Love By Accident (26 page)

"Of course, God forbid he find out the way I did." The car rumbled beneath her hands and she glanced at the speedometer. Ninety kilometers an hour. She pressed the pedal down, anger clawing for release.

"Come on, we've been together for too long to end as enemies. I hope when things settle down we can salvage the friendship."

Her jaw dropped. "Friends? I don't want your friendship. I don't want anything from you. After tonight, you're nothing to me."

He flinched and reached for her again. "Lauren, please. I don't want it to be like--"

"Don't touch me!" she yelled, her eyes flying to his. "Don't ever touch me again. We're through and you can go to hell for all I care."

And then the car hit a patch of black ice and she yelled again. Over-correcting, the car slid sideways across the highway. Gil hollered but before she could do anything else the car skidded off the road. Crusty snow scraped the undercarriage. Turning the
wheel and slamming on the brakes accomplished nothing. There was just the uncontrolled slide down the ditch and then the deafening crash as the vehicle broadsided the tree.

TWENTY-
ONE

Matt parked in front of the gunsmith's, waited for the sign to turn to "open". His watch told him he had another five minutes to go. Another five on top of the twenty he'd already spent staring at the dusty windows of the shop. The light inside the store finally turned on and Matt was at the door when the deadbolt clicked.

"Morning, Officer. You're here bright and early."

Matt followed him to the counter where handguns were displayed under the glass surface. He pulled the casing out of his pocket and held it up between his thumb and forefinger.

"You recognize this?"

The clerk, an older man who still believed a comb-over disguised a balding head, took the gold piece and examined it.

"Yeah, I recognize it. Comes from a .264 Winchester Magnum. Not a very common gun." He set the casing down.

"But you sell the bullets for it?"

The guy shrugged. "Well, not a lot. But there are a few guys around that own one, so yeah, if they need ammunition I look after them."

"Wouldn't happen to know their names, would you?"

"What for? They in trouble?"

"We've been having some poaching in the Park, this casing could lead to the person involved."

"Look, I don't want anybody getting pissed off at me 'cause I sicced some ranger onto them, 'specially if they're innocent. Makes for bad business," he said.

Matt leaned on the glass. "And once all the animal activists realize the bullets involved for the slaughter of these animals were purchased locally, I don't think they'll take too kindly to you having withheld information that could have prevented more shootings."

The man frowned. "I hate all those people, whining about gun control and registering and shit. Hell, most people who own a gun are harmless. Just do a bit of hunting. Legally," he added when Matt raised his brow.

"Then the way I see it, your cooperation would go a long way in reinforcing that statement."

"Hell, Officer, I'm screwed one way or the other."

"Look, I don't go around accusing innocent people. I'm going to do this real quietly. You give me the names and I'll start investigating. Most of them can be cancelled out as suspects just by doing that. They'll never even know."

The man sighed and rubbed a cheek in need of a shave. "Fine. There are only four that I know of. Shit," he mumbled, digging out a piece of paper and turning on his computer, "I hope I don't regret this."

***

Matt's office had never felt so small. He'd unhooked his tie and thrown it over his shoulder, leaving it lying sprawled somewhere behind him. The brown liquid in his cup had been coffee two hours ago; now he wasn't so sure. His computer hummed and his head throbbed. He had the list of names in his hand and he didn't like what he was looking at. Not one goddamn bit.

"Hey, a call came in about some elk up by the school grounds. I'm going to take a look."

Gut twitching, Matt set the paper face-down and glanced at Nick. He was leaning against the frame of the door, arms crossed casually like he hadn't a care in the world.

"Okay."

"So nothing came of the bear Cougar took you to yesterday?"

Matt forced his spine to relax and leaned back into his chair. "Not yet, but I haven't finished investigating."

"Well," Nick said, "with you working the case, I'm sure it's just a matter of time, right?"

"That's the plan."

Nick's gaze was as cool as his smile. "Well, I'll catch you later."

Matt watched Nick stride down the hall and around a corner. He shut his door and grabbed the list again. Breakfast wasn't sitting well in his stomach and his headache was intensifying by the second.

Since leaving Hinton, Matt had convinced himself it was a shitty coincidence. Wrong place at the wrong time sort of thing. He pressed a hand to his stomach where his cereal was still churning. He'd been right to follow his gut when the first bear had been found. He'd known it was poached even if there hadn't been enough evidence to prove it.

The phone rang, but Matt ignored it. Let voice mail get it. He had enough for the moment just thinking of his next move.

Well, he knew he had to play it quiet, had to keep what he suspected to himself. Crumpling the list in his fist, Matt went to the records room. Before he assumed the worst, he had to know if it was even possible.

Ten minutes later, Matt had the time sheets photocopied and stuffed into the brown folder clasped in his left hand. In his office, he looked through all his notes on the investigation, focusing on approximate dates and times of death.

"Fuck," he whispered, burying his face in his hands. Not only was Nick's name on the damned list the gunsmith had given him, but going by the work logs, he'd also had opportunity. That was two strikes against him. It remained to be seen if there would be a third. Matt had couriered the casing to the same forensics lab in Edmonton he'd sent the bullet to. The answer should come in the next few days if they'd come from the same weapon or not.

Matt choked down the acid crawling up his throat. Poaching was a crime he couldn't stomach. But the possibility that it was done internally, by one of his own, was unforgivable.

And it wouldn't go unpunished.

***

Come on
, Lauren thought as she looked out her kitchen window to the black Corvette and the man who had yet to step from it. Her hands coiled and uncoiled at her sides. Let's see you talk your way out of this one.

