The Perfect Frame Page 13

  “Mama is worried about you, so she commandeered me to come check on my big brother since Marc is out of town for the weekend.”

  “Why should she be worried about me? I just talked to her a few days ago.”

  “Now, you know Mama. She says the last time she talked to you, you sounded strange.”

  “Strange how? Don’t answer that. Tell her I’ll come by later.”

  “I’ll tell her, but you’d better show up.”

  “I will.” An idea came to him. “Listen, Matt. How would you like to borrow my Jag for a few hours? I know you’ve been dying to try it out ever since I got it. Rachel told me you have no love for the mini van she insisted the family needed and coerced you into buying. I really need a favor, Matt. I’ll explain everything later.”

  Matt’s brows arched skeptically at his brother, the look saying he doubted he would get the whole story.

  “Are the keys to the beach house on this ring?” Mack held it up for inspection.

  “Sure, why?”

  Mack could see the wheels turning in his brother’s brilliant lawyer brain. “I’ll return the van to your house this evening and pick up my car.”

  Matt frowned. “You aren’t in any trouble, are you?”

  “Matt, this is important, man.”

  Although his brother had gotten out of the van and tossed him the keys, Mack was sure he hadn’t overlooked the fact that he had purposely evaded answering his question.

  Matt glanced longingly at Mack’s Jag. “The thought of driving this baby becomes more appealing by the moment. As for the beach house, you can use it for as long as you need to.”

  “Thanks, Matt, I won’t forget this.”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t intend to let you. Take care, big brother.”

  Mack smiled. “I will. You make me feel so ancient. I’m only two years older than you.” With that he slid behind the wheel and backed the mini van out of the driveway.

  Ten minutes later Mack pulled up at the corner of Westwood and Wilshire. He spotted Toni standing beneath the palm frond canopies belonging to a stand of short palm trees.

  “May I offer you a ride, my little chickadee?”

  Toni hesitated for a moment before walking toward the van. She opened the door and climbed in back. “You nut. One day you’re going to get enough of doing those imitations. Whose van is this, anyway?”

  “My brother Matt’s,” he said, turning the vehicle around and heading for the beach.

  “Where are we going?”

  “That same brother has a beach house in Santa Monica. I’m taking you there. No one will think to look for you there.”

  “What about your good friend Lieutenant Barnes?”

  “Bob doesn’t even know about the place. By the way, what made you decide to leave the hospital so suddenly?”

  “I couldn’t stay there any longer, Mack. I think your friend is close to arresting me.”

  “I think he is, too,” he answered grimly.

  “He’s going to be gunning for you, too.”

  “Yeah, I know. It’s the reason we have to hurry and get you to the relative safety of my brother’s beach house.”

  Mack drove and for a while they didn’t say anything. Then, “Running away is going to make you look guilty.”

  “I know, but I couldn’t stay, Mack. I had to get out of there.”

  “The one thing it will also do is alert the killer that his or her plan is in jeopardy. Whoever it is will be looking for you, too.” Mack thought about the person who had been on the other end of the phone the night Clifford came after Toni. Had he or she killed the man?

  “Don’t you see? It had to be Hank!” Toni exclaimed.

  “Warren?” Mack shook his head, clearing away his momentary reverie. “We can’t be sure he’s the one, or if he is, he doesn’t have an accomplice. Clifford had a long list of people who could have cheerfully done him in, no problem.”

  * * *

  Mack was grateful the beach house garage and backyard were enclosed by a seven-foot-high wooden fence. He guided Toni around it. He could tell she needed to lie down and rest by the way she leaned into him as they walked the few feet to the back door of the beach house.

  Mack was also glad his brother was the planner in the family. He had enough food stocked up to feed an army. Mack smiled. With three kids Matt had no choice. He, Rachel and the kids came here two weekends a month, weather and jobs permitting.

  “It’s a nice place,” Toni commented, taking a seat on the comfortable overstuffed couch. “Hopefully I won’t be staying here long.”

  “Yes, hopefully,” he said, filling the space beside her. “Now I think you’d better rest for a while. Are you hungry?

  “You going to whip up one of your culinary masterpieces?”

  “I can be persuaded.”

  “You can, huh. What does a girl have to do to, ah, persuade you?”

  “This.” He pulled her into his arms and coaxed a kiss from her lips.

  “I must say I like your winning ways, Mr. Jessup.”

  “I’m glad you do because I intend to let you use the most effective means possible to persuade me. But later.” He eased out of her embrace and stood up. “What you need right now is rest,” he insisted, comfortably ensconcing Toni on the couch and fluffing up the couch cushion behind her head before leaving the room.

  As he prepared a quick but easy meal for them, Mack thought about everyone connected with the case. The embezzlement charges would have to take a backseat to the murder charge. Together he and Toni would have to make a list of all possible suspects and eliminate the ones most unlikely to have done the deed.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Mack gave Toni’s shoulder a little nudge. When her eyes fluttered open, he smiled. “You looked so peaceful I hated to wake you.”

