Kitabı oku: «His New Nanny», sayfa 3

“You don’t think he’s innocent?” Amanda asked.

“I adore Sawyer. I think he’s a good man, but even a good man could have been pushed to extremes by Erica.” She laughed drily. “There were times I wanted to throttle her.” Her laugh strangled in her throat as tears once again filled her eyes.

Amanda wasn’t sure how to respond and thankfully at that time Melanie reappeared in the doorway, a platter of freshly baked cookies in her hands.

“Ah, I see the tea party is about to begin,” Lillian said. “You two go ahead. I just stopped by to see how you were getting along.”

Amanda walked with her to the bedroom door. “We’re doing fine.”

Lillian placed a hand on Amanda’s forearm. “Why don’t we do lunch on Saturday? I’d love to show you around, and I imagine Sawyer is planning on being home for the day.”

“He hasn’t told me his plans for the weekend,” Amanda replied. “He mentioned I should have weekends off. If that’s the case, I’d like to have lunch.” It would be nice to have a woman friend, somebody she could talk to, perhaps confide in. It would also be nice to see a little bit of the town whose name implied bewitchment.

“Great, I’ll call you and we can firm up the plans.” She smiled at Melanie. “Aunt Lilly will see you later, okay, sweetheart?”

Melanie nodded, and with a wave of her fingers, Lillian left the room.

The tea party was a success, but as Amanda played pretend with Melanie she couldn’t help but think about what little Lillian had told her. Erica had been sleeping with somebody at the time of her death, somebody who had gotten her pregnant. Was it possible that that somebody had killed Erica so that the secret affair would never see the light of day?

Sawyer was home in time for dinner, and as they shared the evening meal Amanda mentioned to him Lillian’s visit and the question about the weekend plans.

“I’ll be home all day Saturday so you’re free to take off and have lunch with Lillian or whatever,” he said. He was still dressed in his business clothes and looked unbelievably attractive. He’d shucked his suit jacket and had his white shirtsleeves rolled up to expose his muscled forearms.

He smiled at his daughter. “I’m sure we can find something to occupy ourselves, right, sweetie?” Melanie nodded and gazed at her father with adoring eyes.

Could she have seen her father stab her mother to death, then shove her into the murky swamp water and still look at him as if he hung the moon?

Amanda reminded herself that it wasn’t her place to discern whether Sawyer Bennett was guilty or not. Her job was to take care of Melanie. Nothing more, nothing less.

Melanie had just been excused from the table to go upstairs to her room when a knock sounded at the door. A moment later Helen ushered in a tall, dark-haired man wearing the brown uniform of the local sheriff.

“Lucas,” Sawyer said and stood.

“Evening, Sawyer.” He looked curiously at Amanda.

“This is Amanda Rockport, my new nanny,” Sawyer replied.

“Sorry to intrude,” Lucas said. He directed his focus back to Sawyer. “We need to talk.”

“So talk,” Sawyer replied and sat back down. He gestured to the chair Melanie had vacated.

“You might want to discuss this in private.” Lucas shifted from foot to foot.

“If this has something to do with Erica’s murder investigation, then I have nothing to hide from Amanda. If you don’t need the privacy, then I don’t. Take a load off, Lucas, and tell me why you’re here.”

Amanda watched as Lucas folded his long body into the chair. The tension between the two men was palpable in the air, and Amanda didn’t know whether she should excuse herself or not.

“I’ve got pressure, Sawyer, pressure to make an arrest,” Lucas said.

“Then find the person responsible and do it,” Sawyer replied smoothly.

Lucas rubbed the center of his forehead with two fingers, as if fighting a headache. “I’m doing my best, but I’ve got no other viable suspects, nothing to go on and all fingers pointing at you.”

“Then arrest me.” Sawyer’s voice was deep, filled with suppressed emotion.

A knot of apprehension twisted in Amanda’s stomach, a knot formed by more than a little bit of selfish need. She didn’t want Sawyer arrested. If that happened she’d be out of a job and she didn’t want to go through the process of finding another one. Besides, even though it had only been two days, she’d grown incredibly attached to Melanie.

“Ah, hell, Sawyer, I’ve known you all my life. I know you aren’t a killer.” Lucas dropped his hand from his forehead, his dark eyes pained. “But I just wanted to let you know that the pressure is on and I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to stop the inevitable.”

