Old Flames Never Die (Valentine Mystery) (21 page)

“It may seem difficult but all things
worthwhile take work. Was she upset about the kiss?”

“No. She told me she felt discounted
when I defended you.”

“Is she right? Are you dismissing her?”

Jack wished Tess was there so she could
see how Liv was in many ways sticking up for her. “No. I believe she sees
things about this case that are questionable, but that doesn’t mean you had
anything to do with it. As a lawyer, she should know that.”

“But she's not a lawyer, not in this
case. She's a woman who loves you and is having to deal with her man defending
a former lover to her. I wouldn't like that very much.”

The knock on the door signaled dinner's
arrival. Once the server was gone Liv said, “What I don't get is how Tess can't
see how much you love her. It's not very often a woman has a man as gaga over
her as you are for Tess.”

“I'm not gaga.”

“Jack.” She gave him an amused smile. “You
are so gaga. But it looks good on you.”

“It doesn't feel so good right now.”
Jack looked down at the food, but didn't eat it.

“She shouldn't feel threatened by me.
Even if I wanted to seduce you, which I do, I can see it would never happen.
Even now when you are angry and hurt, you're hopelessly in love with her.”

“You don't want to seduce me.”

“Sure I do. I know, I know.” She waved a
hand to stave off his protest. “My husband just died, but he didn't love me.
And you and I were pretty good together once. Enough to make each other feel
okay for a little time.”

It was true, but it wouldn't work now.
They may have been okay, but not great. Not like he and Tess were great. And no
one, including a beautiful woman like Liv, would be able to make him feel okay,
except for Tess.

“You don't love me either,” he said.

“But I do care about you and that is
more than I can say for Charles.”

“This is the kind of talk that is getting
you in trouble with the police.” Jack finally picked up his fork to eat. If
anything, he needed the food to counteract the alcohol he'd drunk. His being at
Liv's hotel was going to be bad enough but if he lost control of his senses, it
could be disastrous. He wondered how long it would be before Daniel called Tess
to tattle on him.

“Just because I had a loveless marriage
doesn't mean I killed him. Our lives were loveless before we married. I had no
reason to kill him now.”

“Do you think you could love again?”
Jack felt certain he'd done irreparable damage to his relationship with Tess.
Now he had to face the prospect of living the rest of his life alone.

She shrugged. “I'm not sure I've ever
really loved anyone. I did try to love Charles. Yes, I'd be open to true love
if it exists.”

“Tess is afraid of love.”

“That's silly, considering she has you
falling all over her. That's like saying you're afraid to quench your thirst
when there is tall glass of water begging to be drunk.”

“If you always ended up thirsty after
drinking you might. Tess grew up in a loveless home. Her parents were like
Charles, cold and unloving. She was engaged until she caught her fiancé in bed
with someone else.”

“Ouch.”

“It was work to get her to take a chance
on me. The fact that she did tells me that she loves me.”

“So what happened? Why'd she break it
off?”

“I got angry and gave her an ultimatum.
She chose door number two.”

“So, her fear came true again?”

Jack stopped in mid-bite. “It's my
fault?”

“You gave the ultimatum. You gambled and
lost.”

“I offered her forever and she didn't
take it.”

Liv laughed. “It's all or nothing, huh?”

“At this point, yes.”

“And what point is that?”

He sat back and stared at Liv. He'd come
with anger and hurt and Liv was adding guilt.

She gave him a sympathetic smile. “Look.
She didn't make the decision you wanted, so why not stay with me. You have no
ties.”

He frowned.

“Except that you still love her. You
should go back to her. You're acting like it's over, but it isn't.”

“I can't go back. As long as she is
focused on this case, we're going to butt heads even when we try not to.”

“If you don't have anything to do with
me, then you'd have no reasons to butt heads. Stop defending me to her.”

“It's not right that I have to give up
my convictions just to make her feel more secure. Besides, you helped me. I
can't abandon you.”

Liv took a sip of wine. “It's your
choice. You can be noble or you can be happy. But I don't need you so much that
it's worth your losing Tess.”

That wasn't the impression she gave during
all the calls over the last week, Jack thought. “I do love her. God, how I love
her. But if I give in on this, what next? I can't spend my life trying to prove
my love to her. At some point she needs to trust.” He leaned his forearms on
the table and looked at Liv. “She didn't even try to stop me from leaving.”

Liv gave him a sad smile. “I guess
everyone has their limit. There were times I wanted to give up on Charles and
then he'd make some little gesture and I'd think maybe now he'll come around,
maybe now he'll love me. But he never did. I guess now he never will.”

“What do you think happened?”

“I don't know. There are many people who
could have wanted him dead. I suppose me included.”

“Like who?”

“My first thought was his partner,
although it would have been easier for him to kill Charles in a hunting
accident.”

“Why him?” Jack asked.

“He and Charles were building some
development down in Bucks County. But at the last minute, Charles halted all
the work.”

“Do you know why?” Jack asked and he
wondered if Tess knew why.

“No. Charles never really talked about
business or anything with me.”

“But Charles couldn't stop it all on his
own. They're partners.” He wondered if he should ask why the Senator was
interested in the land as well.

Liv shrugged. “I don't know. All I know
is that there is no building going on and Wilson wasn't happy about it.”

Jack's brows pulled together. “Weren't
they supposed to go hunting together the day he was killed?”

