Let Loose (14 page)

He lowered the clipboard he’d been holding to
the table. His gaze met mine and for some reason I felt like he
needed me to acknowledge that I didn’t think he was a killer.

I didn’t know him, though, and I couldn’t
bring myself to do it. Fact was, someone had shot Red and
experience told me whoever that was, he or she probably didn’t look
like the monster most people would imagine.

As I struggled with a response, Allen
muttered something about seeing a friend and walked off. Frank
started to object, but the kid had already disappeared into the
crowd.

“How’s Allen doing?” Ethel asked, changing
the direction of our conversation.

Shaking his head, Frank turned back to us. “I
have to thank you for finding him work. I know it’s just odd jobs,
but it seems to have gotten him motivated. He’s paying his own
bills now, or at least not asking me for money as much.” He
laughed, but I saw some strain under the humor.

Carol and Ethel made a bit more small talk
after that, but I could tell they were ready to move on. After just
a few more minutes, Ethel poked Carol in the side with her elbow,
made some excuses and led us in the direction of the Swap.

I followed behind, processing what I’d
learned and trying to decide whether I thought Frank was guilty or
not. The argument at the fund-raiser gave him motive, and if the
police had caught him in a lie about Red calling him, that
certainly would add to their case, but then how many people missed
calls because their kids didn’t relay a message? There was the gun
too, but Frank was probably right. There were probably a number of
other people in Lewis and Clark County with the same type of gun,
and even if turned out to be the
same
gun, if he’d
reported it stolen...

What would really nail the case now was
opportunity. Had Frank been near the campground around the time Red
was shot? If so, my money would have to be on Frank as the
killer.

o0o

The swap was outside, which meant most sane
people were bundled up. I was sporting my brown down coat fully
closed, and today I’d added a green hat that I’d found in the
bottom of the closet. I suspected that I looked a bit like a
walking burrito, with a lettuce garnish.

That didn’t matter though, because as my
mother would have reminded me, I was warm.

Or it wouldn’t have mattered...

Ethel and Carol bounded ahead; at least
compared to my burrito-coat constricted stride it felt as if they
were bounding.

Struggling behind them, I felt a tug on my
back. Praying it was someone trying to sell me something, anything,
as long as it meant it wasn’t someone I knew, I waddled around,
arms out snow man style.

My prayers went unheard, or at least
unanswered.

The cheerful rosy face of Peter’s
six-year-old son, Jeremy, beamed up at me.

“Lucy! Dad said you had plans. Did you come
to surprise him?”

I blinked and fumbled for a reply; my cold
and almost thirty-year-old brain did not move as quickly as
Jeremy’s young nimble one.

“Dad!” he yelled, bobbing up and down and
waving his arms like he’d just been entered into a jumping jack
speed race.

Warily, I followed the direction of his gaze,
and there was Peter,
he who had to work
, straddling a
snowmobile with Red’s ex-wife pressed up so close against his back
I was sure her breasts were leaving permanent indentations in his
ridiculously thin Sherpa-lined jacket.

I pressed my lips together and spun in place,
determined to make a get away before Jeremy’s enthusiastic motions
pulled Peter away from his new snow bunny friend.

But my mother’s gift foiled me again. My
shuffling steps had taken me no more than a few feet before Peter
and Red’s ex were by my side.

“Look! Lucy surprised us!” Jeremy called,
enthusiastic as ever.

Peter tilted his head to the side, taking in
my appearance. When his gaze reached my head, he stopped. “Yes, she
did,” he replied, sounding calm and uninvolved as ever, but his
eyes, locked onto the bits of hair poking out from under my green
hat, didn’t move.

My hair. We hadn’t talked in person since
Carol had done my hair.

Peering around wildly for Ethel or Carol or a
snowmobile I could throw myself under, I tugged at the hat and
waddled back and forth.

Peter, however, seemed unshaken. A small
chuckle escaped his lips. “Yes, she did,” he repeated.

I paused, unsure how to take the laugh. I
could be insulted, maybe I should be insulted, but his gaze was
warm. It felt as if he was truly happy to see me.

A bit of a moment spun between us.

