“Hell, no,” Harry growled. “This isn’t a party.”
“No, thank you, Aunt Vic,” Alec said. “It’s getting late, so I’ll just give you the basics and let Harry fill in the rest, and then we can all get some sleep.”
Victoria sat down and smiled sweetly at Harry because she knew it would disconcert him. Harry scowled at her.
Alec looked at both of them, confused. “Have you two met before?”
“Oh, no,” Victoria said. “I’d have remembered Harry.”
“Can we get on with this?” Harry said.
“Sure,” Alec began but Harry overrode him, turning to Victoria as he spoke.
“There’s a guy in this hotel going by the name of Brian Bondman who’s made a career out of bilking college professors,” he told her.
“What’s his real name?” Victoria asked.
“Forget it,” Harry said. “If you don’t know it, you can’t use it accidentally and screw everything up.”
“Harry,” Alec said. “Be nice.”
Victoria tried to wither Harry with a glance, but he ignored her and went on. “We’ve almost had him a couple of times, but he’s gotten away through sheer dumb luck.”
“Dumb luck,” Victoria sniffed. “Sounds like an excuse.”
“Aunt Vic,” Alec warned.
“Well, he’s here now, and we’re going to get him this time,” Harry said. “And Alec’s brainstorm is to use you to nail him.” His tone of voice made it clear how he felt about that plan.
“We want you to make contact with him,” Alec told her. “Be your usual charming self and talk about your money and your investments. You know, act rich.”
“What if he checks me out?” Victoria said. “I’m not rich.”
Harry looked at her gold earrings, silk blouse, and perfect hair, and snorted. Victoria ignored him.
“Harry, knock it off.” Alec turned back to Victoria. “He won’t, Aunt Vic. You’re a professor and that’s enough for him. He’ll see your name in the conference program and figure he’s home free.”
“He can’t be too bright if he’s targeting college professors,” Victoria said. “We’re not known for being wealthy.”
“Depends on your definition of ‘wealthy,’ ” Harry said. “You’re sure not poor.”
Victoria ignored him some more. “Any ideas on how I meet this man?”
“There’s a woman,” Alec said. “Dennie Banks. She’ll introduce you to him. In fact, she can’t wait. You’re having lunch with her tomorrow.”
Victoria rolled her eyes at him. “I can’t, I’m having lunch with Janice. I should have known you’d find a woman. Is this your blonde?”
“Brunette,” Alec said automatically. “And you have to ditch Janice for Dennie because Dennie is going to introduce you to her partner, and he’s the one we want.”
Victoria turned to Harry. “And after I’m introduced, then what?”
“Then we put a wire on you, and we’ve got him,” Harry said. “That’s the theory anyway.”
“A wire?” Victoria looked nonplussed.
“Don’t you ever watch TV cop shows?” Harry asked.
“No.” Victoria put her chin in the air. “I’m an intellectual.”
“You are not.” Alec glared at both of them. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you two, but snap out of it. You’ve got work to do. Act like adults. This is no time to start a second childhood.”
“A wire,” Harry said with palpable patience, “is a very small microphone and transmitter. What he says to you, we will hear and tape.”
“Big deal.” Victoria sniffed. “I don’t see what’s so tough about this.”
Harry sighed. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“In fact, we don’t even need your blonde, Alec, so I can still have lunch with Janice,” Victoria went on. “I’m already having dinner with Mr. Bondman tomorrow evening. A friend is introducing us because of the wonderful real estate investment Mr. Bondman is offering.” She batted her eyes at Harry. “And they pay you to do this. Really, it’s so simple.”
“You’re what?” Alec said, startled.
“It was so simple,” Victoria repeated. “You didn’t need to seduce that woman after all.”
“I didn’t seduce her,” Alec said.
“Not for lack of trying, I’m sure.” Victoria gazed at him with pseudosympathy. “Did she turn you down? How marvelous for you. See, you’re failing already. Do you feel any character growth?”
“Aunt Vic,” Alec began, and Harry stood up and interrupted him.
