Кей Хупер - Hiding in the Shadows

Faith heard his question echoed by the faraway sound of a bell tinkling, but it was such a fleeting thing she wasn't at all sure of it.

"Because I wanted a few answers." Kane barely waited for that to sink in before going on. "Your company does own the warehouse at 281 Ivy, doesn't it?"

"Yes. But it hasn't been used in months, not since we built a new plant with adequate storage room last April."

"Then why the guard dog?"

"To protect against vandals, of course. Empty buildings are always targets, you must know that. What is this all about?"

Now.

Faith heard herself ask, "Mr. Cochrane, did you ever meet Dinah Leighton?"

"No."

He's lying.

"I don't think you're telling the truth, Mr. Cochrane."

"I can't help what you think, Miss Parker."

I came to see him. Here. October eighth.

Faith felt a chill and was surprised she was able to keep her voice steady. "Here. On the eighth of October. She came to see you, Mr. Cochrane."

Kane said, "That was two days before she disappeared."

Cochrane didn't take his eyes off Faith, and it was to her that he spoke, in the matter-of-fact tone of before. "I suppose she told you."

Had she? Faith didn't know. She just didn't know.

But what she said was, "She asked if you were being blackmailed. What did you tell her, Mr. Cochrane?"

At first it seemed he wouldn't answer, but then he shrugged, accepting something he knew he couldn't change. "I told her I had been approached by someone demanding money. I also told her it was none of her god damned business."

"And she went away meekly?" Faith smiled slightly, aware of that ghostly bell ringing again.

Cochrane's mouth softened in an answering smile.

"Hardly."

"She knew you had a mistress?"

Kane's sharp question drew Cochrane's gaze, and his reply was just as intense.

"She knew I was ... involved outside my marriage. She also knew that my wife would never consent to a divorce — and would make my life a living hell if she found out about the other woman. To say nothing of what would happen to me politically."

The bell rang again, and Faith looked around. What on earth was that?

"Was it a secret you were willing to kill to keep?" Kane demanded harshly.

"I am not a killer."

"I'm sure you told yourself that. But you had so much to lose, didn't you? And there really wasn't another way out for you, was there?"

"It wasn't like that."

"No? Then tell us how it was."

Faith heard Kane's accusations and Cochrane's quiet denials, but she had also heard that bell again.

She shifted on the couch, to get a better angle to see more of the room, and as her hand rested over the edges of two cushions she felt something.

It was caught between the cushions, out of sight, but her fingers found it and pulled it out. A tiny silver bell.

Faith stared at it, holding it in such a way that if the men looked at her they would think she was intently studying her fingernails. A tiny silver bell. A tiny silver charm she suddenly remembered having seen before.

Did you know about this, Dinah? Or am I the one who knew somehow? The dead didn't answer, so Faith said to the living, "What did Dinah want of you, Mr. Cochrane?"

He turned his head quickly to look at her, seeming relieved to face her rather than Kane. "She said she was working on a story, that she suspected other prominent men in Atlanta were being blackmailed. She wanted to know if I'd be willing to come forward when the story broke, to go to the police."

"You told her no."

"I told her I handled my own problems."

"And did you? Handle it?"

"I thought I had."

Faith didn't have to listen to the voice in her head now. "You refused to pay, didn't you? Refused to pay them and told them to go to hell. You were the first not to give in to them. To be willing to see your secret exposed rather than pay hush money."

"The ... lady involved found out about the threats and agreed I couldn't bow to blackmail. We both knew it would never end, that I'd be bled until I stood up to them. So, yes, I refused to pay. And they backed down. Or so I thought. There were no more demands for money, and my wife never received that envelope of incriminating photographs they'd promised."

"But?" Faith watched him steadily.

"But ... we began having problems out at the new plant. Mechanical breakdowns, tardy deliveries, mistakes in orders. It looked like sabotage, but there was never enough evidence to point to a culprit. And then problems began cropping up in our other divisions, the same sort of delaying, destructive tactics."

"You were being punished."

"So it seemed. I realized these faceless enemies were out to destroy me, and that I was helpless to stop them."

"You could have paid," Faith noted.

"No," Cochrane said. "I couldn't have done that."

"You could have gone public about the affair, taken that weapon out of their hands and taken your chances politically. Extramarital affairs aren't the political death knell they once were."

"True enough. I could have. The lady was willing, and I was ready to accept the consequences. But they had shown their hand. They meant to destroy me, piece by piece. If I took one weapon out of their hands, they would have found others. Another secret, some stupid mistake I'd made somewhere along the way." Cochrane smiled wryly.

"I haven't led a particularly blameless life, Miss Parker. And I have no desire to watch all my mistakes exposed one by one."

"Then what can you do?"

"I'll fight them. Fight their tactics, hold my own until I discover who they are. I may lose. But I won't go down without a fight."

"I see."

Cochrane looked at Kane. "By the time I realized the scope of my problem, Miss Leighton had been missing for several weeks. I hope you believe me when I say that if I'd thought I could help the police find her, I would have come forward."

Before Kane could respond, the sliding doors of the connecting study opened, and a new voice spoke quietly.

"And so would I."

Kane was stunned, and Faith looked at him with sympathy, then stretched out her open hand, the charm lying on the palm.

"I think this came off your bracelet, Sydney."

Kane's discomfort was obvious, and even though neither Cochrane nor Sydney seemed to bear him any malice, the next few minutes were very strained.

It was left to Faith to keep the discussion going.

"You're absolutely sure you have no clue as to who is trying to ruin you?" she said to Cochrane.

"I've racked my brains." He sat beside Sydney at the other end of the long couch. "The problem is, I have plenty of enemies. I just can't settle on anyone with a grudge big enough to drive them to blackmail and sabotage. Unless it's purely money, of course, and I was chosen because I had a point of vulnerability and the means to make blackmail worth the risk."

"You've got bigger problems than that," she told him after a glance at Kane.

"Do you know a man named Jed Norris?"

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

Kane asked, "Do you own a handgun, a .45 automatic?"

"I own several, including two .45s. Why?"

"Because," Faith said, "the body of a man identified as Jed Norris was found this morning. Murdered, execution-style, shot in the head. A gun registered to you was found nearby. And it is the murder weapon."

"Oh, my God," Sydney murmured.

Cochrane reached for her hand and held it. He was a little pale, but composed. "Setting aside that I would hardly be stupid enough to use a gun registered to me in a crime and then leave it at the scene, the last time I can swear all my guns were in the case was months ago. Someone must have stolen one of them."

"The case isn't locked?" Kane asked.