Semiautomatic Marriage (22 page)

The expected telephone call about Susan’s suicide came just as they were finishing dessert, and Della lashed out at Morna for the interruption. “Tell them I’ll call back,” she ordered.

“It sounds important,” Morna insisted. “Something about a news release.”

“Dammit,” Jasper said. “Somebody’s been blabbing about the fire.” The pointed look he gave Carolyn and Adam made it clear who he thought was responsible.

Della lips tightened. “Morna, bring me the phone. I guess we all may as well hear what some reporter’s take is on the fire. No doubt the facts have been embellished to create a more exciting story.” Morna handed her the phone, and Della answered with a curt, “Yes.”

Adam watched the frown on her face change to one of utter dismay. Her eyes widened, and her breathing quickened as she listened. The caller must have mentioned Carolyn and Adam’s name, because her horrified gaze swung in their direction.

Her voice was strained. “Yes, thank you for calling. I didn’t know,” she said, and hung up.

“What is it, Mother? Is it Buddy? Something’s happened to Buddy, hasn’t it?” Lisa demanded fearfully.

“No, it’s not Buddy.”

“Then what?”

Della leveled her malevolent gaze at Carolyn and Adam. “Why don’t one of you tell her? Apparently you two had front-row seats.”

“Who was on the phone, Della?” Jasper demanded as the lines in his angular face deepened. “What’s this all about?”

Adam answered evenly, “I assume that the call was about Susan Kimble.”

“What about her?” Jasper demanded. “Don’t tell me she’s involved in setting the fire!”

“This isn’t about the fire,” Della snapped. “Susan committed suicide this afternoon. Carolyn and Adam found her. And they didn’t say a word about it.” Della’s eyes were fiery pinpoints. “I find it incomprehensible that they waited for someone else to tell us.”

“Is this true?” Jasper demanded. “Carolyn, may I ask why you sat here all through dinner without informing us?”

“We were honoring your dictates, Uncle Jasper,” Carolyn said, meeting his eyes unwaveringly. “If I remember rightly, you informed us that the dinner table was no place for indulging in unpleasant conversation. I find the suicide of a nice young woman very unpleasant, don’t you?”

He shoved back his dessert plate. “Your lack of judgment, Carolyn, dismays me.”

Eyes flashing, Lisa turned on Jasper as if she’d been waiting for such an opportunity to say her piece. “What gives you the right to decide what we can or cannot say at the dinner table? You’ve never been the one paying the bills. Arthur kept you just the way he kept the rest of us. And now it’s Carolyn who’s keeping us. This is her house, her food and her table. If she kicks all of us out, you’ll be the one to blame.”

“Lisa!” her mother cried. “Apologize.”

“No,” Lisa said, and shoved back her chair. “And I may as well tell you now—I have plans for
moving out. I’ve found someone, and I don’t give a damn whether any of you approve of him or not.”

Carolyn’s stomach turned over.
Cliff. No, Lisa, no,
Carolyn pleaded silently.
Don’t settle for someone who will exploit you, break your heart and dump you before you even know what happened.

Lisa stomped out of the room, and Carolyn expected her mother to follow, but she didn’t. Della acted as if her daughter’s pronouncement was nothing but a temper tantrum. She was more interested in grilling Carolyn and Adam.

“What were you doing at Susan’s house?” Della demanded. “And Nellie’s? She’s the one who called. Why are you two going behind my back? Contacting
my
loyal employees at their homes?”

Adam surprised Carolyn by telling Della the truth. “We thought they might know who set the fire.”

“Isn’t that the job of the police? I see no cause for you to be interfering with their investigation. And look what happened!” she said angrily. “Now media attention is centered on Horizon because of you.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Adam asked. “Why?”

She swallowed. “Publicity of the wrong kind is never good for a company. Fires. Suicide. What’s next?”

Yes,
Carolyn wondered uneasily.
What’s next?

Adam was wondering the same thing as they returned to their suite. “I think I’d better work tonight,” he told Carolyn as he shut the door behind them.

“Work? What do you mean?” She searched his face. Was he regretting the afternoon’s lovemaking, finding an excuse not to go to bed with her tonight?

