The Investigator (14 page)

Sonia smiled back. “What can I get you to drink?”

“Um, a glass of white wine would be great.”

“House wine, all right?”

“That would be lovely.”

Sonia winked at her. “Coming right up.”

Within moments, a glass of chardonnay was placed in front of her. Kate picked it up and took a sip. The ice-cold wine slid down her throat. She breathed in the fruity smell and waited for the tingling feeling to glide through her veins. She’d never been a big drinker and alcohol of any kind always had that effect on her.

“What brings you back to town?” Sonia didn’t try to hide her curiosity.

Kate couldn’t blame the woman. Her departure a decade ago had been rather dramatic. She could only imagine the rumors that had passed from one teenage mouth to another.

But that was a lifetime ago. Her past had been buried so deep not even Sherlock Holmes would find it. And that’s the way she wanted it. As long as she could find her mother, alive and well, and take her back to the UK with her, things would go on as normal. She’d return to London, settle her mother into a flat nearby and then pick up the threads of her successful life. She’d continue forward as if Watervale and her past no longer existed.

Aware that Sonia was still waiting for an answer, Kate settled on the truth.

“I’ve come to visit my mother. She used to email me all the time, but a little over a month ago, she stopped. Not even a phone call. I just want to make sure she’s all right.”

A frown creased Sonia’s forehead. “Actually, come to think about it, I haven’t seen her around lately. Not that she’s ever been one to get out and about much, but I usually see her sitting in her front garden every now and then. I drive right by your folks’ house on my way home.”

Kate’s heart skipped a beat. “Really? Do you remember the last time you saw her?”

Sonia looked thoughtful. “Yeah, it must have been at least a month ago, come to think about it. That big old oak tree right near the driveway was still as bare as a slab of concrete. Your mom was sitting in her wheelchair with a laptop balanced on her knees. I remember thinking what a with-it kind of woman she was. My mother wouldn’t even know how to switch a computer on.”

“Was anyone with her?”

“No, I don’t think so, but I was driving. I only saw her for a moment.”

Kate’s mind whirled. Her mother hadn’t exactly sounded unhappy in her last few emails, but it was what she hadn’t said that had led Kate to conclude her mother’s relationship with Darryl had become strained.

Previous emails had often mentioned Darryl and what the two of them had been up to, but the later ones, the emails she’d received right before they’d ceased altogether, hadn’t referred to him a single time. That was odd—as odd as her abrupt disappearance.

Despair settled on Kate’s shoulders and she sighed under its weight. She wished she had someone to turn to, someone who would listen—
really
listen—and take her side, just once.

The familiar, tantalizing, masculine smell of expensive cologne teased her nostrils and accelerated her pulse. Then she noticed the change of expression on Sonia’s face—as if a lamp had been switched on behind her pupils. The barmaid’s teeth shone in the dimness and she turned away for a second or two of covert primping in the mirrored glass behind the bar.

Kate looked sideways. Riley pulled up the stool beside hers and lowered himself onto it with effortless athletic grace. His sleeve brushed hers and her insides clenched on a flutter of nerves.

He turned and smiled at her. A slow, sexy, thoughtful smile that darkened his eyes to the color of Old Gold Chocolate.

She averted her gaze, fighting the pull she felt when she looked into his eyes. A ball of heat unfurled low inside her.

“What’s a gorgeous-as-all-get-out girl like you doing in a place like this?”

She rolled her eyes at his awful Bogart imitation. Despite her best intentions, a giggle spilled out. Then another. She lifted her gaze to his. She couldn’t help it. Her lips widened on a smile.

He was funny and enthralling and sexy in his dark, French-barista kind of way. And he was genuine. She could see real caring in his eyes. In the way they darkened when he looked at her, and the tenderness in his smile. Her belly fluttered again and she was suddenly lost for words.

He spared her from having to formulate a reply by ordering a beer from Sonia, who hovered nearby.

“Crown Lager, right?” Sonia replied. “Big and busty and full of flavor, just how you like it.” The barmaid winked and ran the tip of her tongue over the glossy fullness of her bottom lip.

