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  More painful for Kate because she wasn’t the child her Mom had wished for.

  The accident gave her mother the opportunity to dismiss her from her life, but left Kate too riddled with guilt to do the same. She and her father tried to talk her around. They’d gone over the past, relived vacations but nothing made any difference. It was as if her mother had gotten lost and couldn’t find her way back, but instead of letting them help her retrace her steps, she’d continued walking, getting farther and farther away.

  “Don’t you remember me, Kate?” Jack chewed her nipple, and she winced.

  “No. When did you know it was her daughter you’d raped?”

  “When I saw you visit. How could I forget you? My first love. Mine. We were meant to be together.”

  Kate swallowed hard.

  Jack licked his way to her neck. “She thought you were after her money.”

  “There was no money.” Her father sold everything to buy the last few months at Ashlands. He owed them money when he died. They wiped the debt in return for not taking legal action over her death.

  “I know there’s no money,” Jack said. “What was it called, what she had?”

  “Capgras syndrome.” No treatment, virtually no chance of recovery. Her father clung to the belief that given time in a quiet, exclusive place like Ashlands, she might come around. The only difference it made was to his bank balance.

  Jack turned Kate onto her stomach and began to nuzzle her back. She let it happen. Didn’t fight. Her mind raced. It was hard to take everything in. She felt as though she was missing some piece of a puzzle that would make everything suddenly clear but it kept slipping through her fingers.

  “Why did you keep going to see her when she didn’t want to see you?” he asked.

  “We couldn’t abandon her.” Something niggled at Kate. “You told her we were impostors, didn’t you? You agreed with her. That’s why she trusted you.”

  “No one was on her side. I know how that feels.”

  “What do you think she’d have thought if she’d known what you did to me?”

  “You mean, would she still have let me fuck her?” Kate flinched.

  “Why didn’t you tell her what happened when you came home from school?” Jack asked.

  Kate didn’t answer.

  “You could have confided in her, let her help you, but you didn’t. Imagine how she must have felt.”

  “Did she say that?” Kate whispered.

  “She was there for you but you turned your back.” Kate shook her head.

  “You let her down, Kate.”

  Her heart pounded. She turned her mind off Jack’s touch, onto his words.

  Motherhood had been a job to Susan Evans, something you worked at. Take your child to the museum, enroll them in advanced math, have them learn a musical instrument, make them an ‘A’ student—tick enough boxes and you were a good Mom, tick even more to reach Super-Mom status. Kate’s childhood achievements were never fun; swimming had to be done faster than the neighbors’ kids. Oliver’s swum a mile? Well, my daughter’s swum two. Same with the violin. None of the family was musical. Her mother had chosen the violin because it was different and difficult, made Kate carry on long after she wanted to give up and made her feel guilty when she stopped.

  Jack grabbed her chin and turned her face toward him. “Why didn’t you tell her you were pregnant?”

  “Because I knew they’d blame me.”

  Jack leaned on one elbow and looked down at her. “You should have stopped visiting her. That’s what she wanted. She didn’t love you.” If he thought to shock her, he was wrong. “I know.” Nor had her father. One day, he’d told her everything was her fault. Kate was cooking. He walked into the kitchen, said it and walked out. He never spoke to her again. Not a thank you or good night. When she went to Ashlands to tell her mom he was dead, Kate wanted to be held and told everything would be all right.

  She really thought her mother would snap out of it, but she’d sat as if Kate talked about a stranger.

  Jack’s lips brushed her shoulder. “She said she wished you were dead.” Kate had wished her mother was dead. She’d been glad when Ashlands called to say she was because it marked the end of her responsibility. She hadn’t been able to rid herself of the thought that her mother had known who they were all along. She was different in Ashlands. She walked and spoke differently as if she’d discovered another person hiding inside her, one she liked better, one with no husband and no daughter.

  Jack put his mouth to her ear. “I asked her if she wanted me to kill you.” Kate’s eyes opened wide.

  “Don’t worry. She said no.”

  “Did she ask you to look for me?”

