Stand By Me (5 page)

“They need to get their rocks off that bad? That's sick,” Kenya snorted. She guessed many of those women knew precisely what their husbands were doing. “And the police know, Jonathan's doing this?”

“It's not something they can announce, but they know. He's picked up a number of run-a-ways whose parents could have never found them any other way.” Sophie gave her sad eyes. “Those babies just get lost in the system of run-a-ways. There's not enough people to fight for them.”

That was true. Kenya said changing the subject, “Brian will get us on the marriage contract and that can't be stopped so we won't waste time trying to fight him. After all the evidence of Jonathan's character witnesses and the papers from Spencer, it'll be hard to pin a murder on him with circumstantial evidence.”

“Donna worry about, Brian. We'll concentrate on getting Jonathan cleared of these charges and prove that Brian shot Seamus then we'll pull out the character witnesses.”

Tucking her chin back over her shoulder, she grabbed her purse hanging on the hook beside the bed. “Sophie, I just thought of something...Jonathan has an alibi for the weekend Graham was supposedly killed.” Kenya scribbled down a name, excited, she gave it to Sophie. “Through your contacts with the jazz clubs...think you can get their security video for that Friday? I had my promotion dinner there and Jonathan was there.”

Accepting the paper Sophie held it up and smiled. “Aye, donna see why not. What about the weekend? We should cover as many days as possible.”

Heat moved up Kenya's body remembering Jonathan making love to her that night and weekend and had a sudden urge for ice cream and shortbread cookies. “We spent it together. We went window-shopping in downtown Birmingham.”

“So we have store surveillance videos. Kenya that's great,” Sophie said.

Right then the doctor shuffled into the room eyeing her chart speaking absently. “Ms. Claiborne, or is it Blakemore?”

“Doctor, it's Blakemore. I wasn't secured at the time and uncertain who could be trusted with this information.”

“Aye...understandable. I'll only take a minute and let you get back to being on bed rest as I urged when you arrived.” The doctor gave her a gentle rebuking at her sitting up in the bed with notepads and devices strewn over the sheets.

He took her vitals, then pushing up her gown and squeezing out a healthy dollop of the ultrasound gel to smooth over her belly as he checked the baby heart rate. The warm sensation felt nice on her skin. After a few waves of the wand, then cleaning off her stomach as he pulled her gown down.“If you promise to stay in this bed and allow my other patient here a moment of peace, I will release you in two days,” he held up a hand to her bright smile. “If the vitals are not where I want them you will be a guest of the hospital for a month.”

Sophie shared a smile with her. “So my baby's doing well?”

“Strong heartbeat and no internal bleeding that we can see on the ultrasound, but we'll keep monitoring the both of you.” He wiped her belly clean of the goo. “Any questions?”

“Not that I can think of, Doctor. The attack is pretty much all I think about right now. Any good news is welcomed.” She tugged the thin gown down over her tummy.

He set her chart on the hook at the foot of the bed then shoved his hands in his lab coat pockets. “Try to focus on your baby only. Let everyone else concentrate on the violence. For the next two days, I'm restricting your visitors to once a day. Get some rest, Mrs. Blakemore.”

For two days, she got updates on Seamus and Jonathan. Still no cause for the spike in Seamus's heart rate, but they were seeing signs of movement which was major news. Jonathan's attorney had come by but said the doctor wouldn't allow him to question her for fear of sending her blood pressure up endangering the baby. Today she'd meet with Spencer and start clearing her and Jonathan's name...in writing.

Within the hour Jamie had run by the police station to check on Jonathan and was calling up from Radiology to let her know, David was there and they were on their way up to her room.

Footsteps echoed down the tiled hall outside her room before she heard a solid rap on her door.

“Kenya, it's Jamie and David Spencer. Are you decent?”

“Come in, Jamie.” Kenya watched David's eyes widen seeing her in the bed. “David Spencer, thank you for coming on such short notice.”

“Ms. Claiborne, were you in an accident?” David sputtered rushing to her side stopping just shy of touching her hand on the bed tray.

“Mr. Spencer have a seat,” indicating the tall yellow chair beside the window. Jamie sat beside her on the bed. “I appreciate you coming out. First I need to ask you something.”