  “It’s all right.” She yawned, then raised up on an elbow. Mack had placed a tray on the coffee table. “You always fix so much food. Before I know it, you’ll have me as fat as a cow.”

  Mack smiled. “In that case I’d have to start fixing tofu, because I like you just the way you are.”

  Toni made a face at the thought of tofu. “So it’s only my body you’re interested in. All this time I thought you wanted me because I have this wonderfully intelligent brain.”

  “You have nothing to worry about on either count, because you have an equal share of beauty and brains. And I, for one, think that’s one hell of a dynamite combination.”

  “You do?” Toni couldn’t help noticing the desire inflaming his eyes. “Down, boy, I’m starving.”

  “Just my luck to have a woman who’s starved for only food. Maybe after I’ve fed you, you’ll be more wanton—I mean willing.” He grinned wickedly.

  He couldn’t have her any more willing if he tried, Toni thought. Just being close to him threw her senses into overload. “I said I was starving for food, but I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t amend that to include hunger for a certain sexy man.” She moved her hand across the front of his jeans.

  “Keep that up and our dinner will get cold.”

  “That’s why microwaves were invented.”

  * * *

  Later Mack warmed up their dinner and they ate in companionable silence. After clearing away the dishes, Mack returned to the living room.

  “Now to get down to business.”

  Toni sighed. “Yeah. Hank is the obvious one we should start with.”

  “Bob said he had an alibi, but didn’t want to publicly reveal who he was with. That someone must be well known.”

  “Do you have any idea who it could be?”

  “According to the company grapevine, Nina Townsend.”

  “Nina Townsend! But I thought…”

  Mack’s brows arched. “You thought what?”

  “I thought she and Clifford were having an affair.”

  “From what I’ve been able to sort out, Warren is her latest conquest.”

  Toni smiled. “So that was his ace in the hole.�
��

  “Come again?” Mack’s eyes narrowed in confusion.

  “Hank always hinted that the job of director would fall to him. Now I know how he planned to accomplish it.”

  Mack laughed. “I see. He was in essence sleeping his way to the top.”

  “That’s funny because it’s what he accused me of doing with Clifford. He even had the nerve to put Mr. Townsend on my list of sugar daddies, as he called them.”

  “It would appear that Nina Townsend was spreading herself a little thin, doesn’t it?”

  “I wouldn’t put anything past that woman. I’ve often wondered how she got Mr. Townsend to marry her. They’re total opposites.”

  “Opposites do attract, you know. I never got around to questioning her, but I will,” he said with a determined look in his eyes. “If Townsend had only let me finish my investigation.” But there was no reason why he couldn’t continue on his own with a little help from Bob. “Maybe his wife is the reason he didn’t want me to. Her amorous involvements with the male employees of the company would have proven embarrassing, to say the least.”

  “Yeah, I can well imagine it would. It’s possible that Nina’s affair with Clifford could be motive enough for Hank to kill Clifford.”

  “Maybe. Hank is, after all, a pretty volatile character. He could have lost his head and killed Clifford in the heat of passion, if he did in fact kill him. But so many things don’t add up.”

  “You’re right, they don’t. Damn it, Mack.” She settled back, disappointed.

  “I know how frustrated you must be feeling, baby.” He pulled her into his arms, wishing with all his heart he could take that look off her beautiful face and replace it with a smile.

  “Oh, Mack.” She laid her head on his shoulder.

  “There are other people on the list. Maybe one of them did him in. I think that whoever did it should get a medal.”

  Toni smiled. “Unfortunately, what you think isn’t the biggie here. Who’s next on the list?”

  “Pat Davis.”

  She raised her head to look at Mack. “Pat!”

  “You don’t know what he held over her head?”

  Her eyes widened. “No.”

  “It’s as if she was holding something back.” He let Toni go and eased back against the couch. “First, Clifford promoted her to executive secretary, then promised to promote her husband to mail room manager.”

  “But Joe never got the position.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But—”

  “As it turned out, Clifford wanted more from Pat than she was willing to give.”

  “Surely he didn’t expect her to sleep with him!”

  “I think he expected it to be the natural conclusion to the bargain.”

  “But Pat is happily married to Joe.”

  “Clifford found that out when she refused to do what he wanted.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “I got it straight from the horse’s mouth.”

  “From Pat!” she said incredulously. “She’s always been wary of discussing her personal life. How did you convince her to confide in you?”

  Mack smiled. “It’s my lethal charm, don’t you know?”

  “I can believe it. What I don’t understand is why he made her executive secretary unless—” She stopped. “You know why, don’t you?”

  “He wanted her to monitor your activities. He wanted to know what you were doing at all times so he could frame you royally.”

  “But Pat is my friend.”

  “He was banking on the fact.”

  “It’s hard for me to believe she would go along with it.”

  “Oh, he was smart. He convinced her that he was concerned about you overworking. And it was all for the good of the company.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.” Toni frowned in bafflement. “You said he wanted to know Pat in the biblical sense.”

  “He knew what good friends you and Pat were, so he elevated her to a position which suited his purposes. He knew she and Joe were happily married and a wife would do just about anything to help her husband succeed.”

