The Perfect Frame Read online

  “I have a pretty good idea. I want to see these documents.”

  After reviewing all the information, they returned to the living room. Mack signaled her to join him on the couch.

  “We’re going to have to show these to the police.”

  “Why? Mr. Clifford is sure to tell them about it. What I want to know is why he did this. He’s already gotten Mr. Townsend to suspend me.”

  “I don’t know, but if the police find out you have these and didn’t show them to them, it’ll look like you were trying to hide something.”

  “It’s going to look like that regardless. According to what is on the disks, I bribed the heads of those companies. Damn Frank Clifford to hell. How I hate that man.”

  “You’re not the only one. From what I’ve managed to find out, half the employees at Townsend’s feel the way you do. The man is one first-class rat.”

  “I second that emotion.”

  As Mack pulled her into his arms and bent to kiss her, the doorbell rang. He reluctantly moved away from her and went to answer the door.

  “Bob! What’s wrong?”

  “I need to talk with Ms. Carlton.” He looked past Mack and when he saw Toni sitting on the couch, he advanced toward her.

  “I received a call from Frank Clifford. He saw you go into the safety deposit area of Surety Bank and come out carrying a computer disk carrier. May I ask where these disks are and what’s on them?”

  “If I choose not to tell you?”

  “I’d have to get a court order and insist that you accompany me to the station.”

  “You’d better show them to him,” Mack suggested.

  Without another word she went to get the disk carrier.

  “Bob, can’t you see what Clifford is doing?”

  “Mack, I don’t like the man any better than you do, but there’s nothing I can do. We’ll have to review the disks down at the station.”

  Toni returned, taking in the looks that passed between Mack and his friend. She handed the carrier to the lieutenant.

  “You’ll have to come down to the station with me.”

  “I figured as much. I’ll get my purse.”

  Mack moved to put his jacket on.

  “You wouldn’t consider—”

  “Save it, Bob. I’m coming in with you.”

  * * *

  Toni and Mack followed Bob into the police computer lab. They waited while a technician brought up the information on all six disks.

  The names, places and dates suggested unusual activity taking place in several accounts over a period of a year and a half. After an hour of reviewing the information, the lieutenant reached a conclusion.

  “What now, Bob?” Mack asked.

  “The information will be cataloged, tagged and put with the other evidence we have in this case. Then a judge will decide whether he’ll revoke bail and have Ms. Carlton taken into custody.”

  Mack’s stomach dropped to his feet. From what he could deduce, things couldn’t look any worse for Toni.

  Toni didn’t say anything. What could she say? Frank Clifford had driven another nail in her coffin. And dummy that she was, she’d fallen into yet another one of his intricately set booby traps. When would she learn not to underestimate the man? It was impossible to predict what he would do next and how he would carry it out. But one thing she knew for sure was that his plan would roll on to its eventual conclusion, whatever that was.

  “Are you going to detain me?” Toni asked Lieutenant Barnes.

  “No, but I’d advise you not to leave the city.”

  “I’m taking her home with me. The evidence you have is only circumstantial, Bob.”

  “That may be true, but convictions have been won on less.”

  Mack wanted to say more. He wanted to say that Frank Clifford was succeeding so far with his plan: framing the woman he loved. And that he wanted to kill the bastard with his bare hands. But he didn’t say anything. He just placed his hand under Toni’s elbow and escorted her out of the station.

  * * *

  That night, after Mack had fallen asleep, Toni got out of bed and padded into the bathroom to get something for her headache. She returned to the bedroom, but not to the bed. She stood gazing into the face of the man she loved. She didn’t want to wake Mack with her restlessness. For Toni, sleep was an elusive goal right now. Damn Mr. Frank Clifford. She realized this was how he wanted her to feel; so on edge she couldn’t function, let alone sleep, and it made her furious.

  And every time she thought about how he was manipulating her like some master puppeteer, she wanted to—No, she wouldn’t think like that. His expert ruthlessness was proving to be lethal not only to her career, but her very life. If only she could figure out a way to stop him, expose him for the lying, thieving monster he actually was.

  He had to be watching her every move, or how else would he have known she’d gone to the bank? When he’d seen her go there he must have realized that she had found the key and taken the bait. He’d read her like a book.

  Toni glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was 11:15, too late to confront her boss. Or was it? Maybe if she caught him off guard she could find a chink in his armor and manage to save herself.

  She left Mack’s bedroom and went down the hall to her own and got out a pair of jeans, a shirt and a jacket, then quickly dressed. She couldn’t let Frank Clifford continue to do this to her. She had to put a stop to it and she would, one way or another, whatever it took.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Mack groaned and turned over in the bed. When he reached for a warm curvy body and instead encountered a cold empty space, he woke up, blinking away the lingering effects of sleep. Where was Toni? He glanced at the clock on his nightstand. It was midnight. Maybe she was in the bathroom. After time passed and she didn’t come out, he checked. When he didn’t find her there, or anywhere else in the house, he cursed under his breath.

  As he dressed, several possibilities streaked through his mind. What she’d said earlier came back to haunt him. He could almost touch the hatred she felt for Frank Clifford. Damn it, surely she hadn’t gone to his place to confront the bastard!

