The Killing Game (16 page)

He sent her a faint smile. “In the neighborhood, sort of. I was at Lacey’s and thought I’d stop by.”

Lacey’s
. . . Andi’s heart jolted a little. “Not exactly on your beaten path,” she remarked. Jarrett lived miles away, on the other side of Portland.

“Yeah, well, thought I’d come by to see you,” he said lightly. “You gonna make me stand on the porch all night?”

“Come on in.” She opened the door wider and stepped back.

Jarrett crossed the threshold and looked around the cabin with interest. He was tall, dark, and handsome, the total cliché, but he was a hard person to know. But then again, maybe she was, too.

“I saw Trini there,” he said.

“At
Lacey’s
?”

He half laughed. “I know. Nothing gluten-free and low-salt there.”

“What was she doing there?”

“Enjoying the ambience like the rest of us?”

“Well, I never want to go there again.”

He gave her a sympathetic look, unusual for him. “Trini seemed to be watching the door for someone, but they didn’t show. Maybe another relationship on the edge. She knows how to run through ’em.”

Trini’d run through Jarrett once upon a time. That was her normal way, but Jarrett wasn’t exactly Mr. Relationship either. Their affair, such as it was, had ended badly, but it was long in the past now.

“You seen her lately?” Jarrett asked casually, too casually in Andi’s opinion.

“Not a lot. A few times.”

She’d actually only seen Trini twice since her stay at Laurelton General. Once while her mother was here—though the way Diana had kept busying around and inter rupting them while Trini was over had cut that visit short—and then another time when Andi had met Trini for lunch. That time her friend had been so distracted and unwilling to talk about herself that Andi had asked, “Who are you and what did you do with Trini?”

She’d jerked as if stung, but then she’d relaxed and managed to dredge up a smile. “That bitch? She’s around. Just been busy.”

“Lots of classes?”

She shrugged and nodded.

“Still seeing Bobby?” Andi asked. It wasn’t like Trini to be so unwilling to talk about herself.

“Actually, he’s been like a ghost lately.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah,” she said regretfully. “I think he might be over me . . . us.”

“I’m really sorry to hear that.”

“Ah, well.” She shrugged. “Forget about it. He wasn’t my type anyway. Too buttoned-down, didn’t I tell you? What am I going to do with a guy like that? I mean, really, over the long haul.”

Andi said softly, “You seemed to like him pretty well.”

“The sex was great. That I’m going to miss. And you know, I thought . . . maybe this was just what I need. Maybe I’d been going for the wrong type all along. But it didn’t work out, so whatever.” She cleared her throat and asked, “What about you? How’re you doing, I mean really?”

“Okay. Better. Day by day. Going to work and getting back to my life.”

“Any chance you’ll be back at the gym sometime soon?”

“Yeah, sure.” Andi had tried to steer the conversation back to Trini, but her friend hadn’t wanted to talk about herself. That was so unlike her usual MO that their lunch conversation had kind of petered out, and they’d parted with promises to get in touch soon, promises yet to be fulfilled.

Now Jarrett stared through the window in the back door, next to the kitchen, to a spot in the middle distance, his gaze running past the willow losing its leaves at the water’s edge to fixate somewhere further on the faintly rippling waters of Schultz Lake. His hair was rakishly long, and he wore jeans and a black leather jacket, the combination making him look slightly dangerous. Her brother was a cool customer who played his cards close to the vest.

“You want something to drink?” Andi asked, heading to the kitchen and opening the refrigerator. She pulled out a pitcher of chilled water.

“I’m not staying. Just wanted to check in on you.”

“As you can see, I’m okay.”

“Back at work?”

“Yeah, for a while now.”

“You know,” Jarrett said, still gazing at the water, “he planted willows all around this lake. Schultz did, when he started developing. Had a thing for them, I guess.”

Andi shot a look to the partially denuded tree bending down toward the water. The willow branches were knobby whips.

“How are the Wrens?” Jarrett asked neutrally. Andi turned and gave him a sharp look. Jarrett had never said anything against Greg, but Andi had always known he hadn’t had much use for him.

“Pretty much the same as always.”

“Y’all still having trouble with the Carrera brothers?”

