Temptations - The Complete Series Page 31

  No, Charlotte wanted something more.

  So she framed me for murder. And there wasn’t a damned thing that I could do about it.

  Chapter 11

  Serena – Present Day

  After I got off the phone with Slade, I was absolutely frantic. He said that he was close to the police station in Los Angeles and that I wasn’t going to be able to stop him from confessing. I was totally confused about why he was confessing and what that had to do with his mother’s misdiagnosis. The puzzle pieces were jumbled up and I couldn’t make sense of them at all.

  Nevertheless, my instincts kicked in and I called Detective Hanson.

  Thank god, he picked up on the third ring. “Detective Hanson,” he said, answering the phone.

  “Detective Hanson, this is Serena Roberts. I just saw you about Slade Bridgewell.”

  “Yes. Hello.”

  “Hello. Listen, Mr. Bridgewell is on his way to see you. I understand that he might be telling you things about the Jordan Harris case, but I want you to know that I don’t want you to talk to him until his attorney can be there. I hope that this is perfectly clear.”

  “I understand but he was going to waive his right to counsel. I have a waiver prepared for him.”

  Think Serena, think. I knew the law in this area backwards and forwards, so there was just some case law that I was going to have to pull out of my ass before I could convince this man not to talk to Slade when he comes in.

  “He can’t waive his right to counsel when he already has counsel on retainer. One of us has to be present when he gives his confession and that person is going to be me. I’ll be there in about two hours. I know that he’ll be there sooner than that but I need for you to tell him that you won’t talk to him until I’m there.”

  I took a deep breath, not really knowing if what I was saying was correct. The nuances of the “right to counsel” were deep and esoteric, and I was going to have to pull up case law to find out if what I was saying was correct. Yes, a person in custody has the right to waive his right to counsel, but if that person is already being actively represented by counsel? I would think that this would be a different story.

  I would think that would be the case. But I didn’t really know for sure, and I didn’t have time to pull up case law to find out. I just hoped that Detective Hanson believed me when I told him this.

  “Okay,” Detective Hanson finally said. I could tell that he was disappointed, and well he should be. He was about to reel in the huge fish and I was clearly thwarting it. “I’ll detain him when he gets here, but I won’t talk to him about the case until you’re here as well.”

  “Good.” I let out a sigh of relief. I then turned to Margot. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, a real pleasure. Unfortunately, I have to run. Um, hopefully we’ll have dinner or something when this is all over?”

  “Yes, I would like that.” She came over to me and gave me a tentative hug. “You’re just as pretty as how Slade describes you. I think that he’s found a keeper.”

  I smiled. She was a sweet woman and I found myself grateful that she wasn’t dying after all. Slade had to have been ecstatic to find that out – I knew how much he cared for his mom.

  Now, I just had to find out what the hell was going on. And I needed to find that out quickly.

  I broke the speed barrier getting up to LA. I didn’t take the leisurely route of the PCH – I took the highway the whole way. I even had a “secret weapon” that I only brought out when things were desperate – a blow-up doll to put in my passenger seat. I needed to be able to drive in the carpool lane as much as I possibly could because that lane wasn’t usually crowded. I hated doing that because I knew how important the carpool lane was to the state of California – it was used as a carrot to encourage people to save on gasoline by pooling with their buddies to work, and I was simply abusing the privilege. Nonetheless, desperate times called for desperate measures and this would certainly qualify as a “desperate time.”

  I got stuck in traffic quagmires along the way and I usually was able to get around them by getting into the carpool lane. There were a few times, however, that I got stuck and I was really and truly stuck. When that happened, I would take the shoulder and get off at the nearest exit, and then immediately got right back on the highway. I had to do this several different times, and this little cheat shaved another good half hour off of my drive up to Los Angeles.

  All I could think of, the entire time I was behind that wheel was Slade. Was the detective really going to hold him there, or did he get some legal advice that said that Slade didn’t need his attorney there? I knew one thing – if there was a way for this detective to take Slade’s “confession” without counsel being there, he would have. That would be the biggest fish that could possibly be landed. Ever.

  I finally got close to the police station, only to find out that the media had evidently been tipped off on what was happening. There were throngs of reporters on the police headquarters steps, and, I as I stepped next to a man with a microphone, I could hear what he was telling his television audience. “We’re outside of the Los Angeles police department where the reports are that Slade Bridgewell will be offering a confession to the murder of his business partner, Jordan Harris. Mr. Bridgewell is inside the police headquarters right now speaking with the detective on this case. We will bring you the entire story when Mr. Bridgewell emerges.”

  I bent my head, hoping that nobody would notice me. Unfortunately, somebody did. “Ms. Roberts,” an eager blonde woman reporter said, thrusting a microphone in my face. “You’re the attorney for Mr. Bridgewell. Do you care to comment on the story? I understand that Mr. Bridgewell is set to confess to the murder of Mr. Harris.”

  I shook my head. “No comment.” I shoved other reporters aside as they all, one by one, tried to put a microphone in my face. They didn’t touch me, of course, because I would have hauled off and hit anyone who put a hand on me. And then I would have marched into the police station to report whoever had the gall to touch me.

