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  Torrid

  Book Three

  By Jayne Blue

  Copyright © 2015 by Jayne Blue

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author or publisher, except where permitted by law or for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  A Message from Jayne Blue

  Books by Jayne Blue

  Chapter One

  Tora

  Chaos happened around me. I shielded my eyes from the angry twin flashes of the patrol car lights. Tires squealed on another vehicle pulling up behind them. One officer had his hand on my shoulder. He didn’t hurt me, but I knew he’d stop me if I tried to jerk away from him. All of these things should have mattered. They were happening to me and I knew it. But it was Jack who filled the corners of my consciousness.

  He stood in front of me, shoulder to shoulder with another officer, asking him questions. I locked eyes with Jack, his words still ringing in my ears. We’re done.

  It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think.

  “Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Mrs. Manning?” The officer’s voice finally cut through the din of my thoughts.

  “I’m sorry, yes. No.”

  He sighed and his grip on my arm got just a little tighter. “You need to come with us now. It would be better if you do so willingly. But you are coming and we’re going to search the house either way.”

  These words had meaning. I hadn’t made it to law school yet but I knew enough about basic criminal procedure. But books are one thing. This was real.

  “What’s happening?” Another voice cut through.

  It was Seth in the other car that had just pulled up. There was a moment as he stood between Jack and me. I saw something come into Jack’s eyes and it scared me. His jaw went slack and his eyes turned cold. He looked ready to do murder.

  “This is my home,” Seth said to the officer holding my arm. He didn’t even look at me.

  “Mr. Manning!” A third officer stepped forward. “We’re going to need you to wait right here. We have a warrant to search the house and its contents. You may not go back inside.”

  Seth grabbed the paper from the officer’s hand and scanned it. “What are you looking for?” he said. Still he hadn’t asked why an officer had a grip around his wife’s arm.

  “Let’s go, Mrs. Manning,” the officer said to me. He pulled me toward his patrol car. His touch was still gentle but firm and we passed in front of Jack on the way.

  “Wait,” I said. The cogs in my brain started to move.

  A plain-clothes detective came around the vehicle. He handed me another slip of paper. I looked at it but couldn’t get my eyes to focus. “We have a warrant for your arrest on suspicion of identity fraud and murder.” I looked at the paper again and my heart sank. It didn’t say Victoria Manning, it said Victoria McLain. Murder?

  The officer finally let go of my arm but only so he could step behind me. He gathered my wrists in his hands and fitted handcuffs around them.

  “You have the right to remain silent ...”

  I looked to Jack. The color had drained from his face and he wouldn’t look at me. His eyes were fixed behind me on the handcuffs as they locked into place. Then the officer patted me down, running his hands along my sides, in the pockets of my jeans, and up and down my legs. He took my phone and put it in a zippered, black plastic bag.

  “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law ...”

  “Jack.” I managed to get the words out.

  “Tora, don’t,” he said, his voice sounding just as strained as mine.

  “You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Just be quiet,” Jack said. His eyes seemed so dead to me.

  “Do you understand the rights I’ve just read to you, Mrs. Manning?” the officer said.

  “What the hell have you done to me?” Seth stepped in front of me. His fists were curled at his sides, his eyes wild.

  “We are taking your wife down for booking, Mr. Manning,” the officer said as he pulled me toward the squad car. “You know how to find your way to the North Chicago station?”

  Seth had his cell phone to his ear as he looked at me with pure contempt. I stared back at him with a similar emotion. I didn’t fully understand what this was all about but knew he was at the root of it. Just like he’d been at the root of everything.

  “Get her a lawyer, Seth,” Jack said, his voice sounding cold as ice, and it cut straight through me. I felt like I was going to be sick as the officer opened the door to the back seat of the patrol car. But I couldn’t. There was no time for it. Whatever was happening, I knew I was in real trouble and for the moment, I was completely on my own. Seth walked away from me barking into his phone to someone at the Crane Law Firm about the search warrant for his house. I didn’t hear him say a damn thing about me.

  And then there was Jack. He stared as they put me into the patrol car but whatever was going on behind his cold eyes, he didn’t seem ready to help me either. I stared straight ahead at the black grate separating the back seat from the front seat as the officer slid into the driver’s seat. His partner got into the passenger seat and they began to pull out of the driveway.

  I suppose I should have been more scared. I was too numb to be anything. I had decisions to make and not very much time to make them in. As the patrol car pulled out of the driveway I had a fleeting thought that this was likely the last time I would ever set foot on Miranda’s property. I didn’t know what awaited me over the next few days, but for that I could at least feel small relief.

  ***

  Jack

  It felt like my heart had frozen then shattered into a million tiny jagged shards as I kept my eyes on Tora. Her vacant eyes as they put the cuffs around her wrists would haunt me for the rest of my life. I wanted to go to her. I wanted to leave her. I wanted to put my fist through a wall.

