“How long have you been at Red Rose?”

“Fifteen years.”

“Tell us about your relationship with Bonnie Wrigley, the author of Manhattan Merger. Give the court an idea of the process.”

“Bonnie’s first manuscript came through the slush pile ten years ago. It was a wonderful book and I phoned her to tell her we were going to publish it. Since then she has written twenty-seven novels for us. Manhattan Merger was her twenty-fourth book. It was written for a promotion called ‘Urban Tycoons.’”

Urban tycoons?

“Will you explain what you mean by a promotion?”

“Every month we put out six books in the Touch of Romance line. One or two of these books are usually part of a promotion or theme that has particular appeal for readers around the world. I made the suggestion to Bonnie that she write to the Urban Tycoon theme. She came up with Manhattan Merger.”

“Thank you, Ms. Farr. You can step down. I’d like to call Bonnie Wrigley to the stand.”

To Payne’s surprise the woman who was the next witness looked to be in her late fifties. Somehow he couldn’t see her as a stalker, but he didn’t suppose age mattered if a person were that unstable.

“Ms. Wrigley? Tell the court where you live.”

“Spokane, Washington.”

“Is writing a full-time career for you?”

“No. I’m a full-time Spanish teacher and write on the side.”

“How long have you been a teacher?”

“Twenty-six years.”

“How long have you been a writer?”

“Since I was twelve, but I didn’t get published until ten years ago.”

“Tell the court how you came up with your idea for Manhattan Merger.”

“When Margaret asked me if I’d like to write a book about a big tycoon, I decided he would have to be a billionaire because millionaires are too common these days.

“Since I’d already done several millionaire stories with European heroes who’d come from titled backgrounds, I thought I’d feature an American with ties to the English aristocracy. Someone whose family had amassed a fortune in real estate and shipping on the East Coast and had created a world bank.

“I decided he would have to be plagued by a problem that his billions couldn’t fix.

“I thought, what if this billionaire has been diagnosed with leukemia? What if he decides to take a two week trip away from his fiancée and family to get his head on straight before he tells them what he found out during a routine physical exam? They think he’s gone on another of his business ventures.

“As the blurb says, he has an accident in Canyonlands and is flown to a Las Vegas hospital where his secret is discovered by the attending physician who falls in love with him.

“I pictured her as a hardworking, dedicated young doctor who hasn’t had time for men until now. Realizing the hero needs a bone marrow transplant, she asks everyone on the staff to give blood to find him a donor.

“When it turns out she could be a donor, the transplant takes place. It isn’t until he returns to New York that he learns she helped save his life. When he confronts her, she tells him she did it because she loves him, but never wanted him to know because he’s engaged to someone else.

“He confesses he was already in love with her before the transplant took place. As soon as he returned to New York, he broke off his engagement. Now he’s proposing marriage. It’s a Manhattan merger she can’t turn down, not when they’re joined body, blood and soul.”

“Thank you, Ms. Wrigley. You can be seated. Mr. Felt? If you’ll take the stand please.”

While the third witness was sworn in, Payne leaned toward Drew. “When you cross-examine the author, ask her why she picked ties to the English aristocracy, how she happened to put in the part about archaeological sites. Why did she choose leukemia?”

Drew had already been making notes and nodded.

“Mr. Felt? How long have you been head of the art department at Red Rose Publishers?”

“Twelve years.”

“Tell us what you do. Take us through the process when you handled Manhattan Merger.”

“As soon as a manuscript has been cleared for publication, the art department asks the author to fill out a form telling the theme of the book, the description of the hero and heroine, a short synopsis and a summary of several scenes that might look good on the cover.

“When we receive these sheets, we make a phone call to a freelance artist who does original oil paintings for Red Rose covers. We inform them we are sending information to help them create a painting that will sell books and please the author. We also send a printout of the manuscript for them to read.

“Manhattan Merger was handled like any other manuscript. I phoned one of our artists, Lorraine Bennett, about the project. She was free to go to contract on it. Our department sent her the filled out forms and the printout. She did the painting. When it was finished, she shipped it overnight courier to our office.”