“What's this about Ms. Claiborne?”

She shared a glance with Jamie; those blue eyes said they were in this together as a family. She clasped her fingers over the laminate wood tray. “I need to know from you if you'd be willing to put it in writing who came to you recommending me as your rep?”

“We went over this in the States, Kenya. I don't understand what's going on.”

Jamie leaned his body forward in an intimidating gesture. “Mr. Spencer, David, we know Kenya was set-up and unless we can prove it, she's going to prison.”

David jumped to his feet, straightening his vest under his suit jacket and held his chin up in the air. “That's absurd, acquiring recommendations are the point of making favorable impressions on potential clients.”

That's what she thought. “In writing Spencer.”

“I can't see sending Ms. Claiborne here to prison.” David spared a quizzical look between the two of them, creases bleeding out around his dark eyes. “Why would that be a problem, for your uncle, Mr. Blakemore, to send me business?”

“Because the referrals and connections were all a scheme to blackmail me,” she informed him.

He hesitated pacing a tight circle a hand in his pocket. When he stopped, he let his shoulders drop. “To keep Ms. Claiborne here out of prison of course I'll sign. Is he the reason you're in the hospital?” David suggested and he didn't try to hide his unspoken accusation that Jonathan had hurt her somehow.

“I'm a Blakemore now Mr. Spencer. Brian Blakemore blackmailed me by promising Ms. Reinhart the Blakemore account if she made certain Global Learning was assigned to me.”

“Why would she tell you that?” Spencer asked suspiciously.

“To assure I understood she'd done me a favor, getting me the big account, you Spencer, and I should show gratitude by directing any and all Blakemore financial matters to her...now that I was dating a Blakemore.”

Jamie interjected, “Now Brian has something over Mrs. Blakemore here that could end her career if it got out, and appeared she worked with less than ethical standards.”

“So it would appear you took the bribe.” He shot looks between the two of them. “That would make him look bad, Mrs. Blakemore.” He looked between her and Jamie. “Are you two married?”

“No,” she said not waiting for him to ask a second question. “David, I have something on Brian and he's using this to ensure I don't use my information. What he doesn't know is I turned your account over to a different rep, citing conflict of interest.”

“Because you're a Blakemore now,” he urged straightening his now crooked bow tie.

“Exactly, but I need your statements to round this out.”

“You're married to Jonathan, then?”

If she had on a pair of shoes she'd hurl it at his head for all the questions. Instead she stayed calm and answered politely, “Yes.”

“Is it true he's in prison for murder?”

Jamie, who had been quiet through most of this, spoke up chest tight. He said, “Kenya's unavailable to ye man...quit licking yer chops. Will yer help or no?”

Spencer blinked heat flushed up his brown skin burning over his cheeks.

Kenya pushed to finish this meeting. “How soon can you have that signed and sent to my lawyer's office, Mr. Spencer?”

Rattled he said, “Normally I wouldn't have my name associated with crime...”

She gave him a dark stare. “It's not, Spencer. It's associated with me.” She wanted this to be over having a list of things to get done. “Either you back what you told me or you don't Spencer, which is it?” She was tired of dancing with this man.

“If I don't, it'll appear as if I was in on the blackmailing.”

Kenya leaned a hair farther out over the tray, giving him full eye contact and handed him her mock-up affidavit. “You and I are right there on the same page turning at the same time, Spencer. Sign here at the bottom and once my lawyer has a copy with your letterhead and your signature, I'll dispose of this copy. This keeps you and your company in the clear. You need to make it clear that Reinhart approached you and that you and I had never met. Remember, before I was accounts manager I was on the night shift. Unless you made surprise visits, you and I could never have met, Spencer. I would hate to see you try and explain how you knew so much about my reputation,” Kenya warned handing him a pen. “When can my lawyer expect your affidavit?”

Eyes wide, David scribbled his signature on the lined paper handing it to Kenya. “You never said why you're in here, Mrs. Blakemore.”

“And I would like to keep it that way, Mr. Spencer.”

“You're a shrewd business woman, Mrs. Blakemore.”

