All A Heart Needs B&N (17 page)

"It's not just about me. It's about Kyle. You don't understand because you don't have a kid. But I can't be selfish. He has to come first."

"I understand that. But Kyle deserves a mother who's happy, too."

"Maybe not," she said shaking her head. "My mom was happy, but I sure as hell wasn't. Maybe if she'd been a little less happy, my circumstances would have improved."

"You know that's not true. And again, you're not your mother."

"Stop talking," she said, putting up her hand.

He opened his mouth, but she leaned forward and put her fingers against his lips.

"I mean it," she added. "I know you're trying to be encouraging or supportive or something, but you're making my head spin."

"Because you know I'm right," he mumbled against her hand.

She got to her feet, knowing that he wasn't going to stop talking until she was too far away to hear him. She walked briskly toward the sea, ignoring Sean's plea to come back, his apology for pushing too hard. She didn't want to talk to him right now. He was too passionate, too persuasive. He almost had her convinced that he was right.

Was he right? Would playing it too safe only hurt Kyle in the long run?

Why was it so difficult to know the right thing to do?

With her pulse racing, she walked along the water's edge, letting the repetitive motion of the tide slow down her heartbeat. She tried to clear her mind, to stay in the moment, concentrate on the seagulls, the horizon, the rocky cliffs ahead.

Eventually, she ran out of beach. She stopped and turned and saw Sean about ten feet behind her. "You followed me."

"You were upset," he said. "You weren't looking where you were going. I didn't want you to get knocked down by a rogue wave."

She was more likely to be knocked down by him.

He moved closer. "Are you okay, Jessica?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. I shouldn't have pushed my opinion. I don't like when other people do that to me, so I'm sorry. But I still don't think I'm wrong."

She sighed. "Maybe you're not completely wrong."

"Yeah? What part was I right about?"

"I do want to be happy. I just don't want to let Travis down."

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"Because when Travis picked me to marry, everyone around him had doubts about me. When Kyle got kidnapped, those same people looked at me like I was the worst mother in the world. And I know it wasn't my fault, and everything is good now, but there's still a part of me that is afraid I'm not up to the challenge, that maybe Travis should have picked someone else to be Kyle's mother."

"He picked you for a reason. He saw in you everything he wanted. When you doubt yourself, you doubt him."

"I never thought of it that way," she said slowly.

"You'll figure it all out, and it doesn't have to be today." He brushed the hair out of her eyes and gave her a tender smile. "For the record, I think you're amazing at pretty much whatever you do. I have every confidence that you will be a fantastic mother, dancer, business woman, whatever you want to do. You're the only one setting limits. No one else is."

Her eyes watered. She tried to blame the wind, but it was him, all him.

His gaze darkened as he ran his knuckles down the side of her cheek. Then his hand was under her chin and she was lifting her face to his, because kissing him on this wild, deserted beach seemed the absolute right thing to do. It was over way too fast, cut short by the ringing of Sean's cell phone.

She stepped back as he pulled his phone out of his pocket, telling herself that the interruption was good, because the beach was a little too empty, and the sleeping bag was a little too close.

She wrapped her arms around her waist, feeling a chill without Sean's arms around her, without his lips on hers. She was getting addicted to kissing him. Each kiss seemed better than the last. And while she told herself every time was the last time, there always seemed to be another tempting moment.

"Emma," Sean said. "What's up?" He listened and then said, "I can't hear you very well. Let me call you back in a few minutes, okay?" He hung up the phone, his jaw tightening, his eyes glittering with anticipation. "Emma has some news. Let's pack up and get in the car. Then we'll call her back."

* * *

Ten minutes later they were in the front seat of Sean's van with Emma on speaker.

"So I tracked down the fire investigator," Emma said. "His name was Jackson Randall. Unfortunately, he passed away two years ago. So that's a dead end. However, I also did some research into Robert Emery's financial records. At the time of his death, he had over four hundred thousand dollars worth of debt. Twenty years ago, that was even more money than it is today. He'd recently quit his job, which didn't make sense, since he owed so much money."

