Her Alpha Avengers [The Hot Millionaires #7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (4 page)

“Never had the pleasure,” Otto said, “but when we do…”

He didn’t say anything more, but then he didn’t really need to. The menace in his expression did all the talking for him. It made Sabine shiver, and she was glad it wasn’t directed at her. These guys might seem like pussycats right now, but she got the impression that they would be dangerous when roused. What about when they were
aroused
?

Whoa, where did that come from?

“He swept my mother clean off her feet,” Sabine said, pushing her salacious thoughts to the back of her head. “And although I was sceptical when Mum rang me up and raved on about him, he fooled me as well, right from the first moment I met him. He was charming, courtly almost, and treated her like a queen. He didn’t move in on her too fast, kept her waiting for his calls.” Sabine sighed. “All the things young men do to young women. They were both way beyond the age for those games, which should have told me something, I suppose.” She shrugged. “I was just so glad to see Mum smile again that it didn’t occur to me to question him.”

“Where were you when this romance was in its infancy?” Gabe asked.

“I didn’t live at home. I have…no, had a flat in London and worked as an interior designer for an up-and-coming outfit in Knightsbridge. I resigned and gave up my flat a few months ago when I traced Pearson to America.”

The guys shared a glance that involved a considerable amount of eyebrow raising. She didn’t bother to ask them why.

“If I had been there more often, perhaps I’d have—” Sabine gave herself a mental shake. It was too late for what-ifs. “Anyway, he never once asked to borrow money, didn’t move in with her for months, and only did so because she insisted.”

“The scumbag!” Gabe muttered.

“It jibes with what our client over here told us,” Otto remarked.

“My mother died of cancer almost two years ago now,” Sabine said. “It was a total shock. I didn’t even know she’d been feeling unwell, and by the time she got herself checked out it was too late.” She dashed impatiently at the tears that sprang to her eyes. She’d done all the crying she planned to do. All she wanted now was revenge. “Anyway, the end was mercifully quick, and Pearson was there the whole time, holding her hand. I was so grateful to him for sharing the burden with me.” Sabine shook her head. “What a fool! I keep imagining how he must have laughed at us behind our backs, which is what spurs me on to keep looking for him.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, babe,” Otto said. “Your mother was far from his only victim.”

“I know that, but it doesn’t help much.”

“Tell us the rest,” Fin said. Mulligan was stretched out on his back, and Fin bent to tickle his belly. It all seemed so natural, so domestic, that Sabine almost felt as though she belonged here.

Get real!

“Mum wanted to change her will and leave him part of her estate, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He said it was supposed to be for me. My father had earned it and would want me to have it.”

“And let me guess,” Fin said softly. “When you came to check her affairs, it was all gone.”

“Yep, and so was Pearson. He was there at the graveside with me, apparently as upset as I was. We consoled one another and hosted the wake afterward at Mum’s house. When I saw the last of the mourners off the premises, I went to look for Pearson, and he was gone, too, bag and baggage. He’d slipped out whilst I’d been busy with Mum’s friends.”

“How much did he take her for?” Otto asked.

“Just about everything she had.” Sabine shook her head. “I blame myself for being so stupid, but I never thought to check.”

“Operators like him are too damned convincing. That’s how they get away with it,” Gabe said, his jaw so rigid that Sabine feared for his teeth.

“He couldn’t have known Mum was going to get sick, so he’d been systematically transferring money from her accounts online, small bits at a time to keep below the banking radar.”

“She must have given him her passwords,” Fin said.

Sabine shrugged. “Not necessarily. I didn’t realize it until I started to look for him, but it seems he’s a technology whiz. He used to pretend that he didn’t understand computers, which was another outright lie. Anyway, he milked her account for half a million pounds.”

“Geez!” Gabe finally abandoned his sketching and looked ready to commit a murder or two of his own.

“At least I had the house, which was worth four times that much and had no mortgage on it, or so I thought.”

“Let me guess,” Otto said. “He’d persuaded her to take one of those equity things? Release the money whilst you’re alive to enjoy it and pay it back from your estate.”

“No, he didn’t discuss it with her. He took it out without her knowledge and did it all online. He took less than fifty percent of the value—”

“Which meant they paid out without surveys or anyone calling round and alerting your mom,” Fin said, rubbing his chin between his long fingers. Sabine watched those fingers, wondering how they would feel on her…
Enough!
What the hell was wrong with her? “They would check to make sure your mom owned the property outright, with no debts attaching to it, and that would be enough for them.”

“I imagine so. Anyway, I had to sell it and because of the fall in property values since the credit crunch hit, it just about covered the debt. I was left with virtually nothing.”

“I’m sorry,” Fin said, patting her hand. “We’ll get him.”

The touch of his hand got her all hot and bothered again, so she shook it off. “I reported him to the police, of course. They can’t do anything about the money he embezzled online because he had all the right passwords. No one can prove that Mum didn’t do the transfers, especially since she’s dead.” Sabine took a moment to regain her composure. “Still, at least there’s a warrant out for his arrest regarding the mortgage, which is probably why he fled England. I spoke at length with the company who provided the mortgage, and their records show all the arrangements were made through an e-mail address in my mother’s name.” Sabine looked at each of them in turn. “That e-mail address wasn’t hers, which is why the police had to take action.” She pursed her lips. “Not that they looked too hard for him, so I took matters into my own hands.”

“You’ve had it tough,” Otto said softly. “You’ve lost both your parents and your inheritance, and yet you’ve still come out fighting.”

“It’s not so much the money. Obviously, I would prefer to have it, but I’m quite capable of earning my own living.” Sabine exhaled. “It’s just the injustice of it all. I can’t get on with my life until I know he’s not doing this to someone else.”

