See Me in Your Dreams (14 page)

"Our
business is none of yours," Tyler stated.

Ticking her
off good. She'd like to know his every move. She'd like him answering to her.
But she would get what she wanted soon enough. He was vulnerable. She could see
beyond the belligerent expression. He was hurting. Hurting good if not as much
as he deserved to.

"Then
go." She strolled to a couch and sat, making certain Tyler got a good view
of her legs. He'd always had a weakness for her legs. "I'll find
everything I need."

His eyes were
shards of ice when he flicked them from the body parts in question to her face.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Helen?"

"What do
you expect me to do when my daughter is missing, Tyler?" she demanded.

"Stay out
of Cheryl's life as you've always done."

"As you
forced me to do!"

"As you
happily took money to do," Tyler reminded her. "I'll let you know
what's going on when I learn something concrete. Where are you staying?"

"This
place must have a few extra bedrooms not in use."

"You're
not staying here."

"Damn if
I'm not."

"Don't
make me use force."

Helen glared
at him and narrowed her gaze. "Don't make
me
."

"What's
that supposed to mean?"

She studied
the acrylic nails that his money paid for and frowned at a chip in the bright
red polish. "You wouldn't want me spilling all to the press, now, would
you?"

Triumph filled
her when Tyler glowered. Silently. He appeared as if he wanted to strangle her.
She recognized the expression.

And she
remembered the feel of his hands on her throat, his thumbs at her windpipe.

Despite her
hatred for him, something inside her stirred. Her nipples hardened, straining
against the silk of her halter top. Perversely, she figured a tumble with Tyler
now would be far more exciting than when he'd been willing to cater to her
every whim.

He was
stronger.

But so was
she.

She gave the
mouse a pointed look. "So you're Tyler's latest bimbo."

"Leave
her out of this."

Helen ignored
the threat in his tone. "He won't marry you. He wouldn't admit to having been
married to me if it weren't for Cheryl."

"You have
that one right."

"Bimbo
must be one of your quaint American expressions," the other woman said.
"A term
you
seem to be quite
familiar with."

Helen gaped.
The mouse was smart, maybe even had claws. She suddenly grew uneasy under the
soft gray eyes that seemed to peel away her skin. The feeling made her itch.

"Just get
on with whatever you have to do," she told them with an imperious wave of
her hand. "I'll be waiting breathlessly for some news, so do call if you
learn anything about Cheryl."

When Tyler
didn't immediately move, the Irishwoman put a hand on his arm. "You said
we did not have much time."

The virulence
drained out of him when he gazed at her. Helen clenched her jaw. She recognized
that
look, as well. He'd aimed it at
her
often enough during their short
courtship and marriage.

"You're
right, Keelin." Then to Helen, Tyler said, "I'd prefer you were gone
when we return. But if anything is missing..."

How dare he
intimate that she was a thief!

Helen glared
daggers at his back as he escorted this Keelin bitch out of the house. She'd
never taken anything from him but what she had coming.

He, on the
other hand, hadn't been nearly so fair.

Now it was his
turn to suffer.

AS TYLER DROVE LIKE A MADMAN south
along Sheridan Road, Keelin tried to assimilate the scene they'd just left. He
was equally silent. Strained. His fingers curled around the wheel as if choking
the life from it. She couldn't guess at his dark thoughts.

"Cheryl
did say she was in the city somewhere." Tyler's words were stiff. "So
although elevated trains run into the North Shore, I'm going to start in Rogers
Park at the city boundary."

Keelin waited
until they'd traversed a few suburbs, until Tyler's muscles seemed to relax a
bit, before she broached the subject that lay between them.

"I was
under the distinct impression that your daughter's mother was dead," she
observed.

Even Skelly
had said so...though he hadn't been able to find the evidence in print, making
him think that Tyler had done something untoward. At least Tyler hadn't buried
the body in the backyard.

"Too bad
Helen's
not
out of the way for
good," Tyler muttered, his malice putting a lump square in Keelin's throat
until he added, "Not that I really wish her dead. I am glad that we are
well and truly divorced, however. I don't know where she gets off telling you
she's my wife."

For effect,
Keelin was certain.

"Divorce
is common in the United States. Why say a woman is dead if she isn't?"

"Because
I wanted her dead to my daughter!"

Though taken
aback at his vehemence, she asked, "Isn't that a bit...cruel?"

"Would it
be kinder to tell Cheryl that her mother was so avaricious she chose money over
her own daughter?"

"You're the
one who paid Helen to give up her child, are you not?"

"Big
time," he said, obviously missing her irony. "And I'm still paying.
It was a forever kind of deal."

"I don't
understand."

"I don't
expect you to."

And he
obviously wasn't about to try to explain.

What had she
assumed? That one kiss would change him? Make him more open to her? Trusting?

Keelin tried
to let it go, but Tyler's cruelty amazed her. Separating a mother and her child
was unnatural. How could he? Even if Helen was one of the most unpleasant women
she'd ever met, she was still Cheryl's mother. Such rancor on Tyler's part.
Why? Because his wife couldn't live with him anymore?

Keelin left
her questions unasked and concentrated instead on the real victim.

Cheryl.

She had to
think of the daughter, for her current thoughts on the father were beyond
bearing. And this so soon after they'd taken a step closer to each other...
close enough to make her imagine they might even get closer.

