ILL-TIMED ENTANGLEMENTS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #2) (22 page)

Lindstrom rapped sharply against the wood. Rob jumped. Reluctantly he unlocked and opened the door. The detective didn’t even bother to say hello. He just handed over the paper. Rob glanced down and tried to hide his relief.

“It’s a search warrant,” he told the others, as Lindstrom directed the officer toward the den and he headed for Betty’s bedroom. Rob followed the officer, hoping a lawyer standing over him would discourage him from making a mess as he searched.

When Lindstrom returned to the room, he was carrying a clear evidence bag containing a silver and turquoise necklace. He held it up. “How did you happen to come by this, Mrs. Franklin?”

“Oh my, I forgot I had that. Frieda lent it to me months ago. I had an interview with someone from the local TV station and she was helping me decide what to wear.” Tears filled Betty’s eyes and her voice dropped to a whisper. “She insisted I wear her necklace because it matched the suit we picked out.”

Detective Lindstrom was giving her a skeptical look when Rob and the uniform returned to the room. The detective gestured with his head and the officer moved into the kitchen. He quietly but methodically began going through drawers and cabinets.

Lindstrom turned back to Betty, but before he could say anything, Kate asked Betty, “Was that the same suit you wore for Liz and Rob’s anniversary party?”

“Yes, dear.”

Catching Kate’s drift, Liz jumped up and headed for the bedroom. “Be right back.” In less than a minute, Liz came out holding up a hanger with a suit on it. The colors in the tweed fabric were navy, burgundy and turquoise.

Lindstrom did not look happy.

“Was there anything else missing from Frieda McIntosh’s apartment, Detective?” Kate asked, giving him her best sympathetic look.

After a moment of hesitation, he said, “Her daughter thinks there are three pieces of jewelry missing, all fairly valuable.”

“So the killer could have stolen the other two,” Rob said. “Or Frieda might have lent them to other friends. I take it you did not see the other pieces in my aunt’s jewelry box?”

Lindstrom just frowned at him.

“Was one of them a pearl necklace, by any chance?” Kate asked.

“Yes. How did you know?”

Kate reported on the interview with Jill Winthrop, including the fact that she was nervously fingering a pearl necklace the whole time. The others filled the detective in on the rest of what they had found out that day.

Lindstrom made some notes in his pad without commenting. The uniformed officer had now managed to discreetly search the rest of the living and dining areas. He shook his head slightly when Lindstrom looked his way. “Thank you,” was all the detective said to the group, then he and the officer headed for the door.

Rob let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Okay, folks, let’s head back to the motel for dinner and a good night’s sleep,” he said.

“Rose and me’ll stay here,” Mac said. “Case the perp tries to break in again.”

“Thanks, Mac. We’ll take a fresh look at things in the morning.”

But by morning they would be dealing with a whole new scenario.

S
ince Kate had ridden with Skip that morning, she headed for his truck. Skip noticed Rob frowning at her back. He was careful not to make eye contact with the other man.

As they headed down Columbia Avenue, Kate was mentally reviewing the few items she was willing to eat from the motel’s room service menu. “I wish they had a different kind of restaurant at the motel,” she said. “I’m not that fond of Indian food.”

She had just given him the perfect opportunity. Spotting the sign he had noticed that morning, Skip swung his truck into the parking lot of Florentino’s restaurant.

“Skip, I’m not having dinner with you,” Kate protested.

“Why not? You just said you’d like something other than Indian food.”

“Because it’s too soon for me to date, that’s why not.”

“Who said anything about a date? This is handy and we’re both hungry, so might as well eat together, as friends. You go out to lunch with Rob all the time.”

Kate couldn’t think of a way to refute that argument. “True, but us not showing up…” Her voice trailed off. She didn’t want to aggravate the situation with Rob, or add to the tension between the men.

“Give them a call. Tell them we saw this place and decided to stop. Ask if they want us to bring them anything.”

When she didn’t move or say anything, Skip added, “What’s the big deal, Kate? You’re the one who’s acting like this is something major. I just want to have a decent meal, with a friend, and away from all the scowling. Be nice to relax for awhile.”

