Mystery Bride Part 16

He glanced over her shoulder as she clicked on an overhead light. The apartment had been ransacked, but since there wasn't much to trash, it wasn't too bad. The place was small and had been spa.r.s.ely furnished. The bare white walls would have given it an abandoned, empty feel even if the rest of the furnishings hadn't been so minimal. Will was struck with the thought that when Lucas left here, he hadn't planned to come back.

He glanced over at Sam and saw that she'd come to the same conclusion. She tossed down a worn couch cushion she'd picked up, then swore as she stepped into the living room.

A desk dominated the room, making the couch and single chair appear out of place. Computer magazines smothered the coffee table along with several dirty coffee cups that had made dark rings on the covers. A large computer sat on the desk, but someone had broken into the back of the computer and destroyed whatever had been inside it.

"I'm going to look upstairs," Samantha said. "I thought we'd pick up some of Zack's things while we are here, if there are any left."

He glanced in the kitchen and bathroom, and then followed her up the stairs to the two bedrooms. All of Lucas's clothing was gone, his bedroom stripped of everything but the bed and bedding.

As Will looked around, he realized what had been bothering him about this place. There weren't any nails in the walls. No dents or screw holes or faded areas where anything had hung. No framed photos or mementos gathering dust anywhere. Even the clutter looked impersonal.

Zack needs a real home, he thought, and jerked back from the idea. Sam would find him one.

He brightened as he stepped into Zack's room. It looked like a kid's s.p.a.ce. The walls were covered with drawings and paintings, all in the hand of a child-a unique child with an active imagination.

"Hey, Zack's quite the artist," he called to Samantha, who was still searching Lucas's bedroom.

He could imagine Zack drawing this stuff. It made him feel a little better about the kid's upbringing. It also reminded him of when he used to draw a lot. It had been years since he'd drawn anything by hand. Everything was on computer now. Funny, he hadn't realized how much he missed the feel of a plain white sheet of paper or the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil.

Zack's room had been ransacked, as well. At least, he thought it had. There were clothes and toys strewn on the floor; the bed sheets were torn from the bed and all the bureau drawers were pulled out.

He noticed then that the toy box, headboard and chest of drawers all matched and looked like relics of another boy's past-no doubt Lucas's. Something about that made Will think that Lucas had cared for the boy. His feelings toward Lucas softened a little.

He went through the drawers, pulled out clothes for Zack and piled them on the bare mattress. After a moment, he sensed Samantha behind him and turned.

She stood, silhouetted against the light coming from Lucas's room. She looked so good framed like that in the doorway. Even tired and discouraged, she looked great. He knew he could be by her side in two strides, lift her into his arms and carry her to the small bed as if she were weightless.

"Did you find anything?" he asked, his voice sounding a little hoa.r.s.e even to his ears.

She shook her head. "Was there something else that Zack might want us to get for him while we're here?"

He dragged his gaze from her to the room. "There are quite a few toys-mostly old, though."

She came into the room, stirring up the molecules of air around him, causing some sort of odd barometric pressure disturbance in the room as she moved to the bed to pick up the clothing he'd stacked there.

It was all he could do not to reach for her. Visions of the two of them making love glided effortlessly into his head. But not here. Not in Lucas's apartment.

When she turned, what he saw in her gaze welded him to the floor.

"Will?"

Her voice was a whisper, ragged and husky. Her eyes were a magnificent blue, as deep and warm as the Caribbean Sea. Taking a dip in them seemed inevitable- The phone rang, jarring him out of his lascivious thoughts. Samantha seemed to start, too. She moaned softly and blinked a couple of times as if coming out of some sort of haze.

He followed her down the stairs to where the phone hung on the wall of the kitchen. She picked up the receiver on the third ring and handed it to him, mouthing, Just say h.e.l.lo. Just say h.e.l.lo.

"h.e.l.lo?"

She moved close to him to listen. A fuzzy silence hummed through the line. He could feel her body heat, smell her scent.

"Who is this?" a female voice demanded.

"Who is this?" Will asked. "You called me."

"It's Mercedes. I'm looking for Lucas."

Wasn't everyone?

"Funny you should call," Samantha said, taking the phone. "I was planning to call you. you."

MERCEDES PALMER LIVED in West Seattle in a condo overlooking Elliott Bay.

