LuAnn slowly dropped her arm, but she still clutched the letter opener in her hand.
Jackson looked up from the paper. “I have a vested interest in ensuring that your secret never be found out. I have a number of ongoing business activities, and above all I value anonymity. You’re one in a line of dominoes. And when they start to fall, they tend to keep falling until they reach the end. I am that end. Do you understand?”
LuAnn sat back down in the chair and crossed her legs. “Yes,” she answered curtly.
“You have unnecessarily complicated my life by coming back to the United States. The man who is following you discovered your identity, in part, through your tax records. That is why I never wanted you to come back here.”
“I probably shouldn’t have,” LuAnn conceded. “But you try moving just about every six months, a new country, a new language. And try doing it with a little girl.”
“I appreciate your difficulties; however, I assumed that being one of the richest women on earth would more than make up the difference.”
“Like you said, money can’t buy everything.”
“You never met the man before? In your extensive travels? You’re absolutely certain?”
“I would’ve remembered. I’ve remembered everything the last ten years.” She said this softly.
Jackson studied her closely. “I believe you. Do you have any reason to think that he knows about the lottery?”
LuAnn hesitated a second. “No.”
“You’re lying. Tell me the truth immediately or I’ll kill everyone in this house starting with you.” This abrupt threat, delivered calmly and precisely, made her suck in her breath.
She swallowed with difficulty. “He had a list. A list with twelve names on it. Mine, Herman Rudy, Bobbie Jo Reynolds, and some others.”
Jackson assimilated this information rapidly and then looked down at the paper. “And the man Riggs?”
“What about him?”
“There’s some confusion as to his background.”
“Everyone has secrets.”
Jackson smiled. “Touché. Under other circumstances that would not bother me. However, in this instance it does.”
“I’m not following you.”
“Riggs has a mysterious past and he just happens to be around when you need assistance. I take it he did help you.”
LuAnn looked at him quizzically. “Yes, but he’s been here for five years, long before I got here.”
“That’s not the point. I’m not suggesting the man is a plant. I am suggesting that he could well be something entirely different than what he claims. Now he coincidentally collides with your world. That’s what worries me.”
“I don’t think it was anything other than a coincidence. He was hired to do a job for me. It was perfectly natural that he would be nearby when the other man started chasing me.”
Jackson shook his head. “I don’t like it. I saw him tonight.” LuAnn stiffened perceptibly. “At the cottage. I was this close to him.” He spread his hands about two feet apart. “I contemplated killing him on the spot. It would have been extremely easy.”
LuAnn’s face turned white and she licked dry lips. “There’s no reason to do that.”
“You have no way of knowing that. I’m going to check him out and if I find anything in his background to suggest trouble for me, then I will eliminate him. It’s that simple.”
“Let me get that information for you.”
“What?” Jackson looked startled.
“Riggs likes me. He’s already helped me, probably saved my life. It would be natural for me to show my gratitude. Get to know him better.”
“No, I don’t like it.”
“Riggs is a nobody. A local builder. Why trouble yourself with him? Like you said, you’re busy.”
Jackson studied her intensely for a moment. “All right, LuAnn, you do that. However, any information you obtain better be reported to me in a timely fashion or, with respect to Mr. Riggs, I will take matters into my own very capable hands. Clear?”
LuAnn let out a deep breath. “Clear.”
“The other man, of course, I must find. It shouldn’t be too terribly difficult.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t have to do that. Find him.”
“I am very much certain that I do.”