Brenda Novak - The Perfect Murder

“You’ve got to be joking,” she snapped. “That’s your response? That cavalier attitude will get you killed!”

“You know I can’t turn back now.”

“Sebastian, you could stop this madness if you wanted to. How will it help Colton or Emily if you die, too? And what about me? Don’t I matter at all?”

He logged in to his e-mail program. “I can’t move on until I put this to rest,” he said. “This is the only way.”

“Sebastian?”

“What?”

“Do you love me?”

The question caught him off guard. He didn’t know what to say, but he couldn’t lie to her. That was one thing he’d promised himself he’d never do with any woman. Not after Emily had cheated on him, not after he’d learned how it felt to be on the receiving end of such lies. “I don’t know anymore.”

His admission met with a prolonged silence. “Then you won’t be coming back, anyway, not to me,” she said and hung up.

Exhaling, he tossed his phone aside and held his palms against his eyes. He’d just slipped even farther away from the woman he’d wanted to marry, away from everything he had left.

A knock sounded at the door. It was early for the maid, but Sebastian couldn’t imagine who else it would be. “No housekeeping,” he called.

“It’s me.”

Jane. He crossed to the door and opened it to find her standing in the hallway, shaking off an umbrella, which she propped against the wall. She was wearing a trench coat that fell open to reveal a fitted brown business suit with a narrow skirt and a turquoise blouse. Only her rock-star hair, that tattoo on her hand-the one on her breast was completely hidden today-and her large dangly earrings gave away the fact that she wasn’t like other women who might wear this kind of tailored clothing.

“I got hold of the owner of that rental house we visited yesterday,” she said.

Sebastian felt torn. He’d just broken up with Constance -and this time he was sure it was for good. That was probably a mistake. And yet he wanted to touch Jane. He wanted a second chance to make it a pleasant experience for her.

But her starchy bearing told him she had no intention of letting that happen. She wasn’t even going to acknowledge that they’d ever been intimate.

“And?” he prompted.

“Wesley Boss moved out three months ago.”

“Any forwarding address?”

“Just the P.O. box we already have, as you expected.”

He stepped back to let her in. She paused uncertainly, but when he cocked an eyebrow at her in challenge, she clutched her purse in front of her and marched past him in her sensible brown pumps.

“Did Malcolm put a phone number on the rental application?” he asked as the door swung shut.

“He did. It was the number of that cell phone my kidnap victim used. A phone that’s disappeared from the network and can’t be found, of course.”

She had the smell of rain on her, mingled with the perfume he’d noticed the night before. “So it’s a dead end.”

“Yes.”

He motioned to the desk chair. “Would you like to sit down?”

“No, I’m on my way to work. I just stopped by to see if you’d lend me that picture you have of Wesley Boss-or Malcolm Turner or whoever he is-so I can make a copy of it. It’ll be a lot easier to find him if I can at least show people what he looks like.”

“The one you saw yesterday is still in the car, but I’ve got another one.” He crouched next to his briefcase-he’d opened it on the floor on the far side of the bed-and riffled through the contents, eventually withdrawing a manila envelope containing an eight-by-ten of Malcolm. He’d taken it from a second photo that’d had Emily in it, too, until he’d cropped her out.

Jane avoided any incidental contact as she accepted it. “Thank you.”

“No need to make a copy. I have a whole stack.”

“Perfect.”

“What about references?” he asked.

“References?” She’d obviously lost the thread of the conversation.

Following her line of sight, he realized she was looking at the condoms on the nightstand. Maybe she wanted to pretend last night had never happened, but she was as preoccupied with it as he was.

“On the rental application,” he clarified.

She jerked her eyes back to his face. “Oh, right. They were all bogus.”

“The landlord never bothered to check?”

“No. He was going negative trying to carry the mortgage every month so he was just grateful he had someone to move in and pay rent.”

As Sebastian sat on the bed, images of their time together paraded across his mind in greater detail. The softness of her skin. The way her mouth had yielded beneath his. The sounds she’d made. He hadn’t gotten nearly enough of her. He wished she’d let him redeem himself.

But he knew better than to try. She’d taken a giant step backward.

“That means we’re down to the link we have through Mary,” he said.

With a shrug, she perched on the edge of the office chair he’d offered her a moment earlier. “At this stage, it’s our best hope.”

But what if Malcolm had figured out that Mary was betraying him? That call to Constance signified something. “I think Malcolm’s concerned about me.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“He called an old friend last night, asking for me.”

“He knows your friends?”

“This one he does.”

“How?”

“She picked Colton up for me on occasion.”

“She?” Genuine confusion showed on Jane’s face, but it cleared a second later. “Oh! You were with her.”

“Yes.”

Her voice dropped. “Is that still the case?”

“No.”

“You’re sure? Because I assumed…” She cleared her throat. “You’re not wearing a ring.”

“I’m not married, Jane. She’s my ex-girlfriend.” Did it matter that they’d broken up only a few minutes ago?

She spoke through a crash of thunder, but he could hear the relief in her voice. “What did he say to her?”

“He asked about me. He’s poking around to see what I’m doing.”

Jane held her purse primly in her lap. “If he connects you with Mary-”

“Best-case scenario, he takes off again and I’ll be starting from scratch.” Worst-case scenario, he killed Mary before disappearing. But Sebastian didn’t want to think about the worst-case scenario, let alone state it.

“You wouldn’t give up and go home?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Never.” Although he had no idea how he’d continue to finance such efforts.

“Is there any chance he could find out you’re in Sacramento?”

“I’m sure there is. My family and friends know I’m here. But my being here doesn’t necessarily imply it was Mary who betrayed him.”

Lightning flickered, preceding another boom. “Someone had to tip you off to come here.”

“Or something. For all he knows, I traced him a different way.”

Her eyes ranged over him as if she was matching what she saw to what she’d touched last night, and the tension between them ratcheted up. It was ugly outside, ugly everywhere else. He wanted to hole up in this room with her, show her that she could forget the past if only she’d trust him enough…

She shifted uncomfortably. “I still think he’d question her loyalty. I’d wonder about her if it were me. She could be in trouble, Sebastian. At some point, she might have to take her kids and go to a motel booked under a friend’s name or something.”

“I agree. But we can’t uproot her too soon. It’ll be too hard on her and the kids to be away from their regular lives for very long.”

“What if we can get to him before this weekend?” she asked. “Before he has time to do much investigating of his own?”