"Where are you going with this?" Sean asked.

Jessica had a feeling she knew exactly where Emma was going, and she didn't think Sean was going to like it. She put a hand on his thigh. She could feel the tension in his muscles.

"I'm wondering if Mr. Emery decided he was worth more dead than alive," Emma replied. "He had two life insurance policies totaling about six hundred thousand dollars. The insurance paid off because the fire was ruled an accident."

"Why wouldn't the investigator have considered that theory?" Jessica enquired.

"That's a good question. He didn't interview anyone related to Mr. Emery's former employer, and his interview with Mrs. Emery didn't include any questions regarding Mr. Emery's state of mind."

"I don't think Mr. Emery would have killed himself with Stacy in the house," Sean put in.

"Unless he didn't know she was in the house," Jessica interjected. "The TV was on upstairs. Robert was in the garage. Maybe Stacy didn't announce her arrival. Maybe she just went straight up to her bedroom."

"Jessica has a point," Emma agreed. "And the fact that Mr. Emery's body was found away from the entrance into the house from the garage suggests that he was overcome by fire too quickly to even attempt to get out. Which could also back up the theory that he deliberately planned it that way."

"There's one other theory," Sean said. "Lana told us that she wouldn't let her husband smoke in the house. He was trying to quit, but with all the stress, he'd been sneaking cigarettes out in the garage."

"No cigarette butts or a lighter were found," Emma said. "But that's interesting. How did you come to talk to Lana?"

"Helen gave us Lana's sister's address," Sean replied. "We got the sister to tell us where Lana was. The conversation was painful. Lana could barely speak of the fire."

"Aside from the cigarettes, did she tell you anything else? Did she tell you why Robert quit his job?"

"She said Robert didn't share his work with her, mostly because she was annoyed that he was always working so much. She didn’t know why he quit or what his plans were."

"So that still needs to be figured out. I think you and Jessica should talk to Mr. Emery's business partner, Clark Hamilton. As far as I can tell, Robert and Clark started the company, which was called Clark and Emery Investments, when they were in their mid-twenties. They'd been working together for almost ten years when Robert quit. It would be interesting to know why he suddenly left a firm that he'd founded."

"Wait a second," Jessica interrupted. "Did you just say Sean and I should talk to Clark Hamilton?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I'm on my way to the scene of a three-alarm fire in the Garment District. There's one known victim and possibly other fatalities. The fire has jumped to the building next door, and there's an evacuation underway. I'm going to be tied up for a while on this, at least the next three or four days. I'm certainly happy to follow up next week, but if you want to move faster, I'll give you Mr. Hamilton's address."

"I'll take it," Sean said, jotting down the address on his phone. "Thanks, Emma."

"Let me know if you find out anything. I'll get back on this as soon as I can."

"Are we seriously going to go talk to Mr. Emery's business partner?" Jessica asked, not liking the idea at all.

"It's a good lead."

"For an investigator, but neither one of us is that."

"We're just going to ask him a few questions."

"Why would he even talk to us?"

Sean thought for a moment. "We'll use the same excuse we did today. You're cleaning out Robert's house, and you found something that might belong to him."

"And what would that be?"

"I don't know. We'll look in the attic when we get back. There has to be something we can tie to him." He gave her a pleading look and an irresistible smile. "You're not going to make me go by myself, are you?"

She should really do just that, but she couldn't seem to say no to him. "All right. I'll go with you, but you're going to have to help me find something in that attic that we can pass off as belonging to Mr. Hamilton."

"Done."

She let out a sigh. "At what point are you really going to be done, Sean?"

"I don't know, but I'm not there yet."

When they got back to Jessica's house, Jessica let Sean inside so he could get started on the search for something to take to Clark Hamilton, then she hopped in her car to get Kyle.