  He didn’t answer which made Kate think she was right.

  “She asked you to find her real daughter. You knew I was her real daughter, so it wasn’t exactly hard. But you didn’t tell her you were the bastard who raped me when I was sixteen.”

  A further thought paralyzed her throat. A nurse had found her mother in her room, hanging from the sash of her dressing gown, a pink silk noose tight around her neck. She’d attached it to the door handle. “You had to be very determined to kill yourself like that.” The exact words the doctor used. What if…?

  “What are you thinking?”

  “You told her and she killed herself,” Kate said.

  “You sure you’re not wondering if I killed her?” Kate’s stomach lurched. “Why would you?”

  He put his mouth to her ear. “Because she was a fucking heartless bitch and she treated you like shit.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jeannie Lawrence didn’t stop phoning Fryer, the building superintendent, until he promised he’d check Kate’s apartment the next day. On Tuesday morning, she got nothing but his voice mail. After five attempts, she went and knocked on his door.

  Fryer’s eyes flickered with annoyance. “Mrs. L., what can I do for you?” Jeannie bridled at the abbreviation. “Come upstairs with the key to Kate’s apartment.” She crossed her arms and stared straight at him.

  “I’ve already told you, I can’t go barging into tenants’ apartments. She could be taking a shower.”

  Jeannie watched the tip of his tongue snake out over his lips and tried not to shudder. “I’ll take full responsibility. She might be sick.”

  “She could use the phone.”

  “Her phone’s disconnected. If she’s ill, she can’t call the doctor. I need you to come and check.”

  “I suppose you’re not going to leave me in peace until I do,” he grumbled, reaching for his set of master keys.

  Jeannie followed close behind. She knew he shouldn’t let her go in with him, but she was determined to see for herself. Her heart fluttered. She didn’t want Kate to be in there.

  “Ms Evans?” Fryer called as he unlocked the door and pushed it open. “It’s Martin Fryer. I’m with Mrs. L., your neighbor. You okay?” No answer. The light was on in the main room. As he moved into the apartment, Jeannie followed. Flowers lay strewn across the floor. She recognized carnations, gerberas and stargazer lilies—all broken and decaying.

  “Look.” She pointed. “Why didn’t Kate pick them up? They’re dead now.” Fryer bent toward the card.

  “Don’t touch it,” Jeannie said.

  He rolled his eyes but crouched to read it where it lay. “So happy you said yes, Kate. Meet me at ten at our place. We’ll be together always. Love Jack.” He stood.

  “Mystery solved. She’s with her boyfriend.”

  “There’s no boyfriend.” Jeannie twisted her hands. “We need to check all of the apartment.”

  “Okay, Jessica Fletcher.”

  He wasn’t taking this seriously. She caught sight of the disconnected phone cord. “Plug it back in, see if it works. Use your sleeve,” she snapped before Fryer could touch the cable. Jeannie wrapped her hand in the cuff of her cardigan to lift the receiver. A clear dialing tone.

  “Maybe she didn’t bother to plug it in if she kn
ew she’d be away. Didn’t want it to disturb you. These walls are damn thin.”

  “Maybe. You better take the connection out again, so we leave the place the same as Kate left it.”

  They went together into the bedroom. The closet doors lay open, clothes all over the floor. Jeannie frowned. Kate wasn’t untidy. She stepped into the bathroom and her heartbeat surged because of what she didn’t find. Jeannie patted her chest. She watched too much TV.

  “No toothbrush,” Fryer said at her shoulder.

  Kate had gone away, Jeannie thought, disappointed she hadn’t told her.

  “She can stay away till her rent runs out, Mrs. L.” Jeannie knew she’d get no more help from him. Back in the other room, her gaze fell again on the flowers. Why would Kate leave them there if they were from a boy she’d run off with? The whole thing made no sense. She went back to her apartment more convinced than ever that something was wrong.

  ***

  Nathan slammed down his phone. Not that any of his days were great, but this one threatened to be worse than most. Now he’d made the decision to talk to Jack, and the guy had vanished. He’d not only left his job, but also his apartment.