“I’ll call you tomorrow morning and set up a time for the wire,” he told Victoria.
She shook her head. “Not tomorrow morning. My paper is tomorrow morning and so is Janice’s. Tomorrow afternoon.”
Harry gave up. “Fine. But do not go near Bond until I’ve got you wired.”
“Bondman,” Victoria said. “I gather Bond is his real name. How careless of you to let it slip.”
“Aunt Vic,” Alec said. “That’s enough.”
“Thank you,” Harry said to him. “I was hoping somebody would say that.”
“You have to work with Harry,” Alec told his aunt. “And Harry is not a nice man. Do not antagonize him.”
“He antagonized me first,” Victoria said.
“Oh, that’s mature,” Alec said. “Listen, both of you. Try not to call each other names until after we’ve nailed Bond, okay?”
“All right,” Victoria said. “I apologize, Harry.”
Harry growled, and stomped out of the room.
Alec bent and kissed her cheek. “Harry’s sorry too. Get some sleep. You’re going to be trapping a major menace to society tomorrow.”
“Would that be Harry?” Victoria asked sweetly.
“Good night, Aunt Vic,” Alec said sternly, and left her.
Victoria started to laugh as soon as the door closed behind him. She’d been right. Harry was better than Donald.
A lot better.
Donald Compton met Brian Bond in the bar at eleven; by eleven-thirty, they were elbow-deep in a prospectus for an exclusive real estate development in the Keys. Bond felt his pulse kick up as he explained the deal and Donald nodded in agreement at every turn. The perfect mark, God bless him, and he was all Bond’s.
“This is very hush-hush,” Bond said. “But the great thing about this investment is that there’s nobody else even interested in this property because of the environmental impact hassles. We’re getting the land at rock-bottom prices.”
“EPA, though, Brian. That’s bad.” Donald looked owlishly wise.
“Nah,” Bond said. “We’ve got somebody in Washington. The fix will be in by the end of the month. And the land values will shoot through the roof.”
Donald brightened considerably, and Bond moved in for the kill. “Now here’s what I’d recommend you invest …”
Eight miles away, Sherée got off the bus at the Riverbend bus terminal and stretched. A day of bus travel had not made her feel any better about her life. She’d find a cheap motel for the night, she decided, and then track Brian down the next day. She picked up her suitcase and headed for the neon motel sign she could see two blocks down.
It was a hassle that she’d forgotten the name of the hotel, she thought as she trudged along, but how many places could be having a literature conference? Tomorrow she’d start calling around. And then she’d find Brian.
And then they’d see what was going to happen, boy.
Then they’d see.
Chapter 4
Dennie left the room the next morning in the good gray suit that she wore only when she wanted to impress people with her seriousness. It did double duty in that it also impressed her with her seriousness. She slipped into the back of the lecture room, feeling very focused and mature, just as the previous speaker sat down, and Janice Meredith stood to present her paper.
It was an exploration of how the infidelity in Shakespeare might be handled by the modern scandal pulps, and D
ennie almost wept with sympathy for her as she listened to her. No wonder the woman didn’t want anyone to know about her divorce yet; she couldn’t have chosen a more painful topic. And yet, even as she felt for her, Dennie made notes. There were too many parallels there to ignore. If she got the interview, she could help Janice present her case. If she got the interview, she could protect her while—
No, wait, not if. When. Dennie smoothed the skirt of her gray suit. When she got her interview, she’d use some of these same points to showcase Janice’s strengths. It was going to be a great interview, a triumph for both Dennie and Janice.
Then the next presenter got up, and Dennie saw with some surprise that it was Victoria Prentice. She’d been so fixated on Janice that she’d forgotten Victoria was an academic too. Victoria’s paper was a comparison of the Macbeths’ marriage to television soap opera marriages, and Macbeth made Dennie think of Alec the night before. What was Victoria saying about the Macbeths? “Flawed people united by love, destroyed by ambition.” Well, she and Alec were definitely flawed. She was ambitious, and she was pretty sure Alec was too. That dumb act was just that, an act; he was up to something with those land investments. And the love? That was the disconcerting part. Because there was something about Alec … Dennie tried to isolate what it was about Alec, and then realized that for the first time she’d met a man she wouldn’t grow tired of. She might want to strangle him in the future, but she wouldn’t get bored. He would always be unpredictable and sexy and up to something. He was the first man she’d ever known who made more than one date together seem like an interesting idea.
