Witness Read online

  Ashe McLaughlin had regretted making love to her. She could never forget the pain that knowledge had caused her. Even if she could forgive him, she could never forget what he’d said to her eleven years ago… But I don’t love you, Deborah. Not that way. What we did tonight shouldn’t have happened. I’m sorry. It was all my fault. Forgive me, honey. Please forgive me.

  Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. She walked the few steps to her open bedroom door, crossed the threshold, closed the door quietly and, once alone, wiped away her tears.

  “ALL OF MS. VAUGHN’S calls are to be screened. That means the caller must identify him or herself and must be someone Ms. Vaughn knows. Otherwise the call will be directed to me. Is that understood?”

  Ashe McLaughlin issued orders to the office staff of Vaughn & Posey, the men obviously intimidated, the women enthralled. Standing six-foot-three, broad-shouldered and commanding in his gray sport coat, navy slacks and white shirt, Ashe was the type of man to whom no one dared utter a word of protest.

  Listening to Ashe give orders, Deborah waited in her office doorway, Neil Posey at her side. When the staff, one by one, turned their heads in her direction, she nodded her agreement with Ashe. He’d made it perfectly clear to her before they arrived at work that he would be in charge of her life, every small detail, until she was no longer in danger.

  Ashe turned to Annie Laurie, who had worked as Neil’s secretary for the past five years, and was doing double duty as Deborah’s secretary while hers was out on maternity leave. “Carefully check all of Deborah’s mail. Anything suspicious, bring to me. And I’ll open all packages, no matter how innocent looking they are. Understand?”

  “Of course, Ashe.” Despite her mousy brown hair and out-of-style glasses, plain little Annie Laurie had grown into a lovely young woman.

  Deborah tried not to stare at Ashe, but she found herself again inspecting him from head to toe as she had done at breakfast this morning. No wonder all the females in the office were practically drooling. Although his clothes were tailored to fit his big body, on Ashe they acquired an unpretentious casualness. He wore no tie and left the first two buttons of his shirt undone, revealing a tuft of dark chest hair.

  “Who does he think he is coming in here issuing orders right and left?” Neil Posey whispered, his tone an angry hiss. “When you introduced him as your bodyguard, I assumed you would be giving him orders, not the other way around.”

  “Ashe can’t do the job Mother hired him to do unless I cooperate.” Deborah patted Neil on the shoulder. “Ashe is here to protect me. He’s a trained professional.”

  “He hasn’t changed. He’s as damn sure of himself as he ever was.” Neil took Deborah’s hand in his. “I don’t like the idea of that man living in your house, sleeping across the hall from you.”

  “He could hardly protect me if he stayed at a motel.”

  “Why Ashe McLaughlin? Good grief, Deb, you were in love with the guy when we were in high school.” Neil’s eyes widened. He stared directly at Deborah. “You don’t still…the man doesn’t mean anything to you now, does he?”

  “Lower your voice.” She had told Neil time and again that she couldn’t offer him more than friendship. She’d never led him on or made him any promises. Perhaps it was wrong of her to go out with him from time to time, but he was such a comfortable, nonthreatening date.

  “I’m sorry,” Neil said. “It’s just I’d hate to see him break your heart. You mooned around over him for years and all he could see was Whitney.”

  “Yes, Neil, I know. Can we please change the subject?”

  Deborah caught a glimpse of Ashe going from desk to desk, speaking personally to each Vaughn & Posey employee. Ashe looked up from where he was bent over Patricia Walden’s desk and smiled at Deborah. He’d seen her staring at him, watching while Patricia fluttered her long, black eyelashes at him. Deborah forced a weak smile to her lips.

  “Look at him flirting with Patricia, and her a married woman!” Neil sucked in his freckled cheeks, making his long, narrow face appear even more equine than usual.

  “Neil, close the door, please. We need to discuss the Cotton Lane Estates. I’m afraid we’ve allowed my situation to interfere in our moving ahead on this project.”

  Neil closed the door, followed Deborah across the room, waited until she sat, then seated himself. “We have the surveyor’s report. No surprises there. I’ve had Annie Laurie run a check on the deed. Everything is in order. Mr. and Mrs. McCullough have agreed to our last offer. I’d say, despite your problems, things are moving ahead quite smoothly.”

