California Schemin' (21 page)

“You have no idea,” I started, but the
senator held up his hand to silence me.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I realized I
need to make this a life-altering experience for you. You need an
incentive. Put simply, if you ID those two men, I’ll see to it you
never have to work again. You can work if you want to, of course,
but you’ll be set financially. You’ll get to choose.” Wallace
smiled at me. “But if you don’t do as I ask, I’ll see that you
never work again.”

“Are you out of …”

“Oh, I know,” he interrupted me again. “You
can always find someone to hire you as a waitress or a maid, a
babysitter or a stable hand. But you’ll never have a real job
again, a meaningful job. You’re newly fledged career as a reporter
will certainly be over, and you won’t be going back to work at that
swank hotel they’ve got hidden out in the sticks. A maid with a
criminal record wouldn’t go over well there, I’m sure.”

I closed my mouth. Wallace thought I could be
bought or blackmailed or both, but I could turn this to my
advantage. I just needed time to figure out how. I needed to talk
to Beau, if he wasn’t already gone.

“I want to …”

“Don’t make a hasty …” he started.

I lost my temper. Damn it, there’s only so
much interruption a girl can take.

“Will you stop interrupting me? You win. I’ll
think it over, but I want to talk to Beau, as well. I’ll come up
when I’ve made up my mind.” I thought briefly about telling him I’d
knock on the upper door but decided against it. I needed to keep
the illusion of control, if only for my own sanity.

I rose and walked out of the room. Wallace
hadn’t spoken since I’d yelled at him. Was this good or bad? I
didn’t know, so I hotfooted it out of the room as fast as I could
without looking like I was beating a hasty retreat. Which, of
course, I was.

Beau was at the window with his suitcase and
backpack when I came back in the room. His frown disappeared when
he saw it was me.

“Thank God,” he said. “I was wondering if I
needed to break in, guns blazing, and rescue you.”

“Do you have a gun?”

“No, no gun, just a figure of speech.”

“Oh.” I thought a moment about the merit of
guns. “Too bad. Listen, Wallace wants to buy me off. He said he’d
set me up for life if I ID'd those two guys. I’m thinking we can
use this to escape. I’ll insist that I see Sheriff Fogel, and then
I’ll tell him Wallace is blackmailing me. We’ll be free. Or
something like that.”

“I still think we should escape. That way we
don’t have to worry about either of us being held as hostage while
he gets what he wants. Because whatever he says about money, he’ll
use our relationship to elicit cooperation. He’s already proven
that.”

“I’m game. Do we go now?”

“I think we’d better wait until nightfall.
Too many people checking out the view during the day, and we can’t
afford to be spotted.” He stashed his luggage behind the coffee
table where it couldn’t be seen from the stairs and sat down on the
couch. “Come sit with me. I want to hear what happened. I didn’t
even know you were back in California.”

“You didn’t know I was gone? How long have
you been here?”

“Look at the dates on my plans. A week at the
very least, merrily designing projects to do when my leg
heals.”

“You almost get killed falling off sabotaged
scaffolding, and you come back here anyway? Didn’t it occur to you
that it could be a trap?”

“I recognized Wallace’s name and figured a
senator would be safe enough. If I disappeared, he’d know to go
looking. It didn’t occur to me that he was in on the murder.”

“Lily Wallace. She was the money behind the
man. Wallace doesn’t have any of his own. If she left he’d be
ruined. He murdered her or had her murdered, if he didn’t actually
pull the trigger.”

“What does he want with you?”

“He says he’ll make me independently wealthy
if I claim that these two criminals did it. Why he thinks it will
work, I don’t know. I already told Fogel I didn’t see
anything.”

“People forget things when they are in
moments of high stress. Fogel would probably believe you if you
told him you remembered seeing someone. It would take the heat off
Wallace and give him room to breathe. What did you tell him?”

“I take exception to being told to lie and
perjure myself. I was thinking of telling Senator Wallace that I’d
talk to Fogel and then somehow slip a note to Fogel so he’d know
the truth. But I do think getting away would be better. Get away,
find Fogel and tell him that Wallace has been holding me captive.
That would be the safer thing to do.” And more satisfying.

