Heartbreaker Read online

  “I’ll start checking. There are a few favors I can call in. You might put a tape on your phone, so if he calls back you’ll have proof.”

  “There’s something else,” John said, rubbing his forehead. “Michelle had an accident a few weeks ago. She said someone ran her off the road, a guy in a blue Chevrolet. I didn’t believe her, damn it, and neither did the deputy. No one saw anything, and we didn’t find any paint on the car, so I thought someone might have gotten a little close to her and she panicked. But she said he turned around, came back and tried to hit her again.”

  “That’s not your usual someone-ran-me-off-the-road tale,” Andy said sharply. “Has she said anything else?”

  “No. She hasn’t talked about it at all.”

  “You’re thinking it could be her ex-husband.”

  “I don’t know. It might not have anything at all to do with the phone calls, but I don’t want to take the chance.”

  “Okay, I’ll check around. Keep an eye on her, and hook a tape recorder up to the phone.”

  John hung up and sat there for a long time, silently using every curse word he knew. Keeping an eye on her would be easy; she hadn’t been off the ranch since the accident, hadn’t even gone to check her own house. Now he knew why, and he damned himself and Roger Beckman with equal ferocity. If he’d only paid attention the night of the accident, they might have been able to track down the Chevrolet, but so much time had passed now that he doubted it would ever be found. At least Michelle hadn’t connected Beckman with the accident, and John didn’t intend to mention the possibility to her. She was scared enough as it was.

  It infuriated him that he couldn’t do anything except wait for Andy to get back to him. Even then, it might be a dead end. But if Beckman was anywhere in the area, John intended to pay him a visit and make damned certain he never contacted Michelle again.

  MICHELLE BOLTED UPRIGHT in bed, her eyes wide and her face chalky. Beside her, John stirred restlessly and reached for her, but didn’t awaken. She lay back down, taking comfort in his nearness, but both her mind and her heart were racing.

  It was Roger.

  Roger had been driving the blue Chevrolet. Roger had tried to kill her. He wasn’t in France at all, but here in Florida, biding his time and waiting to catch her out alone. She remembered the feeling she had had before the accident, as if someone were watching her with vile malice, the same feeling the phone calls had given her. She should have tied it all together before.

  He’d found out about John. Michelle even knew how he’d found out. Bitsy Sumner, the woman she and John had met in Tampa when they’d gone down to have the deed drawn up, was the worst gossip in Palm Beach. It wouldn’t have taken long for the news to work its way up to Philadelphia that Michelle Cabot was very snuggly with an absolute hunk, a gorgeous, macho rancher with bedroom eyes that made Bitsy feel so warm. Michelle could almost hear Bitsy on the telephone, embroidering her tale and laughing wickedly as she speculated about the sexy rancher.

  Roger had probably convinced himself that Michelle would come back to him; she could still hear him whispering how much he loved her, that he’d make it up to her and show her how good it could be between them. He would have gone into a jealous rage when he found out about John. At last he had known who the other man was, confirming the suspicions he’d had all along.

  His mind must have snapped completely. She remembered what he’d said the last time he had called: “How could you do this to me?”

  She felt trapped, panicked by the thought that he was out there somewhere, patiently waiting to catch her alone. She couldn’t go to the police; she had no evidence, only her intuition, and people weren’t arrested on intuition. Besides, she didn’t put a lot of faith in the police. Roger’s parents had bought them off in Philadelphia, and now Roger controlled all those enormous assets. He had unlimited funds at his disposal; who knew what he could buy? He might even have hired someone, in which case she had no idea who to be on guard against.

  Finally she managed to go to sleep, but the knowledge that Roger was nearby ate at her during the next few days, disturbing her rest and stealing her appetite away. Despite the people around her, she felt horribly alone.

  She wanted to talk to John about it, but bitter experience made her remain silent. How could she talk to him when he didn’t believe her about the phone calls or the accident? He had hooked a tape recorder up to the telephone, but he hadn’t discussed it with her, and she hadn’t asked any questions. She didn’t want to know about it if he were only humoring her. Things had become stilted between them since the last time Roger had called, and she felt even less able to approach him than she had before. Only in bed were things the same; she had begun to fear that he was tiring of her, but he didn’t seem tired of her in bed. His lovemaking was still as hungry and frequent as before.

  Abruptly, on a hot, sunny morning, she couldn’t stand it any longer. She had been pushed so far that she had reached her limit. Even a rabbit will turn and fight when it’s cornered. She was tired of it all, so tired that she sometimes felt she was dragging herself through water. Damn Roger! What did she have to do to get him out of her life? There had to be something. She couldn’t spend the rest of her days peering around every corner, too terrified to even go to a grocery store. It made her angry when she thought how she had let him confine her as surely as if he’d locked her in a prison, and beginning today she was going to do something about it.

  She still had the file that had won her a divorce; now that his parents were dead the file didn’t mean as much, but it still meant something. It was documented proof that Roger had attacked her once before. If he would only call again, she would have his call on tape, and perhaps she could get him to say something damaging. This was Florida, not Philadelphia; that much money would always be influential, but down here he wouldn’t have the network of old family friends to protect him.

  But the file was in the safe at her house, and she wanted it in her possession, at John’s. She didn’t feel secure leaving it in an empty house, even though she kept the door locked. The house could easily be broken into, and the safe was a normal household one; she doubted whether it would prove to be all that secure if anyone truly wanted to open it. If Roger somehow got the file, she’d have no proof at all. Those photographs and records couldn’t be replaced.

  Making up her mind, she told Edie she was going riding and ran out to the stables. It was a pleasant ride across the pastures to her ranch, but she didn’t enjoy it as she normally would have, because of the knot of tension forming in her stomach. Roger had seen her the last time she’d been there, and she couldn’t forget the terror she’d felt when she’d seen the blue Chevrolet bearing down on her.

  She approached the house from the rear, looking around uneasily as she slid off the horse, but everything was normal. The birds in the trees were singing. Quickly she checked all the doors and windows, but they all seemed tight, with no signs of forced entry. Only then did she enter the house and hurry to the office to open the safe. She removed the manila envelope and checked the contents, breathing a sigh of relief that everything was undisturbed, then slid the envelope inside her shirt and relocked the safe.

  The house had been closed up for a long time; the air was hot and stuffy. She felt dizzy as she stood up, and her stomach moved queasily. She hurried outside to the back porch, leaning against the wall and gulping fresh air into her lungs until her head cleared and her stomach settled. Her nerves were shot. She didn’t know how much longer she could stand it, but she had to wait. He would call again; she knew it. Until then, there was precious little she could do.

  Everything was still calm, quiet. The horse nickered a welcome at her as she mounted and turned toward home.

  The stableman came out to meet her as she rode up, relief plain on his face. “Thank God you’re back,” he said feelingly. “The boss is raising pure hell—excuse me, ma’am. Anyway, he’