Andi’s brows lifted. “You pay attention to our dealings with them?”

“The Carreras get a lot of airplay, and that lodge you’re building at the end of the lake keeps coming up.”

Andi grunted an assent. She’d seen the lodge on the news as well. It was like time-lapse photography; every time it was shown it was a little closer to final framing.

“One of them was at Lacey’s,” he said. “Don’t know which one.”

“What?” Andi’s pulse leaped. Jarrett was regarding her intensely, waiting for her reaction.

“One of the Carreras. In fact, Trini was talking to him, or trying to, anyway.”

“Trini?”

“She walked right over to him and gave him some shit. You know Trini.” Jarrett smiled.

“Oh no. She shouldn’t have done that.”

“Relax. She was half drunk. Blake or Brian or whoever didn’t pay much attention.”

“How do you know that? I don’t trust the Carreras as far as I can throw ’em. And none of this is like Trini.”

“I know. How well does she know them?” he asked.

“She doesn’t. She didn’t, anyway. I don’t get what this is about.”

“I guess she was just drunk and flirty.”

“She was
flirting
with him? You said she got in his face.”

“Yeah, well.” He shrugged, as if dismissing the conversation. “It coulda been anything. I didn’t talk to her.”

Andi sensed he was starting to shut down on her, but now she wanted more information. “She was in a relationship the last I heard, although it wasn’t going well,” she admitted.

“Must be over now. Or else she’s cheatin’ on the guy.” He hitched his chin toward the window and the darkness beyond. “You oughta get a boat. This’d be a sweet place to keep one, take it out on the water at night.”

“Why were you at Lacey’s?” Andi asked again. “I mean, seriously.”

“Just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Another lift of a shoulder, but he was suddenly tense. “I stopped in at the bar. Don’t make a federal case out of it.” He moved toward the door.

“Wait! I didn’t mean to piss you off. It’s just you’ve never gone there before, at least to my knowledge, and I get the feeling you’re holding back.”

His expression shifted, his lips flattening. “I knew Trini’d be there, okay?” he finally spat out. “I texted with her and that’s where she was going.”

“You planned to meet her?”

“I just wanted to talk to her. But like I said, I think she went there to find somebody.”

“Bobby?”

“Who’s Bobby?” he asked.

“The guy she was seeing. The relationship that’s maybe over now.”

“Well, she gave the impression that she was there to meet other guys. Her eyes were on the door until Carrera walked in.”

“And then she got in his face?”

“I was talking to her and she just lost the conversation as soon as he came in. She went right over to him.”

“What’d she say?”

“Like how great the lodge you’re building was and how happy she was that some properties were going to stay intact. A kids’ camp, or something?”

“I didn’t know she knew so much about it.”

“I think she said something about you and a treadmill?”

“Oh God.” Andi paced across the room. “What the hell is she doing?”

He dismissed her. “I wouldn’t worry about it. He just blew it off.”

“She wasn’t waiting for him, was she?”

“Nah. She kept looking at the door, so she was waiting for someone, but I don’t think it was him.”

“Was she still there when you left?” Andi asked.

“Uh-uh. She took off. By herself,” he added when he saw the question forming on Andi’s lips. “She was picked up by Uber.”

“Oh. Good.”

Jarrett headed back toward the front door and Andi said, “You’re not leaving, are you?”

“I should probably get going.”

“What did you want to talk to Trini about?”

His answer was another shrug. “Nothing that matters.” He gave her a quick smile, then he was out the door and striding toward his Land Rover. Through the front window she watched him reverse in a tight circle and head back toward her green canopy of firs, evergreens that didn’t lose their needles. His vehicle disappeared beneath the trees like a magician’s trick.

As soon as his taillights flashed out, she grabbed up her cell and texted Trini: You were at Lacey’s and saw one of the Carreras?

Her answering text came back a bit slowly. Who did you talk to?

Jarrett said he stopped by.

Yeah, I saw him.

He said you saw one of the Carreras, Andi texted rapidly.

Brian. I gave him hell for scaring you.

Don’t rile them up. Please.

K. I gotta go. Call you later.

Not trying to be a bitch. I’m just worried.

No need. I’m good.

Next week at the gym?