Sawyer held his friend’s gaze for a long moment. “I don’t want you to jeopardize your position because of friendship.”

“I’ll try to buy you some more time, but I thought you should know that unless we can find a decent lead to follow or a person of interest to investigate, the mayor and the DA are going to push for your arrest.” He stood and Sawyer rose, as well.

“I’ll see you out.”

As Sawyer and the sheriff left the dining room, Amanda tried to still the beating of her heart. So, the noose was tightening around Sawyer.

If he went to jail, she supposed Lillian and James would take Melanie, and Amanda would be forced to return to Kansas City.

And what will you do there? a little voice whispered in her head. Fall back into the dark depression that you suffered before you took this job? She thought of the reason she’d been forced to resign from the job she had loved, remembered all the people who had distanced themselves from her, people she’d thought had been her friends.

She couldn’t go back there. She’d have to start all over someplace else. She was jolted out of her self-absorbed pity party as she thought of Melanie.

She’d lost her mother, and if Sawyer were arrested she would lose her father. No matter how close the child felt to the Cordells, it wouldn’t be the same as having a parent to raise her.

Amanda’s heart ached for her. She knew what it was like to grow up without parents. An aunt and uncle had raised her and Johnny when their parents had died in a car accident. As loving as her aunt and uncle had been, it hadn’t been the same as being raised by loving parents.

Melanie needed her daddy, more than ever now, and Amanda needed this job. She was pulled from her thoughts as Sawyer returned to the living room.

While Lucas had been present, Sawyer had appeared relaxed, but now his lips were nothing more than a thin slash in a face taut with strain.

He sat in his chair and looked at her, his dark green eyes empty and hollow. “Time is running out for me. Eventually Lucas will have to make an arrest, and I’m the only suspect around. I’ve got to find out who Erica was having an affair with before her death, because my gut tells me that’s who murdered her.”

“Can I do anything to help?”

His features relaxed a bit and he looked at her thoughtfully. “Maybe. Tonight after Melanie goes to bed I’m going to search Erica’s room again and see if I can find anything that might give me some answers. Maybe you’ll see something that I missed before, something that the authorities didn’t notice when they searched.”

“Sure, I’ll help you look,” she agreed.

“Come to my office after Melanie is asleep and we’ll get started then.” Some of the stress lines smoothed out as he stood once again. “And now I’m going to find my daughter and play a game with her. I’d better spend every moment possible with her in case…” He frowned and allowed his words to fall away, then left the dining room.

Amanda grabbed her napkin from her lap and placed it on the table next to her plate, her heart throbbing with anxiety. What on earth had she stepped into? And why, despite all the evidence to the contrary did her heart tell her that Sawyer wasn’t guilty?

She could only hope that she and Sawyer found something tonight in the dead woman’s belongings, something that pointed to the real guilty party.

Chapter Four

Melanie was asleep by eight-thirty. By the illumination of the night-light Amanda could see the slight puff of her little lips with each exhale. She fought the impulse to lean over and swipe a strand of the little girl’s hair away from her cheek.

She was falling in love with Melanie. In the two days she’d been with her, the little girl had managed to crawl into Amanda’s heart like no other child had ever done before.

Maybe it was because Melanie was so needy, locked inside herself by a terrible trauma. Or perhaps it was the fact that somehow, deep inside, Amanda thought that if she could help Melanie, if she could save Melanie, it would take away the memory of Bobby Miller.

She shoved the painful thoughts of Bobby aside and left Melanie’s room. As she walked down the massive staircase, she found herself wondering why Sawyer didn’t have more household help. Certainly he could afford it. Helen and George were the only two people she’d seen, but she knew the house and the estate were too large for two people to care for.

And what about Melanie’s friends? Didn’t she have schoolmates who she might like to see? Little friends who not only might manage to make her giggle, but also might prompt her to talk? She made a note to herself to ask Sawyer about Melanie’s friends.

Now that Melanie was asleep, it was time for her to meet Sawyer in his office, time for them to go through a dead woman’s things to try to find some hint of who might be responsible for her murder.

She found Sawyer seated at his desk, the faint scent of good Scotch lingering in the air. He held up a glass. “Would you like one?”

