Fool Me Once Read online

  Fool Me Once

  Also by Fern Michaels…

  Lethal Justice

  Sweet Revenge

  The Jury

  Vendetta

  Payback

  Picture Perfect

  Weekend Warriors

  About Face

  The Future Scrolls

  Kentucky Rich

  Kentucky Heat

  Kentucky Sunrise

  Plain Jane

  Charming Lily

  What You Wish For

  The Guest List

  Listen to Your Heart

  Celebration

  Yesterday

  Finders Keepers

  Annie’s Rainbow

  Sara’s Song

  Vegas Sunrise

  Vegas Heat

  Vegas Rich

  Whitefire

  Wish List

  Dear Emily

  FERN MICHAELS

  Fool Me Once

  ZEBRA BOOKS

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  I would like to dedicate this book

  to my lifelong friend,

  Betty Hugill Salyan.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Prologue

  Nineteen hundred sixty-six

  Oxford, Mississippi

  The three of them walked together, their arms linked, as they left the campus of Ole Miss. Their conversation, as they walked along, dealt with the unbearable humidity that blanketed the town—the whole state, for that matter. Their destination was the Moss Teahouse, run by Hattie and Mattie Moss, two spinsters who, if you believed the rumors, had lived forever and were never going to die because they belonged to the Moss Clan, whatever the hell the Moss Clan was.

  The reason the trio was headed for the Moss Teahouse wasn’t because they craved the watery, flavorless tea or the wilted cucumber sandwiches that the older ladies of the town devoured, but because none of their classmates frequented the teahouse. Who in her right mind wanted to sit in a dusty, moldy-smelling tearoom, staring out grimy windows behind limp ruffled curtains? The reason they were going to the teahouse was that Allison Matthews had something of the utmost importance to discuss with her two best friends. A secret, actually. No, what she wanted to discuss was more than a secret. It was a devilishly clever idea that would put them all on easy street for the rest of their lives. If, and it was a big if, the three of them had the guts to pull it off.

  The conversation drifted to final exams and how prepared each of them was. All were among the top five percent of their class, so there were no worries for any of them. Taking a Saturday off to deal with secret, devilish plans didn’t pose a problem at all. Their situation was far different from that of fellow students who had partied and cut classes, and now had to cram around the clock just to graduate from Ole Miss by the skin of their teeth and leave town with their heads up.

  There was nothing notable about the trio. They weren’t preppie, they certainly weren’t pretty, nor were they shapely or fashionable. What they were was bookish-looking. Bookworms. All three wore glasses and no makeup, but, then again, makeup wouldn’t have helped Allison’s hawkish features or Jill’s moon face, which was just as round as the rest of her. Gwen’s overbite and full lips would have cried out in protest if makeup had been applied.

  The three of them had met in the library and, out of necessity, quickly formed a bond. Four years of college demanded you have someone to pal around with, and they’d had good times, the three of them, even though they all lusted in their hearts to belong.

  In addition to their superior intelligence, the trio had another thing in common—they loved money. Late at night, when they huddled together, they’d talk about how someday they would all be rich and famous. Then they were going to meet up, go to their college reunion, and make all their hoity-toity classmates sit up and take notice. It was a dream, but one they knew would come to fruition if they worked hard and kept at it. Allison, their spokesperson, always said if you persevered, you would prevail. Allison never said anything unless it was true. Well, hardly ever.

  It was a pretty little town, not exactly your typical college town but close, and it was full of monster trees with hanging moss that at times looked eerie yet beautiful at the same time. The shops along the thoroughfare were quaint, with brightly colored striped awnings and multipaned windows that glistened in the brilliant April sunshine.

  The trio walked past Mulvaney’s drugstore, where the scent of Chantilly powder wafted through the open door. The girls stopped to look at the SALE sign on the front window. Prell shampoo and Colgate toothpaste were listed. Two for the price of one, but the girls weren’t interested. They shrugged as they continued down the shady street, past a hardware store so quaint it looked just as it would have fifty years earlier. Daniel Hawthorn sat on an old rocker under the front window, smoking his pipe. Next to him was a barrel of rakes and shovels, and huge bags of grass seed, the first and only clue that the building was indeed a hardware store. Mrs. Hawthorn believed in starched curtains, as did most of the shopkeepers. But curtains in a hardware store? Puh-leeze.

  “Well, girls, here we are,” Allison said, her voice sounding jittery. She made a pretext of looking inside the tearoom before sitting down on the white-painted bench in front of a bow window adorned with limp checkered curtains. Half-barrels that had been painted white and were full of flowers so colorful they looked like a rainbow in a circle graced each side of the bench. Everyone said Hattie and Mattie Moss had a green thumb and would have been better off operating a flower shop instead of a teahouse. Of course, no one said that to their faces.

  Jill Davis wiped at her perspiring face. Her hair was plastered to her forehead. “Are we going to stay out here or go inside, where it might be a tad cooler? I hate this damn humidity. Look at me, I’m drenched,” she complained.

