“I cut it short. Something came up. And what brings you here, my dear?” he asked Stephanie, giving her a kiss.
“I needed a breath of fresh air. All the cleaning going on at our house, you know. Will you be coming to my party tonight, Father?”
“Heavens, no. That’s for you young people. I’ll be spending the evening at my club.”
“Well, I really should get back and see how things are going,” Stephanie said, reluctant to leave.
“If you hurry, my carriage should still be out front. It can take you home, Stephanie.”
Sharisse groaned. “You’re as bad as she is, Father. Her house isn’t a block away. She needs the exercise.”
“Nonsense, Rissy,” Stephanie said cheerily as she hoisted herself up to go. “It never hurts to be careful.”
When they were alone again, Sharisse chided her father, “You shouldn’t encourage her.”
“I know. But right now she reminds me so of your mother. You certainly didn’t. All the way to the end you acted as if nothing special was happening.”
“I was fortunate. Someone once showed me…oh, never mind. What interrupted your lunch?”
“This was delivered to the restaurant.” He dropped a folder on the table. “I’ve been waiting for it for two days. It’s a report on your husband.”
“You didn’t!”
“Of course I did. He’s staying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and has been for a little over a month.”
“That long? But that’s a luxury hotel. Where is he getting the money? I wonder if he sold his ranch?”
“Oh, his ranch was sold all right, but not by him. It was sold last year by a Billy Wolf. Lucas Holt had left the area long before the sale.”
Sharisse stared at her father wide-eyed. “How on earth do you know all that?”
“I sent someone out there last year. It was only reasonable that I should have him investigated.”
“You knew these things all this time and you never told me?”
“There was no point in mentioning it, and I didn’t want to upset you. Besides, once Holt disappeared without a trace, I was forced to call off the search.”
“Disappeared?”
“An old timer who had worked for him said he left his ranch the same day you did,” Marcus replied. “No one saw him after that.”
She thought about that for a while. “Do you think he tried to follow me?”
“No. He could easily have caught up with you.”
“Of course.” She couldn’t quite keep the disappointment out of her voice. “Why should he try, anyway?”
Marcus gazed at her thoughtfully. “There were reports that he was responsible for ruining the founder of Newcomb. If that’s so, then maybe hehadto leave. Newcomb is destitute. Do you know anything about that?”
“Samuel Newcomb? But they’re friends…or something. No, I can’t believe Lucas would do such a thing. Not Lucas.”
He cleared his throat. “Well, as I said, they were only reports.”
“What else did you find out?”
“Mr. Wolf—my man tracked him down—suggested your husband was on his way to Europe.”
“Europe! But he had no money.”
