The Pursuit of Lies (Book #4, Paradise Valley) Read online

  “You can say that any time you want. I will never tire of hearing it.”

  He gazed longingly into her face, his smoldering hazel eyes seeming to study her eyes and lips. He traced a finger delicately along her jaw line. She closed her eyes as he kissed her, long and slow. The heat that spread through her body was so intense she could hardly stand on her own. Her hands clung to his muscular back and she felt his embrace tighten around her.

  “The door,” she gasped, coming up for air.

  “What?”

  “The doorbell just rang.” She drew in a breath. “I think our pizza is here.”

  “Oh, right. Pizza.” Colin released her and rushed to the front door.

  Chapter 2

  The next afternoon, Maggie showed up at Emily’s house as planned. Decked out in a low-cut sweater, a short, tight skirt, and four-inch heels, Maggie was dressed for the set-up, as Emily had requested.

  They drove to Mr. Dillingham’s housing complex in Maggie’s small, silver SUV, parking in its lot with a good view of his apartment.

  Emily handed Maggie a small purse and a short stack of twenty-dollar bills folded in half, held together with a large paperclip. “You know what to do with that.”

  She nodded as she took the cash and stuffed it into the little handbag.

  They sat and watched as Dillingham left the apartment and took his little pug for another walk. Both of the women quietly slipped out of the vehicle and waited until they saw him returning.

  “I’ll call you to come back for me when I’m finished,” Emily said.

  Maggie nodded again, then made her way toward him while Emily got in position to videotape the encounter. As Dillingham was returning to his apartment, Maggie walked up to him and engaged him in conversation.

  Even from a distance, Emily saw the man’s face light up at the sight of this seductively dressed beauty.

  Playing the helpless female, Maggie told him she was looking for a certain address—one that Emily had made up. She pulled a slip of paper out of her handbag, with the fake address written on it.

  When the man couldn’t help her, she stuck the paper back in her purse. As she spun away, she pulled her hand out of her purse. Pretending to accidentally drop the wad of bills from her handbag, she purposely hurried away.

  Being certain that the man would watch Maggie as she sashayed away, Emily kept her camera zeroed in on his next actions.

  As predicted, his gaze remained focused for a few moments on Maggie’s backside, giving her time to walk away. When he finally broke his stare, he appeared to notice the money on the sidewalk. “Miss!”

  Maggie acted as if she did not hear him.

  “You dropped something! Miss!”

  Maggie kept walking.

  “Miss!”

  Maggie got in her vehicle and drove off.

  Through the camera, Emily watched as the man looked around. He attempted to bend down and pick up the money with the back brace on, which made her wonder if maybe he really was injured. The brace prevented him from bending low enough to retrieve it.

  Emily continued to record.

  Dillingham glanced around again, more surreptitiously this time. Apparently believing no one was watching, he quickly unfastened the brace and slipped it off. He crouched down, scooped up the cash, and pushed it down in his pocket. Hooking the cane over an arm, he held the brace in one hand and the leash in the other, and dashed with his little dog to his nearby apartment.

  Gotcha.

  ~*~

  The last couple of weeks had seemed to race by, with Emily taking on more cases and Colin working a rash of break-ins in some of the most expensive homes in Paradise Valley.

  The week before Colin had proposed, the Paradise Valley Chief of Police had offered to hire Emily as a consultant on a case-by-case basis whenever needed. She had given it some consideration and decided to accept his offer.

  She looked forward to cases where she and Colin could work side by side. Sure, they had already worked a few cases together, but more because she had elbowed her way into them. As a consultant, they would be working almost as equals.

  As much as she would like Paradise Valley to remain a quiet, sleepy little town, there was also part of her that hoped for cases with more meat on them—something more substantial than chasing an insurance fraud or following unfaithful spouses.

  As another Thursday night rolled around, it was again time for the girls-only potluck dinner, and it was Emily’s turn to host it. The theme this week was Chinese. Camille had claimed she was dying to try her hand at Kung Pao chicken and sweet and sour pork. Because of Emily’s lack of talent in the kitchen, she agreed to make the white rice and pick up some fortune cookies for dessert.

