Seaspun Magic (21 page)

To what purpose was Leo going to put that information, so smartly presented? Why had he gone to so much trouble to track down a detailed history of her sight and collect it in one place? Had he done all that work during the three weeks he'd been gone? But if he was investigating her, why was he spending all his time at the old naval fort? And didn't that file just prove that he was after the ESP, not the lady who owned it, or, as her mother would say, he was after the witch's broom and not the witch.

A rousing knock at the back door had Arianne jumping what felt like a mile high. Trying to calm her breathing, she went quickly down the stairs. She really did not relish a visit from Jill right this minute, not with everything she had on her mind…

And when all a depressed Jill wanted to talk about was her ex-husband, Arianne had to bite back her impatience.

"He's just no good, Arianne! That's his trouble. He's just plain rotten, through and through. No conscience, and you know that's the worst. Not—not a shred of moral fiber!"

"I get the picture," Arianne murmured sympathetically. Jill did seem upset, though, more than what the situation seemed to warrant. After all, she had been divorced for two years now.... Arianne wondered whether Jill was aware she was speaking in the present tense, and started listening with a bit more interest.

"That's all I am for him! He just uses me whenever he feels like it, for how long he wants!"

"Well, why do you put up with it?"

"I love him, Arianne. I can't help myself. He can talk me into anything, anything! That's what's so scary, don't you see?" Jill cried. Nervously she rubbed the back of her nape. "You've no idea... he tells me everything! It's terrible! I have to carry what he's done around on
my
back!"

"No, you don't, Jill, you—"

"Don't you understand? I helped! It's awful, Arianne. He always has to tell me everything afterward, and then I'm like an accessory, isn't that right?"

"Oh, Jill! Are you telling me...what you're saying is..."

"I'm a crook, Arianne, a lousy crook! Or I used to be! And now he's on to something new, and I'm so scared he's going to come looking for me." She shuddered out the words, looking sick with anxiety.

"For heaven's sake, stop him!" Arianne exclaimed. "You have to stop him, or it'll go on and on!"

"But what can I do? I can't turn him in, can I?"

'"Turn him in'? What do you mean... the police? My God, Jill, what is this something new that he's on to?"

"I don't know. I don't know. Don't ask me, I don't know! I never know beforehand!"

"Okay, okay, Jill. You'll have a better idea once he makes his request, won't you?"

"I don't know."

"You have to break his hold on you. You're going to have to refuse him, Jill, sooner or later. If what he's doing is bad enough that you feel you should turn him in, if it's something so... so..."

"Nasty." Jill supplied the word.

"So nasty—but, wait. Didn't you tell me he was in the navy? Doesn't the navy have its own police? They'd be the ones. Jill, you might have to turn him in. If you don't, who will? What if he implicates you in something so serious that you find yourself in jail? What about your kids, Jill, if you land in jail?"

Jill started to cry.

"Oh, my God!'' Arianne could scarcely credit the way her quiet Sunday was shaping up. "Jill—" she hiked her chair closer and offered her neighbor a tissue "—I have an idea. Listen carefully. Something must be done. You can't go on living like this. Your charming ex-husband is making you miserable, not to mention terrified. Since you can't turn him in, and I understand why you can't, let's go speak to Orly. You can tell him everything and let him take it from there. At least you can be sure he's a calm, rational type of person who will do the right thing. It's not much better going through him, but at least it's some help. If you won't save yourself, at least save Erin and Lucy from.. .from.. .the.. .the..."

"The jerk, the bastard, the scum of the earth?"

"I suppose that's it."

Jill wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "Of course, he hasn't asked me for anything yet," she assured Arianne hurriedly. "Maybe I'm worrying for nothing. I—I haven't seen him in a long, long, long time."

"Oh, no? But, then, how do you know about his new get-rich-quick scheme?"

"Oh, I—I—we have mutual friends. They passed it on. I haven't seen him in ages and ages. But if he does show up—" she gulped "—I might take you up on your offer. You'll come with me to see Orly?"

"Of course I will."

