Just what Casey hated.
She looked at Anne. "Is this it?"
Still searching, Anne looked up absently. "What?" She pushed the gla.s.ses perched on the top of her head to her nose and looked more closely at Veronica"s prize.
"Oh, yes. That"s it. Children"s Parties, Inc.," she read needlessly. "They"re really getting popular." She looked at Veronica in surprise when Chad took the sheet from her. Anne c.o.c.ked her head as if that could make her absorb what was going on better. "Veronica, are you-" she seemed to search for a word, her brown eyes darting to Chad then back again to Veronica "-involved?"
At any other time, Veronica would have taken Anne into her confidence gladly and with relief. Their friendship went back more than ten years. But Anne had enough to deal with right now. No point in burdening her further.
So instead of telling her the truth, Veronica merely nodded. "Yes."
Anne took a longer measure of Chad before looking at her friend again. Her smile, still sad, was genuine. "Good for you."
Leaving, Chad tucked the folded letter into his jacket pocket. "I thought you said Anne was one of your best friends."
Opening her purse before she sat in the car, Veronica checked to make sure the cell phone was still operating. The screen declared it was receiving signals loud and clear. Why hadn"t the kidnapper called back?
"She is."
Chad climbed in behind the wheel. "Then why did you lie to her about who I was?"
After all, she"d told the housekeeper. Was there some reason she didn"t trust one of her close friends as much as she trusted her housekeeper?
"It"s easier this way," Veronica said, repeating the answer she had given him yesterday when he"d asked about why she hadn"t told her brother-in-law who he was.
"Besides, Anne"s a romantic. She likes to believe that love can happen."
It was an excuse, but he let it go. Veronica was ent.i.tled to her own counsel. A distant curiosity prompted him to ask, "Are you a romantic?"
"No." She would have liked to have been, but that was her sister"s domain.
Veronica was the practical one. "But then Robert came along and showed me how good things could be with the right person." The mention of her husband"s name brought a bittersweet feeling with it. Veronica let out a shaky breath. She looked at Chad.
In a way, he reminded her a little of Robert. Except that Robert had smiled more.
And laughed. G.o.d, but she missed his laugh. "No offense, but I wish he were here right now."
"Only natural," Chad allowed.
She had truly loved her husband-Chad could see it in her eyes. The thought nudged at the emptiness within his own soul, making him wonder what it was like to love someone that way, as if it consumed you. And to be loved. That kind of love for another human being was something he had never experienced. He found himself wishing, just for an instance, that he had. That he could.
They went to Children"s Parties, Inc., and talked to the person in charge. Using the same excuse they had given Ann-and after some persuasion-Chad was able to obtain a list of the people who had worked the party at Anne"s.
"This is highly irregular, you realize," the woman told Chad as she surrendered the computer printout of the names.
"I appreciate that," Chad replied formally. "But as head of Ms. Lancaster"s security, I need to run a check on all these people before they"re allowed on the grounds." He pocketed the list. Stepping back so that Veronica could walk ahead of him, he nodded at the other woman. "Thank you. We"ll be in touch."
He noticed the amused look on Veronica"s face as they walked around to the rear of the store and the parking lot. "What?"
She shook her head, but when he raised his brows, she elaborated. "Nothing, it"s just that you"ve gone from being my potential "significant other" to head of my security team. I was just wondering if that could be considered a promotion or a demotion."
He sidestepped the question, not quite sure of the answer himself. It went to places better off untouched, he decided. "I have a hunch that anyone involved with you, Veronica, would want to be part of all facets of your life."
The fact that he hadn"t answered was not lost on her. She wondered if he was just naturally evasive. "Is that a compliment, Chad?"
He hadn"t meant it to come out as one. "No, just a simple observation."
Seeing a mall up ahead, he pulled into the parking lot and parked.
"What are we doing here?"
Pulling out his cell phone, he tapped in his office number. "I want to get this list to Savannah as soon as possible."
Veronica began to say something, but the phone on the other end was being picked up. Chad held his hand up, silencing her as he greeted Savannah and then read off the names to her. She"d taken them down, then told him that Erica Saunders-the woman Veronica said was being blackmailed-and her husband were away on a cruise. A sort of second honeymoon. The world, he thought, was a strange place.
Flipping the phone closed again, he looked at Veronica. "Now, what did you want to tell me?"
"Just that we could have faxed that to her." Veronica pointed to an office-supply store on the far end of the mall. "It would have saved you the trouble of having to read them."
He shrugged. "No trouble. I prefer avoiding things like fax machines if possible." Humor curved his mouth as he repeated something his sister had called him. "I"m technologically challenged."
Veronica was going to say that they would have faxed it for him at the store, but he"d diverted her attention with his confession.
"You can"t be," she protested. "I saw you put that tracking device on the telephone."
"That was a piece of cake." A piece of cake he"d painstakingly learned how to slice by watching Megan do it for him several times. "And, as Megan likes to point out, even a chimp can be trained."
That sounded like something a sister would say to a brother. It made Veronica smile, remembering the way she and Stephanie had behaved toward each other before their parents" deaths. "Not very flattering."
"No," he admitted readily. "But Megan likes to stick to the truth."
Well, at least the man has no ego problem, Veronica thought.
Their next stop was the bank again. The money was waiting for them, stacked in random unmarked bills, just as Chad had instructed.
Thanking the branch manager, Veronica escaped before he could ask too many questions.
It felt as if all she was doing was getting in and out of the car, playing for time, doing busy work. And all the while, someone was holding her child, keeping him away from her. Maybe mistreating him.
A scream of frustration began to bubble up in her throat.
Though she was struggling valiantly to keep her mind occupied, Veronica felt as
if her nerves, stretched to the limit, were about to snap.
For the third time since they"d left the house, she took out the cell phone and checked the screen.
Chad slanted a glance at the screen before looking back to the road. "It"s still receiving."
She hadn"t realized he"d noticed. Of course he noticed, she upbraided herself. He was paid to notice things.
Now she was arguing with herself. She didn"t think she could take much more of this.