  “We should have had this deal wrapped up a week ago. Have Mr. and Mrs. McCullough come in today and let’s get everything signed, sealed and delivered. We’ve still got several months of good weather, so if we can give Hutchinson the go-ahead, he can move his crews in there and cut the roads we’ll need before we divide the land into one-acre lots.”

  “I’ll give the McCulloughs a call. Since he’s retired, they shouldn’t have any problem driving down from Decatur this afternoon.”

  “Fine. And thanks for handling things while my life has been turned upside down lately.”

  Neil smiled, that widemouthed grin that showed all his teeth. “You know I’d do anything for you, Deb. Anything.”

  The door opened and Ashe McLaughlin walked in, making no apologies for interrupting. “Make time at lunch to go with me to see Sheriff Blaylock. I want to arrange for one of his men to keep an eye on you tomorrow while I do a little investigating on my own.”

  “I don’t think that’s necessary,” Neil said. “Whenever you need to do your investigating, I’ll be more than happy to stay with Deborah.

  “Neil—” Deborah wanted to caution her friend, but she didn’t get the chance.

  “Look, Posey, I appreciate the fact you’re Deborah’s friend, but you’re a realtor. I’m a professional bodyguard. If I can’t be at Deborah’s side, I want another professional to be there. One of the sheriff’s deputies.”

  “I can assure you that I’d die to protect Deborah.”

  “That may be so, but once they kill you, what would keep them from killing her?” Ashe ignored Deborah’s pleading look that said not to crush Neil Posey’s ego. But Ashe didn’t give a damn about Posey’s ego. He simply wanted to make sure the man understood he wasn’t equipped to play hero. “Do you own a gun? Do you carry it with you? Have you ever killed a man?”

  “No, I don’t own a gun and I most certainly have never killed another human being.” Neil shuddered, obviously offended at the thought.

  “It’s all well and good to be willing to die to protect Deborah, but it’s just as important to be willing to kill, or at least maim an assailant, in order to protect her.”

  “I’ll arrange to go with you to see Charlie Blaylock,” Deborah said, her tone sharp. She wanted Ashe to know how displeased she was with him. There had been no need to humiliate Neil. “Thank you for your offer, Neil. I’d feel completely safe with you, but…” She nodded in Ashe’s direction. “Mother is paying Mr. McLaughlin a small fortune, so I plan to get our money’s worth out of him.”

  “Yes, well…I understand.” With shoulders slumped, Neil slinked out of Deborah’s office like a kicked dog.

  She marched across the room, slammed shut the door and turned on Ashe. “How dare you make Neil feel less than the man he is! What gave you the right to humiliate him that way?”

  “My intention wasn’t to humiliate Neil. Hell, I have no reason to dislike the man, to want to hurt him. My intention was to show him that he’s useless as a bodyguard.”

  “Did you have to do it in front of me?” She looked down at her feet. “Neil has a crush on me.”

  Ashe laughed. “That must be the reason Annie Laurie can’t get to first base with him.”

  Deborah snapped her head up, her eyes making direct contact with Ashe’s. She smiled. “I’ve done everything but offer to pay for their wedding to get Neil interested in Annie Laurie. He can’t s
eem to see past me to take notice of what a wonderful girl Annie Laurie is and how much she adores him.”

  Ashe stared at Deborah, his expression softening as he remembered another stupid man who had been so blinded by his passion for one woman that he’d allowed a treasure far more rare to slip through his fingers. Unrequited love was a bitch.

  “I’m sorry if you think I was too rough on Neil. Annie Laurie had told me he liked you, but I had no idea he fancied himself in love with you. I’ll tread more lightly on his ego from now on.”

  “Thank you, Ashe. I’d appreciated it.”

  A soft knock sounded at the door, breaking the intensity of Deborah’s and Ashe’s locked stares.

  “Yes?”

  Annie Laurie cracked open the door, peeked inside and held out a bundle of mail. “I’ve checked through these. The one I put on top looks odd to me. Whoever sent it used one of Deborah’s business cards as a mailing label.”

