Murder List by Julie Garwood Page A

really. The young are looking for a guru for guidance in figuring out what they should do with their futures, and the older men and women are looking for ways to change the paths they’ve taken.”
    “I remember reading that Dr. Shields is considered to be a miracle worker.”
    “He most certainly is not. Those articles and interviews are paid advertisements. Shields spends a considerable amount of money promoting his seminars. He does two a year here in Chicago.” Sophie was getting all worked up. The spots of color on her cheeks had spread.
    “I imagine he makes quite a lot of money on those seminars,” Regan said, wondering how much the man charged for a weekend of group therapy. It was probably exorbitant.
    Her friend picked up the stack of folded papers and handed them to Regan. “These are photocopies of a diary written by a woman named Mary Coolidge. She’s one of the women Shields conned.”
    “I’ll read this later,” she promised. “Just give me the highlights now.” Sophie agreed with a nod. “Mary Coolidge’s husband died two years ago, and after that, she moved around in a fog of depression. Her daughter, Christine, tried to help, but Mary refused to go to counseling or take medication.”
    “After you lose someone you love, it’s natural to mourn,” Regan said. “It’s still hard for me to deal with my mother’s death, and she’s been gone almost a full year.”
    “Yes, it’s natural to mourn, but it took Mary two years before she’d even leave her house.”
    “So what did she do?” Regan asked. She watched Sophie add yet another packet of sugar to her drink and was a little amazed she could stand the taste.
    “Mary heard about the seminars Shields held, and without telling her daughter or any of her friends, she paid the thousand-dollar fee and attended the two-day workshop.”
    “A thousand dollars? How many people attend these workshops?”
    “Three or four hundred. Why?”
    “Do you realize how much money he’s taking in?” She leaned back against the padded booth and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. Please continue.”
    “Shields was as good as his promise. He did change Mary’s life. The charismatic fraud pounced on her loneliness, methodically weaseled his way into her heart, and then took every dollar her husband had left her, which, as it turned out, was well over two million dollars. Shields is a snake,” she added. “But a clever snake. Everything he did was legal. Mary willingly turned her assets over to him.”
    “And this is all in her diary?” Regan asked.
    Sophie nodded. “Had her daughter not found the thing, she never would have known all the details of what had happened. Mary had written all about her whirlwind romance. Just three short months after meeting Shields, he asked her to marry him and she agreed. He insisted she keep their engagement their little secret until he had the time—and the money—to buy her a proper engagement ring.”
    “What do you mean, until he had the money? If he was charging—” Sophie cut her off. “It was a con, of course. He told her he was experiencing ‘temporary’ money problems, and she, wanting to prove her love and trust, willingly transferred her savings over to him.”
    “How could she have been so gullible?”
    “Loneliness,” she said. “You know what happened next, don’t you?”
    “He changed his mind.”
    “Exactly,” she said. “He told her he’d had a change of heart. Not only didn’t he want to marry her, he didn’t want to give her the money back. He also pointed out that there really wasn’t anything she could do about it.”
    “That poor woman.”
    The waiter interrupted to take their lunch orders.
    “I think we should go ahead,” Sophie said. “I can’t take a long lunch today.” Regan checked the time. It wasn’t quite one yet. “I’ll wait for Cordie, but you go ahead.” Sophie ordered a salad and a refill on her iced tea. The second the waiter left,