Crime and Passion

He’d all but patted her on her head as he’d ushered her out of his tastefully decorated office with its fifty-inch plasma TV on one wall. He thanked her for her keen diligence and promised her a bonus for what amounted to doing her job. Less than an hour later, he’d sent one of his assistants to press two tickets to Los Angeles into her hand, along with complimentary passes to Disneyland. Walken had expressed in the enclosed note that he had heard about her wanting to take her son there someday. The man made it a point to know his people, one of the things she’d always liked about him. Now she wondered if he just wanted to know which buttons to press when dealing with a subordinate in a challenging situation.

She’d been too stunned to speak at first, then politely had returned the tickets, saying that with the holidays coming up, this was an inconvenient time of the year to travel. It wasn’t strictly true. There was no one she spent the holidays with outside of Alex. She didn’t know where her parents were and there were no siblings, no aunts or uncles to populate her life. She and Alex could have picked up at any time and gone.

But the offer of the tickets hadn’t sat right with her. Neither had the discrepancy, even though she’d wanted to believe in Walken, to believe in the company to which she’d given almost four years of her life. Initially she’d clung to the hope of a plausible explanation as to why the expenses slated for Simplicity’s ledgers had been ascribed to one of their holding companies instead, sending that small company to the brink of bankruptcy. She passionately refused to believe that she’d made yet another mistake in placing her faith with the wrong recipient.

Just as she had with Clay.

Ilene could feel her eyes stinging and closed them defensively.

No.

She wasn’t going to go there. That was a place that she’d deliberately walled up even before Alex was born, but most definitely afterward. Loving Clay, believing in Clay might have been a mistake, but doing so had led her to the greatest joy of her life. It had given her Alex.

She could have reached the greatest of heights careerwise, but without Alex in her life, nothing else would have mattered. She was meant to be a mother first and foremost, and everything else second. Every fiber in her being told her so. There was a vast amount of love within her, love that had been thwarted by her parents, disregarded by Clay. But now it was all channeled toward Alex.

And it was because of Alex, she told herself, that she was going to have to blow the whistle.

There was no other path open to her. She never wanted to look into her son’s eyes and see an accusation, or worse, disappointment shining there. And if she didn’t bring the discrepancy she’d found to light, if she allowed Simplicity—a company that was well respected and touted as one of the few safe investments still left on the shaky stock market boards—to continue lying to the unsuspecting public, she wasn’t going to be able to live with her conscience. Because when the truth finally came out, it would steal millions of dollars away from everyday people who could ill afford to have something like this happen to them.

Ilene dragged her hand through her long, strawberry-blond hair. She knew what she had to do. Right thing or not, she still couldn’t help being afraid. But then, she supposed Joan of Arc had been afraid, too.

Pushing up from the sofa, Ilene rose to her feet. It was late and time to go to bed. Tomorrow she’d do what she had to do.

She tried not to dwell on the fact that Joan of Arc ended up being burned at the stake.

Almost holding her breath, Ilene sat perfectly still as the woman behind the desk studied her. Pert, blond, the woman hardly looked old enough to have graduated from college, much less law school…and much too young to have attained her present position of assistant district attorney. She looked as if she would have been more at home being interviewed for Rose Bowl Queen than taking part in a criminal court hearing.

Ilene glanced down at the woman’s name plate. Janelle Cavanaugh.

The name Cavanaugh leaped out at her.

Was it a coincidence? Or was this just fate’s lop-sided sense of humor aiming itself right between her eyes? Ilene tried to regain control over herself. It wasn’t as if Cavanaugh was an uncommon name, she argued. But here in Aurora, most of the Cavanaughs who were related to Clay were in some sort of law enforcement.

As was he, she’d heard. Those had been his plans when they’d gone together. He was one of those types who always got what he was after. He just hadn’t been after her.

Janelle Cavanaugh folded her hands before her, seemingly calm in the face of the bombshell that had been placed on her desk. Her eyes never left Ilene’s. “You have proof?”

Ilene met her gaze. “I wouldn’t be wasting your time if I didn’t.”

It amazed Ilene that her hands were so still. Inside, she was shaking like a leaf as she reached into her briefcase and took out the printed copies of the files she had audited. The originals were still safely in their place and gave no indication that once she’d stumbled across one discrepancy, she’d conducted an internal audit of her own. Ilene had discovered the tip of the iceberg when it came to corporate corruption. The discrepancy was huge between the true figures and the ones the board was about to release to stockholders in its annual disclosure.

The world at large believed that Simplicity had had a banner year. In truth, the profits were false. A mountain of expenditures had been hidden from the shareholders, making Simplicity seem as if ownership in the company was a very desirable thing in a troubled fiscal age.