  Allison got up off the bench, looking up and down the street. Her hand snaked out to the ornate doorknob. A bell tinkled as she walked through, Jill and Gwen following. She stepped to the side to allow the others more standing room and give her eyes time to get used to the dim interior. Her hand went automatically to her glasses to adjust them on her sweaty face. Her friends did the same.

  Allison led the way to the back of the tearoom, where a small cluster of empty tables waited. Overhead, paddle fans whirred noisily. Even in the dimness, dust at least half an inch thick coated the blades as they whirled around. Gwen sneezed, not once but three times, as she took her seat at the small, round wrought-iron table. Her eyes started to water behind her thick glasses.

  “We should have gone to Dominic’s Pizza Parlor. This place is disgusting,” Gwen grumbled as she cleaned her glasses with the hem of her skirt.

  “Too noisy at Dominic’s. Look around—no one is here. It’s the middle of the afternoon, and we have the place to ourselves. We don’t actually have to drink the tea or eat the sandwiches. We’ve been coming here for years when we had important things to discuss. It’s a tradition
,” Allison said, her voice sounding defensive.

  “Well, let’s get to it so we can get out of here. It’s just as hot inside as it is outside. I swear, I am going to move to Colorado first chance I get, and I’m never coming back to this place,” Jill whined. “Well, I’ll come back for a reunion, but that’s it.”

  Hattie, or maybe it was Mattie, clomped her way to their table, a pad of paper and a pencil in her hand. Her ample bosom heaved with the effort of having walked across the room. “Hello, ladies,” she chirped. “What can I get for you today?”

  “We’ll have three ice teas, and some of your famous rice cakes,” Allison said.

  “No rice cakes today, ladies. We do have some store-bought cookies if your sweet tooth can tolerate them,” Hattie or Mattie chirped again.

  “Ah, no. Just the ice tea then.”

  Hattie or Mattie grimaced as she painstakingly wrote down the order before trundling off to the back of the teahouse.

  “Okay, why are we here?” Gwen asked as she patted at her perspiring neck with a paper napkin. She yanked at the collar of her yellow blouse, which looked soaking wet.

  Allison looked across the table at her two friends. She sucked in her breath, then exhaled it in a loud swoosh. She took a second deep breath as she leaned across the table. Her voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “We’re going to rob the bank I work in. I can’t do it myself, so that means I need your help, and we split the proceeds three ways. Think of it as three for the money. In this case we’re talking about bearer bonds. You in or out?” She flopped back in her chair as her classmates stared at her, their mouths hanging open.

  Jill’s plump fingers grasped the edge of the table. Her whole body started to shake. “In or out of what?” she gasped.

  “With me or against me,” Allison said. “Gwen?”

  “When you rob a bank, you go to jail. Where did you get an idea like this? I wouldn’t do well in jail. I think this state makes women go out in chain gangs. The guards rape women prisoners. I don’t think so, Allison. I’m not a brave person. You know me, I’m scared of my own shadow. I won’t tell anyone if you want to go ahead and do it. No. My answer is no.”

  Allison stared at her friends. “What if I told you I’ve been planning this for a year and can guarantee we’ll get away with it. This is not a lark. I’m serious—we can do it. We’ll be rich. Not right away, because we’ll have to wait till the bonds come due. No one can trace them to us. Bearer bonds, girls. At my bank. I have it all down pat. Come on, for once in our lives let’s do something radical. There’s not a person within a hundred miles who would ever think we pulled it off. I’m telling you, we can do this and walk away with no one the wiser. You know I’m smart enough to plan this thoroughly.”

  Jill continued to mop at her perspiring face and neck. Hattie or Mattie set down three glasses of tea whose ice cubes had already melted. Gwen reached for her glass just to have something to do with her hands.

  “Tell us the plan,” Gwen whispered nervously, after Hattie or Mattie had left.

  Allison smiled. “It’s so simple, it’s downright scary. As you both know, I’ve worked at the bank part-time since I got here. That’s four years of employment. Mr. Augustus depends on me. At Christmastime last year he said he didn’t know what he would do without me, said I more or less ran the bank, but that was a joke. He just meant that I know everything there is to know, which is true. You also know that he belongs to that Gentlemen’s Club with all those old rich, fuddy-duddy pals he associates with. They are all obscenely rich. Everyone knows that, too.

  “So here’s the plan. Four times a year, regular as clockwork, someone delivers a package of bearer bonds. The man just drops them off in a brown envelope. It isn’t even sealed, just clasped. Then Mr. Augustus divvies them up among the men from the club. One time the package sat on his desk for a whole week. He never even opened it. Do you believe that? I always thought they were doing something…something illegal.

  “Moving right along here. As you know, Margaret, Corinne, and I are the only employees. My hours are never the same, depending on my classes. Corinne works just three days a week. Only Margaret is full-time. Neither one of them pays attention to anything. They’re just tellers, and if the bank is empty, they go in the back and drink sweet tea. If someone comes in to deposit or withdraw, I buzz them. Are you following me here?”

  Two heads bobbed up and down.