  “Hand me that letter and place the others on the desk,” Ashe said.

  Annie Laurie obeyed Ashe’s command. Deborah glanced from Annie Laurie’s worried face to the letter in Ashe’s hand. She waited while he turned the envelope over, inspecting it from every angle. He held it up to the light.

  “Does this look pretty much like the other letters you’ve received?” he asked.

  “The others were typed,” Deborah said. “This is the first time they’ve used my business card.”

  Ashe walked over to Deborah’s desk, picked up her letter opener and sliced the envelope along the spine. Lifting out a one-page letter, he laid the opener down, spread apart the white piece of stationery and read aloud the message, which had been typed.

  “Don’t show up in court. If you do, you’ll be sorry.”

  Deborah glanced at Annie Laurie who seemed to be waiting for something. “Is there something else?” she asked.

  Tilting her head to one side and casting her gaze downward, Annie Laurie smiled. “Megan stopped by to see you. She’s got Katie with her.”

  “Oh.” Deborah returned Annie Laurie’s smile. “I suppose everyone’s passing Katie around as if she were a doll. Tell Megan I’ll be out in just a minute.”

  Annie Laurie slipped out of the office, silently closing the door behind her.

  “What was that all about? Who are Megan and Katie?”

  “Megan is my secretary. She’s on maternity leave. Katie is her two-week-old baby girl.”

  Ashe shook his head. “You’ve just received another threatening letter and you’re concerned with coochie-cooing over your secretary’s new baby?”

  “I’ve received a letter very similar to the one you hold in your hand every day since Lon Sparks was arrested,” Deborah said. “And I get at least one threatening phone call a day. But it isn’t every day that Katie goes for her two-week checkup and Megan brings her by to see us.”

  Ashe grinned. God bless her, Deborah hadn’t really changed. Not nearly as much as he thought she had. And certainly nowhere near as much as she tried to make everyone think. Underneath all that tough, career-woman exterior lay the heart of the sweet, caring girl she’d been years ago. He supposed he should have realized that Deborah was perfectly capable of handling both roles, that sophistication and success didn’t exclude the more nurturing qualities that made Deborah such a loving person.

  “You go visit with mother and baby,” Ashe said. “I’ll phone Sheriff Blaylock and let him know we’ll be stopping by around noon. We’ll let him add this letter to his collection.”

  “It won’t do any good.” Deborah opened the door. “There are never any fingerprints, nothing unique about the stationery. They’re all mailed from Sheffield. And the typewriter isn’t much of a clue. Hundreds of people in this area have access to the same brand.”

  “Whoever’s doing this is experienced. He’s no amateur.”

  “Buck Stansell may be a redneck outlaw, but he’s a professional redneck outlaw.”

  “Yeah, his family’s been in the business for several generations.” Ashe glanced around Deborah’s office. “Kind of like the Vaughns have been in real estate for three generations.”

  “Don’t assume that I’m taking the threats lightly,” she said, her hand on the doorpost. “I’m shaking in my boots. But I have a business to run, people who count on Vaughn & Posey for their livelihoods. And I have a mother who’s in bad health and a ch…a brother who’s only a child.”

  “Who has access to your business cards?”

  “What?”

  “Could just anybody get one of these cards?” Ashe waved the envelope in the air.

  “Oh, yes, anybody could get one.” Deborah walked into the outer office. “Megan, we’re so glad you stopped by. Who’s got Katie? Come on, Helen, give her to me.”

  Ashe stood in the doorway, watching Deborah hold her secretary’s baby. She looked so natural, as if cuddling a baby in her arms was something she did all the time. Why wasn’t she married, with children of her own? A woman like Deborah shouldn’t be single, still living at home with her mother and little brother. She should be hustling a pack of kids off to school and baseball games and cheerleader practice. She should be holding her own child in her arms.

  Ashe didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but when Megan pulled Deborah aside into the corner near her office, he remained standing just behind the partially closed door.

  “I want to thank you again for the bonus you gave me,” Megan said. “Bennie is so proud, he would never have accepted the money if you hadn’t convinced him it was a bonus and that Mr. Posey had given the same amount to his secretary. Annie Laurie even went along with our little fib.”