  I was in no mood for any bullshit.

  I finally got up the steps and entered the station. I gave my name to the receptionist, telling her that I needed to see the detective right away. “My client is back there, so I have to make sure that I get there before anything happens.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the woman said, and she called on the phone. “Go on back. He said that you know where his office is,” she told me as she hung up the phone.

  “Thanks,” I told her, as I went back to Detective Hanson’s office.

  I got there, and I saw that Slade was sitting in a chair. He saw me, and the look in his eyes…I shuddered. He was angry, very angry, and there was no hiding it. I knew that there was going to be hell to pay for this, but, no matter. If I stopped him from telling the detective anything, then his anger will have been worth it.

  “Detective Hanson,” I said, extending my hand to him. He shook it. “Thanks for waiting for me.” I looked over at Slade, who wasn’t meeting my eyes. “And you did wait for me, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” he said, and I breathed a sigh of absolute relief. “I told you I would. Now, I suppose you would like a chance to have a word with your client, so if you would like to have some privacy, I can direct you to a room.”

  “This room doesn’t have a two-way mirror, does it?”

  “No. This room will be completely private.”

  “Okay.”

  At that, the detective led Slade and me to a small room with nothing in it but a table and four chairs. I took a seat and Slade sat across from me. The detective left the room, and Slade and I just sat there in silence staring at one another.

  He narrowed his eyes. “You shouldn’t have come.”

  “I know. But I did. I had to stop you.”

  “You can’t stop me. I understand why you’re here, but you don’t really understand why I’m here. And you don’t understand because I can’t really tell you.”

  I drew a breath. “Ple
ase stop. Stop with the games, stop with the cryptic hints. Just tell me, straight and narrow, why you want to confess to a murder that you clearly didn’t do.”

  “I can’t. If I told you why, then you would have something on me. The fewer people who know what I did, the better. So, that means that only I, my mother, and Charlotte know. And that’s how it’s going to stay.”

  I felt like strangling him when he was talking to me like that. What the hell was he talking about? “I don’t understand.”

  “I know that you don’t understand. I do. But, believe me, I know what I’m doing, and I have to do it. I have to, and you can’t stop me. You made a trip all the way up here for nothing, really. You’ve accomplished nothing.”

  I felt hot tears coming to my eyes. “No. I refuse to accept that you’re going to do this. Not when I know…” I stopped short. Was I ready to tell him what I knew about Jordan’s murder? That Malcolm did it? I just had to find out a way to prove that Malcolm did it.

  “Not when you know what?”

  I took a deep breath. “I know who did it.”

  Then I looked at his face, and I knew.

  There was no mistaking his expression.

  Slade knew who did it too.

  Chapter 12

  Slade – Approximately Two Weeks Earlier

  I was in the hospital with my mother. I had to be by her side while she went through the battery of tests. It was important that I was there to try to help her battle this cancer the best that she could. My phone was turned off because I didn’t want to be distracted by the press, which was constantly calling me, or by Serena. I was upset with her, because she was always going against my wishes, and she had no idea who she was messing with. No clue. She was going to end up dead, and I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.

  I finally brought myself to turn my phone on, and I decided to track Serena. I hated that I was so obsessed with what she was doing and where she was going, but I couldn’t help it. I knew that it was only a matter of time before Charlotte got to her, and that was why I felt that I always had to know where she was.

  To my dismay, her phone showed that she was in Los Angeles and that she had been there for the past three days. I shook my head, feeling upset with myself for not being more diligent with Serena’s whereabouts. “Mom, I have to go,” I told her.

  She looked hurt, but I knew that I had to get going. Now. Serena had been in Los Angeles for three days. God knew what was going to happen. God knew what had already happened. “Okay, Slade. But I’m supposed to get the new test results back any moment. I’m very scared. I hope that the original diagnosis was wrong, but what if it’s not?”

  I put my arm around her. “Mom, I know what you’re going through. But there’s somebody that I care for very much, and she’s in trouble. I have to go to her and make sure she’s okay. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it might not be for a few days.”

  We said our goodbyes and I hopped in my car. I drove like a bat out of hell to Charlotte’s house.

  I got to her house and I walked right in. “Charlotte,” I said to her. “Serena’s here. I need to see her. I need to get her out.” I dispensed with the niceties, of course, because I just wanted to get to what I wanted. I had to negotiate for Serena’s release, of course, and I didn’t know exactly what Charlotte was going to extract from me.

  “She is here. Yes, she is. She’s resting comfortably.”

  “Okay then, I want to see her. I want to see her this very second.”

  “You can’t.” She raised an eyebrow and her goons moved closer to me. I had come to her house packing, of course, but even I was going to have problems getting what I wanted from Charlotte. This wasn’t the movies where the hero kicks ass in all kinds of unrealistic ways. The reality of this situation was that I was one man and there were three goons in the room, all of whom were at least 6’4” and 225 lbs of muscle. Those were the stats for the smallest guy in this room. They were all packing too. If I was a crazy person, I would have tried to take the three goons on. But, I wasn’t a crazy person, so I was going to try to negotiate my way out of this problem.

