If You Ever Tell (25 page)

After what seemed an endless time, Teresa said softly, “Gus used to be in love with my mother.”

“What?” Mac blurted.

“He told me just this morning.” She sighed. “This morning. It seems like a month ago. Anyway, he used to work at the town stables and Mom had a horse boarded there. A black Arabian just like Eclipse. Isn’t that odd? Gus thought I’d bought Eclipse because she was like Mom’s horse, Cassandra, but I didn’t even know Mom ever had a horse. She never mentioned it. I never saw any pictures of her with a horse.”

“So Gus got to know your mother at the stables,” Mac said, his arm tightening around her shivering body. “Did he tell her he loved her?”

“No, but she probably guessed.”

“Did he say if your mother returned the feeling?”

“He said something vague about her looking at him a certain way. I guess about that time Dad appeared in her life—”

“And she fell head over heels in love with the charming devil.”

“Let’s just say the devil. Afterward, her parents sold the horse and Mom stopped coming to the stables. Then Gus saw her engagement picture in the paper.” Teri paused. “There was tenderness in his voice when he talked about Mom. I know he was always loyal to his wife, Sarah—who definitely disliked me, by the way—but I don’t think he ever stopped loving his Marielle.”

“She was like her daughter,” Mac murmured. “Of course he didn’t stop loving her. He couldn’t.”

Teresa was glad Mac couldn’t see her flush, knowing Mac was saying he couldn’t stop loving Teri any more than Gus could stop loving Marielle. But Teri was still afraid of Mac’s ability to hurt her, the emotional power he held over her, and she didn’t want to betray her weakness now, just because she felt weak and frightened and lost.

Suddenly, in the distance, Teri heard sirens. The police were coming. The emergency squad was coming. None of them could do anything for Gus. They would just pull that awful rake from his chest, put him on a gurney, and take him away. Or rather, take away the lifeless shell that had once held the warm, gentle spirit of Gus Gibbs.

As the ambulance pulled up to the barn, Teresa remembered talking to Gus about her mother. The last thing he’d said about her was, “I worry about her and I pray every night that poor Marielle finds her way home someday.”

Well, Gus, at least you don’t have to worry about my mother anymore, Teresa thought wretchedly. And you don’t have to pray every night that she’ll find her way home again because she won’t in your lifetime.

The police arrived about two minutes after the ambulance, and Mac gently told Teri to sit—he’d take care of the situation. She could have kissed him then, because she already felt her throat closing off and the hot, relentless tears of grief beginning to course down her cheeks. She was fumbling uselessly in her windbreaker pocket for a tissue when abruptly a new idea hit her with the force of an electric shock.

What if the person who had darted in front of her car earlier actually had been her mother? In that case, Marielle
had
come home again and with her, she’d brought death.

Half an hour later, Mac pushed Teresa through her doorway, where Sierra greeted her ecstatically, turning in circles, barking and squeaking. Teri kneeled and hugged the exuberant dog. “I need some of your joy, girl. It’s been a rough night.”

“That’s for sure.” Mac stood above Teri, looking through the open doorway at the red lights disappearing up the hill, bearing away police, emergency medical technicians, and Gus. He firmly shut the door.

“You need to get out of those wet clothes, Teri,” he said authoritatively. “Your jeans are soaked.”

“So are yours.”

“I’m not the one shivering. Go change. I’ll put on some coffee.”

Teresa wasn’t sure whether her shivering was because of wet clothes or shock. In either case, changing into something warm and dry and having a cup of hot coffee sounded wonderful. “The coffee is in a container in the cabinet above the coffeemaker,” she said.

“I’ll find everything.” Mac held out his hand. Teresa took it and he helped her to a standing position. Their bodies were almost touching. Their gazes met and held, and for a moment Teri thought he was going to pull her against him. Then he gave her a gentle shove toward the stairs. “Go change clothes and use a blow-dryer on your hair. It’s dripping.”

Teresa followed his orders like a child, marching upstairs, stripping off her wet clothes, then impulsively turning on the shower, making the water as hot as she could stand it. Under the pounding water, Teri closed her eyes, trying to erase the last hour from her mind, but it was useless. Every detail flooded back with blinding clarity.

