When Stars Collide (Chicago Stars #9)(92)

Last night, when the police had interviewed Olivia, she’d said that Gillis had pulled off her rings before he’d taken her bracelet. One more attempt at a diversion. It seemed obvious that Kathryn wanted to keep anyone from linking the bracelet to the auction house, but once Olivia had seen Norman’s face, that was no longer possible.

Toward midafternoon, he couldn’t endure the knot in his stomach any longer. He had one last thing to do.





21




Olivia handed Rachel a tissue. “Are you done crying yet?”

Rachel blew her nose. “I’m never going to be done. Dennis and I are responsible for all the crap that’s happened to you.”

“You had nothing to do with Norman Gillis trying to kill me.”

Rachel wasn’t listening. “All the problems with your voice. I hate myself. You should hate me, too.”

“I do.”

Another honk of her very red nose. “No, you don’t, but you should. Every time I think about poor Lena and that dead canary . . . About what he did to you . . .” She shuddered. “I’m sorry. I’ve never been so sorry about anything in my whole life.”

“I believe you’ve mentioned that,” Olivia said. “About a dozen times. Forgiving you is getting boring.”

It was early Monday afternoon. Rachel had shown up at her door two hours ago after driving in from Indianapolis, where she was doing Hansel and Gretel. She’d been crying and apologizing ever since.

“I love you,” Rachel said. “You’re the best friend a person could ever have, and I violated our trust.” She started crying all over again.

Olivia handed her one more tissue and rose from the couch. “I’m making us something to eat, and you’re going to stop crying long enough to eat it.”

“Okay . . .” She sniffed. Blew her nose. “Let me help.”

Olivia lifted an eyebrow at the wadded tissues in her lap. “Wash your hands first.”

That elicited a watery smile. Rachel headed for the bathroom, and Olivia went to the kitchen. She’d had groceries delivered that morning, although she wasn’t sure why since she was too miserable to eat.

Thinking about Thad led her into a painful, fruitless spiral, so she thought about Eugene instead. She’d spoken to Brittany again this morning. Kathryn still wasn’t cooperating, but the details Norman had provided about Swift Auctions were checking out. In addition to its legitimate operation, the company had been smuggling artifacts, only a few at a time, but each one highly profitable.

The investigators didn’t have a timeline yet, but as Olivia had predicted, it looked as though the illegal activities had begun several years before Eugene died, after he’d turned the operation over to his wife and her son. Only when Norman was questioned about Olivia and the bracelet had he clammed up out of self-protection. Smuggling was one thing. Attempted murder another.

She reminded herself she was safe now. Norman and Kathryn were in jail without bond. Marsden faced federal charges of interstate stalking and harassment. No one was threatening her.

But she’d lost Thad, and what would happen when she took the stage again tomorrow night? Her body had survived its icy plunge. She had no sniffles, no sore throat. But her heart wasn’t in nearly as good a shape.

She wanted to see Thad. Talk to him. See how he was doing. To understand why they couldn’t be together again. Why they couldn’t take their relationship day by day. Why they couldn’t stop worrying about the future.

Which was exactly what he’d asked of her and she’d rejected him. She was the one who’d put a stop to their relationship because her work always had to come first. Even before love.

She opened the refrigerator. Nothing appealed to her except the tub of raspberry sorbet in the freezer. As she dished it up, Rachel reappeared and sat on one of the counter stools. Olivia stayed on the other side of the counter, holding her glass dish and a spoon. Rachel gazed at the sorbet. “You got any chocolate syrup?”

“No. Would ketchup do?”

“Never mind.” Rachel poked the end of her spoon into the dish without taking a bite. “I think Dennis and I need to separate for a while.”

Olivia’s head shot up. “You’re not separating from Dennis over this! He should never have told you.”

“It’s not only this.” She impaled her spoon. “My life isn’t my own anymore.” Rachel regarded her with stricken eyes. “He’s suffocating me!”

Olivia set down her bowl, the sorbet untouched. “Rach . . .”

“I hate feeling this way. He does everything for me. I never have to pay a bill or make a plane reservation. He plans our meals, keeps the apartment clean. He buys birthday presents for my family. Calls my father every week. I don’t have to do a thing. He takes care of it all.” Her eyes started leaking again, although this time without the noisy sobs. “I feel like it’s his career instead of mine.”

“Rachel, you need to talk to him.”

“I’ve tried to, but he gets so hurt. He wants to know what he can do so I feel better, and I want to scream at him to start having his own life and stop living mine!”

A wave of vertigo made Olivia grab the edge of the sink. Her world had flipped over. A man like Dennis was everything Olivia had dreamed of in a life partner, everything she’d believed would make her happy. But Rachel was miserable. Olivia took in her friend’s blotchy face and red eyes. “I never suspected . . . I thought . . . You love each other so much.”