“You never want to do anything the easy way,
do you?”

“Easy shmeasy. I don’t want the bad guy to
get to do things his way. Anyway, I’m sure he’d find a way to foul
up my plan, so we’re getting out of here.”

I got up and examined the possibilities for
escape. The windows didn’t open, of course. I was pretty sure if we
broke one, an alarm would sound. I paced up and down thinking of
options. There was nothing for it. We were going to have to go
through the main house. Crap.

A quiet tap at the door interrupted my
planning. Beau, who had been lounging on the couch watching me, sat
up, concern on his face. The lock turned, and Wendy stepped through
the door and closed it behind her. She ran lightly down the stairs
to me.

“Paris and I have been planning,” she said
quietly, “we’re going to get you out of here. I don’t know what my
dad’s up to, but I’m sure it’s wrong. My mom told me he didn’t know
right from wrong. That’s why she divorced him.”

“So why do you hang out with him?” I
asked.

“I don’t. I was completely surprised when he
showed up at school. He doesn’t normally have much to do with me,
only when he wants something from me.” The features of her face
darkened momentarily, then she smiled. “Come on, I have something
to show you.”

Wendy led us past the bed and the bathroom to
a bookcase against the wall. She dropped a couple of books on the
floor and pulled a key out of her pocket. I moved up behind her so
I could see there was a keyhole in the back of the bookcase. She
inserted the key and yanked on what I had assumed was a decorative
knob for hanging towels on the wall between the bathroom door and
the shelves. The whole wall, books and all, swung forward,
revealing a doorway into a typical basement storage area.

Beau looked at me and shrugged. We followed
her past sleds, skis and snowboards. There were a couple of ski
machines at the back near a set of garage doors and a light went on
in my head. Under the deck at the front of the house were a couple
of garage doors. I hadn’t given a thought to them, but of course
the main rooms of the house were upstairs. Beau’s room was on the
same level as the garage basement. Street level.

“We need to wait until they tow the limos up
here.” Wendy went to a small window in the garage door. “Paris is
going to make sure the Jeep isn’t blocked. We’re bored and fed up
with the thugs Dad’s got hanging around, so we told dad we’re going
to the movies in Nevada City. We’re driving ourselves. Dad’s not
happy, but I’m twenty-one, so he has no choice. I’ll knock on the
door five minutes before we leave. You come through here. Shut the
wall and bring the key. Don’t open the big doors, they make too
much noise. There’s a regular door over there,” Wendy pointed. “The
key will unlock it. I’ll back the Jeep as close as I can, and you
guys jump in the back seat.”

“What if they’re watching?” I asked.

“They’ll never keep up with the Jeep in a
limo, if either of them is drivable. I’ll take you to my real
mom’s, and we’ll tell her what’s up. She’s a lawyer in Sacramento.
You’ll be safe with her.”

Wendy led us back through the garage and
locked the bookcase but left the key in the lock.

“Just be ready,” she said and ran up the
stairs and out the door.

“Lara Croft. Should have known.” Beau watched
Wendy leave with admiration on his face.

I sat on the couch and looked at the
view.

“I thought life was strange after I found
Vera’s body,” I said. “That was nothing compared to this. I feel
like I’m in some weird role-playing game. Any moment someone is
going to come out and say ‘Sorry, you lose,’ and send me home.”

“You wish.” Beau sat next to me and dropped
his arm across my shoulder. “Getting back to normal isn’t going to
be that simple. Nothing I believed about the world appears to be
true here. Vermont is small time compared to all this.” He turned
to me and kissed my forehead. “You need to do anything before we
leave? Write a secret message in the kitchen cabinet so the cops
can find it? Collect your luggage?”

“Luggage?” I snorted. “I was drugged and
abducted. I flew across America in my sweatpants and an old
tee-shirt. I suppose Hammie has my driver’s license and who knows
what else, but I’ll just have to replace that stuff when I get
home. If I never see Richard Hambecker again, it will be too
soon.”

“Jeez, don’t sugarcoat it, MacGowan.” Beau
laughed. “I wouldn’t want to be him and meet you in a dark alley.
His chances of coming away with all his parts are slim.”

