Page 72 of Evidence of Deceit

“Sam has only mentioned in passing that Claire enjoys working at the shelters and being able to support them financially.”

“I know she gets great pleasure from helping. She likes taking the self-defense lessons there, and I’m glad she’s taking them. Working at the gallery helps too.” It made him happy that Claire was flourishing at the gallery. Her paintings reflected her happiness. Her being happy made him happy.

Mark tapped his fingers on the table. “I hear Hank is going out with one of her co-workers. Hillary something. How’s that going?”

“Humph.” Hillary gave Joe the creeps, but he didn’t want to say anything to either Claire or Hank. They both appeared to be enamored of her. But he thought she was sly, sarcastic, and only out for herself. But then again, he thought that about most people, so who was he to judge? “You’ll have to ask him.”

The doorbell rang. Hank and Pete walked in, arguing about who was going to kick whose butt. A typical conversation for them. Luke, Ben, and Jake were close behind. Mark told them to get something to drink and grab a sandwich before they started playing.

“So, Marlee tells me things are going well with Claire,” said Ben. “Any plans to make it official?”

Joe gave him his death stare, the one he used when he was in the SEALs. “I’m not sharing my love life with you yo-yos. Get your jollies from someone else.” They all laughed.

“Well, then, Hank, you’re in the hot seat. I hear you’re dating Hillary,” Mark said to Hank. “Is she the one for you?” He gave him a wink.

They all guffawed because Hank wasn’t looking to settle down any time soon. He liked the ladies. They had gobbled down the sandwiches, and Hank was shuffling the cards.

“Funny.” Hank gave him the finger. “No, I likeher, rather I like the sex, but she’s not into relationships, which is fine by me.”

Jake chimed in. “She’s the one that works with Claire, isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” replied Hank. “Why?”

“Oh, I’ve just seen her a couple of times in the bar with that shady lawyer.” He frowned. “Kimble. No…” He shook his head. “Kaiser. He comes in occasionally and does business at the bar. Can’t stand the guy.”

“Kaiser?” Hank thought for a moment. “Don’t know him. I wonder why she’s meeting him?”

Pete lightly punched him in the shoulder. “Jealous?”

“As if. We’re just fuck buddies right now.” Hank took a bite of sandwich and a guzzle of beer. “Who she sees is her business. Now enough of my love life. Will you miscreants get down to the business of playing cards? I’m feeling lucky.”

Joe snorted.Lucky, my foot.Hank had a twitch when he had a good hand. The only one not leaving with any money tonight would be Hank.

But he wondered why Hillary would be meeting with this Kaiser dude if she wasn’t up to no good. Maybe tomorrow when he went into the office he would ask Phil Donovan to check him out. One thing for sure, he would be keeping his eye on Hillary.

Chapter Forty

It was early morning at the gallery. Hillary sat at her desk, reminiscing about last night’s sexathon with Hank. He’d played poker with the guys the night before last and had been busy until last night. He’d left earlier for a job in Tampa, and she already missed him. Well, not him per se but the sex. She had always been a sexual animal. Keith had satisfied that part of her. Between her and Claire, he could never get enough sex. But ol’ Keith was dead, and Hank was in her life right now.

However, she knew Hank was looking for someone more permanent, and that wasn’t her. When this job was over, she was quitting this dump and finding something and someone better—someone who could generously provide for her like Keith. However, this time around, she would be a lot smarter about who she accepted.

Clients wouldn’t be coming in until the afternoon. Claire had the day off. It was just her until Roman came in after lunch. Roman. He had been away for a couple of days after attending a two-day symposium in Washington, D.C. Since then, he had been a little squirrelly, hinting he needed tospeak with her. But the gallery had been so busy, they never had time to chat. But he’d been looking at her suspiciously. She was sure it wasn’t to give her a raise, so her guess was he found out that she lied on her application, which wouldn’t do at all. Roman was not going to ruin her plans for Claire.

The phone rang, and she answered it. Another stupid artist was looking for his check. Why couldn’t she have a little peace to figure out what Roman knew or didn’t know?

She snapped her fingers. Yes! She had the key to Roman’s desk. Yet another numbnut who didn’t pay attention. She grabbed the key, locked the front door and walked over to his office. She opened the door. The stupid man never locked it. Not that that would have kept her out, but still, anyone could just waltz in. She glanced around the large room. He had a couple of modern paintings placed around the room that she never liked, several silver modern art sculptures, and over the filing cabinets was one of Claire’s paintings. The one of the ocean with swirls of color—happy colors. Looking at it pissed her off. She couldn’t get rid of Claire, no matter how hard she tried. Hillary suspected Roman had a crush on Claire even though he never acted on it, plus he had a girlfriend who put up with his flirting. Joe would probably kill him and hide his body if he knew how much Roman flirted with Claire

She sat at his desk, gently rubbed the tigerwood finish. She listened for anyone moving around. Nothing out of the ordinary. Took out the key she had copied a few weeks ago thinking it might come in handy and opened a side drawer. She flipped through files of clients, customers, and bills of lading. Nothing of interest to her. She didn’t need a key to the other side. It held information on openings, menus, advertising. Bah.

She opened his computer. Easy peasy if one stood over another’s shoulder and watched them put in the password. The screen opened. She poked around but didn’t see anythingof interest. Turned it off. Maybe he had something on his laptop at home. That would be a problem for another day.

One more drawer to look in. Hillary turned her attention to the middle drawer. Locked. She opened it with her key. Carefully pushed around the pens and pencils, business cards. He certainly didn’t need a locked drawer for that. She reached her hand toward the back. He had shoved some papers back there. She pulled them out. She stared at a picture of her with her real name. How the hell did he get that? She’d been so careful with her fake ID. Behind that was a letter from her former law firm. Not even a flattering one. Then more information about her. The condo that wasn’t in her name, her very intimate relationship with Keith. How did so many people know about that? She thought they were careful. Speculation, probably. It didn’t matter. It was all spelled out in black and white, although there was nothing in there about how Keith had screwed her.

Her hands trembled as she put the papers back. How could this happen? She had been so careful putting together a background for herself. Had Roman hired a detective? He must have, to have her complete history. She reread the report. Her former co-workers had not been flattering of her. No surprise there. The lawyer who replaced Keith had nothing good to say either. Traitors all.

Her heart was pounding in time to the stupid clock Roman had in his office. Sweat poured over her brow, and with trembling hands, she put the report back and locked the drawer. Sat there for a minute, inhaling deep breaths of air. Exhaled.

She pushed back in the chair. No one and she meant no one was going to get in the way of her dealing with Claire. She lost everything once to the bitch. She wasn’t going to lose it again.

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