The Perfect Frame Read online

  “Is this a private party? Or can anyone join?”

  “By all means join me,” Toni answered, her voice sounding not quite steady.

  “We’re going to prove that you’re not the thief, baby.”

  “I don’t see your magic bag, Mr. Felix. You’re going to need it if you’re going to thwart Dr. Destructo.”

  He took the drink from her hand. “I think you’ve had more than enough.”

  “I don’t agree. I haven’t had nearly enough.”

  “Look, Toni, I know things don’t—”

  “Oh, don’t feel so bad, Mack. I was the stupid one for believing Frank Clifford’s lies. He knew how eager I was for that promotion and he took advantage of it. I thought I’d be one of the lucky ones. Did you know there have only been two women directors ever at Townsend’s? I was determined to be the third.”

  “Nothing is wrong with aspiring to success, Toni.”

  “You’re so sweet, Mack.”

  “I’ll make us some coffee; then we can talk.”

  “Are you suggesting that I’m less than sober?”

  “No, I’m hinting that you’re more than a little bit drunk. After the blow you received today I can hardly blame you for wanting to dull the pain.”

  * * *

  A while later Mack smiled at Toni. “You want some more coffee?”

  “I’ve had enough already, thank you. I’ll be sloshing in it if I drink another cup.”

  “What set you off? Did Clifford say anything?”

  “Before I left, he called me into his office to inform me that I’d be arrested soon and that I’d end up in prison.”

  Mack’s eyes slitted with rage. “The bastard, I’d like to—”

  “You’d have to get in line, maybe even take a number. I’ve learned that no one at work really likes the man. How could I have been so blind, Mack?”

  He pulled her into his arms. “When we want something so badly that we can almost taste it, we tend to ignore anything that will divert us from our goal.”

  “All those evenings I worked overtime and weekends—for what?”

  “It isn’t over until the fat lady sings. You’ve heard that expression, haven’t you?”

  “Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not giving up. I’ve only been temporarily shut down.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  “Am I really your girl, Mack?”

  His mouth devoured hers, drawing a mind-boggling response from her. “Does that answer your question?”

  “It looks like you were right.”

  “Right about what?”

  “About me needing to go back to my apartment for more clothes. It looks like I’ll be staying indefinitely.”

  You’ll never leave if I have my way, Toni my love.

  * * *

  The smell of bacon cooking woke Toni the next morning. Mack was up working his magic in the kitchen, she thought with a smile. A girl could get used to this. She took a quick shower and padded into the kitchen in her robe and bare feet.

  “Did I say the best route to a woman’s heart is her stomach?” Mack quipped.

  “You know you did,” she said, easing onto a kitchen stool, lifting the coffee pot and pouring herself a cup of the wonderful smelling brew.

  “French toast or waffles?” he offered, producing a plate of each.

  “I’ll let you chose.”

  “Such an accommodating woman all of a sudden. I must be dreaming.” He placed the waffles in front of her and poured on her favorite strawberry syrup. Then taking a bite, he kissed her.

  The taste of his lips was delicious. “Umm, so sweet. Is this a part of my breakfast?”

  “But of course, compliments of the house, mademoiselle,” he said in an awful French accent.

  Toni frowned.

  “Bad, huh.”

  “It’s not that. What do we do next, Mack?”

  “I want to make—”

  The doorbell interrupted.

  “I’ll get it, Toni. Drink your coffee and enjoy my out-of-this-world bacon waffles.”

  “Such modesty in a man. I love it,” she said, reaching for more syrup.

  As she took a bite of her waffle, Mack appeared in the doorway flanked by a tall man with a short-to-the-scalp haircut and the most piercingly dark eyes she’d ever seen.

  “Antonia Carlton?”

  “Yes.”

  He whipped out his badge. “I’m Lieutenant Robert Barnes, L.A.P.D. You’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney, and to have him present during questioning. If you can’t afford one, one will be appointed at no charge.”

  Toni swallowed the bite of waffle and rose to her feet after her rights had been read to her.

  “What’s the charge, Bob?” Mack demanded.

  “You know him?” Toni’s brows arched in surprise.

  “We were partners when I was a cop with the L.A.P.D. And we’re still good friends.”

  The man looked uncomfortable but answered. “The charge is embezzlement. I’ll have to take her down to the station and book her, Mack.”

  “I’m coming with you. Don’t even think about giving me a hard time.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” The man smiled. His expression turned serious when he looked at Toni. “You’d better get dressed, Ms. Carlton.”

  “Yes,” she said numbly, and all but stumbled out of the kitchen.

  “What have you got?” Mack asked as soon as Toni had gone.

  “Number one, we have the president of the company pressing charges against her. Two, we have evidence provided by her immediate supervisor, Frank Clifford.”

  “It’s all circumstantial, Bob.”

  “That may very well be the case, Mack, but I have to do my job.”

  “I know you do.”

  Lieutenant Barnes smiled. “If you’re going down to the station you’ll need to get dressed yourself,” he said, eyeing his friend’s low-riding pajama bottoms.

