Chapter Twelve
Showtime. Adam walked up the stairs to the second floor of the Fielding Mansion marveling at the butterflies in his stomach. He was never nervous when playing a role. Hell, before Jess, he’d spent more time undercover than not.
Of course, there was a lot more at stake this time. He wasn’t trying to just blend in with the crowd or establish a cover. This time he was after justice for an old friend. He straightened his shoulders and pasted a relaxed expression on his face. He needed to strike the exact right balance with Helen. Sure, he was going in on the pretext of blackmailing her, but he also needed to be charming and entice her into confiding in him.
“Act like you did the second night we met,” Jess had said dryly. “You blackmailed me that night, but I still kind of liked you.” Adam laughed. He remembered that particular evening quite well. He’d ambushed her, flirted with her, blackmailed her...and walked away already half-obsessed with her.
The mansion was very quiet tonight. Due to the Labor Day holiday, all the staff was off. A quick stroll through the first floor had proven all the rooms were empty, so he assumed Helen was alone in the master bedroom.
Todd was pretending to be in his office in the tasting room. After a long pep talk, he’d finally answered one of Helen’s calls and done his own bit of acting. “I’m sick, Helen. Really sick. Stomach flu. I’m going to take a sleeping pill and knock myself out on the couch in my office. Don’t come find me. It’s probably contagious.” Adam had to give it to Todd. He’d knocked the conversation out of the park. He sounded miserable and very ill. He supposed Todd wasn’t really acting, though. The man was awfully heartsick.
Although Helen had cooed and made noises about contacting a doctor, she hadn’t ventured out to the office to check on him, and she certainly hadn’t contacted a medical professional. Given the timing, she clearly thought he was in Stage 2 of the amatoxin poisoning. She wouldn’t want him anywhere near blood work until the destruction of his kidneys and liver was too far gone for medical attention.
In reality, Todd was at the local police station. It had taken some groveling (and a promised hefty donation) to get the police to listen and agree to what he wanted to do, but at this moment Todd was now sitting in a conference room with his lawyer and two detectives gathered around a laptop. A laptop installed with the audio transmission software connected to the microphone on Adam’s cell phone.
Maybe that was another reason he was nervous. He didn’t usually perform for an audience.
He hadn’t liked Jess’s idea at first. The idea of being recorded by law enforcement was actually kind of terrifying. Especially because he had no intention of being some sort of witness in a trial. But Jess had convinced him. “Let’s get her to say what we need. Then the cops and lawyers and Todd will figure out how to handle the rest. There’s a delay in the transmission. As soon as she mentions where the body is, we’ll run. Even if the cops head here immediately, we’ll be gone.”
So now Jess sat in their rental car on the driveway, waiting to run and no doubt listening on her own laptop. He didn’t like the idea of her being anywhere near Helen, but it also felt surprisingly nice to have someone there with him on such an important job. Someone who 100% had his back. A wry smile formed on his lips. He was getting better at this partner thing.
The plush carpeting on the second floor muffled his footsteps as he walked toward the master suite. The doors were open and he caught his first glimpse of Helen. A small suitcase was open on the enormous bed and she appeared to be unpacking from her visit to the spa. She wore tailored white pants and a matching white cashmere turtleneck sweater. Her silky black hair fell in a straight curtain to her elbows. Not for the first time, Adam felt a twinge of sympathy for Todd. To believe that such a beautiful woman loved and liked him...and then to find out this horrible truth.
He rapped on the door frame with his knuckles. “G’d evening.” He overplayed the Australian slant to the words.
Helen paused, her eyes widening. She gave him a tight smile, clearly not pleased to find one of Todd’s loud friends wandering through her home. “Oh. Chase. If you’re looking for Todd, he’s a little under the weather tonight.”
Leaning against the door frame, Adam crossed his arms, smirked a little, and dropped the Australian accent completely. “Interesting. My old acquaintance Celeste told me she wouldn’t be surprised if something unfortunate happened to Todd.”
There was a long moment as Helen’s facial features froze and she placed the clothes in her hands on the bed. Adam could almost hear the gears cranking in her head as she tried to assess the situation.
Finally, she crossed her own arms, mimicking his posture. “Your Australian accent always did sound a little off to me.”
He threw her a mock pout. “Most people I interact with think it’s perfect.”
She tilted her head to one side, unimpressed. “Most people you interact with haven’t spent years in the Pacific Rim.”
