Lisa Gardner - Touch & Go

Tessa got it first. It gave her claim to the crime scene after all. “There are no personal assets,” she murmured. “He runs everything through the company.”

“Ding, ding, ding, give the woman a prize. The Boston town house, the cottage on the Cape, the cars, the furniture, all held by Denbe Construction. Even Justin’s year-end bonus, he graciously declines, leaving it in the corporation as cash reserves. If Libby left Justin, she would be entitled to half of exactly zero. I’m telling you, this is Justin’s thing, Mr. Benevolent Dictator. Promises his wife he’ll always love her—here’s a five-million-dollar town house. Promises his employees he’ll always take care of us—I’m not even gonna take my bonus, but leave it in the company. But really, he’s only looking out for himself. As both my niece and Libby got to find out the hard way.”

TESSA AND WYATT DANCED AROUND WITH LOPEZ for another thirty minutes. What had he been doing on Friday night?

“Local bar. Circulate my photo; at least half a dozen regulars will confirm I was there.”

Last time he saw Libby and/or Ashlyn Denbe?

“I’m telling you, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Just because I got a beef with how my boss handles women doesn’t mean I’d harm a hair on his head.”

But he had access to the security code for the Denbes’ residence.

“Sure. All of us on the build team know it. Justin isn’t the most organized guy in the world, and sometimes he’d have us pick up a few last-minute things. If Libby was around, she’d feed you a cookie. I’m telling you, Justin deserves to be knocked down a peg or two. But not his family.”

And Ashlyn?

Lopez’s face had turned red. “I’m not talking about her! I can’t even think about her. Assaulted in her own home… You want to save the legal system some dough? When you find out who did this, just say the word and me and the guys will take care of the rest.”

Using the skills he’d learned as an army ranger? Probably had some contacts, too, the kinds of guys who’d know how to quietly break into a house and quickly subdue a grown man and his wife and daughter?

“I’m fifteen years out. The guys I know are either picking sand from their teeth, having been called up from the reserves, or are finally being cut loose because they now dive for cover every time a car backfires. The first group of guys is deployed too far away. The second group is too drunk. You want to make some headway, go hound Anita Bennett. Now, there’s a woman who has reason to eliminate the entire family. Starting with the fact that it would make her own child the sole surviving Denbe male. Don’t royals do that sort of thing all the time? Why not big business? Hell, we’re talking a hundred-million-dollar corporation. Some imperial inheritances have gotta be smaller than that.”

“We’ll take that under advisement,” Tessa assured him. She glanced over at Wyatt, who’d returned to perusing the evidence log. When he didn’t offer up any more questions, she pushed back her chair. They’d learned as much as they were going to learn, she judged. At least until they had time to research the pieces of Lopez’s latest story and push back harder. For now, however, probably best to hit the road.

The old black Lab had curled up at her feet. Now he stood to his feet with a giant yawn. She gave him a final pat on the head, feeling an unexpected pang. She liked his company. Thought Sophie would like his company. Something to consider, getting a dog. Then maybe, both she and her daughter would finally sleep through the night.

Lopez escorted her and Wyatt back to the front door. The conversation had clearly agitated him. Tessa just couldn’t decide whether he was frustrated they didn’t magically accept his claims of innocence, or nervous that they were still poking around.

Wyatt had been right about two things: Anita Bennett had been involved with Justin’s father. And, yes, the whole crew seemed to be a bunch of liars.

Wyatt waited until they were around the corner to start speaking. Tessa had assumed his first words would be I told you so , so he startled her by declaring:

“I think you’re on to something.”

“Me? You’re the one who caught Anita’s personal relationship with Denbe, senior.”

“Which is interesting if the rumors about her youngest son are true. But you got me thinking about Justin’s affair. After all, the Anita Bennett, Dale Denbe thing is at least twenty years old. Whereas the biggest recent stressor for Justin and Libby has been his involvement with Kathryn Chapman.”

“Which Libby found out about six months ago,” Tessa countered.

“Because one of Justin’s own guys decided to rat him out,” Wyatt filled in.

“Except it doesn’t sound like the marriage is necessarily over. We’re hearing more stories of date night than divorce lawyers.”

“Maybe Libby isn’t as naive as Lopez thinks. Maybe she looked up the prenup, did a little digging and realized just how financially devastating divorce would be.”

“So she arranged for them all to be kidnapped?” Tessa wasn’t following.

“I’m not saying the affair led directly to the kidnapping. I’m wondering if the fallout from the affair didn’t put things in play for Friday night.”

“Such as?” They’d arrived at her car.

“Well, we got Lopez, Justin’s second in command, looking at his boss with fresh, angry eyes. Combine that with maybe disgruntlement over the direction things are going at the company level and…”

“Then there’s Anita Bennett,” Tessa picked up. “She was once the other woman, even, possibly had a son. Got her nowhere. Now Justin is engaging in similar behavior, perhaps aggravating old wounds, new prejudices.”

“Then we got Libby, doping herself up with Vicodin to cover her pain. And maybe engaging in other new behaviors as well.” Wyatt slid into the passenger seat, holding up the evidence log. “While you and Lopez wrapped up your tango, I finished reviewing the inventory list for the trash recovered from the Denbes’ brownstone. Garage bin. Item thirty-six down. Best guess, based on trash pickup, is that the contents are no more than two days old.”

Wyatt pointed. Tessa peeked.

“A pregnancy test? A positive home pregnancy test?”

“Yep. Question is, does Justin Denbe know he’s a father again? Or…is he?”

Chapter 26

IS MY HUSBAND A CHAUVINISTIC PIG? I suppose, if you look at our marriage, he appears sexist. And yet, he is the father of an amazing fifteen-year-old girl. Who he personally taught to cluster six shots to center mass time and time again. Let alone, from the day of her birth, he’s actively spoken of Ashlyn’s future as head of the family firm. No need to try for a son. For Justin, from the moment he held his daughter in his arms, she was absolutely, positively perfect.

I always preferred to think of us as coworkers whose areas of expertise happened to fall along traditional lines. My husband works. He loves his job; he’s at his best when wrestling with a multimillion-dollar-contract issue. And I love my job, which includes creating our house, raising our child and crafting a lifestyle that reflects who we are as a family.

I’ve never thought of my role as lesser. I’ve never thought of Justin as the “one in command.” At least, not until six months ago. But even then, I didn’t view myself as the weak half of the marriage. I simply viewed myself as a failure. Because if part of my job was to meet the needs of the family, how well could I be doing, considering my husband had taken up with another woman?

Of course, I understand deep down inside that from the beginning, one of the things Justin had most loved about me was my independence. And eighteen years later, there wasn’t much of that left.