See Me in Your Dreams (21 page)

"I don't
have his resources. But I could get on the case myself." Weaver made as if
to check his wrist, then stopped himself. "I have a couple of hours to
work before it gets too late."

Throughout the
conversation, Helen had remained quiet, Keelin noted. For all her protestations
to the contrary, she seemed oddly removed from the emotional involvement a
mother should have at knowing her child was in trouble. She covertly continued
watching Helen as Tyler gave Weaver a photograph of Cheryl. The man took down
more specifics about the exact streets he should canvass and left.

Tyler warmed
up one of those dinners the housekeeper kept in the freezer for him and Cheryl.
Helen made no move to leave, but since Keelin didn't have much of an appetite,
the meal for two stretched far enough. The table was a hostile environment,
with Tyler and his ex-wife doing a good deal of glowering at each other if not
actually trading barbs. Directly afterward, Helen volunteered to retreat to the
bedroom she'd chosen.

Leaving Keelin
and Tyler alone.

"Would
you like some fresh air?" he asked.

Still able to
sense the left-over tension in the room, Keelin said, "I would love
that."

The night was
heavenly. In a clear starlight sky, a nearly full moon shone on them as they
picked their way down the wood stairs to the narrow strand at the base of the
bluff. Two Adirondack chairs awaited them.

Tyler pulled
the wooden chairs closer together, so when they sat, they were side-by-side if
not actually touching. Keelin lay her head back and stared up at the sky.
Listening to the water lap almost at her feet, her face caressed by a sharp
lake breeze, she could almost imagine she was home in Éire, sitting on the bank
of
Lough
Danaan
.

"Ah,
tis
a wondrous night," she murmured with a sigh.

"And I
feel wondrously guilty that I'm not doing something to find Cheryl."

"Don't."
Keelin moved her hand from her armrest to touch his. "You've done all that
you could."

"I should
be knocking at doors in Wicker Park myself."

"You're
not a professional," Keelin said. "Jack Weaver is. Perhaps he will
earn his fee."

"I hope
so. Even if I get the whole million together, that's no guarantee..."

That he would ever see Cheryl again,
Keelin silently
finished for him.

"You must
keep your thoughts more positive," she murmured.

An elusive
image reached for her, hovering just beyond her conscious mind. But every time
she tried to concentrate on it, her head ached.

"If only we
could figure out why this is happening, what the villains have against
me," Tyler said, turning her attention back to what she could say for
certain.

Keelin ticked
off the facts as they had them. "A man and a woman are working together.
They have an intimate relationship. And they want you to know what it's like
not to be in control."

"And the
man used to wear a Rolex watch until today," Tyler added.

"Does
Nate
Feldman wear a Rolex?"

"Knowing
Feldman, he probably does."

"And he
and Vivian Claiborne are now involved..."

"Vivian
sure as hell was thrilled about Feldman getting the Michigan Avenue
contract," Tyler muttered. A moment's thought and he continued. "Then
there's George
Smialek
and his wife Ida. They have
the strongest reason to want revenge
and
they live in Wicker Park."

"Mr.
Smialek
would never be able to afford a Rolex watch,
though," Keelin reminded him. Hesitating only a second, she added,
"But your partner could."

"I
haven't noticed what brand watch Brock is wearing these days, but I can't believe
he'd do anything to hurt Cheryl. He's always been so fond of her."

"And she,
no doubt, always trusted him."

Tyler swore
under his breath. "No! He's so desperate to break up our partnership that
he's willing to give me part of the ransom money."

"That doesn't
eliminate him." How odd that a man so given to doubt refused to suspect
his partner.

"A
kidnapper would supply part of the ransom to himself?"

"Wouldn't
he have some idea of how much cash you could raise in a short time?"

Tyler swore
again, yet still loyally argued in his partner's defense. "I know what
you're getting at. Don't you think I've considered Brock myself? True, he could
be playing along because he'll get what he wants – a clean split and a new
chance to prove himself. Maybe that's worth a quarter of a million to him. But
the kidnappers are a couple, remember. Brock's not currently married. And none
of the myriad women he's dated has any reason to resent me."

"Not even
Pamela?"

Tyler's hand
tensed under hers. "What are you talking about..." His words trailed
off. "I
have
seen them in a few
intense huddles lately."

"And
I
have seen them kissing."

"When?"

"This
afternoon, when Vivian came by," Keelin said. "I was staring out at
the park when I spotted Pamela. Brock was waiting for her. If he is the one, he
would throw suspicion from himself by offering to help you raise the ransom
money."

Silence.
Keelin sensed Tyler was taking her seriously.

"Brock
was in the park today shortly before you were attacked?" he suddenly
asked.

A thrill shot
through Keelin. She hadn't made the connection herself. Could Tyler's partner
have tried to warn her off?

"He
couldn't guess that I would take a walk, though."

"Maybe it
was a fluke. He saw his opportunity and took it. He could have parked nearby,
could have had a windbreaker and cap inside the car. How long would it take to
pull them on?"

"The man
was
wearing street shoes," Keelin
admitted. It was possible.

"I know
it's reaching," Tyler admitted. "Besides, Pamela's loyal to me."

"But maybe
she's committed to your partner personally."

Tyler
exploded. "Why is it I can't ever trust a woman?"

Remembering
the suspicion he'd met her with, Keelin was saddened that one woman had so
clouded his view of life. "You can trust me."

Tyler turned
his hand so that it was cupping hers. "You're the exception to the
rule," he said, giving her fingers a squeeze.