He must have read the question in her eyes, because he answered gently, “Darling, I’d much rather crawl into bed with you and hold you in my arms till morning.”

“Then why…?”

He kissed her forehead. “Why the urgency? The longer my investigation takes, the greater number of people who’ll be innocent victims. The only thing I’m sure of, is that someone is putting in bogus orders. It seemed reasonable that we have to be dealing with more than one person. Someone has to facilitate the orders and transport them illegally. By checking orders against shipments, I may be able to spot some discrepancies.”

“But you can’t go to Horizon at this time of night. Someone will surely tell Della, and she’ll be suspicious.”

“I know, which is why I’ve kept my hotel room. I have a computer there that can access private programs of the FDA, and I can e-mail them questions and clues for evaluation. I’ve already submitted some files I took off Arthur’s computer and asked for a check of wholesale and retail businesses that place orders with Horizon.”

“I guess there’s nothing I can do to help you.”

“No one is more essential to the success of this investigation than you are,” he assured her lovingly. “Just keep playing your role, and we’ll succeed.”

She put her arms around his neck and raised her lips to his. “What role?”

He smiled and took a few minutes to show her.

W
HEN HE SETTLED DOWN
to work in his hotel room, Adam made a call to the agent who’d been staking
out Cliff’s apartment. The report was negative. No one had shown up by midnight when the stakeout ended.

Another disappointment was the analysis of the disks he’d sent to Angelica. Everything on Arthur’s computer records checked out. There were no inconsistencies in orders, addresses and deliveries. They were all cleared as legitimate, no bogus orders or false company addresses on the list.

Angelica wasn’t happy with the dead end when he called and told her. She was even less pleased when he told her about the fire and Susan Kimble’s suicide. “Do you think the two are connected?” she asked.

“I haven’t any evidence, but my gut says yes.” He repeated the contents of the suicide note. “Sounds like a guilty conscience to me. Of course, it might be because she was pregnant and not have anything to do with her position as business manager.”

“If your hunch is right and she was involved in handling the black-market orders, wouldn’t her being out of the picture mean the illegal operation would shut down?”

“It might. Unless someone else is ready to take her place,” he speculated.

“Then you better move fast on this.”

“Yes, ma’am, I reckon as how I should,” he replied in an exaggerated Texas drawl. “Thank y’all for reminding me.”

His sarcasm wasn’t lost on her, and her tone changed. “And how is the marriage going, cowboy?” she asked.

He hesitated a second too long.

“Adam?”

“It’s working,” he answered.

“You don’t sound too sure.”

“I’m always sure,” he lied. As long as it didn’t affect the investigation, it was really none of his boss’s business what kind of relationship had developed between him and Carolyn. At the moment he wasn’t quite certain how to deal with this wellspring of love that had burst in him. He only knew that Carolyn was the most precious thing in his life, and the responsibility of keeping her safe rested on him.

He worked until midnight, going over every known fact, every possible suspect and every aspect of recent events that could have a bearing on the case. As he laid out all the information, it became clear to him that Susan Kimble, as business manager, could’ve been in a pivotal position. Her suicide created a lot of questions that needed to be answered. What had laid so heavily on her conscience that she was willing to kill herself and her unborn child? Who was the father? Was her personal life separate from her position at Horizon? As Adam drove back to the mansion in the misty darkness, he mulled these questions over in his mind.

Carolyn was asleep when he quietly slipped into bed, but when he saw that she was lying in the middle, instead of on her usual side, he moved closer to her. Her warmth and the faint scent of her perfume sharpened his memory of their lovemaking, and he had to exert a lot of self-discipline not to touch her when she rolled over and snuggled against him. She murmured a sigh of contentment, but did not come fully awake. Her total acceptance of his physical
closeness, as she lay next to him without fear and without reservation, was a balm to his soul. As he listened to her quiet breathing, he closed his eyes, and the day’s events slid from his mind as he drifted into a contended sleep.

W
HEN
C
AROLYN AWOKE
in the morning, Adam was already dressed, and she could tell from the expression on his face that he had been waiting for her to stir.

