Carol Shenold - Tali Cates 02 - Bloody Murder (3 page)

We had only said four or five words to each other. Yet it was as if he saw my soul when he looked at me. I wondered what he would think of my soul and the fact that I could see things others couldn’t.

Renée and Cherilyn both stared.

“What happened to you? You look you’ve seen a ghost or something. What’s wrong?”

I didn’t want to tell them I was horny as hell after talking to a man for a couple of minutes. Hell, before I talked to him. I must have a strange virus. It also made me stammer and get tongue tied around the man. I hadn’t been called beautiful in a long time.

Another rush of people prevented me from having to answer questions and I replaced empty trays, arranged wineglasses, and watched for Aiden.

Cherilyn came up next to me. I jumped. She laughed. “What’s up? Fill me in.”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t give me that nonsense. I can see it on your face. Something happened.”

“Nothing happened. A guy said hello. I said hello back. Big deal.”

“The cow-eyed look on your face says something different.”

“I talked to him for about a minute. His name is Aiden. He wants to talk later. That’s all I know.”

Her face brightened. “Oh, yeah. I met him. He’s hunky in a tall, pale-skinned way. I think he moved into the house next to yours.”

My mouth flew open. “Next door to me? Aiden? Wow.” I hadn’t seen anyone around that old house, but noticed it had been painted at some point when I wasn’t looking. Life might get more interesting.

I leaned against the wall behind me as the crowd thinned out. Most of the food was gone as were some of the donors. A few die-hards still danced to the DJ. Aiden lurked at a table across the room and grinned at me.

After everything was cleaned up, put away, or loaded into Renée’s car, I wandered over to Aiden with a couple of glasses of wine and sat down.

“So, I hear you moved in next door to me.”

“Did I?” He took a sip of wine.

“That’s what Cherilyn said.”

He looked shocked for a second and then his expression changed to unreadable, blank. How did he do that?

“Do you have two boys?”

I shook my head. “Just one, a small-for-his-age ten-year-old. Why?”

“I thought I saw another boy.”

“You might have seen Rusty, Sean’s best friend.”

“He’s a redhead?”

“Has Rusty been pestering you?

“No. I saw him around and wondered who he was.” He changed the subject. “How about going with me to the carnival?”

“I don’t know. It’s a little late for me. I should get to bed, it’s been a long day.”

“I’m certain it has, with the murder and all. It’s before ten, in case you have a curfew. Come, spend an hour with me. We can act like kids, ride some rides. It will be fun. I’d like to see what you were like as a little girl.”

“You haven’t seen what I’m like as a grownup yet.”

He laughed. “They go together. The child makes the man, or woman as the case may be.”

“I could use a distraction. The carnival sounds good. I’ll get out of this into jeans and meet you in front in fifteen.”

“You look fine to me.”

“Not riding rides in a long skirt and weird makeup. I’ll be right back.”

I grabbed the casual clothes I’d stashed in the trunk of the car and changed into my jeans in the back bathroom, slipped into a red tee that fit just right, put my hair up in a ponytail, added lipstick, and ran to the front of the building.

I was far too excited for a woman with a son and a grown daughter. I didn’t remember the last time I felt like this. Oh yeah, when I dated the guy from jail who tried to murder us.

Oops. Maybe my judgment wasn’t too good.

I slowed down. I should stop and think. The last stranger I dated was a disaster. Then I saw Aiden and all thoughts of caution left my head. What entered in its place was pure lust.

* * * *

“My car or yours?” I threw my stuff in the back.

“We could walk?” Aiden suggested.

“How about if I drive? Then I can get my car home later since I’ll need it in the morning?”

“I should drive. I’m the man. You’re a girl and all that.”

“Did you just say that out loud and expect to stay in one piece?”

He looked puzzled. “Yes. Why?”

“Come on. Get in. We’ll park at the bank.”

Aiden was at my side faster than I could see and opened the door for me.

“How did you do that?”

He put on an innocent expression. “Do what?”

I shook my head and dropped the question. It was a weird night and my imagination was out of control. Must be all the vampire vibes.

