Dark Bargains 3 Page 7

  He stared at the bare spot on the wall in consternation. What had happened to the clock? Who could have moved it, and why? There were only two possible suspects—Diane and Cyndia. Either of them could have taken it down, although he couldn’t imagine why they would have. But where was it?

  An ugly suspicion struck him, and he set down his coffee and took the stairs up to his room two at a time. When he opened the door, the clock stared back at him from its old spot on the wall above his dresser, its soft ticking a brutal reminder of the relentless drip-drip-drip of Sandy’s blood counting down the final seconds of her life.

  Lucas shuddered as a cold chill blasted through him like a wind off of the Arctic. It wasn’t possible. He’d been in the room all night, and he’d kept the door locked against a possible unwanted visit by Cyndia. No one could have gotten in without him knowing it. He thought back to the night before. Surely he would have noticed the clock if it had been there when he went to bed? Or was it something he’d gotten so used to in times past that he just hadn’t realized it had returned?

  He couldn’t be sure. As distracted as he’d been from Cyndia’s attentions and Diane’s growing anxiety, it was certainly possible. Frowning, he climbed onto the dresser and lifted the clock from its hook. As he did, a small, silver object fell from behind it to clatter onto the top of the dresser. He hopped back down and picked it up. It was a silver necklace with a small “D” pendant encrusted with tiny diamonds. He didn’t recognize it, but as the cool chain slipped through his fingers, he realized who it must belong to.

  After locking the clock in a cabinet in the garage, Lucas retrieved his coffee and joined Diane on the patio. She greeted him with an oddly shy smile when he sat down beside her.

  “Cyndia isn’t up, yet?”

  “She likes to sleep in when she’s not working.”

  “Well, I won’t swear to leave her any coffee if she sleeps too late.” He held out the necklace, which flashed brilliantly in the morning sunlight. “Is this yours?”

  Diane gave a small cry of surprise as she took it. “Yes! Thank you. I was looking for it and couldn’t imagine what had happened to it. Where did you find it?”

  As he told her, she stared at him with growing concern. “That necklace was in my suitcase. I’d seen it in there earlier, but it was missing when I wanted it last night. What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” he responded grimly, “but I may be able to find out. You think you can keep your sister occupied for a while? I’ll leave you the Mercedes so you’re not stuck here.”

  “I’ll figure something out. You’ve given me plenty of ideas over the last few days.”

  “All right. I’m going to the office, and I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.”

  “I’m scared, Lucas.”

  He met her wide, blue eyes squarely. “That’s what whoever is doing this crap wants.”

  “Is it Marcus?”

  “I still don’t know, but he’s at the top of my suspects list.” He considered telling her about the extra security precautions he’d had Shoji take for the house, but caution kept his lips sealed. What she didn’t know she couldn’t inadvertently let slip, and while he didn’t believe that she had anything to do with this, it was always possible that he was wrong. Once he’d visited the office he ought to have a better idea whom he could really trust.

  He pondered the problem on the drive to Vegas. Instead of going straight to Shoji’s office, he went to see his father instead. The older man was more pale and drawn than the last time Lucas had visited, with dark shadows emphasizing the sharp gold of his eyes. Roland offered his son a weary smile.

  “What brings you in today?”

  “Is there anything unusual going on at any of the facilities in Louisiana?”

  Roland leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “Only in Shreveport, which is why I intended to send you.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing major. There’s money missing. Not a large amount, but it appears to have been going on for some time. And they’ve been doing a bang-up job of concealing it, because we didn’t even catch a hint of it until now.”

  “Someone is inside covering their tracks.”

  “It would have to be, but our investigation hasn’t turned up anything solid so far. They’ve gone through all the people in the obvious positions and found nothing.”

  “So Marcus is there to prod them into digging deeper.”

  Roland nodded. “And to make sure that none of the people doing the investigation are covering up.”

  “I’m not sure how good a job he’s going to do on that. He’s not exactly detail oriented.”

  “Which is exactly why I wanted to send you. But he knows he’d better deliver if he doesn’t want to be demoted to cashier.”

  “Will you keep me updated?”

  “Of course. If they can’t find anything, I may have to send you after all.”

  “I understand.”

  “You sticking around for lunch?”

  “Not today. I have some things to take care of, but I’ll be in later in the week.”

  His greeting from Shoji wasn’t nearly as cordial. The frown of annoyance on the security chief’s face put Lucas on alert that he was on thin ice.

  “Lucas,” he sighed.

  “Good to see you, too.”

  “I’m kind of busy right now.”

  “Did you get all the cameras on and the security updates installed for the house?”

  “Yes. It put me behind on two other projects, but it’s done.”

  “I’m sorry. Can you get me into the house system to review the video recordings?”

  “Yeah, hang on.”

  The other man went to a second computer in his office and typed on it for a minute.

  “Here you go. Access the cameras from here, and the security logs from here.”

  “Thanks.”