He laughed and gave a deferential nod. “True. I’ll work on it.”
She ran her eyes over the length of him, probably looking for a weapon or any other threat. “You’re an acquaintance of Celeste’s? Same line of business?”
He entered the room slowly, not wanting to spook her. There was an antique dressing table in the corner on the opposite wall. He crossed the room and perched on its stool. “Indeed. When I saw her at your party on Thursday night, I realized we had a conflict. Took her for a turn on the dance floor to get to the bottom of things. I assumed that while I’d been working Todd to get close to the Scarlet, she’d been working you. Imagine my shock when she told me you were actually partners and that you all were taking the necklace on Saturday night.”
Helen didn’t say a word, which was the right tactic. Other than Celeste’s body, she knew she’d left no tangible evidence of the plotted theft or Todd’s poisoning. Until Adam proved he knew something damaging, her best course of action was to stay silent.
He shrugged. “The thing is, I haven’t seen Celeste since and I haven’t heard anything about a major jewel theft at the party, so I suspect things didn’t go as she expected.”
Helen kept her lips closed. Her eyes were watchful but not particularly concerned. That was about to change.
Adam upped the ante. “Celeste told me you were a bit more than she’d bargained for and that you despised Todd. Interesting coincidence that he’s sick now.” He grinned at her. “Doesn’t matter to me, of course. Not if the price is right.”
Helen laughed and pushed her long hair behind her ears. Giving him a condescending smile, she walked to an open armoire at the opposite side of the room, putting the king-size bed between them. “You’re blackmailing me? Ridiculous. I haven’t done anything and there’s no evidence I did.”
“True,” he answered easily. “Which is why I’m only going to ask for the Scarlet.” She snorted, but he continued. “You’re right. I have no proof. But I could make things very unpleasant around here if Todd dies. Everyone knows we’re friends. I could say he confided in me that he was scared of you.”
She lifted a skeptical eyebrow.
“Or,” he said, “I could take him to the hospital right now. I’m pretty sure an excellent medical center could figure out what’s wrong with him.”
Her eyes flashed and then narrowed. Good—she didn’t like that at all.
“Aha!” he crowed. “Not a fan of that idea, are you? Not after you’ve worked so long, and—” he looked down pointedly at Helen and Todd’s bed “—ahem, worked so hard.”
Her calm demeanor turned furious in the blink of an eye. No woman liked to be called a whore.
He held up his hands, changing his face to wear an earnest expression and his voice to carry a tone of sincerity. “That was shitty, I’m sorry. No judgment, here. Truly. I’ve obviously done my share of unsavory things in my line of work.” He lowered his voice, averted his eyes for a second. “I get it. Hell, you should have seen some of the women I’ve had to, ah, befriend in order to survive.” Not true, that, and he hoped Jess knew it. Otherwise, he hated to imagine that conversation.
After a long moment of silence, she spoke. “So if I give you the Scarlet, you’ll go?”
“Forever,” he answered. “It’s all I was ever here for, you know.”
Helen’s brow smoothed. She turned and pushed aside some clothes in the armoire to reveal a small safe. Automatically, Adam noted the make and model. It was top of the line. If the stars had aligned completely differently on this whole job, he and Jess would have had to hire outside help to break into it.
As Helen fussed with the combination, Adam said, “I don’t understand why you got mixed up with Celeste anyway.” He’d honestly wondered about it all day.
“You got this great setup all on your own. Trust me, I know what kind of planning and strategy and fucking patience that takes. You landed it perfectly.” He hoped he wasn’t overdoing the flattery. But playing to someone’s vanity—and more important, giving someone the opportunity to talk truthfully—was a powerful weapon. To people who lived a lie round the clock, having a chance to take off the mask could be unexpectedly cathartic.
“So why’d you even involve her?” He flavored the her with a perfect blend of scorn and dismissal. Helen was quiet as she pulled the necklace out of the safe. Shit. She wasn’t taking the bait.
But then, mercifully, she smiled a little. “Originally, this was going to be a short-term thing. I just wanted out of Tokyo on Todd’s dime. I figured I’d siphon cash off him for a few months and then get a big payout from selling the Scarlet. I didn’t have the right connections over here to fence it, though. I needed Celeste.”
Okay, that made sense. “What changed?”
Helen smiled bigger. “I like California. I like the wine community and being part of its elite. I even like this house.”
