Love at First Sight (8 page)

If the killer was Dr. Carl Vandermullen, then it could have been over the divorce or maybe Vandermullen had just found out about the secret lover.

And if it was the secret lover? Liz had gotten a room in her own name in a far wing of the Carlton on a floor with no other guests, requesting privacy. She’d been expecting her secret lover when she’d called Karen. A man, the one Karen had seen, arrived while Liz was leaving a message on Karen’s answering machine.

Jack thought it pretty safe to assume the man Karen had seen was the secret lover. Because of the time element with only thirty-five minutes between the moment when Karen had seen the man in the hotel hallway and Liz had been killed, the man could be the killer.

Also from the message Liz had left on the answering-machine tape, it sounded as if she planned to threaten the man with what she’d learned about him. Add to that the exchange between Liz and the man in the hotel hallway. Whoever the man was, he was definitely a suspect.

Jack played the tape again, careful to keep the volume down so Karen wouldn’t hear it. Liz’s voice disturbed him. She seemed to go from upset to angry and vengeful. Karen was right. Liz’s last statement did sound like a threat. Is that what had gotten her killed?

He turned off the tape and closed the file. Liz was dead. And now Karen Sutton had threatened the killer in the newspaper. Jack feared more than ever that the killer would come after her.

He pulled out his cell phone and punched in Denny’s home number. “I thought I’d better let you know, I have Karen Sutton with me,” he said when Denny answered.

“I figured something like that when I didn’t hear from her,” Denny said. “I’m sure you think you’re protecting her—”

“I
am
protecting her,” he interrupted.

Denny swore. “You’re a damned fool sticking your neck out like this, especially for a woman you don’t even know.”

“Yeah.” Except that he felt as though he knew her, had always known her. But since he couldn’t even explain it to himself, he sure wasn’t going to try to explain it to Denny. “I also have the answering-machine tape. I guess I stuck it in my pocket and forgot about it.”

“Right. Have her and the tape at my apartment by eight in the morning. I hope you know what you’re doing.” Denny hung up.

Monday morning

Jack found Karen sitting outside on the same rock wall they’d shared the night before. He could tell something was wrong the moment he saw her face.

“Wanna talk about it?” he asked as he sat down next to her. He could feel the warm morning sun on his back, that indefinable smell of spring in the air and this woman, making him feel weightless as he glanced out at the open expanse of landscape and sky—then at her. Just sitting this close to her was like sitting next to a bug zapper on a hot summer night.

“I keep thinking about the man I saw—” She frowned in obvious frustration. “If I just had a better description.”

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “We’ll find him.” This
morning he really believed it. Or maybe because of Karen he wanted it so much, it seemed possible. “In the meantime, you can stay here.”

“Jack, I’ve been thinking—”

He didn’t like the sound of this.

“—I can’t stay.” She touched his arm, stopping him before he could tell her how much he wanted her to stay. Her touch was light and quick, but it made him want to catch her hand and draw her closer. He regretted not kissing her last night. Chivalry be damned, he wouldn’t make that mistake again.

“I appreciate you bringing me here more than you can know,” she said. “But I feel too…safe with you, Jack.”

He laughed softly. “Isn’t that a good thing?” Her eyes were the color of forget-me-nots this morning. Bluer and brighter than he’d ever seen them but also more troubled.

“No, feeling safe when you’re not isn’t a good thing,” she said adamantly. “I can’t let you do this.”

“Do what?”

“Jeopardize your career. You should be enjoying your time off, not baby-sitting me, not making me feel…” She waved a hand through the air.

“Safe?”

She nodded but hesitantly.

He wanted to keep her safe, but if she thought she was completely safe with him, she was wrong. After all, he was a man. And she was a woman. He met her gaze. And if this wasn’t sexual tension smoldering between them, then one of them was about to spontaneously combust.

She dragged her gaze away. “After my father’s heart attack, I was scared,” she said, the words seeming to come hard for her. “My mother and I had always depended on him for everything. I was terrified that I couldn’t take over his business and keep it going until he got better, afraid I didn’t have what it took.”

Jack suspected this woman could do anything she set her mind to, but he said nothing as she continued.

“Then when he died less than six months after I came home, suddenly I had not only the responsibility of the business, but my mother, who was lost without Dad. I learned that I was stronger than I thought. I don’t want to lose that strength and the independence I’ve gained. Especially now.”

“God knows I wouldn’t want to take away an ounce of your independence,” he said smiling. “I just thought you might need someone to lean on.”

“No offense, but this doesn’t seem like the time to be…leaning. I need both feet firmly under me right now. Sure I’m scared that there could be a killer after me and I appreciate your help. But I don’t want to run scared, you know what I mean?”

He nodded. He’d run scared a couple of times in his life.

