Snapped (21 page)

***

Dusk had settled quickly in the wintry
sky and the lights were on in the Mollino mansion as Lucy drove through the
gate. Only one other car was parked in the sweeping driveway, a black BMW with
the number plates
Rocco 68.

So Janet wasn't mourning her husband
alone. Good, because she wanted to speak to them both.

Lucy parked behind the BMW and scratched
Oscar behind the ears. "I won't be long." Oscar gave her his
whatever
look.

The front door was answered by Janet
herself, dressed in a knee-length camel-colored dress and matching boots laced
up her calves.

"Lucy!" Her eyes widened and
she quickly glanced over her shoulder. "Lucy Hudson. What a surprise. I
thought our business had ended."

"It has. Sort of."

Janet took her by the arm. "Rocco,
we have a guest," she called ahead. "Lucy Hudson." She slowly
led the way through to the formal sitting room. Rocco sat on one of the couches
looking heavy and awkward in all that cream and lace. "You remember my
late husband's cousin, Rocco? He owns Mollino Corp now."

Lucy nodded and Rocco stood. He wiped his
palms on his black pants and offered his hand. She shook it. It was limp.

"This is very fortunate, Lucy. We
wanted to talk to you."

"Oh?"

Lucy sat in a large wingback chair that
reminded her of the one Nick had sat in that night in the apartment when he
watched her watching John Mollino.

"But first, how can we help
you?" Lucy didn't like Janet's tone. It was way too friendly for the
sophisticate.

"I want to know what Mack Thompson's
done."

"Mack?" Rocco raised thick
black brows. "What do you mean?"

"He's nervous about something. He
doesn't want the cops to find out."

"Perhaps he was John's partner in
the fraud," said Janet. "Perhaps he...killed him."

Lucy heard the catch in her voice, but
she didn't trust it. Janet wasn't exactly the grieving widow, so why she
bothered to put on the act now, Lucy couldn't understand.

"Maybe," she said. "But I
think there's something else."

Rocco sighed. "You're right." Janet's
head snapped round to face him. "It's all right," he said, patting
her arm, "we can tell her. She won't go to the cops." He glanced up
at Lucy through lowered lashes. "Will you?"

"Not if you don't want me to." Yeah,
right.

"You see, Mack's been cheating
Mollino Corp out of thousands the last few years. I started checking the books
after John's death and found some discrepancies. I tried to contact Mack to
question him, but he seems to have disappeared." He shrugged. "Makes
him look guilty if you ask me."

"But of murder?"

"If he's been cooking the books,
then John would have known it. He was fanatical about those books. Which makes
it more than likely that's how they laundered the money from their securities
scam. They were in it together and Mack's running scared." Rocco shrugged
two thick shoulders. "It doesn't look good does it?"

"No," said Lucy. But why the
hell did he contact her specifically to tell her he wasn't involved? It didn't
make sense. If Rocco was right, then Mack should've got out of the country
while he could. Except he'd rendezvoused with her right under the cops' noses.

"So what did you want to see me
about?" Lucy asked. She might as well find out what they wanted before she
asked to see Mack's books.

Janet and Rocco exchanged glances. "When
you were spying on my husband, what did you see?"

Lucy grinned. "Would you like me to
draw a picture?"

"There's no need to be so crude,"
Janet said.

"We just, ah, wondered if you saw
something other than my cousin and the Smith woman," Rocco said.

"Such as his killer you mean?" Lucy
shook her head. "I didn't."

Rocco relaxed back into the couch and
Janet nearly smiled. The effort almost cracked her perfect makeup.

"Any reason why you're interested?"

"No."

"Just curious," said Janet,
standing. "Now if there's nothing else..."

"Actually, there is. Mack's books—"

"We're a little busy right
now," said Rocco. He stood too, bumping the polished mahogany coffee
table. A stack of magazines toppled, revealing several photographs.

Lucy recognized them.

"My photos! Where did you—" Uh-oh.
Those photos had been ruined in development. They shouldn't exist. She looked
up at the two Mollinos. "What the hell's going on?"

Janet and Rocco exchanged glances. Janet
inclined her head to one side and Rocco's brows drew together. They both turned
to Lucy and a sick feeling settled into her stomach.

"Oh. My. God. You two..."

"We have to keep her now," said
Janet. "She's worked it out." She moved to block the doorway, casting
a glare over her shoulder at Rocco. "You idiot," she spat. "If
you hadn't bumped the table she wouldn't have seen the photos."

"Shut up, Janet."

"How did you get them?" Lucy
asked. "Those photos weren't developed. My equipment was faulty."

"No," said Janet, "it
wasn't. Rocco knows your little film developer friend. He convinced her to hand
the photos over and tell you they were ruined."

"What? Stacey
gave
them to
you? The little—"

"She was reluctant at first,"
said Rocco, taking a step closer. "But we came to an agreement." He
winked and Lucy understood what the agreement consisted of.

She needed to stall for time. Maybe
Nick's men were watching the house. "So what's all this got to do with
Mack Thompson?"

"Nothing." Rocco took another
step closer and Lucy edged away, heading towards the door and Janet. She could
take Janet, no problem, but the heavyset Rocco would be a different story.

"He was a suitable red
herring," said Janet, straightening to her full height as Lucy got nearer.
She was tall, but thin and hopefully she didn't have any hidden martial arts
skills. "I didn't realize until after I spoke to you the other day that he
wasn't involved. In fact, I wasn't involved until you mentioned John was
committing fraud. I asked Rocco, he confessed, and since then I've been playing
along."

"For money?"

She nodded. "Of course. What
else?"

