Double Life Read online

  Two days later, Emma had contacted him at his office in Corpus Christi, but his offer had taken her completely by surprise. Rather than an administrative position similar to the one she held with her current firm, he’d wanted her to become Helen Corbett’s personal assistant and companion.

  He’d told her that his mother no longer went into the office, but she still had her fingers in the business. She required someone to act as her liaison in board meetings, someone other than family that she could trust. She also needed someone besides the servants to talk to. He was worried that she was alone too much and that her solitude was causing her mind to slip.

  “Emma?”

  She snapped herself back to the present conversation. “I’m sorry. You were saying?”

  “Your dad’s okay now, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, thank goodness. But he still has to curtail his activities and watch his diet.”

  “Well, he’s lucky to have you to help him. And you’re lucky to have him,” Laney said wistfully. “I remember how close you used to be. I always envied your relationship.”

  Laney’s father had died when she was a young child, and a string of stepfathers followed. Emma had lost her mother at an early age, too, but rather than fill the void by remarrying, her father had devoted his life to raising his daughter.

  He’d left his job as a driller with Corbett Enterprises, an oil exploration firm, to become the caretaker at the family estate so that he wouldn’t have to travel. He’d made a cozy home for them in the tiny cottage at the edge of the Corbett estate and like in the old movie, Emma had grown up watching and admiring the Corbett family from afar and dreaming of a romance with Ash.

  “We need to get together soon,” Laney insisted. “We have a ton of stuff to catch up on.”

  “I’d like that,” Emma said with a smile. “Just give me a little more time to get settled. I’ll call you.”

  “Promise?”

  “Of course.”

  “Because if you don’t, I’ll call you,” Laney said. “I still have your dad’s number.”

  “I’m not at Dad’s,” Emma said quickly. “I’m living in the main house.”

  The living arrangement had been one of Wesley’s strongest selling points for the job.

  He told her that she would have her own suite of rooms with a private entrance. When his mother didn’t need her, she’d be able to come and go as she pleased. She could use the pool, the tennis courts…whatever she wanted. The mansion would be her home.

  Her home…but not quite as the way she’d dreamed it would be.

  She took a pen and notepad from her purse. “Here. I’ll give you my cell number.” She scribbled the number, then offered the paper to Laney.

  But the other woman’s attention was caught by something behind Emma. She turned and saw several men standing beneath the pier.

  “What are they doing?” Emma asked curiously.

  “They must have caught something. Someone hauled in a shark the other day.” Laney grabbed Emma’s arm in excitement. “Let’s go see what it is.”

  “I can’t. If I don’t get back soon, Helen will be upset.”

  “Oh, let the old biddy get her panties in a bunch just this once. It won’t hurt her.” Laney grinned. “Come on, let’s go take a look.”

  Before Emma could refuse, Laney pulled her toward the pier. Climbing over the metal railing, the two women scrambled down the slight incline to the beach.

  As Laney jumped down to the sand, she called out to one of the men. “Hey, Rick!”

  Emma recognized Rick Bledsoe from high school. Her father had mentioned that he was now a deputy with the county sheriff’s office, but he wasn’t in uniform today. He had on shorts and sandals and looked as if he’d just come in from fishing. When he spotted Laney, he waved.

  “What is it? Did someone catch another shark?” she asked.

  Slowly he shook his head.

  Laney started across the sand toward him, and he left the group to meet her halfway. He stood between Laney and the men, but Emma remained a few steps behind them and her view was unobstructed. In the gap left by Rick’s departure, she saw a pale arm stretched out on the sand.

  She came to an abrupt stop, her mouth going dry with dread.

  Rick must have heard her gasp because he glanced at her before putting his hand on Laney’s shoulder. “You don’t want to go over there.”

  “Why not?” Laney tossed back her blond hair. “I’ve seen sharks before.”

  “It’s not a shark.” It was Emma who spoke instead of Rick.

  Laney turned in confusion. “What is it then?”