“Better believe it.” I laid my head on his
shoulder. “I missed you, Maverick, but at least you weren’t
worrying about where I was the last few days. Meg is probably going
out of her mind. I haven’t been near a working phone in days.” I
sat up straight. “Wait. Do you have your phone with you?”

“Sorry, Darlin’, they told me not to bother
bringing it. No service up here. Sounded plausible to me. I’m not
married to my cell at the best of times. I figure if I need to make
a call, I can find a pay phone.”

“I’m here to tell you, pay phones are few and
far between. I searched all over Sacramento and couldn’t find one.
Next time, bring it just in case.” I leaned back on his shoulder.
Beau may not have a cell phone, but at least I wasn’t all alone in
a room memorizing mug shots.

Beau dropped his hand onto my shoulder and
rubbed my upper arm. He dropped his face into the crook of my
neck.

“How long do you think we have?” His breath
was warm on my neck, sending tingles down my spine.

“Don’t know. Did you have something in
mind?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. I’ve
missed you.” He nuzzled my neck, turning my bones to liquid for
about three seconds.

“Wait. You left Vermont before I did, but you
didn’t call and tell me where you were? So for all you knew I’ve
been worrying about you for the last week?”

“I left a message on your machine. If you
listened to your messages, you would know I was going to be away
for a while.”

“You didn’t call my cell.” It hit me hard
that he hadn’t wanted to talk to me personally. “You just left a
message?”

“I didn’t feel like arguing with you. I knew
you wouldn’t want me to come back here.”

“You knew I’d worry?”

“Yeah, I knew you’d worry, but jeez,
MacGowan, I was bored out of my mind, sitting around the house with
nothing to do. I needed to get out of there, and I didn’t want to
fight about it. I guess this means you aren’t in the mood?” He
sounded hopeful.

“No, Beau, I’m not in the mood.”

I was dozing when the knock came. I looked to
see if anyone was coming through the door, and when no one did, I
shook Beau’s shoulder.

“Come on,” I said, “it’s time.”

“They knocked?”

“Yes. Come on.” I took his arm and dragged
him up off the couch. He grabbed his backpack and roll of
blueprints. I picked up his small valise, and we hurried to the
bookcase. It swung open easily, and I pulled the key and locked the
wall in place behind us. I was so excited I practically ran to the
window. The limos were in the drive. They looked a little banged
up, but I thought they were probably still drivable. Too bad we
didn’t have time to disable them.

I turned to Beau to suggest it. He was
leaning on a table, obviously in pain. I moved to him and took the
backpack.

“Your leg?”

He nodded.

“I’m not supposed to be walking on it. The
doctor gave me a walking cast so I could get around better, take a
shower, you know, do stuff. But he told me to stay off it. All this
moving around hurts like hell. I don’t even know where my crutches
are at this point.”

“I think you dropped them when you got in the
limo with me.” I looked out the window to see if I could see them
on the ground outside, but the cars blocked much of the drive from
my view.

“Don’t worry about it, Bree. I’ll get another
pair when we get out of here.”

I stood at the window and waited. I started
to get nervous as the minutes ticked by. I looked back at the wall.
What if someone came looking for us before the girls came for us? I
looked at the key in my hand. Should I open the wall so we could
pretend not to be escaping if we heard someone on the stairs? I
took a step toward the hidden doorway.

“Give them some time.” Beau was watching
me.

“You reading my mind now?”

“I’ve always been able to read your mind. You
just didn’t know it. Wait.”

“When did you ever read my mind?”

“Remember in high school, when David Shorts
beat up your brother?”

I nodded. That was a day I wasn’t likely ever
to forget.

“You were about to say something to him and
changed your mind.”

“Yeah. So?”

“What you wanted to say was that he was only
picking on your brother because David was gay and didn’t want
anyone to know. Isn’t that what you were thinking?”

“Why in the world would you remember
that?”

“Because that’s when I first decided I was in
love with you. You could have hurt David, got back at him, but you
didn’t because you knew that he was scared. You took care of
business, and you let Davey be. That’s when lust turned to
love.”