You Can Run... (19 page)

“And much more confident than Jeff, I’m afraid.” Blake poured coffee. “I’m surprised those people didn’t know about Penny. They seemed to have
no
idea about her past, not even that young woman Diana.”

“I know.” Lenore smiled ruefully. “They were genuinely shocked about Penny’s stripping.”

“I thought we were calling it ‘exotic dancing.’ ”

“It’s just you and me now, sweetheart. We can call it what it was.” Lenore took the lid off the warm plate on which lay her pancakes topped with huge strawberries and whipped cream. “Oh my goodness, they look heavenly.”

“I want you to eat every bite. You need your energy. You look a bit pale, and yesterday you had circles under your eyes. Your mother never gives you any rest.”

“Thank goodness I’d just left to catch the plane for home when you called with the news about Penny. I can imagine Mother’s reaction.”

“I can’t. I don’t want to imagine it.” Blake heaped
blueberry jam on his toast. “She won’t shed a tear for Penny.”

“Oh, Blake, she will. What an awful thing to say! She’ll be glad that Penny’s out of Jeff’s life and that Cornelia is alive, but she won’t be glad Penny is probably going to die.”

“She won’t say so, but she
will
be glad. Your mother can be fairly awful.”

Lenore cut a strawberry in half, chewing it and thinking. Yes, her mother probably would be glad, but Lenore had trouble admitting this even to herself. She’d never come to terms with her mother’s unforgiving nature. Instead, Lenore changed the topic. “What do you think of Diana?”

Blake laid down his fork. “Oh no, not again.”

“No, not again.” Lenore smiled. “She was Penny’s friend and Cornelia seemed crazy about her. I just wondered what
you
thought of her.”

“Well, I know the first thing you’re interested in is whether or not I thought she was pretty. I did. She has magnificent hair, and the eyes are very arresting—they can look soft and feminine one minute and hard as granite the next. She’s feminine, but I can also see her in cowboy boots or climbing trees—”

“Or going on Egyptian expeditions, just as her uncle told us about while we were waiting for her to come home.”

“Yes.” Blake took a bite of his eggs. “I also see a good bit of her uncle in her. But wait—he’s her great-uncle, isn’t he? She’s not easily intimidated. Jeff didn’t scare her any more than he did the uncle. She’s not a hard, masculine woman, but she’s not a delicate flower, either.” He shrugged and smiled at Lenore. “What more can I say?”

“I wish she looked like that housekeeper.”

Blake burst out laughing. “Why do they keep that girl? My God, her manners! She was atrocious!”

“Diana said she was new.”

“There has to be more to the story than that.” Blake
was still laughing. “I can’t see Van Etton putting up with her more than a day unless he had a better reason than that she’s inexperienced!”

“Well, we really don’t know these people. We’ve been told they’re highly reputable, we’ve seen that they live well, we’ve even seen how much Corny loves them, but still. . . .”

“But still, we haven’t gotten to know them for ourselves.” Blake paused, crunching a piece of bacon. “And by the way, I know this might make Jeff angry, but may we
please
call that child Willow instead of Cornelia or, even worse, Corny? Penny hated the name but Jeff insisted on it because he thought it would please your mother, who, true to form, was insulted that he named the daughter of that ‘slut’ after her. Since apparently everyone has been calling her Willow for the last eighteen months, will the world stop turning if we call her Willow, too?”

“I suppose not.” Lenore frowned. “Penny kept her own first name. Why do you suppose she didn’t change it, too?”

“The FBI said Karen Hope Conley is the name on the Social Security card she was using. The card for Willow belongs to a Deborah Lee Conley. I guess if anyone asked, Penny said Penny and Willow were nicknames.”

“But where did Penny get the Social Security cards?”

“I don’t know. We don’t know a whole lot about her life before she married Jeff, Lenore. In her line of work, she could have met all kinds of underworld types who would know how to pull off an identity change. I’ve always believed she turned to one of those people—people who knew Copper Penny and were still willing to help her.”

“For a fee, though. A criminal wouldn’t take a risk for free.”

Blake smiled. “I hope you don’t know that from experience.”

