Reluctant Witness (45 page)

“Poor Coop. I’ve left him in the crate long
enough. Is it okay if I take him for a walk after I change out of
my suit?”

“I’ve got a great idea,” said Tom. “Why don’t
you ladies take a long drive? Pretend that Marigold is very upset
and needs to calm down. Let’s build the excitement a bit before
staging the big farewell scene. If the creep downstairs wants to
hack into her computer while she and her bodyguards are otherwise
occupied, maybe we can watch him in action.”

“I guess that means I should make a big show
of leaving here to go make my calls,” Terry nodded. “I can sit down
by the pool.”

“Tom, what does your IT guy need to catch the
hacker?” Rocky wanted to know.

“I’ll find out.”

Twenty minutes later, I grabbed the dog and
slammed out of the penthouse, Jeff on my heels. The second I was
out the door, I turned to him and said, “Just leave me alone!”

“I asked you if you had plans to hook up with
my brother! It’s as simple as yes or no!”

“Why don’t you ask him?”

“I’m asking you!” He took me roughly by the
arm. “I won’t be made a fool of, Marigold.”

“Too late. You did it to yourself, you big
jerk,” I shot back. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a dog to
walk!” I whirled away from him, feigning anger, and strode to the
elevator. Pushing the button, I heard Nancy talking to Jeff.

“Don’t worry, boss. I’ll talk to her. Let me
see if I can find out what’s going on. I’ll talk to her, get her to
calm down a bit.”

“Do whatever you want with her,” he snarled.
“She’s more trouble than she’s worth!”

Chapter Forty

I heard footsteps behind me as the elevator
door slid open. My bodyguard hopped into the car and leaned past
me, pushing the button for the ground floor. Once the door shut,
she gave me a friendly elbow.

“You’re doing great so far, kid. Keep it up.
When the door opens, I want you to stomp off, like I’ve really
irritated the crap out of you. I’ll offer to take you for a drive,
so you can cool off. Give me some lip and make it look like you
have no intention of joining me, but keep walking until you get to
the car. Don’t stop acting until the car is out of the parking lot.
Remember, this guy has a bird’s eye view from the second floor.
He’ll be able to see us talking and we don’t want to alert him to
the fact that we’re faking it. And just to be on the safe side,
don’t let your guard down in the car, just in case he’s bugged
that.”

“Okay,” I promised.

I followed Nancy’s script to the letter,
putting some effort into my acting. By the time I was done, it
looked like my bodyguard had fought hard to convince me of the
wisdom of taking a drive.

We drove down A1A to Flagler Beach, parked on
the soft shoulder of the street, and crossed over to the wooden
stairs down to the wide stretch of glorious beach. At this time of
day, most of the people had packed up and gone home, save for the
occasional straggler and beachcomber.

Cooper, timid at first, poked his nose in the
sand, checking out the unfamiliar scents as he examined pieces of
debris washed ashore with the tide. He followed us to the water and
waited patiently while Nancy and I took off our sandals and waded
in.

“I wonder if he’s a beach dog,” she said.
Right on cue, the little Yorkie was paw-deep in a small wave. He
didn’t flinch. “That’s a good sign.”

We walked south for about twenty minutes,
talking about anything but the situation we were in. My companion
filled in the details of her career at the FBI and how she and
Terry had met during a training exercise at Quantico. I knew why
she was talking about her marriage, hoping to get some information
out of me. I made her work hard for it.

“So?” At last she gave me a nudge in the
side. “What are the real prospects between you and Jeff? Is there
anything promising on the horizon?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, unwilling to
speculate. “It’s not like I’ve got a crystal ball.”

“Well, what did he say to you at the dining
room table?”

“Nothing much.”

“Well, it must have been something,” she
scoffed, her disbelief obvious, “the way your eyes lit up.”

“They did?” I was surprised to hear that,
having thought I contained my emotions fairly well.

“Like high beams on a Boeing 747 hitting the
runway for a red eye flight.”

“Oh,” I smiled. “Hmm....”

“Gee whiz, I feel like a dentist pulling
teeth! Marigold, it’s me you’re talking to here,” she cajoled me.
“I’ve had your back this whole time. What did the man say to make
you so happy?”