“I also need to keep my wits about me and, quite frankly, Jack, you’re a…a distraction.”

A distraction? It wasn’t exactly the stuff of
Romeo and Juliet
but he supposed it would do to start. Is that what he wanted? To start something up with this woman?

He thought about it for a full microsecond, remembering that crazy clear thought he’d had last night about her. Even in the light of day it just didn’t seem all that
crazy. Yet Denny’s words rang in his ears like an alarm: “She isn’t even your type.”

Maybe he’d never realized before just what his type was. “Karen, maybe it’s time you let someone take care of you for a change. I’d like to, if you’ll let me.”

Her eyes shone with tears. “Jack, you barely know me.”

He brushed a tear from her cheek. “We can remedy that.” He leaned toward her, slowly, afraid she’d bolt if he moved too quickly.

But she didn’t bolt. She seemed riveted to the spot as her gaze locked with his until his lips brushed hers and she let out the smallest of sighs.

He drew back, his eyes searching hers. Was he losing his mind? Did he care if he was?

She leaned toward him like a tree surrendering to the force of the wind and pressed her lips to his, sweet and soft, moist and welcoming as she opened, a flower to the sun. He felt something inside him open as well and a rush of feelings poured in, drowning him with a need that did and didn’t have to do with sex.

His cell phone rang, jangling them both back to sudden reality.

“It’s probably Denny,” she said, pulling away. She ran her tongue over her lips, looking a little unsteady.

He knew unsteady as he fumbled for the damned phone. “Yeah?”

“Hope I didn’t interrupt anything,” Denny snapped, “But we have a situation here. Captain Baxter got wind of our star witness. I had to assure him she was safe. He’s fit to be tied.”

Jack knew this would happen. Right now, he couldn’t care less. But after the effects of Karen’s kiss wore off, he just might.

“He’s threatening to put me on suspension,” Denny said. “If you’re smart you’ll go on your vacation now and let me handle this. So far he doesn’t know you’re involved.”

“Sorry, I can’t do that.”

“Well, you’ve been warned,” Denny said.

Silence.

“I guess you might as well know,” Denny said after a few moments. “I talked to an editor at the newspaper. Are you sitting down?”

Jack was, but he still felt as though he was floating. That was some kiss. He wondered what they could do if they really put their minds to it.

“It’s about our star witness’s newspaper ad. It worked.”

Jack felt himself jerked out of the euphoria of the kiss and drop like a parachuteless fool from high altitude, the ground coming up fast.

“Maybe worked
too
well. We got two responses. I guess there’s more than one guilty guy out there.”

“Two responses?” Jack echoed, slamming into solid ground with a thud. He looked over at Karen, his heart pounding but for all the wrong reasons now.

Her eyes were wide and still more blue than green or gold. Magical eyes. But now filled with concern rather than longing.

“I think you’d better get down here,” Denny was saying. “One of the respondents to the ad wants to meet with Karen at noon today at a little Mexican-food place
called El Topo on Higgins. You ever have their fish tacos? They’re great.”

“No, I haven’t,” Jack said impatiently.

“You should try them sometime,” he said. “Anyway, Baxter says I’m to have her there or else. You, of course, are persona non grata. But I thought I could meet you at the newspaper. You bring Karen and the tape. I’ll bring the crime-lab boys.” He hung up.

Jack glanced at Karen again as he clicked off his phone and shoved it back into his pocket. He could see by the look on her face that they weren’t going back where they were before the call.

“Two men answered your ad,” he told her. “One of them wants a meeting at noon at El Topo.”

She nodded and slid off the rock wall. “Let’s get it over with.”

He almost made the mistake of asking her if she was sure she wanted to go through with this. One look at her answered that question in spades.

He was reminded of the first time he saw her. His Girl Next Door. He could see how he’d originally thought that. She had the look. Except this woman refused to fit his mental mold. What had Denny called her? A gutsy lady. Too gutsy for her own good, Jack thought.

L
EAN ON
J
ACK
? The thought pulled at her, tempting her, making her ache inside for a lot more than just leaning. But she knew she couldn’t trust her body, let alone her emotions, right now. Nor did leaning on Jack in any way seem like a good plan. He confused her, made her
feel things she’d gone for twenty-eight years without feeling.

Like his kiss. The kiss had been electric. Her limbs still tingled from it and her knees had gone weak. Karen Sutton. Weak-kneed. How about that? Just what she needed right now.

Oh, why was this happening
now?
Now, when it didn’t seem like the time to have her head in the clouds? Now, when maybe there was a killer out there looking for her? Now, when she didn’t even feel comfortable in her own skin, with this new Karen acting up?