I peeked at Aiden out of the corners of my eyes. He was a little pale, vampire looking. His lips were rather rosy in comparison to his pale cheeks and dark hair, smoldering eyes. I imagined myself kissing those lips, looking into the eyes, stroking his pale skin.

“Whoa.” Something ran across the road and I swerved to avoid it, throwing Aiden against the door. “Sorry.” I’d better get my mind off him and onto the road.

The clank of metal and sound of tinny carnival music announced the fair before we parked and got out of the Cruiser. Teen screams proclaimed the rides appropriately thrilling. Cotton candy, funnel cakes, food fair scents tugged at us for attention. The intense noise level reached out to pull us into the frenetic activity, become part of the chaos.

“Let’s ride.” Aiden’s eyes took on a feverish glow as he pulled me to the faster, higher rides.

The wilder the ride, the more dangerous, the more his excitement grew. He laughed with pure joy, as if he’d never had fun in the past.

Before long, I saw the same intensity reflected in my eyes when I caught a glimpse of my reflection. I was a chicken, hated the speed and out-of-control feeling when strapped into metal machines flinging me around. And yet, with Aiden, no fear, the desire for more speed, higher altitudes, greater risk. I was immortal, unbreakable. The excitement wasn’t about the rides. It was about being near the man, touching him, clutching him for safety. Emotions, sensations coursed through me that would have left me a melting puddle if it weren’t for the desire to hang on to Aiden, to continue as my senses sharpened and heightened.

Never had I felt so alive. Not ever in my life that I could remember. Was this what drove climbers to climb mountains when they could die from the effort? On the Ferris wheel, when we stopped at the top he looked into my eyes, paralyzing me with a simple glance. He touched my cheek with his hand. Desire flooded my entire body—intense, shattering desire. I could have, would have let him do anything he wanted, in public, in the air.

“Mom! What are you doing? Come down from there. You hate heights. What are you thinking?”

My eighteen-year-old daughter, Cass, very effectively threw ice water on our fun and desire. I came to my senses, realizing my shirt had gotten pushed up so far that skin showed. I rearranged it, aware that Cass’s yell drew attention to our seat above all. Thank God, the wheel began to move and we slowly made our way toward the ground.

Cass had to learn that screaming at her mother in front of people wasn’t the best choice if she wanted to stay alive any longer.

Aiden smiled faintly and patted my hand, thinking what I’d never know. I’d certainly never see him again after this. Time had spun by in a whirl of colored lights and speed. We’d hardly talked at all, and I still knew nothing about him except that he had the power to make me do anything he wanted.

When the wheel stopped at the bottom, Aiden hopped off and swung me up and over to deposit me next to Cass with one of his impossible movements. Her eyebrows jumped to the top of her forehead. He didn’t look strong enough to move like that, and I didn’t remember feeling giant muscles.

“Cass. Were you yelling at me for a reason? The entire town heard.”

She had the sense to look a little embarrassed. “Sorry. You caught me off guard. I remember the last time I tried to talk you into carnival rides, I thought you were going to puke on the merry-g0-round.”

“Thanks so much for that memory.” I gestured toward Aiden. “This is Aiden Courtland. Aiden, my daughter, Cass, the lungs of the family.”

Standing next to Cass was the exact opposite of the young man she used to date. This one had cropped blond hair, wore jeans, boots, and a western shirt and was built as if he could bench-press a four-wheel-drive wide-bed pickup.

“Is this a new friend of yours?”

Cass took his hand and tugged him forward. “Mom, this is Chase Bridges. He’s from Shamrock.”

Chase shoved his paw of a hand at Aiden, who looked at the hand but didn’t reach for it. Both men narrowed their eyes at each other, then turned their attention back to the girls as if the other one didn’t exist. How strange was that? Aiden hadn’t been rude earlier.

Chattering away, Cass hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. My emotions had been on such a literal roller coaster all evening that forming coherent thoughts was beyond me. I still rode the spinning rides, clung to Aiden, and felt as if whirling was normal for me.

“We could go get funnel cakes or something.” I couldn’t imagine a double date with my daughter and a new boyfriend but I had to be polite.