Kate silently agreed with the ‘getting away from the scowling’ part and it occurred to her that this might give her a chance to find out about Skip’s past.

She took out her cell phone, but then lost her nerve. She called Liz’s number instead of Rob’s. After telling Liz that she and Skip weren’t in the mood for Indian food so they’d stopped at another restaurant, Kate asked about bringing them some carry-out.

“I’ll order something for Betty so she can get to bed. She’s drooping rather badly. But Rob and I are used to dining a bit later than this. So yeah, bring us back two steaks, medium, with baked potatoes and whatever the veggie of the day is.”

Kate pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a second, then said into it, “Okay, who are you and what have you done with my friend?” Liz was usually a bit of a nut on the subject of eating healthy, and she especially tried to keep Rob on a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet.

Liz’s booming laugh filled the Explorer, then she dropped her voice to a whisper. “I figure if we feed him some red meat, maybe he’ll be less likely to take a chunk out of Skip.”

After Kate disconnected, she repeated what Liz had said.

“Liz doesn’t miss much, does she?” Skip said. He was smiling but it looked a little forced.

“No, she doesn’t,” Kate said. “Come on, let’s eat. I’m starved.”

After they gave the waitress their food order, Skip selected a bottle of wine with enough ease to indicate he knew his way around a wine list.

“I thought this was a
non
-date,” Kate mock scolded when the waitress had left.

“What, after the day we’ve had, make that the week we’ve had, you’re objecting to a little liquid tranquilizer?”

“Hard to believe it’s been a week since I fell down the rabbit hole into this… strange and scary place.”

“At least nobody’s tried to drop any pots on us lately,” Skip said.

“Lucky for us that you happened to look up when you did,” Kate said, as she pulled a bread stick from the basket the waitress had left on the table.

“Not luck really. It was what you said the other day. I just had this sudden feeling that I should look up. I’ve learned to pay attention to those feelings, but I never realized before that they actually have some basis in something our senses have picked up on. I wonder what it was. Maybe the sound of the pot scraping against the railing.”

“Or a shift in the light, a shadow cast by the pot,” Kate said.

The waitress arrived with a tray. She slipped a salad in front of each of them and then showed Skip the wine bottle. He glanced at the label and nodded.

“You told Lindstrom you were nervous about it later, but you didn’t seem all that scared at the time,” he said to Kate.

As the waitress worked on pulling the cork, Kate answered the implied question. “I did have a little bit of a delayed reaction later. But when it was happening, by the time I realized what was going on, it was all over. The risk had already passed.”

Skip took a small sip of the proffered half glass of wine, then nodded again. The waitress poured Kate a glass, then topped off Skip’s, leaving the bottle in an ice bucket on the end of the table. Kate noted that it was a white wine to complement the shrimp fettuccini she had ordered, rather than a red that would have gone better with Skip’s steak.

Kate took a sip. It was a crisp, light Chardonnay. “Nice choice.”

“Thanks,” Skip said. “You don’t scare all that easily, do you, Kate?” He had observed her in scary circumstances several times now. She had shown fear for others, for the people she loved, but when it came to herself, she bravely did what she had to do. The run-in with Joe was the first time he had seen her afraid for her own sake.

She took a bite of salad as she contemplated his question. “Oh, I think I scare about as easily as most people, but I try not to let fear be the deciding factor. I don’t want it to control my actions. I guess a big guy like you doesn’t have to be scared of much.”

Skip thought for a moment while munching on his own salad. “I probably don’t scare as easily as most guys, which is one part my size and one part my personality.”

“You have a fearless personality?”

“Heck, no. Only fools are completely fearless.”

“And psychopaths,” Kate pointed out.

“Yeah, and I like to think I’m neither of those. But I’m pretty unflappable. My dad was the same way.”

“Serves you well in your work, I’ll bet, to be able to keep your head in a crisis,” Kate said, her brain madly scrambling for a good segue into a discussion of other personality traits.

“Most definitely,” he said.

“So you don’t get scared easily. How about angry?”
Okay, that was a little lame.
“The other day was the first time I’ve ever seen you lose your temper,” she added.