She understood the thinking behind the ruse, or thought she did. If investors flocked to Simplicity, waving their money before them, Simplicity would eventually collect enough money to cover their debts and yield at least part of the profit it reported. But if something were to happen, if a story should be leaked to the business world, confidence and stock would plummet and many people would be bankrupt, their accounts completely wiped out.

She knew she couldn’t live with that on her conscience. That was why she was here. This problem had to be cleared up before it went any further.

Janelle quickly scanned the top pages she’d taken out of the manila envelope. Sporting the expressionless face her brothers and cousins swore made her so perfect for playing poker, she raised her eyes to the delicate-looking woman before her.

From all appearances Ilene O’Hara looked as if she belonged on the fast track at some pricey modeling agency. Tall, slender, she had a regal composure and a face that begged for magazine covers. Janelle supposed that was what her cousin had seen in the woman in the first place.

Janelle doubted that Ilene O’Hara even remembered that they had met once, although fleetingly. Six years ago, she thought, give or take a little. She’d stumbled across Clay and his girlfriend of the moment at a coffee shop. Clay had looked a little uncomfortable making introductions, and she’d known it was because he hated being pinned down. Janelle remembered thinking that Clay had finally found someone who didn’t look as if she was living just to have a good time.

But then Clay and Ilene had broken up. He’d been a little funny for a while. Always gregarious, he’d become withdrawn. No one in the family had guessed why. She’d been the only one who even knew about Ilene. In time, he’d bounced back to his old self. But Janelle had felt that the girl had left a permanent impression.

She smiled warmly now at Ilene. “So, how have you been?”

Ilene blinked. The A.D.A. was making polite chit-chat. Why? “Excuse me?”

Janelle’s smile widened. “You don’t remember me, do you?” Small wonder—Ilene had been very wrapped up with her cousin then.

Ilene glanced at the name plate again before raising her eyes back to Janelle. She began to look familiar. “Then you are related to Clay.”

“Guilty as charged.” She leaned into Ilene, allowing herself one more private moment, in part to make the woman less uncomfortable about being here. “I always thought he was a jerk for walking away from you.”

It wasn’t what Ilene wanted to discuss. Not now. Not ever. “He was too young. We were too young,” Ilene amended. She shifted in the seat, gripping the arms, eager, now that she had started the ball rolling, to get on with it. “So where do we go from here?”

There were a myriad of details to be faced. However, Janelle had her own set of priorities that differed slightly from those of the D.A.’s office. “First thing we do is get you police protection.”

Ilene’s eyes widened at the ominous pronouncement. Police protection was for people who feared for their lives. People who were in danger. That wasn’t her. She knew all the people in her department. They were people with whom she’d attended Christmas parties, people whose birthdays she’d celebrated. None of them would hurt her. Despite its size, the company had a reputation as being one big, happy family.

And she’d never been one who’d ever meekly obeyed without question. “Police protection? Why? This isn’t The Mob we’re dealing with.”

“No,” Janelle agreed, “these are CEOs with a great deal to lose. People facing exposure do desperate things.” Janelle could tell that Ilene didn’t like what she was hearing. “Welcome to the twenty-first century.” She got down to business. “Does anyone know you’ve come here?”

Ilene shook her head. She’d taken a personal day, telling the office she was going to the doctor. She’d told Alex’s baby-sitter the same thing. Coming here wasn’t something she enjoyed advertising. “No.”

Janelle tried to read between the lines. “But you did go to your boss about this?”

Ilene could tell by the other woman’s tone that she thought Ilene had made a tactical mistake. But Janelle Cavanaugh didn’t know John Walken, didn’t know that he was an honorable man.

“Yes,” her own tone was defensive, “I thought he’d want to fix it, that he didn’t know this was going on. I can’t find out who gave the initial order.”

Janelle looked at her knowingly. “And Walken said he would get right on it, but you haven’t heard anything so far.”

Ilene hated the way this all sounded so predictable. There had to be some explanation. Good people didn’t do heinous things.

But if she truly believed that, why was she here?

She looked down at her nails, rendering the answer through teeth that were almost closed. “Right.”

Janelle nodded. “And how long ago was that?”

“A week.” It sounded like an eternity. “I thought about talking to him again.” Ilene had almost gone in today, wanting to give Walken another chance. She’d changed her mind at the last minute. “But—”

“Your instincts told you to come here.” Janelle’s blue eyes smiled at the other woman. “Good instincts. Hope your survival ones are just as keen.”

“Is this police-protection thing really necessary?”