When Lucy was within arm's length of
Janet, she stopped and sized up her opponents. With Janet on her right and
Rocco on her left, she was trapped. "You're not going to let me go are
you?"

Rocco laughed. "Now? You've got to
be kidding." He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Pity though,
because you're cute."

Cute. She really hated when people called
her that. She'd show him cute. She smiled benignly and landed a punch right on
his nose.

***

Nick hung up the phone after speaking to
Abbey. Nice girl. But she sounded worried when he asked if she'd heard from
Lucy. He assured her she'd turn up soon, and told her he'd get Lucy to call as
soon as she came back. But Abbey's concern only deepened his own.

Where the hell was she? What if she'd
been followed from the house? What if she was being held captive somewhere,
or...?

He felt completely useless. All his life
he'd been the protector. Of his sisters, the public, Donna. But now there
wasn't a damn thing he could do to protect Lucy from Mollino's killer.

Nick shivered. A lump of ice settled into
his stomach.

He reached for Lucy's address book again
and flipped through it. It was packed with telephone numbers, mostly against
men's names. He returned to the beginning and picked up the phone. He might as
well get started. As he dialed, his cell phone rang and he reached into his
pocket to answer it.

"Dante."

"It's O'Connor. Where the hell are
you? And why aren't you watching Lucy?"

"Lucy? You know where she is?"

"Yeah."

Fifteen minutes earlier that answer would
have eaten him up with jealousy. Now it flooded him with relief. Thank God
she'd been found.

"She turned up at Mollino's. Rocco's
also here. She's been inside twenty minutes. So why the hell did you let her
go?"

"Long story." And one he didn't
want to go into. Not with Dave. "I'll be right there. Don't do anything
until I arrive. Unless..."

"I know."

Nick closed and dead-locked Lucy's
apartment door behind him then raced down the stairs, taking two at a time. She'd
be fine. Janet and Rocco might be innocent and she could just be having a
friendly chat. Too many "mights" and "coulds" in that
sentence for his liking.

Thank Christ the traffic wasn't too bad. He
drove to Bellerae in record time and pulled up across the road from the Mollino
mansion. He got out and approached a black Commodore parked two doors up. The
window lowered and Dave's ginger head popped out.

"Nothing seems to be happening. She
hasn't come out and no one else has gone in."

Nick swore. If they went in, they'd blow
their surveillance, alerting Janet and Rocco to their presence. But that only
became a problem if they were guilty. If they were innocent, it wouldn't
matter. If they were innocent, Lucy would be safe.

"I'm going in."

"You can't!"

Nick strode away, ignoring his partner's
curses. He knew Dave would back him up even if he didn't agree with his
methods. He heard the car door slam behind him as he passed through the gate.

At the front door, he paused and
listened. He couldn't hear anything, but the house was huge and if they weren't
near the front then he wouldn't hear voices.

Just as he signaled for Dave to crouch
behind a camellia bush a woman's scream split the air. He reached for his gun
but he wasn't carrying.

It didn't stop him. The door wasn't
locked so he ran inside, heading in the direction of loud moans. Moans meant he
wasn't too late but that didn't stop his heart from racing and his legs from
feeling like lead.

Dave's footsteps followed behind and he
hoped his partner had a gun. He should call for backup. All those thoughts
jumbled through his head but one took precedence above all others—save Lucy.

He spotted movement in a room ahead. Dave
touched his shoulder in a slow down gesture. He did, against his instincts
which told him to get in there.

"Take this," Dave whispered
handing him his gun. "Don't do anything. I'll call for backup." He
disappeared.

Nick knew he should listen to his
partner, but he couldn't just stand around and wait for something to happen to
Lucy.

He inched forward, pressing his body
against the wall near the door. Two deep breaths and he peered around the
corner. What he saw took his breath away.

Lucy stood over both Janet and Rocco
lying on the floor. Rocco didn't move, but Janet whimpered with fear.

"Lucy?"

She glanced up and smiled. God, he loved
that smile. "It's about time. These two should have a full confession for
you. I'd press Janet first, if I were you. She's the weak link."

He breathed out loudly and went to her. He
wanted to hold her but resisted. Another time, when they had a chance to talk. "What
happened?"

Lucy had never been so relieved to see
anyone in her life. Of course, she'd never tell Nick that. She had her
professional pride. She didn't want the guys down at the station thinking this
sort of thing was new for her. Besides, the look on Nick's face had been
priceless.

Did her self-appointed protector feel a
little redundant? Too bad. His ego and his attitude needed shaking up a little.

Lucy explained about the photos, Rocco's
confession and Janet's insistence that she wasn't in on it at first. He seemed
to be only half listening.

When Dave O'Connor joined them to the
background noise of screaming police sirens, Nick leaned closer. "You
okay?" he whispered, placing a warm hand on her back.

"Yeah. Fine." She smiled. "Thanks."
She really was grateful he'd come for her—she wasn't sure what she would do
with Rocco and Janet next since the telephone was in another room. She was also
grateful for his solid presence. Still on an adrenaline high after kick boxing
her attackers, Nick was the one thing of substance she could focus on.

Nick managed to direct the cops smoothly
without moving far from her side. Rocco and Janet were taken away for
questioning and most of the uniforms left with them. Dave hovered nearby and
Nick took Lucy by the arm and steered her away.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here
earlier," he said. "I should've been."

"It's okay, Nick. Really. You can't
be everywhere at once. And I didn't give you much chance of finding me."

"Still..."

She shoved him lightly on the arm. Friendly,
affectionate, not at all like the intimacy they'd recently shared. "You
can't protect everyone, Nick. Not all the time. And I can take care of
myself."