  Nathan could barely believe it. If that wasn’t a big enough sign he should let this go, he didn’t know what was. What he’d been doing was unhealthy. How could he expect to move on with his life while he was obsessed with Jack Thompson?

  So Nathan wasn’t sure why he came to be asking the building superintendent if he could look at Jack’s newly vacated apartment.

  The place was empty.

  “There’s nothing wrong with this guy is there?” the super asked. “We traded cars last week. He wanted something bigger. The paperwork looked okay.”

  “What’s he driving now?”

  “Chevy Suburban. I warned him it guzzled gas, but he didn’t care.” Nathan wondered why Jack needed a vehicle that size.

  He tried Jack’s neighbors. On the left, a sullen elderly man claimed to have rarely seen or heard him. Nathan took out his wallet.

  The man accepted the twenty. “Paying me makes no difference. There’s nothing to tell.”

  The door closed in his face. Nathan sighed. He should have kept a tighter hold on the bill. A pretty Hispanic woman occupied the apartment on the other side.

  She took Nathan’s ID, studied it carefully, but kept the chain on. Even through the narrow gap, he saw wariness in her eyes.

  “What’s he done?” she asked.

  “Nothing.” That hurt. “I just need to find him.”

  “For a woman?”

  Nathan shook his head. “Family. Have you seen him with any women?”

  “No.”

  Nathan sensed there was more and waited.

  “He was always polite, but there was something about him I didn’t like. I don’t even think I can tell you what, just a feeling that underneath all his manners, he wasn’t a nice guy.”

  How the fuck had she seen what he’d missed?

  “Did he upset you in some way?”

  She hesitated. “The way he looked at me, I guess. I don’t know. Maybe it’s my imagination. I’m glad he’s moved.”

  Nathan couldn’t stop now. He went around the block to the deli.

  “Sure, I know him. Good customer. Likes my wife’s butter-basted turkey.” Judging by the size of the guy’s stomach, Nathan guessed he liked it, too.

  “Did he tell you he was leaving the neighborhood?”

  “No. We only chatted about the weather, traffic and sports.”

  “Anything unusual about the last time you saw him?”

  “No. Well, yes. Come to think of it, he’d colored his hair. It was sticking out under his baseball cap. Fair instead of dark. I’d never seen him wear a cap before, maybe it wasn’t such a good dye job.” The man chuckled.

  Nathan drove to Hammond Insurance. He showed his PI license and spoke to Jack’s boss. Colin Curtis was clearly not concerned by Jack’s departure. He’d rolled his eyes when Nathan mentioned Jack’s name.

  “He quit on Friday without notice. We’re left to figure out his mess and he has the balls to ask to be paid out of petty cash. The arrogant bastard had only been here three weeks. Said he’d closed his bank account and needed the money right away.”

  “Did he cause you any problems?”

  “Between you and me, he was a waste of space. No way he’d pass the insurance exams. I’d have ended up firing him. He claimed to suffer from migraine headaches, though he didn’t tell us that on his application. He took off from work a lot, claiming he was sick. Often he’d come in and then just get up and leave. I’m not sure how many complete days he actually managed. When he was here, he generally did what he was paid to do, but sometimes you felt he was on planet Jack, population one. He lost his temper a couple of times on the phone with customers.”

  “Is it all right if I speak to some of his colleagues?”

  “Sure but I doubt you’ll find he had any friends.” Curtis was right.

  “Any office romances?” Nathan asked.

  No one admitted to seeing him outside work. Nathan watched their faces and didn’t see lies.

  “He had a photo of a girl on his desk,” a short dumpy woman told him.

  “What did she look like?” Nathan asked.

  “Pretty. Long dark hair. Glasses.” The woman nudged her own frames back up her nose.

  Not Alison, who had fair hair and no glasses.

  “He must have taken the picture at the zoo. There was a hippo in the photo.” Had Jack been at the zoo when Nathan thought he was working? And who was the woman in the photo? Nathan began to wonder how much he’d missed.

