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He felt a painful spike in his chest. The uncommon urge to lie. A matter of days, and he was already corrupted, prepared to compromise his ethics for this woman. The danger sign flashed for the second time in a matter of hours: she was getting to him. If he went forward unguarded, unchecked, he needed to accept that some of this was irreversible, that the flip side of such happiness and heart-pounding excitement was the abyss.
“Not entirely,” he said, prepared for her to distance herself, glad when she didn’t. “Brandon noticed on the map that this place, and the Berkholders’, to a lesser degree, are in fairly close proximity to the body site.” He added, “As the crow flies, which bodies do not.” He’d thought he might win a smile out of her, but she’d gone cold and he thought back to their work on the body and again regretted keeping her on the scene for so long. He was about to apologize for that when she spoke.
“So what does that involve?”
“Asking you and Kira if you’d seen anyone matching Gale’s description, which I think you just might happen to have pointed out when we found the body. I’ll talk to Kira briefly-”
“She’s not around.”
“-or not, and then look around the place and call it good. Same at the Berkholders’. Really it was just an excuse to see you.”
“You saw a lot of me,” she said, cupping the mug of tea and offering him a vexing look of encouragement.
“This is getting complicated,” he said.
“It is.”
“More so for you than me.”
“Certainly not true. You have the girls to think of. I understand that. It can’t be easy. It’s the beast in the room we’re not discussing. Why is that?”
“Some of this can wait.”
“For…?”
He grimaced.
“You think this isn’t serious? It’s been two years in the making. It’s very serious. To me, that is. If it isn’t serious to you, that’s important for me to hear. I’m a big girl. I get it.”
“It’s serious.”
“Yes, it is. So the girls are a big part of it, and I want you to know that I defer to you on how we-if there is a ‘we’-handle it. They don’t need to know, shouldn’t know until we’re awfully sure where this is going. Once I become part of their lives, if I become part of their lives, it’s not fair to them to retreat, so we’d better be awfully sure we know what we’re doing. Do you know what you’re doing?”
“I’m looking forward, not back. I’m trying to keep my pulse down because every time I look at you it runs out of control. I’m seeing a future instead of fearing one and I’m hungry for the first time in what seems likes years.” He considered this. “You want to get something to eat?”
“I thought you have to canvass.”
“When will Kira be back?”
“I don’t keep her calendar.”
“I’ll walk around the premises. No sign of the bear-man, right?”
“Kira will tell you she hears things, but that’s Kira.”
“And you? Do you hear things?”
She turned away, and he thought maybe he’d embarrassed her and he wondered how he’d managed. Gail had been out of his life long enough, and the girls had dominated his attention, that he’d forgotten about how dealing with a woman was so incredibly different.
“It may take me a while to get good at this,” he said. “I’ve lived in a bubble for too long. It may take me a while to remember that all women are not eleven-year-olds.”
He got the smile he’d been hoping for earlier.
“Some of us are seventeen,” she said.
“Point taken.”
“Have a look around. I’ll clean up and we’ll grab some di
“It was my idea.”
“Take your time. Give me fifteen minutes.”
A woman who could clean up in fifteen minutes? He’d hit the mother lode.
“Back shortly,” he said.
Sunset was still two hours out, but dusk had begun as a change to the quality of light, the mountains stretching long shadows across the narrow valley and turning the air a dusty gray. Walt walked the perimeter of the property, admiring the garden beds all dominated by a profusion of vibrant lilies, and the meticulous landscaping, briefly envious of the wealth on display. The valley was a playground for trust funders, and there were times that kind of inherited, unearned money made him crazy. His tracker’s eye caught evidence of activity up the hill toward the east ridge, where he found a dump pile of dried twigs and leaves. He circled high above the house and cottage, then around and down a grassy slope overlooking a small teardrop pond. He walked the back side of the house, arriving at the attached garage, and peered in through the window to notice a vehicle missing from the first of the three bays.
He decided to mention the empty bay when he reco
“Does Kira use that car?”
Fiona gave him a sideways glance and crossed the drive. She keyed in a code and the first of the garage doors opened, revealing the empty space. Put her hands on her hips but said nothing.
“No, the vehicles are off-limits, except in emergencies. Though she must have taken it, because I’m sure it wasn’t stolen or anything. I could call her and ask, but I tried calling her earlier and her phone wasn’t picking up.”
“Not a big deal,” he said, wandering into the garage and admiring the two luxury cars in the other bays. He caught sight of a sheet of paper taped on the butt end of a tool cabinet. “LoJack,” he said.
“What?”
“Looks like the Engletons subscribe to a LoJack service. GPS boxes that can track cars down if they’re stolen.”
“That sounds like Michael. Should I call them and ask?”
“Can if you want. I don’t want to get Kira in any trouble. She’s had enough of it as it is. And to add insult to injury, if she’s taken off, then she’s probably lost her job.”
Fiona stood still as Walt wandered the garage.
“You think I should call the company first?” she asked.
“I think if you call, the Engletons will hear about it for sure, because there could be charges involved with tracking down a vehicle. I’ll bet Kira’s car is in the shop and she borrowed this one and didn’t dare tell you about it.”
“Probably.”
“I’d track her down first, you know?”
“Good idea.”
He held the door for her as she got into his Jeep, and she paused there a moment as if not knowing what to do. “You have to be careful,” she said.
“Why’s that?”
“I could get used to this.”
“Not such a bad thing.”
“You spoil me, I’ll be spoiled.”
“When you leave food on the shelf unattended, it spoils. When you pay attention to someone, they only get better.”
“I never would have figured you for a sweet-talker.”
“I suspect there are things about both of us that we have yet to learn. Isn’t that supposed to be the fun part?”
She didn’t answer. She pulled the door and he helped it shut, and only as he glanced at her through the windshield, as he came around the front of the Jeep, did it occur to him that with that statement he’d somehow bruised her. And he realized he had a lot to learn.