  “He was emotionally blackmailing her, then?”

  “You got it.”

  “Poor Pat. But when Joe didn’t get the promotion, how did he continue to get her to cooperate?”

  “He threatened to fire her. The Davises just bought a new house, furniture and a car. They need the income from her job to help pay for those things, not to mention having several children to raise.”

  “The bastard.”

  “He was that, all right.”

  “Was she the one who altered the records?”

  “No. I think Warren was the one who sabotaged your work whenever he got the chance. He may not have been alone, either.”

  “My God. I’m afraid to ask who’s next on the list.”

  “Joe Davis.”

  “Joe? What does he have to do with the records? He’s in the mail room.”

  “You keep forgetting that his wife works with you every day.”

  She shook her head. “It still doesn’t compute.”

  “When I questioned Joe, he admitted that Clifford had him by the throat.”

  “Now I’m beginning to see the light.” She paused to reflect on the idea. “Mr. Clifford was using reverse blackmail, with Pat as the object.”

  “Joe had only to delay sending out envelopes to the different companies when Clifford gave the word.”

  “I can’t see Joe compromising his position that way—ah, Pat is the integral part in this very human equation. I keep forgetting that. But he didn’t give Joe the promotion.”

  “No, he didn’t. Put together what he was threatening Pat with, the loss of her job and Joe’s, not to mention compromising his integrity, and you have a motive for Joe to kill him.”

  “I can’t believe Joe would do that.” She recalled his attitude at times. “I take that back; I can. He loves Pat, and he’s fiercely protective of his wife and family. Our esteemed CEO was even more of a bastard than I thought.”

  “Yeah. That’s a nice word for him, actually.”

  “It’s going to be harder to solve this case than we ever imagined, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. I’m afraid it is.”

  “What about the mail room manager? Do you think he was involved too?”

  “No. I don’t think he’d have the guts or the temperament to go along with Clifford on something of this magnitude. Let’s go to the next person on the list.”

  Toni’s expression was blank. “Who’s left?”

  “John Victor Townsend Jr.”

  “Mr. Townsend!” Her eyebrows rose in stunned disbelief.

  “Yes, the head honcho himself. If he knew about his wife’s affair, which I’m sure he did, he had more than enough reason to kill the man.”

  “I’m not sure he did know for certain about the affair.”

  “Believe me, he knows about all of his wife’s affairs, past and present.”

  “If that’s true, then one more affair shouldn’t have bothered him overly much.”

  “It would if it involved stealing money from his company.”

  “You could be right,” she said thoughtfully.

  “Then there is Nina Townsend, who was playing Hank and Clifford.”

  “The woman is married and couldn’t have either of her lovers, so why would she risk everything by killing Clifford? She had her cake and was eating it too, apparently.”

  “I have a plan to flush out the real killer.”

  Toni smiled. “Good, when do we start?”

  “We don’t. Bob and I will do what needs to be done.”

  “But what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”

  “You stay safely secluded here.”

  “Mack.”

  “Don’t thank me,” he said, rising to his feet and stretching his arms and legs.

  “I didn’t leave the hospital to come here and sit around and twiddle my thumbs. I have to do something t
o save myself.”

  “If Bob finds out where you are, he’ll take you into custody now that you have left his protection.”

  “Protection! Ha! He was going to arrest me, and you know it.”

  “Maybe, but he won’t see it that way, I promise you. I know Bob.”

  “The same goes for him about you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He knows you as well as you know him. Since you were partners he knows how your mind works. He’ll be watching you like a hawk.”

  “I know. And if I’m with him while he investigates I’ll be able to keep a check on what’s going on.”

  A sigh left Toni’s throat. “Mack, I’ll go crazy here by myself.”

  “I figured you would, so I’ve decided to get my sister to come stay with you.”

  “A babysitter! You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “No. I’m not. Mariah will be stimulating company for you.”

  “Not as stimulating as working to personally clear myself.” She crossed her arms over her chest in frustration.

  Mack grinned, pulling Toni to her feet and circling his arms around her neck. “There isn’t anything you can do at the moment, baby.”

  “I guess you’re right,” she agreed reluctantly. “But when there is, promise me you’ll let me help.”

  “I promise,” he said, locking his fingers behind her neck, touching his forehead to hers. “I’d better be going. I have to return my brother’s van.”

  “I don’t want you to go.”

  “And I don’t want to leave you, baby, but…”

  “I know. The longer you stay gone the more suspicious the lieutenant will become.”

  “Oh, Bob is going to know right away what I’ve been up to. He just won’t know how I managed to pull it off.” Mack laughed. “And that’s going to bug the hell out of him.”

  “He’s your friend.”

  “Yeah, he sure is. That’s the beauty of this whole thing. Bob is going to be trying to outsmart me at every turn. The challenge is going to prove interesting.”

  “Men.”

  “You women love us.”

  “Yes, we do, don’t we?”

  “Do you love me, baby?”

  Toni swallowed back her declaration of love. It wasn’t the right time to tell him. Maybe it never would be, if she were never able to prove her innocence.