Finding Laura - Hardcover

Hooper, Kay

 
9780553099492: Finding Laura
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0553099493 ISBN 13: 9780553099492
Verlag: Bantam Dell Pub Group, 1997

Inhaltsangabe

A Gothic romance by the author of the best-seller, After Caroline, features struggling artist Laura Sutherland, who finds herself a suspect in the murder of a scion of the wealthy Kilbourne clan, a dynasty founded on secrets.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kay Hooper, who has more than four million copies of her books in print worldwide, has won numerous awards and high praise for her novels.  Hooper lives in North Carolina, where she is currently working on her next novel.

Aus dem Klappentext

ney are no protection from fate--or murder. . . .

Kay Hooper's rich, haunting voice electrified readers in the unforgettable bestseller Amanda and the darkly compelling After Caroline. Now she delivers a powerful new tale of seductive intrigue, dangerous ambition, and the inexplicable forces that shape our lives. . . .

Over the years, the wealthy, aloof Kilbourne family has suffered a number of suspicious deaths. There were no witnesses, never charges; only doubt and unresolved questions. Now the charming, seductive Peter Kilbourne has been found stabbed to death in a seedy motel room. And for Laura Sutherland, nothing will ever be the same. Because the struggling artist was one of the last people to see Peter alive--and one of the first to be suspected of his murder. If only Laura hadn't gone to the Kilbourne estate sale. . . But all her life she's collected mirrors, searching their r

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"Did you kill my brother?" he repeated when she remained silent.  

"No."  She shook her head a little, her wide eyes never leaving his.  "No, I didn't kill him.  I didn't know him."  

Daniel came into the room slowly, relying on the control built over a lifetime to keep his expression unreadable.  He went past her to the compact wet bar between the windows.  "Drink?"  She shook her head, and Daniel fixed a small Scotch for himself.  He wasn't a drinking man, but he needed one now.  

Turning once again to face her, he moved toward her until he could rest a hand on the back of the couch between them.  He sipped his drink, watching her, then said, "Peter went to see you Saturday.  So you did know him."  

"I met him then," she said, steady now.  "But I didn't know him.  He spent less than fifteen minutes in my apartment, and then he left.  That's the only time in my life I've ever seen your brother."  

"Do you expect me to believe that?"  

"It's the truth."  

"Of course, you would say that, wouldn't you?"  

She drew a little breath, her fingers playing nervously with the strap of her shoulder bag.  "You know I bought a mirror at your estate sale Saturday?"  

He nodded.  "Yes.  The police asked me to verify that Peter had gone to see you because of the mirror."  

"You verified it?"  

"Yes."  

"Then you know I was a stranger to him."  

He smiled slightly without amusement.  "I know that's the way it appeared."  

"It's the way it was. He came to see me because he wanted to buy the mirror back.  Do you--do you know why?"  

Daniel looked down at his drink, moving his hand to swirl the ice cubes around in the glass.  "No."  

He's lying. Laura knew it.  She didn't know why he was lying, but she knew he was.  She watched him lift the glass to his lips, her gaze fastening onto his right hand.  He wore a big gold ring with a carved green stone that might have been jade or emerald, and there was something eerily familiar about how he held the glass with only his thumb and two fingers.  

It was difficult for her to think clearly; she was still shaken and bewildered by the instant physical attraction she had felt to him.  She had never been a woman who reacted to men quickly, cautious in that as she was in no other area of her life, and she wasn't quite sure how to cope with what she felt.  He was a stranger, and a man moreover who thought her at least capable of being a killer, yet she couldn't take her eyes off him, and all her senses had opened up so intensely that she felt nakedly unprotected.  

Daniel lacked Peter's beauty, but his harsh features were compelling in a sensual way that made the younger brother seem almost absurdly boyish in retrospect.  Daniel's big, powerful body moved with uncanny grace, with the ease of muscles under absolute and unthinking control, and his very size and strength spoke of command, of natural forces just barely contained.  She thought of a big cat moving silently through a dark and dangerous jungle, and the image was so strong she could have sworn there was a scent of primitive wildness in the room.  

To Laura's bewilderment, her body seemed to open up just as her senses had, to soften and grow receptive as if in invitation.  Her skin heated, her muscles relaxed, her breathing quickened.  Her knees felt weak, shaky.  She felt an actual physical ache of desire.  

My God, what's happening to me?

Struggling inwardly to control what she felt, to concentrate on what she had come here to find out, Laura managed to speak evenly.  "You don't know why Peter wanted to buy the mirror back, but you know that's why he came to see me on Saturday?"  

"As I told the police."  His pale eyes were fixed on her face, intent, almost hypnotically intense.  He was absently swirling the ice around and around in his glass, the movement causing his ring to flash shards of green.  

His hand was long-fingered and strong; she wondered if his touch would be sensitive or if it would overpower with its strength.  A flare of heat burned inside her as speculation created a rawly sexual image in her mind.  "You don't know why the mirror was important to Peter?"  she asked with an effort.  

"That's what I said."  His voice was even, his gaze unreadable.

Whatever she felt, he seemed unaffected, and seemed not to notice that she hardly shared his composure.  Laura tried to draw a steadying breath without making the need for one obvious.  "He said the mirror was an heirloom.  Is it?"

"As far as I know, Miss Sutherland, it was one of many unused, unwanted items packed away in the attic by God knows who, God knows how many years ago."  He had only a trace of a Southern accent, something common to people who had lived and traveled much outside the South.

"Would anyone else in the family know more about it?"

"I doubt it."  He was abrupt now, a slight frown narrowing his eyes.  And it's not really the best time to ask them,  he might as well have added.  

It struck Laura for the first time that Daniel seemed completely unmoved for a man who had buried his brother two days before.  Had the two men disliked each other?  Or was Daniel merely a controlled man who gave away little of his emotions?  He certainly looked hard, with those harsh features and chilly blue eyes, and though his attitude toward her said plainly that he was not inclined to believe her relationship with his brother had been either recent or innocent, he didn't appear angered or in any way disturbed by the possibility that his brother's murderer might be standing before him.  

Still, he was obviously at least conscious that his was a house of mourning, and she wondered if that was why he had agreed to meet and talk to her--so that other members of the family, closer to Peter, would not be disturbed.

Slowly she said, "But you don't believe the mirror has any value to anyone in the family?"

"I don't believe anyone else will wish to buy it back from you, no," he replied indifferently.  His wide shoulders moved in a slight shrug, drawing her eyes and causing her concentration to waver yet again.  There was so much of strength and power about him, so much of force or the possibility of force.  And yet she wasn't afraid of him, she thought.  

Aware, suddenly, of a silence that had gone on just those few seconds too long, she said hastily, "Then you won't mind if I try to find out why Peter wanted to buy it back."  

He lifted an eyebrow.  "Mind?  No.  But just how do you propose to do that?"  

"It's an old mirror; it's bound to have a history.  I have a researcher looking into that."  

"Why?"  

Laura...

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Verlag
Bantam Dell Pub Group
Erscheinungsdatum
1997
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0553099493
ISBN 13 
9780553099492
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
322
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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