  As Emily was laying out the plates and glasses on the table, her phone began to jingle on the breakfast bar. She hurried to pick it up, seeing it was Colin.

  “Hello, darling,” she answered.

  “Hey, Babe. I know the girls are coming over, but I wanted to hear your voice. Does that sound cheesy?”

  “A little, but I love it.” She hoped he could hear the smile in her voice. “So what do you have planned for tonight?”

  “Nothing. Maybe do some reading, watch some TV—you know, just relax. I’ll probably go to bed early ‘cause I’m meeting Ernie for breakfast at the crack of dawn.”

  “Don’t forget the engagement party is tomorrow night.”

  “How could I forget? I’ll pick you up before seven.”

  “Emily!” a female voice called out from the front of the house.

  “Sounds like Isabel’s here. I’d better go.”

  “Okay. I’ll call you in the morning. I love you, Emily Parker.”

  “I love you, too,” she replied as her friend walked into the kitchen.

  “Hey, girl,” Isabel greeted, giving Emily a hug as she clicked off her phone. “Was that Colin?”

  “Yes. What gave it away?” Emily grinned, laying her phone on the counter.

  Isabel set her foil-covered pan on the stovetop and ignored Emily’s question. “I made spring rolls for the first time. I hope they’re good.”

  The women had all met, six years ago at a cooking class that Camille had taught when she’d first opened her catering and event-planning business, all four becoming fast friends. Over time, Isabel and Maggie had improved their culinary skills with Camille’s help, but Emily couldn’t seem to get the hang of the more complicated recipes.

  “Any interesting cases you’re working on?” Isabel asked.

  “Well, nothing all that interesting.”

  “You had mentioned awhile back you’d been hired to run surveillance on a man to see if he was faking an injury. Whatever happened with that?”

  “I’m surprised Maggie didn’t tell you.”

  “Why would Maggie tell me?” Isabel poked around in Emily’s utensil drawer.

  “She played a big part in proving the guy was lying.”

  “She never mentioned it. She’s been so busy Skyping with Peter McKenzie every free minute those two have. I’m surprised she gets any work done.” Isabel pulled a pair of tongs out of the drawer.

  “I thought once he moved to Seattle that would cool off.” Emily moved to the stove and turned the burner off under the pot of rice. “I’m glad to know they’re staying in touch.”

  Peter McKenzie was Camille’s brother and a news reporter for a television station in Seattle. A few months ago, he had stayed with Camille and her family before starting the new job and he had become smitten with Maggie.

  “Yeah, Peter’s a great guy, and we all know Maggie needs a great guy in her life, after all the losers she’s had.” Isabel looked down at her watch. “I wonder what’s keeping her and Camille.”

  “Yoo-hoo! We’re here!” Camille exclaimed as she and Maggie waltzed through the entrance to the kitchen. Camille had a pan of food in each hand, while Maggie had a bottle of Sake in hers.

  “Here’s my contribution, girls.” Maggie set the bottle on the c
ounter. “Sake.”

  “I think Sake is Japanese, Maggs,” Emily pointed out.

  “Oh, sorry. Busy day today, so I had no time to cook. Japanese, Chinese, whatever.”

  After setting her pans on the counter and uncovering them, Camille rifled through Emily’s utensil drawer for a few serving spoons. “Emily, we were kind of wondering if you’d be here when we showed up.”

  “Why on earth would you think that?” Emily asked, a bit puzzled by the statement.

  “It’s just that we thought we saw you and Colin turning into the parking lot of the Hilton Hotel. Obviously not.”

  “You must be seeing things, Cam. Emily was on the phone with Colin when I got here.” Isabel pulled the foil off her dish of spring rolls.

  “Maggie and I both saw them. Didn’t we, Maggie?”

  “We did. Maybe y’all have twins.”

  “That’s funny, Maggs. What exactly did you see?” Emily asked more out of curiosity than real interest.

