Night Moves : Dream Man/After the Night Read online

  “That’s what I thought,” Andrea said, turning to him, and for a moment the expression in her eyes was unguarded. Faith quickly looked down. From what she had just seen, she very much doubted that Andrea had ever been involved with Guy, because she was very much in love with her boss. She wondered if Mr. Chelette knew, and just as quickly decided that he didn’t. There was no hint of awareness on his part.

  “Come in,” he invited, ushering Faith into his office ahead of him, and closing the door. “I know we must seem rude, discussing you that way. I’m sorry. It’s just that the resemblance is so pronounced, and yet, on second glance, the differences are obvious.”

  “Everyone seems to have that reaction when they see me for the first time,” she admitted, and smiled at him. It was very easy to smile at Alex Chelette. He was the type of man whom age refined; always slim, he would pare down even more with the passing years. His dark hair had grayed at the sides, and there were lines at the corners of his gray eyes, but he easily looked to be in his mid-forties, rather than his fifties. His scent was light green, as fresh as newly cut grass.

  “Sit down, please,” he said, and settled into his own chair. “What can I do for you today?”

  Faith seated herself on the leather sofa. “Actually, I came on personal reasons, and I realize now I shouldn’t have taken up your work time—”

  He shook his head, smiling. “It’s my pleasure. Now, tell me what’s bothering you. Is it Gray? I tried to get him to leave you alone, but he’s very protective of his mother and sister, and he doesn’t want them upset.”

  “I understand Gray’s position very well,” Faith said dryly. “That isn’t why I’m here.”

  “Oh?”

  “I wanted to ask you some questions about Guy Rouillard. You were his best friend, weren’t you?”

  He gave her a faint smile. “I thought so. We grew up together.”

  Should she tell him that Guy hadn’t, after all, left with Renee? She toyed with the idea, then discarded it. As friendly as he seemed, she couldn’t forget that he was an old family friend of the Rouillards. She had to assume that anything she told him would go straight to Gray.

  “I’m curious about him,” she finally said. “That night wrecked my family, just as it did Gray’s. What was he like? I know he wasn’t faithful to my mother any more than he was to his wife, so why would he all of a sudden walk away from everything, his family, his business, to be with her?”

  “I don’t think you really want me to answer that,” he replied wryly. “To put it as politely as I can, Renee was a fascinating woman, at least to men. Physically she was . . . well, Guy was very responsive to Renee’s sensuality.”

  “But he was already having an affair with her. There wasn’t any reason for them to leave.”

  Alex shrugged, a very Gallic gesture. “I’ve never understood it myself.”

  “Why didn’t he just get a divorce?”

  “Again, I don’t have an answer for that. Perhaps because of his religion; Guy wasn’t a regular at mass, but he felt more strongly about religion than you might have expected. Perhaps he thought it would be easier on Noelle if he didn’t divorce her, if he just handed everything over to Gray and left. I simply don’t know.”

  “Hand everything over to Gray?” Faith repeated. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said gently. “I can’t divulge details of my clients’ business dealings.”

  “No, of course not.” Quickly she backtracked. “Do you remember anything else about that summer? Who else Guy was seeing?”

  He looked startled. “Why would you want to know?”

  “Like I said, I have an interest in the man. Because of him, I haven’t seen my mother since that day. Was he likeable? Did he have any honor, or was he just a tomcat?”

  He stared at her for a moment, and pain crept into his eyes. “Guy was the most likeable man in the world,” he finally said. “I loved him like a brother. He was always laughing, teasing, but if I needed him for anything, he was there like a shot. His marriage to Noelle was a disappointment to him, but still I was surprised when he left, because he was so close to Gray and Monica. He was a terrible husband, but a wonderful father.” He looked down at his hands. “It’s been twelve years,” he said softly. “And I still miss him.”

  “Did he ever call?” she asked. “Or get in touch with his family in any way?”

  He shook his head. “Not to my knowledge.”

  “Who else was he seeing that summer, besides Yolanda Foster?”

  Once again, her question startled him. His eyebrows rose, and rebuke was in his voice when he spoke. “None of that matters. As I keep telling Gray, it’s in the past; let it go. There was a lot of pain that summer, and keeping it alive doesn’t do anyone any good.”

  “I can’t let it go, when no one else in the parish will. No matter how successful I am, or respectable, some people here still think of me as trash.” Her voice trembled a little on the last word. She hadn’t meant to let her control waver, and she was both embarrassed and irritated that it had. Sometimes, though, the pain leaked through.

  Alex must have heard it, because his expression changed, and suddenly he left his chair to come sit beside her and take one of her hands in both of his. “I know it’s been difficult for you,” he said gently. “They’ll change their minds, when they get to know you better. And Gray will eventually relent. As I said, he reacted the way he did because he’s so protective of his family, but basically he’s a very fair man.”

  “And ruthless,” Faith added.

  A rueful smile touched his face. “That, too. But not unkind. Take my word for it. If there’s anything I can do to change his mind, I promise you I’ll do it.”

  “Thank you,” Faith said. That wasn’t why she’d come to see him, but he was too conscientious to divulge personal details about his clients and friends. The visit wasn’t a total waste, however, she felt she could safely mark Andrea Wallice off her list.

  She took her leave, and drove home pondering the scraps of information she’d gotten that day. If Guy had been murdered, Lowell or Yolanda Foster seemed to be the most likely suspects. She wondered how she could contrive a meeting with either of them. And she wondered where Mr. Pleasant was, and if he was all right.

  • • •

  “I met Faith today,” Alex said that night as he and Gray were going over some papers. He picked up his brandy and keenly eyed the younger man over the rim of the glass. “The resemblance is eerie, at first glance, but by the second look there’s no way of mistaking her for Renee. Odd, isn’t it, the way Renee was more beautiful, but Faith is more attractive?”

  Gray glanced up, wry awareness in his dark eyes as he caught the expression in Alex’s gray ones. “Yes, I’ve noticed how attractive she is, if that’s what you’re asking. Where did you meet her?” He picked up his own glass, filled with his favorite Scotch, and savored the smoky bite of it on his tongue.

  “At my office. She came to ask me about Guy.”

  Gray almost choked. He set his glass down with a force that made the whisky slosh dangerously close to the rim. “She what? What in hell did she want to know about Dad?” The thought of Faith asking anything about his father made him bitterly angry. It was a knee-jerk reaction; for a moment she wasn’t Faith, the person, but a Devlin, with all the connotations elicited by the name. He himself wanted her with a fierce need that both alarmed and disgusted him, even though he knew he was going to ease that need if possible, but he didn’t want anything about her touching his family. He didn’t want Monica or Noelle exposed to her, and he sure as hell didn’t want her asking about his father. Guy was gone. His absence, his betrayal, was a wound that remained perilously close to the surface, and bled at the slightest scratch.

  “She wanted to know what he was like, had he ever gotten in touch, if he’d been seeing anyone else that summer.”

  Furious, Gray half rose from his chair, intending to go to her house right now and have it out with her