Read Online Haunting Rachel by Kay Hooper - Free Book Online Page A

like to see you again, Rachel. May I call you, say in a day or two? We could have dinner, see a movie. Something casual.”
    He isn’t Thomas.
    “I’d like that.” She hadn’t planned to say it until the words came out, but once they did, she didn’t regret them.
    “Good.” He smiled at her and squeezed her hand gently, then released it. “I’ll see myself out. It was very nice meeting you, Rachel—at last.”
    “And it was nice finding out you weren’t a ghost or a figment of my imagination,” she told him, keeping it light.
    He had a nice laugh.
    When she was alone in the study, Rachel sat in the chair and stared across the room at nothing, thoughts andemotions swirling within her and her hand still tingling from the touch of his.
    “My God,” she murmured.
    “Three million dollars?”
    Rachel nodded, gazing across his desk at Graham’s surprised expression. “That’s what the man said.”
    “Duncan lent this man three million dollars on a handshake?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “I don’t believe it.”
    “Startled me too,” she murmured.
    “No, I mean I flat-out don’t believe it. Rachel, that’s not the way Duncan did business. It’d be insane to risk that kind of money with absolutely no written promise of repayment. What if this man—Delafield, you said his name was?”
    “Adam Delafield.”
    Graham made a note on the legal pad on his blotter. “What if he denied getting the money? Or simply decided not to repay it? Duncan would have had no recourse, no legal means of demanding the debt be repaid.”
    Calmly, Rachel said, “Obviously, Dad thought he could trust this man. And the proof of his good judgment came to see me yesterday. If he hadn’t, I never would have known about the loan—not unless something turns up in Dad’s private papers, anyway. All he had to do was sit on the money and keep silent. But he came to tell me the debt will be repaid in the next six months or so.”
    Graham shook his head. “There’s something fishy about it.”
    “Well, if you can figure out some way a con artistwould benefit by promising to pay me three million dollars, let me know. I couldn’t think of a damned thing.”
    “Did he ask you for anything? Anything at all?”
    I’d like to see you again, Rachel.
    She shook her head. “No.”
    Graham drummed his fingers on the legal pad. “And you say you saw him watching you before he came to the house? That he was the man you mistook on that street corner for Thomas? And that you saw him just before your car’s brakes went out?”
    “I told you why. He wasn’t sure how to approach me, especially since he looks so much like Thomas.” Despite her own uneasiness, Rachel smiled. “Graham, you’re so suspicious. Why can’t Adam Delafield just be an honest man trying to repay a loan? Why does there have to be more to it?”
    Graham reached to open the top drawer of his desk and drew out a sheaf of papers. “I got this just a couple of hours ago. Since you’d already called to say you were dropping by, I decided to wait until you got here to discuss it.”
    “Discuss what?”
    “This is the mechanic’s report on the Mercedes. The brake line didn’t fail, Rachel. It was cut.”
    She didn’t even blink for a moment, but then drew a deep breath. “Cut. You mean—deliberately?”
    “That’s what it looks like. The mechanic says it would be difficult to prove in court, that it’s
possible
the line could have been cut accidentally, but he knows his job and he believes it was no accident.”
    “You’re saying someone wanted to—to hurt me? To cause an accident?”
    “I’m saying we should both cultivate a little healthydistrust, especially where strangers are concerned.” Graham’s voice was deliberate.
    Rachel leaned back in her chair and stared at him. “You think it was Adam?”
    “I think it’s a damned suspicious coincidence that he turns up mysteriously in your life with a convenient resemblance to your dead fiancé, and a few days