Within Reach (41 page)

Michael eyed Danica. “Were you expecting someone?”

“Not me. It’s your house. Were
you
expecting someone?”

“And share you for a minute? No way.”

The bell rang again. Popping a parting kiss on her cheek, Michael headed for the door. Even before he opened it, he felt a chill. The chill became ice when he saw Cilla and Jeffrey, the latter carrying an ominous-looking folder under his arm. He looked from one to the other, seeing the strained looks on their faces.

“Hi, Mike,” Jeff, said quietly. “Can we come in?”

Danica came from behind Michael and burst into a smile. “Cilla and Jeff! Perfect timing. We just got back.”

Jeffrey looked from Michael to Danica, then back. “I know. I tried to contact you on the boat and found out you’d returned it.”

“We did. Yesterday.”

Danica was startled by Michael’s hard tone. “Michael…”

He put a protective arm around her shoulder. “What are you doing here, Jeff?” His voice was low and filled with anger. “I thought I said I’d handle it.”

“Handle what?” Danica asked, but again she was ignored.

Cilla and Jeffrey were both concentrating on Michael, with Jeff the logical spokesman. “I wanted to be here. It’s part my doing. I wanted to be the one to take the blame.”

“Michael, what’s going on?” Danica’s tone was no longer calm but had escalated to one of utter confusion.

“It’s all right, sweetheart,” he said, holding her closer. “Cilla, couldn’t you have stopped him? All I needed was a phone call.”

“I agree with him, Mike. His argument makes sense.”

Knowing that he was outnumbered and that it was too late to remedy the situation anyway, Michael stepped back to let Cilla and Jeff come in.

“What’s this
about
, Michael?” Danica asked fearfully.

He was leading her to the sofa. “Let’s sit down.”

She let herself be seated, because she didn’t know what else to do. Cilla looked pale, Jeffrey pained. Michael, who was evidently more informed than she, looked more tense than she had ever seen him.

Jeffrey began very quietly, directing himself to her. “I want to tell you about the case I’ve been working on.” He outlined it briefly, then faltered when he came to the hard part. From the moment he had decided that he had to break the news to Danica himself, he had been trying to think of an easy way to say what had to be said, but there was none. “Danica, East-bridge Electronics is one of the firms we’ve traced illegal shipments to. Indictments will be returned on Monday. Your husband is going to be named on several counts.”

Danica eyed him blankly. “Excuse me?”

Michael put a light arm around her waist. “Blake is in serious trouble, Dani. It may be that he’s done nothing wrong, but Jeff—and I—felt you should be prepared.”

“For what?” she asked, still unable to assimilate what Jeffrey had told her.

“He’s going to be charged with selling restricted items to the Soviet Union,” Jeffrey explained as gently, as calmly, as he could. He was also simplifying the charges, but he felt she didn’t need to know the details. “Once the indictments are handed down, he’ll be arraigned, then released on bail until the trial.”

Her body was completely still, save the visible thumping of her heart. “You must be wrong,” she whispered. “Blake would never do anything like that.”

“We’ve been studying this problem for a long time,” Jeffrey countered softly. “We have solid evidence. The question isn’t whether Eastbridge made the shipment, because we know it did. We have papers from several sources to prove it. Rather, the question is whether your husband knew what the shipment contained and, if so, why he approved it.”

She was shaking her head. “He wouldn’t.”

“Believe me, the Justice Department would never take on a man as prominent as your husband if it didn’t have a good cause.”

Danica turned to Michael. “There has to be some mistake,” she pleaded.

“I wish there were, sweetheart. Blake may be exonerated, but he will have to stand trial.”

For the first time in this group, Danica felt on the outside. She inched away from Michael. “You knew about this before.”

“Jeff told me last time he was up.”

“And you didn’t tell me,” she accused, needing a scapegoat for the horror she felt. When Michael tried to take her hand, she pulled it away.

“I didn’t see the point. There was nothing you could have done but be miserable.”

Jeff broke in. “Blake appeared before the grand jury more than a week ago. He didn’t see fit to tell you, either.”