  He must have really been knocked out not to have heard her car drive away. How long ago had she left? He checked through the addresses of the employees at Townsend’s and found the one he sought. If Toni had gone there, how much of a head start did she have on him? he wondered as he rushed out to his car.

  God, please don’t let her have done something stupid, he chanted over and over as he drove.

  * * *

  Mack’s heart began to pound when he heard the sirens and saw the flashing red and blue lights on the tops of several police cars as he turned onto Frank Clifford’s street. He realized when he saw Toni’s car he had been hoping that she hadn’t come here.

  Where was she now?

  He knew something terrible had happened, but to whom?

  After parking his car, he hurried down the block to the Park Condos. Yellow caution tapes were stretched across the front entrance gate to Clifford’s condo.

  A uniformed policeman put out his arm to stop Mack when he moved to get past him.

  “Can’t let you—”

  “It’s all right, Dave,” came the voice of Lieutenant Barnes.

  Mack’s jaw tensed. “Has something happened to Clifford?” He gulped. “Or Toni?”

  “It’s Clifford, and he’s dead.”

  Relief that it wasn’t Toni washed over Mack. “Where is Toni?” he asked anxiously. “I saw her car.”

  “She’s over there.” Bob pointed to a nearby squad car. “She’s in a dazed condition.”

  “I don’t understand. How? Why—”

  “Someone, probably a neighbor, reported hearing gunshots. When we arrived on the scene, the door was open and Ms. Carlton was kneeling beside the body. There was a gun lying a few feet away.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Not much of anything. Said she couldn’t remember.” His look
was skeptical.

  “Well, isn’t that possible?”

  “Anything is possible, Mack. A Mr. Morris who lives across the street saw her enter the building at around eleven thirty. He’s a night watchman, and had left to go to work. He’d forgotten his glasses and came back to get them. When he climbed into his car to leave again, he heard something that sounded like gunshots or a car backfiring. He couldn’t distinguish which it was or exactly where it came from, but it seemed to originate from the vicinity of Clifford’s condo.”

  “Is that all you have?”

  “The time element is enough for me to take her in.”

  “I want to see her.”

  “Mack—All right, but only for a few minutes. She appears to be in some kind of shock. We need to get her to a hospital to be examined.”

  Mack walked over to the police car and opened the back passenger door and climbed in beside Toni. He noted the ashen cast to her skin.

  “Toni, are you all right?”

  “Mack?” Her head lifted. “How did you—”

  “Your side of the bed was cold and empty. I had to find out why my best girl had left me.”

  “He’s dead.”

  “I know. Can you tell me what happened?”

  “The blood. There was so much blood all over him. Some of it got on me,” she said, rubbing the front of her shirt. “I don’t remember how it got there, but I can’t get it off,” she said, rubbing frantically at the stains.

  He grasped her hands, stopping her agitated movements, then gently cupped her face in his hands. “It’s all right, baby. It’ll all come back to you. Why did you go to see Clifford? I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t do anything stupid?”

  “I was so angry, Mack. I was tired of that man controlling my life.”

  “You were tired and angry, but not angry enough to kill him?”

  “No.”

  “Where did the gun come from? You don’t own one, do you?”

  “No. It was already there, I guess—I remember seeing it on the floor moments before the police arrived.”

  “Do you remember anything prior to that?”

  Lieutenant Barnes opened the door and said to Mack, “We’ll be taking her to Westwood Hospital. You can follow us in your car.”

  * * *

  All kinds of things went through Toni’s mind as the doctor examined her. She hadn’t killed Frank Clifford. Who did? She tried desperately to remember exactly what happened, but every time she did her head throbbed unmercifully. The doctor found a lump the size of a bird egg on the side of her head above her left ear. How had she gotten it? Had someone struck her, or had she fallen and hit her head?

  “Why can’t I remember?” she asked the doctor.

  “You have a concussion,” the doctor said. “We want to run some tests, so we’ll be keeping you in the hospital for observation.”

  Toni looked to the policewoman standing by the door and said, “I want to see Mack.”

  “I’ll get Lieutenant Barnes,” the officer replied and stepped outside the examining room.

  What now? Toni thought. Why hadn’t she followed her best instincts, and Mack’s advice, and stayed away from Frank Clifford? She was bound to look guilty in the eyes of the police.

  While Lieutenant Barnes was talking to the doctor, Mack entered the room, taking in Toni’s fragile and disheveled appearance. She was unusually quiet now and looked so vulnerable his heart turned over.

  Toni saw Mack and held out her arms to him. He went to her and pulled her close to his body. She circled her arms around his waist and laid her head against his chest.

  “Oh, Mack.”

  “How are you feeling, baby?”

  “I have a hurricane of a headache, but other than that I’m all right.”

  He wondered if she was because he could feel her body tremble. She appeared to be suffering from the delayed effects of shock.

  “Mack, what’s going to happen now?”

  “Bob wants to take you in for questioning when you get out of here. Can you tell me anything?”

  “I can’t remember past the moment I walked into Frank Clifford’s apartment.”

  “How did you get in?”

