Free Darkness before the Dawn by Anne Stuart Page B

man, permanently bereft of any trace of human kindness. The thought of making love to such an automaton was distasteful, and she wondered how she could have done it. And how she could have become so obsessed with him in such a short time. Thank God all that was in the past, more like a bad dream than a memory. There was no way he could touch her, ever again. Not with the memory of Mack’s real love like a talisman to guard her against evil.
    “Cooperation,” he replied. “Simple cooperation, Maggie. I want to know what you know about all this, and I want you to keep out of it from now on. No more lugging bodies around, no more phone calls to Bud Willis, no more snooping and prying. Leave it to me.”
    “Screw yourself, Randall,” she said pleasantly. “The only thing I’d leave to you is the
Titanic
.”
    He moved so fast, she didn’t have time to react. One moment he was staring out the window, the next he was looming over her, his hands gripping the arms of her chair, his long arms imprisoning her. He didn’t touch her, but the threat wasvery real, tangible, and faintly, perversely erotic. “Don’t be tiresome, Maggie,” he murmured. “What do you know about Francis Ackroyd?”
    She stared up at him, determined not to be intimidated. But he wouldn’t move away until he got the answers he wanted, and she needed him to move quite desperately. “Nothing. He and Kate had a fight over some discrepancies in the books at Stoneham Studios. I think it was Caleb McAllister who first discovered the problem.”
    “I’ve met him.” He stayed where he was, unmoving.
    “According to Kate they had a massive blowout, screaming and yelling at each other in the studio commissary with many witnesses,” she continued. Her voice was low-pitched and nervous, and there was nothing she could do about it. “Francis disappeared shortly afterward. Kate worked late. When she got home, sometime after six, she found Francis in the guest bathtub with a bullet in his brain.”
    He nodded. “That explains your distaste for the guest bathroom. When did you appear on the scene?”
    “An hour later. I was flying in to stay for a few days to give her moral support during the court hearing.”
    “And instead you’ve been serving as impromptu undertaker. Whose idea was it to hide the body?”
    “I don’t know.” She reached up a hand to push her hair out of her face, and it brushed his gray suit jacket. She pulled her hand back quickly, and her breathing was ragged. “Would you mind moving back a little, Randall? I don’t like being crowded.”
    “In a moment.” He remained where he was, and she considered kicking him. She would have if she weren’t so afraid of touching him. No, that wasn’t it. She wasn’t afraid of anything. She just didn’t want to. “So you shoved him into the refrigerator, and then carted him back to his apartment. How did you know he was murdered there?”
    “I didn’t. It was an educated guess. Randall—”
    “Do you think your sister told you the truth? Do you think she killed him?”
    “Of course not! Kate wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
    “Then why do you think someone dumped him here? Do you think she’s involved?”
    “How do you expect me to answer that, Randall?” Maggie snapped. “She’s my sister, for Christ’s sake!”
    “I want you to answer it honestly, Maggie. I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.” He still hadn’t moved. She found that her hands were shaking in her lap.
    “I don’t think she has anything to do with Francis’s activities or his murder,” she said finally. To her amazement, Randall nodded.
    “But why was he dumped here? Why wasn’t he left where he was murdered?”
    “To frame Kate.”
    “Why?”
    “Because she was there,” Maggie snapped. “Because she happened to have had a very public fight with him a few hours before he was killed, a fight in which she threatened to kill him. It was a situation tailor-made for a setup. Don’t give me that