Burning Seduction (28 page)

Guilt swamped him. “Your dad can take better care of you than I can right now. I bet he’d even be willing to go to the shop with you during the day.”

Vic nodded and Charlotte’s shoulders slumped. “Can I see you?”

Both Dan’s words and Charlotte’s reverberated in his head. Before this weekend, he’d have said he had a job to do. Now, he realized there was something more important—Charlotte. “Absolutely. How about I pick you up in the evening from either your dad’s place or the shop depending on when I’m free, and then take you back to your apartment. I’ll spend the night with you.”

Vic tightened his grip on her shoulder. “We’ll see how it goes.”

From the ache in Vic’s eyes, this wasn’t about a father being worried his daughter would be sleeping with him, but more if he and Ellie would be able to handle any emotional collapse better. Trent didn’t argue, as he wanted what was best for her.

*     *     *

While the next
few days were hell, Trent’s evenings were filled with the wonderful Charlotte. For the first couple of nights, they sat in her living room talking. She still harbored some resentment about her dad’s work with the FBI and how it had affected the family, but she was trying to understand his reasons for basically abandoning her and her mom. Trent had never met a more forgiving woman in his life—or a braver one. For the first time, he was given a glimpse into why his mom might have left his dad. His father had put his job first—not his wife or his children. Now he could see how wrong that had been.

Trent had held off making love with Charlotte because she still had nightmares about finding Samuels’ body, and Trent wanted to be there for her and give her comfort instead. When the time was right, if she hadn’t come to grips with what happened, he’d suggest she seek counseling. He could still remember the first dead body he’d come across, and the image would be forever burned in his head.

In the mornings, Trent would drive her to the shop where she called her dad to meet her. Trent could only hope the forced time together would help mend things between her and Vic.

Once he was certain she was safe, Trent headed on in to work. Once there, the tension built. With so many of the detectives watching—or perhaps protecting—Elaine, Frank, and Richard, it was up to Trent and Dan to figure out what they’d missed. By concentrating on these three, he feared they’d been barking up the wrong proverbial tree.

By the time Samuels’ viewing rolled around on Tuesday, they’d made little headway. They could only hope the killer would show up and give something away. Mrs. Goddard had cremated her husband and hadn’t wanted a service, but John’s family, who lived in town, decided to honor him differently.

A few hours before they were to leave for the funeral home, Harmon called Trent at work, something he never did. His brother understood that when Trent was on the job, he didn’t want to be disturbed.

“Hey,” Trent said, praying nothing was wrong.

“You’ll never believe it. I think I know who set me up.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“W
hat do you
mean you know who set you up?” Trent asked.

“Remember those books from Bill Goddard’s office that Charlotte asked me to give away?”

Please say there was information inside them.
“Yes.”

“When I picked them up to move them, I dropped one, and a bunch of photos fell out.”

Trent went straight into cop mode. “What kind of photos?”

“Surveillance photos of
me
.” His brother had an annoying way of stringing out the information. “I think Bill wanted them so he could set me up.”

Trent didn’t understand. Nor could he figure out why Bill would have photos of Trent’s brother, unless Harmon was speaking with his client or maybe Richard Delaney outside of the office. “What were you doing in the pictures?”

He hoped Elaine Goddard wasn’t in them. If she were, it would mean his brother had lied to him about being with a married woman.

“Nothing. Don’t you get it?”

Apparently he’d been sifting through clues for too long and his neurons had overloaded to the point where he wasn’t capable of understanding anything. “No.”

“I started thinking about that night at the Christmas party when Elaine kissed me. I’d gently told her I wasn’t interested, and she never put the moves on me again, but I’m thinking that Bill found out. It’s possible Elaine said something to him, or Jayson, my coworker, mentioned it. Looking back to the time between the Christmas party and when I was accused of insider trading, Bill suddenly began acting a lot friendlier.”

“How does this imply Bill was the one who set you up?”

“I don’t have proof,” Harmon said, “but it made me remember some of the little things that had happened. A couple of times, I found Bill on my computer when I stopped back at work late at night to pick up something, and again when I arrived earlier than usual. Now, I’m thinking he was pretending to be me and was informing my client about the information on his brother-in-law’s company.”

Excitement pulsed through Trent’s veins, even though supposition didn’t prove guilt. “Did you ask him why he was there?”

“I’m sure I did, and he must’ve given me a satisfactory explanation, because I forgot all about it. After all it was his firm, and I was the new kid on the block. At the time, no accusations had been hurled at me.”

Trent wasn’t convinced there was enough evidence to prove Harmon innocent. “Did Bill exhibit any other odd behavior?”

“I know this sounds strange, but Bill was almost too nice when he found out I had supposedly told my client about the future merger at Richard’s firm.”

“Why was that suspicious?”

“Think about it,” Harmon said. “My supposedly illegal action could have triggered an even more in depth investigation by the SEC than it did, yet Bill never acted all that upset. Sure he wasn’t pleased, but he seemed more fatherly than like a boss. I’m thinking he didn’t want me to think he could have been the one to turn on me.”

