The Trouble with Andrew (20 page)

She should have kept quiet. She should have kept her mouth shut about what she wanted to do. Except that it would have been so much easier, and better, if he had been willing to help her. But he was so damned exasperating. He could be so charming one moment …

And so pigheaded the next.

“I was merely suggesting that I could help,” she began.

“I don't want you to help.”

“Drew—”

“Katie, I don't want your help!”

“But don't you think it's important to know exactly what happened?”

“Why? Do you have to prove it to yourself that I wasn't really to blame?”

“Drew!”

“Katie, I want you out of it, do you understand?” he demanded, his hands on the table as he leaned close to her.

“You have no right to tell me what to do,” she said firmly.

“I have every right to tell you to get the hell out of my life and problems!”

That stung. She sat back, feeling almost as if he had struck her.

“Katie, I mean it.”

She sat very stiffly, making her eyes stay level with his.

“Didn't you say that my house was nearly in a habitable condition?”

“Damn it, Katie, I didn't mean—”

“Maybe you could be so kind as to rush things along to the best of your abilities.”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “Maybe I can. But you don't need to worry. If you have any reservations about me at all, you can stay here and we can pass right by in the halls, lady, just like ships at sea. But you do what you want. Believe me, or don't believe me. I am at fault. Again, I'm telling you—sue me. You can even give your lawyer this address. The only thing you can't do is stick your nose into it!”

“You wretched bastard!” Katie hissed, rising. “You had me come back here—”

“To be with me, not run my life! You don't know Hunnicunn, you don't know the past, and you don't know what you might be up against. You don't know anything!”

“What might I be up against? Someone practicing fraud? I just want—”

“I don't give a damn what you want. I want you out of it! And if that means you're walking out of my house, well, then, you know the way!” He turned rigidly and stalked out of the kitchen. She would have raced after him and assured him that she would be out of his house just as quickly as possible, but she started shaking, and her knees were too weak to rise. She felt so damned vulnerable again. Afraid. She'd begun to feel so comfortable, so much a part of his life…

Cared for, if not cherished.

But he was right. She didn't know Hunnicunn. She didn't know him—she didn't know anything.

The front door had slammed long moments ago when she managed to get to her feet.

Jordan was at school. His first day. It seemed so strange. It had been wild getting there. The majority of the traffic lights remained down, and many of the roads were clogged with fallen trees. But the morning had also seemed filled with a certain charged tension—as if all of the community knew that the opening of the Dade County public school system meant that life was going on.

Katie swore at Drew under her breath, then grabbed her purse and let herself out the front door, locking it with the key he had given her.

Half the county was being looted, he had told her, and they couldn't leave his house open for any thief to walk right in. They'd been playing with a certain amount of danger before.

Well, she'd made sure his door was locked. And she would be out of it for good, just as soon as possible. If she and Jordan couldn't stay in her own home in the next few days, she'd find a hotel room—even if she had to find a filled one and empty its occupants into Drew's house!

But, no matter how angry and hurt she was, she realized a few minutes later, he hadn't changed her mind. He had no right to be so angry with her. It wasn't as if anyone had been murdered. Someone was embezzling money—it was a white-collar crime. She'd love to find the thief he'd been harboring beneath his own nose and hand the man—or woman—over to him. Dust off her hands…

Slap him a good one in the cheek…

And walk away. Heart and pride intact. Only her heart wasn't intact anymore.

She drove to the library, the main one, without caring about the traffic she had to confront to get there.

By eleven, she was ensconced before one of the microfilm machines.

At one o'clock, she was still staring at the microfilm, leafing back and forth through the pages she'd been able to find with references to Hunnicunn, the people involved with it—and Drew himself.

She stretched. She'd been at it a long time, her eyes and her back hurt and her head was beginning to ache.

And she hadn't found a thing.

Well, she'd found articles, but not what she'd wanted.

Fifteen years ago, Hunnicunn had been formed, and there had been an article on the corporation in the business section. There was a picture of a young Drew shaking hands with Henry Hunnington, a tall, slim man with thinning hair and an aging face. In the background were a number of people, a few Katie recognized, a few she didn't. Tina Cunningham was there, as was Reva. Katie also recognized a very young Andrea Hunnington. The two men on either side of Drew and Hunnington had to be Sam Jaffe and Harry Easton, but she didn't know which was which, and she didn't know if it mattered, except that one of them seemed familiar, the younger of the two, the darker one, only…

Only what, she didn't know.

She was going through a lot of years, she reminded herself. Looking for some kind of needle in a hay-stack.

She tried looking for information about Andrea, and that was abundant enough—in the society pages. The blonde had been married several times, but had always legally kept the name Hunnington. Her father had been involved in many enterprises, and it seemed she enjoyed the recognition of the name.

Each of her marriages had been chronicled. She was also present at all kinds of fund-raisers and the like.

There was nothing that hinted she might be trying to skim money from Hunnicunn.

Katie had decided to give up for the afternoon when she was startled to see the Cunningham name, front-page news. The story was almost twenty years old.

It was about the accident that had killed Drew's father.

A. J. Cunningham had been killed at a building site. He had fallen from the fifth-floor scaffolding he'd been working on. The fall had crushed his skull, killing him instantly.

She flicked through the paper and saw that the whole community mourned. There were pictures of a younger, darker Tina, with her two nearly grown children. Drew, striking even as a very young man, his handsome face twisted with anguish that tugged at her stomach.

There were pictures of the funeral. There were interviews with men A.J. had worked with, including Sam Jaffe and Harry Easton. Katie noted where A. J. Cunningham had been buried, and she thoughtfully turned off the screen.

She still didn't have anything.

