Page 46 of The Playboy Meets His Match
“Which would fill two or three volumes,” Rob interjected.
Jason waved his hand. “I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, Keith, you’re not exactly the last bachelor, although I hope to change that soon.”
“Will wonders never cease?” Will said.
“You better get to planning that ball and thinking about your charity, Keith. Looks like we’ve got our man,” Sebastian said.
“For just a minute let’s discuss why I called y’all here and why I asked you to keep this meeting quiet,” Jason said.
“I think we were talking about the burglary at Wescott, which I now find out was done by you and your lady love,” Will said.
“Yes,” Jason admitted.
“I knew about their plan,” Sebastian admitted. “I didn’t tell you, Will, because I thought that the fewer people in on the plan, the better. And this way, when you got the news, your reactions were normal and sincere.”
“Merry got into Dorian’s computer files—”
“Dammit, I thought we had those so secure no one could get into them,” Will snapped. “We had to open Eric Chambers’s files for the police.”
“Well, she got into them in about five minutes,” Jason informed him dryly, and Keith laughed.
“That’s embarrassing because we sold Wescott some of its software and set up the programs. The wildcat’s not so crazy after all,” Keith added.
“Anyway, we were interrupted because Dorian came to the office. Merry copied some files and got enough to indicate that Dorian kept an electronic journal. There’s a reference that made it sound as though he was blackmailing Eric Chambers.”
“Let me interrupt,” Keith said. “Rob and I have copies. I can give you one, Sebastian, and then you can pass it to Will. All right?”
“Sure.”
“The next thing…” Jason continued. “A statement went out on the news that the fire at my place may have been caused by a gas leak. There was no gas leak. I gave that to the press. The fire chief said that they were investigating what caused the fire, which was the truth on his part. He just didn’t elaborate. But we knew that night that the explosion was caused by a bomb.”
“Why you?” Sebastian asked. Before Jason could answer, Sebastian answered his own question, “Was it because Meredith Silver is at your place?”
“We don’t know, but one possibility is that it was done to wipe out my computer and any disks that were copied at Wescott Oil the other night.”
“That would have to be Dorian,” Keith said.
“He’s got that damned alibi for the murder,” Rob reminded them. “Laura Edwards swears he was sitting in the Royal Diner the whole time that Eric Chambers was murdered.”
“Yes, but Laura Edwards seems very much in love with Dorian,” Will remarked dryly. “There’s always the possibility that he has pulled the wool over her eyes, and she’s covering for him.”
“A lot points to Dorian,” Jason reminded them grimly. “And we have a mole in our group, so, more than likely it’s one of us.”
“Damn,” said Sebastian. “If it’s Dorian, I brought him into our group.”
“If it’s Dorian,” Jason said, “then he’s caused you a world of grief when you were trying to be a brother to him. We’re all going to be sorry about that.”
A grim silence fell over the group. “So where do we go from here?” Will asked.
“I think we need to set a trap of some kind for Dorian,” Rob suggested. “If Dorian’s the murderer, he’s done too much and gone too far. Whoever is behind all this has killed Eric Chambers, tried to frame Sebastian, bombed Jason’s house—”
“If it’s Dorian, there’s a possibility he has taken money from Meredith Silver’s sister. She doesn’t have proof though.”
“Dammit again,” Sebastian said. “I brought him into our group, moved him into my business, my circle of friends. I did everything for him. Why would he do this? What’s his motive? If something happens to me, he won’t inherit what I have. He’ll be worse off with me gone than if I’m alive. I can’t see what motive he has, and he has a sound alibi.”
Another silence followed and Jason tried to keep his thoughts from drifting to Merry.
“Okay, back to where we go from here,” Will said. “I agree with Rob that we need to set a trap. Let’s think about what we can do, because we have to be careful. He’s aware we suspect someone in our group, so that narrows suspicion to him instantly. He may get desperate, and if he’s the guilty party, he’s already murdered once, so he has nothing to lose if he does it again.”
