a vast understatement. “He suffered tremendous financial losses when the two of you severed your business relationship.”
A single nod. “Our visions for the project turned out to be vastly different. Severing the relationship was his choice, not mine.”
Bella held back the laugh that tickled her throat but she couldn’t completely hide the smile. “My assessment of those events is that you left him no other choice.”
He stood. “There are always choices, Ms. Lytle. Perhaps limited, but choices nonetheless. I think I’ll have something stronger than the coffee. Would you like a drink?”
“The coffee is fine.”
She watched as he crossed the room, then opened a cabinet that revealed a bar lined with mirrors and glass shelves. He reached for a bottle of bourbon and poured a significant serving into a glass. His every move was measured, elegant, like the suit he wore.
Bella had read many articles about Pierce before tragedy sent his life on a different path. She’d even watched a couple of television interviews. Dr. Devon Pierce had been a real Chicago hero at Rush University Medical Center. He’d smiled often in the interviews. He’d spoken like a man determined to help others...determined to do good. He and two partners were developing a new kind of ER model. He had been a man with a mission. A happy man.
This was not the same man. He’d resigned from his position as head of surgery at Rush. He’d become completely obsessed with his mission to create a better ER. He’d withdrawn from society beyond the necessary appearances at fund-raisers. But he had completed his mission. His prototype, the Edge, was an unparalleled emergency department dedicated to his late wife.
When he’d taken his seat once more, she asked, “Assuming his goal is to ruin you or perhaps worse, do you believe Mr. Sutter would go to these extremes to have his vengeance?”
“Richard is an extremely intelligent man with vast resources. He certainly possesses the means to carry out such an elaborately planned plot, but I would prefer to think not. Yet here we are.” He sipped his drink.
Bella watched him savor the taste that lingered on his lips. Her throat parched and she had to look away. “You knew the man—like a brother, you claimed in one of the interviews I watched. Would he want to simply damage your reputation? Or is he capable of far worse?”
That blue gaze trapped hers once more. “Powerful men rarely have set boundaries, Ms. Lytle.”
She didn’t have to ask if he fell into that same category. “Would he overstep the bounds of the law? Risk criminal charges and perhaps jail time?” As Pierce pointed out, setting up a woman who resembled his wife, complete with similar physical injuries, and delivering her in such a way as was done today was not a small thing. And certainly not one that was legal under any circumstances.
“I believe that may be the case.”
“Was a lack of resources why he didn’t come after you before? Five years is quite a while to wait for revenge.” Sutter and Pierce had broken their partnership five years ago. Sutter had seemingly fallen off the face of the earth until about eighteen months ago. Bella had tracked his return back that far. He stayed out of the public eye these days.
“His resources took a hit when our association ended but he was far from devastated financially,” Pierce explained. “It was likely the failed legal steps and the cancer that kept him from making a move like this before. Rumor is he found a private hospital in some country not burdened by the FDA’s restraints to seek treatment. I have no idea how long he was out of the country.”
A near-death experience like surviving cancer often changed a person’s priorities. It was possible that survival had sent Sutter on his own mission. “This might be the most important question I ask you tonight, Dr. Pierce,” she warned. “Does Sutter have a legitimate reason to want revenge?” She waited, watched his face, his eyes.
One, two, three seconds elapsed. He downed another sip of bourbon. “Yes.”
“All right.” Bella appreciated that it hadn’t been necessary to drag that answer out of him. More than that, she was grateful he answered honestly. “Does he have some sort of information or evidence that could hurt you?” After all, the message left in Pierce’s office had been pretty clear: I know what you did.
“Professionally, no.”
“What about personally?” Bella waited, suddenly unable to breathe.
He finished off the bourbon before meeting her gaze. “He believes I killed my wife.”
There was an answer she hadn’t expected. “Does he have tangible evidence or probable cause to believe you wanted your wife dead?”
Bella was certain her heart didn’t beat while she waited for him to answer.
“Have you ever loved something so much you would do anything to possess it and, once it was yours, to keep it?”
His words were spoken so softly, she’d had to strain to hear. As for his question, if she was completely honest she would confess that she felt exactly that way about her work. Her career defined her. There was nothing else. Her sister and she rarely talked, never visited each other. Basically she had no family. No real love life. Her career—her professional reputation—was everything. She would do anything within the law to keep it.
“I suppose so,” she said at last.
“I loved my wife, Ms. Lytle.” His fingers tightened on the empty glass. “More than anything. I thought giving her everything her heart desired was enough, but it wasn’t. She wanted more and I didn’t see that until it was too late.”
“She turned to someone else,” Bella supplied. It happened to career-focused—obsessed—people all the time.
He placed his glass on the table next to the deserted coffee. “She did indeed.”
“What did you do about that?” The urge to feel sympathy for him hit her harder than it should have.
“Nothing. I ignored it. Hoped it would go away.”
An odd answer for a man who prided himself on keeping his life in perfect order. “Was Sutter the other party involved?”
He turned his palms up. “I have no idea. She took that secret with her to her grave.”
The idea that Sutter remained Pierce’s partner for a while after her death seemed to negate that possibility. “You never hired a private investigator to look into her extracurricular activities?”
“I did not.” He cleared his throat. “I had no desire to confirm my suspicions. I loved her. As I said, I hoped if the worst was true that it would pass.”
As heartfelt as his answer sounded, Pierce was the sort of man who generally kept tabs on all aspects of his world. Why would he ignore some part he believed to be out of sync, or worse, out of his control completely?
“How did you come to learn that Sutter suspected you killed your wife?” A good deal of time passed before the two ended their partnership. If Sutter truly believed such a thing, why wouldn’t he have brought it up sooner? Weeks or months after Cara Pierce died? Particularly if there was a possibility he had been in love with her.
“Perhaps he thought if he stayed close to me that I would eventually confess to him or that he would find some sort of evidence.” He stared at the glass as if weighing the prospect of having a second drink. “I really have no idea what he was thinking. Or why he thought it.”
“Did he know you were aware of your wife’s affair?”
“I assume he did. He would likely see that as a motive for me wanting her dead. Frankly, there is nothing else his message could have meant.”
“But your wife died in a hospital after a car crash. What’s his theory about how you murdered her under the circumstances?”
Bella had read the reports. The