Party Crashers

to the airport to go on her retreat. He took her to the river to tell her what her husband was planning to do and taped the conversation so she could have a copy for protection. But LeMon had followed them to make sure Gary did it, and when he saw he'd been double-crossed, LeMon shot his wife himself. Took a shot at Gary, too, but it only grazed him. He dove into the water and floated downstream until he thought it was safe to get out, then hiked to my place and took off in my car."
    A mistake, he'd said on the tape, because by doing so, he'd gotten her involved. He'd wept, apologizing. That had been the hardest part to listen to. He'd been surprised when Jolie had filed a missing persons report, surprised that she'd cared enough. He hadn't wanted to expose her to his shady friends, hadn't wanted to put her in danger. But when she'd filed that report, she had implicated herself irrevocably. That had tortured him, he'd said.
    "He stayed hidden because he wanted LeMon to think he was dead?" Carlotta asked.
    "Right."
    "So how did Gary get involved with them in the first place?"
    "On the tape, he said he met LeMon and started doing little things for him—getting game tickets, that kind of thing. LeMon gave him a lot of referrals, introduced him to Kyle Coffee, Russell Island, and their other pal, Gordon Beaure. After a while, he was working for them almost exclusively. He rented the condo on West Peachtree for their leisure, then handled the sale when they decided to buy the property. He arranged for hookers, bought drugs for them—he even bought a gun for LeMon and taught him how to shoot it."
    She swallowed, remembering the desperation in Gary's voice on the tape. " I've done some bad things in my life and I've done business with some bad people, but Roger LeMon is a cold-blooded killer, as cold as they come ."
    "Who is Gordon Beaure?"
    "He owns a liquor distribution company. He wasn't around as much, but Salyers said he had just taken out a multimillion-dollar life insurance policy on his wife."
    Carlotta shuddered. "Creepy."
    "Yeah," Hannah said. "I wanted Russell to leave his wife; I had no idea he was planning to kill her."
    "Or to have her killed, more likely," Jolie said. "Gary said they were all planning accidents. In fact, the police are looking into the possibility that Kyle Coffee might have been killed in the 'accident' that had been previously arranged for his wife. Apparently, he was having second thoughts."
    "LeMon will probably get the needle for killing his wife and Gary," Carlotta said.
    Jolie pursed her mouth. "And possibly Coffee. Plus he hired the guy who tried to run me off the road. And Gary's tape probably seals LeMon's fate for shooting his wife, but there's still no physical evidence linking him directly to Gary's murder."
    "But the creep is going to be charged with attempted murder too, right, for what he did to you at your apartment?"
    She nodded solemnly. She could still feel his fingers pressed against her mouth, could still hear his voice in her mind. Time to die . The man's ruthlessness was stunning, even more so considering the fact that he moved comfortably in such polite circles.
    "Beck saved your life," Carlotta said pointedly.
    Jolie nodded and stared at her hands. Beck.
    "So what's going on with you two?"
    Twice they'd met to talk, and twice they'd wound up making love instead. Jolie adopted an innocent expression. "Nothing."
    "Liar."
    She flushed. "I am supposed to meet him in a few minutes to show him a house before my afternoon shift, but that's the extent of our relationship—strictly professional."
    The fact that he'd had his secretary call that morning to arrange the appointment seemed like a clear indication that he was trying to create distance between them. She knew she should just be grateful for the commission she would earn, but now that she had her life back, her imagination appeared to be running full-throttle with possibilities: a successful business, lively friendships, a love for all time....
    The girls were staring at her, and for a moment she was afraid she'd said that out loud. "I need to run," she chirped, springing up from her chair. She left cash for her meal and waved, thinking she shouldn't have eaten anything on her nervous stomach. One thing that lifted her spirits was the sight of her Mercury sitting at the curb—Detective Salyers had pulled a few strings. It was nice to have a piece of her old life back, although admittedly, she didn't want all of