Adam smiled along with her. He threw her a wink. “You just don’t like Todd.”
Her smile disappeared and she rolled her eyes sharply to the ceiling. “He’s disgusting. All the money in the world and zero sophistication, zero refinement. He’s a bull and the world is his china shop. I can’t stand being in public with him.” She waved her hand around the exquisite master suite. “The only thing worse is being in private.”
Inwardly, Adam winced, picturing Todd hearing these comments at the police station. She wasn’t done. “Maybe I could have put up with him if I respected his business decisions. But he makes stupid calls. He’s probably going to run the winery into the ground with all his bleeding heart decisions. I’m his wife and his business partner, and he didn’t even think to consult me before he gave away half the Miracle Fields to Lyons.” She huffed, an expression that made her look about sixteen years old. Well, a sixteen-year-old with black flinty eyes.
He nodded at her in sympathy and commendation. “Well done, you. He’s a fool and a disrespectful one at that. Good riddance. Wish you all the best.” With a cheeky smile, he stood and reached his hand over the bed. “The Scarlet?”
She tossed it on the bed. He picked it up. “Gorgeous.” Turning toward the door, he paused. “Wait. How’d you leave things with Celeste? I don’t have her connections—it’s going to take me a few weeks to fence this. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder the whole time. Did you pay her a cut for it or something?”
She stared at him, her black eyes flat. “Or something.”
He feigned irritation. “That bitch can be like a dog with a bone. I don’t want her on my trail.”
Helen closed the safe. Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “She’s not going to be a problem.”
Adam raised his voice. “If she causes trouble for me, our deal is off. I’ll come back for more.”
“Celeste won’t ever cause trouble again,” Helen said simply, turning to face him.
He blinked twice slowly as if letting the implication wash over him. “You went for a more permanent solution.”
She didn’t say anything, just lifted one shoulder in an elegant shrug.
“Smart.” He nodded at her respectfully again. Take the time to give the lady her due, he told himself. She’s been on this job for more than half a year and no one understood how clever she’d been. “How?”
She leaned casually against the armoire. “Same as Todd.”
Now he frowned. “That’s sloppy work, Helen. Two people who were seen with you dying in the same week in the same way.”
She didn’t like the reproach. “By the time some fisherman pulls her out of the Santa Rosa Creek Reservoir, her body will be too decomposed for a cause of death to be determined.”
And...there it was. That was all they needed. The transmission would be through to the cops in minutes. They would order divers to drag the reservoir, and take Helen in for questioning. Downstairs, Jess would be waiting for him to appear before anyone showed up at the house.
He was still curious about one thing, though. He held the necklace up to the light as if most of his attention was on the jewels. “Why’d you decide to kill her?” Maybe it was because Celeste knew too much about Helen, but that didn’t seem quite right. Even though she had good qualities, Celeste always looked out for herself first and foremost. If she’d known Helen was going to kill Todd, she wouldn’t have interfered in any way.
Helen spoke impatiently now, done with her cleansing truth and ready for him to be gone. “It’s like you said. She was like a dog with a bone.”
Comprehension dawning, Adam looked at the necklace carefully for the first time. “Oh, I see,” he said. Helen got rid of Celeste purely out of greed. “You killed her because you decided you wanted not only the life of a single wine country queen, you wanted to keep the Scarlet free and clear too.”
Helen’s eyes flashed. “And why shouldn’t I? Celeste didn’t deserve it. All she had to do was dress up for some fancy parties, talk with a jewelry designer and work her connections to find a buyer. Compare that to what I’ve done! I’ve clawed my way out of hell! I spend twenty-four hours a day with a pigheaded moron.” She shook her head. “On Thursday morning I told her over mimosas and grapefruit that I’d pay for her expenses and a perfectly reasonable amount for her time spent on the job, but I wanted to keep the necklace. She wouldn’t accept my terms.” She did another one of her elegant shrugs. “So I served the omelet.”
Adam felt sorrow and fury like a shard of glass in his heart. Celeste had died purely from the avarice of this stone-cold bitch. He dangled the necklace like a pendulum, his finger on the incorrect fastening. Anger clouded his judgment, and he spoke without thinking. “You’re still trying to keep it. This isn’t the Scarlet. This is Celeste’s replica. Wrong clasp.”
The minute the words left his mouth, he knew they were a mistake. Damn it. He should have walked away. Helen noticed his mistake immediately. “Uh oh, Chase. Caught in a lie.”