Dangerous to Know
A compelling story of old loves and old secrets.Sebastian, the fifty-six-year-old patriarch of the Locke clan, is handsome, charismatic, a man of immense charm and intelligence. He heads up the philanthropic Locke Foundation, and travels the globe, personally giving away millions a year to the poor, the sick, and the victims of natural disasters and wars. And now, he is dead – murdered in mysterious circumstances that have the police at a loss. Who would want to kill the world’s greatest philanthropist? Could such an upstanding man have enemies?Vivienne Trent, a glamorous American journalist, met Locke as a child, married him, divorced him, but stayed close to him. Aware that there was another side to this enigmatic man, she sets out to find the truth about his death – and about Locke himself.
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Barbara Taylor Bradford
Dangerous To Know
Copyright
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DANGEROUS TO KNOW. Copyright © 1995 by Barbara Taylor Bradford. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Ebook Edition © MAY 2009 ISBN: 9780007330829
Version: 2017-11-14
The right of Barbara Taylor Bradford to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Praise for New York Times
bestselling author
BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD
“Her name on a novel…[promises] a good story, simply told, with satisfying outcome…[her books] finding their way into people’s homes and hearts.”
Dayton Daily News
“Barbara Taylor Bradford can be counted on to tell a good story.”
Chattanooga Times
“She’s the envy of all of us who put pen to paper. Don’t miss her.”
Greensboro News & Record
“You may fall in love…cry real tears…cheer.”
Chicago Tribune
And
Dangerous To Know
“The clever and unexpected plot twists, capped by the revelation of Sebastian’s shattering secret, will keep the author’s many fans entranced.”
Publishers Weekly
For Bob, with all my love
Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
—Lady Caroline Lamb, writing of her lover,
the poet Lord Byron
The Narrators
Copyright
Praise
Dedication
Epigraph
Part One Vivienne: Loyalty
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Part Two Jack: Duty
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Ninteen
Chapter Twenty
Part Three Luciana: Pride
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Part Four Zoë: Truth
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Part Five Vivienne: Honor
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
About the Author
Other Books by Barbara Taylor Bradford
About the Publisher
The first time I met Sebastian Locke I fell in love with him. He was thirty-two years old. I was twelve. I had no idea at the time that he was my mother’s lover. Nor did I know then that ten years later I would marry him.
Now he was dead.
He had died in somewhat mysterious, even suspicious, circumstances. It was not yet known whether he had died of natural causes, committed suicide, or been murdered.
We were divorced. I had not seen him for almost a year, until last Monday, when we had lunched together at his request. Obviously the police hoped I might be able to throw some light on the matter of his death, but I could not. I was as perplexed as everyone else. However, they had just arrived to see me. I was appalled. That Sebastian was dead was only just registering with me. I glanced around my library. The familiar room looked exactly the same as it always had. The two walls of books were balanced by an eclectic mixture of antiques, my grandmother’s horse paintings, and her Victorian lamps. But somehow it was out of kilter. So was I. Pulling myself together, I buzzed the intercom and told my secretary Belinda she could show them into the library.
A split second later I was shaking hands with Detectives Joe Kennelly and Aaron Miles from the Major Crime Division of the Connecticut State Police.
“We’re baffled, Mrs. Trent,” Detective Kennelly said as we all sat down. “Until we get the autopsy report we’re working in the dark. As you already know, the circumstances are suspicious, so we can’t rule out foul play. But who would want to kill Sebastian Locke? Surely such a good man didn’t have enemies, did he?”
They both focused their eyes on me, and intently so.