  Shoji shrugged uncomfortably. “Lucas, I can’t keep doing all of this off-the-books stuff without reporting to Roland. At some point it’s going to get back to him and he’s going to want to know why I’m spending time and money on it when we’ve got other high priority projects that need attention.”

  “I know, I know. I’ll try not to ask for anything else. But did your in-depth investigations turn up anything new?”

  “Nothing. The whole family looks squeaky clean. The parents go to church three times a week, the daughters have no expensive vices, and aside from a couple of Cyndia’s disgruntled exes no one has a bad thing to say about any of them.”

  “Thank you, Shoji.”

  As Shoji went back to his own computer, Lucas pulled up the lake house security logs. Those showed all entries through the doors and any alarms through unauthorized access. He went through the long list from the day before, but everything he saw could be matched to either Lucas himself or his two guests. There was nothing at all out of the ordinary, or outside of the times when they were inside the house.

  But there was the damned clock. Turning to the video recordings, Lucas pulled up the camera in the kitchen. It didn’t show the clock, but Lucas scanned through the recordings anyway. Someone had to have moved it, so they should have been visible somewhere in the camera’s field of view. Even though he looked through the records for the entire day, though, he saw no sign of anyone who could have removed it, nor was there anything unusual on the camera which monitored the hallway in front of his bedroom door.

  Cold fingers twisted his guts. There was nothing. He was able to track the movements of all three of them inside the house, so the cameras were obviously working. According to the video record, neither sister could have removed the clock and put it in his room.

  When Lucas shut down the security program and got up, Shoji barely acknowledged his thanks. He doubted that he would get much more help from that direction unless he routed it through his father, whom he was reluctant to involve. Lucas wasn’t sure what more he could do, anyway.

  It shouldn’t have
been possible, but he’d seen the recordings for himself. There was simply nothing there. Just like there had been no record of the phone calls. It was impossible, and yet again his investigations had come up empty. He climbed into the Ferrari and sat staring into the depths of the parking garage. There weren’t a whole lot of options left, and he was running out of alternatives.

  His mind tried to shy away from it, but what if it really was Sandy? Lucas didn’t believe in ghosts or anything supernatural, but what else was there at this point? The phone calls, the incident in the arroyo, the mysterious return of his cell phone, Diane’s vision of the woman in the house, and now the clock and the necklace. Despite all his efforts, he still had no plausible alternate explanation for any of it, and he had no clue what to do next.

  On the way back to the house he called Diane. When she picked up, he could hear the smile in her voice and smiled automatically in response.

  “Hello?”

  “I’m on my way back. What have you two been up to?”

  “We ate brunch in Henderson and then went downtown. Should we meet you at the house?”

  “How about if I meet you instead? If you like, we can have dinner at the Stratosphere and give Cyndia the full Vegas treatment.”

  “The Stratosphere? All right!”

  “See you in a bit.”

  He tracked them down in an older casino on Fremont Street where they were playing slots, and joined them in their games. Throughout the afternoon he did his best to go along with Cyndia’s outrageous flirting without committing himself to anything. Eventually the sun began reddening in the west, and he touched Diane’s arm.

  “If we go now, we can catch the sunset from the Stratosphere.”

  Diane grinned at him. “Let’s go!”

  As they went back to their cars, Cyndia’s eyes lit up at the sight of the Ferrari. “Oh, I want to ride with you!”

  When Diane shrugged behind her, Lucas opened the door for Cyndia.

  “Follow me?” he asked Diane.

  “I’ll try. Just don’t make it too hard. All I’ve got is a Mercedes.”

  “I’ll go easy on you.”

  Inside the Ferrari, Cyndia was devouring the car with even more lust than when she looked at him.

  “I never thought I’d be in one of these. This is amazing.”

  “Yes, it is. I’ll show you just how amazing when we go back to the house.”

  She grinned at him with a glee that made her look about ten years old. “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  The view from the observation deck of the Stratosphere impressed her almost as much as the car.

  “Oh, my god! They have rides! I have got to try that.”

  Diane turned a little green just from thinking about it. “Knock yourself out.”

  “Aw, come on, Sis. It’ll be a blast!”

  “No way I am going out there.”

  Cyndia gave her a fond smile. “Some things never change. How about you, big guy?”

  Lucas shook his head. “I don’t think so. I save my thrill-seeking for the Ferrari.”

  “Fine. I’ll go by myself.”

  When she pushed through the heavy door and stood in line, Lucas turned to Diane.

  “Care for a drink?”

  “I’d love one.”

  They ordered from the bar and sat down by the enormous windows.

  “Having fun?” he asked.

  She answered with a lopsided smile. “Yes, actually. I love Cyndia, but she can be exhausting.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “If you’re not careful, you’re liable to find out for yourself.”

  Blowing out a sigh, he glanced over his shoulder towards Diane’s sister. “Trust me, I’ll be doing my best to avoid that.” He turned back and looked Diane in the eyes. “It isn’t Cyndia that I want.”

  Her throat moved as she swallowed, and she dropped her gaze to the windows. “Maybe you’d be better off.”

  “I don’t think so. I know exactly which sister suits me.”