She had to get tough. That was the ticket. It had worked for her before; she had to trust she could get through this, as well. But that meant finding her own strengths. She’d weakened back at the lodge, touched by more than Jack’s concern, but now that the effects of his kiss were finally starting to wear off some—

“May I ask you something? Why
do
you feel the need to protect me?” she asked as they drove down the mountainside toward Missoula.

“It came with my badge,” he said and smiled over at her. “And I told you, I like the way you eat lemon-filled doughnuts.”

Right, a man who liked to see a woman eat. She hadn’t bought that yesterday; she wasn’t buying it now. “Does it have something to do with your friend Denny Kirkpatrick and the fact that he knew Liz?”

His smile faded a little.

“He hadn’t told you he dated her, had he?”

“No.” Jack stared straight ahead at the road.

“Do you think he could be involved in her mur
der?” she asked and could see him fighting with the question.

“Denny and I have worked together for seven years. I’d trust him with my life.”

“What about mine?”

Jack looked over at her. “You really go to the heart of the matter, don’t you?”

Always. Unless it involved her own heart. Then she ran. Just as she was trying desperately to do now. Run from this unlikely chemistry she felt between her and Jack. The cop and the cabinetmaker. So unlikely a match. And yet she felt drawn to him with a sudden sense of urgency—

The murder. Of course that was it. The intrigue, the suspense, the danger had ignited a passion she never knew she possessed and heightened Jack’s coplike protectiveness.

Once the murder was solved, it would be like Cinderella after the ball. Karen would go back to being the old passionless Karen and Jack would go off to protect some other damsel in distress. Not exactly your happily-ever-after ending, but an ending just the same.

“I’m just being a cop. Suspicious. Cautious.”

Jack’s words jerked her back to reality.

“Just can’t fight that need to save the damsel in distress,” she said, hoping he’d deny it.

“Something like that.” He drove in silence for a few minutes as if grappling with his own reality. “What was their relationship like in high school, Denny’s and Liz’s, do you know?”

Karen thought back, glad for the change of subject.
“Like I said, I didn’t know Liz well. We ran in different circles. I was Miss Goody Two-shoes, Exemplary Student and Nerd Extraordinaire. Liz seemed a little wild back then, adventurous, daring, but that was just from my limited perception.”

“It doesn’t sound like she changed all that much,” Jack pointed out.

“No, I guess not,” she agreed. “Denny wasn’t exactly a secret lover, that’s for sure. But he was a biker, three years older and from the wrong side of the tracks. He drove a motorcycle, wore a black leather jacket and slicked back his hair.”

“He told me that he grew up poor and without much parental supervision,” Jack said. “I know he got into some trouble with the law.”

She nodded. “I think that was after he and Liz broke up.”

“Do you think he and Liz were serious about each other?”

She thought about that for a moment, then remembered a time she’d seen them together. “I remember this one day when he came to pick her up at school on his bike. The reason I remember it was because of the way he looked at her.” She sighed. “I wondered at the time what it must be like to have a man look at you like…that.”

“You mean, like he was in love with her?” Jack asked.

Karen glanced over at him, blinded as a memory blazed bright as a camera flashbulb going off, freezing a moment in time as clear as any snapshot. Jack. And the way he’d looked at her earlier that morning. He’d looked at her the same way Denny had looked at Liz!

She blinked.

Jack eyed her strangely. “Like Denny was in love with Liz?” he asked again.

“Exactly. But maybe he didn’t realize it at the time.”

“I suppose that’s possible,” Jack said, not sounding convinced.

Was
it possible?

L
OST IN HIS OWN
thoughts the rest of the ride into Missoula, Jack hadn’t noticed that Karen didn’t seem herself until he opened the door of the newspaper office for her.

“Nervous?” he asked, touching her arm.

She almost jumped out of her skin. “No. I’m fine.”

She didn’t look fine. She looked the way she had the first time he’d seen her. Nervous. Overly anxious. Strangely suspicious. He wondered what had happened to make her that way when she’d seemed fine before they’d left the lodge.

Amend that. Before they’d kissed.

Denny met them the moment they stepped inside the newspaper office and quickly ushered them into a conference room. He closed the door and the blinds without a word.

Jack could feel the anxiety coming off his friend in waves. Were Karen and Denny just beginning to realize how dangerous this was? Jack knew he’d secretly been hoping no one would answer the ad. But at the same time, he wanted this over with and Karen out of danger.

Denny’s anxiety today seemed at odds with his non-
chalance about using Karen as bait yesterday. Was it just his need to break this case before Jack managed to get them both fired? Or was it something more? Denny’s love for Liz Jones? Or his need to hide the truth?

Karen pulled up a chair at the table in front of the two white envelopes waiting for her. As Jack took the chair next to her, Denny shot him a questioning look. Jack ignored it.

“Both replies were put in the drop box outside sometime after 3:00 a.m., after the paper hit the streets,” Denny said, taking a chair across from them.