The man nodded. “In the meantime, you need to destroy the evidence.”
“I will,” JD said. “What’s going on with Lydia’s new driver?”
“I’m watching her.”
“Any issues?”
Kline shook his head. “She’s doing everything as I’d expect.”
“Good. Let’s see what Lydia thinks of her.”
“She shouldn’t be the final judge,” Kline said. “If I suspect something with Ms. Gunning, she’s gone.”
“But you don’t.”
“Not so far.”
JD stared at him, then changed the subject. “Why don’t you go get some rest. I’m sure tomorrow will be a long day.”
“Aren’t they all?”
Kline headed for the door, letting himself out. After it clicked shut, JD sat and smoked for a long time, and then he put the cigar on a crystal ashtray and went to his desk. He sat down heavily, then unlocked a drawer and pulled out a USB drive.
He drew in a breath as he inserted the drive into his computer and opened the contents, then began looking at photos and notes that Trent Fontenot had gathered. As he did so, he thought about what Kline had said. Keeping the USB drive was like looking at a trophy from his crimes, and he did get a certain thrill out of it. However, as usual, Kline was right. JD needed to get rid of this evidence.
After looking at notes for a few minutes longer, he ejected the USB drive and put it back in the drawer, which he locked. Then he sat back, staring into space. He’d get rid of the evidence.
But not yet.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Lydia stood at the end of the hallway, hearing her husband and Kline arguing. Their voices were raised, easily carrying to her. Was something going on at JD’s work that had him so frustrated?
Then she heard something about an NDA agreement. What for? Wait, what else had he said? Something about a woman. Lydia’s eyes widened. The NDA agreement was with a woman?
She kept listening, now about how the woman wouldn’t talk. Lydia put a hand to her mouth and choked back a sob. JD wasn’t talking about his work. This was something else, her worst nightmare realized, all her denials coming to the forefront.
Her husband and Kline kept arguing, now about a drive. Or a driver? Her mind was a jumble, trying to understand what they were discussing. Did Kline mean Jo? She hoped he wasn’t trying to talk JD into letting her driver go already. In the little time she’d spent with Jo, the woman seemed like a person she might be able to trust—maybe the only one she could trust. No one else around her had been kind lately. Even JD had been cool and distant.
Their voices broke through her thoughts again—something about evidence. What evidence?
Lydia narrowed her eyes. JD was covering up something, obviously. She could ask him about it, but then she snorted. He’d never tell her anything. It was always “Things are fine. Don’t worry about it, love.”
As if him saying that could work now.
Kline swore and said to shut the door. Lydia darted around a corner and tiptoed toward the kitchen, her heart beating a furious staccato. If JD had seen her, he would come after her. She took in deep breaths, waiting. But he didn’t come.
She quietly took a glass from a cupboard and got water from the refrigerator dispenser. Taking a drink, she swallowed, then moments later spit it up, her stomach sour. Lydia set the glass down and gripped the edge of the sink, feeling lightheaded. It felt as if a bulldozer had knocked her senseless.
She’d been right to suspect JD. He’d been seeing other women. Lydia looked at her reflection in the kitchen window, not liking who stared back at her. She’d turned a blind eye to his behavior, but she couldn’t deny it anymore.
But what had he really done? There had been rumors, of course, things that she’d dismissed. Even tonight, at the banquet, she’d had to fend off the gossip. That was what the new driver had seen. Mackenzie Potts had hinted that JD had his eyes on someone. Lydia wouldn’t have expected anything else from Mackenzie. The woman delighted in rumors, and specifically in taking others down. Lydia thought she’d handled it well. She’d told Mackenzie that she was wrong, but the encounter had gotten under her skin. When Mackenzie had continued to heckle her, she’d excused herself to go to the bathroom. With Jo’s encouragement, she returned and let Mackenzie know that everything was fine with JD before she left.
Except that it wasn’t.
Now she would look like a fool in front of Mackenzie and others—if she wasn’t already being mocked behind her back. They’d probably been laughing at her for years, as she continued to make excuses for JD. Lydia’s eyes narrowed. She had lived a long time in a lie, not wanting to deal with the reality of her marriage, of who her husband was. She had her own excuses for that. Someday, she would look at her choices more closely, examine why she had allowed her husband to run around behind her back. Regardless, she wasn’t going to put up with it anymore.
Lydia drew in a deep breath, smelling the roses in a vase on the island counter. The scent did nothing for her. She thought about storming back into the office to confront JD, but she stopped herself for a couple of reasons. One, she wasn’t going to air her dirty laundry in front of Kline. He probably knew too much as it was, and he got paid to smooth things over. And two, JD would lie to her, as he seemed to have done all this time. She shook her head. No, before she did anything rash, she would gather evidence. She was not going to give JD any kind of an out. She would know for sure what he’d done before she talked to him.
And if he was doing what she suspected, she would take him down.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
When Jo reached her apartment complex, the parking lot was full, and she found a space several down from her building. It was almost ten o’clock, and although there were lights on in numerous apartment windows, she didn’t see anyone out and about. However, as she walked to her building, she noticed a dark sedan backed into a parking place thirty yards from her building.
Was someone in the driver’s seat?
Moonlight lit her way as Jo walked to her door and let herself inside. She flicked on a light and looked around. The room appeared just as she’d left it.
She took in a deep breath. Was there something in the air, an odor that hadn’t been there before? She went to the living room window and closed the blinds, then tuned the TV to a news station, turning up the volume. With that cover in place, she began a check of the apartment.
The kitchen and living areas seemed the same. However, when she went into the bedroom, she noticed something off. The one listening device remained behind the headboard of her bed, but when she checked the drawers, she saw that her clothes had been moved. Slightly, but enough that she noticed.
Jo smiled. As she’d suspected, Kline had searched the apartment while she’d been gone. She finished with the bathroom and didn’t find anything else out of place. Then she returned to the bedroom, changed into running clothes, and spent a few minutes stretching. After that, she shut off the bedroom light and stood by the window. She carefully parted the blinds and peeked out, staring at the dark sedan in the parking lot. A few minutes of watching left her certain that somebody was in the vehicle.
Kline, surveilling her?
If that was the case—and Jo was pretty sure it was—she would need to remain cautious. She went into the kitchen for a drink, then shut off the TV and stepped outside. She’d told Kline that she liked to run, and that was true.
