Double Trouble Read online

  Rosie was sure to be upset when he didn’t show up for the meeting with the guy from the home office tomorrow, too. She’d have to deal with Uncle Lester about that. But she’d be okay. She was tough and could practically run the place without him anyway.

  Briefly, Ken wondered who his uncle would send to run the Minneapolis branch in his place. Or would he let Harry Nelson move up to his job? Ken hated that idea, mostly because he didn’t like Harry. Harry had made no secret he wanted his boss’ job. Well, it wasn’t his worry any more.

  The weather was gorgeous for late April in Minnesota with only a light breeze. The sun shone and the temperature hovered in the seventies -- a perfect day to go to the lake.

  At Landers, the small town near his family’s cabin an hour north of Minneapolis, Ken stopped at the small grocery store. He’d made sure the owner and his wife would remember him by calling ahead to order one of the smoked chickens that Oscar was famous for. Oscar only did them on special order, so Ken’s name would be on his list. He also paid with a credit card, to leave a paper trail.

  Then Ken bought fresh minnows at the bait shop and took his time choosing new lures. He asked the crotchety old clerk how the fish were biting.

  The heavyset man grinned, showing a gold front tooth. ”Not too much happening yet, Mr. Latham. We’ve caught a few crappies and sunnies. Everyone’s waiting for the Walleye season to open in a couple of weeks. Then we’ll get busy. ”

  “I suppose you’re right about that.” Ken signed the charge receipt with his usual flourish.

  He moved on to buy gas and coffee at the little filling station, once more with his credit card.

  At Long Lake, he pulled into the cabin’s driveway and parked at their private lake access, making sure his car could be seen from the lake. He sat there for a long moment, admiring the peaceful scene. Sunlight shimmered across the blue water. Tall pine and fir trees lined the banks, almost hiding the various cabins surrounding it. Most of them were year around homes, rather than cabins and belonged to moneyed people from the Twin Cities.

  Back when he was young, he and his twin brother had often played and swam here. Ken didn’t see his brother or his parents much these days and liked it that way. They probably did, too. His parents had moved to Arizona years ago, vowing never to return to ice and snow. The Cayman Islands would also be warm, and he’d never return either.

  As usual on a spring weekday afternoon, this end of the lake was deserted. He left his clothes in his car and took his small fishing boat out onto the lake.

  He glanced around to be sure no one was watching and then dove into the chilly water. Shivering, he capsized the fishing boat and swam back to shore. The water’s natural current would do the rest. The boat was designed to float, even upside down, so someone was sure to find it within a day or so. They would assume he’d fallen overboard and drowned. People drowned in fishing accidents every year. It wouldn’t seem unusual. Both he and Rosie would be safe this way.

  The damn lake was icy cold. The breeze chilled him as he stepped onto shore and ran back to his car. He quickly toweled off and got dressed again.

  Weeks before, he’d bought an old car with another false identity, paid cash, and parked it at the family cabin. Now he left his Cadillac behind and drove back to Minneapolis in the old car, left it in a large parking lot in a shopping mall and took a cab to the airport. When they towed the abandoned car later, no one would think to connect it to him. He’d be safely in the Cayman Islands with lots of money to live the high life.

  ~ * ~

  Rosie Kapp carefully held the last one of her late mother, Kate’s, crystal goblets, tears making her work of packing them away difficult. She wiped the tears away angrily. She’d cried too much in the past few weeks. She’d thought she was ready to finish this, but found cleaning out her mother’s apartment a soul-wrenching thing.

  But she had to do it. There was no one else. She had a brother, but Lee wasn’t much help with domestic chores, and she knew he would especially hate this one. She’d asked him if he wanted anything from Kate’s apartment and he’d looked appalled.

  She raised the cut crystal to the sunlight streaming in through the window, admiring the rainbow of colors that sparkled off it. This goblet had graced her mother’s table for so many of her parents’ family dinner parties. They’d had such a good marriage. If only she could… but there was no use wishing for the impossible. Their marriage had been the exception that proved the rule. She couldn’t hope for a fantasy love like that. Her fiancé and boss, Ken Latham, would give her security and that would have to be enough. A lump formed in her throat at the thought, but she ignored it.