There was no further response, and Andi stood for a moment locked in indecision. She gave up texting and put a call through, but Trini didn’t answer, which was also kind of her way. She half wanted to go over to Trini’s apartment right now, but she knew she wouldn’t appreciate it. But Trini didn’t really know the Carrera brothers, and Jarrett was looking at the situation through his own filter, thinking she was being flirty even while she’d confronted Brian.

She gazed at the flickering candle. She didn’t want to stay home tonight. She’d had enough nights “in.” If that was a signal that she was moving on with her life, all to the good.

She went to her medicine cabinet, shook out one of the antidepressants, and took it with a sip of water from the glass she’d left on the counter. If these were the reason she was better, she didn’t want to mess with success.

Back in the living room, she picked up her cell phone again and ran her thumb lightly over the keys, thinking. What if she called Luke? What would she say?
I’m tired of being alone and I could use some company
? God, that was dumb. Almost as bad as pretending you’re nervous and want that bodyguard after all.
Oh yes. That idea’s been circling your mind, hasn’t it?

“No.”

Andi made a face. Maybe she should go over to Trini’s and bang on her door. It was sad how few friends she had. She supposed she could call Emma . . . well, no. They weren’t friends, and at this time of night Emma could be more than a few drinks ahead of her.

Instead, Andi went to the bedroom and changed into pajamas even though it was early. She thought about looking for something to eat, but she wasn’t hungry. She decided to pour herself a glass of white wine, get into bed, and turn on the television, which she did, and then she flipped unseeingly through the channels.

She tried to remember how she’d spent her time before Greg’s death. They’d rarely watched the same programs, and sitting down to a meal had become a rarity. She’d spent a lot of time alone then, too, though it hadn’t felt as lonely as this did. He wasn’t home much at all those last few weeks, maybe months. If it hadn’t been for that one night when they’d both dropped their defenses and made love, Andi would have basically said she was single.

And then there was the day when Mimi Quade was shepherded into the Wren Development offices by her brother, Scott, who explained that his much younger sister, barely out of her teens, was pregnant with Gregory Wren’s child. Andi had been at the office that day and witness to this debacle because Greg had asked her to bring him his glasses, which he’d left on the kitchen counter. Andi had stared at Mimi, whose eyes were only on Greg. Greg’s face had turned a brick red. He’d ordered Scott and Mimi from his office. Carter, who’d allowed them in, had looked stunned and quickly ushered them out, with Scott shouting that he and his sister demanded a DNA test. The thought of Mimi’s pregnancy had crushed Andi and she’d left Greg and wouldn’t listen to his denials, though they were long and hard. He’d railed that she didn’t trust him, and it was true, she didn’t. If she’d known she was pregnant herself, she might have tried harder, but in those heated moments she’d just locked him out of their bedroom, and Greg had pounded on the door, yelling that he would prove the truth to her.

And then his vehicle had careened off the road and he’d died of his injuries. Andi had gone from depressed and angry to totally numb. She’d sleepwalked through those weeks until learning of her own pregnancy.

* * *

She woke up slowly, confused about where she was. The television and lights were still on, and it took a few moments before she recognized her own bedroom. Glancing at the clock, she was surprised to see it was two a.m. For a moment she was frightened. Had she just fallen asleep? It felt a lot like her other episodes. Blackouts, Carter had insisted. But those had just been a few minutes.

She got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. Swallowing the water, she realized every time she thought about Mimi Quade’s pregnancy, she seemed to shut down, if not physically, then mentally.

Maybe it was time to confront Mimi to ask what had really gone down between her husband and the young woman. Was she even pregnant? Greg had insisted it was all a hoax perpetrated by Scott Quade, and it was true that since Greg’s death she’d heard nothing from either Mimi or Scott. Andi had pushed it all out of her mind. She’d had other things to think about.

But if Mimi is truly pregnant with Greg’s baby, how are you going to feel about that now?

Andi shook her head, headed back to the bedroom, and crawled back into bed. The idea made her feel like she was under a heavy weight. Firmly, she thrust her own grief to the back of her mind. If Greg truly were having a child, the Wrens needed to step up and acknowledge that fact. That was the bottom line. Even if it meant working things out with the odious Scott Quade and his sister, Greg’s ex-lover.