  “Mr. Augustus is going on a trip with the Gentlemen’s Club next week. This time they’re even taking their wives. The courier is due the day after they leave. Now, this is important. No one touches that envelope but the courier. He personally walks into Mr. Augustus’s office and puts it on his desk. He closes the door when he leaves. Usually Margaret signs for the envelope, dates it, and gives me the receipt to file.

  “All we have to do is substitute plain white paper for the bonds. I’ll do that, wearing gloves of course. One of you will come into the bank and put the bonds in your safe-deposit box. I won’t log you in, so there will be no record that you went to the vault. You’ll do this when Margaret and Corinne are in the back. You leave. The bonds are safe. We won’t move them till after graduation and we’re ready to leave town. What do you think so far?”

  “Robbing the bank, any bank, is a federal offense,” Jill squeaked.

  “Why aren’t the bonds put in the vault?” Gwen asked.

  Allison threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know. Mr. Augustus must not think anyone would have the nerve to rob him. Either that, or he’s stupid. Like I said, I personally think he and those other men in the Gentlemen’s Club are doing something illegal. I haven’t quite figured out what, and maybe I never will. It’s just the way it is. Look, it’s a small, privately owned bank. Mr. Augustus does things his way. This is, after all, Mississippi.

  “No fingerprints will be on the envelope other than the courier’s. All we have to do is cut up newspapers the same size as typing paper. We’ll wear gloves. I’ll carry everything in my book bag. I have it covered, girls.”

  “How are you going to hold up against the FBI, Allison?” Jill whispered.

  Allison looked around. The bell over the door had tinkled. Two little old ladies with blue-white hair carrying string shopping bags walked in and settled themselves at a table at the front of the teahouse. A few minutes later, a woman dragging a toddler demanding an ice-cream cone entered.

  “Time to go, girls. Don’t worry about me. I can hold my own. I’ve been planning this for a whole year. At the risk of repeating myself, are you in or out?”

  Two heads bobbed up and down.

  “If we do this, and if we pull it off, does it mean we finally qualify as being the downtown girls who become the ‘uptown girls’?” Jill asked.

  “It definitely does,” Allison said, her eyes sparkling behind her glasses as she counted out change and left a small tip on the table. “Now, let’s go get some pizza.”

  Chapter 1

  Five years later

  Winchester, Virginia

  Sandy-haired Dennis Lowell bounced his way into the small hospital, a huge smile on his face. He was the father of a baby girl. He hadn’t seen her yet, but he knew she was going to be the most beautiful baby in the whole world. What, he wondered, had he done to deserve this happiness? His dark brown eyes sparkled at the thought.

  Names for his new offspring flitted through his mind. He had been unable to get Allison to settle on one before she gave birth. He rather thought it was because she didn’t want to be committed to a girl’s name, then deliver a baby boy. Well, she wasn’t going to be able to procrastinate much longer. A baby’s name was going to go on the birth certificate. He hoped she’d go with Olivia—after his mother. But in the end, it didn’t matter what the choice was. He was just grateful that the newborn was healthy and had all her toes and fingers.

  Dennis straightened his tie, smoothed back his thinning hair, and took a deep breath as he made his way to the maternity ward. Childishly, he crossed his finger
s, hoping that Allison would welcome him with a smile. But he knew in his gut there would be no smile. Possibly, a tirade awaited him. When the call had come into the office, he’d been going over a very muddled tax return with a client. A high-profile, high-paying client. There was no way he could bolt out of the office leaving a client so furious at the Internal Revenue Service. That had been three hours ago. His brand-new daughter was already three hours old, and he hadn’t so much as seen her.

  No, there would be no smile on Allison’s face.

  He stood outside the door of his wife’s room. He could hear voices inside. He frowned. Was it possible his wife had visitors so soon? Maybe it was a nurse, and they were cooing over the new baby. He brightened a little at the thought.

  Dennis knocked softly. At the same time, he pasted a smile on his face and pressed down on the latch of the door handle. He tried for a joke, but it felt sickly even to him when he said, “Ready or not, here comes the new father!”

  Dennis took it in all at once; two strange men standing at the foot of the bed, his wife sitting propped up in the bed like a princess and, of course, the nurse, a red-haired, red-faced woman who looked to be flushed with anger. There was no sign of a bassinet or his new daughter. He looked around, instinctively knowing something was wrong. He managed to gasp out one word. “Baby?”

  “Dennis, it was nice of you to come. It’s been, what, four hours since I had the baby.”

  Dennis looked at his watch. “Three and a half hours,” he managed to croak. The fear he was feeling escalated as he looked at the nurse and her cartful of medical equipment as well as medicines. The men had briefcases. What did that mean? Suddenly he felt light-headed in the small private room they couldn’t afford but Allison had insisted on. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he recognized one of the men standing by the foot of the bed. He’d seen him at the Rotary Club. A lawyer. What the hell was a lawyer doing in his wife’s hospital room? The other one must be a lawyer, too. What the hell were two lawyers doing there? Whatever it was, he knew instinctively it wasn’t going to be good for him.