Kate lowered her gaze and fumbled for some money in her handbag. The kernel of desire she’d felt moments before died a quick, merciful death. Embarrassment burned her skin.
Oh, God, Sonia had something going on with him.
She should have guessed. If the woman leaned any closer to Riley, her breasts would fall right out onto the bar.

Seizing a ten-dollar bill, she plunked it down in front of her and scrambled off the stool.

“Look, I have to get going,” she mumbled, turning away.

“Hey, don’t go rushing off.” Riley stood, towering over her, the strength and breadth of his body at once both reassuring and intimidating.

Her gaze darted around the room and bounced between patrons, pool tables, the jukebox, the heavy wooden entrance door—searching for an escape.

His hand was warm and firm on her arm. “Stay. Please, Kate.” His eyes probed hers, seeking, searching, as if delving for secrets she could never divulge.

She shook her head, panic close to the surface. “No, um… Please, I have to go.” The words came out in a rush. She couldn’t meet his eyes.

“How about a bite to eat?” He squeezed her upper arm with his long fingers. “You feel way too scrawny.”

Heat from his touch burned through her. He flashed his killer smile again and her knees almost buckled. He must have sensed her near-capitulation and coaxed her with another grin. “They do a great steak here.”

“I’m not hungry,” she protested and was immediately mortified when her stomach betrayed her with a loud rumble.

He chuckled. “See, I told you. Listen to your body. It knows what’s best for you.”

Fire spread across her face, even worse than before. She glanced back to Sonia who stood listening to the exchange, her petulant expression leaving Kate in little doubt about the woman’s feelings.

Riley caught the exchange and his face filled with comprehension. “Hey,” he said softly. “Why don’t you find us an empty table? I’ll bring the drinks.”

Without giving her time to respond, he turned back to the bar. Kate veered away from the bar and headed toward the tables. She slid into an empty booth near a window.

Riley was right. She was starving. Peering through the window, she noticed the night had drawn in and only occasional lights from a passing car penetrated the inky blackness.

“Are you ready to order?”

She turned around. Riley placed a fresh beer and another glass of wine on the table, his smile back in place. She risked a glance in Sonia’s direction, but the barmaid was occupied with a couple of young men who had just walked in.

Kate murmured her thanks and picked up the wine. She took a sip before setting the glass back down. “I hope I didn’t mess things up for you with Sonia.”

His eyes widened and he shook his head. “I’ve only been in town three months. I barely know her.”

“That’s not how it seemed to me.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Flames licked at her cheeks and she closed her eyes. Why did she have to say something like that? She sounded like a jealous girlfriend. When she found the courage to sneak a peek at him, he looked flushed.

“We’ve shared a few conversations over a drink or two. I guess she must have gotten the wrong idea,” he mumbled.

The heat in Kate’s cheeks eased. She felt better, knowing he was just as uncomfortable as she was. He hadn’t been obliged to give her an explanation. After all, she had no claim on him. But he had clarified things, and his explanation made her feel warm inside. She liked knowing what she thought mattered to him.

She looked at him again. Feeling shy and uncertain, she gave him a small smile.

His face stilled. His eyes darkened to black. He reached over and picked up her hand. Turning it palm-up, he rubbed a long, cold finger across the contours of her skin.

She stared at their hands, mesmerized at the contrasting contact. Heat. Ice. Light. Dark.

As if becoming aware of her scrutiny, he dropped her hand and pushed himself back against the wooden spine of the bench seat. His breath whistled through clenched lips. The same hand she’d been fixated on moments before scratched roughly at his closely cropped hair.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what I was thinking.” He looked up, his dark eyes burning into hers. “You’re involved in my investigation. We probably shouldn’t even be eating together.”

She held his gaze, wondering about his change of heart. “It didn’t seem a problem a few moments ago.”

He looked away, his eyes fixed on the old-fashioned jukebox on the far side of the room. Alan Jackson was singing about the place he called home.

Riley’s gaze tangled with hers again and her breath caught for the second time. In some sane, detached part of her mind, it annoyed her that he was able to elicit such a response from her with nothing more than a look. She barely knew him and she had every reason not to become involved with him…or any other man.