Jill nodded her fervent thanks. Unburdening herself hadn't seemed to help much. If anything, she appeared more uncomfortable than ever. Arianne didn't buy that all this worry on Jill's part was over nothing; she was too full of dread for it to be nothing. Her ex must have contacted her already. Too many of her answers were contradictory for Arianne to take everything Jill said at face value. She was a very confused woman. However, pressing Jill to go to Orly seemed to have the opposite of the intended effect. Arianne remained quiet and let Jill do the talking.

"I, um, better get home. Lucy and Erin are really tired now, I might as well tuck them into their own beds. Thanks awfully, Arianne. I always feel better after I've talked to you." She sounded just as if she were going to start crying again.

Arianne wished there was something more she could do. "Anytime, Jill, anytime at all. Don't hesitate to come over. If you know he's coming, take refuge here with me until he goes. I'll field for you. I'll tell him where to go gladly, Jill. If you're not up to it, I can handle him."

"How did you get to be so brave?" Jill scoffed.

"I'm getting meaner in my old age," Arianne said with a grin. "And right now I happen to have a grudge against men, and it would give me a chance to get my teeth into one of them."

Jill left laughing. At least she'd accomplished that much for her. What Jill had accomplished for Arianne, on the other hand, was to start her worrying like crazy. She had already determined that Jill's ex must have made contact. And Jill was backing out of going to see Orly, at least, for now. Maybe she wasn't certain of the degree of nastiness that her husband's new scheme was made of, and was waiting to find out before talking. Or maybe she was too afraid of him to turn him in, even to Orly. Or maybe she just couldn't bear to sabotage him, no matter what.

In any case, she had seen him recently and probably often, judging by how much she talked about him. She seemed consumed by thoughts of him. How strange that she never mentioned his name. They each had their secrets to hide and only now did she begin to understand why Jill had cried rather bitterly at her easy life.

But strangest of all, Arianne had the eerie feeling she was all tangled up in Jill's sad story. Arianne's miserable apprehension was complete. She didn't want to be in Jill's story, she didn't want to be helping Larry with his stupid rings and she didn't want to figure in the investigations of MicroCon, Inc., Investigations Branch. She didn't even want to be right next to the fort whose rejuvenation seemed to be causing all the furor in the first place!

If it weren't Christmastime and the busy season, she might ask Orly for a few days off to go to Seattle. But she had to stay home. Besides work, she had to be there for Jill, and besides Jill, there was Leo. She wanted to be with him, ironically just so she could not talk to him. And besides him, there was a simple case of a huge curiosity.

***

When Leo came in late that night at his usual hour, Arianne was in a near panic, worried that she wouldn't appear normal in front of him, in front of those keen pale-jade eyes.

He might have violated her trust, but she had violated his privacy. She had the uneasy notion that her guilty feelings were chiseled on her cheeks. With all her wild conjecturing whirling around and around in her head, she could only hope she didn't blurt out something idiotic and give herself away. Neither could she challenge him with questions that would only prove she'd been snooping! Every minute would be riddled with danger.

She was going down the hall toward the kitchen, when he came in. She tossed a casual greeting over her shoulder and asked if he wanted a cup of coffee, since she had just been on her way to make a cup for herself. He replied that he'd love a cup, and watched her retreating figure, clad in narrow jeans and a red angora sweater.

Her mother had given her the sumptuous wool for Christmas last year. She had a penchant for red and it suited her complexion beautifully, with her white skin, black eyes and raspberry-stained mouth. She could have worn something less provocative than form-fitting jeans and a soft, clingy sweater, but what the hell, she thought. It wouldn't hurt to keep his mind on something other than her conversation.

She was putting some of Mikey's cookies on a plate, when Leo came into the kitchen with Jinx in one hand.

"I found him locked in my bedroom," he said, and dropped the cat into her hands. The ice-green eyes arrested hers. "How would he have got in there?"

Arianne, for a second, wished the floor would open up and swallow her. She had been caught, after all! Damn, damn! "Jinx, oh, my poor baby," she crooned, buying time while her mind performed a mad scramble for a way out of this conundrum. "I was looking all over for you!"

She glanced boldly up into Leo's unflinching gaze and then smiled composedly. "Rae got away from me when I was putting him to bed. He went searching for you, I guess, because I found him in your room. I didn't realize Jinx was with him." Little children were blessedly handy some days; one could blame all sorts of otherwise embarrassing things on them and get away with it.