Harmon was grasping at straws, but there was no use pointing that out. “I’ll tell you what. When we find Bill’s murderer, maybe we’ll find the answers to what happened to you.” It was the best Trent could do.

“Appreciate it.”

Once they disconnected, Trent worried he hadn’t handled the situation as sympathetically as he could have, but dammit, he worked on facts not wishes.

Trent had about two hours before he had to head to the funeral home, so he spent most of the time reading over the reports from Vic, Devon, Cade, and Connor. Unfortunately, no one’s behavior looked suspicious. He leaned back and stabbed his fingers through his hair. This case seemed to have one dead end after another.

He and Dan had decided that just the two of them would attend Samuels’ viewing. Having half the detective force there would prevent any false move by the killer—assuming he showed up.

Because Mrs. Goddard would be attending the service, Cade would be outside as backup. Most likely Frank Hamilton would be there, too, as his right-hand man was the guest of honor. Trent doubted that Elaine’s brother would show, but if he did, it would be to support his sister. After all, it was her lover who’d been murdered.

Since Dan and the funeral director had gone to school together he was able to convince the director to allow the precinct to install cameras in each corner of the room, along with some well-placed microphones. Dan had to promise that nothing would be leaked or shown unless it became evidence in court.

Trent arrived a few minutes early at the funeral home and took a seat at the back of the room where he could watch who came in. He and Harmon had discussed whether it would be appropriate for his brother to show up, but Trent believed Harmon asked only because he wanted to confront Frank Hamilton about who’d set him up. The last thing they needed was that kind of disturbance. Because John Samuels had been hired after Harmon was sent to jail, it made no sense for Harmon to come. In the end, his brother agreed to stay home and not answer his apartment door unless it was Trent.

Dan arrived shortly after Trent did, but he didn’t make eye contact. Instead, he acted the concerned officer by offering his condolences to John Samuels’ relatives. Trent tried to note who had shown up, but other than those who worked at John’s firm, he wasn’t able to identify many of them.

Trent studied each of them as they spoke with John’s relatives, to see if any exhibited any underlying hostility. If someone had lost a lot of money, he might want to see if Samuels’ aunt and uncle were willing to fork over some cash. So far, all well-wishers had seemed sincere.

Frank was the only one with the information about which clients had made money with John and which ones had lost their life savings. If he’d been more cooperative, the investigation might have proceeded faster.

Fearing people might wonder why Trent was just watching everyone, he spent the next few minutes mingling. He spoke with Mrs. Goddard and Frank Hamilton, offering his sympathies, then moved on and spoke briefly with the other relatives.

Halfway through the viewing, a bitter tone emanated from the corner that caught his attention. He glanced behind his shoulder and spotted Mrs. Goddard with Frank Hamilton. Surely the death of John Samuels had to have brought up more feelings of abandonment for the poor woman, as both men in her life were now gone. Trent hoped the cameras were picking up the interaction, as her voice was getting louder and filled with emotion. A few minutes later, the two separated, and Trent was no closer to learning anything.

After three long hours, the viewing ended. Dan walked out with him and followed Trent to his car, probably to make sure no one could overhear.

“Pick up any interesting chatter?” his boss asked.

“No.”

“Let’s not become discouraged. I’ve instructed the surveillance tapes to be brought over to the precinct and examined, though it will take a while to go through them,” Dan said. “Maybe we’ll learn something, maybe we won’t.”

“We can only hope.” Even if they didn’t garner any useful clues, identifying those who’d come might help. While they would ask for a copy of the registry, probably not everyone bothered to fill it in.

Frustrated and tired, it was time to pick up Charlotte then head home and snuggle with her.

*     *     *

As much as
Charlotte loved being able to spend time with her father, it was driving her crazy how he watched her every move. Once when she needed something from her car, he had to follow her outside. Sheesh. He was more of a protector than Trent and that was saying a lot.

They did have some good discussions, but it seemed as if every time they were at the deep emotional part, someone would enter her store. One benefit of having customers, though, was that her dad was able to see what she dealt with on a daily basis, and many times, expressed how proud he was of her. For those few words of praise, she was almost happy the killer had disrupted her life.

Right at five, Trent entered her shop, and her thoughts switched directions. As much as her father’s presence made her feel protected, she wanted Trent and the safety and security of his arms—forever.

He’d come from the viewing and looked so handsome in his suit. She kissed him hello with a rather chaste kiss. “Give me a second to get my things, and we can go.”

Her dad stood, came over, and placed a kiss on her cheek as well. “See you tomorrow, sweetheart.”

Being with him for eight hours at a time was a bit much since her dad was wound rather tightly.

“Mom has tomorrow off. If you want to bring her around, it might be fun for the three of us to spend some time together.”

Dad smiled. “Might not be a good idea. I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep my hands off her if she were within reach.”

“Da-ad.” Some things were meant to remain secret.

He laughed and then left.

Trent watched her lock up and then escorted her to his Jeep. “Want to pick up something at the grocery store and cook dinner together?”

She loved the part about doing something with him. “I’d love that.”

Given how overwhelming these last few days had been, she didn’t know what she would’ve done without Trent by her side. They’d had the time to learn more about each other, and for that she’d be eternally thankful.