She shook her head. “No, thanks, I’m not much of a drinker.”

He stared at the amber liquid. “I wasn’t until Erica’s death.” He drained the glass, then stood. “I realize I’m asking you to do something that has nothing to do with the duties I hired you for.”

She preceded him out of the office and headed for the stairs. “I don’t mind. I understand how important this is.”

“It’s not just my life we’re talking about, but it’s Melanie’s, as well.” His voice radiated suppressed emotion, and Amanda was grateful he was behind her and she couldn’t see the pain she knew darkened his eyes.

She had absolutely no reason to trust this man, no concrete reason to believe in his innocence, except the fact that she believed, in her heart, in her soul, that he had not committed the crime. Maybe she was crazy to be so sure. She certainly felt no fear of him, nothing to make her wary.

Still, the situation was heartbreaking. A man facing murder charges and a little girl at risk of losing the only parent she had left. Somehow the fact that Amanda would be without a job if Sawyer went to jail paled in comparison to the price Melanie would pay.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she stopped and let Sawyer take the lead. He didn’t take her to the end of the hall where she knew the master suite was, but rather opened the bedroom door that had been closed since Amanda had arrived at the house.

“Erica didn’t share my bedroom,” he said, and ushered her into a room that was a pink riot of ruffles and lace. Clothes were strewn everywhere and makeup and jewelry cluttered the top of a vanity dresser. “As you can see, she wasn’t into housekeeping, and the sheriff and his men weren’t exactly neat when they searched. I haven’t had anything done in here since…” His voice trailed off.

Erica wasn’t “into” housekeeping. She wasn’t into mothering and obviously she wasn’t into being faithful. Erica couldn’t be more alien to Amanda. She looked at Sawyer, wondering what was going through his mind as he looked at the bed where his wife had slept and the clothes she’d worn before her death.

His features were a stoic mask, giving nothing away of his internal thoughts. “The authorities searched here immediately after Erica was found, but they found nothing they thought might be important to the case.” The mask slipped slightly, and a fire of anger shone from his eyes. “I think most of the investigators had already come to the mistaken conclusion that I was their man.”

“Then let’s find something that proves them wrong,” she replied.

The anger in his eyes faded and a hint of gratitude took its place. “Why don’t I start in the closet and you can go through the drawers.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she agreed.

As he disappeared into the walk-in closet, she went to the dresser and pulled out the top drawer. It contained panties and bras, little wisps of colorful material that Amanda couldn’t imagine fitting a grown woman. It somehow felt obscene, digging into items that had belonged to another woman, a woman who was no longer among the living.

If Amanda died and anyone went through her underwear drawer, all they would find would be white cotton underpants and sturdy, no-nonsense bras.

For about a half an hour, she and Sawyer worked in silence. The sound of him pulling things off shelves and opening boxes drifted from the closet, but other than that he didn’t make a sound.

The dresser yielded nothing but clothes. She took each drawer out and checked beneath to make sure there was nothing hidden on the bottom or inside the dresser.

When she was finished with the dresser, she moved to the vanity. Makeup, hand and body lotions and perfumes filled the two drawers. A jewelry box spilled its contents over the top of the vanity. Sparkling bracelets and necklaces competed with cocktail rings and shiny earrings. But there was nothing there to point a finger at a killer.

By the time she’d gone through those drawers, Sawyer stepped out of the closet, an expression of defeat on his handsome features.

“Nothing. I didn’t find anything that might be helpful.” He sat on the edge of the bed.

Amanda remained seated on the vanity stool. “I didn’t find anything, either. Is there anyplace else we could look? Anyplace else in the house where she might have kept private things?”

He leaned forward and covered his face with his hands, his shoulders slumped in obvious defeat. “I don’t know.” He straightened up and dropped his hands to his side. “It seems I knew less about the woman I was married to than I thought I did.” He looked around the room, then gazed back at Amanda.

“I was going to divorce her. I’d finally made up my mind. I’d stayed for Melanie’s sake but had come to the conclusion that Melanie would be better off coming from a broken home, rather than living in one. Then Erica was murdered.”

“You didn’t love her anymore?” Amanda asked. There was something contemplative in his expression, something that made her think he needed to talk.

