Hard Hat Man (24 page)

“Thanks.”
She wriggled closer in his embrace, taking comfort from his words and kisses. His erection pressed against her stomach, making her smile.
She reached down to rub him through his fly.

He backed away with a groan.
“
I don’t have time for this now.
I’ve got to get back to work. See you tonight
and we’ll take up where we left off
.”

“Okay.” She laughed in agreement.
“How about I order in food instead of going out?”

Sounds good to me. Do you like Chinese? Chicken and peapods?”

“Love it.”

“Good. There’s a great place here. I have to go into my office for a while. I’ll pick it up on the way home. See you around seven or so.”

He gave her
another
embrace and quick kiss, then hurried out the door.

Chapter 10

As the sun set and dusk closed in, h
e watched the farmhouse with binoculars
.
He stood concealed in
the grove of evergreen trees surrounding the farmyard. Soon most of these trees would be cut down and a huge ring of apartments would take their place.
With a fancy pool!
What a shame. He’d done his best to prevent that, but his efforts had gone mostly ignored.

It was time to take things into his own hands. Now the man’s body had been discovered as well as the girl’s. Time was running out.

What if Horace or Esther had left anything behind to indicate their or his involvement in the deaths? He should have foreseen this possibility and acted while the house stood empty. He could have made it look like kids’ partying had started a fire then. Now Kyle and Jan were staying there and searching through everything. His search the other day had turned up nothing of value, but he hadn’t had much time.

If he didn’t see them leave soon, for supper as they’d been doing other nights, he’d have to do it the hard way. They’d just have to look out for themselves.

***

A little after seven, Kyle appeared as promised with bags of take-out Chinese food.

Jan made hot tea to go with it and they sat a Esther’s round wooden kitchen table, enjoying chicken and peapods over rice. He’d gotten eggrolls as well.

“Um, this is some of the best food I’ve had in ages,” Jan told Kyle.

“Thanks. It’s one of my favorite take out places.”

“So did you hear from the sheriff this afternoon?”

“He
researched the silo building company. Seems they’ve been out of business for years. But he found the owner, who says they only kept tax related records, not anything to do with employees. So he couldn’t help.”

“That’s too bad. How will they find the man’s identity, then? It’s not possible to get fingerprints after this long.”

“No. But they might be able to get DNA. I’m not sure how they’d find anything to compare it to, though. It wasn’t common fifteen years ago to take DNA samples, you know.”

“Hm. I have Nancy’s diary. Maybe she wrote his name in there somewhere.” Jan sipped her tea.

Kyle’s head popped up and he stared at her. “You have her diary? Did you read it?”

Jan shook her head. “Not yet. I packed it in the stuff I’m taking back to Chicago when I have more time. I wanted to finish the sorting for you.”

Kyle set down his cup. “I wonder if the sheriff will want that diary.
Do you think he’d call it evidence?”

“I don’t see how. Surely she didn’t know who was going to kill them and write it down ahead of time.” Jan sent him a frowning glance.

“Well, no, but she may have written down some things about him that could help him figure that out.”

“I’ll try to read it soon and if it has any real info, I’ll tell that to the sheriff. But I don’t want to give it to him so he can read Nancy’s private thoughts if I don’t have to.”

Kyle shrugged. “Okay.”

Jan rose and began picking up the left-overs. She packed them in her ice chest. “I’ll be glad to get back to having a real refrigerator again.”

Kyle came up behind her and handed her the last container. “We could go stay at my house,” he suggested.

She closed the lid of the ice chest and rose, ending up in his arms. He leaned down and kissed her thoroughly. “Um. I don’t want to wait that long to get into your pants,” she said. “And it doesn’t feel like you want to, either.”

With a giggle, she reached down between them and rubbed the bulge in his jeans that she’d felt against her stomach. “Did you remember to buy condoms?

