Apparently it was a risk he wasn’t willing to take with her.
“Come on, Cav, we can’t sit here and let ourselves wallow like this.” She forced herself out of the chair. Whatever happened between her and Cord, her immediate plans were the same. She had all her records, and translating dictionaries and work to put together. Clothes and toiletries. For darn sure, the litter box needed cleaning out, and the milk in her fridge poured down the drain.
None of it should have taken more than a few minutes, if Caviar hadn’t tried to trip her every step of the way. If he wasn’t winding around her legs, he was dropping cat toys at her feet-or stealing anything that wasn’t tied down, such as her toothbrush, which he actually took out of her carry-on satchel and started batting around.
“Cav, quit it,” she finally said, impatiently. Naturally, when she was knee-deep in kitty litter-new and old-the cat chose that instant to drop a new toy in her path. “How am I ever going to get you in a cage to take to Cord’s, when I have no…Hey, what on earth do you have there?”
She caught the glimpse of something small and black, rectangular in shape, knew in a blink it was a flash drive. “How did you get that, you little demon? Give it!”
Naturally, the cat took off with it, delighted when Sophie gave chase. She couldn’t imagine how the cat had found the thing. All her computer supplies and records were safely in files. In life, she might be a wee bit on the untidy side, but she’d never been careless with her work.
Naturally, the cat chose to burrow under the bed, making it all the harder for Sophie to retrieve it. She had to lie flat and stretch her arm out full length-which the cat thought was even more play. Finally, though, her fingers closed on the cat’s treasure. Having lost the game, the cat ambled off with dignity, to wash himself in the sunlight, as if he’d never cared at all…leaving Sophie to stare at the booty.
She used flash drives. Everyone did. She used several kinds. Everyone probably did that, too. But she definitely didn’t recognize this brand. Confused, she carted the drive to her desk computer, booted up, popped it in.
Within seconds, she recognized that it wasn’t her flash drive. It was Jon’s.
The drive contained a half-dozen files-all women’s first names-but Sophie only recognized one. Jan. And when she saw it, she hesitated, then clicked on the file.
The first image made her wince.
She didn’t finish looking at all the images.
Couldn’t.
For a while she couldn’t seem to move, just sat there, trying to make sense of this new development. Jan had freely admitted sleeping with Jon, but until Cord’s comments yesterday, Sophie had no idea Jan was a suspect. The file, of course, supplied a potential reason. Then she considered the break-ins, the times Jan had been in her apartment, whether those events could be put together in some way she’d never thought of before. And still she sat there-but not for long.
Less than ten minutes later, she knocked next door. Cord answered immediately, although his sleeves were rolled up, as if he’d been working hot and hard in Jon’s flat. “You’re already ready to drive back? I figured getting everything together would take you longer.”
“It will,” she agreed. “And I need to make a short trek out for some stuff. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if we didn’t leave for another couple hours.”
“No sweat at all. From mail to phone calls to computer records, I can hunker down here as long as you need. Just rap when you’re ready to go.” He leaned down as if to kiss her, saw her eyes, stopped.
Maybe there was a short, sharp glint of hurt in his eyes, but there was certainly no surprise. He said slowly, “On the drive back to my place, I think…we need to air out a whole bunch of things.”
“Yeah, we do,” she agreed, and turned around.
When she hiked outside, it was a leaf-shuffling morning, crisp and sunny. The bistro was only a short two blocks away. Right off, she could see a few hardy souls had chosen the cement tables outside, but the line inside for fresh blueberry bagels stretched almost to the door.
Most of the neighborhood group was already there. Hillary, dressed in hospital scrubs, had clearly taken the ownership of a table, judging from the heap of jackets and purses behind her. Sophie recognized at least a half-dozen faces in the line, including Jan and Penelope. They both spotted her as she was walking in.
“Sophie!” They shrieked hellos as if they hadn’t seen her in weeks, and immediately demanded to hear the latest news about Jon’s case. Jan wore a fabulous Australian shawl over a riding skirt and boots, looking artsy and elegant, as always. Penelope, for once, looked as if she were a tad hungover. At her worst, she was still gorgeous, but mascara smudges darkened her eyes and her hair was clipped up in an unbrushed knot.
Sophie wanted to slap herself. It was so like every other Sunday, the same whispers and laughter, the same talk about people, the same smells and tastes, the same scraping of chairs as they crowded around a table. No one looked different. No one behaved differently. If it weren’t for the flash drive in her pocket, Sophie would never have thought anything was wrong-much less that her whole world had turned upside down.
Hillary was the first one to rise. “I was on call all last night, can hardly hold my head up. I have to go home and get some Z’s. Sophie, you better have more news for us next time!”
“I’ll try,” Sophie said.
Penelope and two others reached for coats next. Jan reached for her jacket around the same time, but Sophie said, “Could I talk to you for a minute?”
“You know you can.” Jan tossed some change on the table, stood up. “I’m headed uptown, rather than home.”
“That’s okay. I just need a minute.” Once they were both outside, away from all listening ears, Sophie palmed the flash drive and pressed it in Jan’s hand. “What’s this?”
But Jan’s face bleached of color, in spite of the brisk chill. Sophie fell silent, studying her, at first trying to imagine Jan shoving her in that closet. Then trying to imagine her capable of killing Jon. Although Sophie knew it was hardly evidence in a court of law, the blanched, sick look on Jan’s face told her the truth that mattered. Jan’s conscience was eating her up from the inside out.
“As goofy as it sounds,” Sophie said calmly, “the cat hid this. I have no idea for how long. Apparently, Caviar thought the flash drive was a toy. For the record, there were a few other files on the drive besides yours. I deleted the others. I don’t know who they were, and didn’t want to know.”
Jan was clutching the drive in a white-knuckled fist. Her other hand was pressed to her stomach. She said nothing else for a moment, then blurted out, “He was blackmailing me, Sophie.”
Sophie took a breath. “I figured that. Not because I saw or heard about anything else related to you. I didn’t. But when I saw what was on that file…” She didn’t want to remember what few images she’d seen. They weren’t pornographic. They were simply…lovers’ pictures. A woman at her most vulnerable.
“I’d have lost everything if he took it to the attorneys handling my trust fund. It wasn’t just about the money, Soph. It was about the family name. It was about ripping away everything I had-”
“You don’t have to say any more.”
But Jan only looked more hollow, more sick. “I didn’t love him, Sophie. But I cared. I never thought he’d…destroy me. And the more money he kept bleeding me for, the more frantic I got. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I just wanted whatever pictures or CDs he had. I was ashamed. Try to understand-”
Sophie made a dismissive motion. “Hey-I’m not your judge and jury, and not looking to be. I just think it’s time all this got stopped. All the threats, all the harm, all the destruction. Before anything worse happens.”
There was nothing else she wanted to say or hear-not from Jan. She spun around and aimed for home. She stepped in the street, heard the blare of horns, jumped back on the sidewalk. Yeah, her heart was pounding, but she kept thinking how ironic it was, that she’d been fine going into that meeting with Jan…but now that it was over, her hands were shaky and her stomach pitching acid.