But Danica was staring at Michael. “You should have told me! I had a right to know!” She jumped up from the sofa and headed for the bedroom.

He started after her, but Cilla caught his hand.

“Let her go, Mike. She needs a minute alone.”

He knew that it was true. Despite everything they shared, there was still the past, which was what Danica had to come to terms with now. Sagging back into the sofa, he hung his head. “I wish you’d let me tell her, Jeff. It might have been easier without an audience.”

“Come on,” Cilla chided softly. “We care for her and she knows it. She’ll be back in a minute. You’ll see. And besides, there’s
no
easy way to tell a woman something like this. Better Jeff should take the flack than you.”

“I’m taking it anyway.”

“She’s upset. She’s looking for a heavy, and you’re here. She won’t hold anything against you, not when she can think clearly. She knows how much you love her and that what you did was out of that love.”

Michael took an unsteady breath and raised his gaze to Jeff’s. “It’ll hit the papers Monday?”

Jeff nodded.

“I won’t be touching it, if that’s any consolation,” Cilla offered. “I’m far too emotionally involved with this one. Damn, how could he do this to her!”

“I doubt he was thinking of her,” Michael said. “I doubt he’s
ever
thought of her. That was one of the big problems with their marriage. He put his career before everything else. Unfortunately, Dani’s going to suffer the fallout.”

Jeff screwed up his face. “I still can’t figure a motive. Several of the other companies we caught did it for the money; the records show they were floundering financially. A third company has known leanings toward the East; in hindsight, Commerce should have been wary of issuing it any license. But Eastbridge—I can’t figure it out.”

“Who will be named in the indictments?” Michael asked. “Lindsay and Magnusson?”

Jeffrey grew still. “Plus the corporation itself. At least, that was what we thought. Unfortunately, Magnusson showed up in an alley two days ago with a bullet in his head.”

“He was
murdered
?” Michael asked, stunned.

“Looks that way.” He dug through his folder and tossed a set of photographs on the coffee table. Cilla and Mike both leaned forward to study them. “Someone wanted him silenced. The cops haven’t got a lead yet.”

One of the pictures showed the body at the scene of the crime, a second the scene with the traditional white chalk markers, a third the body as it lay in the morgue. When Cilla leaned closer, Jeffrey took her arm.

“Maybe you shouldn’t, hon. They’re pretty gruesome.”

But she was staring at the morgue shot and was ashen for reasons other than the gruesomeness of the print. “My God!” she breathed, “that’s him!”

Jeffrey nodded. “Harlan Magnusson. The former head of Blake Lindsay’s computer division. He came to Washington with his boss, but he’s been shuffled from one position to another in Commerce.”

“No, Jeff.” She clutched his arm. “That’s
him
. That’s
Red Robin
!”

The air in the room went very still, only to be broken by a weak “Red Robin?”

Three heads swiveled around to see Danica approaching. Michael quickly gathered the photographs together and turned them over, but the harm was done.

Danica was staring at Cilla. “Harlan Magnusson is Red Robin?” she asked in a distant voice. “But Red Robin is…” Her eyes lowered to the photographs and grew glassy. “He was Blake’s right-hand man,” she murmured. “They went everywhere together…to meetings, on business trips…” She swallowed convulsively and seemed to gasp for air. Michael was by her side in an instant and she clung to his arm. “I never liked him. He was too nervous, too aggressive. He used to glare at me. I was jealous of the time Blake spent with him…” She swayed on her feet. Michael tightened his hold, but she was looking at Cilla again. “You said that Red Robin was…was…” She pressed a trembling hand to her throat and whispered, “I think…Michael, I think I’m going to be sick…”

Trembling nearly as badly as she, Michael helped her to the bathroom, where he supported her while she lost the contents of her stomach. When there was nothing left to lose, he bathed her forehead with a cool cloth and helped her rinse her mouth. Then he carried her to his bed and gently laid her down. She clutched his hand.

“It’s all right, sweetheart,” he soothed. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

For a time she said nothing, then, “I feel so sick. So…dirty and used. No wonder he never came near me.” Michael knew she was talking of Blake. “It wasn’t
me
after all. It was the fact that I’m a woman. He must have suffered through the few times we were together, when all along he wanted to be with…with…” She heaved again, but there was nothing left to vomit. Michael ran back to the bathroom for the cloth and placed it gently on her throat.

