The FBI Thrillers Collection Books 6-10 - Catherine Coulter [116]
Lily said, “After you’ve painted me, then what will happen?”
He smiled then, showing her his very beautiful white teeth, likely false. “Yes, yes, I know I am an old man, but I do not have much longer to live. I want you with me until it is my time. I was hoping, perhaps, that you would see some advantage in marrying me.”
“Oh, is that why I’m wearing white? To put me in the mood?”
“You want manners,” Ian said. He was angry, she could see it as he stepped toward her only to stop when he felt his father’s hand on his forearm. Ian shook off his father’s hand and said, “She is disrespectful. She needs to see what an honor it would be to be your wife!”
Olaf only shook his head. He even smiled again as he said to Lily, “No, my dear, you are wearing white because that is a copy of the dress I last saw your grandmother wearing in Paris. It was the day she left with Emerson Elliott. The day I believed my world had collapsed.”
“You are good at copies, aren’t you?” Lily said. “I am not my grandmother, you foolish old man.”
Ian struck her across the face. Simon didn’t say a word, just hurled himself at Ian Jorgenson, slamming his fist into his jaw, then whirled back and kicked him in the kidney.
“Stop!” It was Nikki and he’d pulled a gun that was aimed at Simon.
Simon gave him a brief bow, straightened his shirt, and walked away.
Ian slowly raised himself to his feet, grimacing in pain. “I will go with Nikki and Alpo this evening. I will be the one to kill you.”
“All this,” Simon said, marveling as he turned to Olaf Jorgenson, “and you raised a coward, too.”
Lily lightly placed her hand on Simon’s arm. She was terrified.
She said to Olaf, “Even if I found you remotely acceptable in matrimonial terms, sir, I couldn’t marry you. I’m married to Tennyson Frasier.”
The old man was silent.
“I don’t ever wish to marry again, at least until I’ve seriously reconsidered my criteria. I don’t think there’s any way in the world that you would ever fit them. I’m married anyway, so it doesn’t matter, does it?”
Still the old man was silent, thoughtfully looking at her. Then he slowly nodded. He said, “I will be back shortly.”
“What are you going to do, Father?”
“I do not believe in bigamy. It is immoral. I’m going to make Lily a widow. Nikki, take me to my library.” As Nikki wheeled him out of the huge room, Lily and Simon saw him pull a small, thick black book from his sweater pocket. They watched him thumb through it as he disappeared from their view.
“He’s completely mad,” Lily whispered.
Washington, D.C.
Savich walked through the front door of his home, hugged his wife, kissed her, and said, “Where’s Sean?”
“At your mom’s house—babbling, gumming everything in sight, and happy. I left your mom a two-box supply of graham crackers.”
Savich was too tired, too depressed to smile. He raised an eyebrow in question.
She said, without preamble, “Both the Bureau and I agree with your plan. Tammy wants you, Dillon. She’s focused on you. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that she will come here. I took Sean to your mother’s because we don’t want him in harm’s way.
“Right before you got home, Jimmy Maitland issued a statement to the media that you were no longer the lead investigator in the manhunt for Tammy Tuttle. Aaron Briggs has replaced you as the lead. He said you were urgently needed to gather vital evidence in the Wilbur Wright case, the cult leader responsible for the heinous murders of a sheriff and two deputies in Flowers, Texas. You’re traveling to Texas on Friday to begin working with local law enforcement.”
He hugged her close and said against her hair, “You and Mr. Maitland got it done really fast. So I’m to leave on Friday? Today is Tuesday.”
“Yes.