  She carefully wrapped Kate’s last lead-crystal goblet in newspaper and then tucked it into the cardboard box with the others. Mom won’t be there for my wedding. She dreamed of that wedding and planned it for me for so long. Then when I got engaged at last, she gets cancer and dies. It all happened so quickly, I can hardly believe it yet.

  Rosie wished she could be grateful for small favors. At least her mother’s ordeal had been a short one.

  She wiped a dusty hand on her jeans and looked around, seeing nothing more she wanted to save. A sofa, chairs, some bookcases, now empty, filled the room. Without her mother’s handmade pillows, doilies and the family photos, the room looked forlorn and lonesome.

  She’d packed a few framed photos, her mother’s neatly labeled photo albums, her mother’s music and book collections and some dishes and glassware. Not much to show for a long and productive life. But her mother had spent her time and energy raising children and giving them wonderful memories of her love, not accumulating things. She’d never owned expensive furniture or jewelry. Had she ever missed having those luxuries? If so, she hadn’t mentioned it.

  A charity truck had promised to come tomorrow to pick up the well-worn furniture and whatever else Rosie didn’t want. Rosie had boxed the smaller items for them. Next week she’d come back and give the apartment a final cleaning before she turned in the keys.

  Grief tightened her chest. She and Lee were the last of their family now, unless they had children someday. Lee was wrapped up in his career as a police officer and didn’t even date. She tried to imagine having children with Ken and shuddered. Not anytime soon. Children would be way too messy for Ken. She couldn’t imagine him being in the same room with spilled cereal or dirty diapers. She’d never seen him with even a hair out of place.

  She frowned. Yet he’d gone fishing today, hadn’t he? And he’d said he fished often. But she couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever really caught or cleaned a fish. After all, you could hardly do either without getting dirty, could you?

  She locked up, carried the box of crystal out to her Buick Skylark and packed it in with the rest of the boxes.

  Glancing at her watch as she got behind the wheel, she saw it was almost five. She’d better hurry, or she’d be late for her dinner date with Ken.

  She sighed. It was sure to be a boring evening. They were going to the Country Club where they’d mingle with his business acquaintances. Not that she didn’t like most of those people. But she dreaded these dinners and the long-winded speeches. She always managed to do something to irritate Ken and he would politely point out her errors on the way home. “For future reference” as he so coldly put it. So she wouldn’t make the same errors again and embarrass them both. Ha!

  Arriving at her own small house in northern Minneapolis suburb, Rosie carried everything inside. Scamp, her golden retriever, barked a welcome and she stopped to pat him and let him out for a run. Scamp raced around the house to the backyard, and then returned to follow her as she moved back and forth from her car to the house.

  She stacked the boxes from her mother’s apartment in her spare bedroom to be dealt with later.

  As she finished, Scamp whined and lay down on the carpet by her sofa. Rosie filled his food and water dishes and laughed as she rubbed his soft fur. ”You know I’m going out, don’t you, Scamp? Don’t worry
, I won’t be out too late. ”

  Then she hurried to her bedroom. She had to shower, shampoo her long hair and get dressed. She must not keep Kenneth waiting.

  Most of her friends envied her for dating her rich boss. He was always so punctual and mannerly, so smooth about everything. But then, when wasn’t he perfect? Even her best friend, Gloria Haverson, called him “Mr. Perfect.” Gloria didn’t like him very much.

  When he’s in a critical mood, Rosie thought, I don’t either. But Ken was very nice to her most of the time. He took her to expensive restaurants and told her often how much he loved her. How many men had done that? She should be in love with him, but she wasn’t.

