All She Ever Wanted - Barbara Freethy [116]
"I don't want you to do that," Laura said in dismay. "We've just found each other again—you, me, and Madison. I don't want to lose you, Natalie."
"You won't. We'll stay in touch this time. But I don't want to talk about this right now. We have enough things to worry about in the present. Let's leave the future to another day."
* * *
"I'm still waiting for you to tell me how you figured out Malone was Martin," Cole said, as he pulled up next to Dylan's motorcycle, parked in a lot near the professor's office building.
"I was talking to Madison the other day, and she mentioned that Emily was interested in someone before she died. I started remembering things Emily had said to me, and I knew Madison was right. There was another man in Em's life. When I went back to my apartment, I looked through the closet, where I'd stored some of Emily's things—"
"When you helped me clean out her room in Santa Cruz, you kept some of her stuff, didn't you?" Cole interrupted.
"Only things we worked on together. Emily was helping me plan my club back then. We'd drawn up ideas for games, magic acts, shows, virtual-reality stories. I knew she kept them in a drawer in her desk, so I dumped that drawer in a box and kept it for myself. I really didn't think it would matter to anyone but me. When I went through the box the other night, I found a film strip from the boardwalk, one of those places you go to take pictures of yourself and a friend. When I saw the guy in the pictures, I recognized him as the professor Emily met with for supposed tutoring. All the puzzle pieces fell into place. Emily told Madison the guy she wanted was unattainable, and the professor was married. I figured he was the guy Emily was— was in love with."
Judging by the bitterness in Dylan's voice, Cole had a feeling that sentence had cost him dearly. He wasn't ready to forgive Dylan for his lies and secrets, but one thing was clear—Dylan had loved Emily. "So you came down here to confront the professor. Why didn't you come to me and tell me your suspicions?"
"I didn't know what the professor knew about Emily and me. I wanted to find that out first."
"Because you didn't want me to know."
"Yeah, I was trying to avoid a black eye," Dylan said.
Cole didn't feel a speck of remorse about the fact that Dylan's right eye was turning purple and swelling shut. He'd deserved the punch for keeping so many secrets. "I have another question for you. What about your trip to L.A.? You said you just figured out Malone was Martin, so why were you in L.A. at the same time?"
"I went to L.A. to see a magician friend of mine. It didn't have anything to do with Malone or the book." Dylan paused. "We can do this later. I have something to show you. Follow me."
"You were just caught breaking into the professor's office. Now you want to do it again?"
"We're not going in." Dylan led him around to the back of the building. He walked over to some thick bushes. "When I heard someone coming, I tossed it out the window."
"Tossed what out the window?"
Dylan dug through the leaves of a bush and pulled out a purple notebook. "This. It's Emily's journal. I found it in the professor's office."
Cole felt chilled to the bone as Dylan handed the book to him. Emily's handwriting adorned the front cover along with doodles and girlish stickers she'd placed there more than ten years ago. He shook his head, feeling a rush of emotion that ranged from pain to anger to a deep, almost unbearable sadness. "Natalie was right. He had this journal all along. His words in the book were really Emily's words. At least some of them." He paused. "I've got to call Natalie. Tell her we found the journal and that Martin is really