She'd gone back to work after her few days off and the first thing Cougar asked her was had she heard about the poacher yet. At first Lauren thought nothing of it, not until he showed her the paper,
yesterday's paper
. Not until he told her that Matt had enlisted his help days ago on the very matter. The day he'd had to leave her place unexpectedly.

Then all the pieces clicked into place. The photos on his desk he'd been quick to hide, the calls where he was pulled away, where he wouldn't tell her why. The longer days he'd been putting in. All the times he'd been quick to shut her out, keep her in the dark. Her blood had started to heat and as the day wore on and Matt didn't show his face in the café, it turned to a gentle boil. Now, watching him sit in that damned car, still too much of chicken shit to face her, her blood was ready to blow like a volcano.

Just as she was contemplating getting her shoes on and marching outside, he finally stepped from the car. His shoulders were bowed, his hair was a mess. The street lights showed the dark stubble shadowing his jaw. His steps seemed weighted down as he made his way up her walk, his hands jammed in his pockets, his breath fogging the air.

She let him knock twice before she yanked the door open. "What do you want?" she demanded, refusing to be swayed by the regret in his eyes.

"You're pissed off," he nodded. "I expected as much. Can I come in?"

"Why?"

"So we can talk."

"
Now
you want to talk?"

"Look, I know you're mad but--"

"You're damn right I'm mad!"

He frowned, but then his jaw flexed. He pushed past her into her kitchen and held his ground near the fridge.

Lauren slammed the front door.

"Fine. You want to talk. Talk."

He crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. "I didn't tell you about the bear poaching because it's not your job."

"It's not Cougar's either, but apparently you could trust him with the news."

"All I did was ask him to keep his eyes and ears open."

"I could have done that."

"I know. But I didn't want to ask you."

It was her turn to cross her arms. "Why?"

"How can I ask you to help without asking why in hell this isn't your job in the first place?" He blew out a breath, sat at the table. "When I arrived, we weren't friends anymore and for a while, it looked like we'd never be again. Then, slowly we got that back. I wanted to ask you in a million different ways why you weren't a ranger anymore but I knew you wouldn't want to talk about it and I didn't want to get into a fight over it."

"No, God forbid you actually tell me what you're feeling," she ground, thinking of her last argument with Gil.

He shoved the chair back, stood. "God dammit. I love you. I finally have you in my life again. Look, I wasn't even sure it was a poacher at first, okay. I had to do some investigating first."

"Fine, but you've known for a while now, haven't you? And still you didn't share it with me. It's what I used to do, Matt!"

"The key word there, Lauren, being
used
to. You want to be a civilian, Lauren, I'll treat you like one." He pulled some rolled papers from his back pocket and threw them on her table. "If you want to be in the know, then apply to get your job back."

Lauren stared at the application forms, betrayal burning in her throat. "You didn't give application forms to Cougar, I assume, so why me?"

"Because you should be a ranger! It's who you are. Why do you think you're living in the mountains? Why were you still hazing until I took your stick away? You love it! I was just trying to make you see what you could have again."

God, it was hard to breathe past the lump in her chest. "You don't think I know what I could have again every time I see that uniform, or that truck? I know, Matt! I'm not stupid."

"I never said--"

"I know exactly what you were doing!" she said as her last confrontation with Gil started to morph with the present. "You weren't going to tell me until you had to or until I found out on my own. Well, let me tell you something, Gil, I won't have it. Not again!"

Matt paled, reached for the counter. "You called me Gil."

Lauren jerked. "What?"

"You called me Gil."

God, the dream last night and this conversation were so damn similar.

"What did you mean? What did he do that you won't have again?" He grabbed her arms before she could step aside. "What aren't you telling me?"

"You're sure you want to hear it?" Lauren's laugh was mirthless. "Fine. Your
best friend
had secrets, Matt. Lots of them. He was cheating on me. I caught him at the party we'd gone to that night, the night of the accident. He was all over another woman. And it wasn't the first time."

Matt dropped his hands from her arms, took a step back. "What the hell is this about? You're pissed off at me, fine, but this is crap."

"It's not crap. It's the truth. He'd been sleeping with her for months. We broke up the night he died."

Matt's eyes were steel. "He wasn't that type of guy."

"I caught him, Matt. He had his hands down her shirt and--" The vision came along with the pain. The devastation of his death, the regret of her last words, they'd overshadowed everything else that night, but it came back now. The humiliation, the anger. The shock that someone she'd loved could hurt her to the marrow of her bones. Lauren bit her lip, fought to control the pain.

Matt shook his head. "I knew him for years. If anyone knew what he was capable of, it was me. And I'm telling you Gil couldn't have done that. Maybe you think he was cheating, maybe you saw something else and you just think--"

"I know what I saw!"

"And I know my best friend!"

No, he didn't. He didn't know what Gil was capable of and he clearly didn't know her either, not at her core, if he suspected she'd slander Gil's memory for the hell of it.

"If you can't believe me, then we don't have what I thought we did. And if we don't," she sniffed, wiped her eyes. But it didn't stop her from opening the door.

"I won't live another relationship that's a lie. Now I didn't say it four years ago. But I'm saying it now. Goodbye, Matt."

***

Matt didn't know what to think. His head was swimming and he felt as though he'd been awake for days. Nothing made sense. He'd finally gotten the woman of his dreams and she'd dumped him. Gil supposedly had been cheating on his girlfriend and there was a strong possibility one of his own men was a poacher.