Although the sheriff knew the horse farm belonged to Teresa, when he’d first arrived, he’d directed most of his questions to Mac. It must be a guy thing, Teri had thought vaguely. Men always assumed other men could answer questions more accurately and coherently than women could. But eventually the sheriff had turned to her, asking why Gus had been in the barn, who had been in the barn with him, who could have wanted to kill him—questions Teresa couldn’t possibly answer.

While the sheriff was questioning her, Josh Gibbs had arrived. His reaction to his father’s murder had been stunned horror, followed by almost frightening fury. Finally, he’d taken a swing at Mac, the stranger Josh’s roiling, baffled mind thought somehow must be responsible for Gus’s death. Mac had seen the swing coming and dodged it. Police restrained Josh when he tried taking a second shot, but by then the shred of composure Teri had clung to snapped. To her humiliation, she burst into uncontrollable sobs.

“I’m taking Miss Farr back to her house,” Mac had told the sheriff in a tone that brooked no argument. “She’s had all she can take for one day.”

The sheriff, not to be outdone, gave his permission, although Mac had not asked for it. Mac led Teresa out of the barn. Numbly she’d climbed in his car, and he drove slowly back to the house.

Now, as she stepped out of the shower, she realized she’d finally stopped shivering, but she felt cold deep inside. She slipped into underwear and then a heavy terry cloth robe she usually wore only in winter. She turned the blow-dryer on her hair for five minutes, then in a fit of impatience turned it off while her hair still streamed damply below her shoulders.

When Teri reached the foot of the stairs, Mac appeared holding two thermal cups of steaming coffee. He held one out to her and she took a sip, then smiled. “Just a tad of cream, a pinch of cinnamon, and no sugar. You remembered.”

Mac grinned. “The only person I’ve ever known who takes cinnamon in their coffee is Teresa Farr. You’re unique, Teri, in more ways than one.”

“I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad.” Teresa felt her cheeks grow warm and she quickly looked down at her coffee. Mac’s gaze seemed too familiar, too intimate, for her to return casually. “Your clothes are as wet as mine were,” she said. I’ll put them in the dryer if you take them off.”

Mac raised an eyebrow and one side of his mouth quirked in an insinuating smile. “Upstairs on the right is the guest bedroom. In the top drawer of the dresser is a pair of jeans and a couple of shirts. I think they’ll fit you,” Teri said. “And quit smirking. The clothes are Kent’s. Once in a while he stops by for a short ride on Conquistador after he leaves work.”

“Convenient explanation, Teri,” Mac said lightly.

“I don’t need an explanation, but if the clothes belonged to a lover, I don’t think they’d be in the guest room.” Teresa stepped aside and motioned at the stairs. “Go change before you sit down and ruin my furniture with your wet jeans.”

“So it’s the furniture you’re worried about, not my health.”

“You don’t catch colds, remember?”

As Mac disappeared up the stairs, Teresa walked through the living room sipping her coffee and musing at how strange it felt to be here with him, letting him fix coffee for her, telling him to change into Kent’s jeans so his own clothes could dry. It felt strange, but it also felt familiar. And so it would, she reasoned. They’d known each other for years. They’d been in love. They’d once been engaged.

And that’s what she had to remember, Teresa told herself. The love and the engagement were in the past. She couldn’t put faith in the reassurance she felt with Mac tonight. She had to consider the circumstances. She’d just suffered the second-biggest shock of her life and Mac had been with her. Unlike the night when her father and Wendy had been murdered, she’d had someone to stand by her, actually to take over and to shield her from the barrage of questions and the suspicious looks, and then to whisk her away when she’d had as much as she could endure. Mac had shared this awful experience with her and he had been protective and comforting, but to comfort wasn’t to love. Teresa had no idea how Mac really felt about her. And at the moment she had no idea how she really felt about him.

Mac came downstairs wearing Kent’s jeans, which hit at least an inch above his ankles, and a polo shirt stretched tightly across his chest. He grinned and said, “I guess I’m bigger than Kent—I hope I’m not ruining his shirt.” Then Mac had insisted on putting his own clothes in the dryer rather than letting Teresa do it. Finally, they sat down at the kitchen table, each with a second cup of coffee. Sierra was rewarded for her earlier good behavior with another piece of beef jerky.

“I guess I shouldn’t be having all this coffee, considering how nervous I already am,” Teri said.

“It’s decaf. I hope you don’t mind—I rummaged through your cabinets until I found some.”

“I don’t mind at all. It was very thoughtful of you.”