  One of the sales assistants at Del Florio’s recalled Jack buying the flowers the previous Saturday. She held the photograph in her hand.

  “Yeah, he was cute. It was our Celebration Bouquet. He paid in cash and waited while I made it up for him. I remember because it was the first one I’ve done on my own.”

  “Did he say who the flowers were for?” Nathan asked.

  “The love of his life. I remember thinking that was so sweet.” There was nothing else the woman could add. Nathan didn’t want to hear Jack was sweet. He felt guilty hoping Jack had hurt someone, but that was what Nathan really wanted—so he could get him locked up.

  His mind buzzed. He’d waited three months for Jack to do something, but hadn’t expected this. He’d changed his car, quit his job, dyed his hair, packed up his stuff and gone. Where and why? Nathan wondered what Jack had been up to on the days he’d thought he was at work. Nathan knew better than to take things for granted. He’d been careless.

  Nathan had one more call to make. The last woman he’d seen Jack pick up worked at a bar near Riverwalk. Nathan drank two club sodas before the cocktail waitress turned up. The barman pointed her out. The dark-haired woman was slim and pretty with a sexy walk. Another time, Nathan might have been interested.

  “Looking for me?” she asked.

  He stood up and showed his ID.

  “I’m trying to find this guy. Can you help?” He’d cut Alison out of the photo, though her arm was still in the shot, touching Jack’s shoulder.

  “Ah, him.”

  Two words told Nathan she was pissed off and made his next question a stupid one. “Has he sent you flowers in the last couple of days?”

  “Flowers? Not the type. What’s he done?”

  “I’m just trying to find him. Anything you can tell me about him might help.”

  “I only saw him that one night. I don’t think he’d been in before. He had a few drinks. We flirted. He’s a good-looking guy. I don’t take every good-looking guy back to my place, but he was kind of persuasive, a charmer.” She gave a nervous smile.

  “Yeah, I know,” Nathan said. “He can be real charming.”

  “When we got back, I opened a bottle of wine, but we only had a glass each. I had two drinks the entire night. That was one of them.” Nathan nodded.

  “I’m sure I wasn’t drunk,
but next thing I know, it’s time to go to work. I don’t remember what happened in between.”

  She gave a little laugh, but Nathan heard the uncertainty.

  “The only thing gone from my apartment was him. He didn’t steal anything except maybe a bit of me. I’m pretty sure we…I don’t know for certain. I guess he was a gentleman and used a condom. There were a couple of empty packets on the bedside table.”

  “You think he drugged you?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I figured he slipped me a roofie but what the hell for? Why did he think I’d taken him back to my place? I wasn’t going to say no.”

  “Did you go to the police?”

  She huffed. “What could they do? I didn’t know anything about him. I could have given them a description, but to be honest, I wanted to forget it. I got a morning after pill, just in case and had a couple of tests done.” Nathan could offer no reassurance. He had no idea what Jack was up to but was determined to find out.

  Chapter Nine

  Jack drove down the Vegas strip to the far end of town where mega resorts dwindled to minor motels. He stopped once to consult a map and finally pulled into the parking lot of Home Sweet Home motel. Dusty plastic roses grew up the walls to reach the fake thatched roof. Jack switched off the engine. Although he’d registered Kate’s increased co-operation, he took no chances. He hogtied her—

  nylon ties around her wrists and ankles, tape on her mouth. She didn’t struggle.

  As a final precaution, he draped a blanket over her.

  “The car alarm will be on. You move and I’ll hear it. Don’t let that happen.” Jack locked the car and watched through the window for a moment before he walked to the reception. In a small lobby, three slot machines stood against the wall, all in use.

  The girl behind the desk looked up as Jack approached. “Can I help you?”

  “I have a reservation. Jack Thompson.”

  She checked the computer screen and put a rectangular plastic room key and a white envelope on the counter. “Around the corner, end of the block. The arrangements for your wedding are detailed in the envelope. You need to get to the office fifteen minutes before your scheduled time. Credit card?” Jack handed it over. “Anywhere nearby I could get new glasses made?”