She greeted Sam and Will at the door in a G.o.d-awful brilliant red sarong. She was slim and small with a figure that had to have taken a lot of work. Her hair was cut in a pageboy and dyed a red that perfectly matched the sarong.

"I figured I'd be seeing you eventually," Lucas's second ex said resignedly.

"This is Will Sheridan," Sam said, not feeling compelled to say more-and Mercedes didn't ask. She did, however, give Will the once-over. Sam felt a pang of jealousy so strong she wanted to sock Mercedes.

"Come on in," the woman said, not sounding the least bit hospitable. They stepped in, and Sam noticed that Mercedes glanced down the street as if looking for someone. Zack? Lucas?

The condo was painted all white, the only color accent being the sarong worn by its occupant.

Mercedes motioned to a blindingly white pair of chairs by the window before she sprawled dramatically on the couch in movie-star fashion.

"So have you found him?"

"Zack or Lucas?" Sam asked as she took one of the chairs. Will sat in the other.

Mercedes frowned. "Is Zack missing, too?"

"Not anymore," she said. "Do you have any idea where Lucas is?"

"No, why ask me?"

"Because as I understand it, the ink on your divorce isn't even dry," she said.

She got the reaction she'd hoped for.

Mercedes's eyes narrowed. "Ca.s.sie, of course, told you that." She waved a hand through the air as if it didn't matter. "Lucas and I haven't lived together for months."

"Look, I don't care about your living arrangements or your divorce. I want to find Lucas. I know he's in some sort of trouble, because he wouldn't just take off and leave Zack."

The redhead seemed to study her, then Will. Will was looking around the apartment with anything but enthusiasm.

Mercedes let out a sigh and sat up, tucking her legs under her. "Did Ca.s.sie tell you that Lucas was some kind of great father?" She let out a laugh. "Always had his eyes glued to a computer screen. The boy was an absolute tear, but Lucas was too busy to tend to him. You know the kid steals?"

"I've noticed that," she admitted, not liking the picture Mercedes was painting of Lucas or Zack.

"He's incorrigible."

Again, she wondered if Mercedes was talking about Lucas or Zack. "Are you saying Lucas doesn't care about Zack?"

"Oh, I think he loved the kid in his way even under the circ.u.mstances," she said cryptically. "Which you have to admit are odd as h.e.l.l."

She noted how Mercedes used the past tense when she referred to Lucas, as if he were already dead. No doubt he was to her.

"What circ.u.mstances?"

Mercedes gave her a surely-you-of-all-people-should-know look. "Lucas wasn't Zack's real father."

Sam felt the air rush out of her lungs. She gaped at Mercedes, acutely aware that Will was doing the same thing. "What?" she breathed.

Mercedes smiled, feline-like. "Ca.s.sie was pregnant with another man's baby."

The floor seemed to drop out from under Sam. Hadn't she once hoped that the baby Ca.s.sie carried wasn't Lucas's? That Ca.s.sie had tricked Lucas into marrying her? That Ca.s.sie had already been pregnant the night she went to bed with Lucas?

"That b.i.t.c.h," Sam said without even realizing it. "She tricked him."

Mercedes laughed, obviously pleased with the reaction. "Ca.s.sie wasn't above deceiving him into marrying her, but it wasn't like that. She made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Pretend he'd fathered her baby in exchange for everything Lucas wanted. Money, a software business of his own, instant gratification-that was Lucas."

Sam stared at the woman openmouthed. No. No. Mercedes was just bitter. She was making this all up. "There is no way Lucas-" Mercedes was just bitter. She was making this all up. "There is no way Lucas-"

"Zack got hurt a few months ago and had to have blood," Mercedes said impatiently. "He has a rare blood type. Lucas called Ca.s.sie, desperate because he couldn't give the boy blood because he wasn't related to him. Ca.s.sie didn't have the right type, either-"

Sam felt as if her heart might leap out of her chest. "Who did?"

"That's the question, isn't it? Who is the real father of Ca.s.sie's son?"

"You don't know?" Sam asked.

Mercedes flipped her red hair back. "A blood donor turned up, so the father was never brought in. But I can tell you one thing-whoever he was, Ca.s.sie really was in love with him."

Sam found that hard to believe. "Right."

"Seriously, I think it's why she gave up Zack the way she did. The kid reminded her of the guy. I know for a fact that she'd have married him in a heartbeat, but she found out he'd fallen head over heels for some gal. I don't think she ever told him about the baby."

