The Count From Wisconsin (14 page)

Alex grinned, then suddenly his hand tightened painfully on her arm. "Alvarez," he said, indicating a man who was taking a glass of champagne from a passing waiter.

It was the first time she had seen the man In the red Jaguar close up and Kate studied him surreptitiously, then stood up on tiptoes to whisper, "He looks like Peter Loire playing one of Sir Laurence Oliver's parts."

Alex gave a short laugh. "I wonder if Charles will still deny knowing him."

When at last they stood beside their host it seemed Alex wasn't willing to waste time finding out. As soon as he had introduced Kate, he said bluntly, "I saw Alvarez, Charles. I thought you said you didn't know him."

Sauset's features tightened. "Really, Alex. You're like a dog with a bone. I don't know this person to whom you constantly refer. If he Is here, another guest must have brought him along. I certainty didn't invite him." He turned to Kate and smiled brilliantly. "I'm sure Miss Sullivan isn't interested in this boring man."

Kate studied the man's features carefully. He didn't look like a blackmailer. He looked slightly petulant, but attractive nonetheless—certainly not evil.

She returned his smile pleasantly. "On the contrary," she said. "He looked like an extremely interesting man." She gave Alex a naive glance. "Maybe we should ask Mr. Alvarez how he came to be here?"

Alex's eyes gleamed with hidden laughter. "Maybe we should at that."

By unspoken agreement, they nodded to Sauset and began to move away. They spotted Alvarez immediately, but he was deep in conversation with an auburn-haired woman.

"Charles is guilty as hell, Katy," Alex said. "I can feel it in my bones."

She stared silently at Alex for a moment. "So what do we do now?" she asked. "You don't really think Alvarez will tell us anything, do you?"

"Not a chance. We're going to have to search the place and try to come up with some evidence." He remained silent for a moment as he stared out into the crowd. "He's watching us like a hawk. I think you're going to have to distract him. Duchess, so he won't see me slip out."

"Distract him?" She nibbled on a manicured nail as she considered the suggestion, then, reaching down, she slipped two buttons on her dress free. Drawing in a deep breath in an effort to show more cleavage, she nodded her head. "Distract him," she repeated emphatically.

Alex grabbed her arm as she began to move away, glancing down at her with a frown, then he quickly refastened the buttons. "Like I said, we'll wait for someone to distract him, then we'll slip out."

Kate smiled at the look in his eyes and shrugged. For the next fifteen minutes they stood at the edge of the room, trying very hard to look like average party-.goers. Then, as though ordered to do so, a blond woman cornered Sauset, maneuvering him into a corner behind a marble statue.

"Now let's go," Alex said.

They moved unobtrusively toward the door, stopping occasionally to speak to people they passed, behaving as if they were merely mingling. Then, keeping a careful eye on Sauset and Alvarez, they slipped through the arched doorway into the adjoining entry hall.

The other guests were moving around freely so no one noticed as Alex and Kate climbed the wide marble staircase. When they gained the next landing they turned right and Alex halted before the first door.

Checking both ends of the hall, he slowly eased the door open. The room was dark and Kate couldn't tell if it was the one they were looking for. She started to move forward, but a creaking noise stopped her. As Alex hastily closed the door, she caught a glimpse of the couple on the bed.

"Wrong room," he whispered with a grin, and began moving to the next door.

She glanced back over her shoulder at the closed door. "You'd think they would have at least locked the door," she hissed, moving to stand behind him.

The next room was luckily empty, but it was too feminine to be the master bedroom so they left it behind. The third door he tried seemed to be the right one. By the light coming from the hall they could see a masculine-looking dark satin robe lying on the end of a huge four-poster bed.

"This looks like it," he said quietly as they moved together into the room.

Kate gasped as the door closed behind them, throwing the room into deep darkness. "Why can't we turn on the light?" she whispered when she saw the thin stream of light from his flashlight.

"I saw guards outside when we pulled up." He moved farther into the room. "They might ignore a light in here, but I don't want to take any chances," he said over his shoulder as he pulled open the drawer of a small desk.

Her eyes began to adjust to the dark and she fished the other penlight out of her bag. Moving to a delicate antique bedside table, she pulled out the small drawer and directed the light into its interior. She could hear Alex searching a bureau as she quickly rifled through the contents of the drawer. She found a rather racy paperback novel and a handful of old photos, but no letters.

Next she opened a small trunk, but it must have been purely ornamental for it was empty. Moving slowly around her side of the room, she examined each drawer and several small boxes. She even stopped to check the bottoms of the drawers because she had seen it done once on a detective show, but she found nothing of interest.

Kate thought she had reached a dead end until, in the dim light, her eyes picked out a door to her right. Expecting to find nothing more than the bathroom, she reached out and tried the knob, then drew in a triumphant breath when she found it locked.

Shining the light into her purse, she looked quickly through her credit-card case and finally pulled out her thin, flexible library card. Holding her breath, she slid it carefully in next to the lock.

"Son of a gun," she murmured in surprise as the door opened. "It actually works."

She ran the thin stream of light over the contents of the closet, then stopped, a bewildered look crossing her expressive features before she examined the peculiar things in the closet again.

"Alex?" she whispered, her voice puzzled.

"I can't find anything in here except a lot of monogrammed underwear," he said in disgust. "Even if he isn't the blackmailer, I couldn't ever like a man who wore designer jockey shorts. He—"

"Alex," she said again, interrupting his muttering. "I think Sauset Is a little strange. He has rows and rows of elaborate leather belts. And that's not all. I recognize the whip and the chains, but what is that—"

Alex came up behind her and pulled her out of the closet, closing the door firmly behind them.

