After Dark

Chapter 29

"THIS IS guild business." Tamara Wyatt turned away from the study window. The movement of her head caused her amber earrings to catch the morning sun. They glowed a dark yellow gold. "Whatever it is you have to say to us, Emmett, it should be kept within the Guild. There is no reason to involve Miss Smith."

During the drive to Mercer Wyatt's mansion in the hills, Lydia had promised herself that she would keep her mouth shut and allow Emmett to handle this. It was his show, after all. But listening to Tamara talk about her as if she weren't in the room was too much. She consigned her vow of silence to the garbage.

"I disagree, Mrs. Wyatt," she said briskly. "In the course of this mess, a friend of mine was murdered, as was a business acquaintance named Bartholomew Greeley. A young boy was ruthlessly terrorized by a rogue ghosthunter. On top of everything else, my apartment was scorched."

Tamata whirled to face her. "The Cadence Guild is not responsible for any of those things."

Emmett looked at her. "Wrong, Tamara. The Cadence Guild was involved."

"Can you prove it?" Mercer Wyatt demanded coldly.

Emmett held up the folder he had brought with him. "I may not have evidence that will stand up in a court of law, but I think I've got enough to convince you. And when it comes to Guild matters, that's all it takes, isn't it?"

"Yes," Mercer'said steadily. "Convincing me is all that is required."

Tamara looked at Emmett. "If you actually have proof that someone in the Cadence Guild was responsible for what was going on at the youth shelter, you should discuss it privately with Mercer. He will deal with it. I still say Miss Smith has no business here."

"Too bad," Lydia said. "Miss Smith is here, and she's not leaving until this is over."

A soft, discreet knock on the door interrupted Tamara before she could argue further.

"Come in," Mercer ordered.

The door opened. Lydia turned to see an earnest-looking man walk into the study.

"Miss Smith," Mercer said quietly, "allow me to introduce Denver Galbraith-Thomdyke. Denver is the administrator of the Guild Foundation. Denver, this is Lydia Smith."

Denver inclined his head in a polite nod. "Miss Smith." He turned back to Mercer with a quizzical expression. "I got a message that you wanted to see me, sir."

"Emmett, here, has some questions for you concerning our Foundation grants." Mercer looked at Emmett.

Denver followed his glance. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and smiled slightly. "Yes, Mr. London?"

Emmett did not move from his position near the bookcase. "You told me you ran a thorough background check on Helen Vickers before you funded the programs at the Transverse Wave Youth Shelter."

"That's right," Denver said. "Why? Is there a problem?"

"Yes." Emmett tossed the file folder down onto the nearest table. "There is a problem. I had my people in Resonance run a check on her, too. They turned up several interesting facts. Ten years ago Helen Vickers was involved in an underground excavation disaster. No charges were brought, but two people died and a valuable artifact went missing. The surviving members of the team blamed Vickers."

"Good Lord." Denver stared at him. "I found no such information on Miss Vickers."

"She was using a different name at the time," Emmett said. "You should have found it. My people did within twenty-four hours."

"I don't understand."

"There's more," Emmett continued. "Two years ago the original founder of the Transverse Wave Youth Shelter, Anderson Ames, died in a mysterious fire. Helen Vickers was his sole heir."

Denver drew himself up. "Are you implying that I failed to do a proper indepth background investigation on Miss Vickers before I authorized funding for the shelter?"

"No," Emmett said. "I think you did a very good background investigation."

His icy voice sent a shiver through Lydia. This was the shadowy, mysterious Emmett London who had once held the Resonance Guild in an iron grip, the man who had single-handedly transformed it. Ryan had told her that this Emmett London had made enemies along the way. She could well believe it.

"I think you discovered everything that my people turned up and more," Emmett said to Denver. "You had plenty of time to dig deep, and that's just what you did, isn't it?"

"I don't know what you're implying, but I certainly have no intention of listening to these wild accusations," Denver said tightly.

"Yes," Mercer said, "you do."

Tamara looked at him. "I don't understand. What is this all about?"

"All in due time, my dear," Mercer said. "All in due time."

