But Susan had no intention of stopping. Had it not been for Matt’s timely appearance at the end of the alley, she’d have escaped. As it was, when she saw him, she whirled around, saw Lauren, whirled again and made for the nearest doorway. Matt reached her before she made it.
Capturing her bodily, he swung her up and wrestled her back until he’d pinned her to the nearest brick wall. “I amnotgoing to hurt you, Susan,” he gritted out between breaths, “but neither … neither am I going to let you get away. Not … after all we’ve been through to find you, not after all Lauren’s been throughbecauseof you.”
Lauren came to a breathless halt just as Susan sagged lower against the wall. Matt simply shifted his grip, veeing his hands under her arms and propping her right back up. She’d tricked him once. Lauren agreed with his caution.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Susan gasped. Her composure had vanished. There was near panic in the eyes that skipped from Matt’s face to Lauren’s and back. “I’d been with Ted for two years before I discovered who he really was. I wanted to leave him then, but he wouldn’t hear of it. For a year, a whole year, I tried, but he threatened awful things and I kept giving in until I hated myself nearly as much as I hated him. I was desperate … so desperate that I tried to kill myself.”
“A suicide attempt?” Matt drawled. “We knew about the accident, but that’s a new twist to the story.”
“Why else would I drive over a cliff? You thought I wasn’t in the car when it went over the edge? I was.I was.But I was thrown free when the car began to roll.” Trembling, she shoved the hair from her forehead. Just below her hairline was a three-inch scar. “I broke an arm and several ribs, but I could breathe and think and feel, and it was then that I realized I’d been given a second chance. So I let them think that I’d died, and I ran. Don’t ask me what hospital I went to—it was in some godforsaken town in northern Arizona.”
“How did you get there?”
“I hitchhiked.”
“Talk of ludicrous stories!”
“It’s the truth. At the time, nothing was more dangerous than staying where I was.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police? If Prinz threatened you—”
“Tedownsthe police, or half of them, and what he doesn’t own he has connections to. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen him buy his way out of serious investigations. That was what tipped me off in the first place!”
Lauren entered the conversation at that point. She was beginning to feel sorry for Susan. While she understood Matt’s anger, she wanted to put the other woman at ease. They still needed her cooperation. “Okay,” she said gently. “You felt you couldn’t go to the police. Where did you go? What did you use for money? The two men who kidnapped me mentioned furs and jewels.”
“I had both. Ted had given them to me. As far as I was concerned, I’d earned them.”
“But how did you get them? You’d have to have gone back to Los Angeles.”
“A friend did it.” Susan’s voice softened. “He was a little old man who used to sell flowers on a street corner not far from the boutique. I liked him. He reminded me of my father—or what my father would have been like if he’d lived beyond forty,” she added in a whisper. “Sam was kind and gentle. I knew he’d do anything for me.” She averted her gaze. “Maybe it was wrong of me, or arrogant. I knew Sam was dying. He’d told me that he’d been given six months to live. I figured that he wouldn’t mind the risk, that he’d take pleasure in helping me out.” Her eyes met Lauren’s. “And he did. He told me so in a note he stuck inside the pocket of one of the coats.”
“An old man, breaking into your apartment and stealing your things?” Matt was clearly skeptical.
“He didn’t steal them,” Susan shot back. “He simply returned to me what was mine. As for breaking into my apartment—he had friends who would have done anything for him, just as I would have.”
“But you never got the chance,” Matt concluded sarcastically, only to be instantly corrected.
“I did. After I sold the very first ring, I sent him a large chunk of the money. I know he received it, because I called him to make sure.” Susan took a ragged breath. “Whether he lived long enough to enjoy it, I’ll never know. I’ve tried to call him again, but there’s been no answer. He may be using the money to travel, or he may be … well, I’ll never know.”
Matt stared at her. “Prinz’s men may have had him killed.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Susan cried. “I’veseenTed in action—”
“Isn’t it about time you did something about it?”
The air between the two sizzled. Lauren set about diffusing it. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Did you come directly to Washington from Arizona?”
Susan was leaning against the brick on her own now, Matt having released her and stepped back. She took several calming breaths. “I made a few stops. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to settle. But each time I stopped, I felt I was still too close to Ted, so I kept going. When I reached Washington, it was either stay or swim. So I stayed.”
“What about your nose?” Lauren frowned as she leaned to the side for a profile view. “We assumed you’d have plastic surgery to change your looks. Prinz’s men assumed the same, which was how they got onto me.”
“I figured they’d think that, so I avoided it.” Susan gave a self-conscious half shrug. “My nose had been broken in the accident, and I didn’t trust the doctors in that hospital to do more than tape it up. When the bandages came off, I saw the bump. It was subtle enough to change my profile just that little bit. I told myself it’d give my face character.” She snorted. “Obviously it didn’t fool you.”
“We started with an advantage.” It was Matt speaking, more gently now. “We had your name and knew where to find you. Even before you walked into that reception area, we were primed to see Susan Miles.”
With an air of helplessness, Susan raised her eyes to the sliver of sky above. “Well, you saw her. And you have her cornered. I suppose I knew that someday someone would find me. In some ways, it’s a relief that it’s you.”
“Then you do trust us?” he asked.