  “Okay, what do you want?”

  Charlotte crossed her arms. “As I see it, I finally have the upper hand with you. Maybe I have your attention? I hope so, for your sake.”

  “You certainly do have my attention.” I tried not to lunge at her. She was holding Serena hostage and who knew what kind of shape Serena was going to be in once I finally got to her? Who knows if she would even be alive? I was going to have to find Charlotte’s sweet spot, what would finally get her to set Serena free, and I had to find it soon.

  Charlotte crossed her arms. “Okay, here is how I see things right now. Your mother is dying, so you’re now willing to go to the authorities about Hugh. Is that right?”

  “Yes. And, when I do, that takes your bargaining chip off of the table. All I would have to do would be give my copy of the videotape of the murder to the right person, and you and Malcolm will be going away for a long, long time.”

  Charlotte just smiled. “Well, then, I think that you know what I want. If you give it to me, then you’ll get Serena out of that hole. If you don’t, well, then, let me just tell you that she’s been in the hole without food or water for almost three days. I don’t think that she’ll last much longer.”

  I took a deep breath. There wasn’t much time to think, let alone make a decision such as this one. What I did know was that Serena was going to be safe. No matter what, that was the first thing on my mind. “So, if I agree to take the fall for Jordan’s murder, you’ll let Serena out? And you’ll never bother her again?”

  “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. If you agree to confess to killing Jordan, and plead guilty to his murder, then I’ll not only let Serena go free, you have my word that I won’t touch a hair on her head. If you don’t agree to do that, then I won’t let her free, and she’ll die in that hole. If you agree to that, and don’t hold up your end of the bargain, then Serena will continue to be in danger.” She smiled at me, an evil smile. “It’s entirely your choice.”

  I hung my head. Charlotte was leaving me no choice, really. She said that I had a choice, but that was wrong. If I wanted to have Serena as a girlfriend, then I had to do this. I would be leaving her behind when I went to prison, and I doubted that she would stick with me. But that was okay – as long as she was safe, and she continued to be safe, my sacrifice would be worth it.

  “Okay, I agree. Now, please, let me get her and take her home.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think that you would have ever done something like this for me.”

  I didn’t want to antagonize her, which I knew I would do if I would have agreed with her when she said that, so I bit my lip and said nothing. She was absolutely right, though – I never would have even thought about doing something like that to protect her. Never in a million years. Serena was special, and I was willing to do just about anything to ensure her safety.

  “Okay, then, go and get her. Get her out of the hole, and I expect you to be pleading guilty to Jordan’s murder within the month. If you don’t, then I’ll go to Plan B. You might bring me down, Slade, by giving that videotape to the right hands, but I’ll bring you down as well. And Serena, too. You’re not in a position to bargain, so don’t even try.”

  At that, I followed one of the goons to a room. He opened the door, and there was Serena. Her skin was cold and clammy, and she was shaking all over. She looked at me, but it was as if she wasn’t seeing me. I knew that I had gotten to her just in time.

  She was safe. Now, I had to do what I had to do. I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison, but at least she was safe.

  That was really all that mattered.

  Chapter 13

  Serena - Present Day

  “Goddammit. You know. You know who did it, and you’ve known all along. Am I right? Am I?”

  “Serena. You don’t understand.”

  “You’re damned ri
ght I don’t understand. Help me to understand, Slade. Why?” I was furious. “Why would you do this?”

  He just shook his head. “It goes back to something that happened a long time ago. And now I have to take my lumps to protect my mother - and to protect you. Just know that this is the reason why I’m doing this. It’s the only reason why. If I don’t, then both you and my mom will be vulnerable, and quite frankly, I can’t let that happen.”

  I rapidly shook my head feeling that I was going down the looking-glass. “What does this have to do with my safety or the safety of Margot?”

  “If I told you, then you both would be in danger. Just leave it at that and let me do what I’m going to do. You really have no choice, Serena. You can go in with me to talk to the Detective, but I’m going to tell him what I need to tell him. Whether or not you’re in the room is up to you, but it’s not going to change the course of events.”

  I pounded my hand on the table in frustration. “Slade, I know that…”

  “Shhhh. You’re going to tell me that somebody that you know, somebody that you know well, did it. I can see it in your eyes that you know. I’ve seen that look in your eyes for awhile now. That’s great that you know. I’m glad that you know. But life isn’t always fair, and he won’t get his comeuppance. I’m taking it for him.”

  I pointed at him. “This isn’t over. Even if you confess, I’ll get it thrown out. I’ll get it thrown out, and I’ll discredit it on the stand. Once I figure out exactly why you’re doing this, I’ll be able to discredit this whole interrogation.”

  Slade shook his head. “You don’t get it, do you? Do you? Let me break it down for you – there isn’t going to be a trial. I’m going to plead guilty. You know as well as I do that there will be no coming back from that. Once I plead guilty, the deed is done. You can’t appeal. There will be nothing that you can do to stop me from going to prison. Nothing. So, just quit. Today I talk to the Detective and early this week, I’ll be in court giving the judge my plea bargain.”