I can do anything, LuAnn.
The mocking words came back to her after all these years and sent a shiver through her. Riggs was right, she couldn’t get through this alone. He had offered help, and this time she needed it. Whether she was making the right decision or not, she didn’t care. Right now, she just needed to do something. She jumped up, grabbed her car keys, unlocked a box in her closet, and placed the loaded nickel-plated .44 Magnum in her purse. She ran down the stairs and into the garage. A minute later the BMW was flying down the road.
Riggs was in the room over his barn when he heard the car drive up and park next to the garage. He watched out the window as LuAnn came into view. She started toward the house but then, as if sensing his presence, she turned to stare at him. Their eyes stayed locked for a long moment as each silently probed the other. A minute later she was sitting across from him, warming her hands from the heat of the stove.
This time Riggs felt no compunction to mince words.
“The lottery was fixed, wasn’t it? You knew you were going to win, didn’t you?”
LuAnn jolted upright for an instant, but then let out an almost simultaneous breath of relief.
“Yes.” With that one word she felt as though the last ten years of her life had suddenly evaporated. It was a cleansing feeling. “How’d you figure it out?”
“I had some help.”
LuAnn tensed and slowly rose. Had she just made the biggest mistake of her life?
Riggs sensed her sudden change and put up a hand. As calmly as he could, he said, “Nobody else knows right now. I pulled some pieces of information from different sources and then took a wild stab.” He hesitated and then added, “I also bugged your car. I heard your entire conversation with Donovan.”
“Who the hell are you?” LuAnn hissed, her hand feeling for her purse catch and the gun inside even as she stared at him.
Riggs just sat there and stared back at her. “I’m someone very much like you,” was his surprising reply. Those words stopped her cold. Riggs stood and put his hands in his pockets, leaned up against the bookcase, and eyed the gently swaying trees through the window. “My past is a secret, my present is all made up.” He looked over at her. “A lie. But for a good reason.” He raised his eyebrows. “Like you.”
LuAnn trembled for an instant. Her legs felt weak and she abruptly sat down on the floor. Riggs swiftly knelt beside her, taking her hand in his. “We don’t have a lot of time so I’m not going to sugarcoat things. I made some inquiries about you. I did it discreetly, but it’s going to have ripple effects nonetheless.” He looked at her intently. “Are you ready to hear this?”
LuAnn swallowed hard and nodded; the fear passed from her eyes and was replaced with an inexplicable calmness.
“The FBI has been interested in you ever since you fled the country. The case has been dormant for a while, but that’s not going to last. They know something is up with you, and maybe with how you won the money, but they don’t know what, and they haven’t been able to prove anything.”
“If you bugged the car, you know how Donovan got onto it.”
Riggs nodded and helped her up. They both sat on the couch. “Bankruptcy. Pretty clever. I know the Feds haven’t latched on to that angle yet. Do you know how it was rigged?”
LuAnn shook her head.
“Is it a group, an organization behind it? Donovan thought it was the government. Please don’t tell me it is. That gets way too complicated.”
“It’s not.” LuAnn was speaking clearly now, although traces of fear, the effect of the sudden exposure of long-held secrets, flitted over her features. “It’s one person, as far as I know.”
Riggs sat back with an amazed look. “One person. That isn’t possible.”
“He had some people working for him, at least two that I know of, but I’m pretty sure he was the boss.” That was an understatement. LuAnn could not imagine Jackson taking orders from anyone.