“Did you find any other victims in England through your online campaign?” Gabe asked, glancing up from his sketching.

“There are two others there who I know about. Their relatives recognized the pictures of Pearson that I plastered all over the web. He used the surnames Palmer and Price in those cases and altered his appearance a bit. I have to take their word for that since they have no pictures.”

“Con artists aren’t keen on being photographed,” Gabe said.

“No, I only managed to get a couple of him when he was with Mum by catching him unawares. He wasn’t happy about it.” Sabine nibbled her index finger and canted her head as she fixed Fin with a penetrating gaze. “The interesting thing about his choice of name is that he used ‘Robert’ in all instances, like it might be his own, and—”

“It probably is,” Fin said. “And he’d be used to answering to it, thereby avoiding slipups. I suspect his surname starts with a
P
as well.”

“Do you know of any other victims over here, beside your client?” Sabine asked.

“No, but I’m pretty sure there are some. People are probably too embarrassed to come forward, which is what he relies on. He preys on wealthy, lonely women and takes them for a lot, but not everything, so they absorb the loss and keep quiet. Your mother was the exception—probably his swan song before leaving England. He must have thought all his Christmases had come together when he found out how much she was worth and then she got sick.” Fin grimaced. “Sorry, babe, that was insensitive.”

Sabine shrugged. “But probably true.”

“He called himself Robert Parsons when he targeted our client’s mom,” Otto said. “So your theory holds up.”

“He sounds like a real slimeball,” Gabe said.

“How did you find Spencer?” Fin asked. Mulligan was now lying across his feet and staring up at him through adoring eyes.

“I got several hits on my blog from people over here saying an Englishman looking a bit like Pearson had been sniffing around the social scene. There were a few from Boston and Rhode Island, but most sightings were in Florida. That didn’t surprise me, what with it being known for its retirees. I figured he must know about the warrant for his arrest so he couldn’t stay in England. He’d have to be in a country that spoke English, and where better than America?”

Otto raised both brows. “So you threw in your job and hopped on a plane, just like that?”

“Pretty much. I had a little bit of money left from the sale of Mum’s house, plus my savings.” She shrugged. “I have to see this thing through.”

“You were explaining about Spencer,” Fin reminded her.

“Oh, yes. He got in touch. Said he thought he knew where I could find Pearson but wanted to meet me in person to tell me more.”

“Okay, so why did he insist upon meeting in a national park?” Fin frowned. “Didn’t that strike you as odd?”

“He was very nervous about being seen with me,
and
he supposedly worked there, although I now doubt if he did. He hinted that he’d supplied someone who he thought might be Pearson with information about an elderly community in Venice.”

“I read your e-mails with him,” Otto said. “Sorry,” he added meekly enough to make her smile in spite of herself. “He suddenly had an attack of conscience when he realized what Pearson was planning?” Otto shook his head. “You really should have smelt a rat.”

“I wasn’t convinced that he could help, but he was my first real lead, so I had to risk it. Anyway, I took Mulligan with me,” she said defensively.

“He made a good job of protecting you from me,” Fin said.

“Yes, well, he obviously knew you weren’t one of the bad guys. He barks pretty ferociously at people he doesn’t like and is large enough to intimidate.”

Fin glanced down at the mutt, still stretched out across his feet, snoring gently. “I can see that,” he said, smiling.

Otto smiled at her and then the dog. “I’m glad you had something to protect you in that dump where you were living.”

“It was all I could afford.” Sabine reached forward to ruffle Mulligan’s ears. “Actually, the people there weren’t too bad once I got to know them. They looked out for each other, took me under their wing, and I felt safe enough.”

“Where did you acquire the mutt?” Gabe asked.

“He belonged to the people who had the condo before me, apparently. He just turned up one day, lay outside the door, and refused to budge. I assumed his previous owners couldn’t keep him so he came back where he felt most at home.”

“Seems like he fell on his paws,” Otto remarked.

“Yeah, I guess he got lucky. Goodness knows what I’ll do with him when I go back to England, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.” She frowned at no one in particular. ”Okay, I have a question. If you knew about me and worried about me going to meet Spencer, why didn’t you contact me
before
I went?”

Fin answered her. “In retrospect, that’s what we should have done. You only made the arrangements to meet Spencer late last night, so it didn’t leave enough time. Besides, we thought that if you didn’t turn up alone, Spencer wouldn’t show.”

Sabine could see the logic in that and merely nodded. “So who
did
kill Spencer?”

“Someone Pearson sent.”

“That seems a bit desperate.”

“He took your mother for over two million pounds. That’s three million bucks, give or take. He’s taken four other people we know of for that much again between them.” Fin’s expression hardened. “And those are just the ones we
do
know about. He has an investment to protect and is probably still operating somewhere. He’s computer literate, and you can order just about anything online nowadays, including assassins. You don’t have to meet the person at the other end or reveal your real identity. We also know he’s an expert at moving money about electronically, so he could pay for the assassin’s services that way.”

“We think Spencer was told by Pearson to cultivate you,” Otto told Sabine, “and lure you to that spot. Pearson wouldn’t risk having you knocked off. An alien being murdered in the US would send up all sorts of flags, and the campaign you’ve waged against Pearson would point directly to him. He doesn’t need that sort of grief. But he could make it look as though you’d killed Spencer. Even if the charges didn’t stick, you’d be sent back to England and would be out of Pearson’s hair.”

“We also think Spencer had outlived his usefulness and could be sacrificed.” Gabe shrugged. “Perhaps he knew more about Pearson’s operation than Pearson was comfortable with, and so he killed two birds with one whack on the head, so to speak.”