“Give me thirty minutes to grab a shower,” she told him. “I’ll leave Laraine a note telling her where I’ve gone. I’ll meet you out front.”
“Wait inside, just to be safe, until you see me drive up.”
“You don’t think she’s outside this time of the morning, just waiting for a chance to attack me, do you?”
“I don’t think she wants to kill you,” Dean said. “At least not yet. She’s playing with you, tormenting you. And she’s bold about it, too. She took a chance every time she put on a disguise and followed you. What if you’d recognized her?”
“I wish I had. I wish I’d realized what was happening, but my mind has been so cluttered with facts about Jake’s old murder case and about Mandy’s recent murder that I couldn’t see what was right under my nose.”
“So now you know. You’re aware of what’s been happening. You’ll be on the lookout for her.”
Rachel’s heartbeat accelerated, the thought of actually coming face-to-face with the mystery woman unsettling.
“Rach?”
“Huh?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little rattled. Sometimes nightmares have a way of seeming a little too real.”
“What are you wearing right now?”
“What?”
“Do you have on a gown or PJs or do you sleep in the raw?”
Startled by his question, it took her a full minute to realize what he was doing and why. “Not very subtle, McMichaels. It’s obvious you’re trying to get my mind off the stalker.”
“Yeah, that and I’m curious as to whether you’re naked right now.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m wearing a ratty old Alabama T-shirt.”
“I like a woman who goes for comfort in her sleepwear.”
“Do you now?”
“In case you’re interested, I sleep in my briefs.”
“Why would I be interested?”
“For the same reason I’m curious about you.”
“Look, let’s end this silly game right now.” She wasn’t good at flirtatious game playing. She was an up-front, what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of woman. If he came right out and asked her to have sex with him, she probably would. “Pick me up in thirty minutes.”
“I’ll be there, honey. With bells on.”
Dean studied her as she sat there, her small, delicate hands wrapped around a white coffee mug, her gaze focused on the black liquid inside. Just looking at her turned him inside out. He couldn’t get her out of his mind. Why didn’t he just tell her that he wanted her? The worst that could happen was that she’d say no. And it wasn’t as if he’d never been rejected before. But she wasn’t just any woman. This was Rachel.
Besides that, she wasn’t going to stay in Portland. She was here for only two reasons-the reunion and reopening the Cupid Killer case. For twenty years, he hadn’t been a blip on her radar, and truth be told, he hadn’t consciously thought about her all that often, so why couldn’t he just accept that they were friends and nothing more? Once that had been enough, or at least he’d convinced himself that it was. But he wasn’t a horny teenage boy having sex with other girls while he thought about one girl in particular.
The good girl I would have died to protect. Would have killed to protect.
They had eaten the daily special-bacon, eggs, and toast-and discussed Rachel’s nightmare and its implications. The bottom line was that neither of them wanted to believe that someone from the old gang had killed Jake and had now resurfaced and was killing again.
“When we get to headquarters, I’ll try to find out if one of the girls flew to New York around the same time Aurora did,” Dean said.
“And if one of them did?”
Dean grimaced. “Then we find out why she was there.”
Rachel sipped on the coffee. “And if none of them were in New York when Aurora was killed and Lindsay was attacked, then what?”
“Then we look elsewhere. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“This woman you’ve seen wearing various disguises could be not only wearing costumes to hide her true identity, she could use a fake ID,” Dean said. “It’s not that difficult to get hold of a fake driver’s license, and that’s all she’d need to board a plane from Portland to New York City.”
“Damn! If she did that, then what’s the point of checking?”
“I’m just saying maybe she used a fake ID. I’ll still check the flights for the time around Aurora’s trip.”
Four hours and five cups of coffee later, Dean stopped by Rachel’s desk at downtown headquarters. “Good news and bad news,” he said.
“Let’s hear the good first.”
“I spoke to Patrick Dewey’s son. He’s promised to talk to his mother again and see if he can’t persuade her to see us. It seems she’s selling her house and is in the middle of packing up and clearing out. He’s not sure how she’ll react when he talks to her again.”
“That’s the good news?”
Dean grinned. She loved his cocky grin. It made her want to kiss him.
“It could be good news, if Mrs. Dewey will talk to us. We’ve run into a dead end on the Cupid Killer case, just as your dad did twenty years ago. Without a new lead of some kind…” Dean threw up his open palms in a that’s-it gesture.
“We’re grabbing for straws thinking Mrs. Dewey might be able to shed some new light on the old case, aren’t we?”
“Probably.”
Rachel frowned. “So, what’s the bad news?”
“Both April Wright and DeLynn Vaughn could have been in New York City when Aurora was killed and Lindsay was attacked.”
“What do you mean they could have been?”
“April was visiting her sister in Bridgeport, Connecticut, an easy drive to New York City. And DeLynn was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on a business trip. It would have been a longer drive, but doable.”
“Crap!”
“My sentiments exactly.”
“I just don’t see either April or DeLynn as a killer.”
“We could be barking up the wrong tree, you know. Checking to see if any of the reunion committee members were in New York when Aurora was killed was just a thought. It doesn’t prove anything that April and DeLynn both just happened to be within driving distance at the time.”
“I almost wish you hadn’t checked. At least not until after the funeral. I’ll have to find a way not to stare at them during the service and wonder if either of them is actually capable of murder.”
She cried as many tears as the rest of them did at Mandy Kim Stulz’s funeral service. Poor Jeff. He was little more than a zombie, obviously zoned out on medication. His parents flanked him, his father’s arm around Jeff’s shoulder, his mother holding his hand and weeping softly. And Mandy’s parents-such a sad little couple, clinging to each other, trying to be brave for the sake of Mandy’s siblings. An older sister and brother were both keeping an eye on their elderly parents.
She would have preferred to skip the morbid service, but if she had, people would have wondered why. No one suspected her, and she intended to keep it that way. She had gotten away with murder twenty years ago, hadn’t she? And although Rachel and Dean suspected Aurora’s death hadn’t been accidental and the homeless man hadn’t really killed Haylie, they had no proof that she had killed them.
How absolutely wonderful that Lindsay Farrell was here, on Wyatt Goddard’s arm, no less. To think that all these years she had believed the child Lindsay had given birth to had been Jake’s. An understandable mistake. After all, none of them had known that Lindsay had been cheating on Jake with Wyatt.
Do you hear that, Jake? All the while you thought Lindsay was yours and yours alone, Wyatt was screwing her.
She had to control the urge to laugh out loud.
And you never knew that I found someone else, too. Someone kind and understanding. Someone who loved me. Someone who didn’t judge me harshly and didn’t blame me for loving you and hating you at the same time.