neck, slowly, gently, trailing kisses from her collarbone up to her ear lobe. Diana closed her eyes, heat flowing through her, as she ran her fingers delicately over his chiseled features, lingering at his lips.
“A few years ago, Penny said there was one girl in the world for me,” Tyler murmured. “She told me, ‘She’s out there somewhere, Tyler, and I know one way or another, you’re going to find her.’ ” Diana opened her eyes and he looked into them so piercingly, she felt as if he could see her soul. “About three months after she started working for Simon, she told me on the phone, ‘Your girl does exist, Tyler, and I’ve met her. Her name is Diana.’ ”
Diana’s eyes filled with tears again although she smiled. “She thought I was the one for you?”
“Absolutely. When I met you the night of the explosion, I felt like I already knew you. I think I was halfway in love with you from the first minute.”
“And now?”
Tyler smiled seductively, the tiny crinkles at the corners of his eyes deepening. “And now I know Penny was right. I have met the girl for me. I just don’t know if she thinks I’m the guy for her.”
“Oh, she does,” Diana said with a rush of feeling. “She most certainly does.”
“We’ve only known each other three days.”
“Penny told you there was one girl in the world for you. My grandmother told me love strikes as quickly as a lightning bolt. It doesn’t matter if we’ve known each other three days or three years—my lightning bolt has struck.”
Tyler lowered his face and kissed her deeply, making her feel as if she’d never really been kissed before tonight. His fingers tangled in her long, curling hair, and her palm closed around his strong, hot neck. They kissed until the grandfather clock struck three. Tyler pulled away from her, his breath coming fast, his face flushed. “I’m being incredibly selfish,” he said in a breathy, reluctant voice. “You should go upstairs and try to get some sleep.”
“I’m not leaving this couch,” Diana whispered in his ear.
He smiled. “And I’m not leaving this house.”
She sat up, reached for the beautiful crocheted afghan, and pulled it over them. “Then it’s a good thing this couch is wide enough for two.”
Shortly afterward, Diana laid her head on his chest, feeling his heart beating and the tingle of his kiss on her lips. In spite of everything, with his arms wrapped around her, she had never felt so safe and happy in her life.