He smiled wryly. “I’m not sure I ever truly loved Erica. It was definitely lust at first sight, and she fascinated me. She was unlike any woman I’d ever known before. She was unpredictable and passionate about life. She got pregnant with Melanie almost immediately and we got married.”

He looked around the room, then back at her. “Deep inside, I knew we’d made a mistake, that we had different ideas about marriage, about love. But then Melanie came and I hoped Erica would finally settle down.” He sighed. “I was wrong. What about you? Left some broken hearts in your path?”

She smiled and shook her head. “I’m certainly not the kind of woman to leave broken hearts behind.”

He tilted his head, his gaze intent as it lingered on her. “Now, why would you say something like that about yourself?”

She laughed self-consciously. “I’m not particularly fascinating. I don’t stir great passion in anyone.” She averted her gaze and tried not to think about the one person she’d apparently stirred something in, a young boy who had wound up dead.

“On the contrary,” Sawyer said, and she looked back at him. “I find several things about you quite fascinating.”

The air in the room seemed to thin, making it more difficult for her to catch her breath. “Like what?” she managed to ask.

He stood, walked over to her and held out his hand. “Let’s get out of here. This room reeks of unhappiness.”

She placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her out into the hallway. He dropped her hand when they reached the stairs, and she followed him down and into the living room.

He opened the French doors that led out to the patio. “How about we step outside and get a breath of fresh air?”

She followed him outside where the sultry night air closed in around them and the scent of flowers mingled with the underlying odor of thick vegetation.

Insects buzzed and clicked from the swamp and occasionally a ripple sounded from the water as some creature entered or exited the murky depths.

He stood close enough to her that she could smell him, a hint of minty soap and a spicy cologne. “Erica was wild and crazy and many men found her fascinating. But I find your calm composure intriguing. I find your gentleness with my daughter charming.”

Once again the air seemed to be too insubstantial to fill her lungs. Was he trying to charm her? To manipulate her so she’d be on his side in the mess that had become his life?

He took several steps away from her and stared up at the moon that hung low and plump in the sky. “Johnny used to talk about you a lot in college, his little sister who seemed to have her life more together than he ever hoped to have.”

She smiled, her heart swelling as she thought of her brother. “Johnny can’t seem to find his place in life.”

“And you’ve found yours?” His green eyes glittered in the moonlight.

“I thought I had.” He waited, as if expecting her to go on, but she couldn’t tell him what had thrown her off track, what tragic event had reshaped her life. She wasn’t ready to talk about that. “Life has a way of throwing curveballs that sometimes make you change your path.”

He laughed without humor. “Tell me about it.”

“What made you and your friends choose a college in Missouri to attend?” she asked, wanting a change in the subject.

“Riverhead College is a prestigious private school. At the time, my friends and I wanted to get out of Conja Creek, away from the swamps and our parents, and we decided to go there.”

“The Brotherhood,” she said softly. “Johnny was thrilled when you all accepted him into your fold. He was there on a working scholarship and was convinced he’d be miserable, but you guys made his college experience some of the best years of his life.”

His smile softened his features and made him impossibly handsome. “They were some of the best years for all of us, and Johnny is a terrific guy.”

“You’re an architect and I know Lucas is the sheriff. What happened to the other members of the Brotherhood?” she asked curiously.

“Jackson Burdeaux is a successful defense attorney who has offices both here in town and in Baton Rouge. Clay Jefferson is a psychiatrist and I’ve lost track of Beau. He left town a couple years ago and nobody has heard from him since.”

She knew what he was doing…talking about anything and everything except the fact that the sheriff had told him he was running out of time.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked softly.

Once again he stared up at the moon, as if seeking answers that would make sense of everything. He sighed, then looked at her. “Up until now I placed my trust, my faith in Lucas. I felt confident that he’d be able to find out who was responsible for Erica’s death. He’s a smart man, a good sheriff, and I just assumed he’d solve this crime without any problems.”

“But that’s not happened.”

“I know. And I think if I’m going to stay out of jail it’s time I do a little sleuthing on my own.”

She frowned at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

“I need to go where Erica went, to the clubs where she hung out. I need to meet the people she knew, people who might know who she was sleeping with at the time of her death.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “Why don’t you come with me? Maybe people would be more apt to talk to you than to me. We could go Saturday night. I’ll get Lillian to sit with Melanie.”