  Emma’s gaze lifted to Rick’s and he nodded, his expression grim. “It’s a body,” he said quietly.

  “What?” Laney whirled back to face him, her hand flying to her mouth. “Oh, dear God. Who is it? Someone we know?”

  He hesitated. “Hard to say. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her before.”

  “Her?”

  “It’s a woman,” he said, still in that hushed tone. “I know that much.”

  “Maybe I’d better have a look,” Laney said.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Rick still had his hand on Laney’s shoulder and Emma saw something flicker in his eyes that chilled her blood.

  “He’s right,” she said. “Maybe we’d better go.”

  But Laney remained adamant. “You two just chill. I’m a nurse, remember? I can handle it.”

  Rick shook his head. “You may be a nurse, but I doubt you’ve ever seen anything like this. Trust me on this one, Laney. You don’t want to see that poor woman’s face.”

  Chapter Two

  One month later

  “Your name is Ashton Corbett, but everyone calls you Ash. From this day forward, you need to get used to thinking of yourself as Ash. For all intents and purposes, Tom Black is dead.”

  The man who had been known as Tom Black until three days ago gave the seedy lawyer a look of contempt. “Aren’t you jumping the gun? We haven’t agreed on the money.”

  The lawyer’s tone sharpened. “I take it that means you’ve decided to accept my offer providing we reach a satisfactory financial arrangement.”

  “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “Yes, indeed you are. And the sooner we get started, the sooner this whole thing can play out to our mutual satisfaction.” David Tobias all but rubbed his hands in glee. “First things first, though. As I said, from this moment forward, I will address you as Ash and you must start thinking of yourself accordingly. For this to work, you must become Ash Corbett. Not just pretend to be him. Do you understand the distinction?”

  “My name is Ashton Corbett,” he said in a monotone. “Ash for short.”

  The lawyer scowled. “Come now, say it like you mean it. Being a Corbett is something to be proud of. You’re Ashton Corbett. Helen Corbett’s grandson. That means something around these parts.”

  “I’ll practice,” he said dryly.

  “You’ll need to do more than practice. You’ll have to live, breathe, sleep Ashton Corbett if we’re to make this thing work.”

  “And just how do you plan for it to work?” he demanded. “You say I resemble Ash Corbett, but I can’t look that much like him. Not enough to fool his own family.”

  “You’re forgetting that he’s been gone for twelve years. He was only eighteen when he left home, and before that, he’d spent years in boarding school. He was hardly ever around. Besides, some people’s features change a great deal as they get older. And you’ve been through a lot. You were in a pretty bad car accident, right? You can always say you had plastic surgery.”

  “Wouldn’t I have scars?”

  “The wonders of modern medicine,” the lawyer said with a shrug. “Stop borrowing trouble and trust me. I would never have involved myself in such a risky endeavor if I weren’t absolutely certain it could work. You may not look exactly like the pictures I showed you of Ash, but you certainly resemble his father, at least enough to be relate
d.”

  The imposter still wasn’t convinced he could pull this off, but he said nothing as the lawyer rambled on.

  “Nevertheless, we’ll still have to play this very carefully because even though I was dumbfounded by the similarity when I first spotted you, I also noticed the differences. The way you look, the way you carry yourself…I knew almost instantly that you weren’t Ash Corbett.”

  “But you went poking around in my background anyway, didn’t you?”

  The lawyer smiled. “I had to know for sure who I was dealing with before I made contact. And as for financial compensation, I mentioned before there’s a sizeable inheritance from Ash’s…excuse me…from your dead mother.”

  “How much?”

  “A quarter of a million dollars. Now that you’re over twenty-one, the money is yours free and clear.”

  “And the family will turn that kind of cash over to me just like that. No questions asked.”

  “They won’t have a choice. Renata Corbett—Ash’s mother—made the provisions before she took him back to Italy after her husband died. This money has nothing to do with the family.”

