Сандра Браун - Thick as Thieves

Arden continued to stare straight into his eyes as she pieced together the components. “But what…what possible connection could there be?”

“I have no idea,” Lisa said. “But at the very least it’s a bizarre coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”

Arden didn’t say anything, only continued to search his eyes.

Lisa pressed on. “Furthermore, when he came clean with you about his criminal record, he didn’t say, ‘Oh, and by the way, get this. This is a weird coincidence.’ Wouldn’t that have been the time to mention it?”

Arden gave it thought, then said, “We didn’t learn about the burglary and the allegations against Dad until the following Monday. If Ledge was in custody over the weekend, maybe he never knew about the coincidental timing, either.”

“I’d find that very unlikely.” Lisa paused, then said, “No, he had to have known. Everyone did. Even if he was in jail, news like that would have been circulating. He had to have known,” she insisted.

“And it’s suspicious that he didn’t make reference to it when the opportunity presented itself. He owned up to his crime, but left out the most interesting aspect. He didn’t want you to know, or he would have told you. I think you should be asking yourself why.”

In a barely audible voice, Arden said, “I am asking myself why.”

“Well, good! That’s wise. You should have nothing more to do with him, at least not until we’ve had a chance to explore the matter.”

“I’m supposed to let him know by noon tomorrow whether or not I’m hiring him. I owe him that courtesy.”

“You don’t owe him a damn thing.”

“I’ll handle it on my terms, Lisa.”

Her sharp tone surprised Ledge and silenced her sister. Temporarily. Then Lisa said, “All right. I’ll leave it to you, but please call me after you’ve spoken to him.”

“I will. Good night.”

Arden disconnected and set the phone on the table, but she never took her eyes off him. After a silence the length of a freight train, he opened his mouth to speak, but she raised her hand.

“I don’t want to hear it.”

He did as she asked and held his silence, giving her time to determine just how irrelevant, or dire, the implications of this discovery were.

“Did you know about—” She broke off and gave a dry laugh. “Of course you knew.” She crossed her arms, hugging her middle. “I thought we’d met as strangers. But that’s not so, is it? We have a night in common. A night twenty years ago that drastically impacted both our lives. You knew that, but withheld it from me. Why?”

“What relevance does it have?”

“That’s what I would like to know,” she said, raising her voice in anger. “So would Lisa. She’s right. If it weren’t relevant, you would have said something about it. The fact that you didn’t is even more troubling than the coincidence itself. If it was a coincidence. Did you know my dad?”

“Knew who he was. Knew his situation.”

“You mean his being a widower with two daughters?”

“His reputation as a drunk.”

“Of course,” she said gruffly. “Was he a customer of your uncle’s?”

“I never saw him in the bar. Never.”

“That night—”

“I was in jail over that weekend and didn’t learn that your dad had been linked to the burglary until, as you said,” he said, motioning toward her phone, “the next week.” True.

She tilted her head, seeming to assess his trustworthiness. Rightfully. His truth had missing parts.

She said, “I don’t believe for a minute that it was a coincidence you were in the supermarket that day. What were you doing there?”

“Buying food and toilet paper.”

“Damn you! Don’t be cute. How did you come to be in the produce section when—”

“I followed you into the store.”

She inhaled a swift breath and on a soft expulsion asked, “Why?”

The time for playing it cool had passed. He pushed himself away from the counter and faced her squarely. “As I told you, someone had pointed you out to me. But not in the pie shop, and not after you had lost your baby. It was earlier on. You must not have been back in town for long, because you were in the post office to rent a mailbox. I was there to pick up a package. The woman working the counter caught me looking at you, and—”

“Why were you looking at me?”

He tipped his head down in a manner that asked, Really? “Come on.”

Self-consciously she glanced aside before coming back to him.

He continued. “The postal worker asked if I remembered the scandal about Joe Maxwell, and I said, ‘Vaguely,’ and she told me you were his daughter. Long lost. Now living in Penton again. That’s how I came to know who you were.”

“That’s the truth?”

“Swear to God.”

“If it was that innocent, then why have you been hush-hush about it?”

“I didn’t tell you this morning because you were already freaked out over your ghost driver.”

“How do I know you’re not lying now about the post office?”

“You had on blue jeans with holes in the knees. Red t-shirt. You hooked your sunglasses in the neck of it while you were filling out the form for the mailbox. Your ponytail—high, on the top of your head—was lopsided. Your pregnancy wasn’t obvious yet, so I didn’t know about that until later.”

“You saw me again?”

“Couple of times.”

“When, where?”

“Around. And so did a lot of other people.”

“A lot of other people haven’t broken into my house in the middle of the night.”

She said that with heat, and he couldn’t say he blamed her. But he didn’t defend himself.

“I suppose that on one of these Arden sightings, you noticed my baby bump.”

“Yeah, but by then, I’d already heard you were pregnant.”

“From whom?”

“I picked it up in the hair and nail salon.”

“While getting your roots done?”

With utmost patience, he said, “A friend of mine owns it. A squirrel had nested in the attic insulation and chewed up some wiring. I was asked to trap and relocate the squirrel, and repair the damage. While I was up there—”

“You overheard that Joe Maxwell’s daughter was pregnant.”

“But no daddy to be seen. Juicy stuff. That kept them going for a good half hour.”

“Oh, I’ll bet,” she said with disgust.

“Can I ask you a question now?”

“If it’s about my baby, no.”

“About that chat with your sister.”

“What about it?”

“You didn’t tell her about going to my uncle’s bar to conduct your own recon. You didn’t tell her about Lois what’s-her-name and the shocking secret she had revealed. You didn’t tell her that I was standing six feet from you. How come?”

“I didn’t want her to panic.”

“Why aren’t you?”

“Why aren’t I what?”

“Panicked.”

“I don’t know.” Her bafflement appeared to be genuine and self-directed. “I really don’t. You have a criminal record. You break into my house looking like Rambo. You’ve piled lie upon lie, until I don’t trust anything you say. God knows what other secrets you’re harboring. Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t shoot you when I had the chance.”

She took a firmer stance in the ridiculous slippers. “But I warn you that if there’s a next time, I will. I’ll act on my own animal instinct.”

She had just as well formed a fist around his cock. He tried to talk himself out of what was a really, really bad idea. But himself wasn’t listening.

He covered the distance between them in two strides, cupped her jaw with one hand and the back of her head with the other, tilted her face up, and melded her mouth with his.