Flamingo Diner (22 page)

“I beeped you,” Cramer explained patiently, giving his dog an absentminded pat on the head. “Same as she did. That’s how I found out this was sitting on your desk.”

Matt scowled. “Well, hell.” He looked at his watch even though he already knew it was after office hours.

“Cori said to call her at home,” Cramer added helpfully. “The number’s in the memory on that dang
thing.” He gestured over his shoulder. “Pay phone’s over there.”

Matt took off, only to have Cramer shout his name. He paused and looked back. “What?”

“I wouldn’t mind finding one of them fancy coffees on my desk first thing in the morning,” he said, grinning. “Working the day shift is throwing me all off-kilter.”

“If this works out, I’ll bring you coffee every day for a month,” Matt promised.

The woman on the phone was talking so fast, her voice so choked with tears that at first Rosa couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

“Slow down,” she commanded gently. “Who is this?”

“It’s Marisol.”

Rosa felt her heart slam to a stop. “Something’s happened to Jeff, hasn’t it?”

All she heard on the other end of the line were sobs. She wanted to scream, but one hysterical woman was enough.

“Marisol, stop it this second!” she said sharply. “Tell me what happened.”

“Jeff got really, really sick, and then he passed out. Hawk wouldn’t let me call for an ambulance so I had to drag him to my car.”

“Where are you now?” Rosa asked, surprised by how calm she was. There was no time for panic or hysterics, so she simply wouldn’t allow either one.

“The hospital emergency room,” the girl whispered. “They won’t let me see him and they won’t tell me anything because I’m not family. Can you come, please?”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Rosa promised. “And Marisol, it’s going to be okay. If there’s a chapel at the hospital, go in there and pray. I’ll find you when I get there.”

Rosa hung up and grabbed her purse, then ran for her car before remembering that she’d loaned it to Emma earlier when she’d come back to the house looking as if she’d just lost her best friend. Rosa snatched her cell phone out of her purse and dialed Helen. She was closest. She could be here in five minutes, faster even than a taxi.

“Please be there,” she prayed as the phone rang and rang.

It seemed like an eternity before Helen picked up.

“Helen, it’s Rosa. Jeff’s in the hospital and I don’t have my car.”

“I’ll be right there,” Helen said at once.

“Thank you.”

Because she wanted all the prayers and support she could muster, she dialed Jolie next and told her what was going on.

“I’ll call Sylvia,” Jolie promised. “We’ll meet you at the emergency room.”

Even as Rosa ended the call to Jolie, Helen skidded to a halt at the curb. Her hair was in rollers and there were traces of night cream on her face. She was still wearing her slippers.

“Don’t even say it,” Helen said. “I know I’m a mess, but I didn’t want to waste a second getting here. Now tell me what happened.”

“I don’t know for sure,” Rosa admitted. “Marisol called. She said Jeff passed out or something and she took him to the hospital. They wouldn’t tell her anything.”

They exchanged a look, neither of them daring to say what they both feared.

“He’ll be fine,” Helen said firmly.

“I know that,” Rosa agreed. “He has to be.”

“Where’s Emma?”

“I have no idea. She said she had somewhere to go and she borrowed my car.”

“Have you tried her cell phone?”

Rosa shook her head. “I hadn’t even thought of that. God, what is wrong with me?”

Helen reached over and squeezed her hand. “You’re scared, that’s all. But you don’t have any reason to be. This could be a blessing in disguise.”

Rosa stared at her, even as she tried Emma’s cell phone number. “How can you say that?”

“Jeff will have to get help now.”

Rosa sighed. “I suppose.” She listened to Emma’s phone ringing and ringing, then finally gave up. “I guess she turned her phone off.”

“That’s okay. You have me. I’ll be there with you.”

“Jolie and Sylvia are coming, too.”

Helen smiled. “Of course, they are. We’ve had to do this kind of thing for each other too many times, though. I think it’s time for our lives to turn around. We could use some good news for a change.”

“Maybe Emma and Matt,” Rosa began wistfully, then cut herself off. “I can’t think about that now. I have to concentrate on Jeff.”

“Where’s Andy?”

“On a date with Lauren Patterson, thank goodness. He needs to have some fun.”

Helen frowned at that. “He should be here.”

“Not until we know what’s going on,” Rosa said
firmly. “He’s had to shoulder too much lately. I can handle this. And you said it yourself, I have you to lean on.”