"But I wasn't through checking," she protested, trying to disengage her arm.

"You're through," he said emphatically as he urged her away from the closet.

She stopped struggling and studied his face for a moment. "You're not going to tell me what that thing on the top shelf was, are you? It looked like a giant—"

"Kate, we aren't here to explore the sexual preferences of the man," he said firmly. "We just want to find out what he's using to blackmail Tony."

"Sexual? That stuff was sexual?" She shook her head, then muttered ruefully, "I gotta get out more."

He started to laugh, then stopped abruptly and pulled her into his arms.

"What in—"

Her protest was smothered by his lips just as the door swung open. "I beg your pardon," said an embarrassed voice, then the door closed quietly.

But Kate and Alex didn't notice. They were still involved in the kiss. It was several minutes later before she spoke. "Alex," she whispered huskily as his lips began to trail down her throat. "He's gone."

"Who's gone?"

She gave a breathless laugh, rubbed her cheek against his, and slipped her arms inside his jacket.

"Kate . . . Kate, I think we'd better leave now," he whispered hoarsely as she massaged the muscles of his back. "That bed gets closer every time I look at it."

He made a rough sound, then released her. Moving to the door, he opened it enough to look out, then motioned for her to follow him.

"Now his study," he said, running a hand over his hair to smooth it down.

"Do you know where it is?" she asked.

Kate held her skirt up with one hand as they moved back down the staircase. As they walked, she looked around the large hall. It seemed strange to find the party going on just as they had left it.

"Tony and I visited Charles once when we were at school," he said, his brow creased in thought. "It was right after we met him . . . before we found out how odd he was. But that was a long time ago. I hope I can still find it."

He led her to the hall that ran beneath the staircase, then seemed to get his bearings. They stood in front of the door he had decided on and talked quietly until the hall was clear of people, then stepped inside quickly, relieved to find his memory was correct.

"If it's here, it will most likely be In his desk." He closed the door behind them and Kate once again dug the flashlight out of her purse. While he rifled through the desk, she moved around the room shining the thin stream of light to the right and left as she walked.

She would have been better off had she directed the flashlight straight ahead for suddenly the light swung wildly to the ceiling and there was a muffled crash as she landed in a heap on the floor.

"Duchess," he hissed. "Is that you?"

"No, it's Irving Schwartz," she said sarcastically. "Of course it's me."

He had started toward her in concern as soon as he heard the noise, but now there was laughter in his voice as he asked, "What happened?"

"I tripped over a—" She stopped and felt the large object that was presently beneath her knees, then drew back her head with a gasp when she felt its hairy surface. "Oh, Lord, it's—it's"—she fumbled around on the floor until she found the penlight, then directed its light at the thing tangled up In her long legs—"it's a stupid stuffed bobcat or something," she said in disgust.

When Alex reached her, he bent to help her up. "Why aren't you wearing your glasses?" he asked, chuckling as she kicked out at the stuffed cat that had tripped her. "You know you can't see two feet without them."

"I'm not wearing them because—" she began irritably, then she stopped abruptly as he grasped her arm and jerked her across the room after him.

Alex had managed to shove her behind a curtain and up onto the window seat, but not join her himself before the door opened and the light was switched on. Kate held her breath as she pressed her body flat against the massive diamond-paned window. She could do nothing but bite her lip and wait silently for Alex to be discovered. So she waited. . . and waited, but nothing happened.

Somehow he must have hidden himself after he had hidden her. She glanced behind her into the dark night and wondered if she was visible from outside, then someone spoke and startled her back to awareness of their danger.

"Close the door."

The voice was Sauset's and it was no longer pleasant. It was low and stiff with anger, causing a cold shiver to run through her body. She forced herself to remain still, even controlling her breathing as he continued.

"I told you not to come here tonight." He stopped and made a choking sound of rage. "Go ahead and smile," he hissed. "See if you are still smiling when I refuse to give you your last payment."

"Now, Charles," a placating voice said. It had to be Alvarez. Kate had never heard him speak, but it couldn't be anyone else. She didn't like his voice; it sounded oily and unpleasant.

She could hear them moving around, and being unable to see what was happening was driving her crazy. She had to know where Alex was and if he were well hidden.

Easing sideways, she moved an inch at a time to reach the division in the curtains where slivers of light streamed into her hideaway. She not only had to make sure no-part of her body disturbed the curtains, she had to move slowly enough that she didn't stir the air in the alcove. Steadily she moved. One more inch and she was there.

She lifted her eyes from her feet and stared through the slight gap ... at the back of a man's head. Swallowing her terrified gasp, she became a statue for the long seconds that followed. It seemed like years later when he finally moved away and continued speaking.

"There was no harm done," Alvarez said pleasantly, apparently not sensing Kate's presence. "What can he do, for heaven's sake?"

"I don't like it, damn you," Sauset spat out quickly, his face livid. "He's up to something. If you hadn't come, he would have been helpless. He might have suspected, but he could have proved nothing."

Kate cast her eyes about the room frantically, but could find no hint of Alex's presence. That was good, she assured herself. If she couldn't see him, then they couldn't see him. She didn't want to think about the fact that she wasn't wearing her glasses and couldn't see clearly even the men in the middle of the room. She just wanted to believe that Alex was safe. She had to believe it.

Then suddenly something caught her attention and she stiffened in alertness. It wasn't much, just a slight movement under the sofa that caught her eye, but she was convinced it was Alex. Although she kept her gaze on the same spot, she could detect no further movement.

"He can prove nothing now," Alvarez said casually, then laughed. "He is like a flea to a dog. Annoying, but inevitable and harmless."