Patience would have loved Alec.
Of course, all that was an excellent reason to avoid him once he’d introduced her to Victoria. She was not going to end up in Chicago, chasing Alec, when she could be moving anywhere, New York even, and chasing fame and a huge career. She’d made enough dumb decisions in her life already. Time for some smart ones.
No matter how tempting Alec was.
While Dennie thought about Alec, Victoria finished her paper, and the next presenter got up and began to speak about marriage customs in Shakespeare’s era and in the nineties. Dennie slipped out of the room as quietly as she’d slipped in. If Janice Meredith had sparked some interview ideas in the presentation today, there must be more in her other writings. A good interviewer couldn’t be too well-prepared, and Riverbend U was only a couple of miles away.
Dennie headed for the university library.
Two hours later, she met Alec for lunch.
“Where’s your aunt?” she asked, coming up behind him in the lobby. His shoulders were broad and his back was straight, and she had random, inappropriate thoughts about his body before he turned to her, startled, and she was pleasantly surprised to remember how much fun his face was to look at when he wasn’t letting his mouth hang open.
“Who died?” Alec said, staring at her gray suit. “Gray? This isn’t like you. Tell me there’s red lace under that.”
“Your aunt,” Dennie said, full of drive after an excellent hour in the library stacks. She had the right questions now, and Janice Meredith was going to answer them. The interview of a lifetime. Dennie looked around for Victoria, her ticket to Janice, fame, and fortune. “Where is she?”
“She couldn’t make it.” Alec still stared at her suit in obvious disgust. “Sorry. Now where would you like to go for—?”
“Nowhere.” Dennie scowled at him, disappointed on more counts than just missing Victoria. “If she’s not here, I can’t spare the time.” She turned back to the revolving doors.
“Wait a minute.” Alec caught her arm. “Where are you going? You have to eat. It’s Friday. You need your energy for the weekend. And if you have to eat, it might as well be with—”
“You? No.” Dennie disentangled her arm from his grasp. “Nothing personal, but if your aunt’s not here, I’ve got to go back to the library. Thanks anyway.”
“The library?” Alec followed her out the doors and into the street. “What are you doing at a library? Wait a minute.”
“Alec, forget it.” Dennie faced him, while people pushed past them. “You’re a lot of fun, and you kiss very well, but I don’t have time to toy with you now. I’m busy. Go play with somebody else.”
Alec grabbed her arm as she turned away. “Dinner. If you’re skipping lunch, you’re going to need dinner. I’ll pay. I have—”
“I know. Plenty of money.” Dennie frowned at him. “Will your aunt be there?”
“What is this with my aunt?” Alec frowned back at her.
“Will your aunt be there?” Dennie repeated with deliberate patience.
“Yes,” Alec said. “If I have to drag her into the restaurant myself, my aunt will be there. I’ll meet you at eight in the lobby. What do you say?”
“Fine. I would love to have dinner with you and your aunt. Now go away, I have to work.” Dennie pulled her arm out of his grasp and turned down the street toward the university, and Alec watched her go.
She was going to a library? Alec turned the problem over in his mind. What the hell could there be in a library that would interest a con—?
Of course. His aunt was an academic, so Dennie would assume she’d published. She was looking up Aunt Vic’s publications so she could dazzle her at dinner. Alec shook his head in admiration. Hell of a woman, that Dennie. It was almost a shame to arrest her. He turned back to the hotel to tell Harry there’d be two more at dinner. And if Dennie really was spending the afternoon at the library, that would give him time to run some checks and set up the next day. Really, she was just playing into his hands.
Alec thought of Dennie in his hands and grew warm. It really was a shame she was a crook. Then he shoved that thought away, too, and went to lay the groundwork for arresting her.
