They all bid good-bye soon after that. Kip offered to be of service if he could, telling Carolyn to call him. Georgeanne, too, said she would be willing to use her powers of intuition, as she called them, if they were ever needed. Carolyn thanked them both. Douglas shook both of their hands. To Kip he said, “Thank you for trying. I know you did all you could.”

Kip seem very moved by his words, and brought him in for an embrace.

On the ride back to the airport both Douglas and Carolyn were silent. As before, it was not until they were airborne that they spoke of what they faced.

“I’m scared,” Douglas said.

“I am, too,” Carolyn admitted.

“I just wish I knew who-or what-I was scared of,” Douglas said. “Beatrice? Clem? Or something else?”

Carolyn nodded. That was exactly what she was thinking. She rested her head against the window and looked down at the waters of the Atlantic. She steeled herself, vowing she would do everything in her power to find out what she needed to know. She vowed she would succeed where Kip had failed.

If only she had more time than one slim month.

Chapter Ten

Ryan Young wasn’t pleased when he hung up the phone with his Uncle Howard. The old man had told him that his cousin Douglas was visiting. Douglas had been there at the house for nearly a week now. Ryan had tried to seem happy that his uncle had a visitor, but inwardly, he was seething.

Leave it to that gypsy Douglas to sneak in and work on Uncle Howard before any of us could get there, Ryan thought. He was anxious to tell his father about his cousin’s sneaky ways. They didn’t trust Douglas. He played at being carefree and happy-go-lucky, a hippie on a motorcycle who didn’t give a damn about money and inheritance. But he was fooling them all. He wanted that house. He wanted all of Uncle Howard’s property. Ryan was certain of it.

Ryan glanced in the mirror at himself and liked what he saw. He’d just come from the pool, and his hair was slicked back against his head, his chiseled body glistening. He had not six abdominals but eight. His eyes brimmed with ambition and desire. He was as dark as Douglas was fair. Uncle Howard liked to say that Douglas was a lady-killer-in fact, at that very moment, Douglas was charming a young lady who was working for him. That only made Ryan more angry. It was Ryan who was the lady-killer, Ryan who had every woman in New York chasing after him at nightclubs and restaurants. It was Ryan who often showed up in the gossip columns with some starlet or socialite on his arm. Last he knew Douglas was dating some babe who worked at a diner, for Christ’s sake! Ryan had dated Paris Hilton-and had his picture printed on Page Six to prove it!

“Chelsea!” he shouted. His sister was staggering out of her room, still sleepy-eyed, her hair a mess. It was two in the afternoon, and she was just getting up after being out on the town very, very late last night. “Guess who’s up at Uncle Howard’s right at this moment!”

“I don’t really care,” the girl grumbled. “I have a wicked hangover.”

“Douglas! Dear cousin Douglas!”

She spun around to look at him, her eyes suddenly coming to life. “No fucking way!”

“Way.” Ryan folded his muscled arms across his broad chest. “I just spoke to Uncle Howard. I called just to show what a good nephew I was. Calling in to check up on him, to see how he was feeling and to tell him how very, very much”-here Ryan’s eyes rolled comically for his sister to see-“I’m looking forward to the family reunion.” He paused, his face puckering as if he’d just bitten into a lemon. “And what does our dear uncle tell me? That Douglas is there! Once again, the loser has gotten in ahead of us!”

Chelsea was running fingers through her hair, trying to untangle the knots. “Well, he’s not going to be a loser for long if he keeps kissing ass like he is. Uncle Howard will leave him everything. You know Daddy worries about that.”

“We have to go up there right away,” Ryan said. “I’m not waiting until the actual reunion. There will be too many people around then. Paula and Dean and those obnoxious twins of his.” Both Ryan and Chelsea shuddered. “If we leave soon, we can have a couple of weeks with Uncle Howard.”

Chelsea made a face. “We have to stay up there a couple of weeks? In that backwoods? There are no clubs, no happening places…”

“Do you want to be in the will or not?”

She nodded. “Okay. You’re right.” She narrowed her eyes. “But will Douglas still be there?”

Ryan shrugged. “I don’t know. Uncle Howard didn’t say how long he was staying. But he may well be. But all the more reason for us to get our asses up there! Douglas may be planning to stay up there buttering his toast for as long as he can. He knows he has to work on Uncle Howard. He has to prove that he’s more than just a wandering hippie.”

“That will be difficult,” Chelsea said.

“Yeah, but he’s always been able to wrap Uncle Howard around his finger. Remember when we were kids and he’d convince Uncle Howard to let him play in the attic? You and I were never allowed to run free through the house.”

“It’s true,” Chelsea grumbled. “Douglas was allowed to go anywhere he wanted.” She thought a moment. “Except the basement.”

“Well, no one was ever allowed in the basement,” Ryan said.

“What’s down there anyway? Why is it always closed off?”

Ryan grinned. “Probably the family jewels. Which can all be ours, dear sister, if we can charm Uncle Howard in the next couple of weeks.”

She laughed. “But Daddy has already made us rich. Why would Uncle Howard want to leave us more when Paula or Dean or especially Douglas need it more?”

“Uncle Howard is a businessman,” Ryan insisted. “He is a shark. He’d have to be, to accumulate the fortune he has. He respects businessmen. He’s told Daddy that many times. He admires the way Daddy has run his business. If he thinks we are just as shrewd and smart and capable as Daddy, he’ll make sure we get a good chunk of his change.”

“Is he really all that richer than we are?” Chelsea’s voice dropped into a whisper. “Does he really have that much more money than Daddy?”

“He makes Daddy look like a pauper,” Ryan assured her. “Think about what we could do with Uncle Howard’s money. We’d have access to everything and everyone.”

Chelsea laughed. “Still burning over the fact that Paris dumped you?”

Ryan’s lips tightened. “If we are Uncle Howard’s main heirs, we will have so much more money than the Hiltons.”

“Well,” Chelsea said, heading back toward her room, “I need to sleep off this hangover a little longer. When do you want to get on the road?”

“I have a few things to finish up at the office today, so let’s head out first thing tomorrow morning.” He was planning on a quick jaunt into Manhattan to issue instructions to his assistants and then to enjoy a late supper with one of his girls. Of course, he’d need to make sure it was the best restaurant and the prettiest girl he could find. If he was heading up to Maine tomorrow, it would be a while before he got back to civilization. “Be ready bright and early tomorrow,” Ryan called after his sister. “I mean it! Like eleven o’clock!” She groaned. “Okay, no later than noon!”

She shut her door without answering.

Ryan bolted down the stairs and into his father’s study. There were files in here on a couple of business deals he was working on. He’d bring them into the office and dump them in his assistant’s lap. He could do things like that. He was the boss. Or more accurately the boss’s son. Which was the same thing.

He was standing at his father’s desk, riffling though the pages of several spiral-bound files, when he heard the door behind him gently click shut.

He turned. He had left the door open. Now it was closed.

It must have been a breeze. He thought nothing more of it and continued leafing through the files.