They passed
Northwestern University and crossed an area of Evanston where both sides of the
street were lined with huge old houses, many taken over by fraternities and
sororities. Then the Jaguar nosed along a stretch with the lake on one side, a
cemetery on the other.

Reminding
Keelin of Tyler's lie.

"We're
just about there." A moment later, he turned west on Howard Street.
"See – the elevated structure ahead. Tell me if anything looks
familiar."

Keelin gave
the street a thorough once-over as they passed under the honeycomb of steel
beams. "Nothing."

Tyler turned the
corner, and staying within sight of the elevated, wove back and forth along
several main arteries with rapid transit stations. Keelin kept watch, hoping
she would recognize some small detail.

"I
believe we're in the wrong neighborhood," she told him. "This simply
has a different feel. A bit newer, perhaps."

"Then
we'll move on." He crossed under the steel structure where it turned.
"I'm planning on following this line all the way, until it goes
underground. Then we'll check the other rapid transit lines if we must."

"How many
are there?"

"On the
north side, both the Ravenswood and the Jefferson Park run above ground for
quite a stretch."

"And
there are more in other parts of the city?"

"A
couple," he agreed. "The elevated loops around the financial/commercial
heart of the city, though there's no real neighborhood anywhere nearby. Another
elevated travels west. I think the southbound rapid transit lines run strictly
underground or along the expressways, though there could be a stretch of raised
tracks somewhere."

Grand
. Tyler wasn't even certain of all the routes. Keelin's
spirits sank further until they came to an area he called Uptown.

"This is
more like the neighborhood I saw," she told him. "The buildings are
similar and look to be the right age. But still..."

"Not
it," Tyler said for her, and went on.

Dusk was
deepening by the time they passed under the Addison station a few miles down
and turned onto an angled street. The elevated loomed ahead once more.

Suddenly,
something sparked Keelin's memory. "This isn't the place. And yet..."

She gazed
around avidly.

"And yet
what?" Tyler asked, his tone hopeful.

What was it
about the area? she wondered as the Jaguar came to a stop amidst a sea of other
cars where three streets crossed one another.

"Six
corners!" Keelin said excitedly. "That's what's familiar."

"Cheryl
crossed a three street intersection?"

"Aye!"

"Why
didn't you say so?"

Keelin frowned
at Tyler. "But I just did. Is it a help?"

"A real
big one." Sounding energized by the information, he told her, "Only a
few angled streets run across the north side. That cuts down on the number of
possible stations."

But
unfortunately, they were only able to reach three more by dark. When Keelin
suggested she probably wouldn't be able to recognize the area at night, Tyler
conceded they'd best return home and start out again at first light. He headed
the Jaguar for North Bluff.

And so that
she wouldn't have to think about the woman waiting for them at his home, Keelin
considered the information Skelly had provided her.

"Have you
thought about who might want to hurt you through your daughter?" she
asked.

"I've
thought about little else," he conceded. "I just don't know. I might
not be the easiest person all the time, but I am honest."

Honest? When he'd pretended his ex-wife was dead and had
forbidden her contact with their daughter?

As if he could
read her mind, he added, "Under normal circumstances."

Making her
wonder what exactly had been the circumstances that had come between him and
Helen. Again she pushed such thoughts away.

"What
about a business rival?" she asked.

"My
business dealings are squeaky clean."

"Would
that matter if someone kept losing money because of you. Say,
Nate
Feldman?"

He gave her a
look she could feel even in the dark. "How do you know about Feldman?"

Since
mentioning Skelly would probably set him off, Keelin chose to hedge the
question. "Through newspaper articles. I read he lost several lucrative
contracts to you in the past few years."

"That's
the way the business world works. I mean, there's nothing unusual about one
company succeeding over another again and again."

"But how
do you know this Feldman separates his business from his personal
feelings?"

"I
don't," Tyler admitted. "Come to think of it, Feldman approached me
yesterday morning, right before you did. He congratulated me on the Uptown
deal...then warned me I wouldn't be so lucky on the Michigan Avenue project.
Said he had the upper hand on that one."

"Could he
have meant Cheryl?"

"Actually,
he said something about a lawsuit the company's tied up in. And he doesn't even
know Cheryl."

"You
are
certain?"

"Why?"

"A
photograph in one of those newspaper articles...Cheryl was at the site...and so
was Feldman."

Even with only
the passing streetlights illuminating the inside of the car, Keelin could see
Tyler's frown.

"I was
tied up with formalities that day, so it's possible that he spoke to her
without my knowing it. But enough to get her to trust him?"

"Maybe
that ceremony wasn't the only time they met," Keelin mused. "What if
Feldman made it a point to seek Cheryl out sometime later."

"Bastard!"
Tyler exploded, hitting the steering wheel with the flat of his hand. His horn
beeped, and surprisingly enough, the blast settled him down. "That'd be
his style, all right. On the surface, he's all pressed and polished. But
underneath...Feldman warned me that there would be 'no holds barred on this
one.'"

Keelin
shivered. She could tell Tyler was seriously considering his chief business
rival as a suspect.

"Does
anyone else have reason to want you hurt?" she asked. "Business or
personal?"

"Other
than my ex-wife?" His laugh was bitter. "How about my business
partner? Brock wants out of L&O Realty as of yesterday. Seems I'm holding
him back." Again the caustic laugh. "It seems the people I get
closest to all want out, including my own daughter. Maybe I'm a worse human
being than I ever realized."