Keelin's heart
skipped a beat. "You didn't think so at first. Do you look at every woman
you meet with the same misgiving?"

"Maybe I
do."

"A terrible
way to go on through life, Tyler. More than a decade has passed. Do you not
think you could forget whatever happened between you and Helen?"

"Not as
long as I live."

He fell silent
again, and Keelin wasn't certain he would say more on the subject. Her heart
hurt for him. A terrible thing, not being able to trust.

"I
suppose you'd need to know more to understand," he said. "And I
suppose it's time I told someone. Someone I've come to trust," he added.

Knowing how
much that concession cost him, Keelin linked her fingers through his in a
gesture of solidarity. "Sometimes, a dark secret can be more of a burden
than a person can bear." She knew of what she spoke.

"Helen
had an affair," he said bluntly. "I imagine you've guessed
that."

"You are
a bit transparent there."

"When I
met her, she was a moderately successful model. I was in the park on a day she
was shooting an ad for a local paper. Like an idiot, I fell instantly in love
with the image she was projecting rather than the real woman. And for reasons
of her own, Helen decided she wanted marriage to me, despite her
ambitions."

An easier way to become rich if not famous?
Keelin
wondered, though she did not put words to the hurtful thought.

Instead, she
leaned toward Tyler across the chair and rested her forehead on his shoulder.
His arm slid around her back, his touch thrilling her, making her want to get
even closer.

"At first
she seemed happy," he went on. "I encouraged her to keep working if
that's what she wanted. Maybe everything came crashing down because she became
pregnant too quickly, effectively ending her modeling career."

Keelin splayed
a hand across his chest, felt his heart thrum against her palm. "But after
the baby was born, she could have gone back to work."

"At first
she didn't want to be pregnant. She was downright hysterical when she found
out. We argued...and she appeared to accept the situation. After Cheryl was
born, she even seemed to be a good mother. For a while."

"Until
the affair started?"

"Going
off with another man would be bad enough," Tyler said grimly, "but
she brought Cheryl with her along on her trysts. Or brought her trysts into our
home. And one day, she was too involved with her own pleasure to realize that
her two year old child had wandered off. That's how I learned about the affair.
I came home to a police car at the curb."

"You must
have been frantic." Even more so than he was now, she imagined. "What
about Cheryl?"

"I'm the
one who found her, blocks from home. She could have been killed. It was a
miracle that she wasn't even hurt. But after Helen tearfully confessed the
sordid details...I wanted to kill both her and her lover. I remember wrapping
my hands around Helen's throat..."

Keelin
swallowed. He must have exerted some superhuman control to resist harming
Helen. She herself had felt the tightly leashed ferocity in him more than once.
Then, again, his daughter was lost to him again, as she had been so long ago.

"I
couldn't stay married to Helen any longer," Tyler was saying.

"So her
affair and the neglect of your daughter are the reasons you were able to secure
custody."

Tyler wrapped
an arm around Keelin's back and pulled her out of her seat as if he needed
closeness for courage to finish the story. She gladly settled on his lap,
wrapped her arms around his neck and touched her forehead to his temple.

"Helen
swore she would fight me," he went on, his tone low. "Considering the
circumstances, I didn't think she could win. But she at least would have had
visiting privileges as she so clearly reminded me. Helen demanded an absurd
settlement, and a yearly stipend that wouldn't end even if she married. If I
didn't agree, she said one day Cheryl might just disappear...and I would never
see my daughter again. I was furious that she would use her own child as a
pawn, but I agreed to give her what she wanted. She would get the money...but
only if she agreed to be dead to her daughter."

Keelin sensed
how painful the admission was for Tyler. And yet his confession gladdened her. He
had to feel something special for her if he was willing to share the sordid
details that he'd kept locked up inside him all these years. And she was glad,
for now she understood. He was no monster.

"I never
wanted Cheryl to find out what kind of a woman her mother was," he
whispered. "I feared it would destroy her. Helen took all of thirty
seconds to agree to the deal. I made a pact with the devil and have had to live
with the guilt for twelve years."

Suddenly the
import of what he'd just admitted hit her. "So Helen threatened to
kidnap
her own daughter?" Keelin
asked, her mind already whirling.

"I guess
you'd call it that."

"And now
someone
has
. Why not your
ex-wife?"

"Someone
Cheryl trusted," Tyler reminded her.

Keelin pulled
back slightly, so she could look into the pale eyes that were for once open and
vulnerable.

Why did he do it?

Why?

Now that I know, everything is ruined.

His daughter's
remembered thoughts spinning in her own head, she asked, "Are you certain
that Cheryl didn't somehow find out about her mother?"

He sighed.
"I can't be certain of anything. Something was wrong between us for a few
days before she ran. We even argued the night before. Cheryl made
accusations...but she wasn't clear about what I'd done. I thought maybe someone
had put an idea in her head that Harry
Smialek's
death was my fault or something. But underneath..."

He didn't have
to say that he thought Cheryl might have suspected her mother was alive. But
how to know for certain?

"At one
time you knew Helen better than anyone in the world. Could she actually hurt
her own child?"

Tyler
tightened an arm around her and slid long fingers around the back of her neck.
"I don't know. I don't seem to be certain about much of anything any
more."

Their mouths
met in a kiss filled with repressed passion and infinite tenderness. Keelin was
moved. Filled with longing, she at the same time wanted no more than this
gentle melding. This proof that they were closer than she ever suspected was
possible. Tyler broke the kiss and sighed her name.