  Seth was in my ear as the patrol car pulled away with Tora in it. She hadn’t looked back. She hadn’t searched for me as they left the property. “What the hell has she done to me, Jack?” Seth put a hand on my shoulder and I tightened my fist. If we weren’t surrounded by two other patrolmen and two police detectives, I would have throat punched him.

  “Did you call your lawyer, Seth?” I asked and my voice didn’t sound like my own. One officer took a post by the front door while the rest of them
filed into the house with empty cardboard boxes.

  “Oh, they’ll pay for this,” Seth said. “As soon as I find out what imbecile signed that warrant.”

  The wind picked up and I heard a buzzing overhead. Seth worked it out before I did.

  “Jesus!” His voice went up about three octaves. “Are those news helicopters?” He ran toward the front door and the officer grabbed him by the shoulders.

  “Sir,” he said. “You are not allowed back in the house right now.”

  Seth pointed toward the air, his eyes wild. “They’re up there to take pictures. Do you understand that? This is going to ruin me. You people are going to ruin me!”

  I looked again. I was pretty sure the helicopter bore a large, blue cross on the side. No press yet, but this story was going to get out and Seth wasn’t wrong about the impact it would have on him. For me, it was the first bit of justice he had coming to him.

  “You can take a seat in your car if you’d like,” the officer said.

  “Do I need to be here?” I stepped forward. One of the detectives had walked back out of the house.

  “What’s your name, sir?” he asked.

  “I’m Jack Manning,” I said. “I don’t live here.”

  “He’s my brother,” Seth said.

  “Can you leave a number where we can reach you if we need to talk to you later?” the detective asked me.

  “Sure,” I said, reaching into my breast pocket. I pulled out a business card and handed it to him. “For the time being I’m staying at The Drake, but I plan to check out today or tomorrow.”

  “Are you leaving the Chicago area?”

  My heart tripped in my chest. I had no answer for him. An hour ago I would have said no, a thousand times. Twenty minutes ago, I would have said hell, yes. But now? I seemed to be paralyzed with indecision and the memory of Tora’s eyes in the back of that patrol car.

  “I’m not sure what my plans are just yet,” I answered.

  The detective reached into his own breast pocket and handed me his card. Detective Timothy Haney, North Chicago Police Department, Homicide Division.

  “Why don’t you give me a call if you decide to leave town,” Haney said. “Just in case we have some questions for you.”

  I nodded. Seth had taken the officer’s advice and hid in the back of his own car, still thinking to avoid news choppers. Then, I got in my car and drove.

  Murder. They had accused Tora of murder. My thoughts moved so slowly. Miranda was murdered. My father. I accused Tora of lying to me. In that moment I’d wanted to cast her out of my life and get away from this poisonous place. Now Tora was in trouble and I didn’t know how to feel. I wanted to be sick.

  When I reached the end of Miranda’s driveway, I wasn’t even sure which way to go. On instinct, I headed south toward Lake Forest, and the closest thing to family I had left.

  Chapter Two

  Rain pelted my windshield as I sat in Reed’s driveway. I don’t know how long I sat there before a hard rap on the window broke me out of my trance.

  Reed’s wrinkled face peered down at me underneath a giant green-and-white golf umbrella. “Get your ass in the house!” His voice was muffled behind the window glass. I nodded and motioned for him to step back as I opened the door. He put his arm around my shoulder and we walked into his house together.

  When I stepped into the foyer, I felt fifteen again. An odd blend of pine cleaner and fried food from Margie’s kitchen filled my nostrils.

  “Take those wet shoes off or Margie’ll kill you,” Reed said. I complied and we crossed the living room into the kitchen. Reed and Margie Burnett lived in a modest seventies-style ranch house in a quiet neighborhood. They could probably afford four times this house but the Burnetts were frugal and believed it was more important to leave something behind for their children rather than spend it on themselves.

  Margie came down the long hallway off the kitchen, wiping her hands on a worn flower-patterned apron, and it almost broke me when she threw her arms wide to embrace me. She was both soft and yet made of steel. Her wiry gray hair tickled my chin as she pulled me close.

  “Jackie,” she whispered against my ear. “You waited too long to come out for a visit. Sit down, hun. Tell me what’s got you looking like that.”

  Margie and I sat at her oak, three-leaf kitchen table and I drank down a tall glass of iced tea before I could sort out what to say. Reed paced in front of the table, stopping briefly to put his hands on the back of the wooden-slatted chair at the head then wearing a path in the carpet again.

  “Tora,” I finally started, grateful for the second iced tea Margie had just poured. “She’s not who you think she is.”