Cass made a face and laughed. “It’s okay, Mom. We were just fixing to leave for the VFW. There’s a dance tonight and it won’t be over until late so we want to boot-scoot a couple of songs before we go home. How about y’all?” She looked Aiden up and down—she might find him as fascinating as I did. Great, I could be my daughter’s rival.

“I think we’ll hang out here a little and head home. I know I’ll be fielding contestant questions early in the morning. Everyone will call to quiz me about the murder.”

Aiden raised an eyebrow. I refused to meet his eyes. It would be safer if I went home. Things had become intense between us way too fast. I couldn’t risk another involvement with a stranger before I, at least, knew the basics, like where he was from, what he did for a living, why he was interested in me. After the kids left, Aiden offered to take me home, or accompany me home since he didn’t have his car with him. I agreed since I’d be busy driving instead of imagining the two of us in a clinch.

Trouble was, we walked back through the carnival and the lights became magic colors swirling around us. He opened the car door for me on the passenger side and I got in without thinking. His hand touched my hand and I melted inside before he climbed in the driver’s side. When we got home, I forgot to tell him to stop kissing me for about an hour. The one thing that saved me from continuing it inside was the fact that Mumsie and Sean were home.

I hopped out of the car and held out my hand for the keys.

He dangled the keys in front of my eyes and said, “Come with me. We can go next door. Have privacy.”

Everything in me screamed
yes
. I said, “I don’t think so, Aiden. I’m stuck with a lot to do tomorrow, and I have to get at least a little sleep.”

“Sleep is over-rated. Are you certain you don’t want to come over?”

“I didn’t say that, but I have things to do—Sean to get to school, mothers to deal with.”
Common sense to retain.
I grabbed the keys and ran. “See you later, Aiden. Maybe tomorrow, for breakfast or something. Later.”

I heard him muttering to himself as I ran into the house. I could have sworn he said something about much later. I knew he felt the same way I did. Didn’t he?

I turned around, my mouth open to ask him what he had said. He was gone. The moon lit up the outside of his house but no lights shone in any windows. He was like a spirit, appearing and disappearing at will.

Chapter Three

By nine in the morning, I’d received twenty calls from contestant mothers wanting to know what I was going to do to solve this murder, keep more murders from happening, protect their children, protect
them
. Who or what did they think I was, CSI, FBI, Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Shit. Now they wanted metal detectors at the dressing room doors and police guards around the stage.

I sat on the deck, looking over the backyard and the high school football field behind it. No one was on the field. Cardinals and sparrows fought over seed at the birdfeeder and a wren sang. The scent of leaves burning tickled my nose. I loved autumn.

I’d thought my life might be approaching a degree of normal, or what passes for normal. All I wanted to do was raise my kids and support my family without resorting to streetwalking (not a real option since I was no longer twenty.) What I wasn’t ready to do was try to figure out what had happened, how anyone could remove all body fluids from someone I knew. I wasn’t prepared to go back to living in fear.

Plus, I’d have to deal with my ex-husband and his boyfriend pushing their way back into my business if my life returned to the weird side.

Laurel called, demanding my presence at an emergency fair board meeting.

“Get over it, Laurel. I’m not rushing down to the fair board and you are not replacing me at this late date. If you want to talk, come over to the house. I’ll be happy to talk, strategize, whatever you like, but I’m not on call for you nor am I your employee.”

She agreed to come. I had to fortify myself before we met. I glanced next door to see if I could pick up any activity from my new neighbor. No such luck. He must be an early riser or really late sleeper. I wondered what he did for a profession. The more I thought about him, the more last night’s feeling pushed at the edges of my mind and threatened to put an end to my concentration.

Enough
. I went in to brew espresso for myself and put water on so Laurel could have some healthy fresh-brewed herb tea. Yuck. I wanted caffeine, lots of it in the mornings. Herb tea wasn’t worth the effort. I put out bagels we could toast.

Mumsie clicked into the room, dressed for a trip to town.

“What are you doing dressed to kill at this time of the morning? It’s a little early for lunch with the girls or one of your classes, isn’t it?”

“I decided I needed a distraction and the Sun Wind Casino has an early bird party today. Suzie Lee convinced me it could be fun, and it sure would be different. The boys are excited too.”