  Tobias swung his briefcase onto the desk in the shabby motel room and snapped open the locks. “The inheritance will be yours providing you adhere to the terms of our agreement. You must convince Helen Corbett that you’re her grandson and that you have absolutely no interest in Corbett Enterprises. If you fail to do so within a reasonable amount of time, our agreement will be terminated.”

  The imposter went over and sat down on the bed. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he turned away. He didn’t much like what he saw.

  Pulling a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, he grabbed the butane lighter on the nightstand and lit up.

  Tobias whirled in distress. “Put that out!”

  He squinted at the lawyer through a cloud of blue smoke. “Excuse me?”

  “I said, put that out.” Tobias walked over and snatched the cigarette from his fingers, then ground it out in the ashtray. “You don’t smoke.”

  He gave a sharp laugh. “Like hell I don’t.”

  “Ash Corbett doesn’t smoke,” the lawyer said slowly, as if trying to make his admonition sink in. “Understand?”

  “How do you know I don’t smoke?” the imposter asked in amusement. “You haven’t seen me in years. I may have picked up a lot of bad habits you don’t know about.”

  Tobias glared at him. “This isn’t a joke, young man. It’s in everyone’s best interest for this to work out, but especially yours. With your record, you could be facing some serious jailtime if you don’t pull this off. So I advise you to listen to what I have to say very carefully…Ash.”

  “Okay. Whatever. I don’t smoke,” he said lazily. “Anything else I’m not allowed to do?”

  “We’ll get into that later. But for now let me make something very clear to you. Once we start down this road, there’ll be no turning back. If you have any questions or reservations, now is the time to voice them.”

  “I think you should be the one with reservations.”

  Tobias frowned. “Why do you say that?”

  He got up from the bed and strode over to the window to glance out. “Say I do manage to convince the old broad—”

  “Her name is Helen Corbett. She’s your grandmother so show some respect.”

  He flashed a grin over his shoulder. “Say I manage to convince my beloved grandmother that I’m her long-lost grandson…why would I still need you around? What would keep me from going after the whole enchilada?”

  Tobias’s expression turned wary. “What do you mean by the whole enchilada?”

  “I’ve done a little research since you showed up at the construction site the other day. Corbett Enterprises is worth a lot more than a quarter mil. They have oil leases all over Texas and Mexico. What makes you think I’ll be happy with the money from my dead mother?”

  “Because it’s a quarter million more than you have right now,” the lawyer snapped. “And likely a good deal more than you’d otherwise see in your lifetime.”

  He had a point there, the imposter thought.

  Tobias picked up a folder and waved it in the air. “Don’t forget, I’ve done my research, too. Tom Black doesn’t have two nickels to rub together. He grew up dirt poor in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana—lost both parents by the time he was twelve, in and out of foster homes until he turned eighteen, served a stint in the army and another in a state correctional facility, settled in New Orleans and tried his hand at construction until Katrina came along and wiped him out. He evacuated to Houston with thousands of others and from there he eventually moved to San Antonio and then here to Corpus Christi following work. Tom Black lives from paycheck to paycheck. Home is this rat-infested motel while he tries to save up enough money to get back on his feet. Ash Corbett has two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to do with as he pleases. He could go back to New Orleans…or disappear off the face of the earth.”

  “My, my. You have been busy, haven’t you?” he said with an edge of rancor.

  “Oh, there’s more, but I think you get my point. You have a lot to gain from our collaboration, but if you try to claim any portion of the Corbett holdings other than the mother’s inheritance, you will be exposed as an imposter and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And if you think that you can take me down with you, think again.” Something glinted in Tobias’s beady little eyes. Greed, yes, but something else, too. A cruelty that he’d kept hidden until now.

  It would be a mistake to underestimate him, the imposter thought. It would also be a mistake to think that he could walk away unscathed with the money. No scheme ever worked out the way it was planned. He’d learned that lesson the hard way.