We walked on as I tried to figure out what to
share with her and what to hold back. There was no harm in telling
her the gist of our conversation. It wasn’t the words themselves
that had made me blush, I realized. It was the touch of his hand on
my skin and the sound of his voice in my ear that did that.

“He said, ‘I promise you that I will do
everything in my power to give you a great life, Marigold.’ End of
story.”

“That’s it? That’s all he said?” Nancy was
surprised. “Wow, that’s not much to go on, is it? Did he mean that
he wanted to have a relationship with you, or did he mean that he
was just going to help you out?”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” I
shrugged, smiling to myself. She glanced over at me and poked me
again.

“Come on, what else did he say to you? There
must have been more.”

“There really wasn’t.”

“Swear to God?”

“Swear to God.”

“I’ve known the guy for five years, and in
all that time, I’ve never seen him act like this way with any other
woman. The trouble is I can’t tell where he’s going with this. One
minute he’s blowing hot, then he’s cold, then he’s hot again.
Jeff’s a really stubborn guy, Marigold, in case you haven’t figured
that out yet. It’s like he’s on the verge of throwing in the towel
and confessing that he loves you.”

“Really?” I felt a surge of excitement course
through my veins at the thought that Jeff really did feel as
strongly about me as I did about him.

“That would be a good thing, wouldn’t it? You
two would make a great couple.”

“Would we?”

“Don’t be coy,” she admonished me. “If
there’s one thing I know about Jefferson Cornwall, it’s that he
hates anyone lying to him. Besides, one of your biggest strengths
is that you have personal integrity.”

“Is it?”

“It is, kid.”

“Rocky told me not to get hooked on Jeff.
He’s got too many women chasing him and that’s spoiled him.”

“Rocky told you that? Oh, that’s rich!”

“I don’t understand,” I said sheepishly. “Are
you telling me that Rocky told me that because he knew I’d fall for
Jeff?”

“No,” she laughed. “I’d bet he told you that
because he was sure Jeff would fall hook, line, and sinker for you,
and he wanted to make sure the hook caught in that big fish’s
mouth. Jeff has women throwing themselves at him day and night. The
only things those little starlets care about is landing a role on
one of his shows and spending his money. You, on the other hand,
are what I call the genuine thing. You’re just a good girl who
tries to do right by the world. If you really want to understand
Jeff, you have to understand his mother. Lisbeth is one smart
cookie and she raised three great sons, but she did it by expecting
them to be decent and trustworthy.”

“I love her books,” I confessed. “The
heroines seem to be people I’d want to have as friends.”

“Lisbeth adores her daughter-in-law,
Philomena. They get along really well. But Deirdre? Oh, that
relationship was troubled from the start.”

“I don’t really understand the power Deirdre
wields over Lincoln, Nance. She’s obviously very manipulative, the
way she plays him. How can he not see it?”

“If you ask me, she’s going to put him
through the wringer another time or two before he smartens up. He’s
still not seeing her for what she is. I mean, what kind of woman
hires someone to steal the dog, just to get her ex-husband’s
attention? And what kind of man is flattered by that?” Nancy shook
her head sadly. “Lisbeth would be very upset if she knew. I can’t
say I’d blame her. My son’s smarter than that -- at least I hope
Keith is. But then, he grew up hanging out with Lindsay and her
friends, so girls aren’t as much of a mystery to him. Those
Cornwall boys never had the benefit of having sisters to set them
straight.”

“Oh,” I smiled. “And I never had the benefit
of having brothers.”

“It’s not just that, though,” she continued.
“Lisbeth often had to protect sources when she was doing research
on real crime. Maybe Lincoln just assumes the only secrets women
keep are good ones.”

We did an about-face and began the journey
back to the car, changing the subject to Nancy’s children as we
strolled. She was proud of her kids and the people they had become,
but that didn’t stop her from sharing some of the funny stories
from their childhood years. I could imagine her as a hands-on
mother, wanting to know what was going on as they were growing
up.

Cooper scooted in and out of the gently
lapping waves, chasing the occasional sandpiper up the sandy shore.
He came close to catching one every now and then.

