Defender

“Yes, of course.” Darwin hesitated. “I’m involved…with a woman,” he confessed, his back to Paul. “She works for the federal government. Just lately, there have been people following her.” He turned and caught the surprised expression on his security chief’s face. “The girls don’t know, and they’re not to know,” he added firmly. “It’s a long-standing relationship. I don’t want to remarry, but I’m a man. I have needs.” He shrugged, averting his eyes.

“That’s your personal business, sir,” Paul said respectfully.

Darwin cleared his throat and seemed to relax. “Yes, it is. However, I can’t rule out the possibility that we might have a threat here. I don’t want my daughters involved, but I want you to be aware of the threat.”

“What sort of threat is it, sir?”

Darwin looked briefly uncertain. He hesitated, running a hand over his balding head. “She has contact with some unsavory people, in the course of her job.”

Paul’s eyes narrowed. “Unsavory.”

“Yes. Her superiors don’t know. She’s doing some groundwork for a…regional director.”

Paul just watched him. “I still have contacts at the agency…”

“No!” Darwin lowered his voice. “No. I don’t want any federal involvement. She’s in enough danger as it is. You won’t mention this to anyone. But you’ll add on more security, especially in the house. More hidden cameras, microphones, whatever it takes.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll get on it today,” Paul promised.

Darwin drew in a breath. “More security. Yes. Many more cameras. Put them everywhere!”

Paul was hesitant.

“Not in the bathrooms, obviously,” the older man said when he read the consternation on Paul’s features. He grimaced. “And not in the girls’ bedrooms. Or yours or mine or Mandy’s. Obviously, nothing going on there that will affect them.” He hesitated. “We can leave the ones at both front and back doors, although you can remove the one in the dining room. But get those cameras installed outside the house, everywhere. Today.”

Paul relaxed. He managed a faint smile. “Yes, sir. I’ll get to work.”

“Monitor the cell phones, too,” he added curtly. “The girls’ especially.”

That would be dead space, Paul thought, because the girls had no friends to call. But he didn’t say so. He just nodded.

Darwin hesitated. He drew in a breath and put a hand to his head. He swayed a little, but caught himself. “Funny, these dizzy spells,” he murmured, drawing in a breath. “Drives me out of my mind.” He turned to Paul, and seemed oddly disoriented. He wiped at his eyes. “Forget what I said about putting more cameras in the house. I don’t know why I wanted them in the house in the first place,” he said suddenly. “Nobody needs to know what goes on in here, anyway. Get rid of the bugs and the indoor cameras. There are only three cameras, actually—one at the front and back doors and in the dining room,” he added. “I had the other two put outside at the stables. In fact, we only need them outside, to monitor who comes and goes. No need to give up my privacy for an external threat,” he added, and Paul relaxed even more.

Darwin’s eyes narrowed. “Cameras can be hacked. I don’t want men staring at my daughters. Any men.”

“Of course not, sir.”

“They’ll make good marriages eventually, when I decide on their husbands,” he continued absently. “Not for years, though. They’re just children.”

Isabel was twenty-one, Merrie was eighteen. And Darwin still thought of them as children, Paul wondered.

“They won’t have the freedom their mother did,” he said to himself. “Tried to sell me out. Damned slut, running to another man with information…” He caught himself and glanced at Paul. “You didn’t hear that.”

“I only hear what you tell me to hear, sir, and I never repeat anything,” Paul said.

Darwin nodded. “I know that. It’s why you’ve lasted here so long. Never had a security chief before who could keep his mouth shut.”

Paul just nodded.

Darwin stared at him. “You don’t mention anything about me to any of those contacts you still have. Got that?”

“Why would I, sir?” Paul asked, frowning.

“Well, of course. No reason to, after all.” He checked his watch. “Have Danny fuel up the Learjet and do the walkaround. I have to be in Denver tonight for a meeting with some…contacts.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll get right on it.”

“Good man.”

Paul went to make the arrangements, giving a silent thanks for small blessings. He’d wondered how he’d ever manage to do his job with cameras watching every move he made. He wouldn’t admit that having Isabel come in and sit on his bed at night to chat was one of his few guilty pleasures. He’d have hated sacrificing that in the name of extra security.

Meanwhile, he wondered why Darwin Grayling was such a fanatic about his privacy. The man obviously had things he was trying to hide. Paul wondered if he was involved in anything illegal. But he didn’t pursue that question, even in his own mind.

* * *

“Do you think he might be paranoid?” Paul asked Mandy outside a few days later, when Darwin had jetted off to a European conference.

“I don’t think it, I know it,” Mandy replied in a hushed tone. She wrapped her arms around her ample figure. Despite her sweater, she was chilled. “He hasn’t ever been exactly right in the head,” she said. “But after the girls’ mother died…” She bit off the rest.

“You might as well tell me,” Paul said. “You know I don’t talk about anything I know.”

She glanced up at him in the semidarkness, because it was dusk. “She fell and hit her head, he said. But Dr. Coltrain demanded an autopsy, because he didn’t believe her injuries were consistent with a fall.”

“And…?” Paul was remembering with cold chills what Darwin had said about his wife selling him out to someone.

“And he was called out of town to consult in a case with a former patient,” she continued. “While he was gone, Mr. Darwin called in a favor and had the autopsy rushed through. Accidental death was what they put on the death certificate. By the time Dr. Coltrain got back, she was buried, and Mr. Darwin threatened legal action if the doctor tried to interfere further.” She shook her head. “Dr. Coltrain has a really nasty temper, but Mr. Darwin is so rich that he could…well, there were strange things that started happening around Dr. Coltrain’s house, around his little boy. He realized what could happen, and he stepped back.” She looked up at Paul. “Mr. Darwin has done some things that I’d rather die than tell you about. He holds my brother over me like a sword. He’ll find something to hold over you, too, Mr. Paul, if he can. He likes having people who work for him over a barrel.”

Paul smiled ruefully. “If there was anything in my past that could be used against me, it would have come out years ago, when I was…when I worked in another field.”

Her old face softened. “You’re wasted here,” she said gently. “I mean it. You’re smart. You could be anything you wanted to be. Hired private security is, well, it’s…”

“I keep you and the girls safe,” he interrupted with a grin. “Not to mention the racehorses. Imagine how the jockeys would mourn if one of the horses got an infected foot or something!”

She laughed, as she was meant to.

“He wanted cameras set up,” he added. “But he had me take out the one he’d put in the dining room, along with the bug he had in his office. I’ll tell the girls. I was afraid I’d have to watch every word I said. And the girls have been worried.” He sighed. “Merrie’s really afraid of him. Sari…not so much, but she doesn’t go against him.” He turned to her. “Why are they so afraid of him?”

Mandy wanted to tell him, but she was too afraid for her brother. “He got physical with them when they were younger,” she compromised. “He believed in that ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ thing.”

He scowled. “He didn’t abuse them?”

“Not the way you’re thinking,” she said easily.

He let out a breath. “Thank God.”

“It would have been like living in jail, having cameras all over the house,” Mandy said quietly. “I didn’t even know where they were until you told me he’d only put one in the dining room and had his office bugged. We’d have had to watch every word we said.” She hesitated. “And you’d never have been able to let Sari come into your room anymore,” she added with an amused smile.

He chuckled. “Don’t tell her, but I’d have missed that. I enjoy our chats. She’s a sweet child.”