Teresa realized how stiff she sounded, and when Mac reached over and covered her hand with his, she nearly jerked it away. Mac held it firmly and gave her an unflinching stare. “I know this situation must be uncomfortable for you, but you shouldn’t be alone right now and I’m the only game in town,” Mac said evenly. “I know you could call Carmen or Sharon and Kent, but then you’d have to replay the whole evening for them, and you don’t need that tonight. Just put up with me for a little while. After all, you might need me. The sheriff said he wasn’t through talking to you. He’d call the talk an interview, but it would be an interrogation and it’s not happening while I’m here.”

“No wonder he wants to interrogate me,” Teri said drearily. “Who else would be the number-one suspect in this murder case? The notorious Teresa Farr.”

“I’m not going to tell you you’re being silly. I’m sure the cops do consider you a suspect, although I don’t know what your motive would be for killing your hired hand.”

“Gus,” Teresa said. “His name is Gus Gibbs and I thought the world of him. He was kind and honest and funny and caring and…” Her eyes began to fill with tears.

Mac gave her a sympathetic smile. “Of course you would always call him by his name. Your jerk of a father always referred to ‘the help,’ not you or your mother. Both of you took a genuine interest in the people who worked for you. I know my mother thinks your mother was the best friend she ever had. She’s never stopped missing Marielle.”

Teresa flushed at the mention of her mother. Dear God, please let Kent be right, she thought. Please let my imagination be running wild, thinking it was Mom I saw running in front of my car. Let it be a teenager out for fun.

“Teri, what are you thinking?” Mac asked.

“Nothing important, just about tonight and…” She floundered mentally for a moment, then said, “I don’t know why I didn’t see Eclipse running loose when I came back from the club. She must have been outside by then.”

“Did I arrive immediately after you did?”

“No. There was at least a twenty-minute lag.”

“Then the horse could have gotten loose during that time. Or maybe it was loose when you got home, but you just didn’t see it because it was behind the barn or something.”

“I guess so,” Teresa said unhappily. “But if I’d stopped at the barn instead of coming straight home, maybe I could have prevented Gus’s death.”

“And maybe you could have gotten yourself murdered, too. Besides, it’s better that I can testify that you were here in your house, I took you back to the barn, and I was with you when you found Gus. You weren’t alone… again.”

“Not like the first time I found someone murdered,” Teresa said bitterly. “I don’t think the police would have believed that was a coincidence. Even I would have trouble believing it if I weren’t the one who keeps finding mutilated bodies.”

Mac was silent while she swallowed hard, then lifted her cup with a shaking hand and took a sip of coffee. Finally he asked, “Teri, why did you decide to come back here to live? Was it just because Byrnes had been caught and you thought everything would be the same as it was before the murders?”

“You think my life was great before the murders? My mother was deeply unhappy even when I was a little girl. I never liked my father, and the stricter he got with me, the more I rebelled, so that by the time he was killed, I already had a reputation for being wild, a troublemaker, an embarrassment to my whole family. I wasn’t half as unruly as people thought I was, but I never tried to set the record straight. I enjoyed being a thorn in my father’s side.”

“I think a lot of people knew that, Teri. I certainly did. Anyone who got close to you knew you weren’t some uncontrollable, wayward girl.”

“Don’t forget ‘immoral.’”

“I thought ‘wayward’ covered ‘immoral.’” Mac grinned. “And your relationship with me was to blame for getting you labeled immoral and me a pervert for dating a seventeen-year-old girl. But I’m not a pervert and you certainly aren’t immoral when it comes to sex or life in general. You’re actually one of the most honorable people I’ve ever known, and I’ve met a lot of people since I met you.”

Teresa felt her cheeks coloring. “Honorable. No one has ever applied that word to me.”

“That’s because no one has ever known you like I do,” Mac said softly. Then he smiled. “Remember when we met—you hung out your bedroom window and talked to me about Billy Idol’s ‘Sweet Sixteen.’ You were flirting like crazy that day.”

“And I was scared silly to be acting so ‘brazen,’ as your mother would say.” Teresa grinned. “I did it partly because I knew my dad was upstairs and he’d hear me. I wanted to make him mad. But mostly I came on so strong because I had such a crush on you. I wanted you to think I was bold when it came to men. A real woman of the world.” Teri suddenly burst into giggles. “Some woman of the world. I’d never even been kissed!”