“What is it?” she asked, sitting up and brushing back her hair. Satiated with yesterday’s lovemaking, she’d slept well, but now, looking at Adam, she regretted that she hadn’t awakened before he got out of bed. She glanced at the bedside clock.

“Only six-thirty? This early rising is getting to be a bad habit.”

He sat down on the bed and kissed her sleep-flushed face. “I know it’s early, and I wish we could spend the day here, but we can’t. We have to get to Susan’s office before anything gets moved or changed. I can’t do it by myself without stepping out of my cover, but you can. It’s your company and you have the right to examine anything you want to. We really ought to get in position before the Dragon Lady takes charge. That means we should leave now and catch some breakfast later.” He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “Okay, my love?”

She savored the endearment as she nodded. “But I’m holding you to a promise to make it up later in the day. Give me ten minutes.”

As she made her way to the bathroom, she felt his eyes on her and was grateful that Lisa had talked
her into the silk gown that clung to her body and slithered when she moved. She didn’t think she’d ever felt so happy. So at peace with herself. She’d given herself in almost total abandonment to love. Whatever happened, she would never again doubt that life could be beautiful, if only for a few hours.

W
HEN THEY ENTERED THE
business office at Horizon, it was empty of staff. No one occupied any of the cubicles or offices. Susan’s office was at the back of the department and was a reflection of her personality. All the surfaces in her office were un-cluttered, and the walls were bare except for calendars and public relation posters about Horizon. Her desk held the usual array of pens, notepads and filing baskets, but no personal pictures or mementos. When they opened the desk drawers, they found nothing of any consequence.

“She cleaned out everything,” Carolyn said with a catch in her throat. “She knew what she was going to do. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

“I’m afraid so.” Adam eyed the computer. What were the chances she’d left anything incriminating on files or disks? Almost none. Everything about Susan’s manner and appearance had radiated competency. Adam wondered how such a woman had allowed herself to get pregnant. Susan’s emotions must have overridden her basic nature.

A quick search of the office verified what they already knew. Susan had cleaned house recently. “I need time to view her computer files. If I could take the computer to the hotel, I could do a better job. What do you think?”

She nodded. “I’ll leave a note that I’ve taken it,
so no one will report a theft.” Carolyn sighed. “Della will have a fit. I’m afraid a showdown with her is coming before I’m ready.”

“You could be right,” Adam agreed. The Dragon Lady had all her resources in place, and the minute Carolyn tried to exert her authority, she’d meet with fierce resistance. Adam just didn’t know what the battle lines would include—corporate management or the illegal activity hidden within the company.

They put Susan’s computer in the car, having satisfied security that the owner of the company was the one making off with it.

They decided to have a quick breakfast at the same restaurant they’d met Susan and Cliff that day at lunch. Carolyn couldn’t get the dead woman out of her mind as they ate. Questions whirled like dry leaves in a windstorm. Was Cliff the father of the unborn child? Was he dallying with Lisa at the same time Susan was turning on the gas? Were both Cliff and Susan involved in the black-market scam?

Carolyn sighed as she pushed away her second cup of coffee. “What’s next?”

“I’d like to look over the packaging department and have a talk with Elinor. Hopefully she’ll be able to tell us what were in those boxes that burned.”

“I doubt she’ll be very cooperative if she’s the one who set the fire,” Carolyn countered flatly.

“Then we’ll hope she trips herself up in some fashion.” He gave Carolyn a reassuring smile. “We have to treat everything she says as pieces in a puzzle. They’ll all fit somewhere.” He added silently,
And it better be soon!

When they returned to Horizon, Elinor was busy
assessing the damage to the packing room; only one corner of the large department had been affected.

“It could have been worse,” she admitted. “Most of the boxes ready to be moved to shipping were on the other side of the room. Once we get everything cleared out, we can give production the green light and slowly get everything back to normal.”

“Do you have any idea what was in the boxes that were destroyed?” Adam asked.

She looked at him as if he’d just delivered a major insult. “Of course I know what was in them,” she answered testily. “Do you think all the labeling and tracking we do is some parlor game?”