  “I’m happy to hear that. I just hope you don’t end up regretting it.”

  “Never.”

  After dinner they went back to the main part of The Strip and walked around so Cyndia could see the Bellagio fountains and take in the rest of the nightly entertainments. That kept them out late, and on the ride back to the house Lucas again shared the Ferrari with Cyndia. Together the three of them shared a final glass of wine on the deck under the stars while listening to the soft murmur of water in the stone pool.

  Although Cyndia continued her endless flirting, Lucas’s eyes were mostly on Diane. The yearning to hold her in his arms again grew stronger every minute, and all he could think about was tasting her velvet lips again and getting her back into his bed. This forced distance was enough to drive him crazy, and it was unfair that they were interrupted just when they both needed each other and were coming to know each other. From the look of frustrated longing he caught on Diane’s face when they parted for the night, he was far from alone in that.

  Lucas closed the door to his room and glanced at the wall over his dresser, sighing in relief as he noted that the clock had not reappeared. That much he’d been spared, at least. He threw off his clothes and pulled on a pair of cotton pajama bottoms. He hated sleeping in them, but there had been too many incidents in the middle of the night and the last thing he needed was to have to hunt for something to wear in the dark if something else happened. He had just pulled back the covers on the bed when there was a soft tap on his door.

  “It’s me,” a low voice called.

  Heart pounding, he opened the door, and Diane flew into his arms. His mouth crashed down onto hers with a hunger that a thousand kisses couldn’t satiate. Her palms roamed over the bare skin of his back, leaving trails of fire where they touched, and he cupped her face in his hands and let his fingers tangle in the silken fall of her hair.

  His breath caught and he drew back with a start. That hair was the same rich chestnut as Diane’s, but it was straight, not curled.

  “Cyndia,” he groaned.

  She pressed her warm body against his. “I have been dying for this,” she murmured, then she caught his hesitation. “No strings, Lucas. It’s just for a night.”

  “”I can’t,” he told her, shaking his head.

  With a wicked smile, her gingers brushed against the iron hard length of him straining inside his pajamas. “It certainly looks like you can,” she purred.

  Gently he pulled away. “There’s someone else,” he said. “While you’re incredibly beautiful and I appreciate the offer, I won’t cheat on her.”

  Her lips turned down in a pout. “I don’t understand you. I thought you wanted me. You certainly seemed to when you kissed me just now.”

  “It was a mistake in the heat of the moment. I’m sorry.”

  “Hmph.”

  She gave him a hard look then stalked away. Seconds later Lucas heard her door slam down the hall, and he cursed himself as he shut his door again. Idiot. How had he not realized? He’d just been so eager to see Diane, so anxious to have her in his arms again, that he’d missed the differences. Not that there were many, especially with the weight Diane had lost since Marcus got his hooks in her.

  He just prayed that she accepted his explanation, because if she started questioning it the obvious explanation for his actions was right there in the room adjacent to her own.

  * * *

  Despite a long, eventful day, sleep refused to grant Diane its release. She couldn’t forget the way that Lucas had looked at her when they were alone, like he wanted to possess her, to devour her. Why had Cyndia had to show up now, just when she’d found peace and safety with Lucas?

  She flung herself into bed and read for an hour, and then two, but still couldn’t sleep. She wanted Lucas’s presence to soothe her, needed the comfort of his arm protecting her like a living shield. Alone, the fears flooded back, the memories of both Marcus and the spectral woman in the atrium. And what
about her necklace? Lucas had said that he believed it was someone playing tricks, but gave no indication as to how any of the incidents which they had both experienced were possible. Either way, she wasn’t happy about spending another night alone.

  A tap on her door jerked her upright in her bed.

  “Diane? It’s Lucas.”

  She sprang up and unlocked the door. “Come in.” With a quick glance down the hall to make sure they were alone, she closed the door behind him. “What are you doing here?”

  “Cyndia is asleep,” he murmured. “I made sure of that.”

  He held out his hands and she took them, instantly comforted by even that small touch, but the look on his face quickly banished that.

  “Lucas, what’s wrong?”

  He wet his lips. “I kissed Cyndia.”

  Her heart slammed against her chest and blood pounded in her ears. “What?”

  Words tumbled from his mouth. “She came to my room. I was thinking of you. When I saw her, I thought it was you at first. I didn’t know. But I realized it was her after a couple of seconds.”

  “And then?”

  “I sent her away.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes. And then I watched until she was asleep to come and tell you, before you heard it from her tomorrow.”

  Her heart settled and she gave his hands a gentle squeeze.

  “Knowing Cyndia, she didn’t take it well.”

  “No, not really.”

  Thoughts whirled in a hopeless jumble. Lucas had kissed Cyndia. By mistake, admittedly, but he hadn’t had to stop. He could have had her sister, but instead he’d chosen her. He kept choosing her, protecting her. Resolve crystallized in her mind, and she pulled him over to her bed.

  “Sit down, Lucas. I have something I need to tell you.”

  They sat together, still holding hands, but she looked away and focused her gaze on a large vase by her door.