“Thank you, Mr. Felt. You can step down. Will Mr. Goldberg please take the stand?”

So far Payne hadn’t heard anything to sway him either way. The artist was the person he wanted to tear apart with his bare hands. She would follow the next witness being sworn in.

“Mr. Goldberg?” Ms. Carlow began. “Tell the court where you work and what you do?”

“I’m the Vice President of Global Greeting Cards in New York.”

“How long have you been with that company?”

“Nine years.”

“Do all of your employees work in-house?”

“No we contract freelance writers and artists to produce the bulk of our inventory.”

“Is Ms. Lorraine Bennett one of those artists?”

“Yes.”

“Tell us the nature of her work.”

“We send her the words, and she creates the art.”

“Does she do portraits or people?”

“Neither. Her work is restricted to nature, flowers, wooded scenes, brooks and bridges, dogs and cats, that type of thing.”

“How long has she worked for you?”

“Three years.”

“Thank you, Mr. Goldberg. That will be all. Will Ms. Bennett please come to the stand?”

Payne answered some questions Drew had written down for him, then lifted his head. When he caught sight of the woman with the gilt-blond hair taking the oath, he felt a rush of adrenaline.

“I’ve seen that face before, Drew!”

“Where?”

He shook his dark head. “I don’t know.”

It was a fresh looking face. Wholesome. Attractive. So was the rest of her.

While he sat there staring at her, he racked his brain trying to remember.

“Ms. Bennett? Please tell the court where you live.”

“In Manhattan.”

“Have you always lived in New York?”

“No. I was born and raised in Grand Junction, Colorado. I only moved here four months ago.”

Colorado-

Payne had once done some skiing there, but that was years ago. If she’d only been in New York since February, then she’d done all the covers of him while she’d lived in Grand Junction.

So how in the hell did she know what his office looked like? He knew for a fact she hadn’t been to his suite when he’d been there or he would have remembered.

“Did you ever visit New York City previous to moving here?”

“No.”

“How long have you worked for Red Rose Romance?”

“Four years.”

“We know you’re employed by Global Greeting Cards too. Before you started freelancing, what did you do? Give us your background.”

“I graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, with a B.F.A. in Art Education. That included an internship in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy. After graduation I was hired to teach art at a high school in Grand Junction.”

“How long did you teach?”

“Six years.”

Ms. Bennett didn’t look old enough to have been a teacher to a bunch of rowdy high school students for that long a time. Boys that age raged with hormones. With a woman so attractive and shapely, he could just imagine the drawings they’d generated of her. Drawings she would never know about.

“Will you tell the court how you prepare when you’re doing a cover for a book?”

“As soon as the art sheet information arrives, I read it carefully, particularly the theme. That’s where all the emotion is centered. After that I read the novel and take a few days for the elements of the story to solidify in my mind. During that reflective period, I do research on the background details of the suggested scenes.

“Slowly the characters come to life for me. Sometimes I can picture him or her in my mind. When that happens, I start sketching like mad.

“Other times I study models from agencies until I see one that encapsulates my vision of the character in question. At that point I make an appointment for them to sit for me.

“Every day of life I see beautiful, interesting, fascinating faces in the crowd, in a photograph. Once in a while there will be a face that won’t leave me alone.

“A certain bone structure, smooth olive skin, the lines of experience around a compelling mouth, piercing black eyes, the shape of an eyebrow black as a raven’s wing-I find myself drawing this face weeks or even months later. Sometimes it ends up on the canvas.”

“Tell us what happened when you painted the cover for Manhattan Merger.”

Payne’s gaze had been riveted on her classic features. There was a subtle change-a tension in her demeanor as soon as the attorney mentioned Manhattan Merger.

“The minute I read the novel, I knew who was going to be the male on the cover. I’d used him on seven other covers, but never as a contemporary American hero who is one of the powers that be in the corporate world.

“It was as if Bonnie Wrigley had written that novel with him in mind. Like the glass slipper that only fits Cinderella’s foot, the melding of the right words and art can be a spiritual experience. That’s how it was with Manhattan Merger.”