On her way back through the lobby after a very productive afternoon at the library, Dennie was waylaid by Baxter, the manager, looking even more rabbity than usual.
“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it,” Dennie said, trying to duck by him.
“She said you watched her give a speech today,” Baxter said, trailing her with a hopeless expression.
Dennie stopped. “It was a public speech. I sat in the back. I’m not allowed at a public speech?”
“I tried to point that out,” Baxter said, clearly hoping one of the combatants would be on his side. “I asked if you tried to speak to her, and she said no but that wasn’t the point.” Now that he had Dennie’s attention, he began to wax eloquent. “So then I said, ‘But Mrs. Meredith, surely she’s allowed in a public place,’ and that seemed to make her angrier.”
It was probably the “Mrs. Meredith,” Dennie told him silently. Reminders of marriage would have been ill-timed. Baxter, meanwhile, droned on. There must be people at home who loved him very much if he was used to being listened to when he talked like this. Dennie could picture the children gathered round, and his thin little wife holding the latest baby, and maybe a little dog. Not like Walter, though. Walter would have peed on him out of exasperation by now.
“—So I told her I’d make sure you didn’t get near her again this weekend,” Baxter finished. “That’s all right, isn’t it? I mean, we agreed about the police and all, so I thought that would be all right with you. Isn’t it?”
“Sure,” Dennie said, sidling away again. “Listen, I have to go to dinner with some people who are not Janice Meredith, so I’m going now. Give my best to the family.”
“What family?” Baxter said, but she’d already turned and was heading for the elevators. Baxter was the least of her troubles. She had to be intelligent and insightful for Victoria Prentice that night so Victoria would see that she was a serious writer and convince Janice to spill everything.…
Fat chance.
Just do it, she told herself. Thinking about it was only depressing.
At seven that night, Harry hefted the suitcase with the sound equipment in one hand while he knocked on Victoria’s door with the other, wishing he
could be anyplace else on the planet. She was a dangerous woman with dangerous eyes, and he’d been thinking about her since he’d seen her the night before. The best thing he could do would be to wire her and get out because—
Victoria opened the door in a white lace robe, and Harry lost his train of thought while he tried to keep his eyes on hers instead of looking down. Her eyes were an incredibly soft brown, a sexy soft brown.… Don’t look at her at all, he told himself and barged past her into the room which he suddenly noticed was dominated by a huge bed covered with a red damask spread. It wasn’t any huger than most hotel beds, but somehow with Victoria in the room, it looked like a football field.
Forget the bed, he told himself and realized that all that was left to think about was either Victoria or the plan for that night. Easy choice.
“I have two main concerns about tonight,” he said, staring past her shoulder when they were sitting at the desk in the corner of the room.
“Only two?” Victoria said.
She was impossible. “Concentrate,” Harry said. “The first is entrapment. You have to let this guy come to you. Let him make all the suggestions. Don’t make any moves yourself. And don’t agree right away. Make him work for it.”
Victoria put her chin in her hand and smiled at him. “You know my mother gave me this same advice when I started dating.”
“Well, pay more attention to me than you did to your mother.” Harry scowled at her, so annoyed, he forgot to avoid her. “If it looks like you encouraged him to swindle you, he can yell ‘entrapment’ and the case gets thrown out of court.”
“All right,” Victoria said. “I’m skeptical, right?”
Harry thought about it. Victoria was so sharp, she might actually scare Bond off. “You might get further being dizzy. You know, one of those women who can’t concentrate long enough to make up their minds.”
Victoria scowled at him. “No, I don’t know one of those women who can’t concentrate long enough to make up their minds.”
Harry rolled his eyes. This was no time for her to be deliberately difficult. “Look, the longer we can string him along, the more time we have to gather evidence. If you’re skeptical, he may get cold feet and think that you’re having him investigated. And if he gets even a whiff that we’re closing in on him, he’ll be gone. If he just thinks you’re too damn dumb to make a decision, he’ll hang in there.”