“In spite of all of my father’s rumored shady contacts, I know criminals only from television and in movies—”

“Where criminals are always portrayed with absolute accuracy.” Blake shook his head. “I don’t know how she
did it, Lenore, but don’t forget the fifteen thousand dollars missing from her bank account. Maybe she used that money to buy the new Social Security cards.”

“Maybe so.” Lenore took a sip of coffee then poured more in the dainty china cup. “Penny didn’t leave to steal Jeff’s money. I’ve always thought she went away with a rich boyfriend. According to the Van Ettons, though, she lived a lower-middle-class life. Of course, that doesn’t eliminate the possibility of a lover, but he couldn’t have been a rich lover. And where would she have met him? I don’t think she often visited Huntington, West Virginia.”

“She’d probably never heard of it.”

“Then why did she come here?”

“I have no idea, honey.”

Lenore looked at Blake. “Why were you saying all those wonderful things to Jeff last night about knowing real love when you see it, and you saw it in Penny when she looked at Jeff? Were you just trying to calm him down?”

“Partly. That’s why I laid it on so thick. But I’m certain Penny did love Jeff when she married him. I just didn’t see that look of love in her eyes the last few months before she left.”

“Then you think she might have left him for another man.”

“I did at first, just like you did. When so much time went by and Jeff never heard anything from her about a divorce, though, I thought maybe she was with someone who wouldn’t marry her. The only thing I was sure of was that if there was another man, he had a lot of money,” Blake said. “Penny didn’t marry Jeff for money alone—I’m sure of it—but she’d gotten used to a certain lifestyle and she’d also want the best for her daughter. It appears, however, that I was wrong. If there
was
another man, he certainly didn’t keep her in style.”

“No, she ended up being someone’s research assistant and living in a tiny house with faulty wiring that caused an explosion.”

His mouth full, Blake shook his head then swallowed.
“Faulty wiring could cause a fire, but not an explosion. Faulty wiring putting off sparks in a room where there is a gas leak could cause an explosion. We’ll probably get a full report from the fire marshal today.” He paused. “I think we’re ready to start on the second pot of coffee.”

Lenore pretended to toy with her pancakes as if not certain she could take another bite. She caught Blake looking at her, grinning. “You know I’m going to scrape this plate clean, don’t you?”

“Yes. Why not? You always lose at least five pounds when you stay with your mother.”

“I
need
to lose the five pounds. You don’t, but you’ve lost at least that much. Of all the times for this to happen—when I’m just coming home from Mother’s and you’ve been down with the flu. You’re not over it, you know. You looked utterly worn out when we left the Van Etton house and you coughed throughout the night.”

“It wasn’t exactly a restful evening, Lenore. The icing on the cake was having Cor—Willow—scream that Jeff was the Bad Man, that he killed Penny.”

“Oh, God, that was dreadful! Penny is to blame. She tried to turn Cor—Willow—against Jeff out of revenge.”

“Revenge for what? Jeff didn’t do anything to Penny except treat her like a queen.”

Lenore sighed. “I just wish I knew what Penny was like during her months here in Huntington. I don’t mean that she lived in a modest house and wore inexpensive clothes. I mean what she was really like—what she thought, what she talked about, where she went, what her interests were, if she had any.”

“Well, you’ve met the two people she seemed to know best—Simon Van Etton and Diana Sheridan. If you want to know about Penny, I think Diana’s the best person to ask.”

“But I can’t just go up to her and say, ‘Tell me all you know about Penny.’ ”

Blake laughed. “That would lack finesse.”

“Besides, Diana didn’t strike me as being a gossip. I have a feeling getting information from her—about
Penny—would be extremely difficult, especially because I’m Jeffrey’s sister.”

Blake popped the last piece of jam-loaded toast into his mouth and poured another cup of coffee. “Lenore, you are an expert at getting information out of people. It’s one of the reasons Jeff put you on the executive staff of the company. You seem charmingly innocent. Guileless. That disarms people—even very savvy business people. You learned more from some of our competitors than Jeff or I ever could.”

“Talk about backhanded compliments! I’m great at finding out information because people think I’m stupid.”

“I didn’t say stupid. I said guileless. And charming. And completely candid and forthcoming. People blab everything they know to you without realizing they’re doing it. Also, when someone says something vital we need to know, you give no sign that you even realize what they’ve said. You just chatter on as if the information didn’t register.”

“I repeat, people think I’m stupid.”