“Anytime you need me,” Helen promised as she pulled up to the emergency entrance. She gave Rosa’s hand one last squeeze. “I’ll park, do something with my hair, and be right in.”

Rosa dashed inside, determined to keep herself together until she knew exactly what they were dealing with. Marisol sprang out of a chair and came to meet her, her face streaked with tears, her usual heavy makeup washed away. She looked exactly like what she was, a scared girl.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to Rosa. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

Rosa gave her a fierce hug. “There will be time enough to cast blame later. Right now we need to concentrate on Jeff. Have you heard anything?”

Marisol shook her head. “They still won’t tell me anything.”

Rosa went to the desk and explained who she was.

“I’ll have the doctor come out to talk to you right away,” the nurse promised. “Have a seat over there.”

Rosa kept her arm around Marisol’s too thin shoulders and guided her back to the hard, plastic chairs. The girl continued to sob quietly.

Minutes later Helen and the doctor arrived at the same time. Helen sat on Rosa’s other side and held her hand tightly as the doctor stood in front of them, his expression somber as he rocked back and forth on his heels.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “Your son is in bad shape. God knows what combination of
drugs is in his system. We’ll have to wait for the toxicology report to know for sure. Whatever it is sent him into cardiac arrest.”

“Oh, my God,” Rosa whispered, even as Marisol’s sobs grew louder.

The doctor ignored Marisol and kept his focus on Rosa. “We have him stabilized for now, but he’s not out of the woods. We’re going to get him into ICU in a bit and then you’ll be able to see him for a couple of minutes.” He scowled toward Marisol. “Family only.”

“I understand,” Rosa said.

The doctor continued. “I wish to hell I did. I see too damn much of this kind of thing and it never makes any sense to me.” He finally turned his attention to Marisol. “I hope you’re getting the message here, young lady. Keep it up, and you could be next.”

Marisol gulped back a sob and nodded. Rosa almost felt sorry for her.

After the doctor had gone back to Jeff, Rosa looked at her. “Do you want to call your folks? Have them come and get you?”

“No, please. My family doesn’t live here, except for my great-grandfather and I can’t worry him. Besides, I have to stay here. Even if I can’t see Jeff, I need to know he’s okay. I want him to know I’m close by.”

Rosa couldn’t deny her that. At least Marisol had had the presence of mind to get Jeff to a hospital. She’d probably saved his life, even if she had been at least partially responsible for endangering it in the first place.

Jolie and Sylvia arrived just then. Helen stood up and reached for Marisol’s hand. “Come along, honey.
Let’s you and me go and get everyone some coffee. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”

“Thank you,” Rosa said, aware once more of how well her friend knew her. As grateful as she was to Marisol at this moment, she also wasn’t sure she could bear to be around her another second.

The instant the chairs on either side of her were vacated, Jolie and Sylvia sat beside her. Jeff was going to make it, Rosa reassured herself, and as long as she had her friends, she was going to make it, too.

Emma had grown weary of waiting. She’d left the investigation into her father’s suicide in Matt’s hands. She’d left Jeff to work out his own problems. She’d been waiting and waiting for her mother to say she was strong enough for Emma to leave again. She’d been drifting along on a tide of guilt and grief and self-imposed martyrdom. Well, she’d finally had enough, especially now that she knew that Matt had been deliberately dragging his heels.

Jennifer Sawyer had answers, maybe not all of them, but enough to point Emma in the right direction. And there was no reason on earth that Emma had to wait for Matt before talking to her. If Jennifer was still out of town, Emma would simply watch her apartment and her office until she returned. How difficult could a stakeout really be? It wasn’t as if Jennifer were some sort of criminal. This was likely to be more tedious than dangerous.

She had borrowed her mother’s car earlier and driven to the address she’d found in the phone book. So far, so good. There was nothing to it. She had no idea why Matt had been making such a big deal about handling it on his own. Okay, that wasn’t true. She
knew precisely why he’d been balking at pinning Jennifer down for an interview.

“Damn him,” she muttered as she spotted the lights on in Jennifer’s house. “She’s probably been right here all along.”

Spurred on by fury and a sense of purpose she hadn’t felt in weeks, she cut across the grass, marched up the steps and pounded on the front door. She was going to get to the bottom of this tonight, and then she could go back to D.C. and pick up her life where she’d left off. She ignored the fact that there would be a huge hole in her heart that Matt had occupied these last few weeks.

She leaned on the buzzer, then stepped back when the door swung open. Her heart promptly climbed into her throat.