Skip gave a low chuckle. “Oh, I get mad every few years, just to keep in practice.”

“Every few years?” Kate was trying to keep her tone light, as if she were just making conversation. “When was the last time?”

He took another bite of salad without answering her. His expression sobered as he chewed and swallowed. Finally he said, “Four years, ten months and thirteen days ago.”

“Wow! You keep that close track of every time you lose your temper?”

“Not every time. Just that time. It was the day my father died.”

The ache in her heart when he said those words almost took Kate’s breath away. “Oh, Skip, I’m so sorry.” She covered his hand laying on the table with her own. “I didn’t mean to stir up something painful.”

“It’s okay,” he said, as he turned his hand over and gently wrapped long fingers around hers. “Someday I’ll tell you about it. But not tonight, if you don’t mind.”

“No, I don’t mind,” she said softly. She squeezed his hand, then tugged hers loose.

Neither of them commented on the sensation that had flowed between their palms. Kate dropped her eyes to her plate as she tried to sort out her jangled emotions.

Relief was one of them. The timing fit. He had to be referring to the blow-up with his boss when he’d quit the state troopers. She didn’t need to hear the details. She knew that the sanest of human beings could go a little crazy when a beloved parent dies.

But what the hell was that other thing that had just happened? That… energy, for lack of a better term, that had passed between them? It wasn’t sexual this time. And the empathy she’d felt for him was stronger than any she’d ever experienced before, which was saying something since the ability to empathize was an essential tool of her trade.

I already care about this man,
she admitted to herself. But it was more than that. There was the potential for a connection with him that was downright scary. One could lose one’s sense of self in a connection that strong.

Another reason why it’s too soon,
Kate thought. Rob had been right about one thing. Grief and loneliness made her too vulnerable right now.

Skip had his head slightly down, pretending he was concentrating on eating his salad, but he was watching her through the veil of brown hair that had flopped down in front of his eyes. He had no idea what was going on inside her head, but it looked like it was something intense.

When she finally raised her eyes from her plate, he scraped the hair back with long fingers and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I was just… thinking about some things,” she said softly.

“Anything you can share?”

She shook her head, then gave him a small smile. “Someday. Not tonight.”

He was about to take her hand again when the waitress arrived with their entrees.

Kate placed the order for two steak dinners to go.

That reminded Skip of the tension between himself and Rob. He topped off their wine glasses, then cut off a bite of steak and chewed while he thought about what he wanted to say. Swallowing, he took the plunge. “Kate, I think I need to talk to Rob.”

“No!”

He held his hands up, palms out. “Please hear me out. I would just bring it up real casually. Say that I know what good friends you are and I just want to reassure him that I would never do anything to hurt you.”

She was shaking her head vehemently but he forged ahead anyway. “It’s a guy thing, Kate. I bring it up. We talk it out man to man, slap each other on the back, then it’s all good.”

He knew that if the tension didn’t let up soon between himself and Rob it could do irreparable damage to either his chances of a romance with Kate, or her friendship with Rob. Neither of those outcomes was acceptable in his mind.

He chose his words carefully. “I know how important Rob is to you, Kate. I don’t want to have… our friendship come between you two.”

Too late,
Kate thought. But she couldn’t figure out what to say. She couldn’t tell Skip that Rob had already put a strain on the friendship by checking him out.

“He’s not going to bring it up,” Skip added. “He’s just going to keep scowling at me. As the intruder in his territory, it’s up to me to hold up the white flag and start the peace talks.”

Kate stabbed a fat shrimp off her plate and stuffed it in her mouth, to buy herself time to think. She swallowed and took a sip of wine.

Finally, she said, “What you’re saying makes sense, Skip, but I have my reasons for asking that you not talk to him. At least, not yet. I’m going to have a talk with him myself, something along the lines of ‘I love you for caring so much but stop acting like you’re my father.’”

“What if that doesn’t work?” he asked, looking down at his plate as he further mangled his steak. He forked some into his mouth and chewed. But he wasn’t sure he’d be able to swallow if she gave him the answer he feared.