Lisa Gardner - Touch & Go

Why, if Justin were still alive…

Then, all of a sudden, so many things finally made sense. Including why my husband, my modern-day caveman, had to die.

I went to my daughter. “It’s okay, Ashlyn. We’ve come this far. We’re going to get through this.” I was unconsciously repeating her words from the sheriff’s office. I gave her a bolstering hug. Then, I got on the phone and dialed Tessa Leoni.

Chapter 41

CHRIS LOPEZ WOKE UP to the barrel of a gun, dug into his right temple.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t move,” Tessa said. She sat beside him, on the edge of his mattress. She hadn’t bothered with any lights, using the glow of a penlight to jimmy his rear window, then creep through his house, up the main stairs. She’d found the elderly Lab, Zeus, sleeping in the hallway. He’d lifted his head once, seen it was her, then gone back to sleep with a sigh.

All in all, she was feeling very comfortable with her nighttime adventure. Which was good, as she was extremely pissed off.

Now she offered up conversationally: “When did Ashlyn first tell you she was pregnant?”

“What?”

Lopez tried to sit up. She used her left fist to whomp him hard in the middle of his sternum.

Lopez collapsed back down against the mattress, gasping for air.

“Fifteen-year-old girl? The daughter of your boss? A child you swore you thought of like your own daughter? You fucking pervert!”

Lopez, moaning now. “I know, I know. I’m a total douche bag. Just pull the goddamn trigger. I deserve it.”

His self-pity made her angrier. She hit him again. “Hey, I’ll do the threatening around here!”

“I don’t know… I never should’ve… I am a pervert. What the hell was I thinking!” Lopez sounded as if he was crying. Jesus Christ. Tessa reached over and snapped on the bedside lamp.

Yep, Lopez had worked himself into quite a state.

“Start at the beginning,” she instructed sternly. “Tell me everything. Maybe I won’t shoot you.”

“There was no beginning. I mean, it’s not like I planned it.” Lopez seemed to pull himself together. He dragged himself up to sitting; this time, she didn’t try to stop him. At least he was partially clothed in a threadbare white T-shirt and gray boxers.

The ruckus had awoken the dog again. Zeus padded in, then went to Tessa’s side and whined softly. She patted his head and he settled, curling up at her feet.

“Look, Ashlyn found out about Justin’s affair. I’m not sure how. Probably eavesdropped on her parents’ fighting, hell if I know. But she also figured out the other woman was my niece, Kate. I heard a story she even confronted Kate in the lobby, and Anita had to run her off. All I know is my niece called me one night to say the crazy girl was back, standing outside her house, and wouldn’t go away. What was I supposed to do? I headed on over to handle things best I could.”

“Best you could?” Tessa’s tone was dry.

Lopez flushed. “I took Ashlyn to a nearby coffee shop and tried to talk some sense into her. I gave her my whole spiel—Katie was just a stupid girl, I knew for a fact Justin had ended things, and her parents really were trying to work things out. She needed to just give everyone some space and time. Ashlyn seemed to finally calm down. I drove her home. Figured that would be that.”

“But?”

He shrugged, appearing once again self-conscious. “She started calling me. Said she needed someone to talk to. Her parents were both shut down, it’s not like her friends understood and given that I already knew everything that had happened. I don’t know. She’d talk. I’d listen. She was just so…angry. I mean, she’d really idolized her parents. Both of them. To have them do something so…human. It messed with her. It’s like if they weren’t perfect, then the whole world must not be perfect. She was kind of freaking out.”

Tessa simply stared at him.

He flushed again. “So, uh…yeah. She came over one day, after school. Bad day, had gotten in a fight with her best friend. Started to cry. So of course, I put my arms around her. Next thing I knew, she was kissing me. I don’t…”

He stopped talking, dropping his gaze to the bedcovers. “I didn’t seduce her, if that’s what you’re thinking. I don’t expect you to believe me. But as strange as it sounds, she was the one using me. She was really pissed at Justin, remember? And what better way to get back at her father who’d slept with a younger woman than to be the daughter sleeping with an older man?”

“This is what you tell yourself?” Tessa stated flatly. “This is how you sleep through the night?”

Lopez’s head shot up. “I’ve been regrouting the bath, remember? Who the fuck says I’ve been sleeping?”

“So when did she tell you she was pregnant?”

“What pregnancy? I’m not kidding, I have no fucking clue what you’re talking about!”

“She miscarried, you know. While your goons had her locked up in prison. Interesting, too, because I would’ve thought a gentleman such as yourself would’ve requested no harm come to ladies. Justin, on the other hand…”

“Not my goons! Not my instructions! And what do you mean she miscarried while in prison? What the hell is going on?”

Tessa paused. She eyed him thoughtfully. Wyatt had been right in the beginning; the Denbe Construction management team was full of liars. Anita Bennett. Chris Lopez. And yet, they were both incredible actors as well, or they truly didn’t know everything.

“Ransom,” she stated.

“I heard there’d been contact. No one has told us anything else.”

“The insurance company paid the money.” She continued to watch him.

He sat up straighter. “So they’ve been released? Are they home? Christ.” Lopez ran a hand through his hair, appearing to be simultaneously agitated and relieved. “How is Libby?”

“Seriously? You’re sleeping with the daughter but you’re still in love with the mom?”

“Told you I was a douche bag.”

Tessa played one last card. “Well, you’d better be a douche bag with a valid passport, because Justin knows you’re the one who got his baby girl pregnant. She might have miscarried, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be gunning for your head.”

Lopez paled. Abruptly, his shoulders came down, his chin up. “I’ll see him myself. First thing in the morning. Head right over. My fault. I did the crime. I’ll serve the time.”

“Goddammit!”

Tessa shot off the bed. She twirled violently, disrupting the sleeping dog and causing Lopez to gape at her. She jammed her pistol back into her shoulder holster. If she’d been extremely angry before, she was extraordinarily frustrated and furious now.

“Justin Denbe’s dead.”

“What?”

“Kidnappers planned a double-cross after the ransom had been paid. He died, saving Libby and Ashlyn.”

Lopez, completely slack-jawed now. “But you said…”

“I lied. Mostly to test if you were a liar. But you honestly have no idea what happened shortly after three P.M. yesterday, do you?”

“Lady, I’m so confused right now, the only thing I have is a headache. Are Libby and Ashlyn all right?”

“Relative scale, yes. But Ashlyn did miscarry, and Libby knows you were the father.”

If the threat of Justin’s rage scared him, then to judge by Lopez’s face, the thought of Libby’s hurt shamed him.

“Oh,” Lopez said, then seemed to lose all further words.

Tessa perched in a nearby chair. The old Lab whined nervously again. She stroked one of his ears in comfort as her mind whirled around and around.

“I don’t get it,” she said at last.

Lopez still wasn’t talking.

“Whoever did this knew Justin, Libby and Ashlyn. He or she also had the kind of contacts necessary to hire three mercenaries. Most likely, the same person has been embezzling funds from Denbe Construction for the past fifteen to twenty years—”