There was a part of her that knew she was getting in too deep, going places she’d never imagined she’d go when she’d taken this job. But the appeal on his face was intense, and she found herself nodding her assent.

In the distance a thrashing in the water followed a small-animal scream. Amanda shivered and wondered what exactly she’d gotten herself into.

SATURDAY MORNING Amanda, Sawyer and Melanie were seated at breakfast when the doorbell rang. A moment later Helen ushered in a tall, husky blond man Sawyer introduced as Adam Kincaid, his business partner.

“Ah, the lovely Amanda,” Adam exclaimed, his blue eyes twinkling with a charming flirtatiousness. “Sawyer has been singing your praises since the day you started working.”

“Sit down, Adam, and don’t overwork that Southern charm of yours,” Sawyer said drily.

“Ah, but working my charm is what I do best,” he replied, and winked at Amanda. He sat in the chair next to Melanie and leaned over and pretended to pull a quarter from her ear.

Melanie took the quarter with a smile, then looked expectantly at her father. “Yes, you can be excused,” he said.

With another smile directed at Amanda, she flew from the room. Sawyer had told his daughter that as soon as she cleaned her room, he’d take her into town to buy her something special.

Officially it was Amanda’s day off, and Lillian was picking her up to take her to lunch. Then this evening she and Sawyer were going out to see if they could discover anything about who Erica might have been seeing at the time of her death.

Adam reached forward and grabbed one of the biscuits from the platter. “Nobody makes biscuits like Helen.” He broke it in two and grabbed Sawyer’s knife to spread some butter.

“You’ll have to excuse my partner,” Sawyer said. “He often shows up on Saturday mornings to mooch breakfast.”

At that moment Helen came through the door carrying a plate of bacon and eggs and a cup of coffee. She placed them in front of Adam, who smiled up at her. “Ah, the lovely Helen. You light up my morning with your smile.”

She scowled at him. “And you are as full of it as you ever were.”

“You wound me,” Adam exclaimed.

She sniffed indignantly and left the room.

“Of all the household help you kept, I’ll never understand why you decided to keep that sour woman,” Adam observed.

“Because she’s the only help who was loyal to me, the only one who stayed after Erica’s death,” Sawyer replied. “Besides, she adores Melanie, and Melanie loves her.”

Amanda digested this information. It went a long way in explaining why there were no other people working in the house. Apparently, most of them had left when Erica had been murdered. She’d asked Sawyer about Melanie’s school friends earlier that morning, and he’d told her that he’d intentionally kept his daughter isolated since her mother’s death, afraid of the gossip she might hear if she went visiting at any of her friends’ homes.

Adam looked at Amanda. “I guess you know what’s happened with Erica and everything. Hell of a mess our boy here has found himself in.” He turned his attention back to Sawyer. “Just say the word. I’ll buy you out and you can leave the country.”

Sawyer raised one of his dark eyebrows. “And why would I want to do that? I’m innocent.”

“Lots of innocent men have spent a lifetime behind bars,” Adam replied.

“Thanks for reminding me,” Sawyer replied.

“I just want you to be prepared for anything the future might bring,” Adam said. He turned his attention to Amanda and for the next few minutes he asked her questions about where she’d come from and how she liked Louisiana.

When the talk turned to their latest building project, Amanda excused herself and went up to find Melanie. Amanda stood in the doorway between the two rooms and watched Melanie put her toys in the toy chest.

“You’re doing a terrific job,” she said. “Your daddy will be proud of how clean you’ve made your room.”

Melanie smiled and continued finishing up as Amanda got ready for her lunch date with Lillian. She was looking forward to some girl chat, something to keep her mind off the night ahead.

Tonight she and Sawyer were leaving the house at nine to explore Erica’s world. In the three days since they’d searched Erica’s room, they had fallen into the routine of spending the evenings together.

After Melanie fell asleep, Amanda would join him either at the kitchen table or on the patio for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Once they’d walked out to the dock where Sawyer seemed to draw strength from the wildness of the surroundings.

During those late evenings, they’d talked about everything…except Erica’s murder and the reason Amanda had resigned from her previous job.