Emmett contemplated Denver. "You realized that Vickers, whatever else she was, was no model of selfless altruism. So you did a little more investigating, didn't you?"

Denver clenched his hands into fists. He was trembling visibly now. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You learned that she and the man who calls himself Bob Matthews were old lovers. Somehow you uncovered their hole-in-the wall dreamstone excavation project. My guess is that, acting anonymously, you blackmailed them into cutting you in for a piece of the action. In return, you promised to keep funding the shelter and to keep the Guild off their backs."

"This is outrageous! How dare you insinuate such things?"

"You took charge of the entire operation—anonymously, of course," Emmett said. "I'm sure Vickers and Matthews are already trying to tell their lawyers about the mysterious blackmailer, but no one will take them seriously. After all, there's no proof. You kept your own hands very clean."

"You're insane," Denver whispered.

Tamara frowned. "Denver, is any of this true?"

"No, no, of course not, Mrs. Wyatt." Denver swung around to face Mercer. "You can't possibly believe this nonsense, sir."

"I didn't want to believe it," Mercer said wearily. "But this morning after Emmett called to tell me that he suspected you were involved in the illegal excavation at the shelter, I had your house searched."

Denver blanched. "You sent people into my home? But that's illegal. You can't do that."

"We found the London family heirloom," Mercer said. "The cabinet of curiosities, I believe it's called. It was hidden in your basement storage closet. You stole it from Chester Brady's shop after he was killed. And later you posed as the new owner in order to set Greeley up."

Tamara touched Mercer's shoulders. "Are you certain of this?"

"Yes, my dear," Mercer said gently. "Quite certain."

Right then and there Denver seemed to crumple. He sank in on himself as if suddenly too exhausted to stand. For a moment there was absolute silence in the study.

"How dare you?" Tamara's patrician face twisted into a mask of anger and disgust. "You've ruined everything. Everything! For a year I've been working on the Guild Foundation. It was the first step toward changing the Guild's image here in Cadence. And now this. If word gets out about the Guild's connection to the illegal excavation at the shelter, we'll be back to square one. The media will have a field day."

"Don't worry, my dear," Mercer said soothingly. "Word won't get out about any of this. It's a Guild matter. It will be handled in the usual fashion."

Lydia snorted softly. "Figures."

Tamara glowered. "What about her? She's not Guild. Who's going to keep her quiet?"

There was a short, brittle silence. Everyone, including Lydia, looked at Emmett.

Emmett shrugged. He said nothing.

Lydia gave Tamara a cool smile. "You want to start changing the Guild's image? Stop trying to police yourselves. Turn Denver over to the authorities. Take the hit in the press."

"Impossible," Tamara said instantly. "We can't risk the bad publicity. The media already classify the Cadence Guild as little more than a very powerful mob. Turning Denver over to the police would only feed that negative image."

Denver removed his glasses and began to polish the lenses with a cloth. "You can't touch me, you know. My family will see to that. I don't care how strong the Guild is, the Galbraith-Thomdykes can and will protect me."

Mercer studied Emmett, who was standing at the window now, hands in his pockets.

"What do you say, Emmett?"

"Turn Denver over to the cops," he said quietly. "His family can afford good lawyers. My guess is he won't do any time. There's very little hard evidence against him."

"Then why go through the motions?" Tamara protested. "And the humiliation?"

"Because," Emmett said, "in the end the big story won't be Denver's involvement in the dreamstone scheme. It will be the fact that the Cadence Guild went to the mainstream justice system about the situation. Lydia's right. It's a major step toward shaking the mob image."

Tamara whirled to confront Mercer. "Listen to me! We can't take the chance of destroying what we've been working for all year."

Mercer looked thoughtfully at Lydia for a long moment. She had the feeling that she was being weighed and judged. Another little shiver went through her. She'd seen that same calculating intelligence in Emmett's gaze from time to time. Perhaps power always revealed itself that way.

Mercer turned his head to smile gently at Tamara. "They're right, my dear. If we truly want to begin the task of reshaping the image of the Cadence Guild, it must start here. I will call the police myself."