  “A red Jeep Wrangler like Colin’s, with a dark-haired man and a blonde woman in it.” Maggie removed the top from the bottle of Sake. “We weren’t close or anythin’, a couple of blocks away maybe.”

  “Weird,” Isabel remarked. “Well, I know one thing for certain.”

  “What’s that?” Maggie asked.

  “I’m hungry. Let’s eat before the food gets cold.”

  Chapter 3

  After turning in her report and video of the man pretending to be injured, Emily headed to the shooting range for a little practice. Though most of her work seemed to be following people and shooting them with a camera, documenting their wrongdoing for her clients, now and then she found herself working cases that are more dangerous. Keeping up on her shooting skills had saved her life on more than one occasion.

  “Morning, Emily!”

  Her head snapped around to see who was calling her name from the next booth over. “Ernie, what a nice surprise. Are you off today?” Ernie was a long-time police officer in Paradise Valley, an old friend of Colin’s father.

  “I am, so I figured I’d come down here for a little practice.” He tugged his ball cap off and scratched his head. “So, how’d you do?”

  She held up her paper target, which showed six holes in a close cropping in the center of the target’s chest.

  “Nice job.” Ernie grinned widely.

  Emily shrugged a shoulder. She was becoming a pretty good shot. “I heard you were having breakfast with Colin this morning.”

  He shifted his weight to one foot and crossed his arms. “Yeah, I was, but he bailed on me.”

  “Bailed on you? That doesn’t sound like him.” Emily holstered her gun.

  “Said he’d been up half the night throwing up—must’ve caught a bug or something. Say, don’t you have your engagement party tonight?”

  “We do. Oh, Ernie,” she laid her hand briefly on his forearm, “I hope he’s feeling better by then. I’m sure Camille and Isabel have gone to a lot of trouble to put it on.”

  “I’m sure they have.”

  “You and your wife are coming, aren’t you?” Emily reached for her jacket.

  “That’s the plan.” Ernie nodded, scratching his head again before putting his ball cap back on. “I hope that boy is up for it.”

  “Me too.” She wasn’t going to let a little bug ruin their special night. “I’ll give him a call. Hopefully it was just one of those crazy twenty-four-hour things.”

  As Emily drove home she phoned Colin, but it went straight to voicemail. “Hey, Colin. Sorry I missed you. Call me back.”

  She drove past his apartment, expecting to see his Jeep parked outside if he was home sick, but it was not. Maybe he was feeling better and went in to work. She tried the station, but Stella, the receptionist, said she hadn’t seen him, explaining that he did call in sick a few hours ago.

  He’s not at home or at work and he’s not picking up his phone. What’s going on?

  Don’t jump to conclusions, Emily. It’s probably nothing.

  Camille’s comments from the night before popped into her head. She’d claimed that she and Maggie saw someone that looked like Colin pulling into the parking lot of the Hilton Hotel with a blonde female passenger.

  Emily shook her head, trying to erase the thoughts. It was ludicrous to think he was being unfaithful to her when he had just asked her to marry him. Colin was as honest and as stable as they come.

  Her phone began to ring in her purse and she dug it out. “Hi, Isabel.”

  “Good morning, Em. I had a quick question for you about the party tonight.”

  “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

  “Camille thought it would be fun to play your and Colin’s favorite song and have the two of you dance to it. Do you guys have a favorite song?”

  “No.” Emily didn’t mean to answer so bluntly.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m just being silly. It’s nothing.”

  “Doesn’t sound like nothing. What’s going on?”

  “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I can’t find Colin. He was supposed to have breakfast with Ernie this morning, but I ran into Ernie at the shooting range. He told me Colin backed out, said he was sick, throwing up all night.”

  “Eeew, that doesn’t sound good. Did you call him? See if he was okay?”

  “Yes, but all I got was his voicemail. So I drove by his apartment, but he wasn’t there. He wasn’t at the police station, either.”

  “He’s only been out of contact for a few hours, Em. Give the guy a break.”

