Murder in the Marigolds by Dale Mayer (best young adult book series .txt) 📕

“Exactly,” he said, “and, when I wouldn’t play her game, she got really angry. But then I found something on her, and she found something on me, and it just got ugly.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, “because the two of you could have been quite happy together. If you’d worked at it.”

“No, not likely,” he said, shaking his head. “Not at all.”

“You don’t know that,” she said. “You were both Type A personality people, both driven to succeed, both the kind who like to manipulate people to have it all your own way.”

“Exactly,” he said, “so no way both of us could even be in the same room for long.”

“But you managed for quite a few months.”

“Sure,” he said. “I took what was offered and thoroughly enjoyed it,” he said, “but I wasn’t a fool to get sucked into it.”

She nodded slowly. “And, if she was trying to blackmail you, did you get her to stop?”

“Of course,” he said, “Fair play meant I found out something on her.” At that, he chuckled. “That was a great conversation. But not quite as much as the sex afterward. Makeup sex is wonderful.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I ever lived in your world.”

“You never did,” he said, with a wave of his hand. “Come on. Eat up,” he said. “I need that key.”

“Fine,” she said. And she brought the last bite of apple pie into her mouth.

He stood up immediately, tossed money on the table, and said, “Let’s go.”

Chapter 17

Mathew ushered Doreen out of the restaurant into the car a little too quickly for her comfort. She protested when he slammed the car door with more force than necessary. He got into the vehicle beside her, and she said, “What’s the rush?”

“I want that USB,” he said, with a snarl.

She nodded. “And you can have it, as soon as I get home, but I don’t think anything on it is yours.”

“We’ll see,” he said. “That witch took it.”

She stopped and stared. “Took what?”

“Several USBs from my office.”

Her stomach sank, and she stared at him. “Oh, my God, do you think she did it on purpose?”

He looked at her and gave a bitter laugh. “Absolutely, she did. That’s the problem with taking something and enjoying it. In a moment of weakness, a shark, like her, took advantage. I presume one night, when I was sleeping, she snuck down into my office and took stuff.”

“That’s terrible,” Doreen gasped. And, in truth, a lot of honesty was in her horror. Because that wasn’t what one did to another person, particularly if you cared about them. But it sounded like her husband and her lawyer had more of a shark-eat-shark relationship. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “Sounds like she was even more unpleasant than I thought.”

“You have no idea,” he said, “and I admit that, for a little while, it kind of appealed.”

She stared at him, eyebrows raised and her eyes wide.

He nodded. “You’re just so much honey and sweetness. After a while you kind of want a bitter taste of lemon to cut through it.”

She sank back in the seat and turned to stare forward. “Well, I hadn’t considered it that way.” Besides, she felt like she’d found a little bit of lemonade in her spirit too.

“No,” he said, “and I was surprised how quickly I would tire of it.”

She shrugged.

Very soon they drove up to her place. When they got there, he said, “The lights are on.”

“Mack probably left them on,” she said absentmindedly.

“Do you have any security on up there?”

“Yep,” she said. “Not sure he turned it on though.”

“What kind of hick town is this where you don’t even worry about security?” he asked, with disgust.

“One where not a whole lot of crime happens.”

Then she winced because she’d proven that was absolutely not true. She stepped out of the vehicle and walked quickly up the front steps, pretending to take care of the security system on her phone. Then, when she stepped inside, Mack had set the security system, so she quickly shut it off. She didn’t know if that was the smart thing to do or not, with Mathew following close behind. She headed toward the kitchen, hoping that Mack had taken the other USBs. Then she set down her purse and said, “I’ll go to my room and grab it. Oh, wait—” And then she stopped and said, “I think I put it in the office.”

She spun, then headed toward her little nook that served as an office, as he stopped and stared. “Good God,” he said, “you don’t even have a chair in here.”

“That’s why it’s an office,” she said. “It’s not like I need one anyway.”

She reached out, picked up the USB that she found, and handed it to him. He snatched it from her hand and stared at it greedily. She shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t know that it has anything on it.”

“That’s fine,” he said. “I will head back to the hotel.”

“Hotel?”

“Yeah, remember? I decided to stay overnight.”

“Okay,” she said. “Have a good night.”

As he stepped out the front door, he didn’t even answer her. She watched, as he raced down the steps, got in the Jaguar, and headed down her driveway and up the cul-de-sac. She immediately closed and locked the door and reset the security alarm. She didn’t know what he would do when the truth came out. Interesting that he’d finally realized all the USB keys were missing, but chances were he was missing what Doreen had, not what the lawyer Robin had.

She quickly texted Mack. Call me.

When her phone rang, he asked curiously, “Why call you?”

“Because I have a bunch to tell you,” she said, then quickly relayed everything that happened at the restaurant.

“Wow,” he said. “What kind of a relationship is that?”

“One where they use each other,” she said smoothly. “Not my kind at all. But the fact of the matter is that I gave him the USB