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  Surprised and momentarily irritated by Ted’s prying, Paul hesitated, then nodded curtly. “I’m in love with her.”

  “Katherine said as much. She also said that Julie’s conscience is tearing her to pieces, though if anyone deserves to feel guilty it’s that bastard, Benedict. All Julie did was offer him a ride because she thought he’d fixed her tire. As a result, there are 200 million people in this country who’ve seen that film of him being beaten in Mexico City, and now they blame her for it. The same people who applauded her courage for turning him in now think of her as some sort of scheming witch who brought an innocent man down on his knees. At least the people around here don’t feel that way, and that’s something. Not much, but something. The press still hounds her, trying to get her to talk, and their questions are vicious.”

  Katherine walked out of the bedroom in a robe and slippers, obviously determined to join the discussion, and sat on the arm of Ted’s chair. Disregarding the subject of public opinion, which she felt was a trivial problem, she brought up the main issue. “Julie wrote letters to him when he was in prison, and he returned them unopened. Since he got out, she’s written to him in care of his attorneys— simple, polite letters, this time asking him how to return the car he gave her. He won’t answer those either. Until he does—until she or someone else can make him understand that Julie did not lie about wanting to join him in Mexico so that she could spring your trap, she’s not going to let herself care for you or anyone else. Nor will she let any man care for her. Among other things, she’s punishing herself.”

  Paul stared at her in frowning surprise. “That’s all that’s stopping her from going on with me . . . with her life? She needs absolution from Benedict?”

  “As far as I know for certain,” Katherine hedged.

  “Fine,” he said curtly after a moment. “If that’s what it takes, I can get it for her, and she won’t have to wait another six weeks or even six days.” He stood up looking like a man with a mission. “I’ll get it for her within forty-eight hours. Tell Julie something came up and I had to cut our weekend short.”

  Twisting around, Katherine watched him walk toward the guest bedroom. “But, he won’t even talk to her, Paul.”

  “He’ll talk to me!” Paul said over his shoulder.

  “What makes you think he’ll talk to you?” Ted said when Paul emerged from the guest bedroom a few minutes later carrying his overnight bag.

  “This,” Paul said, flipping his identification badge into Ted’s lap and getting his suit coat from the closet.

  “That may get you into his house, but it’s not going to make him believe you.”

  “The son of a bitch doesn’t have to believe me. Who has the letter that Julie was going to leave for you when she ran away with him?”

  “I do,” Katherine said, getting up to look for it, “but that’s not going to convince him either. You can’t prove to him she didn’t write this yesterday,” she added when she returned from the bedroom with the letter and gave it to him. “Remember, he’s rich and famous now; he’ll be doubly suspicious of anything that looks like an attempted reconciliation on Julie’s part.”

  “Maybe so. But I have something in my office in Dallas that he’ll have to believe!”

  “What?”

  “Videotapes,” he said shortly, holding out his hand to Ted for his ID badge. “A videotape of that press conference she gave when she was trying to sway the world to his side.”

  “That won’t do it either. He’ll presume it was all part of her grand scheme to trap him for you.”

  “And,” Paul added, shoving his tie into his coat pocket and picking up his overnight bag, “a confiscated videotape of what really took place in Mexico City—the part showing Julie’s reactions when Benedict was being taken into custody. Any man who can watch her in that film without feeling torn up has a stronger stomach than I do. In case you haven’t already figured it out,” he added wryly, reaching for the door, “I’m driving to Dallas to pick up what I need, then I’ll fly to L.A. in the morning. We’ll have his California address somewhere in our files.”

  Ted grinned sardonically. “Surely you aren’t going to crash his party?”

  “Screw his party. He’s fouled up my life and Julie’s for months, and I’m fed up with it. And if this fails,” he added to Ted, “if he still won’t listen to me or look at the evidence I give him, then I suggest you file a civil suit against him for kidnapping Julie and for the mental torment she’s been under as a result of that. If Benedict won’t listen to me, he can listen to you in court and pay up with a nice, fat check!”

  “Thank you, Paul,” Katherine said, kissing him after he shook hands with Ted. “Good-bye,” she added with a catch in her voice. “Call us after you’ve seen him.” She watched him walk down the sidewalk for a moment, then she closed the door and found Ted watching her with an odd, speculative look. “You sounded very sad when you said goodbye—like you were telling him good-bye forever. Why?”

  “Because,” she said with a guilty look, “I am a truly terrible person who does not deserve to be loved by a man as wonderful as you.”

  “Translation?” he asked with a wary smile.

  “There’s something I didn’t mention to you or Paul,” she admitted. “You see, Julie may think all she wants is Zack’s forgiveness, but what she really wants is the man. She always did. Even when he was a hunted fugitive. If Paul accomplishes his goal, Julie will get more than peace. She’ll get Zack Benedict.”

  “The guy’s a hotshot movie star again. You saw him on television tonight with women hanging all over him. You saw the mansion he lives in. He doesn’t have to settle for little Julie Mathison.”

  “I read the letter he wrote her,” Katherine said with absolute conviction as she blandly studied her manicure. “That was love, the real thing. At least I think it was.” Looking up, she added with a smile, “And if he did love her, then he’d better hope ‘little Julie Mathison’ is still willing to settle for him after what he’s put her through. She’s angry, Ted. Deep down inside, she is furious, really furious at the injustice done her. She blames herself for losing faith in Zack, but she blames him for everything he’s deliberately put her through, starting with taking her captive and lying to her about how his brother died and refusing to read her letters or see her when she went to talk to him in prison.”

  “She laughs all the time and most of it’s real,” Ted argued, because it worried him to think otherwise. “She had us in stitches tonight, telling us that story about accidently dumping glue down the principal’s suit.”

  “She’s angry,” Katherine insisted, “and she has every right to be. In fact, I rather hope I’m around when she gives him what he deserves. It’ll be a test of his merit if he can take it and overcome it.”

  “And if he can’t or doesn’t want to bother?”

  “Then she’ll have gotten it out of her system, made her peace with him, and she can still have Paul.”

  Standing up and turning out the lamp, he asked, “Who are you rooting for, Richardson or Benedict?”

  “Julie.”

  72

  SEATED IN THE SUNNY SOLARIUM, Zack worked his way carefully through the sheafs of data that Matt had provided to bring him up to date on his financial holdings. Outside, beyond the glass walls that were tinted to prevent anyone from being able to see into the solarium, someone called his name, and he looked up, not to answer, but simply to luxuriate in being home again and to pleasure himself with the familiar view. On the other side of the glass, a lush expanse of green lawn sloped down to an enormous curving swimming pool with graceful Roman columns and marble statues. At the edge of the yard were guest pavilions in the same Roman architecture as the main house—all of them filled with people now. Zack’s tenants had kept his gardener on during his absence, and the results of the aging man’s painstaking care were evident in the colorful flowers that bloomed ecstatically beneath carefully pruned shrubbery and shade trees.

  The th