“You,” she whispered, feeling even more betrayed than she had earlier.

“I figured you’d turn up here sooner or later,” Matt said. “Come on in.”

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you rushed right on over to protect her,” Emma said, her voice flat.

“I did not rush over to protect anyone. Cori called and told me Jennifer was back. I came over to see what I could find out.”

“Without me.”

“Like I said, I figured you’d find your way over here before long, anyway.”

“Is she here?”

Matt nodded.

“And?”

“And nothing. I just got here myself.”

“Well, isn’t that just peachy,” she said sarcasti
cally. “We can get all those pesky answers together and you won’t have to bother reporting back to me.”

He winced at her tone, but he didn’t respond. He merely stepped aside to allow her into the foyer. Only when she was about to go into the living room, did he latch on to her arm and pull her to a halt.

“After this, you and I are going to talk,” he said evenly.

She frowned, her gaze steady on his hand until he finally released her.

“We will talk, Emma. It’s not over between us.”

She regarded him sorrowfully. “It never even got started.”

He scowled at that. “Don’t kid yourself, Emma. It started years ago.”

“You’re the one kidding yourself.” She met his gaze. “And do you really want to have this particular discussion with Jennifer in the next room? There’s no telling what she might do if she overhears us.”

“Dammit, Emma! I—”

She ignored whatever he was about to say and swept past him. Tonight all she wanted was answers. Her feelings for Matt didn’t matter. To think that she’d almost been ready to turn her life upside down for him. Well, that was over. She’d never allow her feelings for him to matter again.

O
nce she was actually face-to-face with Jennifer Sawyer, Emma’s heart began to thud. She’d convinced herself that she wanted whatever answers Jennifer could provide about her father’s death—that she
needed
those answers—but now that the truth was hers for the asking, she suddenly didn’t want to know, after all. She wanted to stick her head in the sand and accept the medical examiner’s report that her father’s death was an accident, something tragic, but totally uncomplicated. Unfortunately it was too late now to take the easy way out.

Jennifer Sawyer was a gorgeous woman in her late twenties. She’d been a regular at Flamingo Diner since her teens, when she’d been trailed around by half the football team. Emma had been younger and very envious. Now, looking at her with her classic features, pale complexion and haunted eyes, Emma saw that the years had only enhanced her beauty. It was little wonder Matt had been taken with her. Had her father been, as well?

“Hello, Emma,” Jennifer said. She glanced at Matt as if seeking moral support, then added, “I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am about what happened to your father.”

“Thank you,” Emma said politely, forcing herself not to blurt out an accusation she couldn’t take back.

Now it was Emma’s turn to look at Matt, silently pleading for him to ask the hard questions she’d been ready to hurl at Jennifer herself only moments ago before she’d actually crossed the threshold. His expression grim, he finally nodded.

“Jen, Harley and Gabe found your date book a couple of weeks ago,” he began. “It had been tossed in the trash Dumpster behind your office building.”

“The same Gabe and Harley who were prowling around outside this place? And before you ask, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that’s who it was, even though you claimed it was just a couple of people who were lost. The rumor mill was full of it by the next morning.” She gave Matt a bemused look. “What were they thinking?”

“They were trying to help,” Matt said. “They thought you might know something about why Don committed suicide and they were looking for proof.”

“In my garbage?”

Matt’s lips curved. “We’re talking Gabe and Harley. They watch a lot of TV.”

“And the bottom line is, they found something, didn’t they?” Emma said, since Matt hadn’t. “Matt says my father’s name was in your date book over and over again the first part of this year.” She drew in a deep breath, then blurted, “Were the two of you having an affair?”

“Oh, my God,” Jennifer whispered, looking shattered. She turned to Matt. “Is that what you think? How could you, Matt? You know me.”

He regarded her apologetically. “We’re asking,
Jen, not making an accusation. Why was the date book in the trash?”

“Because I was afraid of something exactly like this. I was not having an affair with Don,” Jennifer said, still indignant. “But having his name in there was bound to make people wonder.” She faced Emma, her gaze steady, her cheeks flushed. “Not you, though, Matt, or Emma. I’m surprised by the two of you. First of all, Don was old enough to be my father. Second, he was a happily married man, which you of all people should know, Emma. There was nothing on earth he cared about more than his family. I can’t believe you would think he would ever cheat on your mother.”

The suggestion that she was the one who was demeaning her parents’ relationship cut Emma to the quick. “If I’m wrong, I apologize,” she said stiffly.