Then Red’s ex shoved her way forward to stand
between us. “Are you two a couple? I didn’t realize that. We could
make a good deal on two sleds, if you are both interested.”

I dropped my gaze to the ground. I hadn’t
liked her before, but I liked her even less now.

Jeremy piped up before either his father or I
could reply.
God bless him
. “Yep, they’re a couple, but
Lucy isn’t much for the outdoors. I don’t think she’d want a
snowmobile. Would you, Lucy?”

Three pairs of eyes turned to me, and since
I’d recently claimed to one of those sets that I was indeed looking
to plop down some hard-earned cash in exchange for death on
motorized skis, I wasn’t sure how to answer.

“Well, I have considered it,” I replied,
looking at Linda.

“You have?” Peter asked.

I stood a little taller. “I do live in the
perfect location for it.”

The light in his eyes dimmed. “Yes, you
do.”

Knowing he was remembering the last time he’d
seen me, when he’d apparently been riding a snowmobile himself, I
licked my lips.

Trying to switch the focus from me to him, I
said, “I didn’t realize you rode snowmobiles.”

Jeremy piped in. “Everyone rides
snowmobiles.”

Linda, still trying to calculate her sale
potential, looked at each of us. “So, you aren’t married?”

“Them?” Jeremy stared, his face a mix of
wonder and revelation.

Quickly re-evaluating her targets, Linda’s
body language changed again. The vixen I’d seen pressed against
Peter’s back was gone and a conspiratorial girlfriend appeared.
“Snowmobile weddings are all the rage,” she murmured in my ear.

My face flushing, I shoved my hands into my
pockets and muttered something unintelligible.

Jeremy, quick to adjust to new possibilities,
straightened. “Can I ride one too?”

The saleswoman beamed. “Of course. Did you
want to see some youth models?”

I assumed she was talking to Peter. I hoped
so because I seemed to have lost the ability to speak.

“Maybe another day.” I heard him reply.

He added, “We’re done for now, but if you
hear of any good used models, make sure you let me know.” He gave
her his home phone number and name, and then placed his hand on top
of Jeremy’s head, guiding him away from Red’s ex and whatever else
she had planned for us.

I stood for a minute, unsure if I should
follow. Peter stopped, turned and then walked back to my side. He
stared at me for what felt like eternity. Then he sighed. “I’ve
neglected you, and when I saw you on the trail... I hope I
over-reacted.”

“Hope?” I wasn’t sure what he was saying.

“Did I?”

I thought back to what he’d seen, what I’d
been doing, how I’d felt. “No.”

His eyes widened and he stepped back. He
reached to the side, locating Jeremy’s head with his hand and
dropped his gaze. Then he took another step, away from me.

“I mean, I would have been mad too.” Hell, I
was mad when I’d walked up and seen Red’s ex pressed against his
back.

His face unreadable, he looked back.
“Because?”

Because I was a jealous twit? Did he really
need me to say that?

Jeremy pointed toward a display of animal
mounts. Peter patted him on the shoulder and told him to stay
within view, then looked back at me.

Fine. I said it.

“So, I’m a jealous twit?” he repeated. His
eyes sparkled.

“I said I was.”

“You are?” He moved closer until his hands
were on my down-encased hips. “Why?”

I liked the direction this was going, at
least the hands on the hips part. I wasn’t sure about the “me
admitting all my faults” part.

“Because...” I looked down. This was just too
embarrassing.

He placed his finger under my chin and lifted
my gaze to his. “Because you like me?”

The fifth-grade level of the question caught
me off guard. Then he grinned and I knew he was making fun of me. I
smacked him across the shoulder. Laughing, he pulled me into his
arms, burrito coat and all. His hat tilted, shielding us from the
snowmobile shopping masses. “I like you too,” he murmured. “Maybe a
little too much.”

“Really?” It was surprisingly warm with his
hat lowered over our faces and his arms wrapped around my body. I
wiggled a little, trying to get closer. “Are you sure?”

“Too sure...”

His mouth lowered to mine and my world spun.
He tasted of cinnamon and smelled of leather. Worn, warm leather. I
pulled the scent into my lungs and leaned closer, longing for
more.

