The Great Escape (23 page)

There was also the huge problem of what she was going to do with all

her money. That, she ruefully acknowledged, was going to be the

hardest problem of all. She could potentially buy and sell a dozen

private investigators. Mike had pride. It would gall him, she knew, to

be supported by so much money. He would want to support her,

himself. He would never be sure if she would resent him for forcing

her to make a choice between the way of life that she could afford and

his life. It would probably destroy them.

Damn that money! Dee beat the bench with one clenched fist and then

winced. It was always getting in the way of her happiness, always

causing more problems than it was worth. She had never asked to be

rich: she would be more than happy to be just as ordinary as anyone

else, working for a living, feeling pride in what she did. If only—her

eyes narrowed against the sun. If only.

The afternoon was beginning to slide away when a tall shadow fell

across her bent head. She looked up, saw him standing silently there,

and checked her watch. 'You're slipping,' she said calmly. 'I expected

to see you about an hour and a half ago.'

He didn't look very calm standing there, his hands clenched tensely,

his face white, his eyes vivid with some kind of leaping emotion. 'I

haven't been thinking very logically today,' he said quietly, and came

to sit beside her. Turning her head to look at him with that same deep

calm, Dee caught sight of the mark on his jaw.

'I was sorry the first time I hit you,' she remarked. 'I wasn't sorry

today. I meant it.'

He just looked at her. It was a very hurting kind of look and yet

accepting. 'I know. I deserved it.'

Damn her eyes—she couldn't see him suddenly. She turned her face

away but not before he saw. She heard the catch in his breath. 'Yes,

you did. You know, I guess we just have different views of friendship

and trust, that's all. It means something different to you than it does to

me.'

'Don't,' he whispered. 'Please don't. It wasn't meant to be like that.

Really it wasn't.'

'It was!' She caught herself up and then went on. it was. You didn't

trust me to be able to handle the situation, so you were going to just

thrust me into it, all unaware of what was going on, because you

thought that it would protect me, didn't you? You thought that if I

didn't know what was going on I would be able to react in a more

convincing manner than if I'd just been faking it. You were going to

play out the big, omniscient hero scene, just another damned ego

trip!'

'That's not entirely true, Dee,' he said softly, and it was the same as

when he'd interrupted Judith's tirade. He didn't even have to raise his

voice. Something in his tone and in his manner made her stop more

effectively than if he'd shouted an order. 'You aren't seeing the whole

picture clearly. You're only guessing at my reasons, and though

you're very good, you haven't got the whole of it yet. Let me explain.'

Her throat was strangely stopped up and she cleared it, found she still

couldn't say anything without the risk of breaking into those easy

tears, so she nodded jerkily.

Mike hesitated. 'I somehow realised the danger that I'd brought you,

very soon after that first attempt on your life, and I can't take any

credit for rationally thinking it out. It was an intuitive leap, a fluke if

you will. You told me at lunch a few days ago how your home was no

longer the welcome and familiar place it had been, and you

mentioned casually that your aunt had gotten rid of all the old family

staff, gradually replacing them with the ones she'd picked personally.

It wasn't much, but I had heard of a similar case of that happening,

only the person who had fired the servants had been the son of a

wealthy man who was trying to disorientate his ailing, elderly father

in order to have him committed. The poor fellow had been going

senile anyway, and it was fairly easy to get him institutionalised. So,

your story sounded familiar to me, and out of a sudden impulse I

asked you who would inherit the mgney at your death. Remember?'

'Oh yes.' Dee looked back and she could remember his strange,

shocked look, the sudden stillness, the odd seriousness. 'You acted

rather odd at the time, but I'd thought it was just a mood.'

'They must have been planning this for quite some time. A few days

ago it wasn't much, and I wasn't sure, but it was enough to scare me

half to death,' said Mike conversationally, and the content of his

words was at such odds with the normality of his tone that Dee looked

at him sharply. He was not casual, as his tone had suggested; the

whiteness around his clenched hands and the area around his mouth

betrayed that much to her. 'And then they tried to kill you a second

time. You see, it was my fault that they'd been able to get to you in the

first place. I led them right to you, right smack to you, and I would

have been responsible for your death if you'd been killed, just as

much as they.'

'No!' she protested, horrified at the extent to which he was taking his

guilt. 'You couldn't have been responsible. You didn't know!'

'I suspected!' he ground out, self-accusation running rife through

every fibre of him. 'I suspected and I allowed myself to be duped into

a false sense of security! I told myself that it was too preposterous,

too far-fetched, that I was making too much out of a random

occurrence! I told myself that those two had been drunk and ready for

mischief that night. I slipped up, Dee! I should have gone to the back

with you in that laundrymat to check out the place. It's standard

procedure, and I didn't do it. And I realised that I should have gone

back there just that split second too late. To top it all off, when you

screamed I ran to the back like an untried rookie. I know better than

that! You never run into an unknown situation without taking

precautions, but when I heard you scream, everything I'd been taught

went right out of my head. All I could think of was that you were

being hurt and frightened—if you'd died that day, it would have been

my fault.'