“Well, you
are
wrong,” Jennifer said.

There was enough heat and sincerity behind her words to convince Emma that she was telling the truth, about that at least. “But you do know something, don’t you?” she pressed. “If you’d been spending a lot of time with him, you must.”

“I don’t see how this will help,” Jennifer said. “It will only be more upsetting. Don was my client. More than that, he was a good friend. I don’t want to betray him. That was another reason I got rid of the damn date book, so I’d never have to say anything more.”

“It’s too late to worry about that. He’s dead,” Emma reminded her sharply. “Because of something that happened, we all think he killed himself. Put yourself in my place. I can’t rest until I know why. If he was your client, then you must know that the family’s finances are a mess. What do you know
about that? I think there’s a connection between that and his death. I think you believe the same thing. I think that’s why you’ve been avoiding not only me and Matt, but my mother.”

Jennifer still looked torn. “Okay, you’re right,” she said, resigned. “There’s no point in protecting him now, not if the truth will help you get past this. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

Relieved and terrified at the same time, Emma met her gaze. “Start at the beginning. When did you start working for my dad?”

“Your father came to me a little over a year ago. He said he had some money to invest. Over the years he’d poured most of his available cash into the business. He was worried that his savings wouldn’t cover the last couple of years of Jeff’s college education, much less stretch to cover Andy’s. He wanted to make some investments.”

Emma began to see where this was heading. “In the stock market,” she said flatly.

“Exactly. We’d been talking about the market in the diner, about the boom in technology stocks, about initial offerings that skyrocketed, even about how that sector was fading, so I thought he was pretty well informed about the risks. Nevertheless, I explained them to him again. I suggested some conservative blue-chip investments, but he wanted bigger returns.”

Emma still couldn’t believe he’d been so irresponsible. “Are you actually telling me that my father borrowed against the diner to invest in risky stocks?”

“Not at first. He used the money he had in savings. Despite my advice, he went a little wild speculating. When he needed to cover some losses, that’s when he began borrowing against the diner. He was so sure
that he was going to recoup that money and make a killing. He wouldn’t listen to a thing I said. I finally told him I wouldn’t handle any more trades for him. The odd thing was that the worse things got, the more determined he was to keep going. It was almost like an addiction, like he was a gambler at heart.”

Jennifer’s description was so unlike the father she remembered that Emma was having a hard time making the connection. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered, thoroughly shaken. “He was always so good with money, so careful. I can’t tell you how many times he lectured us on not going into debt, on never risking something we couldn’t afford to lose. He didn’t even have a credit card.”

Matt nodded. “He said the same things to me. He said them so often, I almost wondered if it wasn’t something he’d learned from bitter experience.”

“Me, too,” Emma agreed, wondering if there was something in her father’s past that he and her mother had never shared with her.

“All I know is that he went a little crazy,” Jennifer said. “When I tried to stop him, he found a broker in an office downstairs who didn’t care how much he lost, as long as he kept making trades. I saw him on what I later found out was the day he died.”

“His name was in your date book for that afternoon,” Matt said.

“He told me that morning that he had an appointment with his broker and that he’d stop by my office afterward. When he got there, he looked absolutely awful. I knew then that he’d suffered more huge losses, but he tried to joke about it, as if it were only money, no big thing. He had to be devastated, though. By then, there couldn’t have been any question of
having money for either Jeff or Andy’s tuition. In fact, I had to wonder if he wasn’t very close to losing the diner.”

“How was he when he left your office?” Emma asked.

Jennifer hesitated, her expression thoughtful. “I’d have to say sad. In retrospect, when I heard what happened, I couldn’t help thinking that the look I’d seen on his face was the look of a man who felt he had nothing left to live for.”

“My God,” Emma whispered.

“It upset me so badly that I started to question all the advice I’d ever given to any of my clients,” Jennifer said. “I was already at my place in North Carolina, but I decided to stay there. I needed time to reevaluate the career I’d chosen.”

Jennifer regarded her with sympathy. “Emma, I can’t begin to tell you how responsible I felt, as if I’d pushed him down that road. I’m so sorry, Emma. If I’d had any idea how things were going to turn out, I would never have taken him on as a client. I thought I was helping a friend.”

As badly as Emma wanted to hurl accusations and blame at Jennifer, she knew that her father had been responsible for his own decisions. No one had forced him to make those investments. He’d always been clever with money. Obviously he’d seen the stock market as one more financial mountain to conquer for the sake of his family’s future. When it had gotten the better of him, he’d probably been too embarrassed to tell any of them what he’d done. As if any of them would have cared more about money than they would have about him. My God, what a waste! What a complete and utter waste!