A hand pulled on my coat... again. “Hey. You
coming?” Jeremy, maybe the only human in Montana with less patience
than I, rolled back on his heels and repeated the question. “You
coming? There’s a bear over there. You have to see it.”

Right now I really didn’t think I had to do
much of anything, but Peter, damn his paternal perfection, didn’t
agree. Sighing, he loosened his arms from around me and looked down
at his son. “A bear, huh? I’m not sure that’s safe.”

“He’s not alive,” Jeremy explained, as if his
father was the silliest human to grace a Swap.

Peter chuckled and rubbed him on the head.
“Well, then we have to see it. Don’t you think?” He looked at
me.

My heart thumped. I was part of
we
.

My gloved fingers entwined with his, I let
Peter pull me through the crowd to where Jeremy waited between a
bear and a mountain lion, both stuffed. While Jeremy danced back
and forth between the two, babbling about the best defense if you
encountered either on a trail, I stood next to Peter and wondered
how I got so lucky.

I was still in the glow of being included in
Peter and Jeremy’s world when Ethel and Carol popped up beside us.
Their appearance was so unexpected, I jumped.

“Is this your detective?” Ethel asked,
peering at Peter with a distinct look of judgment on her face.

Carol glanced at her. “The one who...”

Afraid of where this was going, I jumped in.
“Who called the other day. Yes, that was you, wasn’t it, Peter?” I
looked at him, bright, cheerful, and desperate.

His gaze slid from me to the two older
women.

Knowing him well enough to realize he wasn’t
going to reply, I continued, “This...” I corralled Jeremy and held
him by the shoulders so he was facing the friends. “Is Jeremy,
Peter’s son. He loves dogs,” I added, hoping if Jeremy’s innate
adorability wasn’t enough to distract them, his love of one of
their causes would be.

I needn’t have worried. One look at Jeremy
and both women were swooning.

“Aren’t you the cute little man?”

“What kind of dogs?”

They continued talking to him, offering him
gum from their purses and in general making him feel like the
center of their universe.

Peter smiled. “They keep giving him that much
attention and I’ll never get him to go home.”

As well as things were going, at that moment
I wasn’t sure if I cared about any of us ever leaving.

We continued walking through the Swap as a
group. Two booths over, Carol elbowed Ethel in the side.
“There.”

I tried to follow their gaze, but all I could
see was yet another line of snowmobiles. Then with no warning, the
pair were off, heading toward the wooden table set up a few feet
behind this latest display.

“I guess they saw something they like,” I
said to Peter.

“They ride?” he asked, his eyebrows
rising.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so, but
Carol’s husband got his snowmobiles stolen. She’s looking to
replace them.”

“Really? That’s quite an expense.” Peter
pushed his hat up on his forehead and stared at the pair, who were
now talking to a man sitting behind the table.

“Well, they’d get insurance money, right?” I
asked. I didn’t mention that I also had the impression that Ethel
and all of her friends were loaded. How else would they pay for all
of their good works?

Peter’s gaze didn’t leave the table. “If the
sleds were insured.” His lower lip slid to one side. “Do you know
the man they’re talking to? He looks familiar.”

Turning my attention back to the table, I was
surprised to realize I did know the man. “That’s my neighbor, Craig
Ryan. He had some snowmobiles stolen too.”

“Really,” Peter replied. He raised an eyebrow
as if he found the news surprising. “And how do you know that?”

I explained that Ethel and Carol had shared
the news, and that Frank Kelly had corroborated it. “And that’s
Allen,” I said. “He’s Frank Kelly’s son.”

He nodded in the way Peter did, telling me
nothing of what he was thinking, and then he grabbed Jeremy by the
head and said, “Time to head home. I have to go into work and your
mom said she’d be home by four. If we leave now, we’ll pull in just
about the same time she does.”

Work. That reminded me, Peter had told me
he’d be working for the foreseeable future, but here he was with
Jeremy. The cloud of joy that had settled around me parted.

To hide my hurt, I looked back at Carol and
Ethel. “That’s too bad, but we’ll probably be here for a long time.
Carol really just started shopping.”

“Yes...” Peter glanced at his son and then
whispered something in his ear. Jeremy gave me a quick goodbye and
trotted back to the booth with the animals and, I noticed, a large
bowl of candy.