Esposito reached between the wooden slats. “A false bottom.” He pulled a handful of papers from it and looked at them.

Automatically, Zach approached him, but Rochelle was faster and took the sheets of paper from Esposito’s hand.

“That’s it.” Slowly, she turned to him. “That’s the bank account from which the illegal trade was made.”

Zach grabbed the papers and scanned them. They were bank statements from the Inter Commerce and Trade Bank, the same bank Wade had mentioned in connection with the stock trade.

“That’s not my account.” He pointed to the name, John Miller.

Rochelle shook her head, her lips pressed into a thin line as if she didn’t want to answer.

“Then why do you have these bank statements in your house?” Esposito asked. “Hidden in the false bottom of a desk of all places!”

Zach ignored him and grabbed Rochelle’s arm. He didn’t care anymore if Esposito realized now that there was something between him and Rochelle. “Rochelle, you can’t possibly believe that. Somebody is trying to pin this on me. You have to see that.”

Rochelle sniffled, but then she lifted her head and stiffened. “I’m sure that on Monday when we contact the bank, we’ll find out that you were the one who opened this account.” She pulled her shoulders back. “Mr. Ivers, please give me your passport. You’re not allowed to leave New York State, otherwise you’ll be arrested immediately.”

The words sounded as if she’d rehearsed them and a robot was now rattling them off. He barely listened. He could only stare at her in disbelief.

Somebody had planted fake evidence in his house and given the SEC instructions on where to find it. How could Rochelle not see through that? How could she not see that somebody was trying to frame him? Why couldn’t she trust him? Had not a single minute of their time together been real? Had she pretended everything that had passed between them?

“I have no intention of going anywhere,” he said and lifted his chin as a sign that he accepted her challenge. “I’m going to disprove these allegations. And once I have, you’ll owe me an apology.”

But he knew that an apology wouldn’t be able to repair the rift between them. And that fact clamped around his heart like an iron fist that squeezed tightly and filled his entire body with pain.

22

The two and a half hour drive back to Manhattan had been torture. Rochelle had been silent most of the time, pretending to concentrate on the nighttime traffic, while Nicole and Antonio had practically been celebrating their success. Rochelle didn’t feel like celebrating. Until the very last moment she’d held on to the hope that Zach was innocent. But to find the bank account statements, which had been used for a large stock trade of Ivers International shares, had dashed her hopes.

Zach had lied to her. In fact, he was still lying to her, still claiming that the account wasn’t his. As if a fake name on a statement could protect him. Getting a fake ID wasn’t hard, particularly not for a man like Zach, who had enough money to buy anything he needed.

Anything but her love and respect.

She tried to convince herself that she was better off without him, but she was only lying to herself. She still wanted him, despite the lies and the deception. But she was realistic enough to know that a relationship between them was now out of the question. And the faster she accepted this, the better.

“Where would you like me to drop you off, Nicole?” she asked as they crossed Brooklyn on the freeway.

“Take the exit on Tillary Street. There’s a bus stop right there. Just drop me off and then you can get back on the freeway on the other side,” Nicole answered from the backseat.

“Are you sure? I’m happy to drive you all the way home.”

Nicole bent forward through the gap between the two front seats. “Don’t worry. I always take the bus from here.”

A few minutes later, Nicole got out and Rochelle drove back onto the freeway heading for the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Do you want me to let you out at Columbus Park?” She tossed Antonio a sideways glance.

“Yeah, that works.” It seemed as if he wanted to add something, but he didn’t. Only once Rochelle had crossed the bridge and turned into a side street, her colleague opened his mouth again. “I don’t want to be nosy or anything, but you and Ivers…”

Her breath caught, and involuntarily she hit the brakes. Behind her, somebody honked. Quickly, she lifted her hand in apology and sped up again.

So Antonio had noticed that she and Zach had treated each other more intimately than was usual between agent and suspect. “Antonio, that’s…” She didn’t really know how to reply. It was over between them, but that didn’t change anything about the fact that she’d been involved with a man whom she investigated.