“What?” Dismay read over her face.
He held up his hand. “Patience. Hear me out. I have turned over the corporation to Blair, to which he has agreed. He has only to sign the documents I have prepared and Teotan is his with my investment. I apologized for taking out my jealousy on him and speaking harshly to him. He apologized for an ‘immoral escapade.' Exact words.”
“What about me?”
“I thought we could go into business together. The two of us. What would you like?”
Turning to view her garden she replied, with a hint of determination and excitement, “A nursery. A wholesale business to supply the landscape architects.”
“How interesting. I thought you might pick a dress shop or a theater.”
“A nursery. It's healthier.” She beamed at him.
“So it is.”
“H., why are you relinquishing Teotan? There are other ways to buy off Blair Bainbridge.”
“The fellow doesn't have to be bought off. He doesn't remember much about that afternoon. Not uncommon with head injuries, I'm told. So let's just call it insurance . . . in case he does remember on some distant day. Besides, I think it imprudent for us to be in business with your former lover. I thought I was very clever in keeping Blair and Tommy close to me. They never suspected, I know, and I had ample time to study them. Archie, however, was a complete and dismal surprise.” He didn't admit that he figured out about Blair from hearing her answer Archie's accusation during their tryst in Archie's office. He knew from the tone of her voice.
Not missing a beat, she said, “I hated you, H. You dismissed me.”
“How did you keep all those balls in the air, forgive the pun.” He heard what she said but changed the subject.
“I've always been good at scheduling.” She stifled a laugh.
“Did you love any of them?”
“No. Blair is a sweet fellow but too languid, ultimately. And that was the briefest of affairs, H. Two weeks.”
“Tommy Van Allen?”
“A flameout. It was fading before he died.” She bit her lower lip, turning to face her husband. “I hated you and I wanted to hurt you. Don't change the subject. I wanted to hurt you, Henry. You hurt me.”
H. Vane-Tempest could withstand news, no matter how bad, as long as he was the center of it. “You succeeded.”
“I'm desperately sorry.”
“No, you're not. But you will behave and we will create a successful nursery. And I suggest you give Mrs. Woo a great deal of business, for all the trouble you've caused her.” As Sarah remained silent he continued. “The reason you'll behave, Sarah, is that I changed my will just now. If my death is in any way suspicious you inherit nothing. Nothing. You do understand?”
“I understand that you will live a long and healthy life.” She kissed him on the cheek.
“You had pluck trying to kill me. I underestimated you, undervalued you. That won't happen again.”
“You killed Tommy Van Allen, didn't you?”
He shrugged. “I doubt Rick Shaw will solve that crime.”
“Henry, I know you . . .”
“Tommy Van Allen was an impulsive fool. He had enough cocaine in his bloodstream to kill three people. The rest was window dressing.” He neglected to mention that he had shot the cocaine into Tommy's veins. Cocaine was ridiculously easy to get in this wealthy county. She stuck her thumb in the waistband of her wraparound skirt. “Teotan is, I should think, generous recompense to Blair.” She paused. “Do you think the county will buy the well water?”
“I do. I think Blair will become a wealthy man, not serious money, but some money.”
Sarah laughed, because in her husband's world, less than ten million dollars qualified as some money.
He kissed her lightly on the mouth. “I'm going to lose forty pounds. I've let myself go.” He kept to himself the daily shots of testosterone he would be taking. Some things were best left unsaid.
As for putting Tommy's bomber jacket in Herb Jones's truck, and the handcuffs in Archie's van—no one had even found those, more's the pity—he did that for the sheer devilment of it. It was exciting to watch everyone come unglued.
The presence of Sarah's black Jaguar at Blair Bainbridge's still bothered the police. But Vane-Tempest had crawled to the top of the heap by understanding people in a cynical fashion. If the police had a solution that the public accepted, then what was one odd piece that didn't fit into the puzzle? They could prove nothing against Sarah or him.
He knew Sarah had been in the plane with Tommy. He had gotten up in the middle of the night, called Tommy to meet him at the food plant under the pretext of a Teotan emergency, shot him, and loaded him with cocaine. It took all of fifteen minutes. He was home in bed by three o'clock, with no one the wiser. Planting cocaine and a locker storage ticket in Tommy's car was child's play. Faking a set of accounting books was easy, too. He'd run numbers off his computer, then put them into a leather binder.
As for himself, he didn't fear Sarah. This episode, as he chose to consider it, only whetted his appetite for her. He saw her now for what she was, a tiger. And so was he.
61
Harry and Miranda sat on two chairs next to Blair's bed. Each woman had visited him two and three times a day since his shooting.
“Is any memory coming back at all?” Miranda politely inquired.
“No,” he truthfully replied. “But the doctor said bits and pieces may come back to me. Then again, I may never remember. The last thing I remember—and it's so stupid—is I heard a car come up the driveway. I opened the back screened door and I tripped. Just took a mistep. That's all I can remember.”
“You must be tired of everyone asking you.” Harry smiled. “You look good.”
“I feel pretty good. The swelling is down. Doc wants me to wait a few more days to be certain. I'll tell you what's driving me crazy.” He pointed to the bandages on his head. “My scalp itches like poison ivy. I can't scratch it.”
“Means it's healing.” Miranda patted his hand. “You'll be back to good health in no time. Thank you, Jesus.” She closed her eyes in fervent prayer.
“Yes. I have been very lucky.” Blair's eyes misted. “Thank God for you, Harry.”
“You've thanked me enough already.” Harry warmly smiled.
“And Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker.” Blair smiled broadly.
“Yes.” Harry hadn't told him or anyone the full extent of their efforts. She knew no one would believe her.
“Maybe it's better not to remember. You and Archie had been friends.” Miranda assumed Blair's attacker had been Archie.
“I just don't know, Miranda. I don't know if it's better to know or not to know and there's not much I can do about it. I'm just so grateful to be alive.” He stopped as his eyes filled with tears, and Harry's and Miranda's eyes filled also.
62
Miranda's hand flew to her face. “I hate to hear about drug deals. I so liked Tommy.”
Cynthia, in regulation sunglasses, continued her story. “He must have brought the stuff in by private plane after picking it up in Florida or from local airports closer by. You know those training runs that Tommy used to do? They weren't training runs.”
“Good job,” Miranda congratulated her.
“We've got the records. That's the real break. We found cocaine and a locker ticket from the bus station in Tommy's Porsche. So we went over to the bus station, of course, opened the locker, and that's where the accounting books were.”
“How about that?” Tucker watched people drive by the post office. Spring worked its magic on everyone. People were smiling.
It galled Cynthia that Blair could not remember whoever shot him. The bullet had never been found—the sign of a careful killer. She knew the other shoe hadn't dropped and she suspected H. Vane-Tempest. Whatever her suspicions might be, suspicions weren't facts, and Blair's doctors confirmed he could have “lost” the hours leading up to his being shot. She sighed. “How is Blair today?”