  “It was a bonus,” Deborah said. “A baby bonus. I think every baby should have a fully equipped nursery.”

  “We could never have afforded everything without that bonus. And after that, you didn’t have to bring another gift to the hospital.” Megan looked down at the pink-and-white ruffled dress her daughter wore. “It looks beautiful on her, don’t you think?”

  Ashe closed the door. Still the do-gooder. Still the tenderhearted pushover. No, Deborah hadn’t changed. She was older, more beautiful, more experienced and certainly more sophisticated. But she was still the girl he’d considered his friend, the girl with whom he would have trusted his soul.

  Was it possible that she had no idea what her father had done to him? Had he misjudged her all these years? Maybe she hadn’t run to Wallace Vaughn and cried rape. But even if she hadn’t falsely accused him, she’d still told her father that the two of them had made love. Surely she would have known how her father would react.

  Even after Ashe had left town, Wallace Vaughn had slandered him. It had become public knowledge that Deborah’s father had run Ashe McLaughlin out of Sheffield.

  All the old feelings came rushing back, bombarding him with their intensity. All the love, the hate, the fear and the uncertainty. Maybe Carol Vaughn had been right. He hadn’t returned to Sheffield before now because he was afraid to face the past, to find out the truth, to confront Deborah and Whitney.

  But he was back now, and there was no time like the present to meet the ghosts of his past head-on.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHARLIE BLAYLOCK HAD been a friend of her father and Deborah suspected he’d always had a soft spot in his heart for her mother. He asked about Carol every time he ran into Deborah, and his concern certainly seemed a bit more than neighborly.

  Deborah tried to relax as she sat in Charlie’s office listening to him explain the details of the Lon Sparks case to Ashe, and exactly what he could and could not do to protect Deborah against Buck Stansell and his bunch of outlaws.

  “When Carol asked my advice about hiring a private bodyguard for Deborah, I was all for it.” Charlie gazed out the window that overlooked the parking area. He moved with a slow, easy stride, all six feet five inches, three hundred pounds of him. “We don’t have a smidgen of proof that Buck and his boys are involved in the threats Deborah’s been receiving. If we had any proof, w
e could make a move to stop them. But even if we caught the guy who’s making the phone calls, Buck would just have somebody else take up where he left off.”

  “I’m planning on paying a visit to Lee Roy and Johnny Joe.” Ashe stood, walked across the room, and stopped at Charlie’s side. “I want you to have one of your men stay with Deborah while I drop in on my cousins.”

  Charlie lifted his eyebrows. “When were you planning on visiting the Brennan brothers?”

  “Tomorrow. Bright and early.”

  “I’ve tried to tell Ashe that I’ve survived for a couple of weeks now without his constant protection.” Deborah squirmed around in the uncomfortable straight-back chair in which she sat. “I’ll be perfectly all right at the office for a couple of hours.”

  “I’ll have somebody stop by the house around seven in the morning and stay with Deborah until you finish your business and get back to Sheffield.” Charlie laid his big hand on Ashe’s shoulder, gripping him firmly. “I was surprised when Carol told me she was hiring you. Last I’d heard, you were still in the army. The Green Berets, wasn’t it?”

  “I left over a year ago.” Ashe looked down at Charlie’s hand resting on his shoulder, all friendly like.

  Ashe figured Charlie Blaylock knew exactly what his old friend, Wallace Vaughn, had done to him eleven years ago. Although Charlie had been sheriff even then, Wallace had brought the district attorney with him when he’d had his little talk with Ashe. And Sheffield’s chief of police had been waiting right outside the door, waiting to arrest Ashe if he hadn’t agreed to leave town and never return. But Charlie would have known what Wallace had been up to, perhaps had even given him a little advice on how to get rid of that white-trash boy who had dared to violate Wallace’s precious daughter.

  Charlie gave Ashe’s shoulder another tight squeeze, then released him. “Carol wants you here. She’s convinced herself that nobody else can protect Deborah. I’ll do everything I can to cooperate with you.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Removing the most recent threatening letter from his coat pocket, Ashe dropped it on Charlie’s desk. “You might want to have this examined, but I’d say it’s clean.”