Dee shot out a hand and gripped his tightly, shaking it. 'No! It

wouldn't have been your fault, because you're human and you make

errors just like everyone else! And that isn't even an error in

judgment. That was just a simple weighing of the facts, and the facts

that you had available to you just weren't enough to base a solid

opinion on. You said yourself that you made an intuitive leap and not

a rational one—you suspected, but you weren't to know, not really!

Stop blaming yourself for something that didn't even happen. I didn't

die, and it's thanks to you that I'm alive today.'

'You could have very easily died, and I led them right to you,' he

insisted stubbornly, though his hand turned under hers to grip her

tightly. She sighed with impatience.

'You weren't to know that, for heaven's sake! You were just doing a

routine search for a runaway. How were you to know that they were

just using you to find me in order to have me killed? That's ridiculous,

Mike, and you know i t ' There was no reply to that and she waited,

finally saying, 'Are you going to tell me the rest of your story?'

'Are you sure you want to hear it?' he countered, then sighed.

'Sorry—of course you do. Anyway, I realised what was going on at

that second attempt on your life—God, that was a nightmare, driving

around in circles, looking for you and going crazy. I knew that we had

no evidence to convict your guardians with and that you wouldn't be

safe until I could pinpoint them specifically for attempted murder. I

also knew that it wouldn't be long before that quick mind of yours put

everything together for yourself, and I think I know what your

reaction would have been. You'd have run away from it, believing

you could keep safe that way. I hated to think of what could have

happened to you. They wouldn't have given up, you know. They

would have kept searching for you and I—hated to see you harassed

like that. I'd begun to realise just how I'd hounded you, myself. You

had the right to your privacy and independence, no matter what your

age. I'd started to care for you very much, you see. You were no

longer just a teenage runaway who might not have enough sense or

wits to take care of you. God, I should be the first to admit just how

much wit you really have—you certainly led me on a merry chase! I'll

never have an inflated opinion of my skills as a private investigator

again!' He laughed suddenly, wryly, mouth twisted in self-mockery.

Dee had to smile at that. 'What is it?'

The look he sent her was enough to send her chuckling. It was roguish

and rueful, and somehow rakish too, with those brilliant, dancing

eyes—how she loved those eyes! 'I was so sure I'd have you back

home, repentant and safe within the first month. It was the only

reason I took the job. Then I got piqued, and then I got so intrigued by

the ingenious and inventive stunts you pulled that I was hooked! It

wasn't just a matter of professional pride that kept me after you—I

had an insatiable curiosity to know what you were really like. Every

new clue was like the unveiling of a new and complex personality,

challenging, stimulating, exciting. I was intellectually taken with

you, and after a while I was emotionally taken with you. I wanted to

see you safe and secure enough to be truly happy. So I said to myself

that I had to move quickly and get a trap set for your guardians before

you really knew what was going on. All you needed was just a little

more time— another day or two and you'd have it figured out, I

knew—and the best time for you to realise what was going on would

be just after your guardians were so convinced that they were home

free and safe that they would have absolutely no shadow of a doubt.

They had to be that secure to admit their guilt to me, and the fact that

I'd brought you to them while fully realising their real intent was

enough to convince them that I would make an excellent accomplice.

So I called Darrell and helped him set up the recording device early

this morning, they called then up to betray you to them. It worked

beautifully.' He dropped his head into his hands, briefly, saying

softly, 'I thought I was going to die.'

'And of course they weren't to know just how I escaped the second

time, and that you'd helped me. But, Mike, I still don't understand. I

still don't know why you did it. How could you do that to me?'

He rubbed his face tiredly with one hand and stared over it at a group

of chattering people walking by. She knew that he wasn't really

seeing them. 'Maybe my thinking was wrong. I don't pretend to be

right. I just did what I thought would be the best in the situation I

found myself in. I wanted your guardians to believe beyond a shadow

of a doubt that you'd been betrayed, and I didn't have the time or the

safety to test your acting abilities. No one could have acted that bitter,

stunned look in your eyes this morning. It wasn't that I didn't trust

you—I knew that you'd handle yourself well in any situation. I just

had to be sure of your guardians' reaction. Everything depended on

that, everything. If they'd doubted for one minute the utter reality of

the situation, they could have taken you away legally and gotten off

scot-free.'

He'd thought of everything. He'd been far ahead of her the whole

time. And it had been she who had betrayed him. 'So I was the one

who really didn't trust, then,' she said sadly. Mike stared at her. She

explained, 'I should have known better than to think you would have

given me to my aunt and uncle, and I should have searched for a

reason right away instead of believing the surface facts. Oh, Mike,

I'm sorry!'

'Oh, no—don't, sweetheart, please. How could you know to trust me

that way? You'd learned to trust what I told you, and I said to your

face that I'd betrayed you. And if you hadn't believed me right away,

I'd have lied and told you anything but the truth. It hurt to see you

looking so wounded! I won't forgive myself for that. Even if

everything has worked out successfully, that was terribly wrong of

me. It's I who am sorry, Dee.'

She smiled at him and put a finger to his lips. 'No more

self-accusations, please!' she murmured. 'I think we're going to have

to agree to differ on this issue, because I think I should have had more