“I'm an honest, business woman, Spencer, and I don't play in the dirt and I don't like being played. Either we work together to clear mine and Jonathan's name, of money laundering, or the companies investing in your firm will know you turned on Jonathan Blakemore, one of the biggest supporters of children's rights. A bad look for a company selling learning programs to schools.”

Twenty minutes later Kenya lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling tiles waiting for her lunch. The scratching of Jamie's footstep sauntered into her room after seeing David Spencer down to his car brought her attention to the door. He lowered down on the vinyl chair beside her night table and gave her a long stare.

“If I had nae seen it lass, I would've never believed what you just pulled off. When Jonathan told me about a beautiful American he'd met that he wanted to hire, I assumed it was to have the pretty woman close to his office.”

“You don't fight the rich the same as you do the average person. Touch that wallet and you'll come out on top every time. I'm actually good at what I do, Jamie. I didn't leave Jonathan to go and hide back in the States. I was trying to save this family.”

The bed dipped as he moved to sit down beside her and continued to stare at her. “You're gonna be good for him.”

She picked at the sheet covering her gown thinking of the life growing beneath it. “He's good for me. Jonathan makes me happy even when he's nowhere around, because his heart beats within my soul through this little one.”

His hand covered hers on the sheet in a loving caress. “Ye miss him already, lass.”

With his help she pushed up to a sitting position as the nurse walked in with a tray of food. “The minute his hand left mine it felt as if my heart formed a crack down the center and I've been bleeding ever since.”

Chapter Five

The marriage contract had expired, leaving the estate vulnerable to Brian’s greedy grasp. She brought her purse from the locker in her hospital room to her bed and slipped the box out of the bottom. She’d wanted to wait and let Jonathan put the ring on her finger, but time for tradition had long since passed as well as a proper wedding.

She blew out a deep sigh letting her shoulders drop and slipped the five-carat ring onto her finger. Didn’t thrill her the same as it had that night Jonathan placed it on her finger in front of the Justice of the Peace when he came to the apartment marrying them privately. They’d had just a few hours together before she and Julia were on the Blakemore plane, whisked here to Seamus’s side in Ireland.

Kenya slipped her arms into the light jacket and double-checked that she hadn’t left anything in the hospital’s bathroom. She pulled the door shut coming out of the little bathroom and stopped walking seeing her chart at the foot of the bed.

The baby’s vitals had shown no signs of stress all week. Jonathan will love to hear that when she calls the prison after the meeting in the attorney's office. His one call a week he saved for her.

She stepped out into the hall nodding to her security as she eyed the elevator waiting for Jamie. The one thing in their favor was her stay in the hospital. She had every test, and a number of vials of blood drawn that she could think of as the doctor had no health record on her and her obstetrician was in the States, and chances were good she’d deliver in Ireland.

Unfortunately, there was no way of getting the baby’s blood type without endangering it and that Kenya wouldn’t do, regardless of how long they had to wait to prove Jonathan was the father. This was Jonathan’s hospital and they would have his records on hand.

From her purse, she collected her copy of the marriage license and waited for Sophie and Jamie to pick her up for the trial held at the attorneys’ offices. Brian refused to meet on Blakemore grounds so they needed a neutral location. That Kenya found questionable, as the estate was what he wanted.

It had been a week since Jonathan went to prison and the doctor’s only approved her leaving the hospital in a wheelchair with the stipulation that she would come back to be monitored before he released her to go home.

She wasn’t able to have Jonathan released as she figured she would. There were too many charges against him. Graham’s family was pinning the death on Jonathan saying Graham feared for his life from Jonathan’s men. Jonathan didn’t have an entourage the way Brian had. He had employees with Jamie on the estate grounds, patrolling security out on the mountains and regular financial reps in the Investment office. That office was run legal and above board. The employees all had alibis for the days Graham went missing along with the three farmers. Everyone in the office had only positive testimony of Jonathan and Jamie. It wasn’t unheard of for Jonathan to hold Skype meetings from the States connecting the two offices.

Knowing how often he took the kids from the courthouse, she had no concern over getting alibis for those times at least. Hearing Sophie coming down the hall, she waited for the wheelchair, eased down and let herself be wheeled to the first leg of this race she signed up for setting her husband free.