  Margie nodded. She reached across the table and patted my hand. Concern filled her eyes. She sensed there was much more going on than Reed did.

  “You love her though, don’t you?” she asked, her eyes shining and kind.

  “I don’t know how to answer that,” I said in the most honest way I could. God, just a few hours ago I would have killed for her. Thinking of her now gave me that familiar ache in my chest and points lower down.

  “This is to do with that drug case you wanted to look into then, right?” Reed asked.

  I nodded. There was so much to explain. I took a breath and tried to start from the beginning. I filled Reed and Margie in on the broad strokes of Tora’s plan, stopping just short of Seth’s confession last night. Reed whistled low.

  “So Tora thinks Miranda threw the case against her father on purpose?”

  I shook my head. “Worse than that, she thinks Miranda actively framed her father.”

  “To save Pagano,” Reed said. He pressed his thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose. “So this whole thing is even more complicated than you let on.”

  I nodded. I had more to tell. So much more. The weight of it pressed against my chest like an anvil. Margie put her hand over mine. Hers were gnarled with arthritis and deep blue veins. I remembered her hands young, sewing my football letter on my varsity jacket when I was seventeen and my own mother wasn’t there to do it anymore. Margie had stepped in for a lot of things. They’d walked me on the field for Parents’ Night, the weight of my father’s grief too hard for him to bear. It was just one more thing I’d pushed to the back of my mind when I left Lake Bliss.

  And I felt like a shit for it as I looked in Margie’s eyes. She had a mother’s love for me and I’d let years go by without seeing her or without so much as calling her.

  “I’m glad you’re here now, Jackie,” she said. As Reed blustered about George Pagano, Margie and I had a different conversation going on and I hadn’t really said a word to her.

  “Do you love this girl?” she asked me again.

  My heart shifted like a kaleidoscope. I couldn’t answer her. I felt sick.

  “She’s been arrested,” I said and the reality of the statement hit me square in the chest. Reed finally pulled his chair out and sat down in it with a thud.

  “They showed up at Miranda’s this morning with a search warrant for the house and an arrest warrant for her. They’ve arrested her for murdering Miranda.”

  “You got another dollar, son?” Reed raised a brow at me. “Now’s a pretty good time to redefine this conversation. Margie, honey, I’m going to need you not to be in the room for a few minutes.”

  Margie gave Reed a quick nod and his eyes softened. They had their own secret marital language and she left the room without protest.

  “I wasn’t kiddin’ about that dollar, son,” Reed said as soon as Margie was out of earshot. I reached into my wallet and handed him a twenty.

  “That ought to buy me an afternoon,” I said.

  Reed pocketed the money. “How far are you into it with this girl?”

  My shoulders sagged and I ran a hand through my hair. All the way, I wanted to say. A part of me wanted to leap from the table and drive to the North Chicago station like a bat out of hell. The other part of me thought of my own father. For
different reasons, she and Seth meant to destroy his reputation and I couldn’t reconcile both halves of my heart.

  “I went over there this morning to get her out of that house,” I said. “For good. But then she told me some things just before the police got there and I don’t know what to think anymore.”

  “What things?”

  “She confronted Seth about what he and Miranda did to her father. She recorded him on her phone and she played it for me.”

  Reed let out a heavy sigh and leaned back in his chair. “Out with it.”

  “They convicted Dex McLain on the money trail. He had a series of deposits in his accounts that coincided with drops that were made.”

  “Sure,” Reed nodded. “Probably got him on tax evasion too.”

  I nodded. “She swore up and down the money wasn’t his. Said somebody else put it there to make her father look guilty.”

  Reed rolled his eyes. “She’s kidding herself, you know that, right?”

  It was my turn to let out a heavy sigh. I tapped my fingers against the table. “Except Seth pretty much admitted that’s exactly what happened. He took credit for being the mastermind behind it.”

  “How?” Reed said. He steepled his fingers and rested his chin against them.

  “He said Dad did it.” My words hung in the air between us as if they had physical weight. The corners of Reed’s mouth turned down and his eyes fluttered. I don’t know what kind of reaction I expected out of him but this wasn’t it.

  “Reed?”

  Reed dropped his hands to the table hard enough that the legs shook. “Son of a bitch.”

  Acid burned in my throat. Reed was right in front of me but he went in and out of focus. “Do you know something about this?”

  Reed shook his head. “Of course not,” he finally answered. “And you’re saying this whole thing depends on Seth’s say-so?”

  “Mostly,” I answered. “She showed me ...” My heart slammed into my chest before I could complete the sentence. Tora’s bags were still in the trunk of my car. My father’s journals were still in the trunk of my car! In the shock of everything that happened at Miranda’s, I’d completely forgotten we’d put them there.