  Now she angrily rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and put on conditioner. She’d felt trapped, when Ken and her mother had assumed she’d accepted his proposal, but what had it mattered if she didn’t love Ken? Love like her parents had was impossible nowadays. No one she knew stayed married for long. Ken claimed to love her, so she would be making him happy by marrying him, wouldn’t she?

  The wedding hadn’t happened, thank goodness, only because of her mother’s illness. But Kate had been happy, so Rosie had put aside her doubts about Ken. Now those doubts surfaced with a vengeance, as did her conscience. She wasn’t being fair to let Ken think she loved him, when she didn’t. What if he found someone he really loved later? What if she did?

  She could break her engagement now, she realized again with a sudden light feeling in her stomach. Yes, she could. This time, she didn’t push the thought aside. She’d rather stay single than try to live a lie.

  The thought of marrying Ken had grown less attractive each day. She’d have to live with the man she chose as her husband. She shouldn’t feel guilty about changing her mind.

  “Sorry, Mom,” she said aloud. ‘I know you really wanted me to get married. But it’s not what I want. Not yet, anyway. ‘Mr. Perfect’ is not who I want.” She turned off the water and grabbed a towel.

  The problem was that she’d still have to work with Ken after she broke up with him. Breaking their engagement could get sticky. Would he fire her? Even if he didn’t, how could she work with him every day afterward?

  Rosie sighed. She loved working at Latham and had worked her way up to the top office. Now she felt as though she really made a difference, even made managerial decisions often. If she broke up with him and had to quit, Ken was just the kind of guy to refuse her a good reference.

  What a mess. She should never have accepted that first date or gotten involved with him in the first place. It had been a stupid thing to do.

  But it was time to fix that mistake. Tonight, after the dinner, she’d tell Ken she couldn’t marry him and return his ring. If he told her to look for another job, so be it.

  ~ * ~

  After his plane landed at the Minneapolis airport, Kirk found his way to the baggage claim, picked up his bags, hailed a cab, and went to the motel where he’d reserved a room and dropped off his luggage, telling the cab to wait.

  It was after seven, but he wanted to stop by the office. If Ken was there, they could talk. If not, and anyone who saw him go up to the office area after hours would assume he was Ken. And, since Uncle Lester had installed the same security system for all their stores and offices, his master key would let him inside. He could get a look at the computers before Ken knew he’d arrived.

  He sighed. He hated being so sneaky, but this situation made it necessary. He’d confront Ken in the morning at his office. He was anxious to see how his brother would defend his missing reports.

  It had been years since Kirk had visited the Minnesota branch, but he remembered the office was on the west side of the large retail building and told the cab driver, “The side door will be fine.” He didn’t want to have more employees mistake him for Ken than necessary. This way he wouldn’t have to walk through much of the sales floor to gain access to the offices on the second floor.

  The driver pulled into the company parking lot. Despite the late hour, there were quite a few cars in the lot. Business seemed to be doing okay, so why was Ken claiming financial problems?

  As he stepped out of the cab, the wind blew an empty shopping bag against his leg. Kirk frowned at it, noticing more garbage strewn about the blacktopped lot.

  Uncle Lester would have a fit if he knew Ken had allowed such a mess on Latham property. An older man was gathering shopping carts to return them to the store. At least Ken made some attempt at neatness.

  Kirk paid the driver and started toward the building. The cab drove off. A group of teenagers laughed uproariously near a pickup at the end of the lot. The lights of a car leaving the lot illuminated them clearly as he glanced at them. One of the boys kissed a girl while the others hooted. He grinned. Oh, to be that young and carefree again.

  “Mr. Latham?”

  “Yes?” Kirk turned in surprise when he heard someone call his name. An employee must be mistaking him for Ken.

  A large man wearing a nylon stocking mask stepped from beside a van, and raised his arm.

  Kirk understood the danger too late to ward off the blow. He felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and then fell forward as everything went black.

  Chapter 2

  In her small, cozy house in the suburbs, Rosie dressed hurriedly for her date. Ken hated being the last one to arrive for any meeting, and always fussed at her if she was late. Politely, of course, but still, she felt criticized.