  He pulled down a slat in the blinds and stared out at the parking lot. Heat rose from the asphalt and shimmered like a mirage against a backdrop of drooping palm trees and a few scraggly oleanders. He could see his beat-up Chevy at the end of the lot, the most recent dent barely discernible in the rust and corrosion that had accelerated in the salt air.

  The car needed a transmission overhaul, a muffler and a set of new tires. But the lawyer was right. Tom Black didn’t have two nickels to rub together.

  He let the blinds snap back into place as he turned. “Even if I do manage to fool this woman—my grandmother—you said she has two sons and a daughter. Someone is bound to demand a DNA test.”

  Tobias shrugged. “That won’t be a problem.”

  The imposter sat down at the table and folded his arms. “How can it not be a problem? They can’t be so gullible as to accept my word for who I am. I wouldn’t.”

  The lawyer smiled. “Don’t worry about that. Your appearance is different, but, as I said, we can explain that away. The resemblance is still quite striking, and after we’re finished, you’ll know things about Ash—about the family—that only he could know.”

  “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

  “As much as humanly possible, but even as thoroughly as we prepare, some will still have doubts. They’ve believed for years that Ash was dead and now for you to turn up out of the blue…” He paused. “One or both of the uncles will demand further proof…you’re right about that. But it won’t matter because we have a sample of the real Ash’s DNA.”

  We?

  Someone behind the scenes was pulling the strings; Tobias was just a puppet. And that someone needed Ash Corbett alive…for the moment.

  A premonition of dread settled over him as he stared at the lawyer. “Do I want to know how you got the real Ash’s DNA?”

  Tobias grinned, displaying rows of perfect white teeth. “A few hairs from a comb, an old toothbrush. You don’t need to worry how I came by the sample. Suffice it to say that when the time comes we’ll simply substitute your DNA for Ash’s.”

  “As easy as all that.”

  “Money makes anything possible because everyone has a price. You’re living proof of that, aren’t you?”
r />   Anger tore through him. He clenched his fists at his sides, resisting the urge to toss the creepy little lawyer out on his ass. He wouldn’t do that, though, because Tobias was right. He did have a price.

  “There’s one thing I don’t understand,” he said.

  “Just one?”

  He ignored the lawyer’s sarcasm as he slowly got to his feet. “What are you getting out of all this?”

  “I’m being handsomely compensated, I assure you.”

  “Who’s paying you?”

  The lawyer hesitated. “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  “But it has to be one of the uncles. Or Helen Corbett’s daughter.”

  “As I said, I’m not at liberty to divulge my client’s identity, but I wouldn’t even if I could. You might give yourself away if you knew. It’s better this way. You won’t run the risk of letting down your guard with anyone. Now—” Tobias stuck the folder back in his briefcase and closed the lid “—any more questions?”

  “Just one for now.” He turned back to the window. “When do we start?”

  “Immediately. I’ve already begun laying the groundwork for Ash’s return, but you won’t make an appearance at the mansion for at least another month. It’ll take us that long to prepare.”

  The imposter reached for the cigarette pack in his pocket, then let his hand drop to his side. The sun bouncing off windshields was blinding. He squinted, trying to decide if he had the guts to go through with this or not.

  But what choice did he have? If he walked away from David Tobias’s offer, what kind of life would he have?

  “What do you want me to do for now?”

  “Pack your belongings and give notice at your job. We need to get you out of Corpus before someone else spots you. For the next few weeks you’ll be staying in a cabin I’ve rented in the Hill Country. It’s completely isolated. No phones, no television, nothing to distract you.”

  “What about the nightlife?” he quipped.

  “Don’t worry, you won’t have time to get bored. I’ll provide everything you need in order to immerse yourself in Ash Corbett’s life. But no matter how hard we prepare, there’re bound to be unforeseen complications. I hope you’re good at improvisation, Mr. Black, because you’ll have to be very quick on your feet. Helen Corbett is nobody’s fool.”