When she looked back over at him, he was watching her closely. He read the uncertainty, the suspicions there.
“LuAnn, I know you really don’t know me. Yet. But you can trust me.”
“I want to, Matthew. I really do. It’s just—” She stood up and started her ritualistic pacing. “It’s just that I’ve made a habit the last ten years of never trusting anyone. Anyone other than Charlie.”
“Well, Charlie’s not here, and from the looks of things, you’re not going to be able to handle this alone.”
She stiffened at the words. “You’d be surprised at what I can handle.”
“I don’t doubt that. Not at all,” he said in a sincere, if disarming, manner.
“And getting you involved means, ultimately, placing you in danger. That’s not something I want on my conscience.”
“You’d be surprised at how accustomed I am to dangerous things. And people.”
She stared at him, a glimmer of a smile on her lips. Her deep hazel eyes were intoxicating to him, calling up the fresh memory of their lovemaking.
“I still don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Then why are you here? In spite of how terrific this morning was, I doubt if you’re here for a nooner. You’ve got other things on your mind, I can tell.”
She sat back down and clasped her hands together. After thinking the matter over a minute she started speaking earnestly. “The man’s name was Thomas Donovan. He’s a reporter of some kind. He started investigating me.”
“Why? Why you? The murder?”
LuAnn hesitated before answering. “That was part of it.”
“What was the other part?”
LuAnn didn’t answer now; she looked at the floor. Imparting personal information to anyone other than Charlie went against every instinct she possessed.
Riggs decided to take a shot. “Did it have to do with the lottery?”
She slowly looked up, the astonishment starkly on her face.
“I knew your real name; something clicked. You won a hundred million dollars ten years ago, a lot of stories about you back then. Then you disappeared.”
She studied him warily, alarm bells ringing. His face, though, was one of complete sincerity, and finally that look subdued her suspicions, at least temporarily.
“Yes, I won that money.”
“So what did Donovan want? Your story on the killing?”
“Partly.”
“What was the other part?” he asked persistently.
Now the alarm bells started ringing again, and this time Riggs’s honest features did not silence them. LuAnn rose. “I’ve got to be going.”
“Come on, LuAnn. Talk to me.”
“I think I’ve said more than I should have.”
Riggs knew far more than she had already told him, but he had wanted to hear it from her. His source for the information on LuAnn had naturally desired to know why he wanted it. He had lied, or gotten close to it. He wasn’t going to give LuAnn Tyler away, at least not yet. He had no reason to trust her, and many reasons not to. But he did trust her. He did believe in her.
As her hand closed over the doorknob he called to her.
“LuAnn, if you change your mind, I’ll be here.”
She didn’t look at him, fearful of what might happen if she did. She wanted to tell him everything. She wanted his help, she wanted to make love to him again. After all these years of fabrication, of lies, deceit, and constant fear of exposure, she just wanted to be held; to be loved for herself, not for the enormous wealth she possessed.
Riggs watched the BMW pull out of his driveway. When it had disappeared from view he turned and went back to his study. Because of his inquiries into LuAnn Tyler, Riggs knew the Feds would undoubtedly get around to dispatching some agents to Charlottesville to talk to him or at least get the local FBI office involved. But because of his special status, they would have to jump through some bureaucratic hoops before that could be accomplished. He had some time, but not much. And once the Bureau boys showed up, it was over for LuAnn Tyler. All of her diligent work over the last ten years to remain hidden Riggs could blow up in the next few days. A very strong emotion told Riggs he could not allow that to happen, despite what he knew about the woman. In the course of his past career, deception had become a way of life. So also had reading people, telling the good ones from the bad, to the extent you could. LuAnn was a good person, Riggs had long ago concluded. Even if she didn’t want his help, she was going to get it. But she was obviously involved with some very dangerous people. And now, Riggs thought to himself, so was he.
Chapter forty-three
When LuAnn arrived home it was late; the household staff had gone, and Sally Beecham would not return until tomorrow. She went in the house through the garage, punched in the alarm code, and threw her coat and purse down on the kitchen island. She went upstairs to shower and change. She had a lot of things to think through right now.
In the shrubs bordering the edge of the expansive lawn by the garage side of the house, Jackson knelt in the mulch and smiled to himself. He lowered the small piece of equipment he was holding in his hand. On its digital face were the six numbers constituting LuAnn’s pass code for the home’s alarm system. The scanner had picked up the electrical impulses thrown off when LuAnn inputted her pass code and then it had unscrambled them. With the pass code Jackson could come and go freely.
When he got back to his rental car, his cell phone buzzed. He spoke for a few minutes and then hung up. Charlie and Lisa were at a motel outside of Gettysburg. They would probably be on the move again soon. LuAnn had tried to get them away from him, or rather Lisa away from him. Charlie could take care of himself, Jackson well knew. If it came to it, Lisa was the Achilles’ heel of her mother.
LuAnn had watched out the window as the figure made its way down the tree line toward the main road. The steps had been animal-like in their stealth and precision, much as hers would have been. She didn’t know what had drawn her to the window at that precise instant. She felt no fear or even apprehension as she watched Jackson move down the hillside. She had expected him to be there. For what specific reason or for how long Jackson had been watching the house, she wasn’t sure; but it was completely logical that he should be. She was now his main focus, she knew. And to be the main focus of the man was akin to treading on the very edge of the grave. She drew the curtains shut and sat on her bed. The enormous house felt cold and threatening, as though she were all alone in a mausoleum of immense proportion, just waiting for something unspeakably horrible to happen to her.
Was Lisa truly safe, beyond the reach of the man? The answer to that question was so obvious that it hit her like a hard slap in the face.
I can do anything, LuAnn.
The mocking words came back to her after all these years and sent a shiver through her. Riggs was right, she couldn’t get through this alone. He had offered help, and this time she needed it. Whether she was making the right decision or not, she didn’t care. Right now, she just needed to do something. She jumped up, grabbed her car keys, unlocked a box in her closet, and placed the loaded nickel-plated .44 Magnum in her purse. She ran down the stairs and into the garage. A minute later the BMW was flying down the road.