“Fishing. But they often were at odds
and would somehow remain friends.”

“What about other family members?
Doesn't he have an ex-wife?”
            “She wouldn't bother. The only person who really has anything to
gain would be his son Kevin. He'll inherit most everything.”

“Were they close?” Jack asked.

“Charles wasn't close to anyone,
including his son. Not that they fought. Charles treated him like he treated
everyone else; he was indifferent.”

“He's here for the funeral?”

“Yes, but more likely he came for the
will. He has a fondness for the good life.”

“Is he in debt?”

“I don't know. I doubt it. His allowance
from the family estate is pretty hefty.”

“Liv, have you told the police about all
this?”

“I told them, but I don't know if they
have done anything about it.”

Jack shook his head. He remembered how
the police focused on him to the exclusion of other viable suspects during
Asa's murder investigation. “Hopefully they're looking at other options.”

“I try not to think about it. Right now
I need to get through the funeral and the gathering afterwards. It will be at
the house, if you'd like to come.”

“I'll do whatever you need.”

“I don't want to cause any more problems
for you and Tess.”

“If it wasn't this, it would have been
something else.” Isn't that why Tess had moved out in the first place? This
issue had brought to light that they didn't know each other well enough and had
difficulty communicating.

“Funny how we ended up loving people who
are difficult to love,” Liv said.

Tragic is more like it, thought Jack.

Tess woke with a start. Why was she
sleeping in her car? She looked out the window and realized she was parked in
front of Jack's house. The home had been dark when she arrived, which wasn't
unusual. Jack never wasted electricity. If he was at the back of the house, the
front would appear dark.  But he didn't answer the door and when she walked
around the back of the house, it was as dark as the front.  She could have let
herself in. The key was still on her key chain, but under the circumstances, it
could be trespassing. So she waited. And waited.

Checking the clock on the dashboard she
saw it was 9:30. She'd been asleep for nearly an hour. She looked back at the
house to find no signs that he'd returned. If he'd come home, he would have
awakened her, wouldn't he? “I'm done,” his words echoed in her mind.

She wondered if he'd gone back to his
apartment in Washington, D.C., ignoring the thought that he could have gone
somewhere else. Was with someone else.

She started her car and drove towards
town. As she headed up Colonial Avenue, she considered driving by Liv's hotel
to see if Jack's car was there. Except, she didn't want to know. So she took a
right on Main Street and hoped her hotel room was available again.

Tess closed the door to her hotel room. “Home
again,” she said sarcastically. She'd been able to get the same room she'd been
in before. The clerk at the desk didn't ask about her sudden return, but did
offer to give her a new room. She declined. There was no sense in messing up
another room. And on the off chance Jack came looking for her, she wanted him
to find her. She held on to that kernel of hope that he would show up, even
though a part of her told her he'd meant what he said.

She lay down on the bed, and wondered
what her next move would be. She finally understood what limbo really meant.
She couldn't move forward, but couldn't move back. So she stayed where she was,
a recluse in a hotel room. The thought of it depressed her more.

She replayed the conversation with Jack
in her mind to try and figure out where their love had gone so wrong. How could
two people love each other and yet create such a mess?

Jack had made several valid points. In
hindsight, she shouldn't have moved out. She understood now that she'd been
afraid and felt removing herself would make her feel more in control. She'd
been wrong.

But she couldn't get past his siding
with Liv with such conviction. He treated her like a jealous ninny. Not just
jealous, but callus too, she thought, as she remembered how he told her to give
Liv a break because she'd just lost her husband and a baby.

Tess shot up from bed. Baby? If Charles
Danforth had a vasectomy as indicated in his medical reports, how could Liv
have been pregnant? Tess worked to rein in the ideas and emotions whirling in
her head. There could be a perfectly good explanation, she thought. Perhaps
they used a donor and in vitro fertilization. But she couldn't bring herself to
believe Charles would do that. She'd never met Charles, but from the way his
family and friends described him, he wasn't the fatherly type. So either Liv
went to a specialist on her own or she had an affair.

Tess reached for her purse, grabbed her
phone and called Daniel.

~~~~

“Are you alright?” Daniel asked. He
studied her from across the table as Tess laid out her notes, the newest of
which were about Liv's pregnancy.

“Fine,” Tess answered. She wasn't really
fine. But focusing on the case helped keep her mind off losing Jack and better
yet, the tears at bay.

“Where's Jack?”

Tess took a deep breath. “I think we've
broken up.”

Daniel lifted one brow. “You think?”

“He said he was done. That sounds final.
But I don't want to talk about it. Jack said that Liv recently lost a baby—”

“Does he know you're telling me this?”

“Would it matter?” Tess asked.

“Not to me, but it might to you, in case
it's not over with you two.”

She understood that Daniel was trying to
protect her. Earlier that evening Jack accused her of using information he'd
given her to help nail Liv. Tess had a tinge of guilt. But mostly, she felt she
was on verge of something even if it wasn't proof of murder. She shook her head
and  decided she wouldn't think of Jack and her duty to him now. “I think Liv
had an affair.”

Daniel studied her for a long moment.
Tess thought he might push her to share more about her breakup with Jack, but
to her relief he said, “Are you sure she was pregnant?”

“No. But she apparently told Jack she
was.”

“What about in vitro?”

“I don't see it.” Tess said. “It has to
be another man.”