Chapter 24

Three months later…

IT WAS four-thirty in the afternoon when the case for the prosecution rested. Court was adjourned, allowing the defence to start fresh in the morning.

Mitch accompanied his client out, assuring him everything was prepared for tomorrow. His clerk handed him a message and instantly warning bells rang in Mitch's mind.

The message read—'Call Patrick as soon as possible.' Gundamurra…

Only two nights ago, Ric had telephoned him, wanting advice on returning to Australia, to Lara, and whether Gary Chappel was still a threat?

He'd sounded very stressed. Had he done something stupid?

Mitch had warned him there was no absolute assurance that Gary was out of the picture. To his mind, a psychopath never dealt straight, even while giving every appearance of it. He also cautioned Ric that Lara might need more time to recover from the ordeal of her marriage.

After Jenny's one traumatic experience, she had shied away from men for years. He knew from the information Lara had given him to sue for divorce that she had suffered much more abuse than a single rape. She would be grateful to Ric for rescuing her but accepting love from him… even being with him might cause her painful conflict.

These thoughts raced through his mind as he took off his barrister's wig and gown, handed them to his clerk and took out his mobile phone. It wasn't Patrick but his housekeeper, Evelyn, who answered his return call.

'I can't fetch Mr Patrick right now. He's with Miss Lara. But he told me to tell you what happened here. A plane crashed on our airstrip about an hour ago. It shouldn't have tried to land. It's all mud here from the big wet. Only a helicopter can come in. Anyway, the pilot didn't radio to find out, just brought it down. The plane was a charter from Sydney and Miss Lara's husband was on it. Gary Chappel. He died in the crash. Mr Patrick thought you should tell Mr Ric. Okay?'

Gary Chappel at Gundamurra…dead!

Mitch gave himself a quick mental shake. 'Okay. Thanks, Evelyn. I'll contact Ric and let him know.'

Except he didn't know where Ric was—London? New York? Los Angeles? He hadn't queried where Ric was calling from when they'd spoken two nights ago.

Another shock hit him. Ric had mentioned Gundamurra in that conversation and Gary Chappel had turned up there today. Was there a connection? Could his home telephone be bugged? He'd have to get someone in to check it out, sweep the whole house for any surveillance gadgets. It appalled him to think that Gary Chappel might have got to Lara through…

But it didn't matter now. The man was dead. Good riddance, too. Lara was free of him forever now. And Ric could come home without endangering either her or himself. Or Kathryn.

Kathryn…

She would know where Ric was.

He glanced at his watch. She should still be at her office. He could call her… No, dammit! This was as good an excuse as any to go and see her.

Why not? It gave him the opportunity to check that Jeremy Haynes was still very much the man in her life.

He called Ric's business number, ascertained from the receptionist that Kathryn was still at work in her office, and asked for a message to be relayed that Mitch Tyler was on his way with urgent business and would she please wait for him to arrive.

As he put away his mobile and headed out of the courthouse to catch a taxi, he smiled grimly over the tactic to force one more encounter with Kathryn Ledger. Probably another exercise in frustration. He remembered only too well how she had rushed into her fiancé's arms when he'd escorted her to the Pyrmont apartment.

A penthouse apartment.

Hard to beat a guy who not only looked like a million dollars but undoubtedly had millions of dollars, as well. Still, the same description could have been applied to Gary Chappel. Money wasn't everything. The problem was…Mitch had no reason to think Jeremy Haynes wasn't treating Kathryn right, looking after her.

He'd instructed her to contact him immediately if there was even a whiff of trouble from Gary Chappel.

She hadn't called.

The message he'd just sent would probably alarm her but he could straighten that out soon enough. And seeing her again might even help him get over the gnawing sense of having missed out on something too good to be missed. Three months…had he been exaggerating the memory of how he'd felt with her?

He flagged down a passing taxi, gave the address at Circular Quay to the driver, and settled back in the passenger seat for the short drive to his destination. Ever since meeting Kathryn Ledger, he hadn't felt a spark of interest in any other woman. Harriet certainly left him cold. He could barely bring himself to be civil to her when they met professionally. Ironic that she'd tried to dig out the identity of 'the mystery woman' in his life, getting no satisfaction because Kathryn was not his woman, much as he would have liked her to be.

He wondered if Ric would have any luck with Lara, now that Gary Chappel was gone. Best to get his mind focused on the urgent business before he walked in on Kathryn. No point in nursing any hope that she'd suddenly have a change of heart over marrying Jeremy Haynes. He just wanted to see her…

Kathryn's heart wouldn't stop fluttering. Mitch Tyler, coming to her on urgent business! It had to be something to do with Gary Chappel. Or Ric. Possibly both of them.

There'd been a business e-mail from Ric waiting for her in her office computer this morning. No suggestion of trouble. But that had been sent last night. Now was now, and Mitch was coming in person, which had to mean it was a weighty matter, not something he would tell her over the phone.

Ric had been more or less on the run for the past three months, visiting his overseas offices, but as far as she knew, his safety hadn't been threatened. Neither had her own. Gary Chappel had not accosted her again in this office, nor anywhere away from it.

Jeremy had obviously remained quiet about his past association with her, probably deciding it was wiser to have no personal link to Lara Chappel's disappearance. Certainly he'd not tried any contact with her since she'd moved into the small Bondi Junction apartment she now called home. So much for all his professions of love! He'd told her point-blank that she was making the mistake in breaking up with him.

A big, stupid mistake.

Maybe he'd thought she'd come grovelling back to him. Not in a million years!

In any event, her move had not put her in any danger. As far as she was aware, no-one had been following her or checking up on her. No confrontation. No threat. Nothing.

But maybe these past three months had been the lull before the storm— assuring Victor Chappel that the line was being toed, so if anything happened to Ric now…

She was pacing around her office, her mind in a whirl of worry when Mitch Tyler was shown in by her secretary. The sheer physical magnetism of the man instantly scattered her wits. Needles of awareness attacked her body. She stood still, trying to absorb the impact of meeting him again. Her fogged mind did register the fact that he was taking stock of her, too, not rushing into a greeting.

He was scanning her from head to toe, as though matching her to the imprint in his memory. She could feel her blood heating in response to the trail his gaze took. It was totally embarrassing to realise she was reacting sexually, her breasts tightening, her stomach contracting, her thighs going weak.

She desperately tried reminding herself of Harriet Lowell, the kind of woman he found attractive, but it didn't lessen her own response to him one bit. She felt caught up in a dynamic force that drained her of any resistance to the attraction tugging at her. It took an act of will to get her mouth working.

'Mitch…?'

'Kathryn…' He spoke her name on an expulsion of breath that seemed to fan the heat inside her.

'Is there trouble?' she asked, virtually jerking the words out.

'No trouble,' he assured her. 'I've just had word that Gary Chappel died in a plane crash this afternoon.'