  * * *

  Toni had never felt so humiliated as when they took her fingerprints and mug shots, but the ultimate humiliation was being intimately searched as if she were some dangerous, despicable criminal. She felt completely dispirited by the time she went before the judge the next morning. She was relieved when Mack arranged bail so fast that she got out of jail that evening.

  “Clifford is going to pay for this, baby,” Mack vowed as they walked to his car.

  “I intend to personally see that he does,” Toni said with conviction.

  Mack frowned at the coldness in her voice. “Now don’t do anything you’ll be sorry for.”

  “Anything I do to that—that man, I won’t ever feel sorry for.”

  “Don’t let anyone else hear you say those words,” he teased.

  “What next, Mack? Everything that rotten man has predicted has come to pass.”

  “We’ll have to snap his winning streak then, won’t we?”

  “I’m scared, Mack.”

  “Don’t be, sweet Toni. I’ll take care of you.”

  Toni hoped he would be able to keep that promise. The only thing Frank Clifford had predicted that hadn’t happened was that Mack hadn’t been the one to send her to jail.

  “What’s going through that fertile brain of yours?” Mack asked as he drove them to his house.

  “I wondered if I should call my parents. I don’t want to worry them. My mother is a typically emotional Italian and tends to get upset easily and since I’m her only child…I hesitate to call. For the first time in their entire marriage my parents are free to do what they want to do. My father retired from the navy a few months ago, and they’re all set to take a long-awaited vacation. I hate to lay this on them.”

  “Wait up on calling them. Maybe you won’t have to.”

  “Only if I’m able to clear myself.”

  “We’ll do it, baby.”

  Toni hoped it wouldn’t prove to be only wishful
thinking on his part. Frank Clifford was a frighteningly clever man. The question was whether he was clever enough to pull this off. He had to have made a mistake somewhere along the line. There was no such thing as a perfect crime.

  “It’s a good thing I made copies of everything,” Mack told Toni as he pulled his car into the drive next to hers. He turned to Toni and took her hand. “I hate seeing you so upset. We’ll go over every shred of evidence with a fine-toothed comb. We’re bound to find something we can use to clear you.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Mack took his briefcase out of the trunk of his car and he and Toni went into the house. Together they carefully checked through the disks.

  Hours later Mack yawned. “Let’s call it a day. You look all done in, Toni.”

  “You look like you could use some rest yourself.”

  “Let’s go to bed.”

  * * *

  The next morning was Saturday and they didn’t move to leave Mack’s bedroom until noon.

  “I should go to my apartment and get some more clothes and clean up the place.”

  “And you’ll be needing a work detail, right?”

  She shot him an encouraging smile. “Well, I was kind of hoping.”

  “I don’t have a problem with that. Let’s get moving.”

  Toni shook her head. “You never fail to amaze me, Mackinsey Jessup. You’re not like any other man I’ve ever known.”

  “Are you telling me I’m an original, that my parents broke the mold when they created me?”

  “Your modesty overwhelms me.”

  He pulled her on top of him. “I want other things about me to overwhelm you.”

  She felt the evidence of his desire pulsing against her femininity.

  “Now none of that or we’ll never get out of this bed.”

  “Killjoy.”

  * * *

  “Is this it, Toni?” Mack asked over the computer equipment he was helping her put in the back seat of his car.

  “All I’ll need for now. I know we were supposed to be just getting some of my clothes, but I feel lost without my own computer.”

  “Don’t you have a laptop?”

  “I do, but it’s being repaired. Are you trying to get out of helping me, Mr. Jessup?”

  “Not me.”

  She laughed. “Surely my desktop isn’t that heavy?”

  “It isn’t. Are you questioning my manhood, by any chance?”

  “Would I do that to you?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  She kissed him deeply. “Not a chance after last night and this morning. No more stalling. I have on this computer several of the programs we used during inventory. There might be something in them that could help clear me.”

  Mack didn’t want Toni to pin too much hope on that possibility, but what could he say to make her feel better?

  Toni took her keys out to lock her door and noticed an extra one. She didn’t have a clue what it went to. Maybe it was an extra luggage key. But it didn’t look like that kind of key. How and when had it gotten there?

  Frank Clifford. He had to have put it there when he had her key chain. Wouldn’t she have noticed it when she had her locks changed? Not necessarily. She’d only been interested in getting the old apartment key off.

  “What’s keeping you?” Mack grumbled.

  “Nothing, I just kind of hate to close up the place is all. It’s like trading in an old friend for a newer one.”

  “Sentimental females.”

  “That’s what I am, all right.” She wouldn’t tell Mack about the key just yet. She wanted to find out about it on her own. The more she thought about it, the more the possibility that it went to a safety deposit box grew. What would be in such a box? Or was the key another one of Frank Clifford’s meticulously constructed traps designed to ensnare her? The question was, should she risk finding out?

  Mack knew something was bothering Toni. He hated it when she kept things from him. Would she ever come to completely trust him?