  “I know, I told you I was just being silly. But something doesn’t feel right, Is.”

  “Don’t do this to yourself, hon. Colin is not Evan.”

  “You’re right.”

  Not long ago, Emily had discovered that her late husband, Evan, was not the man he had claimed to be. Perhaps these suspicious thoughts surrounding Colin’s whereabouts were rooted in Evan’s deceptive relationship with her. She expelled a long sigh. “I simply need to relax and wait for him to call me back.”

  “Exactly. Now, about that song.”

  ~*~

  Emily went home and took a long, hot bath, trying to take her mind off Colin until she heard back from him. She stepped out of the tub and wrapped her big fluffy towel around her chest as her phone began to jingle on the counter.

  She snatched it up without checking to see who was calling. “Hello.”

  “Hey, Babe. I got your message. What’s up?”

  “I was worried about you. Are you all right?”

  “Worried? Why?”

  “I ran into Ernie and he said you cancelled breakfast with him because you were sick, and then Stella said you called in sick to work this morning.”

  “Yeah, I had a bit of a bug last night—maybe it was something I ate—but I’m feeling much better.”

  “Then you’re fine for the party tonight?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  Now she really did feel silly for making such a big deal over him being out of pocket for the morning. She thought it best not to mention she drove by his apartment when she couldn’t reach him by phone. That would only make her seem clingy and insecure. But still, where was he?

  “I’m going in to work this afternoon for a little while,” he said, “but I’ll be by about a quarter to seven to pick you up.”

  “I’ll be waiting, sweetheart.”

  ~*~

  Decked out in the little black dress that hugged her curves in all the right places, Emily stood before her bathroom mirror. She sprayed a bit of her favorite perfume on her neck and applied her smoky-rose lipstick. “There.”

  The doorbell rang.

  After slipping into her black stilettos, she dashed to the front door. She opened it and Colin’s face lit up when he saw her.

  “Wow! You look beautiful, Emily.” He stepped over the threshold, not taking his eyes off her.

  “You don’t look so bad yourself, mister.” She closed the do
or behind him, smiling to herself, feeling his eyes still on her rear view. Music played softly in the background as she floated to him. He looked handsome in the same black suit and starched white shirt that he had proposed to her in a couple of weeks before.

  She looked up into his sexy hazel eyes. Instinctively, as she came close, his arms slipped around her slender waist and her hands glided over his muscular shoulders. She began to sway with the music as their gaze locked onto each other’s.

  In response, he swayed with her. She enjoyed the warmth of his body against hers.

  “This is our song,” she said softly.

  “It is?” he said in a low tone, continuing to move in unison.

  “Isabel called me today and asked what our song was. I didn’t know we had one, but I had to give her something. The words to this song popped into my head.”

  “Hmm, our song. Sounds like Frankie Valli’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You’.”

  “That’s right,” she sighed, laying her head against his shoulder, quietly singing along.

  Colin joined in, finishing the line.

  “What do you think?” Emily lifted her head from his shoulder and gazed up at him.

  “I think I love you.”

  “No, silly, about the song.”

  “I think it’s perfect.”

  “That’s good, because they want us to dance to it at the party tonight.”

  “What?” Colin stopped swaying and pulled back a little. “Why?”

  “I guess the girls thought it would be romantic.”

  “And what do you think?”

  “I agree. Don’t you feel romantic dancing with me to those words?”

  “Well, yeah, but we’re alone.” He leaned down and kissed her softly.

  His moist, gentle lips were making her head spin. She willed herself to focus. “You know how the bride and groom have their first dance together at the wedding reception? Like that.”

  “All right, all right. You’ve convinced me.” Colin drew her in closer and began to sway to the music once more, humming along with the song. He tenderly kissed her neck.

  As much as she enjoyed the strength of his arms, the feel of his lips against her skin, and the warmth of his body next to hers, they had a party to get to. If they hadn’t been the guests of honor, she might have chosen to stay where she was a little longer. Or maybe a lot longer.