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I stared at Mark pointedly hoping he could answer that.
I had to agree with her and Theo bit his lip trying not to smile.
“What do their crimes have to do with my client?” my new-to-me lawyer asked.
“We have records of Duncan Pounder contacting Ms. Lane recently. Since they were… close in the past, we had to ensure our investigation was thorough and she wasn’t involved.”
“He wanted his engagement ring back. You think I’m working with them because Duncan contacted me about the stupid ring?”
“If you have it still, why not give it back to him?” Mark wondered.
“Because I lost it!”
The lawyer cut in. “What Ms. Lane does or doesn’t have that belongs to Mr. Pounder is irrelevant.”
“True. And an unreturned engagement ring is the least of his worries.” Mark looked to me. “Derek… I mean, Luke, said you weren’t involved, but I had to follow up.”
I frowned. “What does Luke have to do with this?”
“I was supposed to chat with you at the bar last week about all this, but Luke saw you and pretty much claimed you.”
My mouth fell open. I looked to Theo, then the lawyer, then up at the ceiling, hoping to get my thoughts organized. My mother was a criminal and probably not a senator for much longer. And she didn’t want me to be in the family because I had a kid and it was bad family values?
She was such a bitch!
Besides that, she was in cahoots–or whatever other word the Scooby Doo gang would use–with Duncan? Why try to marry me if he got to her on his own?
Then there was Luke. Mark knew him? “You know Luke?”
Mark nodded. “We’ve been friends for a few years. Worked on set together a few times.”
At the party, Luke admitted our bar connection had been planned. I thought he meant he’d orchestrated it so that he could ultimately connect him with my mother. Not because he was friends with an investigating FBI agent wanting to talk with me.
“You put together the meeting at the bar?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
“I had to know if you were an accomplice with the others.”
“But Luke saw me and–”
I flushed, remembering what we did in his hotel room after trivia was over.
“Wanted you for himself,” Mark continued. “I never thought love at first sight existed, but I was wrong.”
“What about at the party in LA and my mother? Was that part of it?”
“I don’t know anything about what happened at the party, and I never told Luke who your mother was. Sharing her name with him would have compromised the case.”
He didn’t–WHAT?
That meant Luke didn’t know my mother was… my mother?
“Do you have any further questions for my client?” the lawyer asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“There are no connections that the FBI can find between Ms. Lane and her parents in the past decade,” Mark said. “As for Mr. Pounder, the communications have all been one way. Since she never gave any money to him, there is no collusion.”