“Take it easy, Dani. It’ll be all right.”

The stillness with which she lay belied the roiling torment in her mind. “It all makes sense now—why he wasn’t upset when I started coming up here, why he hated the place, why he seemed almost relieved when I told him about you.”

“He may not have shown it, but he was probably under a great deal of stress.”

“You’re more compassionate than I am.”

“I wasn’t married to him. It’s natural that you feel hurt, and I’m not trying to condone what he did.” To the contrary. He felt a slow anger boiling within. “He did use you. You were his key to acceptance. No wonder he was so vehement against getting a divorce. You were his cover. As long as he had you, he didn’t have to worry about anyone suspecting the truth.”

Danica rolled onto her side and tucked her knees up tight. Her insides were trembling in the aftermath of shock. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut as if doing so would erase the ugly images that dominated her thoughts. Then she laughed, but it was a harsh sound. “Wait until my father finds out. It’s poetic justice.”

“He’ll be as shocked as you are. He had no way of knowing, Dani. No one did.”

“
Will
he find out? Will it come out in court?”

“That depends on Blake’s defense attorney. The formal charges won’t mention it. There’s nothing illegal about a homosexual relationship between two consenting adults. As far as I know, the four of us here may be the only ones who know of the relationship between Red Robin and Blake. Cilla certainly won’t mention it, and she’s the only one who can identify Red Robin. Now that he’s dead, so is her lead…It does make sense now. Cilla’s always wondered why Red Robin went to her rather than another paper. He must have thought our papers would be that much more interested, given the relationship between Blake and your father and the history of animosity between your father and our papers.”

But Danica wasn’t thinking of either her father or the Buchanans at that moment. “Do you think Harlan specifically wanted to expose Blake?”

“If Blake had shunted him aside when they came to Washington, it’s possible. But Red Robin never did give Cilla Blake’s name. And there’s still the chance that the relationship between the two men was innocent.”

Danica’s mind was working clearly enough to realize the odds against that. “No. There were too many signs.”

Michael agreed, but he had to be realistic. “We’ll never really know, now that Harlan’s gone. As far as the trial goes, I doubt the issue of homosexuality will come up unless the defense attorney feels that it’s Blake’s best chance for proving that he was unknowingly duped.”

“God, I hope it doesn’t come out.” This time her laugh held a touch of hysteria. “I can’t believe the irony of all this. When my father warned me about being involved with you, he kept saying that he didn’t want the family embarrassed. He’s going to
die
if Blake’s…Blake’s…comes out.” Her voice broke and she curled into an even tighter ball, covering her head with her hands as though she was embarrassed even with Michael.

He wouldn’t have it. Easily overpowering her resistance, he cradled her in his arms and spoke softly. “What Blake did has no reflection on you. He may not have realized what he was when he first married you. Gays have come out of the closet in the past ten years. He may have suppressed those instincts for a very long time.” When she burrowed deeper against him, he went on. “There are many men who lead dual lives for years, who are happily married even while they have lovers on the side.”

“We didn’t have a happy marriage. He used me.”

“In the end, yes. But he may have truly loved you once. He may still love you in his way.”

“His way makes me sick.”

“I know, sweetheart.”

“I feel soiled.”

“I don’t see you that way. Knowing what we do now, I respect you all the more. Over the years you’ve given him every benefit of the doubt. You have to be credited with sticking by him so long.”

“I didn’t know!” she cried, berating herself.

“How could you?”

“I should have seen, but it never occurred to me. I kept asking him about other
women
. No
wonder
he was repulsed by the idea.” She moaned softly. “I was so stupid. I actually forced myself on him that last time.”

“You what?”

She raised her head. “The last time we made love was two years ago last May. He hadn’t come near me in months, and I’d met you and was frightened by the attraction I felt for you, so I went home to Blake and seduced him.” Her eyes teared. “I was fantasizing about you the whole time, Michael. Who do you think
he
was fantasizing about?”