  Two hours later, dressed in a red silk dress which Ken always said complimented her long blonde hair, Rosie was the one still waiting. Scamp lay contentedly at her feet. Fuming, she stared at the television without seeing what was on the screen.

  Ken hadn’t answered either his home or his cellular telephone. She’d tried both a dozen times. He’d better have a good excuse for standing her up. But then, he always did.

  In the future, she wouldn’t listen to any more little hints about her habit of tardiness. Ken might be tall dark and handsome, but he was no longer “Mr. Perfect,” in her eyes.

  Rosie ate a snack of crackers, cheese and fruit from her refrigerator in lieu of the fancy dinner she’d expected and sipped a can of cola. She sat down in the recliner in front of the television, Scamp curled up on the carpet beside her. In a few minutes she was fast asleep.

  ~ * ~

  She dreamed she was back in the tiny trailer she and her mother and Lee had lived in for a while after her father died. She’d hated that tiny space and grown definitely claustrophobic while living there. In the dream, she fought to open a window for some fresh air. The air was stuffy with cooking odors and cigarette smoke. Her mother was chain smoking and, as usual, trying to quit.

  She and Lee begged her to quit, but she couldn’t or wouldn’t. There was never enough money for anything, not food, not clothes, not school fees or supplies. Panic raced through her as she tearfully begged her mom for school lunch money. But her mom didn’t have any money.

  ~ * ~

  Rosie awoke with a start, her heart pounding, and swallowed the fear still running through her thoughts. She hated that nightmare, but it was a very familiar and recurring one for her.

  She got up and got a bottle of icy water from the refrigerator to soothe her parched throat.

  No wonder her mother had wanted her to marry someone with a secure financial future. The fear from those awful days of being broke had left their mark on all of them. Would she ever be free of that fear of being poor? With a resigned sigh, she sat back down to watch television.

  The ten o’clock news was over and she’d decided to forget about waiting up and go to bed when the doorbell rang.

  So, Ken had finally come to apologize!

  With an angry lecture for her errant date all rehearsed in her mind, she stalked to the door and threw it open. Scamp followed her, greeting her caller with happy barks.

  Cool evening air rushed in. Instead of Kenneth, her brother stood there, dressed in his police uniform.

  She gaped in astonishment. �
�Lee! I… I thought you were someone else. ”

  “Hi, yourself,” her brother said, frowning at her. ”I thought I taught you to check the peephole before opening your door at night.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said contritely. She stepped back. ”Come in.”

  Lee came in, giving Scamp’s head a friendly rub. Scamp rubbed himself against Lee’s leg.

  Rosie closed the door after her brother. He moved into her living room, glancing around expectantly. “Isn’t it a little late at night to be expecting company? And you’re dressed to kill, too.”

  “Yeah,” she said, glancing ruefully at her silk dress. Lee usually saw her in the jeans she favored for family time. “I had a date with Ken. We were supposed to go to the Country Club dinner. But he didn’t show up. I thought you might be him, coming to apologize.”

  “Oh.” Lee hesitated. “Rosie, I hate to tell you, but…well, I don’t know about where Ken was earlier, but right now, he’s in the hospital.”

  “In the hospital?” Her voice came out in a squeak. Here she’d been mentally cussing him out and he’d had a good excuse for not showing up after all.

  Lee nodded. “I knew you’d want to know and you’d be upset, so I came to take you to the hospital to see him.”

  Oh, God! Something bad had happened to Kenneth. Is he sick? Or did he have an accident?”

  “He’ll be okay, Sis.”

  She ran shaking fingers through her hair. “What happened?”

  “One of the employees at Latham found him lying in the parking lot. Apparently somebody mugged him. Took his billfold and whatever else he had with him, so he didn’t have any ID. The employee had to identify him.”

  Her head snapped up in surprise and she frowned at her brother. “Identify him? But … you said he wasn’t badly hurt. Didn’t Ken tell you who he was?”