Caroline supposed they were.
Without asking where they were going Caroline leaned her head back on the leather headrest and thought about the next step. Three days and there had been no word from Dominic. The police were still looking for him, of course, but Caroline had no expectation that Dominic would be found holed up in some seedy motel nearby.
He was too smart for that. Certainly he’d been smart enough to find a way to leave his past behind. He’d been smart enough to build a business. Smart enough to get her to the altar before she could think about what she was doing, thereby fulfilling his ultimate goal of securing a wife.
Yes, her husband was a very smart man.
But why? Why, if he was planning to kill off his partner, which she knew he hadn’t done, would he have stopped to get married first? The police were considering that he acted spontaneously forcing Denny’s car off the road. That whatever conversation they’d had the afternoon of Denny’s death had triggered Dominic’s violent intentions.
Then there were the employees who had come forward. Witnesses outside of Denny’s office who heard raised voices coming from behind the closed door. Nothing specific. Just an increase in volume, according to what Hernandez told her.
Caroline tried to remember Dominic’s mood when he’d come home that night. Something had been bothering him, but she hadn’t pushed him on it because she was too wrapped up in her own pain.
But she knew that the only reason he’d gone to the office that night was because she sent him there. She’d backed him into a corner and he’d run. Could he have been planning to leave even before she confronted him?
No. He’d reached out to her. He’d wanted to make love. Make up. Could a man whose mind was on murder even get a hard-on?
Caroline huffed softly. Maybe she should take that to the police as proof of innocence.
The limo stopped. Startled Caroline looked up at the monstrosity that was her house.
“I thought I could put something together for lunch for us,” Anne suggested. “We can talk. Brainstorm about where Dominic might be.”
“Good luck with that, darling,” Russell said but offered no reason for his skepticism. He exited the limo and offered a hand to his daughter.
Caroline felt Steven staring at her from the other seat. “We can leave. Give you time and space.”
“To do what?” He remained silent. “Exactly. There is no answer to this, Steven. None. I go around and around and nothing makes sense.”
“The answers are there. I know they are. I know that eventually Dominic will call us and tell us what happened. It can’t end like this,” he said tightly.
Feeling his frustration almost as keenly as her own Caroline reached out to pat his knee. “It’s okay. Come inside. Serena sent over a ton of food. She doesn’t know what to do now that she’s not taking orders from Dominic. I imagine she thinks cooking for me is the next best thing.”
They made their way inside and Caroline and Anne headed off to the kitchen to see about food and coffee.
“I can also put on some tea,” Anne said, fidgeting slightly with the single strand of pearls around her neck that complemented her simple black dress. “I don’t know why, but anytime anything bad happens people always want to brew tea. You know? Like tea has some magical property to make everything go away.”
Caroline reached out and laid her hand over Anne’s. Immediately she stopped talking.
“I’m sorry. I’m babbling.”
“Don’t be,” Caroline said. “You’re worried and concerned. Just like the rest of us.”
“Just like the rest of us.”
Caroline paused for a second but decided she needed to know all the answers now. “Anne, what happened between you and Dominic?”
Immediately Anne snatched her hand away. She looked stunned, as if she’d just been slapped across the face. Caroline followed her gaze as she glanced over her shoulder, but the men had gone downstairs to Dominic’s office. Probably to look through his files, his drawers. The police had already taken everything relating to the company. But maybe there was something left behind that Steven would recognize as being important.
“What are you saying?”
“Please. I’m not doing this to pry or bring up something embarrassing. But I need to know everything. Everything about Dominic that I didn’t know before if I’m going to try and find him. At the party I felt as if there was something there. I don’t know. A weird vibe.”
Anne’s shoulders slumped. Carefully she placed the two teacups she had in her hands on the counter. “That was my fault. I was trying too hard. It was a year ago. Steven was starting to talk about buying a piece of Encrypton. We were newly married, and let’s say that I didn’t take to it right away.”
“I see.”
“The truth is I’m spoiled,” she chuckled humorlessly. “My daddy gave me everything I ever wanted. And part of what I love about Steven is that he doesn’t. And part of what makes me furious with him is that he doesn’t. I made a ridiculous pass at Dominic because I wanted to hurt Steven. Anyway, Dominic shot me down and that was the end of it. Since then I guess I’ve wanted to make sure we were friends. Good friends. So that hopefully he would forget what I did. That’s what you saw at the party.”
“Okay,” Caroline said.
“It was a good party,” Anne said, laughing softly without any humor. “I always throw great parties.”
And despite knowing that she and Anne were never going to be bosom buddies, Caroline couldn’t help but smile. Then another thought occurred to her. “You made a comment that day about how Dominic’s marriage affected all of you. I didn’t understand it then. Why would his marriage have anything to do with you?”
Anne grimaced. “I guess you’re going to find out eventually. It’s part of the business agreement, the way their partnership is structured. If anything happened to any one of them, then their piece of the company is left to the other partners. The only exception would be if they had children.”
“I don’t understand.” But she was afraid she did.
“If something happened to Steven, then his share of the company reverts to Dominic. I would get a payout, but I couldn’t own the company. Unless we had children. Then they would be entitled to their father’s shares. I guess Denny and Dominic had a reason for it. And to buy in, Steven had to agree. I suppose they wanted to protect the business from moneygrubbing wives. Or maybe they just wanted to make sure that their vision was respected. Either way, the partners can only pass ownership to their children.”
The conversation came back to her immediately and she felt her stomach roll with nausea. When he told her that he had a legacy to leave his child, she had no idea how literally he meant it. Dominic wanted a child so he would have someone to inherit his company. Not because he wanted to be a father.
“You can’t think…” Anne started, then stopped. Caroline registered the woman’s sheepish expression and knew exactly where she was headed. Like a stewardess wordlessly pointing out the exits with two fingers. “I mean, it’s not like he married you just for children. I can’t see him being the type. Besides, if that was his only purpose he would have picked someone…”
“Younger.” Caroline said calmly. “If Dominic wanted a guarantee of children, he could have found someone much younger than I am. He might have even insisted on fertility tests first. But he didn’t.” She wondered who she was trying to convince. “Besides, his reasons for marrying me have nothing to do with his supposed motives for killing Denny or for embezzling money from his own company. In fact, they contradict each other.”
“That’s why none of this makes sense,” Anne agreed. “Nobody wins here.”
“What happens if he does get caught?”
“If he gets caught, he goes to jail. He should have the sense to turn over his shares to Steven,” Russell interrupted. The men, it seemed, had returned from their inspection of Dominic’s office. Russell stood with his arms crossed over his chest, obviously unashamed by his comments.
Steven appeared embarrassed. “It’s not going to come to that, Russell. Dominic is innocent.”
“Innocent of murder or embezzlement? Financial statements were altered.”
“But the money wasn’t stolen,” Steven said to Caroline directly. “I checked our accounts. It’s all there. Almost.”