Blake sighed then smiled at Lenore affectionately. “Okay, they don’t think you’re the sharpest knife in the drawer. They think you have a cushy upper-level job because your brother runs the company.”

“My brother
and
my husband.”

“Yes, but Jeff was already running things when he brought me on. Sometimes I’m not even sure he needs me. He feels an obligation to me because my father and his father started the business. But that aside, you are a gem, Lenore. Your brother and I know you are responsible for some of the smartest moves ever made by Cavanaugh and Wentworth.” Lenore smiled at him. “So, just how hard a nut do you think Diana Sheridan will be to crack compared to some of the other coups you’ve pulled off so successfully? She doesn’t have a chance at withholding information from Lenore Wentworth.”

“My goodness, maybe I should offer my services to the CIA. Then they could stop torturing people to get information.”

Blake grinned. “Marvelous idea, darling, but they don’t pay as well as Cavanaugh and Wentworth.” His grin faded. “So how about trying to get information about Penny from Diana? I don’t think it will be all that hard for you.”

Lenore took another sip of coffee, looking beyond Blake to the window, the draperies open to a beautiful day. “Last night Jeff said he wanted to see Penny today. He wanted us to go with him, but in spite of what Penny did, I just cannot stand to see her horribly burned. Jeff will let me bow out of the visit if you go with him. I know you don’t want to go, either, but he’ll insist. He worries me. He’s getting almost pathological about social interaction and having you or me do the talking for him. But this time he really will need a family member with him if he’s going to see Penny.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“You will go with Jeff to the hospital. I’ll beg off, call the Van Etton house, and ask if I can drop by and see Willow. I don’t see how they can say no. I’m the child’s aunt and I’ll be coming instead of Jeff, which should be a relief to them.” Lenore looked at her husband and smiled. “And I’ll act as charmingly ignorant and chatty and disarming as possible until I find out all I can. All right?”

“Better than all right.” Blake reached across the table, hand held up. Lenore raised her own hand, which he clasped and squeezed. “Pure genius, dear Lenore.”

Diana awakened to Willow standing beside her bed regarding her intently with big blue eyes. “I didn’t think you’d ever wake up, and Christabel and Romeo and me are starving.” Romeo, somewhere on the floor beside Willow, let out one of his stentorian quacks. “See? Starving.”

“I didn’t realize the situation was so dire,” Diana mumbled as Christabel jumped up on her bed. “What time is it?”

“Breakfast time.”

Diana glanced at her bedside clock. “It’s nine o’clock. Really
past
breakfast time, but you and I had to catch up on our sleep. Besides, Romeo usually likes a late breakfast.”

The big cat let out another resounding quack, as if proclaiming Diana wrong. “Romeo says he’s hungry now,” Willow told her. “He’d better eat soon or he could get all weak and shaky from not having any food.”

“That’ll be the day!” Diana laughed. “Okay, you three pitiful beings, I’m getting up right now. We’ll all be having breakfast in ten minutes.”

She was slipping on her robe when someone tapped lightly on the door. A moment later Clarice called, “Diana?”

“Yes, come in, Clarice.”

The woman stepped into the bedroom without her walker. She wore a light-blue suit—the only dressy outfit Diana had taken from Clarice’s closet the day before—and low-heeled pumps. She’d pulled her hair into a more elaborate French twist than usual, with small wavy tendrils at her ears and a deeper wave at the left side of her forehead.

“My goodness, you dress well even on a lazy Sunday morning. You look lovely,” Diana said.

Clarice smiled. “Thank you. I always attend Sunday services, and your uncle has offered to be my escort.”

“Uncle Simon is driving you to church?”

“Actually, he insists on attending with me and afterward taking me out for lunch, since I’m having little arthritis pain today. I told him lunch out was entirely unnecessary, but . . . well . . . you know Simon better than I do.”

“Yes, I do,” Diana said faintly. Simon who probably hadn’t been in a church since his sister’s wedding was now not only offering but
insisting
on taking Clarice? The man who Diana had left on Tuesday morning was not the same man who now waited to take Clarice Hanson to church and out to lunch. Diana smothered a smile. She couldn’t have
been happier that her great-uncle was no longer burying himself in his work. “Well, Willow tells me she and the cats are starving. We were just coming down for breakfast.”