“Sure did. You didn’t leave my mind most of the day, so how could I forget?” he asked, pushing her tee shirt out of the way and unsnapping her bra. He reached down to suckle her breast.

“Just checking,” she said, squirming and grabbing his hair.

With a groan, he released her breast, picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. There he pulled back the spread and deposited her on the bed. With a laugh, she reached down to untie her sneakers and remove her socks.

He quickly removed his clothes as well, then followed her down and helped her take off the remaining skimpy red lace bra and panties she wore.

“Pretty undies,” he commented, letting his tongue run along the rosy tip of her hard nipple. “Like this?”

“Yes,” she groaned, leaning back against the pillow.

He followed her down, running a hand along her thigh, then
spreading her legs and
slipping a finger between her soft folds
. He rubbed gently and she arched to meet him.

Their kisses and caresses grew more frantic until she could hardly wait for him to enter her. “Now, Kyle,” she said.

He pulled back and covered himself, then came back to her. With one swift motion he was inside, burying himself to the hilt.

“Oh,
my God,
that feels great,” she
gaspe
d, meeting him thrust for thrust.

Faster and faster they moved until stars burst behind her eyes and with a groan, Kyle followed her to completion.

***

Hours later, Kyle woke, coughing
and choking
. Acrid smoke filled his lungs. He sat up and yelled, “Fire! Jan, wake up.”

Rolling out of bed, he pulled her to her feet.

“What’s going on?”

“Fire! We have to get out of here.”

They grabbed their clothes and ran for the door.
Kyle
flipped the light switch, but the light didn’t come on. “Power’s out
, too
.”

He
touched the doorknob, then quickly drew back.
“It’s hot. We’ll have to go out the window.”

Jan had already turned and was across the room
. She grabbed her purse from the nightstand and
struggl
ed
with opening the window. “It’s stuck!”

“Stand back.”
He grabbed the wooden chair and slammed it into the large, old fashioned window. “Thank goodness they’re too old to be thermal paned,” he grunted as the single pane
d glass
easily gave way.
Fresh air rushed in and they breathed it gratefully.

He
removed the remaining glass and
pushed out the screen
. Then he
helped Jan out
and
climbed out himself
and t
hey ran toward their cars.

Jan pulled her cell phone from her jeans pocket and dialed 9-1-1 and called in the fire.
They both hurried into their clothes
.

“I’ve got my cell and billfold
,
” Kyle said. “
Did y
ou g
e
t your
s
?”

“Yes. Thank goodness.
I lost my purse one time and it was a major hassle getting all the credit cards and driver’s license replaced.
” She
glanc
ed
back at the flames shooting from the upper windows now
and shivered
.

“Looks like it has a really good start,” Kyle said. “I wonder what started it?”

“
Me, too. More arson?
”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.” He looked at his watch.
“
Almost midnight.
”

“
So much for all the sorting of stuff,” Jan said wryly. “Well, at least the historical society got what they wanted. Too late for Goodwill, now.”

“I guess so. Did you get most of
what
you wanted to save?”

“Yes,” Jan said. “I
have most of it packed in my car. I doubt there was much more I’d want, anyway.”

“Here’s the cavalry,” Kyle said as the fire engines drove into the yard.

“Move your vehicles back out of the way,” one fireman shouted at them.

“Got a
good
water
supply
out here?”
the chief
yelled.

“
No.
Just a well
, but the power’s off, so that won’t work
,
”
Kyle replied.

“We’ll use our tanker, then,”
the chief said. “Usually have to out
side the city limits.
”

One of the firefighter’s rescue squad came over to check them out. “Sure you’re feeling okay? You want to go to the ER to get looked at?”

Jan shook her head. “No, I’m fine. Just coughing a bit from the smoke. But I’ll be fine.”

Kyle also refused to go to the ER. “I’m fine,” he insisted.

The sheriff drove up next. They moved their cars farther from the house and sat watching the firemen work.

Sheriff Casey came over to them.
“
Everybody out and okay?”