California Schemin' - Kate George [46]
It was hard to know what was important, so I was reading a lot of stuff I didn’t understand. The top drawer was a bust, and I moved on to the middle. Time was ticking away. The longer I spent in here, the more likely I’d be caught. And what was I going to say? I was curious?
I was on my knees, well into the third drawer when the door opened behind me.
“Shit.” I jumped up, bumping my knee on the corner of the drawer and bringing tears to my eyes. I pushed the drawer shut and turned to find Hammie standing inside the door, arms crossed, watching me.
“Did Senator Wallace give you permission to search his office?” He had the daddy-caught-you-misbehaving look on his face. Bastard. Stop patronizing me.
“Could you be any more sarcastic? The Senator told me I had free reign of the house. Said I could go anywhere.”
“You took that to mean you could search his office?”
You damn well know I’m not supposed to be searching his office so don’t ask stupid questions.
“I’m surprised you’re not searching his office. You’re the one compromising your principles to protect your father.” Don’t kid yourself, Bree. He’s not exactly superman. He’d be riding the edge of the law even if his father was squeaky clean.
“You don’t know that I haven’t searched this office. In fact, you don’t know much of anything, it seems to me. A total waste of my time and the senator’s.” This was a Hammie I’d never seen before. His face was set, emotions shut down. I’d made him angry. Well, good.
“Since when do you care about the senator’s time?” I was getting pretty steamed myself. I figured I had as many facts as Hammie did.
“Since he’s my boss.”
“Then I suppose you know that your boss most likely had his wife killed.” I watched his face, but he’d shut down good. He was making damn sure he wasn’t giving anything away.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. She loved power, she wouldn’t have divorced him.”
“Oh, really, a lot you know about women. Lily was the money and the power behind the senator.” I knew she had the money, but I was guessing on the power thing. Anyway it sounded good, and for some reason I wanted to win this argument.
“She had the money,” I went on, “then she disappeared. When she reappeared she had a bullet in her head, and now Wallace has the money.”
“How do you come up with this shit?” He was leaning against the door now, looking at me with contempt.
“I happened to pull her body out of the river, which is why Senator Wallace sent you after me. He’s trying to clear himself by asking me to implicate some innocent criminals. Told me I’d be doing society a service. He’s a toad.”
“In your opinion.”
“Yes, in my opinion he’s a toad. I was drugged, kidnapped from my home, flown all the way across the country against my will. I’m being held indefinitely while my family and friends worry. He’s not just a toad. He’s a fucking toad. I want to go home.”
“I just need a little more time.”
“I don’t understand you. Wallace has your dad over a barrel, but you refuse to believe that he’s capable of murdering his wife. It’s all part of the same immorality.”
“Blackmail and murder are two different things.”
“Take off the effing blinders. Jeez. I can’t deal with you.” I picked up my shoes and pushed past him. I didn’t have a thing that would link Wallace to Lily’s murder, but only a fool would keep that kind of evidence around. Hambecker didn’t follow me from the room. As I came down the stairs the foyer and entry were beckoning me. I increased my speed down the stairs, listening for Hammie to come after me. He wasn’t. I reached the first floor, the foyer tile cold and smooth beneath my feet. I sprinted toward freedom.
I was out the door, flying down the front walk in my bare feet. The skirt of the blue dress kept wrapping around my legs, so I hitched it up with the hand that wasn’t carrying the impractical shoes. I thought briefly about chucking the shoes, but you never know when you might need