But it didn’t seem to matter. Her belly twisted into nervous knots each time he looked at her and she tingled with awareness every time he smiled.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, her voice low. “It’s not like I’m a suspect.”

He looked away again, but not before she caught the flash of uncertainty in his eyes. She shook her head, heat of a different kind igniting in her veins.

“Don’t tell me you think
I
did it? You can’t possibly think I’d harm my own mother?”

He squirmed and filled his mouth with beer, still avoiding her gaze.

Full-blown anger coursed through her. “Oh my God, you
do
! You saunter in here and corner me on the pretense of some friendly little tête-à-tête and all the time you suspect I’m involved in my mother’s disappearance?”

She grabbed her handbag and slid across the wooden bench seat. He stood and she brushed past him in her haste to get out of the booth.

“No.”

His quiet, monosyllabic answer reverberated in her ears, through the low murmur of conversation around them, over the sound of Alan Jackson crooning on the jukebox.

He held his arms out in a sign of surrender. “Kate, I didn’t mean to imply you were a suspect. I know how you feel about your mother. You wouldn’t be here, in Watervale, otherwise.” His eyes burned into hers. “I know you didn’t have anything to do with your mother’s disappearance. What I don’t know is why the hell you keep lying to me?”

* * *

His barb found its mark. He could tell from the slight flaring of her delicate nostrils, the sharp intake of breath. He waited for her to deny it.

Her shoulders slumped on a rush of air and her gaze lost its intensity. Her lips compressed and she gave a single, tiny nod.

Of acceptance? Defeat?
He couldn’t tell.

She reluctantly resumed her seat, the tension still apparent in her body. “You’re talking about Mom’s will.”

He nodded and sat back down opposite her. “I went to see her lawyer.”

“Harold Westport.”

“He told me about it.”

Her eyes flashed. “He had no right to talk to you. As far as he knows, my mother’s still alive. I’ll sue him for every penny he has for breach of confidentiality.”

“First of all, the confidentiality belongs to your mother, not to you. If anyone’s going to sue, it will be her. And if she’s in a position to instigate a lawsuit, my work will be done.”

Kate remained silent, tracing a finger up and down the frosted condensation on her glass. Riley watched and waited.

Finally, she dragged her gaze up to his. Her eyes were troubled. He held his breath, not sure he was ready to hear what she had to say. Her voice, when she spoke, was so low he had to lean forward and strain against the noise of the bar to hear.

“You’re right. I did know. Mom told me a little over a month ago she was changing her will. She told me she intended to cut Darryl out.”

A level of anger surged through him. He reined it in with a sheer act of will.

“Why did you lie to me?” he managed.

She offered him a half-hearted shrug and said nothing. Her insouciance infuriated him.

“That’s it? That’s all I get?” His fists clenched. He deserved better. He’d been busting his gut trying to get to the bottom of her mother’s disappearance—trying to help.

Her gaze stayed fixed on the glass in front of her. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

He sucked in his breath and tried to control his anger. Was she going out of her
way
to upset him? He was on her side. Didn’t she know that?

With a gargantuan effort, he stifled his frustration and tried again, his tone as even as he could manage.

“I’m on your side. I’m trying to help you. Don’t you
see
that?”

Her cobalt eyes stripped him of any pretense. “Are you? Are you
really
? Or is it because you don’t even think a crime’s been committed that you feel at liberty to butter me up?” Her voice turned sarcastic and her eyes regained their fire.

“What about my stepfather, Detective? The glorious, heroic, leader of the people? Where does he fit into all of this? I know you boys stick together. It’s never been any different, but if
I
didn’t do it, who did?”

Riley didn’t flinch. “I’m reserving my opinion on Darryl. He’s a selfish prick, but until I know for sure a crime’s been committed, what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to take my
word
for it. I want you to
believe
me when I tell you my mother’s missing. I want you to say, ‘okay, we’ll go and arrest him,’ when I tell you my stepfather’s responsible.”

Tears glittered in the cobalt depths of her eyes. Riley shook his head and looked away.