That didn't sound like Ca.s.sie. Sam tried to remember who her roommate had been dating back then, but there'd been too many guys. None had lasted long. Then a memory struck her of Ca.s.sie flirting with Lucas's friend- "You don't think it could be Bradley Guess?"

"Formerly known as Arnold Zingler, Buzz and nerd extraordinaire?" Mercedes shook her head. "Too geeky for her."

"Surely Lucas knew who the father was."

Mercedes smiled-pure Cheshire cat-and shook her head. "It was part of the deal. Not that Lucas wanted wanted to know." to know."

Was it possible that Lucas had really made such a deal with Ca.s.sie? Was he that desperate for money, a computer business of his own? "Why, if Zack wasn't even Lucas's, would he agree to keep the boy when Ca.s.sie left?"

"Keeping Zack was also part of the deal. Ca.s.sie wanted that part of her life behind her. Whoever Zack's father is, he broke her heart big-time."

Sam didn't like the satisfaction she heard in Mercedes's voice. She'd often wondered what kind of father Lucas was. Not the kind she'd thought, that much was obvious. She felt sick. How was it possible to be in love with a man and not even know him?

Because she'd made him up, just as Will had made her up based on a woman he saw at a party. She glanced at Will. Talk about a pair of fools!

"How do you know this?" she asked shakily, wondering if she was the only one they'd kept in the dark, the only one they'd betrayed.

"I didn't find out until after I married the jerk. Just like I didn't know about his gambling problem or what that kid was like."

"Gambling?"

Mercedes smiled as if to say, What kind of detective are you, anyway? What kind of detective are you, anyway? "Surely you know about his online trading?" "Surely you know about his online trading?"

"I'd heard he might have been in a little over his head."

Mercedes snorted. "When people come to your door to break your legs, you're in a little more than over your head."

"Did someone come to break his legs?" she asked, trying to keep the shock out of her voice.

Mercedes waved a hand through the air again as if big burly men were always knocking at the door wanting to hurt Lucas over his debts.

"Is that why you divorced him?"

"One of many reasons," the faux redhead said, not bothering to hide her bitterness. "Lucas kept expecting me to bail him out. Funny how he only married women with money, don't you think?"

The words stung. Sam's family wasn't rich, but they weren't poor, either. Obviously she hadn't had enough to offer Lucas.

"I cut my losses and got the h.e.l.l out," Mercedes was saying. "Are you happy now that you know the whole ugly story?"

Not really. But But did did she know the whole story? Ca.s.sie had said Zack was the problem between Mercedes and Lucas, and that it had been Mercedes who wanted more money in the divorce settlement. But it seemed Mercedes had her own money. Or a boyfriend with money. she know the whole story? Ca.s.sie had said Zack was the problem between Mercedes and Lucas, and that it had been Mercedes who wanted more money in the divorce settlement. But it seemed Mercedes had her own money. Or a boyfriend with money.

Sam glanced around. The condo was certainly posh and had a view of the water. And Mercedes didn't look as if she were headed for the poorhouse. That dye job alone must have set her back a good hundred and fifty.

"Then you think Lucas is on the lam because of his debts?" she asked.

Mercedes shrugged as if she couldn't care less. "I wouldn't be surprised if he turned up in the Sound wearing concrete slippers."

Sam shivered, feeling as cold as the frigid decor. That was the second time today someone had suggested that scenario. But Mercedes's lack of interest in Lucas's fate chilled her more. Worse yet was the woman's lack of interest in Zack. She hadn't even asked about the boy.

Sam glanced over at Will. He looked a little cold himself. Then a thought struck her. "Why did you call Lucas's apartment today if you knew he was missing?"

"Because of the d.a.m.n package I just got in the mail," Mercedes snapped, and got up to retrieve a small square white box from the top of the desk in the corner. "He's not involving me in any of his deals. Not again. I don't want anything to do with whatever he's up to this time."

She practically threw the box at Sam, and then dusted off her hands as if she felt dirty just touching it. She went back to her original position on the couch. "It's all yours," she said. "After all, you're the detective, right? So find Lucas and tell him to go straight to h.e.l.l. And if you should see Ca.s.sie-Never mind. I'd rather tell her myself."

That was succinct enough.

Sam folded back the flaps on the box, not surprised to see a computer CD game box inside, the name Catastrophe painted across the black cover in what looked like blood.