“This is a good dog, Marigold. He’s enjoying
himself.”

“I agree. I think he’s going to be good
company for me, no matter where I end up.”

“You have doubts?”

“Oh, I always have doubts. You forget, Nance.
I grew up in the witness protection program. We were moved five
times in the first three years we were in it. I’ve moved another
five since then.”

“Wow,” she sighed. “I can’t imagine what that
must have been like for you. Maybe that’s what it is that Jeff
finds so attractive about you. The Cornwalls are a very tight-knit
clan. He’s probably figured out that family means a lot to you, so
you’ll fit in. Take Philomena. She comes from one very large, noisy
group of Greeks. They’re boisterous to say the least, but when push
comes to shove, they stick together and help each other out. You
know, Phil could have had quite a career in law enforcement, but
she decided she’d rather stick close to family and raise some good
kids. That couldn’t have been an easy decision.”

“How did you do it?” I inquired, suddenly
curious about the former FBI agent. “Did having kids interfere with
your career?”

“No, I just pushed back all the time,
especially when the guys tried to grab up all the prime
assignments. I was pretty ambitious, making my way up the ladder,
until I had kids. For a few years, I had to pull back and focus on
being a mother. And then my dad died when the kids were small. It
really knocked me for a loop, but my mom was completely blown away
by his unexpected death. I spent several months worried about her,
until finally one day I came up with a plan. I convinced her to
move in with us and help out, so I could get back to my career. She
looked after the kids, drove them to their sports practices, their
games, made sure they sat down to a hot meal every night, even on
those nights Terry and I didn’t get home until late. Weekends were
devoted to family. Sometimes my mom came with us on our adventures
and sometimes she went off with her own friends. We paid her a
decent salary and fixed up an in-law suite over the attached
garage. It worked out well for everyone. When she was ready, she
studied for the exam and got her real estate license. Do you
believe she’s had the same beau now for five years? They go dancing
once a week and travel together.”

“That’s nice. I wish my dad could find
someone. It’s been really tough on him since my mom died.”

“Maybe he will, kid, in his own time. It’s
not really something we can make happen for the people we
love.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Trust me when I say
this. I have a lot of experience under my belt. The heart’s a funny
organ. It wants what it wants, even when our heads tell us
something different. Just when we think we’ve got all our ducks
lined up in a row, love comes along and makes blubbering idiots out
of the toughest of us.”

“That sounds like you’re speaking from
personal experience,” I replied, scooping up the little terrier for
the walk up the wooden steps. “Was it love at first sight for you
and Terry?”

“Me? Haven’t you figured out yet that I’m a
closet romantic? I was a walking disaster every time I was around
him.” She tossed her head back and let out a big guffaw. “I was so
tongue-tied, I couldn’t say a word. He finally asked me one day why
I was such a stuck-up, obnoxious broad, because as far as he could
see, there was nothing special about me. I wanted to tear a chunk
out of him, and the only way I could think to pay him back for
making me so mad was to beat the pants off him. That was the first
time I scored higher in a shooting competition.”

“Did that make him fall madly in love with
you?”

“Hardly. He was too busy dilly-dallying with
all the girls in the administrative pool, Mr. Hot Shot. No, it was
a crazy incident that did the trick. I interrupted a bank robbery
in progress one day when I was cashing a check. I nailed the son of
a gun from behind and hog-tied him before he knew what hit him. The
bank’s video cameras were rolling and I got my face on the news
that night. Terry saw it and called to congratulate me. He wanted
to know if he could take me out sometime and buy me a drink.”

“So you went?” I wanted to know. She gave me
a sly grin.

“I told him that I wasn’t looking for another
pal to hang out with, that if he wanted to buy me dinner to go
along with that drink, it was a date.”

“And?”

“Terry’s really a funny guy when he gets
going and he got going that night. I finally relaxed and forgot all
about my jitters. I figured I might as well be myself, because he
sure wasn’t putting on airs for me. It turned out we had a lot in
common. We spent the next eight hours talking over dinner and
dessert, and when he dropped me off at the door and kissed me, I
knew he was the one.