She needed to think.

She left the library and drove through Little Havana, the Calle Ocho area, until the street was just plain old Eighth Street again, and she came upon Woodlawn Cemetery. The place was huge, and she had no idea where to find A. J. Cunningham's grave, but a trip into the caretaker's office gave her the directions she needed, and she drove through the cemetery, seeing older, traditional angels and monuments along with more modern memorials. Toward the rear of the cemetery she parked the car, certain she was in the right place. Under an old oak, the man had said. She peered at grave after grave, and then, staring across the cemetery, she was certain she had found the grave.

A. J. Cunningham had been laid to rest in a private mausoleum. It was sculpted to look like a sleek, beautiful home with Greek columns and a graceful porch. The name Cunningham had been chiseled over the columns, and Katie was certain a place remained within the mausoleum for Tina Cunningham to find her final rest.

She stood in front of the grave, feeling a breeze lift her hair.

“He's lying, you know!” she told the structure, as if she could speak to the long-gone but deeply loved man. “He's everything you might have wanted him to be, he's just afraid to let me in on this, and it doesn't make any sense. And he can get mad, and he can even throw me out if he wants, but I'm going to find out what happened!”

There was no answer. Had she gotten one, she probably would have had a heart attack on the spot. But the breeze remained nicely cool, the trees seemed to whisper, and she was somehow glad that she had come.

Then she began to feel a prickling sensation in her neck. As if she was being watched.

The breeze lifted the branches of the trees again. The grave was in a remote section of the cemetery, far from the main roads.

She might well be alone out here with…

She spun around, her heart pounding. Relief poured through her.

Reva Cunningham Kennedy was standing by her car, parked right in front of Katie's on the road.

Reva waited, watching as Katie walked over to her.

“My God, what a coincidence!” Katie murmured.

Reva shook her head. “No coincidence. You asked the caretaker about Dad. They had some vandalism here a few years ago and so they called the office. I was the Cunningham they managed to get hold of.”

“So you came out to see what was going on?”

Reva shrugged.

“What if I had been a vandal?”

“And what if someone in my brother's corporation is dangerous?” Reva asked her in return.

Katie didn't answer. “Where are the twins?” she asked.

“Nursery school. Jordan?”

“His school opened today.” She said awkwardly, “I know your brother is really angry with me over this, Reva, but I can keep my distance, and no one needs to know what I'm doing.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing—really.” She hesitated. “I just wish I knew everyone involved. I keep thinking that perhaps Andrea—”

“Andrea would be a prime suspect,” Reva agreed with a certain amount of humour. “She's rich and gorgeous. And not terribly nice. But I'm not sure that's a crime.”

“Well, it seems that everyone else is nice.”

“And is what
seems
always real?” Reva asked her.

“Reva, help me,” Katie said. “I swear to you, I want to do anything I can for Drew.”

“And what if you find out that Drew is really guilty himself, that his lofty ideals are all lies?”

“They're not,” Katie said.

“What if?”

“There is no what if!”

“All right,” Reva said. “There's going to be a party in the office on Friday night. A thank-you from Drew to all the staff for working so hard since—since the other Andrew!”

“He'll never invite me,” Katie said. “We've had quite a disagreement—”

“So I imagined,” Reva said. “He walked into the office like a storm this morning. But he hasn't really said anything to me—he hasn't told me I can't invite you—so we'll just say that I wanted to ask you and Jordan since you're both so wonderful at helping me with the twins. You'll get to meet everyone, but Katie, I know he wants to keep you out of it. Don't you see, he's worried.”

“Why?”

Reva shrugged. “Well, we are talking about a big money crime here. Katie, people shoot people to steal fifty dollars from fast-food stands.”

“But no one ever needs to know what I'm up to!” Katie said. “Surely,
everyone
wants to know what happened!”

“My brother's signature was on the work orders for your house,” Reva reminded her. “And nothing that was done was actually illegal.”

“I know.”

“Well, I don't know what the week will bring,” Reva murmured, “but come to the office at five. I'll be sure to meet you before Drew sees that you're there.”

“Thanks,” Katie told her.

“You really get to help with the twins, you know!” Reva said, starting around to the driver's side of her car. “Mom used to be great, but… Well, she's off in Orlando, as you know.”

Katie smiled. “I know. Thanks again, Reva. I'll see you Friday at five, and Jordan and I will both be ready to watch the boys.”

Reva drove away.

Katie hesitated, then felt the breeze touching her arms, and she shivered.

The cemetery was remote.

And for some reason, she had chills.

She hurried to her own car and drove out.

Drew had seen to it that her house had been coming along while she had been gone. Her walls had been replastered, and new carpeting was down. Her bedroom had been repaired, but her windows remained boarded, since the new glass for them wasn't ready yet.

Her mangled screen had been pulled down, and some of the broken remnants of life that had blown into it had been removed from her pool.

After she picked up Jordan from school, she went to her house and stood in the doorway. She was still missing electricity. She had learned to manage without it, but…

The house was hot.

“We're going to stay here, now?” Jordan asked her.

“I guess not,” she said after a minute.

“Please, not!” Jordan said.

Well, Drew had said that she could walk by him in his hallways, she reminded herself. And he hadn't asked her for his key or anything. She had been the one saying she meant to leave.

But he had been hostile.

He didn't mean it…

How could she be so sure when he
was
right about one thing?
She didn't really know anything, she didn't really know him.…

“Well, we'll go back to Drew's,” she said. “But just for a few more nights, Jordan. We have to get back into our own house. We have to lead our own lives again.”

“I've been incredibly neat!” Jordan said indignantly.

Katie sighed. “We have to come back home sometime.”