My Heart's Desire (55 page)

Rennie rested her head against Jarret's arm. The sleeve of his quilted dressing gown was cool and smooth against her cheek. "If Hollis had all this planned to get control of the company, then why did he try to kill Jay Mac?"

"I could make a guess, but if you want to know the truth, you'd have to ask Hollis."

Rennie drew back, a small crease appearing between her brows as she frowned in deep thought. "Jarret," she said slowly, "if you were tracking someone in the mountains and you lost his trail for a while, what would you do?" She held up her hand, halting his answer a moment. "I mean if you had an idea where he was going in the first place."

Jarret shrugged. It was hardly a trick question. "If I had I good idea where he was going, the trail doesn't really matter. I would get ahead of him and wait. If I couldn't get ahead, I'd corner him and flush him out."

Rennie sat up a bit straighter, her face solemn, her emerald eyes expectant. "Well?" she asked, gesturing at the room full of ledgers and files. "You said it yourself; the answer isn't in the accounts. There's no trail to follow. But you've figured it out without a trail. You know what Hollis's plan is. You know where he's heading with it." She smiled slowly, almost triumphantly. "All we have to do is find a place to corner him."

"Rennie," Jarret said placatingly. "I don't think—"

She wasn't listening to him. "Do you remember when we sought shelter in that abandoned mine? We flushed out that little bear cub easily enough. We were just talking between ourselves, making plans, and he came out because he was curious."

"Hollis isn't a bear cub."

"No, but he's curious. And he's full of pride, Jarret. It's not enough for him to be clever; he has to make certain you
know
he's clever."

Jarret didn't need to be convinced of that. He glanced around the room again, at the stack of ledgers on the bed, the pile in the corner, the mound of them beside the desk. "Flush him out, eh?" he asked thoughtfully. "It could work."

She nodded, making room for him in the chair as he slid off the arm and onto the cushion. They were squeezed comfortably together, both her legs resting across his lap, her bottom pressed tight to his thigh. Her dressing gown opened. Before she could close it Jarret's hand slid under the satin and lay against the curve of her hip.

He bent his head so that their foreheads touched. "You're a very bright lady, Mrs. Sullivan."

She nudged him with her nose. "You inspire me."

His thumb moved back and forth across her hipbone. "I think I like that."

Rennie kissed him softly. "Let's go to bed."

"You
are
full of good ideas tonight."

* * *

Hollis Banks stood at the window in his office and stared down on the street below. The traffic seemed to move more quickly when viewed from the height of five stories. It gave him a feeling of power, almost as if he controlled the ebb and flow and changing patterns. He did, in some ways, do just that. Northeast Rail was moving a country, and he was part of it. It was only a matter of time before he controlled it.

That's what made the message on his desk all the more disturbing. Rennie wanted to see him. Turning away from the window, he picked up the note again. It was written in a hasty scrawl, so expansive and sweeping Hollis doubted at first that it was Rennie's hand that had penned it. Close examination did indeed convince him of the genuineness of the letter, if not the content.

"You're bluffing, Rennie," he said softly. He crumpled the paper in his large hand and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. "You don't know the half of it."

He dropped heavily into his chair and swiveled around to face the window again. The early spring sky was clear, bright with sunshine and somehow promising. He let its warmth bathe his features as he leaned back and propped his feet on the windowsill. It couldn't hurt to see her. Jay Mac was out of town. She had to be realizing that control of Northeast was slipping out of her fingers. Her message didn't sound as urgent as it did desperate.

Hollis called to his secretary in the front office. "There's been a change in my plans. Cancel my meeting with Stringer. I'll be leaving early this evening."

* * *

Leaving nothing to chance, Hollis arrived at the church a full thirty minutes before his meeting with Rennie. The large oak doors to St. Gregory opened easily. The vestibule was empty. Hollis's shoes tapped lightly on the polished wooden floors, though he was hardly aware of the sound. He went to the side chapel and poked his head inside. No one was using the room. Satisfied, he closed the door quietly.

A parishioner glanced over her shoulder as he entered the nave of the church. Hollis dipped his fingers in the font, genuflected, and sat down in the last row of pews. It wasn't long before the woman rose from her kneeling bench, lighted some prayer candles at the back of the church, then left altogether. As soon as she was gone Hollis went to the organ loft and investigated. There was no one there. He knelt on the floor and looked under the pews, both in the choir loft and then again in the nave. The rows were clear.

There was no one hiding around the altar or in the nearby robing room. Entering that room made Hollis think of the time Jarret had laid him out on the floor of it. It was not a pleasant memory. He stepped back into the church and glanced around again. He was alone. There was a heavy silence that seemed to lay over everything, as if the air itself absorbed sound rather than conducted it. As it became darker outside, the stained glass windows lost their individual jeweled colors and became nearly as dark as the soldering between the panes.

Hollis adjusted some of the gas lamps. Their light was reflected in the polished wood of the three confessional boxes. He realized there was still a place he hadn't checked. He started walking toward them.

The door in the middle, the priest's box, opened. Hollis stopped in his tracks. The priest stepped out and shut the door. He yawned widely, not bothering to cover his mouth. He noticed Hollis only as he was turning to go to the back of the church.

The priest pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and attempted to look alert. Where he had been slumped against the interior wall, sleeping, his hair was rumpled and his cheek was wrinkled. His round and gentle features flushed a ruddy hue. "I've been fairly caught out, haven't I, son?" he asked, smiling a shade guiltily. "I don't usually nap in the confessional."

Hollis smiled broadly and easily. "I believe you, Father."

"Is there something I can do for you?"

"No, I just came in for a moment alone."