  When will you come to trust her the same way, Jessup?

  Remnants of the past edged their way into his present. He’d trusted a woman without hesitation once and she had nearly destroyed him. Her betrayal was hard to forget when it had been the cause of so much pain. He no longer had feelings for Linda Hutton, but what she had done to him occasionally bobbed to the surface to taunt him. She was a part of his past, and it was exactly where he wanted her to stay. Toni was nothing like her.

  You’re beginning to sound like you’re falling—Oh, hell, you’re already in love with Toni.

  He knew it was wise to proceed with caution when his heart was so deeply involved. But how was he going to do it? He couldn’t turn his feelings off and on to suit the circumstance.

  “You’re kind of quiet. Is anything wrong?”

  Mack smiled. “No.”

  Toni wasn’t sure she believed him. Something had taken him away from her for a few moments. She wondered what it could have been.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Mack got a call from his mother. While he was on the phone, Toni went to her room, booted up her computer and accessed BankScape, sure the extra key on her key chain went to a safety deposit box. She surfed through the listings of banks, and using the serial number on the key, found out which bank the key was registered with.

  To her shock, her name came up as the user of the safety deposit box. Too bad the computer couldn’t tell her what was in it.

  As she exited BankScape, Mack knocked on her door and walked in.

  “What are you up to, Miss Marple?”

  Toni smiled. “I was surfing the ’Net, that’s all.”

  Mack wasn’t sure he believed that was all she was doing. He’d get her to tell him later.

  “Are you going to spend all night in here?”

  “You wouldn’t be trying to seduce me into joining you in your room, would you?”

  “Maybe. You considering letting me?”

  “Maybe.”

  “You think I could change that maybe to a yes?”

  “It’s a distinct possibility.”

  * * *

  Toni let out a sigh of relief when Mack left to go to his office the next morning. They’d gone over the information again and again and had still turned up nothing. She ached to find out what was in the safety deposit box. The bank opened in thirty minutes, and she intended to be their first customer.

  Toni showered and dressed in record time, gulped down another cup of coffee and got out her street guide. She didn’t know exactly where Farrell Street was, but after a few minutes she located the street and was ready to go.

  * * *

  Mack returned to the house to collect an important file he’d left on his desk. When he didn’t see Toni’s car in the drive, he wondered where she could have gone so early, and so fast. Then he saw the street guide lying open on the coffee table. He glanced at the place she’d circled. There was something familiar about the street number, but he couldn’t recall…Then it came to him. Surety Bank was in the center of the circle. He’d done investigations for them two years ago.

  Why would Toni go there? He knew it wasn’t her personal bank. He’d seen the name of her bank in her personnel file and then again when she wrote out her rent check.

  * * *

  Toni parked her car and headed across the street. The bank had just opened its doors when she reached it. With a smile she entered and walked past the security guard. She observed the safety deposit service area and realized that she would have to show some form of identification to get into the box.

  Toni stepped over to the customer service area. A tall, slender gray-haired woman approached her.

  “May I help you? I’m the Service Rep.”

  “I seem to have misplaced my card pass to get into my safety deposit box.”

  She smiled. “We can fix that. Have a seat. If you’ll show me your identification we can issue you another pass.”

  Toni couldn’t
believe it would be this easy. When had Frank Clifford set this up? She wondered. In all likelihood what she’d find in the box would just be another macho attack meant to frustrate her. Even so, she still wanted to know what was in there. What was that old saying? Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back.

  Toni took out her wallet and showed the service representative her driver’s license and credit cards. Minutes later the woman returned with a duplicate pass card. She walked with Toni to the safety deposit service desk.

  The deposit officer greeted them with a smile. The representative explained the situation. After she walked away the officer asked Toni to follow him.

  The officer retrieved the bank key and together they unlocked the door to the box, and he lifted it out for her and guided her to a small enclosure so she could view the contents in private.

  As soon as he had closed the door behind him, Toni opened the box.

  * * *

  “Where did you rush off to this morning?” Mack asked Toni that afternoon when he walked into the house and found her in the living room sitting on the couch, completely oblivious to her surroundings.

  Toni was pondering what she had discovered in the safety deposit box and how she could use it to clear herself.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve been in all day. I had to come back this morning to get a file I’d left on my desk. You weren’t here. So where did you go?”

  “Mack, is this some kind of interrogation?”

  He frowned. Why was she getting defensive with him? “No, I’m just curious to know where you went, that’s all.”

  Toni made a decision and, with a resigned sigh, said, “The other day when you went with me to my apartment, I noticed there was a strange key on my ring. It looked like a safety deposit key so I went to the BankScape Website and discovered I was right.”

  “So you went to the bank where the key was registered.”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, what did you find?”

  “Let me show you.”

  Mack followed her into the guest room and then watched her as she stepped over to her computer.

  Toni picked up the collection of disks. “These contain dated transaction documents made out to the heads of several of the companies Mr. Clifford assigned to me. You know what this could look like to the police?”