  “I don’t—I think the door was already open, but I’m not sure. I just can’t remember. I’ve tried, but I keep drawing a blank,” she said, frustrated and verging on tears.

  “Don’t get so upset. It’ll all come back to you.”

  “Oh, Mack, I hope so or else—”

  “You didn’t kill him.”

  “No, but—”

  “Then don’t borrow trouble.”

  “You’re right. Heaven knows I’ve got enough on my plate without doing that.”

  “You haven’t been charged with anything.”

  “Not yet, but Mack, it’s only a matter of time.”

  He silenced her with a quick kiss. An orderly came to help her onto a gurney, and the doctor stepped over to her. Lieutenant Barnes instructed the policewoman to follow Toni to the room.

  Mack hugged her one last time before they wheeled her away.

  When the door closed behind them, Mack approached his friend.

  “All right, Bob, give it to me straight.”

  “It doesn’t look good, Mack. She was found at the scene of the crime with a gun that appears to be the murder weapon. Considering the situation at Townsend’s…”

  “Are you going to arrest her?”

  “Listen, man, I feel for you, I really do. If the woman I cared for was involved in something like this, I’d be a basket case.”

  “She didn’t do it. She couldn’t have. Anyone who can’t even step on a bug sure as hell couldn’t murder anyone.”

  “Even if that someone is responsible for her being arrested on embezzlement charges? Even if that same someone was a threat to the career she prizes?”

  “Bob.”

  He held up his hand. “Believe it or not, I’m not the enemy, Mack.”

  “I never thought you were. It’s just that—”

  “You’re personally involved and can’t see the forest for the trees.”

  “Yes, I am, damn it.”

  The lieutenant squeezed his friend’s shoulder. “I understand where you’re coming from.”

  Mack wondered if Bob really did understand. He wasn’t sure he did at the moment. He left the emergency room.

  * * *

  Mack opened the door to Toni’s hospital room. “You should be asleep.”

  “Mack,” she said, watching him enter. “A nurse keeps coming in every half hour or so to check on me, making it hard for me to sleep. It’s so late. I’m surprised your friend let you in to see me.”

  “Bob isn’t your enemy, Toni. He’s only doing his job. It’s nothing personal.” Mack pulled a chair over to her bed. He didn’t like the way she looked, as though she were going to pass out. “I won’t stay long. You should be resting, not lying awake worrying.”

  “I can’t help it. I want—I need—I have to remember.” She started breathing fast and swallowing hard.

  “You can’t force it, Toni.”

  “I’m scared, Mack.”

  He took her hand in his. “I know you are, but I’m not going to let anything or anyone hurt you.”

  Toni let the conviction she saw in his face and the confidence she heard in his voice temporarily soothe away her fears and anxieties.

  As Toni closed her eyes in sleep a few minutes later, Mack watched her lovely face for long moments before placing her hand across her waist. He realized that he had never cared for Linda Hutton, or any other woman, the way he cared for Toni.

  When he moved to leave, Toni’s eyes opened and he noticed that they had begun to dilate. Her breathing changed, coming in quick gasps and she swallowed repeatedly. She was going to be sick. He reached for the container by the bed and rushed to her side just in time, and she emptied the contents of her stomach.

  When she was done, he pushed the nurse’s call button. The nurse, realizing the si
tuation, took over.

  “It’s not unusual with patients suffering from concussion,” she explained to Mack.

  Toni was sick several more times. It practically unnerved Mack. The doctor was called in and Mack was ushered out of the room by the policewoman.

  After a while the doctor came out of Toni’s room.

  “She might be sick again during the next few hours due to the effects of the concussion. I’m going to have the nurse stay with her the rest of the night, or should I say morning now.” He glanced at his watch.

  “She is going to be all right?” Mack asked.

  “The injury over the left ear is in a delicate area. We want to keep her for an additional twenty-four hours to be on the safe side.”

  “The safe side?” Mack frowned.

  “It’s rare, but she could go into a coma.”

  “A coma?” Mack felt stupid repeating everything the doctor said, but he couldn’t help himself.

  The doctor went on. “We don’t anticipate that happening, but…”

  Mack understood. He had to find the person who really killed Clifford and struck Toni so savagely.

  Mack left the hospital a few minutes later, relieved but just barely.

  He glanced at his watch. It was five o’clock in the morning. God, he was tired, yet he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep. Toni wasn’t the only one who hated Frank Clifford. The man had had more than his share of enemies. Mack had to include himself on that list. The question was, who besides Toni hated him enough to kill him?

  Mack went home and headed for the bathroom to shower and dress before going down to the police station. Bob should know something more about what happened by the time he got there.

  * * *

  “I knew you’d come. I’ve been expecting you,” Bob said matter-of-factly to Mack as he walked into his office. “What I have to tell you won’t brighten your day or your disposition.”

  “All right, spit it out.”

  “One, Toni Carlton’s fingerprints are all over the gun. It looks like I’ll have to take her in.”

  “She doesn’t remember touching it. And she doesn’t own a gun.”

  “That’s the strange part. The gun is registered to Henry Warren. Can she explain what it was doing near the body?”