The priest looked around the church, nodding, satisfied with that answer. "Then, I'll leave you to it," he said. "My housekeeper's making lemon pie for me this evening." He patted his generous belly and smoothed the twisted fitting of his cassock. "She might hold it back if I'm late." He took a step forward, then paused as the doors to the nave opened. "It doesn't seem like you'll be alone after all, son." His dark eyebrows raised a tad. "Unless you've made plans to meet this one."

Hollis looked over his shoulder and saw Rennie standing on the threshold. She seemed to hesitate when she saw he was not alone. "It's all right, Father. I've never seen her before. We're not using your church as a trysting place."

The priest nodded. "Good evening, then."

Hollis made a polite bow with his head. "Good evening." He sat down on the pew and waited. At the back of the church he could hear Rennie's soft voice as she conversed briefly with the priest. A few minutes passed, and then she was sitting beside him.

The church was cold. Rennie kept on her coat. A silk ivory scarf covered most of her hair. She stared straight ahead, and when she spoke her voice barely broke a whisper. "I wasn't sure that you'd come," she said.

Hollis had to bend his head to hear her. "I sent a reply."

"I know. I received it. But I still wasn't sure."

"You'll have to speak up," he said. "I can barely hear you."

Rennie looked around uneasily.

"There's no one else here. I've already checked."

She frowned, turning to him for the first time. "You've checked? What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I don't trust you, Rennie. I'm not certain why you've asked me here. Oh, I know what your note said, but knowing that you need to talk isn't the same as knowing what you want to talk about." Hollis tried to stretch his long legs under the pew in front of him. It was uncomfortable. He moved closer to the end of the pew and pushed his legs into the aisle. He looked askance at her, almost daring her to slide along the bench toward him. "We were married in this church, Rennie," he said with an ironic smile.

"I don't need to be reminded. If we hadn't had a mass, I wouldn't have required an annulment from the courts
and
the church."

"It didn't seem to prove much of an obstacle," he said, regarding her with a derisive, hooded glance. He laid one hand along the back of the pew. His fingers drummed against the wood, nearly brushing Rennie's shoulder. He waited to see if she would move away. She didn't. "You have some powerful friends. Judge Halsey I've met, of course, but who was the bishop that got you the church decree so quickly?"

"Bishop Colden. My godfather."

Hollis laughed, shaking his head. "I think I made an error choosing Nina over you." His laughter faded, and his dark brown eyes became bleak. "No, that's not true. I wanted Nina. Her death..." His voice trailed away. There was a long silence while Hollis stared off into space. He turned to Rennie suddenly and said impatiently, "What do you want, Rennie?"

"The same thing as you," she said. "Northeast Rail."

One of Hollis's heavy brows arched. His fingers stopped their drumming for a beat, then began again. "Is that right? And just how am I supposed to help you achieve your life's ambition?"

"I've seen the writing on the wall, Hollis. You're going to take control away from my father."

"Am I?"

Rennie's features were set gravely, her eyes implacable. She nodded stiffly, watching him closely. "Unless Jarret finds something in the accounts that goes back to you, you've neatly managed to incriminate Jay Mac."

Hollis's broad face was giving nothing away. "That's a serious charge you're making, Rennie. I don't think I like it."

She ignored his subtle denial. "You offered to head the investigation yourself knowing full well that Jay Mac wouldn't stand for it; then you welcomed his naming Jarret to do it in your stead."

"Why shouldn't I?" he asked casually. "I have nothing to hide. I take it your husband's investigation is proving that."

"What I've learned from Jarret is that I've seriously underestimated the depth to which you covet Northeast. I would guess that you've been planning the takeover almost from the moment you arrived at the Worth Building."

"Ambition's not a crime, Rennie." His look was significant. "As you well know. In fact, if you were not so ambitious yourself, I doubt we'd be having this meeting. Isn't that right?"

She didn't flinch from his dark gaze and nodded.

"What is it you expect, then?"

Rennie took a steadying breath and let it out slowly. "I expect to have an equal say in the operation of Northeast," she said baldly.

Hollis didn't blink at her demand. He didn't say anything either. His broad shoulders shook first with the force of his silent laughter. It burst out of him like thunder, reverberating in the hollow interior of the nave. Tears formed at the corners of his eyes, and he eventually pulled out a handkerchief to wipe them away.

She waited him out calmly, and when his laughter faded, she said clearly, "In light of what you've done, Hollis, it's a reasonable request."

He sobered. "What I've done?" he asked. "What
have
I done, Rennie?"

"The night of the confrontation with my father in front of the board, you directed your friends to abduct me from my own home. I recognized James Taddy and Warren Beecher, and I heard them talking about you. I know that if things had gone badly for you at the meeting, you would have played me like a trump card, used me to give yourself time to get away."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

His denial was what she expected, and Rennie went on as if he hadn't spoken. "I kept thinking it was the act of a fearful man, and the more I thought about it, the more it surprised me. It appeared you were certain nothing in the ledgers would incriminate you, yet your actions that night would seem to indicate otherwise."

Hollis pulled his legs in from the aisle. He was watching Rennie with a bit of wariness in his dark eyes, but he invited her to go on. "You tell a very good story," he said. "I'm intrigued. What is it that you think you've found?"

She smiled. "Nothing about the Queen's Point project, Hollis. You covered for yourself quite thoroughly there. Quite cleverly, too. Everything points to Jay Mac and Seton Contracting." Rennie chastised Hollis with her expressive green eyes. "Seton Contracting? Seton... Stone. That was rather obvious, but then I suppose you meant it to be, isn't that right?"

Hollis shrugged. He folded his arms across his chest. "This is your theory," he said. "You tell me."

"All right, then. It was intentionally obvious. You wanted someone to see the connection. It pointed another finger at Jay Mac by drawing in my sister's husband. You've put Jarret in a bind. The evidence suggests that not only is Jay Mac guilty, but that he was in collusion with Jarret's best friend."