Each and every moment she spent in his presence heightened the simmering tension she felt inside, a tension she recognized as sexual. But more than that, she found herself drawn to him on levels that had nothing to do with desire.

She perceived a core sense of loneliness inside him, one that spoke to a similar emotion in her. She’d been lonely for most of her life and she had the feeling that, despite his marriage, he’d been lonely, as well.

She had to keep reminding herself that he was a man whose life was in turmoil and that there was no place for her in it other than as his daughter’s nanny. But there had been several times in the past week when it would have been easy to forget that fact, when his gaze had lingered on her longer than necessary, when she’d felt a need radiating from him that she wanted to fill.

Sawyer and Melanie left for their trip into town around eleven and at noon Lillian arrived to pick up Amanda. Within minutes the two were in her car heading for the downtown area of Conja Creek.

“I guess there’s been no change with Melanie? She still isn’t talking?” Lillian asked as she maneuvered the narrow road.

“No, no change.” Amanda fought a wave of depression, then reminded herself that time was the only thing that would heal Melanie. “She’s a sweetheart even if she isn’t talking. I put up a dry-erase board in her room so she’s communicating some by writing on it.”

“She’s a little doll. I’m not sure Erica realized just how lucky she was.”

“Sawyer told me he was going to divorce her,” Amanda said.

Lillian sighed. “I’m not surprised. If he had, Erica probably would have made his life a living hell.”

As they entered the quaint town of Conja Creek, Lillian began to point out various stores she liked and didn’t like. “There’s Linda’s Hair and Nails. Stay away from there. Linda likes to do things her way and she has an odd sense of style. Go to the Curl Boutique. It’s down the street.”

By the time they reached the Bayou Kitchen, the restaurant where they would be having lunch, Amanda knew where to buy her clothes, the best places to eat and where to go to purchase the latest fashions in shoes.

“It’s not New York, but there’s enough old money here that the shops are higher quality than most Southern small towns.” Lillian pulled into the parking space in front of the restaurant and shut off the engine. “This is my favorite place to eat around here. Most of the items on the menu are so not on my diet, but I indulge at least once a week.”

Amanda smiled. There wasn’t a spare ounce of flesh on Lillian’s body. However, Amanda always had ten pounds she was trying to take off. But once they were seated at the table inside, she decided to throw caution to the wind and ordered a platter of deep-fried shrimp and fries. Lillian ordered shrimp scampi, and as they ate she talked about the people of Conja Creek.

“Old money, that’s what built Conja Creek. There were a dozen families who were the founders, each one wealthier than the other. Sawyer and his high-school buddies all came from those families, but you’d never know it. From what Erica told me, in college those guys all agreed to work at giving back to society or some such nonsense.”

“I find that admirable,” Amanda replied.

Lillian smiled. “Well, of course it is, but it sure aggravated Erica. She used to complain that, other than the house where they lived, Sawyer didn’t act like he was wealthy. I think she married him with visions of trips to Europe and shopping sprees in Paris.”

“From what I’ve seen in her bedroom, Sawyer was very generous.” Amanda picked up one of the last of her shrimp. When she looked at Lillian once again the woman was staring at her with a look of speculation. “What? What’s wrong.”

“Amanda, you seem like a nice woman. I’d hate to see you get involved on any kind of personal level with Sawyer. He’s a man who has just lost his wife, a man on the rebound, and you’re a pretty little convenience.”

The warmth of a blush swept over Amanda’s face. “I have no intention of getting involved with Sawyer. I’m his daughter’s nanny, nothing more.”

Lillian stabbed a shrimp with her fork. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt. As far as I’m concerned the only thing worse than death is falling in love with the wrong man.”

“Been there, done that,” Amanda replied, her thoughts drifting back in time to the man she’d thought had loved her, but who had run at the first sign of trouble. It didn’t hurt anymore to think about Scott, and that made her wonder just how deep her love for him had been.

“What’s this I hear about you and Sawyer going out tonight to try to find out something about Erica? He’s bringing Melanie to my house at eight to spend the night and told me you and he were going to go hunting for her lover.”

“That’s the plan,” Amanda said, and her heart quickened slightly. She told herself it had nothing to do with the thought of spending the evening alone in Sawyer’s company. Surely her racing heart had to do with the fact that they were seeking a murderer.