"So I must have locked Jinx in…" She shrugged a careless shoulder. "If you're afraid of the same thing happening again, I'll dig up a key for you. I have one somewhere."

This story was excellent, because it would cover her should she have misplaced something. She could always blame whatever it was on either Rae or the cat. The important thing was, he accepted it. He shook his head. "Forget the key. Rae goes looking for me when I'm gone?"

Arianne swallowed her chagrin. She should have phrased her explanation differently. But that much, anyway, was the truth. "Well, yes..." she admitted reluctantly.

"Arianne, about last night—"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Arianne!"

"There is nothing more to be said! So leave it alone!''

"Have I hurt your feelings?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"You're... cold and... uncommunicative."

She turned her back on him and said disdainfully, "Huh!"

"You see?" He leaned against the table. "Why don't we talk about it?"

"Now you want to talk! What on earth do we have to talk about?"

"If you don't want to clear up last night, then let's go back to that time on the beach when you said—"

"No! I'm just barely speaking to you at all, Leo. I wouldn't push my luck if I were you!"

He looked at her in astonishment and came to stand beside her. "Something's happened here that I don't understand!"

"My son might be too fond of you, Leo, but I'm not!"

He slid a hand into her curls, bending his head slightly, as if he were going to kiss her. "Arianne, your memory is awfully short!"

Swiveling out of his reach, she raised her eyebrows slightly and looked down her nose at him. "You didn't allow for the lady to change her mind. I have changed my mind." Her tone, filled with the memory of all that ugly publicity in the bottom of his suitcase, was frosty, indeed.

She didn't even want to entertain the possibility that he was a crook, in spite of his strange behavior—and one crook was enough for one day—but she did have to keep in mind that he might just as well be doing something underhanded as aboveboard.

She could well understand Jill's distress; despite everything, the thought of doing anything to harm Leo made her feel immediately and violently sick. Thinking of Jill brought Don into focus. He was in the navy. Could Don be Jill's husband?

That idea brought on a chain reaction of ideas: if Don was Jill's husband and Larry was Don's friend, could Larry be involved in Don's scheme? And if that was the case, could Larry's many demands for her sight be a part of the scheme? All of a sudden her world was peopled with crooks!

It did seem altogether too outlandish to be true. Yet Jill's dread had been real enough. And it was a fact that Larry plagued her with questions and that Leo, as well, was after something. Was it a coincidence that all these things were happening at the same time?

She fenced a dueling match with Leo using chitchat as her weapon. Sharing coffee and cookies at the kitchen table had never before been quite so tense or so exhilarating. Leo kept moving the conversation to a more personal level, while she wanted it to touch on his work. And neither of them got anywhere.

Breakfast was another exercise in verbal dexterity. The kitchen table became a battlefield of wills, and neither broke. Rae thought it was all great fun, and he banged his spoon and sang them songs at the top of his lungs. The building force of a sensuous undercurrent didn't dance shivers up his spine as it did his mother's.

Corn on the cob, buttery and bursting with summer flavor, roast chicken stuffed with mushrooms and bacon and all crispy-crunchy on the outside, mounds of fluffy white mashed potatoes in a velvety cream gravy–dinner was delicious, every bite. A good portion had to be eaten with the fingers, and she'd just licked the third finger in a row, when she realized Leo was watching her rather single-mindedly.

As she looked back at him, she wished she knew where he had had dinner last night, and with whom. Giving the fourth finger a cursory lick, she wondered whether she was the only woman he wanted to make love to these days, or was there a pack of them anxiously waiting for him in L.A.? If only her gypsy crystal would work when she wanted it to! If only—she ran her tongue across her lips—if only that leather file wasn't upstairs—

Leo had sunk his chin into his hand and was observing her in this abstracted fashion, transfixed on the enticing curve of her bottom lip. Arianne's heart began to pound in forewarning. It seemed she wasn't the only one who had had a change of mind in the past while. Either his desire had overcome his principles, or else... or else... Could he have decided he was in for more than a short affair?