Her pulse began to throb in her throat. She’d wondered about this very issue. Was Liam saying that his father had acted so irresponsibly on that night sixteen years ago because he knew he might be implicated in Langford’s fraudulent practices?
“I had heard about it,” she said quietly. “Just an occasional reference here and there in some old news clippings about the crash. The SEC came out several weeks after the accident and announced that no charges would be made following an investigation at Langford. I thought no wrongdoing was found.”
“There wasn’t any wrongdoing,” Liam said soberly.
“Then…why are you telling me this?”
He paused to take a sip of his tea before he continued. Natalie found herself admiring the muscular movement of his tanned throat as he swallowed. She guiltily met his gaze when he spoke.
“I’m telling you because I figured that you, like most people, would have come up with some sort of conspiracy angle when they heard about the SEC’s investigation. It goes something like this, I can imagine—Derry Kavanaugh swindles thousands of honest shareholders with fraudulent financial reports. When he gets caught by the SEC, though, he can’t stand the prospect of his family and the public knowing he’s nothing but a dirty criminal. He’d rather die than face the music. So he gets smashed one night and in the process of offing himself, selfishly takes three other lives as well.”
Her cheeks burned at his seemingly casual recital. Maybe he’d stated it bluntly to make a point, but what he’d said was true. She had wondered if something akin to that was behind Derry Kavanaugh’s erratic actions that night. Despite her embarrassment, she refused to be cowed by Liam’s subtle sarcasm.
“I’ll admit I wondered about the SEC’s investigation. Even if he’d been innocent, your father might have been over-wrought. The investigation had gone on for months. That’s a t
errific amount of pressure to live under, especially when he had to keep working and putting up a brave front. Many people would crack under stress like that.”
She paused, feeling self-conscious when Liam said nothing but just studied her, his long legs bent before him and his arms sprawled on the sides of the chair. Beneath his seeming insouciance, she sensed a diamond-hard edge, however, a tension that belied all that relaxed male brawn.
It made her wary, this difficulty she had in reading him. Was he angry?
“How do you know that wasn’t the case with your father?” she persisted, despite her uncertainty.
“Because my father knew that the SEC wasn’t going to level any charges at the time of the accident.”
“What?” Natalie asked, sitting forward. “But the SEC didn’t announce that until weeks after the crash.”
“True,” Liam said briskly. “But I accessed Langford’s financial disclosures. The details of the investigation are in the files. The SEC had finished their investigation and made their determination weeks before the accident. The announcement just wasn’t made to the public until a stockholders’ meeting several weeks later. As chief legal counsel, my father knew the SEC’s decision as soon as it was made. I have a dated memo that proves that fact. My father definitely knew Langford was cleared of any wrongdoing at the time of the accident.”
“I see.”
“Disappointed?” he asked.
“No. No, of course not,” she said, irritated. How could he be so warm at times, and at others, downright confrontational? “I want the truth, not easy answers.”
Something about the tilt of his mouth before he took another swallow of his tea made her think he doubted her.
“Can I ask you a question?” she asked impulsively.
“Sure.”
“Did you already know what you just told me, or was it news to you?”
He shooed a buzzing fly away with a lazy flip of his hand before he answered. “I knew, but in a family-knowledge kind of way. I wasn’t sure of the facts.”
“What do you mean?” Natalie asked. She leaned forward even farther in her chair. She couldn’t help it. She was sitting with a man who had known firsthand the secrets of the Kavanaugh house. Things that Natalie had wondered about incessantly were common knowledge to Liam.
Something sparked in his eyes when he noticed her curiosity…her eagerness.
“So this is the part where it’s handy to have an inside man for your investigator?” he asked softly.
“It’s not bizarre that I would want to know what you know.”
His nostrils flared slightly as he studied her, but then he sighed and glanced toward the lake. The sunlight reflecting off the water seemed to make his eyes even more electric blue than usual.
“True. But your interest makes me uncomfortable. People tend to keep family stuff close. Until Mari Itani came back to town a year ago, we hardly ever mentioned the crash amongst ourselves. Hell, my sister Deidre took off after the crash and hasn’t been back to Harbor Town since, let alone sat around for chats about our father getting bombed one night and killing himself and three other people.”
Guilt seeped into her awareness. She wasn’t the only one who carried open wounds. For a few seconds, she wasn’t sure what to say.