“How could you have known what would happen?” Emma said, surprised to find that she was able to feel some sympathy for Jennifer, after all. “This was his fault, not yours.”

“I am sorry,” Jennifer said again. “You were absolutely right about one thing. I was glad I’d gone away before I heard the news. Once I did I stayed away even longer because I couldn’t bear to look any of you in the eye. You, Jeff and Andy lost your father. Your mom lost her husband. And I lost someone I respected and cared about.”

Emma didn’t want to feel sorry for the woman who’d had a hand, however innocently, in her father’s destruction, but she did. “Thank you for telling me,” she said. “I know it wasn’t easy.”

“It was harder watching him ruin his life bit by bit,” Jennifer told her. “Your dad was a wonderful man. Remember that, and try not to focus on how his life ended.”

“One more thing,” Matt said. “I asked you once before, but I want to ask it again. Were you the one who sent those flowers to the lake, the one with the card asking ‘Why?”’

Jennifer shook her head. “No. I can’t say for sure, but I think it might have been Cori. We never talked about it, but I think she had some of the same questions about my relationship with Don that you did and was trying in her own way to make sure someone looked into his death. She’s too good a friend to accuse me of anything directly, but I think she was tormented by what happened. Don’t forget she saw him that last day, too.”

Unable to face Jennifer for another second, Emma
stood up without a word and walked blindly outside. Matt was at her side in an instant.

“You okay?” he asked, tucking a finger under her chin.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

He started to reach for her, then held back. “Will you tell your mother what you found out?”

“I honestly don’t know.” She met his gaze. “It almost makes it worse that this whole thing was about money. How could he think that we’d care more about money than we did about him?”

“He wasn’t thinking straight,” Matt said. “That’s obvious.”

“But we must have failed him in some way for him to think that.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he retorted. “None of you failed him. If anything, it was the other way around. When the chips were down, he opted out, rather than sticking around to face all of you and figure a way out of the mess he’d created. It’s the only sign of weakness I ever saw in him.”

For the first time since his death, Emma no longer felt so angry with her father. All she felt was pity for him and sorrow that so many lives would never be the same.

Matt watched Emma warily. She was pale as a ghost and she wasn’t saying a word. She wasn’t even complaining that he’d climbed behind the wheel of her mother’s car after tucking her into the passenger seat.

Finally, he looked over. “Where to?”

She shook her head as if coming out of a trance. “I have no idea.”

“You want to go somewhere for a drink?”

“No.”

“Something to eat?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“My place?”

That got the wry look he’d expected, if not the response he’d hoped for.

“Okay, not my place,” he said. “Do you want to go home?”

“I suppose,” she said without enthusiasm.

He drove back to the Killian house, rounded the car and opened Emma’s door. She seemed startled to realize that they’d arrived. He was not about to leave her alone in that state. Once he’d made sure that Rosa was inside and capable of coping with Emma’s distress, then he’d take off. Not a minute before.

But inside, there was no sign of Rosa or of Andy.

“I’ll make some tea,” Matt said.

“Fine, whatever.” She trailed along behind him into the kitchen, like a scared kid who was afraid to be too far from the protection of an adult.

“Apple cinnamon or wild berry?” he asked, holding up boxes of tea bags from the cupboard.

“Wild berry, I guess.”

He poured hot water over the tea bags, then set her cup in front of her and sat opposite her. “I think you need to sit down with your mom and talk this out,” he told her. “Andy and Jeff probably need to know, too. Keeping this buried inside you will just put a barrier between you and the others.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to destroy their image of Dad. They thought he was invincible. So did I.”

“I think his suicide pretty much shattered that
myth,” Matt said. “He was only human, Emma. He made mistakes. We all do.”

She finally met his gaze. “Matt, this wasn’t some little clerical error. He gambled away almost everything. You have no idea. None of us care about inheritances just for the sake of the money, but he put Mom’s future at risk. How could he do that?”

“He got in over his head. It happens. And sometimes it happens before a person even realizes just how bad things have gotten.” He met her gaze evenly. “I got in over my head with you years ago.”

She almost smiled at that. “Hardly the same,” she said.

“I don’t know. I’d gamble just about anything to keep you.”

“I’m not a prize you can win in some high-stakes game,” she said tartly.