Alone in the house, Sean wandered down the hall, noticing fresh flowers on a side table and a large green plant in the corner of the dining room. Jessica had taken down the heavy and very formal dining room draperies and replaced them with simple cream-colored shades. The room was brighter and lighter now. She was starting to add personal touches to the décor, which made him happy, not only because she finally had a house that she could make hers, but also because it was starting to feel less like the Emery house and more like Jessica's home.

He walked into the kitchen and pulled a soda out of the refrigerator. As he unscrewed the top, he perused the artwork Jessica had displayed on the fridge. Some of the pictures were very childish, basically stick figure drawings, which had to have been done by Kyle. Others were brilliant detailed sketches that had Brandon's artistic flourish. The pictures were another reminder that there was a new family in the house.

He finished his soda and tossed it in the recycle bin and then forced himself to go upstairs. Jessica had agreed to go with him to see Clark Hamilton; he needed to hold up his end of the bargain. He made his way into the attic and started digging through boxes, looking for something masculine, something that might have related to work or to the two men. He couldn't imagine what that would be.

He pulled another box off a deep shelf and set it on the floor, coughing as a flurry of dust kicked up. When the dust cleared, he saw a very old desktop computer that had been hidden behind the box. On the side of the monitor were a bunch of colorful stickers.

His heart skipped a beat. He knew this computer. It used to sit in Robert's office, and occasionally he and Stacy had been allowed to play a game on it when Robert was at work. One day Stacy had gotten bored and put stickers all over the screen.

The computer was over twenty years old. It probably didn't work anymore.

But if it did…

What would be on it?

He hesitated for another second and then grabbed the tower that housed the hard drive. He didn't see a plug anywhere nearby so he took it downstairs to the kitchen, then dashed back up to the attic to grab the screen, keyboard and the mouse. A plastic bag of cords was nearby so he took that as well, hoping one of those power cords would work.

It took him a few moments to set up the computer and hook everything together. Then it was time for the moment of truth. He pushed a button and was thrilled when the hard drive began to whir. The screen flickered, and a beach scene appeared on the screen. One by one the programs began to populate.

It worked! He could hardly believe it.

The sound of a car door closing told him that Jessica was back. A moment later she came in through the side door with Kyle. Kyle dropped his backpack on the floor and came running over, excitement in his blue eyes.

"What's that, Uncle Sean?"

"It's a very old computer," he said, meeting Jessica's surprised gaze. "I found it in the attic. It's Robert's computer."

"It looks like Stacy's with all those stickers."

"She put them on there, but this computer belonged to her father. I wasn't sure it would work, but it seems to be trying to load."

"Do you think Robert kept financial records on there?"

"We'll see."

"Can I help?" Kyle asked.

"Not right now," he told the little boy, feeling bad when he saw the disappointment in Kyle's eyes.

"Sean has to see if it will work first," Jessica told her son. "And you're going to help me make dinner, right? Go put your backpack in your room and then we'll start cooking."

"Okay," Kyle said, taking his backpack and heading out of the kitchen.

Jessica sat down at the table, her eyes sparkling. "This could be a big clue."

"I hope so. The first step is to see if we can get into the files. By the way, I didn't find anything to take to Clark Hamilton yet. I saw the computer and got distracted."

"Understandably so. I can look later. Do you want to stay for dinner, Sean? I'm going to make tacos."

"Sounds great."

As Jessica stood up, a knock came at the kitchen door. She shot Sean a quick look, then opened the door. "Sally, hello."

"I saw you and your son come home," Sally said. "I wanted to drop off these homemade cookies."

"That's nice of you."

As Jessica took the plate of cookies, Sally peered around her. "Is that Sean?"

At Sally's question, Jessica reluctantly took a step back so Sally could enter the kitchen.

"Mrs. Watson," Sean said, getting to his feet.

"If I'd known you were here, I would have brought you some cookies, too." She'd barely finished speaking when her gaze moved to the computer on the table. Her